The car is a prototype by Pininfarina for Lancia from 1957 called the “Florida II” and it was the personal car of Mr. Pinin Farina for many years. This was one of the most influentially stylistic cars of its era. But why on earth do the windscreen and steering wheel appear to be at opposite ends of the cabin? What might this car really have been designed for?
On the wrist is a diamond-set Urwerk UR-106, but what’s going on with the Vulcan finger meld? Might it be Urwerk’s latest winding system with power transferred through finger tips? What do you think is happening in this photo? Leave your fun, funny, or sarcastic caption in the comments!
You may have heard of a few or more of the following historical people and events: Thomas Mudge, George Graham, John Harrison, the Longitude Prize, Captain James Cook, and the mutiny on the ‘HMS Bounty.’ However, you are less likely to have heard the name of a horologist who played a pivotal role in all of the above: Larcum Kendall (1719–1790). Come with me on a worldwide adventure involving timekeeping and history.
So now that the dust has settled on the recent Phillips Start-Stop-Reset auction of stainless steel chronographs in Geneva, a sale that saw 100 percent of its 88 lots sold, I’d like to focus on a watch that I thought stood out from the very strong field.
When we published ‘Inspired Interstellar Exploration: Miki Eleta BY 21Dez12ME Starship Clock’ a couple of weeks ago, quite a few readers requested video to better appreciate how Miki Eleta’s horological sci-fi fantasy worked. We heard you! So here by popular demand is a video of BY 21Dez12ME having just landed with a bang on earth.
The body of this brightly colored (sign of venom?) arachnodactyly robot is actually an optically superlative loupe by Loupe Systems that I spotted at Baselworld 2016. The question this week, though, is: what is it doing . . . and what’s the lead for?
This is a family affair: a story of my wife Brigitte, her horse Gucci, my father Neil, and an engraved Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Classique. And this is a good example of how and why you might want to commission a work of art on the back of a Reverso. Or not.
These two duelists are both called Sherman and they are actually extremely high-quality 8-day clocks by MB&F and l’Epée 1839, Switzerland’s only specialised high-end clock manufacture.
But what I’d like to know this week is: what on earth are they fighting over?
Are they even fighting each other at all?
The Bovet Ottantasei Tourbillon is the brand’s sixth timepiece designed by Pininfarina, and the years of experience that the two brands now have working together shows. It truly is a sensational watch, but I will go into that in more detail at a later date because I’d like to focus here on Pininfarina, a name evoking mystical status among anyone interested in world-class design and sensational cars.
Independent Finnish watchmaker Stepan Sarpaneva has horologically personified the moon. Sarpaneva’s moonface is a stylized version of his own face. The colorfully bejeweled Moonshine highlights the dial like few, if any, watches I’ve ever seen. But the obvious question I’m asking here, is: what is this face thinking or what does he/she/it want to say?