Baselworld 2016 – on time with Jaquet Droz

LuxuryActivist
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Reading Time: 5 minutes

Jaquet-Droz-Baselworld-new-watches

Jaquet Droz is one of the first watch-makers and one of the most confidential, yet brilliant Manufacture horlogère from Switzerland. After his studies in University, Pierre Jaquet Droz founded his first watchmaking workshop in la Chaux-de-fond in 1738. Until 1791, the Jaquet Droz Family builds the foundation of what will become a multi-century business. He excelled in the manufacturing of watches as well as automata and other mechanical devices. His art the the amazing objects he would create, fascinated all crowds from regular people to Royal crowns. His reputation was huge in a 18th century Europe and since then poetry and technical challenges were part of Jaquet Droz day to day business. Since 2001, the prestigious brand belongs to The Swatch group that started an international roll-out yet on the respect of the Brand heritage. This acquisition helped to maintain the legacy of Pierre Jaquet-Droz intact. It also allowed the confidential brand to shine over-seas and establish a solid business over the years. By connecting with its heritage, Jaquet Droz is faithful to its know-how and blends perfectly the art of watch-making and the automata. It is distinguished by the restrained elegance of its watches, the use of traditional decorative techniques such as miniature painting and sculpture, and for its complication pieces which include wristwatches incorporating tiny automata.

What is new at Baselworld 2016?

This year, Jaquet Droz pursuit its directive line capitalizing on the brand DNA and specific codes. Poetry and technicality are present to provide you the most outstanding timepieces ever created on this genre. The first model is the Jaquet Droz GRANDE SECONDE OFF-CENTERED ONYX. Black onyx dial, applied 18-carat white gold rings. Stainless steel case. Self-winding mechanical movement. Power reserve of 68 hours. Diameter 43 mm.

Jaquet-Droz-Decentered-8-onyx

With this watch, Jaquet Droz capitalizes on the Brand DNA. The 8-shaped in the dial, the Grande Seconde and the minimalistic look and feel are gathered together in an amazing contemporary timepiece. In this edition, the Grande Seconde is decentered and the Jaquet Droz logo is at 10 o’clock. One amazing signature item is the black Onyx dial. This black stone has a strong symbolism and properties. Onyx jewelry is worn to defend against negativity that is directed at you. Black stones have protective energies in the sense that black is the absence of light, and therefore, can be used to create invisibility.

  • Fortifies self confidence and responsibility
  • Sharpens your senses
  • Encourages a healthy egotism

This watch has the Jaquet Droz 2663A.P, self-winding mechanical movement, silicon balance spring and pallet horns, double barrel, flat bridges, heavy metal oscillating weight. The Stainless steel case has a Diameter of 43 mm Height 12.00 mm Winding-stem at 4 o’clock Individual serial number engraved on the case-back. As mentioned, the dial is made of black Onyx with applied 18-carat white gold rings.

The second interesting watch presented is the GRANDE SECONDE DUAL TIME ÉMAIL IVOIRE. In order to celebrate the love for travel of Pierre Jaquet-Droz, the Swiss watchmaker launched a Ivory Grand Feu enamel, double level dial. 18-carat red gold case. Large seconds, reference time and date display with hand at 6 o’clock. Self-winding mechanical movement. Power reserve of 65 hours. Diameter 43 mm. Off-centered hours and minutes, off-centered large seconds Off-centered date display with hand at 6 o’clock Off-centered 24-hour second time zone indication at 6 o’clock

JD-GRANDE-SECONDE-DUAL-TIME-EMAIL-IVOIRE GRANDE-SECONDE-DUAL-TIME-EMAIL-IVOIRE

What can we see here: Off-centered hours and minutes, off-centered large seconds Off-centered date display with hand at 6 o’clock Off-centered 24-hour second time zone indication at 6 o’clock. We will highlight the little red edge in the calendar day hand, one specificity by Jaquet Droz.

One of the interesting aspects of Jaquet Droz is the poetry they have in the brand and how they can tell beautiful and aesthetics stories. One of them is the PETITE HEURE MINUTE THOUSAND YEAR LIGHTS. It is a magnificence timepiece with its 8-carat red gold dial with black lacquer and hand-engraved and hand-painted white mother-of-pearl. 18-carat red gold applied ring, onyx subdial. 18-carat red gold case set with 232 diamonds, total of 1.22 carat. Self-winding mechanical movement. Power reserve of 68 hours. Diameter 35 mm. Numerus Clausus of 28.

PETITE-HEURE-MINUTE-THOUSAND-YEAR-LIGHTS PETITE-HEURE-MINUTE-THOUSAND-YEAR-LIGHTS-mother-of-pearl

3 symbols are important to highlight on the dial: The moon, the dragon-fly and the butterfly, all strong symbols of freedom, creativity and passion. It is a very beautiful and heart-felted design that will inspire you everyday.

Last but not least, this watch is a true masterpiece of technicality and poetry. This is the new CHARMING BIRD by Jaquet Droz. This new watch has a hand-engraved and hand-painted white mother-of-pearl dial. You can see as well an Onyx subdial. 18-carat red gold case and applied ring. Singing bird automaton movement, hand-winding mechanical movement and push-button automaton triggering mechanism. Sapphire whistle system. Hours and minutes self-winding movement. Power reserve of 38 hours. Diameter 47 mm. Numerus Clausus of 8. AUTOMATON Singing bird automaton movement, hand-winding mechanical movement and push-button automaton triggering mechanism. Sapphire whistle system. Hand-engraved platinum.

Jaquet-Droz-Charming-Bird-2016 Jaquet-Droz-Charming-Bird-2016-back

 

As we can see, Jaquet Droz is an astonishing watchmaker. Its endless universe provides creativity and innovation at the heart of the watch manufacturing process. A Jaquet Droz watch is incomparable to another watch. Baselworld 2016 is an amazing platform for a brand such as Jaquet Droz to shine.

LuxuryActivist

Jaquet-Droz-Baselworld-new-watches

Info sourced at private meeting with Jaquet Droz at Baselworld 2016. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only. 

Baselworld 2016 – on time with TAG Heuer

LuxuryActivist
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1
Reading Time: 6 minutes

TAG-Heuer-Baselworld-new-watches

TAG Heuer is an amazing watch-manufacturer that from day one placed its talent at the service of innovation, performance and avant-garde. Back in 1860, Edouard Heuer opened a watchmaking workshop in Saint-Imier in the Swiss Jura. At that time it was called “Edouard Heuer, Fabrique d’Horlogerie”.
He is the first watchmaker to produce chronographs in series in 1880. He invents all the basic elements and principles that make all chronographs, still today. From the oscillating pinion in 1887 to the Mikrogirder in 2012, TAG Heuer has left its mark on the history of Swiss watchmaking. Over 145 years of innovation and expertise have made TAG Heuer one of the ultimate references in avant-garde sports watches.

Very fast, Heuer watches became very popular in the sports domain. This sets the company philosophy: a cutting-edge technical know-how at the service of performance. After the purchase of the brand by the TAG group in 1985, the company got its final name: TAG heuer. In 1999, LVMH acquired the Swiss watchmaker and gave its true international aura and distribution. It is now the leader in luxury chronographs of unrivalled precision, measuring time to 1/10th, 1/100th, even 1/1000th of a second. From the Olympic Games in 1920 to its role as official watch and chronograph for the legendary Indy 500 race, for which it has developed instruments with a precision of 1/10000th of a second, TAG Heuer is unrelenting in its quest for innovation, excellence and performance.

Every year at Baselworld, TAG Heuer surprises us with a great Swiss ingenuity and a dedication to “time-keeping” that goes beyond standards. This year, once again and after the launch of its CONNECTED watch, they presented a clever, professional and aesthetic collection with some very interesting highlights.

Jean-Claude Biver et Guy Sémon

What is new at Baselworld 2016?

The Press conference of Tag Heuer was a mind-blowing experience. In presence of TAG Heuer CEO JC Biver, we were able to discover the most important novelties. The first one is the MONZA HEUER WATCH.

Monza-Heuer-2016 Monza-Heuer-back-case-2016

In 1976, Jack Heuer, the great grandson of the brand’s founder, designed a chronograph to celebrate Niki Lauda’s first world championship title with FERRARI. The Swiss watch company was then Official Timekeeper for Scuderia (from 1971 to 1979), and it was the first time that MONZA had appeared on the dial of a watch. At that time, the watch was markedly different, yet very stylish. Its coussin case was inspired by a 1925 model. An all black chronograph equipped with a pulsometer (to measure the heart rate) and a tachymeter scale (which converts time into speed), red hands and counters to reflect its racing heritage, the new design ushered in a brand new era in the history of this model.

A link from past to present, the case is now made from grade 5 titanium (previously steel), making it lighter and more shock resistant. The material is coated with titanium carbide to give it a powerful, matt black appearance. The diameter has also been increased (from 39 mm on the original models to 42 mm, for a more modern, masculine look). It is equipped with a “super racing” strap in full-grain black calfskin with top-stitching, which evokes the design of the three-spoke steering wheel on the racing cars of the time. Inside, the 17 automatic calibre, a chronograph with its two chronograph counters at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock – perfectly spaced for a beautifully harmonious dial. The screw-on back is numbered and features the historic HEUER logo engraved with red lacquer finish.

The original Heuer Monza is highly sought after by collectors, and has been reissued only a handful of times. So close to the spirit of the original, this model, which celebrates its 40-year anniversary, will undoubtedly represent a milestone in the history of the manufacture’s heritage.

The second high-light of the fair is the new TAG HEUER CARRERA HEUER-02T. With this watch, Tag Heuer is creating the buzz of the fair. Indeed, the Swiss watch-manufacturer just released an amazing flying Tourbillon for less than CHF 15’000. They explain that by mastering the entire production chain, they have successfully put in place a true tourbillon for a reasonable price. And the result is quite outstanding.

TAG-HEUER-CARRERA-HEUER-02T TAG-HEUER-CARRERA-HEUER-02T-side

Just six months after the release of the TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer-01- the backbone of a new collection of elegant and contemporary manufacture chronographs- comes the TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer-02T, a COSC-certified automatic chronograph combined with a titanium and carbon flying tourbillon. A symbol of the accessible luxury so dear to TAG Heuer, this model forms part of a new concept now being created: affordable Haute Horlogerie. This watch symbolises technology, exemplary quality, performance, manufacture expertise, and the perfect mastery of industrial processes and manufacturing costs which have made it the only COSC automatic chronograph with Tourbillon produced by the Swiss watch industry for under 15,000 CHF.

Last but not least here is an update on the TAG HEUER CONNECTED WATCH. Five month after the launch of the Connected watch by TAG Heueur, the updates are tremendously exciting. For the launch in November 2015, TAG Heuer has produced 20’000 pieces of its Connected watch. At that time many people in the company were skeptical. 5 month later the watch is sold out. Now Tag Heuer is making a lot of efforts to answer the demand. They have re-ordered 60’000 new pieces, with a production rhythm of 2’000 units per week since January until April. Then, they will hit the market from April on. TAG Heuer is also producing the Connected watch fully in Switzerland, thanks to a collaboration with high-tech company in Zürich. The ambitions for the Connected watch is big. Next year, 2017, TAG Heuer plans to produce 200’000 units. Currently dozens of people are related to the production of this watch. TAG Heuer is the first Swiss company to truly embrace the wave of smart-watches.

Tag-heuer-connected-watch

Living, travelling, getting information, connecting… the TAG Heuer Connected watch is the perfect partner. It brings together the best of both worlds: a magnificent TAG Heuer watch with computing intelligence. TAG Heuer worked closely with Intel and Google to create a luxury watch that combined connectivity and computing intelligence with Swiss watchmaking heritage. The watch features an Intel® Atom™ processor Z34XX and runs the Android Wear platform. As JC Biver explained, TAG Heuer has placed a computer on your wrist and the possibilities are incredibly huge.

tagheuer-connected-titanium

This year again, TAG Heuer has brought their know-how and the innovative approach they have from watch-making, being always in the Swiss avant-garde.

LuxuryActivist

TAG-Heuer-Baselworld-new-watches

Info sourced at private appointment with TAG Heuer in Baselworld 2016. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only. 

5 reasons for why you should live in Switzerland

José Amorim
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Reading Time: 8 minutes

Switzerland is an amazing country that offers great opportunities for work as well for living. It is a country with great treasures that you are not necessary aware of. Did you ever think about moving in? Well, the following points might motivate you to do so. Here are our 5 reasons for why you should live in Switzerland.

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Reason number 1: a more natural life

One of the striking aspects of living in Switzerland is the closeness with nature. Basically withing 30mn you can go from a city center like Zürich or Geneva to the middle of the countryside or to a top of a mountain.
The beauty of Switzerland landscapes will seduce more than one. You experience life differently like if you were always on holidays. You rediscover the rhythm of seasons. Every season is marked by different weather, temperatures, colors and smells. You tend to buy more “local” so you rediscover the taste of good things from the garden. Basically you do not necessary eat the same calibered, untasteful red tomato all year long and suddenly you are happy with that. You get more connected to what you smell, taste, touch… Well, you connect better with life. Is it all about lakes and mountains? Well, there are also green meadows with a lovely countryside. And aside of that, yes, there are a lot of mountains and lakes.
The closeness with nature makes you more relaxed and also help you to better organize your life. You get better into shape as well… As long you go easy with the cheese fondue, raclette and other mountaineering specials.
Here are 3 spots you need to visit if you come to Switzerland, no matter if it is for a long weekend or a lifetime experience.

Zermatt, the Matterhorn and the Glacier Express

If you want to experience the true beauty of the Swiss Alps, you need to visit Zermatt, the Matterhorn mountain(4’478m) region and then take the Glacier Express train from Zermatt to St Moritz. You will discover an amazing region sharped by eternal glaciers, majestic mountains and warm-hearted villages. From Zermatt, you can take a small train and climb up to 3’100m to Gornergrat where you can find an amazing sight seing over the Matterhorn and a Victorinox Swiss Army shop.

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Interlaken and the Jungfrau

The Interlaken region has seduced nature fans since the 19th century when people would seek a closer contact with nature as well as a healthier environment. The Jungfrau mountain reaches 4’158m and thanks to a mountain train, you can almost reach the top. It is an amazing experience. With good weather you can see all of Switzerland in one snapshot. If you are looking for a nice hotel to visit this region, check out our review here.

Interlaken-Jungfrau

The Leman Riviera, from cosmopolitan Geneva to Jazzy Montreux

The Leman riviera is the region going from Geneva through Lausanne and continuing up to Montreux. It is a marvelous area dominated by the Leman Lake or Lake Geneva. With a total surface of 581km2, it is one of the biggest lakes in Europe and by far the biggest Alpine lake. Thanks to the lake, the winter temperatures are never too cold and summer is always fresher. From the Lavaux vineyards to an amazing MontBlanc sight-seeing, you can enjoy an amazing scenery every day. You can find the best hotels around the Leman Lake in our useful guide. Just click here.

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Reason number 2: a better balance in your life

The second reason why you should seriously think to moving to Switzerland is the accomplishment of a better balance in your life. The way things are organized in Switzerland helps to have a better life. You start your days early than in other countries but you can finish your work early as well, so you have more time for sports, walking, taking care of your children or basically do all the things you are supposed to do only on weekends by lack of time.
City structures are also very adapted to children, so you will not feel handicapped because you have a baby-buggy for example. There are a lot of cultural life going on. From national museums, to private organizations, galleries and ateliers, you will be able to attend to art exhibitions you would never see of that quality abroad.
Because of all these, Swiss life is not stressful and so people tend to be more relaxed in general which brings a certain coolness to the country. Naturally, many things tend to remain the same. Well we do not need to change something we believe is right. Or if any change is required, taking the time for that change to happen is more like a quality of respect.

Reason number 3: Job opportunities and a calm booming economy

Switzerland business life is like the lake, we like it when it is calm without too much waves. That is how business is generally like in Switzerland. Switzerland rather prefer to have between 1 to 5% every year rather than jumping around on a double digit growth that might not be sustainable in time.
Business partnerships tend to last for a long time and loyalty in business is a quality that anyone in Switzerland would admire.
There are also several professional opportunities in Switzerland. Many international brands are settled in Switzerland. Some of them have their worldwide HQ in the country, others have their European offices and most possess local interesting businesses. Switzerland is a small market but generally has a high penetration rate in certain industries. Pharmaceuticals, watch-making, food and beverage industries or banks will provide amazing job opportunities. Here are some of the amazing brands you could work for in Switzerland:

  • Nestlé
  • Nespresso
  • Swatch Group
  • Novartis
  • Roche
  • Richemont Group
  • Kuoni
  • Tamoil
  • Logitech
  • Triumph
  • Oettinger Davidoff
  • Lindt & Sprüngli
  • Givaudan
  • Firmenich
  • Bobst
  • United Nations
  • FIFA
  • UEFA
  • FIBA
  • CERN
  • World Economic Forum
  • Philip Morris International
  • The British Tobacco Company

Of course all the big banks and insurances are in Switzerland. So as you can see there are loads of opportunities. There are currently 141’131 people unemployed in Switzerland. The unemployment rate is at 3.3%, a record in Europe when you see how bad is France, Spain, Germany or even the UK. Swiss salaries are a great temptation as generally they are much higher than in other countries. Nevertheless, living in Switzerland has also a very high cost, so you better do your calculations if you wish to enjoy the beautiful Swiss life.

Reason number 4: International meet local, an unique experience

Switzerland is considered as a small Europe on its own. There are 4 official languages: German, French, Italian and Romansch. If you dig an extra layer, you realize it is not only German, it is Swiss German. And each village in the German-speaking area has its own version of Swiss-German.
Since 2012, the foreign population, resident in Switzerland, crossed the mark of 23%. Total population today is 8.2 million inhabitants. This means there is almost 2 million foreigners living in Switzerland. Most of them are from European Union (64%): Germans, French, Portuguese, Italian and Spanish. Due to political alliances, Switzerland is also a land for political refugees, so there is an important community of people from war areas: Serbia, Tamil or Turkish. So all these people from different cultures and backgrounds live together. Because of that, English became a sort of 5th (non)official language in the country.

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Reason number 5: Switzerland is the king of transports

If you already live in Switzerland or came at least once to the country, you will be stroke by the high efficiency of public transport. Trains are something amazing in this country. Switzerland has the most dense railway network in the world. Basically you can go to everywhere in the country from anywhere. Public transport will even take you to top of mountains thanks to the mountain trains and the Postal buses.

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Switzerland has general subscriptions that allow you to take any transport means (bus, train, boat, cable-cars). It is an unique system. As being a modern country, they have developed a mobile App that allow you to check train schedules, book your journey and buy online your tickets. You can present your mobile phone to the controller and he will scan a QR code directly from your smartphone screen. Swiss public transports are in general always on time. If there is a problem with the train, no worries, they will find you another train and get you to destination with a minimum delay. So things work in Switzerland.
Based on the above points, Switzerland represent an amazing land to live in. A country with no weird diseases, no natural catastrophes, no crazy politics and a certain idea of individual respect… It is a rare thing in this world. So yes there are amazing opportunities for you in Switzerland.

If you wish to explore more, you can visit the following recommended websites that will give you a pretty good impression of how things in the country.

MySwitzerland
http://www.myswitzerland.com

Federal Administration
https://www.admin.ch

Working in Switzerland
https://www.ch.ch/en/work-switzerland-foreign-national/
http://www.swissinfo.ch

You just need to make it happen. Basically, it is up to you!

LA

Info sourced at the websites above, wikipedia, Le Temps, Bilan and the Hebdo. Pictures for illustration purposes sourced at touristmaker.com and skiingthealps.com. 

Baselworld 2016 – on time with Zenith

Sebastien Eich
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0
Reading Time: 4 minutes

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Zenith is one of the leading Watch-makers in Switzerland with a worldwide aura. It was founded in 1865 by visionary 22 years old man, Georges Favre-Jacot in Le Locle (Neuchatel Canton) who dreamed to create the first manufacture capable of making the most reliable and accurate watches ever imagined. Georges Favre-Jacot chose the city of Le Locle to found a manufacture named “Fabrique Billodes.” At this time, large numbers of watchmakers worked at home in various scattered workshops with no direct links to each other. Thus, it was the first to build on the territory of Switzerland spacious and bright buildings dedicated to watchmaking, building on the model of the Waltham Watch Company. He gathered no less than 80 watchmaking professions under one roof combining grand traditions and significantly advanced production technology.
Chronometric performance is a constant throughout Zenith’s history. In 1899 the Favre-Jacot manufacture produced its first pocket chronograph. In 1900 it won a gold medal at the Universal Exhibition in Paris. Indeed, over the course of the 20th century, the company was awarded 1,550 distinctions. It produced some fifty calibres which were sold at the brand’s numerous branches around the world. Between 1910 and 1960, it developed onboard instruments for planes, cars, trucks and even locomotives. Among the many calibres introduced by the firm are Calibre 135, in 1948, and the now legendary El Primero, in 1969, beating at 10 vibrations a second. In 2010 it evolved into the El Primero Striking 10th displaying tenths of a second. In 1911, the manufacture took the name Zenith, after the highest point reached by a celestial body. George Favre-Jacot was quick to give up an activity of simply assembling parts bought-in from outside suppliers, and instead chose to manufacture movements entirely in his own workshops. He also produced his own dials, which were enamelled or painted, as well as cases. A manufacture in the true sense of the word took shape, with all the watchmaking professions together under one roof.

In 1999 Zenith became part of the LVMH group. Thierry Nataf led the brand from 2001 to 2009 and instigated the Open concept, named after the opening in the dial through which the beating escapement can be seen. In 2007 he launched the Defy range of extremely robust watches whose calibre incorporates Zenithium, an exclusive alloy developed by the manufacture. Jean-Frédéric Dufour took the helm of Zenith until 2014. During his tenure, he retrained the spotlight on the brand’s pilot watches with, in 2012, three new Pilot models. Since the LVMH acquisition, the company focus only in mechanical movements in the prestige segment. The current CEO of the company is Aldo Magada. 

What is new at Baselworld 2016?

We got lucky this year at Baselworld as we had a private appointment with the Zenith Team. They were able to explain to us in further details the Zenith universe based on a vintage yet dynamic environment. From the legendary Cafe Racer spirit to the Pilot watches, Zenith expresses a very masculine, timeless and elegant message that will definitely please the fans and potentially new  customers.

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Zenith-watches-vintage-universe

In terms of new watch models, we were quite inspired by the new launches, there is a strong story-telling spirit in Zenith watches, you just need to look at them to start dreaming. Style, authenticity and pleasure: Zenith will be taking Baselworld visitors on a thrilling journey. They will have the opportunity to enjoy a ride in a classic car, a little pampered downtime in a traditional barber’s lounge or to be part of the first Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride of Baselworld. Five iconic new watches will showcase that vintage, craftsmanship and passion have never been so current and in sync with the future. Here some examples:

Zenith-Elite-Gold-Baselworld-2016
Elite 6150

 

Zenith-New-Pilot-Cafe-racer-watch
The New Heritage Pilot “Café Racer”

 

Zenith-Café-Racer-Spirit-watch
The New Heritage Pilot “Café Racer” back-case

 

Zenith-El-Primero-ClassicCars
El Primero Classic Cars

 

Zenith-Elite-Lady-moon-phase
Elite Lady Moon Phase

Absolute transparency ensuring unobstructed views of cutting-edge Zenith mechanics: the Academy Tourbillon Georges Favre-Jacot offers a futuristic take on Haute Horlogerie. Its powerful design and innovative materials reveal an unprecedented ‘engine’ – El Primero Calibre 4805 – combining two iconic complications from the Manufacture: the tourbillon and a fusee and chain transmission system. Issued in a 150-piece limited edition featuring a 45 mm-diameter black ceramic case, this sophisticated watch fully reveals the contemporary architecture of its high-frequency heart.

Academy-George-Favre-Jacot-Tourbillon
Academy George Favre-Jacot Tourbillon

Zenith is keeping its star bright and shine and for the new 2016 Baselworld edition, the result is very elegant, timeless and sharp.

Sébastien Eich
Zenith-Baselworld-new-watches

Info sourced at the private appointment with Zenith in Baselworld 2016. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only. 

Millennials: be your own fashion designer

LuxuryActivist
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0
Reading Time: 3 minutes

How-to-become-a-fashion-designer

Looking good is important. You want people to notice you and admire your choice of outfit, but unless you can afford to pay designer prices, it can be difficult to stand out from the crowd. High street fashion is great, but there are always thousands of people wearing the same outfit and putting together an original outfit is hard to do. Luckily there are ways to look like you were born a fashionista without spending a fortune – and here’s how.

Adapt an Existing Outfit

Since you probably have a pile of outfits that for one reason or another you never wear, you should have no qualms about altering them. There are lots of things you can do with clothes you no longer wear. Plain fabrics can be dyed; accessories can be added. Alter sleeves or turn a pair of trousers into shorts. It takes skill to do this, but these skills can easily be learned if you follow online tutorials or sign up for a tailoring class.

Be a Bargain Bin Queen

One woman’s cast-offs are another woman’s dream garments. It’s amazing what you can find if you check out local second-hand shops. In some towns, the second-hand and charity shops are awash with designer outfits and last season’s cast offs. They might be ‘so last season’ to the original owners, but you can give them a whole new lease of life.

Make Your Own Outfits

It is not so difficult to make your own outfits if you have a flair for being creative. There are lots of Simplicity New Look patterns to choose from, or you can have a go at making your own patterns. The great thing about making your own garments is that nobody else will be wearing the same outfit. You can be 100% original, all of the time, which is perfect if you dream of being a cutting-edge fashionista.

Dare to be Different

The thing about fashionistas is that they don’t follow the herd. Check out any online magazine and you will soon notice that fashionistas dare to be different. The latest catwalk trends are not always for them, although they do like to pick and choose key garments from this season’s top trends. Instead, they mix and match their outfits according to their own individual style.

The Art of Accessorising

Accessorising is important if you want to look different. Use belts, hats, scarves, jewellery, and anything else you have available to customise an otherwise boring outfit. It is amazing what a difference a few well-chosen accessories can make to an outfit.

Blog about Your Fashion Experiments

It is fun to blog about your fashionista experiences. Show off your creations and tell your audience about where you get your inspiration from. In time, you could potentially build up quite a following, which may even score you tickets to major fashion events.

Why dress like everyone else when you can do your own thing? Creating outfits and accessorising cool garments is fun, so enjoy yourself and learn how to be a fashionista.

Carol

How-to-become-a-fashion-designer

Info sourced by the author exclusively for LuxuryActivist.com. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only. 

How to become a successful luxury blogger

José Amorim
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0
Reading Time: 9 minutes

Luxury-News-Blog

The luxury market is supposed to grow every year by 3 to 7% worldwide. This means that it is an industry with a strong appealing to people. There is an ongoing increase of interest for luxury news around the world and the young generations are ultra-connected, super-informed and craving for luxury brands. While emerging markets like Brazil, India or China have ups and downs, mature markets like the UK or the US are pretty stable or even slightly growing. This generates a strong interest on Luxury news as the luxury customers are more and more keen to discover more about brands, products and services. The younger they are the more informed they want to be. Among the younger customers, there are the Millenniums. They are below 25 years old and some of them have money. Millenniums have more than $US 200 billion to spend and they contribute to $US 500 billion indirectly through influencing their parents (source: US Chamber of Commerce). By 2017, this generation is supposed to outspend the BabyBoomers. They are “hyperly” connected and engage with luxury brands in ways we would not imagine. They are also very demanding and traditional luxury is not enough. They seek very exclusive experiences and products, more than previous generations. We talk now more about hyper-luxury. Technology definitely opened the possibilities to engage with this young generation across the world but it is not only that. In this digital new landscape, we can see that Bloggers became the new media. They are clever, well informed, digital natives or at least digital savvy. There are blogs every where and sometimes you feel that everybody is a blogger. Nevertheless we see that some are more successful than others. Probably if your professional career puts you already in the limelights, this helps. Some star bloggers are top models, singers, journalists and a few just came up from nowhere and got their names written in golden digital ink. How did they make it? How can you judge the “success of a blog”, especially in the luxury environment? Here are some tips to help you start your luxury blog, potentially you will become the next Kristina Bazan.

kristina-bazan-luxury-blogger

With almost one billion websites and 2.9 billion internet users, the worldwide web became a huge spider-web that fighting to exist is like being a fly sticked in that web fighting not to get eaten by the big tarantulas. So if you decided to start a blog, no matter if you are a professional digital marketer or a young teenager that has something cool and hip to say, you need to pay attention to 5 golden rules about blogging. Without these rules you will commit that one mistake that the fly always do and get eaten by the “non-visibility spider”. So here are 5 good pieces of advice that will save you a lot of time or even prevent you to start something that you might not be able to manage.

Blogosphere, a inter-galactical nebula

Today in the world there are approximately 152 million blogs. These represent 15% of all websites in the world. It means that every day in the world there are 172’800 new blogs created. They became tremendously popular in the late 1990’s. It coincided with the advent of web publishing tools that facilitated the posting of content by non-technical users. Before that, you needed to have deep knowledge in html and ftp to publish content on the web. The name blog comes from weblog, web-log. This concept was used the first time in December 1997 by Jorn Barger. Being one of the firsts to get interested about digital content publishing, he created the term weblog to describe the process of “logging the web” as he surfed. The term stayed and was simplified as blog in 1999 by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the sentence we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme,com. These were the beginnings of an amazing trend in which anyone could become a web content producer. The years 2000 brought the power to blogs and to bloggers. They became world references and were part of the biggest world influencers. Brands would bend to what some of these bloggers would say and eventually would even allow them to market products for them. It was the era of the bloggers super stars.
Today things have changed. Companies put in place clever blog strategies, content syndication, video and social seeding are just a few strategies to populate the blogosphere with brand content. “Old bloggers” became professional news editors, new bloggers are embracing social media and SEO strategies and brands have their own blogs that sometimes can be bigger than the proper websites. So if you are about to start a blog, the task seems huge and the challenge as well. So there are a couple of things that you definitely want to take care of in order to make a successful blog.

Why do you want to write a blog?

It sounds silly but did you already ask yourself why should you start a blog? Why should you dedicate that amount of time, potentially money and hard work to build and keep a blog? Some people could say that bloggers are depressed people without a life, so they blog. It is definitely a cliché (not saying that clichés are untrue though).
Probably in most of the cases, a blogger is someone who has something to say about something. No matter if it is political, social, fashionable, about high-tech or fooding. A successful blogger is someone who has something interesting to say, to show or to broadcast. So think about it and rather than starting your own blog you might want to try a couple of guest posts before on other people’s blogs in order to test your “interest level”. Buying a URL and opening a web page is something anyone can do. Publishing a qualitative piece of content is another league. Today it is all about the content. A successful blogger will publish original, exclusive and useful content. If the quality is not there, the people will not read it. With all my respect, nobody is waiting for you to write something. With millions of news website, you might find hard to cover a story that no professional high-skilled news team hasn’t cover it yet. So the good habit is: think first, write later. Make sure that every-time you post something it has high relevance and quality to the type of audience you are looking for. You better post 1 to 3 times a week in a great way rather than posting bad content everyday.

Web hosting and URL – choose them well

It might sound as a detail but your web hosting solution and url are very important. The first one will determine the geographical definition of your audience. By hosting your blog in the US, you might get a natural traffic from North America. If you host your blog in Switzerland, it is mostly likely that your Swiss traffic will be a majority of your visitors. It shouldn’t be the case but Google algorithm is pretty much sophisticated these days. The URL is also an important topic. It is the summary of what is your website about. It will give already to a new potential visitor an idea of what kind of blog you have. Sometimes we feel that all possible urls are already taken but you will find something relevant for your content. So choose it well.

It is all about networking, networking, networking.

A successful blogger is an influencer. It means that (s)he has several thousands of people who read what (s)he writes and generally tend to give (s)he a strong legitimacy on the topic the blogger is covering. So it means that you need to cultivate your network and develop the links between your website and other bloggers. Being part of an influential stream is very beneficial. By sharing links from your blog to other blogs and vice-versa, is also very beneficial to the famous “website ranking”. Make sure this happens in a natural way. Avoid building artificial web-linking programs that might give you a Google penalty. You will be in trouble to get rid of it.

Patience is every blogger’s best friend.

The worst thing that can happen to you is to rush for stats. Do not try to strike an amazing success in a couple of weeks. If you consult your stats every day or even several times a day, it will drive you insane. In average a website takes around 18 month to become successful with a solid and sustainable traffic. So you will need to be patient and traffic will come. Do not forget that traffic depends on how, when and what Google and other search engines decide user to see. This means you need to have a minimum understanding of Search Engine Optimization- SEO. Otherwise, you will have the best content possible but nobody will spot it out. Welcome to the SEO-SEM era. Last but not least, do not forget the world became mobile. Web-browsing on mobile is bigger now than desktop. There are twice more searches on mobile in the world than on desktop. So one good piece of advice: get a template for your blog that works on multiple devices. Nowadays responsive design templates are cheap and you can even get some good responsive templates for free, specially if you use WordPress (as 47% of all blogs).

So, now that you got a few insights about how to start and maintain a successful luxury blog, you have only one thing to say: Hello world!.
LA

Luxury-News-Blog-tips

Info sourced at internetlivestats.com, wpvirtuoso.com, wikipedia and socialbakers.com. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only. 

2014-2018 mobile figures, what do you need to know.

José Amorim
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0
Reading Time: 7 minutes

It is amazing to see how human behavior adapts very fast to new habits, especially when you find a strong interest in doing it. That is why mobile became such an important platform for communication and even purchase behavior. The world has become mobile and our cell-phones are smart enough now to allow you managing all your life from it. You can talk to it, touch its screen and give orders with your fingers. Some how, using your phone to literally call someone is today the second or third usage of your phone. Before that you have things like the time, the weather forecast and other related services, emails, sms and social media like Facebook. 80% of people between 16 to 35 years old use regularly a mobile phone. As we can see in the chart below, the overall mobile traffic to internet is exponentially increasing year after year.

Mobile-data-traffic-2010-to-2018

Mobile web is a blockbuster

Forecasts for next year shows that figures will double between 2014 and 2015 in terms of terabytes provided to mobile devices. Of course this explosion of usage comes from 2 main phenomenon. One is the increase of mobile web penetration worldwide and another one is the fact better bandwidth, 4G connection and WiFi everywhere is spreading which allows a much heavier consumption of content (HD videos rather than simple texts and images). If you take in consideration the number of devices in circulation, its growth is also exponential. While global population is growing by 1.2% every year, Mobile devices grow 7 times faster. Today it is considered there are more mobile devices than people! The number of mobile devices in circulation is 7.22 Billion whereas world population is considered to be around 7.19 to 7.21 billion (source: Independant.co.uk). This means there are many people around this world with multiple devices and multiple sim cards. From all mobile devices categories,Tablets have overcome smartphones in numbers and it is equal to M2M modules (machine to machine communication devices like WiFi).
Annual-growth-per-device-mobile

It is a true World Wide Web

With the development of cheap technologies, the internet is reaching all parts of the world. We consider today that regular Internet access has a 79.1% penetration rate worldwide. This figure will increase up to 90.1% by 2017. This means that almost everybody would have access to internet. Some regions are quite complex to reach. Try to find a internet connection in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia (trust me I tried). Impossible. Nevertheless, technology is evolving and high-tech companies are looking for a solution. Google has an unbelievable project to provide internet to very remote places thanks to hot air balloons equipped with WiFi-Max or other communication relay capabilities. It is not yet developed but pretty much on going.
Mobile-phone-internet-user-penetration-2017
What we can also see in the chart above is the fact that 48.9% of people has a mobile phone (at least) and as phones become more and more smart, this means mobile internet is growing very fast. In the below chart, we can see that by the end of 2013, 34% of internet users browse the web with their mobile phone. They used it to search for products and services and buy them. By the end of 2014, we are over crossing the mythical line of 50%. What does this mean? Well, it means that if your company’s website is not adapted to mobile, your customers’ experience will be poor. You might have customers that will never check your “desktop website” as they might do it either from their smartphones and/or tablets. According to a Business Insider 2014 online survey, 68% of people would not buy from a brand if the online user experience is not good. This is even more important in the luxury industry. So you might want to reconsider the experience you are providing to customers via the mobile web.
Internet-users-via-mobile-2013

Mobile first is the key of user experience

The mobile web penetration rate is evolving so fast that millions of website have now more traffic coming from mobile than desktop. This means that companies need to completely rethink the user-experience as explained previously. Major news website like Time or even Eurosport proposes a complete mobile integrated website, skipping the “desktop version”. Today we have tablet version and smartphone. Can one same layout do everything? Of course not. Well, not always but it is improving.
Some companies decided to have a completely full Responsive design website. We are no longer talking about devices but more about screen resolutions. The entire website is designed with what we call “break-points”, meaning the web-designer will shape the code of the pages to adapt and distribute all the elements through a certain order and size. This is supposed to present the best usage of the website no matter your screen size.

Mobile-world
Other companies will prefer to have two versions of the website. The first one is a Desktop-tablet version (with some responsive features) and the second one is a m.website that triggers only if you access the site via a smartphone. Is there a better option? Not really. It all depends what experience you wish to propose to your users. If we take the example of the luxury car brand Porsche, the mobile experience is very specific. Rather than proposing every option on mobile, the German decided to focus on car photo galleries browsing and tech specs. Basically this is what Porsche mobile visitors will be doing. E-commerce websites tend to focus on the e-business part. The tricky part is that today smartphones are getting bigger and bigger and 4G connections provide good internet everywhere. We can see that mobile video consumption is also growing very fast. In the next 4 years the global mobile video traffic will multiply by 10 which means that user experience will increase as well.
Global-Mobile-video-traffic-2013---2018

The 10 key figures for mobile web

In order to conclude this article, here are the 10 key learnings from mobile web in 2014. These might give you some insights that you cannot forget if you are working on any mobile strategy for 2015 and beyond

  • 57% is the percentage of users who won’t recommend companies with poor mobile sites
  • 1 in 4 online searches are conducted on mobile devices
  • The average American spend almost 2 hours per day on a mobile device
  • By 2015, mobile marketing in the US will generate $400 billion
  • By 2016, mobile ad revenue will reach $24.5 billion
  • 85% of the users prefer a native mobile app to mobile website
  • 224 million Monthly active mobile app users un the US
  • 66% of mobile device users access social networks from these devices
  • Facebook controlled 16% of the global mobile ad market in 2013
  • US Social Media ad revenues are expected to reach $11 billion by 2017.
    Source searchenginejournal.com

The world went from mobility to mobile. The world wide web is changing drastically not only because of mobile devices but also because screens become touch-screens. No more keyboards and mouses but fingers and virtual keyboards. Countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil and India are developing the mobile web much faster than developed countries. The user experience became the key thing for marketers in order to place brands under the fingers and the hearts of consumers. The world is definitely smaller than we think.

LA

Mobile-figures-2014-2017

Info sourced at techcrunch, Mashable, LeMonde techno, searchenginejournal.com, wikipedia and Bilan. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.

Wysses Rössli in Schwyz. Gastronomy and Culture at 4 stars.

José Amorim
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Reading Time: 5 minutes

Switzerland is a hidden treasure to be discovered in the heart of Europe. And inside this magnificent treasure, the Wysses Rössli Hotel is one of the key jewels. In this beautiful 4 stars Hotel you will discover a journey between Gastronomy and culture. Check it out.

WyssesRossliHotelOutside

Located in the heart of Switzerland in the city of Schwyz, this amazing hotel deserves our admiration as it travelled through history and today is the witness of a great heritage. Since September 2008, the owners are Sepp & Ida Trütsch-Reichmuth.

Since 1642

The first tracks about the Rössli in Schwyz take us to the 17th century when a great fire destroyed almost the entire city of schwyz, including the Gasthaus zum Rössli. Rebuilt, it crossed the centuries under the possession of different rich families. It was also the place in which several prominent guests decided to stay like the German writer Johann Wolfgang Goethe and General Guisan.

Schwyz 17th century
photo: moneymuseum.com

This is what we could read on Goethe’s journal of the 30th September 1797 about his stay in Schwyz:

“Schwyz. Beautiful spectacle of a country entirely green dotted with fruit trees and white houses on a background of dark rocks and cliffs, along which slide the clouds.”

Schwyz Mythen

 

If you are traveling to Switzerland, you need to visit Schwyz with its lakes, mountains and typical villages. Schwyz is one of the original cantons that settled the birth of Switzerland as a country in 1291. Land of William Tell legend and also known as the Swiss knife valley, you can find many things to do in summer or winter.

Schwyz

Schwyz_hauptplatz

Today

Since 2008, the renovation of the hotel gave a new future to this amazing heritage. 28 rooms, 4 deluxe suites decorated with taste and regional items like pictures. The Wysses Rössli is also know to be one of the best restaurants of Central Switzerland.

Wysses_Rossli_Gastronomy
photo: Wysses Rössli

The menu is very complete. The Chef gives priorities for seasonality and for local productions. Try the Chateaubriand for 2 or a exquisite Boeuf-Tartare. With an experienced Chef-Patissier in-house, your meals will always have a beautiful conclusion. The wine card is not tremendously big but every single wine was specifically chosen. Several dining rooms are possible at the Wysses Rössli. From modern and contemporary design ambiances to historical experiences. Depending on your motivation and on what you are looking for, the entire team there will help you achieve your aims for an evening, the weekend of even more days.

WyssesRossliHotel-Restaurant

WyssesRossliHotel_restaurant

Turmstube WyssesRoeslli
photo: Wysses Rössli
Taefer-Stube Wysses Rössli
photo: Wysses Rössli

This week Luxuryactivist was able to try the Goethe Zimmer – deluxe room for a couple of days. By sitting in that room, we had the feeling to meet in person Johann Wolfgang Goethe. The entire suite is dedicated to the German writer. This gives to the suite a strong historical background but also places you into a nice mood.

Wysses Rossli Goethe Zimmer

The Goethe deluxe room is located at the 3rd floor of the hotel and provides you not only a great view but also offers you an true experience. In honor of the journey that Goethe did in Schwyz, this room has amazing paintings and writing of Goethe. The 18th century and the 19th century brought many people to Mountains landscapes. For some people was because of medical reasons, others because living in the mountains or closer to Mountains was a idyllic life, completely translated into the Romantic trend at that time.

The Goethe Zimmer at Wysses Rössli has all the comfort of a modern room with flat screen, mini-bar or free wifi internet connection. As the room is at the end of the corridor on one of the building corners, you are not bothered by the other customers.

WyssesRossliGoetheZimmer

WyssesRossliGoetheZimmer2

 

Wysses-Rossli-Goethe-zimmer

Wysses-Rossli-Goethe-deluxe-zimmer

 

WyssesRossliGoetheZimmer3

The Hotel is a 4 stars hotel member of several prestigious guides and associations like SwissGastro and The Rotary club. It shows how importance reference this hotel is.
WyssesRossliHotelRotaryClub

The ambiance in the hotel is very elegant but also very warm hearted. We feel at home. The team is friendly, very professional and respectful. Ms. Yvonne Schüpfer (Service chef) and Mr Thomas Räber (Hotel Director) run the day-to-day organization and activities on a high level of excellence.

Congress booking Switzerland
photo: Wysses Rössli

So if you have plans to visit Switzerland, This Hotel-Restaurant is one place you do not want to miss. They have many events and special evenings all year long. Also for companies, you can book your congress or strategic meeting at the hotel and use the business installations in this inspiring environment.
Check the official website for more information: http://www.roessli-schwyz.ch 

When history blends with gastronomy you get a true and unique lifestyle.
LA

 

Info sourced at the Wysses Rössli website, wikipedia and money museum. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. 

Baselworld 2016 – on time with Hublot. 

Sebastien Eich
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0
Reading Time: 4 minutes

Hublot-Baselworld-new-watches

The 80’s saw a liberation of classical standards and very innovative brands were born. So when Carlo Crocco created Hublot in 1980, he was the mirror of a certain idea of innovation, quality and distinction. The first watch signed Hublot philosophy. It was a golden watch set in a rubber strap. The bezel had the recognizable shape of a ship porthole, translated as Hublot in French. Tradition meets modernity and the art of fusion started. In 2004, Carlo Crocco hired the incomparable Jean-Claude Biver and appointed him as the company CEO. His role was to dream big and level up Hublot to the rank of super star. This larger-than-life figure took the original concept of combining materials even further as “The Art of Fusion”.

Big Bang, the brand’s flagship collection, took its cue from the Hublot watch launched in 1980. It immediately went on to claim the Best Design prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. Soon after it was joined by the King Power collection and, later, the Classic Fusion range, driven by extra-thin, UNICO in-house movements. In 2006 the brand launched its Big Bang All Black, and with it introduced the innovative concept of an all-black watch. The brand has continued to invest in research and development, with Matthias Buttet at the head of its R&D division. It also joined forces with Lausanne Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) to develop a new alloy of 24k gold and ceramic (boron carbide) that has a hardness of almost 1,000 Vickers. This “Magic Gold” was revealed to the public at end 2011, which was also the year Hublot paid tribute to the Antikythera mechanism, an Ancient Greek cosmograph which the brand miniaturised to fit inside a wristwatch. Hublot also has its own Grandes Complications division with some 30 watchmakers, prototypists, electroplaters and engineers. With this new Baselworld edition, Hublot has built new projects capitalizing on the brand strengths

What is new this year with Hublot?

Hublot-Conference-Ricardo-Guadalupe-JC-Biver

Hublot is about the art of innovation. For Ricardo Guadalupe, Hublot CEO, if you wish to lead the watchmaking industry, you need to innovate or die. Since the 80’s, Hublot has continuously innovated, always thinking out of the box.

Hublot makes yesterday eternal – Jean Claude Biver

10 years after the launch of the All Black, Hublot could not let this milestone to pass without a celebration. Back in 2006, Hublot launched a new trend. While all watchmakers were fighting for visibility, clarity and outstanding high-pitched timepieces, Hublot decided to go in the opposite direction and launched a full-black edition. Everything was black in that watch. It was the first black watch, that generated an all trend of black watches. Initially they have produced less than 300 units and they ended up selling 2’700.

Hublot-All-Black-2006

Now 10 years later, Hublot celebrates the birth of a trend by launching a 500 units All Black Sapphire watch. Naturally in order to respect the concept of All Black, Hublot has developed a “smoked Sapphire”. And here is the new model, purely an amazing design. Again, Hublot worked on a fusion of materials in order to bring a contemporary look to this new watch. The smoked effect is astonishing, bringing an interesting depth to the piece. It also procures a more lower profile than a full transparent sapphire.

Hublot-All-Black-2016

Another interesting project presented today was the collaboration with Berluti. As you know Hublot and Berluti belong to the same group, LVMH. The French luxury group is the world champion for synergies. Here in our case, Hublot worked with the very best from Berluti. The timeless quality and design of Berluti at the service of Swiss Watchmaking. Hublot

Hublot-Classic-Fusion-Berluti

Berluti-venezia

With this new model, the watch dial and the bracelet is manufactured in collaboration with Berluti. The dial is pretty much mind-blowing as the leather is marked directly in the skin itself. It provides a very elegant and sophisticated look, still highlighting the quality of natural beauty.

As we can see, Baselworld starts at high standards and Hublot has shown already a great energy by revealing these two amazing projects based on innovation, passion and respect of traditions.

 

Sébastien Eich
Hublot-Baselworld-new-watches

Info sourced during a private meeting with Hublot at Baselworld 2016. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only.

Sapphire glass, not jewelry but high-tech.

Arsene Wargas
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0
Reading Time: 4 minutes

It is not the first time we hear that a timepiece has a sapphire glass. Some people think it is made of real sapphire, others do not really know. Here is finally the explanation you were waiting for.

There is Sapphire and Sapphire glass

Sapphire is commonly the name given to the precious gemstone variety  from  the mineral called Corundum (an aluminium oxide). Most of the time it is blue because of the presence of iron and titanium but color car be variable depending on other complementary mineral.

Corundum-sapphire-crystal

Sapphire-jewelry

Because of its hardness, natural Sapphires can be used in many other domains than jewelry. We can find Sapphires in optical components as well in certain wristwatches movement bearings. In luxury watch-making, the watch glass is always what we call a “Sapphire glass”. Does it means that we tool a real big natural Sapphire and cut a little thin piece on it? Of course not. When we talk about Sapphire glass, this means something else. It is what we call Synthetic Sapphire.

The goal for several industries was to create a solid, harder and strong glass that would replace normal sand-glass in specific usages, like plane windows, high-security vehicles, scientific instruments and luxury items like Timepieces. Scientists realized that the Aluminium oxide provides all the resistance to natural Sapphires, so if they could recreate a crystal configuration with the Aluminium oxide, they would be able to create a stronger glass. Thanks to a specific process, a few companies in the USA and in Russia were able to create a perfect crystal. We call it Synthetic Sapphire or Sapphire glass as it is made from pure Aluminium oxide powder.

Aluminium-Oxide

The crystallization process requires some mastery, and only a few companies in the world have successfully provided the best quality. Today in the world, we produce around 250 tons of synthetic Sapphire. After the production process, we obtain, depending on the size of the production tank, a 200kg huge piece of crystallized Aluminium oxide. We call it “Boule”, like ball in french.

boule-sapphire-glass

Why a french name? Well, perhaps because it was a french chemist who invented this production process. His name was Auguste Verneuil and he invented the process to produce synthetic sapphire in 1902.

Auguste-Victor-Louis-Verneuil Verneuil-torch-sketch

Synthetic sapphire is industrially produced from agglomerated aluminium oxide, sintered and fused in an inert atmosphere. The key factor is to use very pure material. For perfect transparency we need to have Aluminium oxide as 99,99999% pure minimum. Otherwise it will result on some kind of veil in the glass.

Verneuil-processsimplified-version

You can watch a movie her made by one of the companies who produces Synthetic Sapphire glass.

So after obtaining a big Sapphire boule, we can then cut it into pieces and make it as thin as we want.

Sapphire-glass-watches

In luxury watchmaking, the protective glass of the timepiece is mostly done with Sapphire Glass. This material has several characteristics that pleases the watchmakers:

  • Very strong material, so prevents against any scratch.
  • A great transparency that allows a better valorization of what is inside the watch
  • In terms of pressure, it also resists to underwater pressure, which contributes to the water resistance aspect.
  • It is a long-lasting material, which is perfect for a watch that you keep, sometimes, over several generations.

Some watchmakers really considered Sapphire glass as a perfect companion. Some timepieces even challenge the possibilities of Sapphire Glass.

Vianney Halter – Deep Space, 3 axis Tourbillon

Great winner of the Grand Prix of Horlogerie – Geneva, Vianney Halter launched an amazing timepiece called the Deep Space. With its 3 axis Tourbillon, this Timepiece is at the state of the art. And to keep this amazing mechanism working in a safe way, a true dome of Sapphire Glass was integrated.

Deep-space-Vianney-Halter

If you wish to read more about this amazing timepiece, please read our review about it here:
http://luxuryactivist.com/watches/vianney-halter-deep-space-tourbillon

So now you know more about synthetic Sapphire and the way we are using it. Last trends about this material: mobile phones! In deed, smartphones around the world get, at one point, nervous and worried about the scratches on our mobile phones. So the next generation of mobile phone will be dressed with true Sapphire glass. Currently, the Apple iPhone 5 has already a protective lens glass made in Sapphire and the rest of the glass is cheaper. We know that the intention of Apple is to move towards Sapphire Glass, as the Californian company already bought for more than 600 million dollars of stocks. So perhaps the next generation of iPhone will have the new protection? Let’s see!

LA


 Info sourced at different brands website and wikipedia. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. 

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