A jewel of France’s cultural heritage, the Musée Rodin played host on Saturday June 2nd to a sensational Charity Gala Dinner organised by Longines to honour its Ambassadors of Elegance Stefanie Graf and Andre Agassi, two tennis legends it has been closely involved with for a decade. To mark this anniversary, Longines created the “Conquest V.H.P. Stefanie Graf & Andre Agassi Foundations”, a special watch numbered and limited to 10 pieces for the men’s version and 10 pieces for the ladies’ version. As part of the Conquest V.H.P. “Very High Precision” collection, these timepieces are also an emblem of generosity, as they will be auctioned with all proceeds going to Children for Tomorrow and The Andre Agassi Foundation for Education, two charities founded by the Ambassadors of Elegance.

It has been several years since Lapo Elkann, Founder and Artistic Director of Italia Independent and Garage Italia, and Hublot were discussing about a nautical-related watch. From his earliest childhood, Lapo was cradled by the movement of the waves, thanks to his iconic grandfather who was himself passionate about sailing. Lapo even won the Fastnet, with his brother aboard the mythical Stealth.

When watch glasses were made out of plastic (usually plexiglas) or mineral glass (borosilicate, for example), it was a simple matter to create them in whatever shape was required. Nothing could be easier than to dome them, raise them up vertically, or add one or more curves or bevels. To create top-hat or concave profiles, softer materials could simply be carved or hot-moulded. Then, in the 1980s, sapphire crystal appeared on the scene, and over the following decade it became ubiquitous. Because sapphire is extremely hard, all these curves and contours had to go, because they were too expensive and complex to produce, given the inherent properties of this new type of glass. But the years went by, and things moved on, and shaped watch glasses, now often referred to as “glass boxes”, have once again become a desirable component – an essential one, even, in some cases.

IWC Schaffhausen is expanding its Portugieser family to include two new models, a perpetual calendar with platinum case, and a new Portugieser Automatic in a stainless steel case with a silver-plated dial and rhodium-plated hands. We present today the Portugieser Perpetual Calendar (ref. IW503406).

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 first round, which took place in May, has just ended. The theme was “Blue”. 

Even for someone who gets to try out a lot of different watches, switching from my everyday diver’s watch to the Czapek & Cie. Place Vendôme tourbillon was something of an occasion. I got a feeling of warmth from the rose-gold case and rich brown alligator strap, especially compared with the all-steel practicality of my usual wrist companion. And I quickly got used to wearing it and had to remind myself on several occasions that it costs well over twenty times the price of my own watch and that it was thus better to take if off for some activities where I would normally keep the diver’s watch on my wrist. A precious gold case and a tourbillon deserve respect, after all.

The former footballer known as “The Lion” wanted to collaborate with Corum, a desire shared by the brand itself. “I had been planning to work with him for a long time,” explains Jérôme Biard, CEO of Corum. “I knew that he was a collector with a very sophisticated taste. He wanted to get in touch with us and, at the same time, so did we. So, we met up in Lausanne, with the shared desire to create something together.” From a friendship born out of a mutual and simultaneous desire comes a very exclusive Bubble watch.

It’s rare for a watch to stay centre stage for so long. The Conquest V.H.P., which was launched two years ago, continues to be in the spotlight at many of the events Longines sponsors. This year, for the second year in a row, it’s the model the watchmaker has chosen to accompany the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros.

The Navitimer 8 B01 is powered by the first completely self-developed and -manufactured chronograph movement by Breitling, which made its debut in 2009 for the company’s 125th anniversary. Its tension spring supports a ball-bearing rotor highly efficiently in both directions of rotation. When the tension spring is fully wound, more than 70 hours of power reserve are available. This guarantees that the new Navitimer 8 B01 accurately displays hours, minutes, seconds, and date, even after a weekend tucked away in the vault. As befits a sophisticated mechanism of this kind, a classic control wheel operates the three chronograph functions start, stop, and reset. At the push of a button, an energy-saving friction coupling connects the stopwatch mechanism smoothly to the wheel mechanism. Other pioneering features include a patented self-centering system with an innovative heart-shaped lever to reset the chronograph to zero.

For 50 years, Alpina has been riding on the wave of success with the Seastrong Diver collection. The history of the collection bears witnesses of its performance, when back in the 1960’s the models could already meet 200m water resistance. In 2018, the brand presents six new models which are fit for a whole new generation of adventurers and now water-resistant to 300m.

The next Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) at Palexpo, Geneva, will take place January 14-17, 2019. Setting the tone for the twelve months to come, it adopts a four-day schedule instead of the usual five with the convenience of longer opening hours, every day from 8.30am to 8pm.

If you don't have a Hublot boutique nearby, or don’t have the time to visit the store for an introduction, there is no problem! Hublot offers you the same experience remotely as if one were pushing open the door of a boutique, thanks to its Hublot Digital Boutique.

Seiko’s Prospex PADI Special Edition, the SPB071J1, launched in February 2018, is unlike all its predecessors. Firstly, it is “special” for Seiko collectors because unlike its other high water-resistant sports watches like the “Tuna” or “Samurai”, it is housed in a new case, one that doesn’t even have an unofficial nickname… yet.