Throwback To Our Favorite Watches From Baselworld 2016 – And What To Expect From Baselworld 2017
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.
BASEL BUILDUP: To celebrate the sartorial whirlwind who sadly departs Time+Tide today on maternity leave, we couldn’t resist revisiting our Content Director Ceri David’s genius idea from Baselworld 2016, which was to basically ‘live pair’ all the new releases with creative wardrobe choices. It was a huge hit with readers, and – looking at the list a year later – we can see why. It’s still devastatingly on point. We’ll miss you this year, Ceri! And, by the way, what will we wear with everything? We’ll have to go it alone in 2017, gang… The Basel Lookbook, in which our friend and fashion advisor Ceri David casts an eye over the best releases of Baselworld and suggests what might look nice to wear with them. If you’d like sass with that, you’ll be most pleased. What’s this then? The limited edition Bremont Boeing 100. What does it go with? The colour brown is the ultimate dark horse. Never showy, never demanding, always getting on with things while the other, brighter colours steal all the glory. (Don’t get us started on red. Such an attention seeker.) Well, it stops here. Brown: we love you. And we’re teaming this brown Bremont with even more…
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…
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…
