On June 9th, Bell & Ross launched its new limited edition BR01 Airborne (the “skull” watch) at Colette, the Parisian fashion and style boutique. At the store, the BR01 Airborne collection was on display, including two new diamond versions of the watch, shown here:
The BR01 Airborne (limited edition of 500 pieces) was developed in honor of the courageous soldiers who fought during World War II, particularly the paratroopers of the US Airborne divisions. The skull was one of the emblems they wore on their uniforms as a symbol of courage in the face of death.
I think B&R did a very good job with the video as it is portrayed in a tactful and tasteful manner as a “tribute” video should be. While the BR01 Airborne has been criticized by some, and there are others who say that they “don’t get it”, I think that the BR01 Airborne is a very special watch with profound symbolism behind it, and I applaud Bell & Ross for producing it. What do you think?
Kyle Stults is Founder & President of Perpetuelle.com, a new online community for watch owners, collectors & enthusiasts.
OK I would guess that many of you have seen this watch by now (it has received a fair amount of attention on the ‘Net in recent weeks) but for those of you have not, I am pleased to introduce you to the “Snyper One” by Snyper SA. As you can see below the watch itself is aggressively styled, with a “tactical” or “commando” type design, 100m water resistance and housing a Valjoux 7755S. Further, it is available for purchase through the Snyper SA website at a hefty 6′950 CHF. But enough about the watch already – what is more intriguing to me at the moment is the “who” of this young, Geneva-based brand.
Like a real-world sniper who operates under stealth and secrecy, so too has Snyper SA seemingly shrouded itself, seemingly by design, in secrecy. For example, there is no “About Us” section on the company’s website. If one reads the “History” section it does not offer much insight into the “who” of this brand, but it does in a sense beg the curious mind to dig deeper – if only to learn more about the vague references about an adventure which “started summer 2008 on the French Riviera, when the so-called Snypers (they have been calling each other this way for years) decided to build a watch brand that is named after their friendship and offered to the people sharing their vision.”
Who are these so-called Snypers? What do they do? Are they covert operatives, wealthy guys with a lot of spare time on their hands, passionate watch enthusiasts, or all of the above? I admit, I’m curious.
So, just for fun I decided to embark on a little bit of counterintelligence on this “secret society” A la Snyper’s Official Facebook Group, we do learn more, but still not the full story. The Facebook group’s officers are listed as Laurent Reiss (Snyper 8), Jean-Francois Ruchonnet, (Watch Designer, Snyper 2), Snyper (Snyper 9), Joseph Hanein (Snyper 7), and Cameron Pahlavi (Snyper 4). This leaves “Snypers” 1, 3, 5 and 6 yet unaccounted for, at least for those of us “not in the know.” Further browsing reveals that aside from Snyper 2 (JF Ruchonnet), the eight other Snypers are “private investors in multiple sectors all linked by their taste of the international good life and a true passion for watches.”
Hmmm…now of course there are many watch brands today for which the “who” behind the brand is of little consequence or notoriety. And there are other brands for which the “who” is an integral, even essential part of a brand’s success and identity. So again I ask you, who is behind Snyper SA? Your insights are most welcome.
Kyle Stults is Founder & President of Perpetuelle.com, a new online community for watch owners, collectors & enthusiasts.
At Baselworld 2009, Blancpain introduced its new L-evolution series, including the L-evolution Moon Phase, shown below in steel and red gold. Now although I am not the biggest fan of this watch because I think the dial is way too busy and cluttered (you can partially see the other days/months and the roman numerals seem too big), it does have a very impressive movement inside – the Blancpain Calibre 66R9 moon phase movement.
The Calibre 66R9 is an automatic with 8 days of power reserve and full calender/moonphase. Blancpain is particularly proud of this movement because it is entirely developed, produced and assembled in-house by Blancpain’s movement construction engineers and master watchmakers.
Blancpain Calibre 66R9 Automatic movement with 8 days of power reserve and full calender/moonphase
According to Blancpain “Equipped with three barrels, this movement is endowed with an impressive 8-day power reserve. Nonetheless, the most significant efforts have been devoted to the heart of the movement: the balance and spring assembly. In order to optimise the regularity of rate of the oscillating organ, Blancpain has opted for a flat balance-spring – ensuring perfect isochronism – and a titanium balance. While extremely hard to machine, titanium features several decisive advantages: first of all, it is far less sensitive to changes in temperature than traditional alloys, meaning it does not dilate when subjected to heat; secondly, it is far lighter and thus less energy-consuming; and finally, it is antimagnetic”. Also, The date, day, month and moon phases on the Calibre 66R9 can be corrected at any time of day or night – including around midnight – an operation that would normally be liable to damage the mechanism if performed near the date-change time.
Here’s a short video that Blancpain produced to give you a good tour of the new Calibre 66R9 and some of its key features:
If Blancpain would improve the dial design as I mentioned above I think this could make for a great watch with a high-powered manufacture movement.
Kyle Stults is Founder & President of Perpetuelle.com, a new online community for luxury watch owners, collectors & enthusiasts.
At the 2009 Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (“SIHH”), an event similar to Baselworld but with a much smaller group of brands (and primarily those of the Richemont Group), A. Lange & Söhne introduced a new version for its Lange 1 Time Zone collection.
This new variation on the Lange 1 Time Zone features a slate grey dial with a new world time ring that now includes Santiago de Chile, in place of Caracas, Venezuela. Among other reasons, this change of cities was made because Venezuela (in an odd attempt by Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez to achieve “a more fair distribution of the sunrise“) changed its time zone from Atlantic Standard Time (UTC-4) to (UTC-4:30) – which as a result makes the city of Caracas not well compatible with the watch function (also duly noted on Luxist blog).
The Lange 1 Time Zone measures 41.9 mm in diameter, is powered by a manually-wound Lange L031.1 caliber in-house movement with a 72 hour power reserve. The slate color of the dial really is a bit darker than usual, but it seems to highlight nicely the 18K pink gold hands and provides for a nice contrast.
Anyway, here is a nice video from A. Lange which gives a bit of history on the origin of the World time zone system as well as a closer look at the Lange 1 Time Zone – enjoy!
Kyle is Founder & President of Perpetuelle.com, a new online community for luxury watch owners, collectors & enthusiasts.
Not too long ago on this blog I put forth a healthy dose of skepticism (Feb 26: New Detail Emerges on the Concord C1 QuantumGravity) as to the potential of the unconventional and nonconforming Concord C1 QuantumGravity watch. I further questioned the QuantumGravity’s ability to live up to expectations that were being set by an effusive and over-the-top marketing campaign in the lead up to Baselworld 2009.
Now after seeing some live photos and now live video of this watch, I confess that I am even more intrigued by it, but in a good way. The Concord C1 QuantumGravity is growing on me! What can I say – it seems that my dismay was not with the watch itself but its verbose and uneccesarily elaborate “pre-Basel” marketing campaign!
On closer study and reflection, helped by superb videos like this and photos like this – I am of the opinion that the C1 QuantumGravity – and all its craftsmanship, creativity and sheer ingenuity – is worthy of praise. As is the construction of not 1 but 10 of these watches – I’m sure that stringing those cable-stayed bridges is no small feat! On a technical level, the C1 QuantumGravity’s credentials speak for themself – the bi-axial tourbillon, the brilliant (day or night) vertical power reserve, and the cleverly constructed winding crown are just a few noteworthy features of this cutting-edge watch.
I dare say this watch has lived up to its mysterious and unconventional ways, and I hope to one day see it in person whereupon I can render final judgement!
A la 
Picture by Bernard Werk @ 
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