2019 - Summer Edition

Swiss International Magazine Summer 2019 #057 Interview Pierre Salanitro - Guest Alban Michon

English Edition

Omega

Celebrating 50 years of human adventure Audemars Piguet - Ball Watch - Bovet - Breguet - Cartier - Chanel - Chopard - Doxa - Eberhard & Co Ferdinand Berthoud - Girard-Perregaux - Hublot - Jacob & Co - Jaquet Droz - Longines - MB&F - Montblanc - Oris - Panerai - Parmigiani - Patek Philippe Rebellion - Rolex - schwarz Etienne - seiko - TAG Heuer - Tudor - ulysse Nardin - Vacheron Constantin - Zenith - ZRC suisse: 10 francs FRANCE MéTRO: 7 EuROs - BEL/LuX/POLAND: 8 EuROs - uK: £8 - A/D/GR//PORT.CONT: 8,40 EuROs - CAN: 11,95 $CAN - usA: 14,99 $us

C ove r wat Ch

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OMEGA

Speedmaster Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Limited Edition

By Sharmila Bertin

“

That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” It was July 21st 1969 when the US astronaut Neil Armstrong (1930-2012), the first man to walk on the moon, said these now legendary words to millions of people glued to their television screens. That wasn’t all that the Apollo 11 mission made legendary: the Speedmaster by Omega was the first watch to be approved by NASA in 1965 for astronauts to wear in space.

To celebrate the 50 year old landmark event, the Bienne brand has unveiled a new version of the yellow gold BA145.022 with a dark red bezel, 1014 of which were produced between 1969 and 1973. This one is called the Speedmaster Apollo 11 50 th Anniversary and is made of MoonshineTM , Omega’s very own metal alloy that’s paler and more resistant to discoloration that gold. A burgundy ceramic bezel bearing a Ceragold TM tachymeter scale tops the 42mm case housing the manual Master Chronometer 3861 mechanical calibre

providing a 50-hour power reserve.

The MoonshineTM gold dial’s vertical brushed finish brings out the bevelled and facetted onyx markers and the black lacquer hands.

In tribute to its big brother, there are just 1014 of this new limited edition chronograph available.

© Omega

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TIM E , A HE RMÈS OB JECT.

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

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E DIT OR IAL

Time, The Planet Earth and Us 08

W

hereas the watchmaking world is populated with values, traditional or contemporary, two notions are fundamental in my view: time and transmission. We might think that the latter follows from the former, however, I choose to see them as distinct concepts.

On one hand, time is an abstract idea of sorts, an invisible hourglass that only watches can understand, measure and read, yet can’t quite control. Timepieces are generally worn around the wrist and more rarely in a pocket. And for us, as humans, they are must-haves to manage our day down to the hour and minute (and down to the second for the busiest of us!), keep pace with the seasons by the date, or even time a sporting feat.

For watchmakers, it is a profession and represents heritage to those with a rich history, the period required to develop a movement or material and to create a new watch from scratch.

On the other hand, transmission is inherent to this industry.

Even though it can sometimes get a bit lost and even though the watchmaking world operates in a different fashion, it still keeps on ticking. Knowledge, technique and skill are transmitted through a watch just as a father hands down a treasured timepiece to his son or as does a mother to her daughter. Some might only think of a watch as an accessory but I very strongly believe that it is an object that holds a much higher value and one day, my daughter and son will inherit the precious timekeepers I have proudly worn around the wrist my entire life.

Time and transmission, two notions that also apply to the very ground we walk on, the sea we sail and the airspace we fly through on board aircraft we ourselves invented not so very long ago. The planet on which we live for such a short time is too often forgotten. She has hosted other occupants who came before us but will there be any left to take our place?

Due to environmental disasters, abject over-consumption of

all our natural resources and threat to animal species facing extinction, time is short for our beautiful benefactor. To extend the life expectancy of a world that is already living on borrowed time and ensure the future of humanity, it is vital that we radically change our lifestyles, give Mother Nature the respect she deserves and transmit these healthier lifestyle choices to our children straightaway so that they, too, can one day pass on the desire to protect the Earth to their very own children.

Sharmila Bertin Editor-in-Chief

Š Mickael Gautier

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SKELETONIZED

Technicality, lightness, and purity of design: the RE-VOLT refuses to compromise. A perfect incarnation of the very essence and philosophy of REBELLION. The RE-VOLT knows how to stand out from the crowd thanks to its “in-house” swiss-made movement, muscular silhouette, high-tech nature, and exceptional performance with its 48-hour power reserve. Every detail expresses and embodies a passion for motorsport.

W W W. R E B E L L I O N - T I M E P I E C E S . C O M @ R E BTHE E LWATCHES L I O N TMAGAZINE IMEPIECES

SUMMER 2019

Gu e st The Watches Magazine invites a new guest writer to share their vision of time in each issue.

Time: the greatest luxury of tomorrow’s world?

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By Alban Michon Explorer

E

xplorers like myself spend most of their time discovering paradoxes. Planning for an adventure requires constant persistence whereas every year the four seasons fly by.

When I’m on an expedition, I’m struck by the incessant dripping from the ice field melting before my eyes. Ice is Mother Nature’s own clock fuelled by climate change and it has set us the challenge of stalling its slow transformation. In the past, drilling in the Antarctic told us the tale of time gone by. In the present, the ice field plays on tomorrow’s climate and weather.

most of time on expeditions but I’m also aware that passing time is another drop in the Arctic Ocean.

The time you spend reading this is a way to escape and forget the frenetic pace of life and think about this question: what if time was the greatest luxury of tomorrow’s world?

Ice has always fascinated me and I’ve dedicated my life to trying to understand it. It used to be strong, powerful, crushing boats sailed by the first explorers of old, but now it’s increasingly delicate and fragile. It whispers to me all the time, when I hear it cracking during my adventures, making the most of precious moments in a constantly moving world.

I can remember coming back up from a dive in the water and coming face to face with a polar bear. Time stood still. We looked into each other’s eyes, 3 metres apart, and just stared at each other without moving. The hands on my watch spun by.

However, I can remember when the storm hammered my tent and time seemed to go on forever.

Time is a subjective concept that we control at our discretion and based on our experiences. I’ve had the chance to make the

© Andy Parant

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INSIDE

24 Cover Story Omega

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06 08 10 18 20

Cover watch Omega Editorial Guest Alban Michon We Love Flower Power We Love Emotions

22 24 34 38 40

The Eye of Jewelry Cover Story Omega Interview Pierre Salanitro Breguet Patek Philippe

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42 44 46 48 50

Chopard TAG Heuer Jaquet Droz Montblanc Hublot

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INSIDE

52 Rebellion

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52 54 58 60

Rebellion Rolex Ulysse Nardin Ferdinand Berthoud

62 64 66 68

Chanel Zenith Girard-Perregaux Vacheron Constantin

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74 Trends 76 Watches & Wonders 78 Technique

CALIBER RM 017

RICHARD MILLE BOUTIQUE SWITZERLAND Rue du Rhône 78 1204 Geneva - Tel. +41 22 810 85 73

THE WATCHES MAGAZINE www.richardmille.com SUMMER 2019

IMPR E SSU M

“Time does not pass, it continues”.

Swiss International Magazine Été 2019 #057

Marty Rubin

Interview Pierre Salanitro - Guest Alban Michon

WElCOME TO THE WOrlD Of WATCHES www.watches-news.com Édition francophone

Omega

50 ans d’aventure humaine Audemars Piguet - Ball Watch - Bovet - Breguet - Cartier - Chanel - Chopard - Doxa - Eberhard & Co Ferdinand Berthoud - Girard-Perregaux - Hublot - Jacob & Co - Jaquet Droz - Longines - MB&F - Montblanc - Oris - Panerai - Parmigiani - Patek Philippe Rebellion - Rolex - schwarz Etienne - seiko - TAG Heuer - Tudor - ulysse Nardin - Vacheron Constantin - Zenith - ZRC suisse: 10 francs FRANCE MéTRO: 7 EuROs - BEL/LuX/POLAND: 8 EuROs - uK: £8 - A/D/GR//PORT.CONT: 8,40 EuROs - CAN: 11,95 $CAN - usA: 14,99 $us

Rédaction/Edition ACE Publishing SA Direction/Management Alain Carrier acarrier@ace-publishing.com Rédactrice en chef/Editor-in-Chief Sharmila Bertin sbertin@ace-publishing.com Designer graphique/Graphic designer Célia Sozet Contributeurs/Contributors Sharmila Bertin - Mathilde Binetruy Vincent Daveau - Dan Diaconu - Mickael Gautier - Alban Michon Olivier Müller - Barbara Palumbo - Eléonor Picciotto

“Time does not pass, it continues”.

Marty Rubin

Publicité/Advertising ACE Publishing SA Alain Carrier acarrier@ace-publishing.com Yannick Ortolan yortolan@ace-publishing.com T +41 22 752 60 12

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En 4 langues/In 4 languages Français-French/Anglais-English/Allemand-German/Chinois simplifié-Chinese ISSN: Français1664-8048/Anglais1664-820X/Allemand1664-8056 ACE Publishing SA Principal actionnaire/Major shareholder Alain Carrier Route de Thonon 152A - CH-1222 Vésenaz/Genève T +41 22 752 60 12 - F +41 22 752 60 14 N° TVA CHE-112.276.791 TVA - REF 618 137 21.08.18 15:11 La reproduction des articles parus dans THE WATCHES MAGAZINE est interdite sous toutes ses formes, sauf autorisation écrite de l’éditeur.

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1964 Réédition du modèle de 1964 “Marine Nationale” Swiss Made

Z RC G E N È V E S A 15 r u e du 3 1 déc e m b re - 1 2 0 4 G e n è ve S u i sse - co n t a ct @ z rc1 9 0 4. ch zrc1904.ch •

zrc1904

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SUMMER 2019 La Maison de l’Horlogerie : 24 rue du Cendrier - Genève 1201 / Bijouterie Junod : Place Saint-françois - Lausanne 1003 / Uhrsachen ag : Kramgasse 19 - Bern 3011

We Love FL oWe r PoW e r

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Schwarz EtiEnnE Ode to the 70's

By Sharmila Bertin

T

here are watches which have the particularity of triggering our imagination, of whisking us far away from our everyday lives and of occasionally taking us back through time. This is quite the case with this 3rd part of the “Ode” saga from La Chaux-de-Fonds watchmaker which, with a simple glance, plunges us into the video clip of the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine (1966) and even the clip of Love is All (1974) by Roger Glover, Deep Purple’s bassist. In short, really Flower Power, the hippy pacifist doctrine of the 60s and 70s, the dial is an explosion of vibrant colours – yellow, orange, red, violet, blue and green – crafted with Grand Feu enamel, using cloisonné and champlevé techniques. Just like children’s colouring-in, the contours of the rather floral pattern were obtained by positioning a fine white gold thread or by hollowing out grooves directly in the metal before adding the enamel and firing the disc at an extremely high temperature.

On this stunning range of colours, three more-or-less-hidden apertures appear: the flying tourbillon (towards 1 o’clock), the ratchet or serrated wheel of the winder (at 4h30), and

the micro-rotor (at 9 o’clock). The latter, which reproduces the famous Peace and Love symbol, is coated with coloured lacquers. In the centre, two luminescent delta-shaped hands indicate the hours and minutes driven by the TSE 121.000 calibre. This automatic movement, which offers a power reserve of 70 hours, nestles in a 44 mm-diameter white gold case.

This 23-piece limited edition is complemented by a sky-blue jean strap scattered with mini spots of paint and is presented in a ukulele case transformed into a watch case.

© Schwarz Etienne

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We Love e mot ions

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MB&F

Legacy Machine FlyingT

By Sharmila Bertin

C

reating a timepiece for women when you’re a man may prove to be a real puzzle. Used to designing rather masculine timepieces, even when sometimes worn by women, Maximilian Büsser brilliantly rose to the challenge with partner and designer, Eric Giroud, and his team to create a watch called the Legacy Machine FlyingT. To conceptualize the exceptional timepiece that marks a new chapter in the history of the young brand, the MB&F founder turned to the four women in his life, explaining that “[it’s] a piece that embodies everything I love in my wife, everything I love in my daughters, everything I love in my mum“. This touching declaration of love is reflected in a mechanical sculpture featuring a flying tourbillon crowned with a single diamond, rising above a dial plate of black lacquer or diamonds, all protected by an extravagantly convex sapphire crystal dome.

Because Maximilian Büsser wanted this dynamic structure to have an intimate and personal touch, the black or white sub-dial sheltering a pair of blue or silver serpentine hands is inclined at 50° and the time indication is at the 7 o’clock position so that “only the wearer can read the time“.

Powered by automatic movement that operates at a smooth frequency of 2.5 Hz, the watch also provides 100 hours of power reserve. The engine is equipped with a sun-shaped red gold oscillating weight, housed in a 38.5 mm diameter white gold case and the case itself, as well as the fasteners, feature a glittering tapestry of 120 brilliant-cut or baguette diamonds.

© MB&F

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“Time does not pass, it continues”.

Marty Rubin

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The e ye of Je we lry

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Gradient tones for summer

By Eléonor Picciotto

I

t’s much more fun to brightly colour your life than watch it fly by in monochrome mode. Ok, for sure, not everyone has what it takes to be able to wear a faceted rainbow marvellously well on one of their wrists. Yet the Jacob & Co., Hublot, Rolex, Parmigiani, Audemars Piguet and Chopard brands decided to give this adventure a go and have come through with flying colours.

These watches, generally going under the English term “rainbow”, have been delighting collectors and connoisseurs for many years now. Rolex’s reissue of its Daytona Rainbow wowed last year at Baselworld to the extent that it became the key attraction of the show. This year, the Rainbow is back with a blast but this time round introducing a baguette setting.

A setting which is rather more classical for Parmigiani and Chopard which embrace the tone gradient of coloured gems cut and set in this shape exclusively for the bezel encircling

a white or black mother-of-pearl dial. More discreet for Rolex which tops each index of its Day-Date watch with a baguettecut sapphire, but extravagantly showcased on Jacob & Co. and Hublot pieces where even the tiniest little space is strewn with coloured stones.

Technical complexity The key difficulty of the baguette cut lies in perfectly gauging each gem, which are all identically-sized, so that it captures the light as optimally as possible. Its rather flat shape is void of the ever-so many facets which are usually found on round cuts known as brilliants and, as a result, prevents it from sparkling and dazzling. And, it’s here that the invisible setting takes centrestage. Here, the aim is to render the metal invisible so that the gem poises magically, as if hovering in mid air. Jacob & Co.’s Brilliant Full Baguette Rainbow, sprinkled with 446 coloured sapphires totalling some 30 carats, is the perfect

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example. The secret? Under each baguette-cut stone a sort of groove is hollowed out with nano-millimetre accuracy which offers the opportunity to slide the stones, one after the other, to form a line and, as such, to obscure any hint of a claw, a nail or a halo.

Piguet with its Royal Oak Frosted Gold Double Balance Wheel Openworked and Chopard with its Imperiale set with coloured sapphires.

Let’s raise a toast to these timepieces which sparkle with precious stones other than the diamond!

A show of colours The second major complexity of a Rainbow piece is to harmoniously match together the stones. Paying tribute to Isaac Newton (1642-1727) and his mathematical theory of the seven colours of the rainbow is a challenging task especially whenever precious stones are the stars of the show. The colour scheme’s perspicacity comes from the choice of stones.

For example, a ruby may be used for red, amethyst for violet or tsavorites for green as can be seen in Hublot’s Big Bang One-Click Rainbow or in Parmigiani’s Tonda 1950 where the rainbow is close to perfection. Some brands, however, prefer to use precious stones exclusively, such as Audemars

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50 years of a human adventure

By Sharmila Bertin

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ew watchmaking firms can claim they have accompanied mankind in some of its most legendary achievements on land, sea and air. And only one of these brands has marked History with a capital H by taking part in the first Moon landing half a century ago. Omega is celebrating the anniversary of this unprecedented event by doing what the brand does best – designing exceptional watches.

Since the dawn of time, mankind has always sought out and conquered new territories. After exploring unknown lands around the globe, often at the risk of life and limb, and sailing across sometimes turbulent seas, man looked upwards and took to the skies, held aloft by the wind and mechanical engineering techniques. Once the clouds had become familiar travelling companions,

human ambition aimed to f ly even further and higher, all the way to the stars. For centuries, walking on the Moon’s surface was the stuff of dreams, but this dream actually came true, after a few false starts and trials, in the summer of 1969.

A space mission, three US astronauts and a Swiss watch became part of legend on 21 July that year, marking history with an eternal footprint and launching humanity into a new era.

The birth of a future legend “The Omega Speedmaster Professional – nicknamed the Moonwatch – has done things that no other timepiece has done and has been worn in places that only a few human beings have been,“ wrote Eugene Cernan (19342017), a US astronaut and the eleventh man to walk on

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the Moon, in his preface to the book Moonwatch Only.* This somewhat mysterious introduction sums up the personality of a space pioneer that first left our orbit on the wrist of Eugene Cernan, during the Gemini 9 mission in June 1966, and really became the stuff of legend three years later.

The Swiss chronograph with a bezel featuring a tachymetric scale saw the light of day in 1957. Five years later, in 1962, it was picked by NASA along with other competing models to undergo a battery of tests for resistance to the most extreme conditions (temperatures, impacts, vibrations, etc). The only timepiece to survive these heavy and often violent trials, it was certified as the “first watch approved for all manned space missions“ on 1st March 1965. A new phase had been reached in the Speedmaster’s history. As a result, the word “Professional“ was added to the dial at 12 o’clock.

The decisive space mission The certification issued by NASA made the Omega Speedmaster one of the essential instruments for astronauts in the Gemini and the Apollo space programmes, the kind of items they could always rely on. But it was only with the famous Apollo 11 mission that the watch had its meeting with destiny and

achieved legendary status. On 21 July 1969, the lunar module pilot Edwin “Buzz“ Aldrin (1930) became the second man to walk on the Moon, some 20 minutes after the mission’s commander, Neil Armstrong (1930-2012), with a Speedmaster chronograph strapped around his white spacesuit, just above his grey gloves.

The unparalleled adventure was seen by the entire world, filled with amazement and admiration as they watched their television screens. “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”, Neil Armstrong said, shortly after the Moon landing. The journey also proved the reliability and robustness of what would be called the “Moonwatch” from then on, the first watch to go to the Moon. The legend was written and a destiny laid down for the future.

The golden gift To celebrate the historic event, Omega shortly afterwards created a special version of the famous Speedmaster that had been worn by the Apollo 11 crew. The BA145.022 yellow gold model, with a burgundy bezel, was made in August 1969 in just 29 numbered pieces. It was given to all the US astronauts of the period at a gala dinner in Houston on 25 November of the same year, with the following inscription on the case back: “To mark

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man's conquest of space with time, through time, on time�. The watch was such a big hit that the Biel/Bienne watchmakers designed a total of 1,014 pieces until 1972 (or 1973).** Half a century after the famous first moon walk, Omega is re-releasing the model with the same basic design, while adding some contemporary touches and a new calibre, the hand-wound Master Chronometer 3861.

The 42mm-wide case on the Speedmaster Apollo 11 50th Anniversary is dressed in MoonshineTM gold, a patent-pending alloy shining out in a pale-blond colour and resistant to discoloration. The bezel is now made with a burgundy ceramic decorating the Ceragold TM tachymeter. The dial, also made of MoonshineTM gold, is

vertically brushed and features onyx indices and black hands. Like its predecessor from 1969, this sparkling watch is limited to 1,014 pieces.

An eternal footprint A symbol of the ultimate conquest of space, Apollo 11 is still today an incredible source of inspiration for the watchmakers. For the 50th anniversary of the mission, Omega has designed an edition limited to 6,969 pieces made of steel and with hints of MoonshineTM gold. Like the other models in the Moonwatch collection, the Speedmaster is 42mm wide and has a black dial. The centre of the dial features a delicately grained grey disc.

The faceted indices, including the number 11 evoking

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the famous mission at 11 o’clock, the old Omega logo, the precise minute track and the baton-shaped hands for the hours, minutes and totalisers have all been made in the new gold alloy. The same goes for the bezel with the black ceramic ring and including the Ceragold TM tachymetric scale. Only the second hand in the centre is coated with gold MoonshineTM PVD. The small-seconds counter at 9 o’clock is also designed in the same gold material and has been darkened and engraved with a laser to show off the silhouette of Buzz Aldrin leaving the lunar module in a miniature format. The darkened caseback features an astronaut’s footprint engraved with a laser and Neil Armstrong’s most famous quotation written in gold script.

Like the model mentioned above, the watch is driven by the hand-wound calibre 3861 with the Master Chronometer certification. It supplies a power reserve of 50 hours.

The Moon inside a watch It is now possible to keep track of the Queen of the Night, as the three astronauts did in 1969, without having to leave planet Earth, thanks to the Speedmaster Moonphase, which needs adjusting at the crown only once every ten years. While the iconic silhouette is the same as the

Moonwatch, the watch is now bigger. The platinum gold case is 44.25mm wide and features a bezel with a blue ceramic insert and a platinum Liquidmetal TM tachymeter.

The watch is watertight down to 100m and equipped with a sapphire crystal. It houses the automatic calibre 9905 Master Chronometer, featuring a red SednaTM gold rotor designed by Omega with a unique colour and brilliance.

The calibre provides the watch with a power reserve of 60 hours.

The dial is also made of platinum. It has a sanded surface featuring precious white gold indices set with baguette-cut diamonds. While the three darkened and white Super-LumiNova®-coated hands move around the centre to show the hours, the minutes and the chronograph seconds, the other features are shared between two sub-dials and a counter. To begin with, at 9 o’clock, the small-seconds counter is coupled with a date hand with a magnifying glass tip encircled by a red crescent. Next, at 3 o’clock, a totaliser combines and counts up the chronograph hours and minutes. And lastly, at 6 o’clock, a moon phase counter in typical style with its poetic crescent shape displays the famous silver satellite with a Liquidmetal TM platinum and ceramic blue disc.

Two variations of the new blue and silver Speedmaster

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Moonphase are also available: a model with baguettecut emeralds and a green ceramic ring, and a watch set with rubies and encircled by a red aluminium ring. * “Moonwatch Only – The Ultimate Omega Speedmaster Guide” by Grégoire Rossier and Anthony Marqué, published by watchprint.com (2014) ** In “Omega, a Journey through Time“ by Marco Richon (2007), the author states the watch was made until 1972

© Omega

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Pierre Salanitro in the spotlight

By Sharmila Bertin & Mickael Gautier

Y

ou may not know his name, have probably never seen his face, and yet it is likely that the watch that you are holding was previously held by him. Based in Geneva with his recently expanded company, Pierre Salanitro took the time to give us an exclusive tour of his workshops and tell us about the different trades inside. This was a unique opportunity with a discreet, realistic and fair man to whom all major watchmaking brands entrust their timepieces.

It was by a strange twist of fate that you became a stone setter, tell us about how it all began.

I was working in the banking sector which I didn’t particularly enjoy, but I didn’t know what to do instead. Is just so happened that a childhood friend who was visiting his father in his workshop on rue d’Italie suggested that I join him for lunch.

It was a small stone setting workshop with just four people. I didn’t even know it existed; I had no interest in it whatsoever.

Yet it was love at first sight! While my friend was chatting to his father, I watched the stone setters at work. During lunch, I asked him to hire me. He told me that he would first need to see if I had the dexterity to practise this trade, if I had the manual skills. So, he trained me. I worked with him from 5 a.m. until 8 a.m. to learn the trade, from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. at the bank and then I would return to the workshop at 5 p.m. where I would continue my training until 10 p.m. This continued for 10 months, I have now been in the business for more than 30 years.

30 years ago, the demand for stone-set pieces was not as high as it is today though was it?

No, that’s right. We only used to set stones in gold, not steel.

There was no CNC either, everything was done traditionally, by hand from start to finish, and the volumes were much lower. What democratised stone setting was the explosion of

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Int e r vIe w the markets. At that time, there were only four: Europe, Asia (primarily Japan), the Middle East and the USA. Today, these have grown much larger. Democratisation was also the result of the arrival of stone-set steel.

What was it that made you want to set up on your own?

After my training, I worked in the same workshop for two years. But then the watchmaking industry suffered an economic crisis, and as there were only four of us, and I was the last to arrive and the only one without any children, I suggested that they let me go. Once unemployed, I decided to start up on my own, from home, by transforming an Ikea desk into a stone setting workstation and investing my savings in the basics I needed to get started.

Have you developed a speciality as a stone setter?

No, I never wanted to limit myself to just one area, I have preferred to cover the full range of setting techniques. The same goes for the growth of my company which I created in 1990. I never wanted to depend solely on stone setting or a single brand or group, and that’s why I developed design, manufacturing, prototyping, setting, polishing, rhodium plating, assembly…the entire production chain except logistics. This means that we can, according to the period and our customers, which is currently a portfolio of forty brands, operate like communicating vessels.

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Outside of the unavoidable SIHH and Baselworld, how do you manage production lead times?

These are two important events that cannot be moved and for which we deliver finishes watches and not prototypes.

However, nowadays with the time to market , it’s all year round but without the specific target date of an exhibition.

We have worked really hard to shorten lead times, which is better for the end customer but means that we need to have a large infrastructure in order to anticipate and deliver. Thanks to our size and experience, my business can produce volumes and quantities within a very short period of time.

3,300 m 2, for control from start to finish. I imagine that this development is due to the increase in demand.

Yes, demand is very high, for more pieces that are more and more complicated to make, with, for some customers, quality requirements that have become even more strict so that they can differentiate themselves and aim for perfection. As such, they are prepared for longer lead times, for slightly higher prices.

You were one of the first suppliers to become RJC certified*, it was in 2012 I believe.

Yes, we are currently in our 7th year of RJC certification and 3rd of COP certification** which we have just obtained for the next three years.

Can you explain what these certifications consist of, as they represent an important guarantee of quality It is a guarantee of quality, yes, but also ethics. There is the RJC and the CoC***. The RJC covers health and safety at work, the environment and the traceability of stones and materials. As for the CoC, it is specific to the traceability of raw materials, precious materials. Some customers require gold CoC so we control the entire supply chain. We buy from a CoC certified refiner. Our screw suppler, for example, must provide all documentation regarding the origin of their gold supply, the traceability of the gold from their workshop to the finished screw that arrives here. The CoC takes a lot of implementing, a lot of rigour and a lot of monitoring.

As some customers want CoC while others don’t, we must be able to manage flows completely in-house. We have machines dedicated solely to gold CoC. The world is much more sensitive to the environment and the origin of materials than it was before. And then there is also the internet which allows information to circulate much faster, and news of an unethical brand would travel the world in two minutes flat and would probably be negative, thus causing a lot of damage with regards to image. This was the case with animal skins, particularly stingray and alligator.

When we met in 2011, you were specialising in stone setting for high-end jewelled watches and limited editions. Is this no longer the case?

Previously, yes. We had a special unit for these types of watches, which still exists, but now we also offer a multitude of stages, from polishing to rhodium plating, for mass production. However, I also have customers who send me stone-free pieces for setting only. In contrast, for polishing, we don’t work as a subcontractor and only accept watches that we have designed.

In actual fact, your work goes beyond this controlled manufacturing as you also supply stones, and you even discover new target markets!**** For Paraiba tourmaline, it was a combination of circumstances and then a huge challenge as it had never been done before. I had exclusive access to the mine, and I proposed the project to Hublot who said yes immediately. All the watches made so that they could be presented at the start of the year in Geneva were sold very quickly and new orders have been placed.

Now, customers are having to wait as for this type of piece there is no lead time. It depends on what can be extracted raw from the mine. But customers are willing to wait because they know that it is an extremely rare stone. Rarer and more expensive than diamonds. And the size of the baguette for this stone is also a first. This is the first time that a watch has been set with a baguette cut tourmaline.

We have just visited your workshops which you have expanded and are now spread over three floors and cover a total area of

Coloured stones are another of your specialities. Is there a certification for these types of gems?

Do you only focus on the watchmaking? Not jewellery?

In actual fact, we don’t just work on stone-set watches but also watches without stone settings as we also manufacture solid gold pieces. However, stone setting remains our primary vocation, our strength.

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37 At the moment, there aren’t really any certifications for these types of stones, but the need for their traceability is significant. Personally, I will go as far as possible to guarantee this traceability, even to the mine that supplies these stones, and I believe, unless I am mistaken, that I am the first to do this. Paraíba tourmaline is a good example. I know most of the mines, I visit them, and that’s also my plan for this year: to visit three to five this year, starting with Asia.

What do you think of the synthetic stones that people are talking about at the moment?

In my opinion, this will happen more and more for entry level brands, while luxury brands will continue to favour genuine and natural stones. In any event, synthetic stones have not yet been sufficiently developed for the watchmaking industry; they are still too large for watches, unlike jewellery which requires larger stones that are easier to make. On the other hand, in terms of the environment, they are also not the best, as the energy needed to make a stone is huge. So, it isn’t a done deal, there is still some way to go.

I imagine that, unlike the big players in the watchmaking industry, you bore the brunt of the protracted crisis a few years ago.

From June 2014 to June 2017, which was a 3-year watchmaking crisis, the worst I have ever experienced in 29 years of business, not because of the intensity but because of the duration. What’s more, I had just spent three years investing heavily in the construction and renovation of our workshops and the development of the company when it happened. I don’t

often complain, but that was a difficult time. However, despite this misfortune, I still consider myself lucky as I work with the most wonderful watch brands, most of which are longstanding customers. They really supported me. They showed me that the word “partner” was not a cliché. Today, I have emerged from this crisis even stronger than before. * Responsible Jewellery Council ** “Code of Practices” issued by the RJC *** “Chain-of-Custody” issued by the RJC **** Read article p.52-53, The Watches Magazine #056 spring edition 2019

© Mickael Gautier

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B r e gu e t

38

The velvety splendour of blue enamel

By Sharmila Bertin

T

he Classique collection is reputed for portraying all the style codes which Abraham-Louis Breguet introduced during his career from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th, on the dials of its watches. Among these faces which are generally white-enamelled or adorn handengraved guillochĂŠ silvered-gold, a newcomer, dressed in blue, stands out and brings new radiance to this family of timepieces.

Towards the end of the 18th century in Paris, far from his

fellow watchmakers who favoured the ornamental style of their creations, Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823) was first and foremost an engineer of the art of watchmaking and privileged technicity over style. To enhance the readability of time information, he freed the dial of all irrelevant decoration and introduced refined stylistics, an ever-so modern design for the times. The numerals, the hands, the fluting, to name but a few, together form the perfectly-identifiable signature of Breguet the watchmaker, a distinctive brand which prevails

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among the contemporary watches of the Breguet company in particular the timepieces of the Classique collection.

In 1783, Abraham-Louis Breguet imagined a new, extremely fine hand, referred to as the hollow moon-tip hand, ending with rather marked triangular tip, which we now call the “Breguet hand”. This hand is fashioned in gold, in flame-blued steel, a tone which stands out perfectly from the dial generally coated with white enamel. And, it’s precisely this colour which the Vallée de Joux-based firm wished to highlight on its reference 5177. This timepiece has been part of Breguet’s catalogue for several years now in a version comprising a hand-engraved guilloché silvered-gold dial which unveils a checkerboard pattern and another, rather more classical one, with a white Grand Feu enamel face delicately brushed over by blued-steel hands. With this new variation adorning a blue-enamelled disc, Breguet offers a ‘negative’ vision of its more “traditional” watch, where classical black and white have been replaced with navy and silver. The complexity of the Grand Feu enamel work, which involves a great deal of good or bad luck when fired in the furnace, is heightened even more-so by the complexity of colour. It is a real challenge for the master enamellers to successfully obtain a magnificent, dazzling shade inspired by the blueness of the hands and

which conjures up the connection which the watchmaker has with the ocean. The hour indexes, embodied by Arabic numerals known as Breguet numerals, opt for the softness of silver, whilst the minute tracker is transformed into a miniscule circular constellation crowned with lozenges on the cardinal points. The date, also in powdered silver, is discreetly displayed in an aperture at 3 o’clock. At the heart of this luminous disc with its maritime overtones, a duo of steel hollow moon-tip Breguet hands skims over the hours and minutes, accompanied by a direct-drive which, true to its role, ticks away the seconds.

Presented in a 38 mm-diameter white gold case with the famous fluted caseband, the essence of time is driven by the 777Q calibre, a self-winding mechanical movement embracing a silicon balance-spring and beating at 4 Hz. This motor, whose hand-engraved guilloché oscillating weight, decorated with guilloché chevrons is visible through the sapphire-crystal caseback, offers a 55-hour power reserve.

This elegant ensemble, which stands out from the rest of the Classique collection, is set off with a dark-blue alligator strap.

© Breguet

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Pat e k PhiliPPe

40

Sport and refinement stand to attention

By Mathilde Binetruy

P

atek Philippe pursues the development of its “Jumbo” model with a khaki green version which invites to adventure. This watch just oozes with military style through its manly 42.2 mm case, its ultra-resistant material fashioned strap and its 123-metre-deep waterproofness. Yet there’s one thing that torments us: how long are we going to have to twiddle our thumbs before we can gift ourselves with such a marvel which probably already has an enormous waiting

list? Aquanaut, season 2, the unavoidable price of success.

While a sports watch generally rhymes with chronograph, while, apart from showing off during a Board meeting, it’s basically meant for measuring performance, while its design often looks like an XXL Swiss knife on the wrist, well, it pretty much seems like Patek Philippe’s Aquanaut belongs in the realm of UFOs. But, UFOs that no-one can resist.

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Wow, what style, what a look, what class… this icon really creates the buzz every time it appears on the scene! In 2017, for its 20th anniversary it was unveiled in a first whitegold version. With its 42.2 mm diameter, this creation with its midnight-blue dial and strap stood out as the biggest Aquanaut. In 2019, its daring dimensions remain the same but its colour changes. Ah, this adventurous khaki green which adorns it! The highest mountain-tops, the most barren deserts, the greatest depths of the oceans... in its wake, a whiff of adventure explodes.

Its checkerboard-patterned dial, incidentally, has everything of a map of the world that also displays hour, minute, second and date (at 3 o’clock) functions. It centre stages applique Arabic numerals, five-minute indexes, applique too, and batontype hour and minute hands – all in white gold highlighted with luminescent coating. Wonderfully-easy, wonderfullyclassy, wonderfully-efficient! Nothing irrelevant, nothing grandstanding. The octagonal shape of the case heightens the

original slant of the piece, adorned with polished finishing details on top and satin-brushed along the edges. What about the strap? Well, urban warriors out there would definitely check all the boxes: made in composite material, waterproof and ultra-resistant to tension, to wear, to salt water and to ultraviolet rays.

To make the heart of this reference 5168G-010 beat, Patek Philippe chose a self-winding calibre (no pun intended), the 324 S C, visible through the sapphire-crystal caseback. Given its 3.3 mm height, it is pure technical state-of-the-artness.

Perfect illustration that, behind chic, understated and refined adornments, sports watches can reign supreme. Real ones!

© Patek Philippe

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C hopar d

42

“We’re captivated by simple elegance”*

By Sharmila Bertin

A

but without doing away with it altogether. The watch breaks the mould, but gently and elegantly, in a way Chopard does so well. The softly disruptive approach to the traditional design is part of the charm of this limited edition of just 250 pieces.

In the watchmaking world, symmetry is a design element that is often linked to technique but also to habit. Most watches have the same layout (except for chronographs): the crown, for winding the watch and setting the time, is at 3 o’clock on the side of the case; the hour and minute hands are in the centre, and the small-seconds counter is at 6 or occasionally at 9 o’clock. Only the position of the date counter varies, and is either at 3 o’clock or 6. The new L.U.C. XPS Twist QF model, launched at Baselworld last March, defies the habitual layout,

On the case of the L.U.C, the crown has been moved a notch lower and is now at 4 o’clock. The watch is designed in white Fairmined gold, as are all Chopard watches and jewellery since summer 2018. The case is 40mm wide and 7.20mm thick, with dimensions suited to both a man’s or a woman’s wrist. Inside the watch is the L.U.C 96.26-L, a self-winding mechanical movement that is just 3.30 mm high and runs at a frequency of 3.5Hz (25,200 vibrations an hour). With the help of the Twin® technology and a double barrel, it provides the watch with a power reserve of 65 hours. This in-house

mong the new watches launched in Chopard’s L.U.C collection at Baselworld 2019, the XPS Twist QF model stands out with its incredibly elegant look and eye-catching, asymmetrical design. We take a closer look at a refined and charm-packed limited-edition model.

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Chopard mechanism also has a double COSC and Qualité Fleurier certification, a guarantee of watchmaking quality.

But the seductive power of the L.U.C XPS Twist QF is really focused on the slate blue dial. It produces a hypnotic effect on the eye with the sunburst satin finish and the concentric waves extending from the blued small-seconds counter at 7 o’clock – another “disruptive element” compared with the traditional layout used in the watch industry – all the way to the edge of the dial, like a stone thrown into a lake producing ripples on the surface of the water. The colour results from galvanic treatment and is enhanced by silver cone-shaped indices below the rhodium-plated “rocket runner” hour and minute hands. A white date shown against a blue slate background at 3 o’clock discreetly rounds off the time elements.

This sublime timepiece by Chopard is worn with an alligatorleather strap, with plant dyes providing the same colour as the dial. The strap is lined with cognac-coloured alligator leather and comes with a white-gold tang buckle. * Ovid (43 BC/17 AD) Latin poet

© Chopard

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TAG He u e r

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Autavia superstar

By Sharmila Bertin

W

hilst its younger sibling, the famous Monaco, is set to celebrate its 50th anniversary this year, the Autavia model makes its mark in TAG Heuer collections with a series of watches, including two references in bronze, with a rather retro look and equipped with the new Isograph hairspring.

Even though it is less well-known to the public than its siblings, the Monaco which will be blowing its 50 candles this year and the Carrera, the discreet Autavia nevertheless marks a key milestone in TAG Heuer’s history. The name of this piece which saw the day back in 1962 in its “watch” format comes from the collision of two worlds, from the fusion of two industries wellrooted in the 20th century and from which this timepiece draws its stylistic inspiration: AUTomobile and AVIAtion.

As a result of the worldwide industrial revolution which spanned

from the 1840s through to the end of the 19th century and the host of inventions and technical developments it offered, these sectors flourished tremendously in a matter of a few decades.

They enabled Humankind to move around more easily on land as well as in the air, to reduce the distance between countries and continents and, slowly but surely, made them nomadic.

Cars and planes, democratized in the 50s, and more so in the 60s, fascinated and became a source of creative inspiration for a great many sectors including watchmaking. Although some watches have built their history on automobile or aviation, Autavia is, however, the only one to have espoused both worlds.

Heir to a long line of sports chronometers, wrist-chronographs (as of 1914) and watches created specifically for pilots (in the 1930s), Autavia appeared for the first time in 1933 as an onboard timing system tailored for both cars and planes. Two decades would go by before it would return in the shape of

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a watch to be worn on the wrist. And, it’s not the first time that Autavia has entered and exited the history stage of the brand from Locle because after the 1930s, then the 1960s, it disappeared once again until... 2016! That’s right, three years ago, TAG Heuer invited Internet users to choose an Autavia model among sixteen historic references. This campaign, which 50,000 people took part in, was a real success and led to the reissue of Autavia “Rindt”, a panda-style chronograph with black dial and white counters worn by the Austrian Formula 1 driver Jochen Rindt (1942-1970). In 2017, Autavia hit the scene as a 1932-piece limited edition with silvered face and black totalizers and bezel, which the Swiss firm presented in honour of the 85th birthday of Jack Heuer, the founder’s great-grandson and the firm’s honorary chairman. This reissue, which bears his signature engraved on the caseback along with the family crest dating back to the 16th century and whose timeless style it glorifies, is particularly significant, a symbolic and tender harmony, because Autavia was the first model born out of Jack Heuer’s creativeness and crafted with his own hands.

Today, this legendary piece has cut loose to become a collection in its own right, hosting five new references, including two bronze versions with titanium caseback, showcased at Baselworld. All house the calibre 5 which drives the hour/ minute/second trio in the centre and the date at 6 o’clock. This

self-winding mechanical movement is chronometer-certified, beats at a frequency of 4 Hz (28,800 vibrations an hour), offers a 38-hour power reserve and, above all, is equipped with the latest technical feat developed in-house: the Isograph hairspring. This gem, fashioned in carbon composite, offers a host of assets, in particular extreme resistance to gravity, to shocks and to magnetism.

Irrespective of whether it’s blue, taupe, khaki or brown, the finely-sanded-finished dial is enhanced by a misty effect which invites the colour to unveil itself as a delicate rainbow of shades. The large Arabic numerals of the hours and the large centre-set hands are covered with white or beige SuperLumiNova® depending on the model, whilst the rather-more discreet date is featured in white on a black backdrop. As for the 42 mm-diameter case, it is set off with an imposing fluted crown inspired by the pilot watches and counters made by TAG Heuer between 1933 and 1957; a rotating bezel incorporating a coloured or matt-steel ring completes this ensemble, waterproof to a depth of 100 metres.

Thanks to the push-piece brilliantly-placed inside the strap, this Autavia can be changed with a click of the fingers to be worn with a leather or steel strap at your heart’s desire. © TAG Heuer

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Ja qu e t Dr oz

The Matterhorn in the moonlight

46

By Sharmila Bertin

T

he La Chaux-de-Fonds brand, renowned for its mineral dials, has tackled Switzerland’s loftiest icon: the Matterhorn. The challenge has led to a tribute to the founder Pierre Jaquet-Droz’s homeland in the form of a deep green watch with marbled veins.

Jaquet Droz has put its artisan expertise into plucking sometimes unheard-of minerals from nature, working with the raw material to bring the best out of it, playing with its rough patches, reflections and colours. Magical. You could call it adventurous too as the brand’s new watch uses serpentinite from a famous Swiss mountain. We’re talking about a worldfamous Swiss icon whose unique instantly recognisable pyramid shape appears on a well-known triangular chocolate bar: the Matterhorn. Its 4478m peak on the Italian border makes it the 12th biggest mountain in the Alps. Its steep sides are made up of layers of different rocks including serpentinite.

Yellow serpentinite is a relatively soft metamorphic mineral often used as ornamental stone with a green tinge or green inclusions. Its name comes from its scaly texture reminiscent of a reptile’s smooth yet rough skin. It’s this same special rock from the top of the Matterhorn that lends its dark marbled texture to the dial of the Grande Seconde Moon by Jaquet Droz, a limited edition (88) only available to the Swiss market.

True to the founder Pierre Jaquet-Droz’s (1721- 1790) style, the watch dial with a white gold chapter ring showcases the figure

of 8 in the form of two interlocked silver bevelled circles. The small circle at 12 features the hours and minutes tracked by two spear-shaped hands; the large circle houses the seconds, date with a red-tipped hand and moon phase in an engraved white gold disc with applied stars. It only needs adjusting every 122 years.

All its vital and poetic functions are brought to life by the twin-barrel JD2660 QL3 calibre, a self-winding mechanical movement at 4hz with a 68-hour power reserve. It lies in a 43mm steel case that’s 13.23mm thick and comes with a black alligator leather strap and steel deployment clasp.

© Jaquet Droz

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Mont b lanc

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Heiress from prestigious lineage

By Sharmila Bertin

T

he highly-renowned watchmaking manufacture Minerva, today under the umbrella of the Richemont Group and handed to Montblanc, built its reputation on its legendary mono-pusher chronographs and, sometime around the 1950s, pieces known as “doctors’ watches”. These stood out with a pulsimeter which adorned the edge of the dial used to measure heart and artery rate. The pulsimeter, an indispensable tool for the medical profession and more practical than the sphygmograph, a 1954-developed device for mechanically measuring and recording pulse rate, indicates directly on the dial and without calculating the

frequency of heartbeats. Although current-day techniques and technologies have made this type of instrument become rather obsolete, it is still however a magnificent object to wear, highly-different from classical chronographs, as illustrated by the Heritage Pulsograph edition proposed in just one hundred pieces.

This watch, unveiled in January during SIHH, is one of the key pieces of the newcomers imagined by Montblanc and, without a doubt, figures amongst the most exquisite models centre staged at the Geneva show. Its cambered dial wows with the orange colour that adorns it, an incredibly-vintage salmon

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pink which is in perfect harmony with the hosted pulsometric scale. This scale, inscribed in blue and graduated up to thirty beats, runs along the flange. The various finishing details offer visual motion and embrace an overall sunrayed hue and an embossed ring featuring the hour chapter. To pursue the accord, the indexes – six dots and two applique Arabic numerals – are not black, as that would have created too much contrast – but anthracite grey. The same holds true for the two central Dauphine-style hour and minute hands delicately topped by a dash of Super-LumiNova®. As for the running seconds, they are set in a snailed counter at 9 o’clock. For the chronograph, which is triggered by an oblong push-piece at 2 o’clock on the case flank, the seconds are indicated by a red-tipped, blued baton-style direct-drive which hovers over a contrasting black scale, and the minutes are counted in a totalizer at 3 o’clock.

The 40 mm-diameter polished steel case houses the MB M13.21 calibre, a hand-wound mechanical movement beating at a gentle frequency of 18,000 vibrations per hour (2.5 Hz).

This Montblanc-manufactured motor offers a power reserve of 55 hours once fully wound up.

A grey Sfumato alligator strap attached by a steel folding clasp complements this highly-elegant ensemble and marvellously matches the indexes and central hands.

© Montblanc

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Hu b lot

50

“The only real art market is in the passing of time”*

By Sharmila Bertin

A

lthough it goes without saying that Hublot excels in the art of fusion – a concept which it actually developed – the brand also embraces such a vast scope of action that each of its new watchmaking creations, imagined in its workshops, are filled with magical surprises. From football pitches to partnerships with eminent artists, centre staging a mix and match of worlds that are forever ever-so different, the watchmaker never ceases to amaze us. And, this rings true (once again) with these two limited-edition watches which reproduce on their faces the vibrantly-coloured graphical talent of the French artist Marc Ferrero.

All eyes were fixed on the impressive Big Bang Scuderia Ferrari 90th Anniversary models at Baselworld this year, yet it was a duo of watches unveiled earlier in the year that caught my attention. I was actually immediately drawn to the graphic artwork, the bright hues and the symbolism radiating from these two pieces designed in collaboration with Marc Ferrero.

We don’t always realize how omnipresent dark shades are, how much they invade our everyday life and we realize even

less just how much colour, like the sun’s rays, does us a world of good. The energy that it liberates, I really felt it the moment I discovered these Big Bang One Click which scenescape two colour schemes, one turquoise blue – my favourite colour – and the other pink red.

The genesis of this creation was the encounter between two giants, i.e. Marc Ferrero and Hublot, who officiate in two totally different spheres. Well, if truth be told, not as different as that because watchmaking is also a form of art and embraces, as well you know, a great deal of technicity.

Then again, these two key players share a same passion, their own specific know-how as regards fusion. Marc Ferrero, a French artist, born in 1963, is the father of Storytelling Art, a graphical technique based specifically on marrying several pictorial influences, from cubism to impressionism, via figurative art, and playing on framing to tell a story populated with fictional characters. This stylistic, representative approach intensified by the desire to explore new avenues coincides with Hublot’s, a brand used to combining various, regularly rather surprising, materials and workmanship on

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51 its watches. We all remember of course the great stir caused by the Classic Fusion Tourbillon Vitrail, Italia Independent and the Tourbillon Berlutti, as well as the Big Bang Broderie and – more recently – the Zermatt edition**.

The two Big Bang One Click Marc Ferrero models are limited to 50 pieces per reference. A glance is all it takes to instantly recognize the artist’s mark on the dial through Lipstick, one of his most famous works of art. Like all the artistic work of this Frenchman, this dial puts our imaginations to work by plunging us deep into the life of a stranger. The impassive face of this unknown person appears as a close-up, eyes hidden behind a pair of Victoria Beckham-style sunglasses.

The mouth half-opened with an almost childlike pout, this mysterious woman finishes glossing her lips in red and is still holding the lipstick against her chin. A host of other faces are clustered all around her. Her own. Because this woman is plural. She always has been, it’s nothing new, but the rhythm of today’s life means she has to take on even more roles over the course of a single day: mother, wife, lover, warrior, sporty woman, working girl, etc., yet forever remaining level-headed.

We’re so immersed in this miniature work of art printed on a black-lacquered disc that we almost forget it actually tells the time. Two openworked hands and a direct-drive featuring an “H”-shaped counterpoise display the hours, minutes and seconds in the centre. Here, the dial is devoid of indexes so as not to perturb the art, only a white-printed minute tracker features on the turquoise or raspberry flange, depending on the version chosen. The main time data is driven by the

HUB1710 calibre, a self-winding mechanical movement which beats at a frequency of 4 Hz and offers a power reserve of 50 hours.

The case hosting the motor and waterproof to a depth of 100 m, is fashioned in steel and measures 39 mm diameter and is 12.55 mm thick. It is topped with a bezel which highlights a range of gems – 42 blue topazes or red spinels – strewn across a precious ribbon. The composite-resin lugs and lateral inserts match the dominant colours applied on the dial.

The rubber strap, covered with calfskin and coloured and cut based on the Lipstick design, ends with a steel folding clasp to ensure the watch remains comfortably attached to the wrist. This strap can easily be replaced with a turquoise or red alligator one with tone-on-tone overstitching. * Marc Ferrero ** see article p.60 and 61, The Watches Magazine #055

© Hublot / Laurent Xavier Moulin

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R e b e llion

52

Atomic exploit

By Dan Diaconu

T

hinking out of the box. The Weap-One, imagined by Rebellion, and revealed in 2017, makes this ambition reality. A slimline titanium case hosts a surprising calibre. Two “wheel-nut” shaped crowns top this cylinder.

The right-hand one is dedicated to winding the movement whilst the left-hand one for setting time. The hours and minutes are displayed by two rollers placed at each extremity.

Between this time data, an asymmetrical flying tourbillon, revolving at a speed of 60 seconds, comes into play on several axes majestically. Behind the apparent simplicity is a savvy assembly of some 529 components. The hand-wound movement is the fruit of a development masterminded handin-hand with the team from Concepto. Another highlight of this timepiece, its ability to metamorphose. The case is snapcliqued to the strap via a support. It can easily be removed and turned into a table clock.

Rebellion, forever questing performance, wished to go beyond the realms of the possible. Although its Weap-One Diamonds hosts the 40 mm-long, 25 mm-diameter case, we perceive an

omnipresence of sapphire which now also adorns the crowns.

Another difference, when compared with the previous model, is in the regulating device with its diamond-fashioned carriage.

But not just any diamond… here, it’s a high-tech material used in the aerospace sector for its multiple properties and which has the particularity of being unbreakable. The Swiss brand called on a Japanese firm Adamant Namiki Precision, which uses a patented production method to produce this surprising flat-shaped atomic diamond.

The method used for creating it is highly-spectacular and it requires a good deal of patience to obtain the length desired.

The Japanese company chose the hetero-epitaxial option, a process which prompts the growth of fine layers a few nanometres thick from the perfectly-polished surface of a monocrystal. And, the result? This material takes longer than a plant to grow. Judge for yourselves! A millimetre of this synthetic diamond takes 40 days to produce. The equivalent of 280 days was required to obtain the seven millimetres necessary for the tourbillon component.

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80 days more were added for delicate polishing, performed using a plasma fusion CMP process. The creation of this carriage, the only one of its kind in the world, took a whole year, something totally unheard of until now.

Š Rebellion

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R ole x

54

Hoist the sails

By Sharmila Bertin

B

orn out of a passion for the maritime world in general and nautical sports in particular, the Oyster Perpetual Yacht-Master collection takes on a new diameter, new material and a new calibre this year and, once again illustrates that Rolex masters the dangers and pleasures which the Deep Blue conceals.

If tomorrow you chose to gift yourself with a watch but the seller advised you to remove it before washing your hands, taking a shower or diving into a pool, would you be surprised?

Definitely. And it’s even most likely that you wouldn’t even buy this piece because waterproofness is, for most of us, a sort of acquis, a standard to which the great majority of timepieces adhere, irrespective if they can be immersed to a depth of 20, 150 or 500 metres. In this field – and in a myriad of others! – Rolex is a pioneer. The brand with-the-crown has been firmly

attached to the maritime world, to its dangers as well as its pleasures for almost a century.

In 1926, it developed the first-ever waterproof and dustproof watch baptized Oyster, a rather rare name stemming from the marine mollusc enveloped by a shell and comprising two valves which would close up whenever it felt attacked. Isn’t it true that we say “close up like an oyster” whenever, for a reason or another, we decide to remain silent, to keep our emotions to ourselves, to erect a barrier to protect ourselves from others, to become hermetic? A Rolex doesn’t have emotions: it creates them. In particular when this famous Oyster crossed the Channel in over ten hours on the wrist of the British swimmer Mercedes Gleitze (1900-1981). This milestone in its history paved the way for other waterproof and even super-waterproof models like the Submariner in 1953, the first-ever watch waterproof to a depth of 100 metres.

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It was followed in the 1950s and 60s by different versions of Deep Sea, capable of resisting immersions as considerable as the 10,000 m of the Mariana Trench; then in 1967 by the SeaDweller (waterproof to 610 m), the Sea-Dweller 4000 (over 1,200 m) in 1978, and, last but not least, the Yacht-Master in 1992.

The Oyster Perpetual Yacht-Master, designed for the maritime world in general and nautical sports in particular, emphasizes the link which has existed between Rolex and the sailing world for over 50 years. This long-standing relationship saw the light of day with a first partnership with the New York Yacht Club and branched out over time to become key support for prestigious regattas and reputed clubs around the globe.

The Yacht-Master is a champion on the water but also on the wrist. Its robustness, its reliability, its waterproofness to 100 m makes it the perfect companion for all sailing enthusiasts, be they professionals or amateurs. This nautical watch, presented during the 2019 edition of Baselworld, adorns three attires for the first time in the collection, two centre staging its style and one its motor.

To begin with, the size of the Oyster case – in other words, a mono-block case-middle, a screwed crown and caseback which guarantee waterproofness to a depth of 100 m – have been upped to reach a diameter of 42 mm. Moreover, this hermetic armour is designed in white gold, a precious

metal which endows this collection with a new colour. It is topped with a bidirectional rotating bezel which hosts a ring fashioned in Cerachrom, the Rolex-exclusive technical ceramic developed in 2005, coloured matt-black and on which a relief-style 60-minute scale spreads out. Cerachrom is extremely hard, virtually scratchproof and impervious to the sun’s rays which tend to deteriorate the colour; the numerals and graduations inscribed on the bezel are actually moulded in the ceramic before being polished, the contrast with the matt aspect makes the timepiece quick to read.

The black-lacquered dial hosts large, white gold geometric indexes highlighted with Chromalight, Rolex’s proprietary intense, long-lasting, blue-emitting luminescent material, offering optimal readability in any circumstances. The trio of hands responsible for displaying the hours, minutes and seconds in the centre, is also fashioned in white gold and highlighted with Chromalight. At 3 o’clock, the date aperture, in black set on a white backdrop, is topped by a Cyclope magnifying glass incorporated in the sapphire crystal, a practical, stylish signature which Rolex has been rolling out since 1953.

Third and final attire, the new Oyster Perpetual YachtMaster beats to the rhythm of the manufacture 3235 calibre, another first for the collection. This self-winding mechanical movement, enhanced with a Parachrom balance-spring,

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imperious to magnetic fields, drives the aforementioned features and delivers a power reserve of 70 hours.

Because wearing comfort is primordial, the Geneva-based watchmaker chose an ergonomic Oysterflex strap for this model, which includes a couple of flexible, metallic titanium and nickel blades covered with highly-resistant black elastomer. It attaches to the wrist with a white gold Oysterlock safety folding clasp complemented by the Glidelock system, which offers the wearer the opportunity to lengthen the strap with a flick of the hand and without needing a tool to adapt it to wearing directly on naked skin or over a wetsuit. Once the watch is well-positioned on the wrist, well, it’s time to jump on-board, hoist the sails and be whisked away by the scent of ocean spray!

Š Rolex

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U lysse Nar diN

58

Soldiers of time

By Sharmila Bertin

W

ith this duo of limited-edition Marine Torpilleur Military watches, Ulysse Nardin pays tribute to its marine chronometer specialist reputation born when the firm was founded some 173 years ago, yet rides on the crest of current trends by embracing up-to-theminute colours and materials.

Back in 1967 the great French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent (1936-2008) introduced the safari jacket into women’s wardrobes. This jacket, fitted, enhanced with a belt interlaced with loops and integrating four pockets, intended for the everyday female adventurer was actually a garment borrowed from military gear, mainly worn by guys and created at the end of the 19th century for the British Army established in India. This fashion reinterpretation was one of the first-ever to have centre staged clothing on the catwalk which was initially made for soldiers and re-shaped to correspond to a use a far-cry from the battlefield.

As such, Yves Saint Laurent’s safari jacket paved the way

for other garments (combat fatigues to be worn baggystyle with a host of pockets), accessories (combat boots, the well-known trekking-style army boots, as well as the must-have knapsack) and patterns (camouflage, available in greens, beiges, greys and blues). Above and beyond the cuts and their revamped-look, it is chiefly all the colours that enchant, khaki green has been, by the way, a recurrent colour in fashion brand lookbooks for several decades now and is gradually edging its way into the watchmaking scene.

If Ulysse Nardin adopts these tones which are usually reserved for military elites, it is not (only) to be all the rage but for the purpose of perpetuating a tradition which saw the light of day back in 1846 when the company was founded. The Locle-based brand stood out from the crowd from the very beginning by creating marine chronometers, an indispensable tool back then for sailing craft and in particular for the armed forces working across oceans.

This link which bonds the watchmaker with the Deep Blue still persists today and all Ulysse Nardin-stamped watches

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embrace a little bit of this maritime inspiration.

Far removed from ports and other military bases, the two new Marine Torpilleur Military are available as 300-piece limited editions per model. They place the spotlight on two colours which we usually find on the uniforms of soldiers working on dry land or among the waves of the sea, i.e. khaki and dark blue, and two solid materials, steel and bronze. Although the first is relatively commonplace in the watchmaking world, the second came into play around ten years ago. Bronze, a copper and tin alloy developed 3,000 years BCE for making tools and weapons, is reputed for its resistance to wear and corrosion and for its golden honey colour which burnishes over time and takes on an enchanting verdigris hue. Both cases of this duo measure 44 mm in diameter, are waterproof to a depth of 50 m, host a screwed crown as well as a slimline, delicately-fluted fixed bezel. The steel caseback, coated in black DLC or not, bears a medallion with the engraving of a destroyer poised on the high sea.

As for the dial, its sanded finish takes on a black or blue tint, depending on the model chosen. Large Arabic numerals adorned with green-tinted, slightly-yellow or white with a dash of azure are emphasized by a pair of green or golden pear-shaped hands in charge of indicating the hours and minutes. At 6 o’clock, a small seconds counter, edged by a tin-plate railway-style minute-tracker, nestles, set against a whitened backdrop bearing the limited-edition number inscribed in red and the initials C.W. for Chronometer Watch. The reason being is that the self-winding mechanical movement which drives these two watches, the UN-118 calibre, is chronometer-certified by the COSC. In addition, it provides a power reserve of some 60 hours.

Each variation of this duo of Marine Torpilleur Military pieces is proposed with a matching strap: khaki textile for the black DLC steel version and navy blue leather for the bronze version. Š Ulysse Nardin

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Fer dinand B e rt hou d

60

Ask it for the moon

By Vincent Daveau

F

ounded by Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud exalts the art of measuring time with its new Chronomètre FB 1L by offering a dreamlike vision to the various faces which our satellite the moon embraces in the night-time sky over a synodic period.

With its brand new Chronomètre FB 1L, proposed in ten white gold pieces with ceramic lugs, as well as in white gold with ceramized titanium lugs once again offered in ten examples, Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud pays tribute to the masters and the savants who, like Ferdinand Berthoud (1727-1807) and famous astronomers such as Chevalier de Borda (1733-1799), successfully joined forces and shared their knowledge during the Age of Enlightenment to offer sailors heading off to sea the means to accurately measure their longitude. To do this, this new chronometric-quality

piece driven by a hand-wound “in-house” calibre equipped with a constant force fusée-and-chain mechanism and regulated by a tourbillon, incorporates a mechanism enabling it to display different information on the dial about the ages and phases of our natural satellite, the moon. Through these two generally separate pieces of information, it was possible for whoever owned a good watch and an almanac compiling various astronomical measurements about the status of the moon at a given date and point on the globe, to determine the longitude by measuring the angular deviation of the position of the moon at various points in time.

It goes without saying that, in this GPS era, the main aim of this watch is to transfigure engineering in poetry and to encourage real connoisseurs to think about the place of Humankind in the universe by reconsidering the various

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61 temporalities which govern us. The dial, first and foremost, displays civil time (or mean time) and lunar cycle time. A lunation, divided into four phases, is the interval of time between two new moons. It currently lasts for 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 2.8 seconds. This display, although perfectly poetical, lacks precision as soon as it is called upon to come into play. As such, watchmakers chose to display the moon’s age in days, in a sector numbered from 1 to 14 (from the new to the full moon), using a hand which moves forwards, then backwards once the full moon has taken place, until it returns to the new moon once again and so forth. This retrograde indication is complemented by a second piece of information featured in the aperture set at 5 o’clock on the tip of an arrow encircling a half sphere which, symbolizing the moon, faithfully reproduces the two large faces. Here, the lunation status where the reader is positioned is expressed in a synoptic manner. In other words, whether the moon is waxing or waning. It should be mentioned that this display draws its inspiration from the one Ferdinand Berthoud used to indicate the equation of time, another fundamental measurement to measure longitude correctly.

© Ferdinand Berthoud

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C hane l

62

Eternal youth

By Sharmila Bertin

A

must-of-musts in the contemporary watchmaking world and invincible in the category of sporty-looking character pieces, the J12 remains the benchmark for ceramic watches. This year, this style icon was given a few discreet yet important design enhancements as well as a new mechanical heart integrally manufactured in Switzerland.

Poetic with its white robe, mysterious draped with its black cape, occasionally strewn with sparkling, dazzling diamonds: exactly nineteen years that the J12 has been reigning supreme like an untouchable icon. Although it was not the first to have introduced ceramic onto the watchmaking stage, it is by far the

one which best masters this brilliant silky, fresh ornamental adornment. Freshness, which it unveiled when it shook up the ever-so well-established watchmaking codes back in 2000 in its dark, smouldering version. The new millennium marked the opening of a new chapter in Chanel’s watchmaking: the J12 is unlike any other watch. Often copied, never equalled and wildly seducing, its androgynous silhouette, dressed in black from head to toe, masters reflections and, in 2003, chose to elaborate with dual immaculateness. Whilst most wrists boast rather dark pieces, the glittering creation of Jacques Helleu (1938-2007), Chanel’s then Artistic Director, gleams on the wrist. Soon to celebrate its twentieth anniversary, the golden

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63 age where everything is permitted, the icon is enjoying a second youth. It has changed without changing, has evolved whilst remaining the same, accepts these few enhancements without exposing them.

The J12 owes this new light to Arnaud Chastaingt, the young Director of Chanel’s watchmaking design studio since 2013 and father of several creations, in particular the Boy.Friend, Code Coco and Monsieur de Chanel watches. Moreover, his work for the Parisian firm was honoured on two occasions during the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève in 2017 and 2018. Fascinated by the J12 since the beginning of the 2000s, he passionately immersed himself in the timepiece to better observe it, then to redesign it. Fashioning such an emblematic timepiece, which already had its public, its success, its codes for almost twenty years, was, of course, going to be a much more complex and perilous exercise than taking a blank sheet of paper and pencil and letting his imagination run free. Yet… it was worth it! He pulled the challenge off brilliantly! The new J12 has undergone a few changes – rather notable ones to say the least – yet it takes a trained eye to appreciate this, set the two versions side-by-side to detect the differences.

And, this youthful elixir led the watch to become more refined.

The steel bezel topped with a black or white ceramic ring went through a gentle regime even though the number of its notches, now less accentuated, has increased from thirty to forty. The screwed crown was also given the same treatment: reduced by a third, its cabochon was smoothed out. On the lacquered dial, the work is discreet yet visible. In short, the width of the

hour and minute hands was revised, the direct-drive extended, the flange more rounded and the Arabic numerals and indexes redesigned. Moreover, the latter are now made of ceramic. As for the central railway-style minute tracker, indicators enhance its look. The use of Super-LumiNova® offers a play on contrast between black and white whilst making the information displayed on the watch more readable. Chanel’s typography is also embraced on the dial, now used for the wording “Automatic” and “Swiss made” set at the bottom of the dial.

The strap, which has also been slightly modified, now counts three rows of curvaceous, elongated ceramic links completed by a steel folding clasp.

The ceramic case is the only element which has upped its volume. This now-thicker 38 mm-diameter mono-block marvel, waterproof to a depth of 200 m, hosts the 12.1 calibre, a self-winding mechanical movement designed by Kenissi, the manufacture located in Switzerland in which Chanel has held a stake since this year. This brand new motor, which drives the main time data (hours, minutes and seconds in the centre, date at 4:30) and offers a wonderful 70-hour power reserve, is equipped with an openworked tungsten oscillating mass whose dance can be admired through the transparent caseback.

At (almost) twenty years old, the J12 continues to assert this ever-so rare personality which makes it incredibly desirable.

© Chanel

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Z e nit h

64

Shooting star across a silver sky

By Sharmila Bertin

A

new dazzling star is born in Locle-based Zenith’s Pilot collection. Draped from head to toe in silver – a firstever – this 250-piece limited edition timepiece pays tribute to the powerful historic bond between the watchmaker and the world of aviation established from the very first developments of this now-indispensable industry.

new Pilot Type 20 Extra Special Silver (thank goodness I can’t draw little hearts here otherwise I would have done so with great pleasure). Yes, indeed, it was love at first sight for this 250-piece limited edition provoked by the watch’s perfect style, the historic values it conveys and the tried and tested calibre that drives it.

One of the strong points of the Locle watchmaker, in terms of products, is the heterogeneity of its collections. In short, whether you’re keen on a rather classical style or, on the contrary, are attracted by avant-garde design, there’s a Zenith for everyone. I admit perfectly unashamedly that I am totally obsessed with and am madly in love with the Pilot range. We can’t always explain our feelings but whenever I discover a new member of this family, well, my eyes light up like a little girl in a sweet shop. So, this year at Baselworld, whilst everyone was focused on the quivering face of the Defy Inventor – whose beauty I in no way deny – and on El Primero’s 50th anniversary – the must-of-musts event this year –, me, well, I just fell head over heels in love with the

Unlike other brands which create aviator watches or ones which are highly-inspired by this somewhat particular style, Zenith is the only one to be able to legitimately engrave the word “Pilot” on its dials. It was amongst the first in the world to have made flight instruments and accompanied pioneers of aviation to fly through the skies. Personally-speaking, I’m not always at ease trapped in a cabin hovering several thousand metres from firm land but I find the emergence of this industry totally fascinating. There’s a sort of romanticism in the desire to develop wings to soar through the clouds like a bird, the need to feel free and the wish to explore unknown lands. One of the precursors of aeronautics was the French constructor and pilot Louis Blériot (1872-1936). In 1909, he

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65 successfully crossed the Channel on-board a monoplane, a Blériot XI, built the year before, in less than 37 minutes with a Zenith on his wrist. Moreover, the silhouette of his plane is also engraved on the caseback of this new Pilot Type 20 Extra Special Silver, as is Zenith’s blazon.

Yet, like the great majority of timepieces, the eye is instantly attracted to the dial. And the Type 20’s dial has an incredible personality: fashioned in brushed silver and decorated with rivets set in a grid pattern, it conjures up the gleaming cabin of aircraft from the first half of the 20th century used mainly during the Second World War (1939-1945). The Arabic numerals of the hours, typical of pilot watches, are oversized and their XXL format is covered with white SuperLumiNova® whose phosphorescence ensures ever-so rapid time-data reading even in the dark. Optimal information gathering, enhanced by rhodium-plated cathedral-style hour and minute hands and the direct-drive tipped with an arrow, also luminescent. The rather more discreet black-striated railway-style minute-tracker runs around the flange.

These indications, essential for yesteryear’s pilots and for current-day urban explorers are delivered by the Elite 679 calibre which beats at a standard 4 Hz frequency and offers a power reserve of 50 hours. This self-winding mechanical movement nestles in a 45 mm-diameter, 14.25 mm-thick silver 925 case, a size which in no-way intimidates me, as a woman with a slim, delicate wrist, but above all, here, it’s a major first

for the collection to host this metal. Pilot watch oblige, the winding and time-setting crown is impressive with its ballshape embracing a fluted frieze. Back in Louis Blériot’s time, it was generally worn over a thick jacket and was not only big but also very prominent to ensure it could be manipulated with a gloved hand. Rather fittingly so, to perpetuate this spirit of bygone aviators wearing a leather bonnet or a cap topped by a pair of large-strapped goggles, Zenith has offered its Pilot a chocolate calfskin strap, set off with a riveted ‘tongue’ and an ardillon buckle. In silver, of course.

© Zenith

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Gir ar d- Pe r r e Gau x

66

A Fascinating Flower

By Sharmila Bertin

A

bounding with poetic symbols since the dawn of time, the plum blossom opens its five fine pink petals onto a bed of diamonds that adorn the oval face of one of the most beautiful jewelled timepieces presented at SIHH 2019 at the start of the year.

Be it the vegetable or animal, tree or bird kingdom, nature has always been one of watchmakers’ prime muses for adorning timepieces, particularly in the 18th century. Today, if still even in practice, this ornamental tradition tends to be the exception and is only used by not more than a handful of watch manufactures. And Girard-Perregaux continues to carry on this brilliant tradition with a plum blossom “blooming� at the centre of one of its new models.

Often confused with the blooms of other fruit trees like the cherry or peach, also quite prevalent in Asian culture, the plum tree blossom figured prominently in Chinese poetry and painting about a thousand years ago. A symbol of resistance

and resilience, it is the first to emerge at the end of winter to announce the approaching spring, braving the cold snowy weather to deliver a message of warmth and hope, embodying renewal, youth and purity, as well as longevity. Encircling a bouquet of pistils, its corolla of five curvaceous petals represents the union of the fundamental living principals that govern humanity: love, wisdom, truth, justice and virtue.

It is this both powerfully yet perceptively symbolic and lyrical purpose that Girard-Perregaux wished to express in the face of the most feminine watch in its collections. Indeed, the subtle sophistication and oval silhouette of the Cat's Eye watch brilliantly render the artistic, sculptural setting of this miniature painting that conveys all its beauty on the wrist.

Showcasing an ellipse shape in perfectly balanced proportions (36.9 x 30.75 mm), the white gold case features a winding and time-setting crown in flower form. Wrapped in a ribbon of brilliant cut diamonds, 52 stones totalling 2.31 carats encompass the bezel and upper side of the fasteners.

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The rounded dial of the jewelled Cat's Eye Plum Blossom also sparkles with a curvilinear bezel studded with 361 gems totalling 2.50 carats, emphasising its elliptical silhouette.

At the centre of this glittering canvas and fertile ground, the plum blossom blooms. Petals open, the corolla of handpainted pink mother-of-pearl dances to the rhythm as a small seconds hand whilst the two silver leaf-style hands in the centre show the hour and the minute.

A self-winding mechanical movement manufactured by Girard-Perregaux, the GP03300-0152 calibre powers the time indications and, ticking to the standard frequency of 4 Hz, it provides a power reserve of 46 hours. Stamped with the GP logo, the rose gold oscillating weight is visible through the sapphire crystal case back.

Completing this ensemble, the pink alligator leather strap mirrors the colour of the plum blossom, featuring a white gold, folding buckle set with 31 brilliant-cut diamonds.

Š Girard-Perregaux

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VAC HE R ON C ONSTANT IN

Les Cabinotiers "Mécaniques Sauvages"

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Tigre impérial

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Tigre majestueux

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© Vacheron Constantin

Panda sauvage

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T r e nds

A dive, at a moderate price

By Olivier Müller

74

S

ummer’s on its way and boutiques are going to be bubbling over with arrays of dive watches. The Watches Magazine proposes their alternative: exquisite divers at affordable prices. A good enough reason for setting aside your budget for the journey, not for reading the time whilst you’re down the Mariana Trench!

HydroConquest and Aquaracer For years, Longines has held a key place in the affordable dive watch sector. The new HydroConquest is made totally in black ceramic. This exquisite, 43 mm-diameter dark lady – one of the rare full-black dive watches – is waterproof to 300 metres and proposed at CHF3,500.

At TAG Heuer, for CHF2,350 and 2 mm less, the Aquaracer offers the same dusky robe in a steel case with ceramic bezel and date.

Sportive, affordable and also deep-ocean-ready (300 m). Last but not least, Tudor offers its understated and functional Black Bay Fifty-Eight (39 mm) from CHF3,150, with a manufacture movement whose reliability is widely-acknowledged.

celebrates the brand’s 130th anniversary. A special series produced as a scoop to set the stage for a new line end 2019. A very fine collector piece at just CHF1,190, from a historic brand and as a limited edition. Why hold back?

In the same vein, Oris has existed for a long time out at sea with its Aquis collection. Why go for its latest Aquis Date? For three reasons: its diameter of just 39.5 mm, rather unusual for a dive watch which is generally much bigger, its original, vintage mint-green dial, and its price, just CHF2,500. An unconventional choice for a readily-convincing unisex diver.

Following in the above’s footsteps, pricewise and approach-wise is ZRC, another independent. Its “ZRC Grands Fonds 300 French Navy”, an icon of 60s-style, was reissued in 2015. Its particularity: a unique system for cleaning inside the bezel where fresh water flows freely and dilutes and removes sea salt inside.

Over at La Chaux-de-Fonds, Eberhard & Co, another 100% independent firm, has been proposing its Scafograf for the last 60 years, and is beginning to see its early models reach really high prices. Its 2019 version, offered with a rubber strap, starts at CHF2,640, and comes in an interesting variation equipped with a GMT for CHF3,150, perfect for diving in oceans far from Lake Geneva.

Ball Watch ends the independent brand show with a great offer at a reasonable price, such as its Moon Navigator (CHF2,500). This latest newcomer to the Engineer Hydrocarbon collection offers two exclusive advantages: a bezel for calculating the tides and, dial-side, the famous Ball Watch-specific luminescent numerals and indexes, composed of micro-tubes of gas up to one hundred times brighter than the usual luminescent materials.

A quintet of independents Doxa is an independent brand which is well worth keeping an eye on. Its 316L-steel SUB 200, with just 130 numbered pieces,

Japan heads for the ocean floor Outside Switzerland, Seiko reigns supreme. The Prospex collection is a ‘must’ for many divers and the Japanese brand

6425 is the ISO reference that determines which watch can be qualified as “dive” or just for splashing around with.

Waterproofness, countdown timers, antimagnetics: there’s a host of qualification criteria yet they’re not insurmountable.

Take waterproofness for example, it must be at least down to 100 metres, a depth which most brands are capable of reaching nowadays without any problem and at little expense. As a result, the “dive watch” is no longer a privilege for professionals or wealthy collectors.

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has managed to keep its prices down whilst pursuing high technicity. This is the case for the Prospex SPB077J1, a robust automatic designed in 1968 and still as high-performing for an unbeatable price (less than CHF1,200) incorporating the manufacture movement.

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Wat c he s & Wonde r s

76

Time in the Sun

By Barbara Palumbo

T

he second edition of Watches & Wonders Miami, created by the Foundation High Horology (FHH) in partnership with Miami Design District Associates saw more than just additional brands (in comparison to last year) and new releases specific to the event, it also witnessed the “Wonders” part of its title grow even more wondrous for the 2019 edition by way of luxury cars, superyachts, high jewelry, and precious works of art.

Watches & Wonders, for those not located Stateside or able to hop a flight across the pond at a moments’ notice, is a valuable asset to watch enthusiasts and collectors located in or near the United States for a variety of reasons. For one, there isn’t a watch-centric trade fair that exists in North America where a buyer can find brands such as Piaget, Bvlgari, Cartier, Panerai, or A. Lange & Söhne – at least, not yet – and while the aforementioned brands are showcasing either their new or recently released novelties at their Design District boutiques, and not multi-milliondollar booths, the affair is no less glamorous than it can

be at shows such as the SIHH or Baselworld. In fact, it can make for an even more enjoyable experience, as potential collectors and/or members of the press get to roam freely from shop to shop in the Miami sun and under the shade of enormous palm trees while forgetting they’re in the middle of the winter season.

While exhibiting brands such as Zenith and Hublot brought along their releases from Geneva in January, there were also a handful of brands which launched novelties specific to Watches & Wonders. Ulysse Nardin, for example, held a morning media event aboard the “Baglietto Silver Fox” to introduce their Marine Mega Yacht watch. If you’re thinking that a “Baglietto Silver Fox” is an aging Italian male model with distinguished-looking grey hair peeking out from his temples, you’d be wrong. In this case it’s a “superyacht”, and if you’re not exactly sure what constitutes a superyacht, according to an article in Forbes a few years ago, it’s a yacht with an average price tag of around 275 million U.S dollars, making for a pretty fine backdrop to a timepiece that packed its own powerful punch.

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77 On average, most of the exhibiting brands seemed extremely pleased with the turnout of attendees as well as the classes, seminars, and panels which were set up in various sections throughout the Miami Design District. Topics for said events ranged from “Defining Independent” – a panel located in an area of a tent set up specifically for exhibiting independent watch brands (such as RJ and Speake-Marin) – to “What’s the Point of Records and Complications” which discussed the reasoning behind record-breaking features or neverbefore-seen watch complications and why they are deemed important to buyers and collectors.

Watches & Wonders Miami 2019 is being rightfully hailed as a success with a 40% increase in attendance and there is no reason, right now, not to believe that there will be planning for a 2020 edition in the works sometime soon.

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T e c hniqu e

78 MB&F

Showtime!

By Dan Diaconu

F

iat Lux*. Let there be light... In 1904, Ernest Lipmann, head of Lip watches in Besançon asked Pierre and Marie Curie to create a substance which could be used to read time in the dark. The physicists-chemists had discovered radium in 1898. Thanks to its properties, this metal found in uranium could illuminate the dials of pocket watches. Around the end of the 1870s, the use of calcium sulphate already made this time data luminescent. However, the processes were not stable enough. In 1915, Panerai filed the patent for Radiomir, a highly-luminescent powder made from radium. At the beginning of the 1920s, radium did not only illuminate dials. It also caused jaw cancers in many women who worked as dial painters in workshops where they would apply the famous luminescent paint and would spread it out finely by licking the tip of their brushes. Notwithstanding, this harmful radioactive substance is still used today.

In 1938, Ernest Rutherford discovered tritium. Its use was

considered as “posing no threat for health”. Much later on, Roland Desbordes, physicist and President of the Commission for Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity (Commission de recherche et d'information indépendantes sur la radioactivité, or CRIIRAD), a French NGO, expressed great reservation on this point in 2002. “We measured the level of radioactivity in the urine of a person who had been wearing a watch for several hours: this level reached several hundred thousand Becquerel per litre, a thousand times higher than the ‘natural’ level. At this level, it is not dangerous for the human body but I would like to point out the notion of risk”.

Today, Ball Watch continues to use tritium through the MBMicrotec technology which encapsulates gas in this material.

Radium was officially used until the end of the 1960s. It was only in 1993 that a non-radioactive alternative, LumiNova®, arrived on the scene, developed by the Japanese company Nemoto. Now, in the 21st century, technologies are queuing

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up for prime position. Although the 2007-presented SuperLumiNova® is now principally used by the watchmaking industry, other techniques are available. Seiko has its own luminescent material, Lumibrite. Rolex too with Chromalight.

RC Tritec’s Swiss Super-LumiNova® comes in a variety of eight distinctive shades. All offer optimal readability under any lighting conditions. Today, however, these materials have no practical role to offer. They are there for stylistic purposes only. Black Badger illuminates MB&F’s HMX pieces, whilst Cartier’s Santos de Cartier Skeleton watch is totally transformed in darkness. Girard-Perregaux offers us a highlycolourful show with its Cosmos, thanks to luminescent hydroceramic. Bovet adorns its dials with miniature luminescent works of art. Phosphorescent resins illuminate Panerai’s new Submersibles. During the day as well as at night, our watches constantly fill us with wonder. * “Let there be light” in Latin

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Balance-springs: springing up from science

By Vincent Daveau

T

he history of balance-springs which was frozen in time for ever-so long, has been making a comeback recently with the development of new materials designed to enhance performances. Focus on a new horology oscillation.

It goes without saying that these little spiral-shaped springs, designed to ensure that mechanical watches run smoothly, since the moment they were invented by the Dutch mathematician Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) on 9 February 1675, posed a major headache for many a watchmaker-creator and an even greater number of scientists. Yet, nothing stops progress and everyone throws in their stone’s worth to improve a product which we could have imagined would have given total satisfaction.

blued steel. However, the Swiss physicist Charles Edouard Guillaume (1861-1938) created a new metal alloy combining iron and nickel (36%) and incorporating chrome (12%) intended for watch balance-springs and for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1920. Virtually impervious to temperature variations, this alloy baptized Elinvar (for “invariable elasticity”) was perfect for monometal balance-springs which regulated wristwatches whose production was then burgeoning. To put it simply, we’ll keep in mind that the classical metallic balance-springs which equip watches today are pretty much so made based on the same recipe to ensure harmonious metal distribution during wire-drawing.

At the beginning was fusion For a long time, watch balance-springs were fashioned in

The temptation of chemistry However, the pursuit of excellence has always urged

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watchmakers to seek other manufacturing options. Without going back to the glass or gold balance-springs tested by marine chronometer manufacturers from the end of the 18th and 19th centuries, we will recall that Tissot had attempted this with Astrolon (Idea 2001) to create a few fibreglass balance-springs (1971) for its calibre where most of the components were made from plastic. There’s only a step between fibreglass and silicon, which is but technical glass, which the Ulysse Nardin manufacture made by being the first to use this material in watchmaking in 2001, at the heart of its first Freak watch. This performance pushed other brands, set up together as a working cluster (Patek Philippe, Rolex, the Swatch Group and the CSEM (Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology), to mull over the question of developing a new type of balance-spring which would be accurate, impervious to temperature variations, but also to magnetism in a world where its waves are to be found here, there and everywhere. This material, for a time reserved

exclusively for prestigious brands, has started to become more widespread in production and, since 2017, can be found in Tissot’s automatic watches, equipped with the Powermatic 80 calibre.

The temptation to constantly go further Today, after fifteen years of use, we now know the limits of this new-generation balance-spring. Inexpensive in terms of raw material, it does however require costly production facilities to make. Efficient and delivering good results, it remains fragile when up against shocks and has an aging potential which is rather difficult to estimate, but which many consider incompatible with the very principles of longevity, an idea dear to the luxury sector. Moreover, the very presence of this type of balance-spring means sending the watch back to the factory whose name is engraved on the watch because no classical watchmaker is capable of managing this type of escapement, as the balance-springs are inaccessible

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and irreparable (something which watchmakers learn at school). Thus, a certain number of collectors and an even greater number of watchmaker-repairers remain dubious as to the use of this material which only enjoys a good level of esteem from the engineers who use it to develop new types of escapement whose reliability has yet to be demonstrated (Michel Parmigiani, Dominique Renaud, Girard-Perregaux, Zenith, Ulysse Nardin). In a nutshell, for amateurs, the future of component availability depends on the issuing company’s sound health; a component which is no longer intended to be replaced by a standard balance-spring, except in Patek Philippe’s first watches integrating a silicon balance-wheel and for which the manufacture undertook to replace it with a classical version if the watch owner was not satisfied with the timepiece’s performances.

Rivals’ revenge However, in a world where the ideas of monopoly and industrial dependence are often a talking point, the question about supplying indispensable elements such as the balancespring is the focal point of competitions where amateurs rarely assess the stakes. In essence, for the luxury sector, all owners of watchmaking brands, being able to produce strategic components under their own steam is vital for survival in the event that supplies may be blocked by one of the market players. All the luxury groups therefore began developing new types of balance-springs or innovational mechanical systems which would, if necessary, enable them to do without the spring. Surprising as this may seem, the first proposition of developing a system in parallel was initiated in August 2018 by the Swatch Group which, partnering this time round with the independent manufacture Audemars Piguet, presented a new-generation balance-spring, fashioned in

a compensating antimagnetic alloy called NivachronTM. Although its elaborate composition has been kept secret, it partly comprises titanium. This metallic spring should seduce purists who are forever concerned about the durability in terms of time of the materials which watches are made of. And, it should achieve this with much more ease as it is announced as being absolutely impervious to temperature variations and to magnetic radiation, but also, and very importantly, of being excellently shock-resistant. As of this year (2019), this balance-spring should be fitted into some of the Swatch Group’s watches.

Such an announcement could not go unanswered. The answer came in January 2019 from the LVMH Group which unveiled a new-generation balance-spring made, this time round, of carbon composite. Designed, developed and produced in La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland in the TAG Heuer Institute workshops, its fundamental characteristic is that it is ultralight and, as a result, impervious to gravity and to shocks, but its development is also totally concentric and it is impervious to magnetism. A mono-bock, it is endowed with the qualities of metallic balance-springs and those of silicon balancesprings without having any of the defects of either. Today a newcomer but already bearing fruit, as mentioned by Guy Sémon, Director of the TAG Heuer Institute, this carbondeveloped balance-spring with its nano-scale hexagonal structure, equips the Autavia Isograph collection launched

by TAG Heuer during Baselworld 2019.

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