Tuesday, November 11, 2008

This blog is a Luxury Watch Treasure Trove.

In case you were confused by the word "Luxury" this watch will re clarify the concept. Chopard (Founded in 1860) sells a Super Ice Cube Luxury Watch. Retail $1,130,620. Take your Tourbillons - give me diamonds - lots and lots. 66.16 carats of diamonds including 1,897 brilliants, 288 trapeze-cuts, and a center case glimmering with 16 squares. The watch is subtly pretentious and overtly glamorous. Chopard offers over fifty variations on the "Ice Cube" from black diamonds to pastel sapphires to rubies. Chopard is renowned for its incredible "gem sense" in that every hand picked gem is placed on the watch in perfect harmony and balance.
This next watch is a Blancpain 1735 - Blancpain was founded in 1735 and this watch was named for the year. At first glance this Luxury Watch worth about One Million Dollars seems quite humble; however this watch has 6 individual complications. Two more than necessary to qualify as a "Grand Complication". The 6 Complications are compacted in an ultra slim 42 mm case which in itself can almost be deemed a complication. The Blancpain 1735 is equipped with:
a) A Perpetual Calander making allowances for different lengths of month as well as leap years till the year 2100.
b) Split-second chronograph or "rattrapante" which has two second hands, one of which can be blocked with a special dial train lever to indicate an intermediate time while the other continues to run. When released, the split-seconds hand jumps ahead to the position of the other second hand.
c)Minute repeater which has a striking mechanism with hammers and gongs for sounding the hours or quarter hours at the will of the wearer. The wearer pushes a slide which winds the spring. Most Repeaters use two different gongs to signal hours (low tone), quarters hours (high and low tones in succession), and minutes (high tone).
d) Tourbillon - said to compensate for the interference of gravity on the watch thus improving the watches accuracy, From the French word "whirlwind", in the Tourbillon the entire escapement escapement is mounted on a epicyclic train in a cage and rotated completely on its axis over a regular period of time, usually once a minute. A tourbillon is valued more for its superb horological craftsmanship than its actual functional abilities.
e) Moon-phase minder which displays the phases of the moon.

The streamlined case encapsulates 740 components that takes eight to ten months to build. This timepiece collection is limited to 30 watches. Crocodile Strap and 80 hour power reserve, what more could you ask for.
Hublot does everything big. The materials under the diamonds are invisible giving a perfect shimmer to the watch. The "Big Bang Chronograph" with a heart throbbing tourbillon is worth One Million Dollars.

The following three watches have yet to be priced, but my guess is it is going to be quite high and they add quite nicely to my treasure trove of watches blog.

This sleek bracelet is more bracelet than watch but since it is a Jaeger-LeCoultre creation the tiny watch nestled between the gleaming squares is a mechanical masterpiece of fine watch craftmanship. No price quoted as of yet for this Joaillerie 101 Manchette stunning timepiece.
This watch is the Tag Heuer Fantasy where for the first time the diamonds tell the time. There is no one other than Tag Heuer themselves to explain how this marvelous space age watch operates:

This luxury watch set with 879 Top Wesselton (5.8 carats) VS/SI (1.1 mm), full-cut, diamonds hides a surprising innovation: the digital display through the diamonds. 54 of the 879 diamonds have been cut in a revolutionary way to provide a very high-definition concentration of the light emitted by 54 LEDs (light emitting diodes) that display the time in glowing red. The red is echoed in the satin strap that gives a warm and silky look contrasting with the brilliance of the multiple diamonds.

There you have it and the price is inestimable as only three of these watches have been crafted. Quite mind-boggling that a creation like this has been limited to but three.
Diamond Rotolog Watch. Crafted by Watch Manufacturer Nixon. Interesting no doubt. I kind of cannot wrap my mind around it. This watch is studded with 1,851 diamonds - 764 full cut white diamonds while the remaining ones are full cut black diamonds, bringing the total number of carats to 9.25 carats.By this time I expect you to be salivating at the sight of all these luxurious items. I was going to sign off but Corum's Classical Billionaire Tourbillon kept on surfacing above my subconscious. Retailing at around a Million Dollars - Okay $998,000. A spectacular time-piece with a white gold case set with baguette diamond bezel, transparent dial and a stunningly blue alligator strap. The watch is a manual winding tourbillon with sapphire bridges. A 90 day power reserve with a 2007 limited production of 10 pieces.

A watch like this comes up for sale only once in a lifetime like a fleeting comet. The Girard-Perregaux Opera One. This luxury timepiece has no dial hiding the craftsmanship. The watch has three bridges, a tourbillon and a minute repeater sounding a Westminster Chime.

Imagine wearing one of these beauties on your wrist.