Author: Stacy Perman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439190100
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 527
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Book Description
Two wealthy and powerful men engage in a decades-long contest to create and possess the most remarkable watch in history. James Ward Packard of Warren, Ohio, was an entrepreneur and a talented engineer of infinite curiosity, a self-made man who earned millions from his inventions, including the design and manufacture of America’s first luxury car—the elegant and storied Packard. Henry Graves, Jr., was the very essence of blue-blooded refinement in the early 1900s: son of a Wall Street financier, a central figure in New York high society, and a connoisseur of beautiful things—especially fine watches. Then, as now, expensive watches were the ultimate sign of luxury and wealth, but in the early twentieth century the limitless ambition, wealth, and creativity of these two men pushed the boundaries of mathematics, astronomy, craftsmanship, technology, and physics to create ever more ingenious timepieces. In any watch, features beyond the display of hours, minutes, and seconds are known as “complications.” Packard and Graves spurred acclaimed Swiss watchmaker Patek Philippe to create the Mona Lisa of timepieces—a fabled watch that incorporated twenty-four complications and took nearly eight years to design and build. For the period, it was the most complicated watch ever created. For years it disappeared, but then it surfaced at a Sotheby’s auction in 1999, touching off a heated bidding war, shattering all known records when it fetched $11 million from an anonymous bidder. New York Times bestselling author Stacy Perman takes us from the clubby world of New York high society into the ateliers of the greatest Swiss watchmakers, and into the high-octane, often secretive subculture of modern-day watch collecting. With meticulous research, vivid historical details, and a wealth of dynamic personalities, A Grand Complication is the fascinating story of the thrilling duel between two of the most intriguing men of the early twentieth century. Above all, it is a sweeping chronicle of innovation, the desire for beauty, and the lengths people will go to possess it.
Author: Allen Kurzweil
Publisher: Hyperion
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 372
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Book Description
Critically acclaimed for his international bestseller, "A Case of Curiosities," Kurzweil presents "The Grand Complication"--a modern-day tale of literary intrigue, deviant passions, and delicious secrets.
Author: Grit Laskin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781927958841
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
"Grand Complications is the story behind the story of fifty of these original designs from 2003 to the present. It is a look inside guitarmaker William "Grit" Laskin's creative process: how he teases out a client's interests and intentions, how he develops and refines his ideas, and how he brings them to life in his mind and on paper. From "Short Stories" that fill only the headstock of a guitar to full narratives that run the length of the neck, each inspired design is the product of research, deep thinking, and a little alchemy. Featured here are projects ranging from an homage to John Lennon to a paean to humpback whales to a tribute to the fall of the Berlin Wall."--
Author: Stacy Perman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439190089
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 342
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Book Description
"The race between two ambitious, complicated men in the early 1900s to create the most extravagant, complicated timepiece ever"--
Author: Peter Roessingh
Publisher: Distanz
ISBN: 9783954763290
Category : Ecology
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Collaborative Plants and Other Complications. Andrea Bakketun (b. 1983 in Trondheim, Norway, lives and works in Oslo) and biologist Peter Roessingh invited people from the artist's creative circle for the transdisciplinary project Grand Complications. For one year, the participants transformed the site of an old school building in Rommen, a suburb of Oslo, and the surrounding forest into a research laboratory with the aim of artistically penetrating all facets of the existing ecosystem. The resulting video works, performances, and site-specific installations are part of a canon of artistic research that expands scientific methods with the help of artistic means, recalling Paul Klee's appeal that the goal of art is not to reproduce the visible, rather to make the invisible visible. Understood as a collective whole, Grand Complications observes and translates the activities of all those participating at the Rommen site - from the plant to the artist. The publication documents the one-year work of Andrea Bakketun and her research participants. Accompanying texts, transcriptions, and poems were contributed by Hannah Mjølsnes, Peter Roessingh, Andreas Schlaegel, and Sara Sølberg.
Author: Matt Hranek
Publisher: Artisan
ISBN: 1579658199
Category : Design
Languages : en
Pages : 217
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Book Description
“I’ve paged through stacks of books on the history of watches. . . . But I hadn’t come across a book that actually moved me until I picked up A Man and His Watch. The volume is filled with heartfelt stories.” —T: The New York Times Style Magazine "There are a bunch of beautifully illustrated watch books out there, but A Man & His Watch by Matt Hranek is more than that. It speaks to the nature of watches as deeply personal items." —Gear Patrol, Coffee Table Books Our Staff Can’t Live Without Paul Newman wore his Rolex Daytona every single day for 35 years until his death in 2008. The iconic timepiece, probably the single most sought-after watch in the world, is now in the possession of his daughter Clea, who wears it every day in his memory. Franklin Roosevelt wore an elegant gold Tiffany watch, gifted to him by a friend on his birthday, to the famous Yalta Conference where he shook the hands of Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill. JFK’s Omega worn to his presidential inauguration, Ralph Lauren’s watch purchased from Andy Warhol’s personal collection, Sir Edmund Hillary’s Rolex worn during the first-ever summit of Mt. Everest . . . these and many more compose the stories of the world’s most coveted watches captured in A Man and His Watch. Matthew Hranek, a watch collector and NYC men’s style fixture, has traveled the world conducting firsthand interviews and diving into exclusive collections to gather the never-before-told stories of 76 watches, completed with stunning original photography of every single piece. Through these intimate accounts and Hranek’s storytelling, the watches become more than just timepieces and status symbols; they represent historical moments, pioneering achievements, heirlooms, family mementos, gifts of affection, and lifelong friendships.
Author: Nicholas Foulkes
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781848094451
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
Author: Suzanne Young
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1665941898
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 464
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Book Description
The sixth novel in Young's "New York Times"-bestselling Program series. Every cure has a cost. Tatum Masterson learned this after years of being monitored by The Program. But when a procedure went wrong, a revelation shattered everything Tatum thought she knew. Now, with no one left to trust, Tatum must find out what really happened last summer.
Author: John Golberger
Publisher: Damiani Limited
ISBN: 9788862083041
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
With this magnificent volume, watch expert and authority John Goldberger, author of 100 Superlative Rolex Watches, presents the most beautiful and remarkable watches ever fitted with steel cases by the Geneva-based watch company Patek Philippe. With the collaboration of the world's leading collectors and connoisseurs, the collection presented in this exclusive publication is the result of painstaking research, supplemented by professional photographs that show the most minute details and characteristics of the movement, case and dial of each timekeeper. With 187 superb examples, as well as over 900 color illustrations and 800 descriptive texts, this volume offers the watch collector and enthusiast invaluable information about the finest rare masterpieces of Patek Philippe's production, including recent research on referencenumbers, dials, movements, related calibers and each watch's year of production. Organized in 12 chapters, this tome covers a century of the company's quintessential spirit and style.
Author: Emmanuel Breguet
Publisher: Alain de Gourcuff
ISBN:
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 396
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Book Description
Founded in 1775 by Abraham-Louis Breguet, the firm of Breguet has occupied a unique position in the field of prestige watchmaking. Considered the greatest watchmaker of all time, Abraham-Louis Breguet was the father of modern watchmaking, an innovator in both the technical and aesthetic fields. A work of reference containing a wealth of previously unpublished information, this is also a sumptuous art book, distinguished by the elegance of its design and the excellence of its illustrations. In addition, the author skillfully combines the histories of art, technical developments, politics and economics to create an appealing and accessible narrative. Over 500 illustrations present a visual history of the principal creations produced by the Breguet workshops over the last two hundred and twenty years. Many of the pieces illustrated are held in private collections and are photographed here for the first time.
