The Exceptional Jewelry News Network Holiday Luxury Watch Guide

Check out the 11 timepieces below for men and women that would make anyone feel special this holiday season.

The 39mm diameter Montblanc Star Classique has eight indices and four numerals plated with gold, as are the leaf-shaped hour-hand and minute-hand. The little second-hand turns its circles on a subdial in the shape of the iconic Montblanc emblem at 6 o'clock. The sapphire crystal caseback reveals the self winding mechanical caliber MB 4810/408 with its ball-borne winding rotor and golden balance. It retails for $10,450 and is available at select Montblanc boutiques and retail locations.

The Vacheron Constantin Patrimony Traditionnelle Self-Winding is a classic watch from the oldest manufacturer of fine timepieces. It reveals its timeless character through details such as the slender bezel, the knurled motif on the screw-down case-back, 18k pink gold, applied hour-markers, and elegant dauphine hands. The gold case frames an opaline silver-toned dial punctuated by 18k pink gold hour-markers. The 41mm case houses an ultra-thin Calibre 1120. It retails for is $31,300. It is available at Vacheron Constantin boutiques in New York, Las Vegas, and Costa Mesa, Calif., or by calling 877-862-7555 for the nearest retailer.

The Girard-Perregaux Cat's Eye features 150 emerald-cut diamonds on its white gold case, 102 emerald-cut diamonds on its dial and 13 baguette diamonds on its black satin strap with ardillon buckle in white gold. It retails for $405,000 and is available at the Girard-Perregaux Boutique, 701 Madison Avenue, NYC. Phone: 646 495 9915.

Baume & Mercier Capeland 10088 is the brand’s first limited edition men's timepiece for Tourneau in the U.S. The 44mm automatic flyback chronograph has a blue tachymeter and black telemeter. It is distinguished by a copper-colored dial and a sapphire crystal caseback. The case is polished and satin-finished steel with an anti-glare face. It’s limited to 250 pieces, each one is numbered. It retails for $7,900 and is available at select Tourneau stores nationwide.

The Franc Vila FVi17 Chrono Bicompax contains the FVi Nº 7 Tourbillon Intrepido. This watch is designed to be sporty and elegant. There are two chronograph subdials at 3 and 9 o’clock with a date indicator at 6 o’clock. The black case is made of titanium, a material Vila favors for lightweight and durability. The complicated movement is caliber FV17, with the exclusive “Gold Concept Rotor.” It has a power reserve of 42 hours. It retails for $20,700. Visit francvila.com to view dealers of Franc Vila watches.

The Girard-Perregaux 1966 Equation of Time has a rose gold case and annual calendar. Then of course, there's the "equation of time" complication, which measure the difference between apparent solar time and mean solar time—perhaps the most esoteric of all measurements of time. It's shown with a gauge that measures the variance from +15m to -15m. It retails for $32,860 and is available at the Girard-Perregaux Boutique, 701 Madison Avenue, NYC. Phone: 646 495 9915.

A convex sapphire crystal and see-through case back give a glimpse of its inner workings of the Frederique Constant Worldtimer Manufacture. The dial comes in silver, with an engraved guilloche design or a detailed world map in the center. All functions are accessed by using the crown; there are no extra push buttons sticking out from the ultra-smooth and polished sides of the case. The Worldtimer function is achieved by selecting the desired city and placing it at the 12 o'clock position on the dial. Internal discs automatically synchronize, and after that, it’s possible to see what time it is in any of the 24 cities on the dial. It is limited edition collection of 1,888 pieces. It retails for $3,450 and is available at Bloomingdales.com.

The Jaeger-LeCoultre AMVOX7 Chronograph is inspired by the Aston Martin Vanquish, this watch has a titanium case with satin-finished lugs. A pivot mechanism allows the functions of the chronograph to be operated by pressing on the watch crystal. The chronograph function can be started or stopped by pressing the watch glass at 12’clock, while pressing at 6 o'clock resets to zero. The retail price is $26,000. Visit www.jaeger-lecoultre.com for purchasing information.

Frederique Constant Automatic Ladies Watch with Diamond features 56 diamonds. Hearts grace the inside of the dial while diamonds are used as hour indicators. It retails for $4,250 and is available at Bloomingdales.com.

The JeanRichard 1681 Collection is available in two versions: one with three hands and a date display, the other with a date display and small second display and in two colors, steel and pink gold. The time display appears against a classical rail-track minute circle. The three-hand version has applied Arabic numerals in a similar style to the hour-markers; the small second display at 9 o’clock counterbalances the date. The oscillating weight of the calibre JR1000, bearing the new signature of the brand, can be seen through the screw-in case-back. The 1681 pictured retails for $6,400 and is available at Kenjo Watches in New York.

Baume & Mercier Linea 10036 ladies watch comes with a double wrap strap in the light brown calfskin, however, there are several other colored bands (single and double) that may be interchanged. The 27mm round watch has a satin finish and a quartz movement. It retails for $1,950 with the interchangeable bands $200 each. Call 1-800-Mercier for purchasing information.

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David Beckham Is The New Face of A New Breitling Watch

David Beckham appears in new ad for Breitling. 

Breitling, said Tuesday that David Beckham is the new face of its Transocean Chronograph Unitime worldtimer watch. The new campaign establishes a long-term partnership between the Swiss luxury watch brand and the international sports celebrity and style icon.

Transocean Chronograph Unitime

The Transocean Chronograph Unitime, equipped with the new Manufacture Breitling Caliber B05, with its double disk enables permanent readings of the time in all 24 timezones through its crown-operated correction system.

Beckham stars in the Breitling advertisement featuring a visual shot on the runway of the Mojave Air & Space Port in California. The image, taken by American photographer Anthony Mandler, shows Beckham standing in front of a private jet wearing his Transocean Chronograph Unitime. 

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Bespoke Titanium Patek Philippe’s Sky Moon Tourbillon Could Fetch $1.5 Million

Patek Philippe Ref 5001T Sky Moon Tourbillon

A unique collection of watches that includes five bespoke Patek Philippe references made in titanium will be part of Sotheby’s New York Important Watches auction on June 10. The collection of vintage and modern timepieces is led by the Patek Philippe Ref 5001T Sky Moon Tourbillon, a previously undocumented reference and the only known example of Patek Philippe’s Sky Moon Tourbillon in titanium. Its estimate is $1 - $1.5 million.

The double dialed wristwatch has 12 complications including tourbillon, perpetual calendar, retrograde date, sky chart, moon-phases, orbit display, sidereal time and minute repeating on cathedral gongs, made circa 2002. In addition to the lightweight metal, the watch is further distinguished by its basket weave motif, repeated on the bezel and the dial where the standard Sky Moon Tourbillon normally features the firm’s signature Calatrava crosses, as well as unabbreviated cardinal points on the star chart.

The Patek Philippe titanium timepieces are part of a private collection of 12 watches that includes additional references by Patek Philippe that have remained unknown to collectors, as well as unique pieces incorporating rare materials and designs beyond titanium. The timepieces have a total estimate of more than $3 million.

Patek Philippe Ref 5033T, titanium automatic annual calendar
minute repeating wristwatch.

In addition to the Ref 5001T, highlights of the previously unknown titanium wristwatches by Patek Philippe include: the Ref 5033T, a titanium automatic annual calendar minute repeating wristwatch made in 2003 (estimate est. $400,000 - $600,000); and the Ref 5102T Celestial, a titanium automatic astronomical wristwatch with sky chart, phases and position of the moon and time of Meridian passage of Sirius and the moon, made in 2003 (estimate. $200 $300,000).

Until this auction, there were only four known watches in titanium made by Patek Philippe.

“When first learning about this collection, it was almost impossible to conceive of so many important yet unknown pieces from Patek Philippe,” Daryn Schnipper, chairman of Sotheby’s Watch & Clock Department, said in a statement. “The five titanium watches are an absolute revelation. This group is a testament to the influence and ultimate connoisseurship of its collector, who had the foresight to customize these references in discreet yet significant ways.”

Patek Philippe 1923 Officier

Another star of the private collection is the Patek Philippe 1923 Officier, which Sotheby’s said is one of the most important wristwatches produced by the firm. The yellow gold single button split-seconds chronograph originally sold on October 13, 1923, making it the earliest known split-seconds chronograph produced by the firm. It is the only split-seconds chronograph by Patek Philippe to feature a white enamel dial. Its estimate is $800,000 - $1.2 million.

Patek Philippe Ref 5103P platinum automatic minute repeating semi-skeletonized perpetual calendar wristwatch with retrograde date, moon phases and leap year indication.

Another previously undocumented Patek Philippe is the Ref 5103P platinum automatic minute repeating semi-skeletonized perpetual calendar wristwatch with retrograde date, moon phases and leap year indication made in 2004. The watch has bespoke engraving on its movement plates as well as a unique teardrop pattern on its side. Its estimate is $500,000 - $700,000.

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Large Independent Watch Brands at Baselworld 2013

Patek Philippe Ref. 5200 Gondolo 8 Days, Day & Date Indication

The sharks are circling this next group of watch brands that I saw at Baselworld 2013. By sharks I mean Swatch Group, LVMH, PPR/Kering and others like them who gobble up independent watch companies like Yellowfins with a never ending appetite. These companies (and a few others) are for the most part large and successful and have managed to keep their independence.

This independence is something they wear proudly and even use for their marketing. They all claim that they will remain free of the luxury conglomerates but others who have made the same vow have fallen to the seduction of these companies and their deep pockets as well as the new realities of a global watch business.

So here’s a chance to view the labor of independent companies before the sharks take another other bite out of these remaining few.

Patek Philippe Ref. 5200 Gondolo 8 Days, Day & Date Indication (top photo)
Arguably the most successful Swiss watch company in history, it's difficult to imagine this company being anything but independent.

For this model, Patek developed a new mechanical caliber with Silinvar components created at the “Patek Philippe Advanced Research” think tank. The result is a form movement with a genuine 8-day power-reserve display. The watch is housed in a curved Art Deco style case.

The rectangular caliber 28-20 REC 8J PS IRM C J was developed for the Ref. 5200 Gondolo. In twin in-line barrels it stores the power needed to guarantee that it will run non-stop for 192 hours. The winding mechanism requires 134 revolutions every eight days. The day and date indicators are located on the “sunshine blue” dial at 6 o’clock and the power reserve function is at 12 o’clock.

Patek says the movement’s eight-day staying power with the day and date apertures is due to the patented oscillator with a Spiromax balance spring and a Pulsomax escapement. It is the manufacture’s first 4-hertz movement with these patented elements. The watch is also available with a white dial.

Oris ProDiver Pointer Moon
Oris says this professional diver’s watch is the world's first mechanical timepiece to indicate both the lunar cycle and the tidal range.

The watch was inspired by its brand ambassador, commercial diver Roman Frischknecht. The dial design indicates the tidal range and lunar cycle at a glance, removing the need for divers to consult manuals. It incorporates Oris's patented Rotation Safety System, which allows the wearer to keep track of a certain time period using a rotating bezel that can be locked to prevent accidental adjustment, and an automatic helium escape valve.

The automatic movement, Oris Cal. 761, is based on a Sellita SW220 with pointer moon function and a date display at 5 o’clock. Its titanium case is water resistant to 1,000m. For ease of readability for divers, the sapphire crystal is domed on both sides and has an inner anti-reflective coating. It is available in northern and southern hemisphere tide range indication.

Corum Ti-Bridge Automatic Dual Winder
Corum’s latest addition to the Bridges collection has a “Dual Winder” system powered by the automatic CO 207 caliber. This movement derives its energy from two interconnected inline oscillating weights. The watch also boasts a patented winding system and a new titanium case.

The patented Corum Dual Winder system features two inline-mounted circular oscillating weights, interconnected by a transmission arbor that makes them move in parallel. The winding is efficient in both directions. A single barrel placed at 3 o’clock stores up the CO 207 caliber’s 72-hour power reserve. The CO 207 movement is held in the center of the case by four titanium cross-bars. The impression of a suspended mechanism is further accentuated by its transparency, framed by an anthracite grey dial. It is available in grade 5 titanium and in 5N 18k red gold.

Carl F. Bucherer Manero MoonPhase Limited Edition
This watch marks the 125-year anniversary when Carl Friedrich Bucherer founded the company. It provides the date, day of the week and the month with a moonphase.

The date is shown by a hand around the center of the dial. The day of the week indicator is positioned at 10 o’clock, and the month can be seen at 2 o’clock. The moonphase indication is positioned at 6 o’clock. The watch is powered by the automatic CFB 1966 caliber.

With a diameter of 38 mm, the bicolored case is made of 18k rose gold and stainless steel. In spite of the many indications, optimum legibility is enhanced by the wedge-shaped index marks and the tapering Super-Luminova-coated hours and minutes hands. The moonphase indication has a gold-colored moon shining out against a blue background. It is limited to 125 pieces.

Nomos Glashütte Orion 38 Gray
This latest version of the Orion at 38mm is a bit wider than the usual Orion and has a touch of gray. the standard Nomos caliber (with the hand-wound Alpha movement ) is visible through the sapphire crystal back. The face is galvanized and rhodium-plated in silver-gray, which gives it a glazed appearance. The watch’s indices are embossed and diamond-coated. It is one of a series of four Orion 38 watches that were introduced at Baselworld. The company hails from Glashütte, the watchmaking capital of Germany.

Frédérique Constant Slimline Moonphase Manufacture
Five new models of the Slimline Moonphase Collection were introduced at Baselworld and all are driven by the FC-705 Manufacture caliber.

Each complication in the watch is accessed through a three-position single crown. “Position 0” is for winding the watch. At “Position 1,” the date can be adjusted by turning the crown clockwise. Turning the crown counter clockwise adjusts the moonphase. “Position 2” is used to adjust the hour and minute hands.

Other features include the slimline design and a case diameter of 42 mm. Each dial presents the date display and moonphase at the 6 o’clock position. A new technology known as “laser ablation” was used to create a detailed and precise image of the moon. Finally, each model comes with a 26-jewel movement, a 42-hour power reserve and a Circular Côtes de Genève decoration on the movement.

Alpina 130 Heritage Pilot Automatic Chronograph
This watch celebrates Alpina’s 130th anniversary. The “Bi-compax" chronograph was inspired by an Alpina pilot chronograph from the beginning of the 20th Century.

The Alpina 130 features a sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating that guarantees perfect contrast between all elements of the dial, regardless of the angle of the light shining on the watch. The classic dial design, with telemeter and tachymeter scales provides a balance between technicality, elegance and readability. The transparent case back allows a view of the AL-860 automatic chronograph caliber with its fine fish scales decoration and blue screws.

The tachymeter scale gives the means to measure average speed of movement, while the telemeter scale provides the distance between the source of a specific sound effect and the position of the listener. These functions are important for pilots and drivers who rely on time, speed and distance variables.

Raymond Weil Freelancer 7730
The new additions to the watch brand’s Freelancer chronograph collection include a 42mm steel case watch with black galvanic dial punctuated with red colored notes. The steel-colored minute and hour hands are coated in a luminescent material providing night-time visibility. It has a seconds subdial at 9 o’clock and a three-day date and day window at 3 o’clock, adjusted by a push pin also at 3 o’clock. The chronograph start, stop and restart push-button is at 2 o’clock and a reset button at 4 o’clock. In addition, there’s a 30-minute counter at 12 o’clock and a 12-hour counter at 6 o’clock.

Jacob & Co. Quenttin Tourbillion Baguette
The company known for its over-the-top flare and dramatic reinterpretations of timepieces released its latest version of the Quenttin Tourbillion, which in this case is covered in baguette-shaped diamonds. The curved case measures 56 x 47 x 21.55mm and is topped with 26.01 carats of diamonds. The satin-finished titanium and 18k rhodium-plated, polished white gold is set with 453 diamonds (23.81 carats). The tourbillon is visible through a side window.

The dial indicators are on revolving cylindrical drums with Super-luminova Arabic numerals, with the central hours cylinder and minutes cylinder to the right; and power reserve indication on the left cylinder. The movement is a manual-winding Jacob & Co. MHC-manufactured caliber 9031 with one-minute vertical tourbillon; frequency 21’600 vph, seven spring barrels and 31-day power reserve.

Black vulcanized rubber strap with 18k white gold deployment buckle is set with 40 baguette diamonds (2.20 carats). It is limited to six pieces.

Perrelet Turbine Chrono
The watch brand created a timepiece collection incorporating a chronograph into a Turbine powered by an in-house P-361 automatic movement. The chronograph measurements are provided by a central seconds chronograph hand and a 60-minute counter. The former runs over a large inner bezel surrounding the dial, while the latter is composed of two juxtaposed sapphire crystal elements. A graduated mobile disk turns in the center of a fixed ring marked with a red arrow bearing the inscription “min” and pointing to the recorded times. The transparency of the chronograph counter allows the signature rotor of the Turbine watch to remain visible.

Five chronographs make up the collection in 47 mm-diameter cases with tachometric bezels and applied rings. There are three variations in graded shades of black and white, one enhanced with 4N pink gold, and an All-Black model.

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Tag Heuer Carrera Watch Celebrates 50 Years with its Creator, Jack Heuer

Jack Heuer

The Carrera chronograph is one of the most successful watch lines ever released by Tag Heuer, which has produced more than its share of successful timepieces. The creator of the Carrera, Jack Heuer, was in New York Thursday to help the Swiss watch brand celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the iconic watch.

Jack Heuer, honorary chairman of Tag Heuer and the great grandson of founder Edouard Heuer, spoke for about 10 minutes discussing how the watch came about, the inspiration behind the name, the celebrity endorsements and what the Carrera has meant to his career and to Tag Heuer. His talk combined business and design strategy and personal reminiscing.

“I’ve been a product man all of my life. That’s the thing I love most. I made many, many products both in my watchmaking career and in my later career,” he said. “But here I stand a few weeks or months before I retire and I’m really a bit proud to have contributed to a product that has lasted 50 years.”

Below is Jack Heuer’s presentation at the Highline Stages.



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Jaeger-LeCoultre Declares that Thin is In With New Perpetual Watch

Master Ultra Thin Perpetual watch

Swiss luxury watch brand Jaeger-LeCoultre has released an ultra-thin automatic perpetual calendar timepiece. The 39mm watch has a thickness of 9.2 mm. It houses the Caliber 868 movement, the manufacture’s ultra-thin automatic perpetual calendar movement that’s a mere 4.72 mm thick.

In addition to the hour, minute and central seconds hands, the Master Ultra Thin Perpetual watch comprises three counters dedicated to the perpetual calendar displays: the first at 9 o’clock for the day of the week; the second at 3 o’clock for the date; and the third at 6 o’clock for the month. Jaeger-LeCoultre’s distinctive signature appears below the moon phase. A full four-digit display appears through a small aperture at 7 o’clock.

A single crown changes all the indications in a simple procedure: one press moves the perpetual calendar one day forward, while any additional changes required to keep step with the vagaries of the Gregorian calendar take place automatically. The watch mechanism takes account of the unequal length of months with 28, 30 or 31 days. Every four years, it will naturally display the 29th of February associated with leap years. It requires no manual adjustment before March 1, 2100, since century years are an exception to the four-year cycle governing leap years. Meanwhile, the moon-phase display will portray the various states of the Earth’s satellite over the next 122 years. Just above the dial center is a small rectangular window, about the same shade as the background, which turns gradually red as evening falls.

The new model comes in an 18k pink gold case with a white dial, an 18k white gold version comes with a grained silver-toned dial, and a steel model available exclusively at Jaeger-LeCoultre boutiques with a sunburst silver-toned dial.

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Hublot Names Jacky Bracamontes van Hoorde as its New Brand Ambassador

Jacky Bracamontes van Hoorde participates in photo shoot for Hublot's International Women's Day campaign.

Originally a socialist political event, a capitalist venture has now joined in the celebration of International Women’s Day, which will be held March 8.

Hublot said Wednesday that it will launch an advertising campaign dedicated to women on Friday. In addition, the Swiss luxury watch brand has named Jacky Bracamontes van Hoorde as its new ambassador for women’s watches, saying that the former Miss Mexico, actress, model, sports journalist and TV presenter “symbolizes the modern 21st century woman.”

“Jacky is today’s modern woman. She successfully juggles her career, her role as a wife, and soon that of a mother,” said Ricardo Guadalupe, Hublot CEO. “She is the perfect icon and an obvious choice for us.”

She is already Hublot’s brand ambassador in Latin America.

For the new Hublot advertising campaign dedicated to women, Bracamontes van Hoorde took part in a shoot in January in Mexico. The ad campaign will appear Friday on International Women’s Day in the Financial Times and International Herald Tribune.

A significant part of the world celebrates International Women’s Day, primarily former and current Communist or Socialist countries, which honors women and their achievements.

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Captain Sully Lands at Jeanrichard

Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger

NEW YORK — The word, “hero,” is thrown around a lot these days and often used to describe acts that may indeed be considered special in one way or another but fall short of being heroic. If anyone truly earned the right to be tagged with this honor, it’s Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger.

On Jan. 15, 2009, the former U.S. Airways pilot successfully landed (“ditched”) a powerless Airbus 320 into the Hudson River about three minutes after the aircraft hit a flock of Canada Geese causing its engines to fail, saving the lives of all 155 passengers and crew. NTSB board member Kitty Higgins called it “the most successful ditching in aviation history.” The name “Sully” will always be associated with Flight 1549 and the “Miracle on the Hudson.”

Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger was at the Standard Hotel in Manhattan Monday for his first public appearance as the new ambassador for Swiss luxury watch brand, Jeanrichard, as it introduced new models to its 1681 and Terrascope collections.

There is no new “Sully” timepiece. Not yet anyway. But it is being discussed. He will visit the Jeanrichard headquarters in Switzerland in April to see how the watches are constructed.

“The more I learn about these incredible devices, how elegant, how beautiful they are, the craftsmanship that’s involved it’s just amazing. The more I appreciate them,” he said.

Bruno Grande, Jeanrichard COO, with Sullenberger.

At 62 years of age Sullenberger looks every bit of what one would expect a pilot to be. Fit and trim, enthusiastic, personable and articulate; he speaks with passion, whether analytically discussing the details of Flight 1549 or expressing his “fascination with time,” which has evolved since the flight.

“It’s obviously one of our more precious commodities in each of our lives,” he said. “It’s even more apparent to me now than before the flight four years ago. I’ve always intellectually knew that, but until you experience such an extreme challenge it’s not as real to you and now I think I have a greater appreciation for how each of our lives could change, in an instant, completely forever and in a moment. We really never know when and if that’s going to happen.”

Time also serves an important task in his profession as a way to determine fuel usage.

“It’s a necessary concept in flying because at takeoff, unless you’re going to do aerial refueling in a military airplane, you have a finite supply of fuel that equates to a finite supply of time. So you have to make sure you complete the flight within those constraints with a reserve, with alternatives and contingencies in mind.

“One of the things that we always did in flying is to have this discipline and habits focused so we could anticipate and plan and never be surprised by anything. That’s what made this Hudson River situation so shocking. Unlike every other flight I ever had that we worked so hard to make routine, we were suddenly confronted with something we haven’t trained for. I knew that in the first seconds that my life would change forever.”

Sullenberger knew he wanted to be a pilot from the time he was child. As a Mensa member at the age of 12, he certainly had the intellect for it. He flew his first flight at the age of 16, was a decorated cadet in the U.S. Air Force Academy and served as a fighter pilot and trainer for the U.S. Air Force before joining US Air in 1980 (the predecessor to US Airways). He credits the training he received and his lifelong commitment to all aspects of his job, including the more mundane parts, to being able to make the proper decisions at a critical time.

Jeanrichard 1681 timepiece

“Everything in my life in some important way has been available to me to access enough in that incredible moment when I needed everything I knew to solve very quickly a problem I never seen before and never specifically trained for,” he said.

Bruno Grande, Jeanrichard chief operating officer, said it is this commitment to the ordinary details of his profession that matched the watch brand’s “Philosophy of Life” motto and the brand’s namesake, Daniel Jeanrichard, who assembled his first watch in 1681.

“He found passion in an ordinary job,” Grande said. “It’s a huge thing. You can be a baker, a simple job but at the same time have great passion. It doesn’t matter what the passion is, his passion is his job. And the passion of Jeanrichard is the fact that today, 2013, we are still here, talking about him.”

Sullenberger combines doses of humility with strong helpings of pride when he talks about the ill-fated, six-minute flight from LaGuardia Airport and how he and his crew responded.

“I certainly feel like everyone on the airplane and I went through an extraordinary situation and many people did their jobs extraordinarily well. They went well above the call of duty,” he said. “The fact we got so much, so right, so quickly under the adverse conditions is a testament to what we were able to accomplish.”

One of the most remarkable parts of the successful landing (as you may have noticed in his earlier statements) is that, with all the training he’s received, there was no guidance for a water landing. Nor was there a protocol for having a total shutdown of an aircraft so soon after taking off and being so close to the ground. This meant that Sullenberger’s knowledge, skill, judgment and experience became even more critical.

Jeanrichard Terrascope with blue dial and rose gold details.

“In our flight simulators it’s not possible to practice a water landing. The data didn’t exist on our program for it. Believe it or not the only training we’ve ever gotten for a water landing is a theoretical classroom discussion,” he said. “Even in the most extreme demanding flights, their training scenarios never had everything going wrong at that so low of altitude with that little time to deal with it. It turned out that we only had 3 minutes and 28 seconds from the time we the hit the birds and lost thrust till we landed. It was just incredibly quick. So I had to very quickly assess what just happened; begin to take the immediate, corrective actions; search for a place to land; rule out the ones I didn’t have enough altitude to reach; and then settle on the one that I did. It was the river. That was the only place we could go that was smooth enough, strong enough, wide enough to try to land on.”

Most everyone credits Sullenberger’s decision to raise the nose of the aircraft right before the water landing as the most crucial factor to saving the lives on the plane. He said since there was no thrust he had to fight gravity in order to land, which meant he was coming in at a much faster speed and a steeper angle than normal. This is where his training came into play.

“It was like a normal landing on steroids because without engine thrust to moderate (the aircraft's speed), to make a shallower approach to the runway, we were using gravity to provide the forward motion of the airplane and we were coming down much more steeply, much more rapidly than a normal landing—two stories per second,” he said.

“I had to very precisely judge, within a fraction of a second the height at which to begin raising the nose so that I didn’t either get the nose too high a height to drop it in or wait too long and hit nose first. I had to judge the height just so that I was able to stop the descent as much as I could and get the nose up just as we touched the water. And of course over a featureless water terrain depth perception was very difficult. So it was a difficult thing to do and some.

Then he adds: “I never made a water landing before.”

He says he doesn’t consider himself to be a hero but he understands that the story of the landing has touched the lives of a lot of people.

“I don’t call myself a hero but I certainly understand how people feel about this, how this flight makes them feel, still touches and inspires people, even those who weren’t directly associated with it.

“It’s what I call the enduring power of this story.”

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Watches at SIHH Show Advancements in Design, Function and Application

Montblanc TimeWalker Chronograph 100

When watch brands talk about case and bezel design, new uses for materials and minor additions to tradition timepieces you know that the Swiss watch industry has entered a cooling off period. Maybe that’s a good thing as the high-flying sales of recent years, primarily due to China’s phenomenal economic expansion, couldn’t possibly last forever.

The recently concluded Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) in Geneva was a case in point as the industry may be preparing itself to a world economy with more stable growth through all regions. Don’t get me wrong, there were still plenty of innovative watches to be seen at this year’s event. I listed seven or my favorites among the 16 watch brands (12 of which are associated with luxury conglomerate Richemont) who display at what’s been called the world’s most luxurious and exclusive watch event. These timepieces stood out for their advancements in design, function and application.

Montblanc TimeWalker Chronograph 100
At SIHH, the company introduced the TimeWalker Chronograph 100 (top photo), with a hand-made movement made by the Montblanc-owned Villeret manufacturer. This pushes the price of this popular watch to 50,000 euro ($68,000). Formerly known as Minerva, the Villeret watch company in the Swiss town of the same name is known for its hand-made watch movements, built in an old-world Swiss style. Montblanc bought the company in 2006, changed its named and used its watchmaking techniques and philosophy to produce high-end luxury timepieces under the Villeret name.

SIHH 2014 marked a turning point for Montblanc as it introduced several new branded products with high-performance Villeret movements, led by TimeWalker Chronograph 100. This change seemed to have happened overnight. The person most often credited for this is Jérôme Lambert, the former Jaeger-LeCoultre CEO who took the same position with Montblanc just six months ago.

The TimeWalker Chronograph with the MB M66.25 caliber can measure intervals to the nearest 100th-of-a-second, a feat that Villeret (as Minerva) pioneered in 1916. The watch has a large, red chronograph hand that completes a full 360-degree circuit on the main dial in one second. The manually wound movement uses one balance for the time indication and a separate balance for the chronograph. The watch display depicts hours and minutes from the center with a subdial for the seconds at 9 o’clock. Counters for 60 elapsed seconds and 15 elapsed minutes are at 6 o’clock. The watch is housed in a case made of a mix of titanium, stainless steel and carbon fiber. The watch, limited to 100 units, will be available in the fall.

Van Cleef & Arpels Midnight Planétarium Poetic Complication
Leave it to the French luxury house to create a watch that is beautiful, efficient and teases the imagination. This new timepiece aspires for no less than the heavens above and returns to earth with the solar system that fits on a wrist.

The timepiece provides a miniature representation of the movement of six planets around the sun and their position at any given time—Earth, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn—which can all be seen from Earth with the naked eye. The movement of each planet is true to its length of orbit: it will take Saturn over 29 years to make a complete circuit of the dial, while Jupiter will take almost 12 years, Mars 687 days, Earth 365 days, Venus 224 days and Mercury 88 days.

The unnamed self-winding mechanical movement contains 396 separate parts and is equipped with an exclusive module developed in partnership with the Christiaan van der Klaauw, a Dutch brand known for its hand-made astronomical clocks and watches.

The watch displays the time using 24 hour indicators located at the outer edge of the dial. The hour markers are divided further into 15 minute intervals. A shooting star made of pink gold rotates around the clock marking the correct time. The story continues on the back of the watch, where the oscillating weight is engraved with a starry composition. The day, month and year are set using two push buttons and viewed through two apertures on the dial. In addition, a “lucky day” can be set by the owner using a rotating bezel. On a date set with a red triangle against a graduated calendar, the Earth will move to a position directly below the star engraved on the sapphire crystal. The brand says it’s a sign of good luck.

A selection of hard stones are used to depict the planets: turquoise for the Earth, serpentine for Mercury, chloromelanite for Venus, red jasper for Mars, blue agate for Jupiter and sugilite for Saturn. They are positioned around a sun in pink gold. Each of these elements, along with the shooting star, is fixed on its own aventurine disc. The deep blue dial is sprinkled with gold to depict stars.

Piaget Antiplano 38mm 900P
The luxury watch and jewelry brand is known for its thin watches. This year the company received a lot of attention through its introduction of the Antiplano 38mm 900P, the world’s thinnest mechanical watch at 3.65mm. The company manages this by merging the ultra-thin case with the ultra-thin movement. Specifically, the hand-wound movement, instead of being stacked as is typical, is spread across the bottom half of the dial.

The movement has a total of 145 parts, including some wheels that are a mere 0.12mm thin. The back of the case also serves as the mainplate. To save millimetres, the entire mechanism and the hand-fitting system are contained within the thickness of the balance-wheel itself, thus entailing an off-centered display of the hours and minutes as a subdial. Working within this confined space, Piaget devised a suspended barrel hanging from a single bridge on the dial side, contrary to classic barrels that are also fixed to the mainplate side. This unusual device doesn’t deter the performance of the mechanism, which has a power reserve of about 48 hours.

In addition, instead of fitting the hands above the bridges, Piaget has placed them underneath, thereby freeing up space between the cannon-pinion and the crystal. This eliminates any deformities to the hands of the watch due to the effects of unintended extra pressure.

Richard Mille RM 037
It’s difficult for me to imagine the man and the brand, Richard Mille, being behind on anything. However, his declaration of 2014 of being the year of woman is behind the same declaration I made a year earlier. Despite this, the company is arguably the most forward-thinking in the Swiss watch industry. It is known for using techniques and materials from the aeronautics and car racing industries to build timepieces that are groundbreaking in application, use and design. Mille is certainly forward-thinking enough to know that there are at least some women who want to wear exceptional mechanical timepieces.

The RM 037 collection pretty much mirrors what he has done for men’s watches in a smaller package. The skeleton movement baseplate with bridges is made of black PVD treated grade 5 titanium. There’s a large date at 12 o’clock created from two skeletonized, rotating discs, and a function selector that allows the wearer to choose between winding, neutral or hand-setting, without pulling the crown in different positions. Two pushers resembling drops of water are placed between 10 and 11 o’clock (date adjustment), and 4 and 5 o’clock (function selector). The action chosen appears in a small window (H-N-W) between 3 and 4 o’clock. The CRMA1 caliber movement combines satin finishes with chamfered, blasted, brushed and polished areas, including rare black polishing. The crown is impossible to dislodge, according to the company. The case is available in 18k red with scratch resistant ceramic bezels in white or black, or full cases in 18K red or white gold, accompanied by a stone setting and dial variants in precious and semi-precious materials such as diamond, onyx, pearl and jasper.

Greubel Forsey QP à Équation
The “watch inventors” have come up with another highly complicated timepiece piece called the QP à Équation. The company says it has reinvented the perpetual calendar by integrating the “Equation of Time” as well as other practical functions and indications that improve clarity. The priority was to simplify the displays and make it easier to set the perpetual calendar by using a bi-directional winding crown. If the timepiece has stopped for several days, simply pull out the crown checking the selection indicator near 2 o'clock. Turn the crown back and forth to change the calendar and all the different indications change by themselves.

The Equation of Time is the difference between solar time and mean time, which can vary from a few seconds to as much as 16 minutes during the year. The Equation of Time is the conversion factor between solar and mean time. The solar time is located at the back subdial.

The most frequently sought information, namely the day, date and month, is displayed on the front dial. Information that is less often required is on the back of the timepiece. In addition to the Equation of Time, the seasons and the current year in four figures is on the back of the timepiece on two superimposed transparent discs. The first disc is driven by the date wheel and has a scale in minutes indicating the difference between solar and mean time. The second disc, which goes around once a year, has a figure shaped like a manta ray, and divided into four sections in red and blue to show whether the Equation of Time is positive or negative.

The watch is contained in a white gold case that measures 43.5mm in diameter and is 16mm high. It includes a 24-second tourbillon inclined at 25 degrees. It's not often a tourbillon function gets second billing.

Calibre de Cartier
The French luxury house introduced several brands at SIHH, but the one that attracted the most interest is its mechanical diver’s watch, which represents a return to the sports category of watches for the brand after a long absence.

The Calibre de Cartier is water resistant up to 300 meters. To prevent any accidental rotation or alteration of the dive-time indication, the bezel only turns in one direction. It can be adjusted to 30 seconds with a clear sound while turned. The markers signaling each 5 minute period are clearly indicated. The thickness of the watch was reduced to 11mm, without jeopardizing the integrity of its diver’s functions. The in-house 1904 MC movement is further enhanced with a fine regulating system and a stop-second mechanism.

Vacheron Constantin Métiers d’Art Mécaniques Ajourées
The iconic brand has released several new models for SIHH 2014 that features its multi-layered skeleton process that the company refers to as “openwork.” In the case of the Métiers d’Art Mécaniques Ajourées collection I’m focusing on, the openwork technique is combined with Grand Feu enameling.

Vacheron has been using its openworked process on its watches 1924. However, this collection represents the brand’s first openworked version of an iconic in-house movement, the caliber 4400. An artistic three-dimensional appearance is achieved by carving the caliber in curved lines, removing half the material and leaving interlocking pieces that looks like lace. The carving and finishing process takes about three days for each caliber. The Grand Feu enameling appears as a ring around the dial in either black, blue or grey.

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Breguet Tourbillon Exhibit Opens in Geneva and will Tour the World

A modern-day Breguet tourbillon timepiece

Swiss luxury watch brand, Breguet, is celebrating the invention of the tourbillion through an exhibition titled, “Breguet, the innovator. Inventor of the Tourbillon,” at the Cité du Temps exhibition space in Geneva.

The exhibition will run till February 24 and then will tour cities in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the United States.

On June 26, 1801 (or rather on 7 Messidor Year 9, since the Republic calendar was still in force at the time), the French Minister of the Interior awarded Abraham-Louis Breguet, the founder of Breguet, a patent for the invention of the tourbillon. This new type of regulator was developed in response to a longstanding problem: the detrimental effects of gravity on the regularity of a movement by generating variations in rate. Breguet understood that in order to reduce such errors, he would need to install the entire escapement within a mobile carriage that would perform a complete rotation, generally in one, four or six minutes. The regular repetition of the variations would allow them to compensate for each other.

This invention turned out to be difficult for Breguet to produce and implement. One reason is because the tourbillon must not weigh more than one gram, and yet be robust enough to avoid inducing rating errors rather than eliminating them. This inherent difficulty was compounded by the delicate work of finishing more than70 tiny parts that must fit and mesh together with absolute precision. Making a tourbillon was not within reach of all watchmakers, and only the finest proved capable of producing one after the 10-year patent had expired.

La Cité du Temps

La Cité du Temps, owned by the Swatch Group, is a public exhibition center focusing on the world of time. It hosts a variety of exhibitions and activities. It’s the only place in the world where you can find a permanent exhibition of Swatch watches.

The Swatch Group, the world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of finished watches, acquired Montres Breguet in 1999.

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Vacheron Constantin's New Paris Boutique

Vacheron Constantin has brought its luxury Swiss timepieces to a storefront in Paris. It is the company’s 35th boutique around the world and its first in the “City of Light.”

The interior of the 915-square-foot space at 2 Rue de La Paix uses neutral light colors contrasted with dark materials—such as woods, bronze, wrought iron and leather—to create a discreet, luxurious atmosphere. The brand brought in French master artisans to create statement details.

Mathieu Lustrerie, a specialist in light restoration for historical monuments, created a “Saturn” chandelier made of rock crystal, while mosaic artist Pierre Mesguich bejeweled it by hand with 35,000 tiny marble cubes (pictured above). The boutique’s artistic wrought iron decorative elements were tailor-made by Les Métalliers Champenois, whose other works include the restoration of the Statue of Liberty.

The boutique will contain a full line of Vacheron Constantin timepieces as well as a vintage collection named Vacheron Constantin les Collectioneurs,” which are accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.

The collection includes a boutique-exclusive of its 1972 Prestige timepiece, known for its ultra-thin, asymmetrical shape, its 1003 movement and the Prestige de la France coat of arms engraving on its back. The dial of the 18k gold watch shines like silver. It is available at the boutique in a limited-edition of 40 units.

To mark the opening of the Parisian boutique, the Geneva manufacturer commissioned photographer Thierry des Ouches to illustrate his vision of Vacheron Constantin in Paris through his lens. Five owners of Vacheron Constantin timepieces tell the tale of their watches, their Paris, their love of the exceptional and the values they share with Vacheron Constantin on www.2ruedelapaix.fr.

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