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Luxury watches have been around for nearly two centuries. The concept of keeping time on one’s wrist was something revolutionary during the 1800s. Before the wrist-watch, the most common time-keeping instrument was a pocket watch. Pocket watches eventually became obsolete as the wrist watch was far more convenient and harder to misplace. Some of the first luxury watch brands to emerge during the 1800s include Tag Heuer, Omega and Audemars Piguet. The term luxury watch refers to the quality with which the timepiece is hand crafted and the rare materials that are used in the manufacturing phase. By these standards, all watches during the 19^th century were “luxury” time pieces.

With the lack of mass production and industrialization there were no cheap knock off watches to purchase. All time-keeping instruments were made by skilled watch makers, who made a life out of crafting small pieces of metal into time-keeping art. Today, the facility with which lower grade quartz watches can be mass produced has given a greater sense of distinction to watches that are made in the traditional manner.

All watches were originally mechanical. The employment of battery and quartz watches did not occur until the 20^th century. Mechanical watches function by winding the crown of the watch, which in turn makes the movement unwind and keep time. The development of automatic watches was a great advancement. Automatic watches function brilliantly by having a pendulum inside the movement. The pendulum moves as your wrist does. When it moves it constantly winds itself, a feature that provides self-efficiency. Watches that are made in this manner are more practical, of better quality, more precise and much classier.

Luxury watches today are made the same way they were originally hand crafted more than 200 years ago. Switzerland is the country of origin for most high-end watch manufacturers. The art of watch making finds its roots in this country as well.

Most mass produced wrist-watches are such low-grade quality that they generally don’t last more than a year. Besides being low in quality, they do not keep time with precision. They will most likely lose 1-2 minutes a month, or up to 5 minutes if the watch is exceptionally defective. Besides all these inconveniences, batteries for cheap watches have to be changed at least once a year. Given all these characteristics, it is far more intelligent to purchase a quality time-piece that will last longer, yield a return if purchased as an investment and look like a piece of art on your hand.

Watch Tags: Audemars Piguet, Expensive Watches, Luxury Watches, Omega, TAG Heuer

 Italian design and classical aesthetics have always been an inherent part of the Bvlgari Watch Company’s interpretation of beauty. The designer brand’s watches feature smooth chic lines that challenge visual conformity and are reminiscing of Italian renaissance. The luxury watch manufacturer employs the same creativity and passion when manufacturing designer timepieces as it does in its perfumes, jewelry, scarves and fashion accessories.

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  BVLGARI BVLGARI Timepiece

  1) The flagship Bvlgari timepiece that launched Bvlgari’s debut in the international watch industry was the “Bvlgari Bvlgari.” This distinctively elegant timepiece was introduced in 1980 and quickly became an overnight international success. The designer timepiece boldly carries the BVLGRI logo engraved on the circumference of its perfectly cylindrical bezel. The watch is available with a quartz chronograph function that boasts 24 jewels.

 

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  Bvlgari Grande Complication

  2) The Bvlgari Grande Complication AA48PLTBSK/N is an outstanding work of talented craftsmanship and horologic engineering. The grand scale complexity of this timepiece’s movement features a day, date and leap year perpetual self-winding calendar. The tourbillion movement also has a 24 hour GMT function. The entire dial is transparent, which allows users to witness every single one of the tourbillion’s 26,600 vibrations per hour.

 

 

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  Grande Complication

  3) Bvlgari Grande Complication BB40C6PLTB has an impressive movement that counteracts the forces of gravity which hinder a luxury watch’s precision. The movement is designed to transfer energy to different parts of its components to compensate for gravitational forces exerted on it. By dissipating the gravitational stress throughout different parts of its components, the movement ensures longer life and greater precision.

 

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  Bvlgari Reserve De Marche

  4) The Bvlgari Masterpiece Reserve De Marche has an incredible 72 hour powers reserve in its caliber BVL131 movement. The masculinity and eloquent design of the watch is empowering. A convenient power reserve marker on the dial allows users to gauge the amount of energy stored in the movement. The extra thin profile of this precision time-keeping instrument is quite incredible considering the movement’s massiv power reserve and double barrel components.

  Bvlgari can truly be considered one of the most important players in the international luxury watch industry. The advancements this Swiss Manufacturer has given the world of fashion and horology have continuously pushed the limits of manufacturing, quality, aesthetic and precision standards.

Watch Tags: Bvlgari, designer watches

One of the greatest feats in horology is achieving precision with the work of the hand, and encasing it in beauty with the imagination of the mind. Alain Silberstein timepieces capture every single aspect of watch making tradition with one very distinctive difference. Their beauty does not lie in the magnificence of their movements, but rather in the avant-garde vision of their design. Alain Silberstein is a French interior architect and designer by profession, who in the late 1980′s joined the reluctance of Swiss watch manufacturers unwilling to let the art of mechanical watches become extinct.

The quartz craze in the 80′s threatened the survival of watch making as an art, and is considered “The Dark Age” of watch manufacturing by horologists.  More than 2 decades later, Alain Silberstein watches are considered delicate works of modern art that resemble the works of Picasso or Britto.

The neo-pop theme is clearly evident in the timepieces’ vibrant colors which contrast each other in deep tones. Although the watches are modernly designed to excite onlooker’s sight, they are also crafted with traditional watch-making precision and dedication. Alain Silberstein and his 15 professional watchmakers produce a limited collection of 1,000 timepieces per year. The irony lies in that Silberstein was one of the most outspoken critics of the industry’s adaptation to quartz in the 80′s, due to a sense of respect and value for the traditional human elements that were involved in mechanical watch making. Silberstein’s timepieces however, are considered progressive, ultra contemporary watches that negate the traditional watch designer’s aesthetical vision.

Watch Tags: Luxury Watches, Watches

Materials like leather and platinum used to be the order of the day when it came to luxury watches. Nothing else could satisfy the stratospheric standards of sumptuousness. But now that even the standards of luxury are beginning to change as well, there’s a new player in the luxe materials market – rubber.

Rubber-strapped watches were once limited to just the lower end of the watch spectrum, to just the cheap, disposable or toy watches. Nowadays, though, even the highest-end watch brands feature rubber straps, and diamonds can be on the same watch as PVD.

Ready for Anything

With its primary goal of being the toughest watch you’ve ever seen, it’s pretty understandable for the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Survivor to have molded rubber instead of the typical leather strap or metal bracelet. After all, you’d be less discouraged to get rough with your watch if the strap were made of something like rubber.

The durable material also fits in well with the rest of the décor on the Survivor. Molded black vulcanized rubber goes well with the brushed and textured black case and bezel of the watch. Overall, the material adds to the unmistakable impression of a very tough watch indeed.

A Tribute in Rubber

Few would question the use of a rubber strap with the Piaget Polo FortyFive, especially since rubber straps are commonly used with sports watches anyways. What’s not regular is rubber being used by a luxury watchmaker like Piaget, especially on a commemorative model like the FortyFive.

The matte rubber is an interesting contrast to the shine of the steel case on the FortyFive. It suggests a typical high-end watch with a not-so-typical sporty side to it – definitely a step in a new direction for Piaget. Aside from that rubber touch, the FortyFive is everything you’d expect a premium watch to be.

The New Luxe

Believe it or not, the diamond-abundant Perrelet Diamond Flower features numerous diamonds set into a metal case – all alongside a 100% rubber strap. It’s at the forefront of this whole movement of putting together old world luxury materials with new, underestimated elements under a well-known brand.

The Diamond Flower is an elegant mix of form and function. While it sports a breathtaking flower motif on the dial and a timeless design, a double rotor mechanism ticks away behind all the beauty.

It seems likely that rubber straps will continue to be a fixture in the high-value world of premium watches. It takes some elements from the low end, many elements from the upper end and puts them together in a previously unexplored middle ground.

Watch Tags: luxury, watch

Watch Tags: casio g-shock, casio watches

It’s not really very shocking to say that watch designers are very fanciful people. After all, they play with everything from rubber to some of the rarest gems on the planet to create pretty, glittery merchandise. But there seems to be a recent movement where designers have gone over the moon – literally.

Once regarded as mere novelties to break up the monotony of a collection, moon watches have become increasingly common on the market. And it’s not just petty moon etchings, either. Designers are becoming more and more imaginative with the moon motif, and these three luxury watches show just how much.

The Ladies’ Luna

Bulgari is more recognized for its jewelry, but its watches can almost be considered jewelry as well. Case in point: the Bulgari-Bulgari Moonphase watch, with enough diamonds for a regular jewelry set. With a cluster of 48 diamonds forming a small crescent moon on its mother of pearl dial, this is heavenly body is light years away from ‘cheap.’

Aside from the diamond-studded design, the name comes from the uncommon complication that Bulgari installed in the Moonphase – an indicator for the phases of the moon. You’d probably have the time for moon watching if you can afford this kind of timepiece.

Some Lunar History

Back in the 60′s, the moon was still part of the endless outer space, that great frontier. Now that Omega is celebrating the 40^th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing – and the first time Omega watches prominently featured in space – the company saw it fit to release an updated Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch.

This more modern version of the old Moonwatch pays homage to the original watches worn by the crew of Apollo 11, but gives it some of those commemorative touches. That small token at 9 o’clock instead of a subdial, for example, clues you in that this is a limited edition timepiece (only 7,969 were made).

Loving the Lunacy

Perhaps the biggest haul from this trend comes from the not-so-mainstream Romaine Jerome brand with its Moon Dust DNA collection. The collection’s three watches – the Dark Side of the Moon Tourbillon, the Moon Rider Tourbillon and the Moon Cross Rider Tourbillon – were never part of the original trip, but they look vintage enough to play the part.

What’s cool about the Moon Dust DNA collection is that each watch contains bits and pieces of the Soyuz and Apollo 11 crafts, as well as actual moon dust. You might not be able to get yourself to the moon with $20,000, but this is pretty darn close.

Watch Tags: Luxury Watches

If not for the engineering and technical expertise behind each piece, the allure of designer watches usually comes from the luxury that they represent. The luxe factor accounts for many things – the stratospheric price tags, the elite clientele and the premium materials that go into each watch. The Omega Aqua Terra collection – the newest one from the prestigious company – has not just Omega’s signature expertise but also oodles of luxe.

Face value isn’t exactly a shallow factor with this collection of watches. Top Wesselton diamonds make up each of the hour markers for a total of almost 0.2 karats of precious rock. Another 44 diamonds – almost 0.8 karats of rock – are installed in the bezel. And instead of the teak concept used for the Aqua Terra collection, the Aqua Terra Jewelry line has vertically set diamonds to highlight the face.

Luxury goes from inside out in the Aqua Terra Luxury Watch line. The 30mm case of each watch is made from 18-karat white gold, matched by the 18-karat white gold bracelets. Each of the watches in the collection is an intimidating piece once it weighs in – there’s a total of about 18 karats’ worth of Top Wesselton diamonds in each timepiece. The highest end of the line is a watch that has over 1,400 Top Wesselton diamonds weighing over 17.5 karats.

Another one of the models in the collection has a case in white gold that’s set all throughout with over three dozen diamond baguettes totaling 1.32 karats. 1,560 more diamonds account for another 14 karats of weight. The third and last model in this collection has 726 diamonds for a total weight of over 7 karats.

If the price tag is too high for you, the Aqua Terra collection has models available with a design – and a price tag – that’s a little less luxurious. Those models will have straps made of less premium materials. They will, for example, have stainless steel bracelets and cases instead of the classic gold. Even if you won’t be wearing 18 karats on your wrist, you can rest assured that you’re still getting the same quality that the Omega name represents.

Watch Tags: designer watches, Luxury Watches, omega watches

Makers of premium watches really know how to pay their dues to their traditions. And what better way to pay homage to classic watch designs than to release new watches based on the old ones? Here are three commemorative timepieces that were adapted from classic designs, only more modern, advanced and expensive.

A Twenties Timepiece

The first of the three watches is a design straight out of the Roaring Twenties: the Vacheron Constantin Historiques American 1921. It hearkens back to a time when cars were still a fairly new invention, and the ‘modern’ aesthetic was very different from the one we have today.

It owes its distinctive cushion shape – the square with its sides bulging slightly outward – and its unusual orientation to its time context. This design was one of the first to be called a ‘driver’s watch,’ a timepiece designed specifically for automobile drivers. Tilting the whole thing to 1 o’clock allowed drivers to tell time with both hands on the wheel.

Faithful to Tradition

The commemorative collection from prestigious Audemars Piguet is, unsurprisingly, named Tradition. This same collection got quite a few updates at SIHH 2009, most notably the Tradition Perpetual Calendar Minute Repeater.

Like the Vacheron Constantin tribute, this Audemars Piguet watch commemorates one of their earlier designs – a pocket watch with the same cushion shape from 1923. Cushion contours were apparently a big thing back in the 1920′s, and big names like AP seem to be making it just as big a trend almost a century later.

A Vintage Haul

Even high-end watch companies usually limit their commemorative releases to just one or two models. Schaffhausen, Switzerland-based International Watch Company, more popularly IWC, releases not just one or two but six updates to some of their oldest and most timeless designs. Going in chronological order, they revived

• The Special Pilot’s Watch, a design first released in 1936;
• The Portuguese, whose first incarnation debuted in 1939;
• The Ingenieur, a watch dating all the way back to 1955;
• The Aquatimer, a popular creation from 1967;
• The Da Vinci, first released in 1969; and
• The Portofino, an iconic design from 1984

It’s no wonder that IWC should revive those six designs in particular. They were some of the company’s most popular models, and each one helped cement IWC’s reputation as a purveyor of high-end timepieces.

Even if 2009 marks some of the most modern advances in timekeeping technology, it’s also a great year for combining horology and history.

Watch Tags: Audemars Piguet, watch

Recession? What recession? The promise of 2009 as a financially challenging year didn’t daunt premium watch brand Ulysse Nardin from releasing the Maxi Marine Diver Titanium. This newest addition to the Maxi Marine Diver collection looks like it’s the most luxurious one of the lot. Just looking at it makes you feel like you’re in the middle of a stock market boom.

That Luxe Appeal

From the first time you look at it, the Maxi Marine Diver Titanium draws you in with its alluring combination of enigmatic black and pink gold reminiscent of old world luxury. Standing out against both is the brilliant platinum that makes up much of the watch’s case, which is a shade larger than other watches from the same collection.

As if the typical price range from Ulysse Nardin wasn’t enough, many elements in this watch’s design contribute towards what’s sure to be an astronomical price tag. The 45-mm diameter case is crafted primarily from polished titanium of the highest grade. Its bezel is made of 18K rose gold with guilloched black material that matches the pattern on the dial. The indices on the dial are made of the same precious metal.

Power Hidden in The Depths

Don’t be fooled by all the luxurious touches on the Maxi Marine Diver Titanium. The rubber strap (which has pink gold accents too) clues you in that the watch is made of tough – albeit glittery – stuff.

Under that wave-patterned black dial beats a self-winding UN-26 caliber heart, each one accredited as a chronometer by the Controle Officiel Suisse de Chronometres (COSC) itself. On the dial, it features subdials for small seconds, an easily adjustable date display and an indicator for its 42-hour power reserve. And although it’s unlikely that you’ll ever try it on such a valuable watch (remember, each one is individually numbered), it’s water-resistant to a 200m depth.

Expect to be drool over this watch at the upcoming BASELWORLD 2009, where Ulysse Nardin is expected to officially launch it. But considering that it’s going to be more expensive than the next best thing (the Maxi Marine Diver Chronograph at over $30,000), it might be better to wait for a sale event than the actual release.

Watch Tags: Luxury Watches

You’ve probably noticed by now that a lot of contemporary luxury watches are getting more and more, well, everything. One model will look edgier or more garish than the next, while another will claim to have the most number of complications yet.

But there are those times when all you want is a simple and straightforward watch that will tell you the time, period. While the heyday of those watches is long gone, some haute horlogerie houses still make models of a similar aesthetic. Here are three watches that definitely go for that subtle and understated message you’d want from time to time.

The fact that it’s a manual-winding watch only adds to the old-world allure of the Vacheron Constantin Patrimony Traditionelle 38mm watch. A couple of years after the first release of the Patrimony line, top horology house Vacheron Constantin adds – update would be the wrong word – to the collection with this manual mechanism piece.

Its design is beautiful in its sheer simplicity. A plain vanilla round rose gold case holds a slightly off white dial with baton indices and just a single no-numeral subdial at 6 o’clock. It’s symmetrical, straightforward and positively stunning.

Of a similar streak is the Piaget Altiplano collection, a series of watches that features a simple, slim white gold case and a plain dial with no markings other than the indices and the brand at 12 o’clock. Long, thin batons are used for the hour indices, and the hands are uncomplicated needle-like affairs. Measuring just 2.1mm thick, the Altiplano watches are very unobtrusive and can go with any outfit, event or occasion.

Yet even with its impossibly thin frame, each one of the Altiplano watches is equipped with a top-of-the-line Calibre 430P, created by Piaget’s team of master watchmakers. Behind the simplicity lies power and engineering born from over a century of haute horlogerie.

Timepieces like the ones in the Patrimony and the Altiplano collections are not common anymore, especially nowadays where there’s some one-upmanship between the houses in terms of features, complications and design. However, it’s still refreshing to know that, should you ever need this kind of simplicity, some of the best names are still willing to deliver.

Watch Tags: designer watches, Luxury Watches, Piaget, Vacheron