Pinion Atom

Just five years old and already a classic

YOU FANCY SOMETHING a bit different, a watch from a high-quality, low-volume maker And you want something British Where do you look?

Well,iffameinWatchworlddependedonqualityandcommitmenttodoing things right, you’d already have Pinion high on your shopping list

InMarch2013,Pinionwasbarelyafewscribblesonthebackofacigarette packet Yet by November the same year, founder and owner Piers Berry had three prototype watches designed, cased, dialled and exhibited at the UK’s most prestigious watch show, Salon QP Piers doesn’t hang about

In the ten years since, Piers has produced three-handers, GMTs and chronographs, but here’s Pinion’s first entry-level offering: the Atom

If ever a watch were greater than the sum of its parts, it would be the Atom The movement isn’t anything exotic: it’s a workmanlike but smoothwinding Miyota automatic The 41mm case (it wears smaller) is beadblasted stainless steel There’s a plain, stitched leather strap with a Pinionbranded buckle Yet the Atom is a design detailfest

The dial manages to be readable without being either shouty or dully utilitarian At the same time, there are three weights of number: large white superluminova-filled cardinal numbers at 12, 3, 6 and 9 (they glow green at night), smaller yellow interstitials and, despite all four cardinal numbers being present and correct, still a date in a tiny window at 6 By the way, Piers designedthetypefacehimselffromscratch Thecentreofthedialistextured with a hobnail pattern (Clous de Paris, if you ’ re feeling posh)

Price?Nowthat’sachallengebecausetherearesofew41mmAtoms They were only £650 new and still seem to fetch between £400-500 now

Things don’t change rapidly in La Chaux-deFonds G-P launched the Laureato in ’75 and it’s stuck to its knitting ever since: octagonal bezels, integrated bracelets, no fuss, no ostentation So, the new Laureato being smaller at 38mm and having a new copper Clous de Paris dial, is quite a revolution Star of the show remains the in-house, hand-finished cal GP03300-2034 movement and there’s a display back so you can enjoy the angled edges to the plates, the mirror polishing and the rest of the finishing Don’t wear it, just gaze through the sapphire back and dribble £11,500, girard-perregaux com

From one end of the price scale to the other, although Archimede also very much advocates the ‘no fuss, no ostentation’ school of watchmaking The Pilot 200 is a proper, modern Flieger; wonderfully clear, easy to read and classically dialled But Archimede likes to do things its own way, so the orange second hand stands out and matches the stitching on the black leather strap This one really comes into its own in low-light – the ice blue lume is gorgeous Serious Pforzheim casemaker Ickler owns Archimede, so the 39mm stainless case is a bit of a beauty ¤960, archimede-watches com

What do you think of when someone mentions watch god Gérald Genta? The sober (and now bogglingly expensive) Patek Nautilus?

The octagonally bezelled AP Royal Oak? What you’re probably not thinking about is Mickey Mouse, yet his Mickey designs are classics

Under the footballing Mickey on the mother-ofpearl dial, there’s a bi-directional winding triple-complication cal BVL300 movement with jumping hours, retrograde minutes and date It’s great to see watchmaking at this level taking itself very un-seriously indeed There are only 200 of these; they won’t be around long ¤24,000, bulgari com

Glove

BY L

Unfortunately Suixtil can’t do anything about the feeble heater in your classic, but winter drives will be more enjoyable with a pair of these cashmere-lined leather gloves keeping your hands warm $160. suixtil.com

Lego Technic Ford Gt

Production of the second-generation Ford GT may have come to an end (bonkers, track-only MkIV version aside), but you’ll soon be able to build a GT yourself: Lego releases this 1466-piece Technic model on 1 March £104.99. lego.com

Lounge Chair By Luigi Colani

Few car designers have ever polarised opinion like the late Luigi Colani, whose ‘biodynamic’ shapes were received with either wonder or bafflement He was welcomed in Japan as a sort of prophet, but the European establishment never knew what to make of a man who sought to improve the Lamborghini Miura by reworking it as an articulated vehicle ‘Nobody has an idea how the car of tomorrow should look,’ he grumbled in 2007 ‘I’ve built them already ’ He was able to give freer rein to his ideas away from the motor industry, turning his hand to everything from pianos to cutlery, and in 1968 Kusch & Co commissioned him to create a space-age chair This rare example has popped up for sale at Vintage Objects in The Netherlands; we’re not sure how you climb in and out while preserving your dignity, but then Colani was never overly concerned with practicalities ¤5500. vintageobjects.com