Every year Oris Watch Company does something extraordinary, they create a limited edition watch dedicated to a musical legend and this year’s musical legend is Bob Dylan.

The new luxury watch has Bob’s Dylan’s signature etched into the dial and is portrait is engraved on the case back.  Like the intricacies of his career, a small glass window gives wearers a look into the mechanical movement of the Oris red rotor, made famous by the company.

The best part of this limited edition watch of 3,000 pieces is the Honer Marine Band harmonica which comes with the watch. The stainless steel case of this luxury watch features sapphire crystal glass and 30 meters of water resistance as well as a Swiss ETA automatic caliber, 25 jewels, and a power reserve of 42 hours.

Source: Europa Star and Wrist Watch Haven

Hollywood glamour hasn’t gone too far in this economy.  Audemars Piguet has announced that it will be “the” sponsor for the 63rd Annual Tony Awards.

The Tony Awards will be held on June 7th at Radio City Music Hall in New York. We love the fact that Audemars Piguet will be thinking out of the box when it comes to incorporating their luxury watches into this year’s Tony Awards theme.

The luxury watch company will be putting on display… right on the red carpet… 8 solid aluminum clocks decorated by the nominees for Best Play and Best Musical to represent each of the productions.

Of course it doesn’t stop there, after the award Audemars Piguet will take the clocks and put them on display on 57th street in Manhattan at their flagship boutique and then auction them off for The Actor’s Fund.

According to Francois-Henry Bennahmias, CEO & President of North America Audemars Piguet:
“The Tonys are a perfect complement to Audemars Piguet, as theatre celebrates life on a daily basis and rewards all those who experience it.”

Of course, we would love to get an inside look at the making of the luxury clocks.  We know Audemars Piguet is pulling out all the stops.

Source: JCK Online

This week’s watch news takes us by surprise.  Tiffany Watch Co. Ltd, who we thought had a great brand of watches that represented the Tiffany & Co. brand, has sold out to the Swatch Group.

Now the luxury watch making division of Tiffany & Co  is no longer owned by Tiffany & Co..  The new luxury watches still have some specific Tiffany & Co.  touches including the Roman Numeral hour markers and the Tiffany & Co. label, but some things have changed.

Some people aren’t too happy about the new watch designs.  Ariel Adams, a blogger at The Luxist, says “The watch designs were nice, but not Tiffany & Co. nice. There was no magic appeal or charm, and the timeless look that Tiffany & Co. watches typically have was absent - in my opinion.”

As of now the new luxury watches are not available on the Tiffany & Co. website but the launch of the new line is expected soon.

This year from April 20th to April 26th “Sparkle Week Spring 2009″ will be celebrating it’s first year in New York. “Sparkle Week” is basically a weeklong celebration of jewelry.

Sounds fun? Yes, but the new exhibit to be featured by the National Jewelry Institute called “Time and Jeweler’s Art” will feature luxury timepieces that “display trends and portray personalities of fashion culture”.

Sounds even more exciting? Yes, but check out his power house of luxury watch brands that will be participating in the exhibit:

• Dior Watches
• H. Stern
• Harry Winston
• Patrizzi and Co. Auctioneers
• Piaget
• Timex
• Tiffany and Co
• Valentino Timeless
• Van Cleef and Arpels
• Vincent Berard

Now we are excited! The exhibit will be at The Forbes Galleries on 5th Avenue.

This year at Basel World Revue Thommen releases the new mechanical hand winding Airspeed XL. Their booth will be B15 in hall 1.1.

Image From Europa Star

The theme behind the Airspeed XL has always been the simplicity of the watch design and complexity of the accents.  The dial is coated with sapphire glass on both sides and a red arrow boldly points out the date which can be found on the end of the dial.

To view the movement the see through case back on the stainless steel 41 mm case allows you to view everything.  Speaking of viewing, forget not seeing the dials in the dark the luminous hour markers and watch hands light increase wearer readability, even if underwater.  This luxury watch has 330 feet of water resistance.

Celebrities are supporting the Graham Chronofighter Diver Watch.  Tom Cruise was seen wearing the luxury watch in Las Vegas recently.  The watch looks quite stunning on a person’s wrist and really stands out against other watches.

Graham and Arnolod & Son are owned by the British Masters SA which is a private Anglo-Swiss owned firm founded in 1995 by Eric Loth.

Their new popular luxury watch is the Graham Chronofighter Diver Watch which each have bi-compax chronographs with date, 1,000 feet of water resistance, a helium valve, unidirectional bezel, and the 15, 30, and 45 markers as well as the 12 o’clock dot come with increases luminosity.

We definitely like it.

Back in January we did a story here on Watch Digest entitled “Essence of Aspen Mountain Captured In Time” when we first found out about the Aspen One Watch collection.  Although the luxury watch is pricey, it seems to be a big hit with collectors.

Elle Macpherson actually helped with the launch of the watch during an event at the Aspen Mountain Club which is a ski club for A-listers.  The watch retails for $49,000.  Here are some memorable quotes about the launch.

According to AVSC Executive Director Marke Cole:

As a mother and skier, Elle knows how important it is for all children in the valley to have the opportunity to experience our mountains in winter. Her wonderful generosity and the amazing cooperation from Aspen Jewelry and Watches means AVSC can help the many families who need support this year. What a beautiful way for them to give back to the community which has become special to them.

According to Aspen Jewelry and Watches founder and CEO Rene Van Ass:

By marketing this collection, we are marketing Aspen as it is…and what it was. We will emphasize Aspen’s rich history, and we want people all over the world to fall in love with Aspen even more.

According to Challenge Aspen CEO Houston Cowan:

The proceeds from this watch will scholarship more than 50 families with disabilities to enjoy Challenge Aspen’s winter and summer programs. Elle and Rene have truly helped us take the ‘dis out of disability’ for some very special young people.

Last month we wrote a post entitled Antiquorum Presents Watches from Gandhi, Kennedy, and The Godfather of Crime and discussed the collection of over 400 luxury timepieces being auctioned off in New York by Antiquorum Auctioneers.

The auction did really…really well bringing in 8.7 million dollars with more than 500 online bidders as well as room and telephone bidders. The big sale was Mahatma Gandhi’s pocket watch and personal belongings which sold for 2.096 million dollars by who Antiquorum describes as a  “prominent Indian businessman who intends is to bring the items back to India for permanent public display.”

The other luxury watches we featured here at The Watch Digest also sold at some great numbers including the “Kennedy Onassis” luxury watch for $120,000 and the “Giuseppe Bonanno” Patek Philippe luxury watch, the Godfather of crime, which sold for $36,000.

Pretty good for Antiquorum’s first auction of 2009 in a failing economy…. actually, not bad at all.

Bedat & Co. Novelties 2008 Watch

According to Gucci Group President and CEO Robert Polet it’s ” a good deal for all parties concerned.” Polet is talking about Gucci’s recent sell of Bedat & Co to LuxuryConcepts who was previously Bedat & Co.’s distributors in East Asia.

Of course, in this economy any buying and selling has everyone nervous and looking very closely at any details. However this deal between the luxury watch giants seems to be surrounded by, well, a little bit of drama… Here’s some background:

Simone Bedat and her son Christian start Bedat & Co. in 1996 and immediately found success in the United States. Gucci, seeing their success bought 85% of the company at the end of 2000 and expanded the entire company oversees. Here’s where the drama and mystery begin…. for reasons unknown to anyone, in 2006 Simone and Christian Bedat resigned. Some say it was because they didn’t agree with Gucci’s future plans for their luxury watch company and some say they didn’t think the company was reaching it’s full potential under Gucci’s leadership.

Whatever the reason, the economy had nothing to do with this sell because soon after the mysterious dispute, LuxuryConcepts is suddenly buying Bedat & Co. Common sense leads us to assume that both Gucci and Bedat & Co. wanted out of this relationship. What happened behind doors… who knows? But we don’t think it was too pretty…

If you haven’t heard of Reactor luxury watches, it’s okay… but you should know they hold the claim to creating the best sports watch possible and one of their claims to fame is the Reactor Gamma water sports watch which has the thickest ever application of Superluminova for “extreme low-light performance”.  Okay…so what?

Well what about a 10 year power supply, 300 M depth rating and anti-reflective coated crystal for perfect visibility under water?

Seriously people…Reactor takes their best build claim to the extreme me. Europa Star recently reported that Reactor’s water sport watch was put to an extreme torture-level stress.  They attacked the Reactor Gamma water sport watch to a shipwreck submerged in 300 feet of saltwater off the coast of Florida.  But get this… it’s going to remain there for 3 years!

If they pull this off, I don’t think anyone will doubt that they have the best built sports watch….TAG Heuer and Breitling Emergency watch…. watch out, a new extreme watch kid is on the block.