Opus 8

Harry Winston put a new spin on the concept of watches with mechanical-digital displays in the Opus 8 watch. The watch makes use of complicated, hand-wound mechanical movements to create a modern 3d time display. The time only shows up “upon request”, when a bolt on the side of the watch is pressed. The digits are rendered by tiny metal plates on a pegged disc that rise and then recede into the background. The three dimensional display is shown for five seconds.

The back of the face, too, is revolutionary, with an intricate digital time display of the hours, minutes, and an AM/PM function. If you’re drooling right now, sorry, keep dreaming. Only fifty watches of this collection were made, and all were reportedly sold out before the design was even unveiled for the public.

Canna Clock

The Canna Clock by ChronArte utilizes flowing water as a symbol of time and its passing for a unique display of art. Constructed of twelve clear acrylic tubes, water flows upward through the tubes as time passes. When all the tubes are full, they are emptied, and the cycle begins again. This clock is a real conversation piece, and can be the focal point of any room. Priced at a whopping twelve thousand dollars, it is also for those on a wide, and make that very wide, budget.

Casio G-Shock Glide Multi-Band Solar Special Edition

Now this watch is perfect for your Swiss relatives, with time that is guaranteed to always be perfectly accurate. G Shock Watches are known to offer a multitude of features, bordering on superfluous. This watch offers atomic timekeeping with time calibration through the use of radio waves from the U.S., UK, Germany, Japan, and China. Users may set the watch to an auto receive function, or manual receive of the time calibrating radio waves. Also included in this watch are features that are considered standard for Casio watches, including tough solar power, shock resistance, moon data, tide graphs, world time, and more.

M60m Watch

Although Diesel watches are sometimes considered futuristic everyday wear, this watch takes the cake. It tells time making due without the use of a face and hands. This handless, faceless watch by designer Roger Kellenberger tells time by way of a rotating inner ring as compared to stationary notches on an outer ring. There is a hole in the space where a face would be, showing the wearer’s hand. This watch is guaranteed to earn you double takes.

Abacus Watch

This watch is great for someone who cares more about fashion than function; just don’t buy it for your Swiss relative. Produced by the German Erich Lacher watch factory, it looks like a single ball bearing seems to float across the face of the sleek, stainless steel watch when telling the time. Wearers, however, will have to make do with a very visual estimate, as there are not markings or numbers. None. Also, it works by way of a magnet beneath the face that incrementally moves with the time. The ball floats around in conjunction with the wearer’s movements, until the watch is still, when it positions itself at the correct position. The only problem is that the magnet can only calibrate itself when the watch is perfectly still. Have you ever tried holding your hand perfectly still? It doesn’t happen.

S.T.A.M.P.S Watches

Lucien Piccard watches have long been known as luxury watches, but their newest line, Dufonte by Lucien Piccard, supplies affordable watches with the Lucien Piccard brand name. One of the signature watches in this collection is a watch with multiple, convertible faces and bands. S.T.A.M.P.S. watches take this concept to a whole new level, with watches inspired by postage stamps. Like a real stamp, they have adhesive backs and come in a huge selection of designs, with straps and faces that can be mixed and matched. The face, or postage stamp, can be stuck onto anything, allowing the wearer to simply stick the face onto their wrist, necklace, or any other desired place.

Sean Bay is a timepiece expert who has a love of timepieces that blow your mind. He recommends Dealsaholic for Anne Klein Watches, and other brand name watches at affordable prices.

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The Greed for Quiet Fireplace

Jan Brauer possesses a versatile and creative mind.  A background in both advertising and design, plus an understanding of the simple beauty of an adjustable common area, led to the creation of the Greed For Quiet fireplace.  Visually striking, this fireplace puts the “fun” in functional by incorporating five chairs that starburst away from the fire on planks, so it feel s a bit like you are floating.  Additionally, those chairs rotate a full 360 degrees around the fire, making the configuration adjustable.

A chimney extends from the ceiling over the fire itself, which keeps smoke from clogging the cozy circle.  This type of fireplace is an obvious commitment, as it takes up a lot of room and demands some installation, but it is such a special room feature that it might be worth the trouble.  It is probably equally good for deep, philosophical conversations, ghost stories, and nice social gatherings – with or without the kumbayas.

Bloch Design Glass Fireplace

This attractive glass fireplace is designed by Bloch Design, a French-based firm that has offices in the U.S. and Canada.  Bloch Design not only makes custom fireplaces – they do interior design, create furniture, contemporary art, and more.  This is their answer to an artistic fireplace.  It provides a beautiful focal point in the room that is functional as well – it actually gives off heat.

You can choose the style above, or you can opt for tinted glass, a different-shaped configuration of glass, or tinted glass instead of clear.  Additionally, you have a choice of what type of fire you want for your glass fireplace.  Bio-ethanol is one option, as is gas, or even old-fashioned wood.  It is not clear on how to get the wood in and out of the floor-to-ceiling structure, but for a room feature this unique, it is worth a little trouble.

The Vauni Cupola

Add the Vauni Cupola fireplace to the list of reasons to move to Sweden.  It weighs 59 ½ pounds, mounts to the wall as easily as a flat-screen TV, and is totally representative of sleek, modern, Swedish design.  Vauni is more about decorating with fire than they are about heating with fire, so don’t expect to roast a ton of marshmallows over this gorgeous piece of art, if you can even get one.  Vauni will not ship to The Americas, Africa, Asia, or the Pacific Islands.  In fact, the only countries outside the EU that can receive a Vauni Cupola are Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, Turkey, and Switzerland.  Presumably, you could go to a showroom in Sweden, but how would you get it home?

If you did, you would be the proud owner of either a white or black sculpture that holds fire.  The flame is adjustable, and fueled by bio-ethanol, so the piece is environmentally friendly.  No flue is needed, the bio-ethanol burns clean enough that the unit is vent-less.

Austroflamm’s Vogue Wood Stove

Austroflamm’s tagline is “Warmth at its best” and they are not kidding.  The design is pleasing to the eye for sure, but Austroflamm’s fireplaces and wood stoves are also very efficient.  They contain a “Heat Memory System” that warms a room quickly and helps it stay warm longer – up to 9 hours after the wood is burned up.  They contain a “storing material” which is made out of a substance that holds heat for a long time.

So in addition to being a truly efficient and warm heat source, the unit is also very pretty, with its double-bend glass window pane so you can see the burning logs, and its sleek and futuristic design.  Austroflamm has many different models of wood stoves, but this one caught our eye.  One U.S. retailer offers Austroflamm’s products – Euroflues in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Don’t worry, you’ll hear more about them soon.

Gyrofocus Fireplace

The Gyrofocus fireplace is not, as it were, the new hotness.  In fact, it is sort of vintage hotness.  Designed in the late 1960’s, this suspended fireplace has not only been exhibited in prominent museums, but it also recently won the Pulchra 2008-2009 award for Most Beautiful Object.  Setting aside the coolness factor that a thing designed 40 years earlier (by Dominique Imbert) won over things like flat screen TVs, cell phones, and diamonds, the fireplace itself is cool enough to make you want to move into a house that will accommodate it and design a whole room around it.

In case you are planning on doing those things, you should know that it is about 50 inches around, and it rotates 360 degrees so the fire can point in whatever direction you want it to.  The flue length is adjustable, based on the height of your ceiling, it comes with a custom screen to keep sparks to a minimum.

You can order this classic and award-winning fireplace from Euroflues.  See?  I told you you’d hear more about them.

Spartatherm Rotating Fireplace

The model of this fireplace (which is technically a “stove”) is the Diva, possibly because of its ultra-modern design and sense of whimsy.  See, it spins.  It rotates.  It turns 360 degrees.  The unit itself, which is powered by gas, is about 4 feet tall and comes with an optional remote control.  Obviously, this provides a really interesting feature to the room, but it also provides a fair amount of heat that, because of the fact that the unit turns, can be distributed to every part of the room.

The company that makes it is called Spartatherm.  They are based in Germany, and it is hard to tell if anyone in the U.S. sells this particular item.  You might want to ask the Euroflues guys.  They might be able to get it for you.

As for Spartatherm, they have been around since 1986 and have grown since that time into a large company that has an international presence.  They have plants in Germany and Poland, and have over 500 employees.

Conmoto Travelmate Suitcase Fireplace

This portable fireplace is only about 2 feet wide and 1 1/12 feet tall.  It weighs about 55 pounds, and has a handle on top for easy carrying.  So you can bring the hotness with you wherever you go.  The frame is made of black powder-coated steel and the glass panel is attached with magnets for easy removal – and hence easy fire lighting.

Conmoto manufactures this item in (guess where?) Germany, but you can pick one of these portable romance machines on West Russell Road in Las Vegas – at a place called Unica Home.

Conmoto maintains that the bio-fueled fireplace is safe to put anywhere, even on carpet.  I would suggest only putting it where it couldn’t tip over, but other than that the possibilities are endless!  You can bring ambiance and warmth with you wherever you go…so long as you can carry 55 pounds.