Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, followers of events known for being fashion spectacles — the Oscars, the Met Gala, Eurovision — have watched them become venues for making sartorial as well as political statements about the conflict. The Cannes Festival in France has not been immune to this trend. Several attendees have used…
There are few moments of political theater as grand as a state dinner, essentially a pantomime of diplomacy and national pride from the set to the staging to the scripts — and the costumes. In that drama, the first lady is cast as both hostess and symbol, her dress a part of the decorative storytelling…
“Nice” tends to be dirty word in business. The cliché holding that nice guys finish last has seldom seemed more true than in the landscape of contemporary retailing, where business is dominated by corporate consolidation, monopolistic practices and shareholder returns as the ultimate value. Yet nice, as it turns out, may not be altogether pejorative…
Time may be divided into past, present and future, but for the independent Swiss watchmaker Ludovic Ballouard, the only time that counts is the present. It’s a philosophy he developed the hard way, through personal suffering and loss. Watching his wife, Eveline, endure cancer for 10 years took a toll. “I realized you have to…
The commissioning of architects to design watches has been a thing at least since the 1950s. In more recent times, some brands have asked winners of architecture’s highest honor, the Pritzker Prize, to design a timepiece. Thus far 10 of the 53 recipients of the award, given annually since 1979, have taken a horological detour…
At the award ceremony for the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève last November, one winner provoked a few double takes. The victor among six finalists in the annual design competition’s Challenge category which, last year, focused on watches priced at 2,000 Swiss francs, ($2,203) or less, was the Millesime Automatic Small Seconds, a 39.5-millimeter vintage-inspired…
Oyvind Von Doren Asbjornsen wasn’t content with slapping a rook or a bishop on a watch and calling it a chess-themed timepiece. A watchmaker who also is an avid player, he wanted a sophisticated design, yet one that resonated with aficionados of the game. So in 2019, his brand, Von Doren, based in Oslo, released…
David Dorward was a young boy when he first visited the Floral Clock, a combination of horology and horticulture initially installed in 1903 on a south-facing slope of the West Princes Street Garden in Edinburgh’s New Town area. “I remember when I was a child,” he said, “my mum and dad would bring me down…
Specialists have begun the restoration of the Edinburgh Time Ball, one of the Scottish capital’s best known horological attractions, which hasn’t been operating since 2020. A time ball is a signaling device, a sphere that drops down a pole at a predetermined time — the best known now may be the New Year’s Eve ball…
A 10-time winner at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, the annual industry event often called the “Oscars of watchmaking,” Kari Voutilainen is among the most prestigious figures in independent horology. And in March, his work actually went to the Academy Awards: Cillian Murphy, who won best actor for “Oppenheimer,” wore a yellow gold brooch…
