Cartier To Unleash The 'Panthère Studio' Millennial Experience

Cartier is bringing its prestigious brand downtown by offering a luxurious pop up experience at a popular New York restaurant. 

The luxury brand will launch Panthère Studio—a public-facing, experiential pop up promising to bring a customized, interactive experience to millennial audiences of New York. It will be held at the downtown French-Vietnamese restaurant, Indochine, May 20 and May 21. 

“We’re coming out of our boutiques and bringing the world of Cartier downtown, to engage with our clients—and future clients for that matter—where they live, work and play,” said Mercedes Abramo, president and CEO of Cartier North America. “We’re excited to introduce the iconic Panthère de Cartier watch to a fun, fearless new generation in such a unique, experiential way.”

It’s the first time the luxury brand is focused on presenting an experience rather than a retail-first environment. 

The theme will be the 1980s when the French luxury brand launched the Panthère de Cartier watch, featuring its iconic panther. The watch—with a square case, screwed-down bezel and linked brick-lay bracelet—was reintroduced this year. 

The Panthère Studio takeover of Indochine will include innovative and inherently shareable elements throughout the space, with live DJs, social media components and interactive photo experiences, including a Panthère ‘stacking bar,’ where guests can style their own Cartier looks with the Panthère watch.

Panthère de Cartier watch

Special guests will be in attendance throughout the weekend, including model and actress, Olivia Culpo.

Panthère Studio will be open to the public on Saturday, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., with Olivia Culpo appearing from 12 p.m. - 2 p.m.; and on Sunday, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.

To sign up or for more information, follow this link.

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Daniel Craig’s Omega Seamaster Bond Watch Fetches $130,000

By Gretchen Friedrich, Jewelry News Network’s social media manager (a.k.a. Miss Moneypenny)

An Omega Seamaster 300, Bond Edition timepiece worn by Daniel Craig in the film, Spectre, sold for £92,500 ($131,813), shattering its high estimate of $28,000.

The watch was part of a special charity auction of 24 pieces of memorabilia from the 24th installment of the James Bond series at Christie's King Street, London. Ten lots sold at the auction raising more than 2 million British pounds ($2.87 million) for Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières).

The Omega Seamaster 300, Bond Edition is the first limited edition Bond model produced by Omega. There were 7,007 released to the general market at a price of $7,500. Omega, the official watch of James Bond for 50 years, remastered this version with an ode to the original timepiece worn by Sean Connery during his stint as the famous spy. 

Omega Seamaster 300, Bond Edition timepiece worn by Daniel Craig

The NATO strap, the "lollipop" second hand, the presentation box that resembles a lockbox and the casing are all reminiscent of those seen in the early Bond movies. 

Selling the watch at such a price is certainly a coup for Christie's, but what does it mean for the watch market in general? 

Brian Walker, VP of marketing for Shreve, Crump and Low, who carries the Omega line in their flagship store in Boston, says it’s a positive signal for collectors. 

“Generally, when a watch at auction realizes an extraordinary hammer price such as the six-figure number for the Seamaster Bond piece, it excites the demand and increases resale value for the piece on the secondary market, especially on a limited-edition model.”

In other words, there could be some “shaken, not stirred” activity on Omega Bond watches currently in circulation. Cheers

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Omega Unveils Olympic Watch, The Bullhead Rio 2016 Limited Edition

The Omega Bullhead Rio 2016 Limited Edition

The longtime official timekeeper of the Olympic Games, Omega, introduced a new watch to mark its sponsorship of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.

The Seamaster Bullhead Rio 2016 Limited Edition is designed to relate directly to the Rio event, set to officially begin Aug. 5, 2016.

Like its Olympic predecessors, the Bullhead Rio has a central chronograph seconds hand and a 30-minute recorder at 12 o’clock. The shape of the watch is reminiscent of a bullhead, and the term was originally a nickname coined by watch collectors who admire the shape of the timepiece.

The Omega Bullhead Rio 2016 Limited Edition with its packaging

The watch is powered with Omega’s Co-Axial caliber 3113, and stamped with the Rio 2016 Olympic Games logo on the caseback.

The exterior of the watch links directly with the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics. For example, the blue leather strap is the same color of the Rio Olympics logo and features stitching along each side colored yellow, green, red and black in recognition of the colors of the Olympic rings. This color theme is continued on the 60-minute rotating inner-bezel that the Swiss luxury watch brand says serves “as a meaningful reminder of the unity and harmony that the Olympic rings signify.”

From left: Torben Grael, Kahena Kunze, Martine Grael and Bastian Baker, Swiss singer-songwriter and an Omega ambassador.

The watch was unveiled at an event in Rio de Janeiro on August 3 that included the introduction of Omega’s three new “friends” of the brand, all from the world of sailing: Brazilian sailor Torben Grael, a five-time Olympic medalist, along with his daughter Martine Grael and her partner Kahena Kunze who are the world ranking leaders of the new Olympic class, the 49erFX.

It is available now for purchase, although limited to 316 pieces in honor of the 3rd time golf will be played at the Olympics, as well as the year 2016.

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Watch Review: Equipe Caters to Gearheads

No one would ever accuse the watch brand, Equipe, of not knowing its market. The company’s new line of watches are made to appeal to people who like to spend their afternoons under the hood of muscle car and their evenings showing off their polished high-performance vehicles to women who are as attractive as the bikini models on the company’s pinup calendar. For a little extra fun on a hot summer night, they might turn to street racing.

A company that caters to such a specific set of American-car fanatics could only be headquartered in the Motor City. Detroit seems to be in the midst of revival as commercials and television shows are showcasing the city’s grittiness and survival instinct. So maybe the timing is right for such a watch company to appear from the belly of automotive beast. But while the city and American cars may be experiencing a revival, this is a company that is also trying to jump on the nostalgia bandwagon—taking people back to a place when cars with large engines built for straight speed and power were the symbol of status and cool for many America males.

The folks at Equipe sent four watches to me for review. Pushing the car theme to extreme limits, all their watches are named after car parts. The ones they loaned to me were named: Balljoint, Paddle, Dash XXL and Hemi. In addition, each watch has its own VIN number and they come with a “presentation case” that the company says resembles a tool box, but to me looks more like an elaborate portable safe with its own combination lock. The four watches retail from $399 to $899, which makes them quite accessible compared to watches from European manufacturers that cater to car buffs.

All the watches made of surgical stainless steel with screw-down crowns and screw-in casebacks. They use Miyota automatic movements made by Citizen. The company says the watch hands are luminous but I did not notice this. They all include date indication, chronographs and dual time zones functions. Watch straps are either made of leather, silicone or surgical stainless steel.

Setting all the watches and using the chronograph features was fairly easy with the exception of one glaring, vitally important issue: With the exception of the Dash, the crown on each watch was extremely difficult to pull into the third position for setting the time. It was nearly impossible to move the crown to the second position for setting the date. 

Ballpoint
This was my favorite of the four watches. It is also the most expensive at $899. The price is because it has four flexible lugs that move 360 degrees, adjusting to the movement of the wrist. The design is nice as well, with a round yellow dial, chronograph dials designed to look like a timing chain and silicon wristband fitted my wrist the best of all models. 

Paddle
My second favorite of the four gets its name from the lever-shaped bars above and beneath the crown that emulate paddle shifters, which control the chronograph hands. The round white dial is attractive and the uni-directional rotating bezel is interesting and the leather strap is nice. It’s a watch that felt good on my wrist. It retails for $399.

 Dash XXL
The most car-authentic watch in the group has an elongated watch face that is designed to look like the dashboard of a vintage auto, such as the Chrysler Imperial and Lincoln Continental, the company says. It’s certainly something to look at while driving. It was also the easiest to set and use. The drawback for me was the feel. The watch spreads across the wrist and the silicone strap had a lot of stretch to it. I found myself adjusting the watch often. It retails for $499.

Hemi
Guess what this watch is named after? The design of the oversized round black watch is interesting. Like the Balljoint, the subdials of the chronograph are designed to look like a timing chain. The crowns and pushers are made to resemble the contours of the piston of the famous Chrysler engine. The metal bracelet fully closed was too large for my wrist. It has a magnified crystal cover that makes the watch appear even larger. It’s a large watch for a large person who likes large things. It retails for $599.

The Ernst Benz ChronoScope

The newest version of the Ernst Benz ChronoScope timepiece honors the tradition of the authentic aviation chronographs and famous wrist timers worn by pilots in the 1940’s.

The automatic Valjoux 7750 movement measures elapsed time in seconds, minutes and hours, while displaying the day and date. The dial is housed in a brushed and polished stainless steel case and is available in 47mm, 44mm and 40mm. The dial comes in no fewer than 11 colors and styles and strap is available in leather or steel.

The ChronoScope was initially created in response to the demands the Swiss watch brand received from aviators for a reliable and easily legible chronograph. It has evolved since its release, both aesthetically, while maintaining the styling and character of the original model.

Legibility was one of the most important criteria of timepieces in the 1940s. The dials were designed to resemble those of the era’s aviation instruments while their diameter allowed for large numerals and oversized hands for instant readability. A highly functional timekeeper and also a visual experience, a chronograph is a complicated watch, endowed with an additional mechanism enabling it to calculate the duration of an event.