Why did Dubai Watch Week invite a quantum physicist to speak?
Science is very boring. For most people at least, and Michael Biercuk, who works as a quantum physicist, is far from most people. In fact, the phrase “Only boring people get bored” goes a long way to explaining why (if you follow the syllogism) Michael is deeply interested in a highly technical area that causes the eyes of most to glaze over, because he is also deeply interesting. I met with him at Dubai Watch Week, where he was a speaker at the event, and was fortunate enough to sit down with him and find out about his work as Professor of Quantum Physics and Quantum Technology at the University of Sydney, as well as being the CEO and founder of a quantum technology start-up called Q-CTRL. At the university, Michael is responsible for a research team who build quantum computers. “We build this next generation of computational machine that uses the physics we find inside very small things in order to process information in a totally new way,” he said patiently, clearly having explained his job more than once to people who are better with words than numbers. In a similar vein, his company Q-CTRL “specializes in making quantum…
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It’s Black Friday and do we have an offer to dive for. If you’ve ever thought that just maybe the Longines Legend Diver in alluring matt black is a watch for you, then you have a couple of days to move and get a whole swag of cool Time+Tide merchandise with it at no extra cost. From now until midnight AEST Cyber Monday 2nd Dec, we are offering the following: The Longines Legend Diver Black Our super luxe Black Leather 2 Watch Slider Box A Large black Time+Tide t-shirt (printed logo) A Midnight Black NATO strap The price for this Black Friday Black Pack, valued at $4175AUD, is $3550AUD. Buy now in the Time+Tide Shop. About the Longines Legend Diver Black (RRP $3750) We’ve written a lot about this watch since it was released. For obvious reasons. It’s the first line extension of a Longines Heritage model. It’s the most successful Longines Heritage model ever. It’s 42mm, offers 300m of water resistance, PVD case, rock-solid automatic, glassbox sapphire and a sexy dual-crown super compressor style layout. Stealth perfection. About the Black Leather 2 Watch Slider Box (RRP $360) This velvet lined, French calf leather slider box handmade in Tuscany is the…
I recently had the privilege of attending an event with Seiko that focused on their Save the Ocean collection, and the work that can be done with the funds raised. While the event itself was an interesting blend of experience and information, I’ll explain exactly what the Seiko Save the Ocean collection is first. If you’ve ever been in a boutique that carries Seiko, while you were browsing the cabinets packed with their latest releases, you might have noticed a range of dive watches in the Prospex family with gradient blue dials that have an almost metallic quality. If you looked closer again at these blue-to-black fading dials, you would have seen an irregular stripe pattern, which was inspired by the lines that run along the bellies of humpback whales. It is these watches with gradient blue dials that sit within the Seiko Save the Ocean collection, and are made separate from the rest of the Prospex family, as a portion of the sales are donated to ocean conservation efforts around the globe. Aligned with this, Seiko are working with filmmaker Fabien Cousteau as an official Save the Ocean ambassador, who is also none other than the grandson of the…
Editor’s note: A perennially common question in the horological hemisphere is, “What is the next BIG future collectible timepiece?” It’s a pretty loaded question, and usually one answered with, rather obviously, nothing more than conjecture and anecdotal hypothesis. But, if we’re being honest, the best indicator of the “next big thing” is when there is a constant murmur in the wristwatch community about the same watch, a constant simmering of whispers that keeps on throwing up one model. That model is this, the ETA-powered Tudor Black Bay “Smiley”. Whether it’s the simpler ETA 2824-2 movement, the slimmer case, “Rose of the Tudor” motif on the dial, or a combination of all three, there are many, many people saying this is the next watch to go pop. As a brand, Tudor is a lot like Rocky in that Rolex’s little brother is a plucky fighter come good. Unlike Rocky, Tudor’s releases just get better and better with each passing year. Baselworld 2014 saw two big crowd-pleasing releases from Tudor, and a new range that is understated in the extreme, though still enticing. We’ll talk more about the Ranger and the Style later, but for now let’s focus on the undisputed star of the…
Martin Scorsese’s latest crime film, The Irishman, is released on Netflix in Australia on November 27. It is based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses, which chronicles the life of Frank Sheeran, a mafia hitman who claims to have killed Jimmy Hoffa, the former president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union. Playing the title character of Sheeran is Robert De Niro, the Oscar-winning actor best known for starring in Casino, Goodfellas, Heat, The Godfather Part II and Raging Bull. Two other Oscar-winning actors play important characters in the film — Al Pacino portrays Jimmy Hoffa, and Joe Pesci plays Russell Bufalino, the head of the Pennsylvania Mafia. We thought it would be a good time to reflect on some of the interesting watches De Niro has worn on screen. De Niro has a fondness for wearing Rolex watches in movies and has done so on two occasions, in addition to a couple of other interesting pieces ranging from vintage to modern. In the 1978 war drama The Deer Hunter he wore a Rolex Sea-Dweller on an Oyster bracelet. You can see it very clearly near the end of the film, when he tries to persuade his friend to…
