SIHH 2010 Ladies

The focus of most of the brands on the SIHH are on mens watches. Ofcourse there where also some nice lady watches. The picture above is a summary of some stunning, high-end and technical lady watches. The first one is the Richard Mille Infinity Knot. The whole case and dial is set with pave diamonds. The second one is the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore New York 57th street boutique ROO Limited edition. It is a limited edition of 150 pieces. The last one is the Piaget Altiplano Gem-Set Skeleton. The case is 40 mm and the case and the movement are fully set with diamonds.   

Written by: Tobias. S

NEW SITE: Zenith

The picture above is a screenshot from the new site of Zenith. I also saw the new models of Zenith, from Basel 2010. You are going to be very surprised! I will post the new models when the Baselfair begins. The fair will start on march 18th.

Written by: Tobias. S

SIHH: Panerai Tourbillon

The above model is a spectacular new skeleton tourbillon from Officine Panerai. It is introduced at the SIHH in Genève. Here are the model specifics.

Movement: Hand-wound mechanical, Panerai P.2005/S calibre, executed entirely by Panerai, 16¼ lignes, 10.05 mm thick, 31 jewels, Glucydur® balance, 28,800 alternations/hour. Incabloc® anti-shock device. Power reserve 6 days, three barrels. 277 components.

Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, second time zone, 24h indicator, power reserve indicator on the back, tourbillon.
Case: Diameter 48 mm, black ceramic with removable wire loop strap attachments (patented) in steel with special hard black coating. Screw-down winding crown in ceramic personalised OP.
Bezel: Black ceramic
Back: See-through sapphire crystal.
Dial: Skeleton dial with luminous Arabic numerals and hour markers. 24h indicator at 3 o’clock, small seconds and tourbillon indicator at 9 o’clock.
Crystal: Sapphire, made from corundum, 2 mm thick. Double anti-reflective coating.
Water-resistance: 10 bar (100 metres).
Strap: PANERAI personalised leather strap and adjustable steel buckle with special hard black coating.
Reference: PAM00348

Written by: Tobias. S

Photo's SIHH: 2010 Audemars Piguet

Here is a photosummary of some new models from Audemars Piguet. These models are introduced at the SIHH in Genève. The first model on the first picture is the new Royal Oak Offshore Tourbillon Chronograph and the second one is the Royal Oak Offshore Grand Prix. Both models are rosegold. The first watch on the second picture is the Royal Oak Offshore Diver and the other watch is the Quincy Jones Millenary. The last watch is the Royal Oak Equation of Time The further model specifics are coming soon.

Written by: Tobias. S

SIHH Day 2

Today is day 2 of the SIHH. On the above picture you see some impressions from the SIHH last year and this year. Yesterday we forgot about the new models from Cartier, IWC and several others. On the pictures below you see the new models of several brands with the explanations under the picture.

The first watch on the picture is the Cartier skeleton flying tourbillon. The case is 18 crt whitegold, the diameter is 45mm and the front and the back of the case are sapphire glass. The seconds watch is the Roger Dubuis Excaliber tourbillon minute repeater. This watch is a personal favorite, because I am a huge fan of the openworked dial. The whole case is 18 crt. rosegold and it is offered in a limited series of 28 pieces. The last watch is the new Piaget Altiplano. This watch came out because of the 50th Anniversary of the introduction of its legendary calibre 12P. This was the thinnest mechanical movement at that time. They once again set the new limit. This watch is the thinnest self-winding movement currently on the market, 2.35 mm.

The first one is the IWC Yacht club Chronograph. It is the new elegance sport watch in the portugese collection. The watch is water-resistant to 6 bar and is equipped with a screw-in crown and a crown protection. The second watch is the new A. Lange & Söhne 1 Daymatic. It is a nice established watch with a double-date and a new self-winding movement. The last watch is the Jean-Richard 2timezones Zirconium. It is a limited edition of 249 pieces. It a special watch, because it has a zirconium case. This is almost unique in watchmaking, zirconium is a high-performance metal. It is associated with a vulcanised rubber-coated steel bezel and titanium pushers and crown-shields.

Because of the nice new models at the SIHH, I cant wait till Basel. I heard there are coming a lot of nice and extreme novelties there.

Written by: Tobias. S

NEW: The SIHH in Genève started

The Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie celebrates its 20th anniversary today. The SIHH will take place from January 18th to 22nd 2010 in Genève, Switzerland. The start of the SIHH means new press releases from the luxury brands. The exhibitors this year are:  A.Lange & Söhne, Alfred Dunhill, Audemars Piguet, Baume & Mercier, Cartier, JeanRichard, Girard Perregaux, Greubel Forsey, IWC, Jaeger LeCoultre, Montblanc, Officine Panerai, Parmigiani Fleurier, Piaget, Ralph Lauren Watch & Jewelry Co, Richard Mille, Roger Dubuis, Vacheron Constantin and Van Cleef & Arpels.

Above you see three new watches. The first one is the new Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Grand Prix chronograph limited edition. It is made from high-tech materials as carbon and it is equipped with a selfwinding movement. The second one is the Jeager-LeCoultre Master Compressor Extreme LAB 2. This model is developed for the most extreme conditions and equipped with a mechanical Chronograph with GMT-function. The thirth is the Richard Mille RM028. This watch is available in titanium and a rubber strap. It is a diver's watch following the trend set out by the first Richard Mille diver's watch RM025.

These are also new complicated watches. The first one is the Panerai Radiomir Oro Rosa. This watch is 42mm and the case is pink gold. It has a new in-house calibre, the P.999. This calibre is hand-wound and features a 60-hour power reserve. The second watch is the Girard-Perregaux 1966 Chronograph. It offers a stylish take on traditional watchmaking, integrating a column-wheel chronograph in an elegant case from its Girard-Perregaux 1966 collection. The last watch is the Greubel & Forsey Double Tourbillon in red gold. This year Greubel & Forsey makes its first appearance. Newly installed in the original and innovative manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the team of 63 highly qualified watchmakers patiently work together to contribute to the highly manufactured timepieces stemming from the new inventions: the Double Tourbillon 30°, the Tourbillon 24 secondes, and the Quadruple Tourbillon (SIHH, 2010).

Tomorrow there is coming more from the SIHH.

Written by: Tobias. S

Ten minutes past ten

Why are all watches, used in advertisements and commercials, set to 10 minutes past 10? Some people say: it frames the brand and logo nicely. Others say when you are photographing a watch on this way, it smiles, instead of a sad face. I mean everybody wants to see a smile on the face of a watch, right? We searched for some pronunciations from experts.

Klaus Peter Mager, a spokesman for Swatch, said his 25-year-old company, based in Biel, Switzerland, has always photographed watches primarily at 10:10, because “they’re smiling instead of a sad man’s face.” Andrew Block, executive vice president at Tourneau (large watch retailer, which has 51 stores worldwide) said: Because brand names generally are centered on the upper half of a watch, hands positioned at 10 and 2 “frame the brand and logo”. He also said “It’s almost like an unwritten rule that understands to photograph a watch at 10:10” (NY Times, 2008).

Personally I think these are some statements that aren’t true or false, I like watches who are showing 10:10 because its symmetric, and usually that is experienced nicer by customers. The following marketing advertisement is a nice fact: Ulyssee Nardin had a wristwatch campaign where the watch was set on 8:19. Susanne Hurni, head of Ulyssee Nardin’s advertising and marketing, said they did this, because when watches have secondary dials and windows – for the day of the week, calendar day and year – that would be obscured by the hands at 10 and 2.

Linda Kaplan Thaler, CEO of the Kaplan Thaler Group, a New York advertising agency, learned about the 10:10 rule when her firm worked on a campaign for Rolex several years ago, and was drawn to the notion that it was like a smile. “In advertising we would never expect someone to look at a watch and say, ‘The watch is smiling,’ but it’s just a feeling you get,” said Ms. Kaplan.

I think we never get to know if it is a rule or just a “guideline”, but I’m sure a watch that is smiling, is always good!

Written by: Tobias. S

Jasmine Bapic VP Audemars Piguet Latin America

Swiss haute horlogerie brand Audemars Piguet announced that Jasmine Bapic will become Vice President for the Latin American region. Jasmine was manager of a boutique of AP and before that she was sales representative of the east coast region of America. Jasmine worked in the watch industry since she graduated at the Academie Maximilien de Meuron in Neuchatel, Switzerland. She worked as sales manager at Wings of Time, Marketingdirector at Technomarine and she supported the international marketingdepartment at Parmigiani Fleurier. She began her career as executive assistant at Corum.

“For quite some time I have recognized Jasmine’s considerable talent and contribution to the company," says Francois-Henry Bennahmias, President and CEO of Audemars Piguet, The Americas. "When the time came to fill the position of VP of Latin America, she was a natural choice." (Vialuxe, 2010)


For her new position she will be located in Miami. From here she will coordinate her work and oversee sales and marketing operations throughout the region, to include Mexico and the Carribean. TSWatches wishes her
a lot of succes on her new job.

Written by: Tobias. S

NEW: Watch Style Guide

First of all: I wish everybody a happy new year and may all your wishes come true!! We are in a new year so I taught it would be nice to introduce a new topic to the visitors. Once per month we present a Watch Style Guide. This is a guide for people who don’t know what to wear at what kind of occasion or people who just like to know what’s 'hot'. We have several categories: Sports watches, Business watches, Ultimate lady watches and several others. Today we start with the Sports category. Out of each category we select three timepieces.

With the sports category we could better say spare time: when you’re not working or at a special occasion like black tie dinner, Oscars, music awards etc. This means the watch has to be shock resistant, water resistant and the movement has to be okay while you’re doing activities. The timepieces are carefully chosen by watchfanatics.

The first watch is the Zenith Defy Xtreme El Primero. We chose this watch because its 1000 meter water resistant, has sapphire glass and a special shock absorption process (see post > special: Zenithium), option: carbon bezel (so the damage level is low. Watch on the picture has a carbon bezel), crown is protected and it has a nice titanium bracelet and case. Because of the titanium the weight of this watch is okay, its light but still big . This combination is nice to wear and nice to see. The second watch is the Breitling Avenger Seawolf. This watch is 3000 meter water resistant, has an sapphire glass and a brushed steel case. Because the case is brushed you don’t see many scratches when you’re doing activities. Also the option of a diver pro bracelet is nice. The third watch is a diver watch. The IWC Aquatimer 2000. This watch is 2000 meters water resistant, has an sapphire glass and it has an bracelet quick chance system. And last but not least an unidirectional rotating bezel made of yellow and black PVD-Steel with super luminova.
There is a big price difference between these three watches. The Zenith watch is the most expensive and starts at €16.500 euro, the IWC Aquatimer serie starts at €3.540 euro and het Breitling Avenger Seawolf is €2.940 euro.

Written by: Tobias. S