Aurora borealis in Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Time-Lapse Of Aurora Borealis In Jackson Hole, Wyoming

While on holiday in Jackson Hole, Wyoming I thought that I would take advantage of the moonless, clear sky and try my hand at shooting a time-lapse series of photos of the stars rotating. I set up my Canon 5D Mk III on a tripod pointing roughly north with the following settings: Lens: 35 -70 mm set to 35 mm; F: 4.0; ISO: 1600 and shutter: 30 seconds. This is the big surprise that I got!

The ‘Watch’ painting by American artist Gerald Murphy

‘Watch’ Painting By American Artist Gerald Murphy On Display In Dallas Museum Of Art

A visit to Dallas, Texas gifted me with a surprise: I came across a very large painting simply entitled ‘Watch’ at the Dallas Museum of Art. Further inquiry into its painter, Gerald Murphy, revealed a fun historical anecdote and a bit of a mystery. Why did Murphy paint a giant Cubist impression of two watches in 1925, and which watches were they?

Men's watches pre-selected for the 2015 GPHG shown clockwise from top left: Bulgari Octo Finissimo Small Seconds, Laurent Ferrier Galet Square, Louis Vuitton Escale Time Zone, Voutilainen GMR, MB&F HMX, and Piaget Altiplano 900P

Quill & Pad’s Predictions For The Men’s Category Of The 2015 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève

Welcome to the 2015 edition of Quill & Pad’s early Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) predictions in which we pick our favorites and explain why. The six pre-selected finalists in the Men’s category are: MB&F’s anniversary HMX, the Laurent Ferrier Galet Square, Kari Voutilainen’s beautifully finished Voutilainen GMR, the Louis Vuitton Escale Time Zone, and Piaget’s Altiplano 900P, currently the thinnest mechanical watch in the world.

Grieb & Benzinger Blue Tulip in red gold

New Blue Chips In Grieb & Benzinger’s Blue-Tone Polaris And Tulip Collections

At Grieb & Benzinger, blue is something of a corporate color when it comes to decorating the unique and exceedingly rare watches that the boutique brand based in a historic castle near Stuttgart produces. Hermann Grieb once told me how he and Jochen Benzinger came upon the idea for it. “The idea for this color came to us after an exhausting day of work in a local vineyard while enjoying a cool drink,” Grieb explained in his mischievous deadpan heavily inflected with local dialect. “The setting sun and the colors it created in the northern Black Forest sky simply inspired us.” The new Blue Chip collection prominently features this luxurious blue color.

Ladies watches pre-selected for the 2015 GPHG. Clockwise from top left: Hermès Arceau Petite Lune with diamonds, DeLaneau Rondo 42 Peony, Hublot Big Bang Broderie, Audemars Piguet Millenary, Ulysse Nardin Jade, and Piaget Limelight Gala

Quill & Pad’s Predictions For The Ladies Category Of The 2015 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève

Welcome to the 2015 edition of Quill & Pad’s early Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) predictions in which we pick our favorites and explain why. The six pre-selected finalists in the Ladies category are: Delaneau’s Rondo 42 Peony, the in-house Ulysse Nardin Jade, Hublot’s Big Bang Broderie, the Piaget Limelight Gala, the all-new Audemars Piguet Millenary, and the wonderfully crafted and priced Hermès Arceau Petite Lune with diamonds.

Roger Dubuis Hommage Minute Repeater Tourbillon Automatic

Homage To Hommage: The Roger Dubuis Hommage Minute Repeater

The Roger Dubuis Hommage collection has produced exceptional pieces, but one has stood out to me as a masterpiece worthy of a deeper look because of its sheer awesomazingness. That piece is the Hommage Minute Repeater Tourbillon Automatic. Because with the Hommage Minute Repeater you can see virtually everything!

Döttling Morosini safe

Southern Germany’s Best-Kept Secret: Döttling’s Morosini Safe Once Owned By Victor Emmanuel II

Döttling is a safe manufacturer. But these are not your run-of-the-mill safes, as the workshop specialized in the bespoke was founded in 1919 as a small locksmith shop by Markus Döttling’s great-grandfather, Ernst Döttling.

The products in Döttling’s Legend line start life as vintage safes discovered by the Döttling team. Beautiful refurbishing of the piece in old-world manner allows every aspect of it to be fitted out for its future owner.

The latest Legend is a safe with a fascinating history starting in nineteenth-century Italy with Victor Emmanuel II and his great love, Rosa Vercellana . . .

Part of Balcony House in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

How The Native American Ancestral Puebloans Kept Track Of Time

If you’ve been lucky enough to travel to the “four corners” area of the southwestern United States (where U.S. states Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico “meet”), then you may have seen or even visited some of the cliff dwellings built by ancient native Americans that were erroneously called Anasazi for thousands of years and now go by the term Ancestral Puebloans. Read on to find out what we know about how this ancient tribe of people kept time and why they needed to do so.

Roman Gauthier Logical One Secret Kakau Höfke

Christ The Redeemer On A Watch: Logical One Secret Kakau Höfke By Romain Gauthier

There is not much art that that packs as much into such an aesthetically pleasing parcel as Romain Gauthier’s Logical One Secret Kakau Höfke. This watch uses one of the world’s finest timepieces as a “canvas” for the artwork of two renowned artists: Kakau Höfke and Olivier Vaucher. These two work in very different fields and even on different continents: Höfke is a painter located in Rio de Janeiro and Vaucher is a stone artist at work in Switzerland. What all three have created is nothing short of a masterpiece.

Fountain pen from the Montblanc M collection

The Montblanc M With Marc Newson Heralds a New Generation Of Pens

There’s no doubt that the M is a Montblanc pen, due in part to its glossy black body and crowning snowcap. But the similarity ends where the transcendence begins, thanks to Australian designer Marc Newson’s signature biomorphic style. For the first time in Montblanc’s history, a fountain pen’s gold nib is plated in two tones using rhodium and ruthenium. But that’s not all.