The new Fendi IShine is a jewellery watch with an interesting basic concept: rotating the crown changes the stones displayed between the hour markers on the dial. There are three different sets of stones: white topaz, pink and red gradient topaz, and black spinels, set around a central dial section in faceted mother-of-pearl. The crown…
There are some brand owners that have a very hands-on approach, and Fawaz Gruosi is definitely one of them – others include Pascal Raffy of Bovet and of course Jean-Claude Biver. According to Fawaz of de Grisogono, “Creative design is about constantly reinventing oneself while remaining true to one’s identity. Preciously safeguarding the attributes of…
At Baselworld 2017, Ateliers deMonaco presented two new La Sirène timepieces, derived from the original 2009 watch inspired by Princess Charlene of Monaco (whose nickname is La Sirène, referring to her career as a swimmer that culminated in her participation in the 2000 Olympics). The two watches, one set with diamonds, the other with rubies,…
Sports watches were one of the dominant themes at Baselworld 2017: the sort of watches that borrow some features of diving watches but are intended more for general use than specifically for diving. They generally have the water resistance of diver’s watches, enabling them to be kept on while swimming, diving, or just hiking in…
With the Imperiale Joaillerie, Chopard demonstrates its dual identity as watchmakers and jewellers. The watch has a self-winding mechanical movement, enclosed in a case set with 581 sapphires, for a total of 47.98 carats, and requiring over 1,000 hours selecting, cutting and setting the gems. The rainbow setting is stunning, with colours running right through…
Bulgari are on a roll. At a time at which many watch companies are suffering and sales are falling, Bulgari announce that they are enjoying double digit growth in their watch division. This year, Bulgari presented their first ever jewellery snake watch, a product masterminded by senior designer Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, and his brilliance at…
With the new 2016 version of the Pearlmaster in pink Everose gold, you get all the Rolex hallmarks – the Oyster case with screw-down solid caseback and crown, 100 metres water resistance, the Rolex calibre 3235 self-winding movement providing 70 hours power reserve, and Superlative Chronometer certification, a precision of around -2/+2 seconds max deviation…
This 39mm watch takes Parmigiani’s diamond-setting to new levels, from the classic watch with diamond-set bezel to a piece in which the gems completely cover the dial. The round diamonds are in four sizes, decreasing from the centre to the outside of the dial. Smaller diamonds are used around the central pivot, and around the…
If you’re looking for the perfect gift for your better half, and you have a budget of around £1.4 million, Blancpain has just the thing, available at Harrods in December. The Tourbillon Diamonds is powered by Blancpain’s Calibre 25A, a self-winding mechanical movement with 239 parts, providing a 7-day power reserve. The tourbillon can be…
A curious feature about diamonds is that when you see them in the flesh, they are extraordinarily beautiful and you immediately understand the reason for their fascination they hold for us humans, but in photographs, non of their magic appears. Particularly not in the computer-generated photographs that are often used by brands in their…
The Premier Shinde Automatic 36mm is a tribute to Ambaji V. Shinde, whom Harry Winston met in Bombay in 1955, was struck by his jewellery design skills, and launched a collaboration that lasted for many years. Shinde’s style was based on the tradition of temple sculpture, and it laid the foundations for his design…
This gem.-set Rolex Pearlmaster 39 iin yellow gold is a limited-edition watch, not in the catalogue of new products for 2015 but presented at Baselworld. It has 60 graded baguette stones around the bezel, and the dial is completely paved with diamonds. The Pearlmaster bracelet is also set with diamonds on the two narrow link…
At Baselworld 2015, Rolex introduced four new 39-mm watches in the Cellini Time collection. Cellini is Rolex’s dress watch, and with these new models it just got dressier, in white or Everose gold, with (for the first time for Cellini) a single or double diamond-set bezel. The versions with single diamond-set bezel has a row…
In these super-bling models by Rolex, new this year is the size, 39 mm, and the automatic calibre 3235, which is chronometer-certified by COSC and then tested in-case by Rolex. It attains a precision of +2/-2 secs per day, which is double the COSC standard (+4/-4) and has a power reserve of 70 hours, so…
Happy Sport by Chopard has become a very large collection and it is one of the brand’s most popular watches. Chopard’s determination to reinforce its horological positioning is shown by recent developments in the Happy Sport range, which from its launch in 1993 acquired its first 36 mm models with mechanical movements in 2013. This…
Happy Fish by Chopard was first launched in 2002, itself one of the many variations on the Happy Diamonds theme created in 1993 by Caroline Scheufele and featuring diamonds free to move between two sapphire crystals. In this 25-piece limited edition, the fish is sculpted in mother-of-pearl, with hand-applied gold leaf decoration and jasper eye.…
Sometimes, a fruit tree can take on a two-year cycle, cropping heavily one year and lightly the next. Perhaps the same is true for some watch brands. After the exceptional Midnight Planétarium last year, this year Van Cleef & Arpels focused on Cadenas, the bracelet with a small quartz watch, a few one-off high jewellery…
Cadenas looks very different from most Van Cleef & Arpels creations, which are often very French and poetique in their inspiration. Cadenas is, on the other hand, a bracelet-watch that is tough and chunky. Like the Zip necklace, the design was probably inspired by the Duke and Duchess of Windsor – King Edward VIII who…
While the Hermès Dressage L’heure masquée is an ingenious watch with an original movement designed to express an unusual concept of time, the Arceau Temari by Hermès is a jewellery watch in which the motif on the dial is the principal feature. Temari is a Japanese word meaning “hand ball.” They were made from remnants…
Bohème is the name of the new Montblanc collection of women’s watches, jewellery and pens, launched in Shanghai on 28 August 2014. CEO Jérome Lambert, with personalities Chris Hemsworth, Elsa Pataky, Ana Beatriz Barros, Chiara Ferragni, Dennis Nieh, Liu Tao, Dong Xuan, and the new Brand Ambassador Gwai Lun Mei, were present at the event,…