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HSNY Offers Scholarships for Female Watchmaking Students

The Horological Society of New York (HSNY) this week launches the Grace Fryer Scholarship for Female Watchmaking Students, adding it to financial aid options for those who study watchmaking at a full-time watchmaking school in the United States.

HSNY derived the name of the new scholarship from Grace Fryer (1899 – 1933), a dial painter in New Jersey who was poisoned by radium during her work in dial-making companies in the 1920s.

Grace Fryer

The women at these companies, which were located in Connecticut, Illinois and New Jersey, were instructed to point the radium-lined brushes using their lips. The Radium Girls, as the women would later be called, suffered horrific side effects from radium poisoning and many lost their lives.

Fryer spent years fighting for the Radium Girls and their case would go on to gain national media attention and establish legal precedents, having tremendous labor rights impacts and ushering scientific advances.

“I believe Aunt Grace would view this scholarship, which the Horological Society of New York has graciously named after her, as a symbol of progress for women,” says Art Fryer, Grace Fryer’s nephew. “I feel Grace would be honored to be associated with HSNY in helping to welcome women into the horological craft.”

The Grace Fryer Scholarship joins HSNY’s additional financial aid opportunities in watchmaking, which include:

  •  The Henry B. Fried Scholarship for Watchmaking Students
  •  The Benjamin Banneker Scholarship for Black Watchmaking Students
  •  The Oscar Waldan Scholarship for Jewish Watchmaking Students
  •  The Howard Robbins Award for Watchmaking Schools

Students can apply now until March 1.

Any female student who has been accepted or is currently studying at a full-time watchmaking school in the U.S. is eligible to apply to the Grace Fryer Scholarship. Prospective students may also apply, with the understanding that the scholarship is contingent on their enrollment at a full-time watchmaking school. Financial aid is awarded every April with awards up to $5,000 in 2022.

 

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The Watches

Grand Seiko Icy Dials Celebrate Anniversaries

Grand Seiko celebrates the twentieth anniversary of its first GMT watch and the fifteenth anniversary of its premiere Spring Drive chronograph with two new watches.

Both debuts technically echo ongoing designs within Grand Seiko’s Sport collection, but present themselves with dials created to recall winter scenes in the mountains that surround the Shinshu in central Japan studio where Grand Seiko design and manufactures the watches. Similarly, both watches feature blue dial accents meant to echo the bright blue color of the winter sky in Shinshu.

The new Sport Collection Grand Seiko GMT 20th Anniversary Limited Edition (SBGE275).

One of these new watches, the Sport Collection Grand Seiko GMT 20th Anniversary Limited Edition (SBGE275), is a 44mm steel watch with a large GMT hand that allows the wearer to read a second-time zone while a third time zone can also be displayed using the 24-hour bezel.

The power reserve and date are the only other displays interrupting the dial’s wintry white and blue scene. With Grand Seiko’s generous use of Lumibrite on the bezel, indexes, hour, minute, and GMT hands, all displays remain visible in darkness.

The Sport Collection Grand Seiko Chronograph 15th Anniversary Limited Edition (SBGC247) is the busier of the two new debuts.

The new Sport Collection Grand Seiko Chronograph 15th Anniversary Limited Edition (SBGC247).

Framed by a 43.5mm titanium case, the dial’s icy white coloring serves as a backdrop to three subdials. Grand Seiko protects the much-lauded Spring Drive Chronograph GMT Caliber 9R96 inside this watch with heightened anti-magnetic casing and a fortified titanium case.

Both movements, including the Spring Drive GMT Caliber 9R16 inside the GMT-only model and the Spring Drive Caliber 9R96 inside the chronograph GMT, offer hyper-accurate timing, with accuracy to plus or minus ten seconds per month or 0.5 seconds per day. Both also feature an 18-karat gold Grand Seiko lion emblem on the oscillating weight. (See specifications below for details).

The Grand Seiko chronograph, automatic Spring Drive Caliber 9R96, showing the Grand Seiko lion emblem in 18-karat yellow gold on the oscillating weight.

Look for the Sport Collection Grand Seiko GMT 20th Anniversary Limited Edition (SBGE275, $7,300) in March when Grand Seiko will release it as a limited edition of 1,500. The Sport Collection Grand Seiko Chronograph 15th Anniversary Limited Edition (SBGC247, $11,000) is a limited edition of 700 and will be available in February.

 

(Specifications: Grand Seiko Spring Drive GMT (SBGE275, a limited edition of 1,500)

Movement: Automatic Grand Seiko Spring Drive GMT Caliber 9R16, accuracy of ±10 seconds per month (±0.5 second per day). Power reserve is 72 hours.

Case: 44mm by 14.9mm stainless steel case and bracelet, three-fold clasp with push button release, dual-curved sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating, see-through screw case back, screw-down crown, water resistance to 200 meters, magnetic resistance of 4,800 A/m.

Dial: Patterned ‘icy’ white.

Bracelet: Steel with three-fold clasp and push button release.

Price: $7,300.

 

Specifications: Grand Seiko Spring Drive Chronograph GMT  (SBGC247, a limited edition of 700)

Movement: Automatic Grand Seiko Spring Drive Chronograph GMT Caliber 9R96, accuracy to ±10 seconds per month (±0.5 second per day), power reserve of 72 hours.

Case: 43.5mm by 16.1mm high-intensity titanium. Dual-curved sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating, see-through screw case back, screw-down crown, water resistance to 100 meters, magnetic resistance to 4,800 A/m.

Dial: Patterned ‘icy’ white.

Bracelet: Titanium with three-fold clasp with push button release.
Price: $11,000.

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The Watches

Arnold & Son Celebrates Chinese New Year

Arnold & Son celebrates the traditional Chinese New Year with a limited edition moon phase watch that beautifully illustrates the Year of the Water Tiger, which begins on February 1.

The watchmaker’s Year of the Tiger Perpetual Moon sports a stunning dial depicting a golden tiger standing near a river and lit by a brilliant mother-of-pearl moon. Hematite and aventurine sparkle as the tiger and a luminous, hand-painted waterfall set the scene.

The new Arnold and Son Perpetual Moon Year of the Tiger.

Arnold & Son’s large moonphase display, already one of the most impressive such displays available from a Swiss watchmaker, here brilliantly reveals the waxing and waning of our satellite with hand-painted relief and a generous coating of SuperLuminova.

During the daytime, the moon takes on a grey tint, while in the dark it glows from the center, contrasting nicely with the adjacent deep black aventurine glass.

Arnold & Son artisans sculpted a rose gold tiger with hand-engraved and hand-burnished fur to highlight the remaining portion of the dial. The nearby bamboo is painted in gold powder on a hematite disc, which displays with glittering inclusions.

Inside Arnold & Son places its own A&S1512 manual-wind caliber, created with two barrels, a frequency of 3 Hz and a terrific ninety-hour power reserve.

Finally, Arnold & Son fits a black alligator strap backed with red alligator leather and stitched with platinum thread to the 42mm red-gold “Year of the Tiger” Perpetual Moon. A limited edition of eight, the watch is priced at CHF 52,900 (approximately $57,695).

 

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The Watches

Louis Vuitton Lights Up New Smartwatch

Louis Vuitton expands its smartwatch offering with the new Tambour Horizon Light Up, the third generation of the smartwatch since the fashion house debuted its first model five years ago.

Now running on a customized operating system (instead of Google Wear OS) the new series is the first of the brand’s smartwatches to feature pushers on either side of the crown. The pushers are meant to enhance access to various functions and shortcuts.

The enhanced functionality creates what Louis Vuitton calls “never-see-before levels of customization and personalization.”

The 44mm Tambour Horizon Light Up now also features an eye-catching wraparound curved sapphire glass screen that will display colorful, active notifications using a new set of twenty-four LED lights.

Now with an ‘always on’ display, the watch gives users quick access to any of eight dial configurations, all of which offer personalized color and font options. Look for additional face designs to reflect holidays, seasons and even fashion shows.

Louis Vuitton equips the new watch with an ‘all-day battery’ that can be affected with one of four efficiency modes aimed at reducing or expanding the watch’s animation or battery consumption level.

As one of the world’s top leather fashion houses, Louis Vuitton will offer Tambour Horizon Light Up users access to what the brand calls its “vast and colorful world” of straps.

At its launch, Louis Vuitton will include three watch case options: polished steel, matte black and the Louis-Vuitton’s historic matte brown.

Prices: Steel version – $3,450 (steel with rubber strap), $4,100 (matte black & matte brown with rubber strap).

Specifications: Louis Vuitton Tambour Horizon Light Up

Case: 44mm x 13.2mm steel covered in sapphire glass front and back. Thirty meters of water resistance.

Display: 1.2-inch AMOLED touch screen, display resolution: 390×390-pixels (327 ppi)

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100, 8 GB storage, 1 GB RAM, pedometer, optical heart sensor.

Average battery life: 1 day under normal 
conditions of use (LEDs usage included)

Sensors: heart rate monitor, microphone, 
accelerometer, gyroscope and ambient 
light sensor

Actuator: vibration sensor

Compatibility: Android 9.0+, iOS 14+ 
and HarmonyOS 2.0+

Connectivity: Wi-Fi (802.11 B/G/N), 
Bluetooth 4.2, NFC
• MFi-certified
• Micro-processor: Snapdragon Wear 4100 • Memory: 1GB RAM – 8 GB Flash

Features and Functions

Exclusive Louis Vuitton watch faces

– Travel (flight/train/hotel) plans and boarding information

– Louis Vuitton City Guides

– Heart rate, calendar, steps, weather, air quality index

– Notifications
- Overview of latest notifications from

the user’s phone

Controls

Four user modes (Blossom, Explorer, Submarine, Saver)

  • –  Connectivity status (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth®)
  • –  Battery level
  • –  Find my phone
  • –  Alarm, timer & stopwatch
  • –  Remote for smartphone’s camera
  • –  Alipay (contactless payment from the watch)
  • –  Calls management
  • –  Music playback management
  • –  Other settings of the watch (second time zone, 
notifications settings, security, system updates). 

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The Watches

Franck Muller Creates a Wrist Rainbow

Now in the United States and Canada, this Franck Muller Vanguard Skeleton Color Dreams collection will brighten any winter weary wrist with a rainbow of colors.

The imaginative Geneva watchmakers have deftly combined its top-selling 45mm Vanguard Skeleton tonneau case with a multi-hued manually wound movement. As noted on the watch’s dial, the movement offers an impressive seven-day power reserve.

The carbon-cased version of the new Franck Muller Vanguard Skeleton Color Dreams.

Franck Muller’s watchmakers have built the movement from satin-finished, multi-color anodized v-shaped aluminum bridges that draw attention as framed by a metallic or darkened carbon case.

The movement consists of eight colors derived from the existing Franck Muller Color Dreams collection. While the current focus for this collection in the United States (and Canada) is on the model with a black carbon Vanguard case, Franck Muller also offers the watch in either a brushed titanium Vanguard case or a stainless steel Vanguard case.

Price: $59,700 (dark carbon case). Click here to locate a Franck Muller boutique in the United States. For a video description of the watch, click here.

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