Archive for Watches
October 8, 2007 at 10:50 pm · Filed under Watches
del.icio.us | Save This Page
In a move that it hopes will help its expansion in the United States, Japanese watchmaker Citizen Holdings Co. said it would buy rival Bulova Corp. from conglomerate Loews Corp. for approximately $247 million, according to news reports.
Citizen said it would buy all shares in Bulova in January from Loews, which has businesses across a number of industries including the financial, tobacco, energy and hotel markets, Reuters reported.
A spokesman for Citizen reportedly said the acquisition fits into the company’s strategy to diversify its portfolio of brands and strengthen its presence in the $200 to $600 price-point segment of the watch market.
A Bulova spokesman added that the move would help expansion in the United States, the world’s biggest market for watches. Bulova’s brands include Bulova, Accutron, Caravelle and Wittnauer.
Source: Nationaljeweler.com
August 2, 2007 at 7:50 pm · Filed under Watch Events, Watches
del.icio.us | Save This Page
In December 1999, one of the most complicated watches ever made became the most expensive watch ever sold when it was hammered down for $11 million at Sotheby’s.
The gold pocket watch, which featured 24 complications, was the result of a long-standing competition between two magnates of America’s Gilded Age. New York financier Henry Graves Jr. and Ohio automobile engineer James Ward Packard vied with one another to own a timepiece with the greatest possible number of complications. (Complications are mechanical functions of the watch other than the hours, minutes and seconds.) Packard commissioned 13 complicated watches from Patek Philippe between 1900 and 1927. They included a perpetual calendar with phases and age of the moon, indication of sunrise and sunset, and a celestial chart depicting the constellations of stars in the sky over Packard’s home in Ohio.
Not to be outdone, Henry Graves Jr. also commissioned a series of complicated watches from Patek Philippe, culminating in a timepiece that took three years to design and five years to produce. When completed in 1933, the watch had a different horological function for each hour of the day and included a chart of the nighttime sky over Graves’ home in New York.
Graves died in 1953, and his heirs sold the watch to the Time Museum in Rockford, Ill., in 1968. When the museum closed, the watch was among 80 other pieces from the collection that were deaccessioned and sold at Sotheby’s in 1999. All together, they brought $28 million. The Graves watch had a presale estimate of $3 million to $5 million, and sold for $11,003,500 to an anonymous collector.
July 10, 2007 at 5:20 pm · Filed under Watches
del.icio.us | Save This Page
Harry B. Henshel, 88, the last member of the Bulova family to head its high-end watch company, died June 29 at his home in Scarsdale, N.Y. No cause of death was reported.
Bulova Watch Co. was started as a jewelry store by Henshel’s grandfather Joseph Bulova in New York in 1875. Mr. Henshel started at the company after serving in World War II and took over as president after the death of his uncle, Arde Bulova, in 1958. He became chairman in 1974.
The company became a subsidiary of the Loews Corp. in 1979.
It was under Henshel’s tenure that the company released the Accutron, a groundbreaking battery-powered watch that used a tuning fork as the timing mechanism to achieve greater accuracy. Mr. Henshel also developed the Phototimer, the first automatic timing device used in sports, in 1948, the company said.
February 13, 2007 at 10:14 pm · Filed under Watches
del.icio.us | Save This Page
Financial Times Deutschland writes that Diego Maradona has been busted by the Italian Tax police. They took his Rolexes (it seems that he always wears/wore two) and his diamond studded earrings. Now, I think a man should not wear earrings, but who am I…
Anyway, the Italian tax police took his 2 Daytonas. Worth approximately 10.000 Euro, according to the Financial Times Deutschland. I wonder whether if that is for one Rolex or for the two of them. If it is for two Rolex Daytonas, it is a bit unfair for Maradona. The 10.000 euro is being deducted from the 30.000.000,- Euro he still owes to the tax department. Because of their former owner, they might deliver some more euros if Italy is going to put them on eBay or Antiquorum
A sad day for Maradona. Taking a man’s watch must be one of the all time lowest things someone can do.
Source: Thanks to Hannes for posting this over at www.r-l-x.de
January 9, 2007 at 4:26 pm · Filed under Watches
del.icio.us | Save This Page
He shared the stage with a refrigerator equipped with wireless computer screens for “smart” magnets.
He carried a portable computer monitor that controlled the lighting in the room and flipped the channels on a flat-screen TV.
He played an Xbox game in real time with Shaquille O’Neal, who lounged in Los Angeles.
Then Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates revealed the next-generation PC: a wristwatch.
In his keynote speech Wednesday night, Gates teased his audience at the Consumer Electronics Show with current and oft-touted Microsoft-powered products such as the Xbox game console, portable smart displays and combination PDA/cell phones. He saved what he apparently considered the best for last: a silver Fossil wristwatch.
Not your ordinary department-store watch, Gates’ timepiece is part of a new line of products using a technology called SPOT (small personal objects technology), has a black-and-white screen and gives wearers the time plus real-time information such as news, weather, sports scores and instant text messages.
“It’s sort of like a pager,” Gates said.
The watch operates on FM radio frequencies and automatically resets itself when the user moves into a different time zone.
Wearers can customize the watch’s look and features by visiting a website set up by Microsoft expressly for that purpose. Besides Fossil, Suunto and Citizen also plan to release their own SPOT products this fall.
“These partners have a vision that the watch goes beyond just telling time,” Gates said.
Some members of the audience seemed to think that vision may have clouded Microsoft’s better products and judgment.
Blake Krikorian, a technology adviser for id8 Group in San Mateo, California, said he was surprised Microsoft would heavily promote such a product in favor of its “exciting technology today, like the smart displays.”
While Krikorian believes Microsoft has the connections to market the watches, he also foresees challenges.
People who would buy a watch like the one Bill Gates showed off in his keynote are business travelers who need to stay constantly connected, Krikorian said. These folks are more likely to go in for watches from Rolex or Cartier, not Fossil, he said.
“I would buy a watch that had that functionality but did not sacrifice on the quality of the design,” Krikorian said tactfully.
Norman Weinstein, an analyst with Yeske and Company, said Microsoft has covered its bases by supporting so many different technologies. At the show, four electronics makers, including Sanyo and Samsung, are expected to release a Windows-powered personal digital video recorder by the holiday season. The 20-GB recorder would allow users to carry with them up to 175 hours of video or 8,000 songs.
But will new products, like the smart watch, sell?
“It doesn’t matter,” Weinstein said.
By Elisa Batista
