Everlasting Valentines, Time !

Saint Valentine's Day, commonly known as Valentine's Day, or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is observed on February 14 each year. It is celebrated in many countries around the world, although it remains a working day in most of them.

St. Valentine's Day began as a liturgical celebration of one or more early Christian saints named Valentinus. The most popular martyrology associated with Saint Valentine was that he was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire; during his imprisonment, he is said to have healed the daughter of his jailer Asterius. Legend states that before his execution he wrote "from your Valentine" as a farewell to her. Today, Saint Valentine's Day is an official feast day in the Anglican Communion, as well as in the Lutheran Church. The Eastern Orthodox Church also celebrates Saint Valentine's Day, albeit on July 6th and July 30th, the former date in honor of the Roman presbyter Saint Valentine, and the latter date in honor of Hieromartyr Valentine, the Bishop of Interamna (modern Terni).

The day was first associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. By the 15th century, it had evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). Valentine's Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards.

For this coming Valentine's Day, what better way to give the person who already has your heart the next most precious thing: a timepiece that keeps track of every magic moment in your lives together and reminds that special someone of you with each glance at the watch.

Leading Swiss watchmaker Omega proposes two selected, precious timepieces as ideal gifts for the love of your life, the Omega Ladymatic for her and the Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra GMT for him.

The elegant Omega Ladymatic comes in a stainless steel case with matching bracelet and features 11 diamond hour markers and a date window on its shaded grey dial. The bezel is paved with snow-set diamonds. What is inside the watch case is as impressive: this Ladymatic is powered by Omega's exclusive Co-Axial calibre 8520 equipped with a silicon balance spring and delivered with a four-year warranty.

www.letelwatches.com 

Now, that is a Timepiece !

This year’s presentation of the new A. Lange & Söhne timepieces in Geneva was very interesting. Seven new timepieces have been introduced, including an A. Lange & Söhne Grande Complication. However, one of the watches that surprised me most is this Grand Lange 1 “Lumen” or reference 117.035.

My initial thought was: “this is not a Lange”. Yes, it has the typical Lange 1 case and dial lay-out, but the use of luminous material (hence the name “Lumen”) for the Roman numerals, hour markers, hands and the power reserve indicator (“Auf & Ab”) set me on the wrong path at first.

Normally, I associate these heavily lumed timepieces to sports watches. Effective use of luminous material on a diving watch or a chronograph would make more sense than to use noticeable amounts of it on a more formal timepiece. So, to be honest, my first impression was that the Grand Lange 1 Lumen was a bit of a stranger in the collection of fine A. Lange & Söhne watches.

After I got home from the tight-scheduled SIHH 2013 I went through all the pictures I took and the press material I received from the brands. A second, or perhaps, third look at the A. Lange & Söhne Grand 1 Lange Lumen changed my initial ideas about this watch. Drastically, I might add. I won’t go as far as to say this is a sporty Grand Lange 1, but it does draw attention to those who are definitely interested in this high-end brand from Glashütte, but found them a bit too classical for their taste.

The ref. 117.035 Grand Lange 1 Lumen is an interesting watch that combines functionality & modern looks with high-end watchmaking from Glashütte. I think that this Grand Lange 1 Lumen will attract a new type of consumer to the most impressive haute horlogerie brand from Germany.

The dark colored semi-transparent dial revealing bits and pieces of the movement on the dial side (like the date discs) looks very interesting, but also serves a purpose. The UV light will charge all luminous parts that are covered by the semi-transparent dial. Once the date numeral will appear in the date aperture, it will immediately start to glow.

For the A. Lange & Söhne Grand Lange 1 Lumen, the relative new movement caliber L095.2 has been used. This manual wind caliber has been designed in such manner, that the overall height of the movement has been reduced without having to make any compromises with regards to the complications of the Lange 1 timepiece.

Furthermore, the new A. Lange & Söhne L095.2 movement ensures that there is no overlap with regards to the hour, minute, second, date and power reserve indicators. Personally, I find this to be a big pro. How many times do you see that sub dials are being overlapped by each other, a date aperture cutting a square out of a sub dial or an unreadable power reserve because of a minute hand that is located just above it. More common: a minute hand that overlaps the date aperture. Some brands try to fix this using a date aperture that shows 3 dates at the same time, but that’s quite a pragmatic solution that doesn’t belong to watches in this category.

Having a view on the top side of the L095.2 movement is interesting already, but the sapphire case back of the Grand Lange 1 Lumen reveals the most interesting mechanical parts of course. The 3/4 main plate (a Glashütte tradition), the 7 gold chatons for the rubies, blued screws and the beautiful hand-engraved balance cock are a feast for the eyes of the wearer.

The L.095.2 movement consists of 400 parts and has a power reserve of 72 hours. As you could see on the first picture (click for a larger version), the watch features a decentral hour and minute indicator, a sub dial at 5 o’clock for the seconds, a power reserve indicator at 3 o’clock and a big date indicator at 1 o’clock. The date is being advanced by a pusher at 10 o’clock.

Only 200 pieces are being made of the A. Lange & Söhne Grand Lange 1 Lumen, all in platinum. The case has a diameter of 40.9mm and a height of 9.8mm. List price of the Grand Lange 1 Lumen reference 117.035 is 59.000 Euro.

(ref: fratellowatches.com).

Gimbaled escapement ! ZENITH.

The Le Locle-based brand takes an unexpected turn with a Christophe Colomb timepiece that features a chain and fusee along with its gimbaled escapement.

Although it is not officially launching until Baselworld 2013, Zenith was in Geneva this past week promoting the latest addition to the Christophe Colomb family of watches, the latest of which has been christened Hurricane.

The Christophe Colomb, part of Zenith’s complicated Academy collection, is characterized by the unmistakable protrusion at the 6 o’clock position. Zenith’s quite specific goals with the Christophe Colomb models has been to create comfortable and ergonomic wearing of the watch (despite the sapphire crystal protrusion) and to extend the duration of the movement’s operation while maintaining precise time measurement. The suspension of the escapement and balance in a cage, resulting in what looks like a little ball, is aimed at reaching these goals. The cardanic suspension means that no matter which way the wearer moves his or her wrist, no matter what position the watch is in, the balance will always remain in a horizontal position. This gyroscope component in the cage boasts 173 parts.

The Hurricane attempts to further develop on these goals by using a chain-and-fusée element to control variations and stabilize force as the mainspring unwinds.

Only a handful of watch brands today have attempted this, and according to Zenith, it took two years to fine tune the chain and fusee for the Hurricane. The chain is 18 cm long and composed of 585 individual components. The Hurricane’s power reserve is fifty hours. The base movement used is the manual wind El Primero 8805.
As for the rest of the watch, the hours and minutes are at 12 o’clock, small seconds at 9 o’clock, and power reserve indicator at 3 o’clock. The hour markers are black lacquer and the hands blued steel. The 45 mm rose gold case has an open case back for the owner’s viewing pleasure.

With the use of the rather vintage chain and fusée in this new Christophe Colomb watch, Zenith is clearly determined to prove to everyone how far it can push itself technically. 

(ref: worldtempus.com).