Tired of the rain? Try these winter getaways November 10, 2013 NOW THE embers of Bonfire Night have fizzled out, the nation can get on with the serious business of preparing for Christmas. But what about afterwards? Once the pudding has been gobbled up and the fairy lights have been put away, all that remains is frost, a terrifying credit card bill, and indigestion. Our winter [...]
Clooney and Bullock excel in Gravity November 7, 2013 FILM GRAVITY Cert 12A | Five stars Just when you think you’ve got Gravity pegged – is it a disaster movie? A psycho-drama? – it floats off in an altogether different direction. In some ways, it’s a 90-minute action sequence – and a brilliant one at that – but calling it an action movie would [...]
A short, sharp Pinterian shock at The Print Room November 7, 2013 THEATRE THE DUMB WAITER The Print Room Theatre | Five stars THIS faultless adaptation of one of Harold Pinter’s shortest plays begins with Ben (Clive Wood) and Gus (Joe Armstrong) sitting in an airless paint-stripped basement. Both are nervous but each manages his anxiety differently. Ben tries to lose himself in the tawdry stories of [...]
Bits and bobs and not much else November 7, 2013 ART BILL WOODROW The Royal Academy | Two stars BILL Woodrow was part of the group of British sculptors that dominated the art scene before the YBAs ran riot in the nineties, but he never reached the stratospheric heights of some of his contemporaries. Three decades after their heyday, Tony Cragg, Anish Kapoor, Richard Deacon [...]
The watch that reads the markets November 6, 2013 Enduring love Perpetual calendars mean a century of timekeeping Page 30 Get in free to salonqp London’s fine watch show opens today Page 28 Loving the rear view Watches that are as beautiful from behind as from the front Page 32 Watch-wearing rules Our guide to how to – and how not to – sport your [...]
A true original on Clink Street November 6, 2013 From the world’s first atomic pocket watch – the most accurate portable timepiece ever – to a wristwatch that reads the stock market, start-up Hoptroff London is taking timekeeping in new directions. And all from the Southwark studio of one ambitious inventor. Timothy Barber reports Up a worn flight of stares in an old warehouse [...]
Horological heaven in Chelsea November 6, 2013 The fine watch extravaganza that is SalonQP opens tonight at the Saatchi Gallery. Timothy Barber picks his highlights About a year ago, I was making my way through the Saatchi Gallery when a man walked past carrying in his hand a tiny metal gadget that resembled a beetle crossed with a miniature car engine. But [...]
Get in free! November 6, 2013 City A.M. readers can gain free access on Friday 12-6pm and Saturday 12-6pm, by presenting this edition of City A.M. on arrival at the Saatchi Gallery, along with a business card to submit. This offer does not extend to evening sessions. Thursday 7 – Saturday 9 November Duke of York’s HQ, King’s Road, SW3 4RY [...]
Tick tock you don’t stop November 6, 2013 Robin Swithinbank is seduced by full calendar watches that won’t need adjusting for a century or more A perpetual calendar watch, that will give you the correct date without adjusting for the next hundred years or more, is the ultimate prestige item, says Robin Swithinbank Not every watch aficionado appreciates a date window on a [...]
Front & back November 6, 2013 For collectors at the seriously high end, mechanical aesthetics can be as important as engineering brilliance A Lange & Sohne 1815 Up/Down, £18,700 A century ago Germany’s A Lange & Sohne made some of the finest pocket watches in Europe. Its modern pieces retain the classic character of those past masterpieces, while taking finishing aesthetics [...]