Diamonds
March 2, 2006 Being nominated for an Academy Award is an indication of excellence at the highest level in the profession of filmmaking. Landing a nomination for one of the major awards also brings with it a bag of goodies worth hundreds of thousands of dollars including trips, stays at exclusive hotels and some exclusive jewellery, clothes, and gadgets. For example, each Best Actress nominee in the upcoming 78th Academy Awards will be treated to the “Ultimate Luxury Suite at The Four Seasons Hotel” which brings with it an array of goodies including a KODAK dual-lens EASYSHARE V570 digital camera. Normally, the V570 runs to US$400 but each of the five nominees (Reese Witherspoon, Felicity Huffman, Keira Knightley, Charlize Theron and Dame Judi Dench) will be getting a camera personalised with their initials in 75 brilliant-cut diamonds raising the cost to around US$20,000. What we'd like to know is why everybody (including the bookies) seems to think that Reese Witherspoon (those are her initials on the camera) is going to win. See the links at the bottom of the article and you'll wonder along with us! Read More
December 21, 2005 The day for lovers, Valentines Day, like so many other aspects of modern life, emanated from the Romans. Every February in ancient Rome, a feast was held to honour the goddess Juno. The names of young women were put into an urn and drawn by lottery to match a single male. The matched couples would be considered partners for the year, and those who wished could enter the draw again the next year for a new partner. The Catholic Church was keen to eradicate these heathen practices so in 496AD, Pope Gelasius declared the day in honour of St. Valentine and promoted it as a day for lovers. St Valentine was a martyr who had been stoned to death for marrying couples in defiance of the insane emperor Claudius II who had outlawed marriage on the basis that the existence of families made soldiers reluctant to go to war. It’s hardly a heart-warming tale, and certainly not one to match the sentiments normally expressed on the day, though when you consider that 60% of marriages end in divorce, we think the original idea might be worth a revisit. In more modern times, several time-honoured practices have evolved, including the sending of love letters on the day and the giving of watches, with the world’s oldest watch manufacturer (BlancPain) commemorating the day each year with a very special limited edition woman’s timepiece. Don’t ask the price though. Read More
July 14, 2005 It must be the right month for outrageous diamond watches. A fortnight ago TAG Heuer trotted out Uma Therman wearing the red satin EU100,000 euro Diamond Fiction watch bracelet dripping with 879 Top Wesselton diamonds and now luxury watchmaker Tiret New York has designed its newest watch with 26.5ct of EXIRE diamonds from Belgian diamond manufacturer Inter Gems-Claes. New to the luxury watch scene, Tiret was launched in 2003 by Damon Dash and Daniel Lazar and has wasted little time in making itself very visible on the wrists of celebrities and sportspeople in the New York scene. Dash, Jay-Z and Biggs Burke formed Roc-A-Fella Records in 1996, and have created a juggernaut in rap music, clothing, liquor, publishing, film, and the hip-hop community in general since then. Thirty-two-year-old Dash is the business brains behind the Roc-A-Fella empire and has the connections and Midas Touch to seemingly make any brand successful right now. He appears to be doing just that with the Tiret name and the completely over-the-top “Second Chance” collection. With five times the carats of TAG Heuer’s Diamond Fiction, we weren’t game to ask the price. Read More
June 27, 2005 TAG Heuer’s latest creation, the Diamond Fiction watch bracelet was recently shown for the first time by the elite brand’s latest Ambassador, Hollywood star Uma Therman. With TAG Heuer’s 2005/2006 Year of Diamonds theme, a stunning ladies watches collection was shown but the Diamond Fiction stole the show. It looks like a bracelet of red satin positively dripping with Top Wesselton diamonds (879 to be exact) but when you press a button on the side, some of the diamonds change colour to red offering the time in a digital display. Only three single and exclusive timepieces will be created at the TAG Heuer workshop at the Chaux-de-Fonds with a value of EU100 000 euro each. Read More
The Tulip E-Go Diamond notebook is inlaid with solid palladium white gold plates in which thousands (80 carats) of top-quality, brilliant cut diamonds have been pave set with surgical precision. The magnificent end result also incorporates a unique square cut ruby set in both Tulip logos and costs 283,000 Euros (US$355,000). Without the bling, the E-Go (short for easy going) computer is even more innovative, using overmolding to enable fabrics, leather, wood, and metals to be incorporated into interchangeable, lifestyle-oriented covers that enable the laptop “look” to be changed on a daily basis as a fashion accessory. The original idea arose to develop a product from the perspective of a woman that at first glance looks more like a fashion accessory than a notebook. The resulting product is an elegant handbag with numerous novel features. The enclosures have been designed and developed for six fabric and leather laptop versions, a foretaste of what will become available in October 2005. In addition to changeable/personalized covers, the product is also expected to feature complementary accessories such as design bags and mice. Read More
