[Top 5 New Watches for 2023] Featured models from Patek Philippe and A. Lange & Söhne! 5 watches selected by watch enthusiast Kurono Peace

This project selects the top five watches from Watches & Wonders 2023, where many famous brands announced new releases. This time, Kurono Peace, a leading Japanese watch enthusiast, has chosen from the watches he saw in person. From "major manufacturers" such as Patek Philippe and A. Lange & Söhne to micro-maisons like Grönefeldt, he has chosen five watches that he really felt were great.

1st place: Gronefeld "1941 Gronograf Tantalum"

Grönefeldt was probably the first to address the risk of malfunction caused by the reset movement in chronographs, which have been improved over the years. To solve this problem, they adopted a governor, which is used in minute repeaters, to achieve a soft landing of the chronograph hand.

It's precisely because all of the brand's watches have a waiting list of more than three years that this watch, made up of over 400 parts and costing over 20 million yen, was able to achieve the remarkable feat of selling out in an instant. Although only the gray dial is produced, I was so captivated by its appeal that I made an exception to my rule of only buying blue dials and ordered one, assuming a three-year wait.

2nd Place: Patek Philippe Calatrava Travel Time 5224

I recently heard from a Patek Philippe insider that the production of this model is not limited, but rather that only a small number can be produced due to the difficulty of producing a dial with 24 indexes.

I personally have a collection of 24-hour watches, but this was the first time I'd seen one with 12 o'clock (noon) positioned at the top. I learned that the reason for this is to improve legibility by placing the time zone (6:00-18:00) when the wearer actually checks the time most often at 12 o'clock (top of the dial). I was impressed that Patek Philippe is always striving to find practical applications for even their most specialized watches.

The crown also uses patented technology that allows you to operate the second time zone in three positions, and best of all, it's cheaper than the solid gold Aquanaut's Dual Time (lol).

3th place: A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus Chronograph

While the Datograph, highly praised by Philippe Dufour, is becoming extremely difficult to obtain, the Odysseus Chronograph announced by A. Lange & Söhne is not just a chronograph. Having had the opportunity to touch it extensively at the exhibition, I felt that it was a watch that perfectly applied the practical technology that Lange had cultivated.

The two chronograph pushers can be easily transformed into pushers for setting the date and day of the week by pulling the crown. When the chronograph is reset, the chronograph hand rotates the same number of times as the counted minutes. If the count is within 30 minutes, the counter hand and chronograph hand will rotate counterclockwise, and if it exceeds 30 minutes, both will rotate clockwise.

4th place: Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud "FB 2T.2"

Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud is probably a little-known brand in Japan, but any watch enthusiast will be captivated by its precise adjustments the moment they wind the crown.

The large tourbillon hidden on the back has a special structure supported in three dimensions by pillars, and the second hand is directly driven by it, a patented technology from the company. Driven by a fusee chain, it not only achieves ultra-high accuracy of -1 to +2 seconds per day, but also offers an unprecedented light winding feel while focusing on torque management and safety.

Contrary to the image of complex mechanisms, the failure rate is said to be extremely low. Being under the umbrella of Chopard allows them to create practical watches with complex mechanisms without compromise.

5. Montblanc "Montblanc 1858 Unveiled Timekeeper Minerva Limited Edition"

Montblanc, which has long boasted the title "Nicolas Rieussec, the father of the chronograph," seems to have lost that title with the recent discovery of older chronographs and the revival of the Louis Moinet brand.

However, this Minerva-based chronograph features a monopusher that allows you to start, stop, and reset by rotating the bezel itself, making it an ambitious design that seems to be the optimal solution for highly practical one-handed operation, and I felt that it could become a symbolic chronograph for the brand. It was one of the watches I was glad to see in Switzerland.

Selector Profile

Black Peace

A watch enthusiast with a collection of over 700 watches, ranging from a 1000 yen Casio, a 1970s digital watch, to a Patek Philippe minute repeater worth over 100 million yen. He produces Chrono Theory, which handles independent watch brands, and has been featured twice in the New York Times. He is one of Japan's leading watch collectors.
Instagram:@chronopeace
twitter:@chronopeacecom