Synthetic diamonds are the alchemist's dream. But not all that glitters is precious, nor even necessarily beyond reproach. A look at a fast-growing and poorly controlled market.

Last year marked what would have been Marilyn Monroe’s 90th birthday. In honour of this, Julien's auctions hosted a special event which saw hundreds of items from the icon’s personal collection, including a never-before-seen Blancpain cocktail watch paved with diamonds.

As the Omega Speedmaster turns 60, when better to look back on a saga that packs half a century of timekeeping history into a single watch.

Compared to a three-hand mechanical watch, the stopwatch/chronograph gives a whole new meaning to time which is no longer simply "accounted for" but started, stopped, reset and sliced into segments. In this evolutionary ladder, one important chapter rightfully belongs to the Zenith El Primero, introduced in 1969.

Reports of mechanical watchmaking's death are greatly exaggerated, as Ulysse Nardin sets out to prove with the Freak, a game-changer since its launch in 2001 that continues its drive to take watchmaking into the future.

Launched with the third millennium and revisited for the 100th anniversary of the tonneau form, the Malte collection testifies to the technical expertise and creative aesthetics associated with Vacheron Constantin. With it, the Manufacture expresses the different facets of its art to outstanding effect, particularly when embracing the demands of its form completely.