News

Get access to our latest news by signing up for our newsletter.

Macro shot of a mechanical watch dial with cyan-green lume hands and indices glowing in darkness
Grandeur USA

The Lume Story: How Watch Dials Learned to Glow in the Dark

A century ago, asking a watch for the time after sundown meant striking a match. Today, your dial glows for hours without a single photon of help from your nightstand. The journey from radium to ...

chronographVintage square-cased racing chronograph on a leather driving glove beside a Le Mans-era helmet, moody editorial lighting

The McQueen Monaco: How a Square Watch Became a Cultural Icon

In the summer of 1970, a Hollywood actor with grease under his fingernails strapped on a square-cased chronograph and walked onto a film set at Le Mans. He had no idea he was about to make horo...

chronographVintage chronograph wristwatch with exotic dial — the design that became the Paul Newman Daytona

The Paul Newman Daytona: A $17 Million Legend

In October 2017, a stainless-steel wristwatch sold at Phillips auction in New York for $17.8 million. It was not gold. It had no diamonds. It contained roughly $30 worth of base materials. Yet a...

Grandeur USAMacro view of a luxury mechanical watch movement with an exposed power reserve indicator and gold gears under dramatic moody lighting

The Power Reserve Indicator: A Window Into the Mainspring

Most watch complications tell you something about the world — the date, the moon, the time in another city. The power reserve indicator is different. It tells you something about the watch itsel...

Grandeur USAVintage-style dive watch on dark leather beside a martini glass in cinematic spy-film lighting

The James Bond Watch Legacy: Rolex to Omega to Now

Few characters in cinematic history are more inseparable from their wristwear than James Bond. For over six decades, 007 has made watches cool in a way no advertising campaign ever could — transf...

Grandeur USAMacro close-up of a jumping hour watch dial showing a bold numeral displayed through an aperture window, dramatic editorial lighting

The Jumping Hour: Watchmaking's Most Rebellious Display

Inside the mechanical complication that snaps instead of sweeps — how jumping hours work, why they're hard, and why independent watchmakers keep reinventing them.