Switzerland Mourns Its Watch ��Messiah��
Switzerland has responded to the sudden death of Swatch Group Chairman Nicolas G. Hayek on June 28 with a rare outpouring of grief, praise, and appreciation. Hayek, 82, was born in Beirut, Lebanon, but grew up in Switzerland and spent his entire professional life there. Hayek has been a prominent public figure in the country for four decades and one of the country's most famous and, ultimately, beloved figures. He founded a consulting company, Hayek Engineering Inc., in Zurich in 1965 and quickly became Switzerland's most important consultant, the Mr. Fixit that both industry and the Swiss government called on to develop strategies to fix seemingly unfixable problems. Mr. Fixit became Mr. Swatch in the 1980s when the Swiss banks called on him to develop a plan to rescue the struggling Swiss watch industry.The watch industry was dominated in those days by two giant groups, ASUAG and SSIH, both of which were hemorrhaging red ink, surviving on bank bailouts. Hayek submitted a detailed reo

New Temption Cameo Watch Finally Available
Last summer I told you about the new watch from Temption called the Cameo. It is their first square cased watch, and certainly unique. As is the case with most new watch announcements, the Cameo was announced long before actual release. Well, Temption has just announced that the Cameo is finally available. Actually, the watches are being shipped, but many are sold out until the beginning of 2009. For a company that makes fewer than 1000 watches a year, the demand for the Cameo watches must be overwhelming. Still, I don't doubt that Mr. Ulbrich, President of Temption is ensuring that each watch comes out perfectly.Temption is very proud of the process involved in attaching the sapphire crystal to the dial of the Cameo. As you can probably imagine, sapphire crystals are usually glued into place. This gives it a nice sealed look, but how strong is the bond? The Cameo uses a unique curved rectangular sapphire crystal (which I can imagine is expensive). Instead of gluing it to the dial and

New to AP Club
Finally got my dream watch today,AP 15400. My watch journey is fairly recent,coming from Tags and Omega,logical next step would have been Rolex until ironically I came across TRF.I was introduced to the whole new world of Haute Horology. I was torn between Rolex submariner ceramic and 15400 but on trying them out in person there was no comparison.AP is a thing of beauty and submariner is more of a tool watch.I still have not owned rolex yet but someday..IMG_0903 by gokuap, on FlickrP1000632 by gokuap, on Flickr

Patek Philippe #5053G, limited edition Andreas Huber
I'm looking for information / thoughts on the 5053G limited edition Andreas Huber. .rarepatek/watches/moreinfo/63bearandcompany/patek_huber_5035G.htmI recently saw two of them, a g and a r.Thanks in advance for any information you can provide.Here are pictures of the ones I saw.

Flipping my Patek..speak now or forever hold your peace
My Calatrava 5196R has been in the safe for about 355 days over the past year. I work in a very casual office & don't have much occasion to wear rose gold. I'm tempted to flip it for a Lange 1815 in white gold, that I know I'll wear several times a week & which also can do double duty as a dress watch.Does anyone care to argue for keeping the Patek?