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. 

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”. 

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.

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. 

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.