Dialed In
HOROLOGICAL NEWS
PATEK PHILIPPE SHOWS NEW WATCHES AT
SINGAPORE GRAND EXHIBITION
At the Patek Philippe Watch Art Grand Exhibition Singapore 2019,
which concluded on October 13, Patek Philippe debuted six watches
in limited editions. These include a World Time Minute Repeater
(five watches in a limited edition) that features a dial in cloisonné
enamel depicting a map of Singapore. Also debuted were: a World
Time Chronograph (300 watches), an Aquanaut in stainless steel
for men (500 watches) with a red and black-gray combination, the
Aquanaut Luce (300 watches) for ladies in steel and raspberry-red,
the Calatrava Pilot Travel Time (400 watches) with a medium-format
steel case in a blue-gray version, and a new Ref. 5303R-010 Minute
Repeater Tourbillon. Beyond these special editions, the manufacture
created a new collection of dome table clocks, table clocks, pocket
watches and rare handcrafts wristwatches. You can read all about
these Patek Philippe special editions on the watchmaker’s
website and at iwmagazine.com.
VETERANS WATCHMAKING INITIATIVE GRADUATES FIRST CLASS
The Delaware Veterans Watch School hosted its first graduation ceremony in April. Its first graduates represent veterans of four
branches of the military: Jason Adams, Army; Jonathan Dunn, Coast Guard; Giancarlo LaRusso, Marine Corps; and Don Morton, Air
Force. The graduates enrolled via the Veterans Watchmaker Initiative Inc., which officially opened in Delaware in September 2017 in a
former EMT facility slated for demolition and leased from New Castle County government for $1 a year. It is the only school of its kind
in the United States.
“VWI is privately funded. It depends on grants and donations of equipment and watch parts from the watchmaking industry and
corporate and private donations with every dollar going directly to the program,” said Sam Cannan, chairman and co-founder of VWI.
Volunteer labor has converted the building’s garage bays into classrooms with the help of local veterans from Hogs and Heroes and
other volunteers. The faculty includes retired watchmakers who volunteer their time, making the program free of charge for disabled
veterans. No one is required to pay any fee, either for the program or for housing while attending.
The school is the forerunner of a planned school in Middletown, Delaware, that will accommodate as many as fifty students from
across the nation.
The school is similar to what the Bulova Company did in New York at its watchmaking school after WWII when it trained thousands
of Americans veterans with missing limbs and other injuries. Visit www.veteranswatchmakerinitiative.org or call 302-378-7088 or for
more information.
24 | INTERNATIONAL WATCH | FALL 2019