Latest news with #DavidSilver
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
The Latest Watch Trends In Time For Father's Day
TSUYOSA, Citizen watches with strong colors, a Father's Day trend this year. If you're looking for a Father's Day gift, you might want to consider a watch. From sports designs to vintage styles, several strong trends are emerging this summer that cater to all tastes. Handpick the perfect timepiece to create a unique and meaningful gift. According to Research and Markets, the global watch market size was valued at USD 78.0 Billion in 2024. Looking forward, the analyst estimates the market to reach USD 113.8 Billion by 2033, exhibiting a CAGR of 4.25% during 2025-2033. They attribute some of the key factors driving this growth to shifting fashion and lifestyle trends, notable technological advancements, rising economic prosperity, increasing demand for high-end accessories, effective branding and marketing, as well as to the rapid growth of online retail and e-commerce. They also tell us that consumers seek watches that align with their personal style, whether it's classic, minimalist, sporty, or avant-garde, and that the influence of celebrities, fashion influencers, and social media further amplifies the impact of these trends. As an industry, Research and Markets concludes, it is successfully adapting to changing lifestyles and trends, offering a range of options to cater to a diverse range of consumers. I met David Silver, owner of The Vintage Watch Company, at his beautiful store in London's Burlington Arcade, which showcases the largest collection of vintage Rolex on display anywhere in the world. He told me that watches have become the ultimate fashion accessory, with many customers spending more time selecting a strap than the watch itself. We discussed what makes a watch such a wonderful gift for a father. It's the fact, we agreed, that it can be worn every day, admired and appreciated, with that ever-present memory of who it was given by. David tells me that another reason for its appeal is the knowledge that you are merely its custodian, and that eventually it will be handed down to the next generation. 'While a luxury timepiece makes for a memorable gift, owning one can be a smart investment, as they often increase in value over time—so what could be a Father's Day gift this year could potentially become a family heirloom for generations to come,' he says. Indeed, finding the perfect Father's Day gift can be a challenge, but, as Bruce Andrews, Head of Watches at Beaverbrooks tells me over email, there is nothing quite like a classic timepiece to show him he means the world to you. Rolex's vintage collection featuring colored dials, a strong Father's Day trend. There is a strong move towards watches with color this season, David Silver explains, both on the strap and the dial. Many luxury brands are embracing this trend, including Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Breitling, TAG Heuer, and OMEGA. The Citizen Tsuyosa collection (Tsuyosa is the Japanese word for strength) is available in many shades, with three options featuring a 37mm case size: ice blue, pastel pink, and dark green. Another elegant colored watch is the Classic Power Reserve Big Date Manufacture, from Frederique Constant, with a large date, a moon phase and a power reserve indicator, now for a total of 50 hours. Speaking over email to Julie Yoakum, President and Chief Brand Merchant at Helzberg, she confirms that color is having a moment in men's watches this Father's Day. 'We're seeing a surge in demand for timepieces with vibrant dials—deep greens, rich blues, and even bold reds," she says, explaining that the addition of color adds a modern twist that allows dads to express their style and individuality through their wristwear. A Gucci watch with a colorful dial. Bruce Andrews confirms that colored dials have become a leading trend in the watch space as brands continue to expand and experiment. 'The great thing about this trend is its versatility,' he says. From bold shades to softer pastel hues, there are countless palettes and combinations to choose from. If you're after a vintage style, there are some highly coveted Rolex Stella dial watches in a variety of colors, primarily aimed at the Middle Eastern market during the 1970s-1990s. Adding color with these fun timepieces will provide a touch of personality to any outfit. 1972 vintage Rolex oyster datejust (blue). TAG Heuer Formula 1 Chronograph 43mm Men's Watch Alpina Seastrong Diver Extreme Automatic, a beautiful timepiece for sports lovers. Another prominent trend is the rise of the sports watch. One such example is the Alpina Seastrong Diver Extreme Automatic, designed for use both on land and at sea. Certified as a diver's watch, it features a sporty yet compact design, with water-resistance up to 300 meters. It is available in three variations: an anthracite dial with an integrated steel bracelet, navy blue with a rubber strap, and a bold, orange-accented model. For car enthusiasts, the iconic TAG Heuer Carrera, designed for professional drivers, is now available in a new style. Drawing inspiration from the heat and speed of the track, with its blazing orange colors, this TAG Heuer Carrera Chrono Extreme Sport 44mm Red Automatic Watch embodies a spirit of adventure. It features a beveled domed scratch-resistant sapphire crystal glass with an anti-reflective coating. 1978 vintage Rolex submariner with ghost bezel. For vintage sports options, there are some superb Rolex Submariner styles created in the 1970s that are quintessentially James Bond, and even a 1960s Rolex Submariner famously worn by Sean Connery in Dr No in 1962. When buying antiques or vintage pieces, David Silver tells me that they are far more individual and special and have that added allure of mystery and luxury you cannot get from a modern timepiece. 'It's so nice to have something on your wrist that others don't, for a change,' he says. Finishing touches are also important. He explains that many of his customers either select a vintage watch to match the year of their father's birth or engrave the case back with a scanned handwritten message. The Tissot Men's Pocket Watch is a fun gift this Father's Day. Some modern watches evoke specific eras and interests. Frederique Constant's Vintage Rally Healey automatic is a Limited Edition tribute to classic cars, with only 888 produced worldwide. This watch has a brown leather strap with off-white stitching and a striking green matte finish dial, complemented by a seconds' counter at the 9 o'clock position and a red hand. The timepiece comes in a special gift box featuring a miniature green Healey car. For music lovers, take a look at limited editions, such as Bulova's collaboration with Marc Anthony, that capture the musician's style. The Marc Anthony Series includes a dial accented with diamond hour markers at 1, 3, and 5 o'clock, chosen by Marc for personal significance, and visible through both the dial aperture and an exhibition case back. And there are pocket watches too, which evoke a certain sartorial elegance and decorum, such as the Tissot Men's Pocket Watch. Julie Yoakum adds that these watches are incredibly versatile—whether dad dresses up or keeps it casual, as they can add character to any look. She also tells me that for many, vintage-style timepieces evoke memories of their own fathers and grandfathers, making them especially meaningful gifts for Father's Day. "Plus, the longevity of these pieces is the gift that keeps giving as collections are often passed down through generations,' she confirms. Andrews tells me that vintage design watches are also continuing to capture the imagination this season, thanks to their perfect blend of timeless appeal and modern updates, and that by opting for a new watch with vintage-inspired elements, you get the best of both worlds: classic design with the reliability and performance of a contemporary model. Frederique Constant Vintage Rally Healey Automatic, is a great watch for drivers. There are many high-tech watches available, including some smartwatches, such as the Apple Watch, while others feature a minimalist, understated design with simple square and rectangular styles. These have become more than a watch in the traditional sense and perform a number of functions, from tracking your fitness to connecting to your phone and other devices. Bruce Andrews explains to me that over the past few years, sports watches have become a popular choice for those seeking to blend style with functionality. At their core, these watches are designed to perform under pressure, telling not just the time, but a story of adventure, resilience and precision engineering. He expands by telling me that they're ideal for those who enjoy exercise or are looking to start their fitness journey. 'A high-tech watch is just that—a timepiece that incorporates advanced technology to offer features beyond traditional timekeeping,' he says. With everything you need at the flick of a wrist, high-tech watches, or smartwatches, often feature notifications, apps, fitness tracking or GPS. They can be worn daily or for specific purposes, like fitness tracking for visits to the gym or when training for an upcoming sporting event. The latest Apple Watch, the Series 10, includes a collection of Hermès bands that draws on the maison's rich history in textiles and craftsmanship. They come in several finishes: the Torsade (a cable-knit band inspired by nautical chains, available in single and double tour versions in one of three bold colors), the Twill Jump Attelage (a narrow, delicate single tour band with a contrasting edge and silky feel) and the Grand H, Hermès's first metal band for Apple Watch, made with interlocking links of satin-finished stainless steel. It features two H-shaped, removable links that allow for size adjustment, as well as a traditional double butterfly closure. Apple Watch Series 10 Hermes, Grand H band, in collaboration with Hermes. Other fun straps can be bought to customize your smartwatch in different colors and finishes, such as the Konsu NYC, which are crafted in New York City using Italian top-grain calfskin leather. ' Garmin Tactix 8 47mm AMOLED Smartwatch Whether you opt for a classic or modern design, gifting a watch can be a meaningful and practical gift that dads can enjoy all year round. Bruce Andrews highlights that whether it's for your own father, father-in-law, or a father figure, you're sure to find a match that perfectly suits his style—and give a gift which he can treasure for many years to come. KONSU NYC Apple watch straps can add personality to your smartwatch.
Business Insider
22-04-2025
- Science
- Business Insider
Google just fired the first shot of the next battle in the AI war
A new research paper, co-authored by Google's David Silver, just proposed a radical new AI era. "The Era of Experience" tackles training data scarcity by having AI agents generate their own data. This may be a Google dis of OpenAI and the current approach of using human data to train AI models. There are so many AI research papers these days, it's hard to stand out. But one paper has fired up a lot of discussion across the tech industry in recent days. "This is the most inspiring thing I've read in AI in the last two years," startup founder Suhail Doshi wrote on X this weekend. Jack Clark, cofounder of Anthropic, featured the paper in Monday's edition of his Import AI newsletter, which is closely read by thousands of industry researchers. Written by Google researcher David Silver and Canadian computer scientist Rich Sutton, the paper boldly announces a new AI era. The authors identify two previous modern AI eras. The first was epitomized by AlphaGo, a Google AI model that famously learned to play the board game "Go" better than humans in 2015. The second is the one we're in right now, defined by OpenAI's ChatGPT. Silver and Sutton say we're now entering a new period called "the Era of Experience." For me, this represents a new attempt by Google to tackle one of AI's most persistent problems — the scarcity of training data — while moving beyond a technological approach that OpenAI basically won. The Simulation Era Let's start with the first era, which, according to the authors, was the "Simulation Era." In this period, roughly the mid-2010s, researchers used digital simulations to get AI models to play games repeatedly to learn how to perform like humans. We're talking millions and millions of games, such as chess, poker, Atari, and "Gran Turismo," played over and over, with rewards dangled for good results — thus teaching the machines what's good versus bad and incentivizing them to pursue better strategies. This method of reinforcement learning, or RL, produced Google's AlphaGo. And it also helped to create another Google model called AlphaZero, which discovered new strategies for chess and "Go," and changed the way that humans play these games. The problem with this approach: Machines trained this way did well on specific problems with precisely defined rewards, but couldn't tackle more general, open-ended problems with vague payoffs, according to the authors. So, probably not really full AI. The Human Data Era The next area was kicked off by another Google research paper published in 2017. " Attention is All You Need" proposed that AI models should be trained on mountains of human-created data from the internet. Just by allowing machines to pay "attention" to all this information, they would learn to behave like humans and perform as well as us on a wide variety of different tasks. This is the era we're in now, and it has produced ChatGPT and most of the other powerful generative AI models and tools that are increasingly being used to automate tasks such as graphic design, content creation, and software coding. The key to this era has been amassing as much high-quality, human-generated data as possible, and using that in massive, compute-intensive training runs to imbue AI models with an understanding of the world. While Google researchers kicked off this era of human data, most of these people left the company and started their own things. Many went to OpenAI and worked on technology that ultimate produced ChatGPT, which is by far the most successful generative AI product in history. Others went on to start Anthropic, another leading generative AI startup that runs Claude, a powerful chatbot and AI agent. A Google dis? Many experts in the AI industry, and some investors and analysts on Wall Street, think that Google may have dropped the ball here. It came up with this AI approach, but OpenAI and ChatGPT have run away with most of the spoils so far. I think the jury is still out. However, you can't help but think about this situation when the authors seem to be dissing the era of human data. "It could be argued that the shift in paradigm has thrown out the baby with the bathwater," they wrote. "While human-centric RL has enabled an unprecedented breadth of behaviours, it has also imposed a new ceiling on the agent's performance: agents cannot go beyond existing human knowledge." Silver and Sutton are right about one aspect of this. The supply of high-quality human data has been outstripped by the insatiable demand from AI labs and Big Tech companies that need fresh content to train new models and move their abilities forward. As I wrote last year, it has become a lot harder and more expensive to make big leaps at the AI frontier. The Era of Experience The authors have a pretty radical solution for this, and it's at the heart of the new Era of Experience that they propose in this paper. They suggest that models and agents should just get out there and create their own new data through interactions with the real world. This will solve the nagging data-supply problem, they argue, while helping the field attain AGI, or artificial general intelligence, a technical holy grail where machines outperform humans in most useful activities. "Ultimately, experiential data will eclipse the scale and quality of human-generated data," Silver and Sutton write. "This paradigm shift, accompanied by algorithmic advancements in RL, will unlock in many domains new capabilities that surpass those possessed by any human." Any modern parent can think of this as the equivalent of telling their child to get off the couch, stop looking at their phone, and go be outside and play with their friends. There are a lot richer, satisfying, and more valuable experiences out there to learn from. Clark, the Anthropic cofounder, was impressed by the chutzpah of this proposal. "Papers like this are emblematic of the confidence found in the AI industry," he wrote in his newsletter on Monday, citing "the gumption to give these agents sufficient independence and latitude that they can interact with the world and generate their own data." Examples, and a possible final dis The authors float some theoretical examples of how this might work in the new Era of Experience. An AI health assistant could ground a person's health goals into a reward based on a combination of signals such as their resting heart rate, sleep duration, and activity levels. (A reward in AI is a common way to incentivize models and agents to perform better. Just like you might nag your partner to exercise more by saying they'll get stronger and look better if they go to the gym.) An educational assistant could use exam results to provide an incentive or reward, based on a grounded reward for a user's language learning. A science agent with a goal to reduce global warming might use a reward based on empirical observations of carbon dioxide levels, Silver and Sutton suggest. In a way, this is a return to the previous Era of Simulation, which Google arguably led. Except this time, AI models and agents are learning from the real world and collecting their own data, rather than existing in a video game or other digital realm. The key is that, unlike the Era of Human Data, there may be no limit to the information that can be generated and gathered for this new phase of AI development. In our current human data period, something was lost, the authors argue: an agent's ability to self-discover its own knowledge. "Without this grounding, an agent, no matter how sophisticated, will become an echo chamber of existing human knowledge," Silver and Sutton wrote, in a possible final dis to OpenAI.
