Papillon

Artya Farfalla Watch Has Real Butterfly Wings In It

Like all Artya watches, this new Farfalla collection aims to be different, and each piece is one-of-a-kind. "Farfalla" means butterfly in Italian, and that is exactly what this watch is all about. Look at the dial a second time and you'll realize that it is made up of different butterfly wings. Maybe they will offer a do-it-yourself model of aspiring lepidopterists? The clever part of the design is that at first glance you aren't sure what you are looking at. Artya does a good job of applying decor between the wings so that it all blends together as though it were a single motif.

I don't believe any animals were harmed in the making of the watch (beforehand, I don't really know). In addition to the butterfly dials, the straps as seen here are toad skin. Artya applied various 'torture devices" to make its steel watch cases look more organic. One case here is struck with high levels of electricity, while another is all cut up. Inside the watches are Swiss automatic mechanical movements. Look for these soon - or Artya can make you one with your own personal collection of discarded insect parts.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch reviews site aBlogtoRead.com

Tags: artya, butterfly, farfalla, papillon, watch

Bvlgari Papillon Chronograph Watch

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

For the time being it seems like Bvlgari (Bulgari) is keeping up production of most Daniel Roth watches. Here is the (former Daniel Roth) Papillon Chronograph. Still with the existing movement, it now has Bulgari clothing. This was a really clever watch from Daniel Roth - and it does in fact tell the time. It has jumping hour display along with a minute indicator with a trick hand. That blue "spike" turns downward when used to indicate the minutes, and it twists back in when the next spike has a turn. So this isn't a retrograde hand - even though it vaguely looks like one.

While the Bulgari version of the dial looks more complex, the Daniel Roth version was a bit more complex done with Geneva stripe polishing and some other textured elements. Though in the end they are very similar (just with different colors). While the Papillon Chronograph uses a case shape we have seen before it is larger at 44mm wide and done here in 18k rose gold.

The Calibre DR2319 movement is quite impressive, and this watch is made to be a serious chronograph. It starts with a Swatch Group made Frederic Piguet automatic movement with a Daniel Roth chronograph module. With dials measuring up to 12 hours, the chronograph has a column wheel and vertical clutch. Features often only found in the finest of mechanical chronograph movements. Look for this Bulgari (ex Daniel Roth) watch out now. Price is $44,500.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch reviews site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: bulgari, chronograph, daniel roth, papillon, watch

Celsius X VI II Papillon Mechanical Mobile Phone

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Gadgets, Timepieces / Watches

What do you get when you mix complex mechanical watch making with a mobile phone? I have no idea. Luxury watch makers have been in the mobile phone world for a little while with such models at Tag Heuer Meridiist and the Ulysse Nardin Chairman, but these are mostly fancy items on the outside with traditional mobile phone hardware on the inside. The Papillion phone by Celsius X VI II (10 6 2) is going to take the convergence of these devices a few steps further. The result? Well it is still just a teaser now. You can see the "x ray" image above of what the item will look like on the inside.

There is also a teaser movie located here at Celsius X VI II's website. It doesn't really show much, bit if you are hungry for details about this you can check it out. What is clear is that it will be a clam-shell style phone, have lots of mechanical 'gizmometry' in it, and apparently will function as a real phone. A melding of electronics and mechanics according to the brand.

Is the Papillon going to be particularly useful? Probably not. Hopefully it will be very cool though. The concept reminds me a bit of Roland Iten items. But then again I think his over-engineered daily use items are more practical as well as luxurious. The Papillon is probably going to be as close to what we will ever get as a mobile phone Transformer. It might not morph into an evil robot from another planet, but it sure will be filled with bona fide mechanical guts. The Celsius X VI II Papillion mechanical mobile phone will be officially debuted at Baselworld soon. I will be there and be able to check out this roughly $300,000 luxury item hands-on.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: cell, cellphone, celsius, mechanical, mobile, Papillon, phone, X VI II, XViIi