Archiv für den Monat: April 2017

Raymond Weil Celebrates the Genius of David Bowie with a Watch

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Raymond Weil celebrates the icon of British Rock, a true, everlasting legend – David Bowie. With a watch, of course. The Limited Edition Freelancer „David Bowie“ is a tribute to the life and musical career of one of the most influential artists of all time.
Created to celebrate what would have been David Bowie’s 70th birthday, this timepiece is dedicated to a few of the many personas created by David Bowie, an artist with unparalleled creativity, a singular visionary, a man of a thousand faces and voices. Bowie’s boundless talent and fearless innovation shone through his final masterpiece, Black Star, released last year to some of the best critical notices of his distinguished career and winning five Grammy Awards and two Brit Awards in 2017.

To celebrate the immortal David Bowie, Raymond Weil has chosen its most free-spirited model – the Freelancer. The case measures 42 mm in diameter and it contains a dial resembling a vinyl record featuring some of the most emblematic design cues of the British artist.
Amongst the key design features, the lightning bolt painted across his face that first appeared on the cover of the Aladdin Sane album in 1973. The instantly distinctive mark universally recognized, the stylized lightning bolt is featured in red at 12 o’clock. The pop art logo designed by Andy Warhol especially for David Bowie and revealed on the cover of the album Diamond Dogs in 1974 makes its mark on the dial of the David Bowie Limited Edition.

Produced in a 3.000-piece limited, numbered series, the Freelancer David Bowie beats to the tempo of a mechanical self-winding movement that appears beneath a portrait of David Bowie, immortalized in 1974 by famous photographer of legends, Terry O’Neill. A photograph printed on the sapphire of the watches case-back, from which this artist challenges the world with his atypical, magnetic gaze.

This watch is a beautiful tribute to one of the greatest musicians that ever lived. And it’s just logical for Raymond Weil to add a tribute to David Bowie to its collection of watches honoring the lives and works of musicians.

Raymond Weil and a Legendary Guitar – the Gibson Les Paul

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Raymond Weil celebrates with the Freelancer a true music icon – the Gibson Les Paul. You don’t need to be a guitarist or a musician of any kind for that matter, to have heard of this legendary instrument. This guitar has inspired and served the best artists of all time; from Jimmy Page to Keith Richards and Jimi Hendrix to Eric Clapton musicians have turned to this instrument, making Rock’n’Roll history.
The manufacturer honors this icon with a new watch – the Freelancer Les Paul. Raymond Weil has been putting its name in lights alongside some of the greatest musicians of all time for nearly half a century in various special editions.

The body of the 43.5 mm case is made of steel and its tachymeter bezel is enhanced with black PVD inspired by the lacquer on the „Black Beauty“ – a guitar renowned for its electrifying performance that continues to astound musicians worldwide.
The board features a circular guilloché motif featuring six chords studded by fret-shaped hour markers. The „fittings“ – tri-compax chronograph counters, date and strap topstitching – of the Freelancer are also inspired by the Gibson Les Paul and set with golden highlights. At 12 o’clock, the names of the guitar manufacturer and the Les Paul signature appear, while the split-diamond inlay – a distinctive feature of the Les Paul Custom shines in golden tones next to the date window at 4.30. At 9 o’clock Raymond Weil has placed the small seconds. Hands and indexes are luminous and contrast well with the black dial, which makes the watch very legible, even in the dark.

The Freelancer is powered by a self-winding mechanical movement, the RW5010. It provides the energy for central hours, minutes and small seconds, a date and the chronograph functions as well as a power-reserve of 46 hours.

The ebony perforated calf leather strap brings to mind the sound holes that are part of the body of a guitar.
This watch clearly is a collector’s edition and limited to 300 pieces. Every Raymond Weil Freelancer Gibson Les Paul is delivered in a presentation box inspired by the famous Gibson guitar cases.

Elegant AND Cool: The Grand Lange 1 Moon Phase „Lumen“

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In 2013, A. Lange & Söhne introduced the Grand Lange 1 „Lumen“, a watch with a semi-transparent sapphire-crystal dial that exposes the ingenious disc configuration of the Lange outsize date. It was followed a year later by the Grand Lange 1 Moon Phase with a prominent in-dial moon-phase display that reproduces the lunations with an accuracy of 99.998 per cent. Now, the Grand Lange 1 Moon Phase „Lumen“ combines these two remarkable accomplishments in one watch.
The watches of A. Lange & Söhne are known for being elegant, sophisticated, elaborate and understated – not exactly „cool“. But with the Grand Lange 1 Moon Phase „Lumen“ the watch manufacturer presented a watch, being all what we expect from A. Lange & Söhne while being – well – cool.

The dial of the new model is made of blackened silver with ample apertures and black-tinted, semi-transparent sapphire-crystal glass. The special clothing applied to the glass blocks most of the visible light but not the UV spectra that „charge“ the luminous pigments on the outsize-date mechanism and cause them to glow in the dark. The tens cross is coated with a white luminous compound and printed with black numerals. Conversely, the units disc, also featuring black numerals, is made of transparent glass and rotates in front of the luminous background of the date aperture.

Different from Lange’s previous moon-phase models with solid-gold lunar discs, the Grand lange 2 Moon Phase „Lumen“ has a disc made of glass. Initially, its surface is treated with a coating process. In a second step, a laser is used to cut out 1164 stars and the moon. Thanks to the luminous compound behind the lunar disc, they shimmer with vibrant radiance.
The large moon-phase display occupies a prominent position on the main dial. Once properly set, it only needs to be corrected by one day every 122.6 years. Between one and four o’clock A. Lange & Söhne placed a big power-reserve indicator, at five o’clock there’s a small second.

The watch is powered by he manually wound calibre L095.1. It is elaborately finished, the three-quarter plate made is decorated with Glashütte ribbing. The large mainspring barrel delivers power for 72 hours.
The calibre is housed in a 41-millimetre platinum case.

The Grand Lange 1 Moon Phase „Lumen“ is a limited edition of only 200 watches.