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Two from Christophe Claret

2013-05-24T01:11:48Z

As recently as 2009, Christophe Claret(see previous) swore that he wasn't a watch brand, just a brilliant hired-gun watchmaker working for the top brands. That's all over with a new model released at this years Baselworld and a special edition for Only Watch 2013 (see previous years). Personally I think he should have stayed in the movement realm and let someone else handle the design, since his pieces are, almost universally, over-wrought hunks of post-modern excess, but mechanically peerless.

First from Claret is an addition to his X-TREM-1 line, the Pinball. He's retained the signature tourbillon and moving-sphere time indication, but reworked the case and movement to look like a pinball game (no reason was given), in a blue and orange color scheme. The case remains 40.8mmx56.8mm and 15mm thick, made of titanium with sapphire crystals and tubes. The movement is the FLY11 caliber, containing 419 parts, 64 jewels and maintains a 21,600 BPH for a power reserve of 50 hours. Winding and setting are done by independent flip-up levers on the back of the case.

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Released as regular production at Baselworld was the Kantharos, a automatic chronograph with constant-force mechanism (sometimes called a remontoire) and a strangely-pointless chime, which strikes a single note each time the chronograph button is pushed, to start, stop or reset the chrono. The case is round, available in Titanium or gold and measures 45×15.8mm. The movement, Claret caliber MBA13, is bigger then the average watch of only a few years back, at 37.6×10.5 mm, and contains 75 jewels in it 558 components. MSRP starts at 98,000 CHF, making this the entry-level model of Claret's line.

To answer the obvious questions:

Yes. Part of the mainplate is made of synthetic sapphire, with synthetic rubies set into it for jewels. Claret pioneered this sapphire-as-plate in work he did for UN several years back
Yes. It does list every feature of the watch on the subdials

(source)
SJX has seen the beast in-person and has some live pics over at his blog, they're worth a look

DB25 Imperial Fountain...Live

2013-05-23T03:41:25Z

The DB25 Imperial Fountain series of 12 watches by DeBethune has been previously mentioned from their press release. Here are some live pictures of the watch, including closeups of the hand-engraved dials, each of which has all 12 zodiac signs.

All 12 watches


closeup of Pig	Calibre DB2145 closeup

(Photos by Paul Boutros, source)
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Electrum Coins from the Israel Museum

2013-05-23T03:28:16Z

Some of the earliest coins that are coins, rather then just weighted chunks of metal, are the late 7th century Lydian staters. These were struck in electrum, an alloy of gold and silver, which has a pale-yellow color. Recently the Israel Museum in Jerusalem had an exhibit of a wide selection of these, with quite an impressive online catalog. They also published a catalogue, White Gold: Revealing the World's Earliest Coins, bits available online.

More from Carnet

2013-05-22T00:54:21Z

Michelle Ong, who works under the brand name Carnet (see previous), apparently had an exhibit of her jewelry at the Asia House in London in 2011. I'm clearly a bit late to this, but the pieces were striking enough to warrent it. Particularly of note is her use of usually cut stones, like the briolette yellow diamond in the pendent and her ability to blend stones within a single field, for example the pomegranate seeds.

Pink Cloud pendent: Tourmaline, white diamond, blue sapphire, pink sapphire and amethyst set in platinum, white gold and titanium.	Yellow teardrop pendent: Pale yellow diamonds and white diamonds set in gold and platinum

Precious Plume: White Diamonds and Coloured Precious Stones "Feather" Brooch in Platinum and Titanium.	'Supernova' broach. Light Brown Diamond and White Diamond set in Rose Gold.

Pear Clip: White, fancy vivid and intense yellow and brown diamonds set in platinum and gold.	Pomegranate broach: White, fancy yellow and brown diamonds set in platinum and yellow gold.

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HYT H2 at Baselworld 2013

2013-05-15T21:24:32Z

Last year HYT came out with the H1, the first watch with a fluid display. Powered by a Chronode movement, it used a ultra-thin glass tube and two bellows to move a pair or non-reacting fluids so that the meniscuc between them indicated the hour, while a standard minute hand rotated around the dial. For 2013 they have a completely different movement design, with smaller, angled bellows and some Renaud et Papi design elements the HNR indicator is a signature of theirs. I don't really like it, but the animations on their website are fun at least.

Specs:

Case
- titanium with black DLC coating
- 48.8mm
- rubber-coated screw-down crown
- 50m WR
- sapphire crystals, AR coated
Movement
- Made by APRP (Audemars Piguet/Renaud et Papi) to HYT's design
- 21,600 BPH
- titanium bridges, PVD coated
- 8 day power reserve
- thermometer at 9 o'clock

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Breguet at Basel 2013

2013-05-15T03:41:17Z

After some pretty weak years (see Type XXII, double Tourbillon, creepy reaching-hand Reveil, etc) Breguet(previously mentioned) is back to their strengths with some 2013 Baselworld releases.

First up is the Ref 5277, a 4 day manually-wound watch in a 1996-standard size case of 38×8mm. Movement is a modified F.Piguet, case is white or rose gold and dial is hand-guilloche (same for nearly all the releases this year). Personally I prefer the rose-gold case and could do without the "96" on the RdM, but it's a strong start.

Next we have the Ref 7727 Chronometre. This was announced as a prototype last year but has finally made it to full production. What makes this watch unusual is the ultra-high-speed escapement 10Hz (normal watches run 3-4Hz) made entirely of silicon and the magnetic suspension. The tiny little hand at 2 o'clock makes 1 revolution every 2 seconds, making use of the high-speed escapement. The movement view through the display back is interesting, if not really attractive.

The third piece is the first new simple tourbillon Breguet has put out since the Messidor, and the first new tourbillon caliber since they acquired Lemania. It's classic Breguet design, with a slightly-off-center tourbillon and an RdM at about 9 o'clock. On the reverse they implemented a peripheral rotor to keep the automatic winding without obscuring the movement. That style has been tried on and off for the last 40 years, without much success, but we'll see what they do with it. The escapement is partially silicon, partially anti-magnetic steel. The engraving on the movement is not to my taste, but better then the usual Baroque work they do on their skeleton pieces.

Finally a new ladies watch, the Reine de Naples Day and Night. Named for a sister of Napoleon who supposedly received one of the first wristwatches as a gift, the Reine de Naples(see previous) is the high-end Breguet ladies line, always with the egg-shaped case. This one includes a Karrusel, a slow-moving balance platform, implemented to also be a 24-hour hand. The balance wheel acts as the sun and an engraved titanium disk as the moon on a lapis lazuli "sky" disk. Below are the usual hour and minute hands. The outer and inner bezel, as well as the crown, are set with diamonds, because apparently ladies watch == diamonds.

(photos by Paul Boutros, source)

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Bulgari Commedia dell'Arte Minute Repeater

2013-05-14T19:28:38Z

Bulgari(previously mentioned) has released another watch based on their excellent Gerald Genta minute-repeater caliber, the Commedia dell'Arte. The Caliber BV 618 movement has been expanded to include automota on the dial, which do a little dance when the repeater chimes; however this necessitated reducing the number of striking hammers from 4 (Westminster chime) to 2 (regular repeater). In this case the moving characters are Brighella, Pulcinella and Arlecchino, in different configurations depending on the scene chosen for the watch. The dial and the moving parts are engraved 18kt gold and low temp enamel (baked at about 80C, not the 700C of Grand Feu enamel).

Bulgari "Commedia dell' Arte" from Allucinazione on Vimeo.

Finally some pictures of the artisans working on decorating the dial

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Some Cesium in Your Pocket

2013-05-12T18:04:06Z

Miniaturization has gotten to the point that there's now a complete Cesium based atomic clock module that's about the size of a matchbook (yes, 18th Century size reference). Based on that Hoptroff, a small British firm that makes high-tech electronic watches, has designed the first pocket watch with an internal Cesium reference. The Hoptroff 10 will be quite the beast, 82×25mm, and priced under, but nearing $100,000. Interestingly the dial, at least the sketch that they've released with the PR, is very much in the style of the great 17th and 18th C watchmakers, possibly harking back to the last time England was truly important in world horology.

For that you get all the following bits and pieces:

Internals:

Symmetricom Chip Scale Atomic Clock
USB socket
4 x pusher actuators
9 x Soprod bimotors (permits hands to move in reverse, they're the little black V-shaped things with 4 copper coils)
10 x Soprod monomotors (only moves hands clockwise, small black blobs with only 2 coils)
6 x PIC microcontrollers
60 x side-emitting LEDs
Flexipanel Bluetooth Low Energy radio
Sensirion humidity / temperature sensor
Measurement Specialties pressure sensor
Freescale magnetometer
Union Fortune Lithium Polymer battery pack sandwiched between circuit boards (not visible)

Functions:

Hours
Minutes
Seconds
Annual wheel
Magnetic compass
Longitude - coarse scale
Not shown due to patent applications
Day of week
Humidity
Date
Sidereal seconds
Power remaining
Tide forecast
Tide height
Temperature
Atmospheric pressure
Latitude - minutes
Latitude - degrees
Sidereal hours
Sidereal minutes
Longitude - minutes
Longitude - degrees
Microwave resonator status
Charge status
Atomic resonance lock indicator
Clock status - atomic / ACXO / TCXO
Caesium oven status
Laser status

More from De Bethune: DB25 Imperial Fountain

2013-05-06T02:01:13Z

Another addition to the DeBethune DB25 line (see previous) is a series of 12 watches commemorating the zodiac fountain that used to be housed in the Yuanmin Tuan (Old Summer Palace outside Beijing). While only 7 of the original 12 animal heads are still known, we know enough of the massive Clepsydra (water clock) from texts to know that it was built in the 17th century by a partnership of Chinese craftsmen and Italian Jesuit missionaries for the Qianlong Emperor. Each of the watches in the series has the same movement, DB Cal. 2145, a special deaign with hands that are on revolving disks, opening the center of the dial for the zodiac heads, hand-carved by Michèle Rothen. Below see one watch in its entirety and then closeups of several more heads.

(source)

Updated De Bethune DB25

2013-05-06T01:50:36Z

DeBethune(previously mentioned) has released another version of the DB25, this one with moonphase and tourbillon. The moon is the DB signature sphere, 1/2 palladium and 1/2 blued-steel, rotating against a starry sky. The movement is the DB 2619 caliber, 27 jewels, 36,000 bph (5hz), manually wound and a power-reserve of 4 days, and a 30-second tourbillon with silicon balance wheel, a DB specialty. Both the dial and movement are rose-gold, and the case is Platinum.

Dial Side	Movement

Now some closeups of the details, first the moonphase and top of the dial

And now one of the movement, showing the unique construction of the 30-second tourbillon

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Rose Cut Diamonds in Modern Designs

2013-05-03T03:02:27Z

Carnet jewelers was started in 1990 by Michelle Ong in Hong Kong. About 15 years ago she started using rose-cut diamonds, an antique cutting style with many fewer facets, 24, then the current modern cuts. This means that the cut only makes sense economically for stones that are very flat in the raw state.

Palm Tree Broach with white and brown diamonds	Dancing Acorn Broach

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Big Air Package - Christo's Balloon

2013-04-24T02:35:46Z

The Gasometer Oberhausen is a former natural gas storage tank, the largest of its type in Europe, which was converted into an art exhibition space in the 1990s. Using the unique nature of the space Christo (yes that Christo) has created the Big Air Package, the largest skeleton-free inflated envelope ever, at 90 meters high, 50 meters in diameter containing 170,000 cubic-meters of air (or there abouts). The envelops is 20,350 square meters of polyester fabric and 4,500 meters of rope, weighing a total of 5.3 tons. Two large fans keep the internal pressure at 27 pascals, which is enough to support the fabric.

It was, according to the press release, conceived by Christo in 2010 and will be on display from March through December 2013. He goes on to say, "when experienced from the inside, that space is almost like a 90-meter-high cathedral,"

Envelope during assembly	From ground-level, looking up

Envelope during assembly	Side with Gasometer structure

The man himself	Top of the Package, from outside

(source)

Swatch D'Schwizer

2013-04-19T19:30:43Z

Proof that some multi-billion dollar congolmerates still have a sense of humor, the following is the cover of the SWATCH Group's(previously mentioned) 2012 annual report, complete with parody arms for each Canton

Here's a higher-resolution image of just the coats of arms:

If you live in the Confederation, you can buy a special limited-edition SWATCH, the D'Schwizer, for about 100 CHF with all the arms on it. If you don't, you may not be Swiss enough to get the jokes, so here's some help from wikipedia.
(source and source)
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Uselessness and Watches

2013-04-19T00:28:48Z

As it's the Basel/SIHH time of year, all sorts of watch brands are coming out of nowhere to promote their vision of timekeeping. From the heretofore unknown brand Breva comes the Genie 01, "the world's first wristwatch with time, altimeter, barometer for forecasting the weather and power reserve indications provided by a fully mechanical movement." Basically it's got a small mechanical barometer jammed into a manually-wound movement, with a mechanism for compensating for altitude. Like so many oddities of this decade, it was realized by Jean François Mojon of Chronode.

Specs

Case
- 18kt Gold, white or rose
- 44.7mm x 15.6 mm
- 30m Water Resistance
Movement
- 46 jewels
- 65h power reserve

Dial-side of the watch	Closeup of the timekeeping dial

Closeup of the Barometer Dial	Closeup of the altitude compensation scale

(source)
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IKEA + Carl Kleiner

2013-04-08T01:59:16Z

Apparently several years ago Ikea put out a cookbook, or something like it. It's photography of the ingredients, carefully architected, for example the parts of a princess-cake

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