Fans attending Wimbledon are ardent about the most important tennis tournament on earth. But aside from wearing a boring old tennis shirt – Wimbledon only allows white tennis clothes on court – how can you display your passionate spirit for others to see and engage with? A Wimbledon-themed NATO strap on a Rolex might be just perfect.
International timing competitions used to be the Formula 1 of watchmaking, and the watchmakers who prepared the high-precision (pocket) watches were treated like Formula 1 drivers. And that shouldn’t be surprising because until recently, the primary raison d’être of a timepiece was to tell the time. To tell THE time, not the approximate time. An error of 30 seconds day isn’t much . . . until you miss your train by 10 seconds.
By now it’s hardly a secret that the biggest brand anniversary celebration in 2015 belongs to Vacheron Constantin. Harmony is the name of one of the most important collections that the 260-year-old brand has launched in recent years, and the reasons for this are clear: five of the these seven Harmony models are in-house chronographs, and all seven boast immaculate design inspired by one of the brand’s first wristwatches from 1928 in a cushion-shaped case.
One of the most important boutique openings took place in the heart of Mayfair with a launch party on June 24, 2015. William Asprey – a seventh-generation Asprey – opened the doors on a spacious new three-storey boutique. William & Son is a retailer with a distinctive Britishness about it, stocking bespoke luxury home wares, glasswares, writing instruments, and timepieces from brands and boutique makers such as Romain Gauthier, Breguet, De Bethune, Graham, H. Moser & Cie, Laurent Ferrier, F.P. Journe, Breva, and Ludovic Ballouard.
It had been a long time since I’d been to a rock concert, let alone experience “the greatest rock band of all time.” So when Zenith offered me two tickets to the Dallas leg of the Rolling Stones’ multi-city North American Zip Code Tour at AT&T Stadium (home of the Dallas Cowboys), I jumped at the chance. I sprung them on my husband, who was equally excited about taking an overnight trip from our home in Houston.
Since its reboot four years ago, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève – watchmaking’s highest profile event, often described as the “Oscars of watchmaking” – has attracted a few celebrity watch collectors to the jury in addition to some of the most knowledgeable experts in the world of watches.
Kiss drummer Eric Singer, an avid watch collector for decades, is the latest. During a recent interview session, he struck me not only as a serious collector, but also as an honest-to-goodness “watch guy.” I am very pleased he has joined the jury of this excellent event.
The Tourbillon Cylindrique Geosphères Vasco da Gama is an insanely awesome watch style-wise, and the movement mechanics prove to be equally interesting to the WIS in all of us. It features two sapphire crystal half spheres painted to look like the northern and southern hemispheres side by side. Twenty-four lines of latitude and longitude indicating time zones are debossed on these tiny half globes. And that’s not all!
I thought that the Mille Miglia was absolutely crazy and was amazed that an event like that could be held at all. Only in Italy . . . or so I thought until recently when I learnt more about the insane Carrera Panamericana.
I have been involved in the watch world for 26 years; my first visit to Baselworld was in 1991. The massive fair halls have undergone two major reconstructive changes during this long period, in addition to several smaller updates. The last major reconstruction was finished in 2013. In no way, though, was I prepared for how the complex looks and feels when Art Basel is on compared to how I know it during the hustle and bustle of Baselworld.
The most significant difference between the tourbillon and the karussel is that Bonniksen’s device is driven by the third wheel (the transmission wheel between the wheels driving the minutes and seconds) instead of the fourth wheel (which also drives the second hand) like Breguet’s revolving whirlwind. This fact makes the karussel much sturdier and less prone to shock than the traditional tourbillon. But that’s not all: what about a watch that combines both? Extraordinary!