Panerai History and Legend Exhibition at Ion Singapore ~ 26 Aug – 6 Sep 2015

The Florentine luxury watchmaker Officine Panerai will inaugurate the “History and Legend” exhibition on 26 August and will be open until 6 September 2015. The exhibition is located at ION Orchard, the exclusive shopping mall where the only Officine Panerai boutique in Singapore is based. It is a rare opportunity for watch enthusiasts to discover the brand’s rich heritage and to admire a selection of Panerai’s iconic timepieces representing the brand in different eras.

i love this gauge on the SLC... Pressure... Pushing down on me... Pressing down on you, no man ask for
[keep the song in your head or play it as u read the rest of the post please ;)]

Venue: Singapore – ION Orchard
On from 26th August – 6th September 2015, Opening/Closing Time: 11.00am -9.00pm
Guided Tour: Daily from 27 August – 6 September, 3.00pm – 3.30pm, 5.00pm – 5.30pm
To register, please email Panerai Boutique ion.singapore@panerai.com

Visitors will be able to travel through time, discovering the origins of the design of Panerai watches in the 1940s and 1950s with a display that unfolds around a full-size prototype (7.5 metres long, 0.53 in diameter) of a “slow-speed torpedo”, a human torpedo also known as Siluro a Lenta Corsa (S.L.C.).

The exhibition is also a unique experience to discover the master Panerai collection, which combines the pureness and authenticity of Italian design with the Swiss know-how of the Panerai manufacture based in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. The collection classification takes after the names of the watch cases developed by Panerai starting from 1936, the year of the first Radiomir model, up to today, and includes a selection of Radiomir 1940, Luminor 1950 and Luminor models. Visitors can discover Panerai’s collection through the display at the exhibition, which demonstrates the sophisticated function of Long Power Reserve, High Complications, Chronographs and GMT.


my pics and thoughts follow... 

the venue in front of Ion

and the cool stuff follows. the vintages... tropical dial radiomir baby!

Marina Militaire for the Italian Navy

a watch from my personal collection :) just kidding this was an auction piece and a sibling of it was on display
no brand on the dial so folks won't know where the Italian frogmen on an Italian submersible were from

depth gauge... diving in style

another angle for the MM... luverly

wrist compass and torch light

elux lite... 

vintage egiziano

and no... i didn't have this on my wrist at the time ;) 

suddenly out of nowhere a lady appeared before me and said 'would you like to
acquire this piece sir?' to which i responded 'uhm i thought those weren't for sale?'

'well if u agree to take a ride on the SLC for the next mission we 
might be able to work something out...'

hmm... really... so i gave a more thorough inspection of the vehicle... propellors were in good shape

good thing there was information on the military base's wall with details on the different sections and functions

this be a bomb port methinks... 

i decided to brave the chilly waters for this mission

and bade farewell to... Esther... She says her name is Esther (i believe, as i may have remembered wrong ~ 
sorry if u're reading this :) ... [oh and if u didn't get the nod to frank miller, then u didn't get the nod to frank miller :) ]

plumbing through the depths with my gauges on...

i saw interesting things thru my periscope(UP Periscope) in the deeper waters... a timepiece!

more visions came before me of submersible watches in the deeper waters

and then suddenly i heard a frantic voice 'Sir! sir! you are about to knock
over the SLC display!' came through to me snapping me back to reality
she was happy to inform me though of...

of a photo device to take a pic with the SLC(instead of mount it :)

i checked some watches about the exhibition and while there were some nice contemporary pieces like this

my likes still went towards the historic range... similar to the last Panerai i owned the, PAM 372 LINK acquired on my first visit to the boutique LINK

which also happened to be my last port of call, this time to meet their watch servicer/maker, Mr Owyang Kaiming. he's got the right watch on the wrist of course ;)

some movements he had on hand... P2004, 3 barrelled ('He can't stay down with three barrels on him. ... 
Not with three he can't' sorry i had to :) 8 days power reserve mono-pusher chrono

P.3000 found in the 372 and other similar case sized time only pieces

heading off to the future... i wonder what that will look like
noting some missteps in the recent years

for me this is a worthwhile exhibition to check out if you are into Panerai watches or if u're curious to know more about 'em and their history(provider of military equipment, selling watches in Florence and bought by Vendome after Sly Stallone's help in getting them noticed which isn't mentioned of course :) and in the Ion area but your mileage(on the SLC) may vary. hagwe. cheers, raph

Blancpain Art de Vivre event ~ August 2015

kudos to the awesome team at Blancpain for a cool event sharing on it's Métiers d’Art ramge and it's Shakudo models. twas great to learn more about the art that goes into these pieces and meeting an artist that does these wonderful engravings. sharing some pix from the nite below and thoughts along the way. a standing dinner was served as well and the food was good but i didn't get round to taking pix of the food as it came was gobbled up very quickly.  

first off the venue selected was pretty cool... exploration mode on!

oh what do we have here. nice bungalow with pool and blancpain in lights

on the facade... so this is how the other 1% lives ;)

this was on the grounds and was pretty cool as i was thinking just then 
'how do i get a-head in life...' hmm

Dimitri Aubert who recently joined the team as Area Sale Manager shared about Blancpain [oh can also see Jene
 and Jenny giving directions in the back]and their Metiers DÁrt pieces and Shakudo process

which got me interested to try it for myself... & after ruining a few S$100+k pieces

 the pro stepped in and told me that a professional career as a graveur was
 not on the cards for me... introducing Ms Caroline Kukielczynski

she's got the steady hands

these wonderful sketches done by her as potential designs for customers to select from

a sketch for the Shakudo coelacanth series

a look at the engravings... what u see through the microscope

and the right brand for the microscope I might add ;) they were in the 
business of making these before they did cameras

the great wall of China 

Artwork for Ganesh

tools of the craft... burens being the main tool for engravers

some random shots about the event venue (apologies for overall quality as i was playing around with 
a new lense and still learning how to use it better)

which had some nice pieces on display as well

some watches... tourbillon

openworked pocketwatch

snake from the zodiac series

Stefano getting a closer look

i conversed with Caroline, badly, as she is fluent in French and i only speak the English. i believe working at blancpain
 is her first job for several years now after many more years of training(i believe it was 6years) in the arts

a very nice event overall. and my thanks to Jenny for the invite down. folks would know that she has been 

working in the watch industry awhile now and has done a lot for the previous brand she was at and will 

no doubt bring that same verve and excellence with her to Blancpain

and a parting shot with Dimitri and Caroline before i had to scoot off

my best wishes to the team there(didn't manage to get pics with or of all of 'em) for the cool evening. i will try to shoot some other watches from them some time soon if that can be arranged :) cheers, raph