THE DISCREET COLLECTORS

Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet lead pre-owned watch prices to three-year low

By Hamza Masood The second half of 2024 is shows no sign of ending the steady decline in price for luxury watches on the ...

From Patek Philippe to Audemars Piguet: 5 Best luxury watches for men

With a multitude of options available, here are five of the best luxury watches for men that you can explore. The Patek ...

The Armory Show 2024 Pommery Prize is awarded to Anina Major.

The Armory Show 2024 has named Bahamian sculptor Anina Major the winner of its annual Pommery Prize, supported by Pommery Champagne. The prize grants $20,000 to a single artist from the fair’s Platform section, which is dedicated to large-scale installations and was curated by Eugenie Tsai this year. TERN Gallery is showcasing Major’s sculpture, The Landing (2024). Positioned at the heart of the Platform section, The Landing showcases m

Cape Breton Fossil Centre in Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia

Improbably located in a parking lot, down a side street in the former coal and steel town of Sydney Mines, this poor-marked 5,000 square foot museum houses the largest collection of 'Coal Age' (Carboniferous) fossil plants in Atlantic Canada, as well as 300 million-year-old fossil animals, trackways, and local rocks and gems. Collectively, these fossils tell a story of the dawn of the first true forests, when Cape Breton was a tropical paradise, lying near the equator, thousands of miles from

Gastro Obscura's 10 Essential Places to Eat and Drink in Portugal

Formerly neglected by tourists but now fully on the beaten path, Portugal is having a moment. Yet the country still suffers from visitors thinking they’re in Spain. As a result, paella, tapas and sangría are now ubiquitous in the country that doesn’t really consume them, to the frustration of locals proud of their cuisine. Whereas much of neighboring Spain’s food is influenced by the Mediterranean, it could be argued that Portugal’s is an Atlantic cuisine. This means many of the same ingredient

Añashuayco Quarry in Arequipa, Peru

Affectionately deemed "the white city" for its distinctive volcanic stones, Arequipa’s old town is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site—and it has everything to do with the fossilized gas, or sillar, mined within the local quarries of the Chachani Volcano. However, the Añashuayco quarry has a unique charm as artists have discovered these lightweight stones also happen to make the perfect material for carving sculptures. Thirty-five minutes outside Arequipa, visitors can visit the Añashua

Galleria EL in Elblag, Poland

Following the horrors of World War II, most of Europe was left in ruins and the city of Elblag in Poland was no exception. This Hanseatic League city was nearly completely flattened along with the church of The Blessed Virgin Mary in its historic center. The church lay in ruins without funding to rebuild until 1961, when local artist Gerard Kwiatkowski approached the government with a proposition. He was to use the site of the church ruins as a modern exploratory art museum. With a space that

Odoriba Station in Yokohama, Japan

Odoriba Station is one of the subway stations on the Blue Line, which runs across the city of Yokohama. The name could mean "staircase landing" but literally "dancing place," and in this case it's the latter. Not only that, it comes from a curious, obscure local legend. A few centuries ago, the area was a post station called Totsuka-shuku where many travelers from Edo (Tokyo) stopped by on their way west. A family of three once ran an inn here with two servants and a black cat named Tora ("tig

Our Memories Are Stored in Triplicate

Memory weaves itself into our language through countless idioms. You can clear it, jog it, or have it etched in your mind. You might take a stroll down memory lane or lose your train of thought, capture a moment with a mental picture or simply let something slip your mind. Some of us have a memory like a sieve, while others are said to remember like an elephant, or have a mind like a steel trap.We have so much language for describing memory—much of it contradictory—because what and how we rememb

Kunstwerk 't Draaiend Huys in Tilburg, Netherlands

On a roundabout in the city of Tilburg there is an unusual piece of art. Artist John Körmeling designed this structure to rotate slowly around a circular track on the roundabout. It was completed in 2008 but designed to resemble Dutch houses from the '60s and '70s in style. The building looks stationary at any point in time, but if you returned to it after a few hours you will find it facing a completely different part of the road. Lights inside the building turn on at night.

Bailey's Tump in Matlock, England

"Tump" is an old-fashioned English term for a mound, usually one made of earth. At Bailey's Tump, which was named for landowner Ernest Bailey, the mound arose from excavations to install the massive iron pipeline that formed the Derwent Valley Aqueduct to carry water from the Derwent, Howden, and (later) the Ladybower reservoirs (over 20 miles north) to the industrial cities of the East Midlands. At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the mound was used to create an air defense installation

Meet the Bone-Eating Vulture That Dyes Itself the Color of Blood

Each week, Atlas Obscura is providing a new short excerpt from our upcoming book, Wild Life: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Living Wonders (September 17, 2024). Vultures are not always the most visually appealing birds. But bearded vultures, or lammergeiers, are beautifully done up, with glossy dark wings, long thin goatees, and KISS-worthy eye masks. Their chests, heads, and legs are especially impressive, colored the rich red brown of polished mahogany. They deserve much of the credit

Pyramides d'Euseigne in Hérémence, Switzerland

Euseigne is a small village in the Val d’Hérens, one of the southern side valleys located off of Switzerland's Rhône valley. It is home to a set of unique geological formations known as the Pyramides d'Euseigne. The pyramids are a type of geological formation known as fairy chimneys or hoodoos. Each one reaches a height between 10 and 15 meters. The tall, thin spires of rock formed during the Würm, the last glacial period in the Alpine region, which ended approximately 11,700 years ago. As th

$CRAP$ Shrine in Tres Piedras, New Mexico

This small, handmade shrine was conceived by visual artist Tony Stamolis as part of his ongoing multimedia project, $CRAP$. The "modern sacred space" was inspired by Greek Orthodox and New Mexican chapels, "with a little stupa thrown in." Built by local artisans as a sanctuary "to find the quiet mind," it is intended to take one back to a stripped-down simplicity, to spend extended time both inside and out, and absorb the natural drama of the Upper Rio Grande Valley.

The 10 Best Booths at The Armory Show 2024

After a long, hot summer, New York is back in full swing. As the U.S. Open reaches its knockout stages in Flushing Meadows and New York Fashion Week hits runways across town, The Armory Show is celebrating its 30th anniversary at the Javits Center. On September 5th in Hudson Yards, New Yorkers and international guests alike swarmed the fair’s VIP day on a near-perfect sunny day.“We’re New York’s fair,” said Kyla McMillan, The Armory Sho

Aryna Sabalenka’s $11,400 Worth Cartier Earrings in US Open 2024 Semi-Final Go Viral

During her US Open 2024 semi-final match, Sabalenka sported a pair of stunning Cartier earrings that have quickly gone viral.

Yoyo Cao shines in Cartier’s Nature Sauvage as she waxes lyrical about her decade in fashion

As she celebrates a decade in fashion, influencer, entrepreneur and Friend of Cartier Yoyo Cao reveals what continues to ...

Mark Zuckerberg upgrades to $141K Patek Philippe after being inspired by Mukesh Ambani's son

The Meta CEO trades his $500 Garmin smartwatch for a $141,000 Patek Philippe Grand Complication 5236P in platinum.

Singer Clock Tower in Wittenberge, Germany

This former sewing machine factory has shaped Wittenberg's skyline since 1929 with its distinctive clock tower, which was initially under the name Singer and later under the Veritas brand. The industrial structure retains most of its original architectural features, although the clock's internal workings have been replaced. Today, the clock itself is controlled via radio by the Braunschweig Institute of Physics. In the onsite exhibition, visitors can learn a lot about sewing machine productio

Al Capone’s Tomato Farm and Burt Reynolds Ranch in Jupiter, Florida

Driving down Jupiter Farms Road might make you think about how much of Florida's wilderness has been turned into suburbs. But in this Florida suburb lies a secret linked to the famous Chicago mobster Al Capone and as well as movie star Burt Reynolds. In 1923, Al Capone purchased a property in what is now known as Jupiter Farms. As the Palm Beach Post reported, when he bought the property, Jupiter Farms Road didn't even have a stop light and was known as "Italian Farms Road." The area was known