Fashion Friday…

Yes, it’s David Yurman and yes, some of you horological purists will automatically dismiss it as a result, but I say WAIT! — give this classically-styled beauty a second look, will you?  This particular model, the “CLASSIC 1957″, draws its inspiration from the 1957 Thunderbird (among other autos of the decade) and I think does a good job of reflecting “the look” of the 1950s but with a twist of modernity.  The watch is the latest addition to David Yurman’s “CLASSIC Collection” which was introduced last year.

The David Yurman CLASSIC 1957 features a gauge-like dial with nicely styled Arabic numerals and orange hour and small seconds hands.  The case is 43.5mm diameter, stainless steel and houses a respectable Swiss-made automatic Dubois Dépraz movement.  Also note the signature David Yurman braid/twist around the outer edge of the case.  The perforated calf strap is ideal for touring or auto-themed watches (Audemars Piguet uses a similar strap on its 2010 Tour Auto) — and thus the perfect pairing to a watch such as this.  Price unknown

David Yurman CLASSIC 1957

1957 Chevy Bel-Air Dashboard

1957 Ford Thunderbird

First execution in red gold…

IWC goes 2 for 2 this week at First In Watches with yet another awesome Boutique Edition watch (check the “Boutique Only” IWC Blue Big Pilot Watch if you haven’t seen it already).  The watch you see here is the new IWC Portuguese Perpetual Calendar Double Moonphase featuring a beautiful 44.2-millimeter 18-carat red gold case.  This exclusive model also features an  ardoise grey dial, matching applied red gold dial appliqués, and a midnight blue double-moon phase display (Northern and Southern Hemispheres).  More on the watch, below the jump:

Limited to just 30 pieces worldwide, the timepiece runs the IWC Caliber 5000 series movement with a 7-day power reserve.  It delivers perpetual calendar accuracy with a deviation of just one day every 577 years.  At best this model will be available only in IWC boutiques, but I’ve heard it be even harder than this to get a look because it will be exclusively the Hong Kong and Macau IWC boutiques.  Either way, if you’ve got the cash for this watch (price is probably near $50,000 US), you can surely afford the charter to jet overseas for a looksie.

Has Ohm’s Law Been Violated?

For some reason I find myself attracted to these new Tesla watches from Artya.  Whether my attraction is positive or negative I am not sure.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I have long been intrigued with their creator, Mr Yvan Arpa.  In fact, I last called Arpa a shock artist — except this charge was leveled more for his use of dinosaur poop, fissile material, and moon dust in watches than it was for his use of joules jewels, coiled copper wire, diodes and filaments in the beauties you see below.  Not to mention that the cases are lightning-struck with 100,000 or 200,000 or 500,000 or even 1,000,000 volts!  Imagine the arc that must produce from the Tesla coil!  Ah, Faraday would be proud, would he not?

While the Ohm in me is tempted give Arpa and his team more static for sparking these shocking creations to life, I frankly do not see the the need to put up a strong resistance to horological transformers as fine as these people.  Heck, I would even question just how far my impedance to a current as alternate as Arpa could carry without tripping some serious circuit breakers from the plant managers over at Alpiq.  Ah well, watt-ever this is a discussion for anode-r day — for now I just wanted to relay to you a pic and the specs on these new Quadri-Rotor pieces — if you get amped up over them (and I mean they get you feeling some serious coloumbs running up your leg), leave a comment and let me know.  Prices are around $5,500 US.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

—————————————————
Movement : Self-winding movement entirely manufactured in Switzerland. Power reserve: 42 hours. Jewelling: 25 jewels

Case* : 316 steel Silver-coloured “Coup de foudre” Collection: cases engraved, mutilated, tortured, “lightning-struck” 100,000 volts, 200,000 volts, 500,000 volts or 1,000,000 volts. Diameter Ø47mm. Crystal Sapphire. Back Open, fitted with a sapphire crystal. Water resistance 50 metres

Bracelet : “Alzavel waterproof” treated leather and hand-sewn high-tech rubber, or “crazy frog” tanned cane toad. Buckle Treated steel pin buckle.
Guarantee 24 months

*Depending on the mood of the moment, the cases in the lightning-struck “Coup de foudre” collection undergo thermal combustion, modelling, engraving and other operations performed by hand in the Artya ateliers.

For the record…

I’ve seen some ridiculous mobile phones in my life…ahem, TAG Heuer Meridiist and Ulysse Nardin Chairman…but I gotta say that the $300,000 Le DIX by Celsius X VI II (pronounced “Celsius 10-6-2″) tops them all in terms of sheer absurdity.  So I really am sorry for bringing this to your attention, but I just came across this video production from the brand and I could no longer hold back.

“Imagine the world as a micromechanical masterpiece”

Uhhh….No.

The sooner I stop hearing about this device the better.  The Le DIX is just plain stupid, and the only possible outcome I see for this micromechanical mobile phone is a slow, outdated, poorly conceived and expensive death.  In fact, it seems the Le Dix has had its skeptics since word of its existence first leaked out.

Double Bubble…

Here’s a special look at the new Zenith Christophe Colomb — an absolutely stunning new limited edition, high-horology piece from Zenith.  Named after the famous world explorer Christopher Columbus, the design of this watch is phenomenal as it prominently features a glass globe which encloses a gyroscope-balanced regulator.  The globe, or double-bubble as see it, protrudes above both the top and bottom of the case in a visually captivating manner.  With a price of $209,000 and limited production of 25 250 pieces, this watch is all about Zenith showing off its horological skills, and I think it has succeeded on this one.  Have a look:

Zenith Christophe Colomb

side view:

As I alluded to above, the watch’s regulating mechanism features prominently beneath a protruding dome both on the dial and caseback.  The mechanism is kept horizontal at all times through a clever Cardan suspension system, a mechanism commonly found in gyroscopes whose origins date back to the early 1500s – history buffs can read more about Gernolamo Cardano here.  The Cardan suspension allows the rotation of an object in multiple dimensions.  This will surely provide its owner with hours of entertainment in hands-on exploration of the laws of physics.

Available in a 45mm rose or white gold case, the watch dial features the hours and minutes (12 o’clock), the self-regulating gyroscopic module (6 o’clock position), a small seconds subdial (9 o’clock), and a power reserve indicator (3 o’clock) — seen here on the white gold version:

The movement is the manual wind Zenith Academy 8804 with a unique gyroscopic system that ensures perfect horizontal positioning of the regulating organ housed in a gyroscopic cage made of 166 components, 10 conical-geared wheels (with 6 spherical wheels) & 6 ball bearings.  Power reserve is 50 hours.

The watch is available in two metals — Rose Gold (Reference 18.2210.8804/01.C631 ) and White Gold (Reference 65.2210.8804/01.C630).

The only thing I am uncertain about is how exactly does this watch sit on the wrist?  Does the double-bubble design cause trouble in this regard?  I admit, I’m quite curious.

Overall an exciting watch that continues Zenith’s successful 2010.  By the way, if you haven’t already seen them, you will want to have a look at two other exciting watches introduced by Zenith this year in a “return-to-the-roots” strategy for the brand — the Zenith Ultra Thin Elite 681 and the Zenith El-Primero Foudroyante Chronograph.

Bell & Ross unveiled two vintage-inspired watches in its Heritage collection at Baselworld this year (Vintage Heritage BR 123 Carbon and Heritage BR 126 Carbon chronograph watches), and the brand has now followed up these releases with a four more vintage-inspired pieces along the same design lines. These highly legible, simply designed watches are a nod to 1940s aviator watches and feature a beige or black dial and are paired with matching leather straps.  Bell & Ross did provide images of the watches on “aged” straps, but it does not seem that these straps will be sold with the watches.  The black-dialed Vintage Original BR 123 time and date model you see here includes a small seconds sub-dial and a date window at 6 o’clock.

Personally I like the black dial version on the black strap:

The Vintage Original BR 126 chronograph has central seconds, a 60-second and 30-minute subdials, and a (round) date window at 4:30.

And here are the beige models on the standard brown leather strap:

Both watches have a 41mm stainless steel case, 100 meter water resistance, and have luminescent hands, numbers and indexes. The BR 123 is powered by an ETA 2895, while the chronograph uses an ETA 2894.  Notice too the nicely designed buckles on these watches.

Details, details…

This is the “Boutique-Only” blue-theme IWC Big Pilot watch that regular readers of the IWC Forum have been aware of for several months now.  But since all of you are not regular readers of the IWC Forum, and because I read a somewhat uninformed article about the watch elsewhere, I thought I would shed some light on it here.  Word is that this new IWC Big Pilot blue-theme watch will be a limited edition of 50 for the Beverly Hills and Las Vegas boutiques and delivery is anticipated in December 2010.   The watch will bear a 5004 series reference number which is the same as the standard Big Pilot models — 46.2mm x 15.8mm case size with the IWC Calibre 5111 (automatic with 7-day power reserve).

While you can of course see for yourself that it is a pretty cool looking Big Pilot (it’s all in the cool blue color (dare I call it periwinkle?) and outline design of the numerals), I must say I am quite disappointed to hear that IWC plans to engrave the side of each watch case with “One out of Fifty”.  “One out of Fifty” — seriously?  Say it ain’t so!  I think this is a terrible decision by IWC — as in terribly lazy.  Individually numbered pieces (i.e. 1/50, 2/50…50/50) would be far more appreciated by collectors.  Also, while I am nitpicking, I do not like partial numerals that are cut-off by the subdial (on this or any other watch).  Still, I gotta say that this is one sweet looking watch!

And in case you are wondering (as one of our astute readers was), yes, the Blue Big Pilot comes with all its indices and numerals painted in SuperLuminova — bright blue SumerLuminova, to be precise.

Raymond Weil is introducing a new collection — the Maestro Tradition.  Modest and understated — these slightly formal and classy designs looks good and should dress-up nicely.  While Raymond Weil watches in general leave me yearning for something more, I would say that if you are in the market for a no-frills, entry level mechanical luxury watch at a reasonable price, you should give these watches a look.

Raymond Weil Maestro

automatic mechanical movement, 39.5mm steel case (water reistant to 50m), date window at 3 o’clock on the dial with a “clou de Paris” relief, and come on a leather strap with matching stainless steel buckle.

3 styles:

white dial with nickel-plated roman numerals (Ref: 2837 STC 00308)

silver dial with black arabic numerals (Ref: 2837 STC 05659)

silver dial with black roman numerals; small-seconds (Ref: 2838 STC 00659)

Literally…

Oh how I would love to be this guy for a day!  “Jetman” Yves Rossy shows us how its done — check it out!

Now here’s a commemorative piece!

Spanish-inspired, Swiss-made brand FRANC VILA today announced a special edition of its successful “Cobra” collection to celebrate the first Spanish football World Cup win.   It is an awesome looking watch!  Christened  “Estrella Roja” (red star), this release is limited to 88 pieces (as are most of FV’s models) and features the Spanish squad colors and a star at the 1 o’clock position commemorating the triumph.

Franc Vila EVOS 8 Cobra “Estrella Roja”

“Esprit Unique” shape case/bezel in steel and carbon-fiber, chronograph with big date, water resistant 300 meters, carbon fiber dial; comes on a black crocodile leather strap with red + yellow stitchings (rubber strap also included)

The Spanish founder of the Swiss brand Mr. Franc Vila himself went on the record:

I am extremely happy with the achievement of the spanish football squad in South Africa. This victory has been a dream for a long time in Spain and I am very proud of the football players that have made this dream a reality. I decided to create a special collection commemorating our first football championship with a star in place of the number one, and I hope to add more stars in the future.

Very nicely done, Mr. Vila!