A luxury timepiece created by Swiss watchmakers Romain Jerome using rust salvaged from the wreckage of the Titanic was officially presented to Omar Alfardan at the Watch and Jewellery Exhibition last night, where a representative of the company described it as a “truly unique item.” Alfardan, who said he was at the exhibition “only as a buyer,” was presented the watch by the representative, who explained that the piece was one of only six in the world, valued at half a million Swiss francs, which is equivalent to about QR1,575,000. “We have designed one watch representing each ocean, and one to represent the exact location that the Titanic was sunk,” she said, explaining that the piece here was named after the Atlantic ocean. She described how the steel in the item was a fusion of noble material including rusted steel from the wreck and metal from the Titanic 2 which is scheduled to be launched in 2012, 100 years after the original ship sank. The spokesperson explained that the watch was a “very complicated design” which has been in development for five years, adding “whereas other companies have gold, silver and diamonds, no one else in the world has this rusted steel from the Titanic, for which there is no substitute and no competition.” The metal from the infamous ship has been used to create the Titanic DNA collection, which features some 2012 pieces to match the date of the new ship’s launch. But the six “Cabestan” pieces stand alone as truly unique and special items, with which Alfardan was clearly very impressed. “This is a one and only product, and is an extremely complicated and complex design which took a long time to develop,” he said, adding “it is a very expensive watch and I am very glad to have this unique item.” The other items are scattered throughout the world, with private collectors owning one each in Dubai, South America and Russia, with two others being held in confidential locations. Each piece is sold with a certificate of authenticity from the Harland and Wolff shipyard where the Titanic was built, and according to Romain Jerome, the combination of old and new contains, “the DNA of famous legends, but also a message of rebirth and new life.” http://gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=274919&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

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