Celebrity Life

Sustainability is the new global trend which luxury brands in different industries are embracing. We take a look at how watchmakers, in keeping with the times, are coming up with innovations, fuelled by the demand for sustainable products.

The post How Sustainability is Driving Innovation in the Watch Industry appeared first on LUXUO.

This addition to the technically focused L.U.C collection celebrates 25 years of horological mettle, with a quadruple-barreled movement and 'jumping hour' display -- a first for Chopard.

Along with the release of its customary high jewellery novelties, Chopard is debuting its first 'jumping hour' wristwatch just in time for Watches & Wonders 2021. Dubbed the 'Quattro Spirit 25', this new release embodies the Maison at its most regal -- a visually and mechanically striking contrast to the growing line-up of Alpine Eagle sports watches.

On its face a simplistic, time-only dress watch, the Quattro Spirit 25 is in actuality a paean to the L.U.C manufacture: the specialist watchmaking studio founded by Chopard's president Karl-Friedrich Scheufele in 1996, tasked with the sole purpose of making "simple and pure designs [expressing] a high degree of mechanical sophistication". As you'd expect, Chopard won't be making many of these.

Cased in 40mm of Chopard's signature fair-mined 18k rose gold, the Quattro Spirit 25 is the epitome of a discrete dress watch -- ideal for enthusiasts of modernist clothing and design. Up close however, it's clear there's more going on than meets the eye: a sensation that's handily captured in the very open, whiter-than-white dial that seems to be punctuated only by an aperture and single minutes hand. Enthusiasts familiar with models like IWC's Pallweber or the Monsieur de Chanel will recognise this as a 'jumping hours' layout: by no means unusual in the realm of high-end watchmaking, but the first time that it's ever been offered by Chopard.

Aside from the frame of the jumping hour, the whole dial is decorated using a black-on-white aesthetic well-suited to the watch's combination of transferred decals (e.g. the numbers and minute track) and Grand Feu enamel. As one of the great classical metiers in decorative art, there aren't too many individuals remaining in the watch industry who specialise in Grand Feu enamel. Among a handful of other names, Chopard is fortunate to have its own dedicated enameller, who crafts these dials using a kiln-firing process in which temperatures frequently exceed 820°C. This leaves collectors with a white dial that is unrivalled in its luster and colour fast-ness -- the right kind of face for an elegant gold dress watch.

Naturally, watches with jumping hour displays always require a big reservoir of energy, and Chopard has seen to it that the Quattro Spirit 25 gets just that in the form of a new manually wound calibre. Explaining the connection to the 'Quattro' name, this new L.U.C movement relies on a series of four coupled barrels -- giving it an impressive 190 hours of reserve power. Even though most of the gear train's architecture is covered by a series of bridges, this new movement is a feast for the eyes: highlights include the copious amounts of Côtes de Genève finishing, finely polished bevels and a 'swan neck' style regulator -- equipped for very minute adjustments with a Phillips terminal curve.

The L.U.C Quattro Spirit 25 is available in a limited edition of 100 pieces, priced at HK$360,000. To learn more, visit Chopard online.

The post Chopard Jumps into the Digital Age with the L.U.C Quattro Spirit 25 appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

It’s Lunar New Year again, and with it comes the customary drop of special-edition luxury timepieces aimed at East Asian collectors. This time around they’re dedicated to the second zodiacal sign – that of the hard-working, dependable, determined, and somewhat conservative bovine, the Ox. So that horologically inspired oxen won’t find sifting through the seasonable offerings a burdensome task, we’ve done the work for them and come up with this propitious selection of ox-inspired watches.

Vacheron Constantin

The Swiss maison has created a pair of limited-edition Métier d’Art ox-inspired watches. One is in platinum with a blue dial, but it’s this magnificent specimen in pink gold with a brown dial that best captures the essence of the plodding beast of burden. Not only have the house’s engravers and enamellers replicated the traditional Chinese paper-cutting technique of jianzhi on the grand feu dial, but they also incorporated etched representations of grass and foliage, as well as the engraved image of the animal itself, which is rendered in pink gold. Powered by the Calibre 2460 G4, the watch displays the time via four apertures that show hours, minutes, days and dates, the first two dragged and the last jumping. Only 12 pieces of each model are available.

Blancpain

From the manufacture’s Villeret collection, Blancpain’s Calendrier Chinois Traditionnel comes in an edition of 50 pieces and eschews a large representation of the animal in favour of a tiny silhouette at 12 o’clock. As the name suggests, however, this highly complicated timepiece does feature a full traditional Chinese calendar, with double hour indication, signs of the zodiac, Chinese date and month, indication of the five elements, celestial stems, leap months, Gregorian calendar and moonphases. In a 45mm platinum case with grand feu dial, it’s powered by the Calibre 3638, whose oscillating weight is set with a Madagascan ruby and which provides up to 168 hours of power.

Breguet

From Breguet’s Lunar New Year offerings, we’ve chosen this ladies’ Reine de Naples 8955 Cammea Year of the Metal Ox, a limited edition of eight pieces that’s presented in a rose-gold case set with 2.8 carats of diamonds. Pride of place goes to the relief-carved cameo dial in white and brown, each made from a specially selected shell, whose engraving — by an Italian father-and-son team — takes some 20 days to complete. The watch is powered by a 537 automatic calibre with platinum rotor and hand guillochage; visible through a caseback sapphire, it provides a reserve of 45 hours. A signature and serial number are engraved in gold at the case base; the owner can also have her name similarly inscribed.

Chopard

One of two ox-inspired watches from Chopard, the L.U.C XP Urushi Spirit of ShÍ Chen comes in a limited edition of 88 pieces. It’s the first L.U.C watch to display the complete Chinese zodiac, which it does with a new complication that reveals the animals in a slow parade on a rotating Urushi-lacquer disc. The lacquer dial, which is produced by the century-old Japanese company Yamada Heiando, also incorporates the symbol of prosperity and the god Lu Xing. In a 40mm ethical rose-gold case, the watch is powered by the automatic L.U.C 96.29-L calibre, a variant of the manufacture’s existing 96 movement that incorporates the zodiac complication and measures just 3.97mm thick.

Harry Winston

The Lunar New Year offering from Harry Winston comes in the form of this ladies’ Premier Chinese New Year Ox Automatic 36mm, which displays the image of a jewelled bovine on a dial of bright red beaded mother-of-pearl and white mother-of-pearl, with waved decor, 105 brilliant-cut diamonds and a single emerald-cut diamond of 0.06 carats. In a jewel-set rose-gold case, the watch features a total of 174 brilliant-cut diamonds that weigh 2.74 carats. It displays hours and minutes in an offset dial at 12 o’clock, draws power from the HW2014 automatic calibre and is available in a limited edition of eight pieces.

Piaget

The annual Lunar New Year watch release from Piaget comes in the guise of this ultra-thin Altiplano Year of the Ox in a 38mm white-gold case, with 0.71 carats of brilliant-cut diamonds on the bezel and a grand feu cloisonné enamel dial by master enameller Anita Porchet. Using a technique dating back four millennia, Porchet created miniature gold partitions (cloisons) on the dial, into which she placed the enamel pigments; the dial was then fired and varnished. The watch is powered by the hand-wound 430P calibre, which measures just 2.1mm thick; it’s presented on a black leather strap.

Jaquet Droz

To mark the Lunar New Year of the Ox, Jaquet Droz has produced three ox-inspired watches in its Ateliers d'Art collection, each showcasing two artisanal techniques. Shown here is the Petite Heure Minute Relief Buffalo in a 41mm red-gold case, which is available in a limited-edition of just eight pieces. The dial depicts hand-engraved and hand-painted buffalo and tree relief appliqués in red gold, with 27 rubies adorning the latter. With hours and minutes displayed in a large off-centred dial at 12 o'clock, the timepiece is powered by a 2653 automatic movement with red-gold oscillating weight and a hand-painted buffalo appliqué in 22k red gold, which provides a reserve of 68 hours.

The post Herd Instinct: Ox-Inspired Watches for Chinese New Year appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

The company has added three more models to the soon-to-be icon's family.

The post Chopard’s Alpine Eagle range closes the year with more options appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

The company has added three more models to the soon-to-be icon's family.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.

Be mindful of each moment by marking time with these perpetual calendar timepieces.

The post Watch spread: Perpetual calendars appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

Be mindful of each moment by marking time with these perpetual calendar timepieces.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.