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0.0000000024 HP.
This is all the energy needed to power the completely newly developed Manufacture movement, CFB A1001, from Carl F. Bucherer. It features the first reliably functioning peripherally positioned rotor and associates perfect aesthetics and progressive technology. It was designed on the basis of the holistic “Evolution Technology” Manufacture Concept, by which Carl F. Bucherer goes its own way with the development of movements and mechanisms, challenging the existing and striving for more intelligent solutions. A mechanical microcosm which is housed in a perfect environment, thanks to the unmistakably distinctive design of the Patravi EvoTec DayDate. www.carl-f-bucherer.com
AHEAD OF THE TIMES.
sm editorial
Dear Readers, In Mark Twain’s words: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
This is the reason why we decided to explore different areas thru the “art & design” loop, meeting designers, artists, architects and entrepreneurs to find out more about the creative process behind some of our beloved iconic belongings.
Solstice has just arrived, with longer days to breathe, relax, and bask in the sun. It’s summertime! Time to embrace the warmth of family and friends, travel and explore new outdoor adventures, sit back and relax!
We start our journey in the middle of the Alps, mother nature being the real source of inspiration, take a look at the new VitraHaus, drive thru the Aston Martin’s Design Studio, flying on the lake with the fastest sailing boat Hydroptère, admiring some amazing architecture and meeting those who design time!
And if you hold this magazine in your hands, chances are that you finally have found a moment to enjoy some well-deserved and longawaited quality time. It is our commitment to always scout, dwell and bring you quality and informative, yet relaxing reading. For this special Summer issue we decided to look at the world of excellence with a new perspective: Art, Design and Architecture. All these three “disciplines” influence our daily life, making it funnier, brighter, more comfortable or at times, more complicated… Everything we own, we see or sit on is the result of a creative approach, sometimes inspired by an abstract artwork, reinterpreted by a designer or industrial designer to be then engineered and brought to life to finally enter into our daily universe. Since “design” has almost became an obsession, sometimes forgetting the functionality of an object because of its “cool design”, always looking after the “cool” and “wow” effect aspect of our purchases.
Of course, after such a trip, we all deserve to be pampered at the Clinique La Prairie or relaxing on the shores of Lake Maggiore at the new Eden Roc Spa, giving us the energy to attend some of the best events Switzerland as set up for our summertime. We were all artists when we were kids. Remember when your parents looked at yours sketches looking at you with wonder eyes, the same you have now when looking at your kids and nephews’s artworks, looking at the world thru their fresh innocent eyes. “I like how you portrayed the moon”, says the mom. “This is not the moon, it’s grandpa!” says the kid. As we grow up, we often forget how open our mind, eyes and imagination used to be, but we never stopped dreaming, and never should we! Enjoy your reading! Massimiliano Pantieri
Staff Editor Massimiliano Pantieri Creative Art Director Sherry Williams International Watch Editor Keith W. Strandberg Graphic Designer Sherry Williams Max Pantieri Office Operations Manager Mara Carboni Photographers Denis Hayoun - Watches Philipp Jeker - Summer Cover Victorinox-Philipp Jeker
Editorial office Contributors Keith W. Strandberg Noah Joseph Claudia Laffranchi Sherry Williams Marco Gonzalez Massimiliano Pantieri Christopher Zimmerman Proofreader Lawrence McGrath Published by Bespoke Communication Sarl Via Taiada 50 6517 Arbedo Printed in Switzerland HERTIG Druck AG
Swiss Made Magazine Via Taiada 50 6517 Arbedo (TI) Switzerland Contacts editor@swissmademagazine.com advertising@swissmademagazine.com
The magazine is available at selected newsstands and bookstores. Exclusive distribution in luxury hotels suites, selected boutiques, airports and executive lounges, golf resorts, private limousine services, Swiss embassies, special events and exhibitions.
All the published material has been provided by the mentioned brands. Therefore, Swiss Made Magazine cannot be held responsible for copyright issues and assumes no responsibility for inaccurate information or changes in the products or prices displayed. Copyright by Swiss Made Magazine. Reproduction or use of the content in whole or in part without the written permission of the editor is strictly prohibited.
Subscribe for your own personal copy and discover the latest issues at: www.swissmademagazine.com www.swissmadewatches.net
editorial 5
sm index
50
66
16
38
80 20 30 62
DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
28
Travel
34 40
10 Hidden Treasures - Ritom
Design 16 Vitra 56 Inside Watch Design
Photography 20 Timless Design by Denis Hayoun 66 Summer Affair by Philipp Jeker
Architecture 30 New Dimension - Rolex Learning Center 34 The Swiss Beat of Modern Living
Cars 38 Aston Martin Design Studio
Art 40 Basquiat 44 Exhibitions
Heritage 46 Zenith
Close-Up 50 Eberhard & Co 52 On time and Design
Innovation
10
96
54 Hydroptère 84 Tag Heuer Pendulum Concept
Craftmanship 62 The unique Art of Diamond Setting
Wellness 80 Eden Roc Spa 90
La Prairie
Luxury
54
74 Pedrazzini Boat 75
VITRA
Events 94 Top Events 96 Locarno Film Festival
INDEX 7
Advert
Advert
sm travel
Hidden Treasures of SWITZERLAND
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Travel RITOM 11
ready ...
some use bikes...
DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
getting higher...
trails...
A journey to RITOM
with the steepest funicular in Europe text & photos by Sherry Williams
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witzerland isn’t just about skiing, banking, fine watches, or chocolate. And it certainly doesn’t have to have the cost to go along with it to discover a lot. If you are an adventurous, eco-friendly and a biodiverse person, you will find there is something else to be excited about. Hidden within these wonderful Alps are pockets of culture and beauty rarely seen by the locals themselves, in fact they are everywhere in Switzerland and was our job to discover some of these adventurous Gems and share them with you. Treasures are just that, hidden, they are right behind you or right in front of you but you cannot see them with the naked eye. Not only did we experience a magical alpine land but an affordable, forward-thinking one as well.
Ritom 13
Head south to Ticino, you are certain to pass the famous GOTTHARD tunnel spanning 17km, this tunnel separates the northern German part from the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. Located right between the Gottard and Bellinzona,Ticino is Ritom Piora. Ritom is known for having the steepest funicular in Europe (with a maximum gradient of 87.8% and a height difference of 786 meters). This experience will take you to an alpine paradise during the winter but a magical journey in summer. Many locals take their whole families, it is suitable for all categories of walkers at any age, physical or technical preparation; from families with older children group, everyone can enjoy the area above the Airolo-Brugnasco region with sunny, comfortable walking trails and farm roads leading to several different pockets of treasure from dairy milk & cheese farms, to mountain bike trails, hiking trails, shelters and even a private beach… Now if that doesn’t get you going ... During these uncertain times and in an unpredictable economy “luxury” can be different for each individual and gaining the best of nature is another way to experience it. Wether you want to surprise your beloved one for a romantic getaway or take the whole family for an active week-end that will cost you less than a decent meal in a good restaurant in London, we can assure you that you will come back rejuvenated, rested and physically cleansed with many pictures and memories to share with your friends back home. An unforgettable experience - nature at its best! www.ticino.ch www.ritom.ch DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
sm design
VitraHaus, Architecture Herzog & deMeuron DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
DESIGn WITh
VITRA
Photos by Iwan Baan and Leon Chew Š Vitra Design with Vitra 17
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he VitraHaus, built by Herzog & de Meuron, is the home of the Vitra Home Collection. As the purpose of the VitraHaus is to display home furnishings, the architects of the VitraHaus, Herzog & de Meuron, took up the idea of the “archetypal house”, as the proportions and dimensions of the rooms bring to mind residential space that is familiar to us - the architects use the term “domestic scale”. The individual “houses” which have the general characteristics of a showroom are with few exceptions glazed at the gable ends only. Superimposed in five storeys and overhanging in some cases by up to 15 metres, the twelve houses which each intersect the gables of the storey below create an almost chaotic whole. In January 2004, Vitra launched its Home Collection, which includes design classics as well as re-editions and products by contemporary designers. As a company whose previous activity was primarily focused on office furnishings and business clients, Vitra created the Home Collection with a new target group in mind: individual customers with an interest in design. Since no interior space was available for the presentation of the Home Collection on the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, the company commissioned Baselbased architects Herzog & de Meuron in 2006 to design the VitraHaus. Thanks to its exposed location and striking appearance, it not only enhances the already outstanding ensemble of Vitra architecture, but assumes the important role of marking the Vitra Campus. Standing on the northern side of the grounds in front of the fenced perimeter of the production premises, the VitraHaus joins two other buildings in this area, the Vitra Design Museum by Frank Gehry (1989) and the Conference Pavilion by Tadao Ando (1993). The ample size of the plot made it possible to position the new structure a good distance away from the Vitra Design Museum and adjacent gatehouse, making room for an extension of the orchard meadow in front of the buildings, a typical feature of the local landscape. The concept of the VitraHaus connects two themes that appear repeatedly in the oeuvre of Herzog & de Meuron: the theme of the archetypal house and the theme of stacked volumes. In Weil am Rhein, it was especially appropriate to return to the idea of the ur-house, since the primary purpose of the five-storey building is to present furnishings and objects for the home. Due to the proportions and dimensions of the interior spaces – the architects use the term ‘domestic scale’ – the showrooms are reminiscent of familiar residential settings. The individual ‘houses’, which have the general characteristics of a display space, are conceived as abstract elements. With just a few exceptions, only the gable ends are glazed, and the structural volumes seem to have been shaped with an extrusion press. Stacked into a total of five storeys and breathtakingly cantilevered up to fifteen metres in some places, the twelve houses, whose floor slabs intersect the underlying gables, create a three-dimensional assemblage – a pile of houses that, at first glance, has an almost chaotic appearance.
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VITRA and the environment The concern about a healthy environment at Vitra goes far beyond the selection of materials and the manufacturing processes. It is a topic that exerts far-reaching influence on all the company’s activities. “Vitra and the Environment – A Snapshot” was published in 1993 with an initial set of guidelines for company-wide environmentally conscious practices. Fifteen years later, this theme has emerged as one of the most pressing issues throughout the furniture industry. Since 1997, Vitra has been certified according to the DIN EN ISO 9001 and DIN EN ISO 14001 standards for quality and environmental management. Materials, packaging and recycling processes need to be reconciled with dwindling resources, increasingly scarce energy supplies and humanity’s ever-greater impact on the environment. For Vitra, the primary focus is and remains the longevity of the finished products. www.vitra.com
The charcoal colour of the exterior stucco skin unifies the structure, ‘earths’ it and connects it to the surrounding landscape. Like a small, vertically layered city, the VitraHaus functions as an entryway to the Campus. A wooden plank floor defines an open central area, around which five buildings are grouped: a conference area, an exhibition space for the chair collection of the Vitra Design Museum and a conglomerate comprising the Vitra Design Museum Shop, the lobby with a reception area and cloakroom, and a café with an outdoor terrace for summer use. A lift takes visitors to the fourth storey, where the circular tour begins. Upon exiting the lift, the glazed northern end of the room offers a spectacular view of the Tüllinger Hill. As one discovers on the path through the VitraHaus, the directional orientation of the houses is hardly arbitrary, but is determined by the views of the surrounding landscape.
With maximum dimensions of 57 metres in length, 54 metres in width and 21.3 metres in height, the VitraHaus rises above the other buildings on the Vitra Campus. The deliberate intention was not to create a horizontal building, the common type for production facilities, but rather a vertically oriented structure with a small footprint, which grants an overview in multiple senses: an overview of the surrounding landscape and the factory premises, but also an overview of the Home Collection.
DESIGN - VitraHaus 19
sm photography
T i m e l e s s Design by Denis Hayoun
Behind the camera: Denis Hayoun
In the middle of tripods, cables and lenses, a decor constructs itself, as an atmosphere installs, little by little, the games of light draw around a tourbillon squelette timepiece, the universe of Denis Hayoun. The facets of the diamonds sparkle in the light of the spotlights…, flash,… flash…, the helpers agitate the silvery reflectors. The model is in place, the photographer plays with the lighting so that the Golconde recovers the dignity of its noble source. He adjusts his lens, he searches for the angle that will make the light of the stones spring and vibrate with the color of the elements...... “Incline the face”, “look for the light of your subject” the reflector stands or gets settled, the flashes follow each other…. Like a conductor, he directs his small world in order to retranscribe a scenography of which only he holds the secret. From Rue Diorama in Geneva, Denis Hayoun reigns over Diode, the studio that he created in 2005. A photographer of talent, he has the “eye”, the major watchmaking and jewelry brands were not mistaken in confiding him with their creations. As a creative technician, specialized in “still photography” as it’s called in the industry, Denis enlivens objects and transmits emotions through his pictures. In 2009 Denis was awarded the special “Photography Award” for his interpretation of the watch brand Roman Jérôme. The same year he also won a first prize for the Best Advertising Campaign for watch brand MARVIN. Never stopping to discover the next innovation in design and always cutting edge, his ideas have proven right in this industry and for this summer issue of Swiss Made magazine, we are proud to bring you a series of designed miniatures from the VITRA collection interpreted through Denis Hayoun’s eyes.
CREDITS Denis Hayoun - Studio Diode - www.diode.ch Photographer assistant/camera: Claudine Garcia Still-Life retouch: Estelle Reiland Producer: Sherry Williams DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
Victorinox Swiss Army Dive Master 500 Black Ice Chrono
Vitra Miniature - RAR (Eames,1950) Timeless Design by Denis Hayoun 21
Audemars Piguet Lady’s Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph
Vitra Miniature - Panton Chair (1959)
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Dubey & Schaldebrand Grand Shar Watch: Dubey & Schaldebrand
VitraChair: Miniature Vitra- Bocca ..... (Studio 65, 1970) Timeless Design by Denis Hayoun 23
Graham London Big Silverstone Stowe Racing
Vitra Miniature - Rood blauwe stoel (Gerrit Rietveld,1918)
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Ladoire Roller Guardian Time Blue Titanium
Vitra Miniature - La Chaise (Eames,1948) Timeless Design by Denis Hayoun 25
VITRA Miniatures Collection The Miniatures Collection presents the most important classics of modern furniture history in miniature. The construction, materials and colours correspond to the historical Vitra Design Museum collection original, right down to the last detail. Because they are so true to the originals, the miniatures are not only valuable collector’s items, but also ideal illustrative material for universities, colleges of design and architects. The Miniatures Collection is unique worldwide. For each miniature there is a licence agreement with the designer or his estate. Many designers collaborate with us to develop the miniatures of their own designs and offer their assistance by supplying information on the objects.
RJ Watches Moon Dust DNA
Vitra Miniature - MR 20 (Mies van der Rohe,1927)
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Century Prime Time Egos Chronograph
Vitra Miniature - Wiggle Side Chair (Gehry,1972) Timeless Design by Denis Hayoun 27
Louis Moinet Tempograph Vitra Miniature - Fauteuil Ă dossier basculant (Le Corbusier,1928)
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Rado r5.5 White JubilĂŠ Vitra Miniature La Mamma (Pesce,1969) Timeless Design by Denis Hayoun 29
sm architecture
DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
A new dimension
Designed by the Japanese architectural practice SANAA, led by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, the Rolex Learning Center is a radical and highly experimental building, designed for new ways of study and interaction in the 21st century.
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he Rolex Learning Center will function as a laboratory for learning, a library with 500,000 volumes and an international cultural hub for EPFL, open to both students and the public.
EPFL is one of the world’s leading universities in technology and science, renowned for its innovations in research and learning. It is currently ranked number one in Europe alongside Cambridge in the fields of Engineering Technology and Computer Sciences. The campus, on a site overlooking Lake Geneva and the Alps, brings together over 4,000 researchers, and 7,000 students, who work in a highly collaborative environment with international experts in engineering, science and industry. Article title 31
A LIGHT AND ORGANIC SHAPE Located centrally on the EPFL campus – as its new hub – the building is essentially one con-tinuous structure spread over an area of 22,000m2: The building is rectangular in plan, but appears to be more organic in shape because of the way that its roof and floor undulate gent-ly, always in parallel. With few visible supports, the building touches the ground lightly, leav-ing an expanse of open space beneath which draws people from all sides towards a central entrance. SLOPES INSTEAD OF WALLS Inside, the hills, valleys and plateaus formed by the undulation often make the edges of the building invisible, though there are no visual barriers between one area and the next. Instead of steps and staircases, there are gentle slopes and terraces. Clearly, but without dividing walls, one area of activity gives way to another. Visitors stroll up the gentle curves, or perhaps move around the space on one of the specially designed „horizontal lifts”, elegant glass box-es, whose engineering is adapted from everyday lift design.
As well as providing social areas and an impressive auditorium, the building lends itself to the establishment of quiet zones and silent zones, acoustically separated areas created through changes in height. The slopes, valleys and plateaus within the building, as well as the shapes made by the patios, all contribute to these barrier-free delineations of space. In addition, clus-ters of glazed or walled „bubbles” make small enclosures for small groups to meet or work together in. PATIOS – ENCLOSURE AND ENCLOSED The topography lends an extraordinary fluidity to the building’s flexible open plan – a flow that is emphasized by fourteen voids in the structure, of varying dimensions. These are glazed and create a series of softly rounded courtyards or external „patios”, as the architects describe them. The patios are social spaces and provide a visual link between the inside and the out-side. They are very much part of the building. From the higher areas, visitors may enjoy views not only of the campus but, spectacularly, of Lake Geneva and the Alps. With all its unity and variety, the Rolex Learning Center is, as described by Kazuyo Sejima on the announcement that SANAA had won the architectural competition, an „intimate public space”. DESIGNED FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH The Rolex Learning Center embodies the aims and philosophy of the EPFL, setting the scene for different kinds of collaborative, crossdisciplinary research, regarded as essential to ad-vances in science and technology. It offers flexibility to use the building in many different ways, now and in the future, to absorb new technology and working methods, as they come on stream, many of them developed within EPFL itself. The building emphasises sociability, getting together for coffee, for lunch, for study, for seminars, to stimulate informal encounters between people of all the key disciplines. It is designed to be a landmark, a place people will want to visit, allowing EPFL to reach out to the surrounding community and internationally. www.rolexlearningcenter.ch
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Very Zino collection, swiss made automatic chronograph in 18-ct red gold. www.zinodavidoff.com
sm architecture
The Swiss Beat of modern living Beat Baumann’s Zeitgeist Architektur
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witzerland is renowned for its breath-taking views. Not only for snowcapped mountains, manicured forests, and luscious fields of green; but also for the quaintness of its towns and its architectures, which provide picture perfect scenery that give a sense that one has stepped into a postcard. Unfortunately many of these structures are becoming obsolete, as new building materials and technologies have evolved. How can homes be built according to new modern standards, yet maintain a Swiss identity? by Marco Gonzalez
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Switzerland has produced some of the most renowned names in modern architecture. Names like Peter Zumthor, Le Corbusier and Pierre de Meuron have opened doors of possibilities through their concepts. During the 1970s, there have been many attempts to apply these concepts. They oftentimes stand out due to the way in which they look out of place, so they are decried for their modernity. But there is a quiet revolution taking place in Swiss homebuilding among young inspired architects. We would like to showcase one of them. The works of Beat Baumann stands out amongst its peers. While they may not appear to be traditional Swiss homes, they are remarkably Swiss. One reason for this is that his houses are carefully thought out in accordance with their surrounding landscape, geography and conditions. In this manner, he is in fact redefining Swiss architecture. His buildings harmonize with the landscape of Switzerland in ways traditional architects could not have considered. He has advantages previous builders may not have had; namely new materials, but most importantly, inspiration.
Architecture - Beat Baumann 35
The influence of modern masters are apparent in Beat’s work. Many of his works pay homage to Le Corbusier, particularly the five points of architecture Le Corbusier demonstrated through his famous Villa Savoy. An example is the office building Beat created for himself, which is propped up off the ground on supporting columns. This proved to be quite practical as the nearby river periodically overfloods. The use of supporting columns is a radical departure from the traditional Swiss home. Instead of two load-bearing support walls as used in traditional Swiss homes, the use of columns provide for a free interior floor plan. With a free interior floor plan to work with, Beat is able to do what he desires most, which is to create space that evoke emotions through experience. So he evokes a range of spiritual concepts, from serentiy and tranquility, to enchantment and playfulness. His designs for staircases take on a mystical direction. At frist, these seem to be a reinterpretation of Luis Barragan’s famous cantilevered stairs. But he takes Barragan’s concept further buy suspending the steps altogether, and make them float out in space, or suspend them from above. We also see more of Barragan’s inspiration in his rich and generous use of colors to evoke emotion. He extends Le Corbusier’s concept of a roof garden with The Skyhouse, a glass structure he built on top of his own home. By making the walls out of glass, he harnesses the sun’s heat during the winter months. Another benefit of supporting columns is the ability to liberate the facade of his buildings. With this, he makes generous use of horizontal as well as vertical, wallto-wall and floor-to-ceiling windows. We also see the influence of Austrian architect, Richard Neutra. And in other works, he takes liberties with the facade in such a way as to elicit a type of expressionist architecture that conjures images of the painter, Wassily Kandinsky. To Beat, the purpose of his work is to express life. The building is an outward expression of the lives of the people who live in it. As they conjure inspiration to spiritual concepts, they do so in a refreshing style. He adds the youthful sense of eyes that are open to the world around DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
Beat Baumann’s Philosophy The pursuit and the consistent search for plain, functional architecture with a high demand of creativity and sensuous experience shall be the focus.
us; in terms of intellectual, cultural and ecological awareness. As he goes beyond the process of mere construction to deliver tangible and intangible qualities, his work transcends to a sense of timelessness, all the while, heralding a change that points to a bright future. To comment such as this, he quotes with admiration an acceptance speech given by the architect, Luis Barragan, upon receiving the Pritziker Architecture Prize:
“It is alarming that publications devoted to architecture have banished from their pages the words Beauty, Inspiration, Magic, Spellbound, Enchantment, as well as the concepts of Serenity, Silence, Intimacy and Amazement. All these have nestled in my soul, and though I am fully aware that I have not done them complete justice in my work, they have never ceased to be my guiding lights.”
The consistent inclusion of the specific surroundings and special features as well as its architectural transformation continues to be an exciting and guiding challenge for me. Especially an optimal orientation and a delicate fine tuning of its historical environment is authoritative. Through this a superior, geographically oriented architecture develops, which free from modern forms of expression, is searching for the architectural ‚Zeitgeist’.
Architecture - Beat Baumann 37
sm cars
CARtistic Design
by Massimiliano Pantieri DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
Inside the Aston Martin Design Studio
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ston Martin’s design studio cements the company’s reputation as one of the world’s most technologically sophisticated sports car manufacturers. Design is one of Aston Martin’s core values, and the new Studio, located in a world class building adjacent to Aston Martin’s manufacturing and engineering centre at Gaydon in Warwickshire, integrates the process into the heart of the company. ______________________________________________________________
“Aston Martin is about design and it is about beauty,” says Aston Martin’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Ulrich Bez.
______________________________________________________________ The elegant modern pavilion, designed by the Weedon Partnership in collaboration with Austrian pre-fabrication specialists Holzbau Saurer, has been built using the latest construction technology and is a showcase for environmentally sustainable design. The architecture is modern and uncompromising, making extensive use of structural wood and large expanses of glass. The modular wooden structure has been sourced from managed forests in Austria and Switzerland. The studio has taken just six months to build and only twelve months to complete from its design conception to realisation. Environmental technologies will ultimately include a ‘green’ sedum roof, helping the building integrate into the surrounding landscape as well as providing a high level of insulation. A closed loop vertical ground water system provides heating and cooling, a process that uses only one third of the energy of that used in conventional systems. All floors have underfloor heating and cooling using a low energy by Noah Joseph ‘Gravivent’ system. The main wooden structure is insulated to a high specification using natural hemp insulation.
Aston Martin Studio 39
Marek Reichman, Aston Martin’s RCA-trained Director of Design since 2005, oversees a team including clay modellers, computer modellers, interiors specialists and craftspeople. Reichman describes the new building as “hightech but human,” adding that the materials give the interior warmth. “Wood shifts and moves with time and gains a patina.” The fine interior detailing has also been personally overseen by Reichman and his team. “You’ve got the smells, colours and sensations of Aston Martin around you,” he explains, pointing out the high quality woods, artwork, stainless steel, travertine marble and designer work spaces. Everything contributes to an immersive sensory environment, mirroring the experience of the cars themselves. The public foyer has been designed to be used as both a gallery and a VIP area for launches and private viewings, complete with a Bang and Olufsen projection and speaker system. The past decade has seen Aston Martin’s engineering division grow from 30 people to 300. The Design Studio will provide a similar boost to the integration of the design process into the company. “In the past, the most wonderful cars came from Italian design houses,” explains Dr Bez, “bodies were even made in Italy.” To bring these skills in house, with their own dedicated facility, places Aston Martin in a position of considerable strength. “Finally, we own design,” says Dr Bez, explaining that “in order to build something that is beautifully designed, the key is to have the intelligence to do these things and not just have craft skills. You have to have them both. If we don’t design it properly then we cannot build it.” The design department ensures Aston Martin’s celebrated craft skills have a place in an ultra-modern car. “Even though we have incredible craftsmanship skills, without design intelligence we cannot use those skills to their best advantage,” says Bez. The 2700²m studio provides space for the design team, colour development work and a specialist trimmer. One side of the new building is faced entirely in glass, braced with glass beams, to help maximize the feeling of transparency, flooding the studio floor with natural light. Flush light fittings provide hidden ambient light, supplemented and enhanced by the customised and highly adjustable lighting rigs used to develop the clay surfaces. “A studio has to
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Aston Martin and Jaeger LeCoultre the AMVOX5 World Chronographer
have the ability to allow you to view the cars from all angles,“ Reichman says, “so the building design takes this into account.” There are also five full-size ‘plates’ on the studio floor for the creation of full-scale models, along with a viewing garden, screened from the rest of the facility by a hand laid stone wall, landscaping. “The new Design Studio is a commitment from the new shareholders of how important the design of new models is to the company’s future,” says Dr Bez, “It also demonstrates the pace at which the company is capable of moving and brings one of our core competencies to Gaydon for the first time. From conception to realisation in just twelve months is a fantastic achievement by everyone involved.” The Gaydon factory manufactures the recently unveiled flagship DBS, V8 Vantage, V8 Vantage Roadster, DB9 and DB9 Volante models. Aston Martin has become synonymous with design excellence, and the creation of the new design studio will provide a fitting environment for the development of the next generation of production cars. The company was recently voted the Coolest Brand for an unprecedented second year running.
The AMVOX5 World Chronograph opens a new chapter in the partnership between JaegerLeCoultre and Aston Martin, and continues to combine horological expertise and automobile performance in a refined manner. By selecting a city on the turning flange, instant visualisation of the time in any of the world’s 24 time zones is possible at any moment. With a nod to the watch’s automobile lineage, London is replaced by the town of Gaydon in Warwickshire, where Aston Martin’s headquarters and factory are located. With luminescent white indicators and numerals in the 270° display that has become a classic feature of the AMVOX collection, the partially open dial bears markings inspired by the radiator grille of a sports car. The time elapsed on the chronograph function is read on the central second hand and on the two 30-minute and 12-hour counters. The finishing touch is a movement operating indication that is visible through a dial opening at 6 o’clock, adorned with the famous Aston Martin winged emblem. A splendid piece of mechanics, the Jaeger-LeCoultre 752 calibre that drives the AMVOX5 is exceptional in its precision and its resilience. In accordance with pure horological tradition, the chronograph, with its column wheel and vertical trigger, features a winding mechanism on lubricant-free ceramic ball bearings, a large variable inertia balance and laser-welded balance spring, all of which ensure its reliability. This all-terrain calibre is inserted in a case made of high-tech ceramic combined with titanium and 18 carat pink gold. Completely integrated into the Jaeger-LeCoultre Manufacture, its production relies on some of the same innovative techniques and processes which are used in the aeronautical and medical sectors. Made by compacting yttrium oxides mixed with a binder and a small proportion of zirconium oxide under high pressure, the compound is then subjected to a temperature of 2,000°C. After fluoroscopic testing for homogeneity, the ceramic block is then shaped using special diamond-tipped tools. The intensely black case weighs much less than steel, yet is twice as hard, giving the AMVOX5 World Chronograph its infallible resistance. The AMVOX5 World Chronograph will only be made in a limited series: 300 with a ceramic and titanium case, and 200 with a ceramic and 18 carat pink gold case. A sure hit with car racing enthusiasts, two Racing models will be made in ceramic and titanium, with a black or white dial, each in a limited series of 100. Inspired by the performance of the meteoric LMP1 Aston Martin Racing prototype, these timepieces feature chronographic counters executed in carbon fibre, punctuated with a flash of orange on the world time disc, the chronographic second hand and the overstitching on the calfskin leather strap. Dr Ulrich Bez, Chief Executive Officer of Aston Martin said: “This is the definitive expression of the partnership between Aston Martin and Jaeger-LeCoultre, I’m delighted that we have been able to premiere this technology in such an elegant solution.”
Aston Martin Studio 41
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Basquiat
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he Fondation Beyeler is devoting a large retrospective to the American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960– 1988). On the occasion of the 50th birthday of this celebrated artist, who tragically died at only 27, we are planning his first comprehensive exhibition in Europe.
Basquiat’s works are imbued with the same intensity and energy that characterized his short life. In the space of only eight years, in a way reminiscent of Egon Schiele, he succeeded in creating an all-encompassing oeuvre, and in establishing new figurative and expressive elements at a time when conceptual and minimal art dominated the scene. At age 21 he became one of the youngest Documenta participants ever and a key precursor of the Jungen Wilden and other contemporary artists. The euphoric reception of his works in Europe secured his breakthrough in the U.S., where he became a cult figure of the New York art scene as well as in street culture and African-American culture. The comet-like ascent of this young artist, whose mother was of Puerto Rican descent and his father from Haiti, surprised the art world and sent shock-waves through society: Basquiat had had no artistic education and emerged from the New York underground. Since his 18th year, he had been covering the walls of SoHo and subway trains with angry, wild graffiti images. His symbol-laden paintings often addressed political issues, criticizing racism, social injustices and consumer capitalism. He found inspiration for his powerful compositions in everyday life and popular culture such as cartoons, children’s drawings and advertising, as well as in Aztec, African, ancient Greek and Roman art. With their skeleton-like silhouettes, mask-like grimaces and pictograms, his art works combined the explosive visual codes of the New York streets with the cultural heritage of mankind. This retrospectively arranged exhibition is dedicated to one of the most fascinating personalities in art history. His friendships with Madonna, Andy Warhol and Keith Haring have become legendary. The unique artistic development and art historical significance of Basquiat will be traced with 100 major works from American and European museums and private collections.
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1. 1. Jean-Michel Basquiat in his studio at the Great Jones Street, New York, 1985 Private Collection, Photo: Lizzie Himmel © © 2010, ProLitteris, Zurich 2. Basquiat, Untitled, 1981 Acrylic and oilstick on canvas The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Collection, Los Angeles Photo: Douglas M. Parker Studio, Los Angeles © 2010 ProLitteris, Zurich 3. Basquiat, Untitled, 1981 Acrylic, oilstick, and spray paint on canvas Collection of Mia and Patrick Demarchelier © 2010, ProLitteris, Zurich 4. Basquiat, Self-Portrait with Suzanne, 1982 Courtesy, The Brant Foundation, USA © 2010, ProLitteris, Zurich
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The comprehensive exhibition, that will run until September 5, 2010, is curated by Dieter Buchhart, who was also responsible for the Edvard Munch show at the Fondation Beyeler (1997). The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat in New York supports the exhibition. The exhibition is being conceived by the Fondation Beyeler. Its second venue will be the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (October 15, 2010 – January 30, 2011). www.beyeler.com Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Francesco Clemente, New York, 1984 Courtesy Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zürich Photo: © Beth Philipps
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ART Basel Basel
Jun 16, 2010 - Sunday, Jun 20, 2010 Art Basel offers art from the 20th and 21st centuries, and is undisputedly considered the most important world fair of the international art market. Over 300 carefully selected exhibitors from the world’s most important galleries turn the fairground into the most important museum on time. Artists, art collectors and many prominent figures from the cultural scene meet on these days in Basel. www.artbasel.com
Switzerland as an energy centre and sanatorium. Zürich Schweizerisches Landesmuseum Museumstrasse 2 www.landesmuseum.ch
Kunstmuseum: Gabriel Orozco Basel Kunstmuseum Basel St. Alban-Graben 16 Basel
Friday, Mar 26, 2010 - Sunday, Aug 15, 2010 This exhibition is dedicated to Switzerland’s reputation as a paradise of health. Starting with Paracelsus’ theory of thermal waters and Albert von Haller’s «Ode to the Alps», it then leads visitors to key historical points such as the famous Monte Verita colony in Canton Ticino, the equally famous Bircher-Benner clinic in Zurich or the sanatoriums of Davos and Leysin.
Sunday, Apr 18, 2010 - Sunday, Aug 8, 2010 In a retrospective, the Kunstmusem Basel presents the installations, sculptures, photographies, paintings and drawings of Mexican artist, Gabriel Orozco. The exhibit, which was first held at the Museum of Modern Art, will travel through Basel and will be exhibited in Paris and London.
www.kunstmuseumbasel.ch
Klee meets Picasso Bern Zentrum Paul Klee Monument im Fruchtland 3 3006 Bern www.zpk.org
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Sunday, Jun 6, 2010 - Sunday, Sep 26, 2010 Paul Klee and Pablo Picasso are regarded as modern art’s exact opposites - the one being romantic and spiritual, the other being Mediterranean and focussed on the here and now. Klee’s poetry and his tendency to use satire and irony contrasted sharply with Picasso’s drama, sensuality and pathos. Yet as different as they were, they were contemporaries who participated in the same artistic and historical events of their age.
MILUS INTERNATIONAL SA | CH-2502 BIEL-BIENNE | SWITZERLAND | TEL. +41 (0)32 344 39 39 | INFO@MILUS.COM | WWW.MILUS.COM BASELWORLD | MARCH 18TH TO 25TH, 2010 | HALL 1.0 STAND B29
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The Striking of ZENITH Zenith is one of the most famous names in Swiss watchmaking. Established in 1865, two of the most celebrated movements in the history of horology, the El Primero chronograph and the Elite, were designed and continue to be made in-house by this Le Loclebased brand. Recently, Zenith, part of the LVMH group, made some changes, introducing a new president and a new direction. by Keith W. Strandberg
W
ell, it’s not really a new direction, it’s a return to a time-honored direction – Classicism, Elegance and Value. New Zenith president and CEO Jean-Frederic Dufour is not flamboyant, flashy or showy
– but he’s perfect to man the helm at Zenith, a brand that has true watchmaking roots. The focus for Zenith is now back on watchmaking, which is just fine with Dufour. “Things are going pretty well for Zenith right now,” Dufour says. “Since I started last June, we have changed many things about the collection, the communication and more, and the response from the markets has been good. We are on the right track, but we don’t want to be over confident.” After the financial crisis, and some markets are not really out of the woods yet, the consensus among brands and retailers is that people are looking for value. They aren’t against spending money on a fine watch, they just want to know that the watch they are buying is worth the price. “Today, Zenith is one of the best offers you can get for the price you pay,” Dufour says. “This is important for me. With the new product, we are exactly where we have to be and this is the key today.” Zenith is an intriguing mix of watchmaking know-how (the chronographs, the tourbillons and minute repeaters in its line), forward-thinking design (the Zenith Open series started the trend of exposing movements for the mainstream) and innovative technology (the El Primero Striking Ten and more). “Zenith today is one of the brands with the biggest potential in the industry and I can’t wait to see it realized,” Dufour says. “Zenith is a brand that will be number one on the market for chronographs and more.”
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Zenith El Primero Striking Ten
“This new display makes the watch look so exciting – it looks like the time is going so fast,” Dufour says. “It’s something very simple and something new, which had never been invented.”
Le Locle Zenith is installed in a sprawling factory in the
Last year, Zenith hosted the 100th birthday party for the developer of
sleepy watchmaking town of Le Locle, the same
the Caliber 135, Ephrem Jobin, and presented the retired watchmaker
place where the brand began in 1865. When
with a special limited edition watch. Since finding the production tools
Dufour first started, he made a point to wander
and meeting with Jobin, Dufour is more determined that ever to reintro-
the factory, looking in nooks and crannies, open-
duce the Caliber 135.
ing up doors to closets and rooms no one had
“I will try to do this, because it will be wonderful to do,” Dufour explains.
visited in years. In the course of his tour, he stum-
“I love the history of Zenith. I am discovering something new every day,
bled over the production tools for the legendary
a new story, a new prize, a new Caliber and more. It’s wonderful work for
El Primero 135 movement, something that every-
someone who is passionate about watches, I have toys everywhere, like
one assumed was destroyed during the Quartz
in a playground.”
Crisis of the 1970s. the Caliber 135 was a ground-
One of the watches that makes Dufour’s heart beat faster is the El
breaking watch for Zenith, winning it hundreds of awards for precision. Only about 11,000 timepieces with this movement were ever produced, as the movement was very complicated, exacting and difficult to produce, so they are very sought after in the collector market.
Primero Striking Ten, a chronograph that displays the seconds on a central hand. Unlike most chronographs, where the second hand takes 60 seconds to make one circuit of the dial, because of the El Primero movement, the Striking Ten can make one complete turn in just 10 seconds, a phenomenal watchmaking achievement. Zenith 47
The Future Just about everyone agrees that Zenith is doing things right, but that doesn’t mean that the company made huge mistakes before. “I don’t think Zenith lost its way,” Dufour details. “Zenith has faced many crises, many good times, many bad times. During the last ten years, Zenith followed the global trend of the Swiss watchmaking industry -- the sky was truly the limit. It was a fight to have the most of everything – the biggest, the best, the most complicated, the most unusual – and it was not just Zenith, but every company. Zenith was very successful at this, but then came the crisis, and now people are changing the way they are consuming watches, back to real value or added value. “It’s not a matter of price, but what can you get for what you buy,” Dufour clarifies. “Zenith is one of the best in this regard. The whole company has been dedicated to precision and reliability and these are our pillars.” Dufour is a watch lover from way back and he is having the time of his life working with one of the great brands in the industry. “I love watches because it’s something you can be passionate about – you have to be very good at bringing emotion to the end customer,” he says. “The way I see it, my job is to make people happy. I am fortunate because I have the chance to work in something I love. I love the mechanics and we have the chance to stick to the original concept of watches, just mechanical. Working for a brand like Zenith is like a dream for me.” Moving forward, Dufour plans to emphasize the manufacture side of Zenith, which he believes is the strength of the brand. “The fact that Zenith is a Manufacture makes the difference between us and other brands,” he says. “We are a real Manufacture who use 100% of all their movements, there are only four in Switzerland and two in Germany. We are the main entry door for the world of real watches.” Zenith’s opening price is 2900 Euro and can go up to more than a million, so the brand really has something for everyone. Zenith’s star is certainly rising again.
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Being aware of one’s HERITAGE also means cultivating traditions that lay the foundation for a prosperous FUTURE. It is with this knowledge that we have proved a reliable SWISS partner in PRIVATE BANKING. Since 1755.
S W I S S P R I VAT E B A N K I N G S I N C E 1755
Clariden Leu AG | Bahnhofstrasse 32 | 8001 Zürich | Tel. +41 58 205 21 11
w w w . c l a r i d e n l e u . c o m
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Eberhard & Co For more then a 120 years, Eberhard & Co. has been designing premium quality timepieces Mario Peserico, CEO
A
youthful watchmaker by the name of Georges-Emile Eberhard opened the first Eberhard watch-making shop in La Chauxde-Fonds in 1887. By placing a special emphasis in accuracy and performance, Eberhard watches earned a world-renowned name for both the chronograph and the chronometer. The mechanical quality and luxurious beauty of the Eberhard pocket watches gave him a good reputation among some of the most scrupulous watch collectors during that time. Eberhard & Co has always been tied with the history of car sport as the watch brand was chosen to be an official timepiece of the first European car race. As a natural consequence, the car theme has become associated with the brand who gained reputation among car lovers as well as among watch connoisseurs. In 1992 they created a famous chronograph collection named Tazio Nuvolari as a dedication to one the greatest car racer and winner of a great number of competitions in the 1930’s. Year after year Eberhard has continued to display its mastery of advanced technical innovative watch designs: in 1939 the Eberhard created a chronograph with the Rattrapante system –a perfect technology gaving the possibility for double chronometry; in 1950 the model Extra-Fort that had a number of very useful functions; and the Chrono4 in 2001 which quickly became an iconic model of the brand. This Year this historic watchmaking company with a strong masculine identity, turns towards “Her” and proudly introduces Gilda, the new “feminine” wristwatch especially conceived with the woman in mind. We had the pleasure to meet Mr. Mario Peserico, a very charismatic person in charge of Eberhard’s Distribution. “This year marks the beginning of a new chapter in the tradition of Eberhard with the launch of a lady’s watch, Gilda. This is not a feminine version of a man’s watch, but it’s a product conceived merely for the woman, with a very unique design (elliptical face, tonneau back, sapphire chrystal, high quality materials). A product of high quality that positions itself above the entry luxury segment but yet affordable compared to the highest segment of this market.” On the challenge of launching a ladies watch, Mario Peserico explains that “this is a signal that the brand is investing even in an uncertain environment, investing on the product but also on the communication. DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
An authentic and with a multifaceted character, the Gilda collection celebrates and embodies the elegance and initiative of today’s woman. An harmonious union of modernity and tradition, accentuated by the soft lines of its elliptical case and the choice of materials, expresses both a contemporary, self-assured character in the steel version, and a refined, delicate soul in the 18 ct. red gold version. Gilda gently fits the shape of the wrist in an expert game of aesthetics and design, offering a subtle balance between the technical and the material. Furthermore, an exclusive version of Gilda, available to order only, is equipped with a precious, tailor-made bracelet: a cascade of 392 diamonds embracing the wrist, for the new “Femme Eberhard”. “On the men side we are focusing and capitalizing on the iconic collections. Chrono4 with its innovative mechanical movement is our patent and trademark first launched in 2001 with a traditional version followed by more sporty models. For its 10 anniversary we felt ready to propose a new version far less traditional and young, named Bad Boy”. Eberhard in a few words: “A brand with the strong history and a look on the future. We remain mainly a man’s watch brand with a strong dedication to mechanical achievements.” Where would you like to see Eberhard in a few years? “A stronger yet selective distribution, not much in terms of numbers of points of sale… we believe above all in the knowledge of our retailers and partners, which are also our ambassadors in the markets. A strong value that we don’t want to loose, but to reinforce thru trainings, events and promotions, with satisfaction for all parties involved and the belief of what has been built so far.” Volna Typhoon SI Heritage steel black PVD photographed by Denis Hayoun
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On Time and Design with Sebastien Bottinelli
by Marco Gonzalez/ Sherry Williams
Sebastien voraciously consumes massive amounts of information. He will travel extensively in order to experience the world around him. He absorbs details like a sponge, sorting out information and ideas, then filing them away in his impeccable memory. In the course of correlating all this information, what Sebastien is actually doing is monitoring changes in the world. He then factors in his knowledge, experience and personality into the delivery of his works. He is arrestingly modest and unassuming, which elegantly contrasts with the fact that this is a man of prominence and influence with a bent to be dynamic and creative. He certainly has the business acumen and the resources to adapt to the changes around him through strength, yet he seems more enthused by the art of design. Perhaps he discovered at an early age that thoughtful design can be quite rewarding and transformative, when he built and designed his own hut in the back of his family’s home at the age of 12. Along with his design sensibilities, he brings a bold, yet socially-responsible style of entrepreneurship. Transformation is an underlying theme in his design projects as well as his business ventures. Among his many responsibilities, he owns a number of companies focused on eco-friendly initiatives. On the day we met with Sebastien, he showed us one of his favorite ventures, Senso Restaurant in the heart of Geneva.
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n our ever changing world, we are becoming more aware how time is change, and change is inevitable. We watch it affect every aspect of our lives, even our own sensibilities for the design of luxury. But how does one navigate the maze of inevitable changes, and still stay relevant? Upon meeting Sebastien Bottinelli, a member of a prominent family of entrepreneurs responsible for the Audermars Piguet watch brand, one finds inspiration for the proper attitude towards change – change is best managed with eyes wide open.
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Senso Restaurant was designed by Sebastien. Within the mid-century building is a renovated space in which each seating area was designed to bring a timeless experience of luxury. The restaurant has vestiges of man himself, reflecting his personal experiences and travels. It provides the citizens of Geneva with a prime social milieu and fine dining, thereby contributing to the lifestyles of the citizens of Geneva, and elevating their moods. It is this effect that inspires Sebastien – how atmosphere and environment affects peoples lives and emotions.
Senso has developed a reputation as one of the chicest restaurants in Geneva. Clearly, Sebastien enjoyed the process of transforming the restaurant, so much so that he repeated the process to establish a Senso in Cran-Montana, then again in Singapore. At the Crans-Montana location, he added an innovative twist to his business model, he made everything in the restaurant available to his customers, including the furniture.
“Design is memory of time. Time become incarnate by design”
Sebastien has a broad sense of aesthetics, and his design work shows juxtapositions of styles, particularly in relation to time periods. He appreciates the expression of beauty throughout the ages, and as he sets out to create atmosphere, his inspirations are places he has been and people he has known. And through this process, his work becomes quite personal and unique.
Apart from Senso, he also applies his talent for creative transformation to retail and residential spaces. He formed a company for this purpose called BSM Casaling. He designed the flagship store for his family’s watch brand, and is currently developing Residence Les Terrasses du Léman a Cransprès-Celigny by Geneva, a real estate project using eco-friendly Minergie standards. Sebastien owns a number of companies working towards innovative purposes. One of them even seeks to solve the problem of what to do with used car tires. He has proven to have the courage to take risks, and is able to advance his inspirations forward. He will most likely continue on with new and innovative projects. When not at work, Sebastien is likely to be enjoying one of his many hobbies. He has a keen appreciation of nature, loves cars, gastronomy, watches and Italian wines. He also paints and draws. All the while, continually discovering, experiencing, tasting, and contemplating. He maintains quite a healthy sense of humor. When asked what kinds of projects he would like to accomplish next, he nonchalantly quips, “A hotel for dogs, an elevator to the moon, an underwater city, a giant ventilator to dispel clouds, a suction fan to clean radioactivity and pollution”. While such a response from someone else would simple be dismissed as a joke, with a person such as Sebastien, one has to think twice whether or not he was serious. Sebastien demonstrates that not only can change and transformation be quite profitable and rewarding, but also quite enjoyable. As he discussed his works and inspirations, it became apparent that he loves his work. Clearly, he will be accomplishing many more interesting things, as he has demonstrated a pattern and willingness to do it again and again. We look forward to seeing what Sebastien has in store for the future.
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Hydroptère the fastest sailcraft on the planet By crossing the elusive 50 knot threshold - the equivalent of breaking the sound barrier in aviation - reaching 51.36 knots over 500 metres with a top speed of 55.5 knots (103 km/h), l’Hydroptère became the fastest sailcraft on the planet and set a new benchmark in the world of sailing. by Massimiliano Pantieri
L’Hydroptère The 60-ft Hydroptère (from the Greek hydros, water, and ptera, wing), is a hydrofoil trimaran (the foils are actually underwater wings). It is a sleek and elegant craft with a central hull and a mast 28 metres high, stabilised by two side floats separated from the hull by huge 24-metre carbon crossbeams built at the Airbus plant in Nantes. The innovative design of the boat, which flies on submerged wings, cleverly constructed out of carbon and titanium, make it much faster, more durable and lightweight (only 6.5 tonnes). The flight envelope of the prototype is continuously defined and validated on a 3D flight simulator developed specifically for this carbon bird, which represents the new generation of extreme sailing. This exceptional project began in the 1980s under the joint leadership of Eric Tabarly and Alain Thébault, surrounded by scientists and sailors. From 1987 to 1992, the dream became reality. Sponsored and supported by Eric Tabarly, Alain Thébault developed different models and came up with the concept of a flying boat, which was launched in 1994. The first flight was a success. There followed several years of research and development for which Alain Thébault was careful to bring together a diverse mix of cultures and skills. “For 30 years, passion and daring have carried me forward, but this victory really belongs to our indomitable, tight-knit team. The historic record of more than 50 knots over one nautical mile is powerful because it lies at the frontier between the twin capacities of this extraordinary flying trimaran that is both a high-speed craft and an ocean-going sailboat. Our team now holds the top two speed records in the world, 51.36 knots over 500 metres and 50.17 knots over one nautical mile*, and we can now concentrate on ocean sailing in 2010”, commented Alain Thébault. Alain Thébault, designer and skipper of this Formula 1 of the seas, had always dreamt of making a boat fly. After 20 years of research and development, the flying boat is now a robust, powerful craft thanks to the help of eight retired engineers from Dassault Aviation and EADS-Airbus who volunteered their time. l’Hydroptère is the perfect combination of cutting edge technology, performance and human adventure. This unique project was created by a team of sailing buffs, engineers, technicians and aircraft manufacturers. In 2006, the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) joined the team and became “Official Scientific Adviser” to assist in advanced fields such as aero-hydrodynamics, composite materials, structural behaviour and video imaging. Entering Sailing History L’Hydroptère has been enjoying a string of successes since 2005. On February 2nd 2005, l’Hydroptère crossed the English Channel faster than Blériot in his airplane; on April 4, 2007, it set two world speed records. On Friday September 4th 2009, in Hyères, France, Alain Thébault and his outstanding ten-man crew set two outright sailing speed world records: over 500 metres, at an average speed of 51.36 knots (95.118 km/h) and over one nautical mile (1,852 m) at an average of 48.74 knots (90.266 km/h). These records were ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council, the official keeper of all records pertaining to sailing. On November 8th, 2009, l’Hydroptère once again made history by setting a new record: an average speed of 50.17 knots, equivalent to 92.91 km/h, over one nautical mile* with a peak at 55.5 knots (102.78 km/h). Even if all records are made to be broken, this one will be very hard to match over that distance. This performance is a wonderful welcome gift for watchmaker Audemars Piguet, which has decided to associate itself with this incredible adventure, along with private bankers Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch & Cie. DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
The EPFL, an engineering school founded in Lausanne in 1853 Since 2006, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) has been the “Official Scientific Adviser” of l’Hydroptère. The EPFL makes its calculation power, experimental resources and the talents of its leading researchers and students available to the project. The studies conducted jointly by the EPFL and the Hydroptère Design Team cover three main areas: materials and structures, aero-hydrodynamic behaviour and computer vision systems. http://hydroptere.epfl.ch www.epfl.ch
Photographer: Guilain Grenier
“Thanks to this historic double record, l’Hydroptère is confirmed as the fastest sailcraft on the planet. This exceptional performance is a tribute to the work of a determined and experienced team, which developed and implemented revolutionary and innovative solutions. We can fully relate to this extraordinary challenge, which is perfectly consistent with the pioneering and adventurous spirit of our brand,” said Philippe Merk, CEO of Audemars Piguet. The world of sailing is a field that Audemars Piguet knows well. As early as 1985, the watchmaking firm accompanied Peter Fehlmann, winner of the Whitbread. In 2000, it participated in its first America’s Cup, with “Be hAPpy”, and then went on to take part in the fantastic Swiss victories with Swiss team ALINGHI in the 31st and 32nd America’s Cup. The union of Audemars Piguet and Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch & Cie around this project is almost natural: as age-old family businesses, they share many values, such as tradition, excellence and expertise. As entrepreneurs, they have a history marked by a commitment to innovation, discovery and inspiring challenges. “Our two firms share the same foundations and the same passions. So it was logical for us to come together on this unique, unconventional and avant-garde project that embodies incredibly powerful human
and technological values”, said Thierry Lombard, an avid sailor who is keen on challenges, sailing and technology. Before it became a project of the private bankers, whose founding year - 1796 - is written on the mainsail, l’Hydroptère was originally a personal project. But the human and sporting adventure does not stop there. Audemars Piguet and Lombard Odier are also sponsoring l’Hydroptère.ch, which will take to the waters of Lake Geneva, Switzerland, in summer 2010. It will serve as a laboratory and a think tank for the ambitious Hydroptère Maxi project, whose ultimate goal is to sail round the world in 40 days, thus pursuing the dream of Jules Verne. “This great human and technological adventure is backed today by two prestigious firms that solidify our roots. The arrival of Audemars Piguet alongside private bankers Lombard Odier moves me deeply. This strong support is a great motivational force for me and the team. In an ongoing humble family spirit, our ambition is now to unfurl our wings on the open seas, collectively and around the world,” concludes Alain Thébault. www.hydroptere.com Innovation - Hydroptère 55
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INSIDE WATCH DESIGN Designing a watch is extremely challenging. Watches are tiny, compared to such products as furniture or cars, which limits design opportunities. Add to this the fact that there are so many watches and brands on the market today, and it’s more challenging than ever to have a unique design.
by Keith Strandberg
Claudio D’Amore DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
The Challenges The over-riding task of every watch designer is to come up with a new design that doesn’t look like anything else on the market. Considering the small size of a watch, and the conventions associated with timepieces, it’s a tall order to design something truly unique. “The biggest challenge for us is that there are so many watches and every client wants something new,” says Claudio D’Amore, owner of independent Cosanova Design. “The detail makes the difference. We need to find the balance to all the little elements. We work hard on finding innovation in watches, to find the proper character.” Smaller brands can get away with really outlandish designs, because they don’t have to sell it to the masses.
“For high end brands like Hautlence, it’s important to be different in the design but also in the global brand building,” says Guillaume Tetu, COO, Hautlence. “We are relatively new players, people have to recognize the product at the first glance.” Other companies have a wider audience, so they can’t be as daring because it may result in failure. “To offer something different than the others, to be recognizable among all the other watch brands, and to maybe have the chance to have some PR coverage -- that’s the challenge we face,” says Matthias Breschan, president, Hamilton International Ltd. “Having a unique design doesn’t mean a top seller, however, it can be too special and become a flop.” The design of a watch has to embody the spirit of the brand, so people know right away what the brand is. “Today every brand is looking very hard for a distinct design,” says Thomas Morf, president, Carl F. Bucherer. “At the end, it’s about creating something with timelessness. There is so much design trash within the industry, just to be different by all means. Carl F. Bucherer watches aim to be timeless, yet fresh and contemporary.”
Inside Watch Design 57
The Design Process The process of designing a new watch is different for every brand. Some brands, like Hamilton, mine their rich history while also doing new products, while others, like HD3, have to do something way outside the box. “The biggest challenge is to change everything, while making sure it’s not a copy,” says HD3’s Jorg Hysek. “A new watch cannot look like other products.” Every design starts with an idea. Some presidents are the guardians of a brand’s DNA, while others are open to ideas from just about anyone. Designer houses take their cues from the head designer, while other companies open up product development to a sort of competition, looking for the next great idea. Bovet’s president Pascal Raffy does all the designs for his brand. “Having the passion of Bovet timepieces, I attempt to draw our watches myself,” he explains. “In many cases, my design drawings need to mature. As an example, some drawings of Bovet timepieces that I had drawn in 2001 still deserve, according to me, that I work on them. I remain certain that I will not abandon them.” Some companies use only in-house designers, not willing to trust their brand DNA to anyone outside the “inner circle.” Others use only freelance designers, preferring to think “outHD3 Three Minds Tourbillon Titanium
CONCORD C1 Eternal Gravity
DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
side the box” and tweak any outlandish ideas. Most brands use a mix of internal and external designers. “Using in-house designers is easier, quicker, and they have top priority to work on your collection only,” says Hamilton’s Breschan. “Freelancers work for other companies as well, but they are more aware of the new trends, they introduce ‘fresh’ ideas. Sometimes, they will go wrong, they will not interpret your needs correctly, but their work can be a great surprise as well. I personally like to work with many different designers; I feel that different designers have their own strengths. You have to take the best from them.” At the end of the day, if it’s a great design, it doesn’t really matter from where it came. “The best solution for the brand is more important than the question whether you’re going to use in-house or external designers,” Carl F. Bucherer’s Morf says. “I don’t care who’s going to make the design. I want the best solution for Carl F. Bucherer.” Perrelet works with both inside designers and freelancers. “Our experience is that it is most fruitful to have both internal and external sources compete and work with each other,” says Marc Bernhardt, CEO, Perrelet. “We probably come up with around 60 individual designs before we arrive at a design that deserves to be developed further.”
VOLNATOMIC
Carl F. Bucherer ChronoDate ladies
Inside Watch Design 59
HAMILTON Route 66
Watch design today remains a mixture of inspiration, perspiration, dedication and luck.
DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
Design to Reality The time it takes a watch to go from the design stage to producing an actual watch really depends on the brand and the kind of watch. An update to an existing design can happen pretty quickly, while completely new watches can take several years or more to go from the design stage to finished product. “The timing really varies,” notes Sandro Reginelli, product director, Maurice Lacroix. “The full development of a new collection including movement development can take three to five years. Life cycle management of an existing collection - for example redesigning the dial/hands/bracelet - can take between one to two years.”
Brand Icons There are watches, like the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, the Panerai Luminor, the Rolex Daytona, the Omega Speedmaster and others that are iconic products, products that help consumers identify the brand. Sometimes these products are the result of a concerted effort to make a watch an icon -- by design focus, marketing, advertising -- while other watches catch the public’s eye and become an icon because they are truly interesting watches. An iconic watch is rarely just a marketing trick, though -- the public has to buy into it and accept the design. There are plenty of examples where watch companies have tried to foist a watch on the public only to have it backfire and fail. “You cannot develop only brand icons,” says Hamilton’s Breschan. “Icons are created to pull people into the brand and we always hope they will sell like hot cakes, but that is not their primary function.
Horological Machine No3 Frog
An icon must be a ‘talking piece.’ The icon has to communicate -- in many cases the customer will go to the shop to see it and end up buying the ‘regular’ product, so you have to make sure the identity of the icon is transmitted to the ‘regular’ products.” Honestly, no one truly knows which watch design will catch on and which one won’t. As screenwriter William Goldman has said, “Nobody knows nothing.”
MB&F presents Horological Machine No3 Frog. Haute horlogerie is (usually) a very restrained and serious business; however one of Maximilian Büsser main goals in creating MB&F was to bring a child’s sense of awe and sense of playfulness into high-end watchmaking. The protruding eyes of the (amphibian) frog enable it to see in many directions without having to turn its head. The bulbous domes of the HM3 Frog have the opposite, but no less important, feature of enabling the time to be easily seen from many angles without having to turn the wrist. The Frog differs substantially from HM3 in that it is the aluminum domes that rotate under the sapphire crystals in the Frog, whereas it is the hour and minute hands that rotate around their respective stationary cones on HM3. Rotating domes of this size and shape posed MB&F with a number of technical challenges. The hour and minute domes are machined from solid aluminium - chosen for its optimal strength to weight ratio. The domes weigh in at just over 0.5g. They are milled first from the outside and then the inside to arrive at a paper-thin wall thickness of just 0.28 mm, which reduces their energy requirements to an absolute minimum. Even the fabrication of the semi-spherical sapphire crystal domes was incredibly demanding and only recently even possible at all. This is due to the fact that any slight imperfection in
the sapphire might introduce a disconcerting magnification effect. The sapphire has to be shaped and polished to be perfectly uniform. The Frog’s unusual method of indicating time necessitated the development of a new gear train for the HM3 engine. This was because the aluminum hour dome of the Frog rotates in 12 hours compared to the 24 hour revolution of the HM3 hour hand. And as the oversized date wheel is driven from the hours, the gearing driving the date had to be reworked as well. The Frog may portray the time in a playful manner, but there is nothing but serious and meticulous attention to detail and care regarding the fine hand-finishing of the high-tuned engine purring within its lightweight high-tech titanium case. A close inspection of the case is rewarded with carefully thought out detailing including a figure 8 engraved around the domes that mirrors the form of the display back(revealing dual ceramic bearings); distinctive clover-head white gold screws; and an engraved arrow discreetly indicating the easy to read over-sized date. If the viewer’s gaze manages to break away from the obiculate indications, it is likely to be arrested by the brightly-coloured 22K gold battle-axe winding rotor or the intricacies of the thoroughbred movement beneath. The HM3 Frog is available in Grade 5 titanium with blued rotor or a limited edition of 12 featuring mark-resistant black-coated titanium with green rotor. Inside Watch Design 61
sm craftsmanship
The Unique Art
of
Diamond Setting By Keith W. Strandberg
Diamond and precious stone-set watches are more popular than ever before. Sparkling stones on a watch can transform an ordinary timepiece into something spectacular and take an already spectacular watch and make it unforgettable. There is an art to stone setting and to get inside the atelier, I talked with the people who know – the gem setting experts at Harry Winston, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Vacheron Constantin. Design Many “entry level” diamond watches are just normal watches with diamonds on them. At the highest level, however, the diamonds are an integral part of the overall design of the watch. “Harry Winston’s diamond-driven style is the culmination of efforts and skills between gemologists, designers and craftsman, working together to create exquisite jewels and watches,” says Didier Decker, Vice President, Manufacturing and Geneva Facility, Harry Winston. “In practice, once a design is finalized, our technical department provides a gem setting plan. Then, stones are selected by our expert gemologists according to the requirements of this plan. The setting is dependent on the watch, what possibilities it presents, “then we see what kind of stones we will use, round or square,” details Stefan Richi, Gem Setting Manager, JaegerLeCoultre. “If the stones are round, we use grain or snow setting, and if the stone is square, we use a closed setting. “When we have a definitive design, all the stones will be on the plan of the design,” Richi continues. “After, we have to discuss with the designer and the setter, because it may not be possible to do exactly what they want. We might be able to put more diamonds there.” The stones themselves have to be exactly the right size. “When designing the watch, we consider the size of the diamonds,” DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
Christian Selmoni, marketing product director, Vacheron Constantin, says. “We work with companies who supply us the diamonds cut to the right dimensions. We receive the lot of diamonds so we can set the whole watch. Each diamond is individually cut to be set into the watch. The stone setter works with us as we develop the watch, so when the watch is ready to be set, there are no bad surprises. On the technical drawing, each stone has an individual number, so the setter knows where it goes on the watch.” Setting the Stones There are basically two methods for setting – traditional (manual) and by machine. Lower end watches often use machinesetting, as it’s faster and cheaper. Most higher end watches use traditional setting, as it results in better quality. Sometimes even the high end brands use machines to prepare the case for setting, to make sure the initial holes are as precise as they can be, but then the stones are set and finished by hand. “Machine setting is a more time-efficient method, however the overall aesthetic will never match the intricacy and look of traditional setting,” says Harry Winston’s Decker. “While a piece set traditionally by hand takes a lot of time, it guarantees a handcrafted look. “At Harry Winston we exclusively use the traditional method,” he continues. “In preparing the cases, we sometimes use machines for grain setting, which means digging the small hones for the stones. After this initial step, however, there is then significant manual work done to finalize the setting preparation. Setting is truly an art, and finding the best craftsmen is imperative in order to maintain Winston’s elevated standards of quality and design.”
Crafts - The art of Diamond Setting 63
Vacheron Constantin only hand sets its watches, sometimes using machines to prepare the case. “What we set in-house is always done by hand,” Selmoni says. “We do only high jewelry timepieces that are set by hand. For certain kinds of stone setting, for aesthetical reasons it’s better to have something more symmetrical and preparing the case by machines helps us maintain the clean aesthetics.” In watches that are covered in diamonds, the skill of the stone setter really comes into play, as it’s up to this master craftsman to figure out which stone goes where, like a jigsaw puzzle. “On some watches, we use the ‘snow’ setting, with different size stones, with no metal in between,” says Stefan Richi, Gem Setting Manager, JaegerLeCoultre. “For this setting, the setter has to prepare the case himself. You put one stone near the next, because you cannot know which stone comes next. We mix very small diamonds of 0.5 mm with big stones 1.8 mm.” The hallmark of artistic and high level setting is how alive the stones are – which is dictated by how much light can enter the stones. “The setting of a Harry Winston watch is recognizable by the minimum space between the stones and by the path of light, which the jewel-setter achieves by turning the watch in his hand as he sets each diamond, each reflecting in the next,” says Harry Winston’s Decker. “The result is unequalled levels of brilliance. When stones are perfectly set, the watch feels very smooth and delicate to the touch without any bumps or roughness. “In developing our Jewels that Tell Time such as the ‘Cluster of Time,’ unveiled this year at BaselWorld, we partner with Harry Winston’s jewelry workshop in New York to achieve the same ultra-fine settings of our diamond jewelry designs,” he continues. “In this exclusive piece, a combination of round, pear and marquise shaped diamonds are artfully angled to maximize brilliance and light. Each of the 1,038 diamonds are individually set in ultrafine platinum wire, creating the effect that diamonds are almost floating in their setting.”
“If I could, I would attach the diamonds directly onto a woman’s skin.” (Harry Winston)
Invisible settings have become extremely popular at the high end. “In 2009, we launched a high complication that had a case totally set with special cut diamonds, and they are set with the invisible set technique, which is very modern and difficult,” says Vacheron’s Selmoni. “We use this technique because it allows you to really see the diamonds – it looks like the case itself is made of diamonds, you can barely see the case. To do this kind of setting, you need really experienced and masterful setters. There are only about 15 people who can do this and we have one of these in-house.”
DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
Added Value In gem set watches, there is value in both the setting and the stones. Not only are the stones the best these high end watch companies can buy, the setting is artistic and beautiful and can take a great deal of time, depending on the setting and the number of diamonds. In some cases, the setting alone can take more than a month. “For all diamond watches, we provide a certificate of the quality of the diamonds,” says Jaeger’s Richi. “Now, more and more people are aware of diamonds, and our retailers are informed so they can communicate about the settings and the quality of the diamonds. Look for the spaces between the stones – the closer they are, the more diamonds there are, the more expensive the watch will be.” At Harry Winston, diamonds are the brand’s best friends. “For Harry Winston, diamonds are an integral part of our DNA, so setting a fine timepiece with precious stones or diamonds is not merely a ‘finishing touch,’ explains Decker. “Diamonds add a meaningful value and an unmatched brilliance to the piece. And in some instances, like Opus 9, diamonds even provide a real function, telling the time. This happens only at Harry Winston.” Diamonds and precious stones on a watch can make all the difference. “I like the use of diamonds in feminine and creative ways,” says Vacheron’s Selmoni. “As Vacheron is very masculine and technical, it is very challenging to develop watches with a creative setting. This is very interesting for us. I like the Lady Kala Flame, using the Flame cut. We are the first brand to present the flame cut diamonds in watchmaking, it’s an asymmetrical cut. It’s a very creative, bold and contemporary watch.” Precious stones – diamonds, sapphires, rubies and more – on a timepiece can have a dazzling effect when set correctly. It’s all in the details –design, technique, choice of stones and the actual art of setting all come together to make these watches magical.
Crafts - The art of Diamond Setting 65
sm photography
Summer Affair by Philipp Jeker
This season, Deluxe Swiss Made is proud to feature and collaborate with Award winning photographer Philipp Jeker.
DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
CREDITS Creative Director: Sherry Williams Stylist: Elif Gedik Hair : Naget Zinbi Make-up : Regula Zurrer Asst. Stylist: Florian Gassner/Anne Koller Models: Benjamin Ott (Scout Models) Anja (Fotogen) Isabel Muller(Option Models) Summer Affair by Philipp Jeker 67
Born in Basel, Switzerland, this young talent is able to put us in a different dimension, by his ability to change mood, space, and time harmoniously, while paying serious attention to the detail and composition. After working in advertising several years –found his biggest passion in Photography. While his resume speaks for itself, I’ll let you in on this up and coming artist; in 2008 Philipp Jeker won the prestigious CANON Professional Award in Germany, to many accolades he has also placed in many other competitions such as Sony’s World-Photography award 2008, Shooting Star Contest 2008, A CEWE Portrait trophy 2007, he works throughout the world doing his fashion artistry in places such as South Africa, Spain, Germany, and right here in our beautiful beloved Switzerland. Set in the magnificient Villa Wenkenhof in the outskirts of Basel, we welcome you to take a sweet mysterious journey into this Summer Affair ...
Isabel: long cream dress by Fendi; shoes by Christian Loubutin; little swarowski evening clutch bag by Gina London; pearl hat from Stadttheater Fundus, Bern; full paved diamond watch by CHOPARD. Benjamin: chemise and black silk tie by Hugo Boss; black trousers by Dior Homme; blazer by Lanvin; black patent shoes with spikes by Christian Louboutin; watch by Louis Monet.
DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
AUDEMARS PIGUET - Royal Oak Offshore Diver AUDEMARS PIGUET - Royal Oak Offshore Carbon with diamonds setting
Anja: crème trousers by Chanel; cream chiffon blouse by Fendi; orange foulard by Hermes; straw hat stylist own; ladies watch Les Elegantes de LONGINES.
Summer Affair by Philipp Jeker 69
LOCATION : VILLA WENKENHOF Alexander Clavel-Stiftung Bettingerstr. 121 4125 Riehen BS www.wenkenhof.ch DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
Benjamin: Beige suite from Tommy Hilfiger; chemise Hugo Boss; blue suede shoes by Prada; foulard by Hermes; sunglasses by Persol. Isabel: Stripe top with integrated chiffon cardigan by Jean Paul Gaultier; leather phyton gloves by Glanz&Gloria Vintage fashion, Bern; tights by Fogal; shoes by Versace; hat by Stadttheater Fundus, Bern; bag by Fendi; lady diamonds chrono watch by Victorinox Swiss Army.
Summer Affair by Philipp Jeker 71
DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
Anja : bra by Agent Provocateur; lace kimono by Agent Provocateur; grey summer fur by Fendi; silk trousers by Schumacher; lady’s watch GILDA by Ebehard & Co
Summer Affair by Philipp Jeker 73
Benjamin : brown print blouse by Ben Sherman; trousers by Dior Homme; rose gold watch by Dubey & Schaldebrand.
Air CARTIER - Mandala necklace, Chandelier earrings (4.74 carats), diamond bracelet (5.57 carats) DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
Isabel: cream dress by Fendi; Lace gloves by Chantal Thomas; bag by Chanel. Anja: cream overalls Fendi with a Foulard made into a belt by Hermes hand cuff Hermes; bag by Fendi.
Summer Affair by Philipp Jeker 75
DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
Anja (opposite page): black Frack Balmain by Designer am See, Z端rich; balloon trousers Balmain by Anita Smaga, Geneva; black silk body by Agent Provocateur; black leather gloves from Roeckl; Shoes by Fendi. Isabel: Lingerie set from the Agent Provocateur Couture line; patent mary jane shoes from Chanel; black feather Manteau by Chantal Thomas; pearl necklace Givenchy; hat piece with feathers from Stadttheater Fundus, Bern. Benjamin: blazer by Lanvin; chemise by Hugo Boss; watch by Louis Monet.
Summer Affair by Philipp Jeker 77
Isabel: Lingerie set from the Agent Provocateur Couture line, patent mary jane shoes by Chanel.Black feather Manteau by Chantal Thomas, Pearl Necklace Givenchy, hat piece with feathers from Stadttheater Fundus, Bern Anja: black tights with seams, Fogal shoes with Swarowskis Christian Louboutin
Fire DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
de GRISOGONO - Lipstick CY S08 watch, CHF 62’800.de GRISOGONO - earrings ref. 10521/9, CHF 21’500.-
Anja: Jean Paul Gaultier long cardigan with integradet bra and skirt; hand-cuffs by Hermes; feather boa by Givenchy.
Isabel: Dress Herve Leger by Designer am See, Z端rich, jacket on top Chanel. Benjamin: white chemise Hugo Boss; blazer and trousers by Lanvin.
Summer Affair by Philipp Jeker 79
sm wellness
An earthly paradise the new Eden Roc Spa
Day-in, day-out, over and over again, the mundane reality of the 21st century draws us into a hurly-burly of commitments, tasks and deadlines – be they private or professional in nature. In recent years, physical and mental wellbeing has become a sought-after luxury of immeasurable value. Being able to get away from it all and relax is a basic human requirement of each and every one of us, young or old.
A
s long ago as the 19th century, travellers from northern Europe stopped off alongside Lake Maggiore for a few days on their journey south, to unwind in the soothing and regenerating environment around the sparkling lake. Then, in the early 20th century, a community of renowned philosophers and bon vivants on Monte Veritá publically advanced the idea of a return to the basic values of wellbeing of body and soul as well as respect for nature and life. In this history-steeped, pristine and unspoilt landscape, nestling between mountain peaks and deep-blue water, lies the Hotel Eden Roc in Ascona and its spa which adopts a holistic approach in terms of architectural concept and interior design: the wellness area forms a harmonious entity with the hotel of which it is an integral part. As inspiration for its furnishing, Ascona interior designer Carlo Rampazzi took the incomparable Ticino floral environment. Flowers are the dominant theme of the Eden Roc Spa. They are intended to convey the guest a feeling of springtime – whatever the time of year. In addition to the two indoor and outdoor pools, the water world – shimmering in the colours of Lake Maggiore from blue to gray - offers guests a hydropool with various whirlpool recliners in which to relax: the Kneipp path is constructed out of stones from the nearby Maggia River. In addition, the Eden Roc Spa offers a spacious sauna world with steam bath, sanarium, Finnish sauna and an exclusive private area for ladies as well as a fitness centre with state-of-the-art Technogym machines and a hairdresser. A grand total of 20 million Swiss francs has been invested in the transformation of the former Beauty Centre into a luxurious Eden Roc Spa extending over 2,000 square metres that will also be open to non-residents outside the main season. The inspiration for the design of the new water world, sauna area and seven new treatment rooms plus hairdressing salon was provided by the natural beauties of Ticino – more precisely, seven local flower species and the many colours of Lake Maggiore, ranging from silver gray to sky blue. In addition to the two indoor and outdoor pools, the expanded water world now offers guests a large hydropool with various whirlpool recliners in which to relax. Large mosaics reflect the incident sunlight from the adjoining garden area. Another new feature is the Kneipp path constructed with stones from the nearby Maggia River. As the stones are not fixed permanently in place, their natural movement conveys the impression of walking through a real river bed. In addition, the Eden Roc Spa offers a new sauna world with steam bath, sanarium, Finnish sauna and an exclusive private area for ladies as well as a fitness centre and a hairdressing salon open every day.
DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
A 2000 square metre wellness oasis inspired by the unique environment surrounding Lake Maggiore and a floral dream that never fades away.
EDEN ROC SPA 81
In its seven treatment rooms, a wide variety of massages, baths and facial treatments is available with products from the Sensai, Dermalogica, Clarins and ComfortZone lines. In the new nail lounge, the new Eden Roc Spa crew will be specialising in manicures and pedicures with high-quality lacquers from the innovative US brand OPI – after all, open shoes ranging from flip-flops to elegant sandals are part of the unspoken dress code in Ticino from May to October. As his inspiration for furnishing the treatment rooms, Ascona interior designer Carlo Rampazzi used the incomparable Ticino floral environment. Giant blossoms, such as a rose, magnolia or hydrangea graces the walls and lends its name to the room concerned. “The redevelopment of the wellness area was an immense challenge due to the fact that we built it within the existing building” explained Corinne Denzler, Group Director of Tschuggen Hotel Group, who has been intimately involved in the planning of the new Eden Roc Spa for many months in conjunction with Europe’s leading manufacturer of sauna, bathing and wellness equipment, the German company Klafs GmbH. “At times the Eden Roc’s extensive gardens more closely resembled an adventure playground due to the need to transfer all the materials to the appropriate locations by crane and digger.” Nevertheless, the effort put in by the more than 150 planners, painters, tilers and electricians involved in the conversion is already paying off: the number of bookings received for the early season months of April and May is extremely gratifying. The Spa Opening Special launched by the five-star establishment at the beginning of February has already been taken up almost fifty times. At the beginning of May, the second stage of the major redevelopment project will also be completed with the opening of the new Eden Roc Marina annex featuring 16 new, casually elegant rooms and a lifestyle restaurant in 1970’s retro look on the shore of the lake. www.edenroc.ch
DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
Whether amidst the impressive mountain landscape in Arosa or alongside the sparkling lake in Ascona, whether at 1,800 or 200 metres altitude, whether hiking, waterskiing or simply just relaxing – enjoy your springtime break in Ticino, a wellness weekend or even your summer holidays in one of the top-class establishments of the Tschuggen Hotel Group. Spa break in the Hotel Eden Roc Ascona: Three nights’ accommodation including breakfast, dine around and pampering programme in the new Eden Roc Spa with facial, pedicure and massage from CHF 1200 (EUR 774) per person (available from April to mid-June and from the end of September to Christmas). Spa days in the Tschuggen Grand Hotel Arosa: Three nights’ accommodation including breakfast, dine around and pampering programme in the Tschuggen Bergoase with facial, spa massage and sea salt bath from CHF 1105 (EUR 713) per person (available throughout the summer and autumn season). Pampering days for you and your partner in the Sporthotel Valsana Arosa: Two nights’ accommodation including breakfast and fourcourse dîner, one-hour facial, manicure and part-body massage from CHF 995 (EUR 664) per person (available throughout the summer season).
LIFESTYLE PUR
w w w. t s c h u g g e n h o t e l g ro u p. c h
MEMBERS OF TSCHUGGEN HOTEL GROUP
sm innovation
PENDULUM concept The first-ever mechanical movement without hairspring
D
uring its 150 years at the forefront of the Swiss avant-garde, TAG Heuer has written some of the most important chapters in the history of mechanical watchmaking — from the oscillating pinion patented in 1887 to the groundbreaking 1/100th-of-a-second precision of the Calibre 360 chronograph in 2005. Technological advancements like this point to one underlying truth: TAG Heuer does not innovate for innovation’s sake. The brand’s passion for the avantgarde is an essential element of its DNA and history, and the driving force of its R&D strategy. Like most machines, a mechanical watch movement involves four basic operations: energy is generated, stored, transmitted and regulated. For centuries, these constants of mechanical watchmaking have been performed by three complementary blocks: a power storage system with cylindrical barrel, a transmission system with pinions and gears, and a regulation system with balance wheel, spiral hairspring and escapement. With the TAG Heuer Monaco V4 Concept Watch, TAG Heuer substituted the traditional pinion and gear transmission with a belt-driven mechanical transmission. An award-winning BaselWorld concept watch in 2004, the Monaco V4 became a commercial reality at the end of 2009, when it was successfully launched in limited edition of 150 “Haute Horlogerie” pieces. Now, to mark its 150th anniversary, TAG Heuer proudly introduces the TAG Heuer Pendulum Concept, the first-ever mechanical movement without hairspring.
DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
A RADICAL “OUT OF THE BOX” RETHINK OF MECHANICAL TIME REGULATION Since the creation of the Galileo-inspired hairspring by Christiaan Huygens in 1675, the regulating organ of all mechanical watches has been based on a balance wheel and spiral-shaped torsion hairspring system. A coiled strip of fine metal alloy, the hairspring provides the torque necessary for the balance wheel to oscillate and regulate its frequency. Over the centuries, it has been significantly modified and improved. Charles-Edouard Guillaume (1861-1938), the son of a Swiss watchmaker, discovered new alloys (Invar and Elinvar) that significantly reduced the metal spring’s thermal sensitivity. Guillaume won the Nobel Prize for Physics for this invention in 1920. With the challenge of temperature diminished by Guillaume’s alloys, the spiral hairspring regulation system came to dominate mechanical movement design. However, the mechanical hairspring has three serious design limitations: a mass that makes it sensitive to gravity and deforms its geometry; a material that makes it sensitive to thermal expansion; and a divergence between its geometric centre and its centre of mass. These may cause isochronal issues that can be technically and physically improved but never completely eliminated.
Overcoming the design limitations inherent in the traditional regulation system by eliminating the need for a spiral hairspring was the first challenge TAG Heuer set for itself. The second was keeping the movement 100% mechanical: conventional watchmaking wisdom has always held that a mechanical watch without spiral hairspring would necessarily require another energy source for its regulation. In the TAG Heuer Pendulum Concept, the traditional hairspring is replaced by an “invisible” or virtual spring derived from magnets. The complete device forms a harmonic oscillator. The magnetic field, generated by means of 4 highperformance magnets and controlled in 3D through complex geometric calculations, provides the linear restoring torque necessary for the alternative oscillations of the balance wheel. The oscillating period of the TAG Heuer Pendulum Concept is resistant to changes from perturbing forces, which is what makes it an exceptionally good timekeeping device. The movement built with this revolutionary oscillator is fully mechanical and does not contain any electronics or driven actuators. The magnets generate a constant field over decades. TAG Heuer Pendulum Concept, the world’s first oscillator in a mechanical movement without hairspring, beats at 43,200/hour (6 Hertz) — making it a superlative representative of TAG Heuer’s unique mastery of high frequencies and ultimate precision. It requires no additional components and is based on physical magnetic properties. It gets its name from an earlier Huygens creation — the pendulum clock of 1657.
A NEW TECHNICAL MILESTONE IN MECHANICAL MOVEMENTS The TAG Heuer Pendulum Concept not only overturns 3 centuries of conventional watchmaking tradition, it also represents in and of itself an enormous technological leap forward. In a classical spiral hairspring system, the effect of gravity due to mass is a dominant issue. With the TAG Heuer Pendulum Concept, the problem no longer even exists. There is no loss of amplitude and the movement’s frequency can be modulated on a very large spectrum of frequency without overburdening the power supply. The result is a significant increase in precision (division of time) and performance (frequency accuracy and stability). The TAG Heuer Pendulum Concept is the first-ever magnetic oscillator without hairspring capable of providing a restoring torque comparable to that of a hairspring: the basic principle of the Swiss anchor escapement is therefore unchanged, but the absence of mass and therefore inertia allows for much larger frequencies. Theoretical precision is significantly higher as it is possible to oscillate at small angles (the elementary principle of oscillator accuracy) without altering the return torque and, especially important, without causing geometric deformations. A BREAKTHROUGH MOVEMENT HOUSED INSIDE A MOTOR SPORTS-INSPIRED ICON The design of the TAG Heuer Grand Carrera Pendulum Concept is faithful to the exclusive luxury codes of the GRAND CARRERA: polished and angled edges, curved and faceted horns on both sides of black titanium covered steel case. The special dial aperture at 9 o’clock allows to admire the beating heart of TAG Heuer Pendulum Concept’s avant-garde movement. Inside and out, this is a superlative timepiece, a noble extension of the GRAND CARRERA collection and a worthy showcase of a breakthrough advancement in watchmaking technology. The TAG Heuer Grand Carrera Pendulum Concept opens a promising new era in watchmaking, even though it will take years before it will become a commercial realty. Patents have been filed and are pending.
INNOVATIONS - TAG Heuer 85
sm luxury
Shoring Up the Banks of Lake Zurich
by Noah Joseph
Over the past three years of publication, we’ve brought you jewels, pens, phones, knives, spirits, spas and countless watches – all made in Switzerland – here in the pages of Swiss Made DELUXE. Now we invite you to climb on board for something entirely different. Craftsmanship knows no boundaries. It takes form, of course, in the objects of its manifestation. But though conventions and preconceptions abound, ultimately no one can contain the boundlessness of artistry. So while some may scratch their heads in bewilderment at the notion of building boats in a landlocked country, for the craftsmen at Pedrazzini, plying their craft in Switzerland comes as naturally as it does to the watchmaker or chocolatier. Unique though Pedrazzini may be in the field, the company’s presence on the shores of Lake Zurich is hardly a novelty. In fact the company has been in business for over 100 tradition-steeped years since Augusto Pedrazzini moved here across the Alps from Italy’s Lake Como. The company’s namesake and founder started out making relatively modest sailboats and fishing craft for locals from his lakeside yard. But in the generations that have followed, the company evolved into a highly sought-after fabricator and purveyor of some of the most exquisitely crafted mahogany runabouts on the market. A major milestone in the company’s evolution came at the hands of Augusto’s son Ferruccio. Determined to advance the family business to the next level, Ferruccio returned to Italy to study nautical design in Livorno. Upon his return, he took over reins from his father and gave birth to the Capri Super Deluxe, a revolutionary design for its time that still influences contemporary boatbuilding today. Still family owned and operated, these days the company is helmed by Augusto’s grandson Claudio Pedrazzini, who oversees the company that bares his clan’s name and legacy. The firm still operates from the shores of Lake Zurich, but while the world around it has grown into the commercial age where volume production seems the only path to survival in the marketplace, Pedrazzini’s products remain a rarity, prized by their owners and coveted by connoisseurs.
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All told, the company only produces a handful of vessels each year, ensuring their exclusivity and the painstaking attention to detail for which they’ve become known to those in the know. As if to further illustrate the unique character possessed by each boat that leaves the Pedrazzini yard, the construction process for a single vessel can take as much as nine months of arduous and skilled labor before an anticipating customer can take delivery. Aficionados familiar with the classic wooden runabouts once crafted by the likes of Riva (south in Italy) and Chris-Craft (across the ocean in the United States) will immediately recognize the timeless design behind Pedrazzini’s buoyant beauties. But while this style of motorboat was once the norm decades ago, most of these companies that fabricated them in their heyday have long since moved on to more streamlined production methods and more modern, costeffective materials. Only a few rare concerns continue producing these prized vessels, among them Pedrazzini, which still adheres to old-world craftsmanship, hand-crafting each vessel from the highest quality mahogany hardwoods and finished with chromed brass hardware , all hand-made in-house. The result is an enduring, classic style that embraces its own timelessness
and subsequently promises never to fall out of fashion. Along its century of operation, Pedrazzini has crafted everything from canoes and rowing shells to larger motor yachts. But what arguably impresses the most is how, while erstwhile competitors have expanded their offerings to include larger yachts, Pedrazzini chose to return to a limited line of smaller craft, ideally suited towards the task of ferrying its occupants around lakes and down seaside coastlines in unparalleled elegance, unencumbered by the extraneous. Pedrazzini’s model line today consists of three offerings, each with its own unique specifications catered to different buyers’ needs. Anchoring, so to speak, the bottom end of the line is the Capri, a 7.45-meter (25-foot) runabout with the most maneuverable dimensions in the range. With twin front seats, a rear banquet and spacious sun deck, the Capri offers Pedrazzini’s timeless style in a convenient package, perfect for entertaining close friends on afternoon excursions around the lake. Available 320-horsepower, 6.2-liter MerCruiser V8 or 260hp Yanmar turbo-diesel propulsion HAUTE HORLOGERIE 87
proves capable of propelling the stable V-hull to 39 or 35 knots, respectively, while a long list of standard and optional equipment provide owners and guests with the style and convenience to enjoy their time on the water. Stepping up from the 25-foot Capri is the sportiest model in the Pedrazzini line, the 29foot (8.87-meter) Vivale. A choice of three twin-engine configurations can propel the stylish speed boat up to 43 knots, while encompassing a quaint double birth below decks for added convenience and shelter. Finally Pedrazzini’s flagship Special crowns the range with a 10.3-meter (34-foot) overall length. Like its smaller sister-craft, the Special includes such choice features as VDO instrumentation, on-board refrigerator, swim ladder, ski tow and cabriolet hood for protection from the elements. The Special’s increased size and equipment levels – including a larger cabin than the Vivale’s with skylight hatch – ensure the height of comfort and convenience for owner and guests alike, while offering the utmost level of elegance in the Pedrazzini fleet. The commonality which binds all of Pedrazzini’s offerings is the same that binds its creators to the crafters of the decidedly smaller items we typically bring you in these pages: An enduring commitment and dedication to the kind of old-world craftsmanship long since abandoned by rivals from most other countries. These values have served Pedrazzini as they have their fellow Swiss masters of excellence for generations before, and – like the timelessness of these classic runabouts – will undoubtedly continue to serve them for generations to come.
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sm beauty
LA PRAiRIE with age comes beauty’s secret wisdom by Claudia Laffranchi
E
verybody knows that Clinique La Prairie is one of the world’s most prestigious private clinics, and that its exclusive revitalization cellular treatment has been sought after by popes, presidents, royals, rockers and movie stars who put the Montreux establishment at the center of the international health and wellness map. And with a price tag starting at 19’000 Swiss francs for a week-long revitalization program, Clinique La Prairie has earned a reputation for exclusivity. But very few people know that its spa and fitness club are open to the general public, with prices similar, or even lower, to those of five stars hotels and beauty centers that might have less qualified staff, since at CLP every masseuse, esthetician, physical therapist and fitness trainer carries a federally recognized diploma. Or that Swiss citizens can make an appointment to see a doctor even without staying at the clinic, and have the costs covered by their health insurance, although private health coverage is needed to have an operation there. And finally, that Clinique La Prairie is elegant, state of the art, but never ostentatious. Its atmosphere is professional and at the same time warm and friendly. There is no snobbery if you are not a millionaire, no sycophancy if you are one. It all started in the 1920s when Dr. Paul Niehans, a physician working at La Prairie in Montreux and other regional hospitals, was studying the ability of cells to adapt, as happens in blood transfusions, and was convinced of the beneficial effects of using fresh cells from a young and healthy animal organ to heal diseased organs in human beings. In 1931 Dr. Niehans was called to Lausanne by a colleague operating on a woman left comatose after the accidental removal of her thyroid. Dr. Niehans rushed to the hospital with a thyroid freshly removed from a young calf, but, realizing that a transplant was impossible, he reduced the calf’s thyroid to a pulp, filled a syringe with it, and injected the dying woman intra-muscularly. A few hours later the patient, then 51, regained
DELUXE Swiss Made magazine
consciousness and went on to live to the age of 89. Encouraged by this result, Dr. Niehans started injecting his patients and himself with cells taken from young animals, and later, from the liver of sheep fetuses (the liver, the only organ active during fetal life, is like a biological factory which creates new cells and is full of proteins). The main effects of these cellular injections were a surge in energy and well-being, and a stronger immune system. In 1953 Dr. Niehans was summoned to the bedside of Pope Pius XII to administer him cellular therapy. The Pope, who was ready to resign, recuperated, and the reputation of Dr. Niehans and his extract spread around the world. Luminaries like Konrad Adenauer, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Marlene Dietrich, Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Romy Schneider and Charlie Chaplin flocked to Montreux for the revolutionary “youth cures” and their regenerative effect on aging human cells. Patients stayed at the then tiny La Prairie or at the palaces of the area, and Dr. Niehans charged them accordingly, while treating the poor for free. Nowadays celebrities still make the pilgrimage to Montreux, but -Swiss discretion oblige- their names are of course top secret.
Dr. Niehans retired in 1966, and a new era started in 1976, when businessman Armin Mattli, the current owner, purchased La Prairie and began an ambitious program of research and development, rightly persuaded that anti-aging treatments would become a growing market. Using the CLP cellular extract, Mr. Mattli launched the revolutionary La Prairie cosmetic line in 1978 and sold it in ‘82 to expand the clinic. After the ban on animal cells use in cosmetics, in 1998 CLP created Swiss Perfection, the new in-house cosmetic line, whose main ingredient is the extract from roots of irises grown at the nearby Chateau de Vullierens. The line is exclusively available at the clinic’s spa, famous for its electrostimulation and oxygen treatments.
In 1991 Mr. Mattli hired as medical director a down-to-earth family doctor from the mountain village of Les Diablerets, Dr. Thierry Waelli, who launched the then new concept of clinic-spa-hotel. Dr. Waelli’s resume symbolizes the holistic and humanistic philosophy of CLP, where medical and surgical treatments are only a part of a comprehensive approach to well-being which includes nutrition, exercise and relaxation. Dr. Waelli, an internist and sports medicine expert, studied at the Zurich Conservatory, played clarinet for the Pepe Lienhard Band, is an avid skier who worked as the Swiss Ski Federation doctor, was a Swiss junior golf champion, and is crazy about classical music. No surprise that when I asked him why CLP never franchised its name and its treatments, he replied: “You can franchise McDonald’s or Coca-Cola, but you cannot franchise the Berlin Philharmonic. It’s a team of highly talented individuals under a conductor who sets the tone for the sound, and that’s what’s happening here”. Dr. Waelli recently retired and the new medical director, Dr. Adrian Heini, a nutritionist from Montreux who had been a consultant to CLP for many years, shares the same philosophy, together with the twenty in-house doctors and fifty consulting medical specialists.
Clinique La Prairie 91
CLP is famous also for saying no to vanity elective surgeries and for avoiding trends and fads of the beauty industry. “We say no more often that yes, when patients come and ask for plastic surgeries that we don’t consider healthy or necessary”, said Dr. Waelli. “We don’t need the money nor the kind of publicity deriving from plastic surgery addicts. And we are also known to treat everybody the same: I was told by presidents and royals that I was the first doctor to tell them what to do, because they are always used to hear yes and get things done their way”. La Prairie also recommends its revitalization treatment, which is now administered orally, only to people who are forty and older, or to professional athletes who need a fast recovery. Common sense and a holistic approach are applied to everything from medical matters to fitness, thalassotheraphy, aesthetic treatments and nutrition, which is one of the tenets of CLP philosophy. Every guest meets with a nutritionist, and chef Jean-Bernard Muraro and his international staff offer gourmet cuisine which combines calorie control and the medical concerns of every patient. But don’t think hospital food or diet: Mr. Muraro’s dishes remain those of a Gault Millau anointed chef. A typical menu might include pumpkin soup with saffron and trumpet mushrooms; lobster fricassee with light wine sauce, turkey bits and mushrooms, and a side of Savoy pasta with blueberry juice; and for dessert a Litchi crème brûlée. The good news? The restaurant is also open to the public.
www.laprairie.ch
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Hotel Splendide Royal Lugano - Riva A. Caccia 7 - 6900 Lugano - Switzerland - tel. +41 91 985 77 11 - fax +41 91 985 77 22 - e-mail: welcome@splendide.ch - www.splendide.ch Swiss Deluxe Hotels
sm top events Since it began in 1967 when it was a three-day event, the Montreux Jazz Festival has become a stupendous 16-day affair, headlined by jazz, blues, rock, world-music, rap, electro, pop and soul luminaries: Miles Davis, Maria Bethânia, Ella Fitzgerald, Eric Clapton, Sting, B.B . King, Ray Charles, Phil Collins, Alicia Keys, Santana, Black Eyed Peas, Muse, Joss Stone, among others. Festival founder Claude Nobs created an event, which was to become one of the most important festivals of all, with a unique and eclectic musical reputation. Every year, up to 220`000 visitors come to Montreux in order to attend the Festival concerts split in to three concerts halls. Some musical cruises and trains are also part of the program. The visitors can enjoy the numerous free performances as well: acoustic concerts, the Voice, The Guitar and the Piano Solo Competitions, the Workshops, etc. Not to be forgotten is the Montreux Jazz Under The Sky which spreads all over the town of Montreux.
July 2 - 17, 2010
For the night-birds, they can choose between acoustic concerts and unexpected jam sessions at the Montreux Jazz Club or an original club called the Montreux Jazz Café where international DJ’s enlighten the place until dawn. The international media covering the event allow the Montreux Jazz Festival to be present in every country on the planet. But, of course, nothing beats over being part of the unique atmosphere. Furthermore, Montreux offers enchanting scenery, which cannot be described in mere words .
Omega European Masters September 2 - 5, 2010 For several years now, the European Masters have occupied a choice position in the calendar of the European Circuit. Being a tournament with impressive sporting characteristics, it also plays the conviviality card, thanks to the incomparable ambiance at Crans-Montana. Just as much as the spectators, the players appreciate the September rendez-vous; for them, going to the Valais means something authentic, alpine, almost bucolic, something quite different from other destinations. Although fully concentrating on their game, the professionals none the less display a certain relaxed style which cannot be discerned in them during the rest of the season. Golf at an altitude of 1’500 metres is a whiff of air, both literally and figuratively! Certainly one of the most beautiful places in the world!
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‘Live at Sunset’ music festival, Zürich July 14 - 25, 2010
Montebello Festival, Bellinzona Jul 2, 2010 - Jul 10, 2010
JazzAscona, Jazz festival, Ascona Jun 24 - Jul 4, 2010
The most important European Jazz Festival dedicated to Hot Jazz. Ten days of great music with the best artists of the international scene. Over 200 musicians, more than 400 hours concerts. A varied programme of Swing, Blues, Gospel and Mainstream. Music from noon until late at night. Public hall and open-air concerts. Fantastic jam sessions that will not end before dawn. A “must” for musicians and jazz music lovers from all over Europe.
OperaOpenair in St. Gallen «St. Gallen Festspiele» Jun 25 - Jul 9, 2010 Experience Gaetano Donizettis opera “Il diluvio universale” (The Great Flood) in the breathtakingly beautiful surroundings of the St. Gallen Cathedral.
St. Moritz Opera - Le nozze di Figaro Jun 26 - Jul 10, 2010
Witness memorable moments filled with passion and the pleasure of performing: Opera St. Moritz offers the opportunity to experience the world of opera literally at your fingertips. In close contact with the audience, international ensembles present a selection of rarely performed works by great masters. Discover exceptional voices en route to international careers and look forward to memorable moments in the enchanting mountain world of the Upper Engadin. The opera “The marriage of Figaro” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart promises to be an unforgettable experience for all music lovers.
An international chamber music festival within the medieval walls of Castello Montebello in Bellinzona (listed since 2000 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site), a musical event to be enjoyed in an exceptionally charming atmosphere, offering the public an excellent opportunity to mingle with the artists themselves. These are the unique features of the Montebellofestival which is set to once again enrich Bellinzona’s Summer nights with a cultural project which offers lots of support for talented young musicians to perform alongside internationally-renowned established artists. The programme features six nights of concerts, with standing dinners: exclusive opportunities to combine both music and the tastes of fine food in some remarkable scenery. Along with the concerts, the Montebellofestival also includes a specialist course aimed at young musicians: “Montebellomasterclass”.
The “Live at Sunset” summer festival in Zurich thrills audiences with its high-caliber concerts and unique atmosphere.When you are urgently on the lookout for the ultimate festival to go to, then you should definitely visit Live at Sunset Festival. The most fantastic music bands and artists are all centered at one terrain. Among the 2010 program highlights: Tori Amos, a-ha, Reamonn as well as Lucio Dalla & Francesco De Gregori. International and national music stars alike will guarantee unforgettable summer evenings.
54th Menuhin Festival Gstaad Jul 16 - Sep 5, 2010
Basel Tattoo July 17-24, 2010 Unique in Switzerland and the second largest open air tattoos in the world. The success of Basel Tattoo is unbroken and has brought enjoyment to over 260,000 attendees since its Swiss premiere in 2006. Around 1,000 top musicians from around the globe show their musical talent in a spectacular show. The historic barracks in the heart of the city provide a home for Basel Tattoo.
A classical music festival with world famous artists. It was his love of the Swiss mountains which induced the violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin to establish a music festival in Gstaad 52 years ago. Ever since, the big names of the classical music scene have had the honour of enchanting the audience every single year. With some 50 concerts in seven weeks the festival attracts thousands of music lovers to the heart of the magnificent region of Saanenland.
Im Fluss - riverside sounds, Basel Jul 27 - Aug 14, 2010
During the summer weeks, the cultural buoy IM FLUSS lies firmly anchored on the shores of the Rhine. However, it nevertheless stirs emotions and regularly transforms the Rhine promenade into a colourful open-air dance stage. Each evening, bands play a number of different sounds. And when the sun slowly sinks below the skyline, there is no doubt in the minds of all that life is here to enjoy!
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sm events
LOCARNO Film Festival
By Claudia Laffranchi
F
ilm lovers from all over the world say that watching a movie on the fabled Piazza Grande during the annual Locarno Film Festival is like listening to opera at the Arena di Verona, watching soccer at the Maracanà stadium in Brazil, attending a mass on St. Peter’s Square in Rome: one of the most intense and rewarding open-air activities an aficionado, a fan, or a faithful can imagine. And this summer, from August 4th to the 14th, thousands of cinephiles will flock to the city on the shores of Lake Maggiore, in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, for such a celebration during the 63rd Locarno Film Festival. Every night, up to 8’000 spectators will sit in the city’s magnificent Renaissance square, surrounded by arcades, multicolored palazzi and an ancient clock tower, to watch movies projected on Europe’s biggest outdoor screen, from Hollywood blockbusters to international independent gems. Outdoor screenings have always been a Locarno trademark, starting with the ‘40s projections in the Grand Hotel gardens. But the Piazza Grande is just one face of the Locarno Film Festival, which can defined by two elements: the discovery of young new talDELUXE Swiss Made magazine
ent, and the embrace by the general public. Film lovers of every age fill theatres and projection halls to follow the feature and short film competitions, the Swiss sidebar, and the annual retrospectives. The Locarno competition, which has always been open to new talent, emerging countries and independent cinema, even before such a definition became trendy, was the first to recognize internationally directors like Milos Forman, Jim Jarmush, Chen Kaige, Hou Hsiao-Hsian, Abbas Kiarostami, Gregg Araki, and Atom Egoyan. Contrary to other festivals which are geared only to the press and industry professionals, Locarno is open to the general public, and the entire city, decorated in the trademark yellow and black leopard spots (the Pardo is the official Locarno award) is transformed by the event. Between screenings people meet to discuss movies in restaurants and bars lining the Piazza Grande, scattered in the atmospheric Città Vecchia (Old Town) and along the almost Mediterranean lake shore, on the beautiful Martini Lounge in the gardens next to the Visconti Castle, or on the Rotonda del Festival, with its exotic food stands and bazaar-like atmosphere.
Besides discovering new talents, the Locarno Film Festival - with Cannes the second-oldest in Europe, after Venice - invites acclaimed international filmmakers to receive honorary awards and interact with the audience in stimulating masterclasses open to the public every year. In
recent years Locarno has welcomed Susan Sarandon, John Malkovich, Willem Dafoe, Michel Piccoli, Carmen Maura, Bernardo Bertolucci, Sydney Pollack, Ken Loach, Wim Wenders, Terry Gilliam and William Friedkin, just to name a few. Celebrities come for the festival and fall in love with the relaxed atmosphere and the absence of paparazzi, which allows them to explore undisturbed Lake Maggiore and its shores; discover the surrounding valleys with their stone houses, fiery river canyons and sandy beaches; hike in the mountains, visit the nearby towns with their architectural marvels and open-air markets, and enjoy the local gastronomy and wines. Past luminaries who attended the Locarno Film Festival include Vittorio de Sica, Gina Lollobrigida, Marlene Dietrich, Douglas Sirk, François Truffaut, King Vidor, Samuel Fuller, and many others. This August the Festival will dedicate a retrospective to the master of sophisticated comedy Ernst Lubitsch; spotlight films from Central Asia, the region selected by the Open Doors section, which brings professionals from the area together with potential international partners; and award a Leopard of Honour to Swiss director Alain Tanner. The rest of the 2010 program is not public yet, but one can be sure that new artistic director Olivier Père, formerly head of the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, will propose his own version of the Locarno mix of intellectual discoveries and popular crowd pleasers.
www.locarno.ch www.pardo.ch Locarno Film Festival 97
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Welcome to the Grand Hotel Les Trois Rois. We offer you a full palette of time-honoured luxuries and contemporary comforts. One of Europe’s oldest grand hotels, with beginnings that date to 1681, it remains loyal to its traditions while fully embracing the modern: you’ll find all the sophisticated amenities today’s discerning traveller expects. From its privileged position overlooking the Rhine in the heart of Basel, the hotel affords art lovers easy access to more than 30 museums, from the classic Kunstmuseum Basel and the world-renown Fondation Beyeler to the quirky Tinguely Museum. Refined comforts and personalized service create a masterpiece of the hotelier’s art for you. At Basel’s only grand hotel: Les Trois Rois.
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