Black Edition

We’re all familiar with the fashion crowd’s fixation with black, but if you’re also obsessed with watches, check out Black Limited Edition, a series of vintage stainless steel Rolexes turned into “Tron”-like collector’s items. Alejandro Alcocer, a watch fanatic and design entrepreneur who has previously delved into skateboarding, catering and handbag design, followed the legend of a black watch supposedly released by Rolex in the late 1960s for the Royal British Army soldiers stationed in South Africa. It was thought that only 500 were made, but Rolex never confirmed their distribution and they became the holy grail of watch collecting. So Alcocer decided to make his own, with the help of a Pennsylvania-based company that had previously done contract work for the U.S. Army but had fallen on tough times. Aside from the dial and crystal, which remain in vintage original condition, the watches were transformed into matte black beauties using highly specialized chemical applications. Black is the new black, and I’m feeling for the Rolex redux.

NY Times

piaget

It has been nearly 50 years since watch companies pitted their technical resources against one another to produce the thinnest possible mechanical watches. But in the clean, contemporary watches now coming out of Switzerland, such dimensionality is once again becoming relevant--and very sexy. The reigning champion of thinness, Piaget has been quick to reassert its position with the new 1200P movement in its limited-edition 43 mm Altiplano anniversary edition. The movement, like the watch, is broad and very thin. At 2.35 mm the 1200P is the thinnest automatic movement in the world, but uses its diameter to incorporate an offset self-winding system that is set into the movement and enhances its slenderness and the overall elegance of the watch. An equally thin version with subsidiary seconds will be part of Piaget’s normal production.

Robb Report 2010