Bucherer recently added a second store to its ongoing expansion within the U.S. as the Swiss-based retailer revamps the Tourneau chain, which it acquired in 2018.
Just weeks after debuting its extensive renovation of the TimeMachine flagship in New York, Bucherer adds a location in the King of Prussia Mall.
Bucherer’s new store in King of Prussia.
The new 4,976-square foot store features large windows and decorative “BB” mesh at the storefront and a mix of dark woods, soft fabric panels, and reflective stones in a neutral color palette inside.
In addition, the space features two group lounge areas; a custom banquette and a bar open to serve coffee, tea, and light refreshments.
The Swiss-based Bucherer 1888 has worked with each of its multi-brand partners Hublot. Tudor. Blancpain, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Hublot, Longines and Carl F. Bucherer, to provide retail locations within the new boutique. These are in addition to Rolex, IWC Schaffhausen, and Panerai mono-brand boutiques adjacent to the store.
Audemars in Aspen
In Aspen, Colorado, Audemars Piguet has opened a new boutique at 535 E Hyman Ave. The 900-square-foot boutique offers clients a retail setting inspired by the brand’s home in the Jura Mountains of Switzerland, which are echoed by the Rocky Mountains near Aspen. The boutique will offer an extensive selection of men’s and women’s models, including many from the new Royal Oak Offshore collection.
Audemars Piguet’s new boutique in Aspen.
The Aspen store joins Audemars Piguet boutiques in New York, Las Vegas, East Hampton, Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, Boston, Bal Harbour, Manhasset, Beverly Hills, St. Barths, and Costa Mesa.
The latest desk clock to emerge from the collaboration of designers and technicians at MB&F and L’Epée 1839 looks like a polished eyeball. But when opened, the timepiece, an inventive 6.7-inch round desk clock called the Orb, takes the shape of either a blooming flower or a shiny beetle spreading its wings.
The new MB&F x L’Epee Orb, an eight-day desk clock.
The wings, or elytra, which is the technical word for a beetle’s protective wing covers, can be closed or opened. However they are posed, the wings frame and support a new, exposed hour-striking clockwork based on a similar mechanism L’Epée 1839 also fits into its carriage clocks.
The eight-day clock, which will chime each hour, can morph as desired as it rests on the owner’s desk. Placed on its stand, or ‘saucer’ (so it doesn’t roll away), the Orb can be displayed closed or with any number of its four ‘wings’ opened.
Those wings don’t simply open up however. They can also swivel to display the Orb in one of several other positions. Opening all four wings means the Orb’s gears and dial can perch high atop the wings, as if rising from the center of a black or white flower.
Aluminum sphere
MB&F explains that the Orb begins its manufacturing process as a solid block of aluminum that is then hollowed to create a sphere. “Once cut, the elytra are then coated with several layers of lacquer that are hardened in a kiln to create the brilliant finish,” according to MB&F. Artisans then solder hinges onto the wings and attach small magnets on the interior of each tip to keep the shape of a perfect sphere.
A beautiful L’Epée 1839 hour-striking clock movement can be seen below the Orb’s curved aluminum dial, which is covered by a domed mineral glass.
A beautiful L’Epée 1839 hour-striking clock movement can be seen below the Orb’s curved aluminum dial, which is covered by a domed mineral glass. The movement is powered with two barrels, one for the time and the other for the striking of the hours. The hour mechanism indicates the actual hour, mimicking a church clock. This function can also be repeated on demand via a button on the side of the clock, or turned on and off as desired.
The idea for the Orb comes from German designer Maximilian Maertens, who started his artistic career at MB&F as an intern before starting a design studio in Berlin. Maertens also worked with MB&F and L’Epée on the T-Rex clock.
MB&F is making the Orb available in limited editions of fifty pieces each in white or black. Price: CHF 28,000.
Specifications: MB&F x L’Epee Orb
(A limited edition of 50 pieces each in white or black.)
Display: Hours and minutes, striking hour, repeated on demand via a button on the side of the clock, or turned on and off if required.
Body: Closed: Height: approx. 17cm by 17cm. Opened: 24cm by 30cm, weight is 1.9kg. Materials: Clockwork in palladium-plated brass and stainless steel. Elytra in aluminum and covered with handmade lacquer.
Movement: L’Epée 1839 in-house designed and manufactured movement, frequency is 18,000bph (2.5Hz), two barrels, power reserve eight days. Incabloc shock protection system, manual-winding: double-depth square socket key sets time and winds movement. Movement finishing: polishing, sandblasting, circular and vertical satin finishing and starburst decoration.
Hublot ends the year with a colorful and glittery Classic FusionTakashi Murakami Sapphire Rainbow, the watchmaker’s second watch designed in collaboration with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami.
The Hublot Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami Sapphire Rainbow watch is available in a limited edition of 100 numbered pieces.
While the first watch of the collaboration was a now sold-out all-black Classic Fusion watch, this new model returns to the artist’s thematic smiling flower, colorizes it and then frames it with a 45mm clear sapphire case.
The artist’s emblematic smiling flower, now brightly colored, once again grins at the center of the dial of the new watch, where its rests just above the sapphire crystal. Around it Hublot places twelve gem-set flower petals, all of which rotate around the smiley face. The effect is mesmerizing (check out this excellent video).
To create the dial’s polychromatic effect, Hublot artisans set 487 stones from a rainbow of sources: rubies, pink sapphires, amethysts, blue sapphires, tsavorites, yellow and orange sapphires. Hublot engineers developed a special ball-bearing system that enables the petals’ rotation.
Inside, Hublot fits its superior HUB1214 automatic caliber, here without the chronograph function. This movement has a power reserve of 72 hours.
The new Franck Muller x Bamford Watch Department Snoopy Crazy Hours.
While the beloved Charles Schulz canine, whose front paws double as the watch’s eccentric hands, dominates the black dial, London-based Bamford enhances the glee by surrounding Snoopy with luminous concentric circles.
The hour markers are distinctly out of order on Franck Muller’s complicated, clever automatic Crazy Hours movement, which powers one of the Geneva-based watchmaker’s best-known collections. But despite the unorthodox numeral order on the dial, the movement is designed to allow the hour paw to jump to the next marker in the correct time order.
Framed by matte black 39.6mm stainless steel case, Snoopy and Woodstock (who appears twice on the dial) are pictured in black and white on the black dial with grey numerals and text.
This 25-piece limited edition is housed in a colorful box that highlights the Crazy Hours design, though Snoopy and Woodstock also appear on it. Price: 28,000 pounds, or about $37,000.
After introducing its 43mm Big Pilot’s Watch earlier in April, IWC now adds two Spitfire models to the collection. That initial debut introduced the new 43mm size to the Big Pilot’s collection, offering a smaller diameter option to those who want this collection’s military profile (and distinctive conical crown) to fit more snugly on moderate-sized wrists.
The IWC Big Pilot’s Watch 43 Spitfire features a bronze case and crown.
These two new models, one in a matte grey titanium case with a black dial and one with a very nice bronze case framing a military green dial, offer the Big Pilot’s design but do so with stricter military specs that require closed casebacks.
The Big Pilot’s Watch 43 Spitfire, with titanium case.
Both these new watches offer a titanium case back that IWC has engraved with an image of a Spitfire fighter plane, and both include a soft-iron inner case for protection against magnetic fields.
The IWC Big Pilot’s Watch 43 Spitfire (Ref. IW329702) with the bronze case, gold-plated hands and bronze crown presents collectors with a real visual treat beyond its inherent military demeanor.
The watch’s stylish color combination sacrifices none of its technical chops. IWC says its bronze alloy is considerably harder than traditional bronze because it includes copper, aluminum and iron. And as any owner of a bronze watch will testify, bronze will develop a unique patina over time to create a distinctive look.
IWC has coated the watch’s hands and hour markers with a generous helping of luminescent material and has attached a green buffalo stitched leather strap. Price: $9,350.
IWC’s Big Pilot’s Watch 43 Spitfire (Ref. IW329701) offers its own aesthetic attractions, primarily its historically inspired black ‘observation’ watch dial. This means the hour hands are not the focus for pilots who need to know minutes and seconds quickly. Thus, the minutes and seconds appear larger, printed in white on the outer ring, which make it easier for pilots to read the minutes and seconds.
IWC fits this model with brown calfskin leather strap with contrast stitching. Price: $8,950.
IWC powers both watches with its own 82100 Caliber movement that boasts the famed, hyper-efficient IWC Pellaton winding system and zirconium oxide wheels and pawls. Power reserve is sixty hours. Both watches also feature IWC’s own EasXchange system for quick, tool-free strap changes.
