Latest news with #IWC
Iraqi News
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Iraqi News
5th Baghdad IWC kicks off
Baghdad-INA The Fifth Baghdad International Water Conference (IWC) kicked off today, Saturday, under the patronage and attendance of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. An Iraqi News Agency (INA) correspondent said, "The activities of the Fifth Baghdad Water Conference, organized by the Ministry of Water Resources, kicked off today under the slogan 'Water and Technology: Partnership for Development." The correspondent noted that "the conference was held under the patronage and attendance of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, with the participation of several Arab and foreign countries," he noted that "the conference will discuss precision irrigation and modern water technology."
South China Morning Post
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
7 timepiece moments from March and April 2025: Watches & Wonders, the effects of Trump's tariffs, and a bevy of new releases to get excited about
This March and April, the world once again descended on Geneva for the year's biggest watch fair, Watches and Wonders. But hanging over the fair were US President Donald Trump's tariffs on the Swiss watchmaking industry, and brands seem increasingly likely to price up their watches as a result. Nevertheless, we were cheered to spot several stars wearing Rolexes on television recently, or grail watches off screen; Breitling added another aviation-themed vintage brand to its expanding catalogue; and Philips in Association with Bacs & Russo are putting several beautiful clocks up for auction. 1. Watches and Wonders Visitors attend the opening day of the Watches and Wonders Geneva luxury watch fair, in Geneva, Switzerland, on April 1. Photo: EPA-EFE Advertisement The biggest event on the high horology calendar landed at Palexpo in Geneva during the first week of April, and the Style team was on the ground to take a closer look at all the new releases. Sixty brands showcased their novelties in stunning booths to over 55,000 attendees. This year's edition was also arguably one of the most star-studded yet, as Kim Woo-bin visited Jaeger-LeCoultre, Jay Chou visited Tudor, Eileen Gu and Simone Ashley visited IWC Schaffhausen, Gianna Jun visited Piaget and Kylian Mbappe visited Hublot along with Usain Bolt, just to name a few. Jay Chou visits the Tudor Booth at Watches and Wonders 2025 in Geneva. Photo: Handout Brands had a lot to say this year. Rolex officially unveiled its first five-hertz movement with the Land Dweller, whilst Vacheron Constantin celebrated its 270th anniversary and also released the most complicated wristwatch ever made (the Les Cabinotiers Solaria). Bulgari made its first-ever appearance at the fair, debuting the thinnest tourbillon watch in the world, while Cartier revisited its Tank à Guichets , an art deco jumping hours watch design from the 1920s. A Tank à Guichets watch displayed at Cartier's stand during the opening day of the Watches and Wonders on April 1. Photo: Agence France-Presse We cover the fair in-depth on the rest of the Style website, most notably the major trends present at this year's event, and why gold was so prominent 2. Watches affected by Trump's tariffs
Scottish Sun
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
We built our incredible home from scratch – now it's in the running for BBC Scotland's Home of the Year
THE judges – interior designers Anna Campbell-Jones and Banjo Beale and architect Danny Campbell - must run the rule over the home GORGEOUS GAFF We built our incredible home from scratch – now it's in the running for BBC Scotland's Home of the Year Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A FAMILY hopes to milk their success on Scotland's Home of the Year - after turning an old farm steading into their Californian dream home. Chris and Jessica Zanoni, 45 and 39, their son Chase, 18, and dogs Enzo and Dino all feature in the new series of the hit BBC series as they show off the unique property in Pitmedden, Aberdeenshire. Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter Sign up 5 It's a stunning home. Credit: Kirsty Anderson / IWC 5 The home gets a lot of natural light. Credit: Kirsty Anderson / IWC 5 There's a lot of modern twists on the traditional farm steading. Credit: Kirsty Anderson / IWC 5 The bathroom looks very plush. Credit: Kirsty Anderson / IWC Dubbed Hilltop House, the building was designed around the original footprint of the farm and given a modern twist when they created their dream home from scratch. The judges – interior designers Anna Campbell-Jones and Banjo Beale and architect Danny Campbell - must run the rule over the home, as well as a modern build in Orkney and a Victorian farmhouse in Peterhead, to see who will represent the North East and the Northern Isles in the Scotland's Home of the Year grand final. Designer Chris reckons building your own home is becoming more popular. He said: "The actual process of building a house is so much fun and it can be quite addictive. "It takes a lot of your time but the creative process is a lot of fun "It was an old farm building but we knocked most of it down and kept good parts like granite walls and arch window features and slid in pretty much a brand new house. "A lot of people would love to build their own home. It's such an important part of your life. I spend so much time in this house it's insane. "There's no limitations. This house almost echoes the original building that was here in terms of shape and footprint but we can do new things and add nice glazing and natural light into the building. "You can put your own stamp on it." Chris, who has lived in the house for five years, said the whole process should have taken seven months to complete. I was struggling to pay my rent but my creative side hustle paid for my home for a year – it costs me nothing to run However, Covid led to postponement when the building was just two weeks from completion. He added: "It's quite popular in the north east at the moment. "I've got two more neighbours either side who also built brand new homes. "So this is like a mini development of self builds. "I look out my window and can see four and I have another friend with one too. "There's a lot of old agricultural type properties that fell apart and planners are open to developing them." But despite having what many would consider their dream home, Chris and his family don't think they'll stay there forever. He admitted: "Me and Jess talk about it and we don't like the idea of a forever home, we like the idea of moving on. "It could be every five years you start a new project."
Japan Today
21-04-2025
- Business
- Japan Today
Japan whaling ship departs for Okhotsk to hunt fin whales
A commercial whaling ship left a western Japanese port Monday for the Sea of Okhotsk to hunt 25 fin whales. The crew of the ship, which left Shimonoseki port, plans to start hunting fin whales in the exclusive economic zone, north of the northern island of Hokkaido, from Friday and is set to return to port in Sendai in northeastern Japan in June. Four such trips are planned in fiscal 2025 through next March, and the crew hope to catch a total of 229 fin and other whales, one less than the number caught the previous fiscal year. Japan resumed hunting whales for commercial purposes in 2019 after formally withdrawing from the International Whaling Commission. As an IWC member, Japan had halted commercial whaling in 1988 but continued to hunt whales for what it called research purposes, a practice criticized internationally as a cover for commercial whaling. © KYODO
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Swiss watches will face some of the highest U.S. tariffs at 31%—and its ripple effects will change the industry's dynamic
Steep U.S. tariffs are set to hit Switzerland and its marquee watchmaking industry hard following a 31% levy. Switzerland, which has famously stayed neutral on most matters, including European integration, faces one of the highest levies on the continent. Its top business lobby has described the levies as 'harmful and unjustified.' From cheese to chocolate and medicines, all of Switzerland's biggest exports faced shockwaves following President Donald Trump's announcement last week. The U.S. is Switzerland's largest export market for watches, making their trade relationship crucial to the country. In 2024, the value of Swiss watch exports to the States rose 5% to CHF 4.3 billion ($5.2 billion). Demand from the Chinese market has also gradually declined since the COVID-19 pandemic, so watch companies have turned to Americans to fuel their sales. Richemont, the Swiss company behind IWC and Jaeger-LeCoultre, observed this trend in its sales last year. Plus, due to the history and heritage of these brands, watchmakers cannot simply move their production away from Switzerland because so much of the industry's expertise is centered there. The biggest watch companies will likely resort to hiking the prices of their exquisite high-end watches, but brands catering to the mid-level consumer are in more trouble, Pierre-Yves Donzé, a professor of business history at Osaka University and a watch industry specialist, told Fortune. 'Exclusive luxury brands such as Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and Richard Mille have little to worry about. They can reduce their (highly profitable) margins somewhat and pass on part of the increase in the selling price,' Donzé said. 'On the other hand, it is a blow for mid-range or exclusive luxury brands, for which the selling price is a determining factor. I am thinking in particular of the brands of Swatch Group, a company in great difficulty.' Swatch owns brands across different price ranges—from Tissot to its eponymous Swatch brand and Omega. It has been reeling from a drop in Chinese demand, with its net sales plummeting 14% last year. When tariffs hit, some of its watches could become much more expensive, putting them out of reach for the average U.S. shopper. The last time a similar degree of tariffs was imposed was nearly 100 years ago when the Smoot-Hawley Act kicked in. The tariffs are thought to have triggered the Great Depression in the early 1930s. At the time, Switzerland boycotted U.S. products to oppose the measures. 'This led to a significant decline in international trade and adversely affected industries reliant on exports and imports, including the watch sector,' said Paul Altieri, CEO of Bob's Watches, a secondhand watch marketplace and a certified pre-owned Rolex watch dealer. He expects the demand for preowned watches—an area that often attracts watch collectors—to spike as a result of the tariffs. 'If the new watch market slows under the weight of tariffs, the pre-owned market may very well become the lifeboat. Savvy buyers looking for value—and availability—will quickly pivot to secondhand, and that could reshape the luxury watch landscape in ways we haven't seen before,' Altieri said. In the meantime, while the watch market adjusts to the new volatility, the CEO of another secondhand platform is already starting to see changes in shopping behavior. "One client agreed to sell me a Rolex GMT-Master II 'Pepsi' for $19,350, then backed out last minute, telling me he wants to wait a few weeks because his watch 'might be worth another 10–20%.' That's an additional $2,000 to $4,000 dollars in value added overnight … just on speculation," said Robertino Altieri, who runs Donzé, who recently authored a book on Rolex, isn't sure the secondhand marketplace will be a big winner as it's always known to sell watches above market rates. 'On the secondary market, watches are either much more expensive than the new one (due to a very high demand, but for a handful of brands and models, like Rolex, AP and Patek) or much cheaper (for most brands, because the demand for second-hand models is very low),' he said in an email. Whichever way watchmakers respond, Switzerland has a lot on the line. President Karin Keller-Sutter said her government is planning its response following Trump's announcement of tariffs. "The country's long-term economic interests are paramount. Adherence to international law and free trade remain core values," she said in a post on X. This story was originally featured on Sign in to access your portfolio
