Everything you need to know (and want) in watches this August
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WATCH this space – to stay in know with udpates from all our favourite watch brands. Everything you need to know to stay in the know and up to date. Whether it’s just for shooting the breeze by the coffee machine or feeding your craving for all things time.
Keep scrolling for the latest news in watches for August.
Patek Philippe expands with two new flagships in Australia
Good day to be a Patek fan.
The Hour Glass has opened two Patek Philippe boutiques in Australia within the space of a week, the first in Sydney at 388 George Street, the second in Melbourne at 110-114 Collins Street. The openings mark the newest chapter in a partnership between the Swiss watchmaker and its Asia-Pacific retailer, one that stretches back almost four decades and now spans 70 boutiques across 15 cities in the region.
The Sydney boutique is Australia’s first for the brand, located on one of the city’s busiest retail strips and close to several of its most prominent civic and cultural landmarks. Patek Philippe, founded in Geneva in 1839 and run today by the Stern family, is often described as the last independent watch manufacturer still owned by its founding family in the city.
The Melbourne boutique occupies Professional Chambers, a heritage-listed building on the Victorian Heritage Register, on the stretch of Collins Street once known as the Paris End. Built in 1908 for the Trustees of the Independent Church, the building was designed by architect Beverley Ussher of the firm Ussher and Kemp. Its red brick facade, dressed with rendered cement detailing, draws on Gothic, Romanesque and Queen Anne Revival traditions, with steep gables, clustered chimneys, oriel windows and a round arch entry. The exterior remains largely unchanged since it was built.
Inside, the Melbourne boutique unfolds across three levels. The ground floor holds the retail collection, where Watch Specialists guide clients through the Manufacture’s full range. A curved staircase leads up to a bar and private consultation rooms on the first floor, then to a dedicated event space on the top floor, built for private appointments, cultural programmes and brand events. At the top of the staircase hangs a cascade of hand-blown Murano glass, its pale blue, clear and amber discs catching light as visitors move between floors. Elsewhere in the boutique, a carved wood wall piece by artist Martenon depicts aquatic life drawn from Australian waters, a local variation on carvings the artist has produced for Patek Philippe boutiques around the world.
The Sydney boutique is built around retail areas, celebration rooms, a bar and dedicated event spaces, designed to support both one-on-one client appointments and larger gatherings for the city’s watch collecting community. Its ground floor pairs dark timber cabinetry with a geometric marble inlay floor, its crystal chandeliers lighting a run of glass display cases either side of a recessed alcove for the Patek Philippe signage.
IWC celebrates 140 years of innovation with Mercedes-Benz
Turning 140 is a pretty big deal, so you can appreciate that carmaker Mercedes-Benz wanted to celebrate the date a little.
And celebrate they did with close friend IWC Schaffhausen, who have marked the anniversary with a watch that’s better than a cake if you ask me. The limited-edition Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar ProSet 140 Years Mercedes-Benz (ref. IW329603, capped at 140 pieces) houses IWC’s newly engineered ProSet module, the first perpetual calendar from the brand, adjustable both forward and backward through a single crown position, doing away with any pushers or fiddling with crown settings.
Four patents protect the mechanism, its gears manufactured through IWC’s LIGA process (lithography and electroforming, since you asked). It’s a considerable leap from where IWC’s perpetual calendar story began, back in 1985, when watchmaker Kurt Klaus introduced the brand’s first version of the complication.
The 42mm stainless steel case is brushed and polished, its black dial set with solid gold appliqués and gold-plated hands. Flip it over and the sapphire case back reveals the first joint Daimler-Benz logo, dated 1926, the year the two companies merged. Double Moon covers both hemispheres correctly too, accurate to within one day every 1,040 years.
IWC and Mercedes-AMG have partnered since 2004, working as engineering collaborators on the Petronas Formula One team since 2013. Powered by the manufacture calibre 82665 (28,800 vph, 34 jewels), water resistant to 10 bar, fitted to a black rubber strap with IWC’s tool-free EasX-CHANGE system.
Rolex arrives at Chatswood Chase
ROLEX and The Hour Glass have crossed the bridge, joining Hermès, Chanel and Dior by opening doors at revived luxury shopping destination Chatswood Chase. North Shore Sydney has become an unlikely battleground for luxury retail over the past two years, turning the shopping centre into a genuine destination for the label-literate. The opening of the doors to the latest Rolex boutique marks the brand’s footprint in Australia, further building the brand’s growing footprint across Oceania.
On the design front, the store’s details take their cue from the Rolex cannelure bezel, translated into vertically fluted travertine stone (a literal reading of the brand’s own hardware, if you want to call it that). Inside, walnut accents, deep green upholstery and sculptural lighting frame the collection, while imagery throughout the space traces Rolex’s long-running ties to tennis, yachting and motor sport, past champions and Testimonees on display.
The brand’s reputation rests on 700-plus patents and four Swiss manufacturing sites, with a fifth due in 2029.
Two private VIP rooms cater to serious local buyers, alongside larger consultation tables for group visits. The Hour Glass now operates ten points of sale across Oceania, five boutiques and five authorised dealerships, with Chatswood Chase now added to that tally.
Shop 1-016A, Chatswood Chase Shopping Centre, 345 Victoria Avenue, Chatswood
TAG Heuer adds a splash of Dutch courage to their F1 Solargraph
TAG Heuer is marking the end of an era at Circuit Zandvoort with two new Formula 1 Solargraph watches, timed to the final Dutch Grand Prix. Both come in a 38mm sandblasted steel case (a callback to the collection’s 1986 debut, when Formula 1 first got its own dedicated line), with grey opalin dials and orange and red detailing lifted straight from the sea of orange that fills the grandstands there.
The bidirectional bezel carries the brand’s daisy motif in TH-Polylight. Choose between an orange rubber strap (1,500 pieces) or a steel three-row bracelet (1,000 pieces). Both run on the solar-charged Solargraph movement, good for up to ten months on a full charge.
The original version of this ripper first appeared back in 1986, and incidentally was the first watch to bare the TAG Heuer name. This OG was released in an array of brightly coloured versions, and was an instant hit among watch fans. Good to see some things are still good forty years later.
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