Tag

Slider

Browsing
Featured Events

Planet Omega Exhibit Opens in New York 

 

Planet Omega, a special exhibit of historic Omega watches, is now on display in New York, where it will remain until November 19th.

The broad-based display not only exhibits vintage watches from the watchmaker’s storied manufacturing history, but also places many of its timekeeping endeavors into historical context using six additional, distinctive areas.

The Elvis Presley Omega.

The primary “Vintage” section that displays historic timepieces on loan from the Omega Museum in Biel, Switzerland. These watches include:

– The Omega watch worn by Elvis Presley, which was a gift from RCA Records in 1960. Omega calls it “perhaps the most historically significant Elvis-owned watch to ever appear on the market.”

The JFK Omega.

– The Omega Slimline timepiece worn by John F. Kennedy at his presidential Inauguration Ceremony in 1961.

An original Omega Ladymatic.

– An original Ladymatic watch from 1955 fitted with Caliber 455, which became the world’s smallest rotor-equipped automatic calibre to obtain an official rating certificate with special mention.

Within the remainder of the exhibit you’ll find watches related to these themes: sports and Olympic Games, Ocean, James Bond, Space, Friends and Precision. 

Highlights include: 

—One of the original split-seconds chronographs used to time the Olympic Games in 1932.

—An original 1932 Marine – known as the first divers’ watch that was available to civilian divers.

The 1932 Omega Marine.

—Recent Seamaster “Ultra Deep” watches. In 2019, the first of these models reached the deepest point ever recorded in the ocean. The model on display is an adapted version available to customers and is water-resistant to an incredible 6,000 meters, or 20,000 feet.

— The Seamaster Diver 300M 007 Edition from Daniel Craig’s final appearance in “No Time To Die.” This authentic film prop is crafted from lightweight Grade 2 Titanium.

Omega worn by Wally Schirra.

—The same CK2998 model worn by astronaut Wally Schirra in 1962 aboard Mercury’s Sigma 7 mission.

—The latest Speedmaster “Silver Snoopy Award” timepiece, and those created with real pieces of meteorite.

—- This year’s new Speedmaster Super Racing – introduced as the world’s first watch to feature the Omega Spirate system built with a new patent-pending spiral that allows for ultra-fine rate adjustments, making it possible to achieve a certified precision of only 0/+2 seconds a day.

The Planet Omega exhibit is located at Chelsea Factory, 547 West 26th Street. Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Source: Omega

 

 

by
Keep Reading
The Watches

Alpina Adds California Dial to Alpiner Extreme

 

Alpina adds a California dial to its rugged Alpiner Extreme to create the Alpiner Extreme Automatic California Dial, a fitting high-visibility historic design within the outdoor-adventure collection.

The new Alpina Alpiner Extreme Automatic California Dial.

The Geneva-based watchmaker created its Alpiner collection with mountain trekkers in mind, and launching a California dial model enhances options within the series.

Alpina notes that the dial cleverly blends Arabic numerals, Roman numerals, dashes and triangles designed to make it simple to see the time from any angle and avoid the confusion of mistaking a 6 for a 9 and adding clarity to the 8 and 4. Often used on dive watches, such dials are equally appropriate to those scaling the Alps, or just hiking the woods.

Also aligned with Alpina’s ethos, the historic dial design (which apparently earned its name due to its popularity in its namesake state) includes a triangle at 12 o’clock, which perfectly echoes the Alpina logo. Alpina has long used a red triangle to symbolizes Alpine summits, and on each dial you see one just above the Alpine logo. A second red triangle can be seen as the counterweight on the seconds hand.

The steel-cased 41mm by 42.5mm Alpiner Extreme Automatic California Dial arrives on a rubber strap and is powered by the Sellita-based automatic AL-525 caliber. The watch is water resistant to 200 meters. (See additional specifications below).  

Price: $1,795.

 

Specifications: Alpina Alpiner Extreme Automatic California Dial 

(AL-525BB4AE6) 

Movement: Automatic AL-525 Sellita-based caliber, 38-hour power-reserve, 28’800 alt/h.

Case: 41mm by 42.5mm brushed and polished stainless steel 3-part case with
anti-reflective sapphire crystal. Water-resistant to 200 meters. Engraved and see-through screwed case-back, screw-in crown. 

Dial: Black with triangle pattern, black outer ring with white markers,
applied beige color indexes filled with white luminous treatment,
date window, hand-polished silver color hour and minute hands filled with beige luminous treatment, polished silver color second hand with red triangle. 

Strap: Black rubber with folding buckle.

Price: $1,795 

by
Keep Reading
The Watches

Corum Adds Ceramic Cases to Admiral 42 

Corum adds five ceramic-cased models to its nautically themed Admiral Automatic collection. 

The Admiral, with its twelve-sided case and pennant-markers, is one of Corum’s top-sellers and is usually fashioned from steel, titanium or precious metal. The new ceramic case option adds a contemporary option within the watchmaker’s Admiral offerings.

One of the new ceramic-cased Admiral 42mm offerings, here with a rose gold bezel.

Corum adds the ceramic option specifically to its 42mm Admiral series, the mid-sized watches set between Corum’s 38mm and 45mm Admiral offerings. Three white-cased models and two black-cased newcomers (one of which is a limited edition) mark the debut.

Two of the white ceramic models also sport a rose gold bezel, as does one black edition. 

The two variations arrive with a matching rubber strap and gold-colored accents while two additional versions in each color sport artistic dials with pop-art markers and accents.

Of these two art-dialed options, the black ceramic model is a limited edition (of 50 pieces, pictured below) and features a luminous ‘Corum’ logo in graffiti-style across its dark dial.

The two white-ceramic pop-art version feature indexes and hands adorned with multicolored paint. One of these two white ceramic options also comes with a rose-gold bezel.

All the new Admiral watches are water resistant to fifty meters and are powered by CO 395, an ETA-based automatic movement. 

Prices: CHF 14,800 (with ceramic bezel), CHF 18,000 (gold bezel) and CHF 18,500 (white ceramic artistic dial with gold bezel).

 

by
Keep Reading
The Watches

Greubel Forsey Debuts 8th Fundamental Invention 

 

Greubel Forsey redesigns its tourbillon to create the new titanium-cased Tourbillon Cardan, the watchmaker’s 8th Fundamental Invention and the latest in the series of patented, technically advanced timepieces. And while the oscillator here echoes the airy appearance of a traditional flying tourbillon, Greubel Forsey’s version is anything but classical.

The new Greubel Forsey Tourbillon Cardan.

Rather than the usual sixty-second rotation, the tourbillon here rotates once every sixteen seconds. In addition, the balance wheel is larger than usual (12.6mm), which tends to optimize its oscillations.

Greubel Forsey explains that not only do these two factors enhance chronometric precision, the tourbillon’s high inertia also makes it less sensitive to shocks and variations in speed.

Greubel Forsey combines this larger, faster tourbillon with a revolving 30 degree angle and two constantly tilting rings that guide the tourbillon, tilting backward and forward in forty-eight seconds. Though this movement may recall the use of gimbals in some marine chronometers, the new design is just a bit more complicated.

Greubel Forsey explains that in this new watch, the tilt of the rings is controlled with a range of +30° to -30°, which, when combined with the inclined tourbillon, offers a “better ratio of angular velocity to chronometric performance.”

With four stacked barrels, the Tourbillon Cardan offers an impressive eighty hours of highly chronometric power reserve.

Greubel Forsey showcases its new tourbillon within a 45.5mm titanium case with a domed sapphire crystal, which allows for a full view of the large balance wheel and swaying dual rings.

And of course Greubel Forsey hand-finishes each component of the Tourbillon Cardan.  Many of the finishing procedures here are unique to the watch, including the frosted titanium finish on the tourbillon cage and the large polished flank finishes above the titanium mainplate. (See the Greubel Forsey website for a full list of specifications.) 

Greubel Forsey plans to build about eleven Tourbillon Cardan watches annually, with a total output of fifty-five watches during the next five years. 

Price: $534,000.

by
Keep Reading
The Watches

Bell & Ross Explores With New Diver

Bell & Ross partners with the Tara Océan Foundation to create the BR 03-92 Diver Tara, a new dive watch built to meet the needs of the crew on board the oceanography exploration schooner Tara. The ship carries out the organization’s marine biodiversity research aimed at observing and anticipating the impacts of climate change and pollution.

The new Bell & Ross BR03 Diver Tara

On board the Tara, researchers are wearing the new watch, which features a 42mm matte blue ceramic case and unidirectional rotating blue and orange ceramic bezel.

Now joining the Bell & Ross BR 03 Diver series, the new watch (a limited edition of 999 pieces) retains all the required dive specs, including the high-visibility dial, the aforementioned graduated bezel and a solid 300-meter water resistance rating.

Echoing other watches within the BR 03 Diver series, the deep blue dial displays highly visible indications even underwater thanks to its generous helping of white SuperLuminova on the applied indexes and graduated bezel. The seconds hand features an orange tint,

Inside Bell & Ross fits its Sellita-based BR-CAL 302 automatic movement, which powers the hour, minute, seconds and date displays.

“At its core, Bell & Ross is a supplier for explorers and elite units, with each watch designed to meet precise specifications set by the professional world it will enter,” explains Carlos-A Rosillo, President and Co-Founder of Bell & Ross. “That’s why we felt it was important to mark this joining of forces and celebrate the first year of our partnership with a new piece, the BR 03 Diver Tara.”

Rosella adds that for every watch sold, part of the profits will be donated to the France-based Foundation. Even the strap is built for conducting research in extreme weather with its blue woven rubber lined with an ultra-resistant technical material, all held to the wrist with a steel pin buckle.

“The Tara teams on board the schooner, and even at the North Pole in the near future, will be required to dive on a regular basis,” explains Romain Troublé, general director of the Tara Ocean Foundation.

Price: $5,600. 

by
Keep Reading