“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.

This year, Panerai has cased its P.2002/3 in-house movement in a 45 mm ceramic Radiomir case to create the Radiomir 8 Days Ceramica. The watch has a completely black look, from the case, bezel and dial to the DLC-coated Even the sapphire window onto the in-house movement is smoked, reinforcing the all-black appearance of the Radiomir 8 Days Ceramica.
Though perhaps not as rare as some of the other materials that Panerai uses for watchmaking, titanium remains one of the best mterials for making large, sporty watches because of its excellent weight-to-strength ration. This year Panerai presented a left-handed monopusher chronograph in a Luminor case, the Luminor 1950 Monopulsante Left-Handed 8 Days Titanio 44 mm.

Among the biggest hits from any brand at the SIHH 2011 was the Luminor Submersible 1950 3 Days Automatic Bronzo. This 47 mm diver’s watch marked the very first time that Panerai made a watch from bronze. The Paneristi and other fans ofthe brand enthusiastically applauded the Bronzo at its debut and clamored for it when tis 1,000 examples were released, causing it to sell out very quickly.
Many in the industry cited the piece’s rarity, in terms of its limited nature but also because there are so few bronze watches from any brand on the market. According to Panerai, the inspiration for the Bronzo came form the firm’s longstanding sponsorship of the Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge, an international circuit of classic yacht regatas, and the recent restoration of a very special classic yacht, Eileam, which the firm oversaw and funded.
“As often happens with Panerai, our inspiration comes form the sea, and in particular from the world of classic yachting, which we are deeply involved in through our sponsorship of the Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge,” Bonati told iW in an interview.

Over the alst few years Panerai has pioneered a number of bold reakthroughs in case manufacture. It was last year that the firm came out with its first watch housed in proprietary Panerai Composite, a meterial formed when aluminum is immersed in an electrochemical bath; and it was just this year that Panerai released a watch that has become a true critic’s darling, the Panerai Luminor Submersible 1950 3 Days Automatic Bronzo 47 mm.
According to Panerai, development of Panerai Composite watches resulted form a relationship that the firm forged in the high-end sports-automotive industry. Ceramacized aluminum was invented originally to shield parts of the engine. When the R&D department at Panerai learned of the material and its possibilities in case manufacture, it became very interested in being the first watch marque to take advantage of the metal’s highly desirable attributes, including a phenomenal weight-to-strength ratio.

Why Sector?
We want to buy brands as well and the Sector brand is phenomenal. CIRCA presents somethig unique: solutions for companies. Sector fills a gap in the market that no one else has been able to do yet, and that would have to be the case for any other brand we look at to add to our portfolio. But it has to be a true brand, or something we can make a true brand. We’ll take our time, not rush, and build an interesting portfolio of watch brands over the next three to five years.

How did CIRCA begin?
I started CIRCA in 2001 with my dear friend Jeffrey Singer. I was a former diamond cutter and wholesaler that had fairly recently sold my business and started learning the estate jewelry world. I recognized early on in my career that there was not a national company or luxury brand that was addressing the very large need of the general public selling their jewelry, diaonds or watches. I knew from industry experience that most people had things that they no longer wanted or wore and didn’t feel that they had a professional or upscale place to go. Selling jewelry had always been stigmatized because the assumption was that if you were selling you needed the money; I knew, again from experience, that this was not the case. People sold because of tastes changing, lifestyles changing or they simply wanted to do something else with the money.

Setor watches have long been associated with high-risk sports and adventures. True to its “No Limits” branding, Sector watches have for years been seen on the wrists of skydivers, rock climbers, free divers, and most recently, polo players, as the brand itself has evolved. With Italian roots (it was founded in Milan in 1973), Sector’s Italian-based design team maintains a solid sporty profile, but now adds a new fashion conciousness to the line.
This year Sector re-launches its No Limits philosophy with new distribution, new partners and a new U.S. team, led by veteran watch company executive Phil Schwetz, who was previously with Oris, Festina and Wittnauer.Schwetz debuts Sector as the first watch brand distributed by CIRCA, a leading global buyer of jewelry and watches from the public andtrade, with strong retail partners domestically.

With so much new for the 34th AC, time remains key to the competition especially the time to the start line and the time to the mark. Louis Vuitton is the official timer of all events for the 34th America’s Cup. But in the modern era watches no longer play a direct timing role says Trouble.
“In the first race in 1917 in New York, the way to get the timing was to send some pigeons from the committee boat out on the water to the New York Yacht Club on 44th Street. Then at a later point there were people pushing chronometers to time the racing. Now there is no more watch technology involved. It is done purely by GPS and computer. They take the GPS position of the boat and the GPS position of the mark.”
Louis Vuitton will mark its 30th anniversary with the LVC via new debuts in its Regatta and Tambour collections (see sidebars in this story.) As ever, the brand remains mad about the Cup!

In addition to a new racing format, the 34th AC will feature a completely new class of sailboats, incorporating technology, techniques and speed that will make Cup competition the pinnacle of sailing once again.
“The racing will be much shorter in duration, twenty to thirty minutes,” Trouble says. “We are making anew sport which will be much better on television, very spectacular. We will hopefully reach a wider, younger audience.”
And San Francisco is a perfect venue because for the first time since 1992 an American Defender holds the Cup. With consistent prevailing winds (a problem during the 32nd AC in Valencia, Spain) San Francisco Bay should provide dependable racing conditions with no delays. The Bay’s topography also allows for a great, up-close view of the racing and a very TV-friendly backdrop.