OCEAN 7
LM-4 Ceramic Limited Edition
Florida-based Ocean 7 brings a ceramic dimension to its Swiss-made, American-designed LM series with the LM-4 Ceramic Limited Edition, V2 Meteor verision 2. The timepiece is powered by a Swiss automatic movement and comes in a numbered 100-piece limited edition. It features a screw-down crown to enable 100-meter water resistance. The 44 mm watch has a matte ceramic case, steel inner case and titanium crown and caseback. The base piece is $999. A COSC version coasts an additional $399.

SKAGEN
817LBXC
The matte black ceramic watch ensures easy readability with a cool balck dial that boasts white hands and numerals and a date window at 6 o’clock. Equipped with a Japanese quartz movement, the watch comes on a black ceramic bracelet. Price:$225.

OFFICINE PANERAI
Radiomir 8 Days Ceramica
This oversized timepiece from Officine Panerai exudesbold masculinity with its 45mm black ceramic cse. Powered by an automatic movement with 8-day power reserve, the watch features a minimalist balck dial with luminous hands and markers, date window at 3, power reserve indicator at 6 and small seconds hand at 9. Fitted with a black leather strap, the watch comes with patented removable wire loop strap attachments and is water-resistant to 100 meters. Price:$15,500.

JAQUET DROZ
Grande Seconde Ceramic
With its sleek, avant-garde design, this automatic watch exudes contemporary elegance with its 44mm black ceramic case. The black opaline slate dial incorporates a hint of red into its figure eight design on the top of the seconds hand. The watch comes on a matching black rubber strap. Price:$13,900.

Is Rado defined more by its designs or by the unusual materials it uses in watchmaking?
Certainly both. Having won dozens of awards for its one-of-a-kind style, Rado is known for both its unique design aesthetic and use of high-tech materials. Again, the keyword for the brand over the last fifty years, and the one that will guide us over the next fifty, is innovation, specifically in the field of design and innovation in the use of materials.
What other materials might we see in Rado timepieces in the furture?
There is still so much to be done in the field of materials in watchmaking. We are very passionate about infusing diverse styles, colors and materials together to create fresh looks. This passion continues to result in ground-breaking designs. We will have a brand-new material to debut in Basel next year, but you’ll have to wait until then to see it!

Ceramic watches started appearing more than twenty-five years ago, with the Rodo Intregra, followed in 1990 by the Rado Intregra, followed in 1990 by the Rado Ceramic, with its full ceramic case. Today Rado features a vast assortment of high tech ceramic watches.
In 2000 Chanel joined the party with the J12, a white ceramic watch that remains a very hot look for the brand. Since this time, many brands have debuted ceramic models, including Diro, Technomarine, Wittnauer, Panerai and other luxury brands. More recently, ceramic models have been used by popularly priced brands like Swatch, Michael Kors, Skagen and Timex.

For all its seemingly modern affectrations, titanium was actuallly discovered in 1791! It is commonly mixed with iron; aluminum, vanadium and molybdenum to produce a variety of strong, lightweight alloys used in aerospace, medical devices and, of course, watch cases. It is corrosion resistant and has the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any metals. Some of the fifty grades of manufactured titanium can have a Vickers hardness greater than 300; it is also hypoallergenic, scratch and dent resistant.
Titanium can be colored and is used extensively in this capacity in the auto industry:think rainbow colored wheels and anodized engine parts. However this practice isn’t used in watch manufacturing because of the thinness of the finish.
Seiko was the first manufacturer of a fully titanium-cased watch, the 600M pro diver’s automatic in 1975. Shortly thereafter IWC developed the Porsche Design Titan Chronograph, released in 1980 as the wrold’s first production wristwatch with a titanium case and an integrated titanium bracelet. This metal’s strength and lightness ahve made it a natural for military, aviation and active sports category watches.

Grade 316L is the low-carbon version of Grade 316; its hallmarks are toughness and weldability. 904L has a little copper in the mix, along with nickel and molybdenum. It is highly resistant to pitting and corrosion but is an expensive steel to produce; manufactures now use duplex stainless steel 2205 (S31803 or S32205) , Which feature the same properties but at a lower cost.
Surgical stainless steels were developed for medical applications and are available in a variery of grades and are used by watch manufacturers because of their hardness, strength and perceived “coolness” factor, as in “my watch is made of surgical stainless, how about yours?”
Here’s a thumbnail Vickers guide ( H represents hardness): 316L stainless steel is 140H, 347L stainless steel is 180H and carbon steel ranges form 55H to 120H. The hardness number can be converted into units of Pascals and will occasionally appear as, for instance, 120MPa, with higher numbers representing a greater hardness value.

Hublot, which popularized the rubber strap as a luxury fitting, has ensured that this oversized timekeeper will suit occasions out of the deep.
Therefore, the watch comes with two tongue-and-buckle straps, identified as “Town” and “Diver.” Hublot used the more conventional buckle because it believes the method to be more secure than a folding clasp, and is also easier to handle and close when using gloves. The method of attaching the strap to the case is via two small push buttons built into each end of the case; this allows the strap to be changed instantly without the use of a screwdriver or any other accessory.
Hublot believes that the Oceanographic 4000 has been designed to meet the most demanding requirmentsof both professional divers and watch enthusiasts. Those able to examine it when first seen at Basel this past spring could sense that here was the diving watch equivalent of a Hummer H1.
Production will be limited to 1,000 pieces for the titanium version and 500 pieces for the All Black version in black carbon fiber. With numbers that restricted, collectors should expect this one to appear in auctions with prices the opposite of a dive: ever on the ascent.

Devising a watch worthy of the tag “Oceanographic” necessitated an approach suitable for a “genuine instrument with technology developed to the extreme, ergonomics for efficiency and case of handling.” For Hublot, the watch was “designed to push the limits of the possible.”
Hublot strated with a King Power case measuring 48 mm in diameter. Two options were produced, one in micro-blasted satin-finished titanium, the other in matte carbon fiber, with bezels in matching materials, attached with six H-shaped screws in black PVD-finished titanium. The watches’ sapphire crystals are treated with antireflective coatings, the case backs made of micro-blasted satin-finished titanium with black PVD as appropriate, with matching crowns in titanium with black rubber insert or black PVD titanium with black rubber insert.

“Luminox really ahd the passion,” Kanan continues. “I haven’t met anyone in the watch business that would really sit down and talk about a watch. “I knew right away when I met [Luminox co-CEO] Barry [Cohen] that this was going to be right.”
TK partnered with Luminox in 2009, and the chronograph that resulted gave the military/ourdoorsy brand an entree’ to a new market, the world of racing and automotive enthusiasts.
Designed with a unique 44 mm asymmetric case, the first limited edition version of the Tony Kanaan chronograph incorporated the signature blue and orange colors integral to Kanaan’s helemt livery for most of his career. With the second version in 2010 he added new green and yellow colors, reflecting a change in his livery to echo the colors of his native Brazil. For tuitously, the hues matched the livery of KV Racing as well, which he joined this year.

Panerai created the Assolutamente leather strap with the same philosophy as the Bronzo case. The R&D department wanted to provide collectors with the option of having a very fine yet highly durable leather strap on which to wear their Panerais-straps that would age and gain a patina over time in the same way as the case of the Bronzo. Since its release, the Assolutaments Strap has become the topic of much discussion onthe many forums and websites where Panerai collcetors gather. Crafted from Tuscan calfskin by leather experts in Austria, Assolutamente straps, which have a texture similar to suede or nubuck, are an elegant alternative to a rubber strap.