Ladies Timepieces - Part 2

This is a follow up piece from my earlier post. This is by no means an exhaustive piece as many other brands like Breguet, Chopard, Longines etc. all make timepieces specifically targetted at the ladies. You may find Part 1 here.

Jaeger-LeCoutre Reverso is one of the few brands that has a separate line for women's timepieces. With more than 1,000 in-house calibres in their arsenal, making a movement specifically for a ladies' timepiece is a piece of cake. Such is the Rendez-Vous series. But here, the very versatile Reverso is also made with a feminine touch.

This is the reverse side with a mother-of-pearl central dial and adorned with diamonds on the case.

This is the front side of the Grande Reverso Lady Ultra Thin Duetto Duo in a steel case.

The idea is for the front to be worn as a "day time" office hour timepiece and turned over in the evening for a more dressy look.

This (below) is the more dressy look. Don't you agree?

All said and done, today's timepieces are seen mostly as unisex and with the trend of wearing "larger" timepieces, women are now also wearing more masculine pieces too. Just like this Roger Dubuis Sympathie S37.

When Mr. Dubuis created the Sympathie back when he established his brand in 1995, this white gold cased automatic Sympathie was his calling card. This piece and also with many others were certified by the Besançon Observatory as Chronometer grade.

The Sympathie came in many different iterations - starting with the most simple time-only. Then there was the Chronograph (I am missing this) and his most complicated piece, the Bi-Retrograde Perpetual Calendar Chronograph.

This is theUlysse NardinDual Time Lady with big date display. This 37mm steel cased timepiece comes with an automatic winding with a power reserve of about 42 hours.

The dial features a grey sunburst pattern with diamond set Roman Indices at 12 O'clock and Hour Markers.

The movement is an automatic winding UN-24 Caliber with Big Date and GMT Function. The pushers on the side of the case allows the user to advance or reverse the Dual Time hour hand to show the local time.

The small circular window at the 9 o'clock position shows the home time. The intelligent part of the piece is what the advancing or reversing of the hour hands also changes the date to local date.

And then there is the Corum Golden Bridge. Larger than the Miss Golden Bridge, this was originally purchased for myself but then wifey had other ideas...

Having take a second look, I tend to agree that this suits her more than me.

The see through timepiece showcases a straight line movement created by the very talented Mr. Vincent Calabrese. Unique movement construction visible from all sides of the case.

The Girard Perregaux 1945 series included this Ladies "Vintage 1945". This art deco inspired model comes with a mother-of-pearl crescent moon

The case measures 43 x 28mm and comes with diamonds on the case as well as the dial.

One of my wife's favourite is this Moser Mayu. Diamond bezel, pink mother-of-pearl dial, what's not to like?

The lighting plays very well on the dial...

This simple time-only piece is done to perfection. At 38.5mm, the case is a classic size.

And the movement is no slouch too... The HMC 321 manual winding with three days power reserve and a removal escapement for easy servicing.

Let me leave you with this image of the Vulcain Vulcanova timepiece. The two butterflies symbolises the ill-fated Chinese lovers, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. Folklore will have it that they both turned into butterflies to be united together forever. That's the short version...

Stories around ladies timepieces are more romantic, no?

Having seen these timepieces, don't you agree that they are worth their weight in gold?

Crazy Fun - The Franck Muller Crazy Hours

When Franck Muller unveiled the Crazy Hours around 2004, he not only brought a novel way of time telling but also fun to watch collecting.

The immediate impression is the dial layout... what the???

Yup, the numeral markers are not in a traditional layout... it's all over the shop or so it seems. Hence, the name Crazy Hours. Other than the 1, 4, 7 and 10, the rest of the numbers are not in their traditional position.

So how does one tell time? Well, the Crazy Hour mechanism is ingenious. The hour hand points to the correct hour and the minute hand reads the traditional way. Looking at this display (below), the time is 3.20 or roundabout there...

Housed in the iconic Cintrée Curvex case, it was Franck Muller who made the tonneau shape "his own". While the tonneau shaped case was not invented by Franck Muller, it was he who made it his own, popularising the case shape with the Cintrée Curvex.

The jumpng mechanism when activated at the hour, pushes the hour hands 5 positions forward and in this case from 3 to 4 which is five positions away. By the way, unlike traditional timepieces, the hour hands stays at the hour position but does not advance as the hour passes until exactly at the hour when it will jump to the next position.

You can see that the number 4 is five positions away from 3 and that 5 is also five positions away from 4. Now on to the numerals - the font style is emblematic of Franck Muller (see below). In this example, the numbers are coated with luminous paint unlike other models where the numbers are not coated.

And the lume makes the timepiece that more special... really!

What's also amazing about this timepiece is the dial. Underneath the embossed (coated) numerals lies other numbers beneath the top layer. As I understand it, the black numbers underneath form the first layer and are printed, then laminated with layers of lacquer before finally printing the top layer. Hope that make sense... And that sunburst guilloché dial is very pretty too.

Unfortunately, the timepiece comes with a closed case back which means we are unable to see the movement and the finishing. However, beating inside is an automatic movement with 42 hours power reserve. But with such a caseback (four screws securing the back), I am wondering what the waterproofing rating is.

The Franck Muller range is impressive but when he released the Crazy Hours, that was the only Franck Muller I ever wanted.

Is there a favourite Franck Muller timepiece for you?

Ladies Timepieces - Part 1

Ladies' timepieces are not well featured especially now so when women start to wear timepieces that were once "made for men". Back then, brands added on diamonds and changed the dials just so they look prettier and "made for women".

Allow me to introduce some of the timepieces actually made for women (mostly). Starting with the Roger Dubuis Sympathie with that very iconic case shape.

This Sympathie S27 model comes with a rose gold case and a beautiful mother-of-pearl dial.

Why S27? It's for Sympathie 27mm which is making reference to the case size.

What's so special about the Sympathie range? Well, the sapphire glass on the front is cut out to the shape of the case. In later iterations, they were changed to round sapphire glass as it was too difficult and costly to produce and fit. This makes earlier pieces very rare and therefore, much sought after.

And now for another brand that actually has a range made specifically for the ladies - Girard Perregaux. The Cat's Eye range includes not only time-only pieces but also complications like this Annual Calendar.

Featured here is the Cat's Eye Zodiac Annual Calendar. No prizes for guessing why this range is called the Cat's Eye.

What's interesting is that the timepiece combines the annual calendar complication and incorporated a Zodiac indication. This is perhaps the only timepiece with such a complication. Let me know if you see another one like this...

The diamond marker at the window indicates the month and the zodiac sign. Pisces is between Feb 19 and Mar 20. This piece also features a moonphase indication.

Jean Richard (below), I believe is now part of the Girard Perregaux family. This was an earlier piece when they had this TV shaped case. Comes with an automatic movement and a solid case back.

This, if I may call it, the Dragon watch... I believe it is specifically made for the Asian (Chinese) market. What do you think is the giveaway?

Next up... A lovely Jaeger-LeCoultre and rare Reserve De Marche with a grey dial with italicised numerals.

Encased in steel but devoid of diamonds, the timepiece still screams feminism.

At 37mm, it is also well suited to the lady's smaller wrists.

The Corum Golden Bridge is as iconic as many other timepieces out there. First developed by Mr. Vincent Calabrese as a rectangular piece for Corum, it was later redeveloped into this tonneau shaped timepiece.

This instantly recognizable in-line movement is a marvel and visible on all four sides. This version is called the Miss Golden Bridge.

But it's also not all about the dial. Some timepieces made for women come with movements specifically made for the piece. Take for example this Sympathie S27 featuring a manual winding Calibre RD18.

Instead of just slapping on a generic movement and adding on the diamonds and monther-of-pearly dials, some brands do make special effort to develop movements for ladies timepieces.

Not much has been featured about ladies timepieces but there are many out there worth their weight in gold. Which one in this line up is your favourite?