Background
Happy Horologists team had an early chance to photograph Arnold & Son’s incredible HM London Skyline masterpiece.
The watch commemorates 260th anniversary of Arnold & Son and 10th anniversary of The Limited Edition.
I wasn’t familiar with Arnold & Son before photographing this piece.
I was open to discover a completely new brand for me and see what there was to discover.
It was to my huge positive surprise that I discovered a watch which I would love to include in my own collection.
There are so many aspects to this watch which impressed me, I had to write about it in more detail.
The unveiling process for this watch during the event was magical.
The watch is about London and got unveiled a stone’s throw away from the very monuments depicted on the dial itself.
The whole package is impressive upon the first, second and all other views, leaving a very distinct memory imprint on in my brain.
Case
The case of HM London Skyline has a pretty classic shape to it.
The lugs are perfectly proportional to the dial and they seem to physically extend the artwork represented on it.
The size of 39.5mm and extremely respectable thinness of 7.82mm hit the certain collectibility hotspots I dream about.
Any watch below 10mm thin immediately deserves my attention.
The <40mm diameter means it will fit comfortably on my 7 inch wrist.
Considering how intricate the dial is, the choice of case design is perfect.
It does not take away eye attention from the dial itself and works in elegant harmony together.
The case has a sapphire caseback showcasing an incredible in house movement.
Dial
This dial is something extremely special for so many reasons.
Firstly, the theme of the visuals itself is hugely iconic.
London is one of the most magnificent cities in the world.
Bringing all of its most iconic landmarks into one dial view is a conceptual stroke of genius.
Yet, there is much more to it than all London’s icons in one place.
The way the dial artwork is made has many layers and depth to it.
This technique visually brings the wearer of the watch into the watch’s heart.
The way I experience this dial is that it has three distinct layers to it, created on the mother-of-pearl background.
The first layer is the painted layer representing the world famous London Bridge.
It has been painted with great amount of precision, intricacy and accuracy.
The second layer is the layer depicting other classic buildings in London including The Houses of Parliament and St. Paul’s Cathedral.
However, the final and perhaps most impressive layer comes to life at night.
It celebrates the modern buildings which didn’t even exist when I first moved to London thirty years ago now.
They include The London Eye, The Shard the Gherkin building.
All of them have distinct shapes to them and are mostly made of glass.
They tend to glow in the dark in real life across the magnificent night London landscape.
This third layer was made using Super-LumiNova and brings the second layer to life even more.
An incredible detail is that the Super-LumiNova shines through the Big Ben’s clock tower, illuminating the clock itself.
A superb, very well thought out and hugely fitting detail.
It seems to honour the watch making of other craftsmen from the times past in a very tasteful way.
Movement
The sapphire caseback shows off the A&S 1001 calibre.
It was entirely manufactured in La Chaux-de-Fonds.
This movement is only 2.7mm thin, which explains why the case could end up being so thin, even though the dial has all those layers to it.
Double-barrel arrangement delivers a constant flow of power.
This results in improved accuracy with a power reserve of 90 hours when fully hand-wound.
The movement exhibits traditional Haute Horlogerie finishing throughout.
The architecture of the calibre displays a stunning combination of swirling Côtes de Genève, perlage, and manual chamfering with gleaming high-polished edges and blued screws.
The back of this watch is as photogenic as the front, yet in completely different ways.
The highly polished edging of the caseback acts as a clever focusing feature.
It guides the eye more smoothly in to focus on this fantastic looking mechanism.
I get a feeling that each module of the mechanism is like a mechanical version of the buildings we see on the dial.
Very different, yet the front and the back have harmony to them which make this watch easily recognisable from both sides.
Each decoration and detail seem to have been finished with huge level of care, love and attention.
Altogether the finishing creates a densely decorated feel without it being too busy.
Wearing experience
Once on the wrist, metaphorically speaking this watch comes alive.
It’s as if it is psycho-activating a certain honouring of all kinds of artworks of the past and present all on one’s wrist.
Architecture, old clocks, painting, mechanical art and high horology.
It’s all there to be enjoyed at once in a perfect package which feels special, unique and very different from anything I’ve seen elsewhere.
Wearing this watch around London would be an incredible experience.
It would also make it iconic worldwide due to instant recognition of each building on the dial.
The watch fits my wrist perfectly.
It being a manual wound means I would need to regularly re-engage with this beauty in a conscious way.
This is excellent!
What would make me happier
It’s hard to think of what else would make me happier if a change was made to HM London Skyline Limited Edition.
It feels as if the makers thought of everything.
I could say that the price, while beyond my budget now, is high, but that would be unfair.
There is so much of irresistible, tangible and concrete value in this watch which makes the price point justified.
As there are only twenty units made, it’s a highly collectible piece and a very special collectible to hold forever into the future.
I’m predominantly a collector of integrated bracelet watches. HM London Skyline is a kind of a creation much better suited to wear on a strap.
This strap feels integrated in so far that it continues the theme of the watch around the wrist effortlessly.
It was easy to put on and take off and it created the sculpture-on-the-wrist feeling which is another artistic aspect to this very special piece.
I love this watch so much that I had to write about it and share my excitement about it with the rest of the world.
Thank you TLE for letting me photograph this incredible creation.
I hope to own one at some point in my life.
Specifications:
- Dial: Miniature artwork - Blue mother-of-pearl with London skyline design in 1764 (House of Parliament, Big Ben and St Paul's) modern buildings (Shard, Gherkin and London Eye) with illumination
- Case Diameter: 39.5mm
- Thickness (incl crystal): 7.82mm
- Lug to Lug: 45.5 mm
- Lug Width: 20mm
- Case Material: 316L stainless steel (also available in 18ct red gold)
- Movement: A&S1001 in-house manual winding
- Power Reserve: 90 Hours
- Crystal: Sapphire dial side (double sided AR coating) and exhibition case back
- Water Resistance: 3ATM/ 30m
- Bracelet / Strap: Ocean blue alligator leather with light blue stitching (buckle either stainless steel or 18ct red gold depending on configuration)
Limited to 20 pieces in each configuration.
Dislaimer: We don't use AI for authoring any of our visual or written artwork. Everything you find in Happy Horologists Magazine is and will be human made.
