The Earliest Map
The fascinating backstory of the first map of the known world, crafted in Babylon and presented here by Irving Finkel, the longstanding curator of the British Museum who was eventually able to decipher what remains of its clay tablet thanks to the effort and dedication of Edith Horsley.
Omega "Mondo"
Quite literally launched alongside Armand "Mondo" Duplantis' world record, 6.25-meter vault pole vault at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Omega has unveiled a new Seamaster Aqua Terra 150m Ultra Light bearing the colours of the Swedish flag.
While I applaud the manually-wound, lightweight, titanium caliber 8928 and can appreciate why Duplantis would favour a recessed crown like that, with a 72-hour power reserve, I can't help but be reticent about how tedious this timepiece must be to wind.
The bright colourway and Olympic provenance are reminiscent of the lightweight, Richard Mille RM-38 that Yohan Blake wore alongside his world-record-setting teammate, Usain Bolt, at the 2012 London Olympics. Unlike Blake, however, Duplantis won't face the threat of being levied a half-million dollar fine for wearing his ultralight timepiece, thanks to Omega's keystone prominence as the Official Timekeeper of the Olympic Games.
TAG Heuer Vying for F1 Sponsorship
I admire the subtle but gumptious juxtaposition JX Su wielded in this breakdown of why Rolex might be willing to let TAG Heuer assume sponsorship of Formula 1. Offhandedly mentioning the massive private jet employed by Rolex CEO, Jean Frédéric Dufour—to undergird the argument that Rolex can no doubt afford the sponsorship—while also arguing the dissonant optics of Rolex continuing to sponsor a climate-crisis-perpetuating motorsport on the one hand with its Perpetual Planet initiative on the other.
Private aviation emissions began to outpace commercial aviation at the turn of the millennium and continue to rise. A single, four-hour flight on a typical private jet emits as much CO2 as one of Jean Frédéric Dufour's fellow European citizens does across the span of an entire year.
Inside VC
Brandon Moore, reporting for Watches by SJX, delivers an insightful, inside look at Vacheron Constantin's watch manufacturing facilities in the Plan-les-Ouates district of Geneva.
Completed in 2005 to celebrate VC’s 250th anniversary, the Vacheron Constantin building was designed by Bernard Tschumi Architects as a single building. A second wing was then added by the same firm in 2014, increasing both production space and staff amenities.
A key emphasis of the building is lighting, with expansive glass walls on the north and south sides, and courtyards and skylights to bring natural light to interior spaces in a controlled way. The watchmaking operations, for example, are oriented to face north, to create ideal conditions for finishing and assembly.
Almost all aspects of VC’s production happen in this building, including the complete production of all in-house movements, and several unusual operations like hairspring production, gem-setting, engraving, guillochage, enamelling, and restoration.
Image credit Vacheron Constantin SA
Dial R&D at Rolex
Dan Crivello, writing for his online publication, Coronet, provides a insightful peek into the research and development of dials at Rolex in an interview with the company's Responsable R&D Cadrans, David Riboli.
It is an almost paradoxical situation where the oldest techniques rub shoulders with the most cutting-edge technologies. Creating a new dial is a question of combining and reinventing the multitude of resources at your disposal.
We also have at our disposal sophisticated facilities that are rare in the market and whose development we have frequently spearheaded.
The use of femtosecond lasers by Rolex in the manufacturing of several of their dials has been self-evident for years now. It is, nevertheless, interesting to see it in writing, directly from their head of dial development.
Riboli's passing mention of a spectrocolorimeter likely means Rolex is leveraging the X-Rite RM200QC for colour control in its dial R&D and, by extension, X-Rite's industrial spectrophotometers in the production of its timepieces.
Image credit Etienne Malapert
Rolex Proposes Expansion in Bulle
Rolex presently employs around 14,000 people worldwide, 9000 of them in Switzerland. The proposed expansion in Bulle, situated in the Swiss canton of Fribourg, is estimated to increase that number by 2000 employees.
The new campus is slated to be finished in 2029. In the interim, Rolex has taken over a Tetrapak factory in Romont to augment production. Once outfitted, the former Tetrapak facility will employ 250-300 people, who will move to the Bulle campus upon its completion.
Linked article in German (English translation).
"General Purpose"
Marathon Watches wrangles collaboration with Jeep.
Both companies have served up military-spec, general-purpose wares for decades. While the tale may be apocryphal, it is said that the name Jeep is derived from the abbreviated shorthand for the general-purpose specification: GP.
Image via Europa Star