SIHH 2017 – The Piaget Polo S Black ADLC / Rubber (The new Limited Editions That Make A World Of Difference)
Launched with great fanfare in the middle of last year – see our introducing article – the Piaget Polo S was both a breath of fresh air for Piaget and, at the same time (and unfortunately) the most controversial watch of the year 2016. This is the sad part of the story. This watch is great… alone. But it lives in a market full of competitors. It seems that Piaget heard the complaints and for the SIHH 2017, some new limited editions have been showed, the Piaget Polo S Black ADLC / Rubber 3-hand and chronograph – a world of difference… And that’s were the deal becomes pretty interesting.
The cool and elegant Vacheron Constantin booth at SIHH was packed with highly complicated pieces (including the most complicated piece), and their top-line SIHH releases were a mass of brain-bending masterpieces, heavy on the sonneries, sidereal time and celestial maps. But amid all this mechanical splendour I found myself coming back to a simpler – but by no means simple – option: the Patrimony Perpetual Calendar, in a pink gold case with a new, slate grey dial. The colour combination is all that’s changed, but sometimes a fresh new look is all you need to fall in love all over again with an old favourite. Until now this distinguished 41mm watch (which is quite slender at 8.96mm) was available in pink gold with a silver opaline dial, or in platinum everything as a special Excellence Platine edition. Both watches were exceedingly formal takes on a traditional complication. Very Vacheron Constantin. This version, though, is much more contemporary in look and feel – you might almost say it’s trendy. The contrast between the warm gold case and the cool grey domed dial is to die for, and the way light plays across the myriad of polished surfaces is more than a little…
Ulysse Nardin pulled out all the stops for its first SIHH showing. In a fair charactered by conservative product releases, the Le Locle-based manufacturer presented a strong line-up of novelties, with a strong nautical theme, highlights including the new regatta timer, the technically impressive Marine Grand Deck, as well as this watch – the Classico Manufacture Grand Feu. This very traditional timepiece is jam-packed with smart details and offered at a highly competitive price. At 40mm across, the round steel case is hard to dislike, with its wide polished bezel, slightly clawed lugs set into the case middle and a crown that’s simple, sturdy and not at all fiddly. Nice though the case is, it doesn’t hold a candle to what’s within. The movement is the UN-320 caliber, made entirely in-house, down to the silicium hairspring and escapement – a feat of which the brand is rightly proud (the oft-repeated message at SIHH was that none of the other exhibiting brands made their own silicon hairsprings). The movement finishing is neat, though not astonishing. The rotor, with its blue anchor logo and wave pattern is quite pleasing on the eye. The dial is another story. It’s a ‘grand feu’ enamel dial in vivid,…
This year sees Montblanc introduce bronze into its watch collections for the very first time – and we have to say they’ve done it in an unusual and (as is typical for the brand) very smart way. With the exception of the high-end Villeret piece, Montblanc has avoided releasing full bronze-cased watches, instead employing the distinctive alloy in a much more tactical manner. In the case of the latest version of the 1858 Automatic, bronze is used on the bezel and crown, leaving the rest of the 44mm body in steel. Besides offering a very different take on two-tone, this approach is quite clever. The high-touch areas of crown and bezel will patina up quite nicely, but overall the watch won’t be as overwhelming as a full bronze case (which, we suspect, will mean it appeals to more people). The bronze elements aren’t the only vintage accents at play here – the black dial features the historic Montblanc logo, and numerals and hands painted in ‘bronze’ luminescent material. The final touch is the truly excellent strap, a supple cognac coloured calfskin number with double stitching in a style that has been very much in fashion among vintage collectors in recent years. Most models in…