Recently in Watches Category

Every year for the past few years there has been an auction of watches to benefit research into Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, the Only Watch Auction.  The idea is that a bunch of companies donate watches, unique in some way, to the auction, and they're sold, with all proceeds donated.  Sometimes the watches are truly unique, sometimes they are a variant on a production model (red dials seem to be popular as red is the color of Monaco, where the auction is held) and sometimes they are simply the first of a numbered edition.
   In 2009 Piaget's contribution was a variant on their Emperador Coussin moonphase watch.  As 2009 was the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, they modified the lunar display to be a more realistic lunar surface and added an engraving of Neil Armstrong's bootprint.  The moon on this model is made of 18kt white god that has been reticulated, a process that causes the thin surface of the material to melt, flow a bit and then crumple on itself when it cooled.  There are still traces of the oxidization that is a side effect of this on the outer edges of the moon. 

Here is the full dial

Zenith is one of the multitude of Swiss watchmakers that was founded in the last quarter of the 19th Century (Omega and Tissot date from the same period), and made some excellent chronometres in the early 20th Century.  It fell on hard times (called Thierry Nataf) in the early part of this century but under new leadership seems to be heading back to its roots. 

Here's a PW from their first golden period.  The case is somewhat unusual in being a single piece, the bezel unscrews and the movement comes out the front. 

The dial is a nice painted enamel with unusual Germanic numerals.  The hands have sadly corroded, and left some residue on the sub-second dial

(source)
The movement is a rather middle-grade 15J piece, but at least it has Zenith's unusual patent regulator.

(source)

Jean Dunand is a tiny watch brand, perhaps <500 pieces per year, that is tightly coupled to the movement maker Christophe Claret.   They don't make usual watches, or simple, time-only pieces, only strange complications.  Their new Palace model is a perfect example of that, a tourbillon chronograph with some unusual linear indications, one as the power-reserve and the other a 24-hour scale for a second time zone. 

Despite what one may think of the aesthetics of the watch, Claret is technically exceptional.  The second pictures shows the bicycle-like chain(perhaps 1mm thick) that drives the minute counter, the unusually cut and painted sapphire chapter ring and the tranverse shafts (they run from the top to the bottom, 90 degrees from the usual front to back orientation) that drive the 24 hour and power-reserve indicators


They keep referring to the design as Steam-Punk, but I'm not really seeing it.  This in mind the Palace of the name is the Crystal Palace, built in London in 1851, and the side of the case does have an "iron truss" feel to it.


(pictures from Timezone)

I think the following video gives a better impression of the unusual mechanics of the piece.  I can't quite figure out why the first picture in their press pack has a huge glare across the crystal, but....

• As a followup to a previous post, here's more marketing spin on the Celsius X VI II Tourbillon phone
• A fantastic story of criminal failure, or why the inept don't realize it.
• Maison Margiela -- Not terribly interesting jewelry, but amusing web design, mimicking the auto-generated index of files that one sees if there is no index file present
• La Morra -- An Early-Music ensemble out of Basel has several of their works, including a lovely Danse de Cleves, online

A

An amusing image constructed to go with the tagline "Passion for Details" for IWC

(source)

A

Ludovic Ballouard was, for seven years, one of the top watchmakers at F. P. Journe. He then decided to go out on his own and his first model under his own name, the Upside-Down, has started to trickle out into the world. His original concept was this

(source)
Based on a Perseux 7001 caliber, this watch has a most unusual way of telling the time

(photo from Horamundi)
The 12 Maltese-cross wheels around the rim animate the hour "disks", which rest in the upside-down position.  Only the current hour has the correct orientation, and the minutes are indicated in the usual way.  Thus the following picture was taken at 2:18 or so.
(picture from Horamundi)

A

Piaget has come out with some interesting pieces of late, focusing on combining black with white diamonds. First some pieces from their Jazz collection, starting with jewelry. The necklace in the form of a piano keyboard, with matching earrings, is done with black spinel and white diamonds, set in white gold

There are also two watches with a similar design, both with the dial hidden until it is revealed.
The Limelight watch uses the same elements and materials as the necklace.

The other piano-themed watch uses the smooth black of onyx paired with a pavee of diamonds.

To conclude the Jazz collection we have the Piaget Polo Tourbillon Relaitf (yes that is the real name). The tourbillon relatif is a movement unique to Piaget, with the rotating cage mounted at the end of the minute hand and the hours indicated by a small disk under that massive minute hand. For the Jazz model they have emphasized the distribution of music on the dial, with music notes and a stylized record.

and the performance of music with the cloisonne enamel work on the sides of the case

(All preceeding pictures from Paris Joaillerie)

To conclude with something truly unique, a black and white diamond "Quick Response" code necklace. A trend that has not escaped Japan, the QR code is a way to mark things (items, places, business cards, etc) and link them to content on the internet. You scan the QR code with something, probably a smartphone, and a small amount of digital data can be retrieved, such as a URL. Piaget has built one in white gold, set with 1042 white diamonds and 520 black spinels. If you scan it, it'll take you to a website they have built to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Possession collection.

(source)

A

Patrizzi and Company is one of the larger watch-centric auction houses, and a pair of pieces that they've sold so far this month caught my eye. 

From their May 7th auction comes a rare, Japanese-made coach clock (a coach clock is the term for something in the basic form of a pocket-watch, but much larger, in this case 92mm in diameter).  Japanese clocks of this period have an unusual dial arrangement, with only 6 indications on the face.  This is based on a Chinese method of telling time where the day was divided into 12 parts, six equal segments covered sunrise to sunset, six more equal part, of perhaps different length, covered sunset to sunrise.  Due to the seasonal change in the length of daylight, the hour indicators need to be adjustable, and they are on this piece.  The Japanese consider the number 9 to be mystical, so the telling of time starts with nine.  The hours are indicated by the ones-place of the product of the actual hour (1,2,3...6) with 9, so:

Midnight (Rat) and midday (Horse) 1 × 9 = 09 9
2nd hour (Sheep) and 7th hour (Ox) 2 × 9 = 18 8
3rd hour (Monkey) and 8th hour (Tiger) 3 × 9 = 27 7
4th hour (Cock) and 9th hour (Hare) 4 × 9 = 36 6
5th hour (Dog) and 10th hour (Dragon) 5 × 9 = 45 5
6th hour (Boar) and 11th hour (Snake) 6 × 9 = 54 4
To confuse the issue even more, however, this watch has a "12" at the top position, as it would be in a European watch, not the expected "9"

(source)

From June 15th's auction comes a mid-17th Century cruciform pocket/pendent watch. Perhaps made for a Knight of the Grand Cross of Malta as there are Maltese Crosses at the top, where the bail joins, and the bottom of the case. This piece predates the invention of the hairspring, and relies on a Stackfreed, a sort of variable friction device, to regulate it. The case was cut and faceted from a single piece of rock-crystal. Unusually it features a 5-wheel train (there are 4 wheels between the escapement and the barrel, which is added to the count), when most watches of this period used fewer wheels due to primitive mainsprings.

Back view, the curl of steel from the right arm of the cross to the left is the Stackfreed

Side view, at the right side the horizontal wheel from the Verge escapement is visable.

(source)


A

Clearly designed before mid-2008, the Celsius X VI II LeDix (the brand is Celsius X VI II, the spaces apparently matter) is a mechanical watch movement, complete with tourbillon, hacked into an, admittedly really well made, cell phone.  Taking a page from Art Deco purse watches(like the Movado Ermeto), it is wound for about 3 hours of additional timekeeping each time you open and close the phone.  The following photos are from their product site, which has a promo video that's unsurprisingly pompous, if a bit amusing.

The case is polished Titanium with ebony inlays, or Carbon Fibre if you'd prefer. There are no plasticy bits visable, all the doors and flaps and such are covered with little metal doors. At least they're consistantly absurd. Of course you don't want to scratch it so it even comes with a holster, though answering the phone at the wrong time might get you shot

(source)


A

As part of their 150th birthday, Chopard has release a animal-themed watch collection alongside the jewelry, previously mentioned; All three of these pieces are within the "Happy Diamonds" collection, so the small round diamonds on the dial are actually mobile, free to bounce around the face of the watch. All are quartz (sigh) movement, in 18kt gold cases with white diamonds set in the bezel. The dials are painted mother-of-pearl.

First is the penguin, set with white, black and yellow diamonds. The dial has the rest of his flock as a background.

A polar bear follows, in white gold set entirely in white diamonds except for onyx eyes over a painted ice floe.

Finally a monkey, in white gold set with white diamonds, climbing on a yellow-diamond set branch passes a green leaf. In this one the branch and the monkey separate the three mobile diamonds, each cannot leave its allotted third.
(All pics from TimeZone)


A