The Paul Forrest Heart’s Passion collection features a patented Magnificent Motion complication that causes the small heart motif on the pendant to “beat.” The high-carat kinetic jewelry incorporates a high-tech complication—much like the mechanical movement of a watch—inside a piece of jewelry.
Heart’s Passion, model HR-01, from Paul Forrest. The gem-encrusted heart appears to beat thanks to a mechanical movement inside.
Paul Forrest places an exclusive 145-piece movement, which is crafted in Fleurier, Switzerland, inside the case. The movement offers eight hours of power reserve and is wound by a small key that also serves as part of the pendant chain’s clasp. Paul Forrest refers to the one-way ratcheting winding system as the “key to your heart.”
It took nearly two years to develop this movement, which is built completely for Paul Forrest from the ground up.
“Many women are becoming increasingly aware of mechanical complications as seen on many high level watches in recent times,” says company founder and CEO Paul Forrest Hartzband, who is based in Connecticut. “Heart’s Passion is for women who appreciate beautiful and elegant jewelry, as well as its sophisticated inner life.”
There are currently two Heart’s Passion collections, Heart and Medallion, and each is presented in 18-karat white, rose or yellow gold embellished with various gemstone options including diamonds, rubies and sapphires. Pictured is model HR-01. Price: $46,000.
Specifications: Paul Forrest Heart’s Passion HR-01 (above)
Movement: Caliber PF-001, made in Fleurier, manual winding, eight-hour power reserve,145 total parts. Winding clasp in rose gold with fused titanium mechanical winding system.
Case: 18-karat rose gold, pendant set with 248 white brilliant-cut diamonds (2.406 carats), heart set with 27 pink brilliant-cut diamonds (0.351 carats), pavè dial set with 341 white brilliant-cut diamonds (0.962 Carats). Total carat weight: 3.719. Double curved sapphire crystal. Water resistant to 50 meters.
A Paul Forrest pendant from the Medallion collection.
Omega, the watchmaker that has officially timed the Olympic Games twenty-eight times, is currently timing its twenty-ninth at the summer games in Tokyo. And in case you missed it, Omega announced that in addition to three steel-cased ‘Tokyo 2020’ debuts it announced earlier, its final two ‘Tokyo 2020’ models are two gold-cased Seamaster Aqua Terra 150M watches.
One of two gold-cased Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra 150M watches.
These are the fourth and fifth official Omega ‘Tokyo 2020’ Olympic watches.
This Omega Seamaster Co-Axial Master Chronometer is an Omega Tokyo 2020 watch.Omega designed the Seamaster Planet Ocean as a tribute to Tokyo.
Echoing the top medal the Olympic athletes strive to take home, Omega’s fourth and fifth official ‘Tokyo 2020’ watches are cased in gold.
Omega offers the new Seamaster Aqua Terra 150M watches in 38mm or 41mm gold cases, both with blue leather straps. To underscore their Olympic designation, the watches have been laser-engraved with a pattern inspired by the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games emblem. The emblem is also visible on the back of each watch printed on clear sapphire.
Inside the new Seamaster Aqua Terra watches Omega fits its superb Co-Axial Master Chronometer Cal. 8801 (inside the 38mm model) and Cal. 8901 (inside the 41mm model.)
Parmigiani Fleurier embraces its inner panda with the new Tondagraph GT Steel Silver Black and the Tondagraph GT Rose Gold Silver Black, both now with ‘panda style’ sporty bi-color dials.
The new Parmigiani Fleurier Tondagraph GT Steel Silver Black.
The 42mm Tondagraph GT Steel Silver Blackis both a chronograph and annual calendar, and as with all annual calendars, this indicator requires adjustment only once per year, from February to March.
The back of the steel model allows the owner to see the movement’s 22-karat gold rotor through a sapphire case back. You’ll also see a host of decorative finishes, including the circular côtes de Genève pattern on the bridges.
In comparison to its black-dialed predecessor, which utilized orange numerals and details, this new model displays higher-contrast elements in white, panda style.
“With this new model we wanted to exalt the contrast between the counters and the silver dial,” says Parmigiani Fleurier CEO Guido Terreni. “Taking out the orange indicators of the first edition helped us obtain a pure and long-lasting aesthetic.”
Rose gold
The 42mm Tondagraph GT Rose Gold Silver Black is a follow up to last year’s Tondagraph GT Rose Gold Blue, and like that model is powered by PF071, a 36,000-bph integrated chronograph caliber. This is a COSC chronometer-certified movement based on Parmigiani’s GPHG award-winning Caliber PF361. It offers 65-hours of power reserve.
The new Parmigiani Fleurier Tondagraph GT Rose Gold Silver Black.
The integrated chronograph function uses a smooth column wheel rather than a cam, and a vertical clutch rather than a horizontal one. These are said to increase accuracy by enabling the chronograph to start without an initial jolt.
As you might expect from this brand, the movement is expertly finished by hand. You’ll find chamfering and polishing, sandblasted surfaces, a sunray pattern on the 22-karat gold oscillating weight and beautifully hand-finished bridges.
The Parmigiani Fleurier Caliber PF071, a 36,000-bph integrated chronograph caliber.
Chrono24 is a marketplace for luxury watches that offers buyers and sellers the opportunity to buy, and sell, pre-owned, vintage, and new luxury watches.
As iW recently discovered in an interview with Chrono 24 CEO Tim Stracke, Chrono24 does not consider itself strictly as a watch dealer, but instead call itself “a marketplace that provides a service with the technology to connect buyers and sellers, to provide transparency to the market and to make transactions safe through the platform.” Below we excerpt the highlights of our interview.
iW: How long has Chrono24 been in existence?
Tim Stracke: The website was established in 2003, and my partners and I took over the site in 2010. We were able to turn it into a real business at a time when online business was starting to evolve. Today, we have close to 300 employees as our headquarters in Karlsruhe, Germany, and we also have satellite offices in Berlin, Hong Kong, and New York that run Chrono24 as a global business. However, besides operating this company together, we are also very enthusiastic about watches.
The vast majority of our employees owns at least one watch that means a lot to them – altogether, we have quite a versatile watch collection. Through this, we probably reach one out of every three luxury watch lovers worldwide (including 9 million unique viewers every month), providing them access to more than 470,000 watch listings from over 100 countries.
When you took it over in 2010 – what changed?
Tim Stracke, CEO of Chrono24
For the first seven years, Chrono24 was pretty much a classifieds site where you could find watches and contact the seller, leaving the transaction entirely between buyer and seller. We converted this into a transactional marketplace, investing a massive amount of energy into make the transaction process secure. Now, the buyer transfers payment to our escrow account, and we make sure that the buyer is happy before forwarding payout to the seller.
We also offer a lot of additional services around the purchasing process. We have a magazine, as well as a lot of data you can use to easily compare prices. One of our more interesting features is the Chrono24 Watch Collection, which enables users to upload their watches and track their watch portfolio like they would their stocks.
In addition to this, we recently added two new functions to our app: The first is our Virtual Showroom, an AR tool that allows you to try on 12 very popular models virtually. These include the Rolex Submariner Date, Omega Speedmaster Professional, Patek Philippe Nautilus, and Audemars Piguet Royal Oak.
The Chrono24 Watch Scanner allows the user to simply scan any watch and automatically identify it.
Our latest addition is called the Watch Scanner, where you can simply scan any watch with your camera to automatically identify it. From there, you can add it to your Watch Collection or even create a listing.
We extrapolate the data from the tens of thousands of transactions made on our platform every per month to establish a fairly accurate range of values. For this calculation, we include actual sales prices from past sales, as well as current listing prices on Chrono24. If we don’t have enough data to make a valid estimation – for example, for rather rare reference numbers – we also include listing prices from the past. This calculation is refreshed daily and provides a representation of a watch’s performance over time.
Also, our algorithm ignores any extraordinarily high or low sales prices to avoid inaccurate estimated values. An added value for the user here is that if they’re worried about paying too much for a watch, they can follow it in a separate section of their Watch Collection and immediately see its current and historic value to help make the decision as to which watch to buy even easier. Plus, once they’ve made the purchase, they can add it to their own digital collection to monitor its financial performance over time. We’ve done this with some of our employee’s watches. It’s fun to use.
Is the condition very important?
Of course condition matters, but with watches, it is more about the rarity than the condition in many cases. This is especially true when it comes to limited editions like the Omega Speedy Tuesdays and rare vintage models; it’s quite fascinating how these timepiece perform over time.
You also provide a Watch Scanner tool in your app. How does it work?
It’s actually pretty easy to use: Once you’ve launched the Watch Scanner tool in the Chrono24 app, simply take a picture of the watch you want to identify. The tool compares the photo with a database of around 15,000 watches and almost 2 million images from more than 6.5 million previous and current listings on Chrono24.
Based on this data, the tool can recognize the model and provides the user with other information like the reference number and its estimated market value according to the Chrono24 Watch Collection.
So far, the tool is able to identify around 15,000 different watch models, which is a lot. But that’s just a small percentage of all existing luxury watches out there. However, since it is based on a learning artificial intelligence program, the Watch Scanner is constantly evolving. We will soon be releasing an improved version that will include a feedback function and be able to identify more models. So far, the tool has been used more than a million times – and it’s only four months old.
Do you envision a physical location (permanent or pop-up) as part of the Chrono24 formula?
Looking back ten years ago, I never could have imagined that Chrono24 would be as big or as relevant as it is today. We acquired one of our retail partners about a year ago. We did this mainly to learn what life is like on the other side of the “screen,” so to speak. We also see the potential for other services. We have partnered with Fratello Watches, and we now sell limited editions through Fratello.
As of today, we are not looking for retail locations; instead, we count on our partners and look to help them sell online. That said, we are an agile business, so it’s hard to predict the future.
What are the strongest markets for Chrono24?
Historically, Germany was our strongest market, but this was obviously due to the fact that that is where Chrono24 started. Today, Chrono24 is a global entity, with the United States and Europe leading the way, followed by Asia, which is growing very fast. That being said, the United States is one of our top-three markets in many aspects, including sales and visits. We are very proud that we have around 900,000 unique visitors from the United States every month and that there are more than 120,000 American user accounts on Chrono24.
Does Chrono24 sell more new or used watches?
It’s about two-thirds pre-owned – or “pre-loved,” as we like to call it – and one-third new watches.
Is Chrono24 a tool to help dealers move aging inventory?
We work with close to 3,500 dealers worldwide and dedicate entire teams to these strong and important partners. While many of our partners have existing storefronts, Chrono24 is becoming a more relevant part of their business, and some of our partners actually sell exclusively through Chrono24. Most dealers offer all of their inventory on Chrono24, and not only aging pieces.
What trends do you see in the U.S.?
Overall, we see a polarization of price points. The very high end remains strong –especially among well-known and recognized brands like Rolex, Omega, and AP – while the lower end of luxury watches (let’s say under $1,000) is not as strong as it could be. Also, our American users mostly buy from sellers that are also based in the United States – more than sixty percent of all U.S. sales are domestic. Surely one of the reasons for this is the high number of American dealers on our marketplace.
Globally, it’s a different picture: Approximately seventy percent of sales on Chrono24 are made across international borders.
Chrono24 keeps tabs on global watch market. Here are just a few results of last year’s pre-quarantine figures.
What about smartwatches on Chrono24?
Based on what we are seeing, smartwatches are acting like a gateway into more traditional mechanical watches. That said, not many people are searching for Apple watches on Chrono24. It seems our customers are searching for something special, and when they want to buy a smartwatch, they go elsewhere to do their research and make purchases.
How has buying a luxury watch online evolved over the last decade or so?
I remember before Chrono24 started I would spend hours and hours researching watches online and feeling like the platforms at the time made had more of a flea market atmosphere. You would have to search site after site and numerous retailers. If each site had a few hundred options, you might have to search for a long time to find the watch you really wanted to have.
You also needed to have a lot of confidence that the individual or company that you were buying from was legitimate. We are now in a situation where we can provide global transparency, a huge selection, and create a platform that makes for secure and comfortable purchases.
How safe is it to buy a watch from Chron24 with regard to authenticity?
Authenticity is our number one priority, as is the safety and security of the entire transaction from placing to order to when it’s on your wrist. First of all, our global sales team verifies and vets every dealer before we let them on the platform – and not everyone meets our high standards.
Second, we created Trusted Checkout, a free escrow service. Once you’ve found your dream watch on Chrono24 and have come to an agreement with the dealer, you transfer the amount due to an escrow account. We only release the funds to the seller once you have received the watch and are happy to keep it.
If there are issues, our multi-lingual support team is there to help buyers and sellers and guarantee a smooth transaction. Should conflicts arise, we even have a mediation team to guide buyers and sellers toward a mutually satisfactory solution. At this time, we don’t perform physical checks of the watches; instead, we offer a no-questions-asked return policy as part of Trusted Checkout to safeguard ultimate safety for the transaction.
Do you consider Chrono24 a disruptor in the industry?
This is our role: changing the industry, changing the way people purchase watches, especially pre-owned and vintage watches. Considering our global transparency, huge inventory, and market data paired with the low cost for the service of selling a watch, I would say we are creating a new and possibly disruptive platform for buying and selling watches. Several years ago, industry leaders wouldn’t even talk to us, but this has quickly changed as they have seen the service we provide – and probably also the passion for luxury watches we share.
WE ENTHUSIASTS ARE CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING A MOMENT IN watchmaking culture that has rabidly embraced the past. What was old is new again with the next nod to an historical archetype only a microbrand’s crowdfunding success away.
Case designs from iconic types are “emulated,” hands circling over dials are cloned, and even the dials themselves are blatant and unrepentant copies of previous types by established brands. In some instances these “homage” types don’t even wait for the passage of time and blatantly copy current Tudor, Rolex, Omega, or even Seiko models. Often, the major brands themselves are dipping into the past and revisiting previous incarnations in a somewhat more palatable redux of their own precedents, finding kitsch value in what might otherwise be deemed an outdated look.
Don’t get me wrong, some of these are great entrees into a style or a type at a fraction of the price of the authentic original. However, if mimetic mementos are your taste in timepieces, you may want to go ahead and skip to the next post.
ENTER WILBUR
Jason Wilbur
Jason Wilbur is an award-winning designer with futuristic and functional iterations in a variety of métiers. He’s designed products like flying quadcopters, speedboats, acrylic guitars, underwater drones and even aluminum shoes. Companies came to him to design these things because they knew he’d push the limits and throw convention to the wind.
Set to ship this summer is Jason Wilbur’s 2020 Automatic Launch Edition, a modular steel automatic watch fitted with a workhorse Seiko NH35 automatic movement and a customized rotor.
This attitude is at the very core of the new Wilbur watches.
You may have seen his previous work as his horological muse first came to life in partnership when Devon Motorworks launched the futuristic Tread 1. At the time, not only was Wilbur ahead of the curve with regard to the bold façade, the Tread 1 also incorporated technology that was new to watchmaking for tracking and displaying the time, as well as being almost entirely made in the U.S.
That said, the Tread 1’s micro-motor powered, belt-driven and technically amazing wrist wear catered to a very limited audience, and at over $18,000 retail it was as rare as it was ground breaking.
A few years down the road and in a prescient moment of clarity, Wilbur declared at one point “I want to make a watch that more than two guys in Dubai can afford.”
After several other design projects, Wilbur has now developed the first release of his eponymous Wilbur watch collection.
Shedding the cocoon of co-branding, Jason Wilbur has let his creative juices run wild and has taken the modular steel frame only hinted at in the Tread 1 and Tread 2 designs to new heights.
Seasoned with the lessons learned from previous experiences in the industry, the new Wilbur 2020 Automatic Launch Edition embodies a stunning scaffold of trestle-like design paired with construction and components that place it squarely at the opposite end of the spectrum from the next $600 Chinese-built copy of a Tudor Pelagos.
The expected $2,500 – $2,700 price range, when they become available this summer, is definitely fair and justified by the complex construction and CNC machining without and within.
Launching with three references, each limited to 250 pieces, the nine-piece modular case measures at a robust 44mm by 46mm by 16mm and is CNC machined and hand finished in 316L steel. Inside beats the workhorse Seiko NH35 automatic winding mechanical movement with a customized rotor.
Sporting one of the more complex cases currently being made in watchmaking, the Wilbur is built to tight tolerances and even with the nine-piece case is made water resistant to 100 meters. Custom bevelled sapphire crystals ensconce the patent-pending suspended dial structure with a glass chapter ring surrounding the dial.
Bolts replace spring bars and hold your choice of a silicone or ballistic nylon strap securely in place as well as securing the steel clasp, while an over-size and over-engineered crown is protected by a machined girder of steel.
When you’ve sated your appetite for homage types and are ready for a breath of horological fresh air, Jason Wilbur may have just what you’re looking for.More info: www.wilburco.com
Modular-Frame Case: 44m X 46mm X 16mm, 9-part full modular design, CNC-machined, hand-finished 316 Steel
100-meter water resistance, front & rear sapphire crystal with anti reflective coating, patent-pending suspended dial & movement structure, DLC Coatings (on spec’d models)
Movement & Dial: 3D hand-finished dial, suspended outer dial-in glass. Time and date function, custom movement “Launch” rotor, luminescent hands and hour indices. Custom Japan Seiko NH35 movement.
Straps
Silicone bolt-on or ballistic nylon with contrast stitching. Bolt-on 316 steel clasp with DLC coating (On spec’d models).
