BeckerTime BLOG

Japanese manufacture Grand Seiko’s most talked about watch to date, the Snowflake, occupies pretty much a unique position in the current horological sphere. The best-selling model is to Grand Seiko what the Submariner is to Rolex, the Speedmaster to Omega or the Nautilus to Patek—the icon which comes most readily to mind when you hear […]

While you probably didn’t come here for Benjamin Franklin quotes, I’m going to start with one anyway, because it perfectly encapsulates how we ended up with the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak: ‘Out of adversity, comes opportunity’. At the start of the 1970s, the Swiss watch industry was facing nothing but adversity, and Audemars Piguet was […]

It is fair to say that Grand Seiko is responsible for completely transforming the image of Japanese watches. Before the manufacture was established in 1960, the country had produced little else other than cheap, relatively primitive models. It didn’t help that parent company, Seiko was also the driving force behind quartz movements, a technology which, […]

Making up one third of the so-called Holy Trinity of horology, Audemars Piguet sits alongside the other watchmaking titans of Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin. Formed in the late 18th century, the marque was founded by two friends, each bringing his own particular strengths and attributes to tackle the myriad challenges of producing timepieces which […]