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RM018 'Hommage a Boucheron' in the flesh

2010-03-10T02:22:15Z

There were some good computer renderings when it was announced, but now the Richard Mille "Hommage à Boucheron" pieces finally exist in the real world. Over on thePurists, there are four pages, with pictures galore, and a fascinating explaination of how the wheels, made of semi-precious stones with brass gear-teeth, are created, with a 90% failure rate. I borrowed these two pictures of the catseye model from there. The stone cut for the wheels is so thin that it becomes translucent. Both the front and back plates are sapphire, with the red ruby jewels, upon which the pinions pivot, set into the clear sapphire.

Van Cleef & Arpels: Le Pont des Amoureux

2010-03-01T03:15:21Z

This time with pictures!
First the watch

Now a closeup of the dial. You can see the little gold woman, indicating the hours, and man, indicating the minutes. The slowly approach on the bridge, meeting at noon and midnight

Finally a shot of the enamel being painted onto the reverse of the dial, before being fired.

(All pictures via)

Watches by Jewelers

2010-02-26T03:23:16Z

In the Boutique district of NYC (Madison Ave between 55-70, not to be confused with the Diamond district on 47th st) I came across two different high-end jewelers selling watches. First is Buccelatti, whose somewhat classical designs in jewelry I've referenced before, with a heavily bejeweled piece. I find it unattractive, but somewhat in keeping with their designs

(from)

The second jeweler was Graff, owned by a man who clearly has too much money. They have a line whose case design and dialwork are clearly intended to suggest a brilliant-cut diamond. The first piece, called the Graffstar, is a simple three-hand watch with a sub-second dial who reinforces that with the design on the dial

(from)

(from)
In case the size isn't clear, the Tourbillon named "Mastergraff" has a DLC (Diamond-like Carbon) coated case an a diameter of 47mm.

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Delay of Time

2010-02-23T00:58:32Z

From the Dutch design firm of Bloomming comes this electric clock. The worm-gear as a step down is not all that unusual, it is pretty common in synchronous electric clocks, but the wheels as display make for an interesting look.

And finally a close-up of the minute wheel and a worm-gear

All of the pictures from the Bloomming website
(seen on WeirdClocks)

Eisenbrauns - 2010 Valentine's Day Contest

2010-02-17T04:49:24Z

Eisenbrauns runs an annual Valentine's Day contest, write a love poem in any ancient middle-eastern language (Greek too!). This year the third-place winner was remarkably amusing:

The Song of the Four Locusts
She loves you
Let us sing it twice,
Even three times,
She loves you.

And so on....

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Van Cleef & Arpels from SIHH 2010

2010-02-16T03:27:18Z

From this years Salon International de Haute Horology (SIHH) come two of the complications of VC and A. Both the Butterfly and the Lovers are based on a small JLC caliber, adapted by the wizards of Agenhor. Over at The Purists there are photos of a tour of Agenhor, including both ov these pieces under construction.

Ian Skellern provided a fantastic video (posted to Horomundi) demonstrating the complications.

For an even higher resolution video

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EDITED: I can't figure out how to embed the video without it auto-playing, so you'll have to click over to Horomundi or the hi-res link to see it

Forgotten Assyrian God Revived To Name Sports Drink

2010-02-14T23:52:06Z

From The Onion:

Representatives from the sports drink manufacturer Powerade announced Wednesday that Nisroch, the ancient Assyrian god of agriculture, has been resurrected from the depths of Assyro-Babylonian mythology to serve as the key marketing figure for their newest product, Nisroch: Eagle Heart X-TREME WHIRLWIND!.....

more

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Akkadian Parser Progress

2010-02-07T23:59:02Z

It's been a while since I worked on my Prolog-based parser for Akkadian verbs, but I noticed a bug and realized I wanted to get back to it. As part of that, I've added a change log, to track bugs and improvements

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Cirque de Soleil and Boucheron, reprise

2010-02-07T18:55:37Z

Consider this a follow-up to the previous post on the current Boucheron necklace collection celebrating twenty years of Cirque de SoleiI. I was able to track down some more promotional pictures of the necklaces, this time with names even!


Believe	Kooza	Love

Nouba	Ovo	Saltimbanco

(All pictures from Paris Joaillerie, and can be clicked for larger versions)
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Cirque de Soleil and Boucheron

2010-02-05T03:08:01Z

Guy Laliberté, majority owner of Cirque de Soleil, teamed up with Boucheron, of whom he is a frequent customer to put together a collection of 20 pieces inspired by various Cirque productions. Each of the pieces in the collection, dubbed Inspiria, will be duplicated with one complete set to be sold, proceeds to benefit One Drop, a charity founded by M. Laliberté to provide clean drinking water. The other set will remain in the posession of the Cirque foundation, but available to the viewing public at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts until August 29, 2010.

(Pictures via)

(Photo via)

(Photos via)

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Priori Acute

2010-02-05T01:32:57Z

I've seen many fonts try to play the "optical illusion" card, but seldom as well as Priori Acute by Jonathan Barnbrook and distributed by Emigre.

To add to the fun, some letters have alternate forms, as seen in the R

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Antikythera as a Wristwatch

2010-02-04T23:35:40Z

Because the modern manual-wound wristwatch is not enough of an anachronism, Jerome Siegrist who is one of the Confrerie Horlogere*, has designed a wristwatch driven by a replica of the Antikythera mechanism

(via)
* A watchmaking group sponsored by BNB Concept to create unusual and innovative watches, previously referenced

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Cats, by Shem Compion

2010-02-04T15:24:40Z

From the lens of Shem Compion, samples from two of his galleries:

Large Cats of Africa

And part of a series on why porcupines are not afraid of leopards, Leopard and Porcupine

Cartier in America, Part 2

2010-01-31T03:49:51Z

Here is more of the jewelry from the Cartier in America exhibit previously referenced, twice.

First the "Tutti Frutti" Necklace from 1936, altered in 1963

The piece is platinum and white gold, set with marquise, baguette, and round old-cut diamonds, thirteen briolette-cut sapphires weighing 146.9 carat in total, two leaf-shaped carved sapphires, 50.8 and 42.45 carats, sapphire beads, one sapphire cabochon, square carved emeralds, fluted and smooth emerald beads, and emerald cabochons. It is 43cm in length. (Photo by Nick Welsh, Copyright Cartier Collection)

It was commissioned by Daisy Fellowes, the Paris editor for Harper's Bazaar in the 1930s, and ocassionally hailed her as "the world's most elegant woman." She was the daughter of the Duke Decazes and Isabelle Singer (of the sewing machine fortune). Below is a picture of her wearing this piece

(Photo by Cecil Beaton. Courtesy of Sotheby')

Also on display are two pieces given by Prince Ranier to Grace Kelly, including her engagement ring, a 10.47 ct emerald-cut central stone flanked with 2 baguette-cut stones, set in platinum.

Also a Riviere necklace, of diamonds set in platinum from 1953

Here the Princess is shown in a formal portrait in 1959 wearing both pieces

(The three preceeding pictures are from the Palais Princier de Monaco)

Also a still from her last film appearence, High Society, shows the then engaged Kelly wearing the ring (Photo by Dennis Stock/Magnum Photos, via)

Finally a large shoulder broach, made for Marjorie Merriweather Post in 1923. It is platinum, set with diamonds and seven large Indian emeralds, including one dating back to the Mughal Empire

(Picture via)
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Cartier Clocks in America

2010-01-29T00:18:36Z

From the previously referenced Cartier in America exhibit come these four clocks. Cartier's desk clocks were a celebrated example of the style, which was quite popular throughout the early and middle of the 20th century.

First a Portique Mystery Clock, where there is no apparent connection between the hands and the movement. This one is in Platinum, gold, rock crystal, diamonds, coral, onyx and black enamel and dates to 1923.

(Photo by Nick Welsh, Copyright Cartier Collection)

Second is a more classical guiloche enamel minute repeating desk cubic clock from 1908, in , silver, gold, agate, moonstone, diamonds, platinum, clockwork, and glass. The dial has, for hour indications, the words "Bons Souhaits", roughly meaning "Good Wishes"

(Photo by Joe McDonald, Copyright Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco)

Inspired by the discovery of King Tut's tomb in 1922, the Neo-Egyptian style was in full bloom by the time this striking clock was made in 1927, from gold, silver-gilt, lapis lazuli (base and top), mother of pearl plaques carves with hieroglyphs, carved coral rings and rods. The kneeling winged Egyptian deity at the top is set with emeralds and carnelians, and enameled.

(Photo by Nick Welsh, Copyright Cartier Collection)

Finally a more historical, if less attractive clock. It was given to FDR personally by Pierre Cartier in 1938 and has, in addition to the main dial, four sub-dials, displaying the time in London/Paris, Rome/Berlin, San Fransisco and Tokyo. Made of silver, onyx and nephrite, it has an eight-day movement signed European Watch and Clock Co, a name frequently used by Cartier when importing clocks and watches to the US.

(Photo courtesy of Sotheby's, where the clock was sold in December, 2007 for a record $1,609,000)
(All photos via)

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