Recently in Watches Category

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.

A

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)

A

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 Dutch design firm of <a href="http://www.bloomming.com/">Bloomming</a> 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)

A

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




A

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

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

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)

A

(Or "Not every hit can be a home run")
From the unorthodox yet fertile minds of Jorg Hysek, Fabrice Gonet* and Valerie Ursenbacher comes another watch under the brand HD3, the Black Pearl.  Clearly trying to capture all the momentum still left seven years after the release of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, this massive watch is as pirated-up as possible without including an eyepatch or a parrot.  It has a skull-and-crossbones on one side, a death's head in the compass on the back and a crown said to resemble a ships wheel. 

The movement, which appears to have been realized by BNB, has a double-axis Tourbillon and an 80-hour power reserve.  Telling the time is a bit of a challenge, with the hours represented on the left (conventional 9 o'clock) digitally and the minutes at the top with what seems reminiscent of a ships telegraph from the 19th century.  There is also a power-reserve display at about 10:30 in the vague form of a sextant.  The movement is identical to that in the Vulkania released in 2008.

*Fabrice previously designed a piece for the HD3 brand that had a quartz watch under a tourbillon as a way to get a big date and second timezone without any of that pesky watchmaking.

The following pictures are from the HD3 website.

First, the promotional picture in what has become almost a required pose, front and back digitally composited together.

From the recent holiday, in chronological order