Celebrity Life

In the world of watches, timeless design is a frequently used term, as some of the most well-known brands continue to reinvent classic models using updated components and technology. IWC Schaffhausen is at the forefront of classic watch design with its military-inspired collection of pilot watches like the legendary Ceramic Flieger Chronograph from 1994. As […]

The post IWC Unveils An Exclusive Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Edition “Tribute To 3705” appeared first on duPont REGISTRY Daily.

Christmas is really upon us now and if you're still out and about searching for the perfect gift for your significant other, why not consider a watch? The premium destination for pre-owned watches that you can trust, Watchfinder & Co. is where you'll be able to find highly desirable pieces that aren't readily available at retail or discontinued on the current market.

The platform is vast, with hundreds of timepieces to choose from, but not to worry! Antoine Berardi, the head of Watchfinder & Co. for Hong Kong and Macau, comes to the rescue with five timepieces you can consider for your last minute Christmas splurges.

For more Christmas gift ideas, head over to our Christmas Edit, where we've put together a special series of stories and gift guides to help with all your holiday planning.

Rolex Oyster Perpetual 124300

The newest and highly sought after reference of the Rolex Oyster Perpetual, the earliest iteration of which dates back to 1931. This model, part of the recently released 2020 collection, nods to Rolex’s playful dial colours from the 1970’s. The red dial colour sets itself apart from the rest of the Rolex offering, cased in steel and with the in house luminous blue hour markers, its sure to make you stand out from the crowd.

Rolex Oyster Perpetual 124300 Watch | Watchfinder & Co.

Breguet Tradition Tourbillon 7047BR/G9/9ZU

The open worked nature of this Breguet is something to be marvelled at, with the dial reduced in size to show the full extent of the calibre. It also, as the name suggests, honours the tradition of watchmaking by including a Tourbillon, which was patented by the eponymous watchmaker in 1801. This addition counteracts the effect of gravity on the movement and aids the accuracy of time keeping, and is incredibly difficult to manufacture. This contemporary styled iteration shouts to the hills that the wearer is not here to play.

Breguet Tradition 7047BR/G9/9ZU Watch | Watchfinder & Co.

Rolex Pearlmaster 80319

Often an underrated and lesser-known series by the seemingly eternal company that is Rolex. This, now discontinued, Pearlmaster fields the midpoint between luxury and pragmatism. The present model is cased in white gold and has a bracelet unique to its series, a diamond bezel and dial, and carries the same movement present across the Rolex Submariner collection of the same period. This piece dates to the early 2000’s and comes with a two year warranty and a certificate of authenticity from Watchfinder.

Rolex Pearlmaster 80319 Watch | Watchfinder & Co.

IWC Portuguese Chronograph IW371417

One of the pieces at the core of IWC, the Portuguese chronograph is one of the most understated and versatile pieces available to the modern go-getter, even with a stopwatch function it slips easily under the cuff. The silver dial with thermally blued hands and Arabic numerals make the dial extremely legible at a glance, whilst keeping its elegant demeanour intact.

IWC Portuguese Chrono IW371417 Watch | Watchfinder & Co.

Panerai Luminor Submersible PAM00508

Initially developed as a waterproof watch for timing dives for the Italian Navy, the Florentine company Panerai has gone on to be one of the most materially explorative and inventive watch brands around. This limited edition in particular, is cased in a black ceramic and has cream luminous hands and hour markers, along with luminous plots along the rotating bezel.

Panerai Luminor Submersible PAM00508 Watch | Watchfinder & Co.

Every single one of Watchfinder’s watches are meticulously inspected, authenticated and prepared by a team of expert watchmakers in Europe’s largest independent service centre - accredited by 19 of the world’s leading watch manufacturers. Every watch also comes with a 24-month Watchfinder warranty.

The post Last Minute Christmas Splurge at Watchfinder & Co. appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Long before calendar watches, our schedules and our habits were formed from the moment our forefathers looked up into the sky and observed the passing of time through the movements of the sun, the moon and the stars.

The calendar we all know today, divided into 24 hour days, seven days a week, and 28, 29, 30 or 31 days a month to total 365 days a year was created in the year 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII. And five centuries later, we’re still using the same system, though it’s not without its faults. Three hundred and sixty-five days actually falls slightly short of the solar year of 365.24667 days (the time it takes the Earth to make one revolution around the sun). To make up for this difference, February 29 is added once every four years, but taken out every 100 years.

This is why horology is so fascinating: clockmakers first found a way to make calendar clocks, then miniaturised the mechanism so it could fit in your pocket, and then miniaturised it some more so it was small enough to wear on the wrist. Calendar watches range from those with the more simple date-only function to the most complex perpetual-calendar complication, which could keep track of time, day, date, months, down to the leap year, without requiring manual adjustments for more than 100 years.

Date Only

Starting with the simplest of calendar complications is the date-only timepiece, which comes with a date wheel with increments daily from 1 to 31, requiring correction every other month for the months with fewer than 31 days. The most common way to tell the date is by the window display, usually positioned at 3 o’clock or 6 o’clock. A Lange & Söhne has made the oversized date its signature, presenting the numbers in two separate, single-digit windows on the dial that are extremely easy to read. The oversized date is used for every watch within the Lange 1 family. In 2018, Lange also re-introduced the oversized date into its Saxonia collection, in tribute to the original Saxonia model first released in 1994, one of four watches that were debuted with the re-establishment of the manufacture that year.

Day-Date

The day-date function, also known as the double-date complication, is one which essentially tells the day of the week and the date, in addition to the time. The most famous is undisputedly the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Day-Date. At its launch in 1956, the Rolex Day-Date marked a significant moment in horological history. It was the first calendar wristwatch to spell out the day of the week in full, and it would cement a particular day-date aesthetic for decades to come. The date display, as on many Rolex models, is magnified by a Cyclops lens on the crystal. The Day-Date is made in precious metals only and is the watch of choice for many of the world’s most influential figures – an ultimate status symbol, it’s nicknamed the “Presidents’ watch”. The line-up today includes models in both 36mm and 40mm, with a wide-ranging variety of coloured dials, but all in precious metals and on the popular President bracelet. The most famous and coveted is, of course, the all gold Day-Date on the President bracelet. Pictured here in 40mm, the watch is equipped with the self-winding 3255 certified Superlative Chronometer calibre with a power reserve of 70 hours.

Complete Calendar

At one point in time, the complete calendar was pretty commonplace – also called the triple calendar, the watch provided the date, day and month, sometimes including a moon phase or other complications such as the chronograph. Movement maker Valjoux supplied the calibre 72C (triple-date chronograph) and 88 (triple- date chronograph with moon phase) from the 1940s to the 60s' to many watch companies, establishing the look of the complete-calendar watch of that era. Both Valjoux movements were compact, displaying the day and month on two windows at 12 o’clock and the date via a pointed hand around the perimeter of the dial. This configuration could also be seen on more prestigious models, such as the vintage Rolex ref. 4767 “Jean-Claude Killy” as well as annual-calendar watches from Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin in that era.
The popularity of the triple calendar waned as people turned to the more complex and convenient annual and perpetual calendars, but there’s still a certain charm to this retro complication. Vacheron Constantin certainly must have thought so too, when it decided to bring back the complication in its Historiques collection. Inspired by the reference 4240, the Historiques Triple Calendrier 1942 reflects the design codes of the original model but with a contemporary twist. The Triple Calendrier 1942 bears the same hours, minutes and small seconds at 6 o’clock, along with the date shown by a central hand with a red arrow-head pointer. The day and month are shown in two apertures at 12 o’clock. The distinctive “triple gadroon” caseband with claw-type lugs are also typical of the era. Made in steel, the watch is topped by a box- type glass and is water-resistant to 3 bar. The calibre within is the manual-winding 4400 QC, beating at a frequency of 4Hz, with a power reserve of 65 hours.

Jaeger-LeCoultre, renowned for its triple-calendar watches in the ’40s and ’50s, has also released a major update to its Master Control Calendar this year, which is now equipped with its new calibre 866. The movement now comes with an extended power reserve of 70 hours, thanks to an improved mainspring and barrel. The date display has also been improved: as the red-tipped date hand switches from the 15th to the 16th of the month, it jumps 90-degrees to avoid obscuring the moon phase display.

Weekly Calendar

Special mention must go to Patek Philippe’s Weekly Calendar ref. 5212A-001, which turned heads in 2019 when it was launched during Baselworld. The watch is like a triple calendar, but with a new purpose – the week is the focus here. It’s also cased in stainless steel, a departure from the precious metals preferred on the Calatrava. The 5212A, in addition to displaying the day of the week and date, also shows the number of weeks in the year in accordance with the ISO 8610 standard, where the first official week of the year begins on the Monday of the week of January 4. On the dial, the date is indicated in the window positioned at 3 o’clock, the day is shown by a short red-tipped hand at the centre of the dial, and the week and month indicated by a longer red tipped hand around the outer edge of the dial. The date is corrected through the crown, and the weekday and the week-number indications are controlled via two correctors in the case flank. A special movement – the self-winding calibre 26-330, which beats at a frequency of 4Hz with a maximum power reserve of 45 hours – was created for this unusual watch. Another detail we love is the handwritten typography, which provides a wonderful sense of whimsy and an almost vintage air to the otherwise practical and functional watch.

Annual Calendar

You could think of the annual calendar function as one that closes the gap between the simple date display and the highly complex perpetual calendar. The annual calendar is as practical as it gets, and at a fraction of the price of the more sophisticated perpetual calendar. Simpler calendar watches would require five adjustments a year (provided that the watch doesn’t stop running) to accurately display the date. The annual calendar watch will automatically adjust the date displayed at the end of each month. The only manual adjustment required is in February, when the month cycle is only 28 days. There are many variations of the annual calendar on the market today – Patek Philippe has several models in different configurations, while Rolex, with the Oyster Perpetual Sky-Dweller, has completely redefined what an annual-calendar complication can look like.
One with a practical look that makes reading the calendar extremely easy at a glance is the IWC Portugieser Annual Calendar.

Debuted in 2015, the watch is fitted with the IWC-manufactured 52850 calibre, equipped with twin barrels to supply the watch with a whopping seven-day power reserve. On the Portugieser Annual Calendar, the annual calendar shows the month, date and day in three separate, curved windows. Its straightforward layout – in an “American” order in homage to IWC’s American founder, FA Jones – makes reading the calendar extremely easy, all the information is comprehensible at a glance, and the large case size, at 44.2mm, also makes reading the dial easy. While the watch requires manual adjustment once every year at the end of February, IWC’s designers have made this as fuss-free as possible, as it’s easily and conveniently carried out using the crown without the need of an additional corrector.

Perpetual Calendar

And now we come to the most complex and most revered of calendar complications, the perpetual calendar. The perpetual-calendar mechanism is able to keep track of the day, date, taking into account the shifting 30 and 31-day cycles, know when it’s February when it has only 28 days, as well as knowing that every four years, February has 29 days. The first watchmaker to put this complication into a pocket watch was Thomas Mudge in 1762 but it wasn’t until 1925 that Patek Philippe miniaturised the complication successfully, and almost 20 years after that for it to produce the perpetual-calendar wristwatch in series with the legendary ref. 1526 in 1941.

Audemars Piguet first produced a perpetual calendar wristwatch in 1978, in the midst of the Quartz Crisis. The successful launch of the calibre 2120/2800 marked a milestone for the brand, propelling it down a path of creating complicated wristwatches at a time when mass-produced quartz technology threatened to decimate the mechanical watchmaking industry. Maybe this compelling story is the reason why the perpetual-calendar wristwatch enjoys the status it does today. It’s the ultimate grail watch for many collectors, as well as a mark of a watchmaker’s excellence – perhaps it’s for this reason that perpetual calendars are the most complicated calendar watches to produce, and also the most contemporary in looks. While simpler calendar watches often retain a more classical, even vintage aesthetic, perpetual calendars of today are extremely robust and avant-garde in look and feel, constantly pushing the limits of watchmaking with launch after launch of impressive mechanical feats.

Audemars Piguet presented the Royal Oak Selfwinding Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin in 2019, based on a concept model, the RD#2, that was introduced the year before. To date, it’s the thinnest automatic perpetual-calendar ever produced, housed inside AP’s familiar Royal Oak case. The watch is 41mm in diameter, but only 6.3mm in height – 3.2mm thinner than a regular Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar, which in itself is already a pretty slim watch. To make the calendar indications easier to read, Audemars Piguet has done away with the classic “petite tapisserie” guilloché pattern on the typical Royal Oak. The watch is also in titanium, making it incredibly lightweight on the wrist.

One of the latest perpetual calendar models released this year is MB&F’s Legacy Machine Perpetual Evo, which celebrates the brand’s 15th anniversary. With the word Evo in its name, the watch is enhanced with a zirconium case, a rubber strap and a screw-down crown, giving it a water resistance of up to 80 metres. The perpetual- calendar movement is also protected by a mono-block shock protection system called “FlexRing”, a damper that protects all the watch’s 581 parts from the usual rigours of life. Three versions of this watch are available in a very limited 15 orders each, but the one that’s caught our eye is the blue PVD version.

The post A Guide to the Different Types of Calendar Watches appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Long before calendar watches, our schedules and our habits were formed from the moment our forefathers looked up into the sky and observed the passing of time through the movements of the sun, the moon and the stars.

The calendar we all know today, divided into 24 hour days, seven days a week, and 28, 29, 30 or 31 days a month to total 365 days a year was created in the year 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII. And five centuries later, we’re still using the same system, though it’s not without its faults. Three hundred and sixty-five days actually falls slightly short of the solar year of 365.24667 days (the time it takes the Earth to make one revolution around the sun). To make up for this difference, February 29 is added once every four years, but taken out every 100 years.

This is why horology is so fascinating: clockmakers first found a way to make calendar clocks, then miniaturised the mechanism so it could fit in your pocket, and then miniaturised it some more so it was small enough to wear on the wrist. Calendar watches range from those with the more simple date-only function to the most complex perpetual-calendar complication, which could keep track of time, day, date, months, down to the leap year, without requiring manual adjustments for more than 100 years.

Date Only

Starting with the simplest of calendar complications is the date-only timepiece, which comes with a date wheel with increments daily from 1 to 31, requiring correction every other month for the months with fewer than 31 days. The most common way to tell the date is by the window display, usually positioned at 3 o’clock or 6 o’clock. A Lange & Söhne has made the oversized date its signature, presenting the numbers in two separate, single-digit windows on the dial that are extremely easy to read. The oversized date is used for every watch within the Lange 1 family. In 2018, Lange also re-introduced the oversized date into its Saxonia collection, in tribute to the original Saxonia model first released in 1994, one of four watches that were debuted with the re-establishment of the manufacture that year.

Day-Date

The day-date function, also known as the double-date complication, is one which essentially tells the day of the week and the date, in addition to the time. The most famous is undisputedly the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Day-Date. At its launch in 1956, the Rolex Day-Date marked a significant moment in horological history. It was the first calendar wristwatch to spell out the day of the week in full, and it would cement a particular day-date aesthetic for decades to come. The date display, as on many Rolex models, is magnified by a Cyclops lens on the crystal. The Day-Date is made in precious metals only and is the watch of choice for many of the world’s most influential figures – an ultimate status symbol, it’s nicknamed the “Presidents’ watch”. The line-up today includes models in both 36mm and 40mm, with a wide-ranging variety of coloured dials, but all in precious metals and on the popular President bracelet. The most famous and coveted is, of course, the all gold Day-Date on the President bracelet. Pictured here in 40mm, the watch is equipped with the self-winding 3255 certified Superlative Chronometer calibre with a power reserve of 70 hours.

Complete Calendar

At one point in time, the complete calendar was pretty commonplace – also called the triple calendar, the watch provided the date, day and month, sometimes including a moon phase or other complications such as the chronograph. Movement maker Valjoux supplied the calibre 72C (triple-date chronograph) and 88 (triple- date chronograph with moon phase) from the 1940s to the 60s' to many watch companies, establishing the look of the complete-calendar watch of that era. Both Valjoux movements were compact, displaying the day and month on two windows at 12 o’clock and the date via a pointed hand around the perimeter of the dial. This configuration could also be seen on more prestigious models, such as the vintage Rolex ref. 4767 “Jean-Claude Killy” as well as annual-calendar watches from Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin in that era.
The popularity of the triple calendar waned as people turned to the more complex and convenient annual and perpetual calendars, but there’s still a certain charm to this retro complication. Vacheron Constantin certainly must have thought so too, when it decided to bring back the complication in its Historiques collection. Inspired by the reference 4240, the Historiques Triple Calendrier 1942 reflects the design codes of the original model but with a contemporary twist. The Triple Calendrier 1942 bears the same hours, minutes and small seconds at 6 o’clock, along with the date shown by a central hand with a red arrow-head pointer. The day and month are shown in two apertures at 12 o’clock. The distinctive “triple gadroon” caseband with claw-type lugs are also typical of the era. Made in steel, the watch is topped by a box- type glass and is water-resistant to 3 bar. The calibre within is the manual-winding 4400 QC, beating at a frequency of 4Hz, with a power reserve of 65 hours.

Jaeger-LeCoultre, renowned for its triple-calendar watches in the ’40s and ’50s, has also released a major update to its Master Control Calendar this year, which is now equipped with its new calibre 866. The movement now comes with an extended power reserve of 70 hours, thanks to an improved mainspring and barrel. The date display has also been improved: as the red-tipped date hand switches from the 15th to the 16th of the month, it jumps 90-degrees to avoid obscuring the moon phase display.

Weekly Calendar

Special mention must go to Patek Philippe’s Weekly Calendar ref. 5212A-001, which turned heads in 2019 when it was launched during Baselworld. The watch is like a triple calendar, but with a new purpose – the week is the focus here. It’s also cased in stainless steel, a departure from the precious metals preferred on the Calatrava. The 5212A, in addition to displaying the day of the week and date, also shows the number of weeks in the year in accordance with the ISO 8610 standard, where the first official week of the year begins on the Monday of the week of January 4. On the dial, the date is indicated in the window positioned at 3 o’clock, the day is shown by a short red-tipped hand at the centre of the dial, and the week and month indicated by a longer red tipped hand around the outer edge of the dial. The date is corrected through the crown, and the weekday and the week-number indications are controlled via two correctors in the case flank. A special movement – the self-winding calibre 26-330, which beats at a frequency of 4Hz with a maximum power reserve of 45 hours – was created for this unusual watch. Another detail we love is the handwritten typography, which provides a wonderful sense of whimsy and an almost vintage air to the otherwise practical and functional watch.

Annual Calendar

You could think of the annual calendar function as one that closes the gap between the simple date display and the highly complex perpetual calendar. The annual calendar is as practical as it gets, and at a fraction of the price of the more sophisticated perpetual calendar. Simpler calendar watches would require five adjustments a year (provided that the watch doesn’t stop running) to accurately display the date. The annual calendar watch will automatically adjust the date displayed at the end of each month. The only manual adjustment required is in February, when the month cycle is only 28 days. There are many variations of the annual calendar on the market today – Patek Philippe has several models in different configurations, while Rolex, with the Oyster Perpetual Sky-Dweller, has completely redefined what an annual-calendar complication can look like.
One with a practical look that makes reading the calendar extremely easy at a glance is the IWC Portugieser Annual Calendar.

Debuted in 2015, the watch is fitted with the IWC-manufactured 52850 calibre, equipped with twin barrels to supply the watch with a whopping seven-day power reserve. On the Portugieser Annual Calendar, the annual calendar shows the month, date and day in three separate, curved windows. Its straightforward layout – in an “American” order in homage to IWC’s American founder, FA Jones – makes reading the calendar extremely easy, all the information is comprehensible at a glance, and the large case size, at 44.2mm, also makes reading the dial easy. While the watch requires manual adjustment once every year at the end of February, IWC’s designers have made this as fuss-free as possible, as it’s easily and conveniently carried out using the crown without the need of an additional corrector.

Perpetual Calendar

And now we come to the most complex and most revered of calendar complications, the perpetual calendar. The perpetual-calendar mechanism is able to keep track of the day, date, taking into account the shifting 30 and 31-day cycles, know when it’s February when it has only 28 days, as well as knowing that every four years, February has 29 days. The first watchmaker to put this complication into a pocket watch was Thomas Mudge in 1762 but it wasn’t until 1925 that Patek Philippe miniaturised the complication successfully, and almost 20 years after that for it to produce the perpetual-calendar wristwatch in series with the legendary ref. 1526 in 1941.

Audemars Piguet first produced a perpetual calendar wristwatch in 1978, in the midst of the Quartz Crisis. The successful launch of the calibre 2120/2800 marked a milestone for the brand, propelling it down a path of creating complicated wristwatches at a time when mass-produced quartz technology threatened to decimate the mechanical watchmaking industry. Maybe this compelling story is the reason why the perpetual-calendar wristwatch enjoys the status it does today. It’s the ultimate grail watch for many collectors, as well as a mark of a watchmaker’s excellence – perhaps it’s for this reason that perpetual calendars are the most complicated calendar watches to produce, and also the most contemporary in looks. While simpler calendar watches often retain a more classical, even vintage aesthetic, perpetual calendars of today are extremely robust and avant-garde in look and feel, constantly pushing the limits of watchmaking with launch after launch of impressive mechanical feats.

Audemars Piguet presented the Royal Oak Selfwinding Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin in 2019, based on a concept model, the RD#2, that was introduced the year before. To date, it’s the thinnest automatic perpetual-calendar ever produced, housed inside AP’s familiar Royal Oak case. The watch is 41mm in diameter, but only 6.3mm in height – 3.2mm thinner than a regular Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar, which in itself is already a pretty slim watch. To make the calendar indications easier to read, Audemars Piguet has done away with the classic “petite tapisserie” guilloché pattern on the typical Royal Oak. The watch is also in titanium, making it incredibly lightweight on the wrist.

One of the latest perpetual calendar models released this year is MB&F’s Legacy Machine Perpetual Evo, which celebrates the brand’s 15th anniversary. With the word Evo in its name, the watch is enhanced with a zirconium case, a rubber strap and a screw-down crown, giving it a water resistance of up to 80 metres. The perpetual- calendar movement is also protected by a mono-block shock protection system called “FlexRing”, a damper that protects all the watch’s 581 parts from the usual rigours of life. Three versions of this watch are available in a very limited 15 orders each, but the one that’s caught our eye is the blue PVD version.

The post A Guide to the Different Types of Calendar Watches appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

We all wish for that Eureka moment. Having that one brilliant idea that will scoop us out of the pool of mundanity we’ve found ourselves in with our chosen (or not) career, which in all likelihood, has become far less interesting than it used to be.

The thing with such lightbulb moments is that they dawn on you in the unlikeliest places and moments, and are often motivated by simple practicalities. For Adam Brown, founder of British resortwear and lifestyle brand Orlebar Brown, that moment came while he was on holiday in Rajasthan, and was slightly irked about having to change for lunch while wearing swim shorts. “That’s when I got the idea of a tailored swim short – that which I can swim in but also can wear to a restaurant and still look smart,” Brown says.

[caption id="attachment_212501" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Models wear clothing from the Orlebar Brown / IWC resort capsule collection and IWC watches.[/caption]

And Orlebar Brown swim shorts are surely not your run-of-the-mill variety. They’re based on the traditional pattern of a pair of men’s trousers, and designed to be a “transitional item” you can wear in or by the pool, as well as in establishments that require a dress code. As the brand’s collections evolved, so did the variety of its products that eventually extended beyond holiday wear. And now, in light of Brown’s collaboration with IWC, he’s just added watch design to his résumé.

“It started with an email, and went on to a ‘get to know you’ phase with Chris Granger, CEO of IWC, and its creative director Christian Knoop; it snowballed from there. The creative process was really fun. I think the fun factor is an important part of any collaboration, and that both brands share the same values,” Brown says. Numerous meetings, phone calls, emails and hours-long brainstorming sessions later, the Portugieser Yacht Club Chronograph Edition “Orlebar Brown” was born, and alongside it a nine-piece special Orlebar Brown capsule resort collection.

[caption id="attachment_212498" align="aligncenter" width="791"] Adam Brown is the founder of Orlebar Brown.[/caption]

“It was a true collaboration, with both involved in each other’s products – from the colour and design of the case down to the weight of the strap. It was very important to me that we both contributed to the design of the watch and the capsule collection. Obviously, the Portugieser is a watch that’s been around for a long time and IWC was very clear about how it wanted to talk about the watch this year. It was something that absolutely fits with what Orlebar Brown is about,” Brown says.

And the Portugieser Yacht Club Chronograph Edition “Orlebar Brown” indeed has that resort touch to it. Matching its stainless-steel case is a marine-blue dial and a co-branded side-fastener buckle with white and red colour accents, shades often used in Orlebar Brown’s product range. The chronograph is equipped with an in-house calibre, and features a flyback function, a sub dial at 12 o’clock and a 68-hour power reserve. It’s finished off with a blue rubber strap with textile inlay and is, naturally, water-resistant up to 6 bar, making it ideally suited for an action-packed adventure on the deck of a yacht, or a casual lounge at the beach or pool.

[gallery ids="212497,212496"]

As for the capsule collection, it’s not like any that Brown has done before. “It’s high resort. The watch is called the Yacht Club, so it gave us a clear direction as to what the product would look like. That elegance, refinement, the approach to tailoring, the attention to detail. For instance, using towelling fabric in a blazer, the trim details, weight of the jerseys and use of the finest linen, or having gold fasteners on the trousers and other touches like that. It’s different because of the lifestyle it’s epitomising. Although we’ve done ready-to-wear for quite a while, it just needed a bit of a nudge and we made it a little more refined and a bit more grown up and just had that IWC feel about it.

“Just like the Portugieser Yacht Club, our collection combines timeless elegance and a love of adventure. We also drew inspiration from Portugieser family, a model that’s traditionally associated with the world of water, sailing and navigation.”

The collection includes a white towelling blazer with blue piping and a cotton/silk knitted polo. A highlight is a photographic swim short with signature side fasteners, depicting a Solaris 55 sailing yacht in front of Porto Rotondo in Sardinia.

[caption id="attachment_212499" align="alignnone" width="1000"] Bulldog swim shorts with the Solaris 55 sailing yacht.[/caption]

“When you do collaborations, the idea is to take your brand to a place where it doesn’t traditionally exist. So whether it’s the Bond collaboration, an artist or a graphic designer, it’s just interesting to see how something that you know so well and something that’s fundamentally Orlebar Brown can evolve into something that’s slightly different and interesting for the customer.”

In his design process Brown always considers where items will be worn, what the wearers will be doing in them, and the overall lifestyle they convey. “With IWC, there was a true resort style and elegance to it. Maybe a sporting touch, too – a bit more beach-volleyball feel, or playing with the kids in the water. Or there’s the coast/Atlantic kind of holiday, like being on a big cliff, so it’s very different from being in a resort or on a beach, so instead we do wind-blown effects, faded colours and a fabric that’s slightly different.

[caption id="attachment_212500" align="alignnone" width="1024"] A model wears an Orlebar Brown Headley knitted grey sweatshirt with the Portugieser Yacht Club Chronograph Edition "Orlebar Brown" watch.[/caption]

“My approach to design really is that the item needs to have a personality; it has to have a real relationship with the user, taking into consideration how you think the customer would want to wear it. It’s not simply producing clothes. This whole idea of versatility is important, too. You need to look at things from different angles and perspectives, rather than making it about a specific place or activity. All those things come together to form a design philosophy,” Brown says.

And surely wearing a smart linen button-down shirt paired with jacquard swim shorts – and, of course, with this handsome Portugieser strapped on your wrist – you could just as easily be frolicking on the beaches of Saint-Tropez as waiting to get seated at one of New York’s swankiest establishments, yet feeling immaculately dressed for the occasion in both situations.

The post Get Shorty: Orlebar Brown’s Adam Brown Teams Up With IWC on a Special-Edition Portugieser appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

We all wish for that Eureka moment. Having that one brilliant idea that will scoop us out of the pool of mundanity we’ve found ourselves in with our chosen (or not) career, which in all likelihood, has become far less interesting than it used to be.

The thing with such lightbulb moments is that they dawn on you in the unlikeliest places and moments, and are often motivated by simple practicalities. For Adam Brown, founder of British resortwear and lifestyle brand Orlebar Brown, that moment came while he was on holiday in Rajasthan, and was slightly irked about having to change for lunch while wearing swim shorts. “That’s when I got the idea of a tailored swim short – that which I can swim in but also can wear to a restaurant and still look smart,” Brown says.

[caption id="attachment_212501" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Models wear clothing from the Orlebar Brown / IWC resort capsule collection and IWC watches.[/caption]

And Orlebar Brown swim shorts are surely not your run-of-the-mill variety. They’re based on the traditional pattern of a pair of men’s trousers, and designed to be a “transitional item” you can wear in or by the pool, as well as in establishments that require a dress code. As the brand’s collections evolved, so did the variety of its products that eventually extended beyond holiday wear. And now, in light of Brown’s collaboration with IWC, he’s just added watch design to his résumé.

“It started with an email, and went on to a ‘get to know you’ phase with Chris Granger, CEO of IWC, and its creative director Christian Knoop; it snowballed from there. The creative process was really fun. I think the fun factor is an important part of any collaboration, and that both brands share the same values,” Brown says. Numerous meetings, phone calls, emails and hours-long brainstorming sessions later, the Portugieser Yacht Club Chronograph Edition “Orlebar Brown” was born, and alongside it a nine-piece special Orlebar Brown capsule resort collection.

[caption id="attachment_212498" align="aligncenter" width="791"] Adam Brown is the founder of Orlebar Brown.[/caption]

“It was a true collaboration, with both involved in each other’s products – from the colour and design of the case down to the weight of the strap. It was very important to me that we both contributed to the design of the watch and the capsule collection. Obviously, the Portugieser is a watch that’s been around for a long time and IWC was very clear about how it wanted to talk about the watch this year. It was something that absolutely fits with what Orlebar Brown is about,” Brown says.

And the Portugieser Yacht Club Chronograph Edition “Orlebar Brown” indeed has that resort touch to it. Matching its stainless-steel case is a marine-blue dial and a co-branded side-fastener buckle with white and red colour accents, shades often used in Orlebar Brown’s product range. The chronograph is equipped with an in-house calibre, and features a flyback function, a sub dial at 12 o’clock and a 68-hour power reserve. It’s finished off with a blue rubber strap with textile inlay and is, naturally, water-resistant up to 6 bar, making it ideally suited for an action-packed adventure on the deck of a yacht, or a casual lounge at the beach or pool.

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As for the capsule collection, it’s not like any that Brown has done before. “It’s high resort. The watch is called the Yacht Club, so it gave us a clear direction as to what the product would look like. That elegance, refinement, the approach to tailoring, the attention to detail. For instance, using towelling fabric in a blazer, the trim details, weight of the jerseys and use of the finest linen, or having gold fasteners on the trousers and other touches like that. It’s different because of the lifestyle it’s epitomising. Although we’ve done ready-to-wear for quite a while, it just needed a bit of a nudge and we made it a little more refined and a bit more grown up and just had that IWC feel about it.

“Just like the Portugieser Yacht Club, our collection combines timeless elegance and a love of adventure. We also drew inspiration from Portugieser family, a model that’s traditionally associated with the world of water, sailing and navigation.”

The collection includes a white towelling blazer with blue piping and a cotton/silk knitted polo. A highlight is a photographic swim short with signature side fasteners, depicting a Solaris 55 sailing yacht in front of Porto Rotondo in Sardinia.

[caption id="attachment_212499" align="alignnone" width="1000"] Bulldog swim shorts with the Solaris 55 sailing yacht.[/caption]

“When you do collaborations, the idea is to take your brand to a place where it doesn’t traditionally exist. So whether it’s the Bond collaboration, an artist or a graphic designer, it’s just interesting to see how something that you know so well and something that’s fundamentally Orlebar Brown can evolve into something that’s slightly different and interesting for the customer.”

In his design process Brown always considers where items will be worn, what the wearers will be doing in them, and the overall lifestyle they convey. “With IWC, there was a true resort style and elegance to it. Maybe a sporting touch, too – a bit more beach-volleyball feel, or playing with the kids in the water. Or there’s the coast/Atlantic kind of holiday, like being on a big cliff, so it’s very different from being in a resort or on a beach, so instead we do wind-blown effects, faded colours and a fabric that’s slightly different.

[caption id="attachment_212500" align="alignnone" width="1024"] A model wears an Orlebar Brown Headley knitted grey sweatshirt with the Portugieser Yacht Club Chronograph Edition "Orlebar Brown" watch.[/caption]

“My approach to design really is that the item needs to have a personality; it has to have a real relationship with the user, taking into consideration how you think the customer would want to wear it. It’s not simply producing clothes. This whole idea of versatility is important, too. You need to look at things from different angles and perspectives, rather than making it about a specific place or activity. All those things come together to form a design philosophy,” Brown says.

And surely wearing a smart linen button-down shirt paired with jacquard swim shorts – and, of course, with this handsome Portugieser strapped on your wrist – you could just as easily be frolicking on the beaches of Saint-Tropez as waiting to get seated at one of New York’s swankiest establishments, yet feeling immaculately dressed for the occasion in both situations.

The post Get Shorty: Orlebar Brown’s Adam Brown Teams Up With IWC on a Special-Edition Portugieser appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

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The post This is the safest place to rehome your old Richard Mille appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

The Value of Time at Ngee Ann City is the only official retailer of pre-owned Richard Mille timepieces in the world.

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The post IWC’s Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Top Gun “SFTI” is inspired by a watch exclusive to top naval aviators appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

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