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Ladoire Black Widow Watches Hands-On

admin — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:46:29 +0000

Cool right? Here are the various flavors of the Ladoire Black Window watch. This is a hands-on follow up to my debut article that talked about the Ladoire Black Widow Mr. Green watch here. Read more about the Ladoire Black Widow Mr. Race watch here via my article at Haute Living. Lots more images and a gallery below.

Written by Mr. Ariel Adams - aBlogtoRead.com, trusted independent watch media.

Ladoire Black Widow “Mr. Green” Limited Edition Watch

admin — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 09:21:59 +0000

Coming up from Swiss Ladoire - featuring the youthful punkish talents of Lionel Ladoire - is Mr. Green. Mr. Ladoire kept teasing us with bits and pieces of information about Mr. Green, and now Mr. Ladoire has delivered. Officially, this is the Ladoire Black Widow "Mr. Green" watch. It is a slight redesign of his other collection of Roller Guardian watches, that I wrote about here. What I mean by this is that the movement is inherently the same. The changes to it are thematically in line with what Hautlence has done for many of its watches. What is interesting is how Ladoire has managed to use the same base movement and case, and make something entirely new - on more than a cosmetic level.

As such, the movement plates and parts areÂ much different, the case pieces are different, and the dial is really different. I am fascinated by all that they put into it. By retaining the same technological features, and building on the base movement, they were able to keep costs (relatively manageable), but offer something cool. The Black Widow will be available as a limited edition of only 12 pieces. There really aren't going to be vary many of these.

Why the name is "Mr. Green" and "Black Widow" doesn't make sense to me. Why not "Green Widow?" Oh well. The watch really has a unique and evil looking technical style that reminds me of comic book villains - namely the modernized Green Goblin. Makes even more sense with the spider themes in the watch (you know, cause Green Goblin is Spiderman's enemy). I can totally see him wearing this watch.

The case is about 51mm wide at its widest point and 41.77mm tall. Most of it is in titanium and DLC coated. While the sapphire crystal is highly curved, Ladoire uses a pretty good one with AR coating to ensure you can see the dial. In Ladoire's own manner, the movement is a masterpiece of form and function. Technically, it is an automatic (with micro-rotor), has a regulator style display for the time (not super easy to read) and a GMT hand (easier to read). Unlike previous Ladoire watches, the Black Widow has discs to display the information that move along stationary hands. These actually provides a relatively straight forward display of the information if you know where to look. The discs are set on ceramic bearings.

The Ladoire Black Widow Mr. Green watch will again be limited to only 12 pieces, and be pretty nifty. Price is 68,800 Swiss Francs.

Tech specs from Ladoire:

LADOIRE Manufacture-made movement: Calvet/o2

Movement with automatic winding via a micro rotor
Jewelling: 38 jewels
Thickness: 10.95 mm
Shaped mainplate (39.50mm x 29.50mm)
W-shaped GMT bridge structure, 12-hour dual time-zone display
Balance with screws, black PVD-coated*
Optimised gear-train toothing profile
Frequency 18,800 vph (2.5 Hz)
52-hour power reserve

Functions

Regulator — Offset hours, minutes and seconds with patented display complication (HMS Planetary Â®) , divided into three zones with fixed indicator mounted on ceramic micro ball bearings
GMT 12-hour display with fast-adjustment push-button system

Case

Two-part asymmetrical dial: 9 — 3 o’clock: 50.84 mm/12 — 6 o’clock: 41.77 mm
Bezel, case middle and case-back in titanium
Black case with A-DLC type PVD coating
Black crown with A-DLC type PVD coating: ergonomically positioned at 8 o’clock
Black titanium pusher with A-DLC type PVD coating, positioned at 2 o’clock
Cambered, glareproofed sapphire crystal
Flat glareproofed sapphire crystal case-back
Water-resistant to 50 metres

Strap

Full-grain smooth leather with double hand stitching
Pin buckle with A-DLC type PVD coating
Ergonomic strap secured by a single asymmetrical lug

Written by Mr. Ariel Adams - aBlogtoRead.com, trusted independent watch media.

Ladoire RGT (Roller Guardian Time) GMT Swiss Watch

admin — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 09:47:56 +0000

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Ladoire is a new Swiss watch makers with an interesting timepiece called the RGT. That is supposed to stand for "Roller Guardian Time," which makes no sense to me, but I will just smooth past that. The watch is unique as a regulator. I think maybe they missed the point of what a regulator watch is supposed to be, as the minute dial is really small, but that is OK. Interestingly enough, on this watch, the major dial along with the biggest hand is dedicated to a second timezone indicator (the GMT hand). If that watch reminds you of Hautlence and MCT watches, that is because they share some of the same engineering DNA.

OK, so lets move away from titles and description to focus on the interesting movement and design. There is nothing wholly unique about the watch except for the really nice design and interesting manner of displaying the time in the way that it is. The design of the watch to me look like Porsche Design on steroids. Does anyone else see that? To read the time you just need to follow the red arrows. The larger dial is for the minutes, then the smaller is for the seconds, while the smallest that has two arrows and no real dial is for the seconds. It is not the more precise ot easiest watch in the world to read, but it gets the job done, and the red arrows are pretty nifty looking. For whatever reason, the gear that the GMT hour hand is connected to on the while gold version has a little Spiderman-esque web on it. You can see it in both the images of the front and back of the watch. A nifty feature of the movement is a quick adjust for the GMT hand in both hour directions. The right side of the watch is like a paddle switch. You can adjust the second hour hand in one hour increments either ahead or behind - which is useful and nice to have.

One of the best features of Ladoire's website is under the "Helvet Manufacture" tab, or you can just click here. It has an explosion of the movement, but more importantly it shows you were each part was made. All in Switzerland of course. The reason it is so interesting is because one, it really helps you appreciate how certain companies specialize in certain parts, and seconds, it really helps you understand the core elements of a movement. Plus, you can see how certain regions in Switzerland sometimes specialize in certain parts. For example, you see that the screws all come from the same area in Switzerland, and likely the same company. Ladoire themselves manufactures the movements at the Helvet Manufacture.

The movement (Calvet/01/RGT calibre) itself is made of a number of materials including titanium and platinum. The case is available in 18k white or rose gold being 56mm wide by 45mm tall, and just over 16mm thick. The alligator strap connected to it is of the more impressive I've seen. You can see how it is extra thick near the case of the watch. this helps it conform best to shape of your wrist so that the watch fits snugly. I've never seen this done with an alligator strap before. The nooks and crannies of the movement are nice to observe, and the best part of the complex movement is that it is an automatic with a micro rotor. This is one of the few ulta exclusive manufacture watches that is suitable for a showcase, along with daily wear (if you dare!). More information is available at Ladoire's website.

Written by Mr. Ariel Adams - aBlogtoRead.com, trusted independent watch media.