They are known for pulling out some amazing masterpieces, but this time, Dubey and Schaldenbrand has really come up with a luxury watch called the Spiral-Verso VIP that we would die for.

Okay, I know what you are thinking… you guys always say you’d “die” for this watch, or this watch is “amazing”.  Well, we love watches way more than we hate them…plus, this time the watch actually has a flying case, so what do you expect?

Yes… it has a flying case.  Everywhere we’ve seen it the people are saying “Why yes, this elegantly designed watch has 3 counters…” blah, blah, blah.  The watch has a flying case for goodness sakes! Where’s the excitement?

Here are the specifications:

• Movement: Chronograph 3 counters with triple date and moon phase
• Self-winding mechanical movement from Dubey & Schaldenbrand Chronometer-quality escapement, stop second
• Finish: Hand engraved decorated movement gold finish Skeletonized rotor, blued steel screws
• Frequency: 28.800 vibrations per hour
• Jewels: 25 / Incabloc
• Power reserve: 48 hours
• Functions: Hours, minutes, subsidiary seconds, 24 hours hand, chronograph, day, date, month and moon phase
• Dial: Brossé with 6 blued half spheres set on a brushed dial
• Hands: “Losanges diamantés” with SuperLuminova Chronograph hand with vintage spiral (exclusivity DS)
• Case: Polished 316L surgical stainless steel, mobile lugs. Blue set crown
• Dimensions: 41 x 47.5 mm, Height 15.5 mm
• Watch crystal: Anti-reflective sapphire crystal domed on top and on the bottom
• Water resistance: To 30 meters
• Band: Galuchat royal (24 mm special cut)
• Dimensions: 20 mm stainless steel bracelet
• Buckle: 16 mm tang or deployant
• Special features: Crown on left side
• Revolutionary flying case

“I have waited a long time to create and introduce timepieces that I feel exemplify the ultimate in luxury and quality.  Richemont shares that understanding and has the global reputation and experience to fulfill these shared goals.  I have the highest confidence that this unique partnership will be tremendously successful and an important part of our global luxury accessories strategy.”

-Ralph Lauren

So, Ralph Lauren is finally launching watches and jewelry!!! It’s been a long, a long time coming, but we knew change was going to come. Okay, maybe that was a little too much? Anyway, let’s get to the watches, separated into 3 collections including the Ralph Lauren Stirrup Collection, the Ralph Lauren Slim Classique Collection, and the Ralph Lauren Sporting Collection.

The Ralph Lauren Stirrup collection (above) includes a caliber RL750 (owned by Richemont), 30 meters of water resistance, and mounted on a wide band made of crocodile. There is a limited version of this watch based on 1967 founding of Polo with 67 pieces made.

The Ralph Lauren Slim Classique watch collection includes 42mm cases, 18 k gold, ardillon buckle, and a slim manual Piaget movement.  The Ralph Lauren Sporting watch collection is made of stainless steel or 18-k gold, has a bezel with six round screws, classic dial, hand wound movement, dual time mode, and power reserve. Is it just me, or do these watches look a lot like Cartier watches?????

Linde Werdelin has designed the perfect Christmas watch this holiday season, right on time for The Watch Digest to suggest our first last minute holiday gift idea; The Hard Green DLC Watch.

The Hard Green DLC Watch by Linde Werdelin is a limited edition watch of 22 pieces marked with unique numbers.  And these are not just any numbers, these numbers have been blasted onto the Hard Green DLC Watch by carbon which would make them the hardest numbers around; well almost, only numbers made with diamonds would be stronger.  However, most importantly, the combination of carbon blasting and watch making makes the Hard Green DLC durable and perfect for hard core sports.

Although the Hard Green DLC Watch by Linde Werdelin is available with a silver dial design… the green bracelet and case with the red dial and silver hour markers and hands make this watch perfect for Christmas.

For those of you who have not heard of Linde Werdelin, here is a little background.  The company was started by Morten Linde and Jorn Werdelin in 2002 as a way to develop a luxury sports watch that sports enthusiast could clip digital instruments onto for timing and measuring.  Both guys were pretty well established before the partnership.  Morten Linde was a famous Danish designer who created the Copenhagen public park chairs and Jorn Werdelin came from a family of jewelry professionals whose grandfather opened the family boutique. However, Jorn’s success came in investment banking and off-psite skiing which eventually led to his obsession with luxury sports watches.

I love this Blancpain sports watch and I love the name “Fifty Fathoms“; it sounds like a super fly pitch black car that talks and transforms and only comes out at night. Imagination aside, the watch is pretty awesome and the basics include a unidirectional bezel, antimagnetic case, self-winding movement, and a black dial.

The solid blackness of the watch makes it undeniably alluring and mysterious as only a few hundred of them leave Blancpain’s workshop each year. There are lots of things I love about this particular Fifty Fathoms watch. The first is its ultra slim status.  It comes in at 15.50 mm case thickness, 45 mm in diameter, 23 mm between horns, 5.65 mm calibre thickness, 30.60 calibre diameter, and an ultra slim self winding movement.

Even though the  Fifty Fathoms SPORT watch by Blancpain has a date, it doesn’t have a double window date indication, which keeps in with the simple and sleek design.  With all this mystery; there must be an amazing story a behind the watch, right? Yes!

The Fifty Fathoms collection came to design when the French Ministry of defense approached Blancpain about creating an elite watch for combat divers that could withstand underwater missions.  From then the collection earned credibility among other country special forces units including French Navy GERS and movies like World of Silence.

 

Alpina has a long history of watch making.  Starting in 1883, a collaboration of manufacturers and retailers created the company we know today.  One collection that stands out today is Alpina’s Extreme Automatic Collection. The Alpina Extreme Watches each include alternating black and white dials with a Alpina Geneve logo at the 12 o’clock marker and a date box at the 3 o’clock marker. Six screw like features similar to a compass stand out from the case and a bold red hand points out the seconds.

Alpina’s Extreme Automatic Collection includes my favorite model, AL-525LBS3AE4.
This Extreme Automatic Alpina Watch includes an AL-525 caliber and 20 bars of water resistance. Sapphire crystal glass is featured on the 42 mm diameter case and the watch is made of stainless steel in a rose gold color.  This Alpina Extreme Automatic Watch has 25 jewels, automatic winding movement and a 42 hour power reserve which work in heights as high as 28,800 feet; the only way an Alpinist would have it. Two other version include model AL-525LBSAE6 and AL-525LSB3AE6B.

Model AL-525LBSAE6 is made of a stainless steel material with black strap and Model AL-525LSB3AE6B is a stainless steel with a stainless steel strap.

At The Watch Digest we love concept watches so much that sometimes we get them mixed up with the real thing.  The great thing about concepts is that it’s like a high energy game on which concept watch has the guts to come to life and hit mainstream?

Our favorite places to check out concept watches would have to be Yanko Designs where designers submit some innovative concepts that will blow your mind.  For example, Above is the “Cycle” Life Watch by Andy Korovets, said to be a joke, the designer creates a creates a watch that cycles through the life of a modern man.  It starts off with “WAKE UP!” continues to CAR, PC, CAR, TV, and ends with “GO TO SLEEP”.  Pretty funny, but actually simply revolutionary.

This next watch below is the Elio Linear Scale Watch by Piere Haulot and William Boullier.  This is a “deep” watch conceptually; it’s based on the idea of a linear scale in terms of short term or long term goals.  So it measures the time spent and time remaining on just about anything… including starting your own business, working out, or finding the  cure for AIDS…

Okay, next is the Luna Watch by John Pszeniczny inspired by Swarovski.  The watch is all about suspension, touch, and balance.  The watch is made of crystal, stainless steel, and Spessartite Garnet; you can tell time by touching two points that seem to “float inside the crystal”.

Finally, below is an edgy and funky watch called Arresting Development and designed by Luis Berumen.  The watch takes its name quite literally and combines fetishes with technology, and edginess.  It’s basically a digital watch inside stylish handcuffs… hmmm?

Maurice Lacroix is an amazing Swiss watch maker with an eye for detail… everyone loves a good Maurice Lacroix watch, but my favorite has one little dial that makes me smile.

The Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Double Retrograde Watch has a power reserve indication, small seconds, and a 24 hour indication for a second time zone. The watch is hand decorated with a hand wound  mechanical movement and 50 jewels.  Also noticeable on the Maurice Lacroix watch are the blue steel screws, polished steel pallet and escapement wheel.  The case is made of stainless steel with sapphire crystal that includes glare proofing and a screwed caseback.  Water resistance of 30 meters in included in with the Masterpiece Double Retrograde Case as well as a solid silver dial and Roman Numerals.  Each hand is made of blue steel and the strap is genuine crocodile leather with a folder clasp.

The part that makes me smile?  The wiggly hand for the 2nd time zone clock…it adds a small artistic touch to a minimalist watch.

Luxury digital watches are becoming the wave of the future, especially when made by a company called Nooka.

Nook was created by Matthew Waldman in 1997 whose first idea came to life on a napkin… like all great artist beginnings; the napkin made its way to New York and viola, Nooka was born.

So what exactly does the word Nooka mean?  Well it depends on who you are.  If you’re a Hawaiian then it means “sleek”, if you are a history buff then it’s from the ancient Amararunk’thuh word meaning “future is now”, if you are a New Yorker then it’s a pet name that means “New Yorker”.  Whatever it means to you, the timepieces design touch all of using design, diamond, crocodile bands, digital displays, bold colors, and inventiveness.

The watch I picked out above captures the heart of the company; it’s called the Zing Zoo BK and has 16 diamonds around the digital display.  The strap is made of certified farm raised crocodile skin and is available in black or brown.  Other specifications include.78 carats of diamonds, 5ATM of water resistance, stainless steel case, LCD display with backlight, and a 1 year warranty all for $3,000.00.

The one thing about luxury watches is that boredom is never an option.  Whether they wow you with their beauty or shock you with their prices, the best surprise is when they actually make you smile.

One watch maker, Alain Silberstein, takes his job very seriously; as a matter of fact his tagline is “true happiness is to have one’s passion as a profession”.  Alain Silberstein’s watches fall into the luxury watch category for many reasons. Some say it’s the price of his watches, some say think it’s the materials, I say it’s his creative and funky design methods that add a little extra spunk to your wrist.

I have so many favorites from his collections that I had a hard time picking just one watch to share.  However, after looking around for a while I settled on a diamond watch from Alain Silberstein’s Klassik Collection entitled the Krono Bauhaus 2 Diamonds.  The Klassik Collection was actually the first collection created by Alain in 1987 and this amazing watch was one of his first creations.

Alain Silberstein’s Krono Bauhaus 2 Diamonds is a watch with a stainless steel case embedded with 438 diamonds!  Each diamond is VVS - Top Weselton and of the highest quality.  The Krono Bahaus 2 has an automatic calendar is a limited edition because Alain only made 999 of these watches. Each one has 10 bars of water resistance and anti glare crystal.

Bulova prides itself in knowing precisely what sophistication is and how to make a watch seep of luxury.

A perfect example is this elegant Wittanauer Ceramic Men’s watch by Bulova.  The Men’s Wittanauer Ceramic Men’s Watch is made out of stainless steel in natural and black finish.  Each of the 49 diamonds on the watch were hand set including 38 diamonds on the case and 11 diamonds on the black enamel dial.

The Men’s Wittnauer Ceramic watch also has domed glareproofed sapphire crystal on both sides and luminous hour and minute hands for reading in the dark.  Other specifications of this Bulova watch inlcude a calendar, a second hand, a 6 screw locked caseback to ensure at least 30 meters of water resistance, and a locking deployment buckle to keep the watch in place.

Unfortunately, I do have a few down points about this Bulova watch.  The Bulova Men’s Wittnauer Ceramic watch has a two infuriating features that I wish they would have included in the watches calendar technology.  First, the watch calendar is programmed for a 31 day cycle.  Consequently, on the first day of any month following a month with less than 31 days, the date must be advanced manually.  Secondly, in some models the calendar cannot be changed manually between the hours of 9pm and 6am!