Friday, November 19, 2010

Nano-seconds: IPod for your wrist

No one will suggest you ditch your timepiece for an iPod Nano - but the concept is interesting. The Nano has the ability to show images, play music, and of course, tell the time. The time telling function features the time with the date, but it rather basic with just one screen that can be viewed with either a black or white dial. I kept saying that Apple should have included more dials, and given people the ability to upload custom ones using the basic time program. Oh wait, Apple doesn't do open source, open platform I forgot. If they had good optional dials, people would likely pay for them.
People rushing to stick the Nano on their wrist tells me that people are looking for technologically sophisticated watches to show their face in the mainstream. Yes we can get oddly made mobile phone watches and alike, but these aren't ready for prime time - at all. Wait 5-10 years and we will have some much more legitimate wrist tech that will be more than useful.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Engine,Engine No. 1

Some watch design is just too much; some too minimalist. While my tastes generally lean to the minimal, this piece from Chopard  - featured in Robb Report - offers the perfect balance, I think.

Friday, October 29, 2010

A New Era

Coming Soon: Edge Time Pieces (bear with us on this one)

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Oris' "Black Ops" watch

No, its not specially-made for contract killers, though no doubt a few of them may fancy it. From our friends at a Blog to Read, the new ORIS celebrates one of France's helicopter regiments


Based on the good ol' Oris BC4 watch, comes this special limited edition version that was made for, and tested by the French 4th Special Forces Helicopter Regiment (4ème Régiment d’Hélicoptères des Forces Spéciales). These are one of the main helicopter regiment guys in France. Would it be a good idea for anyone to make more watches to celebrate US regiments and divisions? While I am sure these guys in France are as hardcore as they come... on the world scene the French military doesn't exactly have a bad-ass "we are gonna win and beat the crap out of you" reputation. That pretty much ended with Napoleon. And these days most people just remember him as a funny little man as opposed to a brilliant military leader-  but I digress.
According to Oris, the 4e RHFS watch (that totally could have been named better) was actually tested by the 4th regiment - which is pretty neat. Like I said, the watch is based on the Oris BC4 collection, but has some fun differences. First is the 42.7mm wide steel case (water resistant to 100 meters) with PVD gunmetal gray coating. It has an aviation style black leather strap with white stitching and a very easy to read dial.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

London Time

Now in it's second year the SalonQP http://www.salonqp.com/Home.aspx returns as England's new premiere high-end watch event. The Salon is curated and put on by QP magazine, and will be held this year from November 11-13th a One Marylebone in London. I might just be at this year's event myself. I hear good things about the show, and know that a number of good brands will be there. Plus, because the event is in England, it will also showcase local UK watch brands.

Some of the many hot brands that will be there: A. Lange & Sohne, Backes & Strauss, Bell & Ross, Bremont, Cabestan, Cartier, Ellicott, Grand Seiko, Linde Werdelin, Montblanc, Perrelet, Ralph Lauren, Roger Smith, Zenith, and a lot more. Note that in the list are several England based brands

Sunday, October 3, 2010

My New favourite

haven't posted in a while, but clicking on the Hour Time podcast from "watch king" Ariel Adams led me to this




http://uhr-kraft.com/images/uhrkraft-news/uhr-kraft-news_2006en.pdf

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Northwest Time: Independent watchmaking in the US

Link below to a very interesting watchmaker, based in the US Pacific Northwest state of Oregon
http://www.kpmwatchcompany.com/_/The_American_Edge.html

Thanks to Ariel Adams and his watch info source ABlogtoRead.com

Thursday, August 5, 2010

A Blog To Read Indeed

Ariel Adams may be the best reviewer of watches around. On his "A Blog To Read" site, you can spend almost half a lifetime discovering new watch brands and getting his unbiased perspective on watches and watchmaking. Here's a sample:

http://ablogtoread.com/pierre-deroche/pierre-deroche-splitrock-watch-review/

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Speed gives way to Precision


Couldn't resist one more Bolt @ Hublot shot. Before this, I doubt there's 1 in every 5000 Jamaicans who have heard of the Hublot brand. That's the distance which excellence will take you.

Nicolas G. Hayek (1928-2010)

Just saw this about the death of the Swatch group founder:

Nicolas G. Hayek, Chairman and Delegate of the Board of Directors of The Swatch Group Ltd. unexpectedly passed away today due to heart failure during work at his beloved Swatch Group.

Hayek's greatest merit was his enormous contribution to the saving of the Swiss watch industry and the foundation and the commercial development of the Swatch Group. Hayek's extraordinary vision enabled him to realize and ensure the sustainability of a strong watchmaking enterprise with high Swiss added value. He is rightly recognized as a leading entrepreneur in this country.

With the right personnel decisions, Hayek also ensured that his ideas and beliefs will live on and that continuity is guaranteed in regard of shareholders, Board of Directors and the Group Management Board.

The whole team of The Watch Avenue pays tribute to this great entrepreneur, a pioneer as well as a visionary, and expresses its sorrow at the loss of this exceptional man. It wishes to offer its sincere condolences to his family, his relatives and all his collaborators who over the years have brought him the joy to “amuse himself at work”.

-The Watch Daily

We're a bit late, but......Its still Bolt



The fastest man in the world, Usain Bolt, has signed a deal with Hublot, a Swiss enterprise that creates luxury watches.


“I am delighted to be an ambassador for Hublot and join some great ambassadors such as Manchester United, Diego Maradona and Ayrton Senna,” Bolt said. “I look forward to us working together in the future and I hope my running times continue to get faster with Hublot.”


In addition to being sponsored by Hublot, Bolt also has endorsements with Jamaican telecoms firm Digicel, sportswear brand Puma and PepsiCo’s sports energy drink brand Gatorade.


Jean-Claude Biver, chief executive of Hublot, said: “It is hugely symbolic for a watchmaker to see his watch worn by the fastest man in the world! The concept of time is sacred, for him and for us. We measure time, Usain always seems to outrun it!”

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Racing away - Bovet sign up with Pininfarina


Ariel Adams of a blogtoread.com (highly recommended) brought this to my attention, and I'm showing it here. Luxury coach designer Pinifarina (the aesthetic standard behind Ferrari) has teamed up with luxury watch maker Bovet

Back - For the first time

hacking problems took away our access to luxegoods, but fear not, the watch& pen enthusiast is back. Stay wound and keep looking out