I had the good fortune to visit Rome on Thursday for the opening of ‘Watchmakers: The Masters of Art Horology’ at the Maxxi Gallery in Rome, and if you have a few minutes I’d like to share the evening with you and let you know where you might be able to see the exhibition in the near future.
Seiko’s story is much more complicated than most people might think. This is a manufacturer that doesn’t follow trends, but has created a few of its own, capitalizing on various types of expertise and knowledge that were the mother of necessity for a manufacturer located so far away from the established centers of watchmaking in Europe. Grand Seiko is the most appealing line to connoisseurs of fine watchmaking, and we look at it in some depth here.
The mechanical watch works just like a metronome, with its isochronic balance maintaining a steady rhythm and the delicate tick-tock of its pallet jewels providing a rhythmic beat to our oft-frantic lives. If we ramp up the power and swap the metronome for a drum kit and a few electric guitars we have rock and roll! But which watches do rock-and-roll icons wear?
In this article I compare the new Santos de Cartier Skeleton to the Santos-Dumont Squelette from 2010 as these two models are from the same family, have a lot in common, and share the same high-end caliber.
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 50 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 restore by Parmigiani.
Ah, Paris! City of Lights. For the watch collector, it’s a great place to visit with boutiques aplenty, some owned and operated by the major brands; high-end mega-stores like Bucherer; and smaller independent retailers like Chronopassion and Dubail. Gary took a quick weekend trip to Paris and while there he took the opportunity to pack in as much fun as possible. Come along and bienvenue!
Baselworld 2018 began for the Quill & Pad team on Wednesday, March 21, and from our very first meetings it looked obvious that green was back. But is it the new blue?
The follow day further confirmed that view as we saw one fantastic green-themed watch after another. On remarking on the apparent predominance of green this year over the perennial blue to one brand representative, their reply was, “Green is the new blue.” But two days do not a Baselworld make and blue came back in force.
Watch collecting should be fun! Yes, it’s important to show the proper respect for the designers and makers of the watches we all love, but at the same time I think it’s completely appropriate to go beyond somber and traditional daily watches and give a bit of free rein to one’s desire for more flamboyant timepieces.
As I arrive home exhausted from the extravaganza that was Baselworld 2018, but still running on enough residual adrenaline to get words out, I jot down a few of my thoughts from the fair while they are still fresh.
While I know my own ethics, most of you don’t, and such is my appreciation for the Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Moon Black Enamel that I am slightly concerned that some of you might feel I’ve taken a bribe. So to you I promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.