Celebrity Life

If there's one thing we know and love about H. Moser & Cie, it's the two polar opposite sides to the watchmaker. There's perhaps no other company crazy enough to make watches out of cheese or poke fun at Apple Watch (even if it's just to make a point), and yet have a complete grasp of elegance and minimalism, reimagining complications and creating the most stunning fumé and Vantablack dials.

It's the latter that caught the attention of Mark Cho, who first met Edouard Meylan, CEO of Moser in New York two years ago. An avid watch collector, Cho was fascinated by Moser's dials – and when both men began chatting, they realised they had a shared passion for clothing and watches. Soon enough, the idea of a collaboration began to surface.

Cho co-founded The Armoury, a highly specialised menswear brand alongside business partner Alan See in 2010, to bring classic tailoring and style to the modern man while telling the stories of truly exceptional craftsmen and their products. They have created collaboration watches before – just last year, The Armoury partnered with independent Scottish watch brand Anordain to create a small production of mechanical watches with special vitreous enamel dials.

But this year, it's Moser on the map. The Endeavour Small Seconds Total Eclipse is truly a Mark Cho watch. "When Edouard and I first started talking about the idea of making a watch together, my main requirement was that it was small," says Cho in the official release. "I like watches that are discreet but reveal a deeper complexity if you pay them some attention. To me, H. Moser & Cie's fumé dial and Vantablack dial are iconic and I wanted to work with one of them as a starting point for the design. Quickly, I started to favour the Vantablack and I had the idea to add markings to the dial somehow. My design partner, Elliot Hammer, suggested that we imagine the design with the theme of a total solar eclipse. Thus, the Endeavour Small Seconds Total Eclipse was born."

The watch is a perfect balance of science and poetry. Named the blackest black, Vantablack absorbs 99.965 percent of light and is a material made from carbon nanotubes. Like a solar eclipse, the Vantablack dial evokes the silhouette of the moon, edged by a thin steel bezel and red gold or steel polished inner bezel that depicts the halo of the solar corona. We can't stare too long at a solar eclipse but at this watch, we can.

Cho also asked for subtle details to be added to the dial, including small seconds, Breguet hands and dotted hour markers in steel or red gold. This last part presented a rather large challenge to the watchmaker. Vantablack isn't a pigment but carbon nanostructures that cannot come into contact with anything else. It took some trial and error but the final creation is absolutely worth it.

Insisting on creating a small size watch at 38mm, the Endeavour Small Seconds Total Eclipse is also the smallest Endeavour watch to date. "Absolutely everything in this model links back to this quest for ultimate elegance, combining classicism with a contemporary feel," says Meylan. "Its 38mm diameter is perfectly balanced. We opted for the smallest and finest of our movements, the hand-wound HMC 327 calibre with an offset small second at 6 o'clock, reminiscent of a pocket-watch style."

The watch comes with a black calf leather strap specifically designed by The Armoury to enhance the overall elegance of the watch. Two editions are available, both cased in steel, but one with red gold indices and hands, and the other in all-steel. The Endeavour Small Seconds Total Eclipse is limited to 28 pieces per version.

The timepieces are now available in The Armoury stores in New York and Hong Kong, as well as online at both The Armoury and H. Moser & Cie.

The post The Armoury Collabs with H. Moser & Cie on the Ultimate Gentleman’s Timepiece appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

This year is a special one for German watchmaker A. Lange & Sohne as it celebrates its silver jubilee -- marking 25 years since the brand was re-established in 1994. At this year's Salon International de la Haute Horologie in January, the brand announced that, for its 25th anniversary, it would release a series of 10 limited-edition models, each one pertaining to a special milestone from the watchmaker's history.

This month at Classic Days Scholls Dyck, Germany’s largest classic car event, A. Lange & Sohne unveiled its eighth piece in the series, the Lange 1 Daymatic “25th Anniversary”. The special 25th anniversary collection features new versions of iconic models; the latest release commemorates the Lange 1 Daymatic, which made its first debut nine years ago, 16 years following the first-ever Lange 1.

[dual-images right-image-url="https://www.prestigeonline.com/hk/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/ALS_320_066_R_Lange1_Daymatic_25th_1932145.jpg" left-image-url="https://www.prestigeonline.com/hk/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/ALS_320_066_F_Lange1_Daymatic_25th_1923287.jpg" right-caption="A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 Daymatic “25th Anniversary”" left-caption="A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 Daymatic “25th Anniversary”"]

Limited to a production of only 25 pieces, the extremely rare collectors’ item features a white gold case with blue trimmings, matching the colour scheme of the seven limited-edition pieces already launched this year as part of the 25th anniversary collection. But the most intriguing part of this new release is its inverted likeness of the Lange 1: The new Lange 1 Daymatic is a mirror image of the original, with all the hours and minutes, seconds and outsize date, off-centred dials and power reserve indicators placed on the opposite side of the dial, creating a splitting image with a slight twist to it. The silver jubilee version is almost identical in size; it's only 1mm wider and 0.6mm thicker than the standard Lange 1.

Though there are aesthetic similarities, the functionalities of the two models vary. The main difference is the automatic movement, which sets it apart from other Lange 1 timepieces which are manually wound. The sapphire-crystal caseback window reveals the self-winding movement featuring a more complex layout, with a partially skeletonised gold-toned rotor over the bridges and balance. Again, like previous anniversary timepieces in this series, the Lange 1 Daymatic has a special blue “25” visible on the hand-engraved balance cock.

[caption id="attachment_159508" align="alignnone" width="3436"] A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 Daymatic "25th Anniversary"[/caption]

Specifications

Diameter: 39.5mm

Height: 10.4mm

Case Material: White gold

Dial: Silver

Indexes: Blue

Movement: Cal. L021.1

Winding: Automatic

Power Reserve: 50 hours

Strap: Blue alligator leather, hand stitched with grey seam, white gold hardware

Price: €44,200 (approx. HK$384,900)

Availability: 25 worldwide

The post A. Lange & Söhne Unveils the Limited-Edition Lange 1 Daymatic ’25th Anniversary’ appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

The Royal Oak Frosted Gold that Audemars Piguet first released in 2016 to celebrate 40 years of the Royal Oak for women was quite a revelation, to say the least. Here was the icon that started the entire luxury sports-watch product segment, but with the surfaces of its familiar case and bracelet decorated using the traditional Florentine finish previously reserved for jewellery. It’s clearly still a Royal Oak timepiece – which speaks to the strength and versatility of its design – but the frosted-gold treatment had given the watch a second identity by also making it a bona fide piece of jewellery.

The watch was the brainchild of Italian jewellery designer Carolina Bucci, a fourth-generation jeweller, as the answer to a challenge from Audemars Piguet’s CEO François-Henry Bennahmias. He had seen Bucci wearing a vintage men’s Royal Oak in her online posts and challenged her to design one for women instead.

Two years on, Audemars Piguet and Carolina Bucci have jointly unveiled a follow-up: the Royal Oak Frosted Gold Carolina Bucci Limited Edition. Like its predecessor, the new iteration remains recognisable as a Royal Oak. It’s also become something else entirely, though. The change this time lies in its dial – a mirror replaces the familiar tapisserie-patterned dial, to provide a contrast that’s reflective of Bucci’s work and character (no pun intended).

Indeed, the new watch is almost like an extension of its eponymous designer, who dresses in a mishmash of street and high fashion while accessorising with an equally diverse mix of costume and fine jewellery. Speak to Bucci in person, and the same spirit comes across: thoughts and ideas flow freely, often combining in unexpected yet surprisingly amazing ways.

How did you arrive at the mirror dial for your signature timepiece with Audemars Piguet?
I was looking to go in the opposite direction from where I had taken the Royal Oak Frosted Gold. After roughing up the bracelet and case with the Florentine finish, I wanted to flatten out the dial instead. Rather than have the tapisserie pattern, I wanted something perfectly flat and still, to the extent of smoothing it out into a mirror. To be honest, I didn’t actually consider anything else in the design process.

That was very decisive of you, to have zoomed in on this area of the watch immediately.
It’s just how I am. I don’t distinguish between my personal and professional life – I call it one big sparkly mess. In the same way, I have all these inspirations that were never meant to go together, but they’re all blended in my head. My ideas are all cooking, and they’ll be ready at different points in time. When an idea is ready, I’ll zoom in on it. In this case, I had a mental image of the finished piece that I wanted to create in my head right from the start.

The new watch builds on the Royal Oak Frosted Gold, but as we all know, your initial proposal was rejected by Bennahmias. How did you convince him to go ahead with it?
I’m a Scorpio (laughs), so I’m pretty stubborn. From an aesthetic point, I knew it’d be a great piece, which is why I kept pushing for it. Funnily enough, one of what I consider the biggest compliments about the watch came from a craftsman at Audemars Piguet, who apologised for calling me crazy behind my back because of what I wanted to do with the Royal Oak – he thanked me for pushing the team to achieve more. Although the watch is obviously for Audemars Piguet’s clients, to have given its creators pleasure in building the watch was also a great source of satisfaction for me.

Has your collaboration with Audemars Piguet inspired you in your own jewellery design work?
Not necessarily. I don’t think there has been any “backward” inspiration to influence my jewellery design work. This collaboration did, however, show me that both Audemars Piguet and I are in our respective places not due to coincidence, but because of consecutive, deliberate steps and decisions. What I find inspiring is to see Audemars Piguet where it is now, yet trying to push its own boundaries. We’re both fourth-generation leaders of our respective businesses, so the parallels are there. It’s pushed me to do more and go further on my side.

The post Carolina Bucci on Her New Audemars Piguet Collaboration appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

The trendiest luxury watches this season has to offer are not what you’d expect. Take a look!

The world of luxury watches is so wildly immersive! We could just scroll for hours to look at the latest models from the top watch brands that we admire so much.

Today, however, we are not bringing you timeless models, but rather this season’s most unique, bold and trendy watches that will surprise you for the looks as much as the features!

Continue reading Take a Look at These Trendy Luxury Watches at Luxxu Blog.

MMT Store Releases Stunning Limited Edition Watch for their Circles Collection inspired by the Art Deco glamour!

MMT was founded in 2011 in Hong Kong by the french entrepreneur Baptiste Guedez and designer Thomas Letourneux as a luxury brand that combines minimal lines and a singular experience within its watch designs.

Continue reading MMT Store Launches Limited Edition Watch Inspired by Art Deco Era at Luxxu Blog.