baselworld 2009 review: 'what in the world can that be?'

to quote vizzini ;) the opus 9 was unveiled. do check out the horomundi post by ian skellern on it as it has pics of the happenings at the presentation -> link ... of course the people who post and give it the thumbs up are generally brand supporters so its all positive and happy stuff on the forums... dissenting voices are normally shot down or put in their place quickly :)

my take is this... it looks like an unwanted offspring of a gadgety bag strap lock (u know the ones that go round the luggage bags) and an airplane seat belt buckle (mostly due to the size and shape)... and some diamonds thrown in for good measure... its a harry winston after all :)

so here it is... the Opus 9... maybe the HW folks should think about calling
it a day on the series if they're gonna come out with more bleh watches?

A piece of interesting info... for the 40th anniversary of the moon landing on 1969, omega is organising an event to honor the apollo 11 mission and several nasa astronauts... some that have walked on the moon and 1 that orbited it... in the cast is the man who probably wore the first watch to the moon, mr. buzz aldrin, and that watch would have been the Speedy... the same edition as the one i have :) love that watch and the more beautiful classic chrono lemania 321 in it than all the variants after.

the new breguet la traditions are a break from tradition ;) and they actually look good to me... purists might say that its deviating from what that watch should be about.. ok i tried on the pure version, which is the yellow gold manual wind one and it looked horrible on me. it might suit other wrists but on me it was a no-no, so the new metal/color variants might actually work better for certain folks :)

breguet la tradition in new color schemes... this one being one of my faves

picture source: horomundi.com

lets end off with another that i like but will never buy cause its gonna cost an arm, leg, and a whole lot of other body parts... well of course if i strike the lottery or a rich uncle remembers me in his will, this may be mine someday ie very slim chances of this ever happening...

say hello to the black dials on the patek 5074p... minute repeater and perpetual
calendar... and 5970p...perpetual calendar chrono... just gorgeous...
be still my beating heart :)

baselworld 2009 review ...slim pickings so far... the first watch thats interesting to me

anyways day 1 of basel has come and even before then we have seen so many ugly watches... and many oversized over the top sports watches too... interestingly enough it is an oversized sports watch that has caught my eye :) the other brands have not rolled out anything really interesting in my view... dial color changes, new metals and variants of existing designs.... but OMEGA... oh yes, they did something right this round. check dis out ;)

the old ploprof above and the new below it... some differences is red to orange... (uhm the more i look at it... the more i like the old one though :)

bezel insert is now sapphire covering superlume markers very similar to the 50fathoms...

it has omegas co-axial chronometer movement but its covered up in this dive sports watch :) the orange strap should have been the best bet but I dun like how they've done it with the stripes and the wording down the middle... eeewww... but i guess it should be easy enuff to custom make another strap :)

there is another downside to it as well. its gonna cost you around or over S$10.5+k list. lets see what else comes out that catches the raphmeisters eye in the days to come....

oh... uhm... well... theres this one other little thing... i came across a watch from zenith that didn't actually make me want to throw up. they have been responsible for some of the most hideous looking watches in recent times and the worst watch ads i have seen but this watch... actually looks... decent. never say never i guess :) so housing a cool el primero chrono movement..

the new vintage 1969 chrono

and some non-watch pics :) the UN chairman phone from the front... uhm its a HHHUUUGGGEEE letdown for me if these are the actual pictures and not some guy wif too much time on his hands photoshopping them up... boring... next please

AP SIHH 2009 Live Pics and.... the Rise of the Bumblebee ;)

check this out => raphmeister has got the bumblebee ROO ;)

had a stopover at the Audemars Piguet Boutique down on Orchard Road as i had an invite to check out the SIHH 2009 novelties... not too many were available here but there were a couple... so sharing these pics here with u...

bumblebee bumblebee bumblebee !!! note this is NOT the official name for the... uhm... bumblebee ;) regular production and rrp at low S$40k... forged carbon body, ceramic bezel and lite...

a nice watch but if i were making it... the hour and minute hand would be yellowy like the End of Days and the tachymetre ring would be the same shade of grey as in the subsidiary dials outer ring...

this one though is still the king of AP black watches for me... and one of the best RO Offshore Limited Editions ever.... dark, menacing, strong and heavy pvd'ed steel ;) GGGRRRRR

and now for a short bling interlude.... BBBBLLLLLIIIIIINNNNNNNGGGGG!!!! to the max ;)

some interesting jewelry things on offer as well... the black rubber strap with the fierce AP buckle is retailing for S$1.7k if noted correctly

i found this quite pretty as well, maybe for the wifey? hmm after checking the price tag... gotta think about that one just a bit more ;)

and the other one i wanted to catch was this one... its not enamel but white lacquer... a good looking piece in my books

but it does face steep competition in the classic chrono range... the rest being more of manual wind chronos whereas this is an auto...

AP in house movement 3124/3481 based on the 3120 auto movement... easy to recognise that rotor on their other 3120 movements eg. used in the Royal Oak 15300...

Gandhi Watch Auction...

Its kinda weird reading about it, all the stuff that came about coz of this auction. India wanting it back, the seller trying to yank the sale etc. Now I'll fess up, I know and respect the man because of the wonderful film by Sir Richard Attenborough with an incredible performance by Ben Kingsley in the role of the Mahatma. Non-violence and the defeat of an Empire by an extraordinary man... simply amazing stuff. I guess for some it warrants getting it back to India at any cost. My view is that it shouldn't have been put up for auction in the first place and donated to a museum in India. I guess the love of money & greed are still very much alive in these times and they're getting more innovative too :) what next? what next...

US$1.8mn for this... sandals, glasses, plate and bowl and a zenith pocketwatch

pic source: Antiquorum.com

pre-basel 2009... there seems to be a little problem

been checking out all the pre-Basel 2009 pieces on timezone.com and well its pretty sad... more of the same, and copies of watches or copies of copies. a lot of 'way out there' designs in big cases to grab attention. the oversized sports watch is not dead as yet it seems :) so the problem we have is that out of all the over 50 new watches pre-Basel from small to big houses, new and old, the only news that had me wanting to know more about is about a phone! go figure

The Ulysse Nardin Chairman

The UN Chairman is supposed to be a 'hybrid smartphone'. dun ask me a hybrid of what and what. From the press release "While details are limited, it has been confirmed that the Chairman will be able to use any mobile phone service provider in the world and includes several components never seen before in a smart phone. It will incorporate a Ulysse Nardin designed kinetic rotor system which is blended into the mechanical and aesthetical design of the smart phone. This smart-phone is hand-assembled under the strictest guidelines mandated by Ulysse Nardin."

I normally frown on watch manufactures doing cufflinks, pens, belts and God knows what else but my interest is somehow piqued by the Chairman as perhaps it will be a good compliment to my rose gold Freak! but i doubt it will be on my shopping list as i won't spend more than an iphone or iphone killer variants price on a phone :) cheers, raph

back to mine :)

long story short, my Vianney Halter Classic had to go back to St Croix for a spa visit... chilling with the nice folks in Manufacture Janvier... I wish I was there too :) but after a few months, its thankfully made its way back to mine. the issue was some servicer probably tried to service it and did a shoddy job and caused it to be gaining time. A LOT of time... so the spa trip was needed. I would like to extend my thanks to Alan & Dennis at The Hour Glass Millenia Walk for their help and Vianney and Philippe for their communication throughout. Thanks all :)

So very happy its back :) happiness is a warm pink gold vianney halter watch indeed

will find some time to take better pics of this classic in the following weeks

oh and it also joined me for lunchies when me and some mates went to check out a private sale at the hour glass... good company good conversation and pretty fine watches too

other than the freak and classic, the only non-white metal watch was this lovely VC chrono which i really like. Too small for me though but a nice piece indeed...

yup boys and girls, its a lemania 321... lovely as always

same base as in the Patek 5070 and select perpetual chronos and my speedy...