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For my last post on my trip to Audemars Piguet I’m going to take you inside their facilities and show you their environment and some of the people behind the watches. By looking at some of the pictures you could easily mistake it for a scientific laboratory since all the watchmakers wear white coats and majority of them are looking through magnifiers and even microscopes.

For some parts of the tour we were required to enter a sterilized room, put on coats and even wear plastic bags over our shoes so that we wouldn’t bring any external contamination inside their sterile work spaces. The watchmakers are all very talented and experienced craftsman and not just random people sitting at an assembly line slapping parts together. There is no assembly line, each watch is hand built and decorated by professionals.

A watchmaker at work. [YouTube]

A lot of time goes into every watch and into every single part that is inside the watch. To give you an idea of how extreme their craftsmanship is we spotted one guy working on a part so small I couldn’t take a picture of it. It was part literally the size of a pixel and it turned out it was an extremely tiny screw and he was busy polishing it. Imagine a part so tiny you could barely see it and yet he was polishing it. Keep in mind that’s also a part no one other than him would probably every see again since it will be hidden inside the watch. That’s extreme detailing and really lets you appreciate the amount of work and crafting that goes into every watch.

Video showing how the Royal Oak face dial is made. [YouTube]

We were mostly allowed to take pictures of whatever we wanted except for the area where they make the carbon forged watch cases. They’re the only watchmaker that makes carbon forged watches and I guess they didn’t want us snapping shots of secretive information like oven temperatures or specific machinery. But you can watch a video of the process on YouTube if you’re interested [Here]

After visiting the main AP building the following day we headed to their other division called Renaud & Papi located around 2 hours from Geneva by car. That’s where majority of their extremely complicated movements get developed and built. Those guys are ridiculously smart and talented which is why they’re considered the best in the industry and work on complicated movements for other high end brands like Richard Mille and Harry Winstone. I saw one girl who was working on a Tourbillon using a microscope and I still don’t understand how they can do it. The Tourbillon is smaller than a 1 fils coin and is a very complicated movement to build with lots of different parts and layers that go into making it and here she was building it using just tiny tweezers and very, very steady hands. Amazing talent.

I spotted two Richard Mille watches while we were there that were being built, the Jackie Chan Dragon edition which costs over a million bucks and my favorite the skull watch which costs around $700,000. I love it because the watch has a huge skull in the middle with a Tourbillon hidden in the mouth and also because it costs seven hundred freakin’ thousand dollars. That’s so in your face I have billions and billions of dollars that I can afford to buy a watch with a skull head inside that costs nearly a million bucks so I could wear it with my cool ripped jeans and nike sneakers on weekends. Unfair and unbalanced world? Most likely, but that doesn’t bother me.

One last thing I need to mention. When we were done with the tour of their facilities we were taken into this large conference room with cabinets stretching from one side to the other and filled with rows and rows of all their watches. We got to check them all out and try them on and my favorite from the bunch has to be the new Sebastien Buemi watch (pictured above). We were also given a sneak peek at the new Schumacher watch thats going to launch at the end of the year but I’m not allowed to describe it or say anything about it. Maybe I can mention one tidbit and say that it’s going to be a 44mm but that’s all I can say.

It was a great trip and it was something that was on my things to do before I die list so I now get to cross it off. I’m really grateful to AP for inviting me on this trip. All the AP employees and watchmakers were very profesional and patient with us. Their work environment is a very tranquil and peaceful place and we were definitely not a quiet group yet they were all very friendly and focused even though at some points I had my camera very rudely close to their heads trying to get my shots. Great people, beautiful country and a wonderful experience.

I have a lot of information to share about my trip to Audemars Piguet and I’m going to try and keep it interesting and informative since I know not everyone is into watches like I am.

First just a bit of history on how that Swiss valley where AP is located became such a hotspot for all the watchmakers. The Audemars Piguet facilities are located in Vallée de Joux which is considered to be “the heart of Swiss watchmaking”. In the early 1800’s a watchmaker moved into the valley and started producing watches and when his business started booming he needed to hire help. The valley was full of farmers who spent the summers busy outdoors farming but the winters indoor not doing much. So, the farmers got into watchmaking since the basic tools to get started didn’t cost much and even their children started learning and working with watches at a young age. In other parts of Switzerland farmers were making music boxes during the winter months but they were making watches.

Once we arrived to Vallée de Joux which is just over an hour drive from Geneva, we were taken to the AP Restoration Department followed by the Museum. The restoration department is where they work to restore old watches back to working condition while trying to preserve all their original parts. A lot of the watch parts aren’t available anymore so if anything is missing or needs replacing not only do they have to hand make the parts but they always try to remake them using the same technique they were originally made with. While we were there we were lucky that the head of the department was working on a vintage pocket watch that contained a Grand Complication movement dating back to 1899 (pictured above). A simple watch movement is a watch that indicates the hours, minutes and seconds. On the other hand a calendar is a complicated movement, a moon phase, an alarm, a minute repeater (tells time using chimes) are all complicated movements. A Grand Complication is a movement that contains a whole bunch of complicated movements all together in one watch. I’ll try to list everything the watch above does so here it goes: It has clock watch with grand and small strike, minute-repeater, split seconds chronograph with minutes counter, alarm, jumping seconds, flying seconds and perpetual calendar. Yeah that’s a lot of things and this is a watch that was created back in 1899. It’s currently valued at around 3 million Euros.

After leaving the restoration department we headed to the museum. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside but I did manage to take the one below of a poster that I saw hanging on the wall (I want it). The museum is housed in the original AP building from the late 1800’s. Although it’s full of interesting pieces, this was probably the most boring part of the whole trip for me because I couldn’t wait to get out and head over to their main production facility. If anyone knows where I can find the Ali with Arnold poster please let me know.

This Friday (May 4th) a photographic walk will be taking place from the Scientific Center to the Kuwait Towers in which over 50 amateur and professional photographers are expected to participate. Photography lovers from all skill levels are invited to take part in this walk which will also include classes and demonstrations by experts.

The walk starts off at 5AM which is early but necessary to capture the sunrise and the magic hour. The group will be making a bunch of stops along the way to take photos including a 7AM stop at the Hard Rock Cafe to photograph a motorcycle club and a stop at around 11AM at the Green Island to photograph some models.

It sounds like a lot of fun so if you’re interested or want more details check out their Facebook page [Here]

There are 5 cars I’d like to own one day and #5 on the list is the Datsun Skyline GTR and if you’re a fan as well then you’ll be interested to know there’s one currently for sale on Q8car. BUT… the owner wants KD25,000 for it. You can check out the listing over [Here]

While we’re on the subject of old cars below is a picture taken this weekend by InfiniteDriver of another cool oldie, the Datsun 510.

Update: Forgot to add that Datsun is actually making a comeback although they’ve now got a new logo. I would rather they kept their old one. [Link]

Alghunaim Photo contacted me last week asking me if I’d be interested in reviewing the Spyder4Pro monitor color calibration tool. Since I’ve always wanted to try one of those tools I passed by and picked it up and then spent the weekend playing around with it.

Every monitor displays colors differently and my 27″ iMac never really felt very accurate when compared to other screens around the house. Even though there is an option built into the Mac system to calibrate the color, it involves a lot of eye squinting and results in a final calibration that I don’t trust. The Spyder takes away all the decision making from me, kinda like a little robot with a focus on keeping the colors on my screen calibrated.

First thing you need to do is install the Spyder software and connect the Sypder to a free USB port on your computer. When you run the software the first test it performs is to measure the ambient light in your room using the light sensor on the Spyder. Once it’s done measuring the light the software then asks you to hang the Spyder on top of the illustrated Spyder on the screen. The Spyder software then proceeds to perform a bunch of tests displaying various colors on the screen while the Spyder measures the results. After a few minutes the test is completed and you’re given an option to either save the new settings or go back to your previous one. You can also compare the new settings with the old one and they even provide you with a variety of pictures to use for comparison.

The best way to perform the before and after comparison is turn away from the screen while changing from one setting to the other. By flipping between the before and after I realized that before the Syder calibration my iMac screen colors were a very cool tone (cool = more towards the blue). After the calibration the colors are more balanced and even the screen brightness which was absurdly bright before is in a much more natural state after the calibration.

All is not good though since I do have a few quibbles here and there but they’re mostly the fault of Datacolor the company and not the Spyder product. My biggest issue is with the documentation or should I say lack of it. The manual doesn’t really tell you about any of the features of the Spyer and it’s also out dated. According to the manual the way to hang the Spyder onto the screen during the tests is with the help of the supplied rubber bands. But the model I got didn’t have any rubber bands and used a simpler newer method using a movable counter weight on the cable. Because of the lack of documentation there’s one feature that’s still confusing me. When connected to your computer the Spyder continuously measures the ambient room light and informs you with a a red icon if the light is different from when calibrated. What’s confusing me is what to do when the ambient light doesn’t match the one the test was performed with? Do I calibrate the display with different ambient light? Do I perform a test during the day and a test during the night? Do I switch between the different color settings myself? I have no idea what to do and the Datacolor website doesn’t even have the latest manuals uploaded yet alone answers to my questions. If you actually do end up purchasing the Spyder I would actually recommend you visit the product page on Amazon where one reviewer has a step by step guide on how to set everything up. That’s how poor the product’s documentation is.

But, even with the poor documentation I’ve still decided I’m going to purchase the Spyder4pro. The thing is it works and it works really well. Within just a few minutes after setting up to your computer you’ll start seeing results and the difference in some cases can be dramatic. It’s really something every serious photographer should have and also anyone doing any sort of design work. I highly recommend it.

Usually at the end of a review I’d proceed to place links to Amazon but in this case Alghunaim actually sells the Syper for prices slightly less than Amazon. He has three models in the store priced as following:

Spyder4expree KD38
Spyder4pro KD45
Spyder4elite KD65

The three Spyders are similar but each offers additional features than the other model. To see which one is suitable for you check out the chart [Here]

I’m going with the Spyder4Pro because it has the ambient light sensor which is missing from the Spyder4express and I also don’t really need any of the extra features from the Spyder4elite.

Alghunaim Photo is located in Baitak Tower in Kuwait City. Here my my previous post about them [Link]

The UAE Cabinet is now using iPads to “achieve speed and flexibility in decision making” says HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. [Source]

In other news the Angry Birds creator is working on a muliplayer version of the game for an undisclosed customer from the Middle East.

I received information this morning that the Customs Union could go on a general strike anytime between now and March 15th. If you remember last year, customs went on strike and it was chaos since no shipments were being cleared. After the government promised future reforms and concessions the Customs Union ended their strike but supposedly this time around the union is making it clear that only immediate action will end their strike.

Looks like they’ve timed their strike with the release of the iPad 3 which SUCKS! I really hope the strike doesn’t end up happening.

What’s the purpose of these new plants pots that are being placed on the Gulf Road? If anything these cement blocks are actually blocking the greenery behind them instead of making the Gulf Road any greener.

I just got the March schedule for Cinemagic and it looks like I’ve only watched one of the movies showing this month which is Triplets of Belleville. It’s a really strange but cool animation which is definitely worth watching. Check out the full schedule below.

Thursday, March 1st at 7:30pm
THE MILK OF SORROW
Fausta is suffering from a rare disease called the Milk of Sorrow, which is transmitted through the breast milk of pregnant women who were abused or raped during or soon after pregnancy. While living in constant fear and confusion due to this disease, she must face the sudden death of her mother. She chooses to take drastic measures to not follow in her mother’s footsteps.

Saturday, March 3rd at 7:30pm
BARTON FINK
In 1941, New York intellectual playwright Barton Fink comes to Hollywood to write a Wallace Beery wrestling picture. Staying in the eerie Hotel Earle, Barton develops severe writer’s block. His neighbor, jovial insurance salesman Charlie Meadows, tries to help, but Barton continues to struggle as a bizarre sequence of events distracts him even further from his task.

Thursday, March 8th at 7:30pm
TRIPLETS OF BELLVILLE
When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters–an aged song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire–to rescue him.

Saturday, March 10th at 7:30pm
THE SWEET HEREAFTER
This film documents the effects of a tragic bus accident on the population of a small town.

Thursday, March 15th at 7:30pm
NETWORK
A TV network cynically exploits a deranged ex-TV anchor’s ravings and revelations about the media for their own profit.

Saturday, March 17th at 7:30pm
RUSSIAN ARK
A 19th century French aristocrat, notorious for his scathing memoirs about life in Russia, travels through the Russian State Hermitage Museum and encounters historical figures from the last 200+ years.

Thursday, March 22nd at 7:30pm
CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS
Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France, capturing the oldest known pictorial creations of humankind in their astonishing natural setting.

Saturday, March 24th at 7:30pm
DOWN BY LAW
The story of three different men in a Louisiana prison and their eventual journey.

Thursday, March 29th at 7:30pm
THE SON’S ROOM
A psychoanalyst and his family go through profound emotional trauma when their son dies in a scuba diving accident.

Saturday, March 31st at 7:30pm
500 DAYS OF SUMMER
An offbeat romantic comedy about a woman who doesn’t believe true love exists, and the young man who falls for her.

Cinemagic Kuwait, is organizing these events as part of its efforts to contribute to the development of an internationally competitive Kuwaiti audio-visual production industry, partly by bringing the filmmakers and audiences together and by Increasing the public’s interest in – and appreciation for – the art of film-making. Cinemagic movies are screened in the old Salmiya, on the roof on top of Alghanim Electronics and LG. Entrance is free of charge and includes refreshments, popcorn and much more. Here is a link to their Facebook group [Link]

Have guests coming to Kuwait and not sure where to take them? Architecture of Kuwait have posted a handy schedule although I personally don’t agree with some of their activities (flight simulation?) as well as some of their restaurant choices but it’s a good list to build on. When it comes to food I would add Cocoa Room or Early Bird for breakfast. Lunch I would add OFK and Oum Habib. I would definitely add desert places like Chocolate Bar and Life with Cacao. Finally I would add Maki and Slider Station for dinner.

If guests don’t leave Kuwait gaining a few pounds then you’re not doing it right. [Link]

A reader sent me the Kuwait timelapse he did above in which he used three Canon cameras, a 5DMKII, a 7D and a 60D to create. He also used a Kessler Crane Philip Bloom Pocket Dolly although I’m not sure if he had to move the camera manually or if it was automated using a motor and controller. It took him around 3 months of shooting which resulted in 40,000 shots and it then took him a month to edit the video.

Not all the scenes in the video above look great since the dull sky wasn’t helping but the ones that do work end up working really well. [YouTube]

Update: Below is a shot of his setup. Based on the shot his dolly was motorized.

Thanks Ali

It’s been over a year since the young Kuwaiti iPhone app designer Abdulrahman al-Zanki created his game but he’s still making headlines, most recently in the New York Times:

It took Abdulrahman al-Zanki, then 14, a few weeks to develop his first game, Yellow Taxi, and upload it to Apple iTunes in 2010, learning from written instructions between school hours and homework. Since then, the Kuwaiti teenager has created 22 more iPhone games in less than two years, including the highly popular Doodle Destroy.

You can read the full article [Here]

The weather is pretty cozy right now with it not being too cold yet so it’s still a great time to catch the Cinemagic screenings next month. I’ve watched two of the movies they’re going to be showing, American Splendor and of course Akira. Both of them were really great and Akira honestly is a classic and a must watch if you haven’t already. Embarrassingly I’ve never watched Grease although I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing. Here is the January movie screenings list:

Thursday, January 5th at 7:30pm
AMERICAN SPLENDOR
An original mix of fiction and reality illuminates the life of comic book hero everyman Harvey Pekar.

Saturday, January 7th at 7:30pm
DON’T LOOK BACK
Documentary covering Bob Dylan’s 1965 tour of England, which includes appearances by Joan Baez and Donovan.

Thursday, January 12th at 7:30pm
THE DINNER GAME
Each week, Pierre and his friends organize what is called as “un dîner de cons”. Everyone brings the dumbest guy he could find as a guest. Pierre thinks his champ -François Pignon- will steal the show.

Saturday, January 14th at 7:30pm
THE GREAT DICTATOR
In Chaplin’s satire on Nazi Germany, dictator Adenoid Hynkel has a double… a poor Jewish barber… who one day is mistaken for Hynkel.

Thursday, January 19th at 7:30pm
THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED
Should Tom (Duris) make like his thuggish father or pursue his dream of becoming a pianist?

Saturday, January 21st at 7:30pm
THRONE OF BLOOD
A ruthlessly ambitious lord, egged on by his wife, works to fulfill a prophecy that he would become Emperor.

Thursday, January 26th at 7:30pm
GREASE
Good girl Sandy and greaser Danny fell in love over the summer. But when they unexpectedly discover they’re now in the same high school, will they be able to rekindle their romance?

Saturday, January 28th at 7:30pm
AKIRA
A secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psionic psychopath that only two kids and a group of psionics can stop.

Cinemagic Kuwait, is organizing these events as part of its efforts to contribute to the development of an internationally competitive Kuwaiti audio-visual production industry, partly by bringing the filmmakers and audiences together and by Increasing the public’s interest in – and appreciation for – the art of film-making. Cinemagic movies are screened in the old Salmiya, on the roof on top of Alghanim Electronics and LG. Entrance is free of charge and includes refreshments, popcorn and much more. Here is a link to their Facebook group [Link]

Zeebrgr is a new burger joint by the same people behind Maki. They’re soft opening tonight and they’re located at The Palms in Al Bida. #notenoughburgerjointsinkuwait [Link]

This is the last Cinemagic screening of the year and they’re ending it with one of my favorite movies and one of the best movies ever made… Brazil. The only other movie I’ve seen on the list is Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr.Fox which was really great as well. Here is the full list:

Thursday, December 1st at 7:30pm
A BAND’S VISIT
A band comprised of members of the Egyptian police force head to Israel to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab arts center, only to find themselves lost in the wrong town.

Saturday, December 3rd at 7:30pm
FANTASTIC MR.FOX
An urbane fox cannot resist returning to his farm raiding ways and then must help his community survive the farmers’ retaliation.

Thursday, December 8th at 7:30pm
WE LIVE IN PUBLIC
A documentary focusing on the life of dot-com entrepreneur Josh Harris, and his exploits over the last decade.

Saturday, December 10th at 7:30pm
THE ICE STORM
1973, suburban Connecticut: middle class families experimenting with casual sex, drink, etc., find their lives out of control.

Thursday, December 15th at 7:30pm
THE LEGEND OF THE HOLY DRINKER
This is an enchanting, mesmeric fable. It tells the story of an alcoholic who strives for redemption, but is cheated out of attaining it again and again – either by drink or friends or any of the myriad pleasures life throws at us. And yet somehow – miraculously – the drinker’s soul remainsintact; his final mission frustrated, temporarily foresaken but never entirely forgotten.

Saturday, December 17th at 7:30pm
12 ANGRY MEN
A dissenting juror in a murder trial slowly manages to convince the others that the case is not as obviously clear as it seemed in court.

Thursday, December 22nd at 7:30pm
THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON
Daniel Johnston, manic-depressive genius singer/songwriter/artist is revealed in this portrait of madness, creativity and love.

Saturday, December 24th at 7:30pm
RARE EXPORTS: A CHRISTMAS TALE
In the depths of the Korvatunturi mountains, 486 metres deep, lies the closest ever guarded secret of Christmas. The time has come to dig it up! This Christmas everyone will believe in Santa Claus.

Thursday, December 29th at 7:30pm
BRAZIL
A bureaucrat in a retro-future world tries to correct an administrative error and himself becomes an enemy of the state.

Cinemagic Kuwait, is organizing these events as part of its efforts to contribute to the development of an internationally competitive Kuwaiti audio-visual production industry, partly by bringing the filmmakers and audiences together and by Increasing the public’s interest in – and appreciation for – the art of film-making. Cinemagic movies are screened in the old Salmiya, on the roof on top of Alghanim Electronics and LG. Entrance is free of charge and includes refreshments, popcorn and much more. Here is a link to their Facebook group [Link]