There were new models launched in Hong Kong at the second edition of Watches & Wonders from Jaeger-LeCoultre, Richard Mille, Vacheron Constantin, A. Lange & Söhne, Montblanc, Audemars Piguet, IWC, Roger Dubuis, and Panerai.
With the FIFA World Cup still feverishly underway, I’d like to take a brief look at ten – well, eleven – of the most interesting soccer-related timepieces. Among these are the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Leo Messi and Richard Mille’s RM 11-01 Roberto Mancini. Flip through the list and see which is your favorite.
The human body is a sexy, well-designed machine, the structure of which is built for variability and ultimate maneuverability. It is a finely evolved apparatus that has helped us rise to the top of the food chain and in many cases removed us from it all together.
Thanks to the slew of popular sports watches based on Audemars Piguet’s evergreen Royal Oak that appear on the market every year, it should come as no surprise that the Audemars Piguet Millenary line often gets overlooked. While on an intellectual level, the reasoning is understandable, on an emotional level it remains a bit of a riddle.
The year 2013 was a stellar moment for the rare grand complication, as the SIHH quickly demonstrated. Not only did A. Lange & Söhne present its oeuvre, but to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the sporty, contemporary Royal Oak Offshore, Audemars Piguet also introduced one of these complex masterpieces.
This automatic timepiece includes three of the traditional complications that a watch earning the right to this title should include: minute repeater, perpetual calendar, and (split-seconds) chronograph. The latter, in fact, has most unusually been included as a rattrapante in all of the brand’s grand complications since 1882. Though throughout its long history Audemars Piguet has focused on the traditional side of horology; the advent of the evergreen Royal Oak – the first luxury sports watch – in 1972 added a distinctly sporty side to this manufacture’s classic offerings.