Armin Strom has announced that it is the official watch partner of the transcontinental, pop-culture Gumball 3000 rally and has created three watches for its new Gumball 3000 collection: the Manual Gumball 3000, the Double Barrel Gumball 3000, and the Tourbillon Gumball 3000.
Following the Swatch Group’s takeover of Harry Winston, a continuation of the Opus series with an Opus 14 seemed in doubt to me, though at Baselworld 2015 Dr. Nayla Hayek, chair of the Swatch Group’s board of directors and CEO of Harry Winston, quietly let it be known that a Harry Winston Opus 14 is forthcoming. What better reason to take a look back at the history-making timepieces of the Opus series.
When I entered the office of Laurent Dordet, the new CEO of La Montre Hermès, I was singularly impressed by the down-to-earth attitude of a man who has worked within Hermès structure for two decades – his most recent position had been in leather, Hermès’ stock-in-trade. Dordet seems genuinely happy to be active in this new field, which he had taken over just weeks before Baselworld 2015 started. My impression was that he was also perhaps a tad surprised by what he’s found there.
On May 1, 2015, Hartmut Kraft took over as the brand-new president and CEO of Kering North America, a position that includes leading three very well established brands, Ulysse Nardin, JeanRichard, and Girard-Perregaux in the North American markets. With his unbroken enthusiasm for watches, he is not “just” another executive in the watch industry, but rather a true watch enthusiast with genuine respectful admiration for horology. Read on to hear what he has discovered in his first days at Kering.
Geneva was abuzz with activity just days before the first round of 2015 auctions took place in May. Once in a great while, interesting timepieces pop up at auction that would probably receive a lot more attention if the auction world wasn’t currently quite so fixated on Patek Philippe and Rolex. One such beauty is this historic minute repeater wristwatch by Audemars Piguet.
With the advent of the R60 Diablo mechanical belt buckle, Roland Iten now assures the world that you no longer have to be a princess to wear an incredible jewel in an everyday setting. Or even a prince. The highlight of the red gold and titanium chassis of the R60 Diablo mechanical belt buckle is a fairly well camouflaged fancy cognac diamond weighing in at 60.66 carats.
If you know Peter Speake-Marin, then you know why he is so popular with collectors: as a creator, he goes the extra mile to conceive something absolutely stunning and unique. He has also made one of the most breathtaking timepieces I had the pleasure to see at Baselworld 2015: the spectacular Kennin-ji Temple Masters Project, which was realized with the help of two engravers and a leather maker.
If you are a regular user of social media in the watch world, then you are likely to have crossed paths with some of Simon Cudd’s work over the last few years. I certainly have, and his artistic images never fail to capture my attention. Simon is a visually creative guy who, by his own admission, usually chooses to express his passion for things horological through images rather than the written word. We welcome him to Quill & Pad as our newest contributor.
Auction house Sotheby’s will stage an auction in New York on June 11, 2015 featuring items from a private collection of musical automata within its sale of important watches. The auction pieces, mainly made for export to royalty throughout Europe, Turkey, India, and China, are headed up by a singing bird scent flask made by Pierre Jaquet-Droz in 1785.
Richard Mille introduced the RM 60-01 Regatta Flyback Chronograph during an annual event held on the beautiful Caribbean island of St. Barth: the exciting young regatta called Voiles de St. Barth. The 60-01 was conceived and designed for open-sea racing with a unique titanium rotating bezel containing an integral compass and a special crown/pusher locking system.