Azimuth is a relatively new watch company, founded in 2003, but they already have created a variety of intriguing designs. Their designs span the watchmaking spectrum from their Militare - 1 collection which are inspired by the pilot watches from World War II, to their angular and quirky Gauge Mecha-1 BMF designs. My favorite has to be the SP-1 Mechanique concept watch. The so-called spaceship watch has a rendition of Earth as seen from space which rotates every sixty seconds. It has a jumping hour display powered by a Unitas 6497 movement. It has a rotating disc which is at the base of a minute hand. The dial is decorated with small dots to resemble stars and the 45mm stainless steel case is capped by a domed sapphire crystal.

Luxury behemoth LVMH has a new watchmaker in their growing watches and jewelry unit. They have announced that they will acquire Switzerland's Hublot watch group from the founder Carlo Crocco and a firm controlled by Jean-Claude Biver, who's managed the brand since 2004.

LVMH already owns several successful watch brands including TAG Heuer, Zenith, Dior Montres and Louis Vuitton watches. LVMH has announced plans to increase the brand's profile in Asia and Japan and expand retail distribution. Currently the watches are sold in 300 stores worldwide. Hopefully they won't dilute the brand too much, part of Hublot's power is that that they do a particular type of big beefy watch, the Big Bang, so well. The Hublot fans on the Time Zone Hublot forum definitely are excited about this move for Hublot.

It's the watch line creating quite a buzz ....last week at Villa in Hollywood, Lindsey Lohan was seen proudly showing off her new Haimov. With a celebrity following that includes the likes of rappers (50 Cent & Timbaland own a few), socialites (Paris is a huge fan) and athletes (Shaq shelled out $26,000 on a Haimov HM2), watch maker Igal Haimov is making a fortune off young Hollywood. Recognizable by their unique octagon shape and tricky numeric layout, Haimovs also have a convenient removable bezel. Prices range from $8,000 up to $52,000, and have more bling than you've ever seen, the HM1 style packs a whopping 21 carats! You can browse the styles online but I think you have to pop into one of the Haimov stores in Miami if you want to buy one.

Bombardier, the company best known for its planes, has licensed a line of Swiss chronographs through B Watches. Their line of watches is rugged and classic. The Vintage BB1&BB2 watches are automatic chronographs. The Airjet collection is comprised of quartz chronographs and there are also Deep Diver and Subdiver models. Large pictures are in the gallery. So far the handsome watches aren't too well known in the U.S. but they recently entered into an agreement with Saro Gem to sell the watches in the States, so I suspect that will change.

The Marvin brand of watches, which was started in 1850 and then stopped manufacturing in the 1990s, is ready for a comeback. The brand was bought from Les Manufactures d'horlogerie Suisses Reunies (MSR) by the Neuchatel company Time Avenue owned by Jean-Daniel and Cecile Maye. The brand is now producing watches again with a large selection of both men's and women's watches with both quartz and mechanical movements. Prices range from 480 to 1,280 Swiss Francs for a quartz watch and from 980 to 3,600 Swiss Francs for a mechanical watch.

[via Time Zone]

Looking at this watch you can see immediately that it is something different. If the gleaming wood lines look familiar you might recognize them from the sleek and luxurious look of Riva yachts. Hamilton Watches has partnered with Riva to create the "Riva timed by Hamilton" watch collection. The watches feature the Riva name on the buckle strap and a distinctive Riva compass design on the back of the watch case. It looks like it comes in both stainless steel and rose gold.

Backes & Strauss, famous as the the oldest diamond trader in the world, is launching a diamond watch line in London. The esteemed diamond cutters have entered into a partnership with Asprey and Harrods and the watches will be showcased in both stores. The watches come in three styles inspired by London architecture: the Berkeley which is inspired by Berkeley Square, The Piccadily is a circular watch that is inspired by the Piccadilly Circus and the Regent, shown here, draws on the architecture of John Nash who was commissioned by the Prince Regent in 1811 to develop Regent Street, Regent's Park and St James's Park. The watches are available in 18K white or rose gold. All of the watches feature the "crown jewel" a diamond set in the crown in an invisible setting.

[via IDEX]

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.

Today we are taking a look at some of the gorgeous new watches from Vacheron Constantin. Whether you like complex watches with intricate mechanisms, the retro fantastic or watches that are simply artistic, they have created something for every type of watch lover.

The Masque watches are part of a collection that will span three years with twelve masks, 25 pieces of each. Each timepiece is uses the automatic Calibre 2460G4 movement. The time is read without any hands: by means of four discs that indicate the hours, minutes, days and date in windows, leaving the center of the dial free for the masks. The use of specially-treated glass creates the impression that the masks are floating. Each sapphire crystal has a different tint to show off the color of the mask. The 40mm case is fashioned in white gold for the Alaskan mask, pink gold for the Indonesian mask, yellow gold for the Chinese mask, and platinum for the Congolese mask. There are 25 boxes, each with the four watches representing four different continents (The Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania), for a total of 100 individual pieces.

I'm a fan of Gwen Stefani and her L.A.M.B. line but I'm not sure what to think of her new line of watches. WWD covers the new line which launches at Nordstrom next month. The watches are in the range of $195 to $475 and are meant to combine Gwen's love of street looks and high glamour. The watches include the L.A.M.B. logo, Gothic script and numbers, enamel details and a garnet in the watch crown. The watches are powered by Swiss quartz movements.

You don't think of the Burberry set as being the rough-and-tumble crowd but their Endurance watches make a strong argument for manliness. It's not as big as the Hublot Big Bang, but at 42mm across the Burberry Expedition Antarctica Big Date is no shrimp. All the Endurance watches feature a map of the continent (buy now before global warming changes the landscape). This watch has a rubber wristband and a Swiss Ronda quartz movement with a big-date feature and sells for $475.

[via Time Zone]

The Watch of the Year for 2006 chosen by readers of the national German-language newspaper “Welt am Sonntag” (The World on Sunday) and the magazine “Armband Uhren”(Wristwatches) were announced at BaselWorld, in Basel, Switzerland. The winner, shown here, is beautiful but perhaps a bit of German bias? My pick would be Vacheron's Tour d'I'lle which comes in at a humble number seven.

For men:
1. Lange & Söhne’s “Lange 1 Time Zone”
2. Chronoswiss’s “Digiteur"
3. Glasshütte Original’s “Panomatic Tourbillion”
4. Rolex’s “Prince”
5. Breitling for Bentley’s “Mulliner Tourbillon”
6. Omega’s “Seamaster Planet Ocean Co-axial”
7. Vacheron Constatin’s “Tour de I’Ile”
8. IWC’s “Ingenieur Automatic”
9. Longines’ “Master Collection, Chronograph”
10.  Breguet’s “La Tradition”

For women:
1. Jaeger-LeCoultre’s “Reverso Duoface”
2. Glasshütte Original’s “SunRay"
3.  Cartier’s “Santos 100”
4. Longines’ “Evidenza”
5. Baume & Mercier’s “Hampton Milleis”
6.  Rolex’s “Lady Datejust”
7. Patek Philippe’s “Twenty-4”
8. Rainer Brand’s “Pezzo"
9. Ebel’s “1911 Lady”
10. Chanel’s “J12"

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]

Longines is showing off four main models at BaselWorld. Longines isn't one of the companies that produces intricate whirling tourbillons, massive bulky bolted watches, or gem-heavy dazzlers, instead they specialize in classic and refined looks. The first are the latest incarnations of their Les Elegantes line, a look back at the delicate Art Deco watches of the 1920s and 30s. This year they are using three designs inspired by their collections dated from 1928 and 1931.

Time Zone has a round-up of three Cartier watches which will be shown off at the SIHH 2006 watch and jewelry fair. The watch shown here is a new diamond version of Cartier’s Crash watch. It is done in 18K rose gold with diamonds and a white sapphire in the crown. Other watches being shown include the Rotonde Grande Date which has a 42mm 18kt white gold case, sapphire crystals and a crown with a blue sapphire cabochon. The movement is a manual-wind Cartier caliber 9602MC with 22 jewels, beating at 28,800 bph and a power reserve of 72 hours. The third watch will be a limited edition tourbillon model in platinum. It has a  manual-wind Cartier caliber 9450 movement with tourbillon and retrograde hours and minutes. It has 42 jewels, beating at 21,600 bph and a power reserve of 72 hours.