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Cartier Tank Americaine Tourbillon Volant Watch

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches


Getting ready for SIHH 2009, Cartier is doing everything in their power not to share Bvlgari's fate this year of losses due to the falling luxury marketing as a result of the poor economy. Instead of too much experimentation, Cartier is refining and adding to its classic lines. The Tank is a typical Cartier icon, with an beautiful iteration here fitted with a flying tourbillon.

The Tank Americaine Tourbillon Volant (another name for flying tourbillon) goes back the original (well the most popular at least historically) squared luxury watches. Dial engravings are common of today's upper echelon of Cartier fare, with a beautiful case design almost as nice the Emperador watch from Piaget. The difference being the intensity of the lugs as they connect to the sides of the case sandwiching the dial.

Take a look at the beautifully large crown with equally impressive sapphire crystal cabochon. Operating it lets you feel the smooth, manually wound mechanical Cartier caliber 9452MC with flying tourbillon complication and Geneva Seal. Power reserve is 50 hours. Going along with the the style of today, the Tank Americaine is aptly large at 52mm tall and 36mm wide. The case is 18k rose gold, and the hands, as always, are heat-blued and lovely. A bold follow up to a Cartier classic.

Ariel Adams publishes the watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Impressions Of The New A. Lange & Sohne Richard Lange "Pour le Merite" And 1815 Watch Models

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches


Today the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie SIHH 2009 officially begins in Geneva, where the best of the best watch makers come to display what new and beautiful watches the welcoming crowd can expect to see in stores soon. The perennial show favorite A. Lange & Sohne presents two new models: the limited edition Richard Lange "Pour Le Merite" and a new version of the best selling 1815 model. Sharp eyes watch the Lange Uhren manufacture eager to see how classic tradition can be made fresh each year. I got a chance to view the watches before the show and can report that I am impressed.

Polo Ralph Lauren Partners With Richemont Group, Will Release Luxury Watch Line

Filed under: Apparel, Timepieces / Watches


Polo Ralph Lauren was recently admitted to the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH), a prestigious luxury watch industry trade show. Interestingly enough Ralph Lauren does not currently offer any luxury watches. That is all going to change soon as Ralph Lauren has partnered with the prestigious watch making Richemont Group to produce watches with a license from popular fashion house. The new watches will be distributed through a number of global retailers under the "Polo Ralph Lauren Watch and Jewelery Company" name.

Richemont is the controlling group behind a number of high performing luxury watch brands such and IWC, Officine Panerai, and Cartier. The ensuing Polo Ralph Lauren watches will be established as luxury models, though no images of the designs have been made available just yet. This will all change in less than two weeks as the new watch brand is set to release its first line of models at the 2009 SIHH show later this month in Geneva.

Ariel Adams publishes the watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

SIHH 2009 Watch Exhibition January 19th-23rd In Geneva

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches, Events


The Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) is the second most important annual watch show next to Baselworld (held in Basel, Switzerland typically in April). SIHH is held in Geneva, Switzerland, and showcases the new watches from its member brands. This year, a few new faces are among the 17 exhibiting brands that include: Piaget, A. Lange & Sohne, Cartier, IWC, Montblanc, Officine Panerai, Baume & Mercier, among many other watch makers who typify distinction in mechanics and design.

Not just anyone can attend this private event, a fact that makes SIHH a lot different than the larger Baselworld show. To be included you need to be specifically invited by the exhibiting brands. At times like this it is good to know people in the right places. SIHH has always been a more gala like event celebrating not only the watches, but the glamour and appeal of the luxury industry and all its participants. If you are invited and flying to Switzerland, getting there is really easy as the show is actually located in a part of the Geneva airport.

Ariel Adams publishes the watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Piaget Polo Tourbillon Relatif Paris Watch

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches


The latest watch in Piaget's Polo Tourbillon Relatif series will delight fans of the city of Paris. The new watch, which will be shown at the upcoming SIHH 2008 watch and jewelry show has a mechanical hand-wound one minute flying tourbillon and uses the Manufacture Piaget caliber 608P movement. The dial features names of famous Parisians. The coolness factor here though is on the sides of the watch. The sides of the watch are decorated with amazingly intricate etchings of the city. The design shows monuments such as the Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and others. No details on price or production are available yet.

Girard-Perregaux Shopping Watch

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches


I find the newest women's watch from Girard-Perregaux a little sexist (women aren't the only shoppers after all) but the watch is awfully attractive. The Girard-Perregaux ww.tc 24 Hour Shopping Watch gives the time in 24 time zones listing them, not by cities as most watches do, but by shopping destinations. The watch lists places famous for their fashion and luxury boutiques, such as Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Dubai, Ginza and Rode Drive. There are several different versions available and each one focuses on two specific venues: Faubourg Saint-Honoré and Orchard Road, or Montenapoleone and Central or Rue du Rhône and Nan Jing Xi Lu. The other time zones are indicated on the city ring by fifteen different sized diamonds, adding up to 0.18 carats. The dial has diamonds as some of the hour markets and the bezel is set with 54 diamonds (a total of 1.95 carats). The 41mm watch uses the Girard-Perregaux movement GP033G0, a mechanical movement with automatic winding. It has a sapphire crystal and a sapphire back. One nice detail is the onyx cabochons set into the watch crowns.

Cartier Perles Watch

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches


We don't know too much about this watch except that is will be introduced during the SIHH show in Switzerland in April. The Cartier Perles watch is part of the Cartier Libre watch collection which also includes Cartier's Crash watches. The Cartier Perle is done in 18K white gold with 389 diamonds (a total of 2.9 carats) and highlighted by two pearls. The movement is a Swiss quartz module. The style is very striking but it looks like might be awkward to wear.

New Panerai Watches From SIHH

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches


Mike Disher of Time Zone is at the SIHH show and is covering some of the new releases. Today we are looking at Panerai watches. I'm pretty immune to the charms of this brand but these are some lovely and simple watches.

My favorite is the Radiomir 10 Days GMT in pink gold, PAM00273. It uses the Panerai calibre P.2003 movement and has a 45 mm diameter pink gold case with a "sandwich" dial and pink gold hands. The central hand with the arrow displays the second time zone. The edition of 250 pieces that will be available starting in August.

Girard Perregaux Watches at SIHH

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches


The SIHH watch and jewelry show has begun and Girard Perregaux is showing off a wide variety of watches several of which highlight the watches vintage styles.

My favorite is this one, the Girard-Perregaux Vintage 1945 Jackpot Tourbillon watch combines a Tourbillon and a slot machine equipped with a striking mechanism in a Vintage 1945 case. The top of the dial has three symbols that spin while the bottom part of the watch reveals the tourbillon cage. A handle on the right side of the case sets the three reels in motion which then stop randomly on one of the possible five symbols, while a hammer strikes a gong. Out of the 125 combinations, only one represents the jackpot: the three bells in a row. The 43mm case is done in pink gold.

Girard-Perregaux Hours of the World Perpetual Calendar Watch

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches


We first heard about this watch when it made its debut at SIHH, now check out the sexy red gold version of the Hours of the World Perpetual Calendar by Girard-Perregaux. The 41mm watch which is ringed with the names of the world's major cities is equipped with an automatic GP 033Q0 mechanical movement with 46-hour power reserve. The watch has a day/night disc and indicates the day, month, date, moon phase on a four year cycle with leap year. It has an anti-reflection sapphire crystal with a transparent screw-down caseback. 

[via EuropaStar]

Roger Dubuis Vintage Grand Prix Collection Watches

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches, Luxury Cars & Autos

At SIHH in Geneva Roger Dubuis showed off their limited edition Vintage Grand Prix Collection. There will be 28 pieces in both a GoldenSquare case and an Hommage Sympathie case. The selling feature of these two gold watches are their enameled dials with vintage racing motifs. Like other Dubuis watches, it's more fun than fierce as opposed to other racing-themed watches we've seen lately.

Are Wristwatches Being Phased Out?

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

The LA Times has an interesting article on the future of watches. With cell phones, iPods and computers all telling time do we still need wristwatches? The results of sales data seem to indicate that for the most part cheaper watches are the ones that are most likely to be phased out. Digital watches in particular no longer sell well and for the youth the watch can sometimes seem an antiquated gadget. Last year, the number of people who bought non-luxury watches dropped 12% from 2004, according to a market research group. The runaway favorite brand for teens, A consumer tracking group did find that the number of people buying watches that cost more than $1,000  dropped only  2% last year.

 Is the watch being phased out? It's an interesting topic in light of the fact that the big watch and jewelry shows, Baselworld and SIHH just took place.  A record 94,200 visitors (up 5% from last year) recently attended BaselWorld 2006, an eight-day watch and jewelry exhibition and 13,000 showed up at SIHH.  It seems that the future of the watch industry lies in the watches that are prized for more than just telling time but instead offer status (through recognizable brands), craftsmanship (tourbillons and watches with many complications) or the chance to accessorize with a noticeable and showy piece of jewelry. I think this is why the prestige watchmakers have been making case sizes larger and larger. For the watch collector or aficionado replacing a watch with a cell phone ins unthinkable.

[The watch show here is the FG One from de Grisogrono]

PuristS Round Up of SIHH Watches

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

The watch mavens over at The PuristS have an overview of a lot of the major watches shown at the SIHH show in Geneva. Their photo and text portfolio (text by  Alexandre Ghotbi, photos by Alberto Schileo) is broken down into ten parts: Van Cleef & Arpels, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Girard Perregaux, Piaget, Parmigiani, A. Lange & Sohne, Audemars Piguet, Panerai and Ferrari, Vacheron Constantin and International Watch Company. The watch shown here is the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Eclipse.

Montblanc Star Chrono GMT Watch

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

The latest element in the 100th anniversary celebrations from Montblanc is this Star Chrono GMT Perpetual which was presented at SIHH in Geneva. The chronograph has a COSC-certified movement and a variety of functions including a GMT display and a perpetual calendar. The watch is made in a limited edition of 100 pieces each in 18K rose, white or yellow gold, and just three in platinum.

Gerald Genta Octo Black Spirit Tourbillon

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

Gerald Genta, part of the Bulgari Group, will be debuting this unique watch at the upcoming SIHH 2006 fair. The Octo Black Spirit Tourbillon has a platinum octagon-shaped case with double sapphire crystals. The case which measures 42.5mm has a tantalum bezel and the crown features a cabochon sapphire. The 18K white gold dial is embellished with a dramatic geometric configuration of 22 black sapphires and 14 rubies.The automatic movement is exclusive for Gerald Genta by Bulgari, caliber GG99051 with 54 jewels, a sapphire tourbillon bridge and a power reserve of 64 hours. The watch is also available in rose gold.

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