It’s great to see a burst of galactic activity kick off the year in which we celebrate the 50th anniversary of mankind’s first steps on the moon. On 1st January, NASA’s New Horizons probe passed by the furthest object in our solar system ever to be visited by a spacecraft, sending images of Ultima Thule four billion miles across the galaxy back to Earth. The next day, at 10.26am Beijing time, China’s Chang’E-4 mission made the first-ever landing on the far side of the moon.

As one of the very few traditional watchmaking manufactures with an equally strong focus on jewellery, Piaget is uniquely placed to create pieces that blend watchmaking with the precise skills associated with working in precious stones. These stones, formed under tremendous heat and pressure and extracted from deep beneath the earth’s surface, highlight the eternal brilliance of a Piaget timepiece.

Jewellery watches allow brands to give their creativity free reign. And when your brand was born in jewellery, has over a century of experience in producing ladies’ watches and benefits from the Italian design spirit, you can be sure that your collections will have plenty to set themselves apart from the competition. Such is the case with the most recent offerings from Bulgari, which expertly blur the frontiers, with watches turning into jewellery and jewellery turning into watches. 

When launched in 1953, the first Fifty Fathoms quickly stood out thanks to its practical features, entirely designed for professional diving. Among the decisive criteria that contributed to its renown were broad luminescent hour-markers and hands contrasting with a black dial and unidirectional rotating bezel, as well as a steel case with a soft iron inner cage intended to protect the movement from magnetic fields.

As CEO, Céline Assimon's mission will be to pursue the development of the brand on an international scale while expanding its product offer to reach a wider clientele. 

You’ve probably heard of the flying tourbillon. Ulysse Nardin has created the flying gear train. The Executive Tourbillon Free Wheel shows off all its inner workings, not because it is skeletonised or has no dial, but because they are fitted on top of the dial. It looks like it’s the mainplate of the movement, but it is indeed a dial in the sense that it is decorative. So how do those wheels turn?

In our globalised world, the notion of a country or a nation has never been so important. Different types of nationalism are gaining ground and being expressed in many ways. Whether it is in the form of flags, borders or walls, a sense of belonging to a country can take on a positive note (patriotism) or a negative one (nationalism). As well as expressing pride or fear, it can also either strengthen a culture by integration or push back to protect it.

Baselworld ?
We are proud to be amongst the brands to participate in the upcoming Baselworld and excited to see how well the concepts and new ideas that the fair management has proposed lately will be implemented and perceived by the public. Watch enthusiast around the world  may definitely expect innovative technologies, highly functional complications and outstanding design paired with unique tradition from Carl F. Bucherer. 

The Toric Capitole Rose Gold Brown takes its inspiration from a pocket watch made by Perrin Frères (Neuchâtel) dating from the early 19th Century, now owned by the Edouard and Maurice Sandoz Foundation (EMSF). This collection is a resource showcasing the genius of watchmaking's "old masters". Parmigiani Fleurier pays tribute to this unique collection of horological works of art by recreating some of these mechanical wonders in its own manufacture. The unique Toric Capitole Rose Gold Brown, with its sector display and minute repeater, is one of these exceptional timepieces. The watch takes its name from the Capitolium in Rome - the religious and political heart of Ancient Rome - the geometrically spiralling floor tiles of which are reproduced in the pattern of the dial. 

André Lüthi was managing director of Switzerland’s Globetrotter Travel Service from 1992 until 2012. Since 2013 he has been Chairman of the Board of Globetrotter Travel Service and CEO of the holding company, Globetrotter Group, with annual sales of over 250 million Swiss francs. He sees travel as a way of understanding people and learning life lessons.

In 2018 Baselworld became the Brexit of the watch industry. Brands had to choose whether they wanted to be in or out. A number of brands decided to take back control of their own marketing and exhibition budgets by leaving the show, resulting in an exodus that left cavernous spaces in the exhibition halls. It seemed that the situation on the ground floor would not be too bad, until the industry learned on a quiet Sunday morning over the summer that the entire Swatch Group would be leaving the show. Given that most of the Swatch Group’s brands had left their stands in place, this led to some hectic toing and froing between the watchmaking valleys and Basel to recover furniture and fittings. 

A Breguet watch involves around thirty artisanal crafts. Among them is one that stands out at first sight: guilloché, which the Maison alternately refers to as engine-turning or hand-engraving on a rose engine It is one of the fundamental codes of the Manufacture, its aesthetic signature. Does that mean purely aesthetic?