Blancpain Introduces Saint Valentin Ladies’ Watch
With the 2012 holiday season behind us, Blancpain is already looking ahead to Valentine’s Day, with the debut of its new Saint Valentin 2013 limited-edition watch, a ladies’ model with a mother-of-pearl dial and diamond-bedecked bezel. The Blancpain Saint Valentin 2013 uses the iconic imagery of the heart �� universal symbol of romantic love and of the watch’s namesake saint �� as its primary motif. The base of the watch’s dial is white mother-of-pearl, and the hour markers are diamonds. The dial is enhanced with five red-lacquered, mother-of-pearl marquetry hearts, the largest of which surrounds the date window at 3 o’clock. The counterweight of the slender, central seconds hand takes the shape of the Blancpain “JB” (initials of founder Jehan-Jacques Blancpain) logo. The 34-mm stainless steel case features a bezel set with two rows of full cut-diamonds, and the case middle also sports five red hearts, here made of liquid ceramic. To make these

The Mk II Fulcrum "American Milsub" Dive Watch
Mk II is widely known for not only being one of the first online micro brands but also for producing a great many well made homages to many a great sport and military watch of the past. Mk II is run by a perfectionist named Bill Yao, who transitioned from modding Seiko divers to making his own watches for an adoring online crowd that frequently pre-orders new models long before they will be delivered. The latest model to be announced by Mk II is called the Fulcrum and it's being advertised as an "American Milsub" and it's Mk II's vision of a?theoretical milsub made for the American military.We got to see a prototype of the Fulcrum at Baselworld earlier this year and regardless of its inspiration, the physical watch is impressive. Measuring a sport watch-ideal 42 x 15mm, the Fulcrum is ready for whatever your day holds, with an anti-magnetic, bead-blasted steel case, uni-directional 12 hour bezel, domed sapphire crystal, an HeV and 300m (1000ft) of water resistance. Weighing in at 117g

Tissot Sculpture Line Skeleton Watch
This rare Tissot watch isn't one that you are likely to find at your local Tissot dealer. In their T-Gold collection, this Sculpture Line Skeleton watch comes in a 45mm wide 18k yellow or rose gold case. As a side note, did you know that Tissot makes 18k gold versions of their T-Touch watches? I had no idea, but they do. Yea, not only that but they also can come on gold bracelets - even in platinum too!Tissot begins with a Swiss ETA Unitas 6497 manually wound mechanical movement. This movement is often chosen when skeletonization is called for as you can really scrape out a lot of its guts to see how it all works. It even helps the basic movement look extremely beautiful when artfully skeletonized and engraved. What Tissot did here is clever. Offer a fully skeletonized watch, but one that is also still legible. The dial of the piece is more or less in tact when it comes to having all of the hour and minute indicators. Coming with a black or silver dial, Tissot uses sporty looking Roman

How the Royal Oak Watch Became a Cult Classic
From the NY Times (By ALEX WILLIAMS JAN. 4, 2016) :Many iconic companies have tried to revolutionize their industries through groundbreaking design, only to end up taking a very public face-plant: Ford, with the Edsel; Apple, with the Newton; Google, with Google Glass.That was the sort of risk that Audemars Piguet, the venerable Swiss watchmaker, took when it unveiled its Royal Oak in 1972. With its stark geometry and stainless-steel case, the futuristic Royal Oak seemed to anticipate the unloved DeLorean sports car more than the future of fine watchmaking.And we know what happened with the DeLorean. (Yes, Marty McFly took one back to the future; the company also failed, just two years after the first cars were produced.)That is why the success of the Royal Oak is so striking. Four decades later, the love-it-or-hate-it Royal Oak has become the ultimate cult watch, with vintage pieces commanding high prices at auction, new releases popping up on television shows and endless high-end var

Decisions Decisions SS Sky-Dweller
I am in a bit of a quandary - I have been contacted by my local AD informing me that they have a Sky-Dweller for me to view/purchase.The issue is that it has the white dial and I'm unsure about it as I prefer the black or blue.I'd be interested on members thoughts on this dial as I believe it looks better in the flesh?Could anyone tell whether the dial could be changed at a later date? - I don't want to give up a chance of buying this scarce piece.