INTRODUCING: See the world as never before with the Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle World Time
Not content to wow us with an exceptionally assured and complex SIHH collection, Vacheron Constantin have just announced their latest, highly limited (like, 10 pieces limited) version of the Traditionnelle World Time, originally shown in 2011. First of all, this 42.5mm Traditionelle is cased in platinum. Most of the time that’s special enough, but in this instance the heavy metal pales in comparison to the enamel dial. Comprised of three overlapping discs, the dial of the World Time is already a complex beast, but it’s elevated even more through the use of opaque and grisaille enamel techniques. At the centre of the dial is a golden map of the northern hemisphere, hand-painted in a scale so minute as to require the use of extra-fine brushes and even pins. Set in a sea of the richest blue, the cloud-like landmasses are surrounded by the names of the cities which themselves are also hand-painted – adding up to a dial that necessitates a huge amount of work. We’re talking 20 hours of handcrafting, and 10 painstakingly precise hand firings to achieve the most perfect of finishes. Don’t be fooled by the pretty face though, as there’s plenty going on behind the dial. The Geneva…
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Schedules are printed. Bags are packed. Passports located. We. Are. Ready. For. Baselworld. Next time we Wind Down, it’ll be over a frosty Feldschlössen (our Basel beer of choice) and there’ll be pretzel crumbs all over the place. What happened Horological marketing departments are a fairly conservative bunch on the whole, because luxury watches are, apparently, a serious business. It seems that Corum are the exception that proves the rule. This video for their 2017 collection is, hands down the best watch ad we’ve seen in a long time. Corum marketing team, we salute you, completely laughable (watch the video) Bubble Earth/Sun/Eye watch, we kind of want you. Last Friday we posted a picture of a Seiko on FB and asked, innocently enough, if there was any love out there for Seiko dive watches? Eighty-one comments, 1200-odd likes and god only knows how many shared photos later, we’re pretty sure that there is. Aside from that usual roster of Turtles and SKX models, we were particularly impressed to see half a dozen or so Blue Lagoons. Clearly the hot Seiko this season. What really mattered Well, TAG Heuer made a convincing argument for the future of the Swiss smart watch, in the shape…
Meet the latest surprise entrant in the luxury Swiss smart watch sector – the Montblanc Summit. Yes, you read that right, Montblanc. Outgoing CEO Jérôme Lambert has just released details of the Summit, a fully fledged smart watch, with a 46mm case, and (in a first for the connected sector) a curved sapphire touchscreen. The looks of the summit draw strongly from the popular 1858 collection, Lambert says “we wanted to bring a one-of-a-kind vintage design expression into this new product category to inspire the younger generation who appreciates the vintage look”, which is quite a novel approach. Not only is this reflected in the physical case, but also in the traditionally styled watch faces shown on the fully round 1.39″ AMOLED display. The Montblanc Summit runs Android Wear 2 off a Snapdragon Chipset, is water resistant to the IP68 standard, and features heart rate monitor, compass and gyroscope (no mention of GPS) and 4GB of internal storage. Compatible with iOS and Android, it comes pre-loaded with a bunch of apps including Runtastic, Google Assistant, Uber and a voice activated translator. Montblanc’s Summit will be available in a wide range of case styles and strap combinations – over…
Piaget’s pioneering Altiplano has been impressing since 1957, and given that watch brands love nothing more than an anniversary, we were expecting plenty of that barely-there silhouette in the collection at SIHH. And that’s fair enough, when you consider that, 60 years on, mechanical watches still don’t come any slimmer than the Altiplano. Even so, we weren’t quite prepared for just how stunning the new special editions are, with colourful, shimmering dials that really blew us away. Oh, and Piaget also snuck in a stealthy new black Polo S as well. The only question remaining is, would I rock this diamond-encrusted tourbillon? 
BASEL BUILDUP: Seiko’s impact at Baselworld last year was measurable on the Richter scale. If it wasn’t the aftershocks of the Seiko Presage Chronograph 60th Anniversary Limited Edition it was watches like the Grand Seiko Spring Drive SBGD001. Hard model name to remember. Easy watch to be wooed by. The dial doesn’t quite sparkle in these pictures like it does in real life, so if you ever get the chance to see one, do yourself a favour. The first thing you notice about this Grand Seiko when you look at it is the dial. It’s a fresh as virgin snow on a crisp winter’s morning – an icy, sparkling white. Seiko call it ‘diamond dust’ and it’s easy to see why. What you notice next, if you’re lucky enough to have the opportunity to hold this watch in your hands is the weight. It’s heavy, real heavy. And that can only mean one thing – platinum. The case isn’t just solid, it’s big too. At 43mm it measures in larger than most Grand Seiko’s, thanks to the 37mm wide movement. Add this uncharacteristically big case to Seiko’s impeccable polishing and the traditional styling, and what might look inconspicuous in press pictures, is actually a shimmering…
BASEL BUILDUP: The first Omega Speedmaster was released in 1957, so the iconic model is celebrating its 60th this year. We’re pretty confident this means we’ll be seeing an anniversary edition at Baselworld in a few days, which led us to speculate (fairly intensely) about what it might look like. As with all things involving ‘vintage’ and ‘Speedmaster’, our journey led back to Petros Protopapas, Brand Heritage Manager of Omega, who told us some great stories about the model at an event we held back in 2014, called ‘The Night of Omega Firsts’. We decided to take a close look at what he said about the 1957 Speedmaster, to piece together possible clues about what a reissue might look like. 
BASEL BUILDUP: The Bronze Age that typified many Baselworld 2016 releases – including this Tudor Heritage Black Bay Bronze – continued apace at the first major watch fair of 2017, SIHH in Geneva. Montblanc released a bronze augmented new take on the 1858 automatic, a Chronograph Tachymeter and a spectacular Dual Time that worked the material masterfully into a broader vintage theme. Meanwhile over at Panerai, the wrist born beast, the Bronzo, resurfaced with a blue dial. The trend, it seems, is far from over. Will it continue at Baselworld 2017? Only time – seven days to be precise – will tell… The story in a second Yet again, Tudor has delivered one of the most talked about watches of 2016. If you’d asked me in the early months of 2016 if the bronze trend had a future, I’d have said no. To all intents and purposes the craze, spearheaded by Panerai, was on the wane. Sure, the ancient-yet-innovative alloy had its charms, but it takes a certain type of person to mess around with sulphur and lemon juice, making their watch look like something salvaged from a shipwreck. I thought bronze would always be a niche case material, not a…
BASEL BUILDUP: Will it happen again? Will Rolex put a ceramic bezel on an existing watch and break Baselworld? Rumours abound we may see just that on the ‘Coke’ GMT-Master II, which has been mocked up here by those resourceful Rolex rumourmongers at Monochrome. Though, for ours, a gradated green dial on a Sea-Dweller would be far more exciting. Some years, it’s giant leaps for mankind that steal the limelight, and others it’s, well, increments on a (slightly redesigned) tachymeter. 
Vacheron Constantin bucked the trend this year at SIHH. While many of their fellow exhibitors played it safe, bringing out crowd-pleasing steel models and revisiting their greatest hits, Vacheron Constantin walked another path, with a collection focused at the very highest end of horology. Not only did they offer mind-numbingly complex astronomical grand complication and a grand sonnerie model, they also offered some sculptural (yet still super complex) Métiers d’Art options. Oh, and they threw in some handsome new takes on existing models for good measure. Definitely not playing it safe.
BASEL BUILDUP: One of the great things about Basel is the interviews. All the key players are in one place, and to use sporting parlance, when the doors open and the cameras roll, it is game on. We didn’t know it at the time, but this interview with then-President of Omega Stephen Urquhart at Baselworld 2016 was to be one of his last. A couple of weeks later, in April, he announced his retirement, a story we were also involved in breaking. This casts the interview in a different light – and it might also explain why he more freely tackled topics such as Rolex’s redefined Rolex Superlative Chronometer certification (in episode one), the mistake he made with the introduction of the Co-Axial movement and the watch he wore on his most recent wedding day (both in episode two). This is viewing not only for hardened watch enthusiasts and Omega-maniacs but also for those looking for a more human face behind the rhetoric and braggadocio of watch industry leaders.