One of the wines Ken Gargett brought to a recent wine tasting with friends was a sherry, the Equipo Navazos La Bota de Manzanilla Pasada No 80, Bota Punta. Some among you will have no doubt that such a wine demands Grand Cru status, while others will be horrified at the thought. And so it was at the dinner. But let’s just talk about sherry for a moment, shall we?
Why watches? Ask what makes a watch enthusiast tick and the idea of the “soul” of a watch might well feature in the response – the idea that something elevates the watch from a cold object of engineering to something of greater import. Here Ryan Schmidt tracks “soul” down and gets contemplative on its nature along with some very special imagery.
GaryG encountered Konstantin Chaykin’s Joker, whose “face” is literally just that: two googly eyes show the hours and minutes with their respective pupils while a lolling red tongue displays the phase of the moon. He was transfixed, moments later placing his order. Find out why here.
If you attended Watches and Wonders 2022, you may have noticed the large exhibition called Time Design right near the entrance, which was organized by the cultural arm of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie. If you missed the Time Design exhibition at the fair, you may now see it until May 8, 2022 in the FHH’s space at Pont de la Machine right in the center of Geneva. It is free and open to the public.
Ken Gargett recently attended a wonderful Perrier-Jouët Belle Époque dinner at the Queensland Art Gallery with focus on the Rosé. At the dinner, however, the superb Belle Époque Blanc de Blancs and also the current-release Belle Époque, the 2013, were opened for tasting. Here he shares his thoughts on these spectacular champagnes.
Here are three of Sabine Zwettler’s highlights premiering at the Inhorgenta 2022 watch fair in Munich, each of which comes from a German brand and each of which will do anything but break the bank.
When they hear the name Fabergé, most people immediately think of Imperial Easter eggs. The egg tradition hatched in 1885 when Tsar Alexander III commissioned his first Easter egg from Fabergé as a gift to his wife, Empress Maria Feodor. This became a yearly tradition, with Fabergé creating 49 eggs in total for the Russian court up to 1916. Here we have the story of the Yusupov Egg of 1907 and how it was restored by Parmigiani.
In 1995 Piaget, who was then part of the Vendôme group that would later become Richemont, entered the highest segment of the watch market by releasing a grande sonnerie wristwatch developed by François-Paul Journe. At the time, Journe was a freelance movement designer and hadn’t officially founded F.P. Journe yet.
Celebrating its “rebirth” at Baselworld 2015, Fabergé introduced the first egg of the new era as a unique piece: the incredible Pearl Egg, “the first egg created in the ‘imperial class’ since 1917.”
Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo will hold the Geneva Watch Auction XV in Switzerland on May 7 and 8, 2022. What’s particularly interesting about Phillips’ traditional late spring auction this year is that it is preceded by an “appetizer” on May 6, the Royal Oak 50th auction with a catalogue so rich it could arguably serve as the main course. Brendan Cunningham went to the New York City preview and shares a few of his highlights with us here.