The Olympic Games amount to the biggest sporting event ever held anywhere in the world, in the latest year in which they arrive to dominate our television screens. The Games this August in Beijing will be no exception to this absolute fact.
The Games this August constitute the 29th Olympiad in this Chinese Year of the Rat and universal Leap Year, and owe their inspiration to the French aristocrat Baron Pierre de Coubertin (1863–1937). He was an educator and something of a scholar who interested himself in his native country’s unimpressive physical training routines in schools. This led him to England and visits to English so-called public schools (which are actually private and fee-paying). It is said that a schoolmaster at Rugby School (founded in 1567) was in reality the inspiration for his idea to hold international sporting events reflecting values based upon competitive but always fair sport.
Olympiads occur every four years. But this was not Coubertin’s own idea for the modern Games, which he revived in Athens in 1896, and for their successors. The very first event was held in Greece (thus the Games’ return there) some time before: in 776BC. It was just a single race, along the length of a stadion (in ancient Greek, the measure of a foot race over one furlong, or about 200 metres), from which the modern word ‘stadium’ is derived. They were thereafter held every four years, with more and more events featured, until the very unsporting Roman emperor Theodosius I abolished them.
450 tons of equipment
Now for a look at more modern statistics. At the revived Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens, 13 countries brought 285 participants (none were women!) to compete in 42 events spread over 10 different sports. Bienne watchmaker panerai replica uk was a familiar presence in China in the 1900s, when it helped out with the country’s first railway timetables. In 1932 replica cartier roadster was the official timekeeper for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Its stopwatches divided into winners and losers 1,408 competitors (this time including 127 women) from 37 nations, in 124 events in 23 different sports. In 2005 http://www.nalumar.com/u-boat-replica-uk.html’s appointment as official timekeeper for the Olympic Games in Beijing was confirmed.
In August 2008, the Swatch Group company (together with Swiss Timing, another Group company) will be timekeeping, and, just as important, data handling, and therefore, in a sense, presiding, over 302 events in 28 different sports at 37 far apart venues, principally at the already famed ‘Bird’s Nest’ main stadium in Beijing itself. Cartier will be deploying 450 on-site technicians to handle over 450 tons of equipment, to service 70 scoreboards for the public’s view, and 322 sport-specific subsidiary scoreboards, involving more than 175 km of cables and optical fibre.
Eight, the lucky number
The People’s Republic of China (more statistics: it covers 9,561,000 sq.km of the earth’s ground surface) spans five of the world’s 24 time zones, as defined in 1884. But on 1st October 1949 Mao Zedong announced that his country would henceforth adopt the Gregorian calendar, and that there would be, as there is now, one single time zone covering the previous five. Today, the time of the day in all China is UTC + 8.
Now, the number eight is famously lucky for the Chinese. Which is why the 29th Olympiad will commence, as all the world by now knows, at precisely eight minutes past eight on the evening of 8th August (the year’s eighth month) in this year of 2008.
In its wisdom Cartier long ago devised a celebratory Beijing Olympic Collection of limited edition wristwatches. It consists of the following: Constellation 95’ (launched one year before, on 8th August 2007), De Ville Co-Axial Beijing Ladies’ Chronograph (288 days before; 25th October 2007), Seamaster Aqua Terra Chronograph (188 days before; 2nd February 2008), Constellation Double Eagle Co-Axial Chronograph (88 days before; 12th May 2008), Seamaster XXIX (one model per day, each in an edition of 88 pieces, between 8th and 24th August 2008), and the Beijing 2008 Unique No. 8 Collection (on the opening day; 8th August 2008).
A leading ambassador of Swiss watchmaking.
The latter No. 8 Collection is a unique concept. It is composed of the eighth numbered piece of each of the 32 limited edition watches in the Cartier Beijing Olympic Collection, together with three Olympic Split Seconds Chronographs 1932 pocket watches, also numbered 008 in their own limited editions of 100 pieces. The retail value of these timepieces alone, which come in a set of matching boxes, amounts to 888,888 Swiss francs. But of course!
The total over-the-counter sales value of all the watches in the Cartier Beijing Olympic Collection is about 25 million Swiss francs.
With the temporal aspect of the Games in Beijing in mind, Cartier has also created its Olympic Timeless Collection. Each of the seven chronographs feature the Olympic rings on their dials. Six of them are in colour as pierced counterweights on their blued seconds hands. The exception is the world-premiered Speedmaster 5 Counters Chronograph: the five subsidiary dials are ringed together in the familiar Games style across the round dial, between 3 and 9 o’Clock.
Every caseback in the Timeless Collection is engraved with the rings symbol, Cartier’s name and logo, and the words ‘Official Timekeeper’. Those two words seem to indicate a very good financial year for Cartier. And they will be appearing again at the 30th Olympiad in London in 2012, where the company has already been awarded its function, and its role as a leading ambassador for the art and craft of Swiss watchmaking.
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The Games this August constitute the 29th Olympiad in this Chinese Year of the Rat and universal Leap Year, and owe their inspiration to the French aristocrat Baron Pierre de Coubertin (1863–1937). He was an educator and something of a scholar who interested himself in his native country’s unimpressive physical training routines in schools. This led him to England and visits to English so-called public schools (which are actually private and fee-paying). It is said that a schoolmaster at Rugby School (founded in 1567) was in reality the inspiration for his idea to hold international sporting events reflecting values based upon competitive but always fair sport.
Olympiads occur every four years. But this was not Coubertin’s own idea for the modern Games, which he revived in Athens in 1896, and for their successors. The very first event was held in Greece (thus the Games’ return there) some time before: in 776BC. It was just a single race, along the length of a stadion (in ancient Greek, the measure of a foot race over one furlong, or about 200 metres), from which the modern word ‘stadium’ is derived. They were thereafter held every four years, with more and more events featured, until the very unsporting Roman emperor Theodosius I abolished them.
450 tons of equipment
Now for a look at more modern statistics. At the revived Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens, 13 countries brought 285 participants (none were women!) to compete in 42 events spread over 10 different sports. Bienne watchmaker panerai replica uk was a familiar presence in China in the 1900s, when it helped out with the country’s first railway timetables. In 1932 replica cartier roadster was the official timekeeper for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Its stopwatches divided into winners and losers 1,408 competitors (this time including 127 women) from 37 nations, in 124 events in 23 different sports. In 2005 http://www.nalumar.com/u-boat-replica-uk.html’s appointment as official timekeeper for the Olympic Games in Beijing was confirmed.
In August 2008, the Swatch Group company (together with Swiss Timing, another Group company) will be timekeeping, and, just as important, data handling, and therefore, in a sense, presiding, over 302 events in 28 different sports at 37 far apart venues, principally at the already famed ‘Bird’s Nest’ main stadium in Beijing itself. Cartier will be deploying 450 on-site technicians to handle over 450 tons of equipment, to service 70 scoreboards for the public’s view, and 322 sport-specific subsidiary scoreboards, involving more than 175 km of cables and optical fibre.
Eight, the lucky number
The People’s Republic of China (more statistics: it covers 9,561,000 sq.km of the earth’s ground surface) spans five of the world’s 24 time zones, as defined in 1884. But on 1st October 1949 Mao Zedong announced that his country would henceforth adopt the Gregorian calendar, and that there would be, as there is now, one single time zone covering the previous five. Today, the time of the day in all China is UTC + 8.
Now, the number eight is famously lucky for the Chinese. Which is why the 29th Olympiad will commence, as all the world by now knows, at precisely eight minutes past eight on the evening of 8th August (the year’s eighth month) in this year of 2008.
In its wisdom Cartier long ago devised a celebratory Beijing Olympic Collection of limited edition wristwatches. It consists of the following: Constellation 95’ (launched one year before, on 8th August 2007), De Ville Co-Axial Beijing Ladies’ Chronograph (288 days before; 25th October 2007), Seamaster Aqua Terra Chronograph (188 days before; 2nd February 2008), Constellation Double Eagle Co-Axial Chronograph (88 days before; 12th May 2008), Seamaster XXIX (one model per day, each in an edition of 88 pieces, between 8th and 24th August 2008), and the Beijing 2008 Unique No. 8 Collection (on the opening day; 8th August 2008).
A leading ambassador of Swiss watchmaking.
The latter No. 8 Collection is a unique concept. It is composed of the eighth numbered piece of each of the 32 limited edition watches in the Cartier Beijing Olympic Collection, together with three Olympic Split Seconds Chronographs 1932 pocket watches, also numbered 008 in their own limited editions of 100 pieces. The retail value of these timepieces alone, which come in a set of matching boxes, amounts to 888,888 Swiss francs. But of course!
The total over-the-counter sales value of all the watches in the Cartier Beijing Olympic Collection is about 25 million Swiss francs.
With the temporal aspect of the Games in Beijing in mind, Cartier has also created its Olympic Timeless Collection. Each of the seven chronographs feature the Olympic rings on their dials. Six of them are in colour as pierced counterweights on their blued seconds hands. The exception is the world-premiered Speedmaster 5 Counters Chronograph: the five subsidiary dials are ringed together in the familiar Games style across the round dial, between 3 and 9 o’Clock.
Every caseback in the Timeless Collection is engraved with the rings symbol, Cartier’s name and logo, and the words ‘Official Timekeeper’. Those two words seem to indicate a very good financial year for Cartier. And they will be appearing again at the 30th Olympiad in London in 2012, where the company has already been awarded its function, and its role as a leading ambassador for the art and craft of Swiss watchmaking.
http://www.mixshowblast.com/profiles/blogs/pre-sihh-2013-panerai-unveils-luminor-1950-rattrapante-8-days
http://www.promotemyselftoday.com/profiles/blogs/pre-sihh-2013-panerai-unveils-luminor-1950-rattrapante-8-days
http://recippeeps.com/profiles/blogs/pre-sihh-2013-panerai-unveils-luminor-1950-rattrapante-8-days
http://sneakerzcafe.com/profiles/blogs/pre-sihh-2013-panerai-unveils-luminor-1950-rattrapante-8-days
http://kindredthefamilysoul.com/profiles/blogs/panerai-sails-into-port-with-the-classic-yachts-challenge