This watch will officially be unveiled at ”Baselworld 2010″, but why wait until then to enjoy a few pics – we always a few good “previews”, especially this early! 

“In 2010 Corum celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the creation of its Admiral’s Cup collection. To mark this occasion, the brand pays tribute to sea- and high end horology-enthusiasts and offers an exceptional timepiece combining two complications; the minute repeater and tourbillon.”

See the full press release and more pictures here in the Perpetuelle Watch News Room.

Admiral’s Cup Minute Repeater Tourbillon 45

Schaufhausen-based IWC is introducing 2 new variations in its famous Portuguese collection.  Although I like the color tones of the IWC Red Gold Chronograph, I prefer the horizontally aligned subdials of the IWC Portuguese Automatic.  Truth be told, though, I could see myself wearing either one of these watches on a daily basis.

IWC Portuguese Red Gold Chronograph

According to IWC, “The Portuguese seafarers were not only interested in navigation. For them, precision timing was also a priority, which is why it was essential that the Portuguese line also had room for chronographs. The superb appearance of the Portuguese Chronograph is as much a source of fascination to watch lovers as the 79350 calibre with its rate of 28,800 beats per hour. This guarantees the legendary precision you would expect of a watch with a provenance in marine travel. Needless to say, the Portuguese Chronograph comes with the features typical of a Portuguese watch: embossed Arabic numerals, tapering swallow-style hands and recessed subdials for the minutes and seconds counters.”

By my count this watch makes the seventh variation in the IWC Portuguese Chrongraph collection, and it can be yours for about $18,000.

40.9mm red gold case, black dial, IWC Caliber 79350 with 44h power reserve, on black crocodile strap

IWC Portuguese Automatic

Turning now to the Portuguese Automatic – this watch has a highly polished steel case with a silver dial and gold hand markers.  Like other variations in this collection, its has a 42mm case, classical small seconds hand and seven-day power reserve display.

This movement in this watch is IWC’s largest automatic movement on the market, the IWC Caliber 51011 calibre, with IWC’s exclusive Pellaton winding system, and 7 day power reserve.  Price is about $13,500.  By my count this is the fifth variation of the Portuguese Automatic.

While still a work in progress, you can look at the other color variations of these great IWC Portuguese watches and see which one you like best in the new Perpetuelle.com Watch Library.  Here’s the link to the IWC Portuguese page.

Introducing the A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 Daymatic.  The first automatic in A. Lange & Söhne’s prestigious Lange 1 collection.  Yellow gold, pink gold or platinum case housing the new Lange Caliber L021.1 with 50mm power reserve and platinum-weighted rotor.  Day and date functions on the dial.  Case diameter 39.5mm – +1mm greater than the traditional Lange 1.  Not sure of the price, but think well into the 5-figures.  I am recommending an excellent overview and perspective of this great new watch over at Monochrome – check it out.

I think that it is smart of A. Lange not to release a picture of the BACK of the watch (from which we could see that new movement through the sapphire crystal caseback) – this will keep many of us – particularly the hard core Lange enthusiasts – in EAGER anticipation of the watches actual unveiling at SIHH 2010 in Geneva.  Nice – gotta build that buzz!!!  :-)

I’ll wrap this up with a nice image of the watch below, but if you want to read the official press release – and more importantly see several BIG and JUICY HIGH RES PHOTOS, check it out HERE, in the Perpetuelle.com News section.

First In Watches Sees Mixed Signals

Lot of reports flying around on the status of Tiger Wood’s sponsors and whether or not they will stick with him.  Our interest here at First In Watches being of course his affiliation with global luxury watch brand TAG Heuer.    Although we are not as close to the story as we would like, I have been following the headlines and felt it appropriate to weigh in with a quick take.

Although the news out this morning from the UK Guardian is that TAG Heuer will be standing by Tiger and that his personal life is “not our business“, it seems that TAG Heuer has also carefully hedged its position as reports late last week from Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald indicated that the brand had pulled placards and other Tiger-related advertising materials from the marketplace.

First In Watches believes that these mixed signals do not bode well for the future Tiger Woods/TAG Heuer relationship.  Further, with another equally high profile sponsor like Accenture finally announcing that it is dropping Tiger, the pressure upon other sponsors such as TAG Heuer to drop Tiger will continue to mount.  It seems likely to me that Tiger’s affiliation with TAG Heuer is probably just a few ticks of the chronograph counter’s hand away from being pulled. 

Photograph: David McNew/Getty Images

The 2009 – 2010 NBA season is now officially underway (finally!).  Many of last year’s top teams got even stronger during the offseason, and the competition for the Larry O’Brien Championship trophy is going to be fierce.    Will Ron Artest help Kobe Bryant and the already solid Lakers team repeat?    Or, will Cleveland’s offseason acquisition of Shaq help Lebron James and the Cavs take down the West.  My prediction:  if Kobe Bryant and the Lakers stay healthy I will have to put my money on them.

When you look at watch brands you tend to notice most relationships (or “ambassadors”) are created with athletes that are in racing, water sports, polo, tennis, and golf. When it comes the NBA and NFL you don’t see a lot of these relationships.  However, the star of the biggest contender in the West (Los Angeles Lakers – Kobe Bryant) and in the East (Cleveland Caveliers – Shaquille O’Neil) are an exception.  Let’s take a look at each athlete and their watches and see which one comes out with the “W”.

First up – Kobe Bryant and the Black Mamba from the Swiss watchmaker Nubeo.  For those of you wondering where the name “Black Mamba” comes from it is actually Kobe’s nickname.

If you’re unfamiliar with Nubeo I recommend checking out their website – www.nubeo.com.  They have a very cool line of men’s and women’s watches, though they are “priced for the pros” at about $25,000 on up.   Nubeo certainly has a much different look in the “sport watch” category than any other brand I have seen.  My favorite is by far Kobe’s Black Mamba (pictured below), which sells for about $25,000 (a hefty price tag….unless you are Kobe Bryant).   The collection goes all the way up to $250,000 for the very limited Black Mamba MVP, which has rings of baguette cut, whiskey-colored sapphire crystals (also pictured).

48mm diameter, ceramic with matt black finish, with a black natural rubber buckle in Titanium Grade 5 with DLC treatment

The Nubeo Black Mamba on the Lakers Black Mamba

Nubeo Black Mamba MVP Watch – $250,000

Now let’s take a look at Shaquille O’Neil and his AP (Audemars Piguet) Royal Oak Offshore.  This watch was introduced in 2007, and it’s probably good that AP limited its production to only 960 pieces being that it was designed when Shaq was wearing #32 and playing for the Miami Heat.  Oops!  Even so, a quick Google search shows that this watch is still selling for more than $30,000 (likewise a hefty price tag….or about 3 minutes of playing time for Shaq, depending on how you look at it).  I have been unable to locate any information on whether AP is continuing to work with Shaq and the collection, so if you have some info on this please leave a comment below.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Shaquille O’Neal Watch, Steel, Limited Edition

The Superman himself wearing the special edition Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore:

Kobe and Shaq were at once arguably the best tandem in the NBA when they both played for the Lakers.  Who you like more is up to you (if you like either player), but i’m going to have to give Kobe the win for best watch.

Bring Your Watch Collection Online with Perpetuelle.com’s “My Watch Box” Feature – UNLIMITED UPLOADS!!!!

As one of the newest online watch communities “on the block”, it’s always nice to get some reinforcement that we are doing some things right here at Perpetuelle.com – and so I originally dedicated this post to a certain watch talk forum that just recently decided to implement some of the features that we here at Perpetuelle.com brought to our Members when we first launched in 2008  – that is the virtual “Watch Box” and “Wish List”.   Although the site I refer to proudly announced that their “Watch Box” feature was the first of its kind, this has been clarified and the books of history set straight.  As I said originally, not that I care that the idea was imitated, but I can say that Perpetuelle.com feels good knowing that we were there over a year ago we were there leading the way for the online watch community, and we will continue to do so in the years ahead.  And now we move on to other bigger and better things!

Several weeks ago, I saw an exciting one-of-a-kind watch from German manufacture Glashütte Original over on the watch blog Monochrome.  Upon seeing this watch my first reaction was WOW – what a gorgeous looking watch.  Now again this morning I found myself looking at the watch again on GO’s website and the temptation became too much to resist – I just had to share this awesome watch with my readers!

Glashütte Original donated the unique piece to support Italian cancer research.  A great watch for a great cause, it ended up auctioning for 8,000 EUR, or about $12,000.  Like Monochrome, I think that the black PVD steel case with yellow numerals and accents is what watch absolutely fantastic.  See if you would agree that this is a pretty spectacular looking watch:

You can check out more pictures over at Monochrome – just click here!

TAG’s Credibility Under Heavy Fire from Watch Enthusiasts – CEO Takes to the Web to Defend – Really?  Doth TAG Heuer Protest Too Much?

You know there’s a problem when the CEO of a global watch brand is forced to defend his company’s actions by posting on watch forums and commenting on watch blogs.  Such is the situation now unfolding at TAG Heuer, where CEO J.C. Babin’s remarks can be seen on watch blogs such as Calibre 11 and watch forums such as Watchuseek – as he defends what now appears to be overly aggressive marketing by TAG Heuer for the launch of its new, ahem, “designed 100% in-house” Caliber 1887. (side note:  there was probably some action/discussion over at another watch forum initials “T.Z.” as well, but as I’m sure all dissent has been thoroughly squelched by the Dictators who masquerade as “Moderators” over there I won’t give them the dignity of a mention; of course this also a topic of discussion for another time).

So here’s the quick run-down:  on December 2, TAG Heuer in great fanfare announced the launch of a new Caliber, the Caliber 1887.  I admit – I was excited.  The press release unequivocally states “The Calibre 1887 is the fifth movement designed 100% in-house by TAG Heuer, joining…” (my emphasis added).  And therein lies the predicament that TAG Heuer has gotten itself in to.  A quick bit of reading of the TAG Heuer blogs and watch forums indicate that the problem is this – TAG Heuer did NOT 100% design this movement in house.  People called TAG out on it, and now TAG is on the defensive.  But in fact the CEO has proven his critics correct, in my view – as confirmed in his own words – here are a couple excerpts of JC Babin’s comments on the aforementioned Calibre 11 (again, my empahsis added):

• “Hi, I’m J.C. Babin the CEO of TAG Heuer, and YES, the new Caliber 1887 is based on a SII (Seiko Instruments Inc.)TC78 platform developped and patented in 1997 (filing) and eversince produced in very limited quantities, apparently for Junghans and Seiko watches in Japan.

STOP – there you have it, he admits the is based on a Seiko Instruments Inc. TC78 platform.  Which apparently not only was patented by went into production.

• “….The caliber we propose and announced last week in London is a major evolution of this platform even though I aknowledge that the overall construction may look similar at first glance. However, the TAG Heuer is much different in terms of components, size and eventually performances….”

STOP – again we see – the Caliber 1887 is an evolution (major or minor, it matters not) of a pre-existing platform. Babin goes on to state that “I would therefore qualify that movement as really in-house and manufactured by TAG Heuer even though, yes, the original IP has been acquired from SII.”  Sure, I suppose it does “qualify” as in-house but the obvious reality is that is was not 100% designed in house.  Period end of story.

Was Credit Given Where Credit Was Due?

In a “Q&A with Jean-Christophe Babin” document that TAG Heuer also released, question # 4 reads as follows:

4- What is the origin of the movement? When did the project start?
Back in January 2006, we started looking at every mechanical chronograph on the market, and none made the grade in terms of our criteria — high-volume production, unbeatable reliability, easy maintenance and reasonable manufacturing cost. So we set out to make our own, and three years later came up with a beauty.

The turnaround time for a new movement — from first draft to final product — is between 3 and 5 years. The Calibre 1887 is at the front end of the timeframe. But we didn’t rush anything, we took our time, we didn’t make any compromises. When it was completely ready, we launched. As always, the number one priority was to produce the best possible product.

Yup – that’s right – this beauty was all TAG all day long.  Great job – conceived of it, drafted it, and brought it to market in remarkable time.  Aye.

So, you might ask…..

Why are you are making a big deal out of nothing? The fact that JC Babin has 7 posts in the last 24 hours on the Watchuseek thread should tell us all something about how TAG Heuer views this situation.  Although I give him credit for confronting the situation head-on, it’s got to be somewhat embarrasing for the CEO of TAG Heuer to have to go onto Watchuseek and register his own new account and defend his Company’s actions.  Not only that but he made 7 posts today alone on WUS.  As a small aside, I also happen to find a small bit of irony in this situation, which is that not only is TAG Heuer’s Press/Media department’s unwilling to reply to any of my requests for comment on things little ‘ole things like this (Has TAG Heuer Lost its Mind?) and this (TAG Heuer Meridiist is Dead On Arrival), but they also seem to leave the big issues to others as well.  In this case the CEO himself.  What do you people do?

The Caliber 1887 is a fantastic accomplishment – What’s the big deal? Indeed.  The mistake here is not one of technical ambitions, nor technical prowess, nor technical innovation – these people all did their job, and they did it well.  It is a mistake of marketing and being true to your brand and your customers.  This is a Public Relations problem, pure and simple.

Who’s at fault? Hard to say, really, and who really cares.  Although we see that JC Babin is stepping up as captain of his ship to take the heat, you can take it to the bank that things are not pretty behind closed doors at TAG Heuer.  Allow me to ask one innocent question – how did the TAG Heuer press and or marketing department think they could get away with putting out such a bold statement in a press release?  I gotta say that it is ambitious and aggressive to make such a bold statement and think you can get away with it.  Whether ignorance or hubris – is there a better case to plead?

What’s the bottom line? If I had to guess, some heads may roll back at TAG Heuer, but the brand will most surely come out of this just fine because they have the marketing dollars to overcome it and it is most likely that a the large majority of TAG’s consumers will never catch wind nor even care about the origins of the design of the Caliber 1887 (they may even ask “What’s a Caliber?”).  Hey, don’t get me wrong – I was pretty excited to see the Caliber 1887 coming from TAG, as I am a TAG Heuer fan and owner myself.  But there’s no need to spin it into something that it isn’t – and that’s what all this big brouhaha is all about, sadly.

Oh, and one last thing – watch brands are wise to take note the power of the Internet and “social media” in bringing this story about – it’s time for many of you to re-think how you communicate and position yourselves vis-a-vis the Internet – time to learn to live in this brave new world.

Now this is what I like to see…after a couple leaks of some exciting watches coming from Cartier next year (like this and this ), Cartier decides to send out this little teaser. And I say “Well done, Cartier team, well done!  But you know you can only hide from First In Watches for so long…..”

So, any guesses on what this watch might be?  Based on the case shape, I think we might be seeing the start of a whole new Collection from Cartier…

Live shots of a pre-SIHH 2010 Prototype!

UPDATE:  More details and an official image from JLC (and another nod to KronosBlog for excellent work on bringing this one!):

Limited to 750 units in steel and 250 in rose gold

List price:  $12,500 (8,250 €) for the steel and $23,800 (16,100 €) for the rose gold version

The table stand (prototype pictured below) to be sold separately and exclusively at the Boutiques as an accessory for $1,500 (1,000 €)

Courtesy of KronosBlog, here is another winner that is coming in 2010 from Jaeger-LeCoultre – the Memovox International.  Although I do not have all the specs or official pics from JLC yet, KronosBlog offered some “live pics” and states that the watch is 40mm and will come with a “desk-stand” that is a throwback to those sold with the original Memovox’s back in the day.  The desk-stand is specially designed to help amplify the sound of the Memovox’s alarm.   Hopefully I’ll have some more specs, soon, but until then, please enjoy the great pics below (there are a few more if you want to click through to KronosBlog), and if you missed it – you can see my recent preview of another spectacular (and 40mm) watch coming from JLC next year – the Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox – here.