Europa Star 6/2015

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THE WORLD’S MOST INFLUENTIAL WATCH MAGAZINE EUROPE

T HE SKY I S T HE L I MI T

The name “Meister” has stood for classic watchmaking at Junghans since 1936. The Meister watches of today follow in this tradition, for they are a result of both passion for precision and close attention to quality.

Choosing a Junghans Meister demonstrates apprecia­ tion for these values and for beautiful watchmaking – like our sporty Meister, the Meister Chronoscope.

EUROPE N°334 6/15 DECEMBER 2015

Lasting values crafted by masters.

THE

SKY

IS THE

LIMIT

WATCH BUSINESS MAGAZINE | EUROPEAN EDITION | N°334 6/15 DECEMBER | CHF12 / €10 / US$12

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EDITORIAL

by Pierre Maillard, Editor-in-chief

M

any watch industry leaders like to believe, or to have others believe, that the health of watchmaking is intimately linked to factors over which it has no control: the economic or political situation of the world, the general optimism, or lack thereof, among the public, or concern over the future of our planet.

It’s very rare that they stop to wonder about the role watchmaking might play in these social, political, economic and even environmental developments, as if watchmaking were a world apart, like a sterile hydroponic system, without any influence on the course of world events.

Clearly, in absolute terms the economic weight of watchmaking is insignificant, negligible even, in the world economy.

But its influence, its soft power, goes far beyond its modest economic footprint.

The watch industry is a big communicator, sending images that are far from innocent all over the world, where they influence the dreams and shape the desires of entire populations. These images can also be a cause of frustration.

The breathtaking upward momentum of Swiss watchmaking over the last twenty years has occurred against a backdrop of an equally rapid growth in economic inequality and injustice.

And it didn’t just track this movement, it was part of it. In a way, the watch industry has been the cherry on the cake, projecting an image of rarity, exclusivity, luxury and leisure (everyone seems

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to spend their whole time playing golf), promoting a hedonistic dolce vita that is utterly beyond the reach of the great majority of the world’s inhabitants. In the year 2000 the Swiss watch industry exported 29.65 million timepieces worth a total of 9.276 billion francs, for an average price of CHF 312 (export price, which is one-quarter to one-third retail price). In 2014 the quantity of watches exported was actually less, at 28.11 million units, but their value totalled 20.9 billion francs, which means the average price has more than doubled, to CHF 718 (i.e. several thousand francs to the end client).

And, to return to the image projected by the industry, we can’t help but notice that the watches that create the biggest buzz on the grapevine are generally richly bejewelled or complicated models selling for tens if not hundreds of thousands of francs – watches that are quite

simply out of reach, even in their wildest dreams, to the overwhelming majority of people, including the new “emerging middle classes” about whom we hear so much. So it should come as no surprise that in many quarters the Swiss watch has become a symbol of power, and too often a synonym for the abuse of that power, whether we like it or not.

What has happened in China, and other places besides, is merely the most obvious symptom.

Back in 2002 François Habersaat, president of the FH at the time, warned the Swiss watchmaking establishment not to wall themselves inside a luxury ghetto. He stressed the importance of maintaining the ability to supply the entire watch range, from entry level to higher up the scale. In his view, the long-term viability of Switzerland’s preeminent position quite simply depended on it.

At a time when many retailers are telling us that people take far less pleasure in buying a fine watch than they used to, when the traditional Swiss watch industry is being shaken out of its complacency by the smartwatch, when anxiety and uncertainty continue to grow, there are many who would do well to remember his words. p

Constanza Tagini Nightingale, Jamie Harkins and David Rendu

IS NOT A WORLD APART

T HREE T IME ZONES AT A GL A NCE

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BOUND TO TRADITION – DRIVEN BY INNOVATION

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CONTENTS

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CHANEL SAS 25, Pl. du Marché Saint-Honoré 75001 Paris / France Tel. + 33 (0)1 55 35 50 95 Fax:+ 33 (0)1 55 35 50 22 www.chanel.com

EDITORIAL The watch industry is not a world apart

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SIGNALS

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ALL AROUND THE WORLD Retail map

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COVER STORY J12 in the sky with diamonds

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SIHH PREVIEW

WORLDWATCHWEB 18 2016 Luxury Industry Predictions from the Experts

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GALLERY – SIHH PREVIEW Audemars Piguet, Parmigiani Fleurier, Jaeger-LeCoultre, MB&F, H. Moser & Cie, Officine Panerai, Richard Mille, Montblanc, Vacheron Constantin, Urwerk, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels

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SIHH INNOVATION Piaget’s mechanical-quartz hybrid

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BEST OF THE LATEST SALONS Munich Time, SalonQP (London), Belles Montres (Paris)

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BUSINESS, MODELS & STRATEGIES Seiko, Grand Seiko... Credor!

Markets: Dubai update Patek Philippe is investing 500 million of its own money

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EUROPA STAR ARCADE Aldo Magada / Zenith – Reaching for the light Benoît Mintiens / Ressence – Organic horology Jean Depéry / Emile Chouriet – Return to the roots Arianna Pozza / Wenger – From knives to watches Silvano Freti / Laboratoire Dubois – Industrial gold standard

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SMARTWATCHES It’s not too late – Taking advantage of the smartwatch’s potential

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THE WATCH PROFESSIONAL CORNER Fighting crime, one watch at a time

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LAKIN@LARGE Time, Tubes and Thermometers

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SIHH INNOVATION

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LATEST SALONS

50 SEIKO

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ARCADE EUROPA STAR

DIGITAL PARTNER

J12 SKELETON FLYING TOURBILLON by Chanel Chanel continues its collaboration with Renaud et Papi manufacture (APRP SA) to produce exceptional mechanisms, including personalised flying tourbillons.

In 2015, the black ceramic J12 hosts a tourbillon-comet crowned with a star, a symbol of Chanel, inside a skeleton construction that reveals the exclusive manual-winding movement.

As well as being technically complex, the J12 Skeleton Flying Tourbillon is very much a jewel, dripping with 145 brilliant-cut diamonds in a limited edition of 20.

THE WORLD’S MOST INFLUENTIAL WATCH MAGAZINE

SPOTLIGHT 56 Orient

www.worldwatchreport.com / www.digital-luxury.com

www.europastar.com The statements and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily Europa Star.

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45MM JUMPING HOURS CENTRAL TOURBILLON

Boutique 5-7 Rue du Rh么ne - Gen猫ve

SIGNALS

Obsessed

$1 million Astronaut David Scott’s Bulova wristwatch, the only privately-owned watch to be worn on the moon, was sold for a record $1 million at auction. It’s believed to be a record for the most-ever paid for a piece of astronaut memorabilia.

(RR Auction)

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“Our customers are obsessed with their personal sense of style and staying connected, and we are thrilled to enter into this emerging category with an answer to their needs,” - Jill Elliott-Sones, chief creative officer at Fossil, during the unveiling of the new, connected Fossil Q line of wristwatches (eWeek)

USSR But the Soviet Union was first to successfully take a wristwatch outside the earth’s atmosphere. In 1961, Yuri Gagarin was the first man to enter space, wearing a Sturmanskie, a special military issue watch not available to the public. (GQ)

Z ZZ Z Z Z

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Pay-bythe-wrist Swatch SA and Visa have partnered to give Visa cardholders in the U.S., Switzerland and Brazil the ability to tap and pay with Swatch’s new “pay-by-thewrist” watch, the SWATCH BELLAMY, starting in early 2016. (Swatch)

Z

Z

Z

Shift

Slump

EdgeGear co-founders, Andrew Green and James Gilmore, have invented the SHIFT, the first watchband that shifts the placement of a smartwatch to the space under your thumb and above your wrist, making using smartwatches easier while doing sports. (competitor.com)

Swiss watch exports in October declined 12% compared to a year earlier, the biggest drop in demand since October 2009.

Sales slumps in major Asian and the U.S. markets are to blame, pushing down overall sales performance.

(Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry)

Smart jewelry WiseWear has started manufacturing ‘smart’ jewelry, including a bracelet aimed at the luxury health-tracker market, which uses technology that allows a bluetooth signal to be transferred through metal surfaces. (San Antonio Business Journal)

Rock ‘n’ Roll Watch brand Nixon will release a Rock ‘n’ Roll inspired collection featuring leather straps crafted from items donated by stars likes of Pete Townshend, Tom Waits and Ozzy Osbourne. Proceeds will go to a charity that provides addiction recovery help, and those guys might know a thing or two about addiction.

(Adweek)

23%

Attendance at this year’s SalonQP at the Saatchi Gallery in London was up 23% compared to 2014, confirming its status as the “the people’s watch show”. europa star

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ALL AROUND THE WORLD

RETAIL MAP

is the new Europa Star regular column which monitors the watch boutiques and stores movements throughout the world. We encourage all our professional readers and retailers to send us news about their retail activities.

SWITZERLAND ROGER DUBUIS has opened its 23rd boutique in Place de la Fusterie, Geneva. The new concept offers an Haute Horlogerie experience ‘for true connoisseurs’ with a lounge and library, maintenance and repairs and an exclusive conciergerie service.

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EUROPE AMERICAS With the opening of its first two boutiques in Canada – Vancouver and Toronto – JAEGER-LECOULTRE has now 11 boutiques in North America, the others being in Beverly Hills, Boca Raton, Encore at the Wynn Las Vegas, Costa Mesa, Palm Beach, Aventura, New York, Miami Design District and The Forum Shops Las Vegas.

“Despite the difficult economic climate” VULCAIN is continuing its expansion within Europe with a series of new partnerships: in Switzerland with Kurz Bijoux & Montres in Zurich; in France with Fustier in ClermontFerrand; in Germany with Jean Koch in Hamburg, Burck in Friedberg, Schotten in Goch and Luger in Gunzenhausen; and finally in Italy with Monti 1946 in Bovisio Masciago.

Kurz, Bahnhofstrasse, Zurich

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CARL F. BUCHERER has just opened its first independent shop in Interlaken, on the famous Höheweg Promenade, just a stone’s throw from the Grand Hotel Victoria-Jungfrau.

Visitors can take advantage of a library and a cosy lounge area.

HONG KONG

The Indian government recently allowed single-brand retailers with foreign investment to sell watches online. Swiss watch retailer SWATCH SA has received permission to set up fully-owned stores in India, while others are still awaiting approval. The latest move will allow the company to sell online through its own platforms.

MONTBLANC has confirmed its partnership with India’s largest watchemaker and specialty retailer, Titan, to establish Montblanc’s luxury retail presence across India. The joint venture will see the opening of five Montblanc boutiques in the coming three months in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Pune.

Mike Behnken

INDIA

HONG KONG RETAIL RENTS PREDICTED TO FALL IN 2016 According to the South China Morning Post, the cost of prime retail locations in Hong Kong will continue to fall next year as big-ticket item retailers adopt a conservative business strategy amid declining sales.

The consensus from property consultants suggests a decline of a further 10–15% for prime shop rents next year.

Prices will likely tumble 15–20% more over the year as the market wrestles with a slew of unfavourable factors.

Ceremony to mark the opening of the 1000th Titan shop in India

According to The Times of India, after 15 years in the country, on 1 January 2016 the LVMH watch division will close down its subsidiary in India and hand over distribution of TAG HEUER and DIOR to a local company, which also sells other watch brands.

CHINA JAQUET DROZ opened four new Chinese boutiques in 2015: two in Beijing in May and in July, a new location in the heart of Studio City in Macau, and a showcase boutique on Shanghai’s bustling West Nanjing Road.

SNYPER watches are now available for sale in Hong Kong from Asian distributor Primo Group. The official launch took place at the Club Primo in Hong Kong on November 23rd. Primo Group, whose Chairman and cofounder of Primo Living is Mr Andy Wong, is also Snyper’s official distributor for China and Macao. The Primo Group show room is located 29/F Singga Commercial Centre, 148 Connaught Road West in Hong Kong.

Actor Shah Rukh Khan, TAG Heuer ambassador in India

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COVER STORY

J12 IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS LIFT OFF

The J12 is considered by many to be the first iconic watch born of the new millennium, unveiled as it was in the year 2000. Its pure forms giving pride of place to the simple beauty of ceramic, its ability to reinvent itself without ever betraying its fundamental nature and its accomplished exploration of the codes of Haute Horlogerie have quickly earned it classic status.

by Pierre Maillard, Europa Star

B

y pioneering the use of high-tech ceramic as a noble and precious material, by opting for the purity and austerity of black and white, by emphasising a strong, geometrical and Spartan graphic identity, by getting straight to the point and stripping away all the inessentials, by overturning stylistic conventions and redefining the rules of the game, the J12 has become an icon of 21st century watchmaking.

In the 15 years since it was unveiled in the year 2000, the J12 has demonstrated a prodigious ability to undergo multiple transformations while remaining defiantly true to itself.

Whatever form the metamorphosis takes – the introduction of white ceramic in 2003, exclusive editions set with baguette-cut precious gems in 2004, the first forays into Haute Horlogerie in 2005 with a tourbillon movement, exceptional cutting-edge performance in 2010 with the J12 Rétrograde Mystérieuse and its unique retractable vertical crown, as well as the J12 Marine that proved its mettle as a genuine professional diver’s watch, or a splash of colour in 2011 with the J12 Chromatic in titanium ceramic – the watch remains immediately recognisable.

The 2015 announcement of the J12 Skeleton Flying Tourbillon takes Chanel even deeper into the realms of Haute Horlogerie while simultaneously reaffirming the maison’s guiding principles. As always, these tenets can be traced back to the forthright founder of the Place Vendôme maison, Gabrielle Chanel, who set down the timeless rules that continue to govern the house style.

As she put it: “Elegance is in the line... Always remove, never put back.” And also, “I imposed black. It still reigns, because black trumps everything else.” She said the same about white.

Gabrielle Chanel had a predilection for certain motifs, the camellia and the comet among others. To these ‘laws’, which combine to form a kind of style manifesto, can be added a precept that Gabrielle Chanel never tired of repeating: “Elegance is being equally beautiful on the inside and on the outside.”

Bearing all this in mind, the J12 Skeleton Flying Tourbillon can be seen as the quintessence of Gabrielle Chanel’s style. Its understated appearance conceals all but the essential parts of the movement, which it reveals in all their beauty. Its pure aesthetic enhances the subtle play of details and the contrast between black and white. Its mechanical prowess is undeniable, driven as it is by one of the most accomplished and complex mechanisms: the flying tourbillon. And finally, the architecture of its skeletonised movement is designed to create a perfect fusion of form and function.

OUTSIDE IN, INSIDE OUT Skeletonising the movement blurs the division between the inside and the outside of the watch. With no protective dial to conceal it, the movement itself becomes the face of the watch.

Chanel’s artistic team was nevertheless not content merely to skeletonise an existing movement. Working in collaboration with APRP, one of Switzerland’s finest producers of complex movements and a company with which Chanel enjoys a long-standing relationship, they completely redesigned the entire movement component by component, creating a transparent architecture that reveals just the essential parts of the mechanism, which are

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judiciously arranged to showcase their functionality and their beauty. The movement is constructed from top to bottom, beginning with the barrel that supplies energy to a gear train which in turn transmits it to the tourbillon regulator. As its name suggests, the tourbillon regulator then transforms this raw energy into regular, ordered bursts (the tick and the tock), and regulates the energy chronometrically before sending it into the gears that control the movement of the hour and minute hands.

Invented in 1801 by Abraham-Louis Breguet, the tourbillon regulator is one of watchmaking’s most subtle mechanisms. In essence, the regulating organs are contained in a rotating cage that negates the effects of gravity when the watch is held in a vertical position. The flying tourbillon is an even more complex variant in which the cage is supported not by a double bridge at the top and bottom, but by a lower bridge only. Aesthetically, this vertiginous absence of an upper bridge enhances the ethereal complexity of the whirling micro-mechanism.

INKY BLACK AND FLASHES OF DIAMOND When everything is on display, the finish of each component becomes inordinately important. After having been machined with the most scientific precision, each of its components – of which there are 186, including 77 for the tourbillon alone, whose cage weighs just 0.579 grams – is hand-chamfered in the finest watchmaking tradition, giving every line and curve the cleanest and most delicate edge.

Aesthetically, the watchmakers sought to emphasise the contrasts between matt, brushed and polished finishes and materials, using the techniques of chamfering, brushing and snailing, setting up a play of light between the whites and blacks that give the watch a resolutely contemporary elegance. The plates and bridges are fashioned out of titanium, a light but strong material that requires an even more demanding finish, with no fewer than five coats of black PVD treatment.

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Against the backdrop of subtle sheens and shades of black, the dazzling comet motif so dear to Mademoiselle Chanel blazes forth. This five-pointed star set with 49 brilliant-cut diamonds, mounted on the tourbillon carriage, indicates the seconds as it rotates once every minute. Offset against the matt black high-tech ceramic bracelet and case, the eye is drawn to the white gold crown, gem-set bezel and delicately bejewelled hour and minute hands, which sparkle above the tiered openwork movement nestled within an opaline and matt black surround.

The J12 Skeleton Flying Tourbillon is offered in three limited editions: 20 pieces set with 180 brilliant-cut diamonds and one cabochon diamond on the crown, making a total of 0.96 carats (€244,000); 12 watches opulently gem-set with 671 brilliant-cut diamonds on the case and lining both edges of the bracelet, with a cabochon diamond on the crown, making a total of 10.22 carats (€415,000); and one unique piece totalling 25.07 carats, whose case and bracelet are set with 482 baguette-cut diamonds, a total of 708 stones (€815,000). p

THE PREMIÈRE OPENWORK FLYING TOURBILLON The shape of the Première has not changed in twenty years; it is still inspired by the geometry of Place Vendôme, reflected in the shape of the stopper on a bottle of Chanel No. 5 perfume, created in 1924 by Gabrielle Chanel. It is both graphically simple and geometrically pure, both traits accentuated by the clean lines of the camellia, Gabrielle Chanel’s favourite motif and the house’s signature figure. The iconic, delicately gem-set camellia is poised over a flying tourbillon, whose movements can be glimpsed through the delicate tracery of overlapping circles, like metallic embroidery.

Above, part of the movement can be discerned through a cluster of interlocking black PVD-treated circles and bridges which define the dial, framed by a white gold bezel and case set with regiments of baguette-cut diamonds, emphasising its meticulous geometry. Fitted with a black satin strap, the Première Openwork Flying Tourbillon is available in a limited edition of 12, each set with 234 stones weighing 7.50 carats, including 115 baguette-cut diamonds (€330,000). Another version, also limited to 12 timepieces, combines baguette-cut diamonds with black spinels on the caseband and clasp (€310,000). p

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by Daniela Aroche, Editorial Director, Luxury Society

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015 was a transformative year for the luxury industry across the globe, as new technologies, digital advances, currencies, wealth, media & marketing channels spurred a seismic power shift from brands to consumers, Baby Boomers to Millennials, traditional media to social, and West to East – to name a few. But how these formidable trends will impact and evolve the industry in the year ahead has remained a mystery – until now.

Here, Daniela Aroche, Editorial Director of Luxury Society, presents a peek into the future for luxury brands via predictions from Luxury Society Knowledge Partners and industry experts.

THE LUXURY SPHERE AS IT STANDS Fflur Roberts, Global Head of Luxury Goods Research at Euromonitor International explains how the most significant trends are set to shape luxury markets and economies in 2016, and which 2015 events will transform 2016.

The luxury industry has flourished for the past 10 years, but the good times have started to stall and brands are now facing a possible power shift from East to West. Nevertheless, at the same

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LUXURY INDUSTRY PREDICTIONS FROM THE EXPERTS

time, connectivity will continue to drive new opportunities in digital innovation, with the internet and social media reaching new frontiers.

Our latest data reveals that 2016 will be yet another challenging year for the luxury goods industry. In particular, the economic instability, social unrest, armed conflict and further threats of terrorist attacks in key luxury shopping destinations will continue to act as a drag on sales, not to mention the turmoil on the global foreign-exchange markets which could create further global currency wars for the industry.

Despite these headwinds, our latest data shows that the outlook for the luxury goods industry remains optimistic, with sales set to reach US$328 billion by 2016, having increased from US$317 billion in 2015. The new data also indicates that developed markets are largely outperforming emerging markets and that there is a clear shift in spend from East to West.

“We are likely to see the impact of 2015 events filtering through into 2016 with further geographical shifts” In 2014 and 2015, mainland China posted its lowest growth in sales of luxury goods since our records began (a real decline of -3% and +1% respectively). The slowdown in growth also means that China will not overtake Japan to become the world’s second largest luxury goods market in the world anytime soon. Many of the world’s leading luxury brands have felt

the backlash of the Chinese Government’s crackdown on lavish spending as well as deeper operational and economic problems across the industry.

Much of the positive global luxury sales momentum witnessed in 2014 and 2015 in the developed regions was actually fuelled by wealthy visiting Chinese tourists. However, after the Chinese government devalued the renminbi in August 2015, China’s foreign spending power has taken a turn for the worse. Added to that, the Chinese economy is set to continue cooling. These two challenges combined will almost certainly have an impact on the industry’s geographical sales mix, potentially triggering another shift in global revenue power in 2016.

The impact of a weakening economy is unlikely to stop wealthy Chinese consumers from travelling to buy their luxury goods in 2016, but it might change their destination of choice as well as total indestination spend. Short-haul destinations such as South Korea and Thailand could reap the benefits. If Chinese consumers cut back on foreign trips further afield, then we could start to see yet another shift in the balance of power between the regions. Spending in North America, Western Europe and Japan could go down, while spending in China could even go up, thanks to price cuts and more people staying at home.

It is difficult to predict how the situation will develop in the future. What we can say, though, is that, according to our new research, 2015 has turned out to be one of the most strategically

u

PRECISION AND EFFICIENCY

by the motorist of time

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SECONDS/YEAR CALIBRE 11½´´´ - ETA E64.111 Ø 25.60 MM - H 1.95 MM TEMPERATURE REGULATION

SALES QUARTZLINE SCHMELZISTRASSE 16, CH-2540 GRENCHEN WWW.ETA.CH, SALES-QUARTZ@ETA.CH TEL: +41 (0)32 655 77 77

EXCLUSIVE TECHNOLOGY

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critical years ever for the global luxury goods industry and we are likely to see its impact filtering through into 2016 with further geographical shift.

LUXURY MEDIA & MARKETING CHANNELS IN 2016 Neil Cunningham, Managing Director of Cream UK describes the new media and marketing landscape to be forged in 2016, and how it will Impact luxury branding and consumer communications going forward.

In 2015, we saw luxury brands continue to ‘ramp up’ their digital efforts - shifting budgets from offline to online and recruiting more digital talent to their teams.

For many luxury brands, 2016 will see more of the same. But we think the forward-thinking ones won’t be ramping up, they’ll be integrating - placing digital at the heart of their operations rather than just adding more resource to siloed parts of their business.

Luxury businesses need to fully embrace digital because their consumers already have. Globally, 95% of luxury buyers are digitally connected and it’s estimated that 75% of luxury purchased are influenced by at least one digital touchpoint. No matter what the market, digital is at the centre of the luxury decision making process consult more digital resources than UK consumers when making a luxury purchase.

However, the brands which succeed in 2016 will not use the ‘mass market’ template of digital transformation, but will spend time thinking how they can use the tools at their disposal to create a unique digital luxury experience. A couple of developments in 2016 will help them to do this.

Firstly, virtual reality will enter the mainstream with the launch of the first commercial available VR headset from Facebook’s Oculus. Secondly, artificial intelligence - delivered by the likes of

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IBM’s Watson - will become more sophisticated and widespread.

But it’s important to note that success won’t just come from ‘dabbling’ in VR and AI, like luxury brands have dabbled with other luxury tools in the ‘ramping up’ phase, but in re-thinking their entire approach to digital across their entire business to create a unique, integrated online experience for their consumers. That will be the key to success in the coming year.

fine jewellery, watches and collectibles.

In 2016, we believe there will be a growing preference for high-ticket items across these categories. Consumers seek assets with a tangible value that will appreciate over time and can be liquidated if needs be.

WORLD WEALTH DISTRIBUTION & ULTRA-HIGH-NET-WORTH CONSUMERS

Jeff Fromm, President of FutureCast looks at the most significant trends to shape the Millennials consumer segment and behaviours of this affluent new generation taking the luxury landscape by storm, and how luxury brands should cater to them in 2016.

Madelaine Ollivier, Senior Luxury Analyst at Wealth-X, examines what 2016 holds for the luxury market with regards to global spending, the Ultra-High-Net-Worth (UNHNW) population and sector preference.

Spending on luxury goods continued in 2015 to be focused within a handful of global cities and driven by a consumer class of global citizens. Beneficiaries of this global movement included brands with a strong presence in luxury capitals such as London, New York and Paris.

Brands present at travel retail, particularly at airports, also profited from the growing number of global travellers.

The effect of foreign exchange rates on luxury purchases was a strong driving force in 2015. We see the impact of foreign exchange continuing to weigh in on luxury purchases in 2016. However, the continual strengthening of currencies such as the US Dollar and UK Sterling may deter tourist shoppers. Similarly, the threat of terrorist attacks will, we believe, weigh on the minds of some consumers and potentially curb travel rates to certain destinations.

A relative tumultuous macro-economic situation across many emerging markets in 2015 has been one of the contributing factors to a growth in spending on

THE MILLENNIAL GENERATION & THEIR CHANGING TASTES

One of the biggest trends we are seeing among the millennial generation that will continue into 2016 is the drive for live events and more experience based spending. Today, one in four millennials would rather pay money for an experience rather than a product. Everyone, regardless of age, has that one team or one performer that they follow, track tour dates, memorize team schedules and look forward to the night when they can see all of the action, LIVE. Millennials are quickly changing the live event industry through the way they research, purchase, experience and amplify these moments. They are looking for brands to not only host these experiences but to also create a frictionless consumer journey from getting the tickets all the way to sharing their pictures on social media. That means easy online access with mobile-first capabilities, connected wifi at the event and follow up connection points to relive the experience.

Implications of this group’s behavior are evolving the live event experience (before, during and after) for the industry and consumers. They are the generation that equates value to memories

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and experiences; brands can no longer sell them a product but rather create an experience with them.

This trend will continue to transform and evolve from what we have seen in the past as we enter the new year.

THE DIGITAL FACTOR & LUXURY’S CHALLENGES Tamar Koifman, Head of Sales & Marketing and Lead Strategist at Digital Luxury Group looks at the ever-evolving digital sphere and how the entry of new players, fresh channels and changing search behaviours adn technologies will alter the way luxury operates across borders in the year to come.

I think that every single year since at least 2008 has been forecasted as “the year of mobile,” but I believe that in 2015 this finally rang true. For the first time we saw that Google’s mobile search volumes surpassed those of searches via desktop.

Companies such as Net-a-Porter (now Yoox Net-a-Porter) reported new records in mobile e-commerce sales and it’s been estimated that mobile commerce now represents 30% of all US e-commerce sales. On top of that, working with a range of digital marketing luxury execs, I’ve seen that many have finally taken a “mobile first” approach of first designing for mobile interaction, and then making sure it also works on desktop, unlike what was done in past years.

Mobile will continue to be a priority in 2016 but with a more focused look at certain aspects, such as messaging apps.

One of the biggest forces to the digital world in 2016 is the continued growth and sophistication of messaging apps such as WhatsApp, WeChat (mostly in China), Facebook Messenger, and the like. Luxury brands may wonder what place they have in a world of two friends texting with one another, but if we look at the functionalities quickly being incorporated into these

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environments, we can see that there is possibility for a real commerce platform.

Today on WeChat it’s possible to: book flight tickets, check your banking account, download product catalogs, order a taxi, find local boutiques, buy products, talk to brand customer service reps, make restaurant reservations, and so much more.

This advancement in China hasn’t been lost on Facebook, operator of Messenger and WhatsApp, and we’re seeing new functionalities being rolled out by the minute, with full integration expected by 2016. Of special note is Messenger’s concierge service, M, which aims to revolutionize the way we go about our daily lives. From asking M, in plain English, to help find an open table at a local restaurant or to book a flight to Miami, it’s believed that we should have a new and very helpful “friend” come 2016.

A NEW AGE: THE LATEST GENERATIONAL & RETAIL TRENDS Katie Baron, Spaces & Retail Editor at Stylus investigates the emerging generational and retail trends set to become the next big thing in 2016, as consumer segments, behaviours and luxury shopping preferences undergo major shifts.

2015 witnessed many retail trends that I believe will be sticking around in 2016, notably the editorialisation of retail, the advent of fully shoppable virtual realities, an uptick in ethical attitudes as a driving force not a compromising burden, and the dawn of ‘beta’ (trial-and-error) brand mentalities. Contextualised, culturally astute and super-socialised commerce were also more widely embraced, as were revised understandings of gender, identity and consumer tribes and ‘fandoms’.

In terms of new, or interestingly evolved trends for 2016, here are some more key predictions:

• Shape-shifting spaces: The direct result of brands needing to extend their role and remit as entertainers, educators and also enablers. This will take the form of new collectives, still deeper examples of hybridisation and also concepts attuned to borrowing (such Everlane’s Room Service concept that saw the etailer briefly inhabit hotel rooms to take a temporary grip on physical retailing).

The premise is ‘owning over becoming’ which the luxury sector will embrace by connecting their audience with increasingly rarefied experiences and access of a highly topical, often intellectual nature.

This inherently connects to the below: • Experiential and exploration-based modes of commerce: That acknowledge a growing desire for experiences over outright ownership, as well as a distinct need for retailers to counterbalance the rising use of predictive analytics and algorithms with concepts rooted in unpredictability, choice, impulse and the exhilaration of surprise.

• Ephemeral moments and digital delay: Two ideas that illustrate how digital retail must evolve from being synonymous with everywhere, anytime ubiquity to a playing field in which to generate both ‘now-ornever’ moments of absolute shopping hunger and the ‘wait-and-anticipate’ thrill of sustained delayed desire.

• Spirituality: As the luxury sector continues to attune to an economy motivated by services, experiences and the possibility of personal connections (with the brand but also other brand fans), modes of engagement and even products rooted in a sense of imaginative, meaningful purpose – including those that explore a more spiritual, wellbeing-focused outlook – will have a significant resonance.

Find out how to join forces with Luxury Society as an official Knowledge Partner and position your business as an undisputed luxury thought leader, contact: editor@luxurysociety.com

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MARCH 17 – 24, 2016

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AUDEMARS PIGUET

THE RETURN TO YELLOW GOLD

PREVIEW

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak was launched in 1972 with the strapline “first luxury watch in steel”. In the intervening 44 years there have been iterations in all the noble metals, as well as forays into carbon, alacrite, bronze, rubber, ceramic, titanium and tantalum. It is now leaving all these detours and diversions behind and returning to the most elementary and perennial of all the precious metals: yellow gold.

The new ROYAL OAK PERPETUAL CALENDAR is a classic in the fullest sense of the term. Inspired by a 1984 model, it encloses the calibre 5134 automatic movement, which has been resized to fit perfectly inside the 41mm case. The dial, decorated with a geometric ‘Grande Tapisserie’ motif, shows the day, month and date at 9, 12 and 3 o’clock respectively, leap years at 12 o’clock, astronomical moon phase at 6 o’clock and week of the year on the external ring. It’s a return to the classics, which Audemars Piguet is marketing as a “bold and visionary” departure. Time will tell. (PM)

PARMIGIANI FLEURIER BLUE ABYSS

The brand’s signature colour, the delicate and subtle ‘Blue abyss’, can only be created by someone who masters the most exacting parameters: a specialist electroplating bath, perfectly adjusted current and meticulous temperature control. “Under the effect of electrolysis, the colour is transformed: the initial bright orange shade turns into an almost rust-coloured brown; next, purplish tones appear, as deep as the striking colour of aubergines; finally, waves of blue materialise with this blue-violet hue which turns blue... and then a moment later... Blue abyss. Stop. Two or three seconds more in this bath and the piece would have turned to royal blue then grey.” Beating inside the TONDA MÉTROGRAPHE is the automatic manufacture FP 315 chronograph movement with variable-inertia balance and twin seriescoupled barrels. (PM) europa star

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JAEGER-LECOULTRE INNOVATION BEHIND A CLASSIC FAÇADE

1958 was International Geophysical Year, and the year in which Jaeger-LeCoultre created a chronometer capable of cancelling out the magnetic fields at the North Pole, and it now identifies the Grande Maison’s latest ‘collection-event’, the Geophysic® collection. On the outside, we have peerless elegance, cutting-edge sophistication, sleek classicism and perfect legibility. On the inside there is a new precision calibre with an unusual non-circular balance wheel, the Gyrolab®, designed to reduce air resistance, which has been hailed as ‘a key breakthrough in watch precision’. Another innovation is the ‘true seconds’ system, which causes the seconds hand to jump every second (run-of-the-mill for quartz but extremely complex to produce mechanically), offering a rhythmically accurate reading of the seconds.

The collection’s first two models have been launched together: the Geophysic® True Second® and the GEOPHYSIC® UNIVERSAL TIME, which offers simultaneous access to 24 different time zones. (PM)

MB&F

PERPETUAL MACHINE MB&F surprised all its followers when it brought out the first Legacy Machine, with its balance wheel impressively suspended above the movement. Was the world of classic watchmaking about to be invaded by enthusiasts of futuristic contraptions? Well, no, but the new LEGACY MACHINE PERPETUAL shows that the iconoclastic MB&F, in company here with Irish watchmaker Stephen McDonnell, has done more than just master the traditional perpetual calendar complication.

It has redesigned it from top to bottom, replacing the conventional and cumbersome grand levier system with a mechanical processor.

The result is that, rather than scrolling swiftly through the 29, 30 and 31 before stopping on the 1, the default month length has been set at the minimum 28 days, with additional days being added as required.

No more skipped dates or jammed gears from changing the date at the wrong time! The integrated complication is entirely visible on the open dial, underneath the miraculously suspended balance. We’ll be back for a closer look. (PM)

H. MOSER & CIE

A GENTLY ECCENTRIC DANDY, ROXY MUSIC STYLE We all know Bryan Ferry, the English gentleman rocker with the nonchalant charm of a Las Vegas crooner. His air of elegant self-possession, seasoned with a whiff of arrogance, is shared by H. Moser & Cie and Edouard Meylan, its youthful and effortlessly well-groomed CEO. Together, they dreamed up the ENDEAVOUR SMALL SECONDS BRYAN FERRY, an unapologetically retro watch that draws its vintage inspiration from the back catalogue of the Schaffhausen manufacture. Hours, minutes and small seconds on a matt lacquered white dial, minutes track, blued hands, voluptuous Arabic numerals, splashes of red, a rose gold case, brown calfskin strap and manually-wound manufacture movement: what could be more authentically elegant?

There’s one further touch of tasteful understatement: at 6 o’clock, the discreet legend ‘Bryan Ferry’ in red replaces the usual ‘Swiss made’ (red, as we hardly need mention, being the preferred shade for a gentleman’s socks). (PM)

OFFICINE PANERAI MAGNIFYING SPHERES

Panerai has earned a reputation not only for its immediately recognisable watch cases, but also for its minimalist luminescent dials.

Enclosed in magnifying glass spheres, their graphical power is all the more arresting. Two new versions of this table clock have just been released: the PAM00641, with its mysterious S.L.C. dial which dates back to the 1930s, and which was probably one of the designs developed for the Italian Navy, although it was never adopted; and the PAM00651 with its CALIFORNIA dial which (no help from its name) was developed in 1936 and fitted to the first watches supplied to the Italian Navy. Its unique graphic design boldly juxtaposes Roman and Arabic numerals with index markers, along with a jaunty triangle at 12 o’clock. The spheres conceal a manually wound P5000 calibre with 8-day power reserve. (PM)

RICHARD MILLE

EXTRA FLAT WITH VISUAL DEPTH One of the most well-known and recognisable Richard Mille watches is the minimalist RM-010 Automatic. In the quest to deliver an ultra-slim version while maintaining an impression of visual depth, Richard Mille has developed a new automatic movement just 3.6mm thick, using extreme skeletonisation to carry the eye from the bezel down into the movement. The interplay of different levels in the RM 67-01 AUTOMATIC EXTRA FLAT is highlighted by the Luminova-coated metal hour markers, which are mounted on a pair of titanium rails fixed directly to the movement. The eyes are gently pulled in towards the central well in which the hour and minute hands are anchored. The refined dimensions of the iconic tonneaushaped case demand extreme measures in terms of machining: each case requires more than 215 separate machining operations. (PM)

MONTBLANC

A HIGH-TECH MARRIAGE Titanium, carbon fibre and DLC are combined to create lightness, functionality and style. The TimeWalker collection is Montblanc’s most contemporary offering. Today we are looking at the monopusher chronograph version equipped with an ExoTourbillon, hitherto reserved for the classic Heritage Chronométrie line.

With its screwed balance wheel oscillating outside the cage, which can thus be made even smaller and lighter, a stop-seconds function that interacts directly with the balance, allowing the seconds to be set precisely without stopping the cage’s rotation, and the ability to change the hour without affecting the minute or seconds hands, the marriage looks set to be a long and happy one. Innovation and tradition are even more closely wedded in the TIMEWALKER EXOTOURBILLON MINUTE CHRONOGRAPH, which features a classic column wheel monopusher chronograph. (PM)

VACHERON CONSTANTIN BEHIND THE FAN

Inspired by the Art Deco period, of which the fan was a favoured motif, the secretive HEURES CRÉATIVES HEURE DISCRÈTE by Vacheron Constantin plays up the contrast between the flamboyant ostentation of diamonds and the watch’s discreet function. Carved in filigreed white gold and set with precious stones that accentuate its distinctive geometry, the fan unfolds to reveal a dainty white mother-of-pearl dial with finely textured stripes, which is driven by a diminutive manually wound mechanical movement, the 15.70mm Cailbre 1055.

This demonstration of horological prowess and creative jewellery design is a worthy marker of the Geneva maison’s 260th birthday. (PM)

URWERK

WILD WEST FUTURISM The EMC, the world’s only 100% mechanical watch whose rate can be checked electronically by simply pressing a button, represents the Holy Grail of Urwerk’s timekeeping. Resolutely futuristic in function and display, the new limited edition EMC PISTOL nevertheless bears more than a passing resemblance to a gunslinger’s pistol from the Wild West. This impression is fully justified: its intricate engraving is the work of Florian Güllert who, over the past 15 years, has earned an international reputation for his unique skill in transforming rifles and handguns into stunning works of the engraver’s art. Navigating deftly between contrasting genres, the engraved Pistol is nevertheless a genuinely intelligent watch: it features an optical sensor that works with the balance wheel, an electronic oscillator that acts as the reference device, a computer that determines the difference between the rate of the movement and that of the reference oscillator, and a hand-wound generator. (PM)

CARTIER

SUSPENDED SKELETON Carole Forestier, Cartier’s Haute Horlogerie guru, has developed 45 movements since 2009. She has now succeeded in creating a perfect fusion of the aesthetic with the technical: movement and case, as seen in this year’s MONTRE CLÉ DE CARTIER SQUELETTE AUTOMATIQUE, are now officially one. She has pulled off a technical tour de force, ensuring that the weight required to automatically wind the movement does nothing to disrupt the transparency of the nickel silver skeleton, whose bridges and organs appear suspended in mid-air. All that is visible of the completely openworked weight is its two slim arms that oscillate in time to the wearer’s movements. The finishing touch is a key-style cylindrical crown set with sapphire cabochon, which sets off the sleek outline of the 41mm palladium 950 case. (PM)

VAN CLEEF & ARPELS AERIAL BALLET

Since 2006 Van Cleef & Arpels has enchanted connoisseurs with its Poetic Complications in which watchmaking creativity, the decorative arts, miniature painting and engraving are interwoven to create subtle narrative animations. The LADY ARPELS RONDE DES PAPILLONS features three colourful butterflies that emerge from behind the clouds to indicate the minutes, while a white gold swallow sweeps around the dial, pointing to the hour with the tip of its wing. At the press of a button the dial bursts into life for 13 seconds, during which the butterflies complete their dance at a more nimble pace, before settling down once more to count off the minutes. The animation is driven by a sophisticated retrograde movement designed to allow the mechanism to vary the speed of this poetical ballet. (PM)

SIHH INNOVATION

MECHANICAL-QUARTZ HYBRID We thought the Swiss had abandoned that avenue forever.

But no, the mechanical-quartz hybrid is back, right where you’d least expect it.

And its performance is exceptional. | by Pierre Maillard

I

n 1978 Jean-Claude Berney registered Swiss patent 595 636, described as “a watch movement driven by a spring and regulated by an electronic circuit” on behalf of Ebauches SA. In essence, the idea was to use the mechanical energy supplied by the barrel to drive a quartz resonator, which would act as regulator. In the thick of the quartz crisis the avenue was being actively explored, but it was never commercially developed and was destined to end up in the back of a drawer.

Perfecting the system posed some significant challenges, it has to be said. The Japanese over at Seiko came to the same conclusion, almost at the same moment, as they prepared to launch a similar project. One of Suwa’s young engineers, looking for a way to improve the precision of a mechanical watch by a factor of ten, proposed a ‘hybrid’ solution that was similar in many respects to the Swiss idea. But unlike the Swiss, the Japanese never gave up. This obstinacy carried them through 28 years of trial and error before the release, in 2005, of “the pinnacle of watchmaking mechatronics”, the Seiko Spring Drive.

quartz oscillations down to a frequency of 32Hz. This process is controlled by a sensor and comparator, which continuously correct the system (numerous patents for this new technique have been registered).

The 700P, Piaget’s first hybrid movement – mechanical energy and transmission, quartz regulation – offers exceptional performance of plus or minus one second per day, which is beyond the reach of any exclusively mechanical watch, as well as enhanced reliability in the form of guaranteed resistance to magnetic fields and gravity.

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH… Many people forget that Piaget, widely recognised for its jewellery and mechanical watchmaking, has a long history of quartz innovation. Back in 1969 it was involved in the famous Beta 21 project, the first quartz wristwatch prototype.

In 1976 it used its expertise in mechanical miniaturisation to develop its first in-house quartz movement, the flattest in the world at the time. Over the intervening forty years Piaget has continued to bring out quartz designs, albeit with far less hype than its mechanical creations.

This dual expertise, in both mechanical and quartz ultrathin technology, has now found its perfect expression in the Emperador Coussin XL 700P. It has all the imperious aplomb of a high-end mechanical timepiece – which it absolutely is – but in place of the tourbillon we might expect is a generator, the source of its remarkable precision of +/- 1 second per day.

The principle behind this concept watch is straightforward enough. The energy source is a self-winding system in the form of a micro-rotor, which arms the barrel spring in the time-honoured fashion, driving the gear train. So far, so ordinary. But rather than supplying energy to a traditional lever escapement or some other kind of regulating organ, the gear train powers an alternator. This generates an electrical current that is stored in a generator, which powers a quartz oscillator. The quartz oscillates at 32,786 Hz, controlling the speed of the alternator, which makes 5.33 rotations per second. The secret lies in the braking system, which ‘splits’ the

BLACK TIE HYBRID Its hybrid nature is perfectly reflected in the construction of the ultra-thin movement (5.5mm, 42 hour power reserve), whose main elements are visible through the cutout dial. The oscillating weight of the micro-rotor and the generator can be seen side by side at the front of the watch, forming an offset figure of 8.

The absence of a dial means the meticulous traditional finishes of the movement’s principal elements are given pride of place: the guilloché micro-rotor decorated with the Piaget coat of arms; sunburst and chamfered bridges; circular satin-brushed gears; silvered screws; and a white gold fillet to define the generator. Above the deep black movement, two off-centre hands sweep over finely tapered hour markers. The 46.5mm black ADLC-coated rounded gold bezel contrasts with the cushion-shaped detailing in white gold, clearly proclaiming its membership of the Black Tie collection.

The exceptional Emperador Coussin XL 700P is available in a limited series of 118, fitted with a black alligator strap, at the price of CHF 70,000. But this is just the beginning. p

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| SIHH INNOVATION | 37

atelier-zuppinger.ch

Crown Royal headgear or watch winder?

Discover the world of Fine Watchmaking at www.hautehorlogerie.org

Crown | The winding crown is a knurled or fluted button of various shapes, held between the thumb and forefinger and used to wind the watch. Some crowns incorporate a mobile pushbutton for operating a chronograph mechanism or to release the cover of a hunter case.

THE FOUNDATION’S PARTNERS | A. LANGE & SÖHNE | AUDEMARS PIGUET | BAUME & MERCIER | BOVET 1822 | CARTIER | CHANEL | CHOPARD | CHRISTOPHE CLARET DE BETHUNE | GIRARD-PERREGAUX | GREUBEL FORSEY | HERMÈS | IWC | JAEGER-LECOULTRE | LOUIS VUITTON | MB&F | MONTBLANC | OFFICINE PANERAI PARMIGIANI FLEURIER | PIAGET | RALPH LAUREN | RICHARD MILLE | ROGER DUBUIS | TAG HEUER | VACHERON CONSTANTIN | VAN CLEEF & ARPELS

BEST OF THE LATEST SALONS

A TOUR OF THE AUTUMN WATCH FAIRS Last November the venerable nations of the Old World hosted three watchmaking fairs targeted at the general public: Munich Time in Germany, SalonQP in London and Belles Montres in Paris. Europa Star was there. Here are our top picks. | by Serge Maillard

| MUNICH TIME “WE WANTED TO RECREATE A RETAIL BOUTIQUE, BUT ON A BIGGER SCALE”

Jelena Moro

Originally based in Vienna, where he launched a fair that’s still going strong today, Rudolf Kreuzberger had the right idea when he decided in 2008 to create a Munich-based version.

Today, Munich Time is recognised as a major entry point for German consumers.

The Munich Time fair in the Bavarian capital’s prestigious Bayerischer Hof brought together an impressively broad palette of international names tempted by the potential of Europe’s biggest economy, as well as many German brands. On their arrival, visitors were greeted by a posse of Richemont group brands as well as LVMH; Swatch Group was nowhere to be seen. There were also many independent watchmakers to be discovered: Swiss brands such as Carl F. Bucherer, German brands Nomos, Tutima and Sinn, and French independent manufacturer Bell & Ross. And we shouldn’t leave out Greubel Forsey, fresh from its victory in the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. From the highly affordable to the eye-wateringly inaccessible, there were plenty of familiar faces.

With its relatively restricted area the fair felt dense: large and small brands alike occupies substantially the same footprint, offering far less of a contrast than Baselworld. All the exhibitors we talked to appreciated the visitor demographics, with many experienced collectors making the trip alongside interested amateurs.

EXHIBITORS: A. Lange & Söhne • Alexander Shorokhoff • Alpina • Anonimo • Arnold & Son • B. Junge & Söhne • Baume & Mercier • Bell & Ross • Benzinger • Bernard Favre • Borgward • Brüggler • Bvlgari • C.H. Wolf • Carl F. Bucherer • Christiaan Van der Klaauw • Chronoswiss • Chronovision • Corum • Cyrus, D. Dornblüth & Sohn • Damasko • Dubois et Fils • Eberhard & Co • Erwin Sattler • Frederique Constant • Fritsch • Genesis • Girard-Perregaux • Greubel Forsey • G-Shock • Habring2 • Hanhart • Hentschel • Hirsch • Hublot • IWC Schaffhausen • Jaeger-LeCoultre • Jean Marcel • Junkers, Kieninger • Lang & Heyne • Laurent Ferrier • Lehmann • Leinfelder • Louis Erard • Locman • Marcello C • Matthias Naeschke • Mauthe • Meistersinger, Montblanc • Moritz Grossmann • Mühle Glasshütte • Nienaber Bünde • Nomos • Oris • Panerai • Parmigiani Fleurier • Perrelet • Piaget • Société Horlogère Reconvilier • Ressence • Revelation • Roger Dubuis • Rolf Lang • Schwarz Etienne • Sinn • Speake-Marin • Stowa • SuisseMecanica • TAG Heuer • Tudor • Tutima • U-Boat • Ulysse Nardin • Vacheron Constantin • Visconti • Wempe • Zenith Zeppelin

The roots of Munich Time go back to 2001, the year Rudolf Kreuzberger founded the Vienna Time salon in Austria. “Vienna Time was the first international watch fair targeted at the general public, even before London or Mexico. At that time we already had partnerships with the major watch brands, which brought in visitors from Germany,” explains the entrepreneur. In 2008 he set up a fair in Germany itself, in Munich, as a sort of German offshoot of Vienna Time.

Since then, with 86 brands present this year, the Munich fair has overtaken its Viennese parent in terms of the number of exhibitors. And although retailers also attend it, the main objective is to put brands in contact with their end clients.

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Brands

“Since 2008, with 86 brands present this year, the Munich fair has overtaken its Viennese parent in terms of the number of exhibitors. And although retailers also attend it, the main objective is to put brands in contact with their end clients.”

BELL & ROSS, BACK TO THE FUTURE A French brand braves Munich. Two of Bell & Ross’s models really capture the imagination. First, the BR Vintage 123 GT and BR 126, which take us back to the high-octane world of 1970s motor cars. And second, the BR-X1 line expands the company’s horizons with an impressive new Haute Horlogerie version, the BR-X1 Chronograph Tourbillon (limited to 20 pieces), which comes in a 45mm multi-material case.

SINN, CRAFTING THE ANCESTRAL DAMASCUS STEEL The 1800 S Damaszener by Sinn is a new 100-piece limited edition watch made of Damascus steel, which gained its legendary reputation from its use in swords, knives and blades.

Each watch is unique, as it is impossible to manipulate the moiré markings of the steel.

So, how did 2015 Munich Time go?

We’re happy, because we welcomed even more visitors – over 11,000, which is one thousand more than last year. 2012 remains our record year, however, with 12,000.

Is there a correlation between the buying climate and the number of visitors to the fair?

Yes, it couldn’t be clearer. It’s an interesting phenomenon that we have seen repeated over the years: participation in the fair is perfectly aligned with economic cycles.

How do you persuade the brands to participate?

We offer them contact with their end clients. Brands are increasingly looking for a direct relationship. That’s why they are opening their own boutiques. But they also appreciate the fact that we draw in a high-quality clientele, people who wouldn’t necessarily feel comfortable walking into a mono-brand boutique, because they don’t want to feel they have to buy into a particular message, or make a purchase. At our fair they can wander around any number of brands, and let themselves be taken by surprise or won over by something,

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JUNKERS AND ZEPPELIN, UP IN THE AIR

without feeling an obligation to buy. In fact, we consider ourselves to be like a retailer, but with a very big shop!

What is quite striking is the relatively restricted dimensions of the booths, even those of the big brands.

Yes, that’s what encourages direct contact between the brands and their clients! The juxtaposition of big and small is deliberate. I don’t want to organise a fair where there are only luxury brands.

Like Baselworld, we want to be inclusive.

And are the brands OK with this?

Obviously, some would prefer clearer delineation. But it’s like a shop: you can look at a Rolex, and you can also look at a Tissot. p

The brands Junkers and Zeppelin share (at least) two characteristics: they both belong to Point Tec, a firm based near Munich, and they are themed around air exploration. Junkers has dedicated the Eisvogel collection to the plane that completed the first ever flight from Spitzbergen in the direction of the North Pole. The Zeppelin LZ 126 was the first passenger airship to be used for long-distance flights.

JEAN MARCEL: VERTICAL TAKE-OFF

ERWIN SATTLER, MASTER CLOCKMAKER

ALEXANDER SHOROKHOFF, COLOURS ON THE WRIST

Jean Marcel, a brand founded in Baden-Baden in 1981 by Jürgen Kuhn, has a particular distinguishing feature: verticality. Watches in the Palmarium, Astrum and Quadrum II collections all share the distinction of a vertically-oriented display. These features, grouped under the copyrighted term ‘Vertical Limit’, are what make Jean Marcel’s creations immediately recognisable.

Erwin Sattler, a Made in Germany family company, is probably one of the most well-known clockmakers in the world. In their case the neologism ‘Haute Pendulerie’ is entirely appropriate. To confirm its status, the manufacture presents its most extraordinary precision pendulum clock yet: in addition to the time display, the dial of the Opus Temporis includes a perpetual calendar and a hand-painted spherical moon.

Germany-based watchmaker Alexander Shorokhoff is fascinated by the concept of the avant-garde, which is the name of one of his main watch collections. The Avantgarde Babylonian II features an entire cosmos, complete with celestial bodies and signs of the zodiac. The dial of the Barbara model, meanwhile, contains a piano keyboard with vivid colours in the centre.

MORITZ GROSSMANN, FEMININE ELEGANCE

NOMOS IN ZESTY ORANGE

MEISTERSINGER, ONE HAND, TWO TIME ZONES

The Glashütte manufacture Moritz Grossmann, under the able leadership of Christine Hutter, has launched a new ladies’ watch – the Tefnut Lady.

The brand’s DNA is present in spades: painstaking attention to detail, timeless elegance and gently playful graded numerals. Not forgetting of course a new in-house calibre, its fifth, christened the 102.0, with a height of just under 4mm.

Flat and elegant, Bauhaus-inspired, in the ‘affordable luxury’ segment, 100% manufacture and sporting a new in-house calibre, Nomos Glashütte’s new Neomatik will be on more than a few wish-lists. The five core models – Tangente, Orion, Metro, Ludwig, and Minimatik – come in two versions: one with cyan blue accents on a white silver-plated dial, and the other with fine details in neon orange on a champagne-coloured dial.

With the Adhaesio, the single-hand watch specialist MeisterSinger has developed a new, elegant and eyecatching dual timer. An individual needle-sharp hour hand points to the current time of day or night at its wearer’s location, accurate to within five minutes. Above the MeisterSinger logo, an arrow points to the second local time on a 24-hour ring. These two times are separated by a second ring showing the date.

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BEST OF THE LATEST SALONS

| SALONQP “WE’RE CLOSE TO MAXIMUM CAPACITY” James Gurney, founder of the remarkably successful SalonQP, looks back on the 2015 event. He is particularly proud of the participation of François-Paul Journe, and a tribute to British master watchmaker George Daniels. Interview.

What kinds of people come to your salon?

They have a range of profiles, and the profiles change depending on the day.

The opening evening is reserved for brands, collectors, the media, industry leaders and professionals. The second day marks a transition: collectors often come back to have a look at the brands they didn’t have chance to see the night before. The third day attracts a wider audience of watch lovers.

From a strictly watchmaking point of view, what for you were the high points?

Master watchmakers such as Kari Voutilainen, Roger W. Smith and FrançoisPaul Journe were present. The standard of the salon is improving year on year.

We also attracted several major brands including Montblanc, along with British manufactures, for whom we represent an important platform. There are also newcomers such as Halda and top designers like Marc Newson. Our salon offers a number of different dimensions, different

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faces, and the exhibitions and seminars provide added value. From the beginning, our philosophy has been to continue to engage both the brands and the public.

Unless you’re a millionaire you rarely have direct access to a brand like Harry Winston, let alone the Opus 14!

Could you grow still further, and attract even more brands?

The SalonQP welcomed visitors to the Saatchi Gallery in London’s upscale district of Chelsea, with a touch of class and more than a little British eccentricity. Its minimalist rooms, filled with the upper echelons of British society, offered a wide range of luxury watch brands along with a fascinating selection of British companies including Bremont, Garrick, Schofield and Dennison, not forgetting the return of master watchmaker Roger W. Smith, the heir of George Daniels, who marked the exhibition with the launch of four new models.

A well-thought-out series of exhibitions and seminars highlighted a variety of different themes.

Among them, “Inside a Second” traced the history of the chronograph through important historic watches. “Gems of Time: The Art of Colour” celebrated high jewellery watches. The Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève presented a display of the 2015 winners of watchmaking’s most important awards. And the occasion was honoured with a glimpse of the new Opus 14 by Harry Winston.

Show attendance was up 23% on 2014.

Angelus • Antoine Preziuso • Armin Strom • Arnold & Son • Ateliers de Monaco • Audemars Piguet • Autodromo • Backes & Strauss • Ludovic Ballouard • Bell & Ross • Bonhams, Bremont • Brüggler • Buben & Zorweg • Bvlgari • Cartier • Chopard • Christiaan Van der Klaauw • Christopher Ward • Chronoswiss • Czapek & Cie • De Bethune • Dennison • Dietrich • F.P Journe • Fellows • Ferdinand Berthoud • Frédérique Constant • Garrick • Gemfields • Georg Jensen • GPHG • Graham • Grand Seiko • Grönefeld • H.Moser & Cie • Habring2 • Halda • Harry Winston • Hoptroff • Jaeger-LeCoultre • Jean Rousseau • Julien Coudray • Junghans • Lang & Heyne • Laurent Ferrier • Le Rhone • Lebeau-Courally • LIC • Manufacture Royale • Marc Newson • Maurice Lacroix, MB&F • Montblanc • Moritz Grossmann • Mühle Glashütte • Nomos • Orolog • Page & Cooper • Pequignet • Perrelet • Piaget • Raidillon • Ralph Lauren • Rapport London • Raymond Weil • Rebellion • Roger W. Smith • Sarpaneva • Schofield • SevenFriday • Shinola • Sinclair Harding • Sinn • Squale • Tudor • U-Boat • Urban Jürgensen • Urwerk • Vacheron Constantin • Victorinox • Voutilainen • Vulcain • Watches of Knightsbridge • William & Son • Wolf • Zenith

EXHIBITORS: A Lange & Söhne • AHCI • Akrivia • Alexandre Meerson • Alpina • Andersen Genève •

In a way we have reached a limit. We can’t really grow without changing venue, and we don’t want to do that.

In terms of style and location there’s

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Brands

SCHOFIELD, THE BRITISH REVIVAL

VULCAIN, THE CRICKET CHIRPS ON

Schofield is a British watch company known for its attention to detail and design, under the guidance of creator Giles Ellis. The new Schofield Signalman Silvertop is launched in two dial colours, the style nostalgically harking back to a time when prestige cars were often two-tone, and those early mornings when everyone had milk delivered in glass bottles with silver-foil tops…

The brand founded in the Neuchâtel mountains by the Ditisheim brothers in 1858 is today synonymous with their famous mechanical alarm wristwatch equipped with the legendary Cricket calibre – a watch loud enough to actually awaken its owner. Worn

by Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon and Johnson, it earned the nickname of “The Presidents’ Watch”.

CHRONOSWISS, REPEATING THE REPEATER

ARNOLD & SON, DEEP BLUE

nothing to compare with the Saatchi Gallery. The only alternative would be to create a temporary venue, but that’s not really feasible in London in winter!

So do you have to turn a lot of brands away?

It does happen. For example, if a purely fashion brand came to see us, and we didn’t think they were a particularly good fit, we’d have to think twice. But we have had Burberry in the past, and it worked out well, although they only made the one appearance.

What brands do you dream of seeing at SalonQP? It would be really amazing to have Breguet or Blancpain! We already have the participation of Harry Winston so one day, why not... This year I was delighted to present the last pocket watch produced by George Daniels, the inventor of the coaxial escapement, which was taken up by Omega. It’s an absolutely incredible timepiece, dating from 1994. p

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Lucerne-based Chronoswiss are relaunching their first wristwatch with quarter-hour repeater, introduced in 2003. Having undergone a facelift, the dial is now made from fine silver and decorated with an appealing guilloché design. Art Deco numbers and skeletonised, leaf-shaped hands round off its elegant appearance. A gentle push of the button near the number 10 adorned with a clef is all that’s required to activate the chime.

Born in Cornwall in 1736, John Arnold was one of the most inventive watchmakers of his day and held patents for a detent escapement, bimetallic balance and helical balance spring.

Finished with an intricate guilloché pattern overlaid by deep blue lacquer, the HMS1 Royal Blue is directly inspired by the timepieces made during the earlier part of John Arnold’s life for King George III and the royal court. It features the in-house A&S1001 calibre.

CHRISTOPHER WARD GOES UPMARKET

ROGER W. SMITH, RETURN OF THE KING

This British brand, founded in 2004 by Mike France, Chris Ward and Peter Ellis, aims to offer highly accessible Swiss made watches to its aficionados – by engaging in direct internet sales and cutting costs wherever it can. It is now launching its first moonphase watch, the C9 Moonphase, built around the Calibre JJ04 and accurate to within one day every 128 years of the base movement’s accuracy.

With just 80 watches produced since 2001, Britain’s greatest living watchmaker, and heir to the late George Daniels, Roger W. Smith is as rare as he is appreciated… So it was rather an event to see him give a preview of not one but four new watches at SalonQP, in partnership with auction house Phillips. Among them is a star, the new Series 4, an instantaneous triple calendar watch with a highly legible ‘travelling date aperture’.

BUBEN & ZORWEG, TOWARDS INFINITY

CHRISTIAAN VAN DER KLAAUW, COSMIC WONDERS

MARC NEWSON, MEASURING TIME WITH GOLD

In 2015, Buben & Zörweg, best known for its luxury safes built to house collections of up to 100 fine watches, celebrates two decades in the global luxury business. The brand has also created its own manufacture pendulum movement, the Alpha 01 – Pendulum World Time. To house the new creation, the manufacture produced the Grande Infinity, a tall modern masterpiece with a curved design and central transparent door.

Astronomy is the source of inspiration for Dutch watchmaker Christian Van der Klaauw, who presented his first hand-made clock, with astronomical complications, in 1974. Since then the brand has produced mechanical heliocentric masterpieces, from the astonishing CVDK Planetarium – with the smallest mechanical planetarium in the world – to the CVDK Real Moon Joure – with the most accurate 3D moon phase in the world.

Famous Australian designer Marc Newson, one of the fathers of the Apple Watch, is back with a new version of his Hourglass. Blown from a single piece of borosilicate glass, it contains millions of tiny spheres made of stainless steel. Each and every one is precisely 0.6mm in diameter and coated with fine gold or silver. The precision balls fall and bounce in an erratic but mesmerising way.

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BEST OF THE LATEST SALONS

| BELLES MONTRES “IT’S MORE A POP-UP STORE THAN A FAIR” Antoine Lacoste, Caroline Lacoste and Jérôme Dernis

The ninth edition of Belles Montres was also its first joint appearance with the Salon de l’Homme. Meeting with one of the new managers, Jérôme Dernis.

What is your new concept for Belles Montres?

Our idea was to create a huge pop-up store, rather than a conventional trade fair. After working in communication for the watch industry I co-founded the Salon de l’Homme, whose first edition took place last year at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. The fair is dedicated to men’s accessories and masculine pursuits: music, bespoke tailoring, Formula 1 and flying. The only thing missing was watches! The watch is the only item of jewellery a man can wear.

What do you mean by pop-up store?

It’s an antidote to the conventional trade fair, which is fairly boring and extremely tiring, where you run from one booth to another and don’t really take anything in. We wanted to create an anti-fair: a relaxed event that would be pleasant to visit. Many insiders told me they’d had enough of the traditional trade fair concept, which was too technical. We’re not just targeting collectors, we’re targeting all watch buyers. That’s why we have such a broad spectrum of brands and models, from the G-Shock to Vacheron Constantin. It’s a reflection of reality: we don’t wear just Armani suits, we also own

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a pair of Nikes! The modern man has a number of faces. We don’t take sides!

Why were there fewer of them than in 2014?

What has been the watch industry’s reaction to these changes?

Last year we had fifty watch brands; this year, we’ve had around a hundred exhibitors in total, including some thirty watch brands. What you need to understand is that watchmaking is one element of the Salon de l’Homme, it’s one niche, which represents nearly a third of the event as a whole. There’s been another important development: previously it was an exhibition fair, but now we’re encouraging direct sales, and I hope all the brands understand this message. That’s where our future lies. u

They didn’t all understand it at first, but it’s the start of a new adventure! We’re going through a transitional period.

Prestigious brands such as Zenith turned up, and we had some special moments, such as when Jean-Claude Biver came to sign copies of his biography. I think that the watch brands will eventually understand our intention, which is to offer something a bit different.

The Paris Belles Montres fair has changed direction since it was bought from Le Point by a trio of investors; it has now been merged with the Salon de l’Homme. Watches now rub shoulders with other masculine products and pursuits: cars, grooming, golf, even flying lessons. This change of concept was not unanimously welcomed by all brands. It’s not a pure watchmaking fair; it’s a fair dedicated to men’s accessories. Which include watches.

Nevertheless, there were some interesting discoveries to be made at the Carrousel du Louvre. The fair is a showcase for French brands including Pequignet, March LA.B, and the designs of Romain Réa, which go by such intriguing names as Hitchcoq and ZRC.

We also took the opportunity to make a detour to the Place Vendôme to look in on jeweller Philippe Tournaire.

EXHIBITORS: 4N • A. Lange & Söhne • Armin Strom • Auricoste • Boucheron • Brüggler • Camille Fournet • Casio • Claude Meylan • Cvstos • Czapek • Edox • FHH • Fréret Roy • Girard-Perregaux • Gucci • Hitchcoq • Julien Coudray • Junghans • JeanRichard • Lebeau-Courally • Lepsi • March LA.B • MAT • Midual • Oris • Pequignet • Ralf Tech • Rebellion • Tudor • Vacheron Constantin • Wolf • Zannetti • Zenith • ZRC

INHORGENTA.DE INHORGENTA-BLOG.DE INHORGENTA.COM/TICKETS

Brands

BOUCHERON, TIMELESS ELEGANCE

MARCH LA.B, BACK TO THE 1970S

The jewellery and watchmaking Parisian house presents a new collection: Epure, whose name is self-explanatory in terms of the intentions of the brand! Available in pink gold, white gold and steel, featuring a chronograph and even a tourbillon on one model, the collection will appeal to customers looking for timeless elegance. The oversized numerals are a reference to the opening year of the Boucheron Boutique in Place Vendôme in 1893.

March LA.B is a France-made brand with headquarters in Los Angeles, California, and Biarritz, France, whose watches are rooted in vintage inspiration. March LA.B introduces its boldest timepiece to date: the AM3. Inspired by muscle-car culture, this quartz model features a cushion case straight from the 1970s. With its deep green dial, the AM3 Electric Forest is particularly appealing.

FOCUS ON HITCHCOQ AND ZRC

PEQUIGNET, OVER TO THE DARK SIDE

What is your maximum capacity?

We can accommodate another thirty or forty additional exhibitors. After that, we close the doors!

It was unfortunate that the fair took place so soon after the tragic attacks in Paris.

Many visitors decided to stay away from Paris, and not to visit the Louvre. Clearly, it was extremely damaging. Our visitors are French, for the most part. Paris’s luxury hotels were only 60% full. The Chinese in particular decided to stay away. Wealthy people are keen to avoid being in the wrong place at the wrong time!

What recommendations would you make to exhibitors for next year?

Don’t hesitate to make direct sales. And also perhaps to bring with them a more focused selection: fewer models, but with some new pieces, or watches on a particular theme. I think that will make it easier to capture visitors’ attention. We will also be building more bridges between watches and cars, which have very close ties. p

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On the one hand, Hitchcoq, created

by Parisian watchmaker Romain Réa, uses the ‘coq’, balance-cocks from the 17th and the 18th centuries designed to protect the balance wheel, in its stunningly unique bracelet designs.

And on the other, we see the revival of the historic diving watch brand ZRC, under the impetus of the Brunet brothers. The 300 Grands Fonds is a reworking of the iconic GF300 from the 1964 3rd GPD or French Navy Mediterannean Mine Clearance Group, with the crown at 6 o’clock.

All eyes on... the Royale Titane Fantôme limited edition by the French manufacture Pequignet created exclusively for the famous Parisian store Colette. This watch is the darkest ever made by the brand: in short, it is black, all black and nothing but black! A pure marvel, both aesthetically and technically, with small seconds at 4 o’clock, power reserve at 8 o’clock, big date and the homemade automatic Calibre Royal inside.

Preview

JUNGHANS, READY FOR TAKE-OFF! Junghans is not just about Max Bill! The German brand proves once again his wide spectrum of creativity with the new Meister Pilot model, which was first presented last September and will be launched on the markets as of 2016. The brand is no new player on the airfield: in the 1930s, the Schramberg-based company was already producing on-board clocks for aircraft. This tradition followed with the legendary Junghans Bundeswehrchronograph of 1955, developed for the West German military.

The new Meister Pilot incorporates the key design elements of the Junghans pilot watch of the 1950s, combined with the soft and stylish forms of the current Meister collection. It enables secure orientation even in poor lighting conditions and at night. Several elements emphasize this “clarity”, which seems the motto of the model: a large time display; a double-sided, domed sapphire crystal; clear luminescent numerals; distinctive hands... The dial features a bicompax chronoscope, the two totalisers of which are laid out on the 3-9 axis. The 12 distinctive lens-like recesses on the bi-directional rotating bezel also guarantee good grip.

To sum it up, the Meister Pilot model fully honours its historic its historic predecessor, both aesthetically and technically. This watch is definitely ready for a safe take-off!

SIWP SALON RETURNS TO GENEVA IN 2016

A

fter the success of the first edition in 2015, the Swiss Independent Watchmaking Pavilion (SIWP) will be back in Geneva from 17 to 22 January 2016, at the Casino du Lac. The purpose of the SIWP is to promote independent watchmaking brands based in Switzerland.

Address: Route de Pré-Bois 20, 1215 Meyrin, Switzerland Opening hours: 18–21 January, 11am–9pm; 22 January, 11am–5pm Opening reception: 17 January, 7pm–11pm For more information, contact: info@swiss-pavilion.com www.swiss-pavilion.com

Excursion

SIWP

CHEZ PHILIPPE TOURNAIRE

Swiss Independent Watchmaking Pavilion

DEBATE

I

n 1984, the self-taught jeweller Philippe Tournaire set up his workshop and his first store in the Loire Valley. Today his boutique looks out onto the world-renowned Place Vendôme.

What a story! Working closely with his son Mathieu, the jeweller is particularly revered in China, where his French Kiss collection (featuring a reversed Eiffel Tower) is highly praised.

On the watchmaking side, Philippe Tournaire is best known for his crazy masterpiece, created in collaboration with Technotime, which illustrates his architectural approach to his own craft: the Paris Forever watch. This TT791.50 Architecture

calibre, a 60 second tourbillon with a double barrel and 5-day power reserve, showcases the French capital city through its various monuments, from the Trocadero Gardens to the Louvre via the Académie Française, the Pont Neuf, the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, all of which are functional elements of the watch. As the watchmaker puts it, Paris wasn’t built in a day: in this case it took 18 months!

Partnering with the SIWP, Europa Star will organise a round table on “The limits of mechanical innovation” on Wednesday 20 January at 5.30pm. The panel will feature master-watchmakers Antoine Preziuso, Peter Speake-Marin and Vianney Halter. Open to all watch aficionados, space permitting.

Don’t miss it!

On Thursday 21 January at 5.30pm, another debate will take place on “How to innovate in tradition” with François-Paul Journe and Vincent Calabrese (hosted by Joël Grandjean).

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BUSINESS, MODELS & STRATEGIES

, GRAND SEIKO... CREDOR! People have got it all wrong: the Japanese are not proud of their products in the way the Germans are proud of their cars; they are “honoured” by them. This is the great difference of Nippon culture – a culture that Seiko has made its creed. Or should we say “Credor”? Come with us as we visit the group’s factories and art studios – but before you go in, remember to take off your shoes.....

by Jean-Luc Adam, Europa Star China

T

he recent issues of Europa Star carried detailed presentations of the brand-new Seiko Astron Dual-Time, the Grand Seiko Spring Drive Chronograph and other innovations of the year. This time, we invite you to Japan to the very heart of the brand, to try to understand what the spirit of Seiko is all about. Personally, I have been asking myself this for the past 30 years, ever since I received a certain “gift” in 1985...

Remember that at that period, the Swiss watchmaking industry was just embarking on a long convalescence and in my home town of Bienne, the Swiss watchmaking capital, the magnificent Seiko Quartz on my adolescent wrist shone out like a provocation. Especially to the eyes of my grandmother, who had been a regulator at Omega for nearly 40 years

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and who, on examining the dial, stated icily that: “Monsieur Brandt (from the Brandt family, founder of Omega) in person engaged me after the war when my husband died, leaving me with three children to bring up…”. Omega had, in a way, replaced her deceased husband, and Seiko represented a last rival. She had never forgotten the ten years when the Japanese Quartz watch had brought

the famous Swiss brand to its knees; Omega entered the 1980s on the brink of bankruptcy, bound for sale to its Asian rival, Seiko Although my grandmother was pure Calvinist – all contained emotion – I made the silent pledge not to antagonise her and to put my old, noisy Swatch back on my wrist the moment the Seiko broke down or broke altogether. The problem is that the Seiko never faltered over the years; it was always as accurate and bright as the day it was bought. Swatch a shame…! “Who are these people from the Far East, to offer such value for money?” My love affair with Seiko was born.

Incidentally, I bet its hands are still turning on the wrist of some unknown person on an island in the Cyclades, where I lost it.

And showing the exact time, since Seiko means “precision” in Japanese...

FAST FORWARD 30 YEARS It’s 2015 and here I am for the first time in Japan; on the streets politeness and civility reign as does, more unexpectedly in Tokyo, a certain English-style phlegmatism. Right on time and absolutely silently, a Toyota Crown Hybrid rolls to a stop in front of me, a pair of white gloves open the back door and I’m whisked away to the WAKO Building, Seiko’s headquarters and flagship store. Founded by Kintaro Hattori in 1881 and today surrounded by the high-tech buildings of the ultrarich Ginza district at the heart of Tokyo, it has the old-fashioned charm of the luxury hotels of bygone days. The Crown stops behind a rare Toyota Century 1V12: “That’s Mr. Hattori’s,” says the chauffeur.

Shinji Hattori (see interview), president and CEO of Seiko and incidentally the great-grandson of its founder, is like his limousine, his HQ, his country and even a little like my 1985 old/steel Seiko Quartz: traditional, discreet, elegant, silent, precise and resistant to wear and tear. This 63 year-old gentleman is enough to give George Clooney an inferiority complex...

The lift stops at the topmost floor; the president and his retinue climb a final staircase opening onto the roof. “Atomic clock,” whispers his right-arm man. Seiko’s obsession with precision is indeed no myth.

“I’ll take advantage to put my Swatch to the right time,” I chortle, searching the faces for the tiniest ironic smile, in vain...

SHIZUKU-ISHI WATCH STUDIO, THE CRADLE OF GRAND SEIKO 540km north of Tokyo and 145 minutes by bullet train later, here we are in Morioka to visit Seiko Instruments Inc. This is where millions – yes, millions! – of quartz movements, but also some ten thousand top-range mechanical movements, are produced. Were we about to discover one of those monstrous Chinese-style factories I’ve visited all too often? Far from it – the factory is low-rise and perfectly integrated into a majestic natural backdrop.

The management has even kept a corner of virgin forest. As soon as we cross the threshold, we’re invited to change into slippers – a custom which evidently is not only followed in Japanese homes and shrines, but also in the factories! Another surprise is that there are thousands of machines, but relatively few workers. All the workshops are silent, odourless save for the faintest smell of cutting fluid, and the cleanliness is clinical right down to the

communal toilets! Three times a day, gentle music invites everyone to indulge in a little gymnastics. I take advantage to cast a glance at a curious screen that shows the power consumption of the whole factory over 24 hours: “Not only are we trying to lower our consumption; the factory emits no CO2,” a manager assures me.

After the Fukushima catastrophe and the resulting power shortage, major efforts have been made in Japan to reduce energy consumption.

We’re visiting Seiko Instruments Inc. first and foremost for its “Shizuku-Ishi” department. This “factory in a factory” is devoted exclusively to producing the several thousand mechanical movements a year required for Grand Seiko – different quantities, different quality and different production methods. You enter after pulling on a cleanroom suit and passing through a dust control airlock. In the workshop rooms, the air is filtered as in an operating theatre – even the workbenches have built-in suction vents! The studious atmosphere resembles that of the prestigious Swiss watchmakers – made-to-measure workbenches for each operator, ergonomic seats and everyone works with binocular loupes.

Then, once we’re gathered round a table, the managers answer our questions.

So, let’s put the cat among the pigeons

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Ultimate Quartz Calibre 9F

and talk about the calibre 6S37! Just to remind you, this Seiko calibre, which is produced right here, served as the base movement for the 1887 by TAG Heuer which was the source of great controversy in late 2009. “We remember, but first of all we were contractually forbidden to talk about it. And in any case, TAG Heuer just bought one single patent, not the movement. For us, it was a form of recognition, but we have never tried to draw the slightest advantage from it in terms of image,” say the different managers, in essence. No wallowing in this kind of polemic at Seiko…

SHIOJIRI, THE CRADLE OF THE SPRING DRIVE Located in Nagano Prefecture 200km east of Tokyo, this little town sits against a magnificent mountain backdrop. It comes as no surprise that it hosted the Winter Olympics in 1998. Here, we visit the Seiko Epson factory – albeit only the “small” Seiko part belonging to IT giant Epson. This is where all the Spring Drive movements are assembled – an electromagnetically regulated mechanical movement in which the rotation is transmitted to the seconds hand. The result of this marriage between a mechanical calibre and the precision of quartz (+/- 1 second per day for the 9R) is totally silent functioning, a fluid, gliding sweep hand and no battery. With a Grand Seiko (calibre 9R86) chronograph, stopping the timer brings the hand to a dead stop, to the exact second... But for me the real heart-stopper is the Ultimate Quartz Calibre 9F. While many people deem quartz unworthy of luxury horology, this

name of Astron entered the annals of history in 1969 as the first quartz-movement watch on the market, few readers will have heard of the Credor brand.

MICRO ARTIST STUDIO, THE CRADLE OF CREDOR

movement, reserved for Grand Seiko, is a fine exception! So how did its designers achieve such extreme precision of +/- 10 seconds a year? Primarily by selecting the best synthetic quartz (produced by Seiko itself!) and by thermocompensating the quartz signal. Added to this are a few sophisticated touches such as a selfadjusting mechanism (the second hand advances smoothly in increments of one second without oscillation), regulation of signal advance/delay and instantaneous passage from one date to the next. The Astron is also “made in Shiojiri”. The new 8X Series, released in autumn 2015, has a more reasonable diameter, a thickness of no more than 3.2mm, 40% lower energy consumption and a battery half the size of its predecessors, more intuitive control and – extremely useful for a GPS watch aimed at travellers – comes also in a dualtime version. The precision here is atomic: 1 second every 100,000 years. While the

Astron GPS Solar

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The name of Credor is derived from the golden peaks – crêtes d’or – of the Jura and its emblem, “山”, signifies mountain in Chinese script. Created in 1974, this is the ultra-exclusive brand of the collection of Seiko watches crafted in precious metals. They are also made here – in the Micro Artist Studio, to be precise – where master watchmakers, artists and the entire weight of Seiko’s technological support come together. The result is breathtaking, notably the Credor Spring Drive Sonnerie. The absolutely silent Spring Drive delivers unsurpassable purity of sound (JPY15 million excl. of tax, or around CHF125,000). The same emotion is generated by the Credor Spring Drive Minute Repeater (JPY35 million, or around CHF290,000), the sound of which is inspired by the same Myochin wind chimes that Sony uses, incidentally, to test its microphones.

Ultimately, Seiko is not the rival of Omega or of any other brand: its timepieces are crafted from Japanese culture and its own corporate history. p

Interview with Shinji Hattori, President and CEO of Seiko

“ONE SECOND EVERY HUNDRED THOUSAND YEARS” Japanese watchmakers, and a fortiori Seiko, are obsessed with absolute precision, whether in digital, quartz or mechanical watches. Swiss brands, however prestigious, often content themselves with precision standards or certification labels. Why is the question of precision so specifically Japanese?

That’s an interesting question, but I can’t answer for the entire Japanese watchmaking industry. Where Seiko is concerned, the answer is very clear. My greatgrandfather founded the brand with one idea in mind: to be one step ahead of the others. Inspiration has always been with Seiko and I hope it always will be.

This idea prompted us to make watches that were more and more precise. In that respect Seiko has been the leader since the mechanical watches of the 1960s right up to the present with the Astron GPS Solar, which is precise to one second every hundred thousand years. And this inspiration doesn’t stop at precision; it concerns every aspect, especially innovation, as represented today by the Spring Drive and Astron technologies.

Horology experts all acknowledge that Grand Seiko produces the most precise mechanical movements. In its segment, the brand could be regarded as a “Japanese Rolex”. But while today Rolex is daring to liberate itself from its aesthetic canons, why has Grand Seiko remained so conservative, so restrained, so classical?

Grand Seiko was created in 1960 with the ideal of taking four aspects to the heights of excellence: precision, durability, practi-

cality and beauty. Take any Grand Seiko model and you’ll be struck by those four characteristics. And that’s how it has been for the past 55 years. Consequently, classicism and restraint are ingrained in its stylistic DNA. It’s also the reason behind its recent success. As you know, Grand Seiko sales are posting two-digit annual growth! That is why the conservative style is the key to its success.

at Baselworld and in our boutiques. But careful management of a brand abroad takes a huge effort, and we’re currently making that effort with Grand Seiko. So for the moment, we’re not going to be giving Credor a worldwide launch on the grand scale; we’re going to continue showing it at Basel, and in our stores in increasing numbers.

In Europe, people think that Grand Seiko is the group’s high-end brand.

In actual fact, Credor exceeds it in the de luxe watchmaking sector, with truly exceptional complications. Why doesn’t the Seiko group promote it outside Japan as a showcase for its know-how?

If you’re focusing on Grand Seiko for export, why keep the “Seiko” brand at 12 o’ clock on the dial, relegating “Grand Seiko” to 6 o’ clock? Don’t you think that downgrades such a high-end brand or is at least confusing for the customer? The Credor brand doesn’t bother with it...

I intend to promote Credor internationally, but all in good time. It is true that the chimes, minute repeaters and enamelled dials are outstanding and met with keen interest when we showcased them

Branding is very important, you’re right, but changing it isn’t as simple as that.

And then that’s the European point of view. We may consider changing it, but not in the immediate future. p

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DUBAI UPDATE Exports, expats and expectations. Interview with Roula Bitar, head of the luxury division of the Emirates branch of Mazars and an expert on the watch market in Dubai, which is a commercial hub for the entire region.

The main buyers are local clients from the GCC countries and travellers in transit, as well as luxury shopping tourists from Russia and China, and also India and Africa.

by Serge Maillard, Europa Star

Given that the Dubai hub already exists, future sales should continue to go through Dubai: there is a logistical, aftersales, commercial and marketing platform already in place. The flow will be from Europe to Dubai and thence to Iran, generally speaking. We have already seen this with Turkey and India.

Swiss watch exports to the United Arab Emirates and Dubai have grownfrom 180 million francs in the year 2000 to over a billion last year. Today, the country is the tenth-biggest export market for Swiss watches, ahead of the United Kingdom. How do you account for this growth?

Several factors play a part in this remarkable rise. First, the increase in the number of importers present in Dubai, such as Richemont, Swatch, Seddiqi and AlFuttaim, who re-export to the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), which comprises Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman (Muscat), Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait.

And second, the economy of the UAE is flourishing as a result of rising tourism revenues, a comfortable budget surplus and its geographical location at the crossroads of Asia, Europe and Africa. Today, around 95% of the Dubai population is made up of expats, a significant proportion of whom enjoy a high standard of living and have considerable purchasing power. This explains the growth in the luxury sector, where average prices are high (gem-set watches and grand compli-

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Will the expected lifting of sanctions against Iran jeopardise the UAE’s prominent position in watch sales, if Iranians are able to buy more watches in their own country?

cations). These kinds of watches remain highly sought-after in the Middle East.

What are the most popular brands?

Rolex and Patek Philippe remain the most popular, but the independent watch sector is also enjoying strong growth.

What is the top category in terms of value: entry-level, mid-range or top-end?

Top-end, no question! Watches in gold set with precious stones remain the most sought-after, but the local clientele is starting to mature. Clients are better informed and collectors are starting to look at less opulent watches and timepieces featuring grand complications.

The UAE, particularly Dubai, is also a major regional hub. Where do the main watch buyers come from?

Swiss watch exports to the UAE fell by around 8% in the first quarter of this year. How is 2015 looking for the UAE watch market, given that other major markets such as China and Russia are also slowing down?

The Emirates watch market is also falling off, because it relies partly on China and Russia.

Are most watch buyers in the Emirates men? What proportion of sales are for women’s watches?

Most are bought by men, but buying habits in the region have changed. Women want to be able to express their personality more freely, and a watch is a way of standing out. Women are also taking an increasing interest in movements, which is a new trend.

The country is also a hub for counterfeit goods, particularly those originating in China. The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry regularly seizes consignments of several thousand watches.

How do you explain this? Is the phenomenon still growing or does it seem to be calming down?

The system of duty-free zones, which continue to grow in number, is probably the main cause of this phenomenon. Because there are no administrative formalities or detailed customs checks, merchandise can transit virtually free of scrutiny. Because of the free zone system, the place of origin can be modified; the original country of ori-

gin is replaced with a new one: the United Arab Emirates. Nevertheless, cooperation between the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry and the Dubai Department of Economic Development, which is responsible for monitoring trade, has increased, and the agency increased the number of controls it carried out last year. p

IS INVESTING 500 MILLION OF ITS OWN MONEY From 2018 all the company’s divisions will be housed together in a new building in Plan-les-Ouates (GE).

by Pierre Maillard, Europa Star

T

wenty years ago, Patek Philippe reunited all its departments, which up to that point had been scattered all over Geneva, in one glamorous new manufacture in Plan-les-Ouates. “At the time, around 1995–1996, the watchmaking business was in dire straits,” notes Philippe Stern, “but we were confident about the future. Indeed, by 2003 we were already feeling cramped in our new premises, which we had thought would stand us in good stead for decades. So we moved our casemaking division out to a nearby site, and then in 2009 we expanded our plot in Plan-les-Ouates and renovated another building to accommodate our movement component workshop. Today, twenty years down the line, the market is in trouble once more and the future is difficult to predict, but again we are investing. It’s our duty to the future.”

And what an investment. CHF 500 million: 450 million for construction and 50 million for the manufacturing equip-

ment. It’s a colossal sum, and it’s entirely self-financed.

With a surface area of 110,000m2 spread over six floors, including four underground levels, the new building due to be inaugurated in 2018 will bring together all the brand’s activities and 2400-strong workforce under one roof.

Thierry Stern explains his goals for the building: “Our aim is to make a lasting commitment to Geneva by further developing and strengthening our activities here. Our goal with this new tool is to further improve the quality of our products and to invest in training and applied research, particularly in the sphere of new materials. As things stand, we have already validated our plan for movement production up to 2024, and this building, half of whose surface area will be set aside for manufacturing, will enable us to achieve these objectives. Aside from that, it will also provide a home for our craftsmen and women, chainsmiths and chamferers. We will be able to set up pilot projects to provide continual testing of our manufacturing processes and products. There will also be an enormous restaurant, and a service centre where spare parts will be produced and stored, which will enable us to further consolidate our restoration and refurbishment activities for legacy models. Finally, we will cen-

tralise all our training activities for watchmakers, distributers and retailers there.”

Designed by Geneva architects Frisk de Marignac Pidoux, the new building will have sustainability built into its DNA. The design takes into account not only energy management (energy generated by the machines is recycled to heat the adjacent community) but also the ‘social’ quality of the spaces, which make abundant use of natural light, as well as its footprint in the Plan-les-Ouates business park, and transport solutions (there are 650 parking places for two-wheeled vehicles).

Finally, if proof were needed of the project’s importance to the Canton of Geneva, the building permit was issued in the record time of three months. Antonio Hodgers, the councillor in charge of urban planning, housing and energy for the canton of Geneva, points out: “This shows that, above and beyond the tax revenues it expects to collect, Geneva is investing in industry, not just the tertiary sector. It’s also about wanting to preserve an image, the image of research, innovation and our watchmaking tradition.” p

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| BUSINESS, MODELS & STRATEGIES | 55

SPOTLIGHT

THE 65TH ANNIVERSARY MODEL FROM THE OPEN HEART–MODERN LINE

Ref: DK05005T

THE 65TH ANNIVERSARY MODEL FROM THE OPEN HEART–MODERN LINE In 1950, ORIENT WATCH was established in Tokyo, the capital city of Japan, and ever since it has been producing mechanical watches. ORIENT STAR is known for its highgrade lines, launched very soon after the company’s foundation, and has been highly regarded by people around the world for decades.

This year 2015, an anniversary model has been launched to commemorate the 65th anniversary of ORIENT WATCH from the ORIENT STAR: OPEN HEART–MODERN line, which is characterised by its dial design, boldly cut-out to trigger instant recognition that it is a mechanical watch.

While in regular models there is a single circular cutout at 9 o’clock, this dial also features a fan-shaped cutout at 2 o’clock and an arch-shaped cutout from 4 to 7 o’clock, making the see-through part larger. Its appearance with the incredibly dynamic dial design has certainly defined the model, which also achieves excellent visibility with its three-dimensional hour index, the power reserve indicator at 12 o’clock and a small size second hand at 6 o’clock, creating a luxurious look

and at the same time, an extremely functional design with all the information being readily visible and recognisable.

The watch case featuring a unique combination of mirror and matte finishes accentuates the aesthetic presence of the watch. The lug design particularly is also beautiful with its three-dimensional curved surface with polished edges reflecting light and creating a striking image.

These details combine to produce an impression of perfection, the result of uncompromising attention through every step of production, in line with ORIENT STAR’s traditional approach.

The anniversary model features a lustrous dial creating a beautiful harmony with the pink gold hands, which add further elegance to the watch. The stylish and unique colour to combination is exclusively applied in the 2,000 pieces of limited-edition watches, which will be sold world-wide to commemorate the 65th anniversary of ORIENT WATCH. Each watch comes in a specially designed gift box, and is embossed on its see-through case back with the limitededition serial number.

You can enjoy the superb sense of luxury and upgrade your fashion style, both on business while wearing a suit and casually dressed during your private time.

THE 65TH ANNIVERSARY MODEL OPEN HEART–MODERN – DK05005T Mechanical self-winding movement, 40-hour power reserve indicator, 24 jewels, stop-seconds mechanism, sapphire glass (anti-reflective coating), see-through case back, enhanced water resistance for everyday use (water resistant to 10 bar), triple-folding clasp, accuracy: +25 seconds to -15 seconds.

Made in Japan.

INTRODUCTION OF NEW ELEGANT CLASSIC LINE The new ELEGANT CLASSIC line will emphasise the modern classic style of ORIENT STAR. It features a level of detailing suited to the present day, just like an up-to-date tailored suit, rather than simply going back in time and resurrecting old items. The most prominent design features are the openworked hands and Roman numerals, a combination which was extremely popular in the 1920s and 1930s. The size of dial is intentionally made larger to set it apart from ordinary antiques and to create a brighter presence.

The sapphire glass is gently curved and yet clearly shows the pattern on the dial through the anti-reflective coating.

The raison d’être of this collection is to tranform classic detailing into modern design.

The lugs are in the shape of so-called “cabriole” legs, which were popular for pocket watches in the past, and helps to create a refined look today. In addition, chamfering is applied to each edge of the lugs to emphasise its handcrafted appeal. The crocodile-embossed calf leather strap is attached, which is tapered towards the edge to create an elegant profile on the wrist.

Great care has been taken to make this line as authentic as possible, and a fitting complement to the anniversary model.

ELEGANT CLASSIC - EL09002W Mechanical self-winding movement, 40-hour power reserve indicator, 22 jewels, stop-seconds mechanism, double-sided domed sapphire glass (anti-reflective coating), see-through case back, enhanced water resistance for everyday use (5 bar), leather strap, accuracy: +25 seconds to -15 seconds.

Made in Japan. www.orient-watch.com/orientstar

Ref: EL09002W

ELEGANT CLASSIC

EUROPA STAR ARCADE

ZENITH | REACHING FOR THE LIGHT Aldo Magada’s verdict is clear: although the company is strong, the Zenith brand didn’t reach its potential yet. It must now move beyond the iconic El Primero and redeploy. The director tells us about the challenging task ahead.

by Serge Maillard In your last interview with Europa Star (see ES March 2015) you talked about clarifying things at Zenith. What does this mean?

My predecessor Jean-Frédéric Dufour started the ball rolling by recalibrating the brand’s collections. Today we are in a position to begin to clarify our business: we can’t put more models on the market than the market can absorb.

We have to begin by presenting Zenith clearly. The brand wasn’t born in 1969 with the El Primero. Today we need to move beyond the icon. Our situation is this: we have a strong manufacture, we’re focusing to increase our brand awareness and our brand image.

OBJECT PERSPEX PLAQUE “This perspex plaque with its tiny watch movement components captured inside is an interesting object. It’s a perfect illustration of Zenith’s savoir-faire. Our profession is built upon the concept of minute attention to detail, and this perspex block is a symbol of that.” (Aldo Magada)

ELITE

So, in a watch market inundated with models, Zenith is not visible enough?

No. We have begun to reclassify the brand into three discrete pillars. The El Primero collection, of course; Elite, which combines a more classic case shape with the El Primero movement; and finally the Pilot collection. We also need to talk about value, and about our history. Let me say it again: the brand didn’t reach its potential yet compared with other stronger products. We’re rethinking our communication in terms of three spheres.

What are they?

The first is our manufacture, and our 19th century heritage in luxury goods; that battle will be fought in the workshops. The second is the ‘classic vintage’ world based around collectors’ cars and motorcycles – watchmaking 101, if you will, timeless and very classic. It’s the minimalism and purity of the Pilot cases. The third sphere is that of legends, via our partnership with the

Rolling Stones, naturally. In all three universes we see the idea of pleasure and a particular lifestyle. Zenith can be read on a number of different levels.

Perhaps that’s why it’s not always been easy to understand.

How many watches do you produce each year?

Between 35,000 and 45,000.The Chinese are our main customers. Including purchases they make while travelling, China accounts for 40% to 50% of our retail sales. The Chinese appreciate things that have substance! Today we are present in 800 points of sale around the world, and we have 23 boutiques. Here too we have some work to do, in terms of increasing our visibility and presence in the United States. Our advantage is that our product has genuine appeal to a great many actors in distribution and retail.

How is 2015 shaping up?

A good year means at least 5% growth.

2015 has been a challenging year. p

Photo: Carlo Fachini

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EUROPA STAR ARCADE

RESSENCE | ORGANIC HOROLOGY The Belgian brand, which has just introduced its third model, is quite unlike anything else you might have seen. Its biomimetic hands-free design deconstructs the time in the most fluid manner possible on its bubble dials.

Industrial designer BenoÎt Mintiens, the company’s heart and soul, explains his horological and ecological philosophy. | by Serge Maillard

You are an industrial designer, and you previously worked on Thalys high-speed trains, among other things. How did you end up in watchmaking?

I think that watchmaking is one of the few fields open to designers today that offers the possibility for radical rootand-branch innovation. Perhaps also the car industry, but then all cars seem to be very alike. I came to this conclusion while studying my 1967 Bulova Accutron Spaceview watch, which was genuinely revolutionary in its day (see sidebar). My industrial design experience gave me a particular vision of how to go about developing a product, and I wanted to apply this to watchmaking.

And what is this vision?

Photo: Carlo Fachini

Look at the Ressence logo: it takes the symbol of my home town of Antwerp, a hand, but instead of being vertical, which seems to say “stop”, mine is horizontal.

I want to “hold out my hand” to users.

That’s my vision of watchmaking: a watch should be close and personal. Although they may be highly complex from a technical point of view, my watches look very simple. A watch is an expression of time, it should be as pure as reading an emotion on someone’s face!

OBJECT BULOVA ACCUTRON SPACEVIEW (AND RESSENCE TYPE 3) “This Bulova watch is a little older than I am: it dates from 1967, and I was born in 1972. I find this watch very amusing, even poetic, if you think that it tells the time using a wavelength. It’s the first ‘anadigital’ watch, and it laid the foundations for electronic watchmaking. It was this watch, which I bought from an old watchmaker in 2000, that opened my eyes to the immense creative potential of the watchmaking industry, and led to my founding of Ressence. Also, despite the fact that this watch is highly technical, beating at 360 Hz, the seconds hand moves very smoothly and naturally. I find this paradox fascinating.” (Benoît Mintiens)

an animal or a drop of water! Glasses, for example, always have a very organic design, simply because the human body is not geometrically shaped. It’s all about affect: it’s a very important consideration.

If that is so, why a mechanical watch?

RESSENCE TYPE 5

How did you go about designing your first iconic model, the Type 1?

More often than not, watchmaking begins with the mechanics, and the watch is built around the movement. From an industrial design point of view you should begin at the other end, in the head of the user. So, how can we show the time in a different, more fluid manner? I decided to ‘deconstruct’ the information while retaining the hierarchy of the hands. The largest is the minute hand, because in theory you know what the hour is. My idea is to be able to ‘flash’ an image, which the brain will then translate into the time. The big problem with traditional watches is that the hands overlap. I take the opposite position, dematerialising time, taking away the hands and the crown.

How do you create the bubble effect on your watches?

It’s a combination of having a bezel-less dial and immersing the elements in oil.

The dial is also domed, with a 125mm radius and no perpendicular planes. I was inspired by the end of a volleyball. Flat objects, which is what most traditional watches are, just don’t exist in nature. To bring the product genuinely close to us, we need to avoid overly mechanical codes. A watch should be more like the shape of

Precisely because it creates empathy. We feel sympathy for the gears! Imagine a mechanical watch and a digital watch that have stopped working: which would seem more alive? Where would our sympathy lie? You wouldn’t throw away a mechanical watch, because it embodies durability, and produces affect. Our brand name Ressence comes from a contraction of the phrase “renaissance of the essential”. I want to go back to nature, and I also want to provoke a discussion about the essence of the watch itself, which is to tell the time.

The Type 5 has just come out. Can you tell us any more about it?

Its design was inspired by sea turtles!

It continues our exploration in terms of readability, and it is also a diving watch. I have the feeling with this watch that I’ve completed a virtuous circle. Up till now I haven’t managed to produce a more affordable variant of the Type 3. With the Type 5, which costs CHF 31,000, I am able to offer the best of its two predecessors. It is not my aim to make expensive watches. But with 200 non-standard components that’s not easy. It’s only by standardising production that you can bring prices down.

Who are your clients?

Today, Europe accounts for 45% of our sales, ahead of the United States with 35%. I don’t know all my clients, but those I have met share one characteristic: in general they are people who have innovated throughout their lives. p

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EUROPA STAR ARCADE

EMILE CHOURIET RETURN TO THE ROOTS The Geneva-based brand bet on the right horse from the start, producing Swiss made models for the Middle Kingdom. But as the Chinese juggernaut shows signs of slowing down, Emile Chouriet is now looking to conquer Europe, and is revising its catalogue with this in mind. Meeting with founder Jean DepĂŠry. | by Serge Maillard

Photo: Carlo Fachini

You launched Emile Chouriet at the end of the 1990s, borrowing the name of an 18th-century Geneva enameller (see sidebar). Why did you not take the name of your ancestor, who was his partner?

calibres. This proved a wise move, since Swatch Group announced it would be imposing quotas on ETA movements.

So far we have brought out a women’s calibre, for our Fair Lady model.

How many watches did you produce this year?

To be honest, that would have seemed a bit arrogant. It wasn’t absolutely essential. And I’m not really a salesman, I’m more of a technician! The decoration, the enamelwork, is a symbol of Geneva.

What I wanted above all was to be part of the revival of Geneva’s great decorative and mechanical watchmaking tradition.

And that has happened. Although initially 50% of our production was quartz, it’s now down to 20%.

and what they didn’t like. Our brand is now very well known under its Chinese name, “Emilong”. At the time, Fiyta was focused exclusively on its internal market, whereas now exports are increasing. My daughter is currently in charge of watch design, but we work with them every day.

Your destiny was linked with that of China from the outset – even before the explosion of its vast watch market.

Collaboration became acquisition – Fiyta has now bought Emile Chouriet.

What was the aim of this?

It’s a market I knew very well, but it has always been difficult to access without local contacts. We worked closely with Fiyta (editor’s note: a major Chinese watchmaker and distributor) from the beginning to create Swiss made models tailored specifically for the Chinese market. We were pioneers. This market still represents the vast majority of our sales, although today we are looking to diversify our outlets.

We want to become a global brand. Today, because of our history, our models are very biased towards Chinese tastes. We are launching new models with a more universal design, such as our new Héritier watch, as well as the Challenger Deep and the Fair Lady, which was shortlisted for the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève.

Among other things, we have dropped the rather imposing lugs of our models designed for the Chinese market. The brand’s logo and typography could also change.

What is Fiyta’s role?

They contributed a great deal to the design of the watches, as they knew exactly what our Chinese clients liked

OBJECT 18TH-CENTURY WATCH “My ancestor François Dagobert Depéry, who was a watchmaker, joined forces with enameller Emile Chouriet to produce watches in Geneva in the 18th century. The watches were commissioned and named by ‘établisseurs’. Watchmakers in those days didn’t have their own brands as such. They were all unique pieces.” (Jean Depéry)

FAIR LADY

35,000, compared with 40,000 last year.

We are also unusual in that we have developed a range of hairsprings. Eventually we will be able to supply complete escapements to third parties.

How do you compete with the massive influx of Swiss made competitors in China?

With Fiyta, which has its own sales network called Harmony, and which has expert knowledge of the market, we have all the tools we need to hold our own. Today we are represented in 326 shops in China, and we have a 40-strong dedicated sales team on-site in Shenzhen. However, the anti-corruption campaign and the strong Swiss franc have been a major stumbling block, and they have contributed to a drop in sales of around 15% over the year. Prior to that we enjoyed several years of very strong growth, but this has now stabilised.

And this is another reason why we want to diversify our clientele.

What are your main markets outside China?

How do you manage the cultural differences between your Swiss and Chinese teams?

For the last two years we have been trying to break more into the Swiss and European markets. We have twelve points of sale in Switzerland. Our core range is priced at around CHF 2,000, with a starting price of CHF 500 for our quartz ladies’ watch. We have also produced a tourbillon and two minute repeaters. Two years ago we took the decision to make our own automatic

I should point out that Fiyta has never told us that we must do things “the Chinese way”. We have always enjoyed great freedom of action, and it has worked very well.

We are Geneva watchmakers above all, with a team of 25 people in Switzerland. I have worked with the Chinese for a long time: you have to master the art of discussion and dialogue. If you try to impose anything, the shutters come down. p

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OBJECT WILE E. COYOTE “I have a soft spot for Wile E. Coyote. I take this figure everywhere with me, and he sits on my desk in Delémont. He knows what he wants, and will go to any lengths to get it, even though he never succeeds in catching the Road Runner! When he fails, he starts again. That’s my philosophy: keep moving forward with new ideas – and with a smile!” (Arianna Pozza)

EUROPA STAR ARCADE

WENGER | FROM KNIVES TO WATCHES The legendary manufacturer of Swiss army knives, which is today owned by Victorinox, has deserted the world of cutlery to focus on watches and travel gear. Strategy update with its General Director, Arianna Pozza.

to a broader ‘metropolitan‘ product range. Our main objective is to maintain the good results we had last year while overhauling our range.

by Serge Maillard

Swiss made quality, a good price and a three-year guarantee! That might sound a bit old-school, but the old recipes are often the best. Now we have to find the right retailers and more distributors to take on our new models. What I’ve noticed is that word of mouth has worked well since last summer.

The merging of the Wenger and Victorinox watch manufacturing workshops was concluded last summer in Delémont. How does Wenger fit into this rationalisation?

It made sense to merge our watchmaking divisions, as today we have two highly complementary brands. Wenger is active in the CHF 99–300 segment, and Victorinox watches start at CHF 350. We share a DNA, a heritage and a state of mind focused on quality – and obviously Wenger has much to gain from Victorinox’s hitting power. There is collaboration on every level, from production to quality control, to our distribution networks.

What is the principal market for Wenger watches?

The Americas, without a doubt, from the United States to Mexico and down to Argentina. And after the Americas come Switzerland, Europe and Asia. Globally we have started collaboration with over 20 new distributors.

Who are your clients?

They are mainly men, although there is some demand from women, particularly

What is your DNA?

What are your best sellers?

ROADSTER BLACK NIGHT

for the Edge Romans model. Our aim is to offer the best value for money in the ready-to-wear category.

Are you suffering from the slowdown that other watchmakers have noted?

No. The opposite, in fact: we have seen that clients are looking for more affordable watch products. Our new collections were launched at just the right time! Previously, Wenger watches did not have a well-defined identity; the price range went from CHF 180 to 600, which was too high.

We offer a very wide range of Swiss made timpieces: we have introduced ten new product lines and a hundred new models this year! Five months ago we completely overhauled our collections and reinterpreted our historic models. We’ve moved from largely ‘outdoor’ watches

The Attitude Chrono is currently our top seller, but we have bestsellers in all of our ten product lines: there’s the Urban Metropolitan, and the Roadster, which is particularly popular with young people, to name just a couple. And we have just launched a new Roadster watch, the Black Night, which is very promising.

You are in roughly the same price bracket as smartwatches. Is this a risk or an opportunity?

An Apple Watch is still far more expensive than any of our products! In terms of their success, it’s too early to say. It is a new and potentially amazing sector. However, we have not yet decided whether or not to jump on the bandwagon. The smartwatch remains highly obsolescent, which is contrary to the values of the Swiss watch industry. But perhaps it’s just a matter of time... p

Photo: Carlo Fachini

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EUROPA STAR ARCADE

LABORATOIRE DUBOIS INDUSTRIAL GOLD STANDARD You may not have heard of it, but the Neuch창tel company is the unrivalled leader of pre-market reliability testing for Swiss made watches.

Meeting with its director, Silvano Freti. | by Serge Maillard

Tell us something of Laboratoire Dubois’ history.

The laboratory was founded in 1977 in La Chaux-de-Fonds by Henri Dubois.

He is approaching 80 now, and honorary president of the company. I joined the laboratory seven years ago. The company started out in electroplating, conducting chemical analyses and metallographic examinations for subcontractors to the watch industry, such as dial makers. The laboratory subsequently took on reliability testing, which had previously been carried out by the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry. Today we offer a very wide range of services: chemical analysis, materials testing, watch tests and of course reliability testing.

Photo: Carlo Fachini

You are particularly known for your Chronofiable® test.

Yes, we test movements with an accelerated aging cycle. Twenty-one days under this protocol is the equivalent of six months’ wear on the wrist! But let’s be specific: the protocol simulates the effects of wear, not wear itself. Furthermore, we offer many other tests for watchmakers, such as analysing the performance corrosion, shock-resistance, magnetism and water resistance testing. We also conduct various special tests on the functions of the watch and its movement.

OBJECT MALLET “Symbolically, the mallet is the instrument used to test watches, to ‘break’ them.

But when we put to the proof watches, if we do break them it’s out of love for watchmaking! And obviously we don’t use actual mallets; we use rigorously controlled protocols.” (Silvano Freti)

With the increasing number of restrictions being imposed, I expect you’re not short of work!

Certainly, toxicological analyses connected with regulations such as the European REACH program, and also American and Chinese legislation, are becoming increasingly important. The state of California, for instance, has strict standards about the presence of harmful molecules. We test the components that come into direct contact with the skin, like the straps and bracelets, which are the most likely to cause allergies. Between 10 and 20% of women are allergic to nickel. Watchmakers and suppliers are increasingly alert to this, as the potential for damage to their image is considerable. They may even be denied access to certain markets, and regulators can be particularly zealous about enforcing these regulations when there are commercial advantages at stake.

Do you only test components, or do you also test complete watches?

tise. So quite often, when an issue is detected customers come to us.

Do watch brands use your tests for PR purposes?

Very seldom. Our reports don’t constitute a ‘label’, like Qualité Fleurier, for example. Those companies that do pass on our reports are looking for technical legitimacy. In some cases, watches have even been put on sale with the Chronofiable® label when they haven’t even been tested!

How many people do you have working for you?

There are 35 of us: chemists, engineers, technicians and watchmakers. We have to be flexible and reactive, particularly in the lead-up to the major watch fairs.

We have no long-term order book and very little visibility. We often have to juggle our priorities in order to meet our clients’ demands in terms of quality and deadlines.

It is relatively rare that we test a complete watch – although it is the case for diving models, whose standard relates to the complete watch. The latest version of the anti-shock standard will require to test the watch complete with bracelet. The situation will change very quickly.

Do you also work with brands from outside Switzerland?

Do you also perform downstream analyses, in the event that a watch is found to present a damage or a failure?

Will you offer reliability testing for smartwatches?

Yes, we do carry out investigations. For example, clients may ask us to find out why a particular component has failed. I should point out that more and more of our clients conduct simple tests in-house.

Our strategy is to offer a wide range of services covering more advanced exper-

Only for certain services. The Chronofiable® protocol is reserved exclusively for Swiss brands. It’s a question of respect for our native soil, for the community we continue to work in today.

We are currently looking into the kinds of services we could offer. But this sector is still in its infancy. p

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SMARTWATCHES

– TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE SMARTWATCH’S POTENTIAL

by Dr Frank Müller, The Bridge To Luxury (TBTL)

A

pple’s long-awaited arrival, with all the attendant media ballyhoo, has given the smartwatch market strong momentum this year. Whereas 6.8 million units were sold in 2014, Apple alone will add some 14 million timepieces to an estimated total of 23 million this year (sources: Smartwatch Group, IDC). In very short order, a new product category will have overtaken the traditional watch market which, according to The Bridge To Luxury’s projections, is about to contract by 4–5%, falling to less than 20 million pieces in

2015. However, the watch industry has been reluctant to take advantage of the smartwatch’s potential, and is still struggling to catch up with a trend that will be long-term and substantial (IDC: 85 million units in 2019). Although TAG Heuer’s Connected, Fossil’s Q Founder, Frédérique Constant’s Horological, Vector’s Luna and Montblanc’s e-strap represent the first steps into unknown territory, the overall industry’s effort has so far been a timid one. Yet there is a growing urgency to answer the question of whether the smartwatch will be just an interesting addition to the brood or, in the worst case, the cuckoo in the nest that kills off the traditional industry’s own hatchlings.

Apple Watch

68 | SMARTWATCHES | europa star

UNDERESTIMATING THE DANGERS The urgency for such a response comes not only from smartwatches’ attractive benefits for consumers; it’s also about those USPs that hitherto have been the traditional preserve of the watch industry: timekeeping, design and branding.

Whereas timekeeping functions can be considered the least at risk – instruments such as car dashboards, computer screens and train station clocks have never affected wristwatches – the design aspect is more pertinent. Recently introduced smartwatches increasingly resemble classic watches in looks and materials, with astonishingly high – and improving – quality. But the old rule of “one watch, one design” no longer applies. The new paradigm is “buy one, get three, four or five” as smartwatches offer a variety of dial displays in a single case, which the wearer can select with a simple push button, according to taste and situation (sports, office, opera). But the major battlefield is branding: Apple, Samsung and their ilk are the new heroes of our time – not just as makers of phones, notebooks and tablets but also now as watch providers. Their marketing for so-called wearables is young, fresh and dynamic. Having been proud to be traditional, the watch industry’s leitmotif (“manufacture depuis…”) now appears to lead down a dusty looking cul-de-sac.

Of course, in a rapidly changing world conservatism still has its place, as a point of reference. However, if old attitudes,

TAG Heuer Carrera Connected

paired with a fear of the IT giants’ inexorable onward march create a technical standstill, then the scared rabbit in the headlights really will be in trouble. Not only because the smartwatch is threatening the watch industry on its home turf, but also because it offers gamechanging, innovative and attractive consumer benefits which the watch industry, as the established power, should have come up with in the first place.

The smartwatch is the conceptual extension of the smartphone. It has no purpose of its own, but it serves as another integrated platform for the endlessly multiplying world of digital applications that structure and influence our lives – for good or bad, whether we like it or not. In terms of functionality and image, the traditional watch industry has been seriously outpaced.

WHO IS AFFECTED? Watches are bought for multiple reasons: function, design, movement design, tradition, place of origin, manufacturing credibility, craftsmanship, brand attractiveness and price. It can be assumed that those brands that make a contrarian social statement to the digital world in general, and the smartwatch in particular, will continue to enjoy growing success – on condition that they are manufacturers of expensive, traditional handcrafted mechanical watches. The female dress or fashion watch will also likely remain untouched by the smartwatch phenomenon.

But brands that position themselves as general lifestyle brands will face serious head winds, given the cool, modern and well-nourished campaigns of Apple et al. TBTL reckons that traditional watch producers will lose substantial market share of up to 7–13% over the next five years. Obviously, the historical industry is hoping that its customers will return, once they mature into “tradi-

tionalists” in later life. TAG Heuer’s idea of a voucher to swap its smartwatch for a classic timekeeper after two years is an expression of such optimism. But if we cast our minds back to when the wristwatch first arrived on the scene, the market for gold pocket watches never really recovered, although it still stands for the very best a mechanical watch can offer.

In the 1980s Volkswagen introduced the first energy-saving automatic startstop system, and failed. Cars with hybrid drive systems were also punished for a long time by consumer suspicion.

Today, with more urgent ecological imperatives (and new competitors like Tesla) both concepts have been embraced. So with the acceptance of the smartwatch, the acceptance of hybrid systems in watchmaking may increase.

Exciting R&D projects in Europe are currently focusing on new concepts combining mechanical energy generation and storage with various smart functions displayed on LCD panels or e-paper dials (e.g. emails, alerts and reminders). These ‘semi-smart traditional’

solutions will be especially interesting for mid-priced and mid-sized brands that want to bridge the old and new by offering attractive elements of both worlds without venturing fully into the smartwatch universe.

If a watch company is unable to compete with the marketing clout of the smartwatches, it will have to be very focussed in terms of branding. By identifying a suitable niche it will avoid a piggy-inthe-middle problem in terms of pricing, company size and interchangeable lifestyle advertising, issues that have already started to impact an industry undergoing painful restructuring – even before the smartwatch invasion. Braving the niche, however, will require a much more creative and disciplined approach to branding and a highly professional handling of company structures, procedures and costs. But brands like Nixon (“California”) and Jaermann & Stübi (“Golf”) at least show signs of new thinking.

It is not yet too late to take advantage of the smartwatch boom – or to search for alternatives. But it is about time to start looking for answers. p

europa star

| SMARTWATCHES | 69

THE WATCH PROFESSIONAL CORNER

ONE WATCH AT A TIME The Watch Register is a new database of over 50,000 timepieces, providing a search and register service to encourage the trade to carry out due diligence, to recover stolen watches and help prevent thefts.

by Mr. E

T

he Watch Register is a new service offered by the Art Loss Register. Operating from London since 1990, the Art Loss Register is the largest private database in the world of lost or stolen antiques and collectibles.

By now it has information on half a million items, including paintings, sculptures, watches, jewellery, books, coins and more.

Its new watch-focused service is of benefit to any seller - like dealers, auction houses and pawnbrokers - because it

allows them to perform fast and effortless due diligence by checking with the legitimacy of a watch prior to any transaction. It minimizes risk and also helps safeguard their reputation and guarantees the confidence of the customers.

For buyers, it allows private individuals to buy with confidence by checking the serial number of any second-hand watch with the Watch Register.

On the flip side, if your watch has been stolen, registering it on the Watch Register offers the best chance of finding it in the future. In fact, insurers also use the system to register stolen watches to reduce their chances of paying out, by finding the watch first.

So how does it work? The Watch Register section of the database today holds some 50,000 registered timepieces, which are reported lost or stolen by police, insurers, private individuals and tradespeople. To register a timepiece, its serial number is required. Individuals are asked to pay a small fee of about $15 per item in order to register their loss, which remains in

the database at no extra cost until it is recovered. So far, the database carries details of watches by all the leading brands, including Rolex (13,000 items, alone), Patek Philippe, Cartier, Omega, Audemars Piguet, Breitling, IWC, Jaeger LeCoultre, TAG Heuer, Vacheron Constantin and many more.

The database can be checked by anyone who subscribes to the service from as little as ÂŁ2 per search (they also offer annual subscriptions for greater volume searches). A fast and simple search service is available throughout the day, which can be used directly from your mobile phone or email, to confirm whether or not the item is registered on the database. Response time is usually within minutes.

In the event of a match, the Watch Register informs you immediately, requests for you to hold the watch and contact the relevant law enforcement agency. If the current holder of a stolen item has acted in good faith, they also assist in negotiating an amicable settlement with the claimant. If not, you’re in trouble, because the Watch Register will work with the police to make a conviction where possible! In fact, they already have a long historyof working with agencies like the FBI, Interpol, and metropolitan police services.

In a luxury goods sector with increasing volume, there is an increased likelihood of criminal activity. This service is one step towards the overall aim of reducing crime in the watch industry. And so far, property worth hundreds of millions of pounds has been recovered by the Art Loss Register. But for a system like this to be really effective, every watch on the market needs to be registered, so the more the better. To sign up, visit the Watch Register. p

www.thewatchregister.com 70 | THE WATCH PROFESSIONAL CORNER | europa star

www.abraitalia.it

BRACELETS Tél.: +39 0444 343434 • www.promotionbracelets.eu • promotion@promotion-spa.com

EDITORIAL & ADVERTISERS’ INDEX

2015 BEST-SELLERS MOONWATCH ONLY. THE ULTIMATE OMEGA SPEEDMASTER GUIDE by Grégoire Rossier and Anthony Marquié Why a Collector’s Guide? The Speedmaster is a timeless watch icon that has significantly evolved since its creation in 1957, a fact that sometimes makes it hard to identify certain models, particularly older ones. After several years of research and observation, the authors have created a technical, systematically and attractive book intended to become the reference work for this model.

(Ref 11045) • 500 Pages • over 1000 ill.

Format: 25 x 30.7 cm • Price: CHF 290.00 • € 250.00 FIFTY FATHOMS, THE DIVE AND WATCH HISTORY 1953-2013

by Dietmar W. Fuchs, Jeffrey S. Kingston and Stephan Ciejka The histories of Blancpain’s iconic Fifty Fathoms, the world’s first modern diving watch, and diving itself have been intertwined ever since 1953.

It is, thus, fitting that Blancpain has brought these two stories together in a richly illustrated collectible. Blancpain’s editors enlisted experts from both fields to chronicle the twin evolutions and milestones of underwater time keeping and exploration. The result is a comprehensive portrait of pioneers and inventors never before assembled in a single album.

This volume with its unique compilation of materials has been conceived to become an authoritative historical resource for both divers and diving watch aficionados.

(Ref 11056) • 475 Pages • 600 colour ill.

Format: 30 x 33.5 cm • Price: CHF 340.00 • € 280.00 THEORY OF HOROLOGY

by Ch.-A. Reymondin, G. Monnier, D. Jeanneret and U. Pelaratti Numerous books, many of which are quite old, deal in detail with the various aspects of the theory of horology, but none entirely meets the requirements of the present day. The contents of this work are aimed at fulfilling all the needs of today’s trainee horologist.

(Ref 1222) • 368 Pages • colour and b/w ill.

Format: 21.5 x 30.5 cm • Price: CHF 110.00 • € 105.00 ROLEX DAY DATE Known as “President’s Watch”, this Rolex has characterized and influenced the history of horology with developments and innovations during the years. The Day-Date is one of the world’s most famous Rolex watches; classic, beautiful, functional, useful and elegant. With high definition unreleased images, technical details, dials variants, history and updated price of every model, this book analyses every detail of all Day-Date references from 1956 until today. Attached are the updated prices of models in production and the estimates of second hand watches.

(Ref 12001) • 280 Pages • colour ill. • Format: 31 x 41 cm Price: CHF 420.00 • € 420.00 ROYAL OAK - AUDEMARS PIGUET

by Martin K. Wehrli, Heinz Heimann To mark the 40th anniversary of the Royal Oak in due style, Audemars Piguet has launched a publication of a 300-page book on the history of this legendary model. A richly illustrated book, it features the 137 year long history of Audemars Piguet and details the life of the iconic model from a historical point as well as through the eyes of various watch aficionados who have come to adore it since its birth in 1972.

(Ref 11037) • 302 Pages • colour ill. • Format: 24.5 x 31.5 cm Price: CHF 120.00 • € 120.00

Alexander Shorokhoff 41 Apple 10, 68 Arnold & Son 44 Audemars Piguet 24, 70 Baselworld 23 Bell & Ross 40 Blocks 11 Boucheron 48 Breitling 70 Buben & Zörweg 45 Bulova 10 Carl F. Bucherer 7, 12 Cartier 11, 34, 70 Casio COVER III Chanel COVER I, 14, 15, 16, 17 Christiaan Van der Klaauw 45 Christopher Ward 45 Chronoswiss 44 Citizen 73

H. Moser & Cie 28 Hysek 9 Inhorgenta 47 IWC 70 Jaeger-LeCoultre 12, 26, 70 Jaermann & Stübi 69 Jaquet Droz 13 Jean Marcel 41 Junghans COVER IV, 49 Junkers 40 Laboratoire Dubois 66, 67 Louis Vuitton 11 Marc Newson 45 March LA.B 48 Mauron Musy 21 MB&F 27 MeisterSinger 41 Montblanc 13, 31, 68 Moochies 10 Moritz Grossmann 41

Dior 13

Philip Stein 10 Philippe Tournaire 49 Piaget 36, 37 Promotion 71 Ressence 60, 61 Richard Mille 30 Richemont 10 Roger Dubuis 12 Roger W. Smith 42, 45 Rolex COVER II, 3 (Europe), 11, 20, 70 Samsung 68 Schofield 44 Seiko 50, 51, 52, 53 Sinn 40 SIWP 49 Snyper 13 Swatch 10, 13 TAG Heuer 11, 13, 68, 69, 70 TimeCrafters 43 Urwerk 33

EdgeGear 11 Emile Chouriet 62, 63 Erwin Sattler 41 ETA 19 FHH 38 Frédérique Constant 68 Fossil 10, 68 Hermès 11, 20 Hitchcoq 48

Nixon 11, 69 Nomos 41 Omega 70 Orient 56, 57 Panerai 29 Parmigiani 25 Patek Philippe COVER II, 3 (International), 4, 5 (Europe), 10, 11, 55, 70 Pequignet 48

Vacheron Constantin 4, 5 (International), 32, 70 Van Cleef & Arpels 35 Vector 68 Vulcain 12, 44 Wenger 64, 65 WiseWear 11 Zenith 58, 59 Zeppelin 40 ZRC 48

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LAKIN@LARGE

THERMOMETERS

by D. Malcolm Lakin

I

recently discovered another method of telling the time without looking at a wristwatch: the clinic, not a mechanical watch clinic, medical. I spent seven days in a very pleasant one in Geneva recently - no, you really don’t want to know why - and discovered, after a mere twenty-four hours, precision timing without a watch.

The day of what they called the ‘intervention’ I was roused from a deep sleep early in the morning to take a pre-op pill that would put me back to sleep. It worked because I awoke five and a quarter hours later feeling surprisingly well. The rest of the day was taken up with checks on the tubes that seemed to protrude from most known orifices plus a couple more that had been added for good measure.

A light dinner of consommé and yoghurt was offered and then it was lights out, which is when I began the learning cycle of how to tell the time without a watch.

Fast asleep, I was awoken by a nurse who checked my blood pressure, temperature and pulse informing me that all was well and because it was ten o’clock in the evening she was now off duty and would see me the next day. Just after I’d managed to get back to sleep another nurse gently shook me from my troubled slumber, introduced herself as the night nurse, gave me two pills and in answer to my question told me it was midnight.

I slept peacefully until the curtains of the room were noisily opened to reveal … darkness. I must have looked alarmed so the nurse informed me that breakfast would be served in an hour’s time at seven o’clock and in the meantime she would help me take a shower, which she

74 | LAKIN@LARGE | europa star

did quite expertly by following me into the bathroom manipulating the protruding tubes whilst I sprayed water over my body and half-drowned her.

Breakfast arrived at seven o’clock along with a couple of pills, the cleaners came an hour later, followed by a nurse who checked my blood pressure, pulse and stuck a thermometer into my ear. I settled back onto the bed and within the hour two cheerful ladies came in, helped me to an armchair and proceeded to change the bed linen.

At exactly twelve o’clock lunch was served along with two pills and an hour later the tray was taken away. It was one o’clock and since the anaesthetic was still coursing through my veins I clambered very carefully back into bed to avoid cutting off the blood flow to my legs or strangling myself in the cluster of tubes.

At three o’clock my lengthy siesta was interrupted by the tea lady and at four o’clock, a nurse again measured my blood pressure, stuck the thermometer

in my ear and fed me a couple of pills.

She then marched me up and down the corridor for all and sundry to see my bare blushing buttocks through my open-backed gown.

At six o’clock dinner was served and by seven o’clock I was ready for a peaceful night’s sleep but those timely rituals started all over again at ten o’clock with metronomic precision until five days later when the last of the tubes were removed and I was free to use my wristwatch again.

Needless to say the medical surroundings reminded me of the story about an elderly man who walked into a crowded doctor’s surgery. The receptionist asked the reason for his visit and he replied rather loudly, “I have a problem with my penis.” ”You mustn’t say things like that out loud.” she whispered, “you’ll embarrass the other patients. You should say you have a problem with your ear and then discuss it with the doctor in private.”

The old man walked out and re-entered a few minutes later.

The receptionist smiled said, “Can I help you sir?”

“There’s something wrong with my ear,” he said quite boldly.

Nodding her approval that he had followed her advice, she said, “And what is wrong with your ear, Sir?” “I can’t piss out of it.”

Well, you’ve got to laugh haven’t you. p

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THE WORLD’S MOST INFLUENTIAL WATCH MAGAZINE EUROPE

T HE SKY I S T HE L I MI T

The name “Meister” has stood for classic watchmaking at Junghans since 1936. The Meister watches of today follow in this tradition, for they are a result of both passion for precision and close attention to quality.

Choosing a Junghans Meister demonstrates apprecia­ tion for these values and for beautiful watchmaking – like our sporty Meister, the Meister Chronoscope.

EUROPE N°334 6/15 DECEMBER 2015

Lasting values crafted by masters.

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WATCH BUSINESS MAGAZINE | EUROPEAN EDITION | N°334 6/15 DECEMBER | CHF12 / €10 / US$12