Once upon a time, all watches were mechanical. Then in the late 60's, quartz movement came to the party and by the 80's, they took most of the watch market from the mechanical watch industry - we had pens that had a window with digital time display, then pagers, mobiles and now everything else tells us the time. A lot of people have eliminated watches from their wardrobe. Watches still tell the time but that's not all; they are pieces of jewellery. Here are two of those complicated jewels:
Giuliano Mazzuoli raced Alfa's in the 70's. Inspired by the cars, he designed the Contagiri watch that he's dedicated to Alfa Romeo, with the rev counter at the heart of this beautiful, yet simple watch. It's got an automatic mechanical movement with a 42 hours power reserve. What differentiates it from other watches is that, like a rev counter, there's only one arm [central hour hand retrogrades in an arc of 270°] that goes from 1 to 12 and jumps after that to return. The watch does not have a crown; instead, there's a gear-shift lever that you have to pull to make the bezel move to wind or set time.
Details:
Black dial; Luminescent one-hand, Diameter: 44 mm; Thickness: 13.3 mm; 29 Jewels; Launched in 2007
Price: From £13K
Franck Muller’s Crazy Hours is powered by a self-winding mechanical movement with a power reserve of 40 hours. At a mere glance, it appears that this tonneau-shaped watch has Arabic numerals [hour-markers] in random order. However, they are not; they have a defined arrangement. The chronology is maintained by skipping four numbers every hour to give you the perfect time.
Details:
Available in platinum or 18 carat gold case; 21 Jewels; Uncoordinated centred circular date indicator; Launched in 1986, with additions to the range.
Price: From £9K
I wonder which one is my wife saving money for?
