As the most digital-oriented luxury market in the world, China is a whole other story for fine watch brands. Young consumers get most of their information from social platforms such as Weibo or WeChat, making it hard for brands to reach them directly. This has produced the so-called “fan economy”.

A century ago, America was a major player in the watch industry, yet despite being one of the first countries to spearhead new technologies, it could not keep up through the shift from pocket watches to wristwatches. However, in the past twenty-five years, there has been a resurgence in the U.S. that might just mark a new era of American watchmaking.

Of all the inventions that have helped improve the precision of mechanical watches, none is more important, or less well-documented, than the development of the regulating organ. To help bridge that gap, we retrace the history of escapements from the earliest devices to the very latest silicon regulators. Part eight: dual impulse and pivoted detent escapements.

Vacheron Constantin looked to two 1950s designs to launch the Patrimony in 2004. Functional and classic, it takes a minimalist approach. The latest addition to the collection is the Patrimony perpetual calendar ultra-thin with blue dial.

Of all the inventions that have helped improve the precision of mechanical watches, none is more important, or less well-documented, than the development of the regulating organ. To help bridge that gap, we retrace the history of escapements from the earliest devices to the very latest silicon regulators. Part seven: high-frequency mechanical escapements and the co-axial escapement.