Jacob the Jeweler, king of bling, got sued by Cartier. In short, Jacob the Jeweler bought Cartier watches without ice (diamonds) and iced them all by himself. Cartier doesn’t like it when people modify their watches ofcourse, especially not when only the gold versions of their watches are originally studded with diamonds. Icing the stainless steel versions, make the watch a lot cheaper ofcourse. According to Cartier, these watches “cannot properly be called ‘Cartier’ watches”.

You can read the full story here.

Actually, I really think that no one will care about this except Cartier. Cartier is sooooo 1988.

Rapper Wyclef Jean with his iced-out watch. Do these guys have no taste at all?

Source: Europastar

You can’t be early enough for these things, the world leading show for watches! Baselworld 2005! It will be held from the 31st of march till the 7th of april 2005.

Be sure to have your ticket and hotelreservations on time, because it is going to get crowded in Switzerland.

Click here for an overview of all Baselworld 2004 news.

Just for your information:

Some people complained about the speed of this site. Loadingtime was probably slowed down by the number of posts on the frontpage (which was 30, and now 15). I hope it will work a bit faster now. If you need older posts, please use the ‘month’-archives on the right to see all posts of one certain month, or use the searchfunction (which works great btw).

Feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment if you think it is still slow or if you have any other suggestions/comments etc.

Regards,
Robert-Jan

After owning a Panerai for several months now, and browsing (and sometimes posting) on the Panerai forums at Paneristi.com, ViaPaneristi.com and TimeZone.com, I have to admit I have become quite a Panerai-fan.

One of the reasons why I like this brand so much, besides the large available variety on straps and the watchbrand’s history, is that the company is very involved with the on-line Panerai community. They seem to listen and learn from their customers who are willing to share their love or hate for the brand at those forums and clubs (Club Panerai and the annual Paneristi meetings). Mr. Bonati, CEO of Panerai is even one of the few CEO’s of watchcompanies who is participating on fora every once in a while. Here is an example. Besides this he was also attending the Paneristi meeting in Frankfurt on the 6th of november.

Ofcourse, this can be held for clever marketing to fill their pockets anyway, but I couldn’t care less as long as they listen to the wishes of their customers :-). I don’t see much other brands doing the same thing and the companies who are showing similair activities, are often much smaller in size (think Doxa for example).

The other side of the coin is that brands are easily seduced to introduce too many models..

If I ever would get myself another IWC (I had a caliber 89 IWC for a short time) I will buy an Ingenieur! Larry Seiden, Marco Schönenberger and David Ter Molen wrote a very nice article on this great timepiece by IWC. You can find it here.

I have a weakness for luxery sportswatches like the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Jumbo, so I would definately get myself the IWC Ingenieur SL ‘Jumbo’ like the one below, ref.1831. If I only had the money…..

That’s the phrase that comes to mind when someone mentions the Speedmaster Club.

Since I bought my first vintage Speedmaster Pro pre-Moon in Gerard’s shop, and got all enthusiastic about these watches, we decided to start the Speedmaster Club for all other enthusiasts of these watches. After a long period (2 years?) of complete silence around it, we decided to pick it up again. It is quite difficult to set-up a club or community and offer them something they can’t already get via the web (think about all Speedmaster information which is available on the web already, like Chronocentric, Chuck Maddox’s pages, Jean-Michel’s site and my own temporarily offline Omega-Addict site). Anyway, Gerard and I took the project out of the freezer and will try to come up with something usefull and worth becoming a member for. We already have a lot of registered people (we guarantuee you that your personal data will be safe and stay away from unwanted mailinglists/spam and a-like, we hate it as much as you do) and will notify them by e-mail and on the several watchforums and sites.

Several ideas are in consideration at the moment, and we also have plans to talk with Omega about this for further ‘possibilities’. If you have any suggestions, opinions, comments or questions about this project, please let us know by e-mail or leave a comment on this page (click right below on ‘Comments’).

Kucimo wrote me an e-mail about two weeks ago, stating that I shouldn’t forget about Grand Seiko, after my negative rant on collecting Seiko or other Japanese watches.

On the one hand I think he is absolutely right. Look at this picture below, which Kucimo attached to his e-mail, this looks perfect. You can see that Seiko put a lot of work in this to reach perfection in a watch. Everything on this watch ‘fits’ and every detail is probably discussed for hours at the Seiko R&D meetings. On the other hand, who is going to pay 5.000 USD for a Seiko. The money a Grand Seiko costs, easily buy you a great Swiss watch as well. It is like having a lot of money and spending it on a Honda (in the US Accura I think) NSX sportscar instead of a Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Coupe or other similair priced European crafted sportscar. Okay, so the Grand Seiko isn’t just any Seiko, as the NSX isn’t just any Honda. But I am sure you’ll catch my drift. It is all ‘between the ears’, I know

Swatch Paparazzi - it’s not only what you know, it’s when you know it…

With four new multi-colored styles, Paparazzi offers wearers exclusive entertainment information and the opportunity to meet celebrities.
In addition, Paparazzi owners can access the MSN Direct service to receive personalized information ? including news, sports, weather, horoscopes, stock quotes and more. The traditional Swatch plastic case comes in a new chunky design and an X-large size. Five function buttons recessed into the case allow easy navigation.

Click here to find out more.

Editted by RJ at 18:15 GMT+1. Check the Comments for a link to a personal review by WatchReport.com

Source: Europastar

The COMCO Suisse (Commission of Competition) has given its verdict in the litigation that opposed companies specializing in the assembling, enhancement and finishing of ETA’s movement kits, and the Swatch Group that wanted to stop delivering un-assembled parts. Noting that the Swatch Group held a ‘dominating position’ in this sector, the COMCO ordered ETA to continue its deliveries until 2010, leaving 6 years to the various companies to develop new supply sources for kits and basic mechanical movements. This decision, which seems to suit both parties, has delighted companies such as Sellita and Jaquet SA, who alone assemble several million movements a year and supply some 150 watchmaking companies, most of which are prestigious names within the industry. The diversity of the offer is therefore assured for the years to come. As to the supply sources for movements, logically, they must multiply between now and the fatal date of 2010.

…it is not what I would put on my licenseplate (in the Netherlands we don’t even have an option to customize it anyway) but it does show which watches you like best!

Click here for some more Ferrari/Panerai pictures.

Source: Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry

“Karl-Friedrich Scheufele was all smiles on 10 November this year at the Watch of the Year awards ceremony, held in the lounges of the Lausanne Palace. And he had every reason to be, since Chopard’s LUC 4R Quattro Régulateur model produced by his Fleurier based manufactory, had just been voted Watch of the Year 2004 by the panel of judges of the magazines Montres Passion and Uhrenwelt, chaired by Philippe Dufour. It came out on top ahead of the Gondolo Calendario from Patek Philippe and the Aquatimer Split Minute Chronograph from IWC. With this honour, the Genevan company has become a member of the very elite circle of manufacturers that have won this prize twice, with Piaget (1998 and 2000) and Cartier (1999 and 2003). The first success for Chopard came in 1997 for another of its products made in Le Val-de-Travers workshops: the first LUC model.” Click here for the full story

Watch of the year 2004, Chopard’s LUC 4R Quattro Régulateur

Source: Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry

“Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix
Crowning Achievement For F.-P. Journe

First a short introduction; besides my brick and mortar watch specialty shop in The Hague, Netherlands, (Horloge Platform Nederland), I run a few watch related web sites (f.i. www.horloge.com and www.watch-store.com). Through these web sites I receive quite some watch related email as well of course. Here’s an example found in in my email today…

“Ik heb een redelijk goed imitaite horloge van het merk Rolex, gekocht in Japan; dit is een automaat. Nu loopt het horloge niet meer en mijn vraag is of dan de automaat echt kapot is en of dit een dure reparatie zou kunnen zijn? Jeffrey Veenma” - Original Dutch text

“I own a quite good replica of a Rolex, bought in Japan; it’s an automatic. Now it doesn’t run anymore and my question is if the automatic construction really broke down, and if this could be an expensive repair? Jeffrey Veenma” - Translated in English

I really don’t know what to answer the guy. If someone has an idea, please file under [comments] and I will send it through to him.

Gerard

Today I checked my mail-account which is attached to another watchsite I own (and which is currently under construction), www.omega-addict.com. I found these two messages to be the most interesting ones

“hi , my name is xxxxxx.
i am looking for a omega watch around $500-600.
please some information to me.
thanks”

I only could answer ‘go vintage, or safe up some more’.

And this one was in my mailbox as well:

“Dear Sir,
Can you supply me??
I want to buy :
# Bulgari CH35BSSDAUTO watches for 3 units.
Please calculate total cost including shipping cost use UPS Express to Singapore.
I`ll be waiting good news from you.
Payment use my credit card details.
Let me know..
Best Regards”

Nice work, ordering Bulgari watches on a dedicated Omega fansite with nothing for sale at all. I guess this is just another scam.

Oh yeah, I get through the day!

Jean-Marie emailed me the following link : http://www.chronomania.net

My best French tells me that this is a populair watchportal in French for the French

Gert sent me this link. Although Sinn is designed for functional purposes most of the time, this one seems to be quite ‘hip’ for current standards.

For 3650 euro you can buy this Sinn Audi-special.

My fellow watch blogger Watchreport.com came up with this new Tissot watch, the ‘Navigator 3000′. Click here for the article.

I used to run chronoswissforum.com before I ended up getting e-mails from Chronoswiss that they would take some ’steps’ if I didn’t change the content and the use of ‘colors’ on the forum. That was when the fun for the brand ended for me (I still have the Chronoswiss Régulateur in my collection). Anyway, TimeZone has a Chronoswiss Forum as well since then and once in a while I hop over to look at some nice pictures. A visitor or TimeZone, GScott, just bought a new Chronoswiss Lunar and took some marvelous pictures.

This one might be worth reconsidering another purchase from Chronoswiss for me I love to have a moonphase watch in the future.

I got this in my mailbox last evening:

“I was looking for a nice and inexpensive watch and I come upon a watch company
called Louis Bolle. I look at their web site http://www.louisbolle.com and they
have many nice watches. I looked for more infomation but I couldn’t find any. I
search on Ebay and “My God they were every where. The watch was being auction of
for as low as $175. The retail price(according to the web site) was over $3000.
What is going on? Do you know why this watch company are letting people selling
their watches for so cheap? If you have any information or answer please let me
know. My e-mail address is xxxxx@xxxxxx.com

Thanks,
L”

The website of Louis Bolle is nice indeed, but when you give it a closer look…. what brand uses pricing on the company website? Next, the watches have very familair looks. Omega DeVille Co-Axial casing and the brickstone bracelet are copied for some models, I also saw a model which looked familair with the Seiko Kinetic models (with the integrated bracelet). Next, like the sender of the e-mail did, I visit eBay and was amazed by the number of Louis Bolle auctions. Several different sellers, but all with names like ‘watchdiscounters’ and ‘uniquejeweler’ etc. Probably a good scam to make some money out of poor people who don’t know at all about watches…. it is nice to buy a 200 USD watch and see on the company’s website that the retail price is 4495 USD. However, for 4495 USD you can probably order 100 of these watches in China. Including your name printed on the dial.

Jean-Marie gave me the link to this site, MK’s Watch Gallery!

This guy has a stunning collection of Patek Philippe watches, A. Lange & Soehne, Vacheron et Constantin, Blancpain, Roger Dubuis and so on. It is also great that a watchcollector with a high-end collection can appreciate an Omega Seamaster Pro, it is on the ‘Others’ page on his website.

Update 20/12/2004: Today, I read this mail at Timezone and Watchrap;

“I want to inform all the Time Zone community that our dear friend Mark R. Kolitz passed away today December 18, 2004 in Plano Texas. He was a superb collector of watches, and in particular Patek Philippe watches. His knowledge of the history of the company was unequaled. Mark posted many outstanding pictures of his beloved collection. His web-site is a great example of the time he took in photographing his collection. Mark was a regular contributor to the PP Time Zone form and several others. I for one talked by telephone to him almost every day, till his brain cancer became so overwhelming that his motor functions would not allow him to carry on a conversation. The last time I saw Mark was at dinner here in Miami in early October. He had a great desire to fight the disease and told me so. Mark leaves behind his wonderful wife and two beautiful daughters. Good by for now my dear friend.

With Great Sadness,

H. Victor Katz”