Ceralume
An experimental, glow-in-the-dark ceramic from IWC.
While not nearly as robust as zirconium oxide, standard-issue Super-LumiNova is, itself, also a ceramic. The fusion of the two materials is interesting. While I doubt the glow is nearly as strong as pure Super-LumiNova, if the tech progresses well it would be interesting to see it applied to bezel markings, dial indices, and hands.
Image credit IWC
Rexhep Rexhepi Reflects on His Early Career
Logan Baker, reporting for Phillips Auctioneers interviews Rexhep Rexhepi on life before Akrivia, building his brand, and how the debut of his Chronomètre Contemporain changed everything.
The positivity Rexhepi received while showing the first Chronomètre Contemporain prototype during Baselworld was unlike anything he had experienced before. For the first time in his career, his order book was already rapidly filling up with names.
Even with the success of the Chronomètre Contemporain, Rexhepi reveals a persistent inner tension throughout the interview:
I wanted to make a living from this. I wanted to build my life on it. And when you're unable to live because people don't, I don't know, they don't really trust you, or they think that you're too young, or they don't believe in you ... it's really tough. I understand it today, but in those moments, when you really have to eat, it's a different feeling. You have to be strong. You have to be really passionate to not let it get you down. But it does affect you. It all affects you.
I can't be happy with everything I'm doing in life right now. I think I can do so much more today. I know that I want to do more, but I also know that, at this moment, I'm very frustrated.
I go home every day and I can't stop myself from thinking about how I want to be further along. Yeah, I'm frustrated.
I'm very patient, but that doesn't make things any easier. I'm very patient about achieving something, but I won't let myself be happy with what I'm doing right now.
That unsatiated desire for perfection has no doubt helped to fuel the success he has found.
Image via Phillips Auctioneers, LLC
At the Bench With Remy Cools
Independent watchmaker Remy Cools and his first and currently only employee, Clémence Thériat, interviewed by Business Insider in a video that provides an insightful look inside his atelier as well as some of the processes and approaches that he and Thériat apply in crafting the tourbillon wristwatches he designed.
Clarity Over Complication
Arnaud Chastaingt, Director of the Chanel Watchmaking Creation Studio, in conversation with Hervé Borne of Worldtempus:
There’s nothing worse than going round in circles with your so-called DNA and constantly reliving the past. This attitude shows a lack of respect. Freedom of creation was always one of Gabrielle Chanel’s primary values. You can’t dwell on the past; it doesn’t work. Goethe’s phrase: “Make a better future with the expanded elements of the past” is an excellent summary.
Being Careful With Tools
Oliver Reichenstein, of Information Architects, poses some thoughtful perspective on the tech zeitgeist in 2024:
We can just say “no thanks” to technology if it doesn’t make sense to us. New is not inevitable. New doesn’t mean need.
We can be both critical and appreciative of new technology without categorically accepting or rejecting it.
Knowing what you want doesn’t mean that you don’t “get it”.
Being careful with tools, new and old, still makes a lot of sense.
Luxury That Loves Discipline
Shriya Zamındar, reporting for Vogue India, pays a visit to Rado's watch manufacturing facilities in Switzerland:
The brand uses raw materials like tiny globules of clay, which then go to through different stages of heating, cooling and compression to form a watch’s skeleton.
The recipes of the secret sauce for each series of ceramic watches dictate how capsules of different colours are mixed in an actual cauldron to form completely new shades. Not following the ingredient list or respecting the exact cooking time can have potentially disastrous results.
"Radium Paint Takes Its Inventor's Life"
An archival extract of the obituary for Dr. Sabin A. von Sochocky III, from page 29 of the Thursday, November 15th, 1928 edition of the New York Times.
While the none of the luminous paint his company created is functional any longer, a century onward it remains just as humanly lethal. Due to its more than 1600-year half life, the radioactive radium employed in his invention that still exists in the hands and dials of an untold number timepieces has and continues to wreak havoc and potential harm to countless lives.
Fossils of the Future
On a global scale, our economic system is predicated on a disregard for longevity, because it’s more profitable for companies to make products that die than it is to make products that last.
Tech companies would do well to take a page from the better echelons of the watch industry and bolster their service revenues with thoughtfully-designed hardware that is genuinely serviceable.
