Cortina Watch’s Golden Jubilee culminates amid the splendour of love and joy
MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2022
2022 marks a monumental year for Cortina Watch as it commemorates its 50th year of becoming one of Asia Pacific’s foremost luxury watch retailers and distributors.
The gala traced the growth and transformation of Cortina Watch over the past half a century, from its humble beginning as a family-run retail store that debuted amid the quartz crisis and subsequently growing from strength to strength to becoming a publicly listed company with over 40 boutiques region, including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Australia. Throughout the years, Cortina Watch has stayed true to the vision of its founder, Mr Anthony Lim, by putting the core values of trust, loyalty, and reliability at the heart of the business.
This year, Cortina Watch also marked this epic milestone with a series of commemorative events. Some of them include Patek Philippe’s travelling exhibition showcasing some of Cortina Watch’s collection of unique dome clocks and both past and present anniversary editions from the Swiss watchmaker, the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscape exhibition, “Happy Sport – Tale of an Icon” exhibition with Chopard, followed by a Franck Muller exhibition in September. Furthermore, Singapore Heart Foundation’s (SHF) third wellness facility – the SHF-Cortina Watch Heart Wellness Centre, was officially unveiled in August. Cortina Watch also collaborated with eight brand partners to launch exclusive celebratory edition timepieces. Together with Patek Philippe, Blancpain, Cartier, Chopard, Corum, Franck Muller, H. Moser & Cie., and Tag Heuer, a total of 16 limited edition models were presented as part of the golden jubilee festivities. Key management personnel of Cortina Watch’s longstanding brand partners also sent in personal congratulatory messages. Some even flew to convene for Cortina Watch’s monumental celebratory gala dinner at the Ritz-Carlton Millennia Singapore on 19 November.
During the gala dinner, Jeremy Lim, CEO of Cortina Watch & COO of Cortina Holdings, attributed the success of Cortina Watch to the strong foundation laid down by its founder, as well as the passion and steadfastness of its staff. “Had it not for our chairman Mr Anthony Lim, who made a bold decision to start Cortina Watch 50 years ago, we probably would not be here today celebrating our golden jubilee. In our business, trust and passion are always key to our success. And it is the trust that has enabled us to build longstanding relationships with all our brand partners and business associates. Cortina has gone through many ups and downs over the past 50 years, including many recessions and adverse economic situations, not forgetting a pandemic that has made everything even more challenging. However, we have steered through these challenges because of our dedicated and passionate team of employees.”
Since launching its first boutique at the Colombo Court in 1972, Cortina Watch has served customers for half a century. Thanks to close bonds fostered between sales staff and their customers, many of these loyal customers have been with Cortina Watch since the beginning. Some have even progressed to building multi-generational relationships with the watch retailer.
Mr Sunny Lau, Senior Boutique Manager of Cortina Watch Singapore, has even worked at the company since the beginning and gave his best throughout the past five decades. He beams with pride as he looks back on his days starting out, “I started with Cortina Watch in 1972 and personally witnessed our growth from a humble store in Colombo Court to an international corporation. It was definitely not a bed of roses all the way, but as we grew from strength to strength together, I was rewarded with the most wonderful experiences, and I would not have traded them with anything else.”
Cortina Watch’s founder and Chairman, Mr Anthony Lim, also expressed his heartfelt gratitude towards these dedicated staff. He says with great appreciation, “Our employees are a part of our family. We cherish them and their efforts in lifting the company up. Our success is theirs. Loyalty is a two-way street — we need to be as devoted to our staff, partners and customers as much as they are supportive of us.”
In addition, Cortina Watch has always been committed to giving back to the community and championing social responsibility. Donations in the form of cheques totalling S$1.62 million were also presented to several organisations, including the Community Chest (for AWWA), Singapore Heart Foundation, Ren Ci Hospital, Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital, and the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS). S$1 million was channelled through Community Chest to AWWA Ltd. AWWA provides early intervention for pre-schoolers, education and integration support for children and adults with additional needs, social assistance for vulnerable families, and care services for seniors. AWWA’s mission is to empower the disadvantaged to maximise their potential to lead independent and dignified lives.
Mr Raymond Lim, CEO of Cortina Holdings says, “I think the role of the retailer today, at least from my perspective, is to have an active role in helping brands develop their presence in our markets. This effort entails a lot of trust on all sides: the brands, our customers and ourselves. Trust is what has shaped our work and success, from 1972 till today.”
Light shows on 13 Chao Phraya bridges to usher in New Year
MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2022
The Rural Roads Department (DRR) has invited people to see light shows at 13 bridges along the Chao Phraya River from December 30 to January 1 to bid bye to 2022 and usher in the New Year.
The Transport Ministry said on its Facebook page on Monday that it is celebrating the New Year festival with a light show on the following 13 bridges:
Rama III Bridge
Rama IV Bridge
Rama V Bridge
Rama VII Bridge
Maha Chesadabodindranusorn Bridge
Somdet Phra Pinklao Bridge
Memorial Bridge
Phra Pok Klao Bridge
Taksin Bridge
Krung Thon Bridge
Krung Thep Bridge
Bhumibol Bridge 1
Bhumibol Bridge 2
The light show will start at 7pm and go on until midnight.
The department explained that the objective was to provide an attraction and woo tourists as well as assist the economy.
Canadian researchers unlock way to boost immunity against BQ.1.1
MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2022
Ramathibodi Hospital’s Centre for Medical Genomics has revealed a way of boosting immunity against the vaccine-resistant BQ.1.1 Covid-19 strain. Previously, vaccines were found to be four times weaker against BQ.1.1, which looks set to replace BA.2.75 as Thailand’s dominant strain.
However, research from Canada’s University of Montreal shows that a fourth shot of mRNA vaccine plus natural immunity from a recent infection boosts immunity against BQ.1.1.
Posting on Facebook, the centre explained that the Omicron variant has mutated since the end of 2021 to resist monoclonal antibodies and inactivated, viral-vector and mRNA vaccines.
Montreal University researcher Andres Finzi reported that those who have received three doses of mRNA vaccine, either Pfizer or Moderna, have weak immunity to newer strains of Omicron when compared to the Wuhan, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta strains.
However, the immune response to BQ.1.1 is raised significantly by three doses of mRNA vaccine plus natural immunity. People recently infected by Covid can achieve this level of immunity by getting either monovalent (first-phase Pfizer/Moderna) or bivalent (second-phase Pfizer/Moderna) as their fourth vaccine dose, Finzi said.
Finzi’s Montreal research team also expected the formula to work well against other new Omicron subvariants such as XBB.
The Ramathibodi Hospital centre explained that while second-phase mRNA vaccine may work less well against new subvariants, it is still a good choice for protection while newer vaccines are being developed.
It said people were still getting infected after receiving three vaccine doses. Hence, they should seek a fourth dose 4-6 months after their third shot, to boost immunity against the BQ.1.1 and XBB subvariants that are expected to spread quickly across Thailand in the next few weeks.
Thailand’s Worawi explains why he backed Qatar’s bid to host World Cup
MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2022
The 2022 Fifa World Cup ended last week, hosted successfully by the tiny Gulf nation of Qatar. Despite many rights activists attacking the host country, the tournament went off smoothly.
Qatar was chosen by members of Fifa’s executive committee in 2010 — now known as Fifa Council — in a controversial and pathbreaking move. One of the members voting for Qatar’s bid in the executive committee was Worawi Makudi from Thailand.
The Nation spoke to Worawi, who remains an honorary member of football’s governing body, and continues to be invited to every major Fifa event.
The former president of the Football Association of Thailand explained to the Nation how Fifa members select the host of the World Cup.
Qatar was a unique case in the history of the World Cup 2022. The country became the first country from the Middle East to host football’s biggest event. There were two concessions made in the case of Qatar. The country has never qualified for the World Cup finals, and the competition was shifted to winter because the heat in Qatar’s summer would be unbearable for the players and spectators.
Worawi explained that there are no concrete conditions for choosing the host nation and it depended on the readiness of the applicant, so the World Cup could be held in every part of the world.
Speaking about Qatar’s case, Worawi argued:“These are not concrete conditions in selecting a host because going by those conditions, some countries might never get the right to bid to be World Cup host.”
“I have to thank every member for always choosing the right host, not only Qatar, but also South Korea and Japan in 2002, or Germany in 2006, as they were all great World Cups,” says Worawi.
“Do you know that before Germany was chosen, South Africa was the front-runner in 2006? Germany won a close race by only one vote (12-11),” he reveals.
“The reason that the members chose Germany was because it was perceived as more ready to stage the event, and Germany did host a great World Cup in 2006. We saw that South Africa was not ready at that point, so we chose them four years later after it was ready, and South Africa did organise a great World Cup,” says Worawi.
“After that, the World Cup moved to Brazil in 2014. It was already the country of football so it organised a great World Cup.”
“After that, we chose the hosts simultaneously for two World Cups — 2018 in Russia and 2022 in Qatar — because we did not want the lobbying to be chaotic.
“I always praise members for choosing the right host, like 2018 was the correct moment for Russia.”
Explaining the choice of Qatar, he said, “Some people might have disagreed initially with choosing Qatar, but now everyone says, ‘Wow! Qatar did the best.’ When Fifa inspects a country’s readiness, it faces some problems but the World Cup in Qatar had no problems at all.”
When asked about the reason he voted for Qatar, Worawi said: “I, as a Fifa member and Asian person, must choose a country from Asia.”
“However, I always think that no matter what the size of a country, we must give them an equal chance and I was thinking at that moment that Qatar had the potential to organise the World Cup. They prepared stadiums and got everything ready for the 2022 World Cup within 12 years of being selected.
“We did not consider that it got rich from gas or oil, but it is passionate about every sport, especially football. Qatar built Aspire, which is the No. 1 sports institution and academy in the world.
“With the passion for football in Qatar, it was my duty as an Asian to support Qatar,” he added.
Argentina won the World Cup hosted by Qatar from November 20 to December 18, beating France on penalties in the final.
Retro ONE TWO TWO bar opens door to 1920s Paris on Sukhumvit
MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2022
New French-inspired vintage bar ONE TWO TWO resurrects the Paris of a century ago on the modern boulevard of Sukhumvit. The French design evokes sensual indulgence for a comfortable evening vibe in 1920s Paris, right in the heart of Bangkok’s chic nightlife district of Sukhumvit Soi 11.
The interior of this bar incorporates a classic red comfy sofa and its 1920s style and nostalgia to provide an extraordinary experience of celebration and sophistication.
The Beverage menu created by Michel Gonggiat Stein takes its inspiration and concept from the original & Famous ONE TWO TWO from Paris back in the 1920s, every Signature cocktail is inspired by the exciting design and uniqueness of the rooms that made the original ONE TWO TWO so famous back in Paris, ONE TWO TWO as well offers a great selection of French Vermouth and champagnes for guests who adore the bar scene or want to have a stylish business meeting complimented by a luxurious ambience.
Highlights from the drink menu are Smoke on the Water, Midori Symphony, and Oriental Express.
“Smoke on the Water” – a smokey drink with bitterness from chocolate and black coffee blended with Flor de Cana 12 Years Rum and Maraschino liquor.
“Midori Symphony” – refreshing taste of citrus from yuzu, lime, and lemon, mixed with Roku Gin and Midori.
“Oriental Express” – a fresh mix of tropical and fruity taste of yuzu, lime and pineapple blend with Vodka and Campari.
Once one said, “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough”.
But at ONE TWO TWO, the vibe of the place is, “You only live once, but if you could do it twice, once wouldn’t be enough” or “Tu ne vis qu’une fois, mais si tu pouvais le faire deux fois, une fois ne suffirait pas.”
No doubt that ONE TWO TWO will be the next bar destination in the heart of Bangkok for its exquisite interiors, crafted cocktails and incomparable luxury and style.
Museum offers promotion for tickets to Banksy exhibit
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2022
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Bangkok is offering one free ticket for every four bought for an exhibition of street artist Banksy’s art until January 8.
The exhibition – The Art of Banksy: “Without Limits” – opened at the end of October at the museum, its first time in Southeast Asia, and runs till February 12.
Banksy is “probably the most famous yet the most mysterious graffiti artist this world has seen”, the organiser said. “From Bristol to Barcelona, Sydney to San Francisco, one thing that everyone agrees on is that his popularity cannot be denied.”
In 2010, Time magazine placed the British artist on its list of the world’s 100 most influential people.
The exhibition, which is custom-built to fit the venue, comprises more than 150 of the artist’s works, including certified originals, prints, photos, lithographs, sculptures, murals, and video installations.
The exhibition spans three halls with a total space of 700 square metres.
Profits from the exhibition will be donated to the M.V. Louise Michel, a humanitarian agency that helps refugees in the Mediterranean.
Tech Review: The iPhone 14 Plus shines with its excellent display and cameras
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2022
With its excellent large display and powerful processor, the iPhone 14 Plus allows users to better enjoy multimedia files while on the go.
Its 6.7-inch display is stunning. Apple’s custom-designed OLED high-resolution panel has a very high level of brightness (800 nits) and a high resolution: 2778 by 1284 pixel resolution at 458 pixels per inch depth.
Apple calls this the Super Retina XDR display.
This large display is very handy if you have reached the age where you need to hold the phone away from your face to read text – like me. The larger display means larger fonts for easily reading web pages, emails, and messages.
The display also features a very high contrast of 2,000,000: 1 ratio for a true black display and HDR experience, allowing you to enjoy viewing photos and videos in more realistic colours. When you view HDR photos and videos, the iPhone 14 Puls display can push the brightness up to 1200 nits for a true-to-life viewing experience.
You don’t have to worry that the large display and high brightness will quickly drain its battery. Apple says the iPhone 14 Plus has the best battery life ever for an iPhone.
During the test, I found that its battery comfortably lasted more than a day. By Apple’s own rating, the battery can play 26 hours of video, 100 hours of audio playback, or 20 hours of streaming video from Apple TV, YouTube, or other online services.
The battery also charges fast. It can be charged up to 50% in 35 minutes using an optional 20W adapter.
During the test, I found the iPhone 14 Plus has impressive performance. Video playbacks played smoothly. Photo displaying and web renditions were fast. Photo-taking and editing also had an impressive performance.
The impressive performance is credited to Apple’s A15 Bionic chip with a six-core CPU, five-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine processor.
The six-core CPU is made of two performance cores and four efficiency cores that work together to handle everyday tasks and demand workloads.
The five-core GPU delivers 18% faster performance for graphic-intensive gameplay and high-performance games, compared to a previous model.
The 16-core Neural Engine is capable of 15.8 trillion operations per second to provide fast machine learning, such as advanced text-to-speech on Siri and on-device processing of directions in maps as well as scene recognition in photo taking.
I found during the test that iPhone 14 Plus captured beautiful photos with its dual-camera system at the back and took beautiful selfies with its front TrueDepth camera. The machine-learning capability of the chip allows iPhone 14 Plus to properly select scene modes for photos.
The back dual-camera system has a 12MP main camera with a 26mm-equivalent focal length and a 12MP ultra-wide camera with a 13mm-equivalent focal length. The main camera comes with a bright f/1.5 aperture seven-element lens with sensor-shift optical image stabilisation while the ultra-wide camera uses an f/2.4 aperture with a 120-degree field of view, and a five-element lens with 2x optical zoom.
When you use the camera system of the iPhone 14 Plus for the first time, it will ask you to select one of five styles – standard, rich contrast, vibrant, warm, and cool. You can change the style whenever you want to try new ones.
I tried taking scenery photos with a rich contrast style and found that the camera captured them with a high dynamic range and good details in both dark and bright regions.
The main camera has better low-light performance thanks to its larger sensor, larger 1.9micrometer pixels, a faster f/1.5 aperture, which has 49% improvement in low light, and sensor-shift OIS.
The iPhone 14 Plus also uses Photonic Engine to process photos for optimised quality. The Photonic Engine dramatically improves photos taken in mid to low-light scenes, like indoors or right before the sun sets. Photonic Engine builds on the powerful computational photography capabilities of iPhone. It enhances the image pipeline by applying Deep Fusion, which is Apple’s image processing system, earlier in the process. Deep Fusion uses a powerful Neural Engine to take the best parts of multiple images on a pixel-by-pixel basis and combine them into an image that increases dynamic range and brings out extraordinary detail in low light, for example. Photonic Engine provides up to 2.5x better low-light performance for photos on the new Main camera and up to 1.8x better low-light performance on the new front camera.
The iPhone 14 Plus supports 5G and comes with Smart Data mode, which will switch to LTE (4G) and save your battery life automatically when you don’t need 5G speeds. The new smartphone also supports eSIM so you don’t have to deal with a physical SIM card anymore.
The iPhone 14 Plus also comes with safety features that hopefully you do not have to use – Crash Detection and Emergency SOS via satellite.
The smartphone has a new dual-core accelerometer that is able to detect the high g-forces typically experienced in severe crashes. When a crash is detected, it can automatically dial emergency services and play a voice loop notifying of the crash and providing a location.
With the Emergency SOS via satellite, the iPhone 14 can use custom antennas to directly connect to a satellite when you don’t have access to a cellular or wi-fi connection so you can seek help. It can also update your location in the Find My app, using the satellite connection.
The iPhone Plus 14 doesn’t have a 3.5mm conventional port for connecting wired headphones so you need to use Bluetooth headphones, like AirPods Pro. The smartphone played high-quality music via the AirPods Pro wireless earphones, I found.
During the test, I upgraded iPhone 14 Plus’ operating system to iOS 16.2 with a lot of new and improved features, including a new app called Freeform and Apple Music Sing feature.
Freeform is a new app for working with friends or colleagues on Mac, iPad, and iPhone. It provides a flexible canvas that let us add file images and provides drawing tools that let you sketch anywhere on the canvas.
Apple Music Sing lets you adjust vocals in millions of songs available in Apple Music streamed music service so that you can sing along and it also provides beat-by-beat lyrics.
Apple iPhone 14 Plus with 128GB storage retails for 37,900 baht, 256 GB for 41,900 baht, and 512 GB for 50,900 baht.
Key specs:
OS: iOS 16.2
Chip: A15 Bionic chip with 6‑core CPU with 2 performance and 4 efficiency cores, 5‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
Capacity: 128GB/ 256GB/ 512GB
Display: 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR display (2778 x 1284 pixels)
Back cameras: 12MP main: 26mm, f/1.5 aperture; and 12MP ultra-wide: 13mm, f/2.4 aperture, 120-degree field of view
Front camera: 12MP TrueDepth Camera with f/1.9 aperture lens
Battery: Video playback: up to 26 hours, audio playback: up to 100 hours,
3 trends shaping Thailand’s new condos and housing projects
MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2022
New real estate projects must address people’s rising concern over energy prices, the environment, and health issues, a leading property advisory firm cautioned on Monday.
Lumpini Wisdom and Solution Co Ltd, the research arm of SET-listed property developer LPN, said developers need to incorporate energy-saving, eco and health standards in their new housing and condo projects if they want to attract the new generation of buyers.
Praphansak Rakchaiwan, CEO of Lumpini Wisdom, said prospective buyers are increasingly focused on these three standards amid the pandemic and energy price crisis.
LPN expects to see more housing and condo projects adopt energy-saving features, including so-called passive designs to reduce cooling and lighting needs.
The trend for solar-cell panels and construction materials that help cool buildings and save on electricity for air-conditioners will also rise, it said. New projects will come with charging points for electric vehicles, as well as energy monitors to check real-time electricity cost and usage, Praphansak said.
To reduce environmental impacts, real estate developers will turn to eco-friendly and recyclable construction materials and seek to cut their carbon emissions, he added.
A survey by Bangkok’s Baramizi Lab, which researches future trends, found that 85.2% of Thais prefer natural and environment-friendly designs, so developers should increase green areas in their projects, Praphansak said.
And Covid-19 prompted has heightened health concerns among buyers, meaning developers must add facilities that promote healthy living, including furniture and decor, he said.
20 more Kana Pure cannabis outlets to be opened in Thailand next year
MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2022
Nongluck Ajanapanya
Bespoke, a subsidiary of Boutique Corporation, is opening 20 more fully licensed Kana Pure cannabis outlets in Thailand next year.
Prab Thakral, president and Group CEO of Boutique Corporation, stated at the opening of the third outlet on Monday that the plan was developed after positive feedback from the two licensed cannabis outlets, giving the company confidence to expand nationwide.
However, the exact location has yet to be determined, but it is likely to be on Boutique’s own property, the parent company of Kana Pure.
The third fully licensed high-grade medical cannabis dispensary shop is located on Sukhumvit Soi 11.
Prab stated that the shop is still focused on growing high-quality medical cannabis for sale at its Kana Pure outlets, with the goal of medical use under expert advice.
Bespoke grows high-quality medical cannabis in environmentally controlled farms in northern Thailand.
เพื่อไทยแฉสาเหตุเรือหลวงสุโขทัยล่ม
The Beverage menu created by Michel Gonggiat Stein takes its inspiration and concept from the original & Famous ONE TWO TWO from Paris back in the 1920s, every Signature cocktail is inspired by the exciting design and uniqueness of the rooms that made the original ONE TWO TWO so famous back in Paris, ONE TWO TWO as well offers a great selection of French Vermouth and champagnes for guests who adore the bar scene or want to have a stylish business meeting complimented by a luxurious ambience.
The six-core CPU is made of two performance cores and four efficiency cores that work together to handle everyday tasks and demand workloads.
I found during the test that iPhone 14 Plus captured beautiful photos with its dual-camera system at the back and took beautiful selfies with its front TrueDepth camera. The machine-learning capability of the chip allows iPhone 14 Plus to properly select scene modes for photos.
The iPhone 14 Plus supports 5G and comes with Smart Data mode, which will switch to LTE (4G) and save your battery life automatically when you don’t need 5G speeds. The new smartphone also supports eSIM so you don’t have to deal with a physical SIM card anymore.
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