'Watches: The Ultimate Guide', New Edition

French horology specialist Fabienne Reybaud's brilliant book Watches: The Ultimate Guide quickly sold out when first published by Assouline in 2006. Now the luxury publisher has brought out a new, updated edition covering developments in the watchmaking world and market in the intervening years. Ranging from pocket watches to limited edition Patek Philippe timepieces that routinely fetch millions at auction, Reybaud shares her knowledge of the watch industry from the history of production through different means of mechanization, collecting, and selling in a lavishly-illustrated volume. In addition to chapters on every major watchmaker, an horological glossary and a price guide, there's an indispensable index of retailers, auction houses, repair shops and specialists.

The Story of the World's Most Luxurious Fabric from Loro Piana

Baby Cashmere may well be the world's most luxurious fabric. As The Classicist noted when it debuted in 2008 courtesy of Italian luxury label Loro Piana, to make it the company first had to spend several years convincing Mongolian tribesmen to comb the fine underfleece of the Hyrcus goat kid when it is 3-12 months old. Each combing yields no more than 30 grams of the rare, precious and incredibly soft fiber and is only done once in the well-cared for animal's life. It takes the fleece of nineteen kids to make just one Baby Cashmere sweater. Now Loro Piana has documented the painstaking process in a lavish new volume from Skira called Baby Cashmere: The Long Journey of Excellence. Traveling through the remote and unspoiled lands where the goats are raised, the epic journey is revealed in over a hundred vibrant full-color photographs, presented in large-scale format.