prize

Longines is now the official timekeeper and timepiece maker of the Kentucky Derby and its track Churchill Downs. For this year's esteemed horse race Longines will present one of their newer Column-Wheel Chronograph watches to the winner of the race.

Longines - part of the Swatch Group - worked with ETA (also part of the Swatch Group) to develop a special movement for Longines that captured the classic nature of the traditional watch brand. The movement is an automatic chronograph, but one that uses a historic column-wheel transmission system in the movement. Column-wheel chronographs are those found in many of the best chronograph movements.

Set in a steel case, the Ref. L2.733.4.72.2 Longines Column-Wheel Chronograph is extremely classic in its execution and design. The case is 39mm wide in steel, with a brown alligator strap. The exclusive movement inside of the watch is the mechanical caliber L688.2 which provides the tricompax chrono subdial layout. The dial design is extremely classic. In fact the entire watch is more or less a recreation of a classic Longines watch design. The dauphine hands have thin strips of lume, and there are applied hour and minute markers. For a bit of nostalgia the piece is very nice, price is $2,850.

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

This year a piece unique from Hublot won the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Geneve prize for jewelery watch of the year, 2009. The watch is as ostentatious as it is pretentious. I actually like the look of the watch a lot, and even though inside of me I would like to wear the timepiece, it is hard to swallow the blatant excess built into the timepiece. The inflated price point is even built into the name of the watch. For me, a name like "Million $ Black Caviar Bang" sounds about as classy as "One Thousand Dollar Bubbly Champagne." Don't forget, "more bubbly, more buck!" Don't any of you go stealing my business ideas now...

Hublot made the million dollar big bang watch out of white gold and rare baguette cut black diamonds. almost 550 diamonds are all over the watch, with a total of 34.5 carats. Hublot took its time making the watch. Over 2000 hours went into it. The movement is a manually wound tourbillon. Functions include the time (tourbillon acts as the seconds indicator), and a power reserve indicator.

Why did it win best jewelry watch in Geneva? I am not sure. Perhaps because it is rare, took a lot of time to make, is for men, and is actually quite attractive. Is nice jewelry is supposed to inspire envy, awe, and a bit of anger? If so, then the Hublot Million $ Caviar Bang was a good choice to win.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com

We're a step closer to finding out who will win the biannual Hugo Boss Prize, which is bestowed for achievement in contemporary art. Vying for the $100,000 award this year are the finalists just announced by the Guggenheim: Cao Fei from China, Hans-Peter Feldmann from Germany, Natascha Sadr Haghighian from Iran, Roman Ondak from the nation formerly known as Czechoslovakia, Walid Raad from Lebanon and Apichatpong Weerasethakul from Thailand.

In addition to the cash – and possibly more valuable in the long run – the Hugo Boss Prize winner will also get a 2011 exhibition at the Guggenheim in New York. The winners are selected by a panel of art professionals that includes Ysmil Raymond, curator of the Dia Art Foundation; Udo Kittelmann, director of Berlin's Nationalgalerie and Tirad Zolghadr, an independent writer and curator.

Last year, the honor went to Emily Jacir. Previous winners include Matthew Barney, Douglas Gordon, Pierre Huyghe, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Tacita Dean.

Unlike most art prizes, this one stipulates has no age, geographic or medium-specific qualifications. It is as open as open can be.

Prizes – in art, journalism or anywhere else – are intended to show that a particular achievement exceeds the others in its field. The Turner Prize is a prestigious contemporary art award in Britain is for artists under 50 and has been around for 25 years. Here's the problem: the Turner Prize has always gone to art that sucks. Nobody liked the work. So, this year, a prize that typically has gone to pieces that shock is doing some shocking of its own.

The judges hope that the Turner Prize will go to a creation that people actually like.

The four artists nominated this year aren't as controversial as past entries, but they do bring unusual perspectives. Roger Hiorns is described as a "modern alchemist," mixing a variety of household materials with liquid copper sulphate and an empty apartment to express his vision. Enrico David focuses on the human figure, while Lucy Skaer uses photographs as starting points for drawings and sculpture. Richard Wright, rounding out the list of nominees, works with large wall paintings tailored to the spaces in which they appear.

This work makes a bit more sense than at least one past winner (2001): Grayson Perry, a cross-dressing potter, and Martin Creed had an installation consisting of lights flickering in an empty room. Reaction: one visitor threw two eggs at the wall.

And, of course, Damien Hirst is a past winner, though I struggle to understand why. He's only done one installation that worked for me (a year and a half ago, at the Lever House in New York).

Judge and art critic Jonathan Jones observes, "People say 'my child could do that.' It's not conceivable that you could look at any of these artists (in that way)." He goes a bit too far, however, when he continues, "It shows there is a great deal of talent in contemporary art."

Maybe the Turner Prize will redeem itself in 2009. We'll find out on December 7.

Secret deodorant wants to make women feel good about themselves and they aren't messing around. What makes women feel like a million bucks? A big ol' beautiful diamond, that's what, and so that's exactly what Secret Flawless is giving away.

The giveaway promotion includes a variety of prizes including movie tickets, 5 star dinners, and shopping sprees, but the big news is the 10 grand-prize one-carat flawless diamonds. You enter by buying specially marked Secret Flawless deodorant and then, if you're lucky, you'll find a little faux diamond hiding inside that you can trade in to Secret for the real thing. No worries if you don't find a diamond, you might still be a winner -- just punch the secret code on the packaging into the Secret website and find out.

To celebrate Valentine's Day, Godiva has decided to give away a million ways to say "I love you" - by which we mean that they're giving away a $1,000,000 worth of Hearts On Fire diamond jewelry, as well as a year-long supply of Godiva chocolates. The prize is intended to be the "ultimate extravagance" as far as chocolate and diamonds go, but it will only go to one lucky winner. Two runners up will receive $50,000 worth of diamond jewelry, as well as the year's supply of chocolate. All three winners will be announced on or around Valentine's Day.

The sweepstakes was unveiled by Sienna Miller, who is one of the spokespeople for Hearts On Fire and wore some of their jewelry in addition to her Cartier at the Golden Globes. Participation codes to enter the drawing can be picked up at Godiva Boutiques and authorized Hearts On Fire retailers .

While the odds of winning any contest that is based purely on luck may be slim, the reward is high with Bluefly.com's summer Luxury Loot Contest. Through the end of July, the site will be giving away one prize a day to a participant. The prizes range from $100 gift certificates to a $3,200 Louis Vuitton Bisten 70 traveling case and include Prada bags, Jimmy Choo shoes and Hermes scarves. A different prize is up for grabs every day, but Bluefly doesn't say what the breakdown is, so you'll just have to keep trying to find out. Winning certainly wouldn't be a bad way to start off the summer, would it?

It's hard not to love a good contest, no matter how slim your chances of winning might be, especially when the prize is a good one. In this case, the prize is a custom-built $20,000 home bar from Guinness. The contest is one of design, not merely pure chance. Guinness wants your to submit your own vision of the ultimate home bar, whether built to scale from 2x4's in your yard or sketched on the back of a cocktail napkin. Don't worry if you aren't the greatest artist, though, because after uploading a picture of your creation, you have the chance to describe it. The best bar wins.

You have until July 31st to create your winning design and, since there is only one entry per person, you may as well take your time thinking about it. We'll keep our fingers crossed for all the Luxist readers who decide to enter - and don't hesitate to invite us to the the unveiling of your dream bar.

 

The Kentucky Derby Gold Cup is the only solid gold trophy still awarded in American sports and has been an annual tradition since the running of the 1924 Derby, when the standard design of the cup was first commissioned.

The Gold Cup is made of 14-karat gold, with an 18-karat gold horseshoe adorning the side and a 14-karat gold horse and jockey topping it. The total weight of the 22-inch high cup is almost 60-ounces, not including the heavy jade base on which it rests. With the exception of the horse and rider that top it, which were cast using a lost wax process, this year's trophy was entirely handmade by New England Sterling of Attleboro, Massachusetts. New England Sterling has been producing the trophies since 1975, maintaining the high standard of quality that has been required for the more than 80 years of the presentation of the trophy. The trophies always remain blank until after the race has been run, when they are engraved with details such as the date and the name of the winning horse.

The current value of the 2004 trophy is listed at $90,000, though the significance of the one-of-a kind trophy makes it priceless.