Visiting Arnold and Son, the Watches

Jul 21, 2014,10:05 AM
 

Visiting Arnold and Son, the Watches

Last week I posted a few pictures of my visit to La Joux-Perret. We saw the manufacturing capabilities of LJP and some of the finished watch heads that I saw in the factory.  Check out my visit report here if you haven't seen it yet.  Let's now move on to see some finished watches from their two collections.
Arnold and Son has two collections, the Royal collection, inspired by the watches that Arnold made for George III and the members of the royal court, and the Instrument collection, inspired by the watches Arnold made later in his life with his son that sought highest chronometric accuracy allowing him to be an offical supplier to the Royal Navy.

In the Royal collection we find the HMS1 small seconds watches with the in-house AS1001 movement.  This double barrel movement has 90 hours power reserve.  Please note that this is a prototype movement, the production units have correctly blued screws, the slots are not silver as we see here.











The HM Perpetual Moon has a very large moon aperture as you can see.  A second moon phase display on the back is to aid when setting the moon phase.



















The TB Victory celebrates one of Englands famous battle ships with a gold appliqué on the dial.



HMS Victory – Cannons Ablaze, Lord Nelson's Flagship Takes On The French Fleet, part of the Royal collection the dials of the Victory Set watches are cast in silver from masters engraved by Arnold & Sons in-house engraver.



The UTTE Beagle adds a dial with a hand painted miniature commemorating the HMS Beagle to the ultra-thin UTTE torubillon movement.



The UTTE Ultra-Thin Tourbillon Escapement watch is a mere 8.34mm thick.  The movement itself, the A&S8200 is only 2.97mm thick, including the tourbillon!  This makes for a very elegant watch on the wrist.











From the East India Company Set this watch again has a hand painted minature on the dial.  The automatic movement with dead seconds complication is a A&S6103. (Again a prototype movement)







The DBS Equation Sidereal is a tribute to Arnold's siderial time watches.  The movement has two separate movements (would, however, together), one regulated for siderial time, the other for "normal" mean time.







The dial side true beat DSTB watch, a novelty for BaselWorld 2014.  This dead beat seconds has the dead beat mechanism on the dial side.  Note the counterweight on the dead beat lever is in the form of an anchor from the Arnold & Son logo.







The TE8 tourbillon.  Wow!







From the Instrument collection the CTB, an automatic chronograph with dead beat seconds.  Both the running seconds, jumping once a second, and the chrono seconds hand ar placed at the center of the dial making a very interesting effect when the  chrono is on as the running seconds jumps and the chrono seconds is a trotteuse.















The TEC1, announced at BaselWorld 2014 part of the Royal Collection.
Automatic tourbillon colomn wheel chronograph. The tourbillon runs at 288000 vibrations a hour, a very high speed for a tourbillon and the wath has a power reserve of 55 hours.















To not forget one of A&S's most stunning time pieces here are again some pictures of the Time Pyramid from my last post.












  login to reply

Comments: view entire thread

 

They are all beautiful...

 
 By: Dave G : July 21st, 2014-19:36
I have viewed several of their pieces here in Hong Kong and they are really special.

Great watches...

 
 By: Goldenlutin : July 22nd, 2014-10:22
I especially appreciate the dead beat seconds chronograph. Unique and so elegant. Thanks for the post Don! Best regards, Goldenlutin

HMS 1, True Beat, Tourbillon, there are some very interesting watches, here.

 
 By: amanico : July 22nd, 2014-10:31
I rediscover the brand, through your pics and text... Impressed by the level of finish. Best, and thanks! Nicolas

Perpetual moon

 
 By: Arie - Mr Orange : July 22nd, 2014-15:45
I'm so into that perpetual moon! Which one is nicer? The blue dialed one or the white dialed one? Has to be in rose gold IMO.

Difficult choice...

 
 By: Goldenlutin : July 22nd, 2014-16:53
It is a difficult question because both are beautiful while being quite different. I think the blue dial is the most stunning and spectacular choice but maybe not for everyday use. The cream dial is a little bite more classic and you will probably wear it... 

I concur

 
 By: Arie - Mr Orange : July 28th, 2014-05:30
But I also wonder if that mega moon isn't too big to be low-key-dressy anyhow. But I agree with the white dialed version being more versatile and timeless in the long run. Then again: that blue is gorgeous! Sadly they are very hard to find on the grey mar... 

It is a niche brand with a very small production...

 
 By: Goldenlutin : July 29th, 2014-15:29
therefore I don't agree about the retail price being to high. You have to keep in mind that they apparently make around 500 watches in total a year. So they probably make max. 30-50 perpetual moon watches in gold per year. That is very little. You cannot ... 

I really like the Time Pyramid

 
 By: docsnov : July 22nd, 2014-17:26
The symmetry of the dial with the visibility of the gears is fantastic. Another relatively new watch that you did not show in this post is the TB88 which I really like as well. Am I correct in that they are now owned by a big Japanese company (Citizen?) a... 

Excellent photos and report

 
 By: nicewatch : July 22nd, 2014-20:53
I love what Arnold is doing now. Thank you for sharing! Ray

Ok I will never mention again

 
 By: Mostel : July 22nd, 2014-21:43
The extreme misfortune of their brand name, and how I would change it to A&S ... So simple! Having put that behind me now forever.... What can one say? Obviously these guys have been very hard at work reinventing their brand and identity. Some designs... 

+1

 
 By: moc : July 24th, 2014-06:37
" Some designs remind me of rather iconic designs from other brands....which I wish they did not...." I have the same feeling unfortunately... Mo

I like the HM Perpetual Moon

 
 By: jrwong23 (aka watchthebin) : July 23rd, 2014-19:16
Tried it once - the one with the cream dial with blue sky was my favorite. A balance of colors. The one with full blue dial was too blue for me :) It wore a tad big for me at 42mm else it would have been a perfect moonphase watch. The details on the moonp...