I have been a lover of watches since I was a child. I have sometimes wondered what it is that has kept me interested in watches for so long. The best that I can come up with is that fine watches are like art, cars and wine all in one. At their most ingenious and most beautiful they stand among humanity’s finest art works. They have the mechanical virtuosity of a great sports car.

A great mechanical timepiece has a little magic, yes , but in fact it is you who has the power. Every morning you rotate the winding crown between thumb and forefinger and dozens, sometimes hundreds, of tiny components, crammed into a microcosm just a few millimeters high and a couple of centimeters across interact with one another to perform the humble miracle of giving you the time of day. Depending on how elaborate your watch is , it can allow you to time events within a fraction of a second; give you the date, month, year and phase of the moon; predict the date of Easter ;reproduce the movements of the heavenly bodies in the night sky.Then you sleep.And the next day, wind it once again.