Movado unveiled a unique style this year at BaselWorld 2009 with the debut of the Movado Calendomatic watch. In accordance with that style they nor present the Movado Master Automatic Watch. The case of the Movado master automatic is fashioned in stainless steel and measures 44mm. It has a sapphire crystal and display back (see-through caseback) and it is water resistant to 300 meters.

The movement is the automatic ETA caliber 2824 with 25 jewels, beating at 28,800BPH and with a power reserve of 42 hours. It features a personalized Movado rotor. The dial is a unique hybrid of the museum dial found on many Movado Watches

Movado, the brand with the celebrated sun-dot at 12 o’clock, launched a new era when it introduced a complete date window on its original Calendomatic automatic timepieces in 1946. Now, it is proud to present the Red Label Museum Calendomatic. Inspired by its illustrious namesake, it displays an original centre date disc, while a convex window in the sapphire crystal magnifies the day date at 6 o’clock. Both unassuming and modern, it harbours a good many surprises, like the emblematic red “M ” chevron, espied through its sapphire crystal back.

This is interesting. Movado is diverting from their museum watch onto a nice new design. I for one like it!

Luxury Watch Features

• Movement Automatic, ETA 2824-2 calibre, 25 rubies, rotor with red Movado “M” chevron
• Functions Hours, minutes, date
• Case Stainless steel, 42 mm
• Flat, scratch-resistant sapphire crystal with convex date window at 6 o’clock
• Sapphire crystal back
• Water-resistant to 30 m
• Dial Museum black with centre date disc
• Silvered Dauphine hands
• Round hourmarker at 12 o’clock
• Bracelet/Strap Black alligator leather with steel buckle

Movado redlabel museum calendomatic watch

We love our Luxury Watches however when we need to keep them safe we store them in a “Safe” (Lock-box Jewelery Box or what ever you want to call it). Now Bentley has come with a safe exclusively for Luxury Watches! There are only 400 so we hope to store our Luxury Movado Watches there soon.

For some, possessing a watch is as simple as strapping it on the wrist to keep a tab on time. For others, it’s a passion to collect the best of the timepieces. Succumbing to this luxurious addiction for high-end watches is one thing, and taking care of them is another. To make things simple, Stockinger has teamed up with Bentley to come up with a line of safes, exclusively designed to house your pricey collection of timepieces. And even if you aren’t an ardent watch collector, the mere presence of the brand name Bentley will thrill all the Bentley fans to, at least, take a look at the safes. The “Arnage” edition is intended specifically for watches and is highlighted with built-in high-tech watch winders for timepieces belonging to a line of “Breitling for Bentley” and the kind.

There are only 400 cabinets on offer and you can opt for any of the trademark Bentley shades. The wood and the leathered interiors bump up its elegant and timeless appeal.

Calling out to all the watch aficionados, this is the most stylish and secured cabinet to safeguard your ticking collection!

For Pictures click here

The Swatch watch company owns many Luxury Watch brands

Swatch was originally intended to re-capture entry level market share lost by Swiss manufacturers during the aggressive growth of Japanese companies such as Seiko in the 1960s and 1970s, and to re-popularize analog watches at a time when digital watches had achieved wide popularity. The launch of the new Swatch brand in 1983 was marked by bold new styling and design. The quartz watch was redesigned for manufacturing efficiency and fewer parts. This combination of marketing and manufacturing expertise restored Switzerland as a major player in the world wristwatch market. Synthetic materials were used for the watch cases as well as a new ultra-sonic welding process and the assembly technology. The number of components was reduced from some 100 to 51, with no loss of accuracy.

A Concept

In light of the economic state of the Swiss watch industry at the time of the introduction of the Swatch, its directors understood that it was not enough to offer a good watch. The watches needed to be attractive, cheeky and good fun, daring in design and aggressively priced, with high quality and innovative flair. The Swatch watches were high-tech and came in a variety of fashion and art designs.

Derivation of the Name Swatch

The name “Swatch” is often misconstrued as a contraction of the words “Swiss Watch”, but Nicolas Hayek, the Chairman of the Swatch Group, affirms that the original contraction was “Second Watch” — the new watch was introduced with a new concept of watches as casual, fun, and relatively disposable accessories.[1]

The First Collection

The first collection of twelve Swatch models was introduced on March 1, 1983 in Zürich, Switzerland. Initially the price ranged from CHF 39.90 to CHF 49.90 but was standardized to CHF 50.00 in autumn of the same year. Sales targets were set to one million timepieces for 1983 and 2.5 million the year after. With an aggressive marketing campaign and a very reasonable price for a Swiss-made watch, it gained instant popularity in its home market. Compared to conventional watches, a Swatch was 80% cheaper to produce by fully automating assembly and reducing the number of parts from the usual 91 or more to only 51 components.

Popularity

Swatches enjoyed their peak popularity during the mid-1980s. Such ’80s fads included wearing two Swatches and using a Swatch as a ponytail band. Some models, like Pop Swatch, allowed wearers to attach Swatches directly to clothing. During this same time, Swatch introduced the idea of partnering with noted artists, including Keith Haring and others. Artist watches gave a new cachet to what had previously been a trendy youth article.

Current Collection

There are five families under the swatch brand. The five families are

v Swatch Originals

The Originals are plastic cased watches. They are available in various sizes, shapes and designs. The originals have sub-families as well.

v Swatch Irony

The Irony family contains all the metal cased watches produced by swatch. They too come in different sizes and shapes.

v Swatch Skin.

The skin family contains two sub families; which are Original Skin and Skin Chronograph. The original skin was introduced on October 6, 1997 as a thinner version of the original swatch watch. It is ultra thin, standing at 3.9 mm thin hence the name Swatch Skin. The swatch skin later went on to enter the Guinness world book of records as the world’s thinnest plastic watch. The Swatch Chronograph is just the swatch skin with a chronograph function. It has two additional buttons on the side of the watch.

v Swatch Beat.

The beat family launched in 1998 and incorporated beat watches across the three existing family but adding twists. This was their digital line.

v Swatch Bijoux.

The bijoux line is the jewelry line that swatch released in the new millenium. A company that is known for inovations and fashion it went the next step. It partnered with Swarovski to encrust their bijoux line.

A Fashion Statement

Also in the mid-1980s, mainstream Swatch fashion statements came about in the rising hip-hop scene with the introduction of various colored and interchangeable watch faces and wrist bands (made of vinyl). Colors included bright, day-glow and pastels. The key standard accessory was the Swatch Guard, a thin, rubber-band like strip that would stretch over the watch face. A good number of “Swatchies” sported two Swatch Guards of different colors, twisted or braided together across the Swatch face. A second type of Swatch Guard was a 1/8″-thick hard plastic ring which encircled the face and snapped onto the sides.

Luxury Brands

Although sales of Swatch watches are now considerably lower than in previous years, the Swatch Group remains the world’s largest watch company, and the Group has accelerated its acquisition of Swiss luxury brands in recent years. These brands include: Breguet, Blancpain, Jaquet Droz, Glashütte Original, Union Glashütte, Léon Hatot, Omega, Rado, Longines, Tissot, Calvin Klein, Certina, Mido, Pierre Bal-main, Hamilton, Flik Flak and Endura.

Diversified Offerings

Swatch itself has also diversified its offerings considerably, and the company now sells more than a dozen different types of watches, including metal-bodied watches (the Irony series), diving watches (the Scuba series), thin and flat bodied watches (the Skin family) and even an Internet-connected watch that can download stock quotes, news headlines, weather reports, and other data (the Paparazzi series).

They have now become fashionable objects, generating specialized models (the “Flik-Flak” for children, semi-automatic movements, and even diamond-decorated Swatches). The company also produces watches with seasonal themes.

Official Sport Sponsor & Timekeeper

Olympic Games

Swatch was official timekeeper to the 1996 Summer Olympics, 2000 Summer Olympics, 2004 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Olympics

SWATCH FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour

For the current Swatch FIVB World Tour, see: Swatch FIVB World Tour 2008

The Swatch and FIVB (the International Volleyball Federation) signed the partnership deal in Lausanne, Switzerland on Feb. 27, 2003. Swatch became title sponsor for the Beach Volleyball World Tour.

Swatch, being quite experienced in the field of innovations, has provided FIVB with financial support as well as timing and technical innovations, with the electronic scoreboards supply and speed of service measurements among many others.

Through its international partnership with FIVB, Swatch supports the growth of public and media interest in beach volleyball, appreciated worldwide as one of the most rapidly developing summer sports. As the company has continuously maintained links with the world of sports, the global sponsorship agreement with FIVB became another important step in that involvement.

Swatch also participates in all FIVB Beach Volleyball world tour events through establishing points of sales and organizing side and merchandising activities. As part of the partnership, the company also develop each seasons two Swatch watch dedicated to the SWATCH FIVB Beach Volley World Tour.

SWATCH Ticket To Ride (TTR) World Snowboard Tour

The SWATCH TTR World Snowboard Tour is an umbrella organisation for the most important freestyle snowboard contests around the globe. The world’s best snowboarders compete through the ten-month Tour with the aim to be crowned the male or female SWATCH TTR World Snowboard Tour Champion, tallied by the SWATCH TTR World Ranking System. Apart from prize money totalling over 2,000,000 USD from participating events, the SWATCH TTR World Snowboard Tour will present the top men and women in the SWATCH TTR World Ranking List a share of 250,000USD – the largest end-of-season prize purse in the history of snowboarding.

Movado is the second to largest swiss watch company.

Founded by Terje Haakonsen and industry innovators in 2002, the SWATCH TTR World Snowboard Tour is a non-profit, rider-driven organisation representing the progression of snowboarding. The SWATCH TTR World Snowboard Tour is based on global grass root and key independent freestyle snowboarding events over a ten-month period from Southern to Northern Hemisphere locations. Events are rated via a 1-through-6STAR system, with points allocated accordingly, a 6STAR event holds the highest. Any rider participating in these events, from up-and-coming to professional talent, earns ranking points and a position on the SWATCH TTR World Ranking List. The top male and female rider based on an average of their best six results of the season is crowned SWATCH TTR World Snowboard Tour Champion.

Swatch ProTeam

Since the mid-1980s, successful athletes have been competing for honors as members of the ProTeam and ambassadors of Swatch. As a long time partner of various fun & Action Sports Swatch supports top snowboarders, ski freeriders, FMX rider, as well as surfers and beach volleyball players.

We all hear about Luxury Watches that have Jewel Movements however what does this mean? JewelersLounge – Luxury Watch Blog investigates and it is quite interesting.

The jewel movement involves the use of jewels within the men’s watches to act as bearings at the wheel train as well as around the escapement lever. These are areas within a watch component where wear and tear is the most prominent.

Tiny synthetic gem crystals are set between many of the gears, in order to reduce friction. These gems resist temperature better than metal, and hold lubricant much longer.

Originally, the natural rubies were used before a major switch to industrial-grade or synthetic rubies for cost efficiency reason. There are two important points about rubies that make them suitable to be used as bearings.

Firstly they are extremely hard (it can be as hard as diamonds) to withstand high frequency of abrasion and wearing. Secondly, its smooth surface is perfect for the various steel components in the watch to operate on with much reduced friction.

With the high load and high speed motions within watches, the two advantages of ruby clearly outweigh any possibility of using steel bushings.

You can actually hear the jewel movement working. The ticking noise of mechanical watches are actually made by two rubies banging into the steel teeth of the escape wheel. You should make sure to have your watch serviced every five years, as the toughness of the rubies can erode the steel if not properly looked after.

Movado Watches have jewel movements and depending on the model some have 17 and others 25.

There are many categories of jewel movement, for example, 17 jewels, 21 jewels, or 25 jewels. The actual meaning of these numbers is just a representation on the number of rubies used within the mens watches.

Does it mean that having a 21 jewel movement would equate to better quality than a 17 jewel movement?

Well, not really. The higher numbers reflects more jewels used for the parts to prevent more specific wearing. Or watches with more moving mechanical components would require additional rubies to be fitted in to reduce friction in these areas.

A simple example would be automatic watches that use only 4 – 8 more jewels to provide low friction assistance of the rotors for winding of the mainspring.

In other words, more jewels indicate a more complicated movement, which is why many watch enthusiasts are wiling to pay over the odds for them. Also, the more jewels used, the less wear there is on the watch parts.

But it does not necessarily mean better quality watch is being produced. Some watch enthusiasts would not be able to appreciate ridiculously high number jewels if the mechanisms of these mens watches do not require it.

In fact, these rubies are worth about $0.02 each. There is hardly any nominal value attached. Importantly, it is how the rubies are used based on the watch design and components to bring out its best in performance and reliability.

William Baume Ultraflat

This amazing watch has a beautiful solid 18kt rose gold case,  measures 41mm x 5.8mm and has a sapphire crystal. The watch is water resistant to 30 meters.

The manual-wind (Mechanical) movement, caliber T001, measures 2mm in height. The strap is alligator with a solid 18kt rose gold buckle.

Grab them while they last Baume & Mercier is only making 178 of these Gold Watches!

We hope to see some nice Movado Watches soon!

We are not a political blog and don’t aim to be one. However when VP candidate Senator Joe Biden is wearing an Omega Luxury watch we report on it.

He is wearing a Omega Seamaster Professional model 2531.80 .

We hope to see some candidates wearing Movado Watches

Omega Luxury Watches are amongst the most popular in the world. This is largely due to their brand ambassadors who are world famous celebrities and sports figures.

Movie Stars

Abhishek Bachchan
Pierce Brosnan
George Clooney

Daniel Craig
Cindy Crawford
Nicole Kidman

Athletes

Dean Barker
Russell Coutts
Ernie Els
Anna Kournikova
Sergio García
Ellen MacArthur
Michael Phelps
Alexander Popov
Michael Schumacher
Ian Thorpe
Michelle Wie

We know that the Movado is using Tom Brady for their series 800 but we would like to see more.

Bulova is a New York based corporation making watches and clocks.

Bulova was founded and incorporated as the J. Bulova Company in 1875 by Joseph Bulova (1851-1936), an immigrant from Bohemia. It was reincorporated under the name Bulova Watch Company in 1923, and became part of the Loews Corporation in 1979..

Bulova established its operations in Woodside, New York and Flushing, New York, where it made innovations in watchmaking, and developed a number of watchmaking tools. Its horological innovations included the Accutron watch which used resonating tuning forks as a means of regulating the time keeping function. In July 1941 Bulova paid $9 for the first television commercial, a 10-second spot on WNBT during a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies.

The Joseph Bulova School of Watchmaking was founded in 1945 by Arde Bulova, Chairman of the Board, initially to provide training for disabled veterans after the Second World War.

“Accutron” tuning fork watches, first sold in October 1960 by Bulova, use a 360 hertz tuning fork to drive a mechanical gear train. The inventor, Max Hetzel, was born in Basel, Switzerland, and joined the Bulova Watch Company of Bienne, Switzerland, in 1948. This outstanding engineer was the first one to use an electronic device, a transistor, in a wrist watch. Thus, Max Hetzel developed the first watch in the world that truly deserved the qualification “electronic”: the world-famous “Bulova Accutron”. More than 4 million were sold until production stopped in 1977.

They also were subjects of the other famous space era rivalry with Omega Watches for being the first watch on the moon. Ultimately, the Omega Speedmaster Professional chronograph wristwatch (known as the “Moon watch”) was designated by NASA for use by the astronauts in all manned space missions, becoming the first watch on the moon on the wrist of Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin.

However, all instrument panel clocks and time-keeping mechanisms in the spacecraft on those missions were Bulova Accutrons with tuning fork movements, because at the time, NASA did not know how well a mechanical movement would work in zero gravity conditions. The Bulova company currently manufactures a limited edition “Astronaut” model under its Accutron line of watches. The back of the watch case is autographed by Buzz Aldrin. The tuning fork movement has been discontinued by Bulova, and the current Astronaut model features automatic ETA SA movement, making it similar to the rival Omega.

In 2008 a Bulova Automatic wristwatch, lost overboard by a sailor in 1941, was found after 67 years on the seabed and returned to its owner. It still works today.

On October 5, 2007 Citizen Holdings Company announced it would purchase Bulova Corp. for $247 million. On January 10th 2008 Citizen bought the Bulova Watch Company. Together they are the world’s largest watchmaker.

Currently Bulova designs, manufactures, and markets several different brands, including: the signature “Bulova”, the affordable “Caravelle”, the dressy/formal swiss-made “Wittnauer Swiss”, and the sportier swiss-made “Accutron”.

They seem to be one of the main competitions to Movado Watches

Luxury Watch maker Omega has released a special commercial for this years Olympics.

Omega Luxury Watches are unique! So are Movado Watches