Originally known as the Piaget Building, the skyscraper now known as 650 Fifth Avenue was built by the Shah of Iran shortly before he was deposed in 1979. Now worth as much as US$1 billion, the 36-story building was once home to North American Watch Corporation (NAWC), the distributor of Piaget, Corum, Movado and Concord, at the time one of the biggest watch companies in North America.

After a drawn-out legal tussle chronicled in The New York Times, a court recently ruled that the United States government can seize the building, still owned by Iran-linked entities. It will then be sold, with proceeds going to compensate victims of Iran-sponsored terrorism. Despite the legal controversies surrounding the granite-clad building, 650 Fifth Avenue has always been prime real estate: just last year Nike signed a 15-year lease for seven floors worth US$700m.

After the Shah of Iran was ousted, ownership of the building passed on to the Iranian state in the 1980s. Some of its less salubrious tenants in the past included the late fugitive oil trader Marc Rich and Ivan Boesky, the Wall Street operator convicted of insider trading. Today it’s owned by the Alavi Foundation, a charity originally established by the Shah, and Assa Corporation, allegedly a front company for Iranian state-owned Bank Melli.

The original name of 650 Fifth Avenue illustrates the major evolution of the luxury watch industry in the last three decades, especially in the United States. NAWC was founded in 1961 by Cuban immigrant Gerry Grinberg to import Piaget watches, explaining the building’s former name. Today run by his son Efraim, the company is now the NYSE-listed Movado Group, which mostly sells low- to mid-priced watches. It produces timepieces under its own Movado label, as well as licensed names like Hugo Boss and Tommy Hilfiger. The group also owns luxury brands that have seen much better days – Ebel and Concord.

When NAWC signed a 15-year lease for 34,000 square feet on five floors of the Piaget Building in 1979, a year after the building was completed, it was in the middle of the firm’s heyday as a luxury watch distributor – annual revenue went from US$5m in 1969 to well over US$100m by the late 1980s. During those post-Quartz Crisis years, the ultra-thin watches that Concord and Piaget specialised in were all the rage. Advertised at the time as “the most expensive watch in the world”, Piaget was a notable hit. Its bestsellers were watches fitted with semiprecious stone dials, which helped NAWC sell some 5000 Piaget watches every year.

Given the cost of real estate and the relative scale of the watch business, it’s unthinkable today for a skyscraper in a major city to be named after a luxury watch brand, with the exception of Rolex, the world’s biggest luxury watch brand, conveniently owned by a charitable foundation that invests in real estate. The watchmaker has several buildings named after it, including the 61-story Rolex Tower in Dubai owned by its retail partner Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons.

Movado Group moved out of 650 Fifth Avenue to another Manhattan location in 1996, and is now headquartered in Paramus, New Jersey.

Source: The New York Times

Title image: 650fifth.com

Modelled on antique marine chronometers that sit in gimballed boxes, the Marine wristwatch is synonymous with Ulysse Nardin, which incidentally introduced a remake of the 1990s original earlier this year. The new Marine Torpilleur adopts the same look, but in a simplified format with a suitably reduced price.

Torpilleur is French for torpedo boat, a smaller, lighter warship conceived to battle larger, slower vessels. Similarly the Marine Torpilleur is thinner and streamlined (and presumably meant to fight more expensive watches). So while it shares the same look, the Marine Torpilleur skips the enamel dial found on the pricier versions of the watch, and also has a simpler case construction with lugs attached by screws.

A 1930s Ulysse Nardin deck watch

Rated to 50m with a screw-down crown, the case is 42mm in diameter with sapphire crystals on both sides. The rear crystal shows off the UN-118, the workhorse in-house automatic that has a diamond-coated silicon escapement as well as a silicon hairspring. It shows the power reserve at 12 o’clock, with the sub-seconds and date at six.

Two dials versions are available: white lacquer with Roman numerals that’s most similar to vintage marine chronometers, as well as a dark metallic blue. The case is available in steel or 18k rose gold. And for those who want a real life feel of the it, the good folk at Monochrome Watches have shot the watch.

Price and availability  

The Marine Torpilleur is already available at Ulysse Nardin retailers and boutiques. In steel it costs US$6900 or S$10,700 on strap and US$7900 on the bracelet. And in 18k rose gold it’s US$17,900 or S$27,600.

For comparison, the enamel dial Vintage Collection Marine chronometer costs 40% more than the basic steel Torpilleur, while the Marine with an annual calendar is almost double.

Parmigiani Fleurier builds beautifully crafted watches, but doesn’t sell very many of them, for myriad reasons that include branding, marketing, and design. Owned by a charity endowed by a drug making dynasty, which also owns a raft of watch component manufacturers, Parmigiani has been in the red for years but still does what it does, and still does it admirably well. The recently launched Toric Chronometre encapsulates that paradox.

The Toric Chronomètre reboots the original Parmigiani wristwatch, introduced in 1996 just as the brand was established. Inspired by Classical Greek architecture, though heavily reminiscent of Abraham-Louis Breguet’s work (which was typical of notable independent watchmakers of the era, including George Daniels and Daniel Roth), the original Toric had a double-step fluted bezel, guilloche dial and javelin-shaped hands. The look was fussy and classical, slightly dated today, but appealing in its own way.

In recent years the Toric case was used only for complicated and pricey watches, until the Toric Chronometre unveiled at SIHH in January. It modernises the original Toric design, trimming the Baroque details while still keeping most of the distinctive elements. And it is still a extremely well made.

Made by Parmigiani’s sister company Les Artisans Boîtiers, the case is a well proportioned 40.8mm wide and 9.5mm high, meaning it’s wide but slim, which makes for elegant proportions.

Simple watch cases are usually simply constructed, but not in this case (no pun intended). The fluted bezel is still there, but only once. Despite the streamlining, the bezel is still elaborately done, with a finely fluted middle bordered by rings on each side.

While the lugs have been redesigned, becoming slightly larger with a greater downwards curve, they remain soldered onto the case – a wonderful detail. That means each lug starts out as a single lug that is soldered into a slot into the case.

Because each lug is an individual component, the finished case has a level of detail impossible to achieve with a single-piece construction where the lugs and case middle are one. The end of the each lug sits meets the edge of the bezel, sitting just a hair above the convex case band, which in turn flows seamlessly into the sides of the lugs.

Two dial colours are available: a grained ivory and a smooth black. While the ivory has a more nuance thanks to the surface finish, the black is instinctively more attractive due to the contrast.

All four iterations

The design is decidedly more modern than the original, with the only holdovers being the Javelin hands, which are now filled with Super-Luminova. While that helps legibility and freshens up the look, the lume is incongruous with the dial, which has none.

Despite being an odd blend of design elements, the dial is appealing. The minute track and numerals are functional, but the Arabic numbers are rendered in an unusual font that evokes Chinese calligraphy.

All of the printing on the dial is neat, well defined, thick and without any bleeding. But the Parmigiani logo is also printed, leaving it somewhat out of place since everything else is expensively executed, like the gold-rimmed date window for instance.

The date is of the three-digit display variety in an elongated window, a feature fashionable once upon a time with sporty watches. Surprisingly, it doesn’t look all that bad here.

Inside is the cal. PF331, a thin automatic movement made by Vaucher, another of Parmigiani’s sister companies. It’s the brand’s workhorse movement but nonetheless well constructed and finely finished.

From a technical perspective the movement looks good; there are no obvious shortcuts in its construction, like wire springs or large, stamped parts for instance. And the finishing is also excellent, as good as that on comparable calibres from Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin.

But while the PF331 is fundamentally a good movement that’s been well finished and dressed up – the rotor is 22k gold with barleycorn guilloche – its aesthetics are somewhat mundane. It’s a conventional, full-rotor automatic, a tad too small for the case, making one wish for something more compelling.

Price and availability 

The Toric Chronomètre costs US$18,500 and is already available from authorised retailers. That’s less than comparable automatic-with-date watches from the likes of Patek Philippe and Breguet, and reasonable for the quality of the watch. Next to the competition the Toric Chronomètre is a superior watch in several respects, but the little known brand name means it will only end up on a handful of wrists.

Produced for the British Royal Air Force in the 1950s, the Mark XI is arguably the timepiece that put IWC on the path to becoming synonymous with pilot’s watches. The modern day IWC pilot’s watch collection started in 1994 with the introduction of the Mark XII, which was essentially the Mark XI in modern dress.

The new Pilot’s Watch Mark XVIII Edition “Tribute to Mark XI” is a no-frills reissue that’s affordably priced and limited to 1948 pieces. Ostensibly a remake of the military-issue Mark XI, the new limited edition edition is more precisely a Mark XII remake, having a similar dial featuring a date window at three. A triangle at 12 o’clock and baton markers at the quarters are taken from the vintage original, as are the pencil-shaped minute hand and baton hour hand.

A vintage Mark 11

The rest of the watch is essentially stock Mark XVIII, which means a 40mm steel case with a soft iron cage inside for protection against magnetism. Inside the soft iron cage is the cal. 35111, which is actually a SW300, a clone of the ETA 2892. It’s automatic with a 42-hour power reserve.

Having seen the watch at SIHH 2017, I can say it’s attractively styled with a recognisable military inspiration, but because of the relatively slimness of the case versus its diameter, feels significantly flatter than the originals.

Price and availability 

The Pilot’s Watch Mark XVIII Edition “Tribute to Mark XI” (ref. IW327007) is a limited edition of 1948 pieces that will be available only at Harrods in London from July to September 2017. After that it will be available at IWC retailers and boutiques worldwide, priced at €4790, including 19% European VAT.

In a case decided earlier this month, the intellectual property office in Singapore decided for Franck Muller in its tussle with Van Cleef & Arpels (VC&A) over the use of the trademark “Mystery Set” for watches, though the jeweller retained exclusivity of the mark for jewellery, according to Singapore newspaper The Straits Times.

Both had gone to the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) over the right to use the term, with Franck Muller, specifically its trademark owning subsidiary FMTM Distribution Ltd., claiming that VC&A had not used the trademark for five years since its registration, along with the fact that the term is generic one.

With a respected legal system while being a crucial market for high-end jewellery and watches – and a particularly important country for Franck Muller – Singapore was the right location for the two luxury brands to settle their dispute. Though founded as a watchmaker in 1991, Franck Muller has a lucrative collection of jewellery as well as a diverse offering of bejewelled watches. VC&A, on the other hand, was established as a jeweller in Paris, but is now regarded as a legitimate player in the world of high-end mechanical watches, albeit mostly set with gemstones.

Invented and patented by the French jeweller in 1933, “Mystery Set”, or serti mysterieux in French, is a technique of setting gemstones with no visible mounting. Now widely used in jewellery and watches, it’s often referred to as “invisible setting” – the technique’s trade name according to IPOS. “Mystery Set” or “Mystery Setting, on the other hand, was judged to be a term coined by VC&A and one that “describes the aura which is exuded by such a setting… allusive of the invisible setting technique and in turn, jewellery.”

Not so mysterious now.

The trade mark registrar deciding the case also pointed out the irony that a high successful trade mark could end up undermining itself, being so “accomplished” that it becomes a general term, which was what Franck Muller was claiming.

To show that it had consistently used the trademark in its business, VC&A produced several invoices dating from 2008 to 2015 for sales of “Mystery Set” jewellery totalling over S$2.5m, but none for watches. Consequently, VC&A got to keep the “Mystery Set” trademark for jewellery, but lost it for watches. Expect to see plenty of “Mystery Set” Franck Muller watches in stores soon.

The full decision can be read here.

Source: The Straits Times

Mercedes-AMG recently celebrated its 50th year by rolling out several limited edition automobiles, including the top of the line AMG GT3 Edition 50, a five-piece limited edition of the AMG race coupe powered by a monster, 622hp V8. Each buyer of the GT3 Edition 50 – which costs almost €400,000 – gets an IWC Ingenieur chronograph.

Significantly more affordable, the watch is part of a larger edition of 250 watches to mark AMG’s anniversary. The Ingenieur Chronograph Sport Edition “50th Anniversary of Mercedes-AMG” is based on the stock Ingenieur Chronograph Sport, which is powered by the in-house cal. 89361 and distinguished by its twin registers at six and 12 o’clock (the entry-level chronograph has three registers). The cal. 89361 is automatic with a longish 68-hour power reserve. It also features a flyback function, while the chronograph mechanism relies on a vertical clutch and column wheel.

The silvered dial is modelled on a speedometer, with oversized minute numerals taking the place of conventional hour markers, with a cartoonish lightning-shaped constant seconds hand at six o’clock.

The case is titanium and 44mm in diameter, with a soft iron inner cage to protect the movement from magnetic fields. A sapphire window on the back reveals the rear of the soft iron capsule, which has been perforated to resemble a brake disc and emblazoned with the AMG motto.

Price and availability

Available at IWC boutiques and retailers, the Ingenieur Chronograph Sport Edition “50th Anniversary of Mercedes-AMG” (ref. IW380902) is priced at US$11,800 or S$17,900.

The extra-thin watch is not exclusive to Piaget, but it’s almost synonymous with the brand, given its long history in developing slim movements. It’s 60 years since Piaget rolled out its first extra-thin movement, the hand-wound cal. 9P of 1957 – which means a slew of watches to commemorate the occasion. All share an simple aesthetic modelled on the original – essentially a thin case with a dial featuring baton markers and hands – but the trio of automatics with coloured dials are more vivid than the usual slim dress watch.

All share the same 40mm gold case (in the three different colours of gold) that has a flat, polished bezel, along with matching lugs that give it a clean style consistent with the dial. The case is 6.36mm high, with the case back being slightly domed, leaving the watch sitting slightly thinner than it is.

Visually the case design varies little from the 1960s original, but as with all modern watches the construction is significantly more robust, allowing for a water-resistant rating of 30m. Notably, the case back is held in place by half a dozen screws, which helps with moisture-proofing, instead of the usual snap-back found on thin watches.

The dial is just like the 1960s original as well, with stick indices and hands, along with the distinctly retro “automatic” rendered in italic script. A gilded frame highlights the date at three o’clock – a feature that is unusual on an ultra-thin watch and eminently practical, but one that also feels out of place. It doesn’t help that the date disc is white, giving it significant contrast against the dial.

What makes the trio stand out are the dial colours. While the typical extra-thin dress watch will have a silvered dial, Piaget decided to bestow bright colours on this trio, in in blue, green and a grey-brown.

The dials have a radial brushing with a galvanic colour coating, giving them an appealing metallic finish that catches the light brilliantly. Both the blue and green dials make a statement, even from a distance; they are dress watches that want to be seen.

The grey dial is arguably the pick of the lot, usual but still subtle. Described as a “grey patinated” finish, the colour is a grey-brown that’s not often seen.

All three share the same cal. 1203P movement, an automatic that’s just 3mm high. The construction and finishing is typical of Piaget, with the key features being a micro-rotor off to one side and a smallish balance wheel beside it. Together they allow the movement to be compact while maintaining a respectable 44-hour power reserve; a smaller balance consumes less energy while allowing for a large barrel, and the micro-rotor reduces movement height.

The finish is carefully done with all the details taken care of – circular striping, blued steel screws, polished countersinks – though most of it is done with mechanical aid. That mix of manual and mechanical finishing is par for the course at Piaget and many of its peers, like Jaeger-LeCoultre and Blancpain.

The Altiplano 60th Anniversary ultra-thins cover all the bases for a slim dress watch with appropriate styling and technical competence, though the price feels steep. To be fair it’s less than what comparables cost before the watch business entered its current slump, but with fellow watchmakers – even sister brands in the same group – making their watches more affordable the competition is though. For instance, the Lange Saxonia 37mm, admittedly a hand-wound with a plainly constructed movement – costs just under US$15,000.

Price and availability 

Already available at Piaget boutiques and retailers, the Altiplano 60th Anniversary ultra-thin is available in pink gold with a blue dial (ref. G0A42051) or yellow gold with a green dial (ref. G0A42052), each priced at US$25,200 or S$35,900. The version in white gold with a grey dial (ref. G0A42050) costs US$26,000 or S$37,400.

Each is limited to 260 pieces.

For the 60th anniversary of the Speedmaster – an occasion also marked by the 1957 Trilogy set of watches – Omega is staging a series of exhibitions around the world dedicated to the Moonwatch, with the Singapore leg taking place June 29 to July 9 just outside the brand’s store in Marina Bay Sands.

The exhibition charts the history of the Speedmaster since 1957, with a focus on its stellar turn as the first watch on the Moon. Several dozen variants of the Speedmaster will be on display, including a selection of vintage and rare examples from the Omega Museum. The selection of modern Speedmasters on display will include the latest additions to the line like the Speedy Tuesday limited edition and the Speedmaster Automatic “Racing”.

Open daily from 11:00am to 9:00pm, the exhibition takes place just out the Omega boutique located inside the Marina Bay Sands resort and casino:

Omega Boutique
The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands
Shop B2M-201/2062
Bayfront Avenue
Singapore 0189782

The Colt has always been one of the basic watches in the Breitling line-up, but available only in steel. Now it’s been given a makeover: the Colt Skyracer is lighter, cheaper and more military-esque – and also SuperQuartz. The new look amplifies elements traditionally found on military watches, with large Arabic numerals in a shadowed font, a 24-hour scale, along with red accents on the dial.

Despite being the entry-level model, the Colt Skyracer boasts an unusual case material: Breitlight. It’s a carbon composite that leaves the large 45mm case lighter than it looks. The black and grey marbled surface of the material is due to its composition, which is carbon fibre strands mixed inside a hardened polymer.

The Colt Skyracer is powered by the SuperQuartz cal. 74 , a top of the line quartz movement made by ETA. It’s from the ETA Thermoline family of movements, which are equipped with a sensor that measures the temperature of the quartz oscillator, allowing the movement to digitally adjust its rate to compensate for rate variations due to fluctuations in temperature. Consequently, a SuperQuartz movement keeps time to within 15 seconds a year, compared to the 15 seconds a month of ordinary quartz movements.

A feature that is unique to the Colt Skyracer is the easily removable rubber strap that latches onto bars integrated into the lugs.  Once separated from the case, the strap doubles up as a ruler thanks to measuring scales on each side of the strap.

Price and availability 

Priced at US$2000 or S$2850, the Breitling Colt Skyracer will reach Breitling boutiques and retailers at end June 2017.

Additionally, the Colt Skyracer makes its Singapore debut at a pop-up store in VivoCity that takes place from June 27 to July 2. Open from 10:00am to 9:00pm daily, the pop-up store will be located at Central Court B of the mall.

Priced at just over US$400 for early backers, the Bólido is the result of a collaboration between Pierre Nobs and Simon Husslein. Given the pair’s backgrounds – Nobs founded Ventura and Husslein designed watches for it – the Bólido unsurprisingly combines strong aesthetics with a solidly constructed monocoque case.

Unlike the average Kickstarter wristwatch, the team behind Bólido has a significant track record in the business. Nobs founded Ventura in 1989, turning it into a design star of the 1990s by recruiting noted European industrial designers, most prominently Hannes Wettstein and Flemming Bo Hansen, to style its minimalist watches, which also boasted hardened titanium or steel cases, a remarkably unusual combination at the time. The first Ventura wristwatch, a digital timepiece designed by Hansen, ended up in the permanent collection of MoMA in New York.

But an early 2000s push into more advanced digital watches along with a change in ownership did not go well, and Ventura went bankrupt several times. Now Nobs has teamed up with Husslein, who once worked at Hannes Wettstein’s design studio penning watches for Nomos and Braun, to create a watch that’s slightly reminiscent of Ventura but significantly more affordable.

The one-piece case of the Bólido is 43mm in diameter with the face sitting slightly angled towards the wearer for better legibility,with the case is thicker at 12 o’clock than it is at six o’clock. Made of stainless steel, the case is one-piece, with the movement and dial installed from the front.

The simple construction as well as streamlined manufacturing – it’s made with CNC machines that machine and finish the surface simultaneously – lower the cost of production. Both crystals on the front and back are sapphire, with the rear revealing the ETA 2824 inside.

Plain and functional, the dial is designed for easy reading. Five colours are available: grey, red, yellow, black and white. The Bolido is delivered on a rubber strap.

Price and availability 

The Bolido costs US$430 for a single watch, with orders of multiple watches bringing the price down to US$390. Deliveries are expected in September 2017. It is available on Kickstarter, with the project already having raised almost twice the target.

In the future, the Bolido will retail for US$650 in white or black, and US$690 for all other colours.

Correction June 24, 2017: Retail price of the coloured dials is US$690, not US$650 as stated earlier.