The Watch Book

Gisbert Brunner & Christian Pfeiffer-Belli

Few objects combine function, elegance, and status as well as a wristwatch. One’s choice of chronograph reveals a great deal because it shows the value we place on the most precious resource of all-time. A blend of precise mechanics, craftsmanship, fine materials, and innovation distinguishes the truly superlative examples. In The Watch Book, readers can feast their eyes and minds on a magnificently-illustrated and well-documented chronicle of the world’s best timepieces. First, we’re treated to a brief discussion on the meaning of time and its measurement by ticking sets of gears and hands. Next we delve into 18 premium manufacturers, including Patek Philippe, Rolex, and Cartier. These biographies of the most important names in top-end timekeeping trace the progressive development from their earliest days right up to the latest innovations and current models. We explore just what makes these houses outstanding, learning about the remarkable breakthroughs that established them as the crème de la crème of the European watch industry.

GISBERT L. BRUNNER, born in 1947, has been working with wristwatches, pendulum clocks, and other precision timekeeping instruments since 1964. During the quartz watch crisis in the 1970s, he discovered a new love for mechanical timepieces as well. His talent and passion for collecting chronographs led him to publish his first articles on the subject in magazines including GQ, ZEIT Magazin and Chronos in the 1980s. He has since written more than 20 books about every aspect of the field.

Munich-based journalist and author CHRISTIAN PFEIFFER-BELLI is Editor-in-Chief of the German antique watch magazine Klassik Uhren (Classic Watches). He needs no hobbies, having turned his profession into his passion. He accepted his first publishing job in 1965 at Callwey in Munich. Since 1976, he has built the publisher’s range of timepiece titles and overseen the publication of about 50 books in this area. He was then hired by the Ebner publishing house in Ulm after Ebner purchased the watch magazine from Callwey. Established in 1978, Klassik Uhren appears every other month as the only German-language magazine that deals exclusively with old watches. Pfeiffer-Belli sold his private library to Ebner; with about 9,000 titles, it is without a doubt the most extensive private German book collection on watches in existence. Pfeiffer-Belli also has a very large photo archive from which he supplied the photos for The Watch Book.

© The Watch Book by Gisbert L. Brunner & Christian Pfeiffer-Belli, published by teNeues, www.teneues.com. Photo © A. Lange & Söhne, © Rolex

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