A spectacular total solar eclipse darkens the day

A rare total solar eclipsed wowed the the world today. The moon slid in between the sun and the earth, blocking the sun's rays and basking the earth in an eerie dim light. The spectacular occurrence shadowed the earth from Canada, through Greenland and Siberia finally ending in China, as it prepares for the momentous Olympic games. If you were not able to make it outside and experience the rare wonder; you would have seen it on your Astolabium Luxury Watch.

Within this magnificent watch is crafted an Astrolobe: The oldest instrument for predicting and measuring the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets and stars and thus able to predict and display the solar eclipse of today. Although the Astolobe has been around since the 8th century, this watch is the first pocket astrolabe.

The extraordinary masterpiece is crafted by Christiaan van Der Klaaw, a member of the "Horlogeres des Créateurs Indépendants" and has an intense fascination for astronomy. All his watches are crafted to perfection with unique designs and astronomical complications.


I would have loved to see the watch today, a rare event both on the watch and in the sky.

Christiaan Van Der Klaauw crafted other mechanical astronomical marvels such as the "Planetarium 2000" - The smallest planetarium in the world displaying the Date and month as well as the revolutions of the planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn on the left and the Venus .

One of the newer additions to Christiaan Van Der Klaauw collection is the Venus 2006. Introduced in Basel in that year, this watch is genius. It displays the circulation of the earth and Venus around the Sun and the Moon around the earth.

Omega is preparing for the Olympic Games Beijing 2008.

Just 7 days to go until the Olympic Games in Beijing are off to a running start. With a mind-blowing 205 nations competing in 28 sports, this year's games will be non-stop nail-biting, record breaking excitement. From the first pulsating second of the first game, OMEGA will be there, providing the official timekeeping and data-handling for the Olympic games. Omega will maintain a prolific presence, time-keeping and data- handling for 28 different sports at 37 venues. Omega will provide 450 on-site professionals, an incredible 420 tons of cutting edge equipment including 70 public scoreboards, 105 miles of cables and optical fibre, 65 TV generators and state-of-the-art time-keeping and data-handling technology. Omega's equipment is specifically adapted to the requirements of each sports.

Omega is continuing its long standing tradition of time-keeping at the Olympic Games. Since the Olympic games in Los Angeles 1932 where Omega kept time using its chronographs and stop-watches developed by its subsidiary Lemania.

Two commemorate the Olympic games in Beijing, Omega is launching two of the finest collections: the timeless and the Special Collections. The timeless Collection contains a precision chronograph which is reminiscent of the chronograph used in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic games. 6 of the models in this collection have Arabic numbers , the red Omega name and logo, found on earlier models. The collection maintains its incredible feature found in earlier models" five interlocking Olympic rings in the blue, yellow, black, green and red mounted on the counterweights of the central chronograph second hand. This collection of watches is a icon of exceptional innovation and craftsmanship to provide decades of precision instruments for the Olympic Games.

Only a couple more days and the games will begin. Rest assured, Omega will be there, monitoring fractions of a second.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN

Citizen's earthquake warning concept watch.

Last year,at CEATEC Japan 2007, Citizen of Japan introduced an innovative concept watch. A watch that can predict an earthquake. Since Japan, like Los Angeles, is prone to earthquakes a watch like this was in order. This watch was developed in part with Rhythm watch, pairing an Earthquake early warning (EEW) receiver and an analog watch. The Seismic Watch works like any other watch that you get from the store, it tells the time, but as soon as the earth becomes restless, the watch will receive a signal from the EEW which will cause the hour hand to speed up, based on the seismic intensity estimation. The minute and the second hands will give the countdown time to the earthquakes arrival.
In addition, an alarm will sound and a built in vibrator will cause the watch to vibrate so that no warning goes unnoticed. Currently this watch will only work in Japan, as it relies on announcements from the Japan's Meteorological Office. Citizen claims that this watch can provide the wearer with a more instant notification than that of cellphone alarms or Email alerts. This prototype is only available in a men's model as the components needed for this seismic watch are quite large. Work is being done to shrink these components to fit into a women's watch.
A target release date is in 2010 with a mere $170 price tag.

Tag Heuer picks up the phone

For the first time in the history , Tag Heuer is entering the world of communication. The Meridiist.
Tag Heuer is scheduled to release its Meridiist Cell phone in September. Tag Heuer has applied its excellence in luxury watch craftsmanship to the Meridiist.

The Meridiist is swiss engineered and hand assembled from a staggering 430 components. The Meridiist is crafted from the same corrosion- resistant 316L steel, used in Tag Heuer luxury watches. The cellphone is protected by unscratchable 60.5 sapphire crystal, 28 days of power reserve ,and 7 hours of talk time. Tag Heuer has added a unique characteristic to the Meridiist, a front independent time unit with a QVGA display screen.

The sleek sophisticated design is changing the way the world views the cellphone.

Coming soon: Royal Oak Carbon Concept Tourbillon and Chronograph

Not yet available, a watch of the future. The near future. Audemars Piguet is always on the forfront of utilizing new materials. Now for the first time a concept watch where both the case and the movement is equiped with carbon. This exceptional timepiece ,along with the carbon, forged carbon and amorphous carbon is crafted with ceramics, titanium and eloxed aluminum making the watch both surprisingly light and sturdy. The display is another unique aspect of the watch featuring, a linear chronograph minute counter.

Material outline:

• Forged Carbon ( a carbon fiber that has been placed within a mold, compressed at a high temperature under pressures over 300 kilos per cubic centimeter) is used for the case middle.
• The Royal Oak signature bezel, push pieces and crown are ceramics.
• The ring surrounding the case back is held in place by no less than eight screws and crafted from PVD blackened titanium.
• The materials used to make the movement of the watch is equally unique: The main plate is carbon, the central bridge is green eloxed aluminium. The case back side, the bridges are black PVD in addition to the control and coupling levers. The two power reserve cones, the inserts displayed in the openworked zones at 6 and 12 'o' clock.sport an amorphous carbon coating.
• The tourbillon ,weighing in at just 0.45 grams and comprising of an astounding 70 parts , is exceptionally crafted from two-tone black PVD and steel finish.

Phew, now that was just a partial list of the materials, and I haven't even gotten to the complex rapid-rotation twin-barrel system.

In the end I think that this watches appeal will be in its mind bending aesthetics and it's cutting edge futuristic watch craftsmanship. A piece of the future able to fit in the palm of ones hand or, then again, on ones wrist.

The watch is not here yet, it is still on its journey, so that by the time it does surface, it is perfection.

Romain JeromeTitanic DNA

Romaine Jerome made a huge impact on the watch world when he introduced the Titanic DNA timepieces. Jerome purchased a piece of the hull that was retrieved from the doomed ship, 3840 meters beneath the crashing surface of the sea. Smelting this hull with steel from the Titanic's original shipyard, which is becoming a Titanic commemoration, he integrated the combination into the bezel, case band or dial material of his watches. The oxidized steel is clearly visible. It seems, Romaine Jerome believes that even the small piece of the Titanic's hull ,displayed on each watch, carries the weight of history. The watch is pricey, but no price can be placed on wearing history around ones wrist. This line of watches truly has a past, present and future.

What makes my luxury watch scratch resistant?

A good question! There is nothing more unsightly than a luxury watch with a huge scratch across the face. Luckily most luxury watch crystals (the transparent cover that protects the watch face) are synthetic sapphire. Sapphire is an impressive No. 9 on the Mohs scale of Hardness. This scale is the preferred method used to rank Gemstones and other minerals according to their hardness. The scale is graded from 1 to 10; 1 being the softest (talc) and 10 being the hardest (diamond)
A fingernail is 2.5 and pure gold, silver and aluminum ranges is a mere 2.5; glass is between 5.5 and 6.5 and emerald is 7.5. Both Ruby and Sapphire tie at No. 9.
The rule of the thumb is that any higher digit on the scale can scratch any lower digit. A diamond can scratch just about anything, whereas talc can be scratched by anything.

Sapphire crystal is therefore one of the hardest materials on the earth, and as a result scratch resistant to any material lower on the Mohs scale. Being a whopping 9 means that the crystal is quite protected .However, before you go about testing the watch yourself, remember that since sapphire crystal is so hard, it is also brittle, and can shatter or chip more easily than some of the other watch crystals like Plexiglas or mineral glass. In addition some man made materials used to make simulated stone surfaces for furniture and walls comprise of incorporated silicon carbide. This material ranges between 9 and 10. The watch wearer should be careful not to scrape the watch against this type of wall or furniture, as this could result in a scratch of the watch crystal.

Although your watch is scratch resistant , it does not mean that the watch crystal is necessary sapphire crystal. Some watch crystals are coated with a hard substance that makes them scratch resistant.

As with any luxury watch, good maintenace and care is part of the longevity of your watch. So if you looking to buy a:

TAG Heuer - Cartier - Movado - Ebel - Concord - Breitling - Audemars Piguet - Corum - IWC - Longines - Omega - Vacheron Constantin


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