There is nothing like a click-bait style headline to get your attention, is there? The quartz movement may not have killed off the mechanical watch (although it came very close) and the smart watch has failed to lead to the doom and gloom that certain commentators were predicting a couple of years ago. But news this week suggests that the "traditional" watch industry is facing an altogether more worrying threat to its existence.

First came the Shooting Star, dedicated to the Earth, as seen from above with the time zones depicted on the globe. Then, in 2017, came the Astérium and the night sky. It was the start of a line of Bovet timepieces that tackle our relationship with the planets, our own natural satellite and our own planet. What they both had in common was their presentation. Both had asymmetric cases, thicker at 12 o’clock than 6 o’clock, and were inclined towards the observer, like a writing desk. They both display functions on either side of the case and they are both, of course, equipped with tourbillons, which is the speciality and the very origins of the Bovet manufacture, located in Tramelan in the Franches Montagnes region of Switzerland.

Within just three years, Phillips in Association with Bac & Russo has won a place at the very peak of the watch auction business. By dint of putting together exceptional lots and selling them at equally outstanding prices, this tandem has become a specialist at setting records – and more besides, as will be confirmed in Geneva on May 12th and 13th. During these two days, two catalogs will be presented in the auction room. The first is named Daytona Ultimatum and will encompass 30 or so Rolex Daytona models featuring various degrees of rarity. The second is called Watch Auction Seven and will assert the all-round capabilities of the Phillips watch department.

In 1993, Caroline Scheufele, now Co-President and Creative Director at Chopard, imagined a sports watch combining for the very first time in the history of jewellery the precious nature of diamonds with such a sporty metal as steel. Whereas diamonds had already been released from their setting, Caroline Scheufele now wished to desacralize them, while detracting nothing from their magic or their fascination. They are thus no longer reserved for solemn occasions, instead taking their place in the rhythms of daily life: teamed with jeans, sports shoes, high heels or in the office, Happy Sport accompanies women in the many facets of their lives.

“The Homage To Walter Lange” is powered by an entirely new movement equipped with a central “jumping seconds” hand and regular subsidiary seconds at 6 o’clock.

After the success of the Scafograf 300, first presented in 2016 and winner of the ‘Sports Watch Prize’ at the Geneva Grand Prix d’Horlogerie, followed in 2017 by a GMT version, Eberhard & Co. unveils a special limited edition of the Scafograf, whose name conveys all the unconventional spirit of the new model: The Black Sheep.

This is not yet another humdrum story about business deals and networking. Where  Chronopassion is concerned, the stories are always unusual. And its history with Fabergé is no exception. To begin with, founder and president Laurent Picciotto had an indirect connection with Fabergé through his daughter, whose jewellery business The Eye of Jewelry in Geneva stocked some of Fabergé’s jewellery collections. Chronopassion, based in Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris, had no relationship with the brand at that point. And yet it was via the jewellery world that an agreement was reached. “Some clients were looking for Fabergé, which had no representative in France. But these clients weren’t just interested in the watches, they also wanted the jewellery. And that was when, for the first time since the creation of Chronopassion, I decided to take the plunge into this other world.”

The Admiral is one of the pillars of Corum’s heritage. Unveiled in 1960, five short years after the brand’s creation, it embodies Corum’s idea of maritime watchmaking. Although it has always been loyal to its artistic fibre, Corum has never been afraid to set sail for distant shores. That’s the case today with the Admiral 45 Squelette, a radical piece that showcases both a nautical design and pure watchmaking mechanics.

Inspired by the café racer motorcycles, the Ton Up is a watch in which Zenith has taken a pilot’s watch design and combined it with vintage motorcycle racing heritage. Not a historic reissue, but a novel invention in 2016, the Ton Up not only appears to emulate a pilot’s watch that was released some 70 years ago, with its aged steel finish resembling that of a watch after decades of ownership, it actually looks the part!

Ulysse Nardin’s new publicity campaign tells the story of one shark’s odyssey through metropolitan New York and Shanghai. This shark represents an off-kilter take on the marine theme, an essential element of the brand ever since its creation in 1846.  The campaign, created by the Parisian agency Extreme, sets the “king of the ocean” out of context from the world of water and into an urban universe. We see him here in the streets of New York and Shanghai, far from the deep waters and reefs that are his natural habitat. Mysterious, instinctive, dynamic and self-assured, this predator is the incarnation of action because if he stops moving, he will perish. Always in movement, he doesn’t wait for things to change: he provokes change. Powerful, distinguished and efficient, we associate him with success in the world of business and finance.

The moon changes. Every day, it shows us a slightly different face. From complete invisibility to a perfect, luminous disc, it waxes and wanes, declines and precesses and, sometimes, blushes. Its important role in how human societies operate has made it a rich source of study for astronomers, and a logical choice for a watch complication. The moon’s ever-changing appearance also lends itself to a wide range of aesthetic interpretations. Whether stylised, anthropomorphised or rigorously naturalistic, it becomes part of the identity of each brand, which has its very own particular moon.

Cartier first introduced the Drive watch in 2016, at the SIHH in Geneva. The Drive de Cartier is the watch of a man of passion and continues the long standing tradition of Cartier watches with distinctive shapes, with its character being cultivated in its cushion-shaped case.