News from the watch world
News from the watch world
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TAG HEUER COMMEMORATES ONGOING ALLIANCE WITH ASTON MARTIN RED BULL RACING TEAM
Working side by side since 2016, TAG Heuer and Aston Martin Red Bull Racing share a passion for action and a fearless ambition to outpace all challenges. For the second time now, the avant-garde Swiss luxury watchmaker has unveiled a special edition timepiece that commemorates its partnership with the four-time consecutive F1 drivers’ and constructors’ champion.
Conceived in close collaboration with the F1 team, the 43mm special edition chronograph captures the excitement and adrenaline of the sport in a sleek, new design inspired by the latest Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Formula 1 car that was presented earlier this year in Barcelona, Spain. The blue of the car is found on the dial and aluminium fixed bezel. The chronograph seconds hand is coated in eye-catching Red Bull yellow and touches of Red Bull red are prominently placed on the tachymeter scale. An azurage pattern on the chronograph counters and a date window at 4 o’clock enhance the daring and sporty aesthetic of this model.
Made for life in the fast lane, the quartz-powered chronograph is presented on a robust stainless steel bracelet which includes a drivers’ extension to fit the watch over a racing suit, while the case-back is engraved with the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing team logo over a chequered pattern. Water-resistant to 200m and highly shock resistant, the TAG Heuer Formula 1 Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Special Edition has endured more than 60 quality control tests.
ROLEX ANNOUNCES MENTORS AND PROTÉGÉS FOR 2020-2021 ARTS INITIATIVE
Four of the world’s most influential artists in their respective disciplines ‒ Spike Lee (Film), Phyllida Lloyd (Theatre), Lin-Manuel Miranda (Open Category) and Carrie Mae Weems (Visual Arts) ‒ have been named as mentors in the 2020－2021 Rolex Arts Initiative. These world-renowned innovators will each spend the next two years in close collaboration with an outstanding young artist with whom they will exchange ideas and ensure that artistry at the highest level is transmitted across generations and geographic boundaries.
FILM: SPIKE LEE & KYLE BELL
Protégé Kyle Bell and film mentor Spike Lee
Theatre mentor Phyllida Lloyd
and protégé Whitney White
One of the most influential and socially conscious filmmakers of his generation, American Spike Lee has produced a prodigious body of culturally and historically significant films. Among them is the recent award-winning BlackkKlansman. Named the President of the Jury at the 73rd Festival de Cannes, Lee has chosen to work with Emmy award-winning Native American filmmaker Kyle Bell. Bell has strived to tell the stories of his people with documentaries such as Osiyo: Voices of the Cherokee People, as well as Dig It If You Can, Defend the Sacred and The Third, which have been screened at film festivals worldwide.
THEATRE: PHYLLIDA LLOYD & WHITNEY WHITE
Widely recognised for her broad range of bold and innovative theatre, opera, musical and film productions, British director Phyllida Lloyd has spent most of her career promoting gender equality both on and off stage. Her award-winning productions include both the smash-hit musical and film of Mamma Mia!, as well as the Margaret
Thatcher biopic, The Iron Lady. In the coming two years, Lloyd will be mentoring accomplished director, musician/composer and actress Whitney White, who directed What to Send Up When it Goes Down, a play about racialised violence that was hailed by The New York Times.
VISUAL ARTS: CARRIE MAE WEEMS & CAMILA RODRÍGUEZ TRIANA
Carrie Mae Weems’ prolific output through image and text, film, video and performance delves into complex human experiences including sexism, racism and class. Through her career-defining The Kitchen Table Series, she examines various stereotypes of womanhood. In the 2020-2021 Rolex Arts Initiative, Weems mentors Colombian filmmaker and visual artist Camila Rodríguez Triana, known to create works with great emotional power that question the viewer and, like her mentor’s themes, portray intimate relationships in everyday spaces.
OPEN CATEGORY: LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA & AGUSTINA SAN MARTÍN
Pulitzer Prize, Grammy, Emmy and Tony award-winning composer, lyricist and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda is the creator and original star of Broadway’s Tony-winning Hamilton and In the Heights, whose TV and film credits include Fosse/Verdon, His Dark Materials and Mary Poppins Returns. The recipient of the 2015 MacArthur Foundation Award and the 2018 Kennedy Center Honors has decided to work with Argentinian director, screenwriter, cinematographer, colourist and film editor Agustina San Martín. Having recently completed the feature film To Kill the Beast, San Martín has gained recognition for her multifaceted work, including winning a Special Mention Jury Prize for Best Short Film at the 72nd Cannes Festival for Monster God (2019).
OMEGA RECALLS CRITICAL MOMENT WITH APOLLO 13
On the historic day of 11 April1970, pilot in command Captain
James Lovell, Command Module pilot Jack Swigert and Lunar Module pilot Fred Haise of Apollo 13 embarked on what was to be mankind’s third lunar landing. All three astronauts were equipped with Omega Speedmaster Professional chronographs as part of NASA’s official kit for all manned missions since 1965.
Just two days after the launch, however, crisis struck when an oxygen tank exploded aboard, crippling the Service Module and plunging the crew into a perilous situation. Acting in accordance with emergency protocol, the crew moved into the Lunar Module. To conserve energy, the crew shut down all power - rendering their digital timers obsolete, and leaving them freezing in darkness.
It was at this critical moment their Omega watches came to their aid. Because the mission had drifted off course, the module would re-enter Earth’s atmosphere at a wrong angle, and bounce back into space with no chance of recovery. Therefore, to manually readjust the course, an exact 14-second burn of fuel was required, with no room for error. Swigert used his Omega chronograph to time the burn, while Lovell steered the craft using Earth’s horizon as his guide.
To huge relief, the unique manoeuvre worked, and finally, on 17 April, 142 hours and 54 minutes after launch, Apollo 13 splashed down safely in the South Pacific Ocean. Later that year, Omega was presented with NASA’s “Silver Snoopy Award” as a mark of gratitude for its contributions to the success of human space flight missions. Snoopy was chosen as NASA’s unofficial mascot for his ability to keep things light in serious situations and his symbolic representation of a “watchdog.”
With the mission’s 50th anniversary approaching, Omega calls to mind its history in space exploration and the heroic role it played in the “successful failure” of Apollo 13.