Nivrel Luxury Wristwatches

Nivrel Le Chronograph Replique II Limited Edition Movement

The History of Nivrel

In 1891, master goldsmith Friedrich Jacob Kraemer founded a jewelry and watch shop in SaarbrUcken that proved, over generations, to be the best place for fine jewelry. Gerd Hofer entered the family business in 1956, continuing it into the fourth generation. However; in spite of the fad that he was trained as a goldsmith, his true passion was for watchmaking. In 1993 he and his wife, Gitta, bought the rights to use the Swiss name Nivrel, a brand that had been founded in 1936, and they integrated production of watches bearing this name into the business processes of the Saarbrücken-based company.

Nivrel – A Symbiosis of Watchmaking and Goldsmithing

Today, Nivrel takes advantage of both lineages of its previous owners. Mechanical complications with Swiss movements of the finest technical level and finishing as well as gold watches in the high-end design segment of the industry are manufactured with close attention to detail and an advanced level of craftsmanship. Nivrel offers a wide range of products, but specializes in unique timepieces that represent a symbiosis of what watchmaking and goldsmithing have to offer In addition to classic automatic watches, the brand has introduced everything from complicated chronographs and skeletonized watches to perpetual calendars and tourbillons.

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Nivrel Le Chronograph Replique II Limited Edition

The Nivrel Flagship – The Pièce Unique Collection

The brand’s flagship is certainly the Pièce Unique collection, which unites the fascination of mechanical complications with goldsmith artistry and engraving perfection. Thus, for example, repeater modules and movements are hand-skeletonized, hand- engraved, rhodium-plated, and partially galvanized in various colors. The dials are skeletonized works of art in the form of figures and ornaments, including unique pieces made expressly according to the client’s wishes. The models outfitted with a five- minute repeater have an extra cherry on the top in the form of an automaton, allowing for a figure or decorative motif to move when the strike train begins.

Nivrel watches are a great example of how fast a watch brand incorporating a characteristic style and immaculate product quality can make a solid place for itself in the industry. Affordable prices also play a significant role in this brand’s success.

Nomos Wristwatches

Nomos Epsilon Automatic Wristwatch

Nomos – A Watch that Younger People Can Afford

Nomos’s owner and creative head Roland Schwertner was interested in making a watch that younger people could afford and enjoy without it having to be battery driven or plastic. So he thought up the Club. These are post-puberty, really adult-looking watches that will last one’s whole life through. They can continue to be worn long after the wearer is out of college; Nomos’s spokesperson Claudia Hoffmann explains. But they aren’t as staid or old-fashioned as some other timepieces available out there on the mechanical market. These are not watches for people concerned with status symbols, but they are for people concerned with their appearance. And—not to be forgotten—they Contain a manufacture caliber, something no other watch under $1,500 can boast. Additionally, try finding another wristwatch outfitted with a Shell Cordovan strap, a domed sapphire crystal, and such a timeless design somewhere else at this price category.

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Nomos Glashutte Automatic Wristwatch

The Club from Nomos Comes in Eight Different Versions

No one can say that Nomos doesn’t move with the times, however, and the Club is proof positive, now available in eight different versions: Club in 36, Club Date in 38.5, Club Automatic 40, and Club Automatic Date in 41.5 mm case sizes featuring a choice of ivory- or ruthenium-colored dials with SuperLumiNova elements for great legibility. The Club and Club Date are outfitted with manually wound Caliber Alpha and Beta respectively, while the Club Automatic and Club Automatic Date are each powered by automatic Caliber Epsilon and Zeta—all manufacture movements produced in Nomos’s GlashLitte workshops.

The Nomos Base Model is Uncomplicated and Contemporary

The base model, designed by Hamburg-based product designer Karin Sieber, differs from Nomos’ four other base models in its stainless steel case, which is somewhat easier to manufacture thanks to its uncomplicated and contemporary shape. On a watch made in Glashütte for college students and young professionals, the simplified case also brings the price down a touch from the other four base models.

A surprising twist in the story of this somewhat different Glashutte manufacture is its posthumous connection with Swiss industrial designer Hannes Wettstein, known to most watch fans for his work with the futuristic quartz timepieces by Ventura, a company that was sold to the American SWI Group in late 2007, Wettstein created a case and dial for a whole new appearance to encase the Nomos automatic movement, which was introduced to the market three years ago. The case is larger, more masculine, and perhaps even a bit bolder than the standard Nomos cases, which are worn equally by men and women, up to now. Thus, the ErlkOnig takes a definitive stand. The name of this watch alludes not only to the king of elves from an epic poem by Goethe, but also to a restaurant in Basel that Nomos’s employees enjoyed frequenting during Baseiworld before it was closed in 2008.

Omega Wristwatches and Chronographers

Omega Seamaster Diver 300M James Bond Collectors Edition Chronographer

Omega Introduces Two New Watch Collections

The twenty-fourth Summer Olympic Games in Beijing were sufficient occasion for its official timekeeper to introduce two watch collections with some special limited editions in 2008. The brand name Omega has been inextricably linked with sports timekeeping under the banner of the five Olympic rings since 1932. it is impossible to consider the remarkable success of the tenth Olympic Games and the unequaled athletic performances that took place there without mentioning the role played by Omega’s timekeeping in this international event.’ With these words William M. Henry, technical director of the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1932, thanked Omega for its first assignment as official timekeeper. The Swiss representatives had brought thirty mechanical stopwatches with them to California, astonishing officials there with timekeeping more precise than anyone had ever seen to that point. In 1948, Omega installed the Racend Timer at the finish line of the London track. This ‘magic eye’ was a camera connected to a set of mechanical stopwatches and controlled by a photo cell. The first quartz time recorder system followed in Helsinki in 1952, and then in 1968 in Mexico the first fully electronic timekeeping system was officially in place in all disciplines. The Photosprint finish-line camera took the place of handheld stopwatches and was able to produce a photo print of the finish with superimposed finishing-time lines—only thirty seconds after the end of the race. With these advances, Omega revolutionized sports timekeeping.

And yet timekeeping at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing has broken all previous records. Twenty-eight disciplines competed at thirty-seven different venues, with up to twenty races taking place and being timed simultaneously. It was a monumental achievement to keep track of everything and deliver accurate race results in extremely close fields—all with a margin of error of zero. The race times were not only determined, but were also recorded, processed, and presented in a great variety of formats—and were even projected as gigantic real-time displays in the stadium. A command center formed the timekeeping activities’ hub and the point where all information converged from 420 tons of equipment shipped from Europe to Asia, including 81 large and 322 small scoreboards and 65 TV transmitters. The center was linked to all signal sources in the entire stadium, delivering not only the official television transmission, but also graphic interpretations of the race results, split times, starter lists, rankings, and informational graphs to broadcasting agencies around the world.

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New Omega Watch Collections Introduced During the Beijing 2008 Olympics

Omega launched the first watches of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Collection one year before the Olympic torch was lit in the Bird’s Nest Stadium. The first of the limited editions was based on the Constellation ‘95, one of the brands best-selling models. Some 888 timepieces each in yellow and rose gold were issued as men’s and ladies’ models, as well as 2,008 models in a two-tone stainless steel and yellow gold edition.

The Omega De Ville Co-Axial Chronographer

Omega presented the De Ville Co-Axial Chronograph Ladies Limited Edition, a chronograph with a richly jeweled bezel and dial, on October 25, 2007—exactly 288 days before the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. This timepiece is available as a limited edition of 288 watches each in yellow, rose, and white gold. Precisely 188 days before the games began retailers placed two limited editions of the Seamaster Aqua Terra in showcases, limited to 2,008 timepieces each.

Wrapping up Omega’s horological festivities, eighty-eight Seamaster XXIV models were sold each day during the Olympics, available only during the two-week duration of the games. This model pays homage to the Seamaster XVI, originally issued on the occasion of the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.

Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean Chronographer

Timeless Omega Chronographs

The Timeless line is reminiscent of the Omega chronographs mentioned above, which started a tradition at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. While the Beijing Collection comprises solely variations on other models, Omega offers watch fans a technically extraordinary watch in the Timeless’s Speedmaster Five Counter Chronograph. The real eye-catcher on this timepiece is its five totalizers arranged on the dial in the form of the Olympic rings. The Speedmaster Date and Speedmaster Broad Arrow keep to a modest look with a clean color scheme and numerals in vintage design. Both the Olympic rings adorning the second hand’s counterbalance and the historical Omega logo offer the only discreet indications that this watch is part of the Timeless series. The Seamaster Planet Ocean includes all of the features of the classic diver’s watch, and only unobtrusively hints that it, too, is part of the special collection. Omega rounds out the Timeless line with a few men’s and ladies De ‘Ville models.

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Chronoswiss Timemaster Chronograph GMT

Chronoswiss Timemaster Chronograph GMT DLC

Chronoswiss Adds a New Piece to Their Timemaster Collection

There are two versions of the piece, stainless steel or stainless steel with a DLC coating. DLC is diamond-like coating, rumor has it that the Russian military used the process of DLC on their helecopter blades for its extreme resistance to abrasion although how this little nugget of information became public knowledge is anyone’s guess. Anyway, it is true to say that DLC provides the ultimate in durability compared to normal stainless steel or PVD coated steel, if you’ve ever worn a watch with a highly polished stainless steel bezel then unless you kept it under your cuff you’ll know how quickly they pick up scratches.

The DLC version looks superb with its decidedly monochrome theme, the GMT hand is a stand-out red color matched by the date indication at 6 o’clock and even the huge onion crown manages to have stealth-like quality. Also available is a stainless steel version with a black dial which is the perfect backdrop for that vivacious GMT hand.

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