Its no secret that ultra popular pop singer Usher Raymond is a huge fan of Audemars Piguet watches.  In fact -  he had been photographed wearing Audemars Piguet’s almost as many times as fellow hip-hop moguls Jay-Z and Pharrell Williams -  who also seem to have an endless supply of Royal Oak Offshore watches.

There is no doubt that Audemars Piguet fans are fanatical – but it takes a certain type of fanatic to rock the “Wonder Woman double-wrist” look like Usher is doing in this photo.

I have been collecting watches since 1995 and to this day – I can’t bring myself to do it – but I do have close friends that do….and I don’t hold it against them.

At some level I understand that horology could be classified as a sickness and that once you officially “drink the kool-aid” you are in fact prone to doing the double wrist “Wonder Woman” thing.

So to all you horology fanatics who do it – Stand up and wave your freak flag – You will not be teased mercilessly on my blog…Ok, may be just a little.

Technorati Tags: Usher, Audemars Piguet

With the trend for stealthy all-black timepieces extremely strong, its interesting to see some of the attractive models on the market from various luxury brands.  One of the more handsome of these quietly trendy watches is the Franck Muller Conquistador Cortez King in black PVD finish.

Definitely not a watch for “girly-men”, this Franck Muller model measures 45 X 59mm–a veritable behemoth for the wrist!  Yet, the Conquistador Cortez King’s styling is very appealing–almost timelessly so, in fact.  Accentuated by elegant details like the rakishly exploded numerals that have become a sort of design signature of Franck Muller, and handsome touches of red, this timepiece is classic with heavy doses of sport thrown in the mix.  While the rubber strap is a spot-on match with the smooth black PVD finish, a crocodile strap would look equally great.

The Franck Muller brand has always gone after an elegant and distinctive presence in their timepiece designs, but the edge factor is often equally strong.  The PVD-finished Conquistador Cortez King follows in this tradition, smartly adapting to a look that luxury watch buyers are favoring.

H. Stern seems to be everywhere these days – from Harpers Bazar to the cover this December’s Elle magazine, the brand is HOT. And who better to display this smoldering brand than Grammy award winning country pop singer Carrie Underwood?

In her Elle cover shot, this blonde siren wears one of H. Stern’s bold “Celtic Dunes” gold bracelet designs.  The bracelet is displayed as part of a stacked ensemble – a celebrity jewelry trend which has already persisted through a number of awards seasons.

Believe it or not, this particular bracelet is actually the smaller design in the collection.  Even so, it’s a bold piece which radiates rich yellow gold color through a unique hand-rendered finish. The large twist pattern makes this a striking bracelet design fun, funky, and vibrant.

Piaget’s Limelight Magic Hour is a gorgeous dress watch that conceals a delightful and charming secret—three of them, actually.  Because of its cleverly designed bezel, a mere twist of your fingers suffices to dramatically alter the appearance of your Magic Hour watch.  Vertical oval, horizontal oval, or diagonal oval–the choice is entirely yours.  Impeccably crafted as are all Piaget creations, each of the Magic Hour’s modes looks equally lovely; looking at this timepiece in any orientation, you would assume it could have been designed no other way.

I find the diagonal orientation particularly attractive, but the other two are no less fetching; for ladies in love with diamonds, the vertical oval has the decided advantage of showing of the set Breguet numerals at 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock.   However, should you want or need more subtlety, it’s there, just a pleasingly precise twist away.

The Piaget Limelight Magic Hour watch has gotten plenty of acclaim lately.  Just a bit over a week ago, the distinguished jury panel of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve–a watch industry award ceremony you might liken to the Oscars–gave Piaget the prize of “Favorite Ladies Watch”.  Certainly, a magic hour for Piaget in more ways than one!

The Girard-Perregaux ww.tc is certainly one of the all time great travel watches in the “haute horlogerie” category.  A virtual representative for the world time function, the ww.tc is useful, extremely intuitive to operate, and technically impeccable.

Perhaps my favorite variation of this Girard-Perregaux collection is the ww.tc Perpetual Calendar watch.  In lieu of the chronograph, the world time and 24-hour displays are supplemented by a prestigious complication that keeps track of the day, the date, and the month–the complex mechanism automatically accomplishes date adjustments from month to month, and lets you know the leap year as well.  A beautiful moonphase indicator unifies the elegant dial perfectly, its gold moon and stars contrasting the pleasing Foch of the cities of the world and 24-hour disc.  It is also worth noting that the absence of chronograph pushpieces adds an additional measure of formality to an already classical design.  As with other Girard-Perregaux ww.tc watches, the Perpetual Calendar can be easily adjusted to reflect your locale simply by turning the crown at 9 o’clock.

The great appeal of the ww.tc Perpetual Calendar is that there’s no need to choose between a practical complication and one which is in the “high prestige” category.  With this timepiece, you get both, all in a wonderfully executed classical package of the highest quality.

Technorati Tags: Girard-Perregaux

M Night Shyamalan movies have more twists and turns in them then a county fair contortion artist. This young Indian American film maker may have been born in India but was raised in an affluent suburb of Philadelphia. His parents wanted him to be a doctor  – just  like they were – but fate took him in a different direction.

His parents encouraged him academically and put him in rigorous private schools (probably still thinking he was going to be a doctor). Instead of buying him a stethoscope one year they bought him a video camera and that pretty much ended any hope that he was going to be a doctor. By the time he was 17, he had produced over 40 home movies.

Since then Shyamalan has been scaring the crap out of America with movies like The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Village and Lady in the Water. So what watch does this young Indian American Sci-Fi director put on his wrist when he needs to make it to a casting call on time? Its not Indian or American – It’s Portuguese – An IWC Portuguese Chrono Automatic..

A fine choice for a young successful profession.

Last month, a 478 carat rough diamond was discovered in the Letseng mine in Lesotho.  This tiny country, which is surrounded by South Africa has already produced a number of notable diamonds including two larger rough diamonds from the same mine as the current find.  These larger diamonds weighed 603 and 493 carats.

The 478 carat size ranks this diamond as the 20th largest rough diamond ever discovered, and current information suggests that the diamond is colorless and internally flawless – absolutely mind boggling!  It’s estimated that it could yield a cut diamond of approximately 150 carats.

This is an extraordinary find, and only time will tell exactly what this rough diamond will produce.  However, it’s likely that the rough material will produce the largest ever colorless and flawless cut diamond.  I for one hope that Chopard nabs the finished product for one of their jaw dropping “Haute Jaoillerie” designs.

Technorati Tags: rough, Chopard

Gold jewelry has been making a comeback for a while now, and the trend just doesn’t seem to be letting up at all.  I for one am happy to see this because for such a long time, white metals have been the modern standard.  The monochromatic jewelry world was getting stale, and this new infusion of yellow gold jewelry designs is breathing vibrant new color and life into the world of fashion jewelry.

Recently, we have brought on a number of jewelry designers who devote a significant portion of their offerings (if not all of them) to yellow gold jewelry designs.  From Henry Dunay to Gurhan, Marco Bicego and H Stern, these companies all offer exciting and unique jewelry collections flush with gold hues.

One method that each of these designers have embraced is to develop hand rendered metal finishes which bring out the striking and wholly unique color of gold.  Whether it’s Gurhan’s hammered 24k gold or Henry Dunay’s “Sabi” finished 18k, these pieces all glow with a warmth that you simply can’t achieve with white metals.

Technorati Tags: Gold jewelry, Henry Dunay, Gurhan, Marco Bicego, H Stern

The Audemars Piguet Offshore watch collection never ceases to impress me with its ability to undergo metamorphosis.  It seems that collectors barely manage to glom onto a rare and particularly coveted version (for instance, the Juan Pablo Montoya, the Rubens Barrichello or the Forged Carbon Alinghi) when Audemars Piguet throws out something new that is even more wild, spectacular, and sought after.  What’s more, as the Offshore continues to evolve in materials and design concepts, we see the best elements from specific models united in dynamic and surprising new ways.

The latest high luxury sports watch from Audemars Piguet is the Offshore Survivor.  To me, this is the “baddest” limited edition Royal Oak Offshore variant since the fabled T3.  And, like the T3 Offshore, the Survivor exudes a massive aura of high-tech luxury with its hinged chronograph protectors, conical chronograph buttons, and strikingly ventilated crown that resembles a birdcage flash suppressor on an AR-type rifle.  You might call the Survivor the Darth Vader of the Royal Oak Offshore world.

Somewhat paradoxically, the octagonal bezel and textured dials which define the fundamental identity of Royal Oak Offshore collection provide strong differentiation from model to model according to materials and design choices employed.  The Survivor is endowed with its own powerful personality in this regard, showing off a deeply grooved ceramic bezel, hexagonal socket head screws (a la the Montoya and Barrichello), and an extremely intricate waffle pattern dial with some of the neatest skeletonized hands I’ve ever seen.  The techno-cool detailing covers every inch of the Offshore Survivor watch, from the textured non-slip black titanium caseback to a rubber strap with two rows of decorative checkering.

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Survivor: it’s bad, it’s businesslike, and yes…very limited, with just 1,000 pieces slated for production.  Let the collector races begin!

Technorati Tags: Audemars Piguet

It’s been a while since I have contributed writing to our blogs, and a lot has happened here at Lussori in this elapsed time.  We’ve added an exciting roster of new jewelry brands and at the head of the pack is H. Stern.  This innovative company has been winning awards for jewelry design for decades, and we are proud to bring them onboard.

Amongst their substantial selection of jewelry collections is the “Feathers” collection, which is the first group of items I’d like to discuss.  This collection made a huge impression on me when we first viewed it at the JCK jewelry show back in July.  These jewelry designs are made up of a network of 18k gold feathers.  Each feather is hand-rendered and carefully integrated into the gold chain mesh below.  The overall effect is absolutely stunning.

As each individual feather is allowed to move independently, the movement and feel of the bracelet is closer to fabric than jewelry.  Holding the bracelet, I was struck with the thought that this was the most luxurious gold bracelet design I had ever touched, and indeed it is.  Hats off to H. Stern for yet another brilliant design!