Ferdinand Adolph Lange had already been selling watches in Saxony’s capital city Dresden since 1844. Follow us on a historical journey through nineteenth-century Dresden to lightly trace the footsteps of the Glashütte watch industry’s founding father, which continues in the modern day with A. Lange & Söhne’s new boutique on New York City’s Madison Avenue.
On this sunny day in the La Chaux-de-Fonds factory, which is half charming eighteenth-century farmhouse and half state-of-the-art technical facility, I was entirely surprised by having learned something new about one of Greubel Forsey’s production elements: screws. The subject came up in passing at lunch, sparking great passion in Forsey despite what might seem to be a miniscule topic to the uninitiated.
The peacock’s iridescent colors are not actually pigment colors at all, but are reflections off the structure of the feathers, which have patterned nano-fiber components. Slight changes in the spacing of the nano-fibers produce different colors much in the same way as iridescent colors reflect off a film off brown/black oil or a butterfly’s wing. But they are none less beautiful for that.
Just about every top tennis player can boast a significant watch sponsorship. Just about everyone that is, except for the one who knows the most about timepieces: world number six Tomas Berdych.
I went to the theater recently and saw a typical raunchy comedy called ‘Neighbors.’ Much to my surprise, I saw something I cannot remember ever seeing in a mass-marketed movie: a 3D scanner and 3D printer being used by the main characters in a funny circumstance. (For said circumstance, please watch the movie because it cannot be discussed here.)
Last week I visited the Leica factory and spent some time admiring an exhibition placed in the spacious foyer of this massive new factory building called “36 aus 100” (“36 from 100”). This image of the soldier wearing two watches – perhaps very, very briefly reminding me of the late Nicolas G. Hayek’s penchant for wearing two timepieces – caught my attention.
Two brand-new chronographs debuting here at Baselworld illustrate extreme sides of the coin: De Bethune’s manually wound DB29 Maxi Chrono Tourbillon and Glashütte Original’s Senator Chronograph Panorama Date.
This stunning diamond-encrusted minute repeater pocket watch is thought to be over 100 years old (circa 1910). An incredible 450 brilliant-cut diamonds ,over 16 carats in total, cover the case and covers with yellow gold accents on the crown, cover hinges and ring add a contemporary touch.
Elizabeth and Ian are live on location in Le Sentier this week, where we are getting a first-hand look at the skills of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s artisans in some of the 180 different trades and crafts that this manufacture founded in 1833 unites under one (admittedly very large) roof.
Exploration, diplomacy, and research; these are the core values of Starfleet. Starfleet, to the uninitiated, is the deep-space exploratory organization around which the fictional Star Trek universe revolves. Basically the space-nerds of the future.