BaselWorld, the largest watch trade-show, opens today in Basel, Switzerland.

BaselWorld 2007 has 2,100 exhibitors showing their timepieces of desire on 160,000m2 exhibitation area.
News about new wristwatches appear by the minute. Tag Heuer for instance introduces the new LINK men's watch collection. We will report more about the new Tag Heuer watches later today.

Gervan Lubbe, a man who designed products to help people with life-changing diseases, is facing, of all things, fraud allegations. Lubbe, who invented a wristwatch that doubles as a Malaria monitor (pictured), is accused of tampering with his company's balance sheets to hide executive salaries to make it look like the company had more income than it really did.

In a smaller, separate case, Lubbe also was not able to prove claims he made regarding the efficiency of the watch. Health-related wristwatches have been around for a while. Though, it's certainly a rarity for the designer of such a watch to come under legal trouble.

We've all seen those surveillance tapes of some lunatic trying to steal some jewelry from behind the counter, but here's something on a higher magnitude. Nearly 120 million yen worth of merchandise was stolen from a high-end Tokyo, Japan watch store.

Of course, that's only about 5 cents in American currency (actually, it's a little over $1,000,000). Police say the suspects are part of a gang that specialize in this sort of crime.

Though jewelry renting isn't exactly unheard of, this is first time we've seen it taken online, with an exclusive focus on watches. "Watch My Wrist" is a new online service that lets you rent fancy wrist bling to impress your date. It offers no advice for how to tell her that you live a $200 a month apartment, though.

The site's main page has a basic description of the service: "Instead of purchasing expensive watches and jewelry, you can now wear them for a specified period of time at a fraction of the cost."

Under a new partnership, Ritmo has become the official timepiece of the IndyCar Series. The high-end watch manufacturer says this opens up the future possibility of branded watches specifically made for IndyCar fans. What I'm more interested in, though, is this statement in Friday's press release:

"As part of the partnership, Ritmo will present a $100,000 watch to the IndyCar Series championship driver." I'm not even sure what a $100,000 watch looks like, but I guess it's probably nicer that the $10,000 Ritmo watch pictured, and I'd imagine every hour it would chime the phrase, "I'm wearing this watch instead of feeding a small country."

You make the call on watch winders.  Depending on the value of your watch(es) and the need to wind your watch, a watch winder might be a good investment (if that’s what you want to call it).  But, if you are in the market for a watch winder, a few that we’ve run across are The Winder Binder (shown here), the Sparta from Orbita and Wolf Designs Module 3.0.  They are reasonably priced and get the job done.

The Bathys 100 Fathoms watch is a stylish watch with a lot of class.  The face and case are a complement to one another.  The 100 Fathoms illuminates in the dark with clarity. The caseback is quite striking with a tiny map of Hawaii engraved on a sea of brushed steel. It is water resistant up to 200M. It has a sapphire crystal and is 41.1 mm in diameter.

Hollywood actress Charlize Theron is being sued by the Swiss watch company, the Raymond Weil company for violating an endorsement deal to only where its timepieces. Based on court papers filed by the Raymond Weil Company, Theron was photographed wearing Christian Dior watches, who also paid her to promote its perfumes.

The 31 year old South African star, who has won best actress Oscar for Monster in 2003, was paid “substantial funds” for use of her photographs in its advertisements.  Proof of her wearing a Dior watch at a film festival news conference in Texas was part of the exhibit.

The French issued a special request to Bell & Ross to produce two Limited Series of 150 watches that would be specifically designed for aerial navigation.  No, it’s not a hoax, because the request was satisfied.

Bell & Ross produced 150 of this Type Aéronavale.  These handsomely crafted Pilot time pieces are skillfully painted in colors of the French Naval Air force and encased securely in either acrylic or sapphire glass.   It is definitely a handsome piece.

Watch Report recently reviewed Oceanus' new 5 Motor wristwatch.

Quote: "The Oceanus 5 Motor is a further refinement of the Oceanus line. It boasts most of the features of the Oceanus Chronograph, but without the LCD in the 3 o'clock position. Why was Casio motivated to completely remove the LCD and figure out how to cram five individual motors into a single case? The point of the Oceanus 5 Motor is that it's a geeky watch that doesn't look like a geeky watch, so the fewer LCDs and LEDs, the better."

Be on the lookout for Tag Heuer’s new cell phone.  This stainless steel phone will mimic watches from the Tag Heuer’s line, though designed by ModeLabs, a French company that is a designer for MTV and Virgin Mobiles.

It maybe that LVMH, Heuer’s parent company, competitive target is Nokia’s Vertu line.

This piece of news proves that if one imagines hard enough, one will conjure up what the rest of us wouldn’t even consider.  Artist Mike Libby of South Portland, Main has given dead bugs more time, so-to-speak. Libby has turned insects into decorative time machines.

He states that he came up with the idea because insects and machines look similar on the inside.