Horolonomics

Late last year the world lost Brigitte Bardot, a French acting and musical icon who could claim major career achievements in the 1950s and 1960s. Coming up on September 21, some items from Bardot's homes in Saint-Tropez and Paris will go up for auction at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris. There are four lots featuring timepieces and here we will explore those items. Perhaps the most compelling items appear in lot 261: a pair of 1950s Jaeger alarm clocks in "gilt metal" and decorated with red and green lacquer. A pair of Jaeger alarm clocks. Photo courtesy Millon auction house. The catalogue describes the dials for these clocks as "Memovox-like" and I agree. At six-o-clock the dial is marked "Fabrique en Suisse." Within this mark is an encircled eight, indicating that the clocks have an eight day power reserve. The catalogue cautions us "movement needs checking" and I would agree. One dial appears akilter, a potential sign that the clock may h...

Swiss news media report that yesterday, Sunday, August 9, 2026, burglars broke into the Musée d’horlogerie du Locle in Le Locle, Switzerland. Satellite view of Musée d’horlogerie du Locle, Source: Google Earth. An alarm went off at 6:14 in the morning, just before sunrise. Further, a witness contacted the police in Neuchâtel in order to report that there were people near the museum behaving suspiciously. At least four people broke in through a door to the north which, according to satellite imagery, faces a wooded area. Reports indicate that the thieves were only on the property for, at most, five minutes. They seem to have gotten away with less than ten objects (perhaps pendulum clocks). The museum is roughly two miles from the border with France so French authorities have been informed of the theft. Reports of other thefts in this region suggest that criminals sometimes cross the border with their ill-gotten goods. Let's hope the items are retrieved. They are part of the...

Early last week I started listening to the latest episode of Openwork, a podcast by the good people at Collective Horology. A photo from Windup Watch Fair 2024 in which Collective recorded a podcast live. Collective co-founder Asher Rapkin is on the right (a co-founder of Urwerk is on the left). Note that AI created the blur effect on the lower part of this photo. Collective was founded by two former Facebookers as a retailer of high-end independent watch brands from different parts of the world (there's more to Collective's history and you can read about it here ). I've visited Collective's booth at a couple Windup events and I enjoy the podcast. It is business-oriented, primarily, which I find very informative. At the beginning of the podcast, Collective shared a statement mentioning that the retailer joined a lawsuit filed in opposition to the most recent round of tariffs by the Trump administration. I found this very interesting so I went ahead and downloaded ...

I have to admit that, until today, I never really knew why Colonel Sanders, the infamous purveyor of fried chicken, was a colonel. I think I believed Sanders may have served in a branch of the military and earned that rank. Turns out I was very confused on that point. It probably would have been more accurate to describe Sanders' "rank" as one held by many "Kentucky Colonels." That type of colonelship is bestowed by the governor of Kentucky as an honorific for "noteworthy accomplishments, contributions to civil society, remarkable deeds, or outstanding service to the community, state, or nation," (source: Wikipedia). Harland David Sanders, the founder of globally-known brand Kentuck Fried Chicken (KFC), was twice commissioned as a Kentucky colonel. In 1935 Governor Ruby Lafoon dubbed Sanders a colonel and later, in 1950, he was "re-commissioned" by Governor Lawrence Wetherby. At this point you might be asking yourself, "what does all t...

According to Instagram, I started following watch brand Lebond sometime during the month of January this year. The Lebond Attraction watch, photo courtesy of Lebond. I'm not entirely certain how they came to my attention. I believe one of their watches appeared in the "Search & Explore" menu as a suggestion from the algorithm. I took a closer look, saw what I liked and decided to follow the brand. Sometimes the algorithm gets it right. It was clear from just this first pass that Lebond is a design-forward brand. The Lebond Siza, black dial. The first reference which came to my attention was the Siza. The watch case is shaped as a square rotated 45% with truncated (flat) vertices. Attaching a strap to that shape is not straightforward but Lebond executes Vendôme lugs to do so. The case is titanium, the strap is FKM (Fluoroelastomer) leather, there is a display caseback, and the movement is both Swiss and automatic. There are two dial options, both featu...

Amidst all of the Watches and Wonders frenzy this month, Rolex released a teaser video on their web page marking the 100 year celebration of the Oyster case design. A screenshot from the Rolex teaser video. The image may represent a black hole. Superimposed atop the video was the text "Join us on 12 May 2026." Hat tip to @niccoloy for bringing the video to my attention. Esquire has some good guesses about what might be afoot, including a new date complication or perhaps even a celestial complication. I have my own guess about what's going on. I could absolutely be wrong, but that's always a risk when trying to anticipate a move by one of the world's most secretive watchmakers. Even if I'm wrong, though, I think I will draw attention to something that has not really been covered by other publications, as near as I can tell. Rolex is now a contractor for the European Space Agency (ESA). But let's back up a bit and cover some recent developments. L...