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Say It Isn’t So! Jean-Claude Biver Steps Down As Hublot CEO ..

No!

:-(

Our most fave watch boss, the always smiling / always ready to throw himself into one ridiculous situation or another CEO –  Hublot’s Jean-Claude Biver – is heading ‘upstairs’.

He’s vacating the CEO seat in favour of long-time compatriot Ricardo Guadalupe, formerly the Hublot MD, as of Jan 1st this year.

Biver will retain the role of Chairman in charge of strategy and product (I guess Guadalupe gets the commercial and operational stuff).

Let’s hope we still get to see that cheeky grin as Biver strives to complete his ultimate mission – handing out Big Bang watches to  every celebratory on the planet :-)

Good luck Mr Biver (and of course Mr Guadalupe).

Don’t be a stranger now!

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Electro-labels

This is interesting.

If I’m reading this correctly the labels can be updated on the fly using an optional kit.

I wonder how many units / how many times you updated the labels it would take before this was cheaper than label printing, at current costs?

I guess over time the per unit price will inevitably come down.

At some point I’m sure we’ll see high-quality animated labels that are cheap and able to scroll through information.

Imagine a window full of those all moving at the same time!

Here’s the full story:

[Press Release] Electro-labels are digital screens which operate without any energy supply (no batteries or mains power) and are used to display product descriptions (brand, components, technical information, price). An updating system allows you to change the content indefinitely with just a few clicks.

Labels for product displays pose a challenge for brands and luxury retailers all over the world, raising issues such languages, printing lead-times, price, content and shipping. Retailers also need to consider what logo to display, where and how, not forgetting the high cost of these labels with relatively short lifespans.
In some cases, products are sold before the labels even arrive as a result of long production and shipping lead-times. Limited editions are more problematic in this respect than basic collections.

The electro-label system allows each brand, retailer or store to be independent. They can produce and update their own labels and those of the brands they represent regardless of language or country. A framework can be specified directly by the brands (logo at the top left, font, text size).

The digital screens are protected against UV rays and can be used in extreme conditions.

The application of an electric field causes a change of state in microcapsules containing positive (white) and negative charges (black). Following this change, they remain in this new state indefinitely.

This system also offers financial benefits. A digital label will cost around 150 Swiss francs. The management system (additional cost) is suitable for use all over the world via an interface and is available in all languages (Chinese, Japanese, Russian, etc.).

This means that the cost of the labels will be amortised very quickly while shipping costs, often more expensive than the actual labels, will no longer apply.

The lifespan of an electro-label is 5 years of around-the-clock operation.

Scheduled launch date: April 2012, in a limited run of 1,000 units.

This entire production run has already been reserved by our existing brand customers.

A preview video is available on the website www.dietlin.ch

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Swatch Collection Sells At Auction For More Than $6.5Million

The Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong recently hosted an auction – run by Phillips de Pury & Company – of a massive private Swatch collection.

Comprised of 4363 pieces, this labour of love had been compiled by Swiss businessman Peter Blum, and his wife Linda.

It consisted of many pre-production, prototype and other rare or never-seen models, including prototypes designed by the American artist Keith Haring, as well as the artist’s legendary Swatch watches Modele avec Personnage, Milles Pattes, Serpent and Blanc sur Noir.

Additional rarities included watches created by artists Mimmo Paladino, Alfred Hofkunst and Sam Francis.

At a final price of $6,650,000 (or an average of $1500 for each piece) you could say that this was something of a success!

No word on the lucky winning bidder.

Does anyone know where these will end up?

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Jaeger-LeCoultre Yearbook Five

Fans of beautiful watches, great photography, Jaeger-LeCoultre or any combination of the above will be pleased to hear that JLC have released their annual Yearbook.

This is number five in the series.

Stunning imagery – watches and watch movements as art.

Beautiful!

[Press Release] Giving credit where credit is due, Jaeger-LeCoultre dedicates its fifth opus to the Reverso. In celebration of the 80th anniversary of the legendary reversible timepiece, this magnificent publication unveils some of the rarest, most emblematic models to be created since 1931. It magnifies these beautiful mechanisms and tells the history of Reverso models engraved with the royal emblems of kings and princes. The YEARBOOK FIVE also highlights one of the most important aspects of the Reverso: duality. Originally invented to protect the timepiece during polo matches, from the very beginning the system that swivels the case, went beyond a simple protective function. The back of the timepiece has been interpreted in a multitude of manners: personalisation, adornment of the mechanism, second time zone, gem-setting, etc. Taking this front-back experimentation as a starting point, the YEARBOOK FIVE presents original views of the world and its protagonists.

Under the gaze of Italian quick-change artist Arturo Brachetti, the pen of Russian journalist Eduard Dorozhkin, French art historian Joël Busca and American photographer Mary Ellen Mark, this art book goes beyond mere appearances. From backstage at the Bolshoi to Icelandic volcanoes via Argentina and Africa, it strives to lift the masks and reveal all. But behind each mask, are there not other masks? Duality always brushes with identity. How can one distinguish between a set of twins? Metamorphosis and shocks in the primary elements: duality produces an echo and mirror effect that generates meaning. As jubilant as the Reverso, this publication takes pleasure in overturning, surprising, seducing, toying with what is visible and predictable.

Worthy of gracing the bookcases of those who love art and watchmaking and an essential edition for all Jaeger-LeCoultre enthusiasts, the YEARBOOK FIVE draws its inspiration from the reversible nature of the Reverso. Its charm, however, remains irreversible.

In this fifth edition of the Yearbook, Jaeger-LeCoultre is proud to published pictures of Astrid Muñoz “My assignment was about Duality. So I did a series of portrait of the young and the old gauchos. There is so much history on the wrinkles of an old face. It obliges you to picture what sort of life this person lived.

I have been taking pictures in Argentina for the past 4 years. I am fascinated with the country life and the tradition of the gauchos : their art, their clothing, their regalia, their customs, even their language. I travel all over Argentina looking for a glimpse into their past, which eventually will disappear, to the computers, supermarket, satellites antenna, 2 floor houses, automobiles and city life.

The old man is Tito Lezano, the most well-known groom in the history of Argentinian polo. He just died in August. He has been working for more than 50 years and has been to All the “Abierto’s” in Palermo and the “Cup of America”. He comes from the Pampas.

The traditional clothes of the gauchos are encouraged during the “Festival de la tradicion”, which happens in San Antonio de Areco, every November. I have been going for the past 4 years.
Here, whole families ride for days from all over Argentina by horse, and arrive to town dressed up accordingly to the traditions of old days past. Hundreds of families stay the weekend and dance all night and eat their asados, recreating “the old days” and keeping the tradition.

The adult gaucho in action. Doing a “jineteada” or buck riding. It was done in the authentic corral for buck riding. And again and again, the rider falls and gets back on the horse quickly to ride it again. They do this for hours, having fun and bonding with his fellow mates.

The sunset pictures- at the end of the day in the “campo” the men get together to round up the cattle. “

This publication is available at Jaeger-LeCoultre’s e-Library, as well as Jaeger-LeCoultre Boutiques throughout the world.

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Weekly Celebrity Watch Wrap-Up

Unless a story is about our buddy Biver (aka the Happiest CEO we ever knew) or the occasional ‘pretty girl‘, we don’t tend to feature too many posts just about celebrities here at Winderz-land.

We do, however, receive a fair number of press releases telling us all about the amazing exploits of celebs associating themselves with various watch brands.

The intent, of course, is to shift a few models off the back of a celebrity endorsement of same.

A fair few of these releases end up in the great recycle bin in the sky (we get a lot of emails) but let’s mix things up this week, have a bit of a fun and do a ‘Celebrity Endorsement Weekend Wrap-up Special’.

This may (or quite possibly, may not) become a semi-regular feature so keep those releases coming in!

# 1

First up comes news of an event held at the Highline Ballroom in New York by Raymond Weil, in aid of the Labyrinth Theater Company – of which Raymond Weil is a partner.

Four celebrity teams participated in a ‘fearsome and hilarious’ speed charades competition to support the Labyrinth’s 2011/12 season.

The theme for this year’s event followed that of a horse race and was titled Celebrity Charades 2011: Down and Derby.

The teams were made up of Josh Charles, Tom Colicchio, Jesse L. Martin, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Michelle Trachtenberg, Bob Balaban, Bobby Cannavale, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Chris ‘Five Gallons of Mayonnaise’ Rock, Cynthia Rowley and Kristen Wiig.

Each celebrity player was gifted a Raymond Weil timepiece.

I’ve heard of two of those celebs.  How about you?

#2

Next we have some bloke called Kellan Lutz – he’s in Twilight apparently – popping up all around town sporting a variety of Philip Stein numbers.

He certainly gets about: red carpet affairs, clubbing, MTV Awards, movie premieres and a spot on the Chelsea Lately show.

*Phew* – good job he has Philip Stein’s ‘Natural Frequency Technology’ to rely on.

Clinically shown to reduce-stress, increase focus and improve sleep don’t you know! ;-)

#3

What else?

Well, it turns out Movado have some exciting news they want to share.

Are you sitting down?

You know what, let’s leave this one to Movado themselves – I couldn’t say this any better:

“Famed celebrity stylist and co-owner of Decades boutiques, Cameron Silver, held an intimate dinner at his LA home to celebrate the Chris Benz for Movado BOLD collection on Thursday, November 10.  The turnout was amazing!  Attending were some of Hollywood’s hottest young actors and stylists including Dianna Agron (Glee), Rose McGowan, Julia Jones (Twilight), Kerry Washington, Eva Amurri, George Kotsiopoulos, Brad Goreski and Addison Timlin.”

Amazing indeed!

Bragging rights to anyone who actually knows who those people are?

And that, dear reader, concludes this weeks’ celebrity news.

Story editors at OK and Heat Magazine can rest easy :-)

I may have just added myself to every PR agency blacklist in Hollywood, but if not please stay tuned for our next thrilling installment!

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De Bethune DB28 Awarded “Aiguille d’Or” At 11th Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix (GPHG) Event

To happenings overnight (Australian time) now, and in the world of watchmaking congratulations go to De Bethune for taking out the main prize at the 11th Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix.

The full list of winners at this prestigious event is as follows:

- “Aiguille d’Or” Grand Prix: De Bethune, DB28

- Best Ladies’ Watch Prize: Boucheron, Crazy Jungle Hathi

- Best Men’s Watch Prize:  Hermès, Arceau Le Temps Suspendu

- Best Design Watch Prize: Urwerk, UR-110

- Best Jewellery and Artistic Crafts Watch Prize:  Van Cleef & Arpels, Lady Arpels Polar Landscape

- Best Complicated Watch Prize: Zenith, Academy Christophe Colomb Equation of Time

- Best Sports Watch Prize: TAG Heuer, Mikrotimer Flying 1000 Chronograph

- “Petite Aiguille” Prize (for models under CHF 5’000): Montblanc, Star Worldtime GMT Automatic

- Best Watchmaker Prize: Vianney Halter

- Special Jury Prize: Patek Philippe Museum

- Public Prize: Audemars Piguet, Millenary 4101.

Congratulations to all the winners.

Here’s an image of the ‘Best Ladies’ winner, the Boucheron Crazy Jungle, which is both slightly mad and quite excellent at the same time :-)

 

 

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Bremont And Ronnie Wood Team Up For Custom B1 Marine Clock

News of the Ronnie Wood and Bremont collaboration on a special clock series has been around for a while but this weekend’s SalonQP in London sees the official unveiling of these amazing custom models (check out the movement – wow!).

Based on the Bremont B1 Marine Clock – a real beast – Wood will hand-paint 14 pieces, both on the dial, and inside.

Here’s what the rocker had to say about the partnership:

“I am so happy to be involved with Bremont on this exciting adventure. I feel there will be a magnificent opportunity through my art to show what has influenced me throughout my life, which includes my water heritage, my well documented life in music and of course my abiding passion for horses. All of these reflections will gather together to be seen in this most British tradition. I have always loved my timepieces and now I have the opportunity to thoroughly indulge myself with Bremont.”

Giles English, the Bremont founder added:

“This is a unique collaboration where we have brought artesian clock-making and fine-art together to make a truly beautiful object. It is a huge privilege to be working with Ronnie, and he has brought a completely new prospective to our thinking about the clock, but also the ability to make each truly unique.

The clock itself is designed and made in England.

Lengthy in production, less than fifteen are able to be produced in any one year.

It has been designed in-house and features three time zones, a 30 day power reserve, date and a 90 day chronograph.

Somewhat bizarrely it will also be fully waterproof.

Handy if your boat sinks, or you fancy a change from the normal divers watch I guess :-)

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Breguet, CNN And Leonardo da Vinci

[Press Release] Breguet will be sponsoring CNN on both its TV channel and its website for a theme week starting November 7th 2011 and entirely devoted to Leonardo da Vinci.

This exceptional coverage will reveal to the entire world the artist’s last masterpiece,Salvator Mundi, the recently rediscovered painting that will be on show at the National Gallery in London from November 9th 2011 to February 5th 2012.

Breguet has been supporting art and culture for many years through various patronage activities such as those on behalf of the Château de Versailles in the restoration of the Marie-Antoinette’s favourite Petit Trianon domain , as well as endeavours undertaken in cooperation with the Louvre, the New York Philharmonic, and the Ermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

The watch brand is thus delighted to be associating with CNN for this major project focusing on the most important artistic discovery of the past 200 years.

This painting entitled Salvator Mundi (Saviour of the World) and dating from the early 16th century depicts a figure of Christ holding a transparent orb in one hand and giving his blessing with the other.

The CNN theme week presents this work in great detail and retraces the various stages in its discover and its restoration, thereby turning the spotlight on the stunning work and skill of the Renaissance genius.

The link between this theme week devoted to Leonardo da Vinci and the watch company lies in a model within the Breguet collection; in 2010, Breguet presented one of its new creations, the Tradition Tourbillon 7047PT model incorporating a fusee and chain device serving to provide a constant supply of energy to the balance – a concept invented by Da Vinci in the 1490s.

This partnership offers a fresh opportunity to highlight this world featuring a blend of culture, exceptional accomplishments, technical sophistication and beauty – all values deeply cherished by Breguet.

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Swatch Art Peace Hotel Opens in Shanghai (@swatch)

As the title suggests, Swatch has opened a hotel in Shanghai – the Art Peace.

Designed to showcase contemporary artists – an association Swatch has long nurtured – the opening was attended by various local dignitaries and, err, Salma Hayek (a rose between many thorns, some might say ;-) ).  The latter might sound slightly incongruous but Ms. Hayek is married to one of the members of the ‘Artist Selection Committee’.

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SalonQP Event

A reminder for those of you able to get to yourselves to London this week: SalonQP 2011 is just about to kick-off at the wonderful Saatchi Gallery in London.

Starting with a gala event on Thursday 10th (tickets £100 in advance for that one) and then running from Friday 11th to Saturday 12th (£15 to £25 depending on when and how you buy a ticket), this looks like a fantastic event for lovers of all things watch and clock, with most of the big names represented.

Here’s what the event website has to say.  Just wish I could be there myself!

“This November, SalonQP offers you a unique chance to discover the finest watches and meet the most interesting brands in the world.

With watches now seen as essential knowledge, SalonQP is your chance to discover the latest designs and developments, to meet with watchmakers and craftsmen and enjoy the exclusive atmosphere of one of the most interesting events on the calendar.

SalonQP is designed to give you the time and space to discover and appreciate all that fine watchmaking has to offer. A stage for an unmatched cross-section of watch houses, SalonQP will be held at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea, one of London’s most attractive and best-located venues -just off the King’s Road and Sloane Square.

Some of the greatest names in contemporary watchmaking have exhibited at SalonQP – from venerable maisons such as Cartier, Vacheron Constantin and Jaeger-LeCoultre to more innovative marques such as Bremont, Ladoire and Linde Werdelin, via the creative fireworks of Harry Winston.

We have over 40 brands showcasing their products at SalonQP this year, please take a look at the full list of exhibitors on our Exhibitors page.”

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