For the year 2011, Audemars Piguet has updated its “modern classic” Jules Audemars line with a discreet Jules Audemars Small Seconds model in 18-karat white gold (Ref. 77238BC.OO.A002CR.01).
white gold
Jaeger-LeCoultre Grande Reverso Lady Ultra Thin
The hand-wound Jaeger-LeCoultre Grande Reverso Lady Ultra Thin (refs. Q3202421 & Q3208121) has been updated for the year 2011 with three more cases and nine different combinations of materials!
Look at this Richard Mille with a “Declutchable” Rotor!
During the SIHH 2011 event, Richard Mille presented its RM 030 model with a so-called “declutchable” rotor: a complication that, unlike something as unnecessarily sophisticated as a tourbillon or a minute repeater, is not just nice to have but is actually quite useful for many reasons.
Designed to slow down the process of wearing-out of the self-winding mechanism, the declutchable rotor is what it is: a rotor that, colloquially speaking, disengages its “clutch” the same way an automatic gearbox declutches, um, automatically when you press on the brake pedal while stopping at a traffic light. In this particular instance, the winding system is physically disengaged from the winding barrel as soon as the estimated power reserve reaches the 50-hour mark.
A BMW On Your Wrist: Richard Mille RM 029 Big Date
The 2011 Richard Mille RM 029 Automatic Big Date offers RM’s signature tonneau case, an expertly skeletonized movement, and an oversized date module. Soon to be available in three versions of its mildly oversized body, the RM 029, as always, is going to be -ahem- reassuringly expensive and deliciously exclusive: just what we like, right?
Chaumet Dandy Edition Metronome W1118C-25M
The French jeweler Chaumet -a brand that belongs to the same conglomerate that owns such loud names as Bulgari, Hublot, Zenith, and, last but not least, a certain Ardbeg Distillery of the Isle of Islay in Scotland- has introduced its signature Dandy timepiece equipped with a metronome-style seconds hand module. Naturally, the 2011 Chaumet Dandy Edition Metronome (ref. W1118C-25M) is dedicated to Frederic Chopin who, for a time, lived in the same building in Paris where Chaumet’s Salons is currently located.
New Boucheron Tourbillon Completes the Sheherazade Collection
The high-jewelry Boucheron Sheherazade Tourbillon features lots of gold, and diamonds, sapphires, amethysts, and other precious stones that I wasn’t able to recognize. With its large case measuring in whole 42 millimeters in diameter, it takes a lot of wrist real estate, too.