Design

The 40mm Historiador Retrograde case is a reproduction of an iconic original Cuervo y Sobrinos model produced during the 1940s and 1950s. The dial offers rich clous de Paris below distinctive blued hands. At 3, 6 9 are retrograde date, power reserve and retrograde day of the week indicators powered by a 42-jewel automatic movement — via WatchTime

Works Partnership Architecture wanted to return to utilitarian simplicity and a model of living large in a smaller home. They had three basic principles in mind with the design of this house. They are: 1. everybody should have a fruit tree – sweet fragrance, an idea of abundance, and a small token of a good life in one package; 2. houses should be about quiet, protected places – places that can be marked by the track of the sun and dimensioned with shadow; and 3. houses need to breathe – in this day and this climate, a house needs to embrace the out and make it part of the in. The courtyard plan they have borrowed is from a history much older and more profound than the faux craftsman details that pass for cultural continuity in these communities. This courtyard will be the voice of the house and the spatial turn of the phrase in this experiment. They are eager to see if this revisited hearth will be embraced by the market’s current set of expectations — via ArchDaily

Taking the existing site conditions into consideration, Craig Steely Architecture chose to avoid disturbing both the stone pathways and root structure of the mature oak trees by using a single footing and tube frame system. The structural system, originally inspired by a chairlift tower, provides the opportunity for the main living area of the house to float out into the existing oak canopy — via ArchDaily

I’ve always liked Ducati’s SportClassic GT 1000. Of all the retro bikes, it has the most contemporary performance—and also a rarity factor. (Unfortunately, it’s going to become even more rare, because the model was discontinued last year.) Okay, the air-cooled 992cc engine is a little old school and there’s a slightly awkward gap between the back wheel and the seat unit, but there are lots of people who love the GT—and ex-rocker Steve Jones is one of them. And despite it being a well-sorted machine straight out of the box, Steve has taken his SportClassic up a notch — via Bike EXIF

The entire time I lived in Seattle, there was something about architecture of the Northwest that defied description but defined much of the amazing work found in the area. This lake house (designed by Tom Kundig but built in Northern Idaho) embodies some of the best aspects of regional Modernism that spreads out from around Puget Sound. Pop the top, and see what surprises burst from the box.

Concrete walls shoot up on three sides, while a giant pivot-opening, garage-style, box-window facade flips open toward the adjacent lake. The top seems to tip up as well, held aloft by a layer of glazing that drops in light along all four sides of the roof — via Dornob

Located nearby Oporto’s seaside area, Living Foz, designed by dEMM Arquitectura, is composed by 40 apartments distributed over 7 floors.

Unleashing 30 percent of the plot area for a collective use garden, a relief to the neighboring construction is obtained.

The balcony angle articulation creates spaces enriched by contrasts of light and shade, exposure and protection, emphasized by the contrast between the white cast-in-place concrete and the dark Glass Reinforced Concrete. The geometric and material principle of the facades continues trough the external areas, creating landscaped spaces for playing, strolling and relaxing — via ArchDaily

An extensive restoration and revitalization project by Erginoglu & Çalislar Architects was undertaken to allow the advertising agency group Medina Turgul DDB to move into a salt repository they had rented. This 170 year old building had formerly been owned by TEKEL (Turkish State Liquor and Tobacco Monopoly) and is located in the run-down, once industrial district of Kas?mpa?a. The restoration challenge was to maximise functionality while retaining the original character of the structure — via ArchDaily

I am beginning to think that architectural offices might work in the same way as fashion houses. In my youth I worked as a designer for a Pierre Cardin licensee and people would ask me why our company showed such ridiculous things in the Paris shows.

Our job at the New York licensee was to take the extreme idea and make it work in reality, yet still connect with the Paris runway show version; a kind of caricature of an overall idea, in a broad sketch, as an extreme example.

Here’s what looks to me like an example of the same kind of procedure by the enormously talented Javier Callejas of Estudio Campo Baeza, from the world of architecture — via Home Design Find

This is the Pontos Chrongraoph Valjoux, and it comes from Maurice Lacroix, a Swiss brand who has made great strides the past few years and is now really cranking out some very nice looking watches. As the name implies, the watch is powered by the well-regarded and very reliable Valjoux 7750 movement, a Swiss luxury watch standard of sorts — via Perpetuelle.com Blog

Situated on the corner of Southeast 28th Avenue & Southeast Pine Street, the tandemDUO project designed by Works Partnership Architecture is two homes located in a established close-in Portland neighborhood. Both homes provide 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, a 2 car garage, as well as both an outdoor dining terrace and rooftop deck. The development of these homes introduces a unique take on the functional split-level house while providing the literal and visual connections desired in the layout of a modern home — via ArchDaily

Guz Architects have sent us the Meera House they have designed in Singapore.

This house is located on a new housing estate on the island of Sentosa adjacent to Singapore. The plots are not large and neighbouring buildings are built close to the sides of each house — via CONTEMPORIST

Fantastic looking Big Bang Black Magic from Hublot! Only 100 will be made. Number 001/100 was auctioned off earlier this week to support the American Foundation for AIDS Research, or amFAR. The winning bidder coughed up a cool $75,000, but the prize package is quite nice: The winner and a guest are invited to travel to Geneva courtesy of Delta Air Lines, with a 3 night stay at the Mandarin Oriental, Geneva, to receive a private tour of the Hublot Factory near Geneva to pick up the timepiece. Mr Biver will also personally bring the winner and his/her guest to his estate for an evening that will include Château d’Yquem wine and Mr. Biver’s own famous Swiss cheese.

Unfortunately the other 99 watches will not come with the fringe benefits, but hey, at least you will have a superb looking timepiece! — via Perpetuelle.com Blog

This house located in Glen Echo, Maryland is sited on a heavily wooded lot overlooking the Potomac River. Glen Echo stands as a rare enclave of modern houses in suburban Washington, DC. The new house, designed by Robert Gurney Architect, occupies the footprint of a pre-existing house in an effort to minimally disturb the site, removing no mature hardwoods in the process. A new swimming pool is suspended twenty feet above grade to further reduce the impact to the steeply sloping site — via ArchDaily

Respecting the quality of the original design of the building, as well as concerns from the community, the structure has remained relatively untouched. The generating idea or theme by Marlon Blackwell Architect for the design of the renovation and additions to the Fulbright Building Fayetteville Arkansas is a ship in a bottle, defining the juxtaposition and materiality of the new interior spaces in relation to the existing steel structural grid and a new custom glass infill storefront system that wraps the upper floor of the building — via ArchDaily

The new Hublot Classic Fusion Opaline Dial automatic watch is powered by one of their first in-house movements from the Unico project. Now, that is what I call a real Swiss watch.

Although there was a lot of criticism when ETA declared the intention to stop selling its blank movements to third-party clients, the move was actually good for the industry — via World Watch Review

House PS, designed by TheHeder Partnership, is the result of an ongoing investigation of the courtyard house typology with all its Mediterranean connotations of climate, shade and intimacy. In this house, the courtyard is designed in section rather than in plan. Placed above the lower ground floor and below the bedrooms of the upper floor, the courtyard is shaded from the hot summer sun. This central, shaded exterior room is a natural extension of the interior spaces of the house — via ArchDaily

Back at Baselworld 2010 I stopped by the Romain Jerome booth to see what was cooking. Turns out it was moon dust. As an extension of the Moon Dust DNA collection of watches, Romain Jerome showed-off the Moon Invader. On the back of the watch is a metal plate meant to look like the moon that in it actually has dust from the moon baked into it — via A Blog to Read

Charcoal House, situated in Pape and Danforth neighborhood in Toronto, Ontario, is deceivingly presenting a raucous box. The randomly patterned square windows on its façade and the hidden entrance door at the corner of the building are elements that not only make it difficult to associate the building with a single family house, but they also trick the eye to an extend where the scale of the house is distorted and one might not be able to guess the number of floors inside. Although the monolithic façade, the black brick cladding, states an asperous architecture, the airy spaces within the black box reveals the true identity of its functional spaces. The house as the architect, Reza Aliabadi, describes, resembles a coconut which is dark and hard on the outside, white and delicious on the inside — via ArchDaily

Unveiled in January at SIHH 2011 event, the new Panerai Radiomir Oro Rosa 3 Days 47mm (PAM 379) manual-wind watch is going to be sold as a Special Edition model with only 299 timepieces to reach the lucky few.

Like a great deal of other historic watches revealed this winter by Officine Panerai, the new timekeeper is equipped with a manufacture-made hand-wound movement — via World Watch Review