TIMEWERKE

Left-to-right: Swatch Across the Town / SG50 (SKK1000F), the 37-metre Sentosa Merlion and the Swatch Cherry-Berry / SG50 (GR154N) Special Edition. The two Swatch special editions feature either the red or white colours of Singapore’s national flag and both have a white loop with the SG50 logo commemorating the nation’s 50th anniversary of its independence (1965 to 2015). The two Swatch watches are each priced at SGD69. The Sentosa Merlion, designed by Australian sculptor James Martin, was completed in 1995 and thus celebrates its 20th birthday in 2015. Photo of Sentosa Merlion: © TANG Portfolio. Image of the Sentosa Merlion lighted up with Singapore’s national flag colours and symbols taken on 8 August 2015 at 9pm. Photo of the two Swatch special edition watches: © Swatch

Products that are risk-flagged, in a sense, serve as alerts to indicate some level of risk involved if one were considering dealing with such items.

For us, timepieces that are “wrist-flagged” (pun intended) are watches worthy of mention or perhaps recommendation, or even both, for noteworthy reasons.

The Swatch Cherry-Berry / SG50 (GR154N) Special Edition in red and the Swatch Across the Town / SG50 (SKK1000F) in white deserve mention simply because these are colours of Singapore’s national flag and are commemorative timepieces celebrating the 50th anniversary of Singapore’s independence (1965 to 2015).

The red and white on Singapore’s national flag form two equal horizontal sections.

What is the significance of the red and the white? The red symbolises universal brotherhood and the equality of men while the white represents purity and virtue.

In addition to the red and white, Singapore’s national flag has a moon crescent and five stars forming a circle in white and within the red section.

The crescent moon represents a young nation on the ascendant while the five stars symbolise the country’s ideals of democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality.

The crescent and five stars can actually be seen on the tail of the Merlion statue as shown in the image above thanks to projection mapping, also known as video mapping or spatial augmented reality.

With special software, projection mapping can be achieved and odd-shaped objects can be used as a “screen” for video projection. What is seen in the image above is the Merlion Sentosa.

Located on Sentosa Island, it so happened that this 37-metre tall statue was decorated with the image of Singapore’s national flag symbols and colours on 8 August 2015, the eve of the country’s independence day.

Lasting for a few seconds before the next image mapping projection appears, this is one of the decorations used as part of the spatial augmented reality show that night.

We thought it was apt to use this as our background to highlight the Swatch Cherry-Berry / SG50 (GR154N) and the Swatch Across the Town / SG50 (SKK1000F) special editions.

Apart from the red and white, the two Swatch quartz watches also bear the SG50 logo on the loop for the strap.

With the understanding of the red and white symbolism, perhaps one can better appreciate these two special edition Swatch watches commemorating Singapore’s 50th anniversary of its independence. Each priced at SGD69, we would flag them as low risk items.

Hublot Big Bang Alarm Repeater in 18K King Gold. Introduced in 2015 and housed in a 45mm diameter case, this watch features the alarm function and the display of a second time zone. The steel hammer of the alarm mechanism can be seen together with the gong on the dial side. Limited to 250 pieces for the King Gold ceramic version seen above and 250 pieces for the titanium ceramic version. Photo: © TANG Portfolio. 2015 BaselWorld. Photo taken with a Leica D-Lux 5

At first glance, one may mistake Hublot’s Big Bang Alarm repeater as a chronograph watch because of the two pushers and the two sub-dials.

This isn’t a chronograph watch but the brand’s new Alarm Repeater launched at the 2015 annual BaselWorld watch fair. This watch is not to be mistaken for the traditional minute repeater which chimes the time on demand.

Why is it called the “Alarm Repeater”? This, as the brand points out, is because “the alarm clock is a complication which belongs to the chiming clock category”.

While this alarm repeater function does not chime on demand (upon manual activation) of the current time, it instead chimes the programmed alarm time.

This programmed alarm time is set via the crown and it is indicated by the counter located between the four and five o’clock positions. This 24-hour counter has the hour and minute hand for easier reference of the set alarm time.

What’s more, the chiming mechanism uses the hammer that strikes the gong to sound the alarm. However, in this case, it is a repetitive alarm sound and not the actual time as provided in a minute repeater.

Hublot’s Alarm Repeater features the second time zone display as well. The time of the hour is displayed on the 24-hour counter located at 11 o’clock and this is normally set to home time (the time zone where one originated from).

Local time is shown on the larger off-centred dial and this is the time zone where one is currently at.

Another related article on alarm watches from timewerke.com that may be of interest:
Cyrus Klepcys Réveil: An Alarming Case

THE ART OF TIME

Swatch SG50 watches: Wrist-flagged

Hublot Big Bang Alarm Repeater: Simple programming