Longines Commemorated 175 Years of its Horological Tradition

The latter is the one to be the flagship of a collection, the destiny of which is to highlight the company's horological tradition.The celebration also provided a great opportunity for publishing a volume, meant to tell about the amazing technical heritage of the watchmaker. The volume is called: At the Heart of an Industrial Vocation - Logines watch movement (1832-2007) - Tradition, know-how, innovation.

IWC to Honor Author/Aviator Antoine de Saint Exupery

The dial is marked with silver A along with luminous large Arabic numbers and hands, so reading the time would be available in the dark. The inside of the case is made of soft iron. It has a screw-in crown and its convex sapphire glass, having antireflective coating on both sides, provides the watch with 60 meters water resistance. The money gathered from the on-line auction will benefit a school which was named in honor of de Saint Exupery. The Ecole des Sables - Antoine de Saint Exupery located in Mali, a country found in the West of Africa, is an institution that provides schooling for Tuareg children, wondering, nomadic people.It also includes large seconds hand, an indicator of the date, which looks like the altimeter display in an aircraft. "Pilot's Automatic Edition Antoine de Saint Exupery" features a relief engraving on its back. The engraving outlines the geographic array of operations during the French author/pilot's era. It is worth mentioning that de Saint Exupery was born in 1900 and in 1944 apparently disappeared when being on a flying mission during the Second World War. The exclusive timepiece features a brown buffalo-leather strap. It's 44-millimeter case includes a dial featuring a tobacco color.

IWC to Honor Author/Aviator Antoine de Saint Exupery

The novel bears Exupery's own dedication written by hand.The timepiece to be presented on auction is called "Pilot's Automatic Edition Antoine de Saint Exupery" and it is a special edition watch from IWC. The number of pieces is limited to only 1,929. This number is surely symbolical. 1929 is the year when de Saint Exupery published his Courrier Sud. However, the watch presented on auction is unique in the limited collection, it's the only one from IWC made in platinum. The platinum case watch has an automatic movement with a display, showing its power reserve.The official website of the popular Swiss watch manufacturer IWC will feature an auction between December 12 and 19. The auction will include an exclusive timepiece and a rare edition of Courier Sud (Southern Mail), which is the first novel written by the famous French writer Antoine de Saint Exupery.

South Africa is now Rich Enough to Afford Cartier Luxury Goods, Richemont Decides

The company's officials, however, withhold to mention the level of assets and liabilities Richemont looks forward to invest in its South African business.Note that for the year to March, the operating profit of the group, gained from luxury goods, saw a 24 percent upturn, reaching 916 million euros. Luxury goods operations were able to generate not less than 970 euros.Worth mentioning that among Richemont's interests there is a number of some of the most prestigious brands in the luxury industry: Piaget, Vacheron Constantin, Jaeger-LeCoultre, IWC, Panerai and Montblanc."The World Wealth Report by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini reports growth of high net worth individuals in South Africa at 13.3 percent for 2006, not far off the pace of higher-growth countries like Russia and South Korea," outlined Roy Chapman, an equity analyst at Sanlam Investment Management. Cartier already opened in 2007 its store in Shanghai, positively altering the demand for luxury goods among the Chinese elite.Representative of one of the leading luxury goods brands, Cartier, stated that South Africa is today rich enough to be able to purchase the brand's products. Cartier decided to open its first store in this African country in November. It is worth mentioning that currently the popular luxury brand is one of the most stable brands owned by Richemont, which is a huge group, managed by the Rupert family, with its headquarters in Switzerland.The managing director of Richemont Southern Africa, the group's office in South Africa, Wilhelm Landman, mentioned that Richemont for some time has been evaluating the perspectives of the local market, while waiting for a specific moment when it would be able to open its doors for the lovers of luxury goods."We believe that the time is right and the South African economy has produced people with enough buying power to spend their money on our luxury goods," outlined Landman.

The RGM Professional Automatic Diver (Model 300)

We're big fans of dive replica omega here at Watch Report, so we're very please to see RGM branching out like this. We'd love to get our hands on one of these and put it up against a Sea Dweller. We've talked about American rolex watches maker RGM here before, and Roland Murphy's small company which produces exquisitely made high-end watches. It looks like RGM is now stepping into the very exciting world of professional dive replica omega watches with the new and beautiful RGM Model 300.Features of the RGM Model 300 include:Brushed stainless steel case.Water resistant to 2,500 feet, or about 750 meters.5mm thick flat sapphire crystal (that's extremely thick).Anti-magnetic casing.43.2mm wide, and 15.7mm thick.Modified ETA 2892 movement.Double gasket screwdown crown, and double gasket caseback.Unidirectional ratcheting bezel with black aluminum insert.Date.Your choice of two different dials: glossy or matte. Available with a 22mm strap, or a brushed stainless steel bracelet with dive extension.The price is $3,500 which is actually pretty good compared to some of its high-end competition like the Rolex Submariner, Sea Dweller, or Omega Planet Ocean.

The Suunto Lumi: An Adventure Watch for Women

Stopwatch.Day counter (counts down the number of days to an event, or counts up from an event).Daily Alarm.Stainless steel case.Mineral glass crystal.Electroluminescent backlight.Water resistant to 30 meters, or about 100 feet.Choice of bands which come in a variety of colors and styles.Ability to wear as a pendant (requires a $25 accessory). Suunto has a very nice interactive demo of the Lumi online. Notice how the watch uses a bitmapped LCD which creates an uncluttered and very usable display. Even complicated features like selecting a continent, country, and city for sunrise and sunset times seem *** with the menu-driven inte***ce. The "second hand" and compass pointer are rendered as small pointers around the edge of the gear-toothed display which is both clever and unobtrusive. The entire display has an electroluminescent backlight for night viewing.From the interactive demo, the Suunto Lumi appears to be a very capable, usable, and attractive ABC omega of watches. I also really like how it can be worn as a wristwatch, or as a pendant which can be hung from a necklace, belt, or clip (if you purchase it as a wrist seiko watches, there's a $25 accessory that makes it wearable as a pendant, as well). I also really like the unusual "day counter" feature. Their examples were to have it display the days until a visit, your next vacation, or count down to your due date. Very cool.The Lumi is available from a variety of retailers for around $300.There aren't a lot of women's outdoor watches on the market. Geeky multifunction tools like the Casio Pathfinder and the Suunto X9i are large even for men, and tend to be functionally styled. The size of the watch case required to accommodate the type of technology found in modern hiking watches, combined with the fact that marketing departments tend to link technology more with men, have kept these types of adventure watches off the wrists of women.The problem is that plenty of women are obviously into hiking, rock climbing, kayaking, skiing, etc. and have just as much of a need for helpful instruments as men.The answer, therefore, is not to ignore women, but to design something both functional and feminine. The answer is something like the new Suunto Lumi.The Suunto Lumi is the only ladies' ABC (Altimeter/Barometer/Compass) replica omega watch that we're aware of. While not as small and dainty as a formal ladies' watch, it still manages to look stylish while packing in a very impressive set of features:Altimeter, barometer, thermometer, and digital compass.Altitude recording function (records ascents and descents).Ascent and descent rate indicator.Weather trend indicator (barometric pressure history for the last 3 and 6 hours).Storm alarm (based on sudden barometric changes).Local sunrise and sunset times (just set your continent, country, and city).Multiple languages (French, English, German, and Spanish).Dual time (two time zones).

The New Suunto D9 and Vyper2 Dive Watches

It also has larger buttons than the D9 which are probably easier to operate with gloves on.The Vyper2 will be available "early 2007" as will the titanium version of the D9. The D9 is available in rubber now with a street price of approximately $970 to $1,800, depending on the retailer.Suunto, a long-time maker of sophisticated sports watches, also has a line of very nice dive computers for both recreational and professional use. In addition to standard timing features, Suunto dive fashion seiko will monitor your air pressure, measure depth and water temperature, and compute things like remaining dive time and decompression stops. These handbag for gift are not toys -- they are tools to keep divers alive, and hence are priced accordingly.Suunto has just announced updates to the D9 which is now available with either a rubber strap or a titanium bracelet. Features of the Suunto D9 include:Air, nitrox, and gauge modes.Air mode is for diving with standard air, nitrox allows you to use up to three different gas mixtures, and gauge mode is for free-diving (diving without any tank at all). Integrated digital compass.Altitude adjustment in case your dive doesn't start from sea level (as may be the case with lakes).Optional wireless transmitter which attaches to the high-pressure port on your tank and sends pressure data to the D9.Low battery warning -- essential for preventing a diver from finding a dead computer mid-dive.Temperature measurement.Multiple decompression modes.All the expected digital watch functions (12/24h modes, multiple alarms, dual time zones, stop handbag, clock, calendar).USB inte***ce with PC software for downloading dive logs.Graphical inte***ce for depth and dive time. Maximum depth reading of 200 meters, or 660 feet. The Vyper2,a slightly less fancy computer that can also be worn as a gauge, lacks the graphical abilities of the D9 and the pressure transmitter, but it does have all of the dive computer and logging features.

The New Suunto D4 Dive Computer

In dive mode, current depth, maximum depth, current time, dive time, decompression time, and temperature.Suunto's "Deep Stop RGBM" algorithm (Reduced Gradient Bubble Model).Adjustable for altitude and personal settings.Multi-step ascent rate indicator.Battery power monitor and warning function so you don't find yourself diving with a dead battery.Glass face, metal/composite housing.Metric or imperial units for display.Bitmapped display capable of showing graphs as well as numbers and text.Up to 240-hour profile and logbook memory.Unlike a lot of dive computers, the D4 looks more like a general outdoors/fitness watch, and would even be very reasonable as a daily wearer. I really like Suunto's use of bitmapped displays; as with the X9i and Lumi, they let you convey a lot of information very clearly, as well as graphs, big numbers, and so forth.Street price for the Suunto D4 is around $500 USD, and should be available any day now ("early 2008"). You won't find the D4 or other Suunto dive computers in mall handbags stores, however. Suunto considers these watches sophisticated dive computers, and only sells them through dive shops and related retail outlets. By Paul HubbardAdditional Resources: The Suunto D4 homepage. The Suunto D4 campaign site. Suunto recently introduced an entry level dive computer that they're calling the D4. It's not as complex as either the D9 or the Vyper we covered previously; rather, Suunto describes it as "the introductory model in the Suunto diving line". When you're talking about Suunto, however, even "introductory" means an astounding number of features for both SCUBA divers, and free divers:Standard digital handbags features like 12/24 hour display, dual time, date, daily alarm, and stopwatch with split time.Four modes: time (for when you're not diving), free dive (for diving without a tank), air (for diving with standard air), and nitrox (for diving with different gas mixtures).Dive planning and analysis functions. The "no-stop-time planner" can help you plan a dive that requires no decompression stops.Sophisticated free dive data measurement including depth sampled at three times per second, maximum depth, su***ce time, deepest dive of the day, longest dive of the day, and more.Data transfer function which allows you to download data from the mon handbags to the Suunto Dive Manager PC desktop software.Audible and visual alarms for dive time and depth.

Review of the Orbita Tourbillon Watch Winder

I discovered that the packaging of the Tourbillon is almost as complex as the winder itself, allowing it to arrive perfectly sound. After getting it assembled and set up, you may find you have left a few unsightly fingerprints which are easily removed with a small amount of glass cleaner on a lint-free cloth. Over time, the Tourbillon will accumulate a light layer of dust in areas you can't easily wipe clean. I found that compressed air is the easiest, fastest, and safest way to keep it looking brand new.Before I got the Orbita Tourbillon, I was using an inexpensive Chinese-made re-branded device which got the job done, but wasn't much to look at, and was loud enough that I had to keep it tucked away in a remote corner of my office. The Orbita Tourbillon, on the other hand, occupies primary real estate on the dresser in my bedroom. It is quiet enough to sleep next to, and with its almost poetic juxtaposition of ultra modern styling next to its association with traditional mechanical luxury watches
, it is as much of a display piece as it is a practical tool.The Orbita Tourbillon is available in single or triple units, retailing for $995 and $2,995, respectively. If you're going to splurge, I recommend the triple unit so your other watches don't get jealous.View the Orbita Tourbillon photo gallery.Each winder is individually programmable for 650, 800, 950, or 1300 turns per day (all my watches are happy with the lowest setting), and can be individually configured to turn clockwise or counterclockwise. The circuit boards are daisy-chained so that all three run from a single power source which is an AC adapter with a 6 foot cord.It's important to note that the point of the Orbita Tourbillon isn't just to appear high-tech and fancy. It actually is high-tech and fancy. In addition to keeping your nice watches wound, the Orbita Tourbillon will also to rotate them in such a way as to offset the negative effects of gravity. Just as the tourbillon complication is designed to rotate a watch's escapement in order to counteract the forces of gravity and keep the movement functioning more regularly, with every turn, the Orbita Tourbillon positions your man watches at a 30° offset from the previous turn. In other words, rather than rotating 360°, the barrel is rotated 390° which means that every 12 turns, the watch has had the opportunity to rest at a slightly different angle, averaging out the tiny variations in accuracy caused by gravitational forces over time.The Orbita Tourbillon is a substantial piece of precision technology, and I was curious to see how it would survive the shipping process.