The Admiral 45 Bronze has been sailing the watchmaking seas for just over a year, displaying its patinated bronze case, teak pontoon dial, and iconic pennants, arranged around the twelve-sided bezel to display the hours befittingly for lovers of water sports, ocean-going races – and appealing to everyone who enjoys an assertive, sporty style. 

What is your response after announcing your decision to Baselworld last summer? 
We have had a kind of mini-revolution internally. Our entire planning and product cycle had always been organized around Baselworld. It was the time of year when we presented our new products and partnerships. So all of a sudden we had to adapt quickly to be ready for early January. 

Where does our passion for watches come from?  The answer to this fundamental question is often linked to our childhood, to the people who have influenced us and no doubt to our education (in the wider sense). I learned to love watches indirectly, not through the object itself but thanks to my dad’s interest in pens. As a family of immigrants, learning had always been important in our family and the pen was to some extent a kind of magical object.

If there’s one thing that everyone will remember from the SIHH 2019 it’s Code 11.59. It’s a rather strange name for a watch collection. The 11.59 is supposed to signal the arrival of a new day, although for an Anglo-Saxon audience it could just as easily be the minute before lunch time. But the SIHH is now over, the new day has begun and it’s one minute after midnight. Time to look ahead…

The winners will be contacted individually by e-mail. If we do not receive a reply within 7 days we will draw another winner.

Only Jacob & Co. could have the audacity to present one of watchmaking’s most sophisticated complications in a transparent case that has, among many things, an astronaut floating around in it. The Astronomia collection, which was the fruit of four years of work that combined the fantasy of Jacob Arabo with the talent of master watchmaker Luca Soprano, has always been clear – in both the figurative and literal senses – about our place in the cosmos and its unavoidable connection with time, the very reason we have timepieces in the first place.

It was a restored piece that inspired Parmigiani Fleurier to add the GMT complication to its collection. Parmigiani Fleurier's restoration workshops had been entrusted with a pocket watch containing two movements inside one case, each responsible for its own time zone. This sparked a desire to create a timepiece that incorporated the same accuracy of display in the reduced space of a watch case too small to house two separate movements. Michel Parmigiani found a solution to this limitation by constructing a single calibre that controls two time zones, each accurate to the nearest minute. The Tonda Hémisphères released by Parmigiani Fleurier in 2010 was a world first. In 2017, the brand extended this movement to the Toric collection, its founding model, to add a dimension of travel to its timeless aesthetics.

At first glance, the Aikon Mercury appears to be a normal watch, with central hours, minutes and small seconds at the six o’clock position. With the slightest tilt, however, the hour and minute hands spin freely, abandoning their chronometric duties. Hold the Aikon Mercury upright, and the hands fall back and give correct time. 

The highly anticipated party had a particular signifiance this year. On the one hand, WorldTempus celebrated its 18th anniversary, on the other it was the last time that GMT and WorldTempus brought together the entire watch industry on an evening in January, since the SIHH will be held in April from 2020. Event organizer Brice Lechevalier thanked all the guests for attending, as well as the sponsors of the evening: Asia Tatler, represented by Sébastien Lamunière, Watch Your Time, represented by Eric Dumatin, Lambert Fils & Filles, represented by the entire family, as well as main sponsor JD.com, represented by Belinda Chen. During his short speech, Mr Lechevalier also thanked the work put in by the entire WorldTempus team, mentioning the rude health of the digital influencer on luxury watchmaking, concluding the year 2018 with a record audience of 3.2 million unique visitors, who consulted 14.5 million pages for an average visit duration of 3.2 minutes.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was Ferdinand Berthoud. The sister company to the Chopard group, personally managed down to the smallest details by Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, is proceeding steadily along the same path. Today it continues to reap the benefits of its first movement, which drives the FB 1 chronometer. 

This is not an adaptation of an existing man’s watch but a wholly new model. Quite simply, the Fiji Floral Seconds has been designed by a woman for a woman. 

Czapek starts the new year at a new location at Rue de la Corraterie 18 in the centre of Geneva, the town where François Czapek opened his own store on the Quai des Bergues. The new premises will henceforth serve as the company’s headquarters and a space where collectors will be able to discover the brand and its watches. The move consolidates three three years of business during which Czapek & Cie. has developed three in-house movements and earned a prestigious Public Prize awarded by the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. 

When you’re independent, you have to try to stand out from the crowd, despite not having the same resources as the big groups. In a watchmaking year that will see the moon figure prominently in many creations – this being the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission – Louis Moinet is unveiling not one but two pieces: Moon and Mars. And their approach has nothing to do with the space race! 

For the first time ever, a watchmaker has decorated a watch with the turquoise brilliance of a cuprian elbaite, a stone whose rarity can only be fully appreciated when learning that, on average, a single Paraíba Tourmaline is mined for every 10,000 diamonds. 

Rumours have been flying around for some time, but the tectonic upheavals happening at the brand in recent months rather drew attention away from the work going on behind the scenes. But it’s all out in the open now. After Nivarox, whose balance springs inhabit over 95% of Swiss watches, and following the silicon version offered by Sigatec, it’s now the turn of the carbon balance spring, developed by the Institut TAG Heuer. The institute is the playground of Guy Sémon, the key figure behind TAG Heuer’s R&D efforts. He has survived the departure of Jean-Claude Biver, the arrival of his successor, Stéphane Bianchi, and the installation of a new designer fresh from Chopard and (briefly) Breitling, Guy Bove, to name just a few of the disruptions he has endured. 

In 2016, the Piaget Polo debuted a refreshed look that updated its hallmark design for the new millennium. The proportions remained, but with a larger case size and a bezel that blended oblong and round shapes for a celebration of Piaget’s signature aesthetic. The classic faceted dauphine hands embraced a friendlier approach, trading sharp angles for softer curves. The horizontal dial and case godroons transitioned into dial guillochage that offered texture without overpowering it.