Since a year or so, I am writing on a freelance basis for WATCH Magazine. WATCH Magazine is not only about watches, but also covers travelling, dining, automotive, fashion, music, movies etc. Ergo: a magazine for people with a broad interest for the finer things in life.

Together with 4 other watch experts (e.g. Elizabeth Doerr, Henrik Keizer) we had to list a top 5 of our favourite watches that has been introduced during the SIHH and BaselWorld. Funny thing is, that the Jean Dunand Palace timepiece was mentioned 3 times out of 5 as favourite. If you haven’t read my write-up about this watch, make sure to do so by clicking here. My other 4 favourite 2010 watches are: Tudor 1970 Chrono Heritage, Glycine Airman Base 22, Rebellion T-1000 and the new 39mm Rolex Explorer.

The magazine is in Dutch language, so for those who are able to read it, make sure to get a copy

Give them a visit at: www.watch-magazine.nl

Last year in Basel, during the BaselWorld 2009 show, I was introduced to Jean Dunand by my friend Frank (Monochrome), Suryia Hill (Sparkle) and Ian Skellern. Truth to be told, I had not taken the time to read about Jean Dunand time pieces and boy did I regret that. Luckily, Thierry Oulevay (owner of Jean Dunand Pieces Uniques) had enough patience to explain about Jean Dunand and his exceptional time pieces. The Tourbillon Orbital he showed me was a master piece that was simply stunning. I covered the Tourbillon Orbital Confucius in an article last year (click here) on FW.

Photo courtesy of Jean Dunand. Standing is Thierry Oulevay, sitting behind his desk is Christophe Claret.

This year, Suryia Hill arranged another meeting with Thierry Oulevay of Jean Dunand to show us something even more mind boggling, a time piece called the ‘Palace’. Now, before I am going to write about the Palace, I think it is useful to understand the brand’s name, Jean Dunand. Both founders of Jean Dunand, Christophe Claret and Thierry Oulevay have a fascination for the Art Deco style. Jean Dunand is the name of a Swiss lacquer and even considered to be the greatest lacquer artists of the Art Deco period. Jean Dunand lived from 1877 till 1942 and during this period (1880-1930) he was witness of electricity, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, sky scrapers, the wrist watch and – of course – the construction of the Eiffel Tower. Choosing Jean Dunand’s name for their brand is an homage to one of the greatest craftsman of the Art Deco movement.

Art Deco is characterized by streamlined and geometric shapes. It also utilized modern materials like chrome, stainless steel, and inlaid wood. The Palace time piece makes you relive the period in that very period in which Jean Dunand worked and lived his life. I have never seen a time piece before, reflecting a certain story or era so intensively as The Palace does. Looking at the watch from different angles gives you a glance on the inner workings of this watch (made possible due to sapphire windows), crafted and finished with the highest level of detail possible on such a (relatively) small creation. You will see miniature architectural structures and discover elements from the aforementioned Eiffel Tower, details of gear trains from Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times and even two oval miniature race tracks, based on the legendary Milwaukee Mile racing circuit. I am very convinced that every time the owner of this time piece will admire his Pieces Unique, he will discover something new about it.

Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times

I haven’t seen anything like the Palace before and I consider myself very lucky that I was able to see it at least once in my life. Actually, and I haven’t told anyone before, I really felt the urge to get back to the Jean Dunand booth in Basel to catch another glimpse of this time piece. I hope I am able to share my enthusiasm with you by showing you some of the press photos of the Palace and describing some of the details.

Above you see the dial or better yet, face of the time piece. The sky scraper hands and below, on the left and right side, the two oval racing tracks with the stop sign as indicators. The left track indicating the GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) makes two passes: the disc goes from the top to the bottom of the track using the arrow in the stop sign as an indicator and as soon as it reaches the end, it immediately flies back to the top (retrograde style), the stop sign with the arrow rotates 180 degrees to chart the other scale. The racing track on the right is used as a power reserve indicator, to be able to tell how much is left of the 72 hours in total.

Zooming in on the top of the dial a bit more, we can clearly see how incredibly detailed the finish of this time piece really is. The iron name plate, the chain for the winding mechanism below the 60 minute counter disc of the chronograph and the skyscraper shaped hand… everything has been well-thought trough and engineered with the highest level of detail. What to think about the red lacquer used for the hands and the red colour of the minute indicators match the signs in the racing tracks?

The side of the case, without zooming in on the sapphire ‘windows’ yet, shows you the arches of the Eiffel Tower (as pictured above). The 10 miniature cast iron pillars are clearly visible inside the case and arches. Cool thing is, in my opinion, that you could look at the strap as an extension of these arches. Particularly interesting is the level of detail in the crown, as shown below in the blow-up. The chronograph pusher is integrated in the winding crown.

Finally looking into the sapphire window between the arches you will see the entrance of the Palace, indicated by this minuscule cast-iron name plate. On the left of the name plate, you will discover that Jean Dunand created the stairs in order to enter the Palace properly.

Once inside, you will discover with what great care this movement has been constructed and built by Christopher Claret. The transparent case back of the Palace will enable you to admire the carefully brushed and polished parts of the mechanical movement. The style of finish reflects the era in which Jean Dunand has lived and images of the Modern Times movie comes to mind again.

Although these press photographs are amazing, this Jean Dunand Palace time piece is something you will need to experience yourself to actually believe what you are seeing and to look further than the price tag of 410.000 USD and understand that this is completely justified by this incredible work of art.

I feel lucky that I didn’t see the Palace on the first day of my BaselWorld visit, everything else would have been shoulder shrugging I believe.

As for the details on this time piece, because I am sure you want to know them by now, are as follows:

The Palace has a case diameter of 48.2 x 49.9 mm and measures 16.65mm in height. The material of the watch case as shown in the pictures is titanium and white gold (also available in red gold).

The one-minute flying tourbillon movement is able to display minutes, hours, features a 60 minute chronograph hand, a second time zone via the left racing track and a 72 hour power reserve indicator in the right track. The GMT indicator is being set by a pusher in the case at 6 o’clock. The Palace consists of 703 parts.

And now you know, this was the absolute best of BaselWorld 2010.

More pictures (home made) of the Palace can be found at Ian Skellern’s Facebook page, click here.

As every wednesday, it is Wednesday Watch over at MotoringExposure. Today it is time to put Marvin Watch in the spotlight! This brand, over 150 years old, has recently been re-invented and the on-line promotion and presence is unbelievable. This brand knows how to put themselves back on the horological map again.

Reasonable priced (mechanical) time pieces with great eye for detail! In Basel I had the chance to have a look at them and was impressed by these classic looking (see blow) watches.

Check out my latest MotoringExposure article about Marvin Watch and let me know what you think! Click here…

One of the eye catchers of BaselWorld 2010 is the Tudor Heritage Chrono and not without a reason. Tudor really succeeded in creating a fine timepiece that comes very close to the original 1970 version and still is very up-to-date and wearable. The waiting lists at the Tudor / Rolex dealers must be huge by now…

At a price of approximately 3000 euro (4200CHF), it is a mighty interesting watch. It uses an ETA2892 with a two-register chronograph module added to it. With the Swatch Group telling us that they will stop supplying non-Swatch Group companies with their ETA movements, I wonder whether Tudor is going to use in-house movements (or those from Rolex) or other 3rd party movements in the future. If Tudor stays true to its core values, it at least will stick to an affordable price range like they are doing right now.

Click here for the article over at MotoringExposure

Glycine (founded in 1914) introduced a multiple time zone watch in 1953, the Glycine Airman. These watches were meant to be for travellers and pilots that needed a watch that enabled them to read two different time zones. Through all these years, the Airman watch was never absent from the Glycine collection, but it changed a bit every once in a while. Purists will swear by the original vintage Airman model (nicked ‘Old Airman’) that was in production from 1953 till 1973. This model was embraced by the military (chopper) pilots during the Vietnam war with its useful second time zone and AM/PM indicator. These first models had a Felsa caliber 692 movement and was succeeded in 1960 by an A.Schild movement.

Picture courtesy of Ron Engels.

Above a picture of this first batch of Glycine Airman watches, a 1960s model. Now, in 2010, Glycine introduces a successor that comes very close to these first ‘Old Airman’ models, the Airman Base 22. Base stands for air-base or a military air field and the 22 stands for the 22nd generation of Airman watches, which this watch is. During my stay in Basel, Frank and I visited the Glycine booth and had a talk with Katherina Brechbuehler, CEO of Glycine Watch SA. She told us that this watch was something collectors of Airman watches have been longing for ever since the original Airman was succeeded by more modern versions.

The Airman Base 22 (ref. 3887) will be available in three versions. The basic version that resemblances the model pictured above, second is a GA-version that allows the owner to change the time zone on the main hour hand without having to hack the movement as home time is indicated by the secondary hour hand. This watch is capable of displaying three time zones.

The Glycine Airman GA version. Photo courtesy of Glycine.

Third version is a GMT version with 3 time zones and red GMT hand. Just like the GA version, it is capable of showing three time zones, but the movement will stop (non-hack) when setting the hour hand.

Glycine Airman GMT version with 3 time zones. Photo courtesy of Glycine.

The most interesting model to me is the purist’s version, the one that resemblance the most with the original with a 24 hour display and two time zones. Glycine introduces these models in both black dial and white dial version. Although black dials seems to be more popular, the white dial version is a tribute to the first Airman ever, which actually had a white dial. I was able to fiddle around with the Base 22 normal 24h version and I was truely impressed by this time piece. These timepieces have a price tag of 1800 CHF / 1260 Euro (add 100 CHF for a stainless steel bracelet) which makes them even more interesting in my opinion. With all the +10.000 Euro watches introduced during BaselWorld 2010 with a questionable quality and a made-up story to create a cult or hype around them, it is very refreshing that a true cult watch like the Glycine Airman Base 22 has a normal price tag.

The tan soft leather calf strap with the embossed Airman logo was amazingly soft and reminded me about the cool vintage Panerai straps you often see. The 42mm watch case wears actually very comfortable, even with normal sized wrists, this is probably because the lugs are shaped downwards and the height of the watch is only 11.2mm. As you can see below, the white dial version looks terrific as well although white may not be the pick for everybody.

The movement inside is an ETA2893-2, based on the famous ETA2892-A2 but with an extra time zone feature. This movement has been used in a lot of other watches as well, such as the (out of production) Omega Seamaster Professional GMT (also both available in white and black dial) and last year’s introduced Linde Werdelin 3-Timer. The difference between the 3-Timer and the Airman for example, is that with the 3-Timer you can’t set the normal hour hand separately from the minute hand to a different time zone and only use the 24-hour hand to another time zone. Watch collectors tend to call this a so called Office GMT watch instead of a traveller’s GMT watch. The Airman is capable of setting the regular hour hand to a different time zone (since this is the 24-hour hand), using the other one for home time.

Is there nothing negative to say about the Glycine Airman Base 22 ref.3887? Well, actually there isn’t and especially at this price level, if you want a traveller’s watch and don’t mind reading a 24-hour dial, this is your only logical option in my opinion. The finish on the case is very nice, with both polished and brushed parts, the ETA movement is sturdy and has proven itself over time. I would definitely pick the tan leather strap and a black dial, since this combination really makes the dial stand out and gives the watch a bit of a vintage look. The cult status of this watch is also amazing and just recently a book has been published on the Airman by subject matter expert and fellow Dutchman Andrr Stikkers. A 132 page book filled with useful information about the history of the Airman, the Glycine Airman collection over the years and how to identify the fake models that are being offered. This book can be ordered for 37CHF (+/- 25 Euro) at the official Glycine website.

Although I blew my budget for watches already this year, an Airman Base 22 will be a serious option if I can free some extra money