Diamonds will be history soon all thanks to a Swiss watcmaker who is claiming to have created watches under brand name Yvan Arpa using moon dust, parts of the Apollo 11 rocket and bits of spacesuits. Wow, what a cool way to stand apart from 599 Swiss watchmakers!
The use of ‘inaccessible materials’ really does make Geneva-based Romain Jerome’s watches a hot property vis-a-vis rivals like Richemont’s Vacheron Consantin and Patek Philippe, that too in the global economic slowdown.
In 2007, the same brand name was in news with its ‘Titanic DNA’ watches which were touted to have been made from steel and coal from the historic ship that sank in 1912. Some critics ran down some timepieces saying that they were in bad taste. Despite that, the sales were strong.
So, Yvan Arpa can be sure of the success of the ‘Moon Dust-DNA’ collection. It is intending to make 1969 pieces to match the year Neil Armstrong went to the moon. Jerome is expecting sales to reach the $A90 million mark in 2009 because the customers include, investors, collectors, fashionistas and fans of history and art.
Via theage
