Is it possible to combine all the artistic crafts in a single watch? It certainly wouldn’t be easy. To begin with, none of them truly belong to the watch industry alone; they are a varied collection of techniques, crafts and processes. A list created by the Institut National des Métiers d’Art lists 198 crafts and 83 specialist fields, making a total of 281 activities. So you can see the challenge involved in cramming them all into the three square centimetres available on a watch dial.

In keeping with the company motto, “Dare to be rare”, Roger Dubuis is once again playing the innovation card, enriching its Velvet collection for ladies with three Haute Couture watches. The theme essentially plays out on the bracelet, which is made up of tiny black or white crystal beads that look a bit like caviar. Once again, the watchmaker has deployed its manufacturing expertise and its motor sports connections to produce an innovative strap made from a molten polymer, lined with rubber and coated with a “spangled dust” that reflects the light. It’s a bold choice and the result is stunning.

The website Panerai.com is being modernised in both form and content, and its functions will now include e-commerce activities for the European market and Switzerland. 

The 18th Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève has announced its prizes and awards (see all the winners here). The result will not be to everyone’s taste, and that’s how it should be. The Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève is not supposed to please everybody. It’s not supposed to represent the entire watch industry; it’s supposed to represent its excellence. That is its strength, its raison d’être, and the result of its independence. If you need to find an equivalent, look at the world of cinema. It’s not the Emmy Awards, definitely not the Oscars, and still less the box office. It’s more like Cannes, an event that shares similar aspirations, tradition and glamour.

Ten or so years ago, the rise in popularity of vintage watches pushed a hitherto forgotten accessory into the limelight: the NATO strap. This strip of fabric that passes underneath the back of the watch is based on the woven nylon straps worn by fighter pilots in NATO’s air forces. They are slim, simple, economical, and they have all the benefits of any fabric. Which is why their similarities to clothing are obvious: they can be trendy and colourful, they’re washable and they’re unlikely to cause a rash. 

On the occasion of the opening of its first dedidated store on the 13th November at the Macao Centre, Corum unveiled the Heritage Corum Lab 01, a new limited series reflecting the brand's vision of watchmaking. “These are two models which embody our disruptive approach to watchmaking, as evidenced by the juxtaposition of ‘Heritage’ and ‘Lab’. In traditional Fine Watchmaking, the two concepts are never associated with one another. Heritage looks to the past, the lab to the future,” explains Jérôme Biard. “The underlying principle that we are establishing with the Heritage Corum Lab 01 is precisely to create a dialogue between these two. What would René Bannwart or Severin Wunderman have made of Corum heritage today? Progressives, even avant-gardists, certainly wouldn’t simply have just reissued pieces. The Heritage Corum Lab 01 is our response to this vision which drives us, today more than ever.”

How many actresses and actors owe their success at the Oscars and Golden Globes to a performance that was in complete contrast to their image or their nature? The history of theatre and cinema is riddled with such artistic surprises that make people stop and think and say to themselves “I would never have thought that he/she could have played that role so well”.

Stores like A l’Emeraude in Lausanne are a rarity nowadays. Not only is it a bricks-and-mortar-only watch and jewellery store, it is also independent and family run. It has been present around the central Place St. François area of Lausanne since 1909, serving a primarily local and loyal customer base. The Cremers family, who acquired the store in 2004, are only the third owners of this well-known address among watch fans in Lausanne. Since taking over the business, they have expanded it considerably, growing from a 60m2 premises to more than 250m2 in 2017 and doubling the workforce. A l’Emeraude is the only watch retailer in Switzerland with a separate boutique for Patek Philippe and Rolex watches.

For the first time, the Masterpiece Square Wheel Retrograde brings together in a single watch two of Maurice Lacroix’s signature complications: the square wheel and the retrograde date. Visually, both these elements share the dial, producing an unusual combination of shapes, with the square wheel and the clover-leaf-shaped gear alongside the arc of the retrograde date, taking up three-quarters of the visible area.

Designer, influencer, musician and founder of the Fragment company, Hiroshi Fujiwara is known worldwide for his collaborations with several brands as well as for the concept stores POOL Aoyama and THE CONVENI.

The Superocean collection was unveiled in 1957, which means it celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2017. Humans approaching their sixtieth birthday are generally starting to think about retirement. Not so for the watch collection, which continues to innovate, releasing new models that combine cutting-edge technology with timeless aesthetics. To celebrate the anniversary, Breitling gave this iconic watch a redesign, while retaining its original spirit. 

Corum has announced a new stage of its Corum Academy programme. The idea: push the boundaries not only of creativity, but of distribution, communication and customer experience. 

Ever-present in watchmaking as in life itself, black is also the October theme of the Watch Photo Awards: an initiative launched by our publishing house and echoed by media around the world for the past six months. The 60 watch photos selected since May (respectively themed The Blue, Sport, Holidays, On Two Wheels or Four and Food and Drink) were on show from November 1st to 10th at the Musée d’art et d’histoire de Genève, as part of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) exhibition for which GMT is also serving as media partner. Congratulations to the devotees of fine watchmaking whose photos are thus published and displayed. While black is the guiding thread of this fall issue, the GPHG will be very much in the limelight after the prize-giving. GMT presented the competition favorites and gifts the official catalog to its readers, who were able to follow the ceremony live on worldtempus.com, which will also provide an analysis of the results.

The Ballon Bleu is one of Cartier’s great success stories. It’s unisex; it’s available in a variety of different materials; it can be simple or complicated; and it comes in seven different sizes with various options and styles of gem-setting. Its name comes from the angle at which the lugs meet the case, which resembles the way in which a hot air balloon tapers down towards the basket; it’s also a reference to the three-dimensional curves of the case. The blue comes from the precious spinel set into the crown, protected by a small metal bridge. The Ballon Blanc shares the same shape, but not the same vocation.

Alpina unveils the Shadow Line made up of six models - from its Startimer Pilot and Alpiner collections - featuring smoked dials and equipped with a connected e-strap, exclusively developed by the brand. Best-selling pieces of the brand, the Startimer Pilot big Date Quartz Chronograph, the Startimer Pilot Automatic and the Alpiner 4 Automatic are presented in new interpretations combining urban elegance and sporty technicity.