explorers

Vacheron Constantin Explorer Series Watches

Vacheron Constantin has revealed the latest in their Explorer series of watches. The two new models celebrate Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus (previous models were devoted to the Chinese admiral Zheng Hé and Magellan). The enamelled dial is made of two parts that partially overlap. The top part features a map of the explorer's journeys and the bottom part shows twelve hour numerals traversing a 132° minute scale on the lower part of the dial. The case is 18K gold and measures 40mm and the movement is the automatic Vacheron in-house caliber 1126AT, with 36 jewels, beating at 28,800 bph and with a power reserve of 40 hours. There are 60 watches of each explorer.

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Tags: explorers, vacheron constantin, VacheronConstantin, watches

Polar Library Up For Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions

With global warming proceeding briskly along, a collected polar-themed library might be even more of a precious relic. On May 24 Swann Galleries in New York will auction off 160 items from the Polar Library of Dr. John M. Levinson, a past President of the Explorers Club, who has assembled an collection of works on Arctic and Antarctic exploration. One of the star lots in the auction is one of only 65 extant copies of the first book published in Antarctica, Ernest Shackleton's Aurora Australis, 1908. This copy of the book is known as the "Veal" copy because boards from a packing crate containing veal were used to create its cover. This book is inscribed to expedition member George Buckley and signed by Shackleton and others and estimated to sell for $50,000 to $75,000. Other lots include other books by Shackleton, a complete set of first editions of all three of James Cook's Voyages, in nine volumes, copies of The South Polar Times, the first Antarctic newspaper, edited by Shackleton, Louis Charles Bernacchi and Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Charles Swaine's rare Account of a Voyage of Discovery of a North-West Passage from 1748, a set of first editions of each of William E. Parry's four Voyages, and artifacts such as a message buoy used on the 1901-02 Baldwin-Ziegler Expedition to the North Pole via Franz Josef Land and silver and china from various expeditions.

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Tags: antarctica, arctic, book auction, explorers, polar library, PolarLibrary, rare books, shackleton