Watches

Maximilian Büsser & Friends (MB&F) make some of the most unusual/interesting luxury watches in the industry, we’ve written about their HM3 Frog and HM4 Thunderbolt previously.  Now they’ve released the final iteration of the HM2 watch line, which started life in 2008, called MB&F Horological Machine No. 2 SV Final Edition watches.  Unlike their other watches in the HM line, the HM No 2 SV’s emphasis is on showcasing the inner workings of the watch.  The “SV” stands for Sapphire Vision, the entire face of the watch is covered with Sapphire and we get a good view (vision) of the watch movement.

Jaquet Droz Petite Heure Minute is the third watch out of the forty watches that will be auctioned off at the “2011 Only Watch” charity event for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) research.  The event will be held in Monaco in September 2011.

Although the watch boasts a very long and complicated name, the design is very minimalist with the most important features one needs on a watch; the hour and minute hands.  The dial is made out of ivory Grand Feu enamel and is adorned with a beautiful hand painted scene from Monaco’s hills overlooking the buildings on the beach.  It took a master artisan an entire week to complete the painting with one eye on the microscope to give him a better view of his intricate painting.

A couple of years ago, I went through a temporary phase of collecting Orient watches out of Japan. After five watches or so, I had to stop because the hobby can get quite expensive. I still appreciate a well designed watch but now I just look at them and nothing else. But that’s about to change ever since I stumbled upon Autodromo.

Although the Autodromo is not as elegant or expensive as some of my Orient watches, it is just as eye catching in its own way. What I like about the Autodromo watches is that the time pieces are inspired by instrument panel gauges of cars. If you are a car guy and have an appreciation for watches then this is one of those toys that you should own. Forget that crap about “wants versus needs”.

TAG Heuer has teamed up with Oracle Team USA for the 34^th America’s Cup boat race and is introducing two limited edition watches.  The watches are the TAG Heuer Aquaracer 500M Caliber 16 Chronograph 44 and the Aquaracer 500M Caliber 5 43.  The watches come with a hint of red, black, and white on the hands, pushers, and watch face – these three colors are the official colors of Oracle Team USA.

Breitling has released a limited edition watch called the Chronomat 41 Limited based on the Chronomat 41 watch, 2,000 pieces of this so-called limited edition watch will be produced; 2,000 pieces is not very “limited” in my humble opinion.

The watch comes in a 41 mm polished steel case with a black dial, instead of the blue dial found on the original watch, and red second and chronograph hands.  The watch face has the typical look found on most chronograph watches with three sub-dials for the chrono functions.  The dial comes with large indices for the hour markers, features a tachymeter function, and a date window at the 4:30 position.  The dial is covered with an AR coated sapphire crystal and the outer dial comes with a uni-directional rotating bezel and a screw-down crown and chrono pushers.

With the rise of China as an economic powerhouse, all sorts of manufacturers of consumer goods are trying to create products aimed at affluent Chinese consumers.  The implementation of designs inspired by the 12 animals from the Chinese Zodiac lunar calendar is one of the most popular ways Western manufacturers are catering to the Chinese and in turn these zodiac based items are becoming quite popular with the non-Chinese consumers.