watches

DeLaneau Open Magic Watch

Open Magic is the newest collection of luxury timepieces for women from DeLaneau. I have a deep level of respect for the brand and am waiting for them to hopefully design a men's watch - not sure if that will ever happen as they seem pretty dedicated to be a watch for sophisticate women, by a sophisticated woman. The Open Magic watch comes in a few styles. The main designer elements include the unique strap and lugs system. A gold coil connects to the satin strap - that on the other end has double straps. The attractive case is almost Bell Epoque and art deco in style.

The watch dial itself is done in black onyx with triangular segments in mother-of-pearl (or vice versa). It has dauphine style hands and diamond hour markers. Diamond are found all over the bezel and case - with varying amounts of stones available as the Open Magic watch is offered with about 1.56 carats of diamonds to 5 carats of diamonds. Inside the watch is a Swiss mechanical movement. Really a stunning item and worthy of the Delaneau name.

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

Gallery: DeLaneau Open Magic

Tags: delaneau, open magic, watch, watches

Jaeger-LeCoultre Launches Online Service To Personalize Reverso Watches

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

A few years ago this would have never been something a high-end conservative watch brand like Jaeger-LeCoultre would have dreamed of doing. Traditionally, services like watch customization and personalization were to be done in a chic boutique with an authorized dealer over a glass of champagne and cookies. Now that model has changed and brands realize that people want to shop at home online.

The iconic Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso has a case that flips around to reveal a solid caseback - offering a perfect palette for personalization. The new Reverso customization website allows customers to pick a watch and create any number of custom engravings and art on the back of a Reverso watch. This includes a large number of pre-selected options, as well as truly customizable engravings and enamel work. Options include having initials, a special message, coat of arms, imagery, or anything else that fits on the space. You can even have precious stones set in the back of the watch case.

The website uses a Flash based application for navigation and is rather straight forward. Really a fun thing to play around with and choose your ideal personalized Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso watch.

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

Tags: customization, jaeger-lecoultre, personalization, reverso, review, watch, watches

Tag Heuer Formula 1 Gulf Edition Watch

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

I have had a love affair with Tag Heuer Formula 1 watches for a long time. The most modern ones are the best Formula 1 watches ever in my opinion. A new special model for 2011 celebrates an historic partnership that Tag Heuer enjoyed, as well as the furtherance of the F1 collection. This is the Formula 1 Gulf Edition watch, which presents itself in a similar manner as the range of Tag Heuer Monaco Gulf watches does in partnership with Gulf Oil and auto racing.

The base watch is the steel 44mm wide Tag Heuer Formula 1 Big Date watch. It contains a Swiss quartz movement with the time, subsidiary seconds dial, and big date indicator. The dial is black with a light gray cross-hatching pattern. You then see the Gulf racing stripes (with a thinner orange bar) and the Gulf logo. I think the racing stripes and dial pattern are a really neat edition. Not only is the piece attractive, but it will be particularly attractive to Tag Heuer collectors. The watch will be available on a steel bracelet or rubber strap. I don't believe the piece is a limited edition, and prices should be in the $1,000 range when it is available in a few months.

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

Tags: formula 1, gulf, tag heuer, watch, watches

Gustafsson & Sjögren Stockholm Watch

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

One of their loveliest creations, the Stockholm is the newest limited edition model from Swedish watch makers Gustafsson & Sjögren (GoS). It will be limited to just five pieces total. Four pieces will have rich mother-of-pearl dials and one model will have a blue lapis lazuli dial - each set in a 42mm wide steel case.

Dials epitomize the art and skill of the knife and watch maker's use of Damascus steel. The hour indicator ring, hands, subsidiary seconds hand, and crown are all in Damascus folded metal. The dial makes for a lovely presentation of this aesthetic, and is still very legible. Inside the watches are restored vintage movements, being manually wound Alpina 592R Swiss calibers. Over the dial is a sapphire crystal and each of the watches will be fitted to an alligator strap. For the lapis lazuli dialed model GoS will place a blue alligator strap. Overall these are finely makes pieces and quite rare - a fantastic example of "out of the box" thinking independent watch makers.

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

Gallery: Gustafsson & Sjogren Stockholm watches

Tags: Gos, Gustafsson Sjögren, Stockholm, watch, watches

Bertolucci Volta II Watches

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

Coming in loads of colors and styles. The Volta II collection is a bright new range of women's pieces from watch brand Bertolucci. More playful and decorative than the original Volta range, the Volta II has an off-centered dial for the time, and other a pair of hears or clover designed as the seconds hand. The hearts or clover on the dial spin around whimsically as the time passes. Inside the watches are Swiss quartz movements.

The cases are large at 42mm wide (for women) and comes in either steel or 18k rose gold. The watches themselves come in a large variety of colors. All have diamond studded bezels and more diamonds as well as other precious stones on the dials. The watch is matched to a colored alligator strap. Pretty fun pieces that still say "luxury watch" when worn.

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

Tags: bertolucci, collection, volta, watch, watches

Wrist Regalia: What It's Like To Wear Ultra Luxury Watches

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

Anyone who claims that timepieces are merely for telling the time simply hasn't worn enough nice watches. Even before watches were able to measure the time in a halfway decent manner they were made out of precious materials and dutifully decorated. It seems that the timepiece and luxury have been cooperating since the very beginning. It was not until the 20th century that the watch became mainstream through mass production - and even modest wage earners could afford one. Rather than destroy the elite status of having a watch, all this did was strengthen the high-end watch market as timepieces at this level needed to try even harder to separate themselves from their distant, more affordable cousins.

Writing about very expensive timepieces and the world that conceives them has been an interesting journey for me as one with no elite upbringing or sense of entitlement to the "nicest things life has to offer." This have given me a unique perspective on wearing luxury watches and the people that consume them.

Tags: experience, high-end, luxury, ultra, watch, watches, wearing

Continue reading “Wrist Regalia: What It's Like To Wear Ultra Luxury Watches”

Nivrel Deep Ocean Diver Watch

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

German based Nivrel is finally back with a new dive watch for 2011. It is called the Deep Ocean (not a super creative name by today's standards), and has a nice sporty, yet conservative look. While Nivrel quality is high, their prices are very fair compared to some of the competitors. A few years ago Nivrel has a really awesome lineup of dive watches. Those seemed to have gone away in favor of more classic pieces, but for 2011 Nivrel couldn't hold back their sport collection any longer.

As a tool watch the 43mm wide steel Deep Ocean is an attractive piece. It has a carbon fiber dial and combo of applied Arabic and circle hour markers mixed with sword hour and minute hands. Each of them slathered in SuperLumiNova luminant for darkness viewing. The watch is made in Germany and has 500 meters of water resistance and a sapphire crystal over the dial. I love dive watches and enjoy that Nivrel has offered a sober utility watch with just a hint of style - perfect for today's conservatively dressed guy who wants a watch that hints to an active sense of adventure. The watch comes in a metal bracelet along with a rubber strap. Inside the Deep Ocean is a Swiss ETA 2824-2 automatic movement.

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

Tags: deep ocean, nivrel, watch, watches

Jessica Alba Models For Piaget Jewelry

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry, Timepieces / Watches

Piaget, a high-end Swiss watch and jewelry maker, has recently signed on actress Jessica Alba to be the new face of their Possession watch and jewelry collection. Piaget chose Alba because of her beauty, and known dedication as a working Hollywood wife and mother. Piaget is interested in capturing a more mature and family focused demographic with their new Possession marketing campaign and felt that Jessica was the perfect person to evoke that image. Look for her in various Piaget marketing campaigns coming up soon.

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

Tags: jessica alba, jewelry, piasget, possession, watches

Casio Baby-G Watch For Married To The Mob Designer

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

Casio's latest special edition women's watch is this special Baby-G piece made in collaboration with fashion brand Married to the Mob by Leah McSweeney. Casio's durable G-Shock and more feminine Baby-G collection of pieces have proved to be highly malleable designs when it comes to creating special models.

Fashion designer Married to the Mob is an energetic urban themed clothing and fashion brand for young women who thrive on asserting their unconventional sides with hip, rebellions looks. According to McSweeney, there had been demand for a special Married to the Mob themed Baby-G watch for some time. Produced in limited quantities, the Married to the Mob Baby-G watch is based on the existing Casio ref. BG5600 line and is here called the BG5600MOB-4. It has a metallic pink/purple design with Married to the Mob branding on it. The LCD screen is done in a silvered style, while the gold toned case back has the signature Married to the Mob "lips" logo
engraved on it. Further Married to the Mob (MTTM) branding is on the strap. It is a very fun looking watch that will appeal to brand enthusiasts as well as others who enjoy the power purple look on the case and strap.

The watch itself has a series of functions found in most Baby-G watches including the time, calendar, stopwatch, alarms, world time, and more. The watch will be available at select Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's, and Macy's stores starting about now for the price of $99.

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

Gallery: Casio Baby-G Married to the Mob watch

Tags: baby-g, casio, married to the mob, watch, watches

Christiaan van der Klaauw Real Moon 1980 Watch

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

Probably best known for his "astrological" watches, Christiaan van der Klaauw presents a stunning new model for 2011 called the Real Moon 1980. The "1980" segment of the name refers to the fact that the highly limited watch is meant to be an homage to a clock that he constructed in 1980. The piece is stunning, and contains a few complications that I personally have not seen before.

The movement starts with one of Christiaan van der Klaauw's base CK1094 automatic movements with the Real Moon module on it. Note the sophisticated looking highly customized automatic rotor that has a realistic looking piece of the moon on it. The movement complications include the time, date, month, moon phase on turning orb, solar and lunar eclipse hand, and declination of the sun indicator. Wow, talk about yet another way to construct a fascinating astrological complication timepiece.

The solar and lunar eclipse hand indicates if there is a solar or lunar eclipse going on somewhere on earth - this dial is near 3 o'clock. Using the Christiaan van der Klaauw logo, the sun declination indicator has the logo rise and lower to show the relative position of the sun on the horizon based on the time of year. The dial with two hands at 9 o'clock are used for the calendar functions.

A modern looking dial gives way to a classic looking case. It is 40mm wide and offering in 18k white or rose gold - with matching alligator strap. Christiaan van der Klaauw will also offer a platinum version with an all hand-made dial as a limited edition of just 8 pieces. Look for these stunning new Real Moon 1980 watches soon.

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

Tags: christiaan van der Klaauw, Real Moon 1980, watch, watches

Girard-Perregaux 1966 Blue Chronograph Watch

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

Girard-Perregaux's 1966 Chronograph watch gets bathed in blue for this 1966 Blue Chronograph version of the attractive retro-inspired timepiece by the high-end Swiss brand. The 40mm wide case in in 18k white gold with a sunburst style metallic blue dial that is very attractive. Blue just happens to be quite trendy in 2011 for watches. The chronograph subdials engravings are "snailed," which results in pleasantly contrasting visual with concentric circles. It also helps with legibility when wanting to see the chronograph info easily.

On the dial the hands and hour indicators are applied and in 18k white gold. Inside the watch is an in-house made Girard-Perregaux GP030C0 automatic column wheel chronograph movement that is decorated and visible through the caseback window. The watch will come either on a black alligator strap, or an all 18k white gold metal bracelet. Prices for the 1966 Blue Chronograph are $29,700 on the strap and $51,850 on the gold bracelet. Look for this attractive watch soon.

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

Tags: 1966, blue, chronograph, girard-perregaux, watch, watches

Longines Master Collection Retrograde Moon Phases Watch

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

Watch dials that make use of a number of retrograde hands that display a lot of information are hard to pull off. They simply end up making dials look cluttered and really hard to read. So when a brand designs a watch with a dial that has a few retrograde hands, and it looks good - then there is reason to take notice. I first noticed the good looks of the Longines Master Collection Retrograde Moon Phases at Baselworld 2011 where it was being debuted. It immediately "spoke" to me, and I think others will like it as well.

Longines will offer the watch in a 41mm wide or 44mm wide steel case with a black or silvered dial. The dial is engraved with a decorative pattern. Inside the watch is a Swiss automatic movement that has four retrograde hands. These are for GMT time, the date, day, and seconds. The watch also has the time, moon phase indicator, and a day/night indicator. Really a lot going on, but it isn't intimidating to look at. The watch is available on a black or brown alligator strap with a price of 3,500 Swiss Francs.

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

Tags: collection, longines, master, retrograde, watch, watches

Piaget Altiplano Full Pave Dial Watch

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

For a truly elegant watch you can always rely on the Piaget Altiplano. It looks good on both men and women, and comes in a variety of styles - each in a thin, round case. For 2011 the Altiplano gets a full pave (diamond covered) dial with matching diamond covered bezel. The diamonds are brilliant-cut and applied in a concentric circle pattern. Depending on the model, the pieces will have between 574-735 diamonds on them.

What are the two versions? Piaget offers the Altiplano Pave Dial watch in a 34mm wide or 38mm wide 18k gold case. The 34mm wide version is clearly a women's model, while the 38mm wide version is for either men or women. There are so many diamonds on the dial that the sheer level of the sparkle is almost distracting! Piaget even had to apply their logo on the bottom of the sapphire crystal as there was no room on the bejeweled face. Still, the dials are legible thanks to the white gold baton style hour markers and dauphine hour and minute hand. The design offers a pleasing mix of jewelry and minimalism.

There are more diamonds on the buckle of the white or black alligator strap. As is the case with all Altiplano watches, this one is very thin. The Piaget made calber 430P manually wound movement is just 2.1mm thick, and the case is not that much thicker. Showy, but still elegant, the Piaget Altiplano Pave Dial watch is a great item for special occasions or when you are try to be less than subtle on a first date.

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

Tags: altiplano, pave, piaget, watch, watches

Hublot Big Bang Leopard Watch for Your Wild Side

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

Hublot's main intent behind their women's pieces is to shock and tantalize. I find it fascinating that they employ a very unique approach to making women's watches versus men's watches, as many brands have women's watches that are just mini versions of their men's collection.

One of Hublot's more noteworthy lady's line piece for 2011 is the Big Bang Leopard -- a new look for the 41mm Big Bang that is influenced by Hublot's appreciation of leopard print skin designs that exist in elsewhere in pieces such as one particular Rolex Daytona from a few years ago with a similar leopard print dial and strap. Hublot takes the concept and applies it to their 41mm wide Big Bang collection watches. If are drawn to the look, the piece is actually rather cohesive. The strap is actually leopard print denim with a matching dial style. On the dial are 18k red gold hands and yellow diamond hour markers.

The case itself is 41mm wide and done in 18k red gold. A large size for many women, but small for many Hublot timepieces. Around the bezel are jewels means to compliments the leopard print. There you'll find a mix of smoked quartz, andalusites, and citrine stones -- all in baguette cuts. Inside the watch is an HUB4300 automatic chronograph movement. No doubt the piece is highly polarizing, but you know the right person will be able to pull off the look wildly.

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

Tags: animal print, big bang, hublot, leopard, leopard print, luxury, watch, watches

Vacheron Constantin Historiques Aronde 1954 Watch Hands-On

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

What a strange bird. This is the Vacheron Constantin Historiques Aronde 1954 watch for 2011 (and I suppose also for 1954). This retro revival has the name of an avian and "wings" on the side of the case. This is 1950's era watch design experimentation in full force. My favorite part of the watch is the dial - that has vertical or horizontal lines that go in a few directions.

The oddly shaped case is however comfortable on the wrist. It is 31.20mm wide by 44.50mm tall. It has a curved sapphire crystal and is done in 18k pink gold. Inside the Aronde is a Vacheron Constantin made caliber 1400 AS manually wound movement. The alligator strap is very high-quality and brand lovers will appreciate the Maltese Cross buckle. While interesting, aside from being a vintage redo, there isn't much to say about the Aronde watch. It will not satisfy all people's tastes, but that is OK. Enough retro watch lovers will appreciate the historic design and Vacheron sense of quality to peck these timepieces up.

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

Gallery: Vacheron Constantin Historiques Aronde 1954 Watch