Feel Good Watches

Patek Philippe released their first Ladies perpetual calendar, reference 7140. There has been a need for more complicated Ladies watches; this was a trend this year at Basel. Patek Philippe reference 7140 is in an 18K rose gold Calatrava case with curved lugs and a white dial. The watch has two interchangeable alligator bands, mink gray and royal purple. The bezel consists of 68 Top Wesselton diamonds and 27 diamonds on the clasp. There are eight indicators including: hours, minutes, date, day of the week, month, leap-year cycle, 24-hour subdial and moon phases. This is an exquisite addition to Patek Philippe ladies collection.

http://luxuryin.net/luxury-watches/patek-philippe-ref-7140-ladies-first-perpetual-calendar

The Antiquorum auction held on February 26, 2012 brought in $5 million in sales. The highest bid was for Patek Philippe’s reference 3939. The rose gold minute-repeater tourbillon sold for $515,546. Other highlights include Vacheron Constantin’s Malte Tonneau Tourbillon reference 30066/2 which sold for $110,842.

http://www.nationaljeweler.com/nj/watches/a/~27987-Years-first-Antiquorum-auction-brings

 

On February 26, 2012 in Hong Kong, Antiquorum will be auctioning 452 fine timepieces. Highlights include three Jaeger Le-Coultre watches that have been in a private collection until now. The Jaeger Le-Coultre’s include a white gold reverso “Triptyque” grand complication as well as a white gold Gyrotourbillon One . Other pieces include Patek Philippe 1518 in yellow gold, this is the first production perpetual calendar wristwatch that was created in 1941.

http://www.nationaljeweler.com/nj/watches/a/~27807-Antiquorum-HK-to-offer-rare

We apologize for the inconvenience of the FeelGoodWatches website being down this week. Unfortunately, the there was a software problem on the server. The good news is that we are up and running again. We appreciate your patience during this time.

www.feelgoodwatches.com

Cartier introduced the Tank Anglaise at the 2012 Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH). The Tank Anglaise is a rectangular timepiece that is an extension to the successful tank line for Cartier. The watch will be available in three ladies' and men's sizes in white, yellow and rose gold.

http://professionalwatches.com/2012/02/sihh_2012_cartier_anglaise.html#more

Chinese consumers make up about 25% of the online searches for luxury watches. The WorldWatch Report is based on Google, Bing, Yandex and Baidu search engines. The United States is second with 21% of the market using search engines for luxury watches. This report conveyed that 17% of the searches were made using a mobile device.

The top brands searched for were IWC,Patek Philippe and Zenith. The top watch model searched for was Audemars Piguet’s “Royal Oak” which was previously held by Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Reverso.

http://www.nationaljeweler.com/nj/watches/a/~27698-China-top-market-for-luxe

 

Powerhouse watch manufacturer Vacheron Constantin has announced
that it is has sold out of their entire 2012 production of watches within two
days of the yearly SIHH watch fair in Geneva. Vacheron Constantin said that the expected production for 2012 is approximately 19,000 watches. In order to keep up with increased demand, Vacheron Constantin plans to add another watch plant to increase production to 21,000 in 2013 and up to 30,000 watches between 2015- 2017.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-19/vacheron-constantin-says-watches-for-2012-are-already-sold-out.html

Today’s trends in sports watches are bigger is better. Once watches were the diameter of a quarter, now watch diameters have reached as much as the U-Boat U-1942, 64.4 millimeters. Many men want a watch that will keep good time as well say something about their status and style. The larger the watch, the more attention it is more likely to draw.

The introduction of Panerai an Italian watch manufacturer to the American market about a decade ago pushed the trend of the larger watch sizes. Other watch manufacturers followed Panerai’s lead including IWC, Hublot and Rolex.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/fashion/mens-watches-keep-getting-bigger.html

 

2011 is coming to a close. How well do you know the activities that have happened in the world of watches in 2011? Click on the attached link for a quiz to test your knowledge.
http://www.watchtime.com/2011/12/2011-the-year-in-review-quiz-part-1

Hublot recently announced the construction of a fascinating new wristwatch, the Antikythera.  This incredible piece is a reproduction of an over-2,200 year old device found by sponge divers on an ancient ship wreck off the Grecian coast in 1901.  A total of 82 fragments of the Antikythera Mechanism, so-named due to its being found off the island of the same name, were found and have been extensively examined over the past century.  It was an astounding find given the level of technology shown, which was thought to have not been developed until much later.  In 2005, new photographic techniques, developed by HP, and hi-res 3-D x-ray images were shot of all the fragments, which allowed engineers to literally reconstruct the entire device, of which a number of full-scale replicas have since been made.  The Antikythera Mechanism allowed the user, via a hand crank, to select a specific date in the future.  The Mechanism then showed, with incredible accuacy, the position of the Sun, Moon and the 5 planets then identified by Greek astronomers, on that future date.  In addition, it would show the approximate phase of the Moon, certain solar eclipses to within a couple hours' accuracy, dates for calendar adjustment and the Calyppic Cycle (most likely used to show when the next Olympic Games were to be held).  Not only all this, but it was so accurate that it accounted for leap years, which did not appear in history for at least another 100 years!  Basically, this is the world's first analogue computer.  There is also speculation that Archimedes developed early prototypes of the machine, though he died about 80 years before it was actually built.  Hublot then decided to rise to the challenge and to build a wristwatch-sized working Antikythera Device and combined it with a 3-hand tourbillon watch to keep time.  The single biggest challenge being the miniaturization of a shoebox-sized machine to one that will fit on a wrist!  Only 4 pieces will be made of this incredible mechanism.  One will be given to the Athens Museum, one to the Musée des Arts et Métiers in France, one for the Hublot Museum and one to be auctioned off to benefit both the Athens Museum and the Musée des Arts et Métiers.