From where comes the name?

A name is the ultimate defining factor of a person, place or thing. A single name has the power to brings forth an entire landscape of images. The name of a luxury watch company is the name chosen to display the image of the company. So let us review the origins of the name of some of the popular watch manufacturers.

Audemars Piguet - Two French proper names taken from the Swiss founders: Watchmaker Jules Audemars and financial expert Jules Piguet.

Baume & Mercier - Two French proper names taken from the Swiss Baume family and the Genevan jeweler Paul Mercier.

Blancpain - The French language last name of the founder - Swiss businessman Jean Jacques Blancpain.

Breitling - The German language last name of the Swiss born founder of the company Leon Breitling.

Bulgari - The last name of the Italian Bulgari family.

Cartier - The last name of the French-born Louis Cartier.

Chopard - French language last name of the Swiss born founder Louis-Ulysse Chopard.

Corum - Swiss founding partners Gaston Ries & Rene Bannwart chose the Latin word "quorum" as the company name and changed the spelling.

De Grisogona - The maiden name of an associate's mother who worked with Italian born founder Fawaz Gruosi when he opened his first boutique in Geneva.

Ebel - Name taken from the first letters of Eugene Blum et Levy. Levy is the maiden name of Swiss Eugene Blum's wife.

Gerald Genta - Name of Swiss born watchmaker Gerald Genta, a man of Italian descent.

Girard-Perregaux - French proper names derived from a company eventually owned by
Swiss Constant Girard - Perregaux.

Hublot - A French word meaning "porthole". The Italian founder Carlo Crocco chose this name for his watches as they reminded him of a ship's porthole.

IWC - Stands for International Watch Company, founded in Switzerland by an American Florentine Ariosto Jones.

Jacob & Co. - Russian-born American Jacob Arabo's first name. He is the company founder and owner.

Jaeger-LeCoultre - Taken from the last names of Swiss founders Pierre Jaeger and Charles Antoine LeCoultre.

A. Lange & Sohne - Taken from the German founding watchmaker Ferdinand Adolph Lange's name.

Longines - Swiss founder Ernst Francillon purchases a property by the name of Longines. He built a watchmaking factory there, and named his brand after it.

Richard Mille - French owner and founder Richard Mille's name.

Ulysse Nardin - French language name of Swiss founder Ulysse Nardin

Omega - Name chosen for the company by Swiss founder Louis Brandt's sons, Louis Paul and Cesar.

Panerai - The Italian word officine means workshop (sometimes included in the name). Panerai is taken from the name of the Italian founder, Guido Panerai.

Patek Phillipe - Last names of founding Polish immigrant to Switzerland, Antoine Norbert de Patek, and French watchmaker Adrien Phillipe.

Piaget - French-language last name of Swiss founder Georges Piaget.

Rado - Later director Paul Luthi renamed the Swiss company Schlup & Co. Rado in the mid 1950's.

Rolex - German-born founder Hans Wildorf took the name from a combination of the Spanish words "reloijes excelentes" (excellent watches) and came up with the name Rolex.

Daniel Roth - The name of the Swiss founding watchmaker Daniel Roth.

TAG Heuer - Swiss founding watchmaker Edouard Heuer's last name and the TAG group who acquired the brand in 1985.

Tissot - French-language last name of Swiss founders Charles-Felicien and Charles-Emile Tissot (father and son)

Urwerk - Name chosen by Swiss founders Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei meaning "otiginal movement"

Vacheron Constantin - French language last names of Swiss foundes Jean-Marc Vacheron and Francois Constantin.

Zenith - Swiss-born founder Georges Favre-Jacot chose the name Zenith for his company.

With Wall Street Sliding how does this effect High End Luxury Items?

Wall Street is churning out stock horror stories quicker than one can imagine. The Dow is going Down as much as 450 points by the 4pm closing bell. Today Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, the biggest U.S. Securities firms, fell the most ever in New York trading following a government rescue of American International Group Inc. failed to ease the credit crisis. The cost to protect a default by the banks rose to a record. Goldman Sachs fell 26% and Morgan Stanley plummeted 44% leading financial stocks to the lowest level in five years. Ouch! Washington Mutual is putting itself up for auction (No! Not a good sign), Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc bankruptcy filings. Fannie Mae down from $90 a share last year to 0.43 cents... on and on.

Now while Wall Street is falling to its knees in despair or prayer and the economy is slumping, what is happening to the sale of High end luxury products like watches?
According to Bertram Kalisher, executive director of the American Watch Guild:
Regardless of the economy, the world demand for handmade watches remain strong. There is no inventory. The new wealthy - individuals coming to the US from Russia, the Middle East and China - are ramping up demand while supply cannot keep up because certain luxury goods, like expensive watches cannot be mass produced and there is a world shortage of watchmakers.
The American Watch Guild is an association of watch retailers, manufacturers and designers. The American Watch Guild promotes high end products of brands like Cartier, Breguet and Patek Phillipe prices ranging from $10,000 to $400,000.

Luxury Markets are noticing the same sales figures as 2007. US Luxury Companies are attracting rich Europeans who are comparing their Euro to the Dollar, which has fallen about 40% since January 2002 against the Euro. Europeans are spending money in the US market.

In addition, High End Luxury Watches are a symbol of wealth. More and more millioners and billioners are being created all over the world, and a High End Luxury Watch is a status symbol. The Luxury Watch business is global and not confined to a specific area like a luxury swimming pool contractors or luxury apartment rentals. The perfect Watch can be mailed to any worldly destination.

Although the Economy is slumping, Luxury Watches are not feeling the pinch as much as you might think.

Posted by Van Halem

Watch Winders

What is a Watch Winder?
A Watch Winder is a device specifically designed for Automatic Watches. Watches which wind the mainspring via the natural motion of the wearers arm. If the automatic watch is not worn for a couple days, the power reserve will be depleted, and the watch will stop. To prevent this from happening, the wearer can place his Automatic Watch on the Watch Winder. The Watch Winder holds the Watch and moves it in circular pattern mimicking that part of the human motion required to power the mainspring.

I have a battery-operated Quartz Watch. Do I need a Watch Winder?No. The Watch Winder has been specifically designed for the Automatic Watch; however the Watch Winder works for "batteryless" Quartz Watches for example the Omega-matic, Seiko Kinetic and other innovative watches. These watches use the same weight/rotor principle to generate electric power to run the quartz movement.























I have a manual wind mechanical watch. Can I purchase a Watch Winder too?
Most Watch Winders are specifically designed for mechanical Watches, and up until recently no Watch Winders were available for Manual Wound Luxury Watches; however in Basel 2000, Orbita unveiled a Watch Winder for Manual Wound Watches. Utilizing small collets that grasp the crown of the watch, the Orbita Sempre Winder winds the Watch just like you would wind it with your fingers.


I own one Automatic Watch. Do I need a Watch Winder?No! If you only own one Automatic Watch, and wear it fairly often, then chances are you do not need a Watch Winder, unless of course you get one as a gift from Uncle Henry, and then you may need to display a desperate need for one on account of family peace.

I am an avid Automatic Watch Collector. Do I need a Watch Winder?I would have to say yes, unless of course you desire to walk around with multiple watches on each arm.

Is it true that the oils can coagulate and clog the watch movements once the watch has stopped?
No! Most oils used today are less viscous than earlier oils, and thus are not prone to coagulation.

Why do I need a Watch Winder?a) If you almost never wear the watch in question, wind it up every couple of weeks and then let it run down; however, if you have an Automatic Watch you wear quite frequently but not continuously, and you usually have no time to keep reseting the time, then the Watch Winder may be a worthy investent.
b)Another instant in which a Watch Winders may be of use to you is if your watch has a perpetual calender (a complex complication that accounts for the differing lengths of months and leap years), and thus keeping it on the Watch Winder will save you quite a bit of time in resetting the date and time.

Why are Watch Winders quite expensive?
As I was shopping around for Watch Winders, I realized that for a simple rotating Watch holder, the prices range from anywhere between $200 and $8000.Aside from the companies emphasis on quality, precision and exceptional luxury watch care, a Watch Winder is an item that is produced in limited quantities. It is a specialty item that does not have sufficient demand to be mass produced. A Watch Winder is not like your toaster that is a fixture in all households.

1) Functional: These Winders wind one or more watches. The watches are held on the exterior of these gadgets. The more watches that are wound on this type of Winder greatly resemble a ferris wheel at your local County Fair. Watch Winders of this type are displayed on a table top or a high shelf.
2) Elegant: These Watch Winders are encased in wood or leather boxes, some come with tight fitting glass doors so that the collector can view his watches while knowing that his watches are protected in a dust free environment. Dust can do great harm to the watch mechanisms. Depending on the size, some of these Winders can be placed inside drawers.
3) Multi-functional: As with Luxury Watches where there is no limit to the amount of innovative possibilities possibilities, Watch Winders can be purchased with heaters that maintain body temperature, extra storage space, atomic clock synchronized time displays, Illumination, new innovative Watch Winding materials.

I found this really cheap "no-name" brand Watch Winder. Do I really need a quality Watch Winder?
Well here is food for thought before you make any rash decisions" A BAD WATCH WINDER IS WORSE THAN NO WINDER. A Watch Winder is specially designed to mimic the motion of the wearers arm. A cheap Watch Winder most probably creates a single repetitive motion that may be detrimental to the watch. In addition the coarse plastic and sharp edges used to create the cheap watches may damage the watch. In addition the noise of grinding gears may drive you bonkers. The more expensive Watch Winders have solved the noise issue, and have created near silent Watch Winders.

If you desire to purchase a Watch Winder, do your research and make sure that you are purchasing your Watch Winder form a credible company.

A Watch Winder is a wonderful investment in that it gives you the opportunity to enjoy all the automatic watches in your watch collection without the headache of constantly resetting the time. All the Automatic Watches in your collection will be readily available for wear.