Officine Panerai dives into the digital age with a new iPhone app. The app is available at no cost in iTunes (link below). Now Paneristi everywhere can share the Panerai experience anytime, anywhere. The app offers users exclusive information about new collections, upcoming events, and official boutique locations. A game lets you test your Paneristi knowledge, and you can download wallpapers and high-res images. Panerai customers can also locate and contact product service experts throughout the world.

You can click here to preview and download the app.

Newly released Celebrity Watches traces well-known and obscure connections between leading watch brands and their famous owners. From Napoleon to Steve McQueen and Einstein to Shaq, the author, a Paris-based watch journalist, chronicles the intersections between brand history and celebrity.

Each of the book’s 23 chapters focuses on a watch brand, with big time and smaller players represented. Rolex, Omega, Cartier, and Patek Philippe are chronicled alongside fashion-oriented brands like Boucheron, Dior, and Chanel. Each chapter presents a compact brand history, photos and descriptions of representative watches, and images of the celebrities who wear them. The book’s 160 pages contain 200 color and 50 black and white photographs including portraits, studio shots, publicity stills and paparazzi snaps.

Celebrity Watches profiles movie and rock stars, sportsmen and women, politicians, and other VIPs including historical figures such as Queen Elizabeth and Marie Antoinette, celebrities from bygone days like Duke Ellington and Charles Lindbergh, stars from Hollywood’s golden age such as Humphrey Bogart, Liz Taylor and Clark Gable, and modern stars including Rihanna, Hugh Laurie, and Ben Affleck.

JFK wore an 18 carat gold Cartier watch given to him by his wife Jacqueline for their fourth wedding anniversary. It is inscribed with the President’s initials, the Kennedy family arms, and their wedding date.

The modern Lindbergh Hour Angle Watch by Longines.

Most well-known watch connections get a nod: there’s a selection of James Bond Rolexes and Omegas (Connery, Brosnan and Craig), Omegas in space, McQueen’s Monaco, Stallone’s Panerai, Elvis and the Ventura, Lindbergh’s Hour Angle, and Newman’s Daytona are all presented, though you won’t find Arnold with his AP, John Travolta sporting a Breitling, or Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne with his TAG Heuer.

The Omega Seamaster played parts in GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies and the World is Not Enough.

Leonardo DiCaprio wears a Tag Heuer Carrera Caliber 16 Day-Date Chronograph

Celebrity Watches is a light look at a cross-section of watch brands, and the famous people who wear them. Those seeking in-depth historical accounts and technical horological insights may not be entirely satisfied, but if you like watches and you are style conscious or star struck, you may want to add this title to your collection. Celebrity Watches is available at most book stores, online booksellers, and at www.voyageurpress.com.

Celebrity Watches by Vincent Daveau
ISBN: 978-0-7603-3836-0
Hardcover / 9 ½ x 9 ½ / 160 pages / 200 color & 50 b&w photos
Published May, 2010
MSRP $30.00 US $37.50 CAN

For those of you who like to collect watch images, we’ve assembled a few that we presented in larger resolutions during the past year. We have a little of everything… something old, something new, something for everyone. Simply click the smaller images to view the larger versions. Enjoy!

Happy 2010 from WatchTime!

For those who may have missed it, this was our featured article last week, and it was so popular, we’ve carried it over. Say goodbye to 2009 with this WIS quiz on some of the year’s top stories. To see how you did, or to ensure a perfect score, scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the answers.

1. What watch brand ceased having its movements certified with the Geneva Seal and instead introduced its own quality seal?
A. Vacheron Constantin
B. Roger Dubuis
C. Patek Philippe
D. Piaget

2. Which of the following brand CEOs did NOT resign or get fired during the year?
A. Fabian Krone, A. Lange & Söhne
B. Georges Kern, IWC
C. Michael Nieto, Baume & Mercier
D. Manuel Emch, Jaquet Droz

3. What major change took place at Rolex effective Jan. 1, 2009?
A. It stopped sending its movements to COSC for certification.
B. It discontinued its Tudor line.
C. CEO Patrick Heiniger resigned.
D. It relocated its movement-making operations to Geneva so the movements would qualify for the Geneva Seal.

4. What major watch-industry figure died during the year?
A. André Heiniger of Rolex
B. Kintaro Hattori of Seiko
C. Henri Stern of Patek Philippe
D. Gedalio Grinberg of Movado

5. What did Cartier celebrate at a celebrity-studded party in New York on April 30?
A. Its 100th anniversary in the U.S. market
B. The 150th anniversary of its founding
C. Its first watch with an in-house movement
D. A new version of the Tank watch

6. The year’s highest price for a watch at auction was for the yellow-gold version of Patek Philippe’s Calibre 89, sold by Antiquorum in November. What was the price?
A. $3.1 million
B. $4.1 million
C. $5.1 million
D. $6.1 million

7. Attendance by U.S. watch buyers at Geneva’s SIHH luxury watch fair in January
A. Was about the same as in 2008.
B. Fell by an estimated 20%.
C. Fell by an estimated 40%.
D. Fell by an estimated 60%.

8. On Sept. 17, Antiquorum sold for $18,000 a Vacheron Constantin given by one celebrity to another. Who were the giver and recipient, respectively?
A. Zsa Zsa Gabor and Marlon Brando
B. Doris Day and Rock Hudson
C. Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong
D. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz

9. What brand launched its first in-house movement?
A. Panerai
B. Frédérique Constant
C. Breitling
D. Blancpain

10. Switzerland’s Competition Commission (Comco) began an investigation of the Swatch Group’s ETA movement-making subsidiary for possible
A. refusal to sell movements to other watch companies.
B. predatory hiring practices.
C. dumping movements below cost.
D. discriminatory pricing.

11. What clothing designer launched a watch brand under the Richemont Group umbrella?
A. Marc Jacobs
B. Betsey Johnson
C. Ralph Lauren
D. Calvin Klein

12. Madame Tussauds unveiled a Barack Obama waxwork complete with wristwatch. What brand is the watch?
A. TAG Heuer
B. Jorg Gray
C. Mido
D. Timex