It's About Time Someone Created Hip Watch Winders: SwissKubiK.

Up until now, most of the automatic watch winders I've ever seen were very conservative and traditional in their styling. But now I've found SwissKubiK of Geneva, Switzerland who makes a much more youthful and hip, but equally functional, watch winder for those of you with automatic watches.



In addition to a large selection of colored anodized aluminum ones, wood ones and leather ones, they have a limited edition (200 of each) 'pop art' collection by artist Andrew McCarthy which features legendary actors and actresses like Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe and Steve McQueen printed upon leather:




Above: the "pop art" collection; legends on leather

The SwissKubiK watch winder has been entirely conceived and produced in Geneva, fully respecting Swiss quality tradition, in order to satisfy the most exacting requirements imposed by the highest-quality Swiss Watch Manufacturers.



The SwissKubiK watch winder distinguishes itself by its modern design, housed within the minimal space of a compact square cube 3.937 inches (10 cm), exclusively dedicated to the continuous rewinding of automatic mechanical timepieces.


The SwissKubiK watch winder is available in numerous colors and materials: - anodized aluminum, leather saddle style stitching, precious wood or stingray skinodized.



Versions of the watch winder are available for 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12 or 15 watches. You may add acrylic glass hinged 'window' to each watchwinder for dust protection if so desired.





The custom 'Python', created to hold 24 watches and clad in genuine python leather:



A very special limited edition, the Joker, contains over 3, 500 full cut diamonds and is housed in 18k white gold:





• Personalized special orders can also be accommodated with specific colors or materials or for a larger collection of watches.

• For antique watches, collection timepieces or watches with specific requirements recommended by the watch manufacturers, the SwissKubiK watch winder can be programmed using the optional USB computer interface cable.

• The SwissKubiK watch winder is guaranteed 3 years from the date of purchase.



Swiss KubiK SA was founded by Philippe Subilia in December of 1998 to create, design and manufacture watches and horological products.


57 Rue de Rhone
1204 Geneve
Tel + 41 22 310 79 19
Fax + 41 22 310 79 20

Wall Art That Changes With The Light: Shadow Casting Panels

Based on a technique and process described later in this post, Drzach & Suchy have created Shadow Casting Panels that that appear as one image in the morning light and another in the evening light. With some clever image choices like Marilyn Monroe becoming Marilyn Manson, it's evolving art that can be used as installations or wall art of several types.



Multiple images are encoded within a single physical object — a white panel, which displays the separate images under appropriate lighting conditions. The underlying principle of our technique is based on a simple observation: the shadow cast by an object depends not only on the object itself, but also on the light; therefore the same object under changing lighting conditions can totally change its appearance.

The technique of encoding multiple images in a panel, so that single images become visible under varying illumination (so-called Shadow Casting Panels), was invented by Drzach in 2004 (patent pending), and then developed further by Drzach & Suchy.




"Moderne" in the morning light:


"Moderne" in the evening light:


"Moderne" in every step in between:


Marilyn(s):




Point Of View (Hitchock's Psycho images):




Pop(e) Culture:




Co-exist:


Videos of the light changing art

Relativity:


Idol:


Batman:


Obama or McCain:


Installations:




The process:






Shadow Casting Panels (SCP) is a novel way for storing and presenting multiple images using one physical object. The images to be stored in a panel are first rasterized and converted to a black-and-white format, and then jointly encoded into the panel. More precisely, the images are considered in a pixel-by-pixel manner, and for each pixel of the an appropriate building block is placed at the corresponding place in the panel. The type of the block depends on the colors of the particular pixel in the images to be encoded. The actual blocks can have various geometries, yielding a variety of possible designs and perceptions.

The technique of encoding multiple images in a panel, so that single images become visible under varying illumination (so-called Shadow Casting Panels), was invented by Drzach in 2004 (patent pending), and then developed further by Drzach & Suchy. For more details as to how this works and the process see the original thesis as a pdf here.

If you'd like to purchase or exhibit any of the presented works, or are interested in the Shadow Casting Panels technology, please contact them at DrzachSuchy@gmail.com.

Their website.

Bert Stern's Marilyn & Lindsay: Side By Side

above left, Lindsay Lohan by Bert Stern, 2008 and above right, Marilyn Monroe by Bert Stern, 1962

Photographer Bert Stern may best be known as the photographer who shot Marilyn Monroe's famous last sitting, a collection of vulnerable and beautiful shots of the actress, taken at the Bel Air hotel in 1962. The photographs are arguably the most famous images ever captured of America's most famous actress. Six weeks after she had posed, Monroe was found dead of an apparent barbiturate overdose.