Opinions & Essays

Mycah was grinning like a guy who just ran the table in billiards. A barber, easily in his 70s or 80s, practically danced around him, trimming his hair.

Rolex had just three CEOs in its first century of existence; it’s had three more in just the past eight years. This week, the iconic company made the latest change in its game of musical chairs, putting Jean-Frédéric Dufour, whom many will recognize as the man who turned Zenith around, in the hot seat.

The Mitsubishi Starion was one of the automotive standouts of the 1980s, not that it took much. It was angular everywhere but the wheels, but it did it right, and it was properly fast, too.

Jeremy Berger speaks to Brigadier General Avishai Peled, Deputy Commander of the Jerusalem Police District, about the safety of this year’s Jerusalem Marathon.

If those with little personality and no detectable level of driving skill get their way, the Google Autonomous Car will be the most welcomed news of their humdrum adult lives. Sure, it has a place in the automotive landscape, mitigating traffic and hopefully decreasing the number of accidents, but it also excites us as much as a bowl of Grape Nuts and skim milk.

The Porsche 918, the McLaren P1 and the Ferrari LaFerrari are still all about superlatives — fastest, best handling, most exotic. But they also repurpose the latest technology to maximize the “dear lord” factor.

We’ve been witness over the past few years of the rise of city bikes, hybrids, electric, and clean burning diesel cars; we’ve also seen prototypes of urban personal mobility vehicles, whose use will likely rise dramatically in the coming decades due to increased urbanization. And it’s our far east friends in Japan who at the forefront of the development of such vehicles, from robotically-assisted exoskeletons to enclosed electric scooters to portable motorized chairs.

BMW has spent the past several years making its cars more luxurious and better appointed for its upmarket customers. While BMW was upping the luxury, Lexus was moving in the opposite direction, not by making their cars any less luxurious, but instead placing a stronger emphasis — maybe even a bull’s-eye target — on sportiness.

One of the sublime joys of a tropical vacation is the beer. I’m not talking about anything you can find at your corner liquor store in Manhattan (Kansas or New York), or even those Mexican imports with the clever TV ads.

As much as I’d love to press my garage door opener and find a wickedly fast Audi A6 Avant 3.0 TDI bi-turbo or Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG S 4Matic Wagon waiting within, the real wagon of my dreams might actually be even more difficult to come by and definitely moves at geologic speed compared to the aforementioned family rocket sleds.

For years and years, mechanical watches served not only as everyday timekeepers but also legitimate tools: a diver’s underwater timing mechanism, a doctor’s pulsometer, a driver’s tachymeter. The list goes on.

In the history of the Winter Games, the most spectacular, over-the-top event to take place was a one-off: the Winter Pentathlon at the 1948 Winter Games. There may never have been a more elitist combination of athletic feats grouped together at one time before that fateful winter, and there likely hasn’t been since.

The phrase “Made in China” conjures up thoughts of inexpensive, low quality, and even knockoff products. While there is some fact behind these connotations, there isn’t an absolute truth.

Pop quiz, Hot Shot: if your goal were to charm your newest flame at the start of your first date together the more appropriate gift would be (a) a dozen roses or (b) the bloody severed head of your arch nemesis. Give up?

A century or more ago, watchmaking in the United States was the equal of any in the world. Unfortunately, in the intervening years that industry has largely gone away.

You wouldn’t think there’d be a lot to get hot and bothered about when it comes to antiquated and genteel timepieces. But just visit any of the countless web forums dedicated to this crazy hobby and you’ll see debates raging that would make even Presidential hopefuls blush.

Just over 30 years after saving the Swiss Watch industry, Swatch has once again broken trail into uncharted territory.

Swiss watch movement maker ETA supplies much of the horological world with movements and ébauches (partial movements in need of finishing). Then in 2002 Nicholas Hayek, then chairman of The Swatch Group (ETA’s parent company), announced that ETA would soon begin tapering back the supply of ébauches to the world of Swiss watchmaking beyond their sister brands.

Though the newer cars might be faster, safer and better appointed, they certainly don’t feel more agile or connected to the driver. In the name of technology, most sports sedans have lost a purity that once existed across the segment.

Hey there. Yeah, you, riding along in your cool color-coordinated cycling team kit, all matchy-matchy.