We recently had the chance to talk with Fabienne Lupo, Chairwoman and Managing Director of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH), the body that organizes the watch trade show SIHH. As SIHH 2017 has just concluded, this would be read more…
There’s a case for letting the dust settle before you start writing lists after a watch fair. You know, the fullness of time, emotions recollected in tranquility, all that. Or, you could just ride the wave of enthusiasm/delirium while it’s still surging and put it out there, on the spot, from the ‘backstage area’ of one of the booths. Which is precisely what we did on the final day of SIHH 2017 after some frantic notebook scribbling and hurried discussion. We ended up not agreeing enough to do a team list just yet (after all, we’re different people). So we stuck to five each. We’re quite sure that when we get home and start poring over all the photos and videos with fresh eyes that things will change. But until then, these are some piping hot croissants, fresh from the SIHH oven. And boy, are the watches (and our photographer Marcus’ shots of them) toasty. Enjoy with a cup of coffee.
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Last year, Girard-Perregaux celebrated its 225th anniversary by releasing a new Laureato that we saw hands-on here, a totally new all-steel watch and the first redesign of the series since the 2003 Laureato Evo 3. Bringing the aesthetic focus back to read more…
No one was quite sure what to expect at SIHH this year, so it was a thrill to see Cartier getting on the front foot with a female-focused re-release of the Panthère de Cartier. First launched in the 1980s, it sat well with the cultural cues of the time: big hair, shoulder pads, Dynasty. Charlie Sheen’s character, Bud Fox, wore one in Wall Street. And one of our favourite photographs shows the Panthère on the wrist of a fresh-faced, blow-dried Pierce Brosnan, accessorised with a pinky ring and a luxuriant pectoral thatch, his top four buttons left undone, as was standard in the era. That, friends, was how you rocked a Panthère. The theme goes back way further than that, though. The big cat first slunk into the picture in 1914, when Louis Cartier – who was running the company at the time with his brothers Jacques and Pierre – commissioned a painting by French artist George Barbier, featuring a woman with a panther lounging at her feet. Just a few months later, the creature appeared on its first piece of Cartier jewellery, and ever since then it’s been an ongoing motif across both the brand’s male and female collections, with everything from watches and…
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No one was quite sure what to expect at SIHH this year, so it was a thrill to see Cartier getting on the front foot with a female-focused re-release of the Panthère de Cartier. First launched in the 1980s, it sat well with the cultural cues of the time: big hair, shoulder pads, Dynasty. Charlie Sheen’s character, Bud Fox, wore one in Wall Street. And one of our favourite photographs shows the Panthère on the wrist of a fresh-faced, blow-dried Pierce Brosnan, accessorised with a pinky ring and a luxuriant pectoral thatch, his top four buttons left undone, as was standard in the era. That, friends, was how you rocked a Panthère. The theme goes back way further than that, though. The big cat first slunk into the picture in 1914, when Louis Cartier – who was running the company at the time with his brothers Jacques and Pierre – commissioned a painting by French artist George Barbier, featuring a woman with a panther lounging at her feet. Just a few months later, the creature appeared on its first piece of Cartier jewellery, and ever since then it’s been an ongoing motif across both the brand’s male and female collections, with everything from watches and…
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Ulysse Nardin, a new-comer for the SIHH, is well known for its Marine roots, as the manufacture has been active in the field of Marine Chronometers (to be placed on boat decks) since its inception in 1846. You won’t be surprised though to see that one of the main highlights of the 2017 collection is strongly linked to this rich past. Still, Marine is not the only field where Ulysse Nardin is active. Innovation is another one. Based on the highly simplified annual calendar introduced last year on the Marine Chronograph, this year the brand comes with a more traditional version, the Ulysse Nardin Marine Annual Calendar Chronometer – and that’s not the only thing that pleases us here…
One thread running through Ulysse Nardin’s current creations and connecting the brand to its heritage is a nautical theme. Among releases for SIHH 2017 is the Ulysse Nardin Marine Regatta watch which truly gets to the heart of maritime sport timing.
No fewer than 744 hours. That’s how long the power reserve for the A. Lange & Söhne Lange 31 watch is. While not a record in watchmaking, it is indeed a remarkable feat, and more so because it’s a piece that you can ostensibly actually wear every day for a month.
For many consumers and manufacturers, now is not the time for extravagant, outlandish watches. That’s not to say SIHH doesn’t have its fair share of outlandish, extravagant and (it must be said) amazing timepieces – but they’re very much a niche proposition. The vast majority of real-world buyers are after something simpler and in a soft and uncertain economy the versatile round steel watch, free of gimmick and full of quality is an appealing option. Happily, this year SIHH is delivering quite a few watches that fit this bill. For me, one of the best is the revivified Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Control collection. For the past 25 years, these clean, round watches have been the starting point for many who’ve wanted to get into the brand, but (for whatever reason) haven’t heeded the call of the Reverso. These new Master Controls are pitch perfect heritage-ish watches that do everything right. The collection includes a dual time and a chronograph that we’ll show you down the track, but for now we’d like to focus on the Master Control Date. Before we get to that stunning dial, it would be remiss of us not to mention the well-proportioned 39mm steel case, which is très slim…
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This year’s SIHH sees Baume & Mercier release a new, sportier take on the Clifton – the Clifton Club. This collection of robust, three-handed timepieces is made for ‘gentle sportsmen’ – which, if I’m interpreting the PR video full of people on boards (surf and skate) and bikes (mountain and motorised) means it’s a sporty go-anywhere-do-anything watch that would still fit quite neatly into your daily life. Presented in a range of dial and strap options, at its core this collection is a 42mm steel case, with a diver’s bezel and legible dial design, applied indices, a bold ‘Phi’ logo at 12 and contemporary hands. As far as things go, it’s a fairly conservative package, which works with a range of colours. It looks summery in sunburst blue, and far more stealthy when realised in black and paired with the matching black ADLC case. The strap options are good too – including a traditional three-link bracelet, a sailcloth textured ‘All Road’ calfskin number with contrasting orange details, and an unusual vulcanised rubber option with a central grille of vents. With 100m of water resistance across the board, a fairly slender 10.2mm profile, screw-down crown and amply applied Luminova, the Clifton Club plays it by…
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