Time Capsules: Commentary — See Paul Simon in Concert

Earlier this week, thanks to Movado – one of the watch industry’s largest patrons of fine and cultural arts – I had the wonderful opportunity to go to the Paul Simon Songbook Concert—featuring Paul Simon & Wynton Marsalis at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Special Guest Aaron Neville also appeared.

I must say that the amazing blend of Paul Simon’s prolific decades-long career as a singer and songwriter, and of Wynton Marsalis and the jazz orchestra yielded one of the most superb concerts ever.  These iconic figures united for this once-in-a-lifetime collaboration to perform a great selection of Simon’s award-winning music, including The Sounds of Silence, Homeward Bound, Kadachrome, The Boxer, Slip Slidin’ Away, Fifty Ways to Leave your Lover, and so many more.

There wasn’t much that could make this concert better than it already was – but then out stepped legendary New Orleans singer Aaron Neville for a few songs- including his most amazing rendition of Bridge Over Troubled Waters.

 

 

If anyone has the opportunity to see Paul Simon in concert—grab it. Don’t walk – run! He still has a grand voice and a perfect pull to capture your heart and hit close to home with his songs. Similarly, if the chance presents itself to visit Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis—take that, too! You will not be sorry – the orchestra delights jazz lovers’ passions.

Time Capsules—News: Racing soon with Rolex at the Monterey Motorsports Reunion

Unveiling of the artwork for the 2012 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion’s official event poster Gill Campbell (right) Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca CEO & General Manager and Bill Patterson (left), official artist for Featured Marque Shelby Cobra, the largest 50th anniversary celebration of the venerable marque. Photo taken at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.The excitement is starting to build! The unveiling of the signature art work for the 2012 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion poster was just unveiled in California at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.  The star of this year’s featured marquee poster is the Shelby Cobra – embodying muscle, power and American genius. The poster features the Shelby Cobra as it crests The Corkscrew –the signature turn at Mazda Raceway, with a five-story elevation change and 11 turns.

Says Bill Patterson, the race track’s official artist, “The Cobra represents more than a car. It represents an era, the best of American can-do ingenuity and bench top photo of cars on The Corkscrew, taken by Atimelyperspective at last year’s race. engineering. It’s the perfect marriage of brawn and brains and an unapologetic demand to win.”

This year’s Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion will take place August 17-19 at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. This year the races will include 550 of the finest authentic period-correct sports cars in the world, including 45 Shelby 289 and 427 cobras. For more information or tickets, visit Mazdaraceway.com

Time Capsules- Product: The new Rolex Sky-Dweller is one Cool Watch

It isn’t often that Rolex unveils an all-new collection –but the brand does so this year with the Oyster Perpetual Sky-Dweller, the first Rolex with two time zones and an annual calendar for today’s busy world travelers. This is one that you either love or dismiss – as its design is a little off the beaten path of today’s other Rolex watch collections.

We’ve had the opportunity to view this watch close up and get a feel for its substance and features and this is one we like a lot. Among the things that make this Superlative Chronometer so different in looks is the center 24-hour disc that displays the home time at a glance. A fixed inverted red triangle points to the reference time (just below 12:00), and the 24 hours clearly delineates whether it is night or day. The local time can be adjusted quite quickly thanks to a jumping hour hand.  Additionally, the annual calendar – visible via   magnified date window, differentiates between 20 and 31 days and only needs an adjustment for February three out of every 4 years (except when there is no leap year).

Adding a cool new touch, the watch features a rotating Ring Command bezel so the traveler can easily select the watch functions to be set with the turn of the bezel. All of this is made possible by the COSC-certified Caliber 9001 high-performance movement. The Sky-Dweller is offered in 18-karat white gold with an ivory satin-finished dial and Oyster bracelet, in 18-karat yellow gold with a champagne dial and oyster bracelet, or in a stunning Everose gold case with a chocolate sunray finished dial and a rich brown leather strap (our favorite).

Time Capsules: Product – Harry Winston’s Amazing Opus 12 – A Magic Show on the Wrist

Developed with master watchmaker Emmanuel Bouchet, the newest Harry Winston Opus – 12 – defies all conventional rules of watchmaking. While it is, indeed, a mechanical masterpiece, it is nothing like we have seen before in its display and changing of the hours and minutes.  In the Opus12 watch, at the change of every hour, a rotating double-hand system jumps into action. The movement executes and elaborate dance of gears and rotating hands to indicate the time. In fact, each short hour hand rotates, or rolls over with every hour change – revealing a single blue hour hand among the other 11 silver hands every hour. The longer minute hands complete a similar drill every five minutes – for amazing beauty and harmony.

The mechanical movement with manual winding consists of 607 parts, 80 jewels and two barrels – one to owe the turning of the hands and the other for the timing. To perform its magical dance and change of time indication, it consists of 24 hands. The watch offers a power reserve of 45 hours and a retrograde minute display of the elapsed time between each five-minute segment. In fact, on this watch, one can read the minutes so precisely – to the half minute.  It also features a seconds hand subdial. It is housed in a 46mm white gold case.

“For me this project is a dream come true. I couldn’t have realized it without Harry Winston,” says Bouchet, who conceived of the idea three years ago and presented it to the brand in 2012.  

Here, we bring you a video of this exceptional timepiece – which will be produced in a limited edition of just 120 pieces ever, each retailing for approximately $270,300.

Time Capsules: Product –Bell & Ross Shell Shocks us with the Vintage WW2 Bomber Regulateur

The original watch, which can be seen above on the sexy leg of Bell & Ross’s own Alexandra Castro, featured a bold minute indicator so bombers could perfectly time their minute. It was equipped with oversized straps on all sides.We’ve written about Bell & Ross many times before, but this one is grand! During BaselWorld last month, the brand unveiled a new generation in its Vintage collection that clearly moves the brand from World War 1 inspirations to World War 2. The new Vintage WW2 Bomber Regulateur watch ensures optimum legibility of the minutes – critical for WW2 bombers of the 1930’s and 1940’s — by separating the time information. The 49 mm watch with bold bidirectional notched bezel that makes it immediately identifiable from across any room, features a central hand for the minutes, a counter for the hours, and a small independent seconds hand, enabling a fast and precise reading of short amounts of time.

 Emulating the original watch, the VINTAGE WW2 has mobile strap fastenings which adjust to the wrist for absolute comfort. The watch case is gun-metal gray steel with an aged patina. The sand-colored hands, numerals and index markers emphasize the authentic nature of this timepiece; a worn leather look is achieved via the distressed calf skin strap. The Swiss made complicated movement is a based on a Dubois Depraz caliber.

Weekend Sojourn: Boots like You’ve Never Had in Your Life! Custom-Made by Casa Fagliano

There’s custom made and then there’s bespoke custom made. Then, there is Casa Fagliano, located just outside the city of Buenos Aires in Hurlingham. This 120 year old company goes above and beyond what anyone is used to, relying on old-world craftsmanship and traditions. Established in 1892, this family-owned business, now in its fifth generation, is renowned in Argentina for making the finest polo boots in the world. In fact, the company has a year-long waiting list for a pair of boots, and sells each pair for between $2,000 and $5,000.

 Today, several generations of Faglianos work side by side in the tiny workshops crafting their wares entirely by hand. They use hand tools and hand- and foot-propelled sewing machines that date back to the late 1800s and early 1900s so as to have better control over the stitching. Every single boot is entirely handmade, from tracing the soon-to-be proud owner’s feet and taking measurements, to forming a foot or leg mold, cutting the leather, creating the soles and heels, polishing and refining. Excellence, precision and ultimate comfort are the guiding lights of the Fagliano family and they never rush a pair of boots. In fact, it takes about 40 hours of labor to create each and every pair.

So, for whom does Casa Fagliano make boots today and in the past? Well, a walk through their workshops reveals dozens of pairs for the Sultan of Brunei and his favored few, Princes Harry, Prince Charles, the King of Spain, singers such as Tommy Lee Jones, famed polo players such as Adolfo Cambiaso and more. Each perfectly formed mold of a foot bears a name. Walls are lined with boot and shoe models and the workshop carries the wonderful scent of fresh leather, wax, shoe polish and more.

In fact, walking through this workshop one would hardly know what century we are in if not for the occasional cell phone or car keys left on a wooden work bench by one of the Faglianos. The outer room one enters is filled with boots, shoes, trophies and pictures of the family. Another room is stocked with leathers of all colors and types, and on one wall a row of antique-looking books line a shelf. In these books, which date back more than 100 years and up to today, are the drawings and measurements of foot after foot after foot. The workshop itself has double doors on one end that open to a patio and that let the natural light into the room- strewing sunlight on a warm, rich palette of leather and wood. In this room, Eduardo sews, his brother Hector makes the patterns and does the cutting of the leather, and brother German handles the soles. In fact, they each work on multiple aspects of every boot – which slowly and surely becomes a treasured reality.

This is the maker of the new limited edition cordovan black strap for the Jaeger-LeCoultre 1931 Reverso – craftsmanship teaming with craftsmanship – but that’s another story.

 

A Timely Event: Antique Gunmetal Watch Display by F.P. Journe at The Forbes Galleries

From April 21 until September 15, watch lovers will be able to view one of the most unusual and rare watch collection of gunmetal watches made of burnished steel.  The 200 timepieces to be on display at the Forbes Galleries (62 Fifth Avenue, NYC) were all made between 1850 and 1910, and each is unique in its style and technique.

First in the 1800s was the production of laminated iron, with large quantities produced beginning in 1845 – to use in the building of railways, bridges and buildings. However, as the price of steel fell, it replaced iron in almost all industrial applications – ranging from the Brooklyn Bridge in 1885 and the Eiffel Tower in 1889 on to a host of other uses – including timepieces. Gun metal watches appeared shortly after the war of 1870 and sparked an era of utilitarian, affordable timepieces.

For years, Francois-Paul Journe – renowned watchmaker of today and also a passionate collector – sought out these historical timepieces. Some feature pained enamel dials, often depicting ships, trains or other mechanical devices. Some house chronograph movements, alarms or world time indications – all a Keyless quarter-repeating watch in a square gunmetal case with gold inlaid Toledo type decoration,testament to the world of fine watchmaking. Now, Journe brings his collection to the fore front for avid loves of gun metal and timepieces.

F.P. Journe also has built a steel cased Sonnerie Souveraine chiming watch that offers clear and commanding sound – this watch can be viewed at the FP Journe boutique at 721 Madison Avenue, where one can also purchase a signed copy of the new book, Steel Time, that showcases a host of gun metal watches and traces the history and origins of this genre.

The Forbes Galleries exhibition will be open Monday through Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm, from April 15 to September 15, 2012.

Time Capsules: News — Bubba Watson Wins the Masters – wearing Richard Mille Watch

Charl Schwartzel helps Bubba don his new Green JacketDonning the famed green jacket after winning the Augusta, Georgia, Masters Tournament last night thanks to one of the rarest shots in golf history, Bubba Watson revels in the excitement. His watch – worn throughout the entire game and for several seasons now – Richard Mille.

A powerful lefty player, Watson won the tournament basically from the woods, where his golf ball had found a home on a bed of pine needles. He hit a gap wedge shot 40 yards toward the fairway and onto the elevated green. It is a shot that will go down in golf history.

Atimely Event: TimeCrafters in NYC in September 2012

 Generally, watch collectors and connoisseurs, as well as lovers of top-quality haute horology have to travel to Switzerland to see the finest selections of newest timepieces from the world’s best watchmakers. Now, however,  the best of the best can be seen right here in the USA – in New York City’s historical Park Avenue Armory at the Second Annual TimeCrafters Exhibition.

Mark your calendars to be in New York in September for this show. which is open to the public September 14 and 15.  TimeCrafters will present an exceptional selection of both new and iconic timepieces from the world’s finest watchmakers (including . Lange & Sohne, Audemars Piguet, Baume & Mercier, Bulgari, Girard-Perregaux, Harry Winston, Parmigiani, Richard Mille, and Zenith among others), as well as offer various demonstrations and watchmaking classes throughout the event. There will also be premiere exhibitions from The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry and Sothebys. If you register now on line here, it is free. If you wait till the day, it’s pay at the door ($20). Stay tuned, as it gets closer, we will bring you more information.

Time Capsules: Tutima Unveils Really Intriguing Grand Classics

The Grand Classic Chrono retails for $4,100; the Grand Classic Automatic retails for $1,900. Recently we brought you the news about German watch brand Tutima’s grand relocation back to its roots – with a new factory opening in Glashutte. To celebrate that return, the brand unveiled the stunning minute repeater Hommage watch, and you can read about that here.
Meanwhile, in celebration of 85 years of manufacturing excellence, Tutima now marks the occasion with the release of three superb Limited Edition models in the Grand Classic tradition. Among these newest watches are a Grand Classic Automatic with day/date and a wonderfully alluring red dial, and a Grand Classic Chronograph with black dial. Also unveiled is a Grand Classic Chronograph Power Reserve with incredibly bold red dial. This watch, however, houses the Automatic Valjoux Caliber 7750 with 25 jewels and features a numbering process The Grand Classic Chronograph PR Ltd. retails for $5,100.that is different from the usual way of numbering limited editions. This watch features – engraved on the case side of each one – a year – starting with 1927 and coming to 2012 – a series of 85 pieces – exclusively for the North American market. The other two watches are also limited to 85 pieces each, but will exhibit the traditional engraving system of 01/85 on them.  Whichever way they are numbered though, these Tutima Grand Classics are definitely eye-stoppers on the wrist. Bold, powerful and extremely cool – go try one on!