Commodity crash sends US tumbling May 5, 2011 US stocks fell for a fourth day yesterday as a massive sell-off in commodities spilled into other markets, forcing investors out of riskier assets and rattling the equities market before today’s payrolls data. Oil suffered the biggest one-day price drop ever for the Brent futures contract, which settled down 8.6 per cent at $110.80 per [...]
Diving for treasure May 5, 2011 EVEN in the age of smartphones, iPads and all the other digital accoutrements that happen to tell the time among their other functions, the essential job of a watch is still intact. People who wear watches, whether it’s a £10 quartz job or something far more splendid, look at their watches to see what the [...]
NEWS FROM THE BOUTIQUES May 5, 2011 ROLEX COMES TO ONE HYDE PARK It’s got a slew of the most expensive properties ever sold in world, and now One Hyde Park, the Candy & Candy development in Knightsbridge where one flat is said to have gone for £136m, has also recently the home of Rolex’s biggest London showroom. Owned and managed by [...]
Keeping it in the Family May 5, 2011 FOR the collector or connoisseur, accuracy in a watch really is most important,” says Thierry Stern, president of Patek Philippe, when asked about his company’s core values. “At this level and these prices, if you’re going to buy a watch it has to be absolutely accurate.” Obvious, right? Maybe on the face of it – [...]
Three crucial Patek Philippe watches May 5, 2011 REF 5119J, 2007 – THE PERFECT CALATRAVA Simple, classic and timeless (so to speak), the Calatrava collection is named after Patek Philippe’s trademark cross motif. Introduced in 1932, its elegant lines lend copious scope to play with numerals (Roman, Arabic, batons), dial decoration (guilloché, lacquer, silvered) and size. On every budding collector’s wishlist. REF. 3700, [...]
An awfully big adventure May 5, 2011 IN the entire American continent, the Darien Gap is pretty much the last place you’d want to find yourself. A 250-mile stretch of hellish jungle and mosquito-ridden swampland between Panama and Colombia, it’s a place even the region’s native Indians generally steer clear of – though it does have an itinerant population of guerrillas, drug [...]
Novelty ACTS May 5, 2011 IMAGINE an enormous aircraft hanger turned into Bond Street, repeat that several times, and you’ve an idea of what Basel’s annual watch industry knees up, Baselworld, is like. The March event has thousands of brands on show, and tens of thousands of dealers, buyers and industry executives (oh and the odd journalist) eyeing them up. [...]
Extreme engineering: TAG Heuer’s Mikrotimer May 5, 2011 BASELWORLD wouldn’t be Baselworld without a scene-stealing unveiling by TAG Heuer – a trend started back in 2004, when the rubber-belt-driven V4 concept was revealed to an incredulous crowd. Five years later, the concept was a reality, and we all learned to treat TAG Heuer as a serious player in experimental horology. Last year’s magnet-regulated [...]
BECAUSE IT’S WORTH IT May 5, 2011 IF YOU ever hear anyone discussing whether expensive watches are really worth the money that’s charged for them, try this true story on them. While snorkeling off the Great Barrier Reef some years ago, a chap wearing a Rolex inadvertently knocked it against an outcrop. Torn from his wrist, the watch tumbled into the depths, [...]
How to bring the outside in this summer May 5, 2011 LONDON’S parks and green spaces were rammed full of people desperate to soak up the sunshine last weekend. Even the vaguest hint of summer notoriously has Brits whipping out the shorts and firing up the barbeque. Appreciation of our country’s bursts of summer is practically a national characteristic. How then can the keen, but often [...]
