George Daniels’ first Space Traveller, which is one of the most famous pieces of the late Erivan Haub’s tremendous collection, hit the auction block on July 2, 2019 as part of Sotheby’s Masterworks of Time. The definitive highlight of the first of the four auction segments, it hammered for an astounding $4,561,407/£3,615,000.
Clos de Tart and Clos des Lambrays are two very fine Burgundy wines, both from Morey-Saint-Denis in France, but Ken Gargett doubts that their reputations have ever been higher. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, they were not exciting too many wine lovers. That’s not so now. For Ken they are what good Burgundy is all about: ethereal, elegant, balanced, subtle, and full of flavor and finesse.
Seriously, who cares how many jewels their watch has? Watchmaker Ashton Tracy thinks that you’d be surprised how many people care as they’ve been duped by a vintage practice of announcing the amount of movement jewels on watch dials. What is the real story here?
Among its fragrances, Geo. F. Trumper has quite a large selection of masculine colognes, which in this age is quite remarkable. Martin Green shares his impressions of a few of them.
The ‘Superbia Humanitatis’ Louis-Elysée Piguet/Franck Muller/Paul Gerber super complication is one of the most legendary watches of our time. And what a story! And here it is in its entirety: from 1892 when Piguet made the movement through 1992 when Franck Muller altered it, all the way through the present day when Paul Gerber altered it three more times to make it the most complicated wristwatch in the world.
As far as Ken Gargett is concerned, if you want a well-priced champagne that will age immaculately, Lanson is the house for you. Cheers!
The ambitious task of Qualité Fleurier, which was the first qualitative horological certification for finished watches, is to unite several tests within one single certification. Elizabeth Doerr explains how and why that’s done.
Joshua Munchow overlooked something that was right in front him: the Parmigiani Toric Capitole. A fantastic timepiece by an interesting brand, until the latest edition with its exposed mechanics on the front of the watch, he had missed seeing this because of the modest display belying what was hidden within. Now it’s in plain view!
Contemplating the 30-meter-high ancient pyramid at Mayan archaeological site Chichén Itzá in the blazing Yucatán sunlight, Elizabeth Doerr was awestruck by the structure’s complexity. Not just because of the pure historical ramifications of the pyramid and temple known as El Castillo, but also because of its timekeeping capabilities. Yes, you read that right: timekeeping capabilities!
There is design, and then there is Porsche Design. The former is general, the latter is a distinct design language all by itself. As the name suggests, the 1919 Globetimer UTC is a world time watch – a type of watch with which Porsche Design has had significant experience, starting with the world time watch with alarm function it created in the 1990s with IWC. Martin Green thinks this latest model is the best to date.