Let's get to business and see what's out there
The fabulous Basel journey keeps on going… where feet and arms are feeling it with thousands of daily steps carrying around shopping bags as if we spent hours shopping on Fifth Avenue.
Yet, it’s not for a new purse nor pair shoes and not even a watch.. unfortunately, it’s usually just the images we can get away with - but it’s a already the first step of the process and we enjoy it.
Back in 2008, Perrelet presented for the first time a feminine collection called Diamond flower. Four years later, the piece underwent a little evolution up until this year where they have decided to redesign the diamond flower model by a woman. The new collection inspired by the princess of Babylone’s suspended gardens diamond flower Amytis is a subtle mix of watch technique and style. Keeping the double rotor signature alive, Perrelet used a laser to mark the white mother-of-pearl upper rotor with sunrays enabling a visual contrast with the upper part of the dial set of black mother-of-pearl.
Diving into the elaboration of a feminine timepiece was a dangerous thing for Peter Speake-Marin… or that’s what he says. Shenandoah- a name he actually didn't pick, relates to the American Valley at the border of the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia and applies to the first 100% feminine piece influenced and directed by a woman. Keeping the Speake-Marin inspiration DNA the dual timezone of one of the three models presented relates to the concept of cartography and travel. Map lines, iconic blue hands, two ranks of diamonds set on the bezel and a case that carefully hugs the wrist with a curved oval case could very well finish a James Bond girl silhouette. There is no way around a Breguet specially not around the Rêve de Plume new Reine de Naples (front picture).
Speake-Marin Shenan Doah
The characteristic elements of the piece prevail with the guilloché dial, the ovoid case, the blue hands and mother of pearl elements. An interesting line of diamonds yet uncommonly set all around the inside of the dial with increasing brilliant cut diamond sizes gives a modern touch to the timepiece. The 3D sculpture of a plume set like a web with diamonds and baguettes on the left side of the case draws a direct parallel with Queen Marie-Antoinette- fervent ambassador of the brand- who never stopped writing letter to her husband.
We would too if we ever got a hand on the piece … or the husband !