On Friday, 8 June, 2018, on the eve of the 80th edition of the Bol d’Or Mirabaud, marking the sixth year in which Hublot has been the partner and official timekeeper of the event, the brand officially inaugurated its new boutique in Geneva. At the junction with Place Longemalle, just a stone's throw from the lake, the boutique now boasts one of the finest locations in Geneva, surrounded by the most prestigious of neighbours.

An enthusiastic crowd attended Belmont Park cheering loudly for the chance to watch history unfold. After a quick start, Justify set the pace to win the Belmont Stakes and secure the Triple Crown. His exciting run will be remembered for years to come - cementing 2018 as an important season in the history of horseracing. 

Since 2009, Frederique Constant has collaborated with the Riva Historical Society: a Milan-based association founded in 1998, dedicated to the preservation and restoration of classic Riva boats. Piero Mario Gibellini and Carlo Riva founded this non-profit organization, whose purpose is to preserve the worldwide patrimony of the established Riva heritage.

On the occasion of the World Oceans Day, Blancpain and its President & CEO, Marc A. Hayek, unveil their third series of Blancpain Ocean Commitment (BOC) limited edition diving watches. By purchasing one of these 250 timepieces, each client contributes to Blancpain's participation in the cause of ocean protection. The brand commits to donate 1,000 euro for the sale of each watch, implying a total of 250,000 euro added to Blancpain's much larger support.

Watches and photography go together like cheese and wine. Both are worthy products in their own right but coupling with their respective companions can add an extra dimension. Just as a glass of Fendant is the perfect accompaniment to a fondue and port goes well with stilton, the right framing and background to a photo can really bring out the character of a watch that might be lost with a simple packshot.

It’s the 240th anniversary of John Arnold coining the term chronometer this year…
I prefer to speak about a commemoration rather than an anniversary. Arnold & Son does not date back to 1764. The brand was established in 1995 so there is quite a gap between the two. So we don’t celebrate anniversaries but we commemorate certain dates. In 1778 John Arnold submitted his pocket watch to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich to have its precision tested for marine chronometer certification. The watch passed all the tests and over a year and a half the variation in rate was just two and a half minutes, which is an average of 0.5 seconds per day. The requirements for today’s COSC chronometer certificate are between -4 and +6 seconds per day. So Arnold’s watch was ten times more precise than the chronometers of today and a thousand times more precise than the pocket watches of the time. Not only was this a huge technological breakthrough at the time, John Arnold even explained what he had done and offered his watch at an affordable price. He was so pleased when he received the confirmation from the Royal Observatory that he wrote a letter explaining his product and how happy he was, referring to the watch as a “veritable chronometer”. So it was the first pocket watch to be called a chronometer.

On June 4th 2018, the first stone of the new Hôtel des Horlogers was laid in Le Brassus, cradle of the Audemars Piguet Manufacture in the heart of the Vallée de Joux. The ceremony, followed by a cocktail, was held in presence of Jasmine Audemars, Chairwoman of the Audemars Piguet Board of Directors, Olivier Audemars, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors and François-Henry Bennahmias, Chief Executive Officer of Audemars Piguet. The main partners of the project, Danish architects BIG, and Swiss architects CCHE as well as the authorities of the Vallée de Joux and of the Canton of Vaud also attended.

On Wednesday 6 June, at Depeche Mode's concert at the Barclays Center in New York, Ricardo Guadalupe, CEO of Hublot, and Depeche Mode officially presented charity: water with a check for $1.7 million raised since 2017 over the course of the third partnership between the band and the Swiss watchmaker. The money was raised over two years from the proceeds of two different models: first, the Hublot Big Bang Depeche Mode watch released as a limited edition of 250 pieces in 2017, then the collection of unique Big Bang Unico Depeche Mode The Singles Limited Edition watches in 2018.

A dual Swiss-Italian national who studied at the College of Business and Economics in the “Watch City” of Biel/Bienne, graduating in 1975, Walter Ribaga started his career in sales at IBM Switzerland. He quickly moved to the watch industry, however, joining Certina, a company of the Swatch Group in 1981 to manage sales for Europe and Latin America. His experience in sales subsequently took him to other Swiss watch brands such as Omega, Zenith and Movado. At TAG Heuer Mr Ribaga was part of a team that helped to relaunch the brand worldwide and increase sales in Latin America fivefold over a period of five years.

How long does one second last? Who decides what time it is? The scholarly quest for precision has been at the heart of watchmaking innovation since the 17th century. Oscillators are key to developments in this field: the pendulum, the spring balance and, later, quartz, have all increased timekeeping accuracy. From the Second World War, physicists took over from astronomers and horologists in the pursuit of accurate time measurement. From 1967, the second was no longer defined via astronomical observations such as the passage of the sun across the zenith, but by measuring a microscopic phenomenon: the oscillation of caesium atoms.

It’s rare for a watch to stay centre stage for so long. The Conquest V.H.P., which was launched two years ago, continues to be in the spotlight at many of the events Longines sponsors. This year, for the second year in a row, it’s the model the watchmaker has chosen to accompany the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros.

The Navitimer 8 B01 is powered by the first completely self-developed and -manufactured chronograph movement by Breitling, which made its debut in 2009 for the company’s 125th anniversary. Its tension spring supports a ball-bearing rotor highly efficiently in both directions of rotation. When the tension spring is fully wound, more than 70 hours of power reserve are available. This guarantees that the new Navitimer 8 B01 accurately displays hours, minutes, seconds, and date, even after a weekend tucked away in the vault. As befits a sophisticated mechanism of this kind, a classic control wheel operates the three chronograph functions start, stop, and reset. At the push of a button, an energy-saving friction coupling connects the stopwatch mechanism smoothly to the wheel mechanism. Other pioneering features include a patented self-centering system with an innovative heart-shaped lever to reset the chronograph to zero.

For 50 years, Alpina has been riding on the wave of success with the Seastrong Diver collection. The history of the collection bears witnesses of its performance, when back in the 1960’s the models could already meet 200m water resistance. In 2018, the brand presents six new models which are fit for a whole new generation of adventurers and now water-resistant to 300m.

The next Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) at Palexpo, Geneva, will take place January 14-17, 2019. Setting the tone for the twelve months to come, it adopts a four-day schedule instead of the usual five with the convenience of longer opening hours, every day from 8.30am to 8pm.

If you don't have a Hublot boutique nearby, or don’t have the time to visit the store for an introduction, there is no problem! Hublot offers you the same experience remotely as if one were pushing open the door of a boutique, thanks to its Hublot Digital Boutique.

Even for someone who gets to try out a lot of different watches, switching from my everyday diver’s watch to the Czapek & Cie. Place Vendôme tourbillon was something of an occasion. I got a feeling of warmth from the rose-gold case and rich brown alligator strap, especially compared with the all-steel practicality of my usual wrist companion. And I quickly got used to wearing it and had to remind myself on several occasions that it costs well over twenty times the price of my own watch and that it was thus better to take if off for some activities where I would normally keep the diver’s watch on my wrist. A precious gold case and a tourbillon deserve respect, after all.