10:10 Magazine Issue 6 2021
Chanel’s legendary J12 hits the dance floor hard with a full-on 130bpm fluoro overhaul
Audemars Piguet’s Black Panther is a hypnotic showcase of 21st-century métiers d'art
Cloche de Cartier rings in the return of the Parisian grande maison’s dandiest timepieces
BORN IN LE BRASSUS
SÉBASTIEN FOUCAN
R ARI S AE I SDE A D RAORUONUDN T D HTEH W E OWROLRDL D
A U D EAMUADRE SM A P IRGSU PE ITG B UO ET U TBI O QU U TE ISQ L UO EN S DLO ON N D: O SN L O: ASNLEO A ST NR E ESETTR ·E H ET A R· RHOADRSR O F IDNSE FW I NA E T CWHAETSC H E S AP HA O PU SHEO U LO SN E DLO ON N D: O NN EW : NBEOW N DB O SN TR D ESETTR E E T
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6 Editor’s Letter
Editor’s Letter
Editor-In-Chief Dan Crowe Creative Director Astrid Stavro (Pentagram) Editor Alex Doak Fashion Director Mitchell Belk Accessories Editor Paulina Piipponen Sub-Editor Kerry Crowe Assistant Sub-Editor Bella Gladman
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Photography Mathieu Richer Mamousse Mitch Payne Norman Wilcox-Geissen Jennifer Cheng Cover Photography Cartier by Norman Wilcox-Geissen Publishers Dan Crowe, Matt Willey Associate Publisher Andrew Chidgey-Nakazono Advertising Director Andrew Chidgey-Nakazono andrew@port-magazine.com Contact Port Magazine Vault 4 Somerset House London, WC2R 1LA +44 (0)20 3119 3077
It’s with great pride that I – alongside a team of publishers, designers, and photographers – welcome you to nothing short of 10:10 sixth annual supplement devoted to fine watches. A run of five years publishing anything remotely speculative is remarkable these days, regardless of intervening pandemics, yet still, and still again... wristwatches. Yes, the Swiss-made micro mechanical timepiece remains an extraordinarily extravagant purchase, especially considering its inherently anachronistic nature. But as with fine wine, fashion, or performance cars, you simply can’t know enough about high horology’s heritage, craftsmanship, lead characters, or tales of derring-do. Plus, a deep dive into the world of watchmaking allows the reader (and the humble watch journalist) something special: the demonstration of what untold treasures lie beyond that sometimes allencompassing word, Rolex. Don’t get me wrong, there are myriad good reasons why Rolex remains the default byword for luxury watches. But, as our last page flashback reminds us, Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd – in Casino Royale – was uncharacteristically presumptive to assume Daniel Craig’s “former sas type” incarnation of 007, with easy smile and exclusive wristwear, would be sporting a Submariner. He is instead, in keeping with his Royal Naval background, wearing an Omega Seamaster. Wherein lies the eternal power of a judiciously chosen timepiece. It broadcasts so much more than the sum of its parts, far beyond status. It embodies its wearer’s qualities and passions, and after years spent by their side, becomes part of their legacy. We hope, after reading, you happen to agree.
port-magazine.com
Alex Doak, Editor
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Issue 6
Memphis Blues, Again
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Tissot’s Memphis collection, all driven by parent Swatch Group’s super-precise and super-tough PreciDrive quartz movement, consists of two 34mm pieces, limited to 1,700 of each (£315), and two 41mm models (£340), of which there are 3,000 of the all-black PVD, and 2,500 of the two-tone gold PVD.
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MEMPHIS BLUES, AGAIN
Back in 1980, Milan’s ageing maestro of disruptive design Ettore Sottsass tore up the rulebooks once more with a masterstroke of post-modernism: founding the Memphis Group of designers and architects. It took just one evening hosted by the 64-year-old Sottsass, who’d gathered a team of recent graduates, to forge the codes of what was to be a wilfully anarchic, boldly geometric approach to furniture. Their session soundtracked on loop by Bob Dylan’s ‘Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again’, which gave the group their moniker. While immediately divisive (the group’s work was dubbed a ‘shotgun wedding between Bauhaus and Fisher-Price’ by critic Bernard Pellegrin), the Memphis Group heav-
ily influenced the lurid design language of the ’80s, from bmxs to Walkmans. Eight years later, the group found itself in conversation with another serial innovator: the venerable horloger of Le Locle, Tissot. Sottsass created a watch design for Tissot in keeping with the Memphis Group’s nonconformist approach, which is to say absolutely not in keeping with Switzerland’s conformist expectations. Luckily, the ongoing success of the plastic-fantastic Swatch meant collectors were primed for something more playful. Now, with the maximalism of the Memphis Group back in fashion, the time is ripe for a reissue. The new Heritage Memphis goes right back to the avant-garde forms
The playful shapes of Ettore Sottsass’ classic Tissot Memphis of 1988 are back with a splash
of the Tissot Memphis, designed by Sottsass himself. Like the original, it comprises a bulbous case with lenticular profile, and the caseback and bezel are both bevelled – a geometric stack reminiscent of Sottsass’ Totem sculptures, the pieces that launched the Memphis Group movement. There are no lugs, but instead a protuberance marries case with strap, blending cube with cube, another of Sottsass’ signatures. The dial is as graphic and toylike as you’d expect, but with its pleasing simplicity, it all adds up to a sophisticated whole. Google Memphis’s Carlton bookcase and you’ll see how perfect a tribute this is to the vision of that man from Milan.
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10:10 Magazine
Ticking Every Box
Christie’s Only Watch charity auction in Geneva is being held for the ninth time in November – in aid of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy research – with all one-off creations from each of the 54 watch brands as desirable as they are unique
TICKING EVERY BOX
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Front of Book
14 Hooked on Nippon 10:10 Magazine Issue 6
HOOKED ON NIPPON The dramatic landscapes of Grand Seiko’s homeland are inspiring a breathtaking new view on watchmaking
“As watchmakers, we were fostered by the rich natural environment that surrounds us,” enthuses Yoshiaki Hayashi, president of Morioka Seiko Instruments Inc. “The forest meets the desolate season of winter, and then comes back to life as the flowers bloom, and a world of fresh green appears and turns a deeper hue. In autumn, the leaves turn red, but only to fall as the land becomes white again… We are all so fortunate to witness the beauty of the changing landscape from where we work.” Hayashi could easily be describing a typically bucolic Swiss atelier in the Jura mountains – the verdant heartland of fine watchmaking – rather than Japan. Indeed, the industrial Seiko Instruments Inc building, nestled in the woods of Morioka, now does an excellent impression of the Jura, thanks to its beautiful glass and wood Shizukuishi Studio annexe, designed by the architect behind the V&A’s spectacular new Dundee museum, Kengo Kuma. Inside, 20 lab-coated watchmakers
calmly tweeze together chronometer-rated mechanical movements for Grand Seiko – the luxurious imprint of Japan’s biggest watch brand, which for over 60 years has punched equivalent horological weight to Switzerland’s finest. Both tribes’ crafts thrive on the serenity of their surroundings, yet it is Japan where serenity is channelled so poetically by the work itself. Sure enough, a bullet train south to Omiya, near Tokyo, then another west to Nagano, lands you deep in the heart of Japan’s wrinkled mountainscape, in Shiojiri. This is where the Seiko Epson Corporation houses – among many other technologies – its Micro Artist Studio. Established in 2000, its purpose is to “uncover, examine, and master the skills passed on by our predecessors”, such as capping Grand Seiko’s precisely engineered inner works with hand-crafted dials that not only keep alive Japan’s ancient métiers d’arts, but also draw from their artisans’ homeland.
15 Hooked on Nippon Words: Alex Doak
blue lacquer dial a different aspect with every glance, accentuated by a quiet and delicate sparkle. Next for 2021, a high-jewellery edition takes inspiration from Mishaka Pond, hidden east of Shiojiri, deep in the forest. Its crystal-clear waters reflect the trees that grow right to their edge in myriad shades of green, and in turn are mirrored by Grand Seiko’s green mother-of-pearl dial and garnet jewels. Back in Morioka, emerald
turns to silver, thanks to the ashen bark of Shirakaba – the white birch trees that thrive in Japan. Over the course of summer and winter alike, the tall, slender trunks visible from their workbench windows provide a shimmering constant for Shizukuishi’s watchmakers. So it’s particularly apt that their most recent mechanical creations, ticking at a breakneck 36,000 vibrations per hour, present the time set against a birchbark-textured dial.
Front of Book
It started back in 2005, with a special edition of the electromechanical Spring Drive, whose second hand glided silently across a Snowflake dial, its pale, powdered texture echoing the fresh snowfall upon the Shinshu mountain slopes circling Shiojiri. This year, a new version zeroes in on Shinshu’s mountain village of Achi, famous for its spectacular night skies. A unique technique combining stamping, plating, and painting gives the midnight-
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Flights of Fancy
FLIGHTS OF
FANCY
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thus making aviation instrumental in the watch’s migration to the wrist. It was the advent of war, as with so many technologies, that really catapulted the pilot watch skyward – precision improved, along with water resistance and luminosity, plus some clever new gadgets. In Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, Tom Hardy’s Spitfire pilot repeatedly pulls back his shearling cuff to keep track of his fuel reserves: He wears an early-iteration Omega, panic-ordered by the raf in early 1940 to the tune of 2,000 units. Its novel
rotating bezel around the dial aided navigation, and cleverly, a second crown at four o’clock locked it so timing couldn’t be affected by accidental knocks in a cramped cockpit. Considerations such as these maketh the pilot watch – their ultra-utilitarian details and Boy’s Own connotations send collectors into a frenzy, while having pushed forward the humble watch’s development and their makers into all manner of aesthetic trajectories. Here are two particularly ace new recruits:
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Nostalgic memories of magnificent aeronauts in their flying machines offer just the right mix of sepia-toned, Biggles-esque romance and high-octane Top Gun coolness to allow pilot watches to remain the most popular genre in the industry. Just one year after the Wright Brothers’ lift-off from a North Carolina beach in 1903, the flamboyant flying pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont asked his friend in Paris, Louis Cartier, to design him a timepiece that he could read quickly without grabbing awkwardly for his pocket watch –
Flights of Fancy
HAVING A (CRYSTAL) BALL
Designed in 1954 for the French naval air army, and in use until the ’80s, the original chunky Aéronavale Type XX represented the apogee of horological military effort. It addressed, to the millimetre, the strict Type 20 specification demanded by the French Ministry of Defence for standard-issue pilots’ wristwatches. A stark departure from Breguet’s typically refined dress style, it launched some ingenious mechanics: a flyback chronograph function, allowing pilots to restart their stopwatch from zero in a flash, and giving far more accurate consecutive distance and fuel consumption calculations. This year’s deliciously retro revival naturally comes equipped with some top flight mod cons, including a lightweight titanium case and, ticking at its heart, an antimagnetic silicon escapement. Breguet Type xxi 3815, £12,900
Front of Book
Bell & Ross br 03–92 Red Radar Ceramic, £3,600
Since the first journey into the skies, every pilot’s humble wristwatch has played a crucial role in the cockpit, with Switzerland looping the loop in all formations
Words: Alex Doak
Bell & Ross works hard, but it also plays hard – as evidenced by the new Red Radar take on the watchmaker’s macho Instrument aviator line. Professional spec, Swiss-made timepieces are stock in trade for this youthful Parisian brand (owned by Chanel), having wooed the likes of bomb disposal experts, modern Aéronavale pilots and Parisian swat teams since the ’90s. But all along, Bell & Ross’s icecool French style sensibility means you’ll find as many on the wrist of architects and hipsters as jet pilots. This has led to a wicked line in special editions riffing wittily on cockpit read-outs, such as an altimeter, artificial horizon, compass, and now radar. Two wafer-thin, concentric red sapphire discs replace the hour and minute hands, their respective screen-printed passenger plane and fighter plane icons chased by the sweep of the seconds hand.
THAT MAGN IFICENT MAN
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Each podium place at every Olympic Games since 1932 has been designated by Omega’s elite timing technology
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Gold Service
GOLD SERVICE Anyone who noticed Omega’s scarlet Greek symbol in the corner of their television screens during the Olympics would probably presume it was particularly high-profile sponsor placement. But take the picturesque drive from Biel high into the Jura mountains, to the impossibly scenic village of Corgémont, and one glance at Omega and Longines’ sprawling three-storey joint facility is enough to tell you there’s more happening behind closed doors than simply brokering licensing deals. A sister brand of both Omega and Longines, Swiss Timing is the specialist that has developed from scratch every piece of timekeeping equipment for all 33 sports contested at this summer’s games in Tokyo – including the software, which digests what’s recorded and displays it on your tv, next to the Omega logo, within one tenth of a second. “You only need three things to stage a sports event: the athletes, a playing field, and a timekeeper; so it’s fair to say the Olympics couldn’t happen without Omega. It’s a huge responsibility and we cannot fail,” says Swiss Timing’s charismatic ceo, Alain Zobrist. Since Omega first assumed timekeeping responsibilities at the games in Los Angeles in 1932, the 30 mechanical stop watches initially used have been superseded – over the course of 28 successive tournaments – by 400 tonnes of state-ofthe-art kit, built, shipped, and operated entirely from Switzerland. Explains Zobrist, “Before the pandemic hit, a team of eight had been working in Tokyo for three years, prepping rooms, working with architects on cables,
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Omega’s commemorative Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra Tokyo 2020 (£5,370) beautifully showcases the Tokyo 2020 logo’s ‘Unity in Diversity’ chequered pattern – itself in the traditional Japanese colour of indigo blue. The surreal, distorted freeze-frame of eight sprinters throwing themselves at the finish line is an instantly familiar feature of the Olympics. In the event of a photo finish, Omega’s analysts have just 15 seconds to determine whose torsos hit the line when, then call the fastest three for gold, silver, and bronze medals.
Gold Service
The London Olympic Games of 1948 was the beginning of Omega’s electronic era – the first photo-finish camera, as well as the first photoelectric cell, which stopped the clock as the first athlete crossed the finish line.
Words: Alex Doak Front of Book
warehouses, logistics… By mid-July this year, our team had increased to 530 timekeepers! We had just 10 days to set up the stadium.” Omega has been responsible for breakthroughs such as photoelectric cells, the Scan’O’Vision photo-finish camera, touch pads in swimming pools, and starting blocks with false-start sensors. Unbeknown to anyone passing through bucolic Corgémont, Swiss Timing’s boffins remain relentless in their innovation. “This year, we used ai more than ever,” Zobrist reveals. “Brand new for Tokyo was live continuous tracking, with rf [radio frequency] antennae around the stadium measuring speed, acceleration, deceleration, positioning. “We could tell the story of an event… where someone won or lost their race. In staggered starts, you only knew positions once the athletes entered the home straight… Until now!”
20 Making Moves 10:10 Magazine Issue 6
The mechanical wristwatch is transforming itself from an anachronism into a 21st-century essential thanks to ingenious, sustainable microengineering
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Making Moves
Words: Alex Doak
Multibrand Feature
22 Making Moves 10:10 Magazine Issue 6
Back in 2002, Dr Nicolas Hayek Sr didn’t so much upset the applecart as kick the apples up and down every valley of Swiss watchmaking’s Jura heartland. Hayek had been the mastermind behind this cottage industry’s recovery from the quartz crisis in 1983, then captained the resulting Swatch Group megamerge of Omega, Longines, Tissot et al to spectacular profit. Yet, out of the blue, he decided that Swatch’s vast eta movement factory should no longer be treated as a supermarket by other brands eager to trade on the prestige afforded by having eta mechanics ticking inside, announcing that they would be phasing out the selling of ébauches (partially assembled movement blanks) by 2006. There was method to this apparent madness, of course. The Swiss wristwatch having already been successfully rebranded as a luxury investment, Hayek was no doubt wary of complacency, akin to how the Swiss were caught napping by East Asian quartz technology in the ’70s. Needless to say, pulling the rug on the vast majority of his group’s clients’ lifeblood wouldn’t prove easy. But several protracted court cases, monopoly commissions, Chinese gifting clampdowns, and Swiss currency spikes later, Hayek seems to have got what he wanted, albeit posthumously: a flourishing of independently developed and undeniably better mechanical watchmaking. As a result, the watch world has witnessed serious innovation. While prices might still seem luxurious, they increasingly reflect what real-world reliability is worth, rather than manufactured hype. Precision is on the up, as is battery life and resistance to all the magnetism our digital world throws up. Intervals between pricey services are lengthening, as are initial warranty periods. Collectively, it’s making a strong case for the human-wound opensource timekeeper over disposable lithium-battery quartz, or smartwatches with built-in obsolescence. How do you like them apples?
The world of horology may have been shaken when Nick Hayek Sr rattled his sabre nearly 20 years ago, but all credit to mothership Swatch for practising what he preached. Its eta facility is still supplying treasured clients with its suite of classic self-winding calibres, but eta’s stablemates are increasingly benefitting from an internal drive to innovate and improve. The result is the Powermatic 80 calibre, which bulks up the 2824-2 workhorse – from 42 hours fully wound to unwound, into 80-hour weekend-proof territory (that is to say, still ticking come Monday morning, no readjusting and rewinding). What’s more, in the case of Certina and its ds-1, the threat of magnetism to ferrous components is also neatly dispatched by Nivachron – a titanium alloy used for the tightly coiled, humanhair-thin spring, about which the balance wheel oscillates four times a second. It’s a delicate setup, prone to shocks, heat, magnetism – you name it! – yet still expected to modulate the speed of your watch’s hands plus or minus a few seconds a day. For less than a grand, Certina offers truly baffling Lilliputian might.
“The 10-year warranty and 10-year service interval are so much more than just marketing claims; they’re the result of constantly interrogating ourselves: ‘How can we be sure of this?’” So says Rolf Studer, co-ceo of historic indie brand Oris, whose move to in-house independence is an impressive mountain pass away from the industry’s respective two- and five-year norms. Addressing the needs of his no-nonsense, still-discerning customers directly, Oris’s prosaically named Calibre 400 is “all about thinking a little harder, toward a simpler and more reliable product, fit for any everyday
situation”. Sure enough, for less than £3,000, in either pilot or diving guise, you get a rock solid engine five years in the making, which will tick autonomously for five days. Oris has left out what could be problematic for aftersales, like the winding rotor’s ball bearings, as well as decreasing the torque it supplies to the winding barrel, to mitigate wear and tear. And yes, the magnetism issue is dealt with, thanks to the components interfacing with the oscillating balance wheel, tick by tock, being etched from silicon wafer. Many marks out of ten.
23 Making Moves
The year of 2015 wasn’t so much a photo finish as a photo start. Switzerland’s two biggest players unveiled their bids for our new age of mechanical watchmaking: Rolex’s Superlative Chronometer certification of plus/minus-two-second precision with five-year warranty as standard, followed by Omega’s Master Chronometer certification, in cahoots with neighbouring metrology institute metas. Admittedly, the latter won the most headlines, thanks to its claims of 15,000 Gauss antimagnetism. For context, iso’s 764 standard sets a 4,800 A/m threshold for Swiss watches – about 60 Gauss, or the equivalent of your fridge door. So Omega was perhaps a little overzealous, unless you’re in the habit of taking your watch to regular mri scans. But with smaller-scale neodymium magnets lurking everywhere from laptops to purse clasps, a requirement of at least 30,000 A/m or 380 Gauss has become the real-world base level. More pertinently, metas’s test programme was conceived as open to all. Six years later, Omega’s success has encouraged the emergence of a new practitioner in the shape of Rolex’s little brother, Tudor. Its own silicon implant 70-hour five-year-warranty mt56xx movement family (which also launched in 2015) now measures up to Master Chronometer’s uncompromising demands, maturing Tudor’s Black Bay diving collection from ’60s tribute act to forward-thrusting standard-setter.
Words: Alex Doak
packaged with that unmistakeable cushion-shaped case, stemming from a 1930s Rolex pocket watch. The secretive allure of covert sub-aqua ops is undeniable, and in Panerai’s watches this is offset by a dazzlingly modern approach to their horological innards. Celebrating Guido Panerai’s postwar patent of Luminor dial paint, based on tritium rather than radium, the evergreen Platinumtech Luminor Marina pam01116 boasts a 70-year warranty, contributing to a new standard of longevity in Swiss watchmaking.
Multibrand Feature
Seventy years ago, the public hadn’t even heard of Panerai, let alone questioned what sort of warranty terms to agree on. Needless to say, since the 1993 Italian Military Secrets Act disgorged everything about the Florentine naval supplier’s wartime collaboration with Rolex, followed by its acquisition by Richemont Group in 1997, this cult brand entertains every conceivable breed of opinion holder. These voluptuously styled frogmen watches, adored by the likes of Sylvester Stallone, are now Swiss made, entirely in-house, and are still
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Blinding Date
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25 Blinding Date Patek Philippe
Like Indiana Jones snatching his fedora from the closing trap door, Patek Philippe not only unveiled the hands down highlight of 2021 with nonchalant élan, but at the point when we thought spring’s Watches & Wonders digital expo was all but done. And ‘hands down’ really are the appropriate words, as Swiss watchmaking’s prima donna has done away with all the fussy subdials of your normal calendar watch, instead representing the alwayscorrect date on the face of the Ref 5236P001 as you’d inscribe your journal – sun29feb, etc. Here, 29th February really is only shown on a leap year, as a result of this perpetual calendar’s 48-notch programme wheel turning at the stately rate of once every four years, and so telling the mechanism whether each successive month in a leap-year cycle is 28, 29, 30, or 31 days long. The best engineering is all about simplification, so while Patek’s revolutionary new in-line display requires 118 additional parts to a typical calendar mechanism, the ease of legibility in a notoriously confusing genre of horology easily wins out.
Words: Alex Doak
Always correct, never in need of adjustment, and logically legible at last – the world’s first in-line perpetual calendar just had to be a Patek Philippe
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Patek Philippe In-Line Perpetual Calendar 5236P-001 available now, cased in platinum £100,190
27 Words: Alex Doak Patek Philippe
discernible flashiness, so the indications of the perpetual calendar were legible at a glance – à l’américaine though, with month first rather than day. For this year’s unveiling, miniaturising things from pocket to wrist proportions called for exponentially trickier horological wizardry. Patek Philippe’s crack team of engineers, now housed in the brand’s box-fresh new hq and factory on the outskirts of Geneva, had to overcome totally new technical challenges. A single date disk with 31 numerals would have been too small and less easily legible; to assure the largest possible calendar display on a single line, they needed to design a system with two date discs – one for the tens and one for the units. In total, four discs: one for the day, two for the date, and one for the month – all four perfectly embedded in the same plane, perfectly flush with the surrounding dial. Perpetual calendar functions are nearly always in modular form: a mechanism in its own right that piggybacks on the base timekeeping movement. Which means, thanks to its necessarily immediate positioning behind the day, date, and month window or subdials, such watches are referred to as ‘cadratures’ or ‘under-dials’. The slightly sad upshot of this is that the micromechanical genius of the qp watchmaker is never admirable through clear casebacks; only the (admittedly striking) showboating of Patek’s movement decorators can be seen. With the 5236p-001 at least, the calendar’s outward elegance broadcasts rather than belies the brilliance beneath.
Blinding Date
The perpetual calendar, or quantième perpetuel (qp) has always featured prominently throughout Patek Philippe’s storied history. In 1925, the Genevan manufacturer presented the first wristwatch with this highly elaborate feature – it’s now on permanent display at the Patek Philippe Museum on Rue des Vieux-Grenadiers. What’s more, toying with how the date is displayed certainly isn’t a new concern: Patek’s catalogue has long offered the choice of tiny rectangular windows framing discs below, or various constellations of subdials whose tinier-still hands point out the day, date, and month. If neither of these suit, one can also read the date via a combination of both, as on Patek’s Caliber 324 s q, showing day and month through a dual aperture at 12 o’clock, while pointing out the date at six o’clock, around a circular moon-phase display. The night sky was of course our ultimate calendar, until Julius Caesar decided to meddle with things in 46bce; followed by Pope Gregorio xiii in 1582, who deleted February 29th every 100 years to keep our diaries aligned with the heavens (meaning you will have to adjust your qp in 2100. Sorry.) The Ref 5236’s slick new panoramic aperture is not totally unprecedented. Over the latter half of the 20th century, Patek Philippe had already crafted elaborate pocket watches with an in-line calendar display for the American market – the ’60s’ sublime Ref 725/4 Lépine for example, or the Ref 843/844 minute repeater back in the late ’50s. Customers in the New World were crazy for ease of operation as well as
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This understated example of Patek’s formidable Complications line mixes things up by splitting things up: specifically by adopting ye olde regulator clock dial, which separates the hour, minute, and seconds hands, so no element is obscured, and other timepieces can be set precisely. Given Patek’s extraordinary standards of precision (plus/minus two to three seconds a day), you really can rely on this tiny work of art to do the job. £42,810
Photography: Mathieu Richer Mamousse
Patek Philippe Annual Calendar Regulator ref. 5235/50r
Words: Alex Doak
Officially Switzerland’s oldest marque still trading (though not without interruption of business; the ‘longest’ accolade goes to the venerable Vacheron Constantin), this could be the purest entry of every purist’s horological bucket list: a perpetual calendar with eight-day power reserve, keeping perfect date despite the erraticism of Pope Gregory xiii’s calendar of 1582. Simplicity rendered through deceptive complexity. £48,800
Smooth Operators
Blancpain Villeret Quantième Perpétuel 8 Jours
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They say you can always judge a man by his accessories, so even if you’ve forgotten that brown in town is now fair game, but mankles less so, a judiciously chosen slimline timepiece will make up for all sartorial ills. Just remember to match the strap with your belt… and wind it up!
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Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Classic Duoface Small Seconds
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Smooth Operators
The polo players of the British Raj may not have had this in mind back in 1931 when they were bemoaning yet another smashed dial as they cantered across the expansive greens of Jaipur, but what you see here is a particularly fancy descendant of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s solution for those chaps and their flying mallets: a flippable case allowing you to avert the gaze of its glass via a slick, sliding chassis. This version has another dial on the other side – all the better for travelling back to Blighty, when you need a second time zone on the double. £19,000
Nomos Glashütte Ludwig 175 Years
So perfect is Nomos’s clean Bauhaus ethic that things have barely changed in the company’s 30-year history. What’s more, instead of ploughing its profits back into lavish marketing, Nomos has invested heavily in r&d and talent, deep in the Saxon mountains. Swiss watches made in a similar fashion regularly go for three times what your buck gets here: bona fide ‘if you know, you know’ cool factor and clever mechanics, costing less than a second-hand Fiesta (lasting 10 times longer, too). £1,800
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Smooth Operators
Words: Alex Doak
Photography: Mathieu Richer Mamousse
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Hermès Arceau A mainstay of Hermès’ tightly composed watch offering, the Arceau manages to distil all its Parisian whimsy and equestrian flourish with a restraint that means this slimline number will straddle any sartorial occasion. What’s more, for less than £5k, you’re getting a Vaucher Manufacture movement, thanks to Hermès’ 20-percent stake in Parmigiani’s elite outfit. And it’s all served up on butter-soft leather from the Hermès ateliers. £2,560
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Smooth Operators
Words: Alex Doak
Photography: Mathieu Richer Mamousse
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Breguet Tradition Quantième Rétrograde 7597
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Smooth Operators
There’s barely a mechanical watch out there that doesn’t contain at least one innovation by Abraham-Louis Breguet, the 18th-century horological genius of Paris behind the winding rotor and the mighty tourbillon. This particular masterpiece of architectural microengineering pays tribute to the great man’s original bespoke Subscription pieces, working in a flyback date hand curled up and over the main gear wheel. £32,900
Cartier Tank Must (bottom right)
A properly considered wristwatch design was rare enough in 1917, let alone a design that would still be going strong over 100 years later: That’s the power of Louis Cartier’s iconic Tank. The watch was conceived at a time when international military manoeuvres underscored the convenience of wristworn timepieces, and was named after the war machine whose footprint its case happened to resemble. £3,150
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Smooth Operators
Words: Alex Doak
Photography: Mathieu Richer Mamousse
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Longines Conquest Heritage Ever since 2007’s Legend Diver – a totally faithful ’60s revival of a pioneering diving watch – Longines has reminded us annually of its illustrious 190-year past with its Heritage range, benefitting from its Saint-Imier museum’s diligently curated archive. This year’s reissue is another ’60s beauty inspired by descents into the night, rather than descents into the depths. Those applied rose-gold hour markers just beg to be paired with a new pair of cufflinks. £1,830
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Smooth Operators
Words: Alex Doak
Photography: Mathieu Richer Mamousse
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Piaget Altiplano Small Seconds
Vacheron Constantin Historiques Cornes de Vache 1955 Here’s a gorgeous revival of a ’50s chronograph made by Switzerland’s suavest horloger par excellence, distilling everything the immediate post-war period represented: effervescence, emancipation, technological flourish, and sophistication in spades. Not only were Vacheron’s stopwatch mechanics at the cutting edge of the day, but this one in question couldn’t resist sporting some particularly outré strap attachments, which have earned this reissue its ‘cow horns’ name. £49,500
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Smooth Operators
Are you a poker player looking to express your passion through the jewellery version of a poker chip? Well, you’re looking at the answer to your highly specific quest. In fact, this could be the perfect timepiece for a ritzy evening at the high rollers’ table – a slice of watchmaking perfection, made by Valentin Piaget in the ’50s for the Riviera lounge lizards of yesteryear. £22,100
TEAM CREDITS Photography Mathieu Richer Mamousse Set Design Lune Kuipers Photography Assistant Anthony Retournard
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Smooth Operators
Words: Alex Doak
Photography: Mathieu Richer Mamousse
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Coco Electro
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Coco Electro
Words: Laura McCreddie-Doak
Photography: Mitch Payne
C gl ha n ro ow el’ ck st s w in ick a g s, tc so te hm m le a e l po ke u r r t rs id in h ly g av f a ba e d bu ck o lo to wn us 1 e w 990 d to r is s o t w cl ls ea ub an r cu d u ltu pp re ed an d
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Coco Electro
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Coco Electro Words: Laura McCreddie-Doak
like a DJ line-up,” he explained. “We are inviting our classics to take turns on the stage, while borrowing the codes of this universe. The confrontation between black and colour sits at the heart of this story. Colour illuminates black. The depth of the black underlines colour; the union is radical, and the contrast is graphic.” The J12 is in lbd-slinky black ceramic popping with rainbow numerals; the Boy.Friend, with diamond-set rectangular bezel, seems sedate until you notice its quilted strap’s riotous pink neon lining and a robot picked out in diamonds on the dial. The Code Coco and the Première meanwhile get more happy-making than a Carl Cox remix. The former is full-on neon pink, while the iconic chain-link strap of the Première is interlaced with multicoloured leather. This collection also has some seriously luxurious riffs on the J12. The Electro Star is an extravagant full-pavé model coated in a total of 267 baguettecut stones, 13 carats of which are gradated rainbow sapphires set down the flanks of the case and links. There are also black and white ceramic versions – with bezels and indices set with a rainbow of sapphires – both of which are powered by the Calibre 12.1 created by Kenissi, Tudor’s movement manufacturer, in which Chanel has a stake. Last year’s amazing all-sapphire-crystal version of the J12, the X-Ray, has also been electro-fied, with a similarly rainbow-hued, sapphire-set bezel and coloured hour markers. And if you have a spare $1m saved, then the J12 Electro Box is all yours. Described as vibrating “to the rhythm of a 12-beat gradation of colour”, this polyptych features twelve J12s, each one set with a different mono-shade of baguette sapphires in a rainbow gradient of colour, from pink to red. Chastaingt has created the perfect collection for 2021. It may have been inspired by the ’90s, a decade when the club ruled supreme and god was a dj, but it speaks to the now, to our need to feel kaleidoscopic joy – whether that’s through finding new ways to exist in the world, or throwing ourselves into it, hands in the air, strangers close, just waiting for the euphoria that comes when the beat finally drops.
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Unless they are on the wrist of superstar djs, luxury watches aren’t really seen on the pages of edm.com, the us-based website on a mission to spread the word about 125–150bpm dance music. When it comes to Chanel, however, we’re not talking just any luxury watch brand; it’s a name that has gone from being derided by watch snobs to being embraced as one of the most exciting and innovative brands, one that melds fine Swiss watchmaking with fashion pedigree to create timepieces that hide horological clout in couture clothing. And it’s now being featured on edm.com because Chanel has taken inspiration from the French music scene, which brought disco glitz to house, for its latest collection – electro. “In the ’90s, this movement imposed a radical, eccentric visual universe, reflecting the nightlife and the atmosphere in which it evolved,” explains Arnaud Chastaingt, a quiet, self-effacing figure who has headed up the Watchmaking Creation Studio for eight years, and is behind such standout hits as the Monsieur, which contained Chanel’s first in-house movement, the Boy. Friend, and last year’s reimagined J12: the late Jacques Helleu’s all-ceramic, unisex icon of 2000. “Electro music went beyond the musical field alone; it is global, sensorial, graphic, and goes beyond just the sounds… It is quite fascinating and very inspiring!” Electro also seems to have inspired former Chanel creative director Karl Lagerfeld when the genre was at its peak. While his early ’90s collections embraced a more traditional colour palette – the house’s signature black and white, interspersed with reds, golds, and pastels – his ready-to-wear spring/summer 1995 line popped with colour. Lagerfeld would and could never have totally abandoned monochrome, but alongside it, there were acid green bikinis, neon pink jackets and handbags, even a fishnet bodycon leotard that wouldn’t have looked out of place on the dance floor at Soho’s Velvet Rooms. With Chastaingt’s electro timepieces, each of the house’s Swiss-made superstars has been given the fluoro treatment. “I imagined this capsule collection
Photography: Mitch Payne
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Coco Electro
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Coco Electro
Words: Laura McCreddie-Doak
Photography: Mitch Payne
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Art & Craft
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More painstakingly executed and excruciatingly delicate than watchmaking itself, horological elaboration, aka métiers d'art, is alive and ticking, with enough decorative genres to rival the v&a
Art & Craft Words: Alex Doak Multibrand Feature
Jaeger-LeCoultre £POA
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WAN DERING HOU RS
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Art & Craft
The first of our trio of enamelled mini-masterpieces perpetuates a dedicated Métiers d’Art collection at Swiss watchmaking’s most venerable practitioner, Vacheron Constantin (over 260 years young and counting). A new series of three 10-piece limited editions pays homage to the routes most famously sailed by Portuguese explorers Bartolomeu Dias, Vasco da Gama, and Pedro Álvares Cabral, drawing on a reproduction of 1519’s Miller Atlas, kept in Lisbon’s Museu de Marinha. Ingeniously, to showcase the enameller’s expertise with no numbers or dials obscuring their art, Vacheron Constantin’s Calibre 1120 at mechanics have, not a hand attached to the hour wheel, but rather a three-armed ‘satellite’ module, with four hours marked on each arm’s clear ‘planetary’ disc. Taking turns to track 120 degrees, from zero minutes to 60, they’re then nudged along the hour plus three by a cam shaped like Vacheron’s house emblem, the Maltese Cross, ready to reappear at ‘0’ three hours later. £115,000
On the eve of this spring’s Watches & Wonders digital expo, watch nerds the world over held their breath, in fear of yet more gloom. But, much to their relief, there were indeed watches – by the armful. Even more blessedly, the hills of the Swiss Jura mountains aren’t just alive with the sound of ticking, but also the sight of wonders in every conceivable wrist-sized guise. Known throughout the equally rarefied worlds of haute couture and haute joaillerie as métiers d’art, these rare decorative crafts allow you to wear your art on your sleeve, so to speak. From enamelling to sculpture to wood marquetry – even peacock feathers have been toyed with – their resurgence indicates a heartening joie de vivre in fine
watchmaking that we can all embrace. No matter how big the brand, the artisans at whose hand this work is cultivated continue to work in a romantic fashion rarely seen beyond your father’s Airfix shed: alone, in a remote chalet, undisturbed save for the odd clank of a cowbell or the knock of Vacheron Constantin’s courier, delivering this week’s blank canvas (or rather, dial). Here are six of our favourite wonders, nurturing ancient techniques all but extinct just two decades ago, were it not for the passion of collectors, the brands’ renewed duty of care, and of course the saintly patience of the artisans themselves.
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Bespoke saddler, silk-scarfer, artisanal tanner, and little-known Swiss watchmaker… Hermès is nothing if not deftly attuned to luxury’s more esoteric arts and crafts, always with a stroke of Parisienne whimsy. Witness then the latest in its Arceau line of dainty timekeepers, named after its asymmetric strap attachment’s ‘stirrup’ hoop. Designed by Henri d’Origny in 1978, its open face lends itself to illustration – in this case, a thrilling and futuristic space derby, by illustrator Ugo Bienvenu, originally inspired by 20th-century American comic-book heroes for his Face Wow scarf collection, brought to life at Hermès’ workshops in vibrant hand-painted, ‘grand feu’ enamel. Instead of silk, or even the usual brass, here the canvas is starry, sparkly aventurine crystal. £52,560
Words: Alex Doak
STIRRU P & AWAY!
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ENGRAVE SITUATION
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The same ‘wandering hour’ system as Vacheron Constantin’s not only on proud display, but orbiting above a very different breed of métiers d’art. The rose-gold dial has been hand-engraved with a concentric pattern by one of Parmigiani Fleurier’s master artisans. “The decoration is so captivating because it is based on the golden ratio,” says the brand’s eponymous founder Michel Parmigiani, who took mechanical inspiration from a 19th century Perrin Frères pocket watch treasured by his backer, the Sandoz Family Foundation. “Within it, you see Fibonacci’s spirals, reproducing a harmony that is everywhere in nature.” As well as in a pine cone, the dial’s mesmerising spirals can be spotted on the floor tiles of Ancient Rome’s Capitolium, from which this watch, the Toric Capitole, takes its name. £322,500
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Art & Craft
Words: Alex Doak
Multibrand Feature
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SILICON IM PLANTS Ulysse Nardin’s freak has come a long way in 20 years, but the mechanics underpinning its extraordinary ‘carrousel’ hours hand are still the same – the entire movement rotating itself 360 degrees every 12 hours. freak also continues to be a hothouse for experiments with silicon. Back in 2001, un used the electronics world’s favourite material in the ticking escapement for the first time in watchmaking, kickstarting a revolution in antimagnetic mechanics across the board, from Breguet to Zenith. Its detractors say silicon is too brittle for a hardworking mechanical watch, so trust Ulysse Nardin to toy with that very danger in an artistic fashion: silicium marquetry – seamlessly collaging the freak x’s dial with slivers of the stuff, precut into segments by a plasma accelerator. It all hinges on the craftsman’s dexterity – the slightest overlap would be enough to chip the edges. Métiers d’art for the 22nd century. £27,390
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ALL FIRED U P Jaeger-LeCoultre prides itself on being the most ‘complete’ of Switzerland’s historic maison, and sure enough this stretches to harbouring its own in-house enamelling atelier, toiling silently since 1999 beneath the very family farm roof where Antoine LeCoultre founded his workshop in 1833. Fostering an apprenticeship scheme that ensures a fragile legacy, the craft is fragility incarnate. For each metal-oxide colour, applied with an impossibly fine brush, the case (here Jaeger-LeCoultre’s iconic, reversible Reverso) or dial is then fired in a tiny kiln at 800ºC, making between 17 and 24 repeat visits. With each firing, details are fine-tuned, colours evolve, and yet a single speck of dust or half a second too long in the oven can ruin an entire day’s work. £POA
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CROUCH ING PANTH ER With the high-octane excitement of an Avengers blockbuster, first there was the surprise news that Audemars Piguet was partnering with Marvel Entertainment – charismatic ceo François-Henry Bennahmias seen joshing with War Machine himself, Don Cheadle. Then the Swiss legend of haute horlogerie auctioned a one-off version of what you see here, in benefit of us non-profits First Book and Ashoka: the Black Panther Flying Tourbillon. Amping up ap’s already steroidal Royal Oak Concept, it’s the first of an ongoing series of Marvel superwatches. The 250 white goldand-ceramic timepieces feature the eponymous superhero crouching atop the tourbillon, sculpted dramatically by cnc and laser engraving, and finished by 30 hours of meticulous hand engraving and hand painting. £118,000
Art & Craft Words: Alex Doak Multibrand Feature
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High Campanology
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Cartier’s rarefied Privé collection rings in a renewed era of dandyism at the dual hands of the Cloche
High Campanology Words: Alex Doak Photography: Norman Wilcox-Geissen
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High Campanology
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High Campanology
The Cloche de Cartier is the ultimate expression of the jeweller as watchmaker: ordinary movements powering twohanded watches, elevated to the whimsical and sublime by innovative case and dial design. The best vintage examples are by the Cartier London imprint established in the ’60s for the would-be Parisian dandies this side of La Manche; shapes include the elongated Maxi Oval (or Baignoire (bathtub), as it’s known today) or the Dali-esque Crash (its own backstory a far cry from the surreal landscape of melting clocks). That Cartier once bought back old pieces and refurbished them for sale at its own boutiques is testimony to the potent, if latent, market for Le Grand Maison’s vintage experimentalism. The sort of money required to fully restore a dilapidated watch would have bought a nice new Cartier London just two decades ago. With typical enterprise and farsightedness, in 1981 Cartier initiated the Collection Louis Cartier, which became Collection Privée Cartier Paris, in 1998, and is now simply Cartier Privé – a highly limited, painstakingly curated greatest-hits compilation, updated annually, remastered, and remixed, with exhaustive liner notes. It was only a matter of time. During the late ’70s and early ’80s, the rebooted and blinged-up square Santos – especially the yellow-gold-and-steel bicolour version –
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Frequent flyers more used to turning left than right will be familiar with Cartier’s oeuvre at the airport, and the pull of an end-of-trip treat. The Parisian titan of luxury has become a fixture of international retail, showcasing a catalogue of wallets, scarfs, pendants, sunglasses, and fragrances seamlessly from Adelaide to Zürich. And alongside these, an ever-gleaming lexicon of shapes in watch form, each named accordingly, for example: Tortue (tortoise), Ballon Bleu (blue balloon), Tank (the footprint of an actual tank), and so on. There are some that have collectors in a discerning frenzy – such as the beauty you see here. Unless you had a particularly memorable visit to Cartier’s Place Vendôme flagship in 1984 or 2007, or your grandfather took advantage of a pop-up Cartier concession at Croydon Airport in 1922, it’ll come as an exotic sight. All the usual codes of Cartier’s historic line in Swiss timekeeping are intact – railway track minute markings, sword-shaped hands, crown-set cabochon sapphire – but it’s all about that cloche case. Although originally inspired by stirrups, the name came from the silhouette of the bell rung at a service counter – a shape apparent when you lay your Cloche de Cartier on the nightstand (at which point it handily doubles as a travel clock).
Words: Alex Doak Photography: Norman Wilcox-Geissen
Cloche de Cartier watches featured throughout available exclusively from Cartier’s Privé collection
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challenged mighty Rolex as wrist-candy of choice on the St Moritz–St Tropez axis of disco glitz. In parallel to the jet-set/Wall Street success of the Santos, interest in proper mechanical watchmaking over electric quartz was back on the rise. In other words, a perfect storm of hot luxe and luxe horology – Cartier in an oyster shell. Privé’s simpler movements were sourced from the various esteemed Swiss marques under the ward of Cartier’s parent, the Richemont Group – mostly Piaget and Jaeger-LeCoultre. Complicated movements, like those powering the remake of the 1920s so-called ‘Digital’ Tank à Guichets, or those upgrading the Tortue or Rotonde with single-pusher chronograph or tourbillon, were all courtesy of the Jura’s growing network of white-label hothouses of high horology – that is to say, Girard-Perregaux, Audemars Piguet’s r&d arm, Renaud & Papi, plus the mysterious tha. Come 2007, with pre-crash horological hedonism at fever pitch, Cartier’s curated cabinet of curiosities was wrenched open once again to rapturous effect, revealing the elusive Cloche (just 100 examples, catch them if you can!) From there, a tipping point: high time for Cartier to unshackle from suppliers and invest in what was to become one of Watch Valley’s biggest and best-equipped manufacturing facilities: 30,000 square feet of Cartier Manufacture. Sure enough (more to the point, if you’re quick enough), your 2021 Cloche de Cartier ticks to the tune of the dainty, manually wound 1917 mc Manufacture movement, created in 2019 entirely in-house upon the slopes of La Chaux-de-Fonds, like its countless other micromechanical siblings. The cultish Cloche is now at its most complete, and is one of Cartier Privé’s most privé creations.
TEAM CREDITS Photography Norman Wilcox-Geissen Set design Lune Kuipers Dining and kitchen accessories via Borough Kitchen and David Mellor
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High Campanology
Words: Alex Doak
Photography: Norman Wilcox-Geissen
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High Campanology
Words: Alex Doak
Photography: Norman Wilcox-Geissen
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Rado True Square Tej Chauhan in ceramic £1,640
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Necessarily small they may be, but fine wristwatches keep time with stately poise, and the best of them – ironically enough – remain bestowed with a power outwitting anything else in your wardrobe: timelessness.
Timeless 10:10 Magazine Photography: Jennifer Cheng
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Omega Seamaster 300 Master Co-Axial Chronometer 41mm in titanium £6,950
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Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight in bronze £3,390
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Photography: Jennifer Cheng
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IWC Big Pilot’s Watch in steel £10,900 Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph in titanium £32,900
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TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 300 in steel £2,500
Photography: Jennifer Cheng
Chanel J12 Watch Calibre 12.1 in ceramic £5,700
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Bulgari ‘BVLGARI BVLGARI’ GMT in aluminium £2,890
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Timeless
Hublot Big Bang Unico Berluti in aluminium £20,800
TEAM CREDITS Photography and set design Jennifer Cheng at Saint Luke Production Diane Vincent at Saint Luke
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Photography: Jennifer Cheng
Fifteen years ago, aboard the dining car to Montenegro, Eva Green’s vampish Vesper Lynd had no problem reproaching Daniel Craig’s incarnation of ‘brute in a suit’ James Bond… only to misjudge his outfit’s finest accessory
James Bond: Now, I’d have normally gone with only child… But, you see, by the way you ignored the quip about your parents, I’m going to have to go with orphan. Vesper Lynd: All right… By the cut of your suit, you went to Oxford, or wherever, and actually think human beings dress like that. But you wear it with such disdain. My guess is you didn’t come from money, and your school friends never let you forget it. Which means you were at that school by the grace of someone else’s charity, hence the chip on your shoulder. And since your first thought about me ran to orphan… that’s what I’d say you are. Oh, you are. I like this poker thing… And that makes perfect sense, since mi6 looks for maladjusted young men that give little thought to sacrificing others in order to protect queen and country; you know, former sas types with easy smiles and expensive watches... Rolex? Bond: Omega. Lynd: Beautiful.
Image: Copyright EON Productions / Danjaq LLC / MGM / Columbia Pictures (2006)
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CARRIAGE CLOCK