Horlogerie

Bell & Ross remet La Palme d’Or à l’occasion du dernier Festival Automobile International

jean-philippe tarot — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:18:00 GMT

Le 4 février dernier, la marque horlogère Bell & Ross a remis à l’Hôtel national des Invalides à Paris, la Palme d’Or à l’occasion du dernier Festival Automobile International.

Carlos Rosillo, patron de Bell & Ross, a remis le prestigieux prix de La Palme d’Or au petit-fils du fondateur du groupe Volkswagen et actuellement le Président du conseil de surveillance, Ferdinand Piëch, pour avoir significativement marqué l’industrie automobile au cours de ces dernières années.

Onze Grands Prix, dont la Palme d’Or ont été décernés par le jury du Festival à des personnalités et entreprises pour leur talent. Des Concept Cars d’exception, dont certains en première exclusivité mondiale ont été présentés. 600 personnalités, designers, constructeurs, media et membres du Jury on...

Porsche Design Heritage P’6530 : le retour de la fameuse Titan

jean-philippe tarot — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:30:00 GMT

La marque horlogère Porsche Design relance pour la rentrée prochaine l’un de ses modèles emblématiques : le célèbre chronographe en titane Titan lancé dans les années 80, qui reste une valeur sûre encore aujourd’hui chez la plupart des amateurs de montres. La P’6530, premier garde-temps de la collection exclusive Heritage, sera proposée dans une série limitée à… 911 exemplaires (forcément !)

Ce chronographe, entièrement réalisé en titane, est donc extrêmement résistant tout en offrant un haut niveau de confort du fait de la légèreté de son matériau, nettement plus léger que l’acier inoxydable. Légèreté, solidité et sobriété : le message a gardé toute son actualité par rapport à 1980, lorsque Porsche Design révolutionna le monde de l’horlogerie en présentant le...

Yonger et Bresson Victor Hugo : réserve de marche et indication jour/nuit

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:01:00 GMT

La marque horlogère française Yonger & Bresson présente en avant-première du salon mondial de l’horlogerie, Baselworld, sa nouvelle montre : la Victor Hugo. Animé par un calibre à remontage automatique, ce garde-temps automatique arbore deux complications horlogères : une réserve de marche et une indication jour/nuit. Le tout, pour moins de 300 euros.

Matérialisé à 9 heures, au cœur d’un compteur 12-24 heures, l’indicateur jour/nuit apporte toute sa magie à ce nouveau modèle. Tournant au rythme des heures, symbolisées par une aiguille, un disque finement décoré laisse apparaître, selon le moment de la journée, un soleil ou une pleine lune.

Plus fonctionnel au quotidien, un indicateur de réserve de marche, placé à 4 heures, signale, sur un arc de cercle gradué jusqu’à 4...

La nouvelle montre pour homme de Cartier : Calibre, la bien-nommée !

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:29:00 GMT

Le célèbre horloger-joaillier Cartier vient de présenter sa toute dernière création masculine : une montre ronde au design affirmé et viril qui affiche les codes identitaires de la marque (aiguilles glaive, chiffres romains, spinelle en forme de cabochon) tout en arborant un boitier de 42 mm résolument contemporain et puissant. Un garde-temps élégant qui est de surcroit, armé du premier mouvement mécanique à remontage automatique 100% Cartier : le calibre 1904 MC.

Au premier regard, la montre interpelle ! Puissance des lignes, robustesse de la boîte, architecture inédite ; c’est à l’évidence une montre au caractère bien trempé.

Une impression décuplée par sa construction mécanique : une boîte ronde d’un diamètre de 42 mm rehaussée d’une lunette et prolongée par quatr...

Breitling Avenger Seawolf Chrono Blacksteel : fonctionnelle jusqu’à 1.000 mètres de profondeur

jean-philippe tarot — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:03:00 GMT

La marque horlogère Breitling vient de dévoiler une série limitée de son modèle Avenger Seawolf Chrono Blacksteel (qui s’annonce comme « le seul chronographe étanche et fonctionnel à 1000 m de profondeur ») : un garde-temps « full black » extrêmement looké, très viril et très racé équipé du calibre SuperQuartz et de poussoirs magnétiques. Deux exclusivités Breitling.

Noir le boîtier en acier, soumis à un traitement ultrarésistant à base de carbone. Noire la lunette tournante unidirectionnelle. Noirs la grande couronne vissée et les poussoirs avec relief antidérapant. Noir le cadran, sur lequel se détachent les index et aiguilles luminescents blancs ainsi que les compteurs soulignés de rouge.

Avec son allure originale, technique et puissante, la série limité...

Nouveauté Blancpain Villeret Phase de Lune

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:55:55 GMT

Baselworld 2010 marque le 275e anniversaire de Blancpain et, simultanément, le lancement d’une nouvelle collection Villeret.
La première montre de la ligne est un modèle inédit avec phase de lune et quantième complet.
Elle comprend un mécanisme de calendrier entièrement sécurisé, des correcteurs sous cornes et un boîtier demi-savonnette en or rouge.

Nouveauté Harry Winston, Project Z6

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 07:34:23 GMT

Le Project Z6 annonce l’arrivée d’une nouvelle complication dans la collection avec un mouvement à remontage manuel doté d’une alarme 24 heures, spécialement développé pour ce projet et exclusif à Harry Winston Timepieces.
Constitué de 340 pièces, le mécanisme est réalisé avec une complication entièrement repensée et intégrée, afin d’optimiser les performances.

Nouveauté Bulgari Diagono Calibro 303

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:15:55 GMT

Un style affirmé et sportif, des proportions généreuses et équilibrées, un contenu revendiquant sa forte technicité … Symbole d’un mode de vie contemporain.
Le Chronographe Diagono Calibro 303 est animé par un mouvement de manufacture mécanique à remontage automatique

Nouveauté des montres Breitling

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 09:29:08 GMT

Fondée la même année que la création de l’heure universelle (1884), partenaire privilégiée de l’aviation mondiale, Breitling s’est toujours attachée à proposer des modèles permettant de lire simultanément l’heure sous plusieurs cieux – telle la fameuse Unitime des années 1950.
La Colt GMT+ en est un brillant exemple.

Nouveauté Omega

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:13:39 GMT

L’OMEGA Tourbillon central squelette central Co-Axial platine est l'expression suprême de l'art horloger. Chaque montre est faite à la main dans la Cellule Haut Gamme d’OMEGA (atelier Tourbillon) à Bienne par des horlogers sélectionnés.
Dans un mouvement Tourbillon, tous les composants principaux responsables de la précision de la montre sont assemblés dans une cage tournante. OMEGA est la seule marque d'horlogère à avoir créé un Tourbillon central.

Nouveauté Urwerk

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:11:20 GMT

Came, transporteurs, aiguilles télescopiques, platine noir. Pour celui déjà familiarisé aux créations URWERK, ces mots sont annonciateurs d’une poussée d’adrénaline imminente.
En effet, l’équipe fidèle à son credo über futuriste nous revient avec une indication des heures robotiques.
Robotiques ? Jugez-en sur pièce.

Nouveautés SIHH Girard-Perregaux

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:09:35 GMT

Girard-Perregaux présente un nouveau modèle dans sa collection ww.tc Petite Seconde, qui associe l’éclat de l’or rose à la profondeur d’un cadran noir. Cette interprétation élégante souligne les lignes pures de la montre, tout en renforçant le style affirmé propre à la collection.
Le système ww.tc, qui permet de lire simultanément l’heure locale ainsi que celle de 24 fuseaux horaires, est associé dans cette version à une petite seconde positionnée à 6 heures.

Nouveautés SIHH des montres Parmigiani Fleurier

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:39:39 GMT

Poursuivant la saga Bugatti amorcée avec la création de la désormais mythique montre-bracelet Type 370, Parmigiani présente aujourd’hui une nouvelle collection venant enrichir la famille de montres Bugatti réputée pour sortir des codes traditionnels de la marque.
S’inspirant du coupé Bugatti Atalante 57S Sport, l’une des seules voitures de tourismes des années 30, elle se veut très sportive et plus accessible.

Nouveautés SIHH des montres Greubel Forsey

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:55:40 GMT

Pour honorer leur troisième Invention, les créateurs Robert Greubel et Stephen Forsey ont relevé un défi de taille : donner à un mécanisme horloger alliant un ensemble de techniques complexes et novatrices un écrin à l’architecture inédite.
L’ Invention Piece 3 est pourvue d’un cadran totalement atypique ; ce sont les platines mêmes qui servent de support aux différents indicateurs.

Nouveautés SIHH des Montres IWC

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 12:30:56 GMT

En 2010, IWC fête l’une de ses familles de montres à la tradition la plus riche: en effet, les montres Portugaise entreront dans leur huitième décennie.
L’occasion rêvée pour créer de fascinantes nouveautés telles que la Portugaise Grande Complication, la Portugaise Tourbillon Mystère Rétrograde ou la Portugaise Yacht Club Chronographe.

Socializing your feed with Twitter

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:40:10 GMT

Sometimes you reach across the hedgerow to share with your nearby neighbors. Other times, members of the household move away and yet you can't keep from calling to remind them to wear a hat and such because it's chilly out. Today, we're celebrating acquaintances near-and-far by launching the ability to send your feed to Twitter.

FeedBurner has always been about measuring, managing, and monetizing syndicated content. Our hope is that by providing one application in which you can direct your feed in real-time to a number of endpoints, in this case Twitter in addition to the myriad feed readers, aggregators, and search engines that we have always supported, and then following on with providing analytics for measuring exactly how and where your feed gets distributed across social media, you can make better and more informed decisions about how to monetize your content.

Many of our publishers who have tried our Google Analytics feed item link integration have already noticed that their most popular feed items have been shared many times on Twitter.

We're now taking our distribution and analytics a step further by enabling the ability to automatically publish the feed items that meet your criteria to Twitter, using the Google URL shortener at goo.gl.

To get started, go to the Socialize service on FeedBurner's Publicize tab and add the Twitter account to which you would like to post items from your feed. You can take the default settings and click [Save] to start socializing immediately, or use the options we offer to customize exactly which feed items are sent to Twitter and how exactly you would like them to look. The next time you post a new item to your feed it will be sent to Twitter (as always, make sure to ping FeedBurner whenever you update your feed so this process happens as near real-time as possible).

For full details on all Socialize options, see our FeedBurner Help Center topic.

To see the results, take a look at the Twitter account in which you are sending your updates. This blog post, for instance, as well as select blog posts from this and the FeedBurner status blog, will appear from now on at http://twitter.com/feedburner. If Twitter is where you are consuming most of the latest content these days, please follow @feedburner to receive our updates in your favorite Twitter client.

Posted by Steve Olechowski - Product Manager, on behalf of the Google FeedBurner team

Ikepod Cannonballs Watch by Artist Jeff Koons Introduced at Art Basel Miami

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:29:00 GMT

Ikepod has just introduced the Horizon "Cannonballs" designed by artist Jeff Koons & introduced this week at Art Basel Miami. Still with the unmistakable ellipse case by Marc Newson, this proves to be a new direction for the major art collector and Ikepod owner Adam Lindemann.

Priced at around $15,000 (USD) and made of Titanium.

artist Jeff Koons

Ikepod website

Jeff Koons website

Related Ikepod Posts at The Watchismo Times

The Hotest Watch Ever Produced...Quite Literally

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:33:13 GMT

A 1980s digital cigarette lighter wristwatch...

via Retrothing

Think this was the first watch lighter ever? Nope, check this one from 1947-->link

Happy Holidays from The Watchismo Times - Plus See Our First Super Swanky Animated Holiday Video

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:16:34 GMT

Happy Holidays to everyone out there in Watchland, we'd love for you to see our special animated holiday video, please see it here--> Happy Holidays from Watchismo!

Watchismo's Top Ten Vintage Plastic Watches

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:38:17 GMT

Typically, when you think of plastic watches, you think of Swatch. But back in the sixties and seventies, plastic was still a very cool new medium for products. All of the watches featured here are vintage mechanical timepieces, a few with movements by Jaeger and others with automatic winding mechanisms. But overwhelmingly, they are all interesting designs and truly obscure models that you are likely to never find in a lifetime of collecting.

Above, a simple watch with oversized arrows for hands. The case is a somewhat oblong triangle.

This is by a brand called appropriately "Handcuff", this thing is as large as they come and I first read about it in Pieter Doensen's fantastic (out of print) book "Watch - History of the Modern Wrist Watch". I was lucky enough to meet with Pieter back in 2001 and purchased the exact model used for publication. Thanks again Pieter, it's in a safe place!

Ah, again discovered in the Doensen book, this Record Automatic (by Longines) was an amazing find on Ebay about 8 years ago...brand new in box, unfortunately too small for my wrist, made for women. Probably for the best as I would likely have the balls to wear this in public.

The Helmet Jump Hour, not much to say here other than "look at that friggin movement!". Insane. I featured this a while back-->link

Part of watchmaking history, the Tissot Astrolon Idea 2001, the worlds first all plastic watch, including the movement. For more info, go here-->link

And some of my absolute favorite watches to collect but hardly ever wear, the Pierre Cardin 1971 collection (shown above and below). Produced for just for one year, these fantastic watches had manual winding Jaeger movements and designs (both platic and steel) like no other! For more, go here-->link

The beautiful disc/hand dials of the vintage Mondia Moonstone

The only plastic watch shown here made for kids, featuring gadgets for spying (expandable eyesights, etc) and a manual winding movement with an ingenious display for showing the hour through a rotating hole, for more go here-->link

These plastic watches by Nivada are deceiving, the photos do not express their monster size, they measure approximately 70mm wide! The straps would usually match the dial, for more go here-->link

And for related plastic wristwatch posts...

Tag Heuer Silverstone Reissue - A Very Faithful Reintroduction of the Stunning 1974 Chronograph

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:36:06 GMT

The original vintage 1970s Heuer silverstone

Two and a half years ago, I issued a "Reissue Wish" from Tag Heuer (as seen here), having no idea if I had any influence on them, the reintroduction of the Heuer Silverstone Calibre 11 Chronograph has just been announced. And here they are...

Although it appears that I was correct when stating that the original dial color (shown at very top) has not exactly been replicated. It kills me that I sold all my Silverstone collection years ago, the new models are going to cost around $6500 each.

From one of the original seventies Heuer catalogs

Thanks to the super cool watch blog Perpetuelle for taking note of my long lost post!
For more detailed information about this release, visit Calibre 11

VOID VO2 Watch New Release! Half the Time Makes for a Whole New Timing Experience!

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:26:50 GMT

We're very excited about the new release from VOID Watches...the V02 collection expands their already stylish designs with their trademark steel block case.

But this time they've put a cool twist on the display. It's a retrograde of sorts, not a flyback but rather a half dial with double hands. Each with different lengths and corresponding markers measured and colored to match the hours and minutes viewed on the dashboard style display. As each hand rotates along the semi-circle markers, they reach the end (upper left) and go out of view allowing the opposite longer or shorter hand to come into view on the opposite side.

A long story short, the circular style of traditional analog displays are thrown out the window with this cool new watch from VOID! (plus the prices are really good - around $200 USD)

VOID VO2 Black Brushed Stainless Steel

A year after launching the successful V01, the V02 is the analogue extension of the digital V01 using the exact same geometry with a delicately proportioned half glass, half stainless steel front, but with a classic speedometer looking dial.

The V02 uses two ‘compass needle’ hands, the short hand representing the hours and the long the minutes as on any other watch. Each hand has one red and one white end where each color corresponds to the number with the matching color on the dial.

Void VO2 Gold Brushed Steel

The design draws heavily on the Scandinavian design tradition using simple geometries and materials often found in architecture. The solid stainless steel case comes in four different colors/surfaces (black, brushed, polished and gold). The main objective has been to create a unique product using as simple geometries as possible and bring them to life by using honest, traditional materials.

VOID - In astronomy, voids are the empty spaces between filaments, the largest-scale structures in the Universe, that contain very few, or no, galaxies. Voids typically have a diameter of 40 to 500 million light years.

VOID V02 Brushed Stainless Steel

Illustration of the time-telling mechanism:

Win a Free Phosphor Watch, Watchismo is Giving Away Three of Them!

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:46:43 GMT

Time to Win! As a thank you to our quickly growing fanbase on Facebook,we are giving three lucky fans a brand new Phosphor E-Ink DH02 watch, valued at $184 each. The winners will also receive free shipping worldwide!

Enter the Fans of Watchismo Facebook

Phosphor Watch Giveaway HERE

Watchismo will be selecting each of the three winners at random and will be announced on this page December 21, 2009*

Also, as a special bonus for everyone, we are also offering a secret discount code for the holidays!

To reveal the code, just enter the giveaway below and you will see the discount code at the bottom of the landing page**

Other styles by Phosphor - The DC01

About The Phosphor E-Ink DH02 Digital Hour Clock Watch

Product Page Link

You've never seen a digital watch quite like this before!

Its ergonomic curved case with ultra-thin profile fit so comfortably on your wrist you may forget you are wearing it, but others won't.

The digital display utilizes the revolutionary E Ink electronic paper display featuring its paper-like, high contrast readability that is sure to be noticed by others around you.

A standard numeric digital display in one mode, a graphic hour clock display in another, and ability to switch between white-on-black to black-on-white time display give this digital watch a style all its own.

Case width: 38.0mm
Ultra thin thickness: 8.0mm
Water resistance: 5 ATM - 50m
Display: 12 hour only
Leather Band

This Phosphor™ E Ink Watch features an ergonomic Curved case with ultra-thin profile

Make sure you're a fan of Watchismo on Facebook for eligibility!
& be the first to learn about giveaways,
discounts, new additions & more!

Perhaps, The Creepiest Watch Commercial Ever Produced! Diesel Timeframes Ad That Will Never Be Aired!

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:25:23 GMT

Yeah, it is likely this ad will creep you out but I thoroughly enjoyed it. A perfect blend of mental illness and style! Perversion-chic!

I mean, dig the guy fondling the oriental carpet with his supercool Diesel watch - you must own that!

And the guy who you know smells like pee just barely gets his nipple through the door! Where is his watch? Dare I ask?

The bar has been raised watch advertising world. Air this masterpiece during the Superbowl!

BLASTS FROM THE PAST - Strolling Down The Memory Lanes of the Watchismo Vintage Museum Pages

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:34:51 GMT

Ok, I once used these pages to catalog and drool over time slipped through my fingertips these past 12 years online. Nearly all the watches from my now ancient Museum Pages are long gone - sold or in my carefully guarded personal collection, but the pages are worth revisiting for inspiration of all sorts. Hell, some of them are just downright ugly and worth a laugh. Enjoy!

LINK --> The Old Watchismo Museum Page 1
The Old Watchismo Museum Page 2

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"Afternoon, Frank." "Hey howdy, George."

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:56:45 GMT

It's about time these two neighbors got to talking to each other. Most Saturday afternoons you'd find them politely waving as they passed at each other by with their push mowers, tending to their neatly manicured tables, charts, and graphs. It just made sense that the grounds would look that much more complete if they removed a bit of fence between them. And so they've done just that.

If you use either AdSense for feeds or Google FeedBurner to track item clicks and also use Google Analytics, as of today, you will automatically start to see your feed item click analytics show up in Google Analytics with some additional information added to help you understand how distributing your feed with FeedBurner leads to traffic on your site.

Specifically, we will help you classify your links by tagging the Source as "feedburner", the Medium as the channel in which we sent out your feed such as "feed" or "email", and the Content as the actual endpoint application in which the user viewed your feed content such as "Google Reader" or "Yahoo! Mail". In order to slice your traffic by these endpoints, in the All Traffic Sources view in Google Analytics select the "Ad Content" field in the second column.

In the coming weeks, you will start to see many more distribution endpoints in your reports. The represent ongoing additions to our database of applications that process feeds.

By default, these analytics will show up in the "All Traffic Sources" and "Campaigns" views in Google Analytics. You can filter the results just to only the traffic that comes from Google FeedBurner by filtering on "feedburner" on the All Traffic Sources page or "Feed:" on the campaigns view. You can also use these sources in the Advanced Segments views.

In this view below, we actually have two separate feeds driving traffic to this blog, and that can now be tracked easily in one view.

If you have item click tracking enabled, we are now automatically tagging your item URLs with Google Analytics parameters. If you're not using Google Analytics, or for some other reason don't want these parameters in the requests coming to your website, you can turn off Google Analytics tracking on the "Configure Stats" page on the Analyze tab at http://feedburner.google.com. If you don't have item click tracking enabled, this is also the perfect time to turn it on, which can be done on this same page.

For instance, if you would rather see the detail of where your feeds are read directly, you can add ${distributionEndpoint} as the medium, and then you will get views that look something like this.

Again this will happen automatically except in one specific case: if you are already tagging your feed item URLs with Google Analtyics tags such as "utm_source" and "utm_medium" - we have disabled this feature and you will have to turn it on manually by selecting "Track clicks as a traffic source in Google Analytics." Note that if you do this, we will replace any existing "utm_" tags that may be in your permalinks with the values generated from FeedBurner.

In the coming weeks, we will be releasing more features in Google FeedBurner that take advantage of this functionality, so we highly recommend that you register and set up your site with Google Analytics if you haven't done so already.

Posted by Steve Olechowski on behalf of the Google FeedBurner team

AdSense policy clarification on using AdSense for feeds and AdSense for content

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:20:24 GMT

This is just a quick clarification on AdSense for feeds as it relates to the AdSense for Content specific policy of only allowing three ad units and three link units per page.

Many publishers have asked the question "Since feed items often get displayed with many feed items on a single web page, can using AdSense for feeds jeopardize the status of my AdSense account?"

The answer is no. Having three ad units per page is a product specific policy for AdSense for content. Product specific policies can be read about here.

In essence, the variable ways in which feed items are displayed are controlled and optimized automatically by the AdSense for feeds application and the choices you make as a publisher in your AdSense account when configuring your AdSense for feeds ad units. This means we may automatically suppress ad impressions when we detect there are too many feed ad units being displayed, resize ads based on the size and length of your content, and adjust the ads that are displayed based on the device in which the feed is being read.

Posted by Steve Olechowski - Product Manager, AdSense for feeds

AdSense for feeds now available directly in Blogger

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:45:00 GMT

One of the things our publishers have always asked for are ways to make it even easer to configure their blogs to work with FeedBurner and AdSense for Feeds. We're happy to announce that Blogger users, with just a few clicks, are able to do both at the same time.

Yes, this year for Halloween, AdSense for feeds is putting on a Blogger costume and allowing all Blogger publishers to easily monetize your RSS and Atom feeds directly from the Blogger interface, in the same way you set up AdSense on your blog beforehand.

To set this up, go to Blogger and select the blog you wish to monetize on your Blogger Dashboard, and select "Monetize." This will give you some basic options for configuring ads, and if you already have connected your Blogger feed to FeedBurner, will confirm that the proper feed is being configured. AdSense for feeds will automatically pick the right ad sizes for your users, content, and end medium.

After setup, you will be able to view your AdSense reports (including feed revenue) directly from the Blogger Dashboard, as well as from your AdSense account. Additional feed management options for your feed and feed analytics will be available from http://feedburner.google.com.

Posted by Steve Olechowski on behalf of the AdSense for feeds and Blogger teams

Gerald Genta Arena Metasonic - Limited Edition of Ten at $900,000 Each!

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:43:09 GMT

Limited Edition of 10 Pieces (MSRP (US$900,000 ea)

An alliance of tradition and engineering for the ultimate Grande Sonnerie, the most complicated of its kind in the world for over 15 years

The latest evolution of the Arena Grande Sonnerie, the Arena Metasonic raises the exclusive work of Gérald Genta to the realm of perfection. Launched as a wristwatch in 1994 and regularly improved ever since, the noble proprietary complication that was already considered beyond compare further enhances its pedigree by appearing in a revolutionary new case. An original material and unprecedented construction combine to ensure an enchanting chime, embodying progress stemming from in-depth acoustic and vibratory research that simultaneously overturns certain preconceived ideas.

Striking watches
Striking watches are classified into quarter, five-minute and most frequently minute repeater models, and Grande Sonnerie or “grand strike” variations can be triggered up to 35,040 times a year. They strike the hours and quarters automatically or “in passing”, as well as being systematically equipped with the minute repeater which strikes the hours, quarters and minutes on request. The watch then successively chimes the hours on a low-pitched gong, the quarters on two, three or four gongs, and the minutes on a high-pitched gong. Grande Sonnerie watches are a long-established speciality at Gérald Genta. It has introduced a number of exceptionally complex wristwatch models since 1994. With their four hammers and their Westminster chime playing a different tune for each quarter, they represent 15 years of peerless accomplishments and are all the more remarkable in that they are developed on tourbillon movements. The Grande Sonnerie models comprise approximately 850 parts for the hand-wound models, 950 for the self-winding versions, and 1,100 for those equipped with a perpetual calendar. It takes around a year’s work to craft just one such watch, and only 61 in all have emerged from the Gérald Genta workshops since 1994. Connoisseurs, and especially master-watchmakers, unanimously confirm that it is not the accumulation of functions that makes a watch complicated, but instead the intrinsic complexity of the movement to be assembled and cased up.

Traditional movements
While Gérald Genta is a brand famed for its daring approach to watch exteriors, it is nonetheless extremely respectful of traditional horology, as is confirmed by the superlative workmanship displayed in its authentic Haute Horlogerie movements featuring a wealth of hand-crafted decoration and finishing. Among them are striking watches, which can be viewed as the last bastion of pure watchmaking artistry. Whereas virtually any other movements can now be industrially made and thus identically reproduced according to predefined criteria, a striking mechanism necessarily calls for manual intervention. The watchmaker adjusts the length of the gongs or their point of attachment in order to achieve the desired notes. This delicate exercise is generally performed by ear, with the inherent risk of never achieving the same result twice, even when the same person is involved. Gérald Genta therefore decided to solve this particular problem and its striking watches have now been effectively standardised to measurable norms for the past four years.

Standardised striking watches
Based on research conducted in cooperation with an acoustic laboratory, Gérald Genta has an exclusive software programme enabling it to measure the sounds produced in particular by its Grande Sonnerie watches. Three main criteria have been established. First of all, the intensity or the force of the notes: to earn approval, they must demonstrate a level of intensity sufficient to ensure they are clearly audible, but not excessively high in order to preserve their harmonic quality. The harmony or the correct pitch of the notes is then checked to ensure a sol (G) is consistently sounded for the hours, do, re, mi and sol (C,D,E and G) for the various combinations of quarters – more specifically mi-re-do-sol (E-D-C-G), re-sol-mi-do (D-G-E-C) + mi-re-do-sol (E-D-C-G), mi-do-re-sol (E-C-D-G) + re-sol-mi-do (D-G-E-C) + mi-re-do-sol (E-D-C-G) – and re (D) for the minutes. All are the notes are within the fifth and sixth octaves, ensuring they are low enough to be truly melodious. Finally, the cadence or regularity in milliseconds is verified according to defined intervals between each hour (628 ms), each quarter (427 ms) and each minute (509 ms). The goal is to ensure an harmonious sequence with clearly perceptible sounds. Thanks to these measurements, each completely independent of the others, Gérald Genta Grande Sonnerie models are now all of reliable equal quality. Fine-tuning by the watchmakers is still indispensable, but now converges towards common criteria guaranteeing a unique tune. It takes an average of 12 successive controls to achieve the desired result.

Superior quality
Each Grande Sonnerie watch reacts in its own way, according to the volume occupied by the movement within the case and the corresponding empty spaces; the materials selected and their treatment; the strength of the hammer; as well as a whole host of details such as the quality of the screws, joints and weldings. All these aspects have been meticulously reviewed by Gérald Genta in order to achieve the current degree of perfection based on these trade secrets which it is determined to safeguard. Nonetheless, one feature that can be revealed is that the gongs are now fixed to the side of the case and no longer to the movement, thereby considerably increasing the sound level. The improvements have been made both to the self-winding Grande Sonnerie model belonging to the Octo collection since 2003, and to the hand-wound Grande Sonnerie, an Arena watch introduced in 1999 and bearing the prestigious Poinçon de Genève quality hallmark. The latter is distinguished by its movement beautifully highlighting the striking mechanism through a broad dial opening on the left of the off-set hour and minute display. The back enables one to admire the tourbillon and follow the evolution of the two separate power reserves – 48 hours for the movement, 24 hours for the striking mechanism. A security system locks the crown each time the watch is in the process of chiming, so as to avoid accidentally damaging the striking mechanism.

The key assets of the Arena Metasonic
Having reached the peak of its art in mastering its Grande Sonnerie mechanism, Gérald Genta wished to provide it with a tailor-made case specifically developed to exalt its musicality. To achieve this, it cooperated with a French university in developing a software programme capable of analysing all kinds of materials. Gérald Genta has thereby created a testing system that evaluates a given material’s density, elasticity modulus and loss coefficient, a set of crucial physical parameters that determine the quality of the sound transmission and must be as low as possible.

Material Density(g/cm3) Elastic modulus (GPa) Loss coefficient 100 Index Acoustic Pressure (Force) 100 Index Acoustic Pressure (Melody)
Magsonic® 2.7 71 0.000080 100.0 100.0
Titanium 4.2 110 0.000027 77.6 44.7
Bronze CuSn8 8.2 100 0.000125 63.8 24.8
White gold alloy 15.7 107 0.000100 48.4 35.1
316L steel 8 200 0.000350 37.6 33.1

The first parameter that must be taken into account is density, which must be lower than 5 g/cm3. Among the metals most commonly used in watchmaking, only titanium meets this standard. It is only half as dense as steel, which itself is only half as dense as white gold. In terms of elastic modulus, which is considered to be of superior quality when nearing values below 100 GPa (gigapascals), white gold and titanium come very close to this threshold, whereas the values reached by steel are twice as high. As for the sound transmission loss coefficient, it is precisely measured in laboratory conditions – using calibrated bars that are made to vibrate by laser technology in a vacuum, thus ensuring the absence of any contact as well as free decay of the vibrations - and falls well below the maximum desirable level of 0.0002 as far as white gold and titanium are concerned, but not for steel. Results clearly prove that titanium and gold perform far better than steel, which is not particularly dense but is definitely more sound-absorbing than any other material (high loss coefficient).

Based on the objectives defined for each parameter, Gérald Genta decided to target excellence by creating an alloy of which the composition will remain a closely guarded secret. Duly patented under the name Magsonic®, it displays winning performances with a density of 2.7 g/cm3, an elastic modulus of 71 Gpa and a sound transmission loss coefficient of 0.00008 – meaning respectively 50%, 30% and 60% better than the parameters that were set as objectives. This material is therefore used for the case middle of the brand’s latest Grande Sonnerie model, the Arena Metasonic. The case middle is a crucial element in striking watches, since the sound tends to be diffused in a sideways direction. It is important to choose an appropriate material and to make it as thin as possible. Future owners will be delighted to note that the quality of the sound is even better when the watch is worn, a position in which its back rests against the wrist.

Moreover, Gérald Genta was able to measure the sound intensity (acoustic pressure index, force and melody) produced by various materials by using specific experimental containers. Results show that Magsonic once again surpassed the others, both in force (global sound intensity) and melody (effective intensity of the desired notes: do, re, mi and sol – C, D, E and G).

In addition to the major role played by the Magsonic alloy, this new model also features an original case based on a patented construction inspired by the side drums in a drum kit. The case middle is framed on either side by a bezel and back in grade 5 titanium secured from outside by means of specially designed pillars. This means the sound diffusion is undisturbed by any screws, and results in a highly original creation entirely in tune with the spectacular design characteristic of Gérald Genta models. The entire construction has also been rendered water resistant, because contrary to popular belief, non- watertight watches do not emit a better sound. The latter can even be perturbed by being forced through the bottlenecks created by the passage of air around the winding pushers. Some historical pocket-watches solved the problem by featuring openings spread all around them – a solution naturally unsuitable for wristwatches. The innovations presented here by Gérald Genta are a contemporary response to a desire to raise the bar as never before. They are the first fruits of a particularly ambitious research and development programme, and all-new striking mechanism designs are likely to be introduced in the near future.

A deliberately contemporary style
Measuring 46mm in diameter at the case middle and 50mm overall, the Arena Metasonic features a combination of vertical-polished and horizontal satin-brushed surfaces. It is fitted with an ostrich leather strap. The crown bears the individual watch number, while the striking mechanism controls serving to switch between Grande Sonnerie (grand strike), Petite Sonnerie (small strike), Minute Repeater and Silence modes are within easy reach on the opposite side. Gérald Genta has adorned the movement with an innovative wave-patterned motif as a nod to the propagation of sound. The jewels are in white sapphire to ensure an ideal visual match with the overall mechanism which exceptionally does not feature the “old gold” surface treatment characteristic of the brand’s signature “Potter finish”. This exceptional watch is also presented in a glass security box which renders it invisible until the owner pushes the biometrically programmed button that will respond to no other touch… The interior then lights up and the watch base is raised to bring it within reach. True magic for a watch blending the best of noble traditions and cutting-edge technologies.

Gerald Genta Website

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A small yet noteworthy change to our item stats link serving

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:47:05 GMT

FeedBurner has been busy analyzing, publicizing, optimizing and monetizing your feeds since 2004, and in that time, we've seen our fair share of feed traffic. In fact, we see billions of hits from feed traffic per week, and we watch this data carefully for trends and opportunities to improve what we do in making sure your feed content is delivered as quickly as possible, as accurately as possible, no matter what its destination might be.

Today we are making an improvement that we think will serve our publishers better by making our service more compatible with search engines that crawl feeds.

When we started the service, one thing we were not sure of at the time was how the feed reading ecosystem would treat the links we rewrite in order to give you statistics on how many people click on your feed items.

For instance, on the previous post in this blog, we change the link in the feed item for "FeedBurner Terms of Service Update" from

http://adsenseforfeeds.blogspot.com/2009/08/feedburner-terms-of-service-update.html

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/MQiv/~3/Z8Es5QuvgEI/feedburner-terms-of-service-update.html

which sends the browser to that original URL, but allows us to first track the click.

As a technical detail, we rewrote these links with a code of "302 Temporary Redirect" which tells the browser or consuming service that the redirect is not permanent, and thus it would need to be read every time.

As of today we are changing this to be a "301 Permanent Redirect" because we've looked at the traffic enough to tell that there some benefit to changing this to a "301 Permanent Redirect" - in that some search engines that index the feeds themselves will consider these to be additional links that should be used in determining the popularity of your site. This is the same way that "URL shortener" services send traffic and get treated by search engines, so we feel that this is consistent with the way that content is distributed today. This update should not change the number of clicks that come to your site from your feed nor should it significantly affect the number of clicks FeedBurner tracks for you.

What do you need to do? Nothin'. Nada. Just keep burning your feeds from FeedBurner or your AdSense account in AdSense for feeds, and we will keep working hard to ensure your content is as accessible as possible – now, hopefully even more so.

Posted by Steve Olechowski - Product Manager, AdSense for feeds and FeedBurner

FeedBurner Terms of Service Update

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:10:10 GMT

As a natural conclusion to the process of migrating feedburner.com accounts to Google Accounts as previously described here, we have decided to sunset the legacy Feedburner Terms of Service. The Google Terms of Service will be the terms that apply to your use of Feedburner. These Google Terms of Service are the same terms that apply to many other Google products and services, including your Google Account.

As a reminder, the advertising portions of the service are now covered by the AdSense Terms and Conditions and the accompanying Google AdSense Program Policies.

Posted by Steve Olechowski - Product Manager, AdSense for feeds and FeedBurner

Category Filtering beta now available for AdSense for feeds English-language ads

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:33:41 GMT

Like we announced on the more general Inside AdSense blog a couple weeks ago, we have extended our category filtering beta to English-language ads on the AdSense network, which we are happy to announce includes ads that appear in AdSense for feeds.

This feature allows to you filter ads in up to five categories such as Dating, Drugs and Supplements, Weight Loss, and Get Rich Quick. Your filters will be applied to English-language ads, no matter how they were targeted.

To have these settings take effect for your feeds, from Ad Review Center, make sure you select a Client-ID that starts with ca-feed-pub. Note that this allows you to select different categories for your feed than for your site, but also means you will need to select filters for both your feed and your site in order for filters to be applied to both these content types.

To see whether category filtering has been enabled for your location, sign in and visit the Ad Review Center, located under the 'AdSense Setup' tab. We're working on expanding this beta to additional languages and countries, and will be sure to announce any updates here on the blog. If you'd like to learn more about category filtering, please visit our Help Center.

Posted by Steve Olechowski - Product Manager, AdSense for feeds

What's all the hubbub about PubSubHubbub?

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:42:06 GMT

One of the questions we get from publishers most often is "How do I make sure updates to my feed are delivered to feed readers as fast as possible?" We know this is important to our publishers' businesses and we are constantly making improvements to our back-end systems to minimize the time from when you publish a post to when it appears to subscribers in feed readers.

Recently there have been a lot of developments around the so-called "real-time" web. The promise of the real-time web is distributing new information as quickly as possible. This encourages users to engage in more active participation online and makes the web more dynamic than ever before. However, so far the real-time web has not been easily accessible by feed publishers using their existing infrastructure.

Today we're happy to announce initial support in FeedBurner for the PubSubHubbub protocol. 'Hubbub is an open specification in draft for web-scale publish and subscribe. The protocol can be used to transform any existing Atom and RSS feed on the web into a real-time stream. Best of all, it's open, free, and decentralized like the rest of what makes the web so great: No single organization controls the protocol or how it's used.

As of right now, burned feeds with the PingShot service enabled are automatically enhanced with the PubSubHubbub protocol. We'll add the required discovery elements to these feeds and notify a Google-run Hub, running on App Engine, of publish events. We also convert any pings we receive into 'Hubbub events. That means for many of our publishers out there, your existing feeds are available as real-time streams right now. Like, immediately. This very moment.

If you are a publisher and are not already using our PingShot service, turning it on is easy. From feedburner.google.com, visit the Publicize tab for your feed, select PingShot, and click the [Activate] button at the bottom of the page. From your AdSense account, go to Manage Ads, then click View Feed Stats link, and do the same thing. That's it.

If you manage a service that would like to receive updates to the millions of FeedBurner feeds that use this service as soon as possible, or just want to know more about the PubSubHubub protocol, we encourage you to check out our project on Google Code. There are open-source clients for Python, Perl, PHP, Ruby, and WordPress. We have an open-source reference implementation of a Hub built on Google App Engine. And there are other Hub implementations built and run by other companies. Please let us know what you think in the PubSubHubub Google Group!

Posted by Steve Olechowski, on behalf of the FeedBurner Team

Happiness is more subject in your subject line.

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:06:21 GMT

If a certain lack of variety has weighed on the format of your day-to-day, feed-to-email deliveries, things are looking up at last. Recent advances in dollar-sign technology have brought some strange and fascinating new capabilities to the Email Branding section of FeedBurner's Email Subscriptions feature. Read on, ostensibly for the many useful pictures and descriptions, but really for the danger and excitement only a new checkbox can bring.

First, sign in to your Google Account on FeedBurner and then click your feed's title, then Publicize > Email Subscriptions > Email Branding.

Always want to feature the title of the latest post in your subject line? Just put ${latestItemTitle} in the Email Subject/Title textbox:

Do you often have more than one post per day? You can help your readers uncover exactly how many new missives you've got planned for them in each update. Check the "Change Subject…" box and reveal a secondary subject line to use when 2 or more feed posts are delivered in a single email.

Remember, good subject lines command attention in crowded inboxes.

Behold! The mythical "almost empty" inbox. But in this case, the most recent post's subject line, thanks to ${latestItemTitle}, is right in this FeedBurner-delivered email, shining through.

Have fun with this new feature, but please note that ${pithyRetort}, ${iambicPentameter}, and ${heartfeltApology} are not yet supported.

Posted by Paul Darga and Matt Shobe, FeedBurner Team

Be it declared, a map for every feed!

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:51:38 GMT

One of the most compelling reasons that publishers choose FeedBurner is that it gives them the tools to record and analyze how many users are consuming their content. Late last week, we launched an enhancement to our item statistics that enables publishers to get a bit more information about those users. Similar to the feature by the same name in Google Analytics, the "Map Overlay" page provides a breakdown of the previous day's item statistics from a geographic perspective.

For feeds with item stats enabled, clicking on the "Map Overlay" item from feedburner.google.com will bring you the page. From your AdSense account, click on Manage Ads and then on "View Feed Stats" for the feed whose map you wish to view.

At the top, you'll find a world map visualization that shows countries with more item views as more intense shades of green.

Hovering over a country shows the name of the country and the exact number of item views.

Below the map is a table, which lists the top 25 countries by number of item views.

Hopefully, you will be able to use these data to better tailor content to your readership, and target lackluster markets. If you are one of our publishers who sells your own ads in feeds using Google Ad Manager, this will help you better target your subscribers. Or, just reveling in the world-wide reach of a feed is pretty satisfying too.

And remember, it's important that you follow our instructions to make sure you are directing all your traffic to FeedBurner.

Posted by Greg Kick, FeedBurner Engineering Team