Another epic week ends. The mood was cautious this year at the Salon International de Haute Horlogerie in Geneva. The watches being presented were magnificently beautiful, but with a decidedly more commercial flavour. Prices seem to head toward more modest levels. And many entry level watches are being shown. Here is the Chief Editor’s…
At SIHH 2017, Swiss Piaget released two new versions of a timepiece originally re-leased back in 2015. For 2017, the Piaget Vintage Inspiration watch is in two new versions with a very sexy meteorite dial option.
Ready to shake your tail feather? Let’s hope so, seeing as today kicks off the Chinese year of the rooster. Luckily, there’s a way to get into the spirit of things without having to hire a head-to-toe cockerel costume, and for that, we have Dior to thank. A vision in red, the Dior VIII Grand Bal Plume 2017 Chinese New Year Limited Edition is the perfect marriage of haute couture and horlogerie. Think of all the Dior gowns in luxuriant fabrics and cunning construction you’ve seen on A-listers at awards ceremonies over the years. They’re showstoppers – and this is no different. See that oscillating weight (in prime position on the dial-side of the watch), with its diamond-embellished feathers? That constantly moves, like the swish of a hoop skirt at a ball. (And yes, those are rooster feathers. What else did you expect?) There are yet more diamonds set into the buckle. And if that weren’t bold enough, the red alligator strap is really no wall flower. (The crown, meanwhile, is engraved with CD – and yes, we know it’s for Christian Dior, but why not also Ceri David?) And yes, we did also use the word ‘horlogerie’, so this…
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Back in 2013, Blancpain resurrected the Bathyscaphe diver as a part of the Fifty Fathoms collection. It had a lot of vintage styling, rock-solid construction, and a nice movement inside too. There was a lot to love and I even put one through its paces in A Week On The Wrist, loving my time with it. If I had one complaint though, it was the watch’s size. At 43mm, it was substantially bigger than the vintage divers that inspired it and a little chunky for me personally. Well, now that problem is solved. Blancpain is taking the same general Bathyscaphe design and introducing it in a smaller 38mm case size.
Last week at SIHH we showed you the new Royal Oak Chronograph collection, but Audemars Piguet has decided to freshen up the chronographs in the Offshore collection too. To be clear, the original Offshore was the first Royal Oak chronograph some two decades ago. But, I digress. Just as is the case with the new Royal Oak Chronograph lineup, the changes here are mostly cosmetic, with Audemars Piguet introducing new case and dial combinations, including several two-tone options and one in solid platinum.
A grail watch can be pretty much anything. But one thing a grail watch always is is personal. Very personal. I was introduced to my personal grail watch by a close friend of mine who had recently treated himself to a new watch: a pre-Collection Privée Cartier Paris Louis Cartier Tank in platinum.
Now that SIHH has passed, the new Baselworld novelties have started to roll in. Today we bring you two new watches from Bell & Ross, the BR03-92 Horograph and the limited edition Horolum. Both of these creations have the characteristic Bell & Ross square case with which we are all familiar but with some slight updates to the typical pilot-style look.
The vintage-inspired trend that overshadows the watch market these past few years is still evolving, with most companies more or less digging in their archives, trying to find vintage designs, to bring them back in life. Although this may show the difficult position of the Swiss watch industry as a whole, it can be argued that it has some benefits. Perhaps the most important one is that the market is full of great new watches. One of these is arguably the new Squale Squalematic 60 Atmos, a vintage-inspired dive watch that comes from a company with great pedigree. So we placed it under the Monochrome microscope and here are our thoughts.
For the second week in a row, a vintage Heuer Autavia makes the cover of Bring A Loupe, but there is a good reason for its return. The 1st execution reference 2446 offered today could indeed become the most expensive Autavia publicly sold, if its asking price is met. Our other picks for the week include a full set Rolex Daytona 6263, a stunning Omega Seamaster 300, and a funky Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox nicknamed the “Snowdrop.” But there is no doubt who the star of the show is – the Heuer 2446 is going to have collectors worldwide watching and waiting to see what happens. This is your Bring A Loupe for January 27, 2017.
For Ulysse Nardin, it was the first time that they exhibited at the SIHH, but they sure made an impact. Various novelties were introduced and among them a stunning new Regatta Timer. While available as part of the regular collection featuring a white or blue dial, it was the limited edition that Ulysse Nardin makes for Artemis that caught especially our attention. Ulysse Nardin used the experience and input of two yachtsmen of the Swedish team, Loïck Peyron, and Iain Percy, to create this unique watch.