The Test of Time – Celebrating Frank Sinatra

On the 100th anniversary of his birth, Frank Sinatra is being celebrated worldwide, including by Raymond Weil with a limited-edition watch.

In celebration of the centennial of Frank Sinatra’s birth, the world is focusing on everyone’s favorite cultural icon and his influence on American music, art and fashion. Among the many events, concerts and lectures around the country commemorating this significant milestone was a recent exhibition at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, curated by the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles (where it will be seen beginning in late October).

The exhibition features photos, family mementos, rare correspondence, personal items, art and music, much of which has never before been displayed in public. The exhibition’s quintessential Sinatra quote was given by Bob Santelli, executive director of the Grammy Museum: “Everyone who ever heard him sing felt a little bit better about the world and themselves.”

And as contemporary crooner Michael Feinstein put it, Sinatra specialized in “songs meant to be experienced with a cigarette in one hand and a drink in the other.”

Because he was born on 12/12 (1915), Raymond Weil is issuing only 1,212 pieces of their gorgeous Maestro Frank Sinatra watch. Featuring a classic design (white face, brown leather strap with brown stitching, thin profile) with stainless steel case, blue color numerals and dials (to reference Sinatra’s blue eyes), and open caseback with visible movement inscribed with his last name and signature top hat logo, this watch is a timeless treasure to pass down through the generations.

In fact, of the 1,212 watches, numbers 1, 2, and 3 will be gifts to Frank’s three children: Nancy, Christina and Frank Jr. That’s life!

BY KAREN ALBERG GROSSMAN