Articles and News
Product News: Some Basel Introductions From Nanis, Frederique Constant, and Alpina March 23, 2016 (0 comments)
Nanis Introduces Amarcord, Ipanema, Lagoon Collections In Basel
Basel, Switzerland—Nanis launched multiple new collections of jewelry during the Baselworld Fair, which concludes today. The Amarcord collection (closeup shown left) is inspired by the images of the great movie director Fellini, with voluptuous shapes hand-engraved in 18 gold with diamonds. A group within the collection recalls the tiny, delicate forget-me-not flower (non-ti-scordar-di-me), legendary symbols of love, memory and loyalty, created in 18k gold with natural gemstones, below:
Other new introductions include the Lagoon collection features gentle curves, ovoid shapes and spherical forms, and ever-changing plays of chain styles that are inspired by the marine pools of the Venetian lagoon—where salt and freshwater mix—as seen from above. The collection is rendered in 18k gold and diamonds, while the Ipanema collection, inspired by the clouds that herald summer storms, is created in milky aquamarine, labradorite, yellow sapphire and the amazonite, set in 18k gold and accented with diamonds.
Nanis is designed by Laura Bicego.
Frederique Constant Updates Smartwatch, Introduces Perpetual Calendar
Basel, Switzerland—Frederique Constant Geneve presented a new model of its Horological Smartwatch, powered by MotionX, during this year’s Baselworld fair.
Since the original Horological Smartwatch was introduced last year, the brand has shipped over 16,000 pieces and gained insight into user profiles and the smart-watch functionalities that are most popular. One of those is the new Worldtimer function for travelers.
Every time the watch synchronizes with the user’s smartphone, the date and time are adjusted, giving complete control over time zone changes. Once an additional time zone has been selected, three pressures of the pusher will display the time in another part of the world on the analog dial of the watch.
This Horological Smartwatch comes with a 42mm highly polished rose gold plated steel case, convex sapphire crystal, and a navy blue dial that features applied indexes and Roman numerals. The watch is waterproof up to 50 meters and is finished with a blue alligator leather strap. It is built with the MMT-285 calibre, and powered by Fullpower’s end-to-end MotionX technology platform, with a battery life of two and a half years.
The watch also tracks activity and sleep patterns. Data is displayed in the MotionX-365 app for iOS and Android, with simple and easy to understand graphics to highlight activity and sleep during the day, week, or month.
Frederique Constant also introduced its first in-house Manufacture Perpetual Calendar watch that will keep track of days for a century at a time. Designed with classical watchmaking principles, the Manufacture Perpetual Calendar features an in-house movement created by Manuel Da Silva Matos, R&D director, and Pim Koeslag, technical director for the brand, respectively, after two years of research and development.
Inset buttons on both sides of the case are used to adjust the calendar mechanism. One button near five o'clock advances the moonphase, while another near eight o'clock is used for the date of the week, and one button at 10 o'clock advances the day and date simultaneously. Once adjusted, the mechanism will take into account months with 30 and 31 days, the 28 days of February, and also the four year leap year cycle with February 29.
The Manufacture Perpetual Calendar calibre comes with a 42mm rose gold plated or stainless steel case and silver or blue dial with the button-hour markers matching the color of the case. Case back is sapphire. Water resistant to 3 ATM. Each watch comes with a brown or black alligator strap and is presented in a luxurious wooden gift box.
Separately, Frederique Constant also announced the appointment of Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow as is brand charity ambassador. She also will star in the brand’s new advertising campaign.
Alpina Launches Seastrong Diver 300 Automatic
Basel, Switzerland—Alpina presented its new automatic diving range, featuring the new Alpina Seastrong Diver 300 Automatic, a professional diving watch with a cushion shaped 44mm stainless steel case that can manage depths up to 300m/1000ft. The design offers optimal dive time readability and features include a screw-in crown and a screw-down case-back, as well as a unidirectional rotating 60min diving bezel in four different colors. The oversized diver hands, dial indexes and bezel markers are luminous and the crystal is in anti-reflective treated sapphire.
The watch comes with a see-through case back to see the inner workings of the Alpina AL-525 automatic caliber. As standard, the watch is equipped with a water-resistant leather strap with stitches at the lugs, and for fashion conscious divers, a strap set with four different color rubber straps will be available.