Audemars Piguet, Ulysse Nardin, Zenith, and More | Hodinkee Podcast | Watches and Wonders - Day 4

11:26Tim Jeffreys:And then next we're going to go down, you know, running second on the minute hand, first ever for Freak, which is amazing. And I was talking with the team there and they said one thing. They said the first place that we thought to put it was where we put it. And to which I asked like, well, there's not really much place else to put it on the minute hand. So they had, in order to do that, they had to go back and retroactively engineer a lot of the elements in the Freak. And what I enjoyed hearing about it was the watch was assembled, disassembled, and then reassembled again, which is a feat of engineering that, again, I can't fully comprehend.

11:59Andy Hoffman:And as you put it, there are so many moving parts in that watch. To get that all to work as well with the grinder system, to be able to adjust the time and, you know, if you need to wind that watch. Like, it's a very apt name, the Super Freak. Because it is a freaky watch.

12:13Jamie Weiss:Yeah, there's nothing like it.

12:15Tim Jeffreys:This special episode of the Hodinkee Podcast from Watches and Wonders 2026 is brought to you by Bulgari and the Octo Felissimo. Since 2014, the Octo Finissimo has redefined the limits of horology, and this year, the story reaches a new peak of maturity. Introducing the Octo Finissimo 37, a reimagined blank canvas of architectural precision that brings a new, universal proportion to an icon. Discover the new chapter of Octo Finissimo at Bulgari.com. Maybe staying with independence here, Andy, we went over to Laurent Ferrier this morning.

12:49Jamie Weiss:Yeah, you know, we had a great time at L 'Enferrier. You know, we looked at the Sport Traveler in Slate Grey. And, you know, this is a really refined, cool iteration here. It is so comfortable and just, you know, sits lovely on the wrist. Really nice, beautiful piece. And that was certainly the highlight for me. What did you think?

13:16Tim Jeffreys:I loved it. I think the aspect of the watch that I liked the most was I thought the loom was really nice. Obviously on the gray dial and the loom very prominent, contrasting really nicely with the gray dial and then illuminated, it just really pops with the gray, with the loom, and I think it's just a really nice contrast. One of the other things I love about that watch is it's very symmetrical. Obviously you have the local time at 9 o 'clock, you have the date at 3 o 'clock, and you have kind of the sector dial in the middle. And I just love that. And writing about the watch, and I don't know if this was intentional.

13:52Tim Jeffreys:I assume it was. But obviously, you have the Laurent Ferrier mark at the top. And then Sport Traveler kind of down below, kind of grayed out, hard to see. But it was kind of funny. I was looking this up. Sport Traveler, same number of letters as Laurent Ferrier. So the number of parallels and the symmetrical nature of the watch is down to, like, the letters in the name.

14:12Andy Hoffman:And yet, Laurent Ferrier is also a watchmaker that isn't afraid to have very asymmetrical movements. I mean, when you think about the movement that's in, I think the Sport Auto is a great dichotomy because it's a very symmetrical watch too, beautifully so, but then you have the off-centre micro rotor with a lot of empty space. No, it's a stunning piece, this year's piece, and I think what's so cool about Laurent Ferrier is no matter what metal they're working with, they all feel very substantial, reassuringly substantial. I think weight in watches can be such an odd thing because some people can get a titanium watch and be like, oh, that's nicely heavy.

14:48Andy Hoffman:And some people will say, oh, that's nicely light. But I think there's something very precious about the way Laurent Ferrier watches feel. I mean, okay, if you get like a fully gold sport auto that weighs, I think, a pound, that's hard to ignore. But there's still something really elegantly robust about their titanium pieces as well.

15:09Jamie Weiss:Yeah, no, I totally agree. And the other interesting thing about that piece sort of reiterating in terms of the philosophy of the watchmakers. We were trying to get some images today, and it was kind of difficult, but to capture the sort of feel and look of it, because there's no anti-reflective coating on the crystal. But that underlines and underscores the specific aesthetics and feel that Laurent Ferrier is after and achieves really nicely with that piece.

15:45Tim Jeffreys:They definitely delivered. What a great watch. Something that I've been thinking about, obviously there's a lot of anniversaries in watches and brands have big anniversary years. I think that there's a natural tendency. I think you have a big anniversary or you devote a lot of time and effort to make these releases great. What do you do the year after? Zen is one of those brands. Last year celebrating 160 years. This year, how are they going to follow it up and I think they followed it up with a great sleight of releases Jamie you want to yeah so I think it's a very good point

16:17Andy Hoffman:because you know if you pull out all the stops for 160th where do you go to next and one piece that Zenith released last year at Watches and Wonders which I'm on the record for being gushingly in love with was the GFJ Calibre 135 that came out last year which was this you know platinum case lapis lazuli plus died Mother of Pearl Plus, Gia Shay, and a revival of the caliber 135 which is Zenith's other very famous movement that won at all the chronometry prizes in the 20th century and for me that was such an exquisite piece, you know a return to a form of watchmaking, a dressier form of watchmaking that we haven't seen from Zenith in a while.

16:56Andy Hoffman:How do you improve upon perfection? Well first of all you case it in tantalum. It's Zenith's first tantalum watch and there are still not that many watchmakers really working with Tantalum. I was talking to Roman Marietta yesterday from Zenith about why now, why now for Tantalum? And I think he feels like they've done almost everything else. Forged carbon fiber and sapphire and ceramics. The GFJ Tantalum, it's, again, this really nice juxtaposition between quite an understated watch because Tantalum has that unusual but low-key blue-violet hue. It's a little bit if you know, you know. But then it also has diamonds on the dial.

17:40Andy Hoffman:It's got baguette, diamonds as the indices. Onyx style, the dyed mother of Pearl returns. And then the movement this time has been given a ruthenium finish instead of the brick gear shade pattern that they used last year. So it's, again, like, I just love it. Like, you know, big words aside, it's a pretty watch. And you can talk about all the objective reasons why it's cool, but like gut feeling is it's just just nice.

18:07Jamie Weiss:And I think, you know, what they've done with it the next year here is showing that this is a model that they can iterate on. It is going to be, you know, that core high end part with the 135 movement and, you know, part of the collection. Right. And so, you know, so they did platinum to start with an awesome bracelet, which costs just as much as the watch. but you know they're doing it in gold and we saw the gold bracelet which was really also quite an achievement yeah they can't do a tantalum bracelet they cannot do a tantalum I did ask it's because it's because it's working with the material it's so notoriously difficult to work with but it shows that you know that the GFJ is is here to stay and it's it's really exciting it shows that Zenith has plenty of ideas on what to do to celebrate and showcase the historical one through five movement in a very sort of high-end achievement iteration here.

19:12Andy Hoffman:And the other thing they've done, which is less sexy than the GFJ, is that on the Chronomaster Sports skeleton, they've now also introduced a new clasp. And I think on some of the Chronomaster Sports, a piece of feedback that I've certainly heard from collectors is that the folding clasp has been a little insubstantial, but the redesigned clasp is the opposite. Not only is it a beautifully milled piece of metal, but it has a really great micro-adjustment system where you flip up the middle blade link part of the clasp to extend the micro-adjust out. And first of all, having on-the-fly micro-adjustment, great.

19:48Andy Hoffman:Consumers really like that. But then it's a really nice, substantial piece of kit, and they're willing to offer it to owners who already have Chrono Master Sports who want that class.

19:59Jamie Weiss:That is innovation and also offering value to the client, right? I mean, yeah, there's many patents pending for the bracelet. It took them a long time to develop. It is kind of a game changer, a sort of bracelet for that model. It's really interesting, and it's also a bit of a treat for customers' only existing models to be able to just buy the buckle. you know basically like that that's a good deal gfj's chronomaster sports great year i think we

20:29Tim Jeffreys:can all agree for zenith this year andy there's a watch that we were both excited to go check out yesterday and it was the it was the frederick constant world time yeah this is really quite

20:39Jamie Weiss:extraordinary i mean you know frederick constant you know this is part of their their manufacturer collection and you know they just kind of keep upping the game right i mean you know manufactured stuff is what you know us watch enthusiasts sort of pay attention to and this is what gets them all the headlines it's not all the volume for the brand but you know the world timer is is just lovely the case has shrunk down a bit this is competing at a very reasonable price for them and they're showing that they can compete on every high-end complication here it's a brand

21:16Andy Hoffman:And I'm quite fond of because I think that's a thing we've touched on already is that both innovation but then also caring about the consumer as well and offering things that actually represent value. The world time is stunning. Niels and the team do a great job.

21:31Jamie Weiss:Yeah, I mean, you know, there's a lot of talk about offering value, demonstrating value, but, you know, that's Frederic Constant's bread and butter. And I think with that model, you know, it really takes them to another level. Then the other thing that we saw there was Alpina. Alpina is this extraordinary, sort of historic Swiss brand. They, with their pilot watch, they've got a new iteration of that, a little thinner, but it's really on the dial where we really see things change. Great, big, loomed Arabic numerals. It is a really handsome watch, black, blue, green. And, you know, the comments that we've seen on the story on Hodinkee, I mean, you know, people are excited about that.

22:15Tim Jeffreys:People, you know, less than$10 ,000 world timer from Frederic Constant, one of my personal favorites from this year as well. Another brand that we got to touch on that I feel like is really coming on strong as of late is Gerald Charles.

22:28Andy Hoffman:Yes, they've got a perpetual calendar. And I think what's really cool about that perpetual calendar is if you're not familiar with the brand, obviously it was the last brand that Gerald Genter founded before his passing, and the Maestro, which is their signature model, It has an unusual shape with a bit of a half moon kind of, not an aperture, but sort of bump down the bottom. And it's an interesting stylistic detail, but now with the perpetual calendar, it's something more functional because you have a calendar display taking up part of that bump. Beyond that, it's cool to see them do a higher complication like that.

23:04Tim Jeffreys:In the booth, the basis of that watch was on display. They had the original one there, and on the case back, it was signed by Gerald Renta himself.

23:11Jamie Weiss:And it had these amazing coral indexes. I would really like to see something in that sort of iteration colorway come back. Early gel trials had some great colors and they also had some very kind of skeuomorphic

23:26Andy Hoffman:cases. Like they've never been afraid to play around with unconventional case shapes. The other thing that they've got, which I don't think was strictly new for the fair, but they have another iteration on their tennis watch that's all white. so I think they're trying to do different surfaces and different Grand Slams so this one's all white for Wimbledon the first tennis model was yellow like a tennis ball and I mean shameless Aussie plug here they've signed Alex Di Menor an Australian tennis player and I was having a chat with him and he loves it and it was really interesting to hear the perspective of someone like a tennis player who actually plays wearing the watch because there aren't actually that many watches you can play tennis with because the amount of G-forces and stuff that you're exerting on the watch is insane.

24:11Andy Hoffman:So, yeah, the brands within the Maestro, they're doing lots of different things. They're doing sporty. They're doing complicated. They're doing classy. They're doing skeletonized. You know, I like that micro rotor caliber. I think that's a Vauxcher caliber base. But, yeah, it's a cool brand with a good energy.

24:28Jamie Weiss:Yeah, no, absolutely. And, yeah, I mean, you know, that sporty element, you know, this is a QP that they've created this year. It's got 200 meters of water resistance, right? Really? It's 200 meters? Okay. Okay. If you need it, you got it. Yeah, I mean, you know, that was important to them here.

24:48Tim Jeffreys:And we'll get out of here on this. Zen, I didn't get a chance to go over there. I know, Andy, you visited Zen. What did you see over there? What were your favorites? What's the vibe over there these days?

24:56Jamie Weiss:We did. So this is the first, you know, this is more about that, you know, that Watches and Wonders expansion, that Watches and Wonders sort of, you know, welcoming more, whether it be from AP to, you know, Frankfurt, Germany-based Zinn. Zinn is known, obviously, for their tool watches. And so, you know, the one that stuck out for me is this new iteration just on a, you know, time-only, it's called the 544, just a lovely, you know, straightforward steel case. You have a white seconds hand or a orange seconds hand, and it's just, you know, I think it was under 2 ,000 euros. The folks at Zinn were saying that, you know, they are super happy with, you know, their experience so far at the fair.

25:40Jamie Weiss:They weren't always at this fair. They were at, you know, other places and they're enjoying the upgrade for sure.

25:49Tim Jeffreys:The truth of the matter is we can sit here all day talking about watches. It's our jobs. We love it. We saw a ton of great stuff this week, but we're going to have to call the podcast right here, right now. But listen, we're going to have more coverage coming across the web, across Hodinkee, Hodinkee Australia, Hodinkee Japan. And so that's it. That's it for us from the Hodinkee team here at Watches and Wonders this year. Hope you've enjoyed the coverage. We've really worked hard to bring it to you. So on behalf of the team here at Hodinkee, we'll see you next year.