Industry News – First-Half 2018 Results of LVMH Watches and Jewelry Division On The Rise
Today, just after the closing of the Paris Stock Exchange, luxury powerhouse LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) announced its First-Half 2018 results. After showing strong results at the end of the year 2017, the group continues its progression, both in terms of sales and profitability. As for the Watches and Jewelry Division, the brands under portfolio follow the same trend, with a strong growth again for sales and profits.
This month was an interesting one, and, as you’ll see, jam-packed with one particular brand. I’ll put this Heuer-overload down to the fact I spent quite a bit of time with local car enthusiasts, who have a lot of time for the brand — especially their chronographs. Let’s kick things off. Local gent Charith recently picked up this Big Pilot, as a memento to mark winning a local boxing match, which he unfortunately lost. Charith has had his eye on the Big Pilot, having always loved the reference, and the stars aligned — letting him make this purchase. The Big Pilot, at 46mm, has quite the presence, and it’s not common to spot this brown dial limited edition on the streets. Later in the month, I made my way out to Elwood one crisp winter morning, for a Porsche event. As I was waiting for a coffee, young collector and fan of T+T, Brandon, revealed a pretty cool piece. He was wearing his 18th birthday present — a vintage Heuer ‘Viceroy’ Autavia. These old ‘Viceroys’ were a promotional watch, launched between Heuer and American cigarette company Viceroy, and were a special version of the Autavia — redeemable for $88 and the end flap from the…
Editor’s note: To misquote the late US founding father Mr Benjamin Franklin, there are only three absolute certainties in life: death, taxes, and the incredibly high quality-to-value ratio of the Seiko Prospex collection. Had Seiko been around during his time I’m sure my version of his famous words wouldn’t be too far off the mark. But I digress. This year at Baselworld the Japanese brand expanded the ever-popular Prospex range, calling on one of their most important historical designs and revamping it for the modern wrist. It’s safe to say that I may fear death and the tax office, but I’ll always have a soft spot for Seiko. Seiko have again released a duo of modern re-interpretations of one of their OG dive watches – the Seiko 6159. Sitting alongside the modern re-creation – the newly released SLA025, which was also just revealed here at Baselworld 2018 – the pair echo the original design of Seiko’s first hi-beat diver but wrap it up in a slightly more contemporary package. Vital statistics Available in two variants, the cases are thinner and hark back to the design of the original, except now they have a screw-in case-back and measure 44mm across and 13.1mm thick. They’re…
