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Zenith Adds Icy Blue Dials to Defy Skyline 

Zenith adds three very cool Ice Blue models to its Defy Skyline collection and debuts a new comprehensive strap service on its online boutique.

One of three new Zenith Defy Skyline Icy Blue Boutique editions debuts, here in 36mm.

Offered in 41mm and 36mm sizes, the new Defy Skyline Ice Blue Boutique Edition models maintain the Skyline’s signature angular steel case with a dodecagonal bezel, a shape Zenith credits to its own Defy designs from 1969.

The new Zenith Defy Skyline Ice Blue Boutique Edition, 36mm model with diamond bezel.

Instead of the dark blue dials of many earlier Skyline debuts, this new trio exhibits a summer-ready icy blue metallic color engraved with the Skyline’s four-pointed-star pattern. As with all Zenith Skyline models, the date wheels are colored to match the dials.

Zenith is launching one 41mm model and two 36mm models with the new color scheme. One of the 36mm models is set with a diamond bezel.

The new Zenith Defy Skyline Ice Blue Boutique Edition 41mm model with the 1/10 second indicator. 

At the same time Zenith unveils a new service on its online boutique that allows buyers to browse and purchase from a selection of compatible straps. While the service is debuting in Europe now, online customers in North America and Japan will be able to use the service starting in September.

Inside the 41mm model Zenith fits its El Primero 3620 automatic high-frequency  (36,000 vph) caliber that offers a unique 1/10th-of-a-second indicator driven directly from the escapement. The watch features a power reserve of sixty hours.

The back of the Zenith Elite 670 caliber.

The two smaller models are powered by Zenith’s Elite 670 automatic manufacture movement, which offers a power reserve of fifty hours. Each model features a star-shaped oscillating weight that can be viewed through a sapphire display back. 

Zenith is supplying each watch in the new Defy Skyline Ice Blue Boutique Edition with a steel bracelet finished with a satin-brushed surface and chamfered, polished edges.

In addition, each watch arrives with an ‘Ice Blue’ rubber strap with a starry sky pattern and a steel folding clasp. The customer can quickly swap straps without using any tools thanks to Zenith’s quick strap-change mechanism.

Finally, while the 41mm is available only on the Zenith online boutique, both 36mm models are available from both physical and online boutiques.

Prices: $8,500 (36mm), $9,000 (41mm) and $12,000 (36mm with diamonds).  

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The Watches

Ulysse Nardin Launches Colorful UFO Trio 

Ulysse Nardin revisits its futuristic UFO marine chronometer clock, made in partnership with Maison L’Epée, adding three new colorful limited editions.

All three debuts are tied to a retail partnership: a green model represents Yoshida in Japan, ice blue is for Bucherer and a champagne-colored UFO commemorates the watchmaker’s relationship with The Hour Glass in South-East Asia.

As we noted when Ulysse Nardin debuted the first UFO in 2021 to celebrate the watchmaker’s 175th anniversary, the sixteen-pound, 10.3-inch-tall aluminum and glass clock is the futuristic interpretation of what Ulysse Nardin’s designers, engineers, and watchmakers think a marine chronometer should look like in 175 years.

The UFO’s rounded base allows for a swinging motion that is meant to conjure images of the perpetually moving ocean and Ulysse Nardin’s history as a maker of award-winning marine chronometers. 

Ulysse Nardin sold out its first seventy-five piece run of the dark blue UFO. In addition, a second UFO tinted orange sold for CHF 380,000 at the Only Watch charity auction in 2021. This newest UFO trio, each to be made as a limited edition of thirty pieces, will mark the clock’s final production.

The clock rocks 

Maison L’Epée and Ulysse Nardin constructed the UFO to swing up to 60° from its axis – an amplitude of 120 degrees – without altering its precision.

L’Epée requires 663 components, and plenty of time, to build each UFO, with the three trapezoidal dials being among the clock’s most complex components. The manufacturer says it takes twenty-eight hours to manufacture eight of the dials. Three are placed into each UFO to allow the owner to display three different time zones at once, each seen from a different angle.

The UFO features six massive barrels that confer a full year of power reserve when fully wound with forty turns of a key. At the top of the movement L’Epee and Ulysse Nardin have installed a dramatic slow-beat, large-diameter (49mm) brass balance wheel.

The size and the leisurely 3,600 bph balance frequency (one per second) soothes the viewer while also contributing to movement’s ultra-long power reserve. And to put a finer point on the clock’s meditative rate, you’ll find a dead-beat second indicator just below the balance.   

Ulysse Nardin includes a limited-edition certificate and a winding and setting key in the wooden box that houses each UFO.

Price: $68,600.

 

Specifications: Ulysse Nardin UFO

Three limited editions of 30 numbered pieces: 

UFO | Yoshida Exclusive – 9023-900LE-8A-YOS
UFO | Bucherer Exclusive – 9023-900LE-3A-BUCH
UFO | The Hour Glass Exclusive – 9023-900LE-9A-THG 

Movement: UN-902 caliber table clock, manually wound movement displaying three time zones, hours, minutes, deadbeat second, 675 components, six barrels, extra-large oscillator (49mm),  0.5 Hz /3,600 Alt/H, one-year power reserve.

Case: Colored aluminum and blown glass measuring 263mm (H) x 159mm. Weight: 15.8 pounds.

Price: $68,600

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The Watches

Hublot Big Bang Supports Rhino Protections 

Hublot has been supporting SORAI – Save Our Rhinos Africa India –since 2019. An organization founded by Hublot ambassador and former international cricket star Kevin Pietersen, SORAI helps keep rhinos threatened with extinction safe from poachers.

The latest Hublot Big Bang Unico SORAI.

As with the two previous limited editions, part of the proceeds from the sale of the 100 Big Bang Unico SORAI will be donated to the organization.

The colors chosen for the third limited edition are those of sunset, recalling the heightened danger faced by rhinos as night falls. Here, the sun is a symbol of hope, of a new dawn.

Proceeds from the sale of the latest Big Bang Unico SORAI ($24,100) will go directly to projects supported by SORAI to equip helicopters with cameras, raise awareness in schools about the consequences of poaching and to provide backup to rangers on the ground.

These strategies are implemented where the need is biggest and most pressing: South Africa. South Africa is home to more than 80% of the world’s total population of rhinos, with the majority of poaching taking place in Kruger National Park, as it has the largest population of wild white rhinos left on earth.

“If purchasing a watch can buy time, then it is a small gesture with huge implications,” says Hublot CEO Ricardo Guadalupe. “We have used our limited editions to help him gain access to more state-of-the-art technologies on the ground, put together more surveillance teams, as well as rescue injured or orphaned rhinos, with the single shared aim of shielding this endangered species.” 

“Our actions on the ground (surveillance teams and equipment to prevent poaching, rhino sanctuaries and refuges) are vital. However, in order to act, we first need to raise public awareness, increase publicity and make this a visible cause,” adds Pietersen. 

Source: Hublot 

 

Specifications: Hublot Big Bang Unico SORAI

Case: 44mm microblasted and polished grey ceramic, sapphire crystal, water restart to 100 meters.

Dial: Matte warm grey skeleton.

Movement: HUB1280 UNICO manufacture automatic chronograph flyback with column wheel. Power reserve of 72 hours.

Strap: Grey fabric with additional black rubber strap with black, orange and purple camouflage decor. Black ceramic and black-plated titanium deployant buckle.

Price: $24,100

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The Watches

Backes & Strauss Teams with Theo Fennell

Backes & Strauss teams with British jeweler Theo Fennell to create the colorful Regent Theo Fennell Rainbow, an oval watch that places Fennell’s dynamic hand-crafted London style into a contemporary black PVD steel case with a black dial.

The Backes & Strauss Regent Theo Fennell Rainbow.

The watch’s dark dial is offset with rose gold hour markers comprised of brightly enameled Arabic numerals. The colors seem to flow from the hot pink Theo Fennell logo at 12 o’clock to warm amber and finally from green to blue as the eye races around the oval dial. An inner oval track is set with applied rose gold pyramid markers that reflect the light as the watch is worn. 

The watch’s 40mm by 47mm case is also set alight by a single diamond set into the crown. Backes and Strauss, fits an automatic movement into the case. 

The legendary jeweler and watchmaker, founded in 1789 and now part of the Franck Muller group, offers nine examples of the black-cased Regent Theo Fennell Rainbow, each priced upon request.

As a watchmaker and jeweler known for its diamond-set dials and cases, Backes and Strauss is also offering one glittering example of the Regent Theo Fennell Rainbow cased in rose gold and set with two rows of Ideal-cut round brilliant diamonds.

Even the leather strap’s gold buckle is diamond-set, contributing to the 4.79 total carat weight of the watch. Like the blackened steel model, this jeweled unique piece is priced on request.

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Featured Events

Chopard and Mille Miglia Celebrate 36 years

Chopard returned to Brescia for the 36th time in succession as the World Sponsor and Official Timekeeper of the famous 1,000-mile Mille Miglia.

The pair teamed-up again this year (as on more than a dozen previous occasions), once more tackling the course in the instantly recognizable ‘metallic raspberry’ Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing in which they made their 1000 Miglia debut.

Karl-Friedrich Scheufele & Jacky Ickx at the starting line in Brescia.

This year’s event was won by reigning champions, Andrea Vesco and Fabio Salvinelli.

In addition to the Mercedes 300SL Gullwing crewed by Karl-Friedrich Scheufele and Jacky Ickx, Chopard Ambassadors Zhu Yilong, the acclaimed Chinese actor, and Romain Dumas, the celebrated endurance racing driver, also competed under the ‘Team Chopard’ banner in a 1955 Porsche 356 Speedster.

The 2023 Mille Miglia watches 

Chopard also continued its tradition of introducing new Mille Miglia timepieces, with four Mille Miglia Classic Chronographs, plus an additional, very special ‘Italian Limited Edition’ of the Mille Miglia GTS Chronograph – some of the proceeds from which are being donated to victims of the recent Emilia-Romagna flood disaster.

Comprising four new models crafted in Chopard’s own Lucent Steel, which is fifty percent more resilient than regular steel and incorporates material recycled from the medical, aerospace, car and watch industries.

The 40 mm chronographs are fitted either with Chopard’s signature rubber strap based on the pattern of a 1960s Dunlop race tire or a brown calfskin leather strap evoking traditional driving gloves.

What makes this year’s Mille Miglia Classic Chronographs extra-special, however, are their dials: each of the four variations is based on the paint hues and interior finishes typically found on the type of pre-1957 cars eligible for the 1000 Miglia.

This means a choice of Rosso Amarena (cherry red), Grigio-Blu (grey blue), Verde Chiaro (light green) and Nero Corsa (racing black). In keeping with a 36-year tradition, each watch carries a miniature ‘1000 Miglia’ route marker on its dial and case back. Prices start at $8,830.

In addition to the Mille Miglia Classic Chronographs, Chopard has also produced a very special version of its larger Mille Miglia GTS Chrono.

The Chopard Mille Miglia GTS Chrono Limited Edition Italy 2023 .

Also made from Lucent Steel in just 100 examples, part of the proceeds from each sale are being donated to victims of the devastating floods that swept through the Emilia-Romagna region in early May. 

This 44 mm edition carries the green and red colors of Italy, with its olive green bezel featuring a tachymeter scale for speed and distance calculations. Further marking-out the ‘form and function’ nature of Chopard’s Mille Miglia watches, the Mille Miglia GTS Chrono Limited Edition Italy is also fitted with substantial ‘mushroom’ pushers and a large diameter crown to provide a firm grip and ease of use while on the road. 

Source: Chopard

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