New Model - Maîtres du Temps Chapter One Black Dial White Gold Moonphase/Day Roller Tourbillon Watch

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LA CHAUX-DE-FONDS, Switzerland – Building on the launch of the Chapter One in 2008, Maîtres du Temps now presents a limited edition of 11 watches with jet-black dial, moonphase and day of week rollers set in a white gold case.

Video - Traditional Watchmaking - Chapter One by Maitres du Temps

It explains the development of a $400,000 watch by a team of three master watchmakers: Peter Speake-Marin, Roger Dubuis and Christophe Claret.

Press Release;

Timeless elegance is evoked by the juxtaposition of elegant white gold hands against the black dial and of the bright red of the counterpoised chronograph second hand against the engine-turned sun-ray guilloche of the sub-dials. The ethereal beauty of the moon and stars against a dark night sky belies the high-tech nature of its anodized aluminum roller—a roller visually and technically balanced by the day of the week roller at the opposite end of the long, sweeping compound curves of the stunningly finished case.

The highly polished tourbillon literally explodes from the dark dial in a highly reflective burst of light, some of which streams in through the opening to the day roller and sweeps up from under the tourbillon, adding to the three-dimensionality of the spectacle. Amid the indication-rich nature of the dial, the tourbillon cage and bridge stand out as if under a bright spotlight on a semi-darkened stage.

Moonphase Roller

“To my eye, where the silver-dialed Chapter One leans in the direction of a more classic look, this black-dialed version feels sportier, faster. And I particularly like the way that the black of the dial continues into the dark night sky of the moon roller above and the black day roller below,” says Mr. Steven Holtzman, founder of Maîtres du Temps.

Day of Week Roller

Developed by a collaboration of three of the world’s greatest watchmakers, Mr. Christophe Claret, Mr. Roger Dubuis, and Mr. Peter Speake-Marin, Chapter One features a world-first combination of complications: tourbillon, mono-pusher chronograph, retrograde date, retrograde GMT, and two rolling bars at 6 o’clock and 12 o’clock, indicating the day of the week and phase of the moon, respectively. The dial reveals central coaxial hours, minutes, and chronograph 60-second

counter; tourbillon and day of the week roller at 6 o’clock; retrograde GMT at 9 o’clock; 60-minute chronograph counter and precision moon phase roller at 12 o’clock; and retrograde date at 3 o’clock.

Chapter One is imbued with the intoxicating fusion of Mr. Claret’s undisputed mastery of high-end complications, Mr.Dubuis’ rich lifetime of experience in haute horlogerie, and Mr.Speake-Marin’s unparalleled ability to bridge the very best of both traditional and modern watchmaking.

The ease of both reading and adjusting Chapter One’s many indications disguises the fact that this is an extremely complex movement that has been handcrafted and meticulously assembled from 558 components. Efficiently transmitting power to the two rollers and ensuring that they work simultaneously with the time, date, GMT, and chronograph was just one of the immense technical challenges met and conquered.

About Maîtres du Temps

Maîtres du Temps is a pantheon where teams of independent master watchmakers at the very pinnacle of haute horlogerie collaborate to develop innovative, interesting, and very exclusive timepieces. Founded by Mr. Steven Holtzman and based in Switzerland, Maîtres du Temps crafts limited-series mechanical masterpieces, each the synthesis of the experience, art, and techniques of the Masters who create it. For more information, please visit www.maitresdutemps.com.

Maîtres du Temps Website

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How Much Time Do You Have Left? - New Special Edition Black PVD Coated Accurate and Decider Watches by Mr. Jones

Mr Jones Watches have produced two new special edition watches. Both models
feature black PVD coating which gives a hard-wearing, elegant finish.

These are serious watches for the serious times we find ourselves in. The black coating on the watch case is matched on the buckle and completed with a black leather strap and (what else!) black stitching.

Mr Jones Watches is the new cult watch brand from London. They believe that a watch should do more than just tell the time.

All the Mr Jones Watches are designed by Crispin Jones, they are genuine indie products entirely conceived and executed following a singular vision.

These models will be available for a limited period only.

This is a special edition of the most accurate wristwatch you can buy - the hour hand reads "remember", the minute hand "you will die".

The dial and rim of the glass are mirrored, so the wearer is reflected in the watch face.The Accurate is a link to the tradition of the memento mori - an object designed to remind us that life is brief and that we should seize the moment while we are here.

The Accurate is our best selling model and we're very pleased with how well this special edition looks on the wrist.

The Accurate, Special edition: $125

Product Page-->LINK






The New Decider helps you make decisions. As the seconds tick round the words “yes” and “no” are alternately displayed.

When you need to make a decision, simply glance at the watch for your answer. A magnifying dome sits just above the answer window to aid visibility.

The New Decider may not always give the right decision, but as Tony Soprano observes,“a wrong decision is better than indecision”.

The New Decider, Special edition: $145

Product page-->LINK

Other recently released Mr. Jones Watches featured below;

MR. JONES - THE AVERAGE DAY

This watch eschews the conventional division of a day into 24 hours, instead it divides into units of median daily routine.

The dial shows a breakdown of what average people do on an average day, so you’re able to see what you yourself should - on average - be doing at any time.

Mr. Jones The Mantra

The Mantra alternates a very positive statement (e.g. "you are amazing") with a very negative one (e.g. "nobody likes you"). Every hour the watch displays one positive message and one negative message (the wedge that you read the statement through is also the hour hand).

Over time The Mantra makes the arrogant person more humble and makes the humble more confident.

Mr. Jones Original "The Decider"

The Decider is a watch that helps you make decisions: as the seconds tick round you see either the word "YES" or "NO" displayed on the watch face; when you need to make a decision you simply look at your watch for your answer.

MR. JONES THE FUTURE

The Future is now! This watch displays a carpe diem message along with the time. The hour and minute hand make up the words “the future”, whilst the face alternately displays “is” and “now”. This watch is a handy reminder to the wearer to live in the present.

MR. JONES THE WATCHER

Two characters on the watch enact a tiny choreographed play. They look all around, but never rest on the other’s gaze. The faces keep their tiny vigil on your wrist and are always ready to share a moment of micro-poetry whenever you look at your watch.

The two faces each have a small magnifying dome over them to aid visibility.

Mr. Jones LOVES ME

The design of this watch is inspired by the game of effeuiller la marguerite in which “loves me, loves me not” is spoken while plucking the petals of a flower.

Loves Me acts as a never-ending, animated flower that answers love dilemmas: pulling up the winding crown stops the mechanism and reveals cupid’s verdict.

The Original ACCURATE

MR. JONES MORE OR LESS

This watch offers you two ways of looking at the passing of time - around the circumference of the dial the words "one more, one less" slowly revolve. This presents a balanced way of viewing the passing of time in our lives.

Product Pages--> LINK

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Secret Message in Abraham Lincoln's Pocket Watch

Hidden Message Found in Lincoln Pocket Watch

By Neely Tucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 10, 2009; 5:40 PM

For nearly 150 years, Abraham Lincoln's pocket watch has been rumored to carry a secret message, supposedly written by an Irish immigrant and watchmaker named Jonathan Dillon.

Dillon, working in a D.C. watch repair shop in 1861, told family members that he -- by incredible happenstance -- had been repairing Lincoln's watch when news came that Fort Sumter had been attacked in South Carolina. It was the opening salvo of what became the Civil War.


Dillon told his children (and, half a century later, a reporter for the New York Times) that he opened the watch's inner workings and scrawled his name, the date and a message for the ages: "The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a President who at least will try."

He then closed it up and sent it back to the White House. Lincoln never knew of the message. Dillon died in 1907.

The watch, meanwhile, was handed down and eventually given to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958. It didn't run anymore. No one had pried open the inner workings in ages. The old watchmaker's tale was just that.

And then Douglas Stiles, Dillon's great-great grandson, alerted Smithsonian officials to the family legend last month. He was a real-estate attorney in Waukegan, Ill., he explained. He'd heard the legend around the dinner table as a kid, but had just discovered a New York Times article from 1906, quoting Dillon as telling the story himself.

Truth? Lore?

This morning, in a small conference room on the first floor of Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, officials decided to find out. Expert watchmaker George Thomas used a series of delicate instruments -- tweezers, tiny pliers -- to pull apart Lincoln's timepiece. He put on a visor with a magnifying lens and talked as he worked. Some of the pins were nearly stuck, he explained. The hands of the watch were original with a case made in America and the workings from Liverpool. The Illinois rail-splitter had splurged: The watch, Thomas said, would be the equivalent to a timepiece costing "$5,000 or more" today.




And then he pried off the watch's face, pulled off the hands, and turned it over to see the brass underside of the movement.

The audience, watching on a monitor, gasped.

Split into three different sections to get around the tiny gears, was this razor-thin etching: "Jonathan Dillon April 13, 1861. Fort Sumter was attacked by the rebels on the above date. Thank God we have a government."

The old man's memory had not been exact. He had not forecast the end of slavery, or Lincoln's critical role in its demise.

But it was there, a little bit of history that had been resting on Lincoln's hip, unseen during those tumultuous days of war and rebellion, the Emancipation Proclamation and the rest, and then resting, unseen, for more than a century and a half.

Stiles was delighted. "That's Lincoln's watch," he said after putting it down, "and my ancestor wrote graffiti on it!"

via The Washington Post and The National Museum of American History

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Black Power! Limited Edition MB&F Horological Machine No. 1

Horological Machine N^o1 - Black and Rose Gold

The Final Editions

In 2006, MB&F presented Horological Machine N^o1 (HM1): a groundbreaking wristwatch that both launched MB&F and introduced the world to the then radical concept of three-dimensional kinetic sculpture as timekeeping machines. To pay homage to the end of this pivotal model, MB&F have crafted two final stunning variations, each in a very limited series of only ten pieces: HM1-Black and HM1-RS.

HM1-Black offers the ultimate in contrasts with its white gold case shrouded by a veil of coal-black. The subdued dark, though eye-catching in itself, offers the perfect foil for the burst of light that radiates from the dial. The blackened tourbillon cage allows the eye to glide past deep into the movement, while the bright blue of both the hands and the solid gold rotor provides a brilliant splash of color in an otherwise two-tone landscape.

HM1-RS features a red gold case that highlights the architecturally inspired and artistically sculptured three-dimensional case, and an intriguing transparent dial allows visual access to the top of the meticulously finished movement. The dial is ‘intriguing’ because, depending on the angle of view, it can change from being completely transparent to acting as a highly reflective now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t mirror.

Both HM1-Black and HM1-RS feature hours and minutes on separate dials, a raised central one-minute tourbillon, a seven-day power reserve, four mainspring barrels and both automatic and manual winding.

The hours and minutes are indicated on their respective etched-sapphire bridges augmented by precision laser-cut applied numerals, and a rotating disk indicates the seven-day power reserve on the right-hand dial.

An extra-wide custom tapered strap, complemented by a bespoke buckle, completes the timepiece.

Exclusive is hardly the right word for these two extremely limited editions of just 10 pieces each.


MB&F website->LINK

Related MB&F, Max Busser, and Horological Machine Posts-->LINK

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