French Watchmaker

The perfect travel companion, the watch can display the time in two separate time zones…

Bell & Ross’ Vintage collection hearkens to the 1940s, when watches were key instruments for pilots. The retro aviation spirit infuses the entire range, including two recent arrivals to the line: the Vintage Original and Vintage Officer models. The Vintage Originals ($2,600 to $3,900) are rugged re-editions of ’40s-era pilot watches with satin-finished steel cases […]

As a small group gathered in one of the formal private rooms of the Cartier mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York City last November, a rather informal comment suddenly issued from one of the far corners: “She has a blank check,” announced a male voice. Surprised heads turned to discover that the speaker was […]

THE GIFT His and her one-of-a-kind Van Cleef & Arpels watches designed to tell the story of a couple’s romance. A long weekend for two in Paris and Geneva, including first-class airfare, accommodations, and dining arrangements. Private tours of Van Cleef & Arpels’ ateliers in Paris and watchmaking facilities in Geneva, and a consultation with […]

Wine writers have hailed 2005 as one of the best vintages of French Bordeaux in decades, if not longer. After maturing such exceptional wine, the 200-year-old oak casks used to age Château Latour Grand Millésime 2005 have been preserved on the dials of Boucheron’s steel Reflet XL Château Latour watches ($15,100). Boucheron will produce just […]

Bell & Ross’s diver’s watch is one of the company’s most ergonomic designs with wrist-hugging curves that still maintain the aggressive character of a military timepiece.

According to Hélène Poulit-Duquesne, Cartier International’s watch marketing director, the original idea for the Cirque Animalier de Cartier emerged from an exercise in creative free sketching by the company’s designers. The collection of jeweled animal watches echoes beautifully Cartier’s historic specialty in modeled animals. “Everyone seized on the concept immediately,” says Poulit-Duquesne. “We turned over […]

The Van Cleef Arpels Jour/Nuit does not display hours and minutes in a conventional way. Rather, its dial—a rotating disk surfaced in aventurine—depicts a sun in yellow sapphires resting opposite a moon and night sky in diamonds. The disk makes a complete rotation every 24 hours, thereby approximating the passage of day and night. “Our […]

In 2005, Parisian jewelry house Van Cleef & Arpels presented its Midsummer Night’s Dream high-jewelry collection depicting impish fairies rendered in sparkling gems. A year later, the brand combined the fairy motif with a complicated retrograde movement and created the $96,000 Lady Arpels Féerie watch. Designers referenced a museum piece, the 1927 “Bonze” fob watch, […]