Horological Meandering

 

Hot off the press : spy pics of the new watch designed to leave the Panerai Egiziano in its wake.

 

The skeleton work on the movement is as delicate as that of any VC yet paradoxically it is mounted in a case which has the ‘hard’, industrial finish of  a Sarpaneva or Romain Jerome ‘Titanic’. The unusual complication is a month-only date wheel, intended for the ultra-rich who only need to know what month it is, in order to choose between Aspen or Monaco.

 

Strictly a piece unique. It will take a big wrist and a bigger wallet to carry it off:

 

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Trick photography, you say? Here for the sake of comparison, photographed alongside a ‘standard’ watch:

 

 

 

 

What is the standard watch in the photo? No prizes for guessing:

 

 

 

 

;-)

 

 

Cheers,

pplater.

I was referring to the small watch

The big one is pretty cool too.  Is it an art sculpture?  Why is it there on the beach?

Cheers,
Anthony

the wheel seen at 12 where the axle has to be in the band of the case and half the wheel outside the case.

Don

That picture should be on the desk of all the heads of the design departments of the watch houses - just as a reminder to stay within the bounds of what is wearable.

In my opinion, fashion has already changed.  2010 we will see watches shrink.  I am confident of this.  Only question is, how do you market it?  A big watch can be XL, XXL, Jumbo, Extreem, etc.  All very strong sounding and worthy of a huge premium to the previous standard model. 

When you go from 46mm to 41mm, what do you call it - petite, mini, junior?   And how then do you justify the inevitable 20% price increase when the franc has declined in value, oil prices (transportation) are down, commodities (gold, etc.) have dropped, rents are lower, and (by some estimates) 45% of global wealth has been erased in the past 12 months. 

Answer - the industry has a lot people working on this problem and no doubt will find a solution. 

Negativity aside - I am looking forward to Basel and the new watches to be introduced.  Perhaps some will be a bit smaller than what is pictured here.

Jeff

Thks for sharing

Thanks for the posting.

- SJX

To this Monster...

Would like to see the wrist able to wear it.



best.

Nicolas

...here she is looking for her watch:

 

Cheers,

pplater.

[photo credit embedded in URL]

... is part of an exhibition called ‘Sculpture by the Sea’ where the work of a number of prominent and emerging sculptors is exhibited for several weeks at a local beach. It’s called “Crab in the Works” (look carefully at 9 o’clock) and is the work of a fellow named Gordon Mitchell. Apparently it’s all about the memories of things lost or the pleasure of things found. There were very many interesting pieces on show – this was one that caught the imagination:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

pplater.