Tutima Hommage Minute Repeater

The first modern minute repeater from Glashütte comes not from any of the established high-end watchmakers, but from Tutima. Better known for its military chronograph that was once issued to NATO pilots and its remake of the Luftwaffe Fliegerchronograph, Tutima just opened its new factory in Glashütte earlier this year, joining Lange, Glashütte Original and Nomos. But more interestingly, along with the new factory Tutima also announced the Hommage Minute Repeater, the first minute repeater from Glashütte. 

Rumour had it that Lange had a repeater in the works, but nothing was shown at SIHH 2011. So the first repeater from Glashütte emerges from an unexpected entrant.  



The Tutima manufacture in Glashütte

The Hommage cal. 800 Tutima repeater has all the elements of a high-end German watch – gold dial, frosted three-quarter plate, jewels held by chatons and a hand-carved relief on the balance cock. Tutima says all the movement parts are finished by hand and based on the stock photos this appears true – the finishing looks to be of a very high standard.

Two elements, however, appear out of sync with a generally high quality finish – the rounded heads of the screws holding the chatons and the teeth of the ratchet wheel of the barrel. They don’t seem as well finished as the rest of the movement, but this is a stock photo so it’s speculation at best.

The repeater is a limited edition of 20 in gold and 5 in platinum, priced at €168,000 and €179,000 respectively. There is the option of an open dial (shown below) or solid dial. That is about the going rate for a high-end repeater, but certainly many orders of magnitude over the current average price of Tutima pilots or military chronographs. Nevertheless Tutima should be commended on its achievement. – SJX 

Movement assembly in the Tutima manufacture

Black polishing on a tin plate

The Tutima Hommage cal. 800

For Only Watch 2011 De Bethune has created a unique DB25. It is an outrageously shiny and blue vision of watchmaking inspired by the past, in the same vein as the De Bethune Dream Watch and DB25 T regulator tourbillon. This is a wandering hours watch displaying the hours and minutes at six o’clock on two sandblasted sterling silver discs, with Arabic numerals for the minutes and Romans for the hours.

De Bethune DB25 for Only Watch 2011

The blued titanium dial – concave in the middle and convex on the outer ring giving the impression of the sky – depicts the night sky of 8 January 1297, when François Grimaldi, disguised as a Franciscan monk, entered Monaco castle only to have his men follow and capture the fort. Set in the titanium dial are white gold or diamond stars, representing the 115 stars in the nocturnal sky on that particular night. 

The reason for this motif is the Only Watch auction is held in Monaco in September each year, with proceeds going to research into children’s muscular dystrophy.

De Bethune DB25 Moon Phase

Inside the white gold case is the DB2105S movement with a speculaire finish on the bridges. Also known as black polishing, this is a mirror-like finish that is difficult to execute perfectly, because any flaw is immediately visible.

Also using the same movement is the De Bethune DB25 Moon Phase, which this unique piece is clearly derived from.

– SJX

De Bethune DB2105S