To follow with the video we just published, it is now time for us to go into all the details about what certainly is THE main technical achievement of the beginning of the year. Piaget smashes all previous records and unveils the ultra-lean 2mm Altiplano Ultimate Concept. What you see in front of you simply is the thinnest mechanical watch ever created… And by far. Ultra-thin redefined!
Now we see quite a few spectacular timepieces every year, sometimes when they’re about to be launched and sometimes when there’s still a lot of work before it’s ready to be launched. But what we got to see at Piaget the other day, was simply unheard of, and properly mind-boggling. Piaget has created a watch with a thickness of just 2.00 millimetre. And I’m not talking about the movement, the entire watch is 2mm thick. That’s thinner than the leather strap on your watch, thinner than a Swiss five Franc coin.
The SIHH 2018, the first watch fair of the year, kicks off on Monday, 15 January. And we will be there with the “big guns”… For five days, 18 of the most prestigious and established brands, as well as 17 independent watchmakers, will unveil their new collections and we, at MONOCHROME, are committed to bring you all the important novelties and make sure that you don’t miss anything from the show. Here’s what you can expect to see.
One of the sleeper hits of this year’s SIHH might just come from an unexpected source. The new Clifton BaumaticTM from Baume & Mercier features a chronometer-certified proprietary movement, with a silicon hairspring and a comfortable 5-day power reserve. Soon to be available at a very competitive price, this could be the beginning of a whole new era for the brand. All the details below.
Here, at MONOCHROME, we’re not huge fans of the smart-watches, to say the least. We cherish and celebrate watches in their purest (probably old-school) form: ME-CHA-NI-CAL! We love gears, pinions, hand-decoration, complications but also all the devoted people that work behind the scenes. Smart-watch, as tech objects, never ticked the boxes. However, we have to keep up with the times and admit that in some cases, technology can be brilliant (we are, after all, a web medium). Today, Ressence launches the Type 2 e-Crown Concept and they might have found the recipe to reconcile us with electronics…
H. Moser & Cie. does it again with the Swiss Icons Watch…! Yes, it is a mess. Yes, it looks terrible. No, it is not a joke and it does really exist. But indeed, it is again a brave move from the brand. Early 2017, Moser decided to remove the “Swiss Made” inscription from their watches and coincidentally they launched the Swiss Mad Watch (100% Swiss, including the cheese case). Now, the brand again wants to make some noise and to point what they believe to be the watchmaking industry’s main issue; the lack of creativity and the overly-present marketing.
H. Moser & Cie. does it again with the Swiss Icons Watch…! Yes, it is a mess. Yes, it looks terrible. No, it is not a joke and it does really exist. But indeed, it is again a brave move from the brand. Early 2017, Moser decided to remove the “Swiss Made” inscription from their watches and coincidentally they launched the Swiss Mad Watch (100% Swiss, including the cheese case). Now, the brand again wants to make some noise and to point what they believe to be the watchmaking industry’s main issue; the lack of creativity and the overly-present marketing.
It’s true… The SIHH 2018 hasn’t started yet. However, as every year, the game of the “pre-SIHH” watches (novelties introduced as teasers for what is to come during the fair) brought its dosage of new watches. In order to prepare yourself for what’s coming in a week, here is a short recap of the main novelties already introduced as part of the SIHH 2018 collections.
While some of the watches introduced by Ulysse Nardin at the SIHH 2018 slightly surprised us, including the Marine Torpilleur Military (and surprise doesn’t mean negative feelings here), the brand also had something resolutely classic up its sleeve in the form of the Classico Manufacture “Grand Feu”, which we reviewed here. Endowed with glossy enamel dials, a subtle yet original design, and an accessible price, we wanted to see them in the metal.
Piaget and ultra-thin are two words that go together very well. For over 60 years now, the brand has developed a true expertise in ultra-thin watches and movements (don’t forget that Piaget started its life as a movement manufacturer and not as a jeweller). From the Calibre 9P to the recent 900P, the brand has gone from one world-record to another. Last year, a certain Italian-rooted brand unveiled what was the thinnest automatic movement in current production… Today Piaget comes with their answer. They took one the thinnest hand-wound watches in the world, the Altiplano 900P, and added a peripheral rotor making it an automatic. And not just an automatic but the world’s thinnest automatic wristwatch.