Kim Djapri, a watchmaker with Lang & Heyne and boutique manager at Tempus Arte in Dresden, exhibited at the A.H.C.I.’s Baselworld 2016 booth a micro-brand and a timepiece all his own. His new brand Bélier is the banner under which his new watch, christened Reverse, has been built. This watch is perfect allegory for reflection in a timepiece.
André Kusni is only 17 years old, yet the teenager already owns several horological masterpieces and plans on collecting many more. Kusni first came in contact with fine watches when his grandmother gifted him a Rolex Submariner Deepsea Sea-Dweller. Since then, the fortunate teenager lives his passion, now mostly attracted to rather rare watches made by independent boutique brands.
Watches from the upcoming Phillips Start-Stop-Reset auction of 88 stainless steel chronographs made a stop in the auction house’s London Mayfair location for several days, which gave me the opportunity to view them in the metal and even try some on. The auction, due to take place at La Reserve in Geneva on May 14, 2016, is sure to be a spectacular event not only for the picturesque location, but for the amazing timepieces for sale.
Hermès has set the bar extremely high with the exquisite artistry in the enamel work of Arceau Tigre Email Ombrant, whose name refers to a new enamel-and-engraving approach inspired by an old lithographic technique used in the Limoges region of France.
I am always excited when I see a new example of whimsy in the world. And Van Cleef & Arpels is always a good source of whimsy; the brand’s latest Poetic Complications creation, the Lady Arpels Ronde des Papillons, exemplifies this. It takes a very serious and complicated new movement and uses it for a fanciful display of beauty and cheer that includes exquisitely hand-painted butterflies and a swallow as hour and minute indicators.
Two of Elvis Presley’s watches are being offered in the upcoming auction “Music Icons 2016,” held by Julien’s and taking place on May 21, 2016 at the Hard Rock Café in New York City. Both the Mathey-Tissot day-date and Waltham pocket watch are in good shape and offer interesting backstories.
Transparency fascinates, especially when it’s used in design. And what better way is there to reveal the inner workings of something than to remove the covers and reveal its very soul? At Baselworld 2016, we found five examples of the ultimate in transparency by brands as diverse as 4N, Rebellion, Hublot, MB&F, and Bell & Ross.
When most people think of Seiko, they think of the mass-produced quartz watches that dominated the world’s markets in the 1980s and thereafter. What most people don’t realize is that Seiko, one of only a handful of companies able to manufacture a watch from A to Z, makes the full range all the way up to full-on mechanical handmade horological delicacies with fine finishing and artful embellishment. And they don’t come more full-on than the Seiko Credor Fugaku Tourbillon.
To mark the 20th anniversary of the L.U.C. collection, Chopard has developed its first entirely in-house perpetual calendar chronograph movement. And this is where a very interesting design choice comes into focus: offset overlapping dials that created a very interesting effect for me.
Skulls are much more than a depiction of the bones that hold the human face in shape and our brains in place. Used in many types of art, they are deeply symbolic, often representing themes of mortality. Take a quick symbolic journey with us back to Baselworld 2016 and discover skull-infused functional objects by Speake-Marin, Hublot, HYT, Hautlence, and Edelberg.