F P Journe at Malmaison The Hour Glass

It's been awhile since i brought a camera into Malmaison (check out the posts i did from before here Link1 Link2) but i had some time yesterday and there was something new about the place... there were Journes in da house! :) [Side note: the luxury sector has been hit pretty badly with the market downturn and it's quiet at many of the high end luxury shops. there are still buyers of course but fewer and far between]

well if u're rolling in excess cash and liquidity then this may be a way to spend some of that... a gorgeous, refined F P Journe! i have owned one of the earlier, non-gold movement ones myself and enjoyed owning it. sharing some love of Journe watches in these links Link3 Link4 Link5

pix about the place and some Journes follow... 

Sony Service Center Singapore Experiece... It Was Utter....

Quality! :)

not the same as some others have experienced in other parts of the world eg Mr Matt Granger is dropping Sony due to service quality issues but i personally had a very smooth and pleasant experience in Singapore, which is no indication of service levels anywhere else. the Singapore service centre is also outsourced but the providers seem to be doing an alright job about things. 

one of the reasons this spa trip for my camera wasn't unpleasant was because it was covered by warranty. I expect my next trip in future will be after the warranty ends in August and i will have to cough out hard earned cash to fix it.

my shutter was replaced and i think the motherboard, all in less than a week which was great as that week was fraught with temptation of getting a second body. flirting dangerously with the digital Leica Ms (M for mistress?) hmm... but that is topic for another time. the concern in the end was why my shutter had died in the first place. it died at less than 10k actuations [to note my sony a7s shutter died at about 9100 actuations. so now even though the shutter reads 9300 it's actually just 200 actuations in :)] which is nothing for mechanical shutters in today's cameras. my old trusty nikon d90 is over 100k shutter actuations and it never once had any shutter issues. 

shutter went down but it wasn't going back up

turning the power off wasn't a solution. they may have to rethink their

error messages :)

also have been focusing a bit more on photography (rather than watches) so appreciate any likes for my fb page if u think the pix be nice :) cheers, raph

Omega Snoopy in LOST IN SPACE!!!

So I shot these watches sometime back but had put them in my old drive that got put aside and which I had not accessed in a while so these pix were lost in the dark space in my cupboards but these watches have been in tight spots before and earlier versions of the speedy have participated in space adventures and so being in limbo for awhile was no bother... these watches are still cool as ever :) first up the Snoopy! 

A Cool and Fun Watch for the Snoopy lovers and NASA/space enthusiasts. What could u do in 14 seconds? 
failure is not an option. the 12 o'clock indices kinda looks like uhm... hmm 'the Speedmaster Apollo 13 Silver Snoopy
 Award features a white dial with black varnished hands, a white hand on the small seconds sub-dial, indexes
with black varnished top cavities and a polished black ceramic bezel ring'

Eyes on the Moon! oops I mean Stars :) This wristwatch features a caseback that is unlike any other. 

A 925 silver Snoopy medallion, mounted on a plate of the same material, is surrounded by alluring dark blue enamel. 
A silver powder is sprinkled on each individual caseback by hand, giving the impression that Snoopy is floating
 in space. The silver medallion resembles the pin - the Silver Snoopy Award - that was presented to OMEGA
 for its contribution to the success of the Apollo missions.

A tribute to the 45th anniversary of the legendary Apollo 13 mission and the Silver Snoopy Award that OMEGA
 received from the astronauts upon their safe return to Earth, this timepiece tells a story of the brand's role 
in space exploration and highlights NASA's connection to Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts gang.

Speedmaster variants... i like the one on the left...

but this be cool too with the red gold bits

but this looks to be the same as the classic but in the black case... very nice

diamonds are a girls best friend

Capturing Beauty: Photograph

We keep this love in a photograph

We made these memories for ourselves

Where our eyes are never closing

Hearts are never broken

Times forever frozen still

[Photograph lyrics by Ed Sheeran]
[Model: Amanda from Hungary]