The Watch Photo Awards were launched on 1st May 2018. It’s the first annual international watch photography competition open to amateur watch lovers and photographers, as well as professionals. This year will feature six monthly competitions: one for every month from May to October, each on a different theme. The second round, which took place in June, has just ended. The theme was “Sport”. 

Did you know that there was an International Kissing Day? No? In fact, it has been celebrated every 6 July since the 1990s. It’s far more glamorous and fun to celebrate than International No-Smoking Day, for example (which can be quite a trial for smokers), or International Women’s Day, which either treats women like an endangered species, or reminds us that we still don’t enjoy the same rights (including kissing rights, as it happens) as our male partners. It also has the advantage of being relevant to everyone (or so we might hope). Most people remember who they exchanged their first kiss with, whether it was passionate, furtive or just awkward. They probably also remember the place where it happened. The date, however, might be harder to bring to mind. So why not make it 6 July for everyone?

Why would a watchmaker want to make the world’s most expensive motorcycle?
It’s about a meeting of minds between creative entrepreneurs, and their human story, but we also wanted to surprise our clients with an unexpected world première. This one-of-a-kind piece on two wheels represents a triple world première: it’s the most expensive motorcycle in the world (CHF 1.888 million, a reference to Bucherer’s founding year), the first motorbike to come with its own haute horlogerie watch set with precious stones, and the only motorbike with internal lighting, so that you can admire the engine. Eight artisans and engineers (from Carl F. Bucherer, Bucherer and Bündnerbike) devoted over 3000 hours to making this machine by hand. It’s a peerless 100 hp mechanical machine made of steel, leather, diamonds and silicone, which also contains two integral safes, one of which has an armoured window. The Harley Davidson Blue Edition not only comes with diamond rings on the forks, the hand grips and the tank, there are also two unique Patravi TravelTecs by Carl F. Bucherer, designed to match the bike, one of which is built into the motorcycle. It’s about the product, and it’s about lifestyle. This is the first time that Bucherer watchmaking and jewellery and Carl F. Bucherer have worked together so intensively.

As a great traveler himself, the brand’s eponymous designer, Franck Dubarry, naturally wanted to develop an automatic GMT watch. He imagined his timepieces as guides, able to satisfy even the most pragmatic traveler’s requirements. This Hommes et Femmes collection stamps its personality on the lineage of GMT watches, breaking classical conventions of a 12-hour revolution with a 24-hour dial that highlights two time zones.

It’s thirty years since Chronopassion (link to http://www.chronopassion.com) and its charismatic owner Laurent Picciotto first erupted onto the watch scene with their unique approach to watch retail. There’s a quirky shop, completely refurbished this year; a highly original choice of brands, where big names such as Audemars Piguet, Breguet, Bulgari, Hublot, Panerai, TAG Heuer and Zenith rub shoulders with exclusive brands including Arnold & Son, Czapek & Cie, H. Moser & Cie, Fabergé, HYT, MB&F and Urwerk; unbridled creativity on social networks, particularly Instagram; and this rather unusual catalogue, made up solely of pictures of watches, with the only line of text an editorial reminder – show, don’t tell!

The original Favre-Leuba Raider Bivouac was released in 1962 and was thus too late to witness the first recorded ascent of Mount Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. But the Bivouac came out with something that would have proved valuable to the two climbers whose names went down in the history books. It was the world’s first watch with a mechanical aneroid barometer that could display air pressure and therefore be used to calculate altitude.

The online luxury watch publication WorldTempus, with its balanced and informative style, is finally available in the wonderful language of Cervantes. With the addition of Spanish, one of the 21st century’s global languages, millions more watch lovers now have access to clear, honest and objective information about the fascinating and ever-changing world of Haute Horlogerie.

It is the first time that Jaquet Droz is using plique-à-jour enamel, or “smalta clara” in Latin. While historically Jaquet Droz has been renowned for its mastery of Grand Feu enamel, plique-à-jour enamel is an even more demanding technique. First developed 1500 years ago, it requires a rare level of skill to prevent the enamel from cracking in the kiln. The risk of cracking becomes more pronounced with every firing of the piece.

You might think that if you’ve seen one watch factory then you’ve seen them all, but you couldn’t be further from the truth. One of the most intriguing aspects of reporting on the many watch brands based in Switzerland is that none of them have the same approach to producing a watch. The individual elements required are the same for all brands, of course, but there are always a number of differences between the brands when it comes to how they organise their production.

The Longines Paris Eiffel Jumping, which included the tenth leg of the Longines Global Champions Tour, gathered the world’s best riders and horses in the very heart of the French capital, on the Champ de Mars. Longines was, for the first time, the Title Partner and Official Timekeeper of Friday’s five-star show jumping competition, the Longines Eiffel Challenge for the benefit of the “Mission Bern”. Ben Maher riding Explosion W claimed a stunning victory, while Nicolas Delmotte on Urano de Cartigny and Harrie Smolders on Zinius secured the second and third place respectively. Longines Ambassador of Elegance Aishwarya Rai Bachchan presented the winner Ben Maher with a Longines timepiece.