Wallpaper magazine did a special collaboration with Bell & Ross and Jonathan Ellery for the latest August ‘Handmade’ issue (see above). Ellery used a graphic motif that signified the big bang on a BR01-92 B&R watch which only comes together twice every 24 hours as the circles rotate.
I’m usually not a big fan of most wristwatch advertising but I love this 1966 advertisement for the Tissot PRS 516 Chrono Auto Valjoux. They recently re-issued the design at this year’s Baselworld and I found myself taking a liking to this old campaign versus their new one.
The Omega Skeleton Tourbillon Co-Axial Platinum Limited Edition – quite a mouthful. Limited to an edition of 18 pieces
The Omega Constellation Double Eagle 4-Counters
The Omega Seamaster Ploprof 1200M
The Omega Speedmaster Professional Apollo-Soyuz 35th Anniversary watch
There where few new additions from Omega that were presented at Baselworld 2010, most notably was another commemorative wristwatch that celebrates the 35th anniversary of the first international space flight in 1976 when two spacecraft built by different nations docked together.
Astronaut Lietenant General Thomas P. Stafford (USA) and cosmonaut Lieutenant General Alexei A. Leonov (USSR) met in the docking hatch that linked their respective spacecraft. They both shook their Omega wearing hands (no joke – Omega has a very hard working marketing department) and 35 years later, it spawned a commemorative edition that includes a dial created from a sign piece cut from the meteorite which entered the Earth’s atmosphere.
Since no two piece of the meteorite dial are alike, each dial remains unique. Conveniently, they had enough meteorite available to make exactly 1,975 pieces.
While most brands stayed safe this year, Marc Ecko decided to dip into tattoo culture by developing several japanese tattoo inspired watches including the Global Ink model. With the rest of the collection, the brand pushed up its identity by focusing on the rhino.
This year Tissot focused on two re-issues, some new variations of pre-existing models such as the Sailing Touch which is their touch screen version for martime enthusiasts, the release of PRS 516, a classic tissot case with an automatic movement and five smaller (3mm smaller) quartz variations and of course, the Visodate.
The Original PRS 516
Visodate Automatic 1957 – Reissue
Tissot Veloci-T (Gents and Ladies) Automatic
Tissot Lovely – 37 Top Wesselton Diamonds, Quartz movement
Lady Heart – Diamond Studded, Automatic, 3 ATM
Sailing Touch – A new additional to Tissot touch screen collection. The ST version has a maritime theme with meteorological forecasting ability, a tide-calculator and a regatta countdown in addition to the regular T-touch functions
Tissot’s new global campaign supposedly captures real moments in the lives of ambassadors, Danica Patrick, IndyCar® and Nascar® driver, Deepika Padukone, actress, Barbie Xu, actress and model, Michael Owen, European Footballer of the year 2002, Nicky Hayden, 2006 MotoGP world Champion, Zhong Man 2008 Olympic sabre Champion and Huang Xiaoming, actor. The intention of the campaign was to show glamour shots of their celebrity spokespeople in real situations to show that Tissot was authentic luxury.
MB&F continues to get creative with the revelation of their new aviation inspired complex mechanical wristwatch called the Thunderbolt. Founder Maximilian Busser explains how personal this design was for him:
Let’s play a game: One of these watches is a blatant rip off of the other, One of these watches just isn’t original, Can you guess which one is a copy of the other by the time I finish my song?
Answer: It’s the L.E.D L69-85OE-GSL that looks uncomfortably close to the Nooka Zot. I spotted this at Basel 2010.
L.E.D is designed by a automobile designer named Mr. Adolf Indermaur.
Nicholas Hayek Aka Mr. Swatch, the animated man behind the Swatch Group, the world largest wristwatch company that single handedly saved the Swiss watch industry is no more. He passed away while at work. The Swatch Group brand stable includes such brands as Breguet, Blancpain, Calvin Klein, Certina, Endura, Flik Flak, Jaquet Droz, Glashutte Original and Union Glashutte, Hamilton, Leon Hatot, Longines, Mido, Omega, Pierre Balmain, Rado, Swatch, Tiffany and Co. and Tissot among others.
British Designer Michael Young has teamed with Odm to create a ‘Reserve’ watch collection that reverses the position of the buttons to the face of the wristwatch to create a fresh new look.
This is already all over the blogs, but I got to be the one who actually saw the unveiling before the show and then bumped into Yves Behar, the designer as he spent an entire day at the booth pitching the wristwatch to potential distributors.
The Vue, if you aren’t familiar with Issey Miyake, is the latest in a line of watches that are released annually by the brand. Each watch is done by a prolific designer and usually features a design or stylistic feature that makes the wristwatch unconventional. For the Vue, Yves replaced the hour hand with a disc and a filter that would make it appear as if the current hour fades in and then out.
But despite a neat concept, I felt that the watch feels a little underwhelming because of its size and lacks presence. This is Yves second wristwatch after his previous one for Mini.
