caracarnj

Congratulation! Wear it well!

Nice watch!!! I have the non-ltd edition, non pvd edition and love it too. Wear it well!

Welcome! Yes, this place is dangerous! Too bad you realised it late.

Welcome PAM guru!

Welcome to RWG! Post some pics of your reps pls!

post pics! post pics! post pics!

Arh! One of those from the ancient realm. Greetings!

Congrats in finding RWG! You will love it here!

Wow, you certainly hate to post! Just kidding!

Welcome to the jungle!

Consider Avenger Skyland! It's coming to me this week!

In case you have gotten the BCE V3, please post some pics. I am very interested in BCE too! Thank you.

Go Tiger... I mean Taka, Go!

we seriously need some pics here!!!

Nice watch bro! Hope to see it on the next gtg!!!

Of course Taka! You, me and CoolFire are meeting up next week right!!?? It is very important for us to meet up next week. Yes! LOL!

Hi guys, I should know whether the lobang for hotel private room is on by Tuesday 9th Sept. But meanwhile should we settle on some date? May I propose the weekend for 20th and 21st of September? We can choose either Sat or Sun. The venue would prob serve International buffet lunch. Look forward to your feedback! Car

I don't like the watch and has never really like any watch in that color. But the review is very detailed and the photos are very very well taken. Fantastic watch review!!! :thumbsupsmileyanim:

Taka, you should take the tiger watch from Chopard. Fierce! Yeah baby yeah!

Welcome to the family and get ready your wallet!

Hi Spin, Heard so much good things about you from CoolFire. Hope to see you in person in the coming gtg in Singapore! Cheers!

Hi Robbie, Your recommendation is very well thought of and a lot of efforts have been put into it! I would definitely look at your recommendation when it is my turn to own a gen! Car

There have been many highs, lows and missed opportunities in horology's courtship of the great Hollywood movie machine. WATCHES have always made conspicuous appearances in films - like Sean Connery's Rolex Submariner in Dr No, Steve McQueen's Rolex 1655 Explorer II in The Hunter, and McQueen's Patek Philippe pocket watch in The Thomas Crown Affair. But since the onset of the high concept-event movies ushered in by Jaws and Star Wars, the paradigm of product placement in cinema has become ever more sophisticated. It was uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer - a man who wouldn't ya know got his start producing television commercials - who truly brought product placement to another level in his movies. He realised that the cinematic landscape in films such as Armageddon could be populated with car, soft drink and sneaker brands as seamlessly as wise-cracking protagonists. A look at the recent Sex and the City movie, meanwhile, reveals such an all-new high in product placement and luxury brand name-dropping that the movie is at its core simply a very cleverly constructed television commercial. Even as product placement has become part of the mighty Hollywood machine, watch brands have struggled to find access to truly A-list vehicles. Sure, they've been reasonably successful in inundating European arthouse fare, but with very few exceptions they've been chewed up and spit out by the amoral gear wheels of the movie-making empire on high. Reduced to basic logic, the pairing of watches and cinema seems perfect because both are selling manufactured dreams. You buy a watch because it connects with you emotionally, while you watch a film hoping to be emotionally transported. What have been the most and least successful of these pairings in recent memory? And what is the real efficacy of product-placing watches in these vehicles? Stroll with me through the greatest acts and most resounding flops in this uneasy partnership. No Vesper, it's an Omega - James Bond and the Omega Seamaster There was once a time when those old enough to remember associated the irrepressible Commander James Bond with Rolexes. In his first screen appearance in Dr No, Bond (Sean Connery) was already wearing a Rolex, a watch (the Submariner 6538 to be exact) so cool that only the magnificent double-barrelled aria of physical concupiscence known as Ursula Andress in a white bikini manages to upstage it. Why did Bond wear a Rolex? For two reasons: The first is as fickle as we watch collectors are. We know if we have to select one watch to accompany us on truly hard-core missions it would be a Rolex because they really are that durable. The second reason is because Bond's creator Ian Fleming had already chosen Rolex as Bond's watch of choice in his books, presumably for the first reason I just mentioned. In fact, one of the most conspicuous appearances of Bond's Rolex in Fleming's books is when 007 uses his as a knuckle-duster. In Chapter 16 of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond literally uses his Oyster as a weapon: 'He softly retrieved his gloves from the bathroom, put on the goggles so that they rested in his hair above the forehead, tied the dark-red handkerchief tightly across his nose, schnapps into hip pocket and, finally, Gillette through the fingers of the left hand and the Rolex transferred to his right, the bracelet clasped in the palm of his hand and round the fingers so that the face of the watch lay across his middle knuckles.' For those of you sighing with nostalgia, suffice to say that I too long for the days when a hip flask of schnapps was requisite anti-terrorist equipment. Throughout Dr No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, and Thunderball, Bond continued to wear Rolex. Apparently, George Lazenby wanted the role of Bond so badly that he bought his own Rolex Submariner (reference 5513) to emulate Connery. And the resulting association with Rolex as a hard-core, immensely durable watch that was also elegant enough to wear with a tuxedo or while seducing SPECTRE's slinkiest ingenues brought incredible visibility to Rolex. So, the question is, how did Bond start wearing Omega watches? Well, according to watch industry legend Jean-Claude Biver - it was because of Jean-Claude Biver! According to lore, Biver was looking for a way to truly usurp Rolex in terms of mass perception and in Bond - as played by Pierce Brosnan - he found the perfect vehicle. Regardless of who started the Bond-Omega association, it has ascended to ever-greater success under current Omega CEO Steve Urquhart. When Urquhart discovered that Bond's producer Barbara Broccoli was completely overhauling Bond in Casino Royale for a new generation and making him young, tough and utterly badass (an idea Quentin Tarantino duly takes credit for), he knew he had a brilliant opportunity to similarly rebrand the Omega Seamaster for a new audience. What follows is one of the most shameless and yet brilliant acts of movie marketing ever achieved by a luxury watch brand. When engaging in verbal repartee with the delicious Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), Bond is asked if he is wearing a Rolex. He retorts condescendingly: 'No, an Omega.' Urquhart chuckles: 'What I really wanted him to say was: 'No, it's an Omega Seamaster with co-axial escapement'. But Barbara (Broccoli) told me: 'Come on, that's going a bit too far.' The unabashed coolness of Omega is then reinforced in almost every scene of the film. Hell, even the croupier at the card table is wearing a Schumacher Speedmaster shown in resplendent close-up. How effective was this as an act of branding? All I know is at the end of the film I wanted to buy one so I'm inclined to say it was stellar! Rating: 5 out 5 golden popcorns. It may have outraged the modesty of the less commercially inclined but the Bond film was damn effective at getting Omega on the lips of movie-goers Is that a Jaeger-LeCoultre? 'Priceless' (or 'Hor de Prix' in French) Priceless is a delightful revision of Breakfast at Tiffany's with a twist and revolves around Irene, a lithe, sun-kissed gold-digger - played with surprising sexiness by Audrey Tatou - and Jean (Gad Elmaleh), the humble bar man who falls in love with her. She sleeps with him thinking him to be a man of means, and is humiliated when she discovers him to be a barkeep. After he is bankrupted (it takes all of a few hours), he is picked up and becomes the toy boy to a rich older woman. They begin to compete in a game of gold-digging one-upmanship, in which Tatou becomes Elmaleh's tutor. The real moment when the student becomes the master occurs when Elmaleh lights Tatou's cigarette only to reveal the incredible diamond-set Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Compressor Memovox in white gold his benefactor has just bought him. Tatou's eyes light up with a mixture of avarice, envy and respect and she gushes something to the effect of: 'You got a Jaeger-LeCoultre, that is sooo expensive!!!' How effective was this at positioning Jaeger-LeCoultre as the epitome of horologically dashing for the Riviera bling crowd? Very effective! In fact, movie reviewers commenting on the scene have taken to referring to Jaeger-LeCoultre as 'the rich man's Rolex'. A little banal? Sure, but wildly effective. The only problem with Hor de Prix or Priceless (as it's called in English) is that, as a French film, its global distribution is limited outside of France to arthouse film buffs who may or may not be Jaeger-LeCoultre's targeted audience. Rating: 4 out of 5 golden popcorns. Effective in getting JLC recognised as the rich man's Rolex. Full marks are not awarded simply because of the film's status as arthouse fare Tony Stark's Bulgari - 'Iron Man' After the missed opportunity related to Minority Report (see further down), it seems that Bulgari was bent on ensuring maximum visibility for their watches, particularly as they usher in a new era of complicated men's timepieces. So it was that when director Jon Farveau and actor Robert Downey Junior decided to bring the womanising, alcoholic billionaire Tony Stark to the screen, a Bulgari watch was quick to claim the valuable real estate on his wrist. Actually, Stark wears two types of watches throughout the film. He wears a Hublot Big Bang, which is on him when a big bang literally detonates around him and sends shrapnel close to his heart. (I thought Hublot had planned this as an intentional marketing coup but, according to Jean-Claude Biver, it is purely accidental). And later when he's dressed in his dinner jacket attending a charity gala, Stark slips on the new Bulgari Diagono Moon Phase. There is no real reference to the watch beyond this and while the Bulgari certainly fits into the million-dollar milieu, the marketing coup here is certainly not at the level that you see in Casino Royale or even Priceless. Rating: 3 out of 5 golden popcorns 'Miami Vice' - were there watches in this movie? Miami Vice. It should have been the perfect vehicle, combining the right kind of mass appeal with serious artistic street cred. But somehow it fell flatter than Audrey Hepburn's chest which is to say mighty flat indeed. What was the problem? The film's director Michael Mann has already expressed a love affair with watches with Al Pacino's Bulgari watch enjoying more loving close-ups than the majority of women in the film Heat. Our contact in Bulgari tells us that people called up their boutiques after viewing Heat to buy 'Al Pacino's watch', demonstrating the efficacy of the product placement. So when Michael Mann announced he would remake his seminal television series Miami Vice as a feature film, those of us reared on white suits and espadrilles got sweaty palms just thinking about it. Presumably so did some watch brands ... But the problem was that when Mann's Miami Vice dropped, instead of a luscious sun-drenched playground of over-the-top Faustian opulence, we got a dark, brooding film (shot on yuck ... video) that took itself altogether too seriously. Where were the white Ferraris, the armada of Lamborghinis, the endless flow of champagne, breastesses and yea-yo? And while two of the Richemont Group's watch brands scored what seemed like major coups with IWC outfitting Jamie Foxx's Ricardo Tubbs and Vacheron Constantin pimping out Colin Farrell's Sonny Crockett, these acts of product placement were undermined by the film's overall kill-joy atmosphere. They were barely featured and, until a press release was issued, I had no idea Vacheron Constantin had put their watch on Crockett's wrist. Indeed, the best 'beauty shot' for a watch brand is related to the deployant buckle on Tubb's wrist, making us ask the inevitable question: why not have him wear his IWC with the face inwards in this scene? Further, the choices of an IWC Aquatimer and a Vacheron Constantin perpetual chronograph seemed totally incoherent with the protagonists. I mean really... what kind of drug dealer wears a titanium sports watch or a Lemania CH 27-based perpetual chronograph? Do we really see Sonny consulting the Farmer's Almanac to set the moonphase on his watch? Where are the watches with gigantic cohones and rose gold and diamond set skin? Let's face it, Crockett and Tubbs were born to wear Audemars Piguet Offshores but, given the constraints of the brands involved, why not, at the very minimum, a gold DaVinci or Portuguese and a rose gold Overseas? Rating: 1 1/2 out of 5 golden popcorns. A major flop. The wrong watch choices and the lack of any significant coverage makes this a tragic missed opportunity The importance of product placement As you can see, I've omitted some of the more obvious product placement of watches such as Sylvester Stallone's Panerai in Daylight and Arnold Schwarzenegger's AP Royal Oak Offshores in End of Days and Terminator 3. Why? These are hard to examine in the light of product placement, because the watches have come to overshadow the films that they appeared in. Plus, these watches represent some of the most coveted collectors' pieces around, so it's hard to gauge their efficacy in bringing brand recognition to wider audiences, although I am inclined to say they did not do so. One thing that is for certain when trying to reach wider audiences is that celebrities sell! In a discussion with Revolution magazine's founder Wei Koh, he mentioned that the March 2008 edition of Revolution, which featured Quentin Tarantino on the cover, literally flew off the shelves and was sold out within the second week. Were people buying the magazine because of Tarantino's watches? To my mind, it doesn't matter because the objective is to reach an ever-wider audience. It is also to engage the youth audience so that the young guy today grows up dreaming of an IWC watch in the same way he dreams of a 911 Turbo. That watches are growing ever more mainstream is demonstrated by two former heads of state. The first is Bill Clinton and his alarmingly large collection of Panerai watches. Funnily, when he was first running for office, I recall Mr Clinton wearing a gold Rolex President. Then some image consultant must have replaced it with a Timex to demonstrate Mr Clinton's proximity to the common man. Well, the first thing that Mr Clinton did upon returning to the private sector was to indulge his passion for watches. He appeared on Larry King and a great many talk shows with Panerais on his wrist, which only enabled the brand to reach a wider audience. But the best public-relations coup of the year has to belong to Hublot. Whether it was accidental or intended, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was photographed on the cover of the June 9, 2008 edition of Time magazine with a Hublot Big Bang on his wrist - thus enabling the brand to reach an all-new demographic of patently unhip old rich white dudes. The need to find films where time is a character The most obvious error made by the watch companies in their courtship of Hollywood is that they've been a little quick to jump on board any vehicle that gives them visibility. What they need to do is focus more on films and television programmes where time is an integral character. If you have a movie where time is fleeting - a covert operative is injected with a exploding time release capsule and literally has 12 hours to save the world and himself - then his watch becomes more than an ornament but a focal point and a tool that his very survival depends on. The watch is instantly enhanced with heroism. It becomes a character. It is astonishing that the vast number of aviation or espionage-related films that feature the oft-used 'countdown' mechanism to inject a pressure-cooker atmosphere are staggeringly bereft of high luxury mechanical watches. Imagine creating a minor complication (like the 12-hour countdown) specifically for a Will Smith or Brad Pitt action flick. The other problem that the watch industry has is an over-reliance on agents and middle-men. Apparently, Hollywood stars are totally enamoured with watches. According to an IWC insider, Pitt was said to be scouring New York looking for a ceramic Top Gun double chronograph. Then why don't brands approach stars directly as Revolution magazine did when they shot Tarantino - who later became an IWC brand ambassador through Wei Koh's efforts? Honestly, it's a mystery. But looking back at the past 10 years of cinema and television, what is most glaring is not so much the success stories of the watch industry in Hollywood but the immense missed opportunities for product placement in films where time is a major character. 'Minority Report' - alas, the watch that never was The plot for Steven Spielberg's Minority Report (based on a story by Philip K [censored] of the same name) is one of the most brilliant in the sci-fi crime-thriller genre. In fact, both the story and the film are so emotionally powerful that they resonate far beyond the limitations of their genre. The story is simple. In the future, people are arrested for crimes before they commit them. Three pre-cognitive psychics are hooked up to a super computer that allow them to read everyone's thoughts in Washington DC and they can literally tell when you're about to commit murder before you actually act on your impulses. The head of this future crime unit is John Anderton who, having suffered the tragic murder of his son, has thrown all his passion into upholding the future crime system to ensure no else suffers the same tragic loss. (Incidentally anyone doubting Tom Cruise's acting abilities needs to re-watch this film as well as Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, and then eat his/her words). One day Anderton gets arrested by the system as the pre-cogs have projected he will find and murder the man responsible for his son's death. He plunges into a wild time-bending chase to uncover the truth behind the murder and, in so doing, uncovers a horrific flaw in the future crime system. His only companion - his incredible Bulgari multi-function wristwatch. For those of you who don't remember this watch in design terms, it was absolutely the coolest thing to ever find its way on to a screen hero's wrist. Big, badass, futuristically brutal, the watch instantly ignited interest. It was precisely the watch Bulgari needed to make to totally transform the perception of it as a quality but somewhat less daring man's watch brand to an epicentre of horological cool. Sure, it was quartz - but its arsenal of multi-function indicators was reminiscent of the control panel in a fighter jet. It was thrilling, visceral and totally oozed attitude. The only problem? The watch wasn't actually commissioned from Bulgari. It was fabricated in the movie's prop department and was actually an Omega X-33 that was reworked to look like a Bulgari and feature the brand's logo. Apparently, the filmmaker must have wanted to inundate Cruise's character with a little bling appeal. But why either brand was not commissioned to make a real watch is something of a mystery and represents one of the biggest missed marketing opportunities in high luxury. Admits a high-ranking manager in Bulgari: 'After Minority Report came out, our boutiques would be flooded with calls every day for six months to a year with people wanting to buy Tom Cruise's watch. Yes, in retrospect, that was really a missed opportunity.' 'I Am Legend' - what watch am I wearing? I have no idea Of recent films that offered incredible missed opportunities for watch brands, nothing stands out more than Will Smith's terrifically entertaining I Am Legend. Beyond its adrenaline-charged appeal, the film is also replete with product placements. The very first scene is a beautifully shot commercial for Ford's GT 500 Shelby Mustang. It's nice to know that even post-apocalypse, there are still talented car detailers at work in New York as evinced by the shine of the Smith character's car. But back to the story. The year is 2012. Robert Neville (Smith) is the last man in New York, possibly the world. He is under attack by crazed vampire zombies who bear a behavioural resemblance to lager-addled British football fans. Neville relies on two things: his trusty German Shepherd and his watch! Why his watch? Because he has to make sure that he is safely indoors every day before sunset or risk running afoul of the aforementioned blood-sucking ghouls. 'Wait a second!' you say! Because it's obvious what Neville needs is a perpetual calendar with equation of time indicator and alarm function, right? And also Neville's action-packed days would be the perfect showcase for the luxury watch world's current obsession with anti-shock technology. Where, then, is the 'Extreme World' or 'Extreme Lab' or any one of the 'extreme' watches fabricated by one of my favourite Vallee de Joux brands? You would think tearing ass around New York chased by vampires would be suitably extreme enough. Where is Wyler's anti-shock multi-part assault weapon of a tourbillon? Hell, isn't Audemars Piguet making a watch called 'The Survivor?' In fact, doesn't Audemars Piguet also make an equation of time watch? So what watch is it that Smith ends up wearing? What timepiece is it whose alarm goes off when he is trapped and knocked unconscious thus saving him before the sun goes down? Well, no watch in fact, or at least none that I can recognise. Because he ends up wearing and displaying to the camera repeatedly a no-brand quartz piece of disposable plastic. If this is the future, I definitely don't want to be a part of it! '24' - where is the Bauer Bang? One of the most avidly viewed television series on earth is 24, the saga of anti-terrorist expert and one-man army and probably television's most frequently tortured protagonist Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland). The premise of 24 is as brilliant as it is simple. Each season revolves around 24 episodes each representing one hour in Bauer's day. Bauer will suffer horrific loss, endure astonishing hardship and save the day in 24 hours. Even Immanuel Kant couldn't refute Bauer's utter coolness. As a hero, Bauer is incredible. He represents the living embodiment of mental and physical resilience. He's been trapped in a Chinese prison, electrocuted, died and been resurrected (yes, there are definitely Christian overtones) and still is willing to sacrifice himself at a moment's notice for whatever president happens to be in office. Even Franco Cologni, president of the Foundation de la Haute Horlogerie, and Hublot's Jean Claude Biver are fans of the show. And this is the show where time is a hugely important character. Where, before cutting to commercial, multiple clocks (in this case digital) show the time as it counts down and corners Bauer behind what seems like another seemingly insurmountable hurdle. So the question is why doesn't someone put a decent watch on Bauer? In fact, if I'm not mistaken, wasn't Baume et Mercier using Sutherland for an ad campaign? Could they not have struck a deal to put their Riviera XXL Magnum on the guy's wrist? Doesn't Baume et Mercier need a big mass-marketing magic ticket like this? And it's not like Bauer doesn't have an interest in watches. In the first couple of seasons he wears a Rolex Submariner and then, for some reason, in later seasons he switches to a no-brand quartz watch. Shameful. Who do I see creating a watch for Bauer? Suffice it to say I would like to see Bauer's next watch to be the Hublot Bauer Bang. A watch crafted from a special material made by Kyocera in Japan. A special ceramic, tungsten brass mix (sounds familiar, doesn't it) with an incredible 2,000 Vickers hardness, that looks like a bullet shell casing and that is used in body armour and bullet-proof vests to deflect the impact of small-arms fire. In fact, I would like to see Bauer stop a bullet with his watch. Why not?! It would be devastatingly cool! But, most of all, I would like to see that damn electronic countdown before commercials be replaced with a close-up of a mechanical chronograph display with - you guessed it - a mechanical 24-hour countdown function! Let's say it together ... the Bauer Bang!!! If anyone can make it happen maybe the great Jean-Claude Biver can. Cheers!

Ztech, glad you find the info useful. The Zigmeister's service is value for $$$!!!

What happens when you send a watch in for a regular overhaul, how long does it take, and how much can you expect to pay? ARE you the kind of person who sends a watch in for servicing only when it starts to give trouble, or stops altogether We've got news for you - that's really not a good thing, say our watchmaker friends. In a hot and humid climate like Singapore's, considerations like corrosion and water resistance are far more important than in a country with a cooler, drier climate. On top of that, a master watchmaker once explained to us that if you keep the same lubricants going round and round inside your watch movement, what happens over time (with the friction between metal parts) is that those lubricants can pick up and carry tiny metal residues around with them - even if you can't see this with the naked eye. In the worst case, such metallic residues make the watch lubricant act like sandpaper - instead of ensuring that the movement parts glide smoothly against each other with a minimum of abrasive effects. And if you have quartz watches which have been lying around for some time, don't be surprised if the battery inside has not only died on you, but leaked its corrosive contents and - quite possibly - destroyed the insides of your watch in the process. Key considerations We conducted a survey earlier this year, sending watch brands a questionnaire that covered key considerations about servicing. We asked them, for instance, what's done to your watch, how long it takes, what it typically costs, and how good the local techies are in terms of experience. Eight brands were kind enough to respond to our queries and here are some typical answers they gave. For example, recommended service intervals of three to five years was the most common response, though some suggested water resistance tests as often as once a year, especially because of Singapore's year-round humidity. Post-service warranties were most commonly for one year, but stretched to two years in the case of Audemars Piguet, IWC and Omega. There's more. To make the costs more comparable across brands, we tried to identify a simple but iconic watch for each of the eight brands - a timepiece with an automatic movement, three hands for hours, minutes and seconds, with or without date, but a minimum water resistance of 100 metres. As a result, we found ourselves looking at watches such as the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, Girard-Perregaux Seahawk II, IWC Aquatimer, Omega Seamaster, Oris Diver Date, Panerai Luminor Submersible, Patek Philippe Aquanaut and a Tag Heuer 2000 Exclusive. Survey results For the convenience of our readers, we have summarised our survey results in table form. And in terms of what's done for your watch when it is sent in for regular servicing, the eight respondents told us what they typically do to get your watch back in tip-top shape: Movement parts are separated from the case, then all items checked or tested for wear and tear To clean away old lubricants and remove any other residues, individual movement parts are thoroughly cleaned with the help of chemicals and purpose-built machinery; Replacement of parts where deemed necessary (could entail extra charge); Movement re-assembled and re-lubricated; [*]The watch is then re-assembled in its case, and to ensure water resistance, new gaskets are fitted for important areas like the front and back of the case as well as the crown; [*]Finally, before it's ready to be returned to its owner, the cased watch is typically subject to satisfactory final multi-day testing for key factors such as power reserve, accuracy, magnetism and water resistance. As for the optimal combination of least time taken and most reasonable costs, the trio that emerged tops from our inquiries were Omega, Oris and Tag Heuer. And, of the three, Tag offered the best value for money, by throwing in a free polish of watch-case and bracelet for just $240. More expensive alternatives start as high as $1,000, or more. If total man-years of experience in the service centre form any reliable gauge of the quality of personnel working on your favourite heirloom, we are happy to report that a good number of those polled here had combined personnel experience of more than 100 man-years in servicing or repairing watches. In many cases, local expertise could handle watches that were more than 20 years old. Omega and Patek Philippe had the largest number trained in Switzerland - at seven each. Notably, an expatriate headed more than one brand's service team, and watch complications up to perpetual calendars could be handled locally in many cases. As for watches too old or too complicated to be repaired locally, most do offer watchowners the option of sending it back to the head office for a quote, though customers may be asked to bear the transfer and insurance costs in some cases. All said, it's true that the cost of keeping your watches in good shape has risen over the years. On the other hand, what hasn't?