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.
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”.
TAG Heuer demonstrates its watchmaking prowess with a new timepiece representing the next generation of tourbillon watches. The manufacture movement of this new model features a carbon- composite hairspring, produced from a gas, that replaces the well-known Elinvar and silicon versions.
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.
