Tuesday, May 29, 2007

A Blur of Cool - Maurice LaCroix Pontos Décentrique GMT & New Chronographs


The Maurice Lacroix Pontos Decentrique, a recent recipient of a Red Dot Award in product design for its very unique time display. Most inventive is the use of polished and unpolished sapphire crystal that reveal and obscure the day/night display as well as hightlight, blur & focus the date feature. Off-center dual time-zones powered by a ML 121 caliber.

Originally offered in a limited edition of 999 in titanium, you can now get the watch in stainless steel. ML Website-->Link

Close-up of day/night disks and date reveal


Pontos Movement


The Masterpiece Le Chronographe, besides creating some very interesting chrono registers, Europastar describes all the gory details;

"The Maurice Lacroix manufacture ML 106 chronograph movement has unique proportions for a wristwatch chronograph – 36.6 millimetres in diameter. In this manufacture movement, a traditional column-wheel controls the chronograph functions. The chronograph’s chain, however, has been completely reinterpreted. The most significant innovation is the use of a release lever, which guarantees optimum functioning of the chronograph wheel. On traditional chronographs, the ‘start’ and ‘zeroing’ sequences are critical, because the blocker, which stabilizes and holds the wheels in posit-ion, switches back. This in turn allows the chronograph centre wheel to run free for fractions of a second, until the zeroing lever hits the switching heart of the chronograph. It is this loss of control that can result in incorrect time or date indications if the watch meets with an impact. This new design has minimized this risk – it guarantees the correct positioning of the individual chronograph components, and hence the accuracy of the information displayed, by pressing the blocker against the wheels for longer than was previously possible. Maurice Lacroix has already registered a patent for this reinterpretation of the chronograph sequence.

The ML 106 calibre also features a stop second – when the crown is pulled out, the balance halts and the seconds hand stops and a counter hand with a time span of 60 minutes which demands a significantly higher level of watchmaking complexity than the more frequently used 30- or 45-minute counters. The ML 106 calibre also features top-quality components, like an elegant swan neck precision adjustment and two genuine gold chatons in the chronograph bridge."

Another new release in the Masterpiece line, the Maurice Lacroix Masterchrono, based upon a ETA 7750 chronograph movement and a dial in sterling silver.


Click to find more chronographs




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Friday, May 25, 2007

$500,000 Invisible Watch - Guy Ellia 'Tourbillon Zephir' by Christophe Claret


Famed movement designer Christophe Claret has teamed up with the exclusive French brand Guy Ellia for this unusual see-thru sapphire cased wristwatch. The mechanism including the tourbillon appear to float in-between the transparent plates allowing all motion to be viewed. Taking the skeletonized look to a new level, 'Ghost-inized'. See more at Claret's website-->Link as well as an animated video of the watch. Selling a bit over a half million dollars (390,000 Euros), I've heard that six have been sold already.

Claret is the man behind the Opus IV and the Jean Dunand Shabaka-->Link



Zephir Video-->Link


Guy Ellia's other openwork timepiece from 2006
'Time Square Tourbillon Magistere Biconvex'


Related posts;
Jean Dunand Shabaka
See-thru Radio Clock
Skeletons in the Closet
First All Plastic Watch










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Thursday, May 24, 2007

Timetravelphile



A scene from Terry Giliam's great film of time-travelling midgets, Time Bandits. A short clip where Satan discusses the key to enlightenment which begins with understanding digital watches.

And for those of you who love the
horological genre of Time Travel, here are some other good ones;

Napoleon Dynamite's attempt at Time Travel
(not a time travel flick but a very funny scene nevertheless)


H.G. Well's The Time Machine (1960)-->Link

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)-->Link
Donnie Darko-->Link
12 Monkeys-->Link
Groundhog Day-->Link (kinda the opposite of time travel but...)
Time After Time-->Link

Any other good ones? Email me



Click to find other Time Travel movies




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Wednesday, May 23, 2007

The Cabestan Winch Tourbillon Vertical For Sale!


I've written about this watch in the past, never really seemed it would be produced - but lo and behold, it
has been realized. Jean-François Ruchonnet of the DMC Group, the man responsible for the phenomenal belt-driven Tag Heuer V4 (which by the way, is also now a reality->Link) has taken Vianney Halter's vision to an official and public reality. Being sold in a variety of styles, seen at the official Cabestan website-->Link, you could buy one for between $275,000 and $400,000 (approx) but you'd be out of luck, all models for 2007 have sold out. And with plans for four watches a month in 2008, you might wanna rob that bank you always had your eye on...You know, the one with the sleepy security guard.


Available in titanium, yellow gold and rose gold
(top of page features black cylinder version)
As well as the all black titanium below



And with the demand for bling versions of everything, yo, the encrusted diamond Cabestan


Ah, the winch driven chain-fusee movements do move me!




Cabestan Website-->Link
Search all past Cabestan posts-->Link




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Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Culture de la Haute Horlogerie Films


A very thorough and interesting series of videos by the Culture de la Haute Horlogerie. Featuring everything from the watch designer to the guilloche artist. Click the images below to see them.

Dressing the Watch



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Monday, May 21, 2007

1970 Sipe Steinheil Digital Spy Camera Watch


I swear this is my last Spy-Camera-Watch posting for a while...But since so many different variations have existed over the past 120 years, great vintage examples keep appearing. This particular one is of the Quartz age, a 1970 SIPE LED digital watch with Steinheil 2.5/12mm lens, for 7 exposures on special cassette. Actually, it appears to be a Dynamic Scattering Liquid Crystal Display, the earliest form of LCD developed in the late sixties. Either way, it's being auctioned from the WestLicht Photographia Auction House (lot 671). Or on Ebay here-->Link






Also being offered are two very nice examples of the 1949 Steineck ABC subminiature wrist-cameras. Previously featured here-->Link

All my related Spy Watch posts here-->Link


Click to see modern Spy Cameras




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Friday, May 18, 2007

Doxa Grafic Over Time 1957-2007


When a brand reissues a model from their past, somehow, it just never looks quite right. It's either too polished or the details that originally made it interesting are dulled down.

The Doxa Grafic of 1957 was very modern for its time, a stark dial with a simple starburst of crosshairs was really quite different for a wristwatch. As the original 1957 advertisement above states, "Excitingly, Fashionably, Emphatically Different!" An affordable alternative to the asymmetrical Patek Philippe watches by Gilbert Albert of the same time. Patek-->Link

The minimalism of the bauhaus inspired design has been relatively faithful over past years. Now, with the 50th anniversary of the Grafic in 2007, liberties have been taken for a new chronograph version.

Original vintage automatic Grafic
Date hole upper left
available at Art Of Time->Link and another->Link

A vintage Grafic with raised markers->Link

The Grafic in 2007

The 2007 Grafic Chronograph
Via Europastar

Related Post;
Patek Philippe by Gilbert Albert 1955-65-->Link



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Thursday, May 17, 2007

1930s Vibra Cynlinder Date & Chinatown Mystery


Ah, another supercool vintage mystery solved. Max Busser forwarded this to me, a most unusual wristwatch by Vibra. A little research determined it was produced in the 1930s featuring the its signature oddity, cylindrical hooded lugs displaying the date and day (in Spanish). Crowns on the side of each tube for adjustment. Stainless steel case, painted arabic numerals, auxiliary seconds dial, "Spade" blued steel hands., M. Cal. 10 ''' rhodium-plated, 10 jewels, lateral lever escapement, self-compensating flat balance-spring. Diameter 28 mm.

Also, the watch below was requested by another for identification. It shows a movie still of Jack Nicholson's wristwatch in the classic Roman Polanski film, "Chinatown". The period was set in 1940s Los Angeles. But with this mystery, you don't risk your nose being slit.

Any ideas? Let me know - Email

The original movie trailer-->Here



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Blue Steel Supernova by Sarpaneva


A diamond coated blue & gray steel version of the Sarpaneva Supernova. A double black moonphase at 12 and comet tail date at 4/5. Described and previously featured here-->Link

Only two of the original series of ten are left so get one before it's too late!


Related;
Suprenova-->Link
Loiste II-->Link
Sarpaneva Site-->Link

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Click for Shopzilla Watches

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Art of Movement - Photography of Guido Mocafico


Thanks to the MB&F Our World Blog for leading me to the current exhibition of French photographer Guido Mocafico at the Hamiltons Gallery in London. His latest works are large prints of complicated mechanical watch movements including the Chopard Quantieme Perpetuel Phase de Lune above. All 105 cm x 105cm (41+"inches) each.

Artist's statement

Breguet 'Tradition'

Audemars Piguet 'Tourbillon Repetition Minutes Squellette'

Jaquet Droz 'Douze Fuseaux Horaires'

A. Lange & Sohne 'Double Split'

Other movements exhibited; IWC, Gerald Genta, Greubel Forsey, FP Journe, Daniel Roth, and Patek Philippe.

Hamiltons Gallery-->Link
Mocafico website-->Link

via MB&F 'Our World' Blog-->Link



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