After a few quiet years, Favre-Leuba is back. The brand is being reenergized with the launch of bold new designs such as the Raider Harpoon or the Raider Bivouac 9000, reimagining Favre-Leuba icons. We have taken the opportunity to interview the man tasked with putting this illustrious brand back where it deserves to be, Mister Thomas Morf, CEO of Favre-Leuba.
When prior to Baselworld 2017, at their annual pre-Basel event, Tudor unveiled the new Black Bay Chronograph, the crowd of journalists present there immediately thought “in-house chronograph movement” (us included). The excitement lasted for less than 5 minutes, as soon as the official disclaimer was launched. Indeed, despite the “MT” nomenclature, this movement is not produced by Tudor, but by Breitling – which soon after announced the launch of a new 3-hand movement, based on a… Tudor calibre. Good thing or not? This is what we’re going to see with the new Tudor / Breitling alliance.
While it is now common in the automotive industry to customize your future car, choosing colors and options, and to do it in front of a screen, by using an online configurator, the high-end watches buying experience remains relatively austere. You look at display windows, you enter a cosy boutique and you choose among the available watches. A very 1990s experience, you’ll admit. However, consumer behaviors are drastically evolving, and the future will be ruled two concepts: online and customization… And this is exactly what you’ll get with the new Armin Strom Watch Configurator, a unique and innovative way to create your own, tailor-made, high-end watch.
In just a few days from now, on Wednesday 22 March (official press day), Baselworld, the main watch event of the year, based in the city of Basel, Switzerland, will open its doors. At exactly 12:00, most major brands (Rolex, Omega, Tudor, all brands from the Swatch Group, Seiko) as well as the representative of the independent watchmaking industry will reveal their new collections. Before we can all dream in front of these Baselworld 2017 novelties, let’s have a look back at our favorite watches of Baselworld 2016, as well as a few comments on what is to be expected at and from Baselworld 2017.
The Omega Master Chronometer is about the pursuit of the best possible movement. Not the most complex movement, not the one with the most features, or the craziest complications. No. With the Master Chronometer, Omega wanted to create a standard movement that will perform to the same high level in every situation, in every environment, in every possible condition. Heat, cold, magnetic fields, shocks… Everything you can imagine has been tested, ensuring precision, reliability and efficiency, everyday and everywhere. Believe it or not, this is a really big deal, more significant even than any tourbillon. Not only has Omega spent years on research and development, it has also created an entirely new way to certify these watches. Today, we bring you where no camera has ever been before; inside the Omega Master Chronometer Certification facilities.
Hublot’s cohort of brand ambassadors welcomes a new addition – top golfer Dustin Johnson, whose his remarkable resolve and talent saw him win major titles.
Since a few months now, you probably heard about the #MakeSwissMadeGreatAgain concept launched by independent watchmaker H. Moser & Cie. With a certain love for unconventional marketing gimmicks and an ironical way of exposing the reality of the Swiss Made label, the brand made some noise. Yet, behind this, there’s a wish of promoting the real Swiss Watchmaking industry, the one we all love as collectors. Today, in order to preserve Swiss watchmaking traditions, Christie’s and H. Moser & Cie. join forces, with an upcoming auction of the Cheese Swiss Mad Watch and Swiss Alp Watch Prototype (as a start of a long term relation).
When you think Fabergé, you hardly think about watches. And even more, you hardly imagine a hyper-innovative chronograph movement, which in some ways revolutionizes centuries of stop watches… However that is exactly what Fabergé introduces today: a movement with a brand new display, a brand new architecture and a brand new clutch, solving many of the traditional chronograph issues. Fabergé’s new timepieces is a chronograph that displays the elapsed hours, minutes and seconds centrally, with the passage of ‘normal’ hours and minutes around it. Please welcome the Fabergé Visionnaire Chronograph, with revolutionary movement by Agenhor (and we found the best possible video to explain it – thanks TheWatchesTV.)
Schwarz Etienne, a brand that flies under the radar for many but if you take the time to look a little closer, you will soon discover that it has a lot to offer. Its product offering is structured around three main collections (plus a few exclusive pieces). Recently we had the opportunity to visit to the manufacture, which was an eye-opening experience, to say the least. The brand has incredible potential and already boasts a surprisingly high level of vertical integration – in particular the in-house production of hairsprings with E2O innovations, their sister company located in the same facilities in La Chaux-de-fonds. That’s rare enough and it really needs an in-depth explanation.
By Roberta Naas
It isn’t easy to pick five of the best watches from Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) 2017. There were so many great timepieces. So, for this closer look at three top watches from SIHH, we laid some ground rules: one independent brand; one sport watch; one classic men’s watch. Here we take a close-up look at the top pick in those arenas.