At the start of 2019 Bulgari reminds us that there is more to the Octo collection than the ultra-thin and ultra-complicated talking pieces. For the latest models in the Octo collection it’s back to black with two new DLC-treated stainless steel watches with rose-gold accents.
What were the highlights for Bulgari in 2018?
It was another year of growth and market share gain for us if I compare our figures with the total Swiss watch industry exports. I’m very happy about that because we have been outperforming the industry for four years now, ever since we launched the Lvcea collection in 2014. This has become one of our key product pillars, together with the hugely successful Octo and Serpenti collections. They now account for most of Bulgari’s watch business. We saw continued growth in 2018 thanks to the Lvcea Tubogas and Skeleton models that we presented at Baselworld. Growth continued in the Serpenti collection, too, thanks to the ceramic and Tubogas models. With yet another new world record presented last year, the Octo collection also enjoyed strong growth. Furthermore, we have seen increased popularity for the watch collections in Asia, with record growth in China.
A new Italian story associated with the sea and with technical innovation is taking place thanks to the partnership between Panerai and Luna Rossa, the Challenger of Record team which a few months ago was the first to challenge the defender New Zealand for the right to compete in the 36th edition of the America’s Cup.
For a brand that prides itself on its history and tradition of skeletonisation, it was only a matter of time before Armin Strom presented a watch with a sapphire watch case. The surprise is the fact that the brand chose to do so for its huge 59mm long Dual Time Resonance model. Sapphire crystal cases are notoriously difficult to produce. Diamond-tipped tools are needed to work the material (since only moissanite and diamond are harder the sapphire crystal on the Mohs scale), but even then the friction between the two materials generates heat and can lead to breakages. The few cases that survive the machining process intact subsequently need a few days’ rest to allow the heat to dissipate before any further work can be done on them. Polishing the opaque machined crystal to achieve the full transparency you see on the finished product also takes several days, still with that ever-present risk of breakage…
Hysek is one of the last remaining fully-independent manufactures, and as such enjoys complete stylistic and technical freedom – as its new IO Double Orbitale demonstrates. It is indeed an authentic watchmaking ‘creation’, featuring a dual orbital display for both minutes and seconds.
During the SIHH 2019 IWC presented a whole new collection of pilot’s watches. As expected, they recall the legendary periods of aviation with names of famous combat aircraft (like the Spitfire), or remind us of our childhood dreams and the cartoons of Hal Jordan and other heroes wearing helmets, battling in ferocious dog fights at the controls of their jets.
With the presentation of the Zeitwerk in 2009, A. Lange & Söhne started a new era in timekeeping. The prominent face and innovative concept of the first mechanical wristwatch with constant-force escapement and precisely jumping digital displays that indicate the hour and minute with jumping numerals have been commended with multiple awards. Within a fraction of a second, the unique mechanism advances the numeral discs, even simultaneously incrementing all three discs at the top of the hour. Given the controlled release of the forces involved, the Zeitwerk is a genuine “time machine”.
TAG Heuer demonstrates its watchmaking prowess with a new timepiece representing the next generation of tourbillon watches. The manufacture movement of this new model features a carbon- composite hairspring, produced from a gas, that replaces the well-known Elinvar and silicon versions.
With one foot on the ground, an eye on the sky and its head in the stars, the 2019 collection from Girard-Perregaux looks set to be one of the watchmaker’s biggest and most coherent for quite some time. Everything, from the booth and showcases to the watches themselves, is infused with a single all-encompassing theme: Earth to Sky. The idea is to bring a celestial, astronomical inspiration to models both old and new. The conversation is of light and shade, revelation, orbits and incandescent materials.
Ahead of the SIHH 2019, Cartier announced a major comeback of one of its oldest models, the Tonneau watch, available in the Privé collection. Next week in Geneva, at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, the new Tonneau Grand Modèle watches and the superb Tonneau Double Fuseau Squelette models will not go unnoticed.
You might reasonably think that the Virtuoso IX is the ninth model in this particular Bovet collection. But you would be wrong. There is, for example, no Virtuoso VI. That’s just the way it is. The Virtuoso V was also launched before the Virtuoso IV and the Virtuoso II is a movement, not a watch. But what’s in a name and number? The most important thing is that the all the Virtuoso models offer fine watchmaking complications in the true Bovet tradition, which means that the movement inside is not just Swiss Made but Swiss handcrafted, including a balance spring that Bovet makes itself and can thus “rate” itself and pair with the best matching balance for optimum precision. Added to that are the magnificent dials that are hand decorated in house by master craftsmen and craftswomen and the unique convertible case that allows you to wear the Virtuoso on your wrist, on a chain as a pocket watch or even use on your desk as a table clock.
His name has conjured up images, accolades, and epic tales earned only by a true adventurer and free spirit. Immortalized by the Greek poet Homer, “Ulysses” is the original wandering hero and his adventures transcend time. In the spirit of Ulysses, Ulysse Nardin has been at the forefront of timekeeping since its inception. More than a means to an end, Xplora-tion is a way of life for the brand.
The Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel is the latest generation of multi-axis tourbillon to emerge from Jaeger-LeCoultre, following the 2004 Master Gyrotourbillon 1, the 2008 Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2, the 2013 Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon 3 Jubilee and the 2016 Reverso Tribute Gyrotourbillon.
On the occasion of Geneva’s annual Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH), the Manufacture’s R&D department has each year carte blanche to break existing codes, and go to innovative extremes. In 2019, Roger Dubuis collaborates with its partners Lamborghini Squadra Corse and Pirelli - chosen for their reputations of being at the forefront of technology and equally determined to shatter existing R&D boundaries - to create a highly complicated unique timepiece: the Excalibur One-Off.
Baume & Mercier caused a stir at the SIHH last year when it presented its new Baumatic collection featuring its in-house movement of the same name. This movement had been developed in accordance with technical specifications that established the principles for an anti-magnetic movement that offered greater precision (some models are available with COSC certification), a greater power reserve and needed less servicing. Another esssential point: an affordable price.
Richard Mille is certainly a very resourceful brand, with a seemingly inexhaustible capacity to surprise. Nothing is off-limits. After exploring the domains of motor sport, golf and polo, adding precious gems in the shape of spiders, dragons and skulls, venturing into extreme complications and survival watches – and that’s not even the half of it – we now have watch designs based on sweets. The Bonbons collection may be a whimsical, quirky, confident and entertaining project, but it is anything but a joke. Creating a watch is a bit like baking a cake. It works because it’s based on science.
The HYT H0 was the first pure expression of HYT’s philosophy and design under the leadership of CEO Grégory Dourde and designer François Nunez. It aimed to highlight what HYT stood for, taking a less testosterone-fuelled, mechanical-driven approach in favour of more organic lines and a more fluid design that shows what HYT is all about with its unique way of displaying the hours. The two bellows were still visible as the key elements moving the two immiscible liquids around the tiny capillary, but all other mechanical components were hidden. The case was completely revised to achieve the look of a pebble that many watchmakers like to use as an analogy for smoothness, but few with so much success as HYT, since a pebble has been smoothed over millennia by the primeval force of water – a liquid.
Twin Beat: this is one of the words that will be remembered from the SIHH 2019 and, possibly, make it into the watch history books. A revolution? Hardly. And yet it’s the result of an exercise that is even more difficult: using existing techniques to invent something new, based on common sense and with a genuine added value for the customer.
As is so often the case, everything began with a meeting – a meeting of two different worlds. The encounter was between Ini Archibong, a Los Angeles native of Nigerian origin who had recently graduated from the ECAL [Lausanne Cantonal School of Art], and Philippe Delhotal, creative director of Hermès Horloger. This collaboration, which began three years ago on the shores of Lake Geneva, led to the genesis of a vibrant new women’s line that retains the company’s indissoluble link with the equestrian world, through its shapes and through its name – Galop.
The Code 11.59 collection includes the Code 11.50 Selfwinding, Selfwinding Chronograph, Perpetuel Calendar, Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon, Tourbillon Openworked and Minute Repeater Supersonnerie.
