The Precious Collections

Another $250M on My Precious Twitter

2009-01-25T15:48:00.000-08:00

Twitter Inc. raised about $20 million in new investments based on a valuation of the company at up to $250 million.

The TechCrunch and the Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital blogs over the weekend both cited unnamed sources saying that the San Francisco-based micro-blogging company has followed up on its previous $20 million in funding with a similar sized round that has yet to be announced.

The new valuation of the company is about half what Palo Alto social networking company Facebook Inc. reportedly offered for Twitter over the summer, although most of that was said to be in Facebook stock which today is worth nowhere near what it was thought to at that time. Facebook's valuation was pegged at about $15 billion when Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) invested in it in 2007 but is now valued at less than $5 billion.

Brad Pitt & Rolex, I want them both!

2009-01-11T00:43:00.000-08:00

Precious Brad Pitt's Sexy Secret: My Precious Dreamboy Reveals All for Rolex in Japan

The Sexy Secret of my Precious Superstar Brad Pitt Is His Revealing Advertisements for Rolex Watches in Japan, Reports Melrose Jewelers, USA's #1 Online Rolex Watch Retailer

TOKYO - Brad Pitt & Rolex: There is no question that superstar actor Brad Pitt loves Rolex watches. He wears them in his movies, like the Ocean Trilogy and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and he wears Rolex watches in his private life. Brad Pitt, however, has a sexy secret, and it has nothing to do with Angelina Jolie or Jennifer Aniston. For several years, Brad Pitt appeared in Rolex Advertisements in Japan for the luxury goods company, Evance. These print and video spots, splashed across billboards and constantly running on television in the Japanese market, are nothing like his American and European fans have ever seen before. Showing Brad Pitt lying in bed half-naked, gazing at his Rolex Explorer like a satisfied lover, the Rolex advertisements quite simply would blow his adoring female fans away. In the print ads, Pitt looks like a rugged playboy as he lies in bed, wearing only his Rolex Daytona. With the opening of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" on Christmas day and his nomination for several top acting awards (still waiting on the Oscar nods in January), Pitt wants nothing more than to be taken seriously as an actor. And Brad Pitt is a serious actor, but his advertising work for Rolex reveals the inherent sex symbol lingering within.

This article, by John Lavitt, can be viewed in its entirety at the free MJ Rolex Watch Blog at: http://www.melrosejewelers.com/rolex-watch-blog/the-sexy-secret-brad-pitt-and-rolex-watches-in-japan/ or at the Melrose Jewelers Rolex watch website at www.melrosejewelers.jp.

Brad Pitt and Rolex watches intimately have been connected with each other for many years. The actor particularly has been known to be close, on both a professional and private level, with the Rolex Daytona. Commenting on the rarity of these ultra-popular Rolex watches, a South African newspaper pointed out: "Annual production of Rolexes is limited to an estimated 750,000 watches. The waiting list for the stainless steel Daytona runs up to five years. Demand for the prestigious Swiss timepieces -- with the crown imprimatur -- always exceeded the supply. Rolex cachet is such that during World War II, a German mountaineer pursued by British soldiers in India partially financed his escape by selling his watch to a remote Himalayan villager. That story is told in the Sony Pictures movie 'Seven Years in Tibet,' starring Brad Pitt."

Beyond this professional connection, Brad Pitt has been seen wearing a Rolex Daytona in his private life and recently he sold one of his Daytonas online. On a major online auction site, the following posting ran with an embedded link in the article that revealed a picture of Brad Pitt: "The steel Daytona needs no introduction; if you are viewing this piece you know what you are looking for. This 2004-2005 piece is in pristine condition, featuring the white dial. We purchased this timepiece from a large Hollywood dealer who supplies watches to the top movie stars. While confidential in nature, it does come with the Rolex paperwork indicating the identity of such owner. These stars trade their watches in often for brand new models (why put it in your closet when you can just get a new one, right?)"

Brad Pitt is a huge movie star and a talented actor with a private life plagued by the paparazzi, particularly given his marriage to fellow superstar Angelina Jolie. Nothing is bigger in the Western popular culture bubble than Brangelina. Beyond this given reality, Brad Pitt is not only a major Rolex watch owner, but he sold the watches as a pitchman in Japan. And those advertisements reveal a truly sexy secret: the dashing and rugged Brad Pitt that every woman in this country has been longing to see.

About Melrose Jewelers:

Melrose Jewelers sells nearly 400 styles of Rolex watches on its website along with brands including Cartier, Omega, Breitling and Audemars Piguet. Melrose Jewelers is a member of the NAWCC (National Association of Watch Collectors) and the MJSA (Manufacturers & Jewelers Association of America) and supports law enforcement through its Platinum Membership with the California Sheriff's Association. Melrose Jewelers is not an authorized agent or affiliated with Rolex USA, Rolex S.A., or Rolex International. Rolex Datejust, Rolex Oyster Perpetual, Rolex Day Date President and Presidential, Rolex Oyster, Rolex Submariner, Rolex GMT Master, & Rolex Daytona are trademarks of Rolex USA. All Rolex watches offered by Melrose Jewelers are Preowned; no new Rolex watches are available from Melrose Jewelers. Melrose Jewelers warranties its watches solely through its store. Rolex USA has no obligation to service watches sold by Melrose Jewelers.

About the Melrose Jewelers Rolex Watch Blog:

The Melrose Jewelers (MJ) Rolex Watch Blog is the world's largest independent news website about Rolex events and Rolex in pop culture. With over 300 articles and new articles and commentary updated daily, the Melrose Jewelers Rolex watch blog contains articles about Rolex watches owned by Barack Obama, John McCain,Jessica Simpson, Eric Clapton, John Mayer, Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Brad Pitt, Vince McMahon, Rita Hayworth, Benicio Del Toro, The Dalai Lama, Zara Phillips, Saddam Hussein, O.J. Simpson, Guy Ritchie, Madonna, Ana Ivanovic, Matt Damon, Genki Sudo, Drew Barrymore, DJ Am, Tim Tebow, Colt McCoy, Jay-Z, Ari Emanuel, Jennifer Aniston, Orlando Bloom, Paris Hilton, Daniel Craig, Tupac Shakur and Wiley, all viewable at http://www.melrosejewelers.ca/rolex-watch-blog/.

Melrose Jewelers has recently launched its Rolex website in Hong Kong, China at http://www.melrosejewelers.cn.com.

Dreaming to get the world's most expensive iPhone

2009-01-08T03:53:00.000-08:00

I was planning to get a custom design iPhone with diamonds and gold. But sad to say someone get the hell out of it before me. This phone is the most expensive in the world that even a rich precious girl like me could not afford it. Maybe in 5 more years I will hire a jewelry designer to design my iPhone that way but with the bigger stone for a budget of $3 Million. Tee hee!

Forget the recession - here's the world's most expensive phone....Forget the recession - here's the world's most expensive phone. This stunning diamond-encrusted iPhone will set you back a whopping $2,517,345 (£1.6m). The Apple iPhone 3G 'King's Button' i Photo: Barcroft

The handset is surrounded by a white gold line encrusted with a total of 138 brilliant cut diamonds of the best quality.

But the most prominent feature of the "Kings button" phone is its home button that features a rare 6.6 carat diamond.

Mr Aloisson, has a record of blurring the lines between gadget, art and jewellery.

In 1998 the controversial designer released his first diamond-encrusted mobile phone and earlier last year he launched a record-breaking $1.3 million dollar diamond crypto smart phone for Russian encrypting specialist company JSC Ancort.

Besides his "extravagant luxurious mobile phones" which he has been manufacturing for 8 years he also redesigns household objects.

The iPhone has capitalised on the sucess of the iconic iPod to become the most sought after of a new generation of smart phones.

However its competitors, including Microsoft's Zune, Google's G1 and Blackberry's Storm are raidly rolling out a new range of applications in a bid to close the gap.

My precious new travel companion

2009-01-05T17:56:00.000-08:00

I've finally found the precious companion for my business trips. Traveling with my new companion, I'm more productive than ever before. Everyone is fascinated by its presence, and we quickly become the center of attention on every flight.

The "companion" of which I speak is my new Acer Aspire One "netbook" computer. It has an 8.9" screen, 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive, which easily holds all my software and data files, including my entire music and digital photo collections. It came with the Windows XP operating system and a six cell battery that provides five solid hours of work time – enough juice for a transcontinental flight. Best of all, it weighs less than three pounds, is only 10" wide, and 7.5" high and deep when open. That means I can still work comfortably in any airplane, even stuck in a middle seat when the passenger in front slams their seat all the way back.

With 50 installed software programs, including AVG antivirus and the Carbonite automatic file backup service constantly running in the background, the Aspire One is still by far the fastest computer I've ever used. I have already consumed 105GB of hard drive space with over 200,000 files, yet my Acer boots up in less than a minute. Oh, and by the way this little computer is readily available for under $400.

It's no wonder my computer becomes the focus of my fellow passengers on every flight. Everyone wants to know how I like it and how much I paid for it. One flight attendant asked to hold it to compare the weight with her current laptop. At airports, in meetings or just about anywhere, my Acer is a conversation starter. Even on a San Francisco BART rapid transit train I was accosted by a stranger who asked a litany of questions about the Acer's performance and my level of satisfaction with it.

My little Acer is one of a new breed of "netbook" computers which are smaller and lighter than traditional notebook computers and are likely to revolutionize the way business travelers work on the road. Acer is just one of a growing number of netbook producers offering comparable, similarly priced machines. I've recently seen similar netbooks from Asus, Averatec, Dell, Hewlett Packard, Lenovo, Q2 Designs, and Toshiba. Some with smaller hard drives are selling for under $300. My Acer netbook uses the speedy new Intel Atom processor, which was designed specifically to power these small computers.

Until recently, computers this small sold for thousands of dollars. For years I've been resigned to carrying a considerably larger and heavier laptop which better fit my budget. With batteries typically lasting two hours or less, every time I purchased a new computer I had to invest in additional batteries to be able to work all day in a meeting room with no electrical outlets or to provide enough power for the duration of a cross-country flight. With those larger machines I was immediately out of business the moment the passenger in front reclined their seat, rendering me unable to open my laptop wide enough to see the screen and use the keyboard in that crowded space. In addition, that heavy laptop plus a spare battery or two greatly increased the weight of my carry-on bag.

I review each new handheld computing device or personal digital assistant (PDA), but have always decided against buying one. The keyboards and screens are much too small for composing long documents or creating presentations, and there was no way to fit all my software and data on the very limited memory in those tiny units. Additionally, many PDAs use operating systems not always compatible with all my software. Those little gadgets are great for phone calls, text messages and GPS functions, but for my work needs, they are not a viable substitute for a laptop, notebook, or now, netbook computer.

I am amazed how Acer is able to fit so many great features into the Aspire One. This is the first portable computer I've owned where I didn't have to purchase spare batteries, external wifi cards, or other accessories (except a slim little $15 neoprene sleeve that fits snuggly around the computer to protect it from bouncing around in my briefcase).

My netbook offers almost every feature or accessory you would expect to find in a larger computer. There are three USB 2.0 ports, two slots for storage expansion or a variety of memory cards or sticks, an Ethernet port, a VGA port, a webcam and microphone, and built-in wireless LAN capability. The Aspire One does not have an internal CD/DVD drive, but the need for such a drive is rapidly diminishing as new software and data are increasingly downloaded or distributed on USB memory sticks. If you really need CD/DVD capability you can purchase an external drive for under $100 these days.

With all it has to offer, the Aspire One is well worth the $400 price tag. I don't like to purchase expensive computers because they become obsolete so quickly. In addition I'd be devastated if a more expensive computer is lost, stolen or broken. For $400 I'm not nearly as worried about replacing the Aspire One when it becomes obsolete.

After only a few months, I've grown quite attached to my perfect little travel companion and we are inseparable. It's certainly enhanced my productivity on the road. At this point it still creates a buzz wherever I go. Walking through a computer store the other day I overheard a salesman touting the benefits of the same model to a prospective customer. After a long list of technical reasons why he should purchase the computer, the salesman concluded, "And not only that, it's a great conversation starter. Everyone will ask about your new computer." I couldn't help but chime in to tell the interested buyer that this salesman was actually telling the truth.

Travelers, have you started using the new generation of "netbooks?" Share your comment stories below.

Luxury Car Rental

2008-12-27T21:27:00.000-08:00

Type of Cars

4x4
Limousine / Executive
Sports
Supercars

Precious Drugs

2008-12-07T23:13:00.000-08:00

The more precious, expensive the drug, the more effective it is, claim scientists from Duke University, U.S. Besides, this is connected not so much with the good quality of expensive drugs, as with the psychological mood of the patients thinking, that expensive medicines will cure them without fail. Such placebo effect appeared during an interesting experiment.

82 volunteers were applied electric shocks to their wrist. And before it was repeated, the volunteers were divided into two groups both of which were given a painkiller. Those from the first group were given a “brand new and expensive” drug for $2,5, and members of the second group took “just a usual” medicine for 10 cent. In truth all volunteers were given a standard reliever. All in all, 85% of the volunteers who had taken an “expensive” drug, noted a significant pain relief. The group that had been given a “cheap” medicine noticed the relief only in 61% of cases. The researchers claim, that when prescribing a drug, a doctor should pay more attention to how its price could influence its effectiveness.

My Precious MacBook Pro

2008-12-02T15:54:00.000-08:00

I've been testing the base model of the new MacBook for the past five days, and I like it a lot, despite a few downsides. I found this new MacBook to be speedy, solid, innovative, and comfortable to use, with very good battery life.

The new model sports a sturdy aluminum case, instead of the old plastic one, and looks gorgeous. And it even seemed to run cooler than earlier Apple aluminum laptops. It's 10% lighter, at 4.5 pounds, and 12% thinner, at 0.95 inch, than its predecessor, and continues to include a built-in DVD drive. Its processor is slower, yet it has good performance because of much faster graphics, and it also offers a far brighter screen in the same 13.3-inch size. But it still gets strong battery life -- slightly better in fact than the older model, in my tests.

Plus, the new MacBook includes a huge, innovative glass track pad that functions as a combination of a traditional track pad and the multitouch screen of an iPhone. This track pad allows all sorts of fingertip gestures you can use to navigate Web pages, manipulate photos, and switch among programs.

In another radical step, Apple eliminated the button below the track pad. When you want to perform a mouse click, you just depress the entire track pad. The whole thing is a big button, which can act as either the left or right button on a traditional mouse, and which allows easy, smooth scrolling.

My Precious Home in Orlando

2008-11-27T17:42:00.000-08:00

Luxury Home on 40 Acres Near Orlando Disney - $2,750,000 USD

This extremely private fenced and gated property is located at the end of a paved 1/3 mile long, tree lined private road that leads directly to your property gates. Once past the entrance gates a long crushed brick winding driveway will lead you over a canal to an island like setting surrounded by mature pine and oak trees to your main home and motor court area.

From the moment you enter this property you'll realize the property's uniqueness and find that it is well suited for all of your outdoor activities. Bring your four wheelers, fishing poles, helicopter, light aircraft, horses, cattle, binoculars, or just relax and enjoy the tranquil, peaceful and quiet surrounds that this property has to offer.

Constructed by one of the areas premier custom home builders, no expenses were spared in the creation of this magnificint home and property. Professional faux finishes throughout, travertine tiles, hardwood floors, huge custom built master walk in closet, oversized master bath with it's own bed and breakfast fireplace, and chef's gourmet kitchen with professional appliances and hidden walk in pantry are just a few of the details that add to the truly elegant style of this home.

Energy Efficient:

Extremely well insulated, sprayed on expandable foam throughout the roof system, insulated foam filled concrete block construction, thermal pane tinted glass windows, high efficiency Trane air conditioning systems with electronic air filters and fresh air exchangers, 1000 gallon commercial sized buried LP gas tank. The average monthly electric bill for this entire property has been less than $500. per month from 3/07 - 4/08.

Privacy:

Easily accessable and within minutes of all school levels, shopping, dining, Disney World, area golfing, Hospitals, Orlando, Tampa, Orlando International airport, and more, Only 3 miles from Florida Turnpike entrance, yet seculded for unparalled privacy. Property is surrounded on the South, East and West sides by equestrian, cattle and wooded properties of similar size and to the North by properties of 5 acres or greater in size. No other home can be easily seen from this home.

Annual Property Taxes: $14,223.06

Location:

Located in an area of developing, high end homes such as Blue Spring Reserve, Mission Inn and Bella Collina where homes will range in price from $1 million dollars to well over $12 million dollars.

Expensive Shoes in My Precious Closet

2008-11-24T19:35:00.000-08:00

While some will always consider hand made shoes the best and probably most expensive men’s shoes in the world, distinguished brands have come out with quite expensive ready made shoes. What is the most expensive men’s shoe?

Forbes published a year ago a list of most expensive shoes for men that were ready made and their list included names such as Salvatore Ferragamo, Prada, Edward Green, John Lobb, New & Lingwood, and Berluti. Topping the list were the distinctive Berluti shoes which fetch a mere $1,830 per pair.

Still when considering the cost of the more elaborate designs in women’s shoes, these expensive men’s shoes do not seem all that pricey. Maybe its that modern day men will just not accept shoes with jewels adorning them.

The Three Precious Pearls

2008-11-22T02:00:00.000-08:00

The Pearl of Lao-tzu

The Pearl of Lao-tze is the largest pearl in the world, though it is not a gem quality (nacreous) pearl and comes from a giant clam(Tridacna gigas). It was found by an anonymous Filipino diver off the island of Palawan in. In 1936, Wilbur Dowell Cobb received this pearl as a gift by a chieftain of Palawan for saving the life of his son.

Pearl of Asia

The Pearl of Asia was most likely harvested from the Persian Gulf in the late 16th or early 17th century. Shah Jahan, the ruler of the Mughal Empire from 1628 to 1658 and builder of the Taj Mahal, gave this pearl to his wife. Later it was among the treasures seized by the King of Persia, Nadir Shar after the besieged Delhi in 1739. Later, he gave it to the Chinese Emperor Qianlong who had it put in his tomb. Grave robbers stole it in 1900. Eventually, it surfaced in Hong Kong and was eventually sold in Paris. It currently resides in a private collection, but has been displayed at the Smithsonian.

The Pearl of Asia is roughly pear shaped and weighs 2,400 grains (600 carats).

The Hope pearl

Considered to be one of the largest saltwater pearls in existence, the Hope Pearl was first acquired by Henry Philip Hope in the 19th century. Hope was a banker and collector of gems whose collection contained nearly 150 natural pearls. He was also an owner of the Hope Diamond to which he also lent his name.

The pearl remained in the Hope collection at a South Kensington Museum for many years before it was sold at auction by Christie's in 1886. In 1913 it was appraised at $17,000. In 1974, it was offered for private sale for $200,000 and purchased by H.E. Mohammed Mahdi Al-Tajir. It has since been sold and is the property of a private collector. Though, it has also been reported to be on display at the British Museum of Natural History.

The Hope pearl is a white drop-shaped freshwater blister pearl of 1,800 grains (450 carats). It has a dark bronze coloration on the bottom.

The precious slot machines

2008-11-21T04:07:00.000-08:00

Las Vegas offers people a lot of precious freedom. Casino here, casino there, casino everywhere. If you want to eat, drink, gamble, do drugs, have sex, get married, get divorced, etc. those things are readily available, free of the judgment and condemnation you might find elsewhere.

It’s kind of creepy seeing the glassy-eyed seniors practically hypnotized by my precious slot machines, and joining in the drunken revelry at the table games just isn’t my kind of fun anymore

If you have trouble with the types of addictions Las Vegas can encourage, this place may be a problem for you. The seedy side of Vegas has little appeal to most of the residents we know — to them the Sin City stuff is just marketing for the tourists.

Precious Million Dollar Supercar

2008-11-20T17:26:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the height of high-performance: The Bugatti Veyron is a million dollar supercar.

The Bugatti Veyron is a car built around an engine. Essentially, Bugatti made the decision to blow the doors off the supercar world by creating a 1,000-horsepower engine. Everything else follows from that resolution.

A W-16 engine that can produce 1,001 horsepower
A top speed of 250+ mph (400+ kph)

A zero-to-60 time of three seconds

A zero-to-180 time of 14 seconds

A price tag somewhere in the $1.2 million range.

Precious Phone :)

2008-11-20T09:52:00.000-08:00

Check it Apple, LG just went official with their iPhone look-a-like LG KE850 Prada phone which they proudly tout as the world's "first completely touch screen mobile phone." Er, unless you consider the ones from Motorola, HTC, and others. Still, this is more than likely a dig at the iPhone which they can rightly make since the KE850 will hit select mobile shops and PRADA stores in the UK, France, Germany and Italy at the end of February and parts of Asia before March is through. Sadly, the KE850 is a non starter for the US market since this version is limited to tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 with EDGE data. It's smaller than its fruity peer at just 98.8 x 54 x 12-mm resulting in a more compact, 3.0-inch display presumably with that 240 x 400 resolution we heard about earlier. In case you're keeping track (and we know you are), the iPhone goes quad-band GSM with EDGE and WiFi in a 115 x 61 x 11.6-mm shell sporting a 3.5-inch, 320 x 480 display. Also, the KE850 seems to lack any significant on-board storage opting instead for microSD to boost capacity. Like the iPhone, it packs a 2 megapixel camera (with Schneider-Kreuznach lens and LED flash) and Bluetooth 2.0. However, there's no mention of multi-touch capabilities, an on-screen keyboard, or the accelerometer and proximity sensors found on the iPhone. The KE850 PRADA's UI is Macromedia Flash-based and opts for a minimalist, white-on-black display as opposed to the more, shall we say, OS Xish GUI we've already seen floated. Feature-wise, the KE850 comes with a video player supporting MPEG-4, H.264, and oddly, H.263 normally used for video conferencing; a document viewer supporting Microsoft's PPT, DOC, XLS formats, PDF and TXT; an audio player with support for MP3/ACC/ACC+/WMA/RA formats; and a "music multitasking function for messaging," whatever that is. How much? €600/$778... that's how much. Still, a compelling choice for those who can't wait for the iPhone's Q4 European introduction or 2008 Asia launch.

The Precious Stone

2008-11-20T09:19:00.000-08:00

Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Sotheby's failed to sell three of the top diamonds offered in a Geneva auction of jewels following a five-week decline in prices for such gems.

Sotheby's had put stones up for sale such as a 10.48 carat flawless deep blue diamond valued at $6 million to $9 million. The top price for an item at the sale was $1.3 million for an 8 carat pink diamond ring, said an e-mailed statement sent late yesterday.
Three contemporary-art sales in New York last week disappointed art dealers by failing to reach their estimated revenue, raising concern among auction houses that demand for high-price goods may be wavering. The Rapaport Diamond Trade Index dropped 9.4 percent in the five weeks through Nov. 18.

``The diamond market is currently in a phase of transition and it will probably not be clear where it is headed until the end of the year,'' David Bennett, Sotheby's chairman for its European and Middle Eastern jewelry business, said in the statement.

About 39 percent of the lots offered in the Sotheby's auction went unsold. Sotheby's said the sale totaled $14.8 million.

London-based Christie's is holding a rival jewelry auction today in Geneva.