THE WRITER daily.diogocosta Lisbon, Portugal
Hey guys ! Im daily.diogocosta, you may know me from Instagram where i'm usually more active, i'm a designer/marketeer with a huge love for photography but the love of my life is haute horlogerie. I want to personally thank you all for the support on my newsletter for the past months! So, it's time to welcome the first Issue of the year, and time to welcome hundreds of new timepieces too! Isn't that amazing ? This year SIHH was like a delayed christmas, and since everybody's talking about the novelties i'm gonna update you about the new novelties and share some exclusive pics i took on my day on this year's SIHH. Also in this issue, i've managed to get my hands on the exclusive pre-release DWISS M2 and had the chance to speak with the CEO/Founder of the brand too! Wanna discover this month issue ? Swipe the page and enjoy!
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daily.
DIOGO COSTA
Nowadays we tend to buy and give preference to Chronographs, such as the Omega Speedmaster , Tag Heuer Autavia, Breitling Navitimer, Rolex Daytona, and the list goes on (it's an insanely long list, believe me). I was thinking about this topic a few days ago ,and since i'm a marketeer i started thinking “what are the attributes that make people buy chronographs?� , because it's known that most people do not need or use the chronograph function/complication.
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Before we start with this topic, it's essential to know a little about the huge story behind the chronograph, the chronograph complication was originally created by Louis Moinet in 1816, but Rieussec was the first to have a marketed product since Louis XIV ordered the creation of one to measuring horse race times.
Chronographs were made to fulfill a needed event, to let people control time even better in certain occasions, but the questions is - Do we still need them? Of Course! but not everyone needs them and i bet that 80% of the people that have chronographs or they don't use it or they bought it because of the visual aspects of it and how they filled a certain gap of space in the dial itself.But why do people keep buying a watch with a characteristic that we don't really use that often?
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It may seem that this question has a simple answer but no. We are influenced in many ways in a chronograph, first the colors, having 1 ,2 or even 3 sub dials allows much more color combinations much times making the dial much more attractive and with a totally new personality. Second , just knowing that we have 2 instruments of measuring time in one watch is amazing for us, having those more 2 hands moving its kinda of a big thing for us watch enthusiasts!
And third, since a human is born our brain is used to spot patterns in everything that's around us, a pattern in sound, images, emotions, colors, shapes, you name it, and if we didn't already have enough patterns in a watch ( in a more specific way, the dial) the sub dials of a chronograph make it ultra likable for our brains.
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THE NEW DWISS M2
LIMITED TO 199 PIECES
I don't often do watch reviews, and that's not what this article is really about, this article is about not only the watch but the man behind and how he is doing a great job managing to take advantage of the current watch markets, we all know the haute horlogerie markets are in danger in the current days, with losses and restructurations within the major brands and groups, manage to pull of an idea and applying it to a market it's not easy in the current days, so i admire people that actually do it. DWISS is young, contemporary and award winning designer watch company, founded in Switzerland. Their mission is to innovate through the use of pioneering exquisite materials, creative technical constructions, mixed with human touch, expertise and passion. They are an independent company based in Lugano, a manufacture and distributor of high quality wrist watches.The company offers classy and sporty watches , with precious and semi precious materials, using only the best Swiss movements and craftsmanship.
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Their unique design require specifics registered constructions, and behind the simplicity of the outlook, is an impressive research in a complex engineering. They are the pioneer for the use of Niobium (Nb1Zr) in watch cases and they developed it for the model CLASSIQUE CBMM, exclusively for the Brazilian mining company CBMM. Niobium is a metal mainly used in MRI machines, automotive and aerospace industry. It has anti-corrosive characteristics in addition to other properties that affect the strength of steel through a hardening process. It is also Hypoallergenic and has a greater shock absorption characteristic compared to stainless steel. Just to remind you guys, this is quite a recent brand, that can actually deliver this type of innovation. I've had the pleasure to meet the owner at SIHH and to try their new pre-release model, the M2, you could think the visual/design was hard to understand or even the hours were difficult to see/read, but NO, after 2-3 minutes with the M2 on my wrist i immediately could tell you the time, it has just the right amount of color details to make it stand out but still be a good choice for every occasion in my opinion. It's not one of those ultra light watches, its has just the right weight to make you feel it on the wrist and know you're using a hell of a tough watch, the strap itself is realy nice, the main factor that makes me think its cool its because the integration of the butterfly clasp, gosh i loved it.
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daily.
DIOGO COSTA
GENÈVE | JANUARY
GENÈVE | JANUARY
SIHH
This month trip was to Genève, Switzerland, kinda of a 3 hour boring flight but in the end was worth the wait. This past few weeks i've been feeling the winter on its full power here in Portugal, a cold and humid weather that passes all your layers of clothes and ends in your bones. So, for a Portuguese guy arriving in Genéve with a lower temperature it was almost terrifying, but for my own surprise, because of the dry weather i almost didn't feel any cold. Moving on, when you travel, even if only for participating in a event you always consider all the factors in your trip, weather, person's, food...etc. So fast forwarding a little bit my overall experience was great. Arriving at Palexpo Center (that was just outside the Airport) you can right away see a big SIHH outdoor with huge flags of the main brands/watch manufacturers through the hole sidewalk that leads to the entrance of the event. The entrance and check-in of the event was very calm and with a welcoming/cosy decoration, already inside you could find an incredible feeling of being in your natural habitat, surrounded by people that make the watch markets their lives, that have the same enthusiasm in discovering the newest timepieces as you.
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I totally had my route inside the event all previously planned ( that's how i spent my time in my flight ) first i explored the biggest brands such as A.Lange, where i spoke to the watchmaker in charge and he even explained and showed me how some parts of the new A.Lange 1815 work. The A. Lange stand was over the top, in the entrance you could see a huge A. Lange 1815 and a wall covered with the small mechanism pieces of just one of their watches. Then in Audemars i immediately spotted their watchmaker with the new AP full black ceramic and i had to ask to try it and touch it, after that i could see on first hand how some of their movements work, i surely enjoyed their stand. Next was Vacheron Constantin, after so much speculation about their newest timepieces and how great they are i had to go and check it out for myself, and i ended up entering the best stand in SIHH, ( ok, the Roger Dubuis stand was cool too‌) in the entrance you could hear some of the striking time signature sounds and hour markings, and some of their most important pieces were at display too. After all this greatness i decided to finally visit Le CarrÊ des Horlogers, where you could find some of the biggest and more creative independent brands in the business and guess what's the first thing i saw when i entered the space!? Maxmilian Busser! The founder and owner of MB&F. Honestly i don't give much attention to this part of the watch and haute horlogerie market, i know they're making the difference and always defying the rules of watchmaking, but i still haven't reached that point of my life i guess. Well , moving on, i did enjoy seeing the new Ressence models and the ones with the new case shape and the new HYT models too. Was more of a quick look around in that area.
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daily.
DIOGO COSTA
EMAIL | DAILY.DIOGOCOSTA@GMAIL.COM