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Wallace Chan and the Titanium Dragonfly

2012-02-05T21:49:52Z

Wallace Chan will be the first Asian jeweler to display his work at the Paris Biennale des Antiquares this coming September 2012. He's not new to the industry, though, having won the Hong-Kong Jewelry Design Grand Award for his 1987 invention, the Wallace Cut. This is basically an intaglio cut on the reverse side of a faceted stone which is carefully calculated to appear "complete" only when seen through the facets.

In the early part of this century he caught the Titanium trend(see previous), and presented a collection in 2007 as Baselworld

He's recently pre-presented several of pieces to the press:

A pair of elegant, if somewhat severe, earrings in diamond and rock-crystal (a traditional European material that he seems to use somewhat often)	"Innocent Heart" ring. The center stone is a 25ct star-ruby, and it is surrounded by smaller star-rubies and yellow-green diamonds

A Butterfly broach in titanium set with precious and semiprecious stones. The wings are verigated rock-crystal

Necklace of aquamarine, sapphires, amethyst and diamonds set in titanium. The settings of the aquamarine deserve special note, they are titanium shells, anodized to match the color of the stones nearly exactly and set with tiny diamonds, giving them the appearance of just sticking to the outside of the large stone unsupported.

(source)

Chanel's 1932 Collection

2012-01-29T21:35:10Z

In 1932 Gabrielle Chanel, known to all as Coco, announced her first collection of diamond jewelry. To commemorate that, the current incarnation of Chanel Joaillerie, which was formed in 1993, will be releasing a large collection (80 pieces in total) in July entitled, simply, 1932. The designs take their inspiration, so the press-release says, from the motifs and symbols held dear by the eponymous designer. The first 4 pieces released all have celestial themes.

The first three pieces are all from the same family, the Etoile Filante, or shooting star. All are 18kt white gold set with white diamonds.


	A photo by André Kertész for Vogue Paris from the original 1932 expo "Années Folles Rappelons" (roughly "remember the Roaring 20's") where the initial pieces were displayed. This motif was the inspiration for the star-themed pieces above

My favorite piece of the initial release was this broach, the Céleste, centering on a massive 79ct blueish baroque Austrailian pearl.

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SIHH 2012 : RM056 in Sapphire

2012-01-27T04:16:43Z

Another of Richard Mille's (previously mentioned) SIHH 2012 releases, this is their split-second chronograph with a tourbillon, the RM056 Filippe Massa. It uses one of their original movements now named the RMCC1. It's cased in a multi-part case, of the usual RM shape, cut entirely from sapphire. It's a technical tour-de-force, the curves and inside angles are fiendishly difficult to cut from the crystals, but the final result in no way looks like a piece with an MSRP of $1.65 milllion. On the other hand, they're only making 5 and they're all sold already, so...

Closeup shot of the dial

(source)

A closeup of the massively complex RMCC1 movement. It has a split-second chronograph, a tourbillon, both torque and power-reseve indicators as well as RM's unusual push-button mode control.

(source)

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Mocked by Graffiti

2012-01-25T00:06:13Z

Or perhaps a sign of the success of Damien Hirsts' penetration of the popular consciousness, at least in Paris, is this carefully executed "dot" message. Say what you will, but I bet this one was painted by the artist...

(photo by Laurence Billiet, found on Vandalog)

SIHH 2012: Richard Mille Tourbillon Skull RM052

2012-01-24T02:18:04Z

The first of three high-end watches released by Richard Mille (previously mentioned), this one is based on their standard tourbillon movement, as seen in the production RM002 and several of their limited editions. The skull (apparently they got the Damien Hirst memo 2 years late, maybe they'll have a spots piece in a year or 2), isn't an overlay on the movment, but the actual plate of the watch, with the pivot of the tourbillon cage clasped in his teeth.

At an angle you can really see the depth of the case, 15 will be sold in Titanium and 6 more in either rose or white gold.

Even the top plate, seen through the back of the watch is skull shaped, though in this case more like the bottom of a skull then the iconic "face".

(source)

Coin of the Year, 2010

2012-01-22T03:39:28Z

Yes the 2010 award is given at the beginning of 2012, they take an entire year to look over the coins that were issued with 2010 dates. Anyway, the final award "Coin of the Year" has been awarded to an Israeli 2 Sheqalim (technically New Sheqalim, but nobody uses that term) depicting Jonah in the Whale.

On heads there's all the usual stuff, date, country, denomination as well as the text "Jonah in the belly of the fish (Jonah 2:1)" in Hebrew, Arabic and English. At the bottom is a small figure of Jonah in prayer. On the back Jonah is shown insconced in the, he is a negative space in the large frosted plateau of the fish.

(source)

More Metiers d'Art

2012-01-22T01:53:11Z

Vacheron (previously mentioned) released a M.C. Escheresque watch for the 2011 Only Watch auction, and has now released 3 more as members of their Métiers d'Art collection, Les Univers Infinis. Well 2.5 more, the Dove design is the Only Watch dial with different colors of enamel.

The cases are all 40mm 18kt white gold and all are powered by Vacheron's workhorse cal. 2460. All three dials are engine-worked under enamel. In addition the dove dial is set with small diamonds for one of the birds and the seashells have a hand-envraved overlay.

Doves

Fishes

Shells

That is how you do a 2012 watch!

2012-01-18T16:35:15Z

Though not the first Mayan-Apocalypse(if you insist) themed watch, the recent release from DeBethune (previously mentioned)sets an extremely high bar for the rest of the competition, as one might have expected. The 12-piece edition has a solid gold dial hand-engraved by Michèle Rothen and inlaid with the 31 flame-blued steel bits which form the numerals. The chapter ring displays the numerals of Mayan numbering system with the inner ring showing the 20 glyphs of divinities, animals and sacred objects representing the various days of the calendar. 2012 represents the end of the "Long Count" sequence, and the center of the dial depicts the baktun, a glyph for a time-period, and used in particular for calculating the "Long Count" and comprising 144,000 days.

The hands are made with one of DeBethune's unusual techniques, blued-steel wrapped around sapphire centers. Power comes from a DB Cal. 2005, a 6-day manual-wound movement with 29 jewels and the case is 18k white gold.

Failing Bridges...

2012-01-18T03:15:34Z

First a bit of follow up to the pics of the Russky Island bridge (see previous post). There was a massive fire on the deck while construction was still progressing, most likely sparked by an incautious welder. English-Russia has plenty of pics, but a sampling

And a distance shot, showing the scale of both the bridge and the fire.

And a post-failure picture of the Tacoma Narrows bridge that I had never seen before, in a large collection of early 20th century (but going as late as WWII) failures caught on film.

And from the same collection a Cuinard-line ship at the pier with an unhappy simalarity to current events

Curiously Offensive

2012-01-13T04:25:52Z

Geneva's Musée d'Art et d'Histoire as opened a new special exhibit "Watchmaking in Geneva. The Magic of Craftsmanship, Treasures of Gold and Enamel", from December 15th 2011 to April 29th 2012. One of the sponsers was Vacheron Constantine and they're running a concurrent smaller exhibit, "Watches with special displays... various ways of telling the time" from December 15th 2011 to January 22nd 2012.

One of the more interesting pieces from this exhibit is a early 20th century piece using the Bras en l'air method, where the arms of the figure lift to point to the current time when the button on top is pressed. This one, in particular is both an excellent example of that complication and the quaint, pervasive racism of the time.

(source)

TimeZone: Industry News: Pre-SIHH 2012 - Parmigiani Toric Ovale with Telescopic Hands

2012-01-13T02:00:59Z

One of the more recognizable pocket-watches in the Musée d'Horlogerie in Le Locle is an oval piece by Vardon & Stedmann, a pair of British watchmakers from approx 1800. Driven by a cam hidden above the center pinion, the hands expand and contract to follow the outline of the case.

This piece is on a long-term loan to the musuem from the Sandoz Family, which conviniently owns the Parmigiani watch brand, who've produced a modern rendition of the piece, the bluntly named "Toric Ovale with Telescopic Hands". Limited to 30 pieces in white gold and 30 more in rose gold, this massive (52mmx37mm) watch uses flame-blued steel for the hands over a Grand Fue enamel dial, with apertures for the date and RdM (power reserve) of the 8-day, manually-wound movement. MSRP will be $95,000

(main source, antique watch source)

You may be the first....

2012-01-13T01:44:18Z

If everybody else has too much sense!

219 (the actual name of the brand) has released the Kukulcan GMT, a watch 'celebrating' the end of the Mayan calendar cycle in 2012.

The 47mm white-gold case is set with 36 baguette-cut Colombian emeralds and powered by a Valgranges GMT movement (it's a VJ 7750 with a bigger plate). The back of the case has a hand-engraved image of part of the Mayan calendar surrounding what the press release calls the "Death God" (no indication which of the numerous deities they are actually referring to, assuming they even know). The outer chapter ring of the dial indicates the hours 1-12 in Mayan numerals and the face of Kukulcan, a feathered serpent, staring directly at the wearer

(source)

Well they're Post-something

2012-01-11T02:09:52Z

Martin S. Van Treeck, Multi-use Buildings, Renovation of the Ilot Riquet, Paris, France, 1972-1977
(source)

On Self-winding Watches

2012-01-09T00:45:59Z

Jean-Claude Sabrier has worked in the world of antique watches since 1960, first as an antiques dealer, then as a consultant for both the French government, the Musee des Arts et Metiers (previously mentioned) and the department of Justice, and the SWATCH group, notably the Breguet museum collection. He's recently published a book on the history of the self-winding (automatic) watch , starting with it's origins in the 1760s, which will be available not-soon-enought (March, 2012). For those interested, there's an excerpt in this month's VOX Magazine, published by Antiquorum, though the online Flash-based reader is a bit sucky, the piece begins on page 34.

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That's my nose

2012-01-05T17:27:14Z

Of anyone else this photo would seem bizarre...

(my source)
(note I have no idea of the actual source, as often happens the Tumblr user striped off any attribution info)

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