A Serious Contender for My Next Watch Purchase...

actually it's not contending, it's a winner! :) the Tudor Black Bay was on the wrist of my mate who popped by mi casa and the rest is history. it shall be mine... oh yes... it shall be mine... 

so what's good about it? 

It's not a homage to one of the many vintage tudor sub models out there but a selection of many of it's best bits brought together in a wonderful modern rendition.

• no crown guard, big crown
• gilt dial ~ text, rail markers are in gold paint color
• faux vintage lume
• nice snowflake hands from the snowflake tudor subs
• domed sapphire crystal
• modern bits are the red bezel and red strip at the crown area, rose on the crown
• they didn't put submariner under the 200m = 660ft text which is found on most tudor subs. the rotor self winding text does appear on some sub dials but typically those with the mercedes hands if at all. the text under tudor for most of the old subs was oyster prince or prince oysterdate(for the date subs)

it's just a great looking piece ;) the only reason i can think of for holding out on getting one is the question of whats next from tudor. they are releasing great pieces and i can't be buying one every year now right? or can i? the possibility is there because are just so well priced which adds to their attractiveness.

well built, a robust eta ticker, wonderful design and aesthetics and well priced to boot. i'm sold :)

with another winner of theirs... the tudor monte carlo... tudor is killin it

gilt u say...

red strip and bezel

rose on the crown

comes with a nice fabric strap other than the bracelet... also comes in a aged leather strap version with the fabric strap... the fabric strap is a winner but too short for me... pic of the buckle

next to some other watches...

and lastly some wristshots... first on a smaller wrist and then my chunkier(and hairier wrist) :)

hope you enjoyed the pix and quick review. and for me it's a no brainer BUY. cheers, raph

One of the hottest releases this year...

is a vinyl art toy :) [sorry didn't note OT in the header] now folks who follow this blog know that i like my vinyl art toys [or well.. toys] other than things that tick. brian donnelly aka kaws is definitely one of the artists out there whose works i have an interest in. i can't afford(or justify purchasing) the ad disruptions that i love, or some of the vibrant cool paintings (smallish ones sold for over US$10k and the bigger ones over US$100k of course) but i can buy some cool small vinyl issues... his last 2 pieces were a bit of a yawn, joe kaws, a snoopy thing, and partners, a take on walt disney with mickey thing. but this recent one is cool and sold out in less than 20mins for over a 1000 pieces on kawone.com

more pics below :) cheers

[ click to read the rest of the post... expand or collapse ]

 

 

i have been wondering what the queue would be like at the Original Fake store in Aoyama... one of the fiercer ones seen was when the dissected bearbrick 1000% dropped at invincible in taiwan... this was the queue for it then in 2009

http://www.freshnessmag.com/2009/02/28/original-fake-medicom-berbrick/

side note: u see the long queues in the above pics and vid... that is nuthin... NOTHING compared to the queuing fever that captured singaporeans during the hello kitty mcdonalds craze in 2000. for foreign readers, in 2000, mcdonalds were selling these hello kitty plushes with the extra value meals and for some unknown reason, a huge % of the populace went absolutely gaga over it and queued overnight and in the rain for these now worthless items... oh and some fought and argued for it too... unbelievable but true, sadly :)

excerpt "At the peak of its popularity, 300,000 Singaporeans or about 8% of the entire population, including children, adults, and old people, jammed all 114 McDonald’s outlets in Singapore round the clock."

http://www.sosingaporeans.com/hello-kitty-craze-in-singapore-in-2000/

http://www.salon.com/2000/01/20/singapore_2/

i think i've sidetracked a fair bit but it's just toooo funny... even the then DPM commented on it LOL: Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said: “Once in a while is alright, but we should not get too carried away. Even if you want the Kitty, there is no need to fight fiercely to try and get one  (Straits Times, February 2000).”
 

i found this funny :)

watch marketing with celeb figures is a funny thing and cool watches can sometimes have rather weak associations that leave u scratching your head... or the other way round, which is weak watches with great associations... the funniest of it all is probably for high end watches gracing sportsmen or athletes [eg F1 Ferrari team mates Michael Schumacher Omega vs Rubens Barichello AP ROO (a pic of one of em in my post below)]. u figure the best athletes should have the best watches right... u figured wrong :) 

"hahaha yohan u came in second again..." 

"hahaha my watch is like half a mill with a killa tourbillon to your less than 50k piece chrono... oh and i ran with mine on too..."

yup the guy got silver but he got watch endorsement gold :) till the next olympics then...

 

one thing to note though, with Omega and Schumi and Usain with Hublot, it was a master marketer and sales person who got them onboard, and that is none other than Jean-Claude Biver. others can learn a thing or two(or many many things actually) from him for sure :) 

RM did well with this marketing stunt though... it got a lot of attention with the IOC checkin the rule books on athletes doin endorsements... oh and in case u weren't aware, Omega was the official timekeeper for the London Olympics 2012...

quick impressions of some sports watches

i have been focused more on larger or sportier watches of late. their size and presence on the wrist is something suited to me and as i hardly ever suit up or attend formal functions, my needs for a dressy watch are at a low... so left field esoteric designs draw me, sports models come more into focus. so fittingly some larger sized and sportier type watches have been lined up for this review. quick impressions as i spent just a short time with em and this is by no means meant to be a comprehensive review... opinions are mine alone and u can choose to have a different view of course :) 

size comparisons of some of my subjects

first off we have the heaviest of them all... the Audemars Piguet Rubens Barichello II in Platinum. A striking timepiece and a wonderful design. the RBII is a AP ROO LE done right in my books and the Ti version remains one of my favoritest watches :) [my past blog posts will have a fair amount of pics or words about this piece, the search bar is your friend] 

the plat is definitely a looker too, with the striking blue dial and wonderful blue leather strap, but the downside is it weighs a ton! so much platinum makes this ultra heavy and you might walk funny with this on... uhm scratch the might... u will be walkin funny... but a great lookin timepiece

Audemars Piguet Rubens Barichello II Platinum (limited to 150 pieces)

next up the egiziano! a monster hulk of a watch and much lighter than the plat RBII... say what? yup its all titanium goodness so this huge monster is much lighter than the RBii plat. my opinion is its a ridonkulous size and perfect for those who either want to profess their passion for panerai and put 2 fingers up to convention or to those who want to make a BIG 'check out the clock on my wrist' statement, coz i assure you people will look and people will be checking your clock and u out...

Panerai Egiziano 341 at 60mm!!! The Real Dive MONSTER! (limited to 500 pieces)

the hublot is another in the line of the many hublot versions i've seen. they all share similar aesthetic cues and differ in colors and materials and such. they all look too much the same to me somehow and lose a distinctiveness which i would prefer having...  it's a hublot big bang so if its your cuppa, rock on! :)

hublot big bang with bracelet (all in ceramic i believe but may be wrong)... 

last off the iwc big pilot perp calendar 2011 st exupery edition... nice colors with the rg and the orange lume indicators. it has a plane instrument panel look to it and a vintage-y feel with the rg. i like these colors together and it's a striking watch. very nicely done. i also have a thing for the colder blue dial steel version :)

IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar 2011 (limited to 250 pieces)

don't ask me which one(s) i would take home if price was not a factor ;) decisions decisions... signing out for now. cheers, raph

notable notables jul aug 2012...

so much out there about watches these days... so many watch ads in magazines in newspapers on the tv... on your plane rides, on your sports channels, on the internet, in your FACE! :) so it's sometimes a challenge to focus and see what's truly cool (well its subjective of course) to me then(and hopefully to you wise reader[since u r reading this blog] ;) the people here and the objects in the images are... cool :) 

before the first set of images though, i wanted to share that i had the pleasure of meeting laurent recently and i will share about our encounter soon (watch this space :) the following images are courtesy of laurent n chronopassion... and if u didn't know already, find out more about em here... http://www.chronopassion.com/

 

something else that caught my attention was the mad gallery... mad u say? it MB&F's Mechanical Art Devices gallery in Geneva... if u r in that city, u have to visit them... and this is why.... chicara

MB&F is so much about mechanical machines as art and what chicara has done to these bikes are pretty mind blowing... expansive at the least ;) 

impressive images... purveyors of stuff worthy of attention and impressive mechanical art... put in a simpler way... cool