Watch Your Time 2019 - European Edition

S P E C I A L WAT C H M A G A Z I N E

Eric Valli and the Hand of Time Discover the world of this year’s new watches

As seen by Audemars Piguet, Breguet, Bvlgari, Cartier, Chanel, Grand Seiko, Hermès, Hublot, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Louis Vuitton, Montblanc, Panerai, Piaget, Richard Mille, Rolex, TAG Heuer, Ulysse Nardin, Van Cleef & Arpels…

European Edition 2019 — S P E C I A L F E AT U R E — T H U RS DAY M AY 16, 2019. P RO D UC ED F O R T H E DA I LY T E LEG R A P H BY ED I T I O N S T E M P S I N T ER N AT I O N A L W H O TA K E SO LE R ES P O N S I B I L I T Y F O R T H E C O N T EN TS . (AVA I L A B LE I N LO N DO N A N D SOU T H R EG I O N S O N LY )

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Breguet La Marine Chronograph 5527

B E I J I N G C A N N E S C H E N G D U C H O N G Q I N G D U B A I E K AT E R I N B U R G G E N E VA G S TA A D H O N G K O N G K U A L A L U M P U R L A S V E G A S L O N D O N L O S A N G E L E S M A C A O M I L A N M O S C O W N E W Y O R K N I N G B O PA R I S S E O U L S H A N G H A I S I N G A P O R E TA I P E I T O K Y O V I E N N A XI’A N Z U R I C H – W W W. B R E G U E T. C O M

WATCH YOUR TIME SPECIAL WATCH MAGAZINE

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EDITIONS@TEMPS-INTERNATIONAL .COM PRODUCED FOR THE DAILY TELEGR APH ON THURSDAY MAY 16, EUROPE AN EDITION 2019, PUBLISHED

2019 BY EDITIONS TEMPS INTERNATIONAL WHO TAKE SOLE

SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH LE MONDE (FR ANCE),

RESPONSIBILIT Y FOR THE CONTENTS.

FR ANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE (GERMANY ), IL SOLE 24 ORE (ITALY ), EL MUNDO (SPAIN).

11 focus ⁄ montblanc

LOUIS VUIT TON VOYAGER MINUTE REPEATER FLYING TOURBILLON PAVED THE T WO WORLDS OF DESIGN AND WATCHMAKING COME TOGE THER IN

“Reconnect”

13 editorial

Time and the Universe

THIS VERY MODERN STAGING OF THE TOURBILLON ESCAPEMENT, WHICH LOUIS VUIT TON HAS COMBINED WITH A MINUTE REPE ATER INSIDE THE VOYAGER CASE, RECOGNISABLE FOR THE UNUSUAL VOLUMES OF ITS NOT-QUITEROUND, NOT-QUITE-SQUARE SHAPE . THIS GEM-SE T VERSION IN WHITE GOLD BOASTS BAGUE T TE-CUT DIAMONDS ON THE BE ZEL AND LUGS. DIAME TER IS A VERY RE ASONABLE 42MM CONSIDERING THE COMPLE XIT Y OF THE MOVEMENT INSIDE, WHILE A HEIGHT OF 9.7MM MAKES IT ONE OF THE THINNEST WATCHES ON THE MARKE T WITH THESE T WO COMPLICATIONS. VISIBLE THROUGH THE SAPPHIRE DIAL , WHOSE PAT TERN IS INSPIRED BY LOUIS VUIT TON’S STRIPED CANVAS FROM 1872, THE MANUAL-WINDING MECHANICAL CALIBRE LV100 PROVIDES FOUR DAYS OF POWER RESERVE .

15 focus ⁄ audemars piguet

Cracking the Code

17 focus ⁄ print alive

Opens a new window on information

20 focus ⁄ jaeger-lecoultre

The Art of Precision

22 DESIGN

ERIC WITH A NEPALESE HONEY HUNTER AND OLD FRIEND, AT THE OPENING OF THE SCHOOL .

Spicing Up Design — FABRICE ESCHMANN

28 focus ⁄ breguet

Marine Marvels

30 focus ⁄ panerai

The Italian Job

32 focus ⁄ bvlgari

Renaissance Brand

34 ELEGANCE

Concours d’élégance — PALOMA RECIO

37 focus ⁄ cartier

Reshaping History

40 VINTAGE

In Love with Vintage — CHRISTOPHE ROULET

43 focus ⁄ richard mille

Eric Valli Since 1981 Eric has captured on camera some of the most inaccessible locations in the world, working for titles such as National Geographic, Life, GEO, Paris Match, Stern and Smithsonian magazines, and The Sunday Times of London. Eric is an expert on the Himalayas, in particular Nepal, Tibet and China. In 1987, his photo story Honey Hunters — documenting the cliff-climbing Gurung tribesmen of west-central Nepal — won a World Press Award.

In 1990 Eric shot Shadow Hunters, which captures the gathering of birds’ nests for soup in a vast cave in western Thailand. The film received an Academy Award nomination for best documentary. In 1999 he directed the adventure story Himalaya — a tale of survival in the mountain region — which became the first Nepalese film to receive an Academy Award nomination for best foreign film. Eric has published 19 books to date. In total, his photography has been recognized with three World Press Awards. In addition he has shot commercial work for Hermès and Louis Vuitton. In 2012 he directed the film Himalayan Gold Rush (co-produced by state broadcaster China Central Television), which was seen by 60 million viewers in China alone. For the project Living Yangtze — he portrayed the river through the people living in harmony with it, in conjunction with Swarovski — Eric spent six months along the world’s third largest waterway. An exhibition accompanied the launch of this in 2015 at Photo Shanghai, ArtScience Museum in Singapore, the Milan Expo and at COP21 in Paris as well as the Orangerie du Sénat inside Paris’s Luxembourg Gardens.

Over the last two years, Eric has spent six months in Nepal, living and working with mountain communities whose resilience after the 2015 earthquake he has extensively recorded in film and photographs. In February this year, the school which Eric had helped sponsor and which had been partially destroyed by the quake, reopened, thanks to the goodwill of friends and strangers, and to the volunteer architects and trades from France who helped rebuild it and train the local community in anti-seismic techniques (www.rocknwood.fr / #sunirpourreconstruire).

PUBLISHER-FOUNDER CHRISTIAN LL AVALL-UBACH MANAGING DIRECTOR ISABELLE BOUDRINGHIN — EDITIONS@TEMPS-INTERNATIONAL.COM WATCH CONSULTANT ERIC DUMATIN EDITORIAL DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHE ROULET CONTRIBUTORS PETER BR AUN (GERMANY), VINCENT DAVEAU (FR ANCE), PAOLO DE VECCHI (ITALY), FABRICE ESCHMANN (SWITZERL AND), PALOMA RECIO (SPAIN), CHRISTOPHE ROULET (SWITZERL AND) TRANSLATORS SANDR A PETCH, PALOMA RECIO, PAOLO DE VECCHI, AMAÏA TR ADUCTIONS PHOTOGRAPHER ERIC VALLI ARTISTIC DIRECTOR VINCENT FESSELET, GENÈVE PHOTOENGRAVERS BOMBIE, GENÈVE,PRINTED IN THE EU REPRODUCTION, EVEN PARTIAL , OF MATERIAL PUBLISHED IN WATCH YOUR TIME IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED IN THE U.K . AND OTHER COUNTRIES.

Sweet Treats

45 focus ⁄ tag heuer

Techno-vintage

46 SPORT

All at Sea — PAOLO DE VECCHI

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Eternal Icon

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In Phase with the Moon

54 COLLECTORS

Collector’s Hour — VINCENT DAVEAU

59 focus ⁄ van cleef & arpels

61

The Stars Come Out

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Let It Shine

62 ADVENTURE

Travel Companions — PETER BRAUN

65 focus ⁄ seiko

Pride of Japan

66 focus ⁄ gérald genta

A Flying Start

TO BREAK THE RULES, YOU MUST FIRST MASTER THEM.

AUDEMARSPIGUET.COM | INFRARED PHOTOGRAPHY

*Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute

CHANEL .COM

THE NEW J12 NEW SELF-WINDING MANUFACTURE MOVEMENT

Caliber 12.1. Chronometer-certified by the COSC*. 70-hour power reserve.

Highly resistant ceramic watch. Swiss made. 5-year warranty.

FOCUS WATCH YOUR TIME 11

“Reconnect” Montblanc’s 1858 watches are built for adventure, inviting us to go out and experience the world’s many wonders. The star product in the range, the Geosphere, reconnects us with nature.

When the pressure of work builds up; when being constantly connected puts impossible demands on our time, nature can be the best place to go and clear our head. Or so Montblanc’s latest “Reconnect” campaign wants us to believe. “It’s easy to get caught up in the intense pace of life and forget that the best way to recalibrate and find focus is to experience the beauty of nature,” says Nicolas Baretzki, Montblanc CEO. “Any kind of outdoor exploration is an extraordinary source of inspiration, contributing to greater creativity, happiness, and inner strength.” To illustrate his point, the campaign shows a fashion photographer and a singer-songwriter transported from their busy working environments into nature’s soothing surroundings, where they are able to “reconnect” with themselves and the world.

a tribute to the mountaineering world. As every geography student knows, Mont Blanc is the highest summit in the Alps. When celebrating the 160th anniversary of its Minerva Haute Horlogerie Manufacture in 2018, Montblanc thus decided to dedicate the Geosphere to the Seven Summits climb, the ultimate mountaineering challenge. These seven peaks are symbolised by as many red dots on the two domed hemisphere globes on the dial. Making one full rotation in 24 hours, the northern hemisphere globe turning anti-clockwise and the southern hemisphere clockwise, they track world times. Complementing this indication is a second time zone display, together with a date window.

tribute to the Minerva Manufacture’s extraordinary heritage.” Having made its debut in 2017 as a series of limited editions, the collection has since grown in stature.

Signature features include cases in bronze, appreciated for the unique patina it develops with wear, and a clear vintage inspiration accentuated by khaki green dials and domed cathedral-shaped hands. Solidly built, the 1858 is the watch every adventurer should have in his backpack.

Montblanc has good reason to reference Minerva in its collections. Established in 1858, it rose to prominence as a manufacturer of professional measuring instruments and timers for just about every trade and sport. A fact that hasn’t escaped collectors, as Nicolas Baretzki confirmed at January’s Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, in Geneva: “The completely revived Minerva offer is exciting for watch collectors who now stop by to check out the booth. There is so much more at Minerva to inspire us, whether from a technical perspective or in terms of its history. The potential is enormous.” Something to mediate in the quiet of nature, a Geosphere on your wrist.

Christophe Roulet

At Montblanc, this (re)connection between man and nature takes the form of a watch whose attributes capture the force, harmony and majesty of the great outdoors. A watch that invites us to explore our surroundings as much as our inner selves. For the brand, this watch is the Montblanc 1858 Geosphere, already

Endless potential While the Geosphere is clearly the highlight of the 1858 collection, the entire range is a catalyst for the brand, with its “sport watch meets tool watch” style and proudly vintage accents. “Precise, legible and robust for use in extreme conditions, the legendary professional Minerva watches from the 1920s and 1930s were conceived for military use and exploration,” notes the brand. “Inspired by these historic timepieces, the Montblanc 1858 pays

MONTBL ANC’S “RECONNECT” CAMPAIGN. IN TODAY’S FAST-PACED AND INTER-

MONTBL ANC 1858 GEOSPHERE LIMITED EDITION. THIS GEOSPHERE IS DED -

BOTH HEMISPHERES IS HIGHLIGHTED BY A WHITE LINE WITH SUPERLUMINOVA ®

CONNECTED WORLD, FINDING THE INNER CL ARIT Y AND INSPIR ATION TO FOCUS

ICATED TO THE WOR LD’S SE VEN SU M M IT CHALLENGE , THE HOLY GR AI L OF

COATING. A SECOND TIME ZONE DISPL AY IS LOCATED AT 9 O’CLOCK AND A DATE

ON THE THINGS THAT RE ALLY MAT TER CAN BE CHALLENGING, BUT STEPPING

MOUNTAINEERS. IT FE ATURES A WORLD TIME COMPLICATION WITH T WO DOMED

(LINKED TO THE LOCAL TIME) IS SHOWN IN AN APERTURE AT 3 O’CLOCK . WITH

OUTSIDE TO E XPERIENCE NATURE CAN HELP US RECONNECT WITH WHO WE

HEMISPHERE GLOBES THAT MAKE ONE COMPLE TE ROTATION IN 24 HOURS. THE

THIS NEW WORLD TIME DISPL AY FOR THE T WO HEMISPHERES, THE MONTBL ANC

ARE AND THE WORLD AROUND US. MONTBL ANC’S NEW CAMPAIGN TELLS THE

NORTHERN HEMISPHERE AT 12 O’CLOCK TURNS ANTI-CLOCK WISE WHILE THE

1858 GEOSPHERE BRINGS AN INSTINCTIVE WAY OF APPRECIATING DIFFERENT

STORY OF T WO DIFFERENT INDIVIDUALS, E ACH ON THEIR OWN JOURNE Y OF

SOUTHERN HEM ISPHERE TURNS CLOCK WISE . SURROUNDING THEM BOTH IS

TIME ZONES.

SELF-DISCOVERY THROUGH NATURE, ACCOMPANIED BY THE GEOSPHERE 1858,

A SCALE WITH THE 24 TIME ZONES, COMPLEMENTED BY A DAY/NIGHT INDICA-

CRE ATED TO INSPIRE US TO MAKE THE MOST OUT OF LIFE .

TION IN CONTR ASTING COLOURS. THE LONGITUDE REFERENCE MERIDIAN FOR

© Didier Gourdon

CALIBER RM 07-01

www.richardmille.com

EDITORIAL WATCH YOUR TIME 13

© S h u t t e r s to c k — H u b l o t

Time and the Universe

Some 25 centuries separate Socrates from Steve Jobs, and still the philosopher’s aura continued to fascinate the tech guru. Great minds never die, so they say.

They are impervious to time, the “raw material” for the inventive genius of scientists and engineers. Not long after Socrates, this quest to master time had already attained a remarkable degree of perfection, as testified by the Antikythera mechanism, discovered by chance in a wreck at the bottom of the Aegean Sea. It shows an advanced understanding of astronomy and the mental agility to use this knowledge to calculate cycles of time.

The wisdom of Socrates; a model then and now.

So what of today? Has technology disconnected us from the human soul? Not if we consider the instruments we use to measure time. Horology has always appealed to the emotions, not only among the masters who, for centuries, have searched for ways to track time with the greatest possible precision but among the admirers of these technical tours de force too, leading them to much greater considerations. A watch is a fragment of eternity on the wrist, so we’ve been told. But what is eternity?

An atomic clock uses the stability of the electromagnetic signal emitted by an electron. Immutability, on a human scale?

I would trade all my technology for an afternoon with Socrates.

Steve Jobs ( 1955 — 2011 )

These simple questions are ample proof that a watch is infinitely more than the sum of its micro-components.

With just a little imagination, it can be a window onto the cosmos – a reminder that the measurement of time originated with observations of the stars and planets.

Photographer and film-maker Eric Valli offers his own observations and contemplations of the world and the forces within it throughout this magazine, alongside the instruments of time that so inspire us. Its pages unfold into a microcosm of knowledge, arts and culture; one that has vastly evolved thanks to advances in science and technology. This same technology enables us to enjoy watchmaking from a different perspective: that of augmented reality, as we invite you to discover in this issue of Watch Your Time. So welcome to the fourth dimension, where reading becomes a new experience and watchmaking a window onto the universe.

Watch Your Time

Midnight Planétarium Poetic Complications watch automatic mechanical movement, pink gold case.

Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Earth revolve around the Sun in real time.

Haute Joaillerie, place Vendôme since 1906

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FOCUS WATCH YOUR TIME 15

Cracking the Code Earlier this year, after a seven-year gestation, Audemars Piguet presented Code 11.59, and created as much of a stir as it did with the Royal Oak, almost fifty years ago.

FR ANÇOIS-HENRY BENNAHMIAS, AUDEMARS PIGUE T CEO

December 18th 2018 was a red-letter day for Audemars Piguet on two counts. The first relates to the financial results of this family-owned firm, established in 1875 in Le Brassus. On that day, its turnover exceeded one billion Swiss francs, making it the seventh member of an elite circle of Swiss watchmakers.

It’s been a remarkable rise, given that revenue was in the region of CHF 500 million when François-Henry Bennahmias took over as Chief Executive in 2012, and that since 2015 the brand has capped production at 40,000 watches a year. Even so, this wasn’t the only cause for celebration on that December day. The second was the enigmatically titled Code 11.59.

“Code” because modern communication is about symbols; “11.59”, i.e. one minute before a new day, because everyone has, at least once in their life, experienced that fateful moment when time stands still in the instants before a life-changing event or decision.

Putting the two together to form Code 11.59 gives us the new collection from Audemars Piguet. It was a long-awaited launch, considering the brand spent a

Instant response Almost fifty years on, the launch of Code 11.59 proved as disruptive as that of the Royal Oak. With the wraps barely off the different models — a time and date, a chronograph, a perpetual calendar, two tourbillons including an openworked version, and a minute repeater — social media was ablaze with comments. There is certainly plenty to say about the new design, starting with the

highly architectural case, which sandwiches an octagonal middle between a round back and a very narrow bezel to create a wide dial opening for the baton hands and rounded typeface: a mix of classical and avant-garde.

Finishing is impeccable and the movements worthy of Audemars Piguet’s finest hours. The brand plans to sell two thousand Code 11.59 watches this year. The longerterm objective is for the collection to make up 20% of sales, boosted by the unisex appeal of its 41mm diameter which, says François-Henry Bennahmias, “wears like a 39mm with the visibility of a 43mm.”

Audemars Piguet certainly packed a punch when it launched what Bennahmias describes as a “hybrid”, “genuinely contemporary” and “virtually impossible to copy” collection. Those still reeling from the impact should see the importance for the brand to come up with something distinct from its Royal Oak. Watches that will attract a new audience to the brand, win over Asian customers, and generate interest online. As far as the latter is concerned, it’s already mission accomplished.

Eric Dumatin

CODE 11.59 BY AUDEMARS PIGUET SELF WINDING. AUDEMARS PIGUE T INTRO-

CODE 11.59 BY AUDEMARS PIGUET SELF WINDING CHRONOGRAPH CALIBRE 4401

CODE 11.59 BY AUDEMARS PIGUET TOURBILLON OPENWORKED. THE INNOVATIVE

DUCES A COLLECTION WHOSE DESIGN TROPES ARE UN LI KE ANY TH ING THE

THE CODE 11.59 COLLECTION IS A FINE EX AMPLE OF AUDEMARS PIGUET’S EXPER-

DESIGN OF THE CODE 11.59 IS ONE OF ITS HALLMARKS, WITH A THIN, ROUND

BR AND’S MANY FANS HAVE SEEN BEFORE . ONE OF THE THIRTEEN CODE 11.59

TISE , EM BODIED HERE BY ITS FIRST INTEGR ATED COLUM N-WHEEL CHRONO -

BE ZEL ABOVE A SUBTLY OCTAGONAL CASE MIDDLE, OPENWORKED LUGS, AND

REFERENCES, THE SELF WINDING MODEL ADOPTS A CLE AN AESTHETIC TO OFFER

G R A PH M OVEM ENT. I N AD D I T I ON TO TH E STAN DAR D C H RONOG R A PH I N D I -

A L ACQUERED DIAL . ALSO, THE DOUBLE CURVE OF THE SAPPHIRE CRYSTAL CRE-

A CL ASSIC INTERPRE TATION OF THE ESSENTIAL INDICATIONS OF HOURS, MIN-

CATIONS AND A DATE DISPL AY, A FLYBACK FUNCTION ENABLES THE USER TO

ATES A UNIQUE OPTICAL EXPERIENCE. THE TOURBILLON OPENWORKED VERSION

UTES, SECONDS AND DATE .

RECORD SUCCESSIVE INTERVALS WITHOUT HAVING TO STOP AND RESE T THE

UNDERSCORES THIS AESTHE TIC WITH ITS STARK MOVEMENT.

full seven years developing the 13 references in the range. They are powered by six mechanical movements, three of which are completely new. There is always a risk attached to any launch; it is its own 11.59 moment.

Anyone in the watch industry will tell you the importance certain collections can have for the brand that brought them to life. For Audemars Piguet, that collection would be the Royal Oak, a watch so readily identified with its maker there is an almost perfect osmosis between the two. When it first appeared in 1972, it broke with anything the industry had seen before. Twenty-one years later, the brand gave it a sibling: the Royal Oak Offshore.

CHRONOGR APH HAND E ACH TIME .

Watch Your Time

FOCUS WATCH YOUR TIME 17

opens a new window on information

The best of both worlds.

Print and digital are no longer mutually exclusive sources of information. Now you can browse a magazine using your mobile phone or tablet to complete the reading experience and get to the heart of the subjects that interest you.

Je an -M ar c H um m — jm hu m m .c h

Watch Your Time is offering an augmented reality experience that makes your magazine the gateway to the digital world. Thanks to the easy-to-use technology of the Print Alive app, the magazine’s pages come to life, enhancing the information on the printed page with videos, animated graphics, even content from our partners’ sites.

Print Alive takes the Watch Your Time editorial message further by inviting you to enter the fabulous world of luxury timepieces. Step inside the manufacturing facilities of the most prestigious brands, contemplate mechanical complications in action, be a VIP guest at the major sport-

ing and cultural events sponsored by the great names in time measurement. It’s all possible, from the pages of your magazine. Augmented reality is exactly that: digital technologies connecting media to deliver a wealth of richly illustrated content.

For a very long time, one of the pleasures of reading was that we could picture our own image of the subject in question. Our imagination could run free, but were we getting an accurate, truthful view? Seeing “for real” what an article has to say, what a photo is illustrating, is now possible. Using a digital device, this experience does

more than tell you about what’s being discussed on the page: it generates emotions, pride, and a true sense of belonging to a world with which we feel such a strong connection.

We want you to become a knowledgeable member of our community. Download our Print Alive app, scan our interactive pages, and you’ll look at your magazine with new eyes!

All our print editions now feature augmented reality content.

THE APP WAS DE VELOPED BY XTEND, THE SWISS AGENCY AT THE CUT TING EDGE OF AUGMENTED RE ALIT Y TECHNOLOGY (W W W. AUGMENTEDRE ALIT Y.CH).

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GET THE APP DOWNLOAD THE LATEST VERSION OF PRINT ALIVE FOR ANDROID OR IPHONE . THE AUGMENTED RE ALIT Y (AR) FUNCTION IS BUILT

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LOOK FOR THE ICON WATCH OUT FOR THE PRINT ALIVE ICON WHILE RE ADING YOUR MAGA ZINE .

INTO THE APP. VIEW CONTENT USE YOUR PHONE TO SCAN THE MAGA ZINE AND DIS-

2

L AUNCH THE AR FUNCTION — AUGMENTED REALIT Y LOCATE THE AR SCAN

PL AY AUGMENTED RE ALIT Y CONTENT (VIDEOS, GR APHICS, IMAGES)

BUT TON IN THE MENU. YOU CAN COME BACK TO THE MENU AT ANY TIME . TAP

REL ATING TO THE ARTICLE . YOU CAN MOVE THE CAMER A , SELECT

THE BUT TON AND YOUR PHONE’S CAMER A (FOR SCANNING) WILL DISPL AY.

THE SECTION YOU WANT AND WATCH VIDEOS IN FULL-SCREEN MODE

MAKE SURE YOU ALLOW THE APP TO ACCESS YOUR CAMER A .

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20 WATCH YOUR TIME FOCUS

The Art of Precision Jaeger-LeCoultre offers a renewed demonstration of excellence in ultra-complicated mechanisms and in watchmaking’s decorative arts. A combination that sets the 185-year-old Manufacture apart.

CATHERINE RÉNIER , JAEGER-LECOULTRE CEO

At Jaeger-LeCoultre, 2019 is about “the art of precision” — the precision behind the watchmaker’s every gesture, repeated in the precision of the mechanical movement, and the precise execution of the decorative arts. It’s a philosophy that guides Catherine Rénier, who was appointed Chief Executive in the spring of 2018.

“My first objective is to put emotion back at the heart of Jaeger-LeCoultre, and to assert a clear identity that is aligned with the company’s values,” she declared at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) fine watch fair, held in January in Geneva. “We must come back to our fundamentals of elegant watches with often complex in-house movements. Watches with substance.” Ms. Rénier is implementing this strategy through three strong lines of development: grand complications, the métiers d’art or decorative arts, and icons such as the Reverso, now joined by the sensual, feminine Rendez-Vous watches (the women’s segment makes up half of the brand’s sales).

These are all areas in which “La Grande Maison” — 185 years old and counting — has plenty to say.

It came to SIHH with what was unanimously agreed to be one of the most outstanding watches on show. The Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel is among the most complicated timepieces

that Jaeger-LeCoultre has ever made. Assembled from 1,050 components with twelve patents filed, it owes its existence to six years of research and development. The Manufacture, which boasts an astounding 1,250 in-house movements, had been silent on the grandes complications front for two years, and what a comeback this is! Contained inside a case that measures 43mm across and 14.08mm high are — wait for it — a perpetual calendar with a jumping date display that can be set forwards and backwards (a feat in itself), a bi-axial gyrotourbillon whose rotations are coupled to a constant-force mechanism ensuring steady amplitude whatever the state of wind, and a minute repeater that chimes, on four gongs, the melody played by Big Ben inside the Palace of Westminster in London. It is what collectors reverentially refer to as a grail watch.

Fascinating values The second focus concerns the métiers d’art: watchmaking’s companion crafts that include enamelling, engraving and gem-setting. All these arts have been brought within the Manufacture, which is at pains to perpetuate these skills. This year’s Master Ultra Thin collection, with moon-phase, perpetual calendar and tourbillon versions, comes with sumptuous blue dials

that are enamelled and guilloché-engraved by hand in Jaeger-LeCoultre’s studios. Another favourite canvas for the métiers d’art is the Reverso, a legend among watches, invented in 1931 and distinguished by its rectangular pivoting case. As well as offering the potential for two dials in which to incorporate complications, the back of its case gives wonderful scope for decoration.

In the Reverso Tribute Small Seconds, just one side serves to display the time. The other is open to customisation by the Atelier Reverso. It is, understandably, hugely popular.

Gem-setting is another of the Manufacture’s carefully cultivated techniques. Which brings us quite naturally to the Rendez-Vous collection. Both the Moon and Night&Day versions have been given a lavish jewellery treatment this year, with two rows of diamonds encircling the bezel. On one row, the stones are mounted in a prong setting, deliberately chosen to allow more light to penetrate the diamonds which, nestled one against the other, form a dazzling halo. Catherine Rénier recalls a visit to the Manufacture in Le Sentier and how fascinated she was by the values inherent to the firm, in particular respect for its heritage and for the 180 professions whose expertise continues to thrive within its walls.

All part of this “art of precision”!

Eric Dumatin

JAEGER- LECOULTRE REVERSO TRIBUTE SMALL SECOND. ME ASURING 45.6MM

JAEG E R- LECOULTRE MASTER GR ANDE TR ADITION GYROTOURBILLON WEST-

H ER E . T H E Y A R E A B I -A X I A L GY ROTO U R B I L LO N W I T H A C O N STA N T- F O RC E

IN LENGTH AND 27.4MM WIDE, WITH A HEIGHT OF JUST 8.5MM, THIS RE VERSO

MINSTER PER PÉTUEL. TH E HYB R I S M EC H AN I CA L I N E R EP R ES EN TS TH E P I N -

M EC H A N I S M , A D O U B L E G UA R A N T E E O F P R EC I S I O N; A M I N U T E R E P E AT E R

TRIBUTE IS IDE ALLY PROPORTIONED; A TR AIT IT SHARES WITH THE ORIGINAL

NAC LE OF WATCH M AK ING AT JAEGER- LECOULTRE , AS DEMONSTR ATED ONCE

WHOSE WESTMINSTER CHIME RECRE ATES THE FOUR-PHR ASE MELODY PL AYED

RE VERSO FROM 1931, WORN BY POLO PL AYERS. THIS NEW BOUTIQUE VERSION

AG A I N BY TH I S M ASTER G R AN DE TR AD I T I ON . ON LY 36 W I LL B E M ADE , W I TH

BY B IG BEN , AND A PER PE TUAL CALENDAR WHOSE DATE CAN BE ADJUSTED

PAIRS A STEEL CASE WITH A MAGNIFICENT BURGUNDY DIAL — THE SAME RICH

EITHER A SI LVER GR AINED D IAL OR A B LUE ENAM EL D IAL . THREE OF THE MOST

F O RWA R D S A N D BAC K WA R D S . T H I S I S , B E YO N D A N Y D O U B T, O N E O F T H E

RED SHADE AS THE CALFSKIN STR AP BY FAGLIANO.

EM B LEM AT I C C O M P LI CAT I ONS I N WATC H M A K I NG AR E B ROUG HT TOG E TH ER

YE AR ’S OUTSTAND ING TI M EPIECES.

DESIGN WATCH YOUR TIME 23

Spicing Up Design --o------- Fabrice Eschmann On his chariot of rubies mingled with azure and gold, Apollo throws torrents of light .

— Voltaire ( 1694 — 1778 )

While few people could give a rational explanation of what it is about a watch that appeals, designers, like chefs, have a palette of ingredients at their disposal that will determine the texture, colour and, ultimately, flavour of their creation.

“If you please, draw me a sheep!” Who could forget Antoine de SaintExupéry’s classic story. After hastily sketching one, then two, then three sheep — none of which will do — the Pilot draws a box. “The sheep you asked for is inside.” To which the Little Prince exclaims, “That is exactly the way I wanted it!” And there you have it: as if by magic, each of us can picture the perfect lamb inside the box. It doesn’t even have to be the whole animal. A single detail is enough to evoke an adorable woolly creature: a little pink nose, soft curls, soulful eyes. Out of this box we conjure our image of the ideal sheep, fashioned since childhood by cultural references, collective beliefs and aesthetic figurations.

© E r i c Va l l i

Proust’s madeleine Substitute watch for sheep and it’s exactly the same. We imagine it inside its box, round, rectangular or tonneau-shaped. We want it to be gold or steel. We’d like it to have a blue dial or a visible movement. Like Proust’s memory-laden madeleine, these individual elements spark a torrent of images. When looking for ways to elicit our emotions, or to create meaning through values, watch designers draw on pre-existing artistic trends.

What Nicolas Babey calls “aesthetic conventions”. A professor of social science at Haute Ecole de Gestion Arc, a business school in Switzerland, he has analysed the “visual linguistics” of watches, meaning the grammar which explains why a tiny detail can prefigure a much-loved whole, and inspire us to adopt the object in its entirety.

BREGUET CLASSIQUE 5177 GR AND FEU BLUE ENAMEL. ABR AHAM-LOUIS BREGUE T ESCHEWED THE BAROQUE E XUBER ANCE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY IN FAVOUR OF REFINED AESTHE TICS, A ST YLE THAT SEDUCED THE ELITE . THIS YE AR’S BREGUE T CL ASSIQUE 5177 GR AND FEU BLUE ENAMEL IS INSPIRED BY THESE NEOCL ASSICAL LINES. HOWE VER , BREGUE T ADDS A FRESH TOUCH BY RECRE ATING THE COLOUR OBTAINED WHEN BLUING BREGUE T HANDS ON THE DEEP BLUE GR AND FEU ENAMEL DIAL .

DE VELOPING THE PIGMENTS THAT WOULD GUAR ANTEE THIS E X ACT NUANCE THROUGHOUT THE PRODUCTION PROCESS CALLED FOR E XTENSIVE RESE ARCH.

Whereas the mechanism of a watch gives the time, its design recreates time. Or rather, commemorates it. Because according to Professor Babey, “Aesthetic conventions are a way of seeing the world. They are historic productions which generally come with a message dictating what is ugly and what is beautiful. They set out aesthetic values, elect specific materials and particular colourways, and appeal to the majority of our senses.”

These principles express themselves in fashion, architecture, film, television, advertising, technology, social innovation and literature. They never die, or are brought back to life, for ever tucked in a corner of our minds, imprinted on the collective conscience. They are the visual hallmark of an era, its very definition, even. We know them as Empire, Art Nouveau, > Bauhaus, Art Deco, Streamline, Machine or Transfer.

24 WATCH YOUR TIME DESIGN

From Empire to Liberty Style The watch designer is a rarely feted figure who uses aesthetic ingredients in much the same way a chef plays around with spices. Throw them into the mix, but in moderation: the most successful designs incorporate two, at the most three trends. Without these conventions, insists Professor Babey, “Watches would sell solely for their practical purpose.” And there are many other ways of telling the time. Hence the importance of design. Breguet, for one, has consistently chosen the purity of Empire style. In the mid-1800s, Paris was the capital of fashion, architecture and luxury. Its handcrafted objects were exported to every European capital, and even as far away as China. Its marquetry, porcelain, jewellery and enamels were all the rage. With a dial that boasts four different engine-turned patterns (hobnail, barleycorn, straight chevron and cross-hatching), a fluted case and Roman numerals, the Classique Tourbillon Extra-Thin Automatic (2014) is one of the most eloquent examples of this particular convention.

The onset of industrialisation and the development of new means of production made it possible to manufacture more complex shapes. So began an era of curvilinear forms and patterns inspired by trees, flowers and insects; a show of colour, creativity and femininity. Imagined in reaction to the stifling rules of earlier movements, Art Nouveau was immediately embraced, even though its success was shortlived. This was the early 1900s, and once again Paris led the way with its sinuous Metro entrances, organic buildings and everywhere, from advertising

I

posters to stained glass windows, representations of women like delicate flowers.

The Americans called it “Tiffany Style”, the British “Liberty Style”, the Germans “Jugendstil” and the Swiss “Style Sapin”. But this convention would be nipped in the bud by the First World War. It wasn’t until the 1980s that certain elements reappeared. With the colourful, calligraphed numerals, “leaf” hands and curved cases of its Vanguard Lady watches, Franck Muller offers a fine example of Art Nouveau in watchmaking.

Bauhaus, back to basics The mood was darker after the horrors of the First World War. Objects were designed to be functional first, decorative second. Or to quote the American architect Louis Sullivan, one of the leading figures of the Chicago School, “form follows function”. In Europe, functionalism influenced art, philosophy and even politics after the creation, by Walter Gropius in 1919, of the Staatliches Bauhaus art school in Weimar. The Bauhaus movement’s clean, rational lines spilled over from architecture into painting, theatre, dance and photography. As a precursor for contemporary design, its precepts underpin many of the objects that surround us in our daily life. Swatch, Mondaine and Junghans all look to Bauhaus in their designs. Nicolas Babey goes further and suggests that we “replace the vague adjective classical with the Bauhaus convention, which is rife in watchmaking,” A including at Patek Philippe.

II

III

V

IIII

VI

VII

I · ROLEX DAY-DATE. THE DAY-DATE HAS ALWAYS STOOD

III · JAEGER-LECOULTRE REVERSO TRIBUTE DUOFACE

V · FRÉDÉRIQUE CONSTANT SLIMLINE POWER RESERVE

VII · RICHARD MILLE RM 67-01 AUTOMATIC E X TR A FLAT

FOR ROLE X’S WATCHMAKING E XPERTISE AT ITS FINEST.

THE RE VERSO, RECOGNISABLE BY ITS THREE EMBLEM-

MANUFACTURE. FREDERIQUE CONSTANT L AUNCHES ITS

DEVELOPED FOR THE RM 67-01, THE CRMA6 AUTOMATIC

ITS PRECISION, RELIABILIT Y, LEGIBILIT Y AND PRESENCE

ATIC GADROONS, HAS BEEN ENCHANTING BOTH MEN

T WENT Y-EIGHTH IN-HOUSE CALIBRE IN THE MANUFAC-

MOVEMENT IS JUST 3.6M M HIGH . ITS TITANIUM PL ATE

MAKE IT THE ULTIMATE STATUS WATCH, WORN BY PRES-

AND WOMEN WITH AN EYE FOR BE AUT Y SINCE ITS CRE-

TURE COLLECTION , SHOWI NG HOURS AND M I NUTES

AND BRIDGES ARE FINISHED WITH A COMBINATION OF

IDENTS, LE ADERS AND VISIONARIES THE WORLD OVER .

ATION. SOPHISTICATED AND ELEGANT, THE RE VERSO

WITH A DATE COUNTER AT 6 O’CLOCK. POWER RESERVE

GRE Y AND BL ACK ELECTROPL ASMA TRE ATMENT. THE

II · BL ANCPAIN VILLERET TOURBILLON VOLANT HEURE

TRIBUTE DUOFACE IN PINK GOLD HIDES A SECOND DIAL

IS A COMFORTABLE 50 HOURS. THIS AUTOMATIC FC-723

W I ND I NG ROTOR I S I N P L AT I NU M . TUR N I NG I T OVER

SAUTANTE MINUTE RÉTROGR ADE. B L ANCPA I N PA I RS

SHOWING A SECOND TIME ZONE .

CA LI BR E USES THE FC -703 M OVEM ENT AS ITS BASE

RE VE ALS THE E XTENSIVE SKELE TONWORK OF A MOVE-

THE FLYING TOURBILLON WITH NEW JUMPING HOURS

IIII · HUBLOT CLASSIC FUSION BERLUTI CHRONOGRAPH

WITH THE ADDITION OF A POWER-RESERVE MODULE .

MENT WHOSE MODERN ARCHITECTURE BARES ITSELF

A N D R E T R O G R A D E M I N U T E S C O M P L I C AT I O N S . I N

T H E P O S S I B I L I T I E S O P E N TO B E R LU T I ’ S B E S P O K E

VI · U LYS SE NAR D IN SKELETON X. THE S KELE TON X

IN A MECHANICAL STORY.

A D D I T I O N TO T H E R E M A R K A B L E C O N S T R U C T I O N

E XPER TI SE I N LE ATHER AND HUB LOT ’S M ASTERY OF

STA N D S A PA R T F RO M OT H ER S K E L E TO N WATC H ES

OF THE TOUR B I LLON , WH ICH APPE ARS TO FLOAT I N

M E TA LS AR E EN D LES S . TH ESE T WO BO LD B R AN DS ,

FOR THE EM PHATICALLY GEOM E TR IC ARCHITECTURE

SPACE , TH IS NE W L AUNCH IS DISTINGUISHED BY AN

BOTH OF WHICH DEFINE TRENDS WITHOUT BE TR AYING

OF ITS MOVEMENT. FOUR INDE XES FORM AN X, FR AMED

ENTIRELY HAND-GUILLOCHÉ MOVEMENT AND A GR AND

THE RULES OF ELEGANCE, ASSERT THEIR INFLUENCE ON

BY A RECTANGLE ITSELF SE T INTO THE ROUND SHAPE

FEU ENAMEL DIAL .

MEN’S FASHION WITH ORIGINALIT Y AND PERSONALIT Y.

OF THE CASE . ALL WITH A R ARELY SEEN DEGREE OF TR ANSPARENCY.

louisvuitton.com

The New Tambour Horizon Our journey, connected.

26 WATCH YOUR TIME DESIGN

Part-way between Art Nouveau and Bauhaus, Art Deco developed during the same interwar period. Taking its name from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes that took place in Paris for seven months in 1925, Art Deco was initially a style of interior decorating that quickly extended into objects, clothing and typography. It borrowed its rigour from the Classical style, and substituted rectangles, geometry and vertical lines for circles. The most iconic illustration would have to be the Chanel N°5 perfume bottle, still admired today. In watchmaking, Art Deco produced rectangular cases, parallel lines, elegant symmetry and an expressive sobriety. The Reverso by Jaeger-LeCoultre, as well as the Cartier Tank, are entirely derived from this convention.

Mechanical beauty Moving further ahead in time, just about anyone can close their eyes and picture the shield-shaped Route 66 sign. With it come images of 1950s automobiles and their conical headlamps, flashing neons advertising gas stations, and kitchen appliances like rockets about to lift off. Originating in the United States, Streamline style made a profound impression worldwide. Parmigiani has used it as inspiration for its Bugatti watches. So has MB&F, most recently for the HM9. Both also incorporate features from the Machine convention, which puts the mechanical on an aesthetic pedestal. Swiss artist Jean Tinguely was one of its precursors in the 1960s. Its architectural symbol would be the Pompidou Centre in Paris, which opened in 1977. Machines took on artistic status, and

I

even became a part of our heritage when UNESCO added industrial sites to its world heritage list. Engines glistened with chrome and cyborgs paraded across cinema screens.

Mechanical watchmaking was still in convalescence during the 1980s, and the Machine convention was just what the doctor ordered. Previously concealed inside a metal case, the watch’s inner workings were revealed first through a transparent back then, more and more, on the dial side. Richard Mille, which launched in 2000, is one of the brands to have revolutionised the style by putting the mechanics of its watches on show. Another trend to have helped put the Swiss watch industry back on its feet is one which Nicolas Babey calls the Transfer convention. Think of Jeeps, complete with bull bar, driven around town, students wearing steel-toed safety boots or factory-style lockers repurposed for the living room: all objects adapted from their original use, not for their function but for the history, values or air of authenticity they convey. Examples are legion in watchmaking, from Breitling pilot’s watches to Panerai dive watches. Even the Reverso, whose pivoting case no longer serves any useful purpose.

We, or rather Nicolas Babey, could have continued this list of seven conventions with Pop Art, Steampunk, Futurism and Ecologism. They are the spices that designers and brands sprinkle onto their watches to stimulate our appetite. But remember, icons are not made to order. No-one, in theory, can decide that today, they will create a masterpiece. Or to paraphrase Simone de Beauvoir, “One is not born, but rather becomes, an icon.”

ˇ

II

III

V

IIII

VI

VII

I · SANTOS DE CAR TI E R SKELETON. THE SANTOS I S

I I I · H E R M È S ARCE AU 78 . THE ARCE AU 78 E XH I B ITS

V · TISSOT HERITAGE 1936. ONE HUNDRED YE ARS AGO,

VII · GR AND SEIKO MECHANICAL. GR AND SEIKO PRE-

ONE OF CARTIER’S ICONS. IMAGINED IN 1904 FOR THE

THE UNDERSTATED, ELEGANT ALLURE OF AN OBJECT

TISSOT WAS MAKING ITS FIRST WRIST WATCHES. THE

SENTS A NEW R ANGE IN ITS AP TLY NAMED ELEGANCE

TR AILBL A ZING AVIATOR ALBERTO SANTOS-DUMONT, IT

THAT TR ANSCENDS ST YLES AND ER AS. IN 1978, HENRI

H ER I TAG E 1936 R E I N TER P R E TS TH ES E E A R LY M O D -

COLLECTION. A NEW CASE , A NEW MANUAL-WINDING

WAS THE FIRST WATCH MADE SPECIFICALLY FOR THE

D’OR I G NY U P TU R N ED AESTH E T I C C OD ES WH EN H E

ELS. TIME IS SHOWN ON THE 45MM DIAL BY BREGUE T

CALIBRE WITH SMALL SECONDS AND AN URUSHI L AC-

WRIST. AF TER A 2018 MAKEOVER, IT RETURNS THIS YEAR

COMBINED A ROUND CASE WITH ASYMME TRICAL LUGS

N U M ER A LS , A R A I LROAD M I N U TE C I RC LE AN D HO L-

QUER D I A L C O M E TOGE THER I N A R EF I NED WATCH ,

IN A SKELETON VERSION, WITH THE ADDED INTEREST OF

AN D A S LOP I NG FONT. TH I S 40 M M M ODEL I N STEEL

LOWED “APPLE” HANDS.

CHAR ACTERISTIC OF GR AND SEIKO.

SUPER-LUMINOVA™.

COMES WITH A GR AINED ANTHR ACITE DIAL FE ATURING

VI · LA GR ANDE CLASSIQUE DE LONGINES. L A GR ANDE

II · PANER AI LUMINOR DUE 3 DAYS AUTOMATIC ACCIAO

CRE AM-COLOURED NUMER ALS AND HANDS, AS WELL

CL ASSIQUE DE LONGINES EMBODIES THE CL ASSICAL

PRESENTED AS A CL ASSIC ALTERNATIVE WITHIN THE

AS A NATUR AL BARENIA CALFSKIN STR AP.

ELEGANCE FOR WHICH THE BR AND WITH THE WINGED

R ANGE, THE LUMINOR DUE 3 DAYS AUTOMATIC COMES

I I I I · CHAN E L PREMIÈRE ROCK GOLD. THE PR EM I ÈR E

HOURGL ASS LOGO IS RENOWNED. THE COLLECTION

IN 42MM AND 38MM DIAME TERS. IT ALSO INTRODUCES

ROCK WATCH DR AWS ITS INSPIR ATION FROM THE WORLD

HAS WELC O M ED NU M EROUS VAR I AT I ONS S I NCE I TS

A DAT E W I N D OW. L I K E A L L LU M I N O R WATC H ES , I T

OF FASHION. ITS LE ATHER-INTERT WINED CHAIN WR APS

L AUNC H I N 1992, I NC LUD I NG VERS I ONS W I TH B LUE

FE ATURES THE BRIDGE LE VER DE VICE THAT PROTECTS

ENDLESSLY AROUND THE WRIST. A VARIATION OF THE

DIALS AND STR APS.

THE WINDING CROWN FROM ACCIDENTAL SHOCKS.

ICONIC PREMIÈRE WATCH, IT KEEPS TIME WITH ST YLE .

28 WATCH YOUR TIME FOCUS

Marine Marvels Breguet has given a new face to its Marine collection, which links back to the time of Abraham-Louis Breguet himself. It is also the main partner of Race for Water, a foundation tackling ocean pollution.

We think of Abraham-Louis Breguet as the father of modern watchmaking; a man whose most famous invention — the tourbillon which he patented in 1801 — is both spectacular to observe and, by countering the effects of gravity, instrumental to precision. What many of us don’t know is his contribution to France’s importance as a seafaring nation. In 1814, King Louis XVIII issued a royal decree appointing Breguet to the Bureau des Longitudes, a scientific institution dedicated to the advancement of astronomy, including its applications to navigation. A year later, the same Louis XVIII granted Abraham-Louis Breguet the title of chronometer-maker to the French Royal Navy.

As Breguet, the brand, reminds us, “this was the most prestigious title a horologist could hope to receive, given that the very concept of marine chronometry implied scientific knowledge. It also involved playing a crucial role for the country, as marine chronometers were of capital importance for fleets by making it possible to calculate ships’ positions at sea.”

This deep-rooted heritage is represented in Breguet’s Marine collection which two years ago, as though to underscore the prestigious Manufacture’s connection with the sea, adopted a more dynamic, more contemporary aesthetic. Of course, this being Breguet such a transformation could never be merely cosmetic. The first

piece in this revamped collection had to do justice to its superlative mastery of both complications and the art of guillochage, or engine-turning. Accordingly, Breguet launched its new collection with the Marine Equation Marchante 5887. “After the Classique and the Tradition, it was time for us to review this very important collection for Breguet who was, let’s not forget, chronometer-maker for the Royal Navy,” says Marc A. Hayek, president of Breguet. “The Marine 5887 features our extra-thin tourbillon, a hallmark of the brand, in addition to a running equation of time and a perpetual calendar with power reserve. This is very much an original set of complications and one I was keen to see. I believe that the Marine collection, more than any other, must symbolise Breguet’s pioneering spirit and in that respect incorporate the major technical advances by the brand. We should remember that watchmaking greatly benefited from research into marine chronometers.”

Race for Water The equation of time is one of watchmaking’s most fascinating complications and also one of its rarest.

It indicates the difference between mean solar time (the time shown on clocks and watches) and true solar time, which can vary over the course of the year by as much

as –16 to +14 minutes, depending on the sun’s position. Breguet has even gone as far as to incorporate an additional complexity by simultaneously indicating civil time and solar time on the same dial with two separate minute hands. Following on from this stunning debut were the Marine 5517 with time and date indications, the Marine Chronographe 5527 and the Marine Alarme Musicale 5547 with an alarm, a second time zone and a date display. In all, a collection that carries on Breguet’s tradition of timekeeping with a marine flavour with admirable effect.

As further illustration of its involvement with the sea, Breguet is main partner to the Race for Water Foundation, which seeks solutions to the dramatic problem of plastic waste in our seas and oceans. As well as taking action to curb plastic waste on land, its five-year Odyssey 2017-2021 programme promotes alternative energies by demonstrating that a boat powered by a combination of solar, hydrogen and kite energies can sail around the world, making stopovers at islands and in coastal towns. Race for Water’s solution is to use high-temperature pyrolysis to convert plastic waste into electricity which local communities can sell to finance the collection of plastic litter. Breguet is part of the race Christophe Roulet for a better world.

R ACE FOR WATER . SINCE LE AVING THE FRENCH TOWN OF LOR IENT IN APR I L

BREGUET MARINE EQUATION MARCHANTE 5887. THE MARINE EQUATION MARCH-

BREGUET MARINE CHRONOGR APHE 5527. IN 1815, ABR AHAM-LOUIS BREGUE T

2017, R ACE FOR WATER ’S BOAT HAS M ADE 16 STOP OVERS AT ISL ANDS AND

ANTE RISES TO THE CHALLENGE OF SIMULTANEOUSLY DISPL AYING SOL AR TIME

WAS APPOINTED CHRONOMETER-MAKER TO THE FRENCH ROYAL NAV Y. BREGUET

COASTAL TOWNS AROUND THE WORLD. POWERED BY SOL AR , HYDROGEN AND

AND CIVIL TIME ON THE SAME DIAL BY WAY OF T WO SEPAR ATE MINUTE HANDS.

COMMEMOR ATES THIS DISTINCTION WITH A NEW-GENER ATION MARINE COLLEC-

KITE ENERGY, THE E XPEDITION AIMS TO PROVE THAT THE TR ANSITION TO CLE AN

THIS COMPLE XIT Y IS COMPLEMENTED BY A TOURBILLON AND A PERPE TUAL CAL-

TION. THE CHRONOGR APHE 5527 IS THE FIRST TO BE CASED IN TITANIUM. THE

ENERGY IS POSSIBLE .

ENDAR . SUPERL ATIVE MECHANISMS ARE ACCENTUATED BY THE ENGINE-TURNED

MINUTES COUNTER IS POSITIONED AT 3 O’CLOCK , NE XT TO THE HOUR COUNTER

WAVE PAT TERN ON THE DIAL: A SUBTLE REMINDER OF THE MARINE INSPIR ATION

AT 6 O’CLOCK . SMALL SECONDS ARE SHOWN AT 9 O’CLOCK .

OF THIS MAGNIFICENT TIMEPIECE, WHICH IS CASED IN 950 PL ATINUM.

39° 35’ 0.478” S 71° 32’ 23.564” W

Reconnect.

Montblanc 1858 Geosphere montblanc.com

30 WATCH YOUR TIME FOCUS

The Italian Job In just twenty years, Panerai has established itself as one of the top Swiss watch brands, loved for the uniquely Italian feel of its big, bold sport watches.

JE AN-MARC PONTROUÉ, PANER AI CEO

In Geneva earlier this year at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) watch fair, Panerai CEO (since April 2018) Jean-Marc Pontroué set off a ripple of excitement when he announced a new partnership with Luna Rossa, the Italian sailing team and Challenger of Record for the 36th America’s Cup; probably the most prestigious of all sailing competitions (the final will be raced in 2021).

The brand had longstanding sponsorship agreements on the classic regatta circuit and, after these were ceased, many were wondering what its next masterstroke would be. That the new deal should also be sailing-related is hardly a surprise. Panerai is never more at home than in the water, its natural element for as long as the brand has existed. Established in Florence in 1860, Officine Panerai forged a reputation supplying measuring instruments to the Italian Royal Navy. This led to a new mission to make dive watches for commando frogmen: the now iconic Radiomir, launched in the 1940s, and the equally celebrated Luminor, a decade later.

Virtually unknown outside specialist circles some twenty years ago when it became part of the Richemont Group, the brand has succeeded in climbing to the top of the Swiss watchmaking tree, thanks to its distinctive and

immediately recognisable designs. So distinctive, in fact, that the watches’ sporting credentials could almost be eclipsed by their size. They are the XXL fit for the craze that has people clamouring for robust, manly, indestructible watches. Panerai has the wind in its sails, and so does Luna Rossa which has been given the honour of its own Submersible watch. Its hefty 47mm diameter is balanced by the ultra-lightness of the carbon used for the case (another of carbon’s qualities being its extreme resistance). As for the dial, it incorporates sailcloth from the team’s AC75 monohull yacht. This professional dive watch is, as one might expect, just the first in a series that will grow as the team races in more competitions.

And for Panerai, these competitions translate into opportunities to offer its customers new “experiences”.

PANER AI SUBMERSIBLE MARINA MILITARE CARBOTECH tm — 47 MM. PANER AI’S

PANER AI SUBMERSIBLE LUNA ROSSA — 47 MM. THIS SUBMERSIBLE LUNA ROSSA

PANER AI JOINS THE R ACE FOR THE AMERICA’S CUP. AS THE OFFICIAL SPON-

TIES TO THE ITALIAN NAV Y AND ITS FROGMAN COMMANDOS ARE AMONG THE

IS THE FIRST WATCH TO COME OUT OF THE PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN PANER AI AND

SOR OF LUNA ROSSA , PANER AI IS MAKING A SERIES OF WATCHES INSPIRED BY

MORE EPIC EPISODES IN WATCH M AK I NG H ISTORY. TH IS NE W SUB M ERSI B LE

THE CHALLENGER OF RECORD FOR THE 36TH AMERICA’S CUP. A DIVE WATCH

THE TECHNOLOGIES AND MATERIALS USED IN THE AMERICA’S CUP: THE OLDEST

RECONNECTS WITH THESE TALES OF ADVENTURE, AS THE 33 LUCK Y OWNERS

THAT IS WATER-RESISTANT TO 300 METRES, ITS CASE IS MADE FROM CARBOTECH,

SPORTS COMPE TITION IN THE MODERN WORLD BUT ALSO ONE OF THE MOST

ARE OFFERED THE LIFETIME E XPERIENCE OF TR AINING WITH THE ITALIAN NAV Y’S

A HIGH-TECH MATERIAL BASED ON CARBON FIBRE . LIGHT WEIGHT, WITH A HIGH

ADVANCED FOR INNOVATION AND RESE ARCH.

COMSUBIN ELITE DIVING AND COMMANDO GROUP.

RESISTANCE TO SHOCKS AND CORROSION, IT IS ALSO USED FOR THE HULL OF

Experience required For that is the name of the game. “We’ve decided to make experiences a part of Panerai,” commented JeanMarc Pontroué, outside of SIHH. “For example, the buyers of one of the limited edition watches we presented in Geneva can spend a day training with Italian Navy commandos. Another limited edition offers the chance to accompany Mike Horn on an expedition to the Arctic.

THE LUNA ROSSA AC75 BOAT.

Similarly, customers who acquire one of the limited editions associated with freediver and friend of the brand Guillaume Néry will join him on a dive in French Polynesia. You get the picture. My aim is for Panerai to be seen as a brand that provides experiences, not just new products. I’m convinced this is the beginning of a new era for luxury brands.”

This doesn’t mean Panerai is forgetting where it comes from, as Jean-Marc Pontroué confirms: “A brand is only worth as much as its capacity to stand out from what everyone else is doing, and to invent modern-day stories that resonate with its customers. We can do this because of Panerai’s Italian identity, and its huge fan following. Plus, of course, its capacity to innovate with new materials and movements. All this has to be easily understandable for the customer. Complicated messages are a brand’s worst enemy.”

The brand invests heavily in its Laboratorio di Idee, which employs some fifty specialists to work on innovations such as Carbotech and BMG-TECH: new materials that make Panerai watches even more reliable and robust.

It’s this combination of creative innovation and iconic designs that makes Panerai an anything but ordinary brand.

Eric Dumatin

TIME , A HE RMÈS OB JECT.

Arceau, L’heure de la lune Time flies to the moon.

32 WATCH YOUR TIME FOCUS

Renaissance Brand Italy gave us the Renaissance, a flowering of art, culture and science.

It also gave us Bvlgari, the epitome of Italian style and originality.

At the time of the Renaissance — Italy’s famous Rinascimento — an individual could be a scholar, a poet and a humanist, as was the great Petrarch. Or an artist, an architect, a musician and a philosopher, like the eternal Leonardo da Vinci. At the time of the Renaissance, an individual could be steeped in science and culture, an admirer of poetry and botany, and legitimately aspire to master as much of the knowledge of that period as was humanly possible. What finer inspiration could Bvlgari wish for? Established in Rome in 1884, it wears the badge of its origins with pride. “Our capacity to combine avant-garde Italian design with Swiss mechanical expertise is what I refer to as Bvlgari’s Rinascimento,” declares Chief Executive Jean-Christophe Babin. “It’s truly a revolution in both design and technology.” Or to use a different metaphor, a new current in the peaceful river of watchmaking history.

to be a showcase for Bvlgari’s expertise in every register, as well as the perfect symbol of this coming-together of design and technology. Immediately recognisable by its facetted profile — not entirely round, not entirely square — the Octo Finissimo reflects a complete command of complex timekeeping mechanisms and state-of-the-art materials. The two models released last year leave us in no doubt. First, the Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater which as well as claiming the title of the thinnest repeater watch in the world at 6.85mm high, also shattered convention with a Carbon Thin Ply case that offers astonishing acoustic properties. A marvel that weighs just 47 grams on the wrist.

To illustrate his words, Babin immediately points to the Octo Finissimo collection — some would say epic, given its multiple distinctions in the category of ultra-thin watch (the Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT Automatic established a fifth world record this year). The range has proved

A golden beauty Equally marvellous, the Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Automatic set a double record in 2018 for the thinnest automatic watch and the thinnest tourbillon. The BVL 288 movement measures 1.95mm “thick”. Total height, with the case, is 3.95mm. Clearly one good thing leads to another as this year, as mentioned, the brand has added another record to its existing tally, this time for a dualtime chronograph. Since the Octo Finissimo collection

was launched in 2014, it has picked up no fewer than thirty awards; an unprecedented number in an industry that has been quick to follow suit by making the ultrathin watch a new canvas for elegance and mechanical prowess. And when it comes to elegance, the Italian firm — which, need we be reminded, began life as a jeweller — knows the way to a woman’s heart, particularly with such a weapon of mass seduction as the gem-encrusted Serpenti Seduttori.

A tribute to the original Serpenti, an icon of the brand from the moment it first appeared in the late 1940s, the Seduttori iteration introduces a slightly more tapered case whose form has been adapted to attach the supple bracelet that replaces the Tubogas. The characteristic drop shape is untouched, with a rubellite set into the crown. Gold is the natural choice for this Serpenti, whether yellow, pink or white, in addition to a diamond-paved version. These dazzling interpretations begin a new chapter in the history of a collection that “makes time precious and sheds golden light on life’s most beautiful moments.” What more fitting illustration of Bvlgari’s Rinascimento, where the classical canon becomes a source of inspiration and stunning beauty.

Christophe Roulet

BVLGARI OCTO FINISSIMO CHRONOGR APH GMT AUTOMATIC. PRESENTING YE T

I TS L AU N C H U N D ER T H E BV LG A R I N A M E I N 2010. O R I G I N A L LY I M AG I N ED BY

BVLGARI SERPENTI SEDUT TORI. BVLGARI’S SERPENTI WATCHES ARE RECOGNIS-

ANOTHER E XPLOIT FROM THE OCTO FINISSIMO WHICH CL AIMS A FIF TH WORLD

GENTA , THE M ANUFACTURE THAT WAS TAKEN OVER BY BVLGAR I IN 2000, THE

ABLE AT A GL ANCE FOR THEIR DISTINCTIVELY SHAPED CASE . THE MOST RECENT

R EC O R D, T H I S T I M E F O R T H E T H I N N EST E V ER AU TO M AT I C C H RO N OG R A P H

COLLECTION WAS JOINED FIRST BY THE OCTO FINISSIMO LINE IN 2014, THEN BY

ITER ATION, THE SERPENTI SEDUT TORI, INTRODUCES A MORE TAPERED CURVE .

WITH A DUAL TI M E ZONE . THE OCTO LI NE IS A PER FECT FUS ION OF DES IGN

THE OCTO ROMA IN 2017. TOGE THER THE Y ARE A SHOWCASE FOR THE BR AND’S

THE NEW, FLE XIBLE BR ACELE T IS INSPIRED BY THE ORIGINAL SERPENTI WHILE

A N D T EC H N O LO GY, R EF I N E M EN T A N D DA R I N G TO B E D I F F ER EN T. N E I T H ER

CRE ATIVIT Y AND INNOVATION. FOR ITS COUNTLESS FANS, THE Y ALRE ADY R ANK

THE RUBELLITE SE T IN THE CROWN IS A REM INDER OF THE ROMAN BR AND’S

ROUND NOR SQUARE , THE OCTO HAS FOLLOWED ITS OWN RULES E VER SINCE

AS ICONS.

ORIGINS AS A JEWELLER. THE COLLECTION INCLUDES PINK GOLD, YELLOW GOLD AND WHITE GOLD, AS WELL AS GEM-SE T VERSIONS.

10.08am on Fifth Avenue.

N 40° 43’ 53.1’’ W 73° 59’ 49.1’’.

Freak Collection Starting at EUR 21’000.

ELEGANCE WATCH YOUR TIME 35

Concours d’élégance --o------- Paloma Recio, director, R & E magazine

Muses, join with me a slender lass to sing; For all ye Ladies take in hand ye make a pretty thing.

— Theocritus ( 310 — 250 BC )

Christian Dior made the subtle observation that “elegance is the right combination of simplicity and distinction.” Watchmaking is no exception

While there may be no accounting for taste, the fact remains that without balanced proportions, without judicious choices of texture, shape and colour, elegance is impossible. Which isn’t as simple as it may seem.

In watchmaking, elegance is not just a synonym for beauty. It requires a skill and expertise that only a handful of brands possess — brands which have devoted entire collections to this quest. The Calatrava (Patek Philippe), the Patrimony (Vacheron Constantin), the Altiplano (Piaget), the Classique (Breguet) and the L.U.C (Chopard) all bear the hallmark of ultimate elegance and refinement.

© E r i c Va l l i

All these watches are perfectly round; a shape which, in watchmaking, is considered the epitome of classicism and elegance. But what of the Reverso by Jaeger-LeCoultre, with its famous rectangular pivoting case? Or Patek Philippe’s Gondolo, a tip of the hat to Art Deco?

Or Cartier’s Tank, the first watch to be inspired by a military vehicle?

No-one would dare suggest that they are anything less than elegant.

They are even, for different reasons, unanimously regarded as true classics. Because despite their originality, they respect certain ground rules. No superfluous ornamentation, no form without function, and a dial that is easy to read. Practical becomes elegant. Beautiful, even.

ROLE X OYSTER PERPETUAL COSMOGR APH DAY TONA. ROLE X PRESENTS A SPECTACUL AR , GEM-SE T VERSION OF THE OYSTER PERPE TUAL COSMOGR APH DAY TONA . INTRODUCED IN 1963, IT MADE ITS NAME ON MOTOR-R ACING CIRCUITS BEFORE TR ANSFORMING INTO THIS SCINTILL ATING VERSION FOR L ADIES IN 18K E VEROSE GOLD. A GR ADATION OF R AINBOW-COLOURED SAPPHIRES REPL ACES THE TACHYME TER SCALE ON THE BE ZEL . IN ADDITION, 56 BRILLIANT-CUT DIAMONDS DA ZZLE ON THE LUGS AND THE CROWN GUARD. SHOWING AN EYE FOR DE TAIL , THE BAGUE T TE-CUT SAPPHIRE HOUR MARKERS ARE THE SAME COLOUR AS THEIR OPPOSITE NUMBER ON THE BE ZEL . THE MOVEMENT IS THE 4130 AUTOMATIC CHRONOGR APH CALIBRE .

Business with pleasure However elegant, a watch cannot disregard criteria such as dimensions, clarity, legibility and, more importantly, balanced, ergonomic proportions. When a watch meets all these criteria, it becomes an ideal to which others aspire. As in art, these creations stand out for their capacity to withstand the ravages of time and rise above transient trends and fashions to become objects of natural, unquestionable beauty. Objects intended to be discreet and comfortable, as the couturier Yves Saint Laurent hinted when he asked whether elegance wasn’t simply “to forget what one is wearing.” >

36 WATCH YOUR TIME

Travelling in Style When in 1949 Pierre Arpels, nephew of Estelle Arpels, imagined a watch, he made it the epitome of discretion and refinement, traits it shared with its namesake and creator.

The original was offered to a select circle of close friends and family only. It wasn’t until 1967 that the Pierre Arpels watch officially joined the Van Cleef & Arpels collection. The symbol of refinement and sobriety, subsequent variations have each shown the same acute sense of elegance. The latest to date, the Pierre Arpels Heure d’ici & Heure d’ailleurs, is another fitting tribute to its creator, for Pierre Arpels wasn’t just a man of exquisite taste; he also had a flair for business and travelled the world as a representative of the family firm.

The idea of extending the Pierre Arpels collection with a watch inspired by travel thus came naturally. Van Cleef & Arpels insisted that the dual-time display be easy to read but also unobtrusive, in keeping with the overall aesthetic of the collection. This was achieved thanks to two jumping hours combined with retrograde minutes for an impressively legible result. Local time (l’heure d’ici, literally “time here”) is read in an aperture at 11 o’clock. A second aperture, diagonally opposite at 5 o’clock, displays the second time zone (l’heure d’ailleurs, “time elsewhere”). These two indications simultaneously jump thanks to a “sector” that synchronises the two hour discs with the retrograde minute hand which, having climbed to 60 minutes, snaps back to its initial position.

Van Cleef & Arpels turned to Agenhor (Atelier Genevois d’Horlogerie) to devise this automatic movement. One of the biggest challenges, aside from developing the time-zone complication, was to create a calibre that would fit inside the slim Pierre Arpels case. Agenhor resolved this with a bidirectional micro-rotor in platinum. A sapphire caseback allows a clear view of the movement, including the snailing on the bridges and the Van Cleef & Arpels hallmark. This demonstration of expertise echoes the signature aesthetics on the dial. Both “here” and “elsewhere”, elegance and refinement prevail.

C.R.

Without going as far as to forget about the watch on one’s wrist, elegance and simplicity do indeed go hand-in-hand. And by simplicity, we mean Leonardo da Vinci’s “ultimate sophistication”, not some dull thing, empty of substance. It is precisely this concept, this quest for ultimate sophistication that produces watches of quiet beauty, but also great character.

A fine example of this sobriety, Patek Philippe’s Calatrava Ref. 5227 is seen as the Geneva manufacture’s most classic watch. Its distinctive feature: a hinged “officer’s style” cover that protects the sapphire caseback. As an ultimate refinement, the hinge is rendered invisible.

While most often associated with time-only wristwatches, elegance can also express itself in complications. Timepieces that show moon phases or a second time zone, others that incorporate a minute repeater or a tourbillon, can just as easily exude elegance. At once simple and complicated, this exercise in style is clearly evident in the Classique Tourbillon Extra-Plat Automatique 5367 that Breguet presented last year. This watch, with its pristine Grand Feu enamel dial, revisits Abraham-Louis Breguet’s most famous invention, with remarkable simplicity.

The information on the dial is reduced to the essen-

tial hours and minutes, thus giving the mechanism the attention it deserves. Replete with technical innovation, this automatic tourbillon owes its elegance to a wafer-thin profile, courtesy of a 3mm-high movement inside a case that is barely 7.45mm thick.

Slender sophistication Naturally elegant, such extra-thin watches are a feat of technique, as complex to manufacture as they are slim. They are a horological subtility with nothing to envy the most sophisticated complications.

Indeed, reducing the thickness (height, in watchmaking terms) of a movement involves rethinking each component without compromising precision or reliability. Ask Piaget: it holds a string of “world’s thinnest” records dating back more than 60 years.

While thinness has always been a point of interest for the manufacture, it clinched its reputation in 1957 when it unveiled the manual-winding 9P movement, just 2mm high. Three years later, Piaget confirmed its expertise with the 12P, an automatic movement which, at 2.3mm thick, set a new record thanks to its off-centred micro-rotor. With credentials such as these, it’s hardly surprising that of its 25 extra-thin movements, a dozen have held or still hold a record A

I

II

III VAN CLEEF & ARPELS PIERRE ARPELS HEURE D’ICI & HEURE D’AILLEURS. VAN CLEEF & AR PELS TUR NED TO AGENHOR (ATELI ER GEN E VO I S D’ HOR LOGER I E) TO DE V I SE THE AUTO M AT I C M OVEM ENT FOR THE HEUR E D’ I C I & HEUR E D’A I LLEURS . ONE OF THE B IGGEST CHA LLENGES, APAR T FROM DE VELOP I NG THE G M T C O M P LI CATION , WAS TO CRE ATE A CALIBRE THAT WOULD FIT INSIDE THE COLLECTION’S SLIM CASE .

AGENHOR RESOLVED THIS WITH A BIDIRECTIONAL MICRO-ROTOR IN PL ATINUM WITH A L ACQUERED BLUE DECOR ATION. THE SAPPHIRE BACK ALLOWS A VIEW OF THE SNAILING ON THE MOVEMENT BRIDGES AND THE VAN CLEEF & ARPELS HALLMARK: A FINE EX AMPLE OF THE E XPERTISE ECHOED BY THE MOTIFS ON THE DIAL SIDE .

IIII

I · BREGUET REINE DE NAPLES 8908. LIKE THE TIME-

I I I · H U B LO T B I G BAN G PAR AÍ BA . H U B LOT

IIII · MONTBL ANC BOHÈME MANUFACTURE PER-

PIECE COM M ISSIONED FROM ABR AHAM -LOUIS

BEC OM ES THE F I RST WATCH M A KER TO SE T A

PETUAL CALENDAR. THE BOHÈME MANUFACTURE

BREGUET BY CAROLINE MUR AT, THE NEW REINE

TI M EP I ECE WITH THE TURQUO ISE BR I LLIANCE

PERPETUAL CALENDAR IS EQUIPPED WITH A NEW

DE NAPLES 8908 IS A WATCH OF GREAT BEAUTY,

O F A C U P R I A N E L BA I T E , E L EC T R I F Y I N G T H E

I N - HOUSE AUTO M AT I C PER PE TUA L CA LEN DAR

CHAR ACTER AND TECHNIQUE . THE AUTOMATIC

B I G BA N G W I T H T H E V I B R A N T A N D I N T EN S E

MOVEMENT (MB 29.22) THAT INDICATES HOURS,

MOVEMENT WAS SPECIALLY DE VELOPED WITH

COLOURS OF THE PAR AÍBA TOURMALINE . AS AN

M I NUTES AND SECONDS BY CENTR AL HANDS,

BREGUET’S WOMEN CUSTOMERS IN MIND.

INDICATION OF JUST HOW R ARE A STONE THIS

I N A D D I T I O N TO DAY, DAT E , M O N T H , M O O N

II · PIAGET ALTIPLANO METEORITE. PIAGET NEEDS

IS, A SINGLE PAR AÍBA TOURMALINE IS MINED FOR

PHASE AND LE AP YE AR IN COUNTERS. THERE IS

NO INTRODUCTION AS A MASTER OF E XTR A-THIN

E VERY 10,000 DIAMONDS.

ALSO A DUAL-TI M E FUNCTION AND A 24-HOUR

MOVEMENTS, OR FOR THE ORIGINALIT Y OF ITS HARDSTONE DIALS. THIS YE AR IT CARR IES ON BOTH TR ADITIONS WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF THREE MODELS FE ATUR ING ME TEOR ITE DIALS.

INDICATOR .

FOCUS WATCH YOUR TIME 37

Reshaping History

Beauty is hardwired into a history that Cartier has been revisiting these past three years, resulting in collections which emphasise elegant forms that capture the jeweller’s perpetual genius for design.

ARNAUD CARRE Z, CARTIER MARKE TING AND COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR

We’ve all heard of Generation Y. The ones who grew up with the millennium. They are the new face of consumption. For them, ownership is no longer a goal. Being is more important than having. Experiences and sustainable values matter more than possessions. They are also the digital natives, hence this shift in paradigm brings with it an almost visceral need to know what’s being said online… regardless of the question! Like any other segment, watch brands are affected by these disruptive consumption habits. “Now that social media take up so much of our lives, it’s become second nature for customers to compare before they buy,” says Cartier’s Chief Executive, Cyrille Vigneron. “And by that I mean everything: products, prices, perceived quality, other people’s opinion… Our role is to propose collections that make sense historically, technically and, something that is very important to Cartier, aesthetically. At the right price. If we are true to what we know how to do, then we will also be true to what the customer expects from us.”

This new strategy, introduced by Vigneron on taking up the CEO position in 2016, has seen the brand refocus on the values that have forged its strength and reputation for more than a century. For the brand’s watches, this has meant a return to non-round forms, a tradition at

the firm, with slender, elegant shapes and an emphasis on women’s timepieces. Its incursion into the highest realms of mechanical watchmaking — still in evidence in 2017 with the extraordinarily complex Rotonde de Cartier Minute Repeater Mysterious Double Tourbillon — has gradually taken a back seat to models that are part of the brand’s history, as splendid today as ever. “We are coming back to Cartier’s foundations,” explains Arnaud Carrez, Marketing and Communications Director. “We’re not just tapping into this legacy, we’re enriching it too with all the creativity of Cartier, in particular through our Cartier Privé collection of limited-edition interpretations of signature watches that use Cartier’s expertise to bring a design to life. This year’s Skeleton Dual Time Zone Tonneau watch is an excellent illustration of this.

The 1906 version is typical of Cartier’s ’eccentricity’ that has never gone out of style.”

CARTIER BAIGNOIRE ALLONGÉE. THE BAIGNOIRE IS A WATCH OF MANY FACES.

WHOSE SCULP TED SPIKES BORROW FROM CARTIER’S JEWELLERY IDIOM AND

SANTOS-DUMONT DE CARTIER. WHEN A TIMEPIECE IS THIS MODERN IN TEMPER A-

BORN IN PARIS IN THE L ATE 1950S, ITS PERFECT OVAL UNDERWENT A TR ANS-

THE CLOUS DE PARIS HOBNAIL DESIGN. ADDING TO THIS TACTILE APPE AL IS THE

MENT AND DESIGN, IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE THAT IT’S ACTUALLY CELEBR ATING ITS

FORMATION IN 1960S SWINGING LONDON, STRE TCHING ITS FORMS TO ADORN

PRISTINE BE AUT Y OF A WHITE DIAL WITH ELONGATED ROMAN NUMER ALS. THIS

115TH ANNIVERSARY THIS YE AR! THE NEW SANTOS-DUMONT WATCH HONOURS

WOMEN’S WRISTS WITH A MIX OF ELEGANCE AND E XTR AVAGANCE . RENAMED

SENSUAL AND ORIGINAL HARMONY IS COMPLE TED BY THE MANUAL-WINDING

THE ONE WHICH CARTIER FIRST IMAGINED IN 1904 FOR THE PIONEERING AVIATOR,

BAIGNOIRE ALLONGÉE , IT CONTINUES TO PROVE THAT NOTH ING SUCCEEDS

1917 MC MECHANICAL MOVEMENT WHOSE RELIABLE TIMEKEEPING CONNOIS-

ALBERTO SANTOS-DUMONT. A CASE IN GOLD OR STEEL, ROMAN NUMER ALS, VIS-

LIKE E XCESS, WHEN IN E XPERT HANDS. ITS L ATEST ASSE T? A PINK GOLD BE ZEL

SEURS WILL ENJOY.

IBLE SCREWS, BE ADED CROWN AND A BLUE CABOCHON CARRY ON THE LEGACY

A winning strategy So what brings a customer to Cartier? Arnaud Carrez answers in a flash: “Beautiful, timeless objects. The fact that Cartier began as a jeweller gives it a unique personality in watchmaking.” For the past three years, the Parisian firm has revisited, with great success, the icons

of a rich past; watches so essentially Cartier they are already classics in their own right. It all began in 2017 with the return of the Panthère, a star of the 1980s.

Next came the Santos de Cartier, designed in 1904 by Louis Cartier for his friend, the dashing aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont, and the first watch to be made specifically for the wrist. Both these models are on the menu of the year’s new releases, with a Panthère cuff watch and, for the Santos, a chronograph and a luminescent skeleton version. Cartier is also introducing a new line within the Santos collection, by the name of Santos-Dumont. These new models feature a more slimline case and a pared-down dial, with a high-autonomy quartz movement.

Another model making its return to the spotlight is the Baignoire. Imagined circa 1910, it fits perfectly into Cartier’s design language in both its original form and the elongated Allongée version that came out of Cartier’s London studio at the height of the Swinging Sixties.

So, is Cartier back to being Cartier? “It’s a totally winning strategy because it’s coherent,” enthuses Arnaud Carrez.

“It’s a message we’re taking into all our markets.” With that very special Cartier magic that makes this such a truly universal brand.

Eric Dumatin

OF THIS TRULY CL ASSIC TIMEPIECE .

38 WATCH YOUR TIME ELEGANCE

for thinness in various categories. Each of these distinctions is the result of constant technical and aesthetic innovation, culminating in last year’s Altiplano Ultimate Concept. This manual-winding watch pushes every limit at 2mm thick.

One thing is for sure: the competition to make the thinnest watch is still raging.

Like Piaget, other brands look to extra-thin movements as an expression of elegance. Two years ago, for the fortieth anniversary of its Calibre 240 automatic movement, its thinnest, Patek Philippe proposed a new Calatrava Skeleton. This sophisticated timepiece, crafted from pink gold, proudly reveals the secrets of its 2.53mm-high movement which, in addition to being fully skeletonised, is also decorated and engraved by hand. With the case, it measures a mere 6.7mm in height.

Bvlgari is another brand to have carved a reputation as a maker of ultra-thin timepieces, not least thanks to its Octo Finissimo, a blend of Italian style and Swiss mechanical precision. It’s the model to beat, with no fewer than three “world’s thinnest” titles to its name. Possibly the most impressive is that of the Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Automatic, a self-winding tourbillon that’s a mere 3.95mm thick, case included. Equally slender, the Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater holds the record for the thinnest striking watch on the market, courtesy of a 3.12-mm high manually-wound movement, housed inside a titanium case that’s just 6.85mm high. In March, the brand unveiled its latest feat, the Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT Automatic: the world’s thinnest mechanical chronograph at 6.90mm thick with the case.

Diamonds are for ever Women’s watches are natural contenders for extra-thin movements, and here too Piaget leads the way. Indeed, slenderness and sobriety are characteristic of the vast majority of its styles, whether for men or for women. Of course, where ladies’

I

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V

timepieces are concerned, elegance is often synonymous with diamonds and other precious stones. Examples are legion, starting with Patek Philippe and its dazzling Twenty-4 Automatic. Perfectly round and imbued with classicism, each version is embellished with diamonds, including in steel. Because as Fabrizio Buonamassa, head of watch design at Bvlgari, so rightly affirms, “luxury resides not in materials but in expertise.” Replace “luxury” with “elegance”, and the definition is also true. The dial represents the face of the watch as well as indicating each interval of time; that the leading watchmakers should devote such care and attention to its appearance should therefore come as no surprise. Precious, semi-precious and hard stones (such as lapis-lazuli, turquoise and malachite) are frequently used to bring a touch of sophistication to a dial. Piaget has been doing just that, to great effect, since the 1970s. Its recent collections are filled with boldly colourful dials, such as opaque ruby for the Altiplano, or the malachite or turquoise dials of the Limelight Gala, matched by equally vibrant straps.

Gemstones are just one of the countless materials and techniques employed to bring elegance to a watch’s dial. Proving that creativity has no limit, brands make use of marquetry, mosaic, lacquer and enamel, but also delicate silks and taffetas, intricate gold lace, even feathers and, on Dior’s Grand Bal watches, the wings of scarab beetles. These one-of-a-kind creations feature Dior’s calibre inversé — which brings the winding rotor to the dial side where its to-and-fro movement imitates the swishing of a ballgown — and are the ultimate expression of sophistication in a lady’s watch. Then there is ceramic, made precious by Chanel and its J12, and now one of the industry’s most sought-after materials, both for men’s and women’s timepieces. Whichever form it takes, elegance is for all time.

ˇ

III

VI

IIII

VII

I · F R É D É R I Q U E CO N S TA N T CL ASS I C ART D ÉCO.

I I I · VA N C L E E F & A R P E L S P R I M R O S E S EC R E T.

V · CHANEL BOY.FRIEND NÉO T WEED. THE OCTAGONAL

V I I · LOU I S V U IT TON VOYAGER FLYING TOURBILLON

INSPIRED BY THE 1920S AND ITS SOCIET Y GATHERINGS,

CELEBR ATING FEM ININIT Y AND YOUTH, E ACH OF THE

SHAPE OF THE BOY.FRIEND IS ANCHORED IN CHANEL

LOUIS VUIT TON HAS CHOSEN A TOURBILLON ESCAPE-

THE ART DECO COLLECTION ADORNS THE WR IST OF

WH I TE D I A M ON DS AN D SAPPH I R ES I N N UANC ES OF

WATC H M A K I NG , W I TH I TS SO B ER , R EF I N ED D ES I G N

MENT FOR THIS HAUTE HORLOGERIE WATCH THAT CAN

THE M ODER N WO M AN W I TH T I M ELESS BE AUT Y. THE

P I N K ON THE PR I M ROSE SECR E T WATCH HAS B EEN

AND POWERFUL LINES. THIS STEEL VERSION WITH DATE

BE WORN JUST AS E ASILY BY MEN AS BY WOMEN. MORE

D E L I CAT E OVA L O F T H E CAS E AC C E N T UAT E S T H E

M E T I C U LO U S LY S E T TO R EC R E AT E T H E R O U N D E D

DISPL AY, A LIMITED EDITION OF 1,000 PIECES, FEATURES

TH A N T WO C EN T U R I ES A F TER I TS I N V EN T I O N , TH I S

ME TICULOUS GUILLOCHÉ DECOR ATION IN THE CENTRE

PE TALS OF A RE AL PRIMROSE . GENTLE PRESSURE ON

A GREY T WEED PAT TERN ON ITS DIAL .

ICONIC COMPLICATION IS STILL RIGHTLY CONSIDERED

OF THE MOTHER- OF-PE AR L D IAL . D IAMOND I NDE XES

ONE OF THE PE TALS UNCOVERS THE HIDDEN DIAL .

VI · R ICHAR D M ILLE RM 71- 01 TALISMAN. AS ULTR A-

A DEMONSTR ATION OF A WATCHMAKER’S SKILL .

A N D RO M A N N U M ER A L S A R E A R E M I N D ER O F T H E

IIII · PANTHÈRE DE CARTIER CUFF WATCH. MINIATURE

F E M I N I N E AS T H E Y A R E , T H E R M 71- 01 TA L I S M A N

COLLECTION’S VINTAGE INSPIR ATION.

S I Z E B U T M A X I M U M I M PAC T F O R T H I S S T U N N I N G

WATCHES LACK NONE OF THE FORCE AND ROBUSTNESS

I I · U LYS S E N A R D I N CL ASSICO JADE. M OTH ER- O F -

ITER ATION OF THE ICONIC PANTHÈRE DE CARTIER . THE

OF ANY OTH ER R I C H AR D M I L LE WATC H . P ROOF OF

PE AR L AND PREC IOUS STONES BR I NG I RRES ISTI B LE

F LU I D C U FF B R AC ELE T I S C O M P OS ED OF S ENSUA L

T H E B R A N D’ S C O M M I T M EN T TO H I G H M EC H A N I C S ,

GL AMOUR TO ULYSSE NARDIN’S CL ASSICO JADE . TEN

Y E L LOW G O L D L I N KS , S O M E L AC Q U E R E D. T H E I R

THE AUTOMATIC MOVEMENT IS ITS EIGHTH IN-HOUSE

D I A M O N DS T R AC E A D E L I CAT E WAV E AC ROS S T H E

SH I M M ER IS ECHOED ON THE OFFSE T D IAL , WHOSE

CALIBRE AND ITS FIRST TOURBILLON.

LOWER LEF T QUARTER OF THE DIAL , WHILE A FURTHER

BL ACK L ACQUER SPOTS IMITATE THOSE OF A CERTAIN

76 DIAMONDS CIRCLE THE STEEL BE ZEL .

PANTHER .

VINTAGE WATCH YOUR TIME 41

In Love with Vintage --o------- Christophe Roulet Science has made us gods even before we deserve to be men.

— Jean Rostand ( 1894 — 1977 )

The vintage watch trend has grown around the “professional” watches of the post-war years, a golden era that brands are happy to revive.

Vintage: it’s the horological equivalent of the philosopher’s stone, turning everything it labels into gold. Maybe because it takes us back to a pre-digital era when the world hadn’t yet been reduced to a global village. An era when watchmakers used a slide rule to make calculations, and the resulting product was a functional, practical piece of mechanics (always mechanics) that sold itself without the aid of an elaborate marketing message or celebrity ambassador to give it substance. Great, I hear you say, but why worry about the watches our grandfathers wore when the industry has made such giant leaps, be it in production methods or in ultra-light, ultra-resistant materials? Well it all comes down to values… and the values that prevailed until the end of the 2000s, a decade that ended in recession, have taken a beating. Particularly among millennials who are now the main demographic driving consumption.

© E r i c Va l l i

A new means of expression This has led to a paradigm shift among a population that blames the “buy! buy! buy!” mentality for much of what’s wrong in the world today.

A Booz & Company study of young generations revealed the emergence of a “new customer” who is more pragmatic, more rational and more cautious about spending above a certain price level. In another survey, this time by the Boston Consulting Group, eight out of ten respondents believed a higher price didn’t automatically imply better quality. So how much does a watch cost? At last year’s Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, a competition frequently referred to as the “Oscars of watch-

SANTOS DE CARTIER. THE SANTOS IS INGR AINED IN CARTIER’S HISTORY. DESIGNED BY LOUIS CARTIER IN 1904 FOR HIS FRIEND ALBERTO SANTOS-DUMONT, THE DAREDE VIL AVIATION PIONEER , IT WAS THE FIRST PURPOSE-MADE WRIST WATCH. THIS UPDATED VERSION CONSERVES THE SANTOS’ SIGNATURE SQUARE SHAPE AND THE EIGHT SCREWS ON THE BE ZEL , BUT NOW BENEFITS FROM THE PATENTED QUICKSWITCH SYSTEM FOR SWAPPING BE T WEEN A ME TAL BR ACELE T AND A LE ATHER STR AP. THIS USEFUL TECHNOLOGY IS JOINED BY THE SMARTLINK SYSTEM. SOME LINKS HAVE A TINY BUT TON ON THEIR SIDE WHICH, WHEN PRESSED, UNL ATCHES THE AT TACHMENT BAR SO THEY CAN BE REMOVED OR ADDED AS REQUIRED.

making”, the sixteen winners across the different categories averaged a price tag of just under €230,000. Granted, these are all exceptional pieces and recognised as such by a knowledgeable audience of collectors, but beyond such considerations, and with all due respect, there is clearly room for a far more affordable offering. Which is precisely where vintage comes in, driven by brands that know watchmaking is a tradition with more ways to express itself than elaborate “grand complication” > mechanisms inside gold cases, lavished with diamonds.

42 WATCH YOUR TIME

Within this new values system, consumers are more attuned to authenticity, with a marked preference for brands that are clear about where they stand on environmental and social issues. Accordingly, Chopard took the brave decision last year to buy only ethically sourced gold for its foundry. In a similar vein, in mid-2018 the Richemont group launched Baume, a new brand that emphasises environmental concerns by using upcycled and recyclable materials, as well as promoting sustainable development and a circular economy through zero inventory and short supply chains. Production also rules out mined and animal-based materials in an effort towards greater social responsibility. All these factors are subsumed into a single overriding condition: that the finished product delivers on perceived value.

Flying High For the true vintage watch fan, the one-and-only, have-tohave-it watch of 2018 was the Rolex GMT-Master II, as Michael Stockton, a vintage specialist and contributor to several online publications, recently remarked: “The GMT-Master II has been hot for a couple years, but it reached mega status this year perhaps due to the return of a stainless steel “Pepsi” model that debuted at Baselworld 2018.” Put simply, it’s the pilot’s watch that gets hearts pounding.

“Launched in 1955, the Oyster Perpetual GMT-Master witnessed the rapid expansion of intercontinental travel in the latter half of the 20th century,” says Rolex. “It even became the official watch of Pan American World Airways (Pan Am), the most prominent intercontinental airline at the time.

In 1959, a major event marked the partnership: the first nonstop Pan Am Jet Clipper flight from New York to Moscow.

The captain was wearing a GMT-Master, which he used as a navigation aid during the flight.”

A genuine tool watch, the GMT-Master has continued to evolve, perhaps most notably in 1982 when Rolex fitted it with a new movement that allows the hour hand to be set independently from the minute hand and 24-hour hand. This marked the introduction of the GMT-Master II. The next milestone came in 2018, with the launch of an Oystersteel model in a slightly modified case, mounted on a five-link Jubilee bracelet. The bidirectional rotating bezel features a 24-hour graduated Cerachrom insert in red and blue ceramic. In a word, a fresh take on the already highly desirable “Pepsi”.

All three versions are driven by the new-generation calibre 3285 (ten patents were filed during its development). As previously, a reference time (or another time zone) is shown by the additional 24-hour hand, and local time by the conventional time display.

C.R.

What goes around…

Of course, storytelling works best when grounded in truth. Brand narratives that aren’t quite rooted in reality will be rapidly sanctioned by a community that lives online, where information travels at the speed of light, or a fibre connection. It’s a mindset reflected in the upsurge of interest in pre-owned watches; a mar-

ket that offers a second lease on life to models from an era not yet concerned with sustainable development, but characterised by watches that did their job impeccably, without the bells and whistles, and at the right price. As the Fondation Haute Horlogerie explains in its 2018 survey on trends in the watch industry, from virtually inexistent in the 1990s, the second-hand watch market is worth an estimated US$ 5 billion a year in revenue. Nor is there any sign of the tide turning. Specialist sites are mushrooming online, proposing an array of watches that no conventional retailer could hope to match. Some industry observers suggest that, in the medium term, sales of pre-owned watches could exceed sales of new watches, prompting the likes of Richard Mille, Audemars Piguet and F.P. Journe to position themselves on this market.

Staying on the sidelines of this growing appreciation for vintage would make no business sense — particularly for brands that boast a century or more of tradition and a back catalogue filled with models that originated back in the day when retailers were packing their displays with “professional watches” — the kind that had served divers, explorers, engineers or members of the A

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ROLE X OYSTER PERPETUAL GMT-MASTER II. I N 2018, RO LE X E X TENDED ITS G M T-

I · ZENITH PILOT TON-UP. ZENITH ROUNDS OUT

EXCEPTIONAL OBJECT THAT HE WOULD WANT TO

IIII · ALPINA ALPINER. INSPIRED BY AUTOMATIC

MASTER II R ANGE WITH A VERSION IN OYSTERSTEEL WITH A BIDIRECTIONAL ROTATA-

T H E R E T RO, S P O R T I N G M OO D O F I TS P I LOT

OWN. THE STARTING POINT FOR THIS FR AGMENT

A L P I N E R S F R O M T H E 19 5 0 S , T H E C O N T E M -

BLE BE ZEL AND A 24-HOUR GR ADUATED T WO-COLOUR CER ACHROM INSERT IN RED

COLLECTION WITH A NEW ALL-BLACK RENDITION.

WATCH WAS THE ORIGINAL 1963 CARRER A .

P OR ARY A LP I N ER R ANG E I S A M IX OF C LE AN

AND BLUE CER AMIC. THE OYSTER CASE, WHOSE LUGS AND SIDES ARE REDESIGNED,

MADE FOR THE MODERN ADVENTURER, WHETHER

III

O CT O

SOMETIMES

LINES AND RELIAB LE CALI BRES. THE PERFECT

IS FIT TED ON A FIVE-LINK JUBILEE BR ACELE T. JOINING IT WERE T WO NE W MODELS

TAKING TO THE SKIES OR BURNING RUBBER ON

S I M P L E CA N B E H A R D ER TO AC H I E V E T H A N

I L LU S T R AT I O N , T H I S M O D E L F E AT U R E S T H E

IN OYSTERSTEEL AND E VEROSE GOLD. ALL THREE ARE POWERED BY CALIBRE 3285,

THE ROAD, ZEN I TH P I LOT WATCHES CAP TUR E

COMPLICATED, BUT BVLGARI HAS RISEN TO THE

QUALITIES E VERY ACTIVE GUY WANTS FROM A

A NE W- GENER ATION MOVEM ENT. FUNCTIONS ARE UNCHANGED, WITH HOM E TI M E

THE THRILL-SEEKING SPIRIT OF THESE INTREPID

CHA LLENGE WI TH A SOF TER VERS ION OF I TS

WATC H: A N T I - M AG N E T I C P ROT EC T I O N , A N T I -

SHOWN BY AN ADDITIONAL 24-HOUR HAND AND A SECOND TIME ZONE (LOCAL TIME)

PIONEERS.

OCTO CASE . THE 110 FACE TS OF THE ORIGINAL

SHOCK PROTECTION, WATER-RESISTANCE AND

BY A TR ADITIONAL DISPL AY.

II · TAG HEUER CARRER A FR AGMENT FUJIWAR A

HAVE BEEN REDUCED TO 58, GIVING THE OCTO

A STURDY STAINLESS STEEL CASE .

H I ROSH I FUJ IWAR A , DES IGNER AND FOUNDER

ROMA ITS OWN DISTINCTIVE ST YLE IN A 41M M

OF THE FR AGMENT BR AND, SE T ABOUT HIS COL-

STEEL CASE .

L ABOR ATION WITH TAG HEUER AS HE DOES ALL HIS PROJECTS: WITH THE AIM OF CRE ATING AN

·

BVLGARI

ROMA.

FOCUS WATCH YOUR TIME 43

Sweet Treats Richard Mille’s Bonbon watches are, quite literally, wrist candy.

The collection, a huge surprise from this high-mech brand, was designed by Cécile Guenat who already made an impression with the RM 71-01 Talisman.

Back in 1961, “Sweets For My Sweet” put The Drifters into the R&B top ten. Richard Mille has taken this message to heart with its latest Bonbon watches in ten limited editions. It’s a collection no-one was expecting from a brand more readily associated with world-class athletes, advanced mechanisms and hightech materials — and the subject of gentle mockery in certain quarters when it was unveiled at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva last January. How wrong they were. The Bonbon collection is now being hailed for its huge originality, uncompromising mechanical solutions and use of innovative materials to inject some much-needed fun into an often right-thinking industry.

Mille. The first tourbillon to be put through its paces by a world-class athlete? Richard Mille again. The first watch with a cable-suspended movement for ultimate shock protection? Still Richard Mille. So when a brand with these credentials decides to dip into the candy jar, best take it seriously.

Deco and African art that positioned Richard Mille firmly in the women’s watch segment. Her follow-up project for the brand is perhaps more whimsical, but certainly no less demanding from a technical perspective.

Richard Mille’s candy-themed collection is typical of a brand that has never ceased to impress with products at the cutting edge of technology and innovation, thanks to which it maintains a growth rate of 15% per year. “We may be a young brand, no-one has more technical experience than us!” declares Mille himself who, with friend Dominique Guenat, established the brand in 2001. The world’s lightest mechanical watch at 18.83 grams, strap included? That was Richard

High-tech meets design The Bonbon collection breaks down into ten limited editions of 30 pieces each, shared between two lines: the Sweets line for the Lollipop, Liquorice, Cupcake and Marshmallow watches, and the Fruit line whose six flavours range from Litchi to Blueberry, with Lemon, Kiwi, Cherry and Strawberry in between. “Just saying ’bonbon’ is enough to make you smile,” laughs Cécile Guenat, who imagined the collection. “Sweets are for pleasure, sweets are for sharing. The collection was an opportunity to have fun, to become a child again. It’s disruptive, stylish, humorous and creative. The brand is serious about watchmaking but also dares to go its own way and this collection, which took eighteen months to bring to fruition, is typical of that.” This isn’t the first time Guenat has made her mark as a designer. She is behind last year’s RM 71-01 Talisman, a fantastic blend of Art

Without going into detail, the RM 07-03 Myrtille (Blueberry) gives an idea of the various technologies and decorative techniques used. Four swirly lollipops, two gummy ribbons and two sugar canes share the dial. Each sweet is painted in acrylic and lacquered by hand. For an even more lifelike appearance, powdered enamel and the fine sand used in hourglasses are combined to create the impression of a sugar coating.

The bezel is made from Carbon TPT®, a superposition of hundreds of carbon filaments which are compiled on a machine to modify the orientation of the fibres between layers. After firing, this Carbon TPT® is sliced open to reveal random patterns. The caseback is in Quartz TPT® whose turquoise shade is a new colour that took a full year to develop. As for the caseband, it uses a gradient of both materials, allowing a gradual colour transition between the bezel and the caseback.

Inside is the CRMA2 skeleton movement. A sweet treat, Christophe Roulet indeed.

RICHARD MILLE RM 07-03 BLUEBERRY. LISTENING TO CÉCILE GUENAT, CRE ATIVE

RICHARD MILLE RM 16-01 LIQUORICE. THE SMOOTH APPE AR ANCE OF THE GIANT

RICHARD MILLE RM 16-01 STR AWBERRY. THE LOLLIPOPS, SUGAR CANES AND

DIRECTOR , THE IDE A FOR THE BONBON COLLECTION CAME ALMOST BY ITSELF.

ROLL OF LIQUORICE, ACHIEVED BY APPLYING A BL ACK CHROME COATING AF TER

OTHER CANDIES ON THE BONBON WATCHES ARE MACHINED FROM SHEE TS OF

“IT OCCURRED TO ME THAT THE CROWN ON THE RM 07-01 LOOKED LIKE A PIECE

STAMPING FROM A BLOCK OF TITANIUM, SUGGESTS THE CARNAUBA WA X THAT

TITANIUM THEN HAND-PAINTED IN ACRYLIC TO RECRE ATE THE BRIGHTNESS AND

OF CANDY. AND THE CASE OF THE RM 016 REMINDED ME OF LIQUORICE. WE ALSO

TR AD ITIONALLY COVERS TH IS D ISTINCTIVELY FL AVOURED SWEE T. B L AC K , IN

TE X TURE OF A SUGAR COATING IN MOUTHWATER ING COLOUR . E ACH M IN IA-

WANTED TO RE VISIT THE E XISTING COLLECTIONS, IN A FUN WAY. E ACH OF THE

WATCHMAKING , USUALLY SERVES TO HIGHLIGHT A TECHNICAL COMPLE XIT Y;

TURE IS SE T INTO THE OPENWORKED DIAL , FIRMLY SECURED ON SANDBL ASTED,

16 BONBON WATCHES HAS ITS OWN THEME AND DECOR ATION.”

HERE, IT MAKES OUR TASTEBUDS TINGLE .

HAND-CHAMFERED TITANIUM PL ATES.

44 WATCH YOUR TIME VINTAGE

armed forces on their toughest missions. What began as a backlash against hyperconsumption, a way out of a throwaway society, grew into a movement for more meaningful everyday items, including watches. Here, suddenly, was an object built not just to serve a purpose but to last — possibly a lifetime, and even several lifetimes. As well as their emotional appeal, these vintage watches had been designed as “instruments” and, as such, incorporated only useful complications at reasonable prices. Not to mention highly desirable qualities of robustness, reliability and precision.

Glory days Brands have tapped into the trend in various ways. First off, they scoured the archives for styles that had disappeared at the height of their fame, and which needed nothing more than a few mechanical tweaks to become newly desirable. TAG Heuer did exactly that with its Autavia, a motoring chronograph from 1962. So did Girard-Perregaux which successfully relaunched its Laureato, originally released in 1972 and now a full-fledged collection. Then there’s Vacheron Constantin which dusted off a 1956 design for last year’s retro-contemporary and aptly named FiftySix, which lines up multiple functions and, since this year, a fashionable blue dial. On the subject of colours, the vintage trend has spawned a revival in certain materials. Bronze is a particular favourite for its rugged appeal and the fact it develops a pleasing patina with age. Panerai was first to put it on our most-wanted list, on the Submersible. Since then, we’ve seen a plethora of bronze-cased vintage watches, including at Tudor, Montblanc, Zenith and IWC.

I

Next came the brands that earned their stripes on the battlefield, such as Hamilton or Breguet, or underwater, Blancpain and Panerai for example, or in the air, like IWC and Breitling. When they weren’t strapped to the wrist of intrepid explorers, such as Rolex, or world-class athletes, like Jaeger-LeCoultre.

These are the heroic watches whose name alone evokes bravery and human endeavour. Omega is another example. Between 1940 and 1945, it supplied the British Ministry of Defence with over 110,000 watches that were issued to airmen in the Royal Air Force and to other branches of the military. After the Second World War, in 1948 the brand issued a Seamaster for civilian use — one that was just as robust but with even greater water-resistance than its military counterpart. Omega marked the Seamaster’s 70th anniversary in 2018 with two limited editions, both true to the inaugural models in style. Elsewhere, Zenith remembered it had crossed the English Channel with Louis Blériot and that it had trademarked the word “Pilot” for watches early last century. Enter the Pilot Type 20 whose deliciously retro design would prove a smash hit, including the bronze version. In a similar vein, last year the brand revived its Cronometro Tipo CP-2. Better-known to many as the “Cairelli”, Zenith made some 2,500 for the Italian air force during the 1960s.

So there you have it. Whether retro designs or historical legitimacy, trusty mechanisms or epic narratives, vintage ticks all the boxes. From collector’s quirk to mass addiction, it was only a matter of time!

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I · AU D E M A R S P I G U E T R OYAL OAK S ELF WINDING

I I I · VAC H E R O N CO N S TA N T I N FIF T YS IX COMP LE TE

V · CHANEL J12 UNTITLED. THE WATCHMAKING WORLD

V I I · ANON I MO NAUTILO. AF TER THE I NTRODUCTI ON

S U B T L E N E W D E TA I L S H AV E B EEN A D D ED TO T H E

CALENDAR . L AUNC H ED I N 2018 AT TH E LEG EN DARY

SAT U P A N D TO O K N OT E I N 20 0 0 W H E N C H A N E L

I N 2018 O F T H E M O R E C L AS S I C, U R BA N EP U R ATO

B LUE D IAL OF TH IS 41M M AUTOM ATIC ROYAL OAK I N

A B B E Y R OA D S T U D I O S I N LO N D O N , T H E F I F T YS I X

L AUNCHED THE FIRST WATCH ENTIRELY IN CER AM IC.

R ANGE, ANONIMO IS GIVING ITS NAUTILO DIVE WATCH

STAIN LESS STEEL , IN THE FOR M OF WIDER INDE XES,

RE VIS ITS ONE OF THE BR AND’S ICONS FROM… YOU

TH E J12, A U N I S E X 3 8 M M I N D I A M E TER , WAS F I RST

SOF TER CURVES . STI LL WITH THE SAM E TECHN ICAL

A PRINTED MINUTE TR ACK AROUND THE EDGE , AND A

GUESSED IT, 1956. THE COLLECTION NOW GE TS THE

PRESENTED IN BL ACK , FOLLOWED THREE YE ARS L ATER

PER FOR M ANCE , THE V I NTAGE VERS ION C O M ES I N A

DATE WI NDOW THAT’S FURTHER FROM THE CENTRE .

BLUE DIAL TRE ATMENT, IN A PE TROL SHADE THAT WAS

BY WHITE . SINCE THEN IT’S LENT ITSELF TO MULTIPLE

NEW 42MM DIAME TER WITH A BLUE DIAL .

WHAT HASN ’ T CHANGED I S THE C L ASS I C “ G R AN DE

SPECIALLY CRE ATED FOR THE COLLECTION.

VERSIONS INCLUDING THIS ONE, SHOWING VARIATIONS

TAPISSERIE” PAT TERN.

I I I I · M O N T B L A N C H ER I TAG E MAN U FACT U R E P U L-

ON THE NUMBER 12 IN GREY ON A BL ACK BACKGROUND.

I I · PIAG ET P OLO. INTRODUCED IN 1979, THE ICON IC

S O G R AP H. H A R K I N G B AC K TO T H E “ P H YS I C I A N ’ S

VI · HE RMÈ S CARRÉ H BARENIA. HERMÈS HAS GIVEN

PIAGE T POLO ADOP TED A MORE CURVACEOUS SHAPE

WATCHES” THAT DOCTORS ONCE USED TO CHECK A

ITS CARRÉ H “ARCHITECT’S WATCH” A SPORTIER FEEL

I N 2016, WITH A L ARGER CASE AND A ROUND - OVA L

PATIENT’S PULSE, THIS 40MM MODEL IN STEEL IS DRIVEN

WITH A NEW BL ACK OR NATUR AL BARENIA CALF STR AP.

BE ZEL . AF TER MODELS IN STEEL THEN GOLD, ONE OF

BY THE IN-HOUSE MB M13.21 MONOPUSHER CHRON-

THE PERFOR ATIONS MIRROR THE CIRCUL AR GEOMETRY

THE VERSIONS L AUNCHED THIS YEAR LIVENS IT UP WITH

OGR APH M OVEM ENT. THE ELEG ANT, DO M ED D I A L I N

O F T H E D I S P L AY. R ED B U R N I S H I N G M ATC H ES T H E

A GREEN DIAL .

SALMON PINK IS LOADED WITH 1940S AND 1950S VIN-

SECONDS HAND THAT SWEEPS THE BL ACK OR GRE Y

TAGE DE TAIL .

GUILLOCHÉ AND GR AINED DIAL .

FOCUS WATCH YOUR TIME 45

Techno-vintage Two years after reviving its legendary 1960s Autavia chrono, TAG Heuer is preparing a full-fledged collection.

First off is a three-hander that includes a revolutionary carbon-composite balance spring.

In a world of tablets and smartphones, a mechanical watch is a delightful throwback to simpler times.

By adding in a healthy dose of tradition, savoir-faire and prestige, brands have succeeded, quite admirably, in creating products that appeal first and foremost to our emotions. Combine this with the ongoing trend for vintage timepieces, from the days when craftsmanship was held in esteem, and you obtain a potent recipe for success. TAG Heuer’s reissue of the Autavia in 2017 showed the brand to be a master chef, as it cooked up a perfect and subtle blend of old-school charm and the very latest in high-performance technology.

and it was this astute piece of marketing combined with the Autavia’s built-in qualities that confirmed it as a fantastic piece of machinery. Worn by the greatest racing drivers of the day, it joined the Carrera and the Monaco as one of Heuer’s three legendary chronos.

filled Arabic numerals for easy legibility. The ceramic bezel rotates bidirectionally while the extra-large crown borrows from pilot’s watches.

The Autavia, it has to be said, is no ordinary watch.

This chronograph, whose name is a portmanteau of AUTomobile and AVIAtaion in reference to the brand’s dashboard/panel-mounted stopwatches, saw daylight in 1962. Elegant and well-made, it quickly proved to be a serious contender on the market, and was given an unreserved welcome on Formula 1 circuits by drivers throughout the 1960s and 70s. Jo Siffert was just one of these kings of speed who was won over by its performance. Product endorsement was a rarity back then,

World first In 2017 TAG Heuer brought this icon bang up-to-date, after an online vote to choose which of 16 Autavia from the 1960s would inspire this reissue. And the winner was… the 2446 MK3, a 1966 model probably better known as the Rindt after the Austrian Formula 1 world champion, Jochen Rindt. As it turned out, this was just the beginning of the story. The new Autavia proved so immensely popular that the brand has decided to turn this legendary chronograph into a complete collection. The debut piece, unveiled at Baselworld 2019, is a contemporary three-hander which, says the brand, “blends the legacy of the original Autavia models with a refreshed adventurous spirit and state-of-the-art in-house technology.” Measuring 42mm in diameter, this cockpit-inspired Autavia plays the nostalgia card with an old-school smoky-effect blue dial, circled by lume-

The outside may be vintage; the inside is cutting-edge with a movement that brings the brand’s avant-garde technology into play. Earlier this year, the watch world sat up and took notice when it presented the first ever balance spring made from a carbon composite. This patented invention adds a completely new dimension to this vital component (the balance spring with the balance wheel regulates the movement and therefore the watch’s precision). “Not only does the carbon-composite balance spring shake up traditional watchmaking,” notes the brand, “it also improves the performance of watches fitted with the brand’s chronometer-certified movement.” Without going into too much technical detail, this ultra-lightweight, low-density material is virtually unaffected by gravity, variations in temperature and shocks, and is completely antimagnetic. It maintains perfectly concentric oscillations for improved timekeeping performance. As part of the Autavia collection, this Isograph balance spring is proof Christophe Roulet that the legend lives on.

TAG HEUER AUTAVIA 1964. THE VERY FIRST AUTAVIA CHRONOGR APHS, RELEASED

TAG HEUE R AUTAVIA 42 MM. THE COCKPIT- INSPIRED AUTAVIA 42 M M THREE-

TAG HEUER PI LOTS’ WATCHES AND TI MERS FROM 1933 TO 1957. THIS MODEL

BY H EUER I N TH E 1960S , WER E P OWER ED BY A M AN UA L-W I N D M OVEM ENT

HAND MODEL FEATURES SUPERLUMINOVA ® DETAILS ON ITS SMOK Y-EFFECT DIAL,

IS PRESENTED ON A DARK BROWN LE ATHER STR AP AND IS SUPPLIED WITH AN

(VAL JOUX 72 OR VAL JOUX 92) INSIDE CASES WITH A SCREW-DOWN BACK AND

MAKING IT PERFECTLY LEGIBLE IN ALL CONDITIONS. A DATE WINDOW IS LOCATED

ADDITIONAL STAINLESS-STEEL BR ACELE T. A PUSHBUT TON ON THE UNDERSIDE

A ROTATING BE ZEL . FROM THE MINUTE IT WAS L AUNCHED, THIS ST YLISH, WELL-

AT 6 O’CLOCK ON THE DIAL . THE CER AMIC BE ZEL ROTATES BIDIRECTIONALLY,

OF THE STR AP AND BR ACELET MAKES IT EASY TO SWAP OUT ONE FOR THE OTHER

BUI LT CHRONO WITH ITS L ARGER THAN USUAL CASE WAS A HUGE HIT WITH

AND THE ROUNDED STAINLESS-STEEL CASE AND BE VELLED LUGS MIMIC THOSE

TO SUIT ANY ST YLE AND ANY ADVENTURE .

R ACING DRIVERS.

OF THE AUTAVIA FROM THE 1960S. THE XL CROWN TAKES INSPIR ATION FROM

SPORT WATCH YOUR TIME 47

All at Sea --o------- Paolo De Vecchi His fleet, which was favoured by Neptune, had the wind in its sails and its fortune.

— Pierre Corneille ( 1606 — 1684 )

Life on and beneath the waves played a significant role in the development of watchmaking. Navigators were in need of marine chronometers of exceptional precision while explorers of the ocean’s deep demanded instruments that were perfectly watertight.

© E r i c Va l l i

This opening quotation, from Scene 1, Act 3 of Corneille’s tragedy The Death of Pompey, is a reminder that fortune favours the bold and those who take their destiny into their own hands. Son of the Titan Cronus, Poseidon, the Greek god of the oceans (who appears here under his Roman name, Neptune), and his brother Zeus ruled over land and sea. Ancient Greek representations show him as an all-powerful figure, unleashing violent storms, armed with a trident and attended by creatures such as dolphins, tunas and hippocampus that symbolise the might of the sea. It’s a heroic vision shared by all those who ply the oceans, embarking on adventures that require courage but also the right tools.

Which is where the mechanical measurement of time comes into play.

Early sailors reckoned their position through observations of the sun and stars, which still left them largely in the hands of Fate. The great scholars such as Galileo and Huygens having failed to find any convincing solutions in astronomy, in 1771 the British Parliament offered a reward of £20,000 (at least £1,500,000 today) “for such person or persons as shall discover the longitude at sea”. Enticed by such a colossal sum, numerous amateur inventors as well as reputable scholars put forward ineffective, and in some cases entirely fanciful, proposals. In the end, it was a Lincolnshire carpenter and self-taught clockmaker,

HUBLOT CLASSIC FUSION CHRONOGR APH ORLINSKI RED CER AMIC. HUBLOT UNVEILED THE FIRST BRIGHT-COLOURED CER AMIC IN 2018, AN INNOVATION THAT TOOK FOUR YE ARS TO BRING FROM CONCEP T TO INDUSTRIALISATION, AND REQUIRED RE THINKING THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS. THE RESULT IS A CER AMIC THAT IS HARDER THAN ANY PRE VIOUSLY SEEN. HUBLOT’S R&D DIVISION WORKED IN TANDEM WITH THE BR AND’S ME TALLURGY AND MATERIALS L ABOR ATORY TO PRODUCE A FORMUL A THAT IS PROTECTED BY MULTIPLE PATENTS. RICHARD ORLINSKI IS THE BEST-SELLING CONTEMPOR ARY ARTIST IN THE WORLD. SINCE 2017 HE HAS BEEN ADDING HIS ANGUL AR ST YLE TO HUBLOT WATCHES. LIKE HIS SCULP TURES, THE CL ASSIC FUSION CHRONOGR APH ORLINSKI RED CER AMIC BOASTS THE ARTIST’S TR ADEMARK THREE-DIMENSIONAL SCULP TED LINES AND POLISHED FINISH.

John Harrison, who solved the problem: every ship must be equipped with a chronometer that would accurately keep the time at the point of departure. By comparing this with local time during navigation, captains could calculate longitude (the east-west position measured across the meridians). The ship’s exact location could then be determined by combining longitude and latitude, the north-south position measured by the > Earth’s parallels whose calculation was already known.

48 WATCH YOUR TIME

Harrison’s discovery would earn the valiant clockmaker, albeit late in life, wealth and distinction, and for many decades contributed to the undisputed superiority of His Majesty’s fleet, which now ruled the waves with unprecedented precision. But this innovation also signalled another turning-point in timekeeping history.

Harrison’s first marine clock, the H1, had been a cumbersome machine weighing 70 lbs. Subsequent versions grew increasingly more compact until the H4: a portable clock (in fact a large watch) measuring 5¼ inches in diameter. It was this H4 — which accompanied Captain James Cook on his expeditions — that served as a blueprint for later devices, including by such illustrious makers as Leroy, Arnold or Breguet, until the advent of industrial production by the likes of Hamilton in the United States, or Zenith and Ulysse Nardin in Switzerland.

In Pursuit of the Dragon

Laying the foundations In the long years before electronics and satellite positioning, ships and their crews relied on these marine chronometers to bring them safely to port. Generally,

As well as being one of the main markets for Swiss timepieces, China is an endless source of inspiration for the country’s watchmakers. Thus Chopard has devoted its considerable talent and expertise to the L.U.C Perpetual T Spirit of the Dragon and the Pearl, a reference to the emperor’s fiveclawed dragon as it chases the sacred pearl that leads to wisdom and knowledge. So as to symbolise this quest, Chopard has entrusted its master engravers with depicting this fantastical creature on the 18k pink gold case. This refined figurative work has been crafted using the fine line engraving technique to portray two dragons on the case middle and in the space between the lugs. They chase after the sacred pearl depicted on the crown. This allegory in fact represents two Tian Long dragons, creatures of the sky and symbols of the soul’s elevation to a state of pure consciousness. The scene is completed with engraved motifs taken from traditional Chinese iconography, on the dial and bezel.

This stunning exterior is matched by the superlative mechanism inside, namely the L.U.C 02.15-L calibre, whose precision is certified by the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC). Assembled from 353 parts, this movement has a tourbillon regulator whose carriage carries the small seconds. Furthermore, a perpetual calendar displays its indications on two dials, complemented by a twin-aperture for the date. Chopard’s Quattro technology, with four series-coupled barrels, provides this one-of-a-kind creation with nine days of power reserve, shown on the back of the case. One of the most demanding quality standards for watches, the Poinçon de Genève hallmark testifies to the origin and quality of this superb timepiece. For Chopard, the pursuit of the C.R. dragon is also the pursuit of excellence.

they were mounted on gimbals inside a wooden box, thanks to which the clock was kept in a horizontal position despite the roll and pitch of the ship, and thus maintained a steady rate. Such a precision instrument required a clearly legible dial whose distinctive features — subsidiary dials for the seconds and power reserve, Roman numerals and a railroad minute scale — can be seen today, for example, on Ulysse Nardin wristwatches. These are prestigious timepieces that belong to the specific category of sport watches.

Chronographs or dive watches, they are, by definition, built to resist all kinds of pressure. As well as being easy to read and protected against water seepage, they must provide the precision needed to measure short intervals such as a race, or monitor the length of time spent underwater.

Sport watches thus laid the foundations for contemporary wristwatches, i.e. instruments that can be worn every day and will continue to provide accurate, reliable timekeeping when exposed to the real-life conditions their predecessors, tucked safely inside a pocket, had A

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CHOPARD L.U.C PERPETUAL T SPIRIT OF THE DR AGON AND THE PEARL. THE 353-PART

I · RO LE X OYSTER PER PE TUAL SUBMAR INER

II · PATEK PHILIPPE REF. 5170P-001. THE CL AS-

PUSHERS ON THE LEF T SIDE OF THE CASE, THIS

MOVEM ENT OF THE L .U.C PERPE TUAL T SPIR IT OF THE DR AGON AND THE PE AR L IS

I NTRODUCED I N 1953, THE SUB M AR I NER WAS

SIC REF. 5170 MEN’S CHRONOGR APH MATCHES

IS A PROFESSIONAL DIVE WATCH THAT IS WATER-

EQUIPPED WITH A TOURBILLON REGUL ATOR WHOSE CARRIAGE, CARRYING THE SMALL

T H E F I R ST D I V E W R I ST WATC H W I T H WAT ER-

AN ELEGANT PL ATINUM CASE WITH THE OR IG-

RESISTANT TO 300 ME TRES.

SECONDS INDICATOR, ROTATES ONCE A MINUTE BENE ATH ITS POLISHED STEEL BRIDGE

R ES I STANCE TO A DEP TH OF 100 M E TR ES . AT

INALIT Y OF A B LUE-B L AC K GR AD IENT SUNR AY

I I I I · U LYS SE NAR D IN DIVER DEEP DIVE. WITH

AT 6 O’CLOCK . COMPLEMENTING THE DISPL AY IS A PERPE TUAL CALENDAR REQUIRING

HOME IN THE OCE ANS, WHERE IT REMAINS AN

DIAL AND BAGUE T TE DIAMONDS FOR THE HOUR

TH IS DIVER DEEP DIVE , ULYSSE NARDIN G IVES

NO CORRECTION UNTIL THE YE AR 2100, SINCE ONLY CENTURY YE ARS DIVISIBLE BY 400

INDISPENSABLE INSTRUMENT FOR E VERY DIVER ,

M A R K ERS . T H E M A N UA L-W I N D C H 29 - 53 5 P S

US A PROFESSIONAL DIVING INSTRUMENT COM-

ARE LEAP YEARS, MAKING 2100 A COMMON YEAR. TO ENSURE PERFECT READABILIT Y OF

THE SUBMARINER HAS ALSO CONQUERED

IN-HOUSE MOVEMENT INCORPOR ATES SIX PAT-

PLE TE WITH TITANIUM CROWN-GUARD, HELIUM

THE CALENDAR INDICATIONS, THEY ARE SPREAD OVER T WO DIALS — ONE AT 3 O’CLOCK

TERR A FIRMA AS THE WATCH OF ACTION WITH A

ENTED INNOVATIONS.

E S CA P E VA LV E A N D WAT E R- R E S I S TA N C E TO

FOR THE MONTH AND LE AP YE ARS AND ANOTHER AT 9 O’CLOCK FOR THE DAY AND THE

RUGGED ELEGANCE OF ITS OWN.

I I I · PANE R AI SUBMERSIBLE CHRONO EDITION

1,0 0 0 M E TR ES . ANOTH ER N E W FE ATU R E , TH E

24-HOUR INDICATION — ALONG WITH A L ARGE T WIN-APERTURE DATE ROUNDING OFF

GUILLAUME NÉRY. THIS DIVE CHRONOGR APH IS

RUBBER STR AP HAS AN E XPANDABLE ELEMENT

THE SYMME TRY OF THE DIAL AT 12 O’CLOCK .

DED I CATED TO PANER A I ’S A M BASSADOR FOR

THAT ADJUSTS TO A NEOPRENE DIVING SUIT.

THE SE A , GUILL AUME NÉRY: THE SILHOUE T TE OF THE T WO-TIMES WORLD FREEDIVING CHAMPION IS ENGR AVED ON THE CASEBACK . POWERED BY THE P.9100 FLYBACK CHRONO MOVEMENT WITH

FOCUS WATCH YOUR TIME 49

Eternal Icon

From the time of its launch in 2000, Chanel’s J12 was declared the twenty-first century’s first iconic watch. For its 19th anniversary, the brand has given it a fresh look without altering its identity.

ARNAUD CHASTAINGT, DIRECTOR , CHANEL WATCH DESIGN STUDIO

Prior to unveiling its J12 in 2000, Chanel’s incursions into watchmaking (starting in 1987) had revolved around women’s timepieces that explored the brand’s design language. The Première watch, for example, has the same shape as Place Vendôme, which is also that of the N°5 perfume bottle stopper; the Matelassé watch borrows its quilted strap from Chanel bags. The J12 was the gamechanger. The watch that creative director Jacques Helleu had originally designed for himself fitted seamlessly into the couture house’s world. Inspired by cars and sailing, sporty yet sophisticated, both masculine and feminine, the J12 revolutionised watchmaking with its use of ceramic, a material that acquired luxe credentials thanks to Helleu’s singular aesthetic. Three years later, just as Yin needs Yang, the original black was joined by versions in white. Classic, contemporary, universally appealing, the J12 became the first icon of twenty-first-century watchmaking.

Still, even an icon needs refreshing from time to time, and as the J12 approached 20, Chanel entrusted Arnaud Chastaingt with the task. After ten years with Cartier, this graduate of Strate School of Design took the head of the Chanel Watch Creation Studio in 2013. Chastaingt was already behind timepieces that had sealed Chanel’s

Plus ça change…

“I first saw the J12 when it launched in 2000, as I was already paying attention to what Chanel was doing,” says Arnaud Chastaingt. “I was 20 years old and it was love at first sight! I still remember that androgynous appeal and how it imposed its presence. Honestly, it was a revelation.

I’d even say it’s the J12 that got me interested in watches from a design perspective. Here was something completely new, confirmed when the white ceramic version came out in 2003. I’ve always considered time measurement first and foremost in relation to style. When I joined Chanel in 2013, the J12 officially became my muse. At first I wouldn’t allow myself any changes to Jacques Helleu’s iconic creation. After a while, though, I wanted to explore new interpretations, which we did with the Mademoiselle J12. You could say I’ve changed everything without changing anything!”.

Indeed, today’s J12 has undergone a series of subtle and discreet alterations. The bezel is slimmer, allowing for a wider dial opening, with 40 as opposed to 30 notches.

The typeface for the numerals as well as the shape of the hour markers have been rethought, as has the minutes track. The crown is now smaller and set with a flatter ceramic cabochon. The thickness of the case has been slightly increased while taking care not to interfere with the fluid contours. The separate steel case back has been replaced by a monobloc ceramic construction with sapphire crystals on both sides. The one (and only) major change is that this new morphology welcomes a new movement: the 12.1 automatic calibre. Developed exclusively for Chanel by Kenissi, a young Swiss movement manufacturer in which the Parisian firm has a stake, this robust “engine” is certified by the Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres (COSC).

Its 70 hours of power reserve come courtesy of an oscillating weight incorporating a perfect circle, as designed by Arnaud Chastaingt. In all, around 70% of the J12’s original components have been revised without altering its identity one iota. “Because the J12 can only ever be itself, it had to evolve,” says Chanel. “Evolve without changing!”.

Eric Dumatin

CHANE L J12 CALIBRE 12.1. LE AVING NO DOUBT ABOUT THE J12’S PED IGREE ,

SMOOTH SI LHOUE T TE . OUT GOES THE B I - M ATER IAL CASE WITH ITS SEPAR ATE

THE WOR K OF THE TE AM AT CHANEL’S DESIGN STUD IO WHO WANTED IT TO BE

THE WORDS “AUTOM ATIC” AND “SWISS M ADE” ARE NOW STAM PED IN CHANEL

STEEL BAC K: THE NE W J12 BOASTS A MONOB LOC CER AM IC CASE COM PLE TED

A PERFECT C IRC LE , ONE OF THE VISUAL TROPES OF CHANEL FINE WATCHES.

FONT, WITH “SWISS M ADE” WR IT TEN NOT ON THE D IAL , BUT ON THE FL ANGE .

BY A SAPPHIRE CRYSTAL BACK TO SHOW OFF THE NE W CALIBRE 12.1: AN AUTO-

T H E M OV E M E N T H AS C H R O N O M E T E R C E R T I F I CAT I O N F R O M T H E O F F I C I A L

THE FONT FOR THE APPLIED NUM ER ALS IN CER AM IC HAS ALSO BEEN G IVEN A

M ATIC MOVEM ENT DESIGNED AND DE VELOPED E XC LUSIVELY FOR CHANEL BY

SWISS CHRONOM E TER TESTING INSTITUTE (COSC) AND DELIVERS 70 HOURS

MORE SLENDER , OP TI M AL FOR M . THE SHAPE OF THE HANDS IS ALSO NE W. A

K EN I SS I , A YOUNG SWI SS M ANUFACTUR E . THE OPENWOR K ED OSC I LL ATI NG

OF P OWER RESERVE .

SLIGHT INCRE ASE IN CASE TH IC KNESS IN NO WAY DE TR ACTS FROM THE J12’S

W E I G H T I S I N T U N GST EN TO M A I N TA I N W I N D I N G EF F I C I EN CY. I TS S H A P E I S

reputation as a legitimate name in time measurement, including the Boy.Friend, the recent Code Coco, several variations on the Première watch, as well as designs for the J12 and the Mademoiselle Privé collection. We also owe him the highly praised Monsieur de Chanel — the first with an in-house movement that marked the brand out as a major player.

50 WATCH YOUR TIME

been spared. This meant, for example, sealing movements against moisture and humidity, a mechanism’s worst enemies, and the no less damaging presence of dust which, by clogging lubricants, causes levers and gears to jam. And so it was a great day in watchmaking history when at last a timepiece could be worn on the wrist without fear. That day came in 1926 with the invention, by Rolex, of the Oyster case. Its winding crown and caseback were screwed-down, making the case perfectly watertight.

Solar Power

The crown and the caseback are both weak spots in a watch’s construction, vulnerable to all manner of infiltrations. Rolex knew it had solved a problem that had dogged watchmakers for very many years, and made it known by taking out a full-page advert in the Daily Mail, the day after Mercedes Gleitze swam the English Channel wearing a Rolex Oyster on October 7th 1927. When, after fifteen hours and fifteen minutes, Gleitze stepped out of the water near Dover, it was still keeping perfect time. The waterproof watch was born and, with it, a first step was taken towards the

Anyone visiting Hublot’s manufacturing facility in Nyon, a short ride from Geneva, will want to see the workshop where state-of-the-art CNC machines cut and shape sapphire in record time. By which we mean several hours, given that sapphire is the hardest mineral on Earth after diamond. Not that this has in any way deterred the brand, which describes itself as “a pioneer in shaping and colouring sapphire.” What’s more, the techniques Hublot has developed in-house have slashed the cost of manufacturing sapphire components.

The story begins in 2016, when Hublot embarked on its mission to “democratise and revolutionise sapphire”. After initially working with transparent blocks, the following year the brand pushed the boundaries further and, true to its “art of fusion” concept, succeeded in creating large coloured synthetic sapphires, “despite the complexity, unpredictability, instability, and lack of homogeneity in the fusion and crystallisation of sapphire”. This is all part of an ongoing process, as the brand continues to invest in the machines required to industrialise sapphire, and to provide its R&D division with the means to explore ways of colouring sapphire which, from transparent, has been tinted smoked black, blue then red.

True to form, Hublot has carried on its explorations and, earlier this year, introduced a third primary colour to its palette: yellow, a fusion of copper with aluminium oxide. This is the first time in the history of watchmaking that sapphire has been coloured yellow. This bright new shade is spotlighted in the Spirit of Big Bang Yellow Sapphire 42mm. With hardness and scratch-resistance to rival diamond (9 on the Mohs scale versus 10 for diamond), this watch is as light as titanium, barely tipping the scales at 107 grams on the wrist. Brilliantly transparent, its sunny yellow colour extends all the way to the ribbed strap in natural rubber.

C.R.

professional dive watch. Here too, Rolex led the way with the Submariner. Launched in 1953, it measured 37mm in diameter, sported a steel case and bracelet, and the rotating bezel was marked with five-minute intervals for calculating dive times. Most of all, it was guaranteed water-resistant to 100 metres.

Today’s icons But let’s head over the Alps from Switzerland to Italy, home of Officine Panerai which introduced the Radiomir in 1936, followed a decade later by the more advanced Luminor. Both were reworked to suit modern lifestyles when the Florence-based firm became part of the Richemont Group in 1997. The Radiomir was the first true dive watch, capable of resisting an underwater pressure greater than the 3 atmospheres required for a merely “waterproof” watch. It came about through the convergence between an order for a luminous watch, placed by the Royal Italian Navy for its frogman commandos, and the emergence of Rationalism, a design ethic prominent in architecture that favoured clean, functional lines. The third ingredient of this unique recA

I

II

III

IIII

HUBLOT SPIRIT OF BIG BANG YELLOW SAPPHIRE 42MM. DRIVEN BY ITS INNOVATIVE SPIRIT,

I · BREITLING SUPEROCEAN HERITAGE II CHRON-

S U P E R- LU M I N OVA N U M E R A L S A N D I N D E X E S ,

TAKES ITS I NSPI R ATION FROM THE STRENGTH

IN 2016 HUBLOT SE T ABOUT RE VOLUTIONISING SAPPHIRE , A TOTALLY TR ANSPARENT,

OGR APH. IN 2017, BREITLING REDESIGNED ITS

AS WELL AS A PRECISE MINUTE TR ACK ON THE

AND P OWER OF THE LION , H ISTOR ICALLY THE

ULTR A-RESISTANT MATERIAL THAT IS E XCEP TIONALLY COMPLE X TO MACHINE . A YE AR

S U P E R O C E A N H E R I TAG E F O R T H E S I X T I E T H

FL ANGE .

SY M B O L O F G R A N D S E I KO. P R O P O S E D A S

LATER, IT PUSHED THE LIMITS EVEN FURTHER BY CREATING LARGE COLOURED SAPPHIRES,

ANNIVERSARY OF THIS LEGENDARY DIVE WATCH.

III · TISSOT CHRONO XL. THE TISSOT CHRONO XL

T H R EE L I M I T ED ED I T I O N S , T H I S N E W S ER I ES

DESPITE THE COMPLEXIT Y, UNPREDICTABILIT Y, INSTABILIT Y AND L ACK OF HOMOGENEIT Y

T WO YE ARS ON, THE SUCCESS STORY CONTIN-

THINKS BIG, WITH AN IMPRESSIVE 45MM CASE .

I S EQ U I P P E D W I T H T WO N E X T- G E N E R AT I O N

IN THE FUSION AND CRYSTALLISATION OF SAPPHIRE. THIS INNOVATION HAS BEEN BACKED

UES WITH A 44MM MODEL AND A 42MM MODEL IN

CONTEM P OR ARY AR AB IC NUM ER ALS AT 12, 3,

SPRING DRIVE MOVEMENTS.

BY SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENTS IN THE INDUSTRIALISATION OF SAPPHIRE, AND BY THE

GOLD AND STEEL .

6 AND 9 O’C LOC K ON THE L ARGE D I A L M A K E

WORK OF HUBLOT’S R&D TE AM WHO CONTINUOUSLY E XPLORE HOW TO CRE ATE NEW

I I · M ONTB L AN C TIME WALKER MANUFACTURE

IT E ASY TO RE AD OFF TI ME . A CHRONOGR APH

COLOURS OF SAPPHIRE . BUI LDING ON THIS E XPERTISE , HUBLOT IS NOW CRE ATING

CHRONOGR APH. TH I S N E W VERS I ON OF TH E

FUNCTION ADDS TO THE URBAN ST YLE .

L ARGE, PERFECTLY UNIFORM, TR ANSPARENT AND COLOURED SAPPHIRES.

TIMEWALKER CHRONOGR APH FEATURES A 43MM

I I I I · GR AND S E I KO SP ORT. G R A N D S E I KO I S

“ R E VERS E PAN DA” D I A L . TH E F IXED C ER A M I C

I NTRODUC I NG A N E W D ES I G N TO I TS S P OR T

BEZEL IS ENGR AVED WITH A TACHYMETER SCALE

COLLECTION TO MARK THE TWENTIETH ANNIVER-

F O R M E AS U R I N G S P EED. I T A L SO F E AT U R ES

SARY OF THE SPRING DRIVE . THIS NEW WATCH

In Phase with the Moon

FOCUS WATCH YOUR TIME 51

Hermès excels in measuring the whims of time in unconventional ways, as it once again demonstrates with the Arceau L’Heure de la Lune watch showing not one but two Moons.

When a complication has been “done” as many times as the moon-phase display, it’s understandable that few brands today are bold enough to venture a new interpretation. The oldest known device intended to reproduce the changing faces of Earth’s satellite is none other than the Antikythera mechanism, which has been dated to the second century B.C. This gives some grasp of the importance of astronomy in the development of time measurement.

We pick up the trail, transposed into cogs and wheels, some thirteen centuries later with the work of Al-Biruni, a scholar and the inventor of the mechanical astrolabe, another device which displays the phases of the moon on which the Islamic calendar is based. As clockmaking techniques progressed, this complication moved first to the dial of weight-driven wall clocks, then to spring-driven portable table clocks and from there to the pocket watch.

Twentieth-century watchmakers were by no means immune to the poetic appeal of the Moon on a dial, and rapidly incorporated moon-phase mechanisms into full and perpetual calendar wristwatches. Meanwhile, advances in precision earned certain displays the title of astronomical or precision moon. We know that an actual lunation takes 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 2.8 seconds or 29.53 days. For watchmakers, who are sticklers for precision, this is less than ideal as the mechanism that generally serves to transpose these moon phases to

Complex mechanisms With so many precedents, it would be easy to believe there can be nothing new under the sun where moon phases are concerned. Hermès begs to differ, with all the panache and originality for which it is known, already brought to life in creations such as Arceau Le Temps Suspendu, Dressage L’Heure Masquée and Slim d’Hermès L’Heure Impatiente. In the case of the Arceau L’Heure de la Lune, Hermès is offering what it calls an “original interpretation” of the moon-phase complication using two moving discs: one showing hours and minutes, the other for the date. They appear to float above the dial, in

aventurine or in meteorite, to make one complete sweep in 59 days. As they do, they reveal the different faces of two mother-of-pearl moons, one each for the northern and southern hemispheres. Both discs remain upright throughout their rotation, so that the time and the date are always easily read.

Typically for Hermès, this poetic vision masks a degree of mechanical complexity such that the Parisian firm works only with the very best watchmakers. In this instance, Jean-François Mojon and his teams at Chronode were given the delicate task of developing a module that would seamlessly combine with the in-house Hermès H1837 calibre — an extra-thin movement at 3.7mm high.

This implied an additional constraint for Mojon, whose mechanism had to fit within the elegant curves of the 43mm Arceau case in white gold. Mission accomplished, as the 117 components of the module assemble into a height of 4.2mm. As an added twist, Hermès has turned the cardinal points upside-down so that the southern hemisphere moon is at the top of the dial — where it reveals the Pegasus winged horse, a nod to Hermès’ equestrian connections — and its northern hemisphere counterpart, complete with craters, at the bottom. For Hermès, the objective is “to set foot on the Moon and lose one’s sense of time and space.” Not easy, with a Christophe Roulet beauty like this on the wrist!

the dial relies on a gear with 59 teeth that drives a disc depicting two moons. A mechanical lunation therefore last 29.5 days, meaning it will be off by one day every two years and almost eight months. A precision moon, in contrast, is driven by a gear that has 135 teeth. The discrepancy between the Moon’s actual cycle and its mechanical counterpart is reduced to one day in 122 years. Alongside these mechanical innovations, watchmakers have also experimented with the aesthetic of the display. From a simple disc, the Moon’s ever-changing moods have been represented by semi-spheres that glow in the dark, by rotating globes and by moons that gradually disappear then reappear behind a moving patch.

HERMÈS ARCEAU L’HEURE DE LA LUNE. HOW TO PUT A NEW SPIN ON THE CL AS-

HERMÈS ARCEAU L’HEURE DE LA LUNE. AS THE T WO MOBILE COUNTERS — ONE

OF THE MOBILE CHASSIS WHICH SWEEPS THE DIAL IN 59 DAYS. THE MOTHER-OF-

SIC MOON-PHASE COMPLICATION? HERMÈS’S ELEGANT SOLUTION, ENCLOSED

SHOWING THE TIME, THE OTHER THE DATE, — ROTATE AROUND THE DIAL , CON-

PE ARL MOONS SET INTO THE STONE DISPL AY THE LUNAR CYCLES IN THE NORTH-

WITHIN THE ARCE AU CASE, IS TO SIMULTANEOUSLY SHOW THE PHASES OF THE

CE ALING AND RE VE ALING THE MOON DISCS, THEY REMAIN UPRIGHT SO THEY

ERN AND SOUTHERN HEMISPHERES… A MYSTERIOUS GAME OF HIDE-AND-SEEK

MOON IN THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN HEMISPHERES AS T WO MOBILE COUN-

CAN BE E ASILY RE AD. THE PATENTED MODULE THAT BRINGS THEM TO LIFE WAS

THAT RE VE ALS NOTHING OF ITS TECHNICAL COMPLE XIT Y.

TERS GR AVITATE AROUND A ME TEORITE DIAL . BRE ATHING LIFE INTO THIS CON-

DE VELOPED E XC LUSIVELY FOR HER M ÈS. WITH A TOTAL TH IC KNESS OF JUST

TEMPOR ARY CHOREOGR APHY IS THE HERMÈS H1837 MANUFACTURE MOVEMENT,

4.2M M , ITS 117 POLISHED AND BE AD -BL ASTED COMPONENTS ARE INCORPO -

COMPLE TED BY AN E XCLUSIVE AND PATENTED MODULE BY CHRONODE .

R ATED INTO THE HERMÈS H1837 MOVEMENT, PRESERVING THE SLENDER PROFILE

52 WATCH YOUR TIME

ipe is perhaps the most fundamental: precision. Even so, the overarching question was less the watch and more the case; for its creators, the Radiomir was not so much a mechanical project as a study in aesthetic and functionality. In fact the very first Radiomir were fitted with Rolex or Angelus movements.

While we have deliberately focused on dive watches — water-resistance is a key factor in the modern-day wearing of a watch — where sport watches are concerned, the chronograph is equally deserving of attention (interestingly, many of today’s chronographs are also dive watches). Some brands have been particularly busy in the field, such as Heuer (now TAG Heuer, since the merger in 1985 of the Swiss watchmaker and Luxembourg’s TAG-Techniques d’Avant Garde), as well as Breitling, IWC, Omega and Zenith. The latter two are this year celebrating the 50th anniversary of their most iconic chronograph: the Omega Speedmaster, which travelled with the Apollo 11 mission that put the first man on the Moon in 1969, and for Zenith the El Primero, the first automatic-winding chrono-

graph that debuted on January 10th of the same year.

Automatic winding: a development which, one could argue, proved as decisive as water-resistance in transforming the wristwatch for modern-day use. The natural movement of the wrist during the day provides an autonomous supply of power to the movement for as long as the watch is worn. In the original El Primero, this innovation went hand-in-hand with an integrated chronograph construction built around a column wheel and a central rotor mounted on ball bearings, and an oscillator beating at 36,000 vibrations per hour. These characteristics made the El Primero the most accurate serial-produced chronograph in the world and the only one capable of measuring short intervals to one-tenth of a second.

Chronograph or dive watch (ISO 6425-compliant), in professional situations, mechanical sport watches have given way to electronic timers and dive computers, which only adds to their historic and sentimental value. For collectors and specialists, they can never be replaced.

ˇ

Up in the Air A decade ago, Louis Vuitton caught the watchmaking world off-guard with a completely new means of displaying the time. For the ten-year anniversary of this exclusive calibre, patented in 2009, the Parisian firm has come up with the Tambour Spin Time Air, a totally transparent interpretation of the original concept. The mechanics are the same as on previous versions. Rather than a conventional central hand, the hours are displayed by twelve rotating cubes. Every 60 minutes, two of these cubes spin: one to reveal a “neutral” side and one to display the next hour. It’s fun, it’s new and it’s also highly complex.

This new interpretation is again the work of La Fabrique du Temps, Louis Vuitton’s watchmaking arm. Its teams are behind the LV88 calibre with automatic winding and 35 hours of power reserve. The most intriguing aspect, however, is that the signature cubes jut out into empty space, where the dial and movement have been completely cut away.

For this anniversary edition, Louis Vuitton is presenting a seven-strong collection of three men’s watches and, for women, four models with cylinders instead of cubes. The mechanism sits in the middle of the case, between two sapphire crystals, under the LV monogram (on the men’s versions) or two Monogram flowers, one rounded and one pointed, for the women’s. Turning the watch over reveals the hidden side of the cubes or cylinders, as well as the oscillating weight. Louis Vuitton proves once again that it is always possible to put a new spin on the measuring of time.

E.D.

I

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III

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LOUIS VUIT TON SPIN TIME AIR . THE TAMBOUR SPIN TIME, THE MOST MODERN JUMPING

I · R I C H A R D M I L L E R M 25 - 01 TOU R B I LLO N

WI ND I NG VERS ION I N STAI N LESS STEEL USES

IIII · LONGINES LEGEND DIVER WATCH. LONGINES

HOURS WATCH, TOOK THE WATCHMAKING WORLD BY SURPRISE A DECADE AGO WHEN

ADVENTURE SYLVESTER STALLONE. DESIGNED IN

KHAKI GREEN CER AMIC FOR THE BE ZEL , CROWN

I S A LWAYS HAPPY TO R E V I S I T TH E WATC H ES

IT INTRODUCED A COMPLE TELY NEW WAY TO TELL THE TIME . THIS L ATEST ITER ATION,

COLL ABOR ATION WITH SYLVESTER STALLONE ,

AND PUSHERS. THE DIAL BOASTS THE CHAR AC-

THAT HAVE HELPED FORGE ITS RENOWN . THIS

THE TAMBOUR SPIN TIME AIR , HAS A NEW LOOK BUT STAYS TRUE TO ITS UNIQUE CON-

THE RM 25-01 ADVENTURE TOURBILLON CHRON-

TERISTIC “MEGA TAPISSERIE” PAT TERN.

LONGINES LEGEND DIVER WATCH REIMAGINES

CEP T. INSTE AD OF A CONVENTIONAL CENTR AL HAND, THE HOURS ARE SHOWN BY

OGR APH IS MADE TO SURVIVE IN THE MOST HOS-

III · ALPINA ALPINER X. DESIGNED FOR THE OUT-

A 1960S MODEL . ALL THE WHI LE CONSERVING

TWELVE ROTATING CUBES. EVERY 60 MINUTES, TWO CUBES INSTANTANEOUSLY SPIN TO

TILE NATUR AL ENVIRONMENTS. RESEMBLING NO

D O O R E N T H U S I AS T, T H I S WATC H U S E S T H E

THE ER A’S T YPICAL ST YLE CODES AND DESIGN

SHOW THE NEW HOUR. THE EXCLUSIVE MOVEMENT INSIDE IS THE LV88 WITH AUTOMATIC

OTHER WATCH, IT IS, SAYS THE ACTOR , “RE ADY

A LP I NER X C O M PAN ION APP FOR I PHONE AND

ELEMENTS, THIS CONTEMPOR ARY EDITION

WINDING AND A 35-HOUR POWER RESERVE .

FOR ACTION”.

ANDROID. IT TR ACKS THE USER ’S HE ART R ATE

B E N E F I T S F R O M LO N G I N E ’ S E X P E R T I S E TO

II · AUDEMARS PIGUET ROYAL OAK OFFSHORE

WHEN E XERC ISING , RECORDS AND ANALYSES

G UA R A N T EE L EG I B I L I T Y, WAT ER- R E S I STA N C E

SELF WINDING. S I N C E 1993 , T H E ROYA L OA K

SLEEP PAT TERNS, NOTIFIES MISSED CALLS AND

AND PR ACTICALIT Y.

OFFSHORE COLLECTION HAS GIVEN A SPORT-IN-

M ESSAGES, AND ENAB LES E ASY CONFIGUR A-

F L EC T E D, P OW E R F U L F E E L TO T H E D E S I G N

TION OF THE WATCH’S PAR AME TERS.

TROPES OF THE ICONIC ROYAL OAK . THIS SELF-

RUBRIQUE SPORT WATCH YOUR TIME 53

Ulysse Nardin Diver Chronometer Already a favourite among adrenalin-seekers, the Diver has adopted a completely new, contemporary appearance both outside and in, and redefines functional elegance with its audacious design. A dive watch built to withstand up to 300 meters of potentially deadly water pressure, its inverted, concave bezel combines with a domed sapphire crystal. The dial hints at the mechanical marvel of the UN-118 movement with silicon technology, a specialty of the Manufacture, that is visible through the open back of the 44mm case. SuperLumiNova® on the indexes and hands makes the hours and minutes visible not only in the dark of night but also at great depths.

The dial also displays a power-reserve indicator at 12 o’clock and a date and small seconds at 6 o’clock, all within the unidirectional rotating bezel. The numerals have been redrawn to read 0-15-30-45. Even the rubber and titanium strap has been cleverly reworked: the clasp is replaced by a pin buckle and streamlined with just one easily identifiable Ulysse Nardin signature element. Sturdy blue rubber guards protect the crown.

COLLECTORS WATCH YOUR TIME 55

Collector’s Hour --o------- Vincent Daveau I am a man, Jupiter, and every man has to invent his own way.

— Jean-Paul Sartre ( 1905 — 1980 )

Look closely, and you’ll see that contemporary watchmaking, and specifically that which takes mechanisms to their furthest limits, is inseparable from collecting. Its future depends on whether brands can continue to take connoisseurs by surprise and in doing so maintain their interest.

© E r i c Va l l i

At the very tip of the watchmaking pyramid, a tiny cluster of brands inhabits a complex overlap of industry and luxury. Their existence is contingent on their ability to keep their public enthralled with the magic and mystery of rarefied products. But in a world such as ours, where profitability and the bottom line so often get the final say, certain of these brands might gloss over the mechanical creations most able to show off their expertise and focus instead on others which they consider to be more saleable, hence more profitable. At the same time, these brands know full well that their image as well as their future depend on the communication they develop around these exceptional timepieces.

Now that luxury watches are purchased less as a means of telling the time and more as a status symbol for their wearer, manufacturers cannot lose sight of the fact that there can be no credible message without a zest of history; that their long-term existence depends on their ability to keep the legend alive with a battery of exotic products.

ULYSSE NARDIN E XECUTIVE TOURBILLON FREE WHEEL. PERHAPS THE MOST SURPRISING FE ATURE OF THIS TOURBILLON FREE WHEEL IS THE «FREE-FLOATING» COMPONENTS ON THE DIAL SIDE . IN PINK GOLD WITH A MOVEMENT THAT APPE ARS TO DEF Y THE L AWS OF GR AVIT Y, AND AN ASTONISHING BOXDOMED SAPPHIRE, IT SOARS BEYOND THE E XPECTATIONS OF WHAT CONTEMPOR ARY WATCHMAKING CAN ACHIE VE . ITS MOST ASTONISHING FE ATURES ARE THE BOOMER ANG-SHAPED TOURBILLON BRIDGES AND THE SE VEN-DAY POWER RESERVE INDICATOR AT 4 O’CLOCK WHICH, LIKE THE SKELE TONISED HOUR AND MINUTE INDICATORS AND THE GE AR TR AINS, SEEM TO BE FLOATING IN MID-AIR .

The exceptional rules Ever since the advent of quartz watches, and now their multi-tasking smart equivalent, mechanical timepieces have been looked on as curiosities. In the cold light of numbers, they represent fewer than one in four Swiss watches sold annually, and less than 1% of global watch sales. The desire to own even the most basic mechanical watch is therefore enough to place anyone firmly on the fringes of society… except that the ardent defenders of traditional watchmaking are less interested in a timepiece’s primary function, and more concerned with its capacity to offer in-the-know observers a positive image of its wearer; it is a > badge worn with pride by members of the same club.

56 WATCH YOUR TIME

Freak, c’est chic

Faced with this logic, the only thing between these hallowed brands and a long fall from grace is a history and a reputation which they must keep alive; not by feeding off a glorious past but by proving their superiority. For them to move constantly forward and rise above the competition, they have no choice than to maintain their prestige with complicated timepieces in much the same way automakers send race cars that are bristling with technology hurtling round the track. It costs a lot, but it pays for itself in the end. Of course, some of the renowned names, such as Cartier, whose extraordinary timepieces and visionary concepts were, for a decade, instrumental in creating the aura that surrounds complex fine watchmaking are now slowing the pace and focusing on simpler, elegant products.

This particular category of watchmaking may be less technically challenging, and more emotional than sensational in its appeal, it is no less carefully gauged to reach the brand’s core audience.

Not everyone agrees with this strategy. Bvlgari Chief Executive Jean-Christophe Babin insists that “excep-

As a brand that can trace its existence back to 1846, Ulysse Nardin is rooted in tradition, yet since the 1980s it has also been instrumental in revolutionising modern watchmaking.

It was the first manufacturer to grasp the potential of silicon; a material that paved the way for advances in technology that would otherwise be unthinkable, even with the most sophisticated metal alloys. It also broke the mould in product architecture and design. One of its watches in particular has been labelled a gamechanger. That watch is the Freak, introduced in 2001.

The brand’s flagship, the Freak is a lesson in concision: no hands, no dial, and no crown. The time is shown by the movement which is enclosed in a sapphire crystal shell.

As replacements for the hands, two arrow-shaped bridges make one rotation in one and twelve hours respectively.

As they do, they point to numerals on an inner track to show hours and minutes. The case and the movement interact to do the job of the crown. The upper bezel, which is released by a clip at 6 o’clock, rotates to set the time. A second bezel on the caseback winds the uncommonly long mainspring.

There have been several developments on the Freak over the years that mirror the brand’s capacity for innovation, in particular its use of silicon. This year has been no exception with the launch of the Freak X… at a very competitive price, making it the entry point for the collection. While reprising many of the Freak’s visual and functional features, this new iteration takes one liberty with the original: the time is no longer set by the bezel but by a crown. Other than that, the baguette-shaped carousel movement still rotates on itself once an hour to indicate the time. Dial and hands remain conspicuous by their absence; a central bridge shows the minutes and one of the wheels indicates the hours. Visible for all to see, the extra-large balance is made from silicon, a material now synonymous with Ulysse Nardin.

C.R.

tional products that push boundaries and showcase expertise attract media attention which adds to the brand’s renown. This inevitably benefits serial production, as part of the public wants to own a piece of this greatness.” Proof of this, the different Octo watches launched over recent years, the latest being the Octo Grande Sonnerie Perpetual Calendar, have largely contributed to Bvlgari’s favourable position on the fine watch spectrum, but also buoyed sales of serial production. Nor is Jean-Christophe Babin the only one to hold this view. Every brand boss knows that making, and publicising, complicated watches brings greater visibility. And the more visible the brand is, the more famous it becomes. And famous brands sell more.

Shifting perspectives Be warned, though: the highest realm of horological excellence has its own canon which, though slow to evolve, changes nonetheless. Certain mechanical specificities that were fashionable only yesterday no longer enjoy the same aura. Twenty years ago, A

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ULYSSE NARDIN FREAK X. THE FREAK X REPRESENTS THE ENTRY POINT INTO THE FREAK

I · ROLE X OYSTER PERPETUAL YACHT-MASTER II

TH IS ULTR A-TH IN PIECE IS EQUIPPED WITH AN

IIII · CODE 11.59 BY AUDEMARS PIGUET PERPET-

COLLECTION, AND REPRISES MANY OF ITS AESTHE TIC AND FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS.

THE ONLY CHRONOGR APH IN THE WORLD WITH A

UPDATED VERSION OF THE JAEGER LECOULTRE

UAL CALENDAR. CODE 11.59 IS THE NAME OF THE

THE SIZING IS TIGHTER — 43MM DOWN FROM 45MM — AND, BRE AKING WITH ONE OF

MECHANICAL MEMORY, THE OYSTER PERPE TUAL

868 PERPE TUAL CALENDAR MOVEMENT.

NE W C O LLECTION L AUNCHED I N JANUARY BY

THE MOST ICONIC ASPECTS OF THE COLLECTION, IT HAS A CROWN FOR TIME-SE T-

YACHT-MASTER II CAP TURES THE SUSPENSE OF

I I I · G I R A R D - P E R R E G AUX B R ID GE CO S MO S

AUDEMARS PIGUET. IT LINES UP SIX MODELS AND

TING . THE “BAGUE T TE” MOVEM ENT IS STI LL A CAROUSEL THAT ROTATES ONCE ON

THOSE VITAL MOMENTS. THE ULTIMATE REGAT TA

LUM INESCENCE AND DEP TH ARE INHERENT TO

TH I R TEEN R EFER ENCES , FRO M T I M E ON LY TO

ITSELF E VERY HOUR TO INDICATE THE TIME . THE MOVEMENT IS SIMPLER , WITH FEWER

WATCH, IT PL AYS AN ESSENTIAL ROLE FOR SKIP-

THIS NEW TIMEPIECE FROM GIR ARD-PERREGAUX.

MORE COMPLE X VERSIONS SUCH AS THIS PER-

WHEELS. DIAL AND HANDS ARE STILL ABSENT: INSTE AD, THE CENTR AL BRIDGE ACTS

PERS AS THEY CALCUL ATE THEIR BEST COURSE .

THE TERRESTRIAL GLOBE AT 3 O’CLOCK SHOWS

PE TUAL CALENDAR WITH AN AVENTURINE DIAL .

AS A MINUTE HAND AND ONE OF THE WHEELS INDICATES THE HOURS. CLE ARLY VISIBLE

I I · JAEG E R - LECOU LTR E MASTER ULTR A THIN

A SECOND TIME ZONE WITH A DAY/NIGHT INDI -

IS THE E XTR A-WIDE SILICON BAL ANCE WHEEL , COMPLE TED BY NICKEL FLY WEIGHTS

PERPETUAL ENAMEL. WITH ITS FOUR INTERNAL

CATION. AT 9 O’CLOCK , THE CELESTIAL GLOBE

AND STABILIZING MICRO-BL ADES.

APERTURES, THE EMBODIMENT OF WATCHMAK-

COMPLETES ONE ROTATION IN 23 HOURS, 58 MIN-

ING COMPLICATIONS, AND A BLUE ENAMEL GUIL-

UTES AND 4 SECONDS — THE PRECISE LENGTH

LOCHÉ DIAL , THE MASTER ULTR A THIN PERPE T-

OF A SIDERE AL DAY. HOURS AND M INUTES ARE

UAL ENAMEL IS ONCE SEEN, NEVER FORGOT TEN.

SHOWN AT 12 O’CLOCK, ABOVE THE TOURBILLON.

LIVE YOUR

PASSION

SLIMLINE POWER RESERVE MANUFACTURE Handcrafted in-house movement.

Manufacture Collection : in-house developed, in-house produced and in-house assembled movements.

frederiqueconstant.com

58 WATCH YOUR TIME

a brand that didn’t have a tourbillon regulator in its collection had little hope of standing out from the crowd. Its spinning forms are now a much scarcer presence, the result of overexposure, including at the more “modest” end of the scale, and the subsequent erosion of its exclusivity. Now, when a tourbillon is part of the picture, it requires an original configuration or serves to regulate a movement endowed with other mechanical subtleties. Another sign of the times: for a high-flying watch to have any chance of getting noticed among the avalanche of new products, and thus capture the interest of collectors and the media, a single complication rarely suffices. Market dynamics, not to say competition, thus have a non-negligible role to play in encouraging this mechanical one-upmanship.

In fact competition is so tough that what counts as a complication, as defined by G. A. Berner in his Professional Illustrated Dictionary of Watchmaking, is sometimes open to interpretation — with the aim of artificially increasing the number of compli-

cations. Perpetual calendars are a case in point.

Newly popular among collectors since the invention of mechanisms that makes setting them less of a challenge, they are regularly presented as four separate complications, namely indications of the day, date, month and leap year, instead of just one.

On the other hand, a chronograph with a split-seconds function, be it simple or, as at A. Lange & Söhne, double, legitimately counts twice: once for the chronograph itself and again for the addition of a split-seconds hand. As a reminder, for a watch to qualify as a Grand Complication, it must contain a minimum of three complications. But here too, bad habits prevail and certain brands insist on considering the tourbillon to be a complication when it is an improvement made to the regulator, not a function beyond the basic indication of hours, minutes and seconds. This is something collectors should look out for, as more brands introduce multi-complication watches into their catalogue as a means of A distinguishing themselves.

Of the Finest Calibre It’s like it was yesterday. Baume & Mercier took SIHH 2018 by surprise with the unveiling of the Clifton Baumatic and, more to the point, what was inside, namely the Baumatic movement. Five years in the making, Baume & Mercier developed the technology for this automatic calibre in collaboration with the Richemont Group’s Manufacture Horlogère ValFleurier and its Research & Innovation team. It rolls out the very latest in watchmaking technology, at an unbeatable price. Both the escapement and the balance spring are in silicon. The movement withstands magnetic fields of up to 1,500 Gauss and provides five days of power reserve. Both the design of this calibre and the use of new types of lubricant, which are unaffected by temperature changes, make it one of the most reliable and rugged calibres on the market today. The proof: service intervals are extended beyond the usual five years.

Why stop after such an impressive debut? Baume & Mercier returned to this year’s Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie with another talking point: the Clifton Baumatic Perpetual Calendar. Powered by the Baumatic BM131975AC-1 movement with the addition of a perpetual calendar module, it delivers all the strengths of the original: precision, reliability, five days of power reserve, anti-magnetic properties up to five times greater than standard, and seven-year service intervals. As for the rest, the indications of date, day, month, leap year and moon phases will continue without any need for correction until March 1st, 2100 which — one of the whims of the Gregorian calendar — will be a non-leap century year.

Nothing the Baumatic can’t handle!

E.D.

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BAU M E & M E RC I E R BAUMATIC PER PETUAL CALENDAR . L AU NC H ED I N 2018 , TH E

I · PANERAI LUMINOR 1950 TOURBILLON GMT TITA-

THE AUTOMATIC MOVEMENT. VITAL MILLIMETRES

IIII · FERDINAND BERTHOUD FB1 ŒUVRE D’OR

CLIF TON BAUMATIC LINE MAKES AN IMPRESSIVE DEBUT IN GR AND COMPLICATIONS

NIO. CERTAINLY ONE OF THE MOST INNOVATIVE

HAVE BEEN SHAVED FROM THESE PARTS, SOME

INSPIRED BY AN ASTRONOMICAL POCKET WATCH

WITH THIS PERPE TUAL CALENDAR , POWERED BY BAUME & MERCIER’S OWN BAUMATIC

AND SURPRISING WATCHES BY PANER AI, WHOSE

OF WHICH ARE NO THICKER THAN A HUMAN HAIR.

BY FERD INAND BERTHOUD, TH IS ŒUVRE D’OR

BM13 MOVEMENT WITH THE ADDITION OF A DUBOIS-DÉPR A Z 55102 MODULE . THIS NEW

MANUFACTURING FACILIT Y IS LOCATED IN NEU-

I I I · F R É D É R I Q U E CO N S TA N T SLIMLINE PER-

INTRODUCES SUPERB DECOR ATIVE TECHNIQUES

ITER ATION COMBINES THE PROVEN QUALITIES OF THE BAUMATIC MOVEMENT — A 5-DAY

CHÂTEL , SWITZERL AND, THE TITANIUM CASE OF

PETUAL CALENDAR MANUFACTURE. THE WATCH

TO THE BR AND’S DEBUT MODEL . THE GOLD DIAL

POWER RESERVE AND OPTIMAL ANTI-MAGNETIC PROPERTIES — WITH ONE OF THE MOST

THIS LO SCIENZIATO LUMINOR 1950 TOURBILLON

COMMUNIT Y SAT UP AND TOOK NOTE WHEN THE

IS HAND-PATINATED. THE MOVEMENT IS FINISHED

USEFUL AND BEST-LOVED COMPLICATIONS. INDICATIONS OF THE DATE, DAY, MONTH

GMT IS MADE USING DIRECT METAL LASER SINTER-

SLIMLINE PERPETUAL CALENDAR MADE ITS DEBUT

WITH PYR AMID ENGR AVING AND THE FL ANKS OF

AND MOON PHASES PRESENT AN ENDUR INGLY ELEGANT FACE WITH BLUED HANDS

ING (DMLS), A 3D PRINTING TECHNIQUE FOR METAL.

I N 2016. TH I S YE AR ’S R EN D I T I ON M ATC H ES A

THE WH I TE GO LD D I A L AR E H IG H LIG HTED BY

SE T AGAINST A PORCEL AIN-FINISH WHITE DIAL , SURROUNDED BY A RED GOLD CASE .

II · PIAGET ALTIPLANO ULTIMATE AUTOMATIC 910P

GOLD CASE WITH AN ANTHR ACITE GREY DIAL . IN

BAGUE T TE-CUT DIAMONDS.

THIS ALTIPL ANO ULTIMATE 910P IS A LESSON IN

ORDER TO PROPOSE THIS COMPLE X WATCH AT A

ULTR A-THIN AT A MERE 4.3MM HIGH. THE SECRET

RE ASONABLE PRICE, THE BR AND HAS ADAP TED

LIES IN ITS CONSTRUCTION: THE CASEBACK DOU-

AN IN-HOUSE PERPETUAL CALENDAR MODULE TO

BLES AS THE MAINPL ATE FOR THE 219 PARTS IN

ITS IN-HOUSE BASE MOVEMENT.

FOCUS WATCH YOUR TIME 59

The Stars Come Out

Van Cleef & Arpels measures time on a cosmic scale. This year’s collections capture the movement of the planets, chart the constellations and light up the night with creations that are imbued with the brand’s uniquely poetic vision of time.

Established in 1906, Van Cleef & Arpels has carved out a reputation in the watchmaking world as a true aesthete.

Its approach to the measuring of time is defined not by slavish obedience but a poetic vision in which the seconds are plucked like petals from a daisy and the hours appear and disappear at the wave of a wand. Such poetry is, however, inconceivable without the manufacturing rigour that animates this magical world. “Van Cleef & Arpels’ watchmaking embodies a part of its identity,” explains Raphaël Mingam, International Marketing Director for watches. “As such, it is indissociable from the foundations on which the Maison is built: a heritage, strong values, a distinct sphere of expression, and a profound culture of excellence. Its watch collections are rooted in three rare abilities: to create new stories and styles that resonate with the Maison’s stylistic heritage; to bring them to life with purpose-made complication movements and, lastly, to transform them into objects of beauty through jewellery techniques and our métiers d’art, in particular enamelling.”

The brand has transposed what it describes as the “dazzling spectacle of the heavens and the stars” into collections which call equally on technical expertise and hand-craftsmanship to create highly emotional prod-

Light up the night The Midnight Zodiac Lumineux collection for men and its equivalent for women, the Lady Arpels Zodiac Lumineux collection, depict the twelve signs of the Western Zodiac on dials that light up — literally. The effect is impressive, grounded in a phenomenon known as piezoelectricity that was first identified in the eighteenth century. This is the capacity certain materials have to accumulate an electrical charge when subjected to

mechanical constraints. A corresponding module, integrated into the movement, features a ceramic blade whose vibrations generate sufficient electrical energy to power light-emitting diodes. At the press of a button, they backlight translucent enamel beads on the dial which glow for three seconds. As is customary at Van Cleef & Arpels, these dials are beautifully wrought. The astrology signs, outlined in sculpted white gold, stand out against a background of spangled blue enamel that imitates a starry sky.

Still with its head in the stars, the brand has imagined a version of its Midnight Planétarium watch inside a 38mm Lady Arpels case, with a carpet of diamonds on the bezel and the case band. It plays host to the Sun surrounded by its closest planets: Mercury, Venus and Earth together with its satellite, the Moon. Each orbits the dial, composed of seven aventurine discs, at actual speed. Joining them in their graceful rotations is a rhodium-plated gold shooting star which shows the time in a characteristically poetic manner. On the back of the watch, day, month and year are displayed in two apertures, in the charming company of a crescent-shaped oscillating weight, sprinkled with diamonds. Heaven for the wrist!

Christophe Roulet

VAN CLEEF & ARPELS MIDNIGHT ZODIAC TAURUS. THE ZODIAC LUMINEUX DIALS

VAN CLEEF & ARPELS LADY ARPELS PLANETARIUM. ONE OF ITS POETIC ASTRON-

ENLY BODY MOVES AT ITS ACTUAL SPEED, ORBITING THE DIAL IN 88 DAYS FOR

LIGHT UP THANKS TO PIEZOELECTRICITY, A PHENOMENON FIRST IDENTIFIED IN THE

OMY CRE ATIONS, VAN CLEEF & ARPELS RETURNS TO ITS MIDNIGHT PL ANÉTAR-

MERCURY, 224 DAYS FOR VENUS AND 365 DAYS FOR E ARTH. IN A KEY INNOVATION,

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY WHEREBY CERTAIN MATERIALS ACCUMULATE AN ELECTRI-

IUM IN A VERSION FOR WOMEN. DISTINGUISHED BY ITS REFINED AESTHETIC AS

THE MOON ADDITIONALLY ROTATES AROUND THE E ARTH IN 29.5 DAYS, PERFORM-

CAL CHARGE WHEN SUBJECTED TO MECHANICAL CONSTR AINTS. THIS PROPERTY

MUCH AS ITS E XCLUSIVE AUTOMATIC MOVEMENT, THE L ADY ARPELS PL ANÉTAR-

ING A CELESTIAL BALLET ON THE DIAL , DAY AF TER DAY.

IS USED TO WONDERFUL EFFECT TO ILLUMINATE ENAMEL BEADS REPRESENTING

IUM WATCH DEPICTS THE SUN AND THE NE AREST PL ANE TS: MERCURY, VENUS

THE ZODIAC CONSTELLATIONS.

AND E ARTH TOGETHER WITH ITS NATUR AL SATELLITE, THE MOON. E ACH HE AV-

ucts. Raphaël Mingam fills us in: “For almost a decade, Van Cleef & Arpels has expressed the poetry of time through stories that are inspired by what we call Poetic Astronomy. These stories are like odes to the cycle of the Sun and Moon, the movement of the planets or the awe-inspiring spectacle of the stars. The Midnight in Paris and Midnight Planétarium watches already captured the imagination in this field of expression. Since then, following the introduction in 2016 of the Midnight Nuit Lumineuse and the Lady Arpels Zodiac Lumineux watches in 2018, our philosophy of time has taken on an entirely new significance, combining science with poetry.”

60 WATCH YOUR TIME

The leading watch owners’ club, offering its members year-round benefits.

Keep it fresh After spending the past two decades vying to catch connoisseurs’ eye, it would now seem that brands have something else to worry about, namely the interest collectors are showing in the “new school” of watchmaking. Prominent among these artisans of exception are F.P. Journe and its Tourbillon Souverain Vertical, Girard-Perregaux with its Neo Tourbillon with Three Bridges Skeleton, Vacheron Constantin and its Traditionnelle Twin Beat Perpetual Calendar, and Ulysse Nardin with its Mega Yacht, to name just a few examples gleaned from the top of the pyramid. Over the past fifteen years, the very best among them, the pioneers of “new watchmaking” whose ranks include Christophe Claret, Greubel Forsey, Hublot, HYT, MB&F, Rebellion, Richard Mille and Urwerk, have succeeded in making their place in the sun thanks

to instruments that truly are out of the ordinary.

Some, exhibiting in the “Carré des Horlogers” section of the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) in Geneva or part of the new “Les Ateliers” section at Baselworld, have already left their mark on the very high-end market.

So what can we look forward to? Answer: the generalisation of ultra-sophisticated pieces defined by original, amusing and atypical mechanical solutions, or rarely-seen combinations of complications that serve a useful purpose in everyday life. In a sense, the artisans of twenty-first-century horology are a lesson to the long-established names that watchmaking must continue to advance, and that it is this progress, and the occasional disruptive innovation, which keep the industry growing.

ˇ

Register now on www.fine-watch-club.com # GetWhatYouCant

Photography: Karine Bauzin

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I · HUBLOT BIG BANG MP-11 CARBON. RENOWNED

COMPLE X MOVEMENT INSIDE IS THE AUTOMATIC

IIII · MONSIEUR DE CHANEL BLACK EDITION. THE

FOR ITS E XPERTISE IN MACHINING HIGH-TECH

BVL 703 WITH TOURBILLON, GR ANDE AND PETITE

MONSIEUR WAS THE FIRST CHANEL WATCH WITH

M ATER IALS, HUB LOT HAS M ADE THE CASE OF

SONNERIES AND MINUTE REPE ATER .

AN IN-HOUSE MOVEMENT, SHOWING INSTANTA-

THIS BIG BANG MP-11 IN 3D CARBON. THE MOVE-

III · TAG HEUER CARRER A CALIBRE HEUER 02T

NEOUS JUMPING HOURS IN A L ARGE APERTURE

MENT IS ON A PAR , WITH SE VEN SER IES- COU-

TOUR BILLON NANOGR APH. TAG H EU ER P R E-

AT 6 O’C LOC K , R E TROG R ADE M I N U TES OVER

P L E D B A R R E L S A N D A N I N - L I N E I N D I CATO R

SENTS THE F I RST E VER CAR BON - C O M P OS I TE

240° AND SMALL SECONDS. THIS YE AR’S BL ACK

COUNTING THE 14 DAYS OF P OWER RESERVE .

BAL ANCE SPRING INSIDE THE IN-HOUSE HEUER

ED I T I ON I NTRODUC ES A M AT B L AC K CASE I N

I I · BVLG ARI OCTO GR ANDE SONNERIE. INNO -

02T C H R O N O M E T E R- C E R T I F I E D TO U R B I L LO N

HIGH-RESISTANCE CER AMIC.

VATIVE AND ULTR A-MODERN, THE OCTO IS THE

MOVEMENT, AND USHERS IN THE NE X T GENER-

EPITOME OF BVLGARI’S SPIRIT OF L ATIN DESIGN

ATION OF TOURBILLON WATCHES.

MEETS SUPERL ATIVE SWISS WATCHMAKING. THE

FOCUS WATCH YOUR TIME 61

Let It Shine The intricate gold bracelets adorning Piaget’s watches since the 1960s testify to the brand’s singular talent for working with this precious metal. The fabulous goldwork in this year’s collections is further proof.

In the Middle Ages, alchemists justified their attempts to achieve transmutation of metals by referring to the myth of Midas, the Phrygian king who transformed everything he touched into gold, a wish granted to him by Dionysus.

This is nothing compared to Piaget, which makes it a point of honour to transform this highly desirable metal, with its undeniable allure, into the most stunning creations. The Shine collection, which it presented at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva earlier this year, is a compilation of some of its most coveted watches, whose effortless elegance is as much a hallmark of the brand as its inimitable expertise. All have in common to be made out of white or pink gold.

In 1957, Piaget took the decision to use only precious metals, i.e. gold and platinum, for its watches. Since then, it has used its command of goldworking techniques to give form to the kind of fabulous styles worn

by Sixties and Seventies glitterati, or Piaget Society as they became known, admired for their flamboyance and freedom. As Piaget reminds us, “Gold is the king of materials, adored and even revered since ancient times, used only for the most exalted objects. At Piaget, gold is symbolic of the Maison’s in-house expertise that

The art of the bracelet Two styles in particular channel gold’s tactile appeal, beginning with the Limelight Gala, a watch whose retro-contemporary refinement is so very Piaget. This year’s iteration is mounted on a stunning, hand-engraved bracelet whose “Décor Palace” finish has already been seen on several memorable Piaget designs. Here, it complements a beautiful striped, dark green malachite dial. A new openworked style of gem-setting on the bezel and asymmetric lugs allows for larger stones which snuggle up to each other, as though invisibly held.

The Extremely Lady watch is another masterful design.

For it, Piaget has imagined how light and shade can play on the scales of an exotic animal, and reproduced this rippling effect in pink gold. Each scale is brushed by hand, in delicate touches and with minute differences in angle and pressure. The result is a shimmering bracelet whose scale decoration continues on the gold dial, adding to an already rich collection of textures inspired by nature and wrought in gold. The bezel with its halo of 24 brilliant-cut diamonds together with the pink tone of the gold lend an irresistible vintage vibe.

Equally noteworthy are the heart-stoppingly thin Altiplano watches, now paired with meteorite dials. On some, the meteorite has been given a galvanic treatment to impart a golden or blue colour. Elsewhere, in the Possession line, distinguished by its free-spinning bezel and a palette of vibrant colours, the standout model this year features a Milanese cuff, yet another demonstration of Piaget’s goldsmithing prowess, whose supple and luxurious mesh is finely hand-worked. As a finishing flourish, the shimmering mother-of-pearl dial is circled with 11 diamond dots to mark the hours. A further 162 brilliant-cut diamonds surround the bezel. Piaget in all its splendour!

Eric Dumatin

PIAGET POSSESSION 29 MM CUFF. THE STANDOUT PIECE IN THE POSSESSION

PIAGET EXTREMELY LADY. PIAGET HAS IMAGINED HOW LIGHT AND SHADE WOULD

PIAGET LIMELIGHT GALA. THE LIMELIGHT GAL A’S ASYMMETRIC LUGS AND RET-

COLLECTION THIS YE AR COMES ON AN ENTIRELY HAND-WOVEN MIL ANESE CUFF

PL AY ON THE SCALES OF AN E XOTIC ANIMAL AND REPRODUCED THIS RIPPLING

RO-CONTEMPOR ARY APPE AL HAVE MADE IT AN ICON FOR THE BR AND. HERE, A

BR ACELE T I N GO LD, PA I R ED WITH A SH I M M ER I NG M OTHER- OF- PE AR L D I A L .

EFFECT IN PINK GOLD, ADDING TO AN ARR AY OF TEXTURES INSPIRED BY NATURE.

HAND-ENGRAVED “DÉCOR PALACE” BRACELET SHOWS OFF PIAGET’S TALENT WHEN

ELE VEN DIAMOND DOTS MARK THE HOURS WITH A FURTHER 162 BRILLIANT-CUT

EACH SCALE IS DELICATELY HAND-BRUSHED, APPLYING ALMOST IMPERCEPTIBLE

WORKING WITH GOLD. BEAUTIFULLY WROUGHT BY THE COMPANY’S EXPERIENCED

DIAMONDS AROUND THE BE ZEL . UNMISTAK ABLY PIAGE T!

DIFFERENCES IN ANGLE AND PRESSURE . THE SAME SHIMMERING DECOR ATION

ARTISANS, IT IS COMPLEMENTED BY A DARK GREEN MALACHITE DIAL AND A NEW

SPILLS OVER ONTO THE GOLD DIAL .

STYLE OF OPEN SETTING FOR THE DIAMONDS ON THE BEZEL.

combines tradition and innovation with a unique creative approach. In the Piaget gold-working atelier in Plan-lesOuates, Geneva, the mastery and know-how required to create over a hundred different types of gold bracelets resides in the hands of our in-house craftsmen. In all its forms, whether in a watch bracelet with multiple sleek links or in a supple strap woven from a single threadlike wire, gold is handled with a light, versatile touch that emphasises the pleasure and bright sensuality of wearing this precious material.”

ADVENTURE WATCH YOUR TIME 63

Travel Companions --o------- Peter Braun We travel to contemplate; every journey is a moving contemplation.

— Marguerite Yourcenar ( 1903 — 1987 )

Wristwatches indicating world times, or at least a second time zone, have become an essential accessory in this global age.

And not just when travelling.

© E r i c Va l l i

Travel broadens the mind and sparks new friendships. It’s also ingrained in our professional lives, as global trade implies travelling further and more often. However useful videoconferencing may be, it’s hard to imagine doing business without some degree of travel. After all, no-one signs a multi-million contract over the phone!

When Ferdinand Adolph Lange was making his first watches in Glashütte, it took a week to travel between Dresden and Frankfurt by coach and horses. Passengers doubtless didn’t notice that at the end of their 300-mile journey east to west, the sun reached its zenith 20 minutes later. Had Lange been able to call home, he would have had confirmation of the time difference with Dresden, shown on his pocket watch. A stickler for precision, on arrival he would have adjusted his watch to the new local time. In fact he would have had to reset it more than once as each stage of the journey — Chemnitz, Gera, Weimar, Erfurt and Fulda — had its own time.

As many times as companies This was a particularly problematic state of affairs in countries with a large east-west expanse, such as the United States whose many private railroad companies ran to their own time. In the majority of cases, this was time at head office. Thus the Pennsylvania Railroad referred to local time in Philadelphia along its routes, whereas the New York Central kept to the “Vanderbilt time” of Grand Central Station.

The situation for early railroad travellers was confusing, to say the least.

At each connection, they had to scan the row of clocks behind the ticket desks which, rather than showing local time, gave the reference time for the various companies; maybe Erie & Lackawanna or Baltimore & Ohio.

It was then up to passengers to do the sums, and convert the compa-

LOUIS VUIT TON TAMBOUR MOON GMT. THE TAMBOUR COLLECTION DEBUTED IN 2002, INSPIRING THE TAMBOUR MOON FIF TEEN YE ARS L ATER . ITS NAME STEMS NOT FROM A FUNCTION BUT FROM ITS CONCAVE PROFILE . APPLIED LUGS PRESERVE THE PERFECT CIRCLE OF THE CASE, WHICH WIDENS AT THE BASE . THE T WELVE LE T TERS SPELLING LOUIS VUIT TON ARE ENGR AVED AROUND THE EDGE . THE TAMBOUR MOON GMT INTRODUCES A TR AVEL-THEMED FUNCTION THAT RECALLS LOUIS VUIT TON’S ORIGINS AS A TRUNK-MAKER .

THIS ELEGANT TOOL FOR THE MODERN GLOBE TROT TER IS HOUSED IN A 41.5MM CASE .

ny’s time to local time if they wanted to know when they would arrive.

To make matters worse, most towns used true time or solar time, calculated according to the movement of the sun through the sky. As a result, in the mid-1800s the young American nation had 144 different times!

The division of Earth Ancient civilisations already depicted Earth with a grid of longitudes and latitudes. Ptolemy, on his maps, put the zero longitude meridian around the Canary Islands (whose longitude is around 15° west). Over the course of the centuries, cartographers would reposition this zero longitude at Rome, Copenhagen, Paris, St. Petersburg or London. Circa 1870, ten cities had officially declared a prime meridian, out of tradition or national pride, and none were prepared to give up this privilege without a fight! Two nations in particular, France and Great Britain, were adamant that theirs must be the prime meridian for the rest of the world. >

64 WATCH YOUR TIME ADVENTURE

After hard-fought negotiations, 22 of the 25 countries attending the 1884 International Meridian Conference in Washington succeeded in reaching an agreement. The British won the day and since then the time at any point on Earth is calculated based on an imaginary line running through the Royal Observatory in the London borough of Greenwich. The British must have been confident: a vertical line indicating zero longitude had already been traced across the sights of the Observatory telescope. As well as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), the agreement reached in Washington introduced a further 23 time zones. Each was offset from its neighbour by exactly one hour, thus making it easier to convert times and set one’s watch when travelling. Since then, an additional eight time zones have been created, offset by 30 minutes, and a further three with a difference of 15 or 45 minutes, giving a total of 35 time zones. The original 24 time zones cover 15° longitude or 1,035 miles running west to east so that the time is never more than half an hour off from solar time, which exactly coincides with clock time in the centre of the zone.

So much for the theory. In practice, time zones are delimited by political boundaries.

For example, Central European Time (CET), introduced in 1893, equals GMT plus one hour. It covers an area from the west coast of Spain as far as Poland’s eastern border, or almost 35° longitude.

Dual-time watches Setting the time on a watch is hardly an insurmountable task. Even a short flight leaves ample time to whizz the hour hand to its new position. The annoying part, if yours is an ordinary wristwatch, is struggling to press the crown back in so as not to lose vital seconds, even minutes, of precision. This is where watches designed

I

for travellers come in, as pulling out the crown temporarily uncouples the motionworks so that the hour hand can be altered without stopping the other hands.

The watch’s mechanism and dial layout depend on how important this “reference time” is; if it’s simply a reminder of the time back home, the central hands are uncoupled to facilitate setting. If, on the contrary, the aim is to visualise the time in another city, a subdial will be quicker to set.

Many brands give precedence to local time, with home time shown on a subdial. When travelling, the central hour hand is moved forwards or backwards, independently of the minute hand, without altering home time on the subdial (or possibly shown by an additional central hour hand). This is an especially convenient solution given that the difference between most time zones is calculated in hours; the minutes remain unchanged. Hence easy setting without loss of precision is the main advantage of this type of watch. If, in contrast, your main concern is to know what time it is in another city (imagine you have colleagues in New Delhi, for example), then you will need a watch designed for rapid setting of the subdial time, while the main hands continue to show reference time. However, such a watch has only limited utility when travelling. World time watches represent the time zones seen from the Northern hemisphere with the North Pole in the centre of the dial. The most famous example has to be the World Time which the Geneva watchmaker Louis Cottier devised for Patek Philippe in the 1930s.

It simultaneously indicates 24 time zones, with a graduated peripheral disc showing the main city for each one, and a rotating disc showing the corresponding local time over 24 hours. This ingenious system shows the time anywhere in the world, at a glance. And as the 24-hour disc is usually divided into twice 12 hours (day and night), you’ll always know if your loved one, or business partner, is wide awake or fast asleep!

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VII

I · TONNEAU DE CARTIER DUAL TIME SKELETON. RECENT

I I I · M O N T B L A N C HER ITAGE GMT. T H E AU TO M AT I C

V · SEIKO PROSPE X L X. SEIKO’S SPORTING SIDE HAS

VII · HERMÈS SLIM GMT. SLIM BY NAME AND BY NATURE,

YE ARS HAVE SEEN CARTIER RE TURN TO SOME OF ITS

C A L I B R E O F T H E M O N T B L A N C H E R I TAG E G M T I S

PRODUCED THREE VERSIONS OF THE PROSPEX,

THANKS TO THE E XTR A-THIN H1950 MOVEMENT (2.6MM

MOST ICONIC STYLES. INTRODUCED IN 1906, TWO YEARS

HOUSED IN A 40MM CASE IN FULLY POLISHED STAINLESS

D ED I CATED TO L AN D, S E A AN D S K Y. A L L H AVE TH E

HIGH) ASSOCIATED WITH A 1.4MM HIGH GMT MODULE .

AF TER THE SANTOS, THE TONNE AU ALSO BROKE THE

STEEL FE ATURING CURVED LUGS AND AN ENGR AVING

ROBUSTNESS, LEGIBILIT Y AND RELIABILIT Y E XPECTED,

THE SL ATE GREY DIAL , WITH ITS RECOGNISABLE FONT,

MOULD IN AN ER A OF POCKET WATCHES. THE SKELETON

OF THE MINERVA MANUFACTURE ON THE BACK OF THE

WITH ADD ITIONAL FUNCTIONS C OR R ESP OND I NG TO

SHOWS A DATE COUNTER AT 6 O’C LOC K AND, WITH

DUAL TIME MODEL SHOWN HERE IS PURE CARTIER STYLE.

CASE . THE GMT HAND SHOWS A SECOND TIME ZONE

E ACH FA M I LY. FOR E X A M P LE , THE “ L AND” WATCHES

T YPICAL HERMÈS ORIGINALIT Y, A SILVERY GMT SUBDIAL

I I · BL ANCPAIN VILLERET QUANTIÈME COMPLET GMT

OVER A 24-HOUR SCALE .

FE ATURE A GMT HAND AND A COMPASS BE ZEL .

WITH A SCAT TERING OF NUMER ALS AT 11 O’CLOCK .

T H I S WATC H W I T H C O M P L E T E C A L E N DA R A N D A

I I I I · JAEG E R- LECOULTR E P OL ARIS GEOGR APHIC W T

VI · TAG HEUER CARRER A HEUER 02 GMT. TAG HEUER

SECOND TIME ZONE FUNCTION BENEFITS FROM MANY

THIS WATCH IS AN INVITATION TO E XPLORE THE WORLD

CELEBR ATED THE CARRER A’S 55TH ANN IVERSARY IN

O F T H E I N N OVAT I O N S D E V E LO P E D BY B L A N C PA I N

AND ITS 24 TIME ZONES, REPRESENTED BY THE CITIES

2018 WITH TH IS G M T CHRONOGR APH . THE SECOND

S I N C E T H E I N T RO D UCT I O N O F T H E F I RST V ERS I O N

INSCRIBED AROUND THE FL ANGE WHICH IS ADJUSTED

TIME ZONE, WHICH IS SE T BY THE CROWN, IS RE AD BY

I N 2002. THE M OVEM ENT I NC OR P OR ATES A S I LI C ON

BY THE CROWN AT 10 O’CLOCK. FOR CITIES SWITCHING

A RED L ACQUERED HAND FROM THE 24-HOUR SCALE ON

BAL ANCE SPRING WHOSE ANTI-MAGNETIC PROPERTIES

B E T W EEN STA N DA R D A N D DAY L I G H T SAV I N G T I M E

THE BL ACK AND BLUE CER AMIC BE ZEL .

CONTRIBUTE TO GRE ATER PRECISION. CORRECTORS

AC COR D I NG TO SE ASONS, JAEGER- LECOU LTRE HAS

AR E M OVED FRO M THE CASE S I DES TO A P OS I T I ON

BEEN CLEVER ENOUGH TO ADD A WHITE ASTERISK THAT

UNDER THE FOUR LUGS.

INDICATES THIS ONE-HOUR DIFFERENCE .

Pride of Japan

FOCUS WATCH YOUR TIME 65

Sometimes, we need to be reminded of the revolution certain watches represented.

Seiko is doing exactly that with a series of anniversary editions.

Just as world history is a succession of milestones and pioneers, watchmaking history has its “moments”, some of which may seem unremarkable at the time but ultimately usher in great change. At Seiko, 1969 was one such “moment”. Exactly fifty years ago, and virtually unheard of outside Asia, the brand launched an automatic-winding chronograph with vertical clutch — both major innovations — at the same time as it released the first commercially available quartz watch. Back then, the industry had yet to grasp the full significance of this revolutionary technology.

The Astron was unrivalled: never before had a mechanism measured time with such near-perfect (for the era) precision, deviating by a maximum of five seconds a month.

Seiko is celebrating the first half-century of what is an ongoing adventure by launching the Astron GPS Solar Dual Time 5X53 as a limited edition of 1,500 pieces. While the design is inspired by the original Astron, the calibre has the innovative function of automatically adjusting the time in 39 time zones to the wearer’s location. Precision is suitably impressive, deviating by a single second in 100,000 years when the movement is connected to the satellite network.

Spring Drive turns 20 Seiko has another important anniversary coming up this year, namely 20 years since the launch of the Spring

Drive: a hybrid movement that combines the best of two worlds, mechanical and electronic, to measure time with rare accuracy and with unprecedented fluidity for the seconds hand. To mark the occasion, Grand Seiko is extending its Sport collection with a new design that takes its cue from the mighty lion — its emblem ever since the very first Grand Seiko watch in 1960. All three series are limited editions, sporting a dynamic 44.5mm case in high-density titanium (500 pieces) or pink gold (100 pieces) which is polished to a mirror sheen using Seiko’s Zaratsu technique. Each one is powered by an automatic Spring Drive chronograph calibre with a Trisynchro regulator.

Grand Seiko is also bringing to the party the Spring Drive Grand Seiko Elegance collection, featuring a new manual-wind movement (9R02). In addition to the Trisynchro regulator, which ensures precision of one second per day, it incorporates a new barrel whose two parallel-mounted mainsprings benefit from Seiko’s torque return system. As its name suggests, this mechanism saves unneeded excess torque from when the watch is wound and reuses it later. Power reserve is thus boosted to 84 hours, tracked by an indicator on the movement side, next to the barrel with its bellflower cut-out decoration. Seiko chose this flower because it is the symbol

of Shiojiri, the city that is home to the Micro Artist Studio where these marvels are made. Seiko is producing just 30 of these watches, in platinum. Because elegance leads naturally to lady’s watches, the Japanese manufacture is also unveiling a sport-chic version of its Grand Seiko Automatic for women to enjoy.

And if this weren’t enough, the brand is also introducing the Prospex LX line. It’s inspired by the Prospex 1968 Diver’s Re-creation that took home the Sport’s Watch prize at the 2018 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève.

Powered by a Spring Drive movement (with or without GMT), these sumptuous watches echo another admirable reinterpretation, also in the Prospex line, of a dive watch originally released in the 1970s. Robust and with a sharp design, it matches an automatic movement with 200-metre water-resistance that will appeal to anyone searching for a hard-wearing dive watch, while collectors will appreciate that this is a 2,500-piece limited edition.

As a company that takes pride in its origins, and is at pains to showcase Japanese handcraft traditions in its products, Seiko is also releasing a series of Presage watches whose porcelain dials are made in Arita, the town in southern Japan where porcelain-making techniques have been practiced and perfected for more than Vincent Daveau four centuries.

SEIKO PRESAGE ARITA PORCELAIN DIAL. THE PRESAGE COLLECTION IS ADMIRED

GR AND SEIKO LADIES AUTOMATIC. AT BASELWORLD 2018, GR AND SEIKO PRE-

GR AND SEIKO SPRING DRIVE. THE SPRING DRIVE MOVEMENT CELEBR ATES ITS

BY CONNOISSEURS AS A SHOWCASE FOR SEIKO’S EXPERTISE IN WATCHMAKING

SENTED A LIMITED-EDITION WATCH DRIVEN BY THE 9S25 CALIBRE, A NEW AUTO-

20TH ANNIVERSARY IN A NEW SERIES, PART OF THE GR AND SEIKO ELEGANCE

AND FOR THE E XECUTION OF ITS DIALS USING TR ADITIONAL JAPANESE CR AF TS

MATIC MOVEMENT SPECIFICALLY FOR WOMEN’S WATCHES. THIS YE AR , THE JAP-

COLLECTION, WITH AN EVEN SLIMMER PROFILE . T WO OF THE FOUR MODELS ARE

SUCH AS ENAMELLING OR URUSHI L ACQUER . THIS L ATEST ITER ATION PRESENTS

ANESE FIRM IS L AUNCHING ANOTHER NEW CALIBRE, THE 9S27, AND A SERIES OF

EQUIPPED WITH A NEW MANUAL-WINDING SPRING DRIVE MOVEMENT, AS WELL

T WO AUTOMATIC WATCHES WITH PORCEL AIN DIALS FROM ARITA , HOME OF THIS

FIVE EXQUISITE L ADIES’ TIMEPIECES, THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ER A FOR GR AND

AS A GLIDE MOTION SECONDS HAND WHOSE SMOOTH MOVEMENT MIRRORS THE

ANCESTR AL TECHNIQUE FOR MORE THAN FOUR CENTURIES.

SEIKO IN THE WOMEN’S SEGMENT.

NATUR AL , CONTINUOUS FLOW OF TIME .

66 WATCH YOUR TIME FOCUS

A Flying Start Bvlgari is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Gérald Genta brand, a prestigious name acquired in 2000 whose expertise has been essential in propelling the Italian firm into watchmaking’s upper spheres.

In honour of this milestone, Bvlgari is releasing a biretrograde Arena watch in platinum.

GUIDO TERRENI, BVLGARI HORLOGERIE MANAGING DIRECTOR .

At the start of the new millennium, renewed interest in mechanical watches meant the Swiss watch industry was finally able to put the so-called quartz crisis behind it. At the same time, in 2000, Bvlgari bought Gérald Genta, named after the revered designer who in 1969 had set up his company in Le Sentier, in the heartland of Swiss watchmaking. “The family then at the head of Bvlgari wanted to acquire expertise in watchmaking which at that time we didn’t have,” explains Guido Terreni, Managing Director of Bvlgari Horlogerie. “This acquisition was definitely the most important stage in the vertical integration that followed over the next years. After Gérald Genta, with its speciality in manufacturing high-end movements, we bought a dialmaker, a strapmaker and a casemaker. Then in 2011 they were merged into a single entity, Bvlgari Horlogerie.”

Back then, Bvlgari watches retailed, on average, for a third of what they go for today, hence the benefits of the takeover weren’t immediately apparent, accentuated by the fact that Gérald Genta was still being managed as a separate brand. All this would change in 2004 when Genta’s complicated movements were introduced into

the Italian firm’s ranges — with great success, as Guido Terreni recalls: “In 2006, a Bvlgari watch with a small complication accounted for half the orders taken for Genta products at that year’s Baselworld fair.” The next step pretty much wrote itself. Unable to maintain sufficient orders for Gérald Genta, at the risk of losing the qualified watchmakers producing these highly complex movements, and given the promising results obtained by Bvlgari’s complicated timepieces, in 2009 Gérald Genta was subsumed into Bvlgari.

Fast track to expertise Guido Terreni was in charge of seeing this integration through to completion. This was a complex task but an exciting one too, as it meant bringing together a company, Bvlgari, with the creative verve to imagine fabulous watches with Italian flair, and a manufacturer with the capacity to bring them to life. After the merger, which Terreni recalls occasioned considerable eyebrow-raising, the Le Sentier facility produced the BVL 191 Solotempo base calibre that Genta had always wanted. This was followed by the Finissimo, very

much the gamechanger with its five “world’s thinnest” records. In Terreni’s view, “integrating Genta into the Bvlgari brand enabled us to perpetuate and develop some extraordinary expertise which quickly and strongly enriched our watchmaking culture.”

This year’s Gérald Genta 50th Anniversary Watch — Arena Bi-Retro should be seen as a tribute to the origin of Bvlgari’s skill as a watchmaker. “Without the Genta brand, Bvlgari wouldn’t be where it is today. I’m thinking in particular of the Octo Finissimo range, the last real innovation in both watch design and mechanisms,” Guido Terreni concludes. “This anniversary watch is our way of looking back and thanking the 22 people who joined us from Genta, which as a Manufacture now employs 82 people. It’s about giving credit where credit is due.”

The anniversary watch features a round Arena case in highly polished platinum. Jumping hours are shown in an aperture at 12 o’clock. Retrograde minutes and the date are on sectors, with minutes above and date below.

The BVL 300 calibre is visible through the sapphire back.

It’s a watch that “dares to be different”, and that’s really Christophe Roulet what Bvlgari is all about.

G ÉR ALD G EN TA , T H E D ES IG N ER . G É R A L D G E N TA WA S B E H I N D S O M E O F

GÉR ALD GENTA 50TH ANNIVERSARY WATCH — ARENA BI-RETRO. THE GÉR ALD

DATE, ARR ANGED IN A SMALLER ARC AT 6 O’CLOCK, IS ALSO SHOWN BY A RETRO-

WATCH M AK ING’S MOST RECOGN ISAB LE DESIGNS, FIRST FOR OTHER BR ANDS

GENTA 50TH ANNIVERSARY WATCH IS HOUSED IN THE FAMOUS CHUNK Y, ROUND

GR ADE HAND. THE COMPLEX MECHANISM OF CALIBRE BVL 300, A BIDIRECTIONAL

T H EN , F RO M 1969, U N D ER H I S OW N N A M E . M A N U FAC T U R E G ÉR A L D G EN TA

ARENA CASE, WITH A SMOOTH, WIDE, CURVED BEZEL IN HIGHLY POLISHED PL AT-

MANUAL-WINDING MOVEMENT WITH A 42-HOUR POWER RESERVE , IS VISIBLE

WAS REM AR K AB LE FOR ITS COM PLICATION MOVEM ENTS, INC LUD ING STR I K-

INUM. THE JUMPING HOURS ARE DISPL AYED IN A WINDOW AT 12 O’CLOCK, WHILE

THROUGH THE SCR ATCH-RESISTANT SAPPHIRE CASE BACK . COLLECTORS WILL

I N G M EC H A N I S M S , SO P H I ST I CAT ED CA LEN DA R SYST E M S A N D TO U R B I L LO N

THE MINUTES ARE TR ACKED ON AN ARC THAT SPANS THE TOP HALF OF THE BLUE

SURELY APPRECIATE THIS TRIBUTE TO A GRE AT DESIGNER , AND TO BVLGARI’S

REGUL ATORS.

L ACQUER DIAL, BY A HAND WHICH SNAPS BACK TO ZERO EVERY 60 MINUTES. THE

RINASCIMENTO PHILOSOPHY.