Walk No. 8 Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso's 85th Anniversary Tribute (1/5/2016)

Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH 2016) watch collection previews are hitting the industry blogs.  Among these is the celebration coverage for Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso's 85th Anniversary models.  Hodinkee, A Blog to Watch and Watch Time are among the digital harbingers previewing the Reverso offerings.

Jaeger-LeCoultre's original Art Deco-inspired Reverso debuted in 1931, the same year Manhattan's Empire State Building, an Art Deco icon became the world's tallest building.

Jaeger-LeCoultre will launch three anniversary-related collections at SIHH, the Reverso Classic, the Reverso Tribute and the new Reverso One. SIHH begins on January 18, so consider that the official showcase date for the trio's debut.

(Note: I wrote about the original Reverso in my Wrist Watch Redux post on December 30, 2014.)


     

Walk No. 7 Brew Watch Company (1/4/2016)

One of my daily pleasures is drinking coffee.  My coffee breaks are special times when I can relax by myself or with company. So, I was thrilled to discover Brew Watch Company, a  2015 Kickstarter-funded initiative created by Jonathan Ferrer in New York City.  

Its current collection is intimate in size, only three models:  Silver Brew, Rose Gold Brew, and Black Brew.  Each has a dial case inspired by industrial espresso machines with "warm contrasting colors and a variety of special effects." Each face has 7 display elements: hour, minute, and second hands; hour, minute, and second counters; and a date window. I'm looking forward to Brew's Espresso pour Elle Collection. 
 

Walk No. 6 Trendng for 2016: Ethically Sourced Gold (1/3/2016)

Among JCK News' 12 Jewelry Trends for 2016, Jennifer Heebner highlights the increasing choice of using of ethically sourced materials including gold and gemstones by industry designers and businesses.  Noted Swiss jewelry/watchmaker Chopard is a leader in using fairmined gold, i.e. gold coming from an artisanal mine that operates according to recognized safe practices and leaves minimal environmental impact. In 2013, Chopard launched an initiative, called The Journey to Sustainable Luxury. At Baselworld 2014, it introduced the L.U.C. Tourbillon QF Fairmined, the world's first watch to be encased in fairmined gold. My high praise for certified supply-chain ethical sustainability.

(Note: I wrote about fairmined gold in my July 2015 post on Isabel Marant.)

January 2016 Bench #1 -- Amy K. Glasmeier

Amazing in its research and historical stretch, Amy K. Glasmeier gives us Manufacturing Time: Global Competition in the Watch Industry, 1795-2000,
(Guilford Press, New York, 2000).  I first learned of this title in Peter Oakley's bibliography for his article, "Ticking Boxes: (Re)Constructing the Wristwatch as a Luxury Object" in the journal Luxury: History, Culture, Consumption, Volume 2, Issue 1, May 2015. 

Walk No. 5 Indulge in the Bulge: Tonneau Watch Cases (1/2/2016)

The holidays are ending. The season of dieting and calorie counting has begun. But one bulging shape is timeless.  It's the Tonneau watch case. In French, tonneau means  a "cask" of varying liquid capacities often associated with the aging of wine. As a watch case design, head-on it resembles a barrel -- rectangular with rounded sides. These sides are sometimes squat; sometime curvaceous. The shape allows for a variety of dial openings including round, elongated, and of course one that follows the same contours of the outer case.   Cartier introduced the design in 1906 and it is its second oldest model after the Santos Dumont in 1904. Six years later, the first Vacheron Constantin Tonneau appeared. 

Walk No. 4 Nathan G. Horwitt, Designer of the Museum Watch Dial (1/1/2016)

Nathan George Horwitt, industrial designer (1898-1990) received United States Patent and Trademark Office Design Patent No. D183 488 on September 9, 1958 for what we now know as the Movado Museum Watch. Incorporating a Bauhaus sensibility of functional purity and design simplicity, the dial design  demonstrated that an almost emptiness of a space without discernible elements except for a dot and watch hands could be justifiably patented.  The Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Cooper-Hewitt Design Archive in New York and the Museum of Modern Art, both have archival material relating to Horwitt and his career. 

Walk No. 3 Apple Watch Panel: from "Love to Like" (12/27/2015)

At the six-month survey mark, a panel of Apple Watch users indicate that their perception of the  watch has gone from "love to like" according to MBLM, a brand research and strategy company that is conducting a year-long ethnographic study of such users. Going from “love to like,” users sampled viewed the product as "a non-essential device."  Respondents' complaints included the watch's need to be tethered to the iPhone.  They observed that "many watch features are simply easier to access on the iPhone." My take: Muji prevails! (Logan Sachon, December 22, 2015 reported in JCKnews, December 26, 2015.)