3-Watch Thursday #24
3D Printing, Cartier and Rexhep Rexhepi
Morning all,
Welcome to 3-Watch Thursday #24.
Apart from the ACM interview with Tom Chng, I haven’t been particularly engaged with the watch media this week.
That said, there are still 3 things below that caught my attention to share with you.
Enjoy :))
3D Printing In The Watch Space
Following a recent trend of writing about future technologies, I ended up down a YouTube rabbit hole last weekend watching people 3D print tourbillons.
2 things to note:
This is quite cool.
This could be really cool.
JBV Creative has a really excellent series on printing different escapements which culminates in a clock.
He works through the engineering process showing iteration after iteration refining his designs and sharing some pretty unique escapements along the way.
My only question is why aren’t more watch companies showcasing this kind of work? 3D printing allows for cheap and accessible mechanisms to be shown to consumers and with almost endless combinations for swapping out parts etc, it could be great for marketing.
I’ve seen a couple of smaller independents display mechanisms with 3D-printed parts, but other than that it appears to be quite rare.
My guess is plastic 3D printing is at odds with the ideals of luxury and consumers may well just not care.
I’m interested to hear the thoughts of others here.
Cartier Gems - Santos Deluxe
Spotted this article over at Danny’s Vintage Watches late last week as part of a series written by Jake Heffner (@pinaplwtchs) and loved it.
I can now say I’ve added some vintage Santos reference numbers to my dictionary.
What I love about these kinds of articles is the chance to truly learn more about a brand that can be quite intimidating, especially given the recent hype surrounding vintage Cartier.
My advice if you’re anything like me:
Take 10 mins to give this a read and check out the range over at Danny’s Vintage Watches.
You won’t regret it.
Remember Rexhep Rexhepi, Geneva's Next Big Thing? He's Still Busy Making Watches, And His Business Is Growing
Thanks to Tony Traina for digging out this gem from 2016 (I was still in high school and had yet to discover anything past a fake Omega Aquaterra).
There’s been a lot of looking forward in the watch media recently, but sometimes it’s great to look backwards to see how far we’ve come.
That’s why this article is great.
Even past the explosion in popularity of Indies in the last couple of years, Rexhep Rexhepi was recognised as one of the most up-and-coming watchmakers.
I’m just glad it was documented.
Maybe we’ll see the same kind of articles with Xhevdet Rexhepi in 6 years?
That’s all from me this week.
Let me know your thoughts and if you have anything you’d like to share my dms are always open.
Have a good weekend,
Owen