Global Luxury Fashion

 WHEN costume designers Chattoune Bourrec and Fabien Esnard-Lascombe, otherwise known as Chattoune & Fab, were presented with the challenge of designing clothes for this summer’s most stylish film, Coco & Igor Stravinsky, they felt the pressure – until the pair were offered the help of Mr Chanel himself.

“Karl [Lagerfeld] has an inspiration cupboard where he keeps little prized vintage tokens – not all of them Chanel - but just special little finds that he uses to help him. He opened that up to us and said ‘Help yourselves’. It was incredible,” Chattoune told us. “Anything we didn’t have the budget for he helped us with – like the gold buttons we used on Coco’s pyjamas and the occasional feather. Of course there was a huge pressure as we had to seek the approval of the house of Chanel with every sketch we drew but we enjoyed the challenge.”

 Unlike Audrey Tautou’s insouciant gamine look, as seen in Coco Before Chanel, Anna Mouglalis’ version of the world’s most famous designer is seductive and altogether more grown-up.

“Ourselves and the director wanted to show a sexier, more powerful side of Coco,” said Chattoune. “We wanted to show her temper and I think the way she dresses in this film reflects that. By this point in her life, Coco was very successful – she had money and a shop and could afford to buy nicer clothes.”

The Hamilton brand embraces two product lines – American Classic and Khaki. Both families build on the brand’s American heritage to create modern masterpieces of design and Swiss technology.

AMERICAN CLASSIC

 The American Classic line expresses the true American spirit of the Hamilton collection. These watches are about adding a signature of 21st century style and functionality to the unique shapes and characters of classic Hamilton models. Some of the original inspirations date back as far as the 1920s and are well established as design icons. The range includes pioneer designs such as Ventura, Everest and Lloyd, with their eye-catching lines, as well as timeless, essential classics such as Trent, Dodson, Boulton and Ardmore. The

Jazzmaster range also takes us back to the future with its timeless elegance.

KHAKI

The Khaki line comprises the Hamilton military watches with their long and strong tradition. “Khaki” originates from the Hindu word for earth or dust and has long been the color used for military uniforms. Today the color is associated with adventure and the current Khaki watches in the Hamilton collection are direct descendents of their heroic forerunners that served the forces in both world wars. Within the Hamilton Khaki line there are four families: Aviation, Action, Field and Navy, all with individual identities characterized by different functions, cases, colors, strap materials and hand or dial designs.

HAMILTON IN THE SKIES

Hamilton has a long aviation heritage dating back to 1919 when its aeronautical watch looked after the first American airmail postal service between Washington and New York. Watches from Hamilton continued to play a leading role in the pioneer age of aviation with pilots using them to check their position in the air, calculate air and wind speed, and to time radio communication on route. By the 1930s Hamilton was the official watch of the commercial airlines, TWA, Eastern, United and Northwest. In 2005 Hamilton became involved in the spectacular Red Bull Air Race series with its own pilot and plane. Again in 2006, Nicolas Ivanoff, competes with the world’s leading acrobatic pilots in his proudly branded Hamilton plane.

HAMILTON IN HOLLYWOOD

Hamilton has had a close relationship with Hollywood since the 1950s. The first movie to portray Hamilton product was the Oscar-nominated “Frogmen” in 1951 when the diving expertise of the characters and watches was put to the test. In the 1960s Elvis Presley followed suit and wore the Ventura in “Blue Hawaii”. To date Hamilton watches have appeared in over 300 movies. The distinctive shapes and styles of the timepieces remain hugely popular with leading stylists and costume designers. Hamilton honors and celebrates the work of these individuals through special annual awards.

1890s – ACCURACY The Hamilton Watch Company was founded in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1892. Its first series of pocket watches, Broadway Limited, became known as the “Watch of Railroad Accuracy”. The unrivalled precision and reliability of the Hamilton railroad watches put a stop to an epidemic of serious accidents and marked the beginning of a long and continuing journey of successful timekeeping. 1910s – DURABILITY During the second decade of the 20th century Hamilton gained the prestigious rank of supplier to the US Armed Forces. The first of the wrist-watches provided was used by General “Black Jack” Pershing and his troops who were fighting in the European trenches. 1920s – STYLE In the 1920s the winning formula of accuracy and durability gained an extra dimension. The introduction of the Piping Rock and Yankee watch in 1928 confirmed the Hamilton leadership in American style. 1940s – PATRIOTISM During World War II, Hamilton stopped production of watches for consumers to concentrate on the huge task of providing the forces with a total of one million timepieces. The Hamilton marine chrono-meter was the first to be produced by modern manufacturing methods and around 10,000 Hamilton marine chronometers experienced World War II action first hand 1950s & 1960s – INNOVATION The secret assignment, “Project X”, lasted three years and in 1957 resulted in the introduction of the Ventura, the world’s first electric (battery-powered) watch. In 1961 Elvis Presley wore his Ventura in the film “Blue Hawaii”. 1970s – TECHNOLOGY At 12.01 New York Time, on May 6, 1970, the world’s first digital watch started measuring time – made by Hamilton 1980s – NOSTALGIA A revival in the 80s saw the reintroduction of classic Hamilton designs from the 1920s through to the 1960s. Old favourites like the Boulton, Ardmore and Ventura fuelled and led an industry-wide trend of classic watches. 1990s – INTERPRETATION The special Hamilton/Hollywood relationship continued with roles in such films as Men in Black, Lethal Weapon 4, Fight Club, Independence Day, The Talented Mr. Ripley and You’ve Got Mail. Costume designers and stylists remained drawn to the eye-catching shapes and styles of the Hamilton timepieces for bringing a huge spectrum of characters to life. 1920s – STYLE TODAY – SOPHISTICATION Hamilton is established as one of the leading watchmakers in the world with a proven reputation for creating elegant and reliable timepieces. The watches combine a strong American spirit with the unrivalled precision of the latest Swiss movements and technology.

The relationship between fine cars and fine watches has manifested itself as a curious borrowing of traits, where both items have equally borrowed from one another. Cars perhaps have taken the polished good looks and legibility of watch dials, while watches have borrowed “performance feel” from automobiles in terms of design and character. At the same time, each want to borrow personality traits from one another, resulting in cars and watches that feel to the consumers as they have been looking over each other’s shoulders for decades on the design bench.

Wrist watch movements are quite possibly the original high performance machine. Compared to automobile engines, watch movements are much more efficient and reliable. Even mechanical watches that keep moderate accuracy to within about 10 to 20 seconds a day still operate at well over 99.99 percent accuracy. Plus, they can do that operating 24 hours a day for years. Can you think of a single automobile engine that can boast that? I think not. Still, automobiles have the benefit of being emotionally enhancing vehicles,that can provide the thrill of speed, something wrist watches cannot offer. As a testament to going fast, Chopard created the limited edition L.U.C Engine One Tourbillon watch, designed to look much like a performance engine block.

Its case design is very clever. Exterior dimensions make it a rectangle at 35.4-mm wide by 44-mm high, though bulging ends give the dial a much more round appearance — a style quite similar to the classic case made famous by Daniel Roth. Here in all titanium, the watch has polished surfaces on the top and bottom, with satin finished middle sections. It is an amazingly light case, which a presence that mere pictures simply cannot convey properly. The case is matched to a custom, tapered hand-sewn black alligator strap.

The movement doubles as the dial, and has two textured vertical strips appearing like the top of an engine in a luxury car as seen if ones pops open the hood. The L.U.C 1TRM movement is manually wound, and in-house made and designed by Chopard. It has 60 hours of power reserve, complete with a power reserve indicator meant to look like fuel gauge. It is also among a rare breed of COSC Chronometer certified tourbillon movements — making it more than simply appear like a high performance machine. Chopard further design the movement engine to sit on special shock absorbing blocks.

Being included in the L.U.C family of watches, the Engine One Tourbillon has the signature L.U.C style hands (which are beautifully legible). The tourbillon doubles as a seconds indicator with a built-in hand for this purpose. Hour indicators are placed on the bottom of the sapphire crystal, in-line with the style of other Chopard motor sports and automobile themed timepieces. Wearing the watch gives the owner a distinctly proud feeling, as though it communicates their love of sports cars and watches at the same time. Though, the Engine One Tourbillon is a more playful timepiece in comparison to many other L.U.C timepieces that are more ‘classic’ in demeanor.

With an offering of only 150 pieces, the watch further serves as (another) reminder of Chopard’s 150th anniversary. The limited edition set has a high-luxury price that will clearly appeal to well-off gear heads. Those who enjoy multiple cars may opt for this Chopard in lieu of another automobile — given the price — as their next purchase. But if they wait too long, there won’t be any left. Priced at $74,400.

The “Cannes Jaeger-LeCoultre Jumping” event offers some of the highest prize-money in equestrian competitions today. Between the 10th and 12th June, the top thirty riders in the world competed against each other in the finest and most glamorous of settings within a stone’s throw of the famous Croisette.

The CSI***** Prix Jaeger-LeCoultre de la Ville de Cannes prize went to the Australian, Edwina Alexander, for delivering a faultless performance on Cevo Itot du Château in a highly demanding jump-off.

She was joined on the podium by the French show jumper, Kevin Staut, on Le Prestige St Lois and Irish Jessica Kürten, on Castle Forbes Libertina. Both riders faulted on the very last obstacle in the course: an oxer painted in the colours of the City of Cannes.

As the winner, Edwina Alexander, took away 95,000 EUR along with a Grande Reverso 976 engraved with the words, “Jaeger-LeCoultre, Cannes 2010”.

So far in 2010, Jaeger-LeCoultre has also been present at the “German Jumping and Dressage Derby”, and the company will be supporting the “International Concours Valkenswaard” show jumping event in Holland in August. These three events form part of the “Global Champions Tour”, of which Jaeger-LeCoultre is the official partner and timekeeper.

Jaeger-LeCoultre has always maintained close ties with the equestrian world, and particularly with polo with its legendary Reverso, designed in 1931 especially for polo players.

On Thursday 1st July 2010 TAG Heuer had the privilege of hosting a meeting between British F1 Champion Jenson Button and his fans, in the Westfield store, London.

TAG Heuer organised a contest on the web, including GQ.com, DailyMail.co.uk, JamesAllenon f1.com, McLaren.com and TAGHeuer.com. Entrants were asked to submit 4 questions they would like to ask Jenson Button, and the person who composed the best questions won the opportunity to interview him face to face !

The event was followed by an exclusive cocktail party, and the interviews can be seen on each of the five websites next week. Jenson spoke about how he feels just one week before the Silverstone Grand Prix and how he appreciates wearing its Carrera 1887…

It is possible to speak about watches for a long time, if it is Panerai. Panerai cannot brag about the wide model line as many other leading watch manufacturers. But, it is more than compensated by a popularity that is pursuing Panerai watches all over the world. Secret of this popularity of the Panerai’s watches lies in that it is a watch with its unique “man” character. And, this character attracts. Remember that in the “Daylight” film Sylvester Stallone was wearing the Panerai watch (Panerai Luminor Marina). Arnold Schwarzenegger was acting in the “Eraser” with the Panerai. And Panerai watch can be observed on the hand of Jason Stratham in the “Transporter” and “Italian Job” films. So, we see that Panerai indeed is a choice of strong men.

 By all its appearance, the watch itself says: “I am for serious adventures, where reliability is of importance, where convenience is of worth and where one can rely only upon itself..” Panerai Submersible is like that. This automatic watch in a firm, massive case is provided with round dial having three sub-dials and a date-window. In spite of the presence of three sub-dials, all figures are written at their places. This is because dial has such an area that could make it possible to locate here at least two more sub-dials if such a necessity would occur.

Special attention is attracted by a rubber band on some PANERAI models (Submersible), where cherished letters of large size – “P A N E R A I” – are embossed. Advantage of the rubber band (in comparison with many leather stripes) consists in its increased elasticity permitting to make the wearing of quite massive watch more comfortable and less sensible for a wrist.

Wheel is provided with unique “protector” invented by the PANERAI Company, which presses it, thus eliminating possibility of accidental rotations of a wheel. Skeleton back shows the interior of this “watch terminator” – automatic movement.

Thus, it can be said with a confidence about Panerai Submersible ( as well as about each model of Panerai) that it is real watch for a real man, for whom watch is not just a decoration, but character of a warrior and fighter.

Panerai is probably one of the most famous watch brands in Italy. Despite its long history the Company started assembling watches for a wider range of customers only at the end of the last century, whereas almost during its entire existence Panerai supplied highly reliable watches to the Italian Navy.

Retelling the story of such a brand in a few words is actually impossible, because of the numerous events that took place during a more than 140 years’ history. It is also not quite possible sorting out the events that are of more importance, because they all played a great role in the history of forming the manufacture to become that what it is today. However, the following part of the article will contain those events, which might be crucial in the forming of the company.

How Everything Began

Everything started in 1860 in Florence, when Giovanni Panerai opened the first watchmaker’s shop, which became the basis of the family business Panerai. During a few decades Giovanni Panerai assembled high quality watches in his workshop, until his grandson, Guido Panerai, expanded the business, giving it new horizons to reach. After Guido Panerai established a good relation with the Royal Italian Navy the company focused on manufacturing high-precision instruments and watches for the military sector.

In 1900 the Panerai workshop was moved to Piazza San Giovani in Florence, where it can be seen today too.

The Italian Navy required for its marines highly-reliable watches, which could be easily read under the dim under-water conditions. Thus in 1938 Panerai began the production of Radiomir watches, which had a 47 mm cushion-faced case, a screw-down crown, the easy-to-read luminous dial with its elements and a mechanical movement from Rolex. This combination made the watches very popular in the marines’ lines, where a Radiomir was considered a real man’s watch.

The Turning Point in the History

The fourth decade of the last century marked maybe the most important event in the history of Panerai – the famous Luminor watch was created. This watch was perfect for the Navy as its water-resistance reached a depth of 200 meters. This outstanding achievement (for those times) appeared due to a device called locking lever which was fixed to the case.

After the astonishing success of Panerai watches amongst the Italian Navy, in 1956 the Company received a request from the Egyptian Navy. According to the agreement between the two parties, Panerai was to assemble a larger Radiomir powered by the 8-day power reserve Angelus movement with a scale of 5-minute intervals for determining the duration of diving.

After the Richemont Group overtook Officine Panerai in 1997, at the turn of the century, Panerai began opening boutiques all over the world:

- in 2001 – the first Panerai’s boutique in Piazza San Giovani in Florence;
- in 2002 – in Neuchatel appears a manufacturing base and the first Asian boutique, in Hong Kong, received its first visitors;
- in 2003 – boutique in Portofino;
- in 2005 – boutiques in Los Angeles and Shanghai.

Introducing, Innovating and Developing

In 2004 the Radiomir collection of watches was supplemented by the 8 days model, which looked like a flash back into the past. The 8 days is a modern mechanism, which has already been used by Panerai earlier. The strong point of this watch is its 8 days’ power reserve with manual winding.

Exceptional news was announced in 2005: Panerai has presented its first self-made movement – the caliber P.2002. This clock ‘engine’ is widely used for assembling Panerai watches until now and it features hand-winding and 8 days power reserve.

Panerai Replica Watch – a Reliable Companion

Being the official supplier of timepieces of the Royal Italian Navy, Panerai has proved the reliability of its watches. A Panerai replica watch is also a very trustworthy companion in any situation.

If a genuine Panerai is for real men, it doesn’t mean that a Panerai replica watch wouldn’t be for real men. A Panerai replica watch makes the same impression on people as the genuine watch does, as it looks and weighs the same.

Everyone who has bought a Panerai replica watch was really thankful and satisfied with this acquisition, as it is a really reliable instrument during any water expeditions. Panerai replica watch became the choice of many men, and actually women too, who wanted to present this exclusive timepiece to their business partners or beloved ones.

The Italian character of these timepieces can be easily seen in these watches, because just as Italians themselves, a Panerai replica watch will serve you with fidelity and precision for a long time, if you take good care of it, of course.

A Rolex watch has, although not meaning to be derogatory to the firm Rolex in any way as they didn’t intend this to happen, a certain amount of snob value.

To wear a Rolex is to wear quite a lot of prestige on your wrist and have people wondering how much you earn a year. But putting aside the prestige and snob value, it is also in its own right a very good and durable watch. A Rolex watch can often pass down from grandfather to son and then onto grand son without ever having needed to be repaired and that is quite something to boast about. It has always had the reputation of durability, reliability and excellent craftsmanship.

The Rolex Oyster Perpetual, which was first manufactured in 1931, is maybe the all time favourite of most people and it is interesting to note that in all the years that it has been around, save for the colour of the face, it has hardly been changed at all and despite the fact that this watch has not followed the trends of fashion it is still very fashionable as it has a design that is ageless.

There are other watches on the market that are also very reliable and maybe don’t cost quite as much but it’s just not the same because unfortunately they don’t have the name Rolex and that is what seems to matter the most.

And one last point which is always very good to remember is that if you already have the luck to have a Rolex in your possession it will retain its value for many years to come and is in fact one of the few items under the heading of jewellery that does in fact retain its value if not gain in value.

Luxury watches have long been the domain of the rich and famous. When one considers the price tag attached to some of these timepieces, this should come as no surprise. I have amassed a decent collection of quality timepieces in spite of my lack of wealth and fame, but that is a story for yet another time. If you have even the slightest interest in a top quality timepiece, I have compiled a list of my recent favorites. Read on, if you want to know what time it is.

Selling replica watches is a specialist profession. Like accessories of any kind, replica watches also have a separate life of their own and lend a distinct persona to the wearer. Since the inception of our site, we have strived to have a distinct presence in the world of replica watches and to achieve that, we decided to stick to what we do best  source and sell the best Swiss Rolex replica wholesale watches.
I have always been a massive fan of Franck Muller. His tasteful designs and unparalleled craftsmanship have established him as one of the top watchmakers of our time. My personal favorite is the Banker Chronograph. It is constructed from brushed stainless steel, and it has four ivory sub-dials. So, to make sure that the right kind of watches are provided to the discerning customers who demand quality, here has just got a huge shipment of specially made quality Swiss replica watches. Each of the watches on sale right now has passed through many levels of quality checks to see that the parts, mechanism, workings and physical appearance is at par with the original watches. Whether you are looking for Swiss Rolex replica watches, Take a look at the Swiss Rolex replica wholesale collection including the entire range of men’s and women’s latest watches, and you will get a feel of how good the replicas are. Made with the highest quality of scratch resistant mineral crystal sapphire, these watches have the perfect construction and the perfect weight, to give you the closest possible experience of wearing an original. One thing that you should note when looking at the Swiss Rolex replica wholesale collection is the markings. We have an expert team who study the original watches for the exact markings, which distinguish a watch so boldly, and they duplicate it to a level of perfection to ensure that no one ever realizes that this one is a replica and not the real deal!