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Pearl Star
The unique styling and oval face meant that William Anthony’s Pearl Star pocket watch was the first to be made with ‘expanding hands’. When the watch indicated it was 12 o’clock the hands would be fully extended to the top of the case, whereas at quarter to and quarter past the hour the hands would become shorter so that they wouldn’t fit within the sides of the case. Considering this watch was made over 200 years ago, this is a spectacular piece of craftsmanship.
Rolex Oyster Perpetual
The Rolex Oyster was a significant milestone in the evolution of the wrist watch as it was the first to be made waterproof. Rolex has always been an innovator of timepiece technology and the perpetual movement, first designed by Louis Perrelet in the 1750s, was perfected by Rolex in this model of watch. It worked by having a small weight wound around the watch. This weight would then move as the wearer moved their arm, eliminating the need for daily winding - hence the watch ran ‘perpetually’. The Rolex Oysterl Perpetual celebrates its’ 100th anniversary this year.
Patek Philippe Graves
In 1933 New York Banker Henry Graves Jr. asked Patek Philippe to make him the most complicated possible at the time. The resulting creation was called the ‘Graves Complication’ and had an impressive 24 functions. The styling looks remarkably similar to some of the more rugged watches available today. The Graves Complication was way ahead of it’s time and in 1999 was sold at auction for an incredible $11 million.
The Rolex Oyster was a significant milestone in the evolution of the wrist watch as it was the first to be made waterproof. Rolex has always been an innovator of timepiece technology and the perpetual movement, first designed by Louis Perrelet in the 1750s, was perfected by Rolex in this model of watch. It worked by having a small weight wound around the watch. This weight would then move as the wearer moved their arm, eliminating the need for daily winding - hence the watch ran ‘perpetually’. The Rolex Oysterl Perpetual celebrates its’ 100th anniversary this year.
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak
This watch is responsible for the popularity of titanium, steel and ceramics popular as watch materials to this day. Audemars Piguet was founded in 1854 and catered their high-end watches to only the most exclusive of clientele. By the 1970s most Swiss watch manufacturers were using precious metals and jewellery in their watches, however in 1972 Audemars Piguet made the world’s first stainless steel luxury watch thanks to famed designer Gerald Genda. The first watch cost approximately $2000 and has undergone several different incarnations since then, including the Outdoor Survivor edition which cost a massive $42,000.
Jaeger LeCoultre Gyrotourbillon
 18th century watcmaker Abraham-Louis Bregue pioneered the first tourbillons during the French revolution. They were crucial to the evolution of the watch as they offset the effects that gravity had on the balance wheel (the gear inside the movement which measures out seconds). Jaeger-LeCoultre improved on this mechanism by creating the gyrotourbillon, which was a three dimensional wheel which rotated in a similar way to a tiny planet on the watch face. This combination of a 300 year old invention and modern engineering techniques resulted in one of the most mechanically impressive watches the world had ever seen.
This watch is responsible for the popularity of titanium, steel and ceramics popular as watch materials to this day. Audemars Piguet was founded in 1854 and catered their high-end watches to only the most exclusive of clientele. By the 1970s most Swiss watch manufacturers were using precious metals and jewellery in their watches, however in 1972 Audemars Piguet made the world’s first stainless steel luxury watch thanks to famed designer Gerald Genda. The first watch cost approximately $2000 and has undergone several different incarnations since then, including the Outdoor Survivor edition which cost a massive $42,000.
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There are plenty of designer watch manufacturers out there and we are familiar with most of the big names: Rolex, Tag Heuer, Citizen, the Beastie Boys…wait - what?
That’s right, legendary New York Rappers the Beastie Boys have hopped on the bandwagon with a watch designed by band member Mike D.
 It’s style is certainly not in the same vein as the watches we would usually feature here at Watch Superstar and it is certainly striking. It reminds us of the mickey mouse or casio watches we used to wear at school.
The group designed the watch as a variation on the Nixon Timeteller P range of watches and comes in 4 bold colours: blue, green, white and orange.
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With Valentine’s day fast approaching, Watch Superstar dives to the rescue of all the men and women out there who are stuck for gift ideas. So if you are looking for a special extra something for the the man or lady in your life then we have picked out a few of our favourite designer watches for you to consider.
GC Guess Collection Gold Plated Watch
 Gc Guess Collection Ladies watch, quartz movement, gold plated stainless steel case and bracelet, silver dial, water resistant.
Rotary Gold Plated Bracelent Watch
Rotary Ladies Gold Plated Bracelet, Interchangeable Clear, Green, Blue, Pink and Orange Crystal Bezels, Cream Mother of Pearl Dial and Quartz Movement
Armani Gold Plated Crystal Watch
 Emporio Armani Ladies Watch, White Mother of Pearl Crystal Dots Dial, Gold Plated Case and Crystal Logo set Bracelet, Quartz Movement, Water Resistant up to 50 Metres
Chronotech Rose Gold White Leather Strap Watch
 Chronotech stainless steel analogue square rose gold case white dial white leather strap.
Omega Deville Prestige Watch
 Omega DeVille Prestige Gents Watch, Silver Roman Numeral Dial, 18ct Rose Gold Case, Scratch Resistant Sapphire Crystal Glass, Brown Leather Crocodile Pattern Strap, Co-Axial Mechanical Movement, Water Resistant up to 30 Metres.
Michael Kors Ladies Leather Collection Watch
Michael Kors Ladies Leather Collection, quartz movement, gold plated square case with a tigers eye dial on a brown leather strap, water resistant up to 50 metres
Accurist 9 Carat Gold Watch
Accurist Ladies Watch, White Dots Dial, 9ct Yellow Gold Case and Bracelet, Quartz Movement
Nautica Arabic Chronograph Dial Quartz Movement Watch
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Amongst all the media furore surrounding Tiger Woods and his many apparent ‘indiscretions’ it was a surprise to no-one when Tag Heuer jumped on the bandwagon of sponsors decided to drop the shamed golfer from their advertising campaigns. Although they continued to back his charity foundation, Tag CEO Jean-Christophe Babin decided to “take account of the sensitivity of some consumers in relation to recent events”.
With all this fresh in our memory it was quite a surprise to see Tiger Woods featuring in a promotional video on Tag Heuer’s official site:
 Once details of Woods’ alleged affairs emerged, the Watchmaker removed all photos from their site but it would appear that the line they are taking now is ‘forgive and forget’. Will we start to see similar backing from Tiger’s other sponsors or are Tag Heuer taking a calculated risk? Only time will tell.
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With a new year comes a spectacular showcase designer watch from Omega and it looks like the Omega Constellation Baguette watch is really set to make a big impression.
The dial consists of 146 baguette and trapeze diamonds that are invisibly set in a ’supernova’ structure, which will make it difficult to see the 18k white gold that has been used to for the watch’s case between the diamonds. Behind the star shape on the dial you will also find a small mother-of-pearl disc.
It is believed that the Omega master jewellers have hand selected and cut each diamond especially. So meticulous is the selection process that were a diamond to need replacing, the job would take as long as making an entirely new watch! The mechanical movement consists of an Omega Caliber 8421 Co-Axial escapement.
This ladies watch is so far one of a kind and it is uncertain as to whether Omega will make any more and with over 30 carats of diamonds, it will be interesting to see what sort of price it fetches!
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How this news slipped by us at Watchsuperstar we aren’t sure, however last month it was announced that watch making giants Tag Heuer and Zenith had merged under a new holding company, LVMH Swiss Manufactures SA. The newly restructured company is lead by Tag Heuer CEO, Jean-Christophe Babin.
This may sound like big news, however it seems little will change at Tag Heuer with the reorganisation being on mainly in terms of the company’s legal, administrative and financial departments. It is believed that each brand will still be retaining their own operational management.
Unsurprisingly, the current financial climate has been the driving force behind the restructure as Swiss watch manufacturers have been hit hard by the economic crisis. The merger has meant that Tag Heuer and Zenith have been able to effictively remove duplication of behind the scenes costs without significantly impacting on the watches that the customers see.
So for the moment it seems that this deal is nothing much to shout about, however in light of the financial difficulties that larger watch manufacturers seem to be having it will be interesting to see how independant watch makers cope over the coming year.
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 Those of you with even a passing interest in science will be aware of highly accurate atomic clocks. These types of clock use an atomic resonance frequency standard as their timekeeping element and are used to control things such as the frequency of television broadcasts and GPS systems.
In May 2009 the University of Colarado unveiled their strontium optical clock as being the world’s most accurate of it’s kind. Like other atomic clocks it harnesses the the natural and consistent vibration of atoms to keep track of time. What makes this particular clock different is that the vibration of these atoms is made even more consistent by holding them in a laser beam and then freezing them to a rather chilly -273 degrees (the temperature at which all matter stops resonating).
Even those this increase in accuracy is a minute fraction of a second, the implications of this development are large. It has great potential in areas of astrophysics and determining great distances, in particular measuring the distance to distant galaxies in space.
If it’s accuracy you are looking for in your designer watches then you should really look at quartz watches as mechanical watches are generally only accurate to -/+1 second per day, which will of course add up over the course of a year!
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Whilst stumbling around the internet yesterday we came across this rather miraculous and wonderful creation: a digital clock made entirely out of analogue clocks!
 It took us a moment or two to actually work out what was going on but once our eyes settled we came to realise what an ingenious creation this is. It turns out that this ‘clock’ was created by Swedish design company, Humans and consists or 24 analogue alarm clocks who’s hands come together to display the time in digital format. We wouldn’t want to be around when the alarm goes off…imagine having to turn all those clocks off at 6 in the morning!
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Keen car enthusiasts will no doubt be aware of Swedish car manufacturer, Koenigsegg and their spectacular 245mph supercars.
 While these cars are staggering feats of engineering what you may not be aware of is that they have turned their hands to the opposite end of the spectrum. Koenigsegg have enlisted the help of Swiss designer watch brand Edox to produce a watch who’s style complements the lines of their CCX supercar.
 The watch is as predictably crazy as the car with flip up ‘doors’ around the display, a strap made from alligator and a price tag of £13,500 which is considerably cheap compared to some luxury watches and even cheaper than the car itself which comes with a hefty £350,000 label.
We may be suckers for a nice watch here but in this case give us the car any day of the week!
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An interesting story surfaced last month as art experts discovered what they thought may be the world’s oldest painting to feature a watch.
The painting (pictured above) shows Italian nobleman Cosimo l de’Medici holding what looks like a watch and is estimated by curators at the Science Museum to be 450 years old.
Curator at the Science Museum , Rob Skitmore says of the piece “The watch itself would have been a virtuoso piece at that time, probably made in southern Germany, and the picture also shows its separate alarm mechanism that was used with it at night.”
It is know that Cosimo was a patron of science and technology so it is all the more plausible that he would own a watch of this kind.
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