THE WATCHES MAGAZINE #45 Summer edition

Swiss International Magazine Summer 2016 #045 Interview Karl-Friedrich Scheufele - Portrait Eva Leube - Guest Nicolas Reitzaum

English Edition

Chopard

Bui ld on th e excep tion al A. Lange & söhne - Arnold & son - Audemars Piguet - Blancpain - Breguet - Breitling - Bvlgari - Cartier - Chanel - Chopard - Corum - Cuervo & sobrinos - de Grisogono Emile Chouriet - Eterna - Fiona Krüger - Girard-Perregaux - Harry Winston - Hautlence - Hermès - Hublot - Hysek - IWC - Jacob & Co. - Jaeger-LeCoultre - Jaquet Droz - Junghans Laurent Ferrier - Louis Erard - Louis Moinet - Manufacture Royale - MB&F - Mido - Omega - Oris - Parmigiani - Patek Philippe - Pierre DeRoche Rebellion - Roger Dubuis - Rolex - speake-Marin - TAG Heuer - Tudor - urwerk - Vacheron Constantin - Voutilainen - Vulcain - Zenith suisse: 10 francs FRANCE MéTRO: 7 EuROs - BEL/LuX/POLAND: 8 EuROs - uK: £8 - A/D/GR//PORT.CONT: 8,40 EuROs - CAN: 11,95 $CAN - usA: 14,99 $us

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06

Chopard L.U.C perpetual Chrono

By Sharmila Bertin

C

hopard’s latest piece showcases timekeeping in all its glory with short time chronometers and a doublyapproved date display (COSC and Geneva Seal).

The manual wind L.U.C 03.10L calibre has functions galore and was designed in the brand’s workshops. Aside from its 60-hour power reserve, it brings to life a flyback chronograph and perpetual calendar all nestled in the heart of a 45mm “Fairmined” white gold case.

The displays appear on the grey dial with a slight twist on the traditional design: day/night indicator and leap years lie in harmony in the chronograph counters at 3 and 9 o’clock. A counter at 6 bears the small seconds and orbital moon phase whilst the rays on the dial rise up to the large date at 12.

THE WATCHES MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2016

45MM JUMPING HOURS CENTRAL TOURBILLON

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E DIT OR IAL

“Did you see anything nice in Basel?”

09

© Mickael Gautier

T

he Swiss trade fair season came to an end in late March so now’s the time for a little post-Baselworld report.

Overall, the international watchmaking fair was more subdued than previous years. Aside from the weekend when the fair was packed with enthusiasts and inquisitive families, there weren’t many people for the first few days. However, we should mention that watch news has become easier to find in the written and online press so you no longer need to travel to Basel to find out about new products.

Yes, sales are slowing down which is making retailers and sales managers a little nervous. You don’t need to be an expert to see it, you just need to look at the product. The focus is on more affordable watch collections without scrimping on quality. The idea, especially for mid-range brands, is to please the masses.

Steel has made its comeback be it as a brand new piece or a version of a gold model. The advantage of this metal is that it’s sturdy and less expensive, unlike technical ceramic which is still too dear despite being light and resistant to scratches and rust. As Karl-Friedrich Scheufele said when we met him, “a beautiful steel finish is also great”.

Low-key design has also made its way onto watch dials which are more classic and easier to read. Aside from certain brands whose painstaking dials are their signature, the majority has gone for watch dials with a silver shimmer, soft sunrays or sometimes hand-turned engraving. Even sportier ranges of models have dropped overloaded dials in favour of simple and easy timekeeping since telling the time is a watch’s reason for being.

In terms of colour, blue is in fashion as we saw at the start of

the year at the SIHH. The colour of the sea and sky leaves no sector unturned. Watches with complications, classic watches, ladies’ watches, diving watches: they all play host to blue either in delicate details (hands, visible movement components etc.), or in different shades and tones (azure, turquoise, navy, indigo, Klein blue). It’s a great alternative to ever-present black and white be it silver, off-white or classic ivory.

As for the versatile straps that we discussed in the last issue, the trend was set in stone at Baselworld. A watch’s wardrobe has got bigger to the delight of clients who can switch between straps in stylish leather, rubber for workouts and fabric for summer. Colours and materials give a watch a thousand lives, liven up a classic dial or enable you to wear your watch no matter the occasion without feeling like you’re always wearing the same model.

Sharmila Bertin Editor-in-Chief

THE WATCHES MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2016

Gu e st The Watches Magazine invites a new guest writer to share their vision of time in each issue.

"Time is a loyal experience"

10

Nicolas Reitzaum Photographer

1

/125th of a second separates the “click” from my “clack”.

The scene I’ve just shot is frozen between the two. Picture the tension: maybe I’ve taken THE photo that everyone will see, everyone will love and that will fuel me for years to come. What did I do in such a short instant? How responsible am I for the image’s success? When it’s a portrait, how could I have the nerve to think that I’ve truly captured “my subject’s personality” in such a short space of time?

1/125th of a second to create a piece is all it takes to make the media equal to pompous documentary makers.

That said, it’s easy to think that I’m swimming in the fastflowing water that spills from our ultra-connected times with the frenzied rhythm of people who do me the honour of spending a few moments looking through my lens as my mirror. And yet, and yet…Outside my studio, I create my own relationship with time. I don’t wear a watch, the position of the sun is my clock, I walk rather than drive, I hit the streets to give myself time to think and observe, I never stop an interesting conversation because I need to go to another meeting.

transport hurried people into a calm space and time. Let’s be honest, it comfortably shelters me from trends and time’s wear and tear. But that’s how it is: I belong to no time. My inspiration comes from painters I’m fortunate to meet in museums, my fears are heightened by astronomical phenomena that were there when I was born and will be there when I die, invisible everyday scenes make me smile. The past and present are my main sources of inspiration.

Time is a loyal experience. Like a mentor who’s heavily involved in my education, it supports and moulds me so my “click” is no longer pure chance but instead a carefully thought-out decision.

Adorned with its glorious gears, it joins us, peacefully, in a time when time ticks by as it takes it away…

I’m neither a prisoner of passing time nor of the time I have left.

The main reason is that I have to make time to think about the world around me. I need to absorb and digest it to put it into my art. Unlike the pieces that appear in the news or want to be ahead of their times, I try to create timeless photographs which

THE WATCHES MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2016

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INSIDE

© Mickael Gautier

28 Cover Story Chopard

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9 10 18 20 22 26 28 38

Editorial Guest Nicolas Reitzaum We love Art We love Games Trends The Eye of Jewelry Cover Story Chopard Breguet

41 42 45 46 47 48 50 51

Harry Winston Patek Philippe TAG Heuer Hublot Jaquet Droz Omega Eterna Blancpain THE WATCHES MAGAZINE

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52 53 54 55 56 57 58 60

Arnold & Son Urwerk Vulcain Pierre DeRoche Rebellion Hermès Rolex Design

CALIBRE RM 63-02 WORLD TIMER

INSIDE

68 Deep blue

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62 64 67 68 72

Vox Femina Opinion Technique Deep blue Roger Dubuis/ Voutilainen 73 Parmigiani/ Audemars Piguet

74 Emile Chouriet/Hermès 75 Chopard/ Cuervo & Sobrinos 76 Zenith/Junghans 77 IWC/Tudor 78 MB&F/Laurent Ferrier 79 Manufacture Royale/ A. Lange & Söhne THE WATCHES MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2016

80 Bvlgari/Hysek 81 Oris/Breitling 82 Portrait Eva Leube

IMPR E SSU M

Swiss International Magazine Été 2016 #045 Interview Karl-Friedrich Scheufele - Portrait Eva Leube - Guest Nicolas Reitzaum

WELCOME TO THE WORLd OF WATCHES www.watches-news.com Édition francophone

Chopard

C ult iv er l' ex c ept ionnel A. Lange & söhne - Arnold & son - Audemars Piguet - Blancpain - Breguet - Breitling - Bvlgari - Cartier - Chanel - Chopard - Corum - Cuervo & sobrinos - de Grisogono Emile Chouriet - Eterna - Fiona Krüger - Girard-Perregaux - Harry Winston - Hautlence - Hermès - Hublot - Hysek - IWC - Jacob & Co. - Jaeger-LeCoultre - Jaquet Droz - Junghans Laurent Ferrier - Louis Erard - Louis Moinet - Manufacture Royale - MB&F - Mido - Omega - Oris - Parmigiani - Patek Philippe - Pierre DeRoche Rebellion - Roger Dubuis - Rolex - speake-Marin - TAG Heuer - Tudor - urwerk - Vacheron Constantin - Voutilainen - Vulcain - Zenith suisse: 10 francs FRANCE MéTRO: 7 EuROs - BEL/LuX/POLAND: 8 EuROs - uK: £8 - A/D/GR//PORT.CONT: 8,40 EuROs - CAN: 11,95 $CAN - usA: 14,99 $us

Rédaction/Edition ACE Publishing SA Direction/Management Alain Carrier acarrier@ace-publishing.com Rédactrice en chef/Editor-in-Chief Sharmila Bertin sbertin@ace-publishing.com Designer graphique/Graphic designer Christelle Lillo clillo@ace-publishing.com Contributeurs/Contributors Cécile Bernardini - Tiffany Cartier-Millon Fabrice Eschmann - Mickael Gautier - Olivier Müller - Eléonor Picciotto Nicolas Reitzaum Publicité/Advertising ACE Publishing SA Alain Carrier acarrier@ace-publishing.com Yannick Ortolan yortolan@ace-publishing.com T +41 22 752 60 12

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THE WATCHES MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2016

Darwel

EmbracE timE Our story, our brand, our passion. carole & Pierre Dubois

carole and Pierre Dubois. a love story that gives a unique beat to their lives and their watch creations.

Pictured here, two his and hers world-exclusive royal retro models with their six dancing retrograde seconds hands.

PiErrE DErOchE - LE rEvErs 1 - 1345 LE LiEu - switzErLanD - t. +41 21 841 11 69 - www.PiErrEDErOchE.cOm

WE LOVE Art

18

Hermès

Slim d'Hermès Mille Fleurs du Mexique

By Sharmila Bertin

I

f the fabulous Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was still alive, she’d certainly have loved the Slim d'Hermès Mille Fleurs du Mexique.

The miniature artwork on this colourful dial depicts some of the cultural and folklore symbols so dear to the painter which she put into her paintings and outfits. Inspired by the pattern on the silk Hermès scarf designed by graphic artist Laetitia Bianchi, this is a celebration of the art of miniature paintings on mother-of-pearl. Once the design has been transferred onto the shimmering disc, the artisan adorns it with twenty layers of colour before firing it at 90°C. Lush nature in the form of flowers, foliage and feathers takes over the dial; the silver hour and minute hands are understated in the centre and brought to life by the ultra-slim H1950 calibre. The self-winding movement fuels a 42-hour power reserve from inside the 39.5mm white gold case.

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SUMMER 2016

WATCH THE NEW

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HAUTLENCE

Playground Labyrinth

By Sharmila Bertin

"

Same player shoot again"! In a world where everything is supertechnological and ultra-connected with garish appliances and piercing sounds that verge on noise abuse, Hautlence has crossed the line with “an entirely essential yet fundamentally useless object”: Playground Labyrinth.

As a watch, Playground Labyrinth has a large rectangular titanium case that’s classic Hautlence fuelled by a mechanical movement with wrist straps but…it doesn’t tell the time! Instead of the regular hour and minute hands gliding over the dial there’s a beautiful maze in rose or white gold. The network of straight paths bordered by satin-finish walls with polished edges and a platinum ball is a chance to get away from the everyday chaos and return to your childhood for a bit of me-time.

The calibre in the 37x43.5x13mm case has a mechanical lift to put the ball back into play once it’s out of the labyrinth.

THE WATCHES MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2016

T R E NDS

Eterna

Harry Winston

Vacheron Constantin

Blue is the new black

22

By Sharmila Bertin

I

f there’s one big trend to spot in 2016, it’s blue’s big comeback. It may often be dropped for more popular, mainstream and easy to match colours like black, white and silver but blue has popped up in collections over the last few years. It keeps a low profile but it’s definitely here, often in the small details. Now it’s back and coating men’s and women’s watches ready to sail the high seas, walk the earth and travel the Milky Way as it washes over the straps.

Blue may be seen as cold in graphic art but it’s a colour that’s full of tone and life.

Here are four examples to prove it.

Sea blue When you think of blue, you naturally think of the ocean, the deep sea and whales. The colour whisks you off the coast to play at being an adventurer on

or under the water which is exactly what Eterna’s Super KonTiki chronograph is made for. Its solid steel case (45mm diameter, 16mm thick) is topped by a rotating blue bezel; it houses the selfwinding 3916A calibre which provides a 65-hour power reserve and the time, date and chronograph functions. The blue dial is dotted with luminescent triangular markers with the hours, minutes and chronograph seconds in the centre. Two blue counters at 9 and 3 o’clock display the seconds and chronograph minutes.

True blue “Overseas” is literally an invitation to travel and cross the ocean. The collection has been reinvented by Vacheron Constantin for 2016 with a range of models including this three-handed stunner with the date. Its clear blue

THE WATCHES MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2016

lacquered dial bears luminescent hour markers whilst the minute track lies on the chapter ring. Three silver hands burst from the heart of the azure disc to track the hours, minutes and seconds. The white date display appears at 3 o’clock and the functions are brought to life by the 5100 calibre designed and made by the Genevan brand. The movement fuels the 65-hour power reserve from inside the 41mm steel case.

Complicated blue We’ve seen the sea, now let’s take to the skies! The heavenly Rotonde de Cartier Day and Night Moon Phase takes its lucky owner to the stars. Its white gold and blue paillonné lacquer dial unveils a semi-circle to track the sun and moon framed by two rows of diamonds in shades of blue. The day goes from >

T R E NDS

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Cartier

left to right, from dawn to dusk, whilst the diamond and blue sapphire moon at the bottom of the dial showcases its seven phases. A hand with a steel ring tip shows the moon’s status whilst a spearshape hand tracks the minutes brought to life by the 40mm white gold case’s 9912MC calibre.

energy is elevated by three diamond markers (at 3, 6 and 9) and a white gold HW at 12 beneath the hour and minute hands. A blue satin twin strap wraps the watch around the wrist.

Feminine blue The emerald-cut was Harry Winston’s favourite (1846-1978). In 1949 the brand founder bought Hope, the biggest ever blue diamond to be found so far. These two features, cut and colour, gave rise to a new collection: Harry Winston Emerald.

Its white gold case (17.75 x 24mm) is paved with 54 diamonds enclosing a quartz movement. The case has the edgy shape of an emerald whilst the bright blue dial is reminiscent of the Hope diamond’s unique colour. The electric

THE WATCHES MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2016

LEGENDS LIVE FOREVER EL PRIMERO

www.zenith-watches.com

I Chronomaster 1969

The e ye of Je we lry

Hublot

26

Corum

Ready, gem-set, go!

By Eléonor Picciotto

A

dazzling dial looks good. You think it’s elegant when it’s paved with diamonds. It leaves you speechless when you see a baguette setting. You admire it.

Captivated by the detail of the gems, what takes it to a whole new level is the expert technique, painstakingly precise cut or even the colour pairing. So, to put it simply, baguette setting works. Approved as such despite its official designation being “emerald-cut setting” (referring to the rectangular gem), baguette setting doesn’t exist! From now on, I’d be grateful if you’d leave your baguette at the bakery, ask him for a really white classic for your dinner and go to bed dreaming of a timepiece paved with emerald-cut diamonds…and there’s no lack of choice at the 2015 Basel event.

Some may say, “How about we do something a bit different?” but actions speak louder than words for Corum and Hublot.

Corum has washed the ocean and masculine features out of its iconic Admiral’s Cup by paving the dial with diamonds, amethysts and sapphires in a variety of cuts and shapes. At Hublot, everyone’s talking about the Impact Bang Tourbillon covered with 31.5 carats of emerald-cut diamonds. Every gem is recut to ensure none of them are identical. The idea is that

the tourbillon at 6 o’clock shatters the Big Bang’s diamond case into 484 pieces. It’s a slightly masculine and aggressive piece that is the polar opposite to the smooth and curvy Mystery Baguette by Jacob & Co. It’s no less complicated to make with an internal invisible ring paved with 40 emeraldcut diamonds on top of the 303 that already glimmer on the rest of the case. It’s a serious gift (29.13 carats) to celebrate the brand’s 30th anniversary.

Are Chanel running out of ideas for names? We wonder... The 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 “Untitled” limited editions of the Boy.Friend model (18 of each available) are all covered with mainly emerald-cut diamonds and are simply stunning. You’d almost say they were kinetic watches spiced up with David Hicks fabric or a Pierre Hardy pattern. The purest marquetry pieces on white gold with a mechanical movement and deployment clasp.

It wouldn’t be right not to mention the Chopard Impériale Joaillerie model or Venturer Tourbillon Sapphire by H.Moser & Cie. Aside from the complexity of invisible gem-setting (a technique patented by Cartier in 1933 and trademarked by

THE WATCHES MAGAZINE

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27 Chopard

Van Cleef & Arpels as “mystery setting” in 1936), what’s unique about it is setting the stones so that you can’t see the metal. Although the technique may seem complicated for an often expected result, the hardest part is sourcing the stones, colours and shades: everything has to be of the highest quality. After that, they’re ready to go!

THE WATCHES MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2016

Chanel

Jacob & Co

Co ve r st ory Chopar d

28

"A watch is an accumulation of details"

By Sharmila Bertin

E

very decade is a new milestone in life but everyone remembers their 20 th fondly. 20, what an age! The L.U.C collection is also turning 20 after being created by one man: Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, co-president of Chopard and head of the men’s collections and factory based in Fleurier, in the Swiss Jura.

We met Karl-Friedrich Scheufele at the brand’s Geneva HQ to look back over the last two decades.

You’re celebrating a very special anniversary this year: the L.U.C’s 20th. Tell us how the collection started. Where did you get the idea from?

The idea came well before the factory, before 1996. In the 90s I had a passion for mechanical watches and I’d designed some interesting complications for the Chopard collections but I realised the brand still lacked credibility, in the watchmaking industry at least, because we didn’t have a movement factory.

So I decided to look for a factory to take over around 1993. The only option was to start from square one and build a factory from scratch.

Why did you decide to move to Fleurier, in the Jura area of Val-de-Travers?

At the very beginning, I launched the first movement, or rather the project for the first movement, with an in-house team and an external partner, Michel Parmigiani. It’s thanks to him that we came to Fleurier. The idea was also to be as low-key as possible. Fleurier gave us this opportunity, its location close to Parmigiani was good and that’s how we came to be “up there” rather than in the Vallée de Joux. I didn’t want to launch the project in Geneva anyway as there was too much “disruption” and not enough discretion. The first meeting we held in Fleurier was pretty much top secret. It was very picturesque [ laughs]. But they’re great memories.

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29

When we reached a major stage in the movement project, we decided to take over Parmigiani’s baby and go it alone in a small workshop rented in the current factory. We didn’t own the building at the time. We were a classic start-up based in Fleurier with a team of 3 or 4 people. That’s how it all started.

We’ve actually kept the original door that led to our workshop.

Was using the founder of Chopard’s initials, Louis-Ulysse Chopard, to name the new collection a nod to the past?

Exactly. We wanted to create a bond between the founder and the present and it felt natural to name the collection L.U.C. It was a way to pay tribute to him and go back to our roots. All these reasons played their part in the decision.

The L.U.C collection’s various certifications (COSC, Fairmined, Fleurier Quality, Geneva Seal) seem to be important to you. Is that right?

At the start, for internal checks and to ensure a level of quality, we decided to target the COSC approval [the Official Swiss Chronometry Testing Institute, editor’s note] for every movement we designed except the ones with no small seconds because they can’t be COSC-certified if they don’t state the seconds. That was our initial thought process. Another idea was to have our movements certified externally and not internally. That was our choice. Some brands carry out their checks internally and some don’t. I’ve always stayed in touch with Michel Parmigiani. We had the idea to create

a more advanced watchmaking certification whereby the movement had to already be certified by the COSC and other bodies. That’s how Fleurier Quality came to be. It’s also the emulation of discussions that we had for 2 or 3 years. We are now fortunate to have access to the certification and it’s really helped us not just for certain certified watches but also for developing other movements. The first L.U.C watch launched with a double Geneva Seal and COSC certification and it’s become a sort of tradition. The collection has always had pieces made and tested in the Geneva canton as we’re lucky to be based in Geneva so we have access to both certifications.

The highlight was the “Triple C”, a tourbillon with all three certifications. It’s always been important for us and our teams, it’s a good benchmark and I’d say that it’s helped us a great deal.

Do you want the L.U.C cases to be in Fairmined gold in the long-term?

Yes, that’s our vision but it is in the long-term. For now, only our L.U.C models with a major complication have a Fairmined gold case. It’s the first stage. So the exterior, the case if you will, matches the interior in terms of quality.

I suppose that you’re involved in designing the L.U.C collection. Did you draw the sketches we’ve seen in the press releases?

Unfortunately not. Guy Bove is responsible for that. I >

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Co ve r st ory Chopar d

30

don’t want to blow my own trumpet but I’m not a bad drawer.

Unfortunately I don’t have time to draw.

Regarding your role in creating a L.U.C, do you have the idea or does your team come to you with an idea?

I’m very much involved in the creative process from outlining the project to the end when the prototype is on the table and we’re discussing the final details such as a pair of hands. A watch is an accumulation of details so it’s a very important phase. So yes, I often draw little sketches to explain myself [ laughs].

Thinking about L.U.C, were there any pieces you particularly liked since the collection first launched?

Definitely the first one, the L.U.C 1860, because it encapsulates a milestone. We were there when the movement first came to life, it was unique. Another piece that stands out is undoubtedly the perpetual calendar, the L.U.C Lunar One. I’d always wanted to make a great complication using an inhouse movement and the Lunar One was the first. The peak was the L.U.C 150 All-in-One designed for Chopard’s 150th anniversary. It’s still the most complicated watch we’ve ever made although it may not be for long as we’re bringing out a new complication that’s been missing from our collection at

the end of the year. The L.U.C Perpetual Chrono is a recent watch and my favourite...but it’s hard to say which watch is my favourite, it’s like asking which of my children is my favourite [ laughs]!

How many L.U.C calibres do you produce every year?

We produce approximately 4500 movements per year and we plan to produce 6000-7000 in the long-term. To celebrate the collection’s 20 th anniversary, we decided to launch a steel version of the L.U.C 1860 which was a huge success in Basel to enable watchmaking enthusiasts to own a beautiful piece at an affordable price. Based on that, I think we’re going to increase the number of pieces we make. We also unveiled a perpetual calendar in steel. I was very fond of the watch. Some collectors buy watches for their movements and not necessarily because they’re in gold. That said, a beautiful steel finish is also great.

I’m actually wearing a steel watch today [ laughs]!

Could you tell us how much L.U.C sales account for your annual turnover?

The L.U.C collection accounts for 5-10% at the moment but we hope to increase the figure. Don’t forget that access to the factory and all the expertise we’ve built enabled us to open a second factory in 2008, Fleurier Ebauches, which currently

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produces 15,000 movements on an industrial basis. Without L.U.C, we could never have opened Fleurier Ebauches. It was a major milestone in more ways than one having begun the adventure 20 years ago.

Can we describe how your factory works as vertical integration?

We’ve gradually added all the departments at the Fleurier factory from scratch since obviously nobody told us how to make a certain finish for example. Lots of crafts have latched on over the years and we now cover the essentials in-house. It took a long time but it wasn’t too long [laughs]. When you look at how many pieces have been designed and you see them all on show, it’s very satisfying…although I still have quite a few ideas [laughs]!

Let’s go back to your answer to discuss LU.CEUM which the general public don’t know about.

LU.CEUM is a company museum. At the start I brought some of my private collection, either belonging to my family or that I’d personally collected, before founding LU.CEUM. LU.CEUM is now a collection of the company’s legacy and my only regret is that the museum isn’t open to the public. We don’t yet have the infrastructure for it as it’s on the 3rd floor of the factory and it’s difficult to provide permanent public access. But if I have another idea or another site, I’d really like the public to visit but I have other priorities at the moment [ laughs].

31

Could you tell us about your family heritage and your family taking over Chopard?

Our family-run business was founded in 1804 in Germany. It made pocket watches before focusing mainly on wristwatches.

My great-grandfather filed a patent that allowed you to wear a pocket watch on the wrist. It was like a bracelet with a spring which you could clip your pocket watch onto or wear with a watch chain. You could call it the ancestor of the first wristwatch. We went back to this idea in 2010 with a lapel watch which had a similar set-up to be worn on the wrist.

My father [Karl Scheufele, editor’s note] always used Swiss movements in his watches. In 1963, he decided to find a company in Switzerland so he could continue his work but with his own movements. He looked for a brand and stumbled upon Chopard which he bought that year. Mr. Chopard [ PaulAndré Chopard, Louis-Ulysse Chopard’s grandson, editor’s note] still had two or three employees at the time so he was probably going to close down since none of his children wanted to run the business. My father came along and quickly got on with him. They had a discussion over the weekend and Monday morning and came to an agreement for the takeover.

You’re still young but will one of your children run Chopard one day?

I hope so but you can’t plan for that. You need passion, ambition and ability. We are now a far bigger company than when I started here and the challenges are quite different, but in any case, it would be good [smiles].

Pictures © Mickael Gautier

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Co ve r st ory Chopar d

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A Fleurier Tale

By Sharmila Bertin

L

et’s open up the great watchmaking storybook and dive into the tale of Chopard and its Fleurier-based factory in the Swiss Jura. One man’s determination, creativity and passion turned the small workshop into a large business: Karl-Friedrich Scheufele. As he explained during our interview, he got the bug to found his own factory and restore Chopard to its former watchmaking glory in the 1990s.

The factory now makes 11 basic calibres and 87 models in a vibrant collection of classic, stylish and sometimes complicated or artistic watches. It employs 160 people, has 15 craft departments and makes 80,000-100,000 L.U.C components every year.

The tour of the site run by Karl-Friedrich Scheufele begins with the famous original blue door. Behind the door of what was once Chopard’s first Fleurier workshop in 1996 lies the Research and Development department which only the employees (a team of a dozen people) can enter. It’s in these very offices that the brand’s secrets, ongoing plans and upcoming projects are fiercely guarded such as the new L.U.C which will be unveiled this autumn to celebrate the collection’s 20th anniversary. Various workshops unfurl over the floors: decoration (finishing, pearling, engraving, electrotyping, bluing etc.), assembly, internal checks prior to certification by

external bodies (COSC, Fleurier Quality Foundation), layout, fitting and final checks. Fleurier is also home to a now rare craft: “fleurisanne” engraving whose curls adorn certain movements and dials.

The top floor of the building plays host to a magical world called L.U.CEUM, a long attic room with big wooden beams and rows of tall display cases. Each case showcases a watchmaking gem that tells the tale of time. The beauty, finish and markers on some pieces make them exceptional, or rather, fantastic. Here, in this peaceful place, the ages stand side by side and come together in no chronological order.

Time is here, without being here.

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Co ve r st ory Chopar d

L.U.C XPS 1860

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Build on the exceptional

By Sharmila Bertin

T

he L.U.C collection was founded exactly 20 years ago in 1996 in Chopard’s Fleurier-based workshops with the unveiling of the L.U.C 1860 model. This first timepiece bearing the brand founder’s initials and founding year is the cornerstone of an exclusive watch collection with a strong visual identity, perfect movement and literally artistic finish.

The L.U.C is a huge playground whose classic features and well-made mechanical calibres have won over men and women alike.

Back to its roots: L.U.C XPS 1860 To celebrate the collection’s 20th anniversary, Chopard is paying tribute to the piece that fuelled the L.U.C adventure. It’s true to its big brother’s stylish soul but incorporates contemporary technological advances. Its COSC-certified self-winding L.U.C 96.01L calibre is the first movement to be made by Chopard and fitted with a micro-rotor and Twin® system. The technology has been designed and patented by Chopard to put two co-axial barrels on top of each other without affecting the movement’s

size (3.30mm thick in a 40mm case). The power reserve lasts 65 hours.

The piece is true to the original design with a slight twist and comes in two versions: a limited edition rose gold one with the Geneva Seal (250 available) and a steel one. The dial has a hand-guilloché centre surrounded by a sunburst ring on the rose gold model whilst the steel one has a silver trim around a sunburst disc. The hour rim has facetted teardrop markers and an Arabic 12 in place of the double indice on the L.U.C 1860. The dauphine-shape hour and minute hands in the centre of the dial have been slightly updated to be a little more edgy. The seconds appear in a counter at 6 o’clock with a cut-out at the bottom to display the date.

The mechanical feat: L.U.C Perpetual Twin Unlike the aforementioned classic watch, this model bears the L.U.C signature with complications: hour rim with raised Roman numerals and sub-dials. The L.U.C Perpetual Twin is a COSC-certified chronometer and perpetual calendar.

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L.U.C Perpetual Twin Its various displays and functions are brought to life by the self-winding L.U.C 96-51L calibre made in Fleurier. The movement inside the 43mm steel case has TwinÂŽ technology and provides a 58-hour power reserve.

The features on the silver sunburst dial are large to make them easier to read. Two large central rhodium-plated and dauphine-shape hour and minute hands glide over the Roman hour numerals and minute track on the off-centre ring. The seconds count down in a counter at 6. The large double date display lies at 12 whilst the day of the week and month (in English) appear in black-rimmed dials at 9 and 3 respectively.

A small counter with a red triangular hand at 2.30 replaces February and displays leap years.

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The Fleurier flower: L.U.C XP Esprit de Fleurier Peony The first L.U.C for women appeared in 2014. Its small size (35mm) and slender shape (7.50mm) didn’t allow it to become an artistic playground. But we’ve been proven wrong with the L.U.C Esprit de Fleurier Peony, a real miniature Fleurier flower painting. Chopard has plucked a pale pink bloom from its creative garden whose flowers are fleshy and fragrance is heady: the peony. It embodies spring, feminine beauty and motherhood as it usually flowers at the same time as Mother’s Day. The artisans at Chopard have managed to master this stunning flower whose imprint covers the dial and heart of this watchmaking masterpiece. The peony appears both on the dial and the movement which is partially visible through the watch’s openwork back. The floral bouquet is brought to life by Fleurier’s very own decorative technique which boomed

in the 19th century but isn’t seen as much today: Fleurisan engraving. An experienced artisan creates the raised patterns by removing the material to bring out the floral design; it’s then polished and pegged to give it a grainy look.

The pink Tahitian mother-of-pearl disc coating the gold case unveils a flower whose gold petals are paved with diamonds.

Two dauphine-shape hands burst from the heart of the bouquet to track the hours and minutes brought to life by the self-winding 96.23L calibre inside the diamond-covered rose gold case.

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B r e gu e t

Reinventing sound

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By Fabrice Eschmann

S

ound mechanisms appeared on the first monumental clocks in the 1300s making them undoubtedly the oldest complications in the art of timekeeping, even preceding the dial and hands. With miniaturisation, they’ve become one of the best examples of watchmaking expertise (and for many the ultimate complication) and a number of brands are still researching chiming watches. One of them is, of course, Breguet. Remember that Abraham-Louis Breguet was the first to invent the gong-spring in 1783 which all chiming pieces now have as standard. The brand definitely has the right to redesign the architectural structure of a minute repeater, which is exactly what it did in 2015 with the Tradition Minute Repeater Tourbillon 7087. Reviewed using the watchmaking doctrine and built based on sound, the piece has six new patents and five key parts which have never before been seen in a minute repeater watch mechanism. It’s back in 2016 with 80 updates.

A potted history The first monumental clocks appeared in the 1300s with mechanisms that “told” the time from far away and at night despite dials and hands not appearing until a century later.

Wall clocks (from 1350) followed by table clocks were also usually fitted with bell-striking systems – often also with different types of automata.

Pocket watches also had chiming mechanisms as soon as they launched. It was easy to find this type of watch in the 16th century that told the time “in passing” like church clocks.

The bell (with or without clappers) to produce the sound was fitted to the back cover which was open-worked to let sound through. The trend for chiming watches continued throughout the 17th century.

A new type of chime soon appeared on the scene: the famous “repeater” watches which chimed the time on demand. The first was the “quarter repeater” which chimed on the hour and every quarter. It was invented in 1675 by English watchmakers called Edward Barlow, Thomas Tompion and Daniel Quare (the latter is the one who is remembered as he was awarded the patent in London in 1687). The minute repeater appeared between 1700 and 1710, namely in Southern Germany. It made its mark as an incredibly practical instrument for telling the time at night as it chimed the hours, quarters and minutes on demand.

No taboos In 1783, Abraham-Louis Breguet got the idea of replacing bells with gongs i.e. steel springs positioned on the back plate then coiled around the movement in the case. This important invention meant a clearer sound and slimmer case. Breguet himself made a number of repeater watches, including >

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B r e gu e t

quarter repeaters, and the minute repeater mechanism with countless complications on the famous Marie-Antoinette pocket watch, which was first made in 1783.

It’s only natural that, over 230 years later, the Breguet brand has decided to completely review how this sort of piece is made. Unlike traditional techniques, the engineers started out with the sound of the notes. Some 200,000 sounds were synthesised to choose the most harmonious and richest among them. The entire watch is based on this choice: size, materials, design. Aside from the 6 patents, the parts in the minute repeater have been radically transformed: pair of gong hammers, regulator mechanism (which controls the strikes), barrel to transfer energy and the principle of sound diffusion.

Firstly, it soon became clear that neither the steel nor the circular shape of the gongs were the right solutions for the best sound. The engineers digitally tested and experimented with hundreds of different shapes, materials, profiles, fittings and positions to produce the chosen sounds. They managed to achieve their goal with a creative design giving both gongs a rectangular section in the same alloy as the case: rhodiumplated rose or white gold.

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Never before seen Next, the regulator which controls the tempo of the hammer strikes to stop them going too fast or slow. For this Tradition Minute Repeater Tourbillon 7087, Breguet used the magnetic system designed for La Musicale. Instead of a mechanism with fly weights which rub against the axis to slow their rotation, two blades are part of the magnetic field which slows the system down. Advantage: a completely silent solution.

As for the barrel, what’s important is that instead of a trigger slides into a groove on the watch case, the new Tradition Minute Repeater has a bayonet pusher which needs just one press. Breguet has also chosen a constant force energy transfer system. A chain moves on a small radius when the barrel is fully wound whilst when the barrel’s deactivated, it moves on increasingly large areas to balance the decreasing force. But instead of changing radius with stacked discs (like a bike’s gears), the system alters the effective radius on a single level.

None of these innovations would matter if it wasn’t for the excellent sound diffusion. That’s why the gong-springs are fitted on the watch’s bezel. Rather than being fitted rigidly to the case, they have three small anchoring pillars which are welded to the case. Since the pillars have a certain amount of freedom to move, the bezel vibrates with the gongs. The sapphire glass also vibrates because of this bezel fitting. The system considerably improves the sound as the bezel and glass transfer low frequencies more smoothly whilst the case ensures higher frequencies diffuse better. Last but not least, an acoustic chamber in the case around the transparent back is there to absorb rogue frequencies.

Aside from the exercise in style, the developments showcased by the Tradition Minute Repeater Tourbillon, in a 44mm case, prove that the mechanical watchmaker still has energy to spare.

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Har ry Winst on

A tale of silk and mother-of-pearl

By Sharmila Bertin

S

eeing the timepieces created

by Harry Winston is a bit like stepping into a fairytale land.

Everything on the brand’s stand at Baselworld is glittering, unusual and unique. It all has the rich intensity and plush soul that you’ll find in Harry Winston Salons worldwide. The “King of Diamonds” may have revolutionised jewellery in the early 20th century with soft and subtle metallic frames to showcase the stones but the brand’s endless creativity oozes from contemporary pieces. Just look at the Premier collection which pays tribute to Japan this year in a series of four artworks inspired by an ancient craft called Raden, or Kenma Raden to be specific.

The art of Raden is a Japanese decorative technique of Chinese origin dating back to the 12th or 13th century; it appears on lacquer, wood, metal or items in other materials and involves embedding

pieces of shell or ivory onto the surface.

It’s called Kenma Raden when the pieces are small. This craft can also appear on fabrics to create dazzling silk brocade elevated by shimmering glints.

The Premier model’s case encapsulates Harry Winston’s personality with its lugs (at 6 and 12) reminiscent of the three arches on the New York shopfront that opened in 1960. It sets the stage for the brand’s take on Raden: a combination of silk thread, gold and mother-of-pearl all glowing with warm colours and laid on a surface as small as a watch dial.

The four almost abstract patterns are eye-catching and inspired by Japanese cultural symbols: the chrysanthemum whose petals blossom on the Premier’s dial and the Koi carp whose scales cover the case.

Chrysanthemums are an important symbol for All Saints’ Day in France and associated with death and grave sites at the end of the year. But the Japanese

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see the chrysanthemum completely differently as it represents imperial power; it’s a sacred flower, a source of laughter, joy and love and considered to reflect perfection as it’s bursting with slender petals. The Koi carp means life, fertility and masculine virility; it’s also a symbol of strength and perseverance.

By making these pieces limited editions, Harry Winston is sending future owners a very positive message full of good intention.

The spear-shape hour and minute hands in the centre of the dial are fuelled by the self-winding HW2008 calibre inside the rose or white gold 36mm case covered in 57 brilliant-cut diamonds.

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Pat e k PhiliPPe

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Quantième Annuel ref. 5396

A trip through space and time

By Fabrice Eschmann

T

he star of the show wasn’t even there! There’s a reason behind the no-show. Far from being a diva, the Grandmaster Chime ref.

6300 is the world’s most complicated wristwatch ever and worth 2.5 million Swiss Francs. That’s enough to make you think twice about presenting it in public no matter how knowledgeable they are. But Patek Philippe had more surprises up its sleeve for the latest Baselworld. We’ve picked out two of them: the Annual Calendar ref. 5396 celebrating the complication’s 20th anniversary and the World Time Chronograph ref. 5930, a rare pairing of the Genevan brand’s two star functions.

A peaceful year After the simple calendar in the late 16th century and perpetual calendar in the 18th century, the annual calendar didn’t appear until the 1980s. It came onto the scene so quietly that publications say Patek Philippe created the mechanism.

The Genevan brand put it back into the limelight in 1996 when it unveiled a brand new annual calendar: reference 5035.

The perpetual calendar is a mechanical watchmaking masterpiece that not only automatically accounts for months with 30 and 31 days but also for tricky February. In theory, it’s good to go for eternity even though a manual reset will

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be required in 2100 which is a non-leap year. The simple calendar systematically features 31 days per month and doesn’t count leap years meaning it needs five manual resets per year: at the end of February, April, June, September and November. The annual calendar is halfway between the two (simpler and cheaper than the first and more practical than the second) and is mechanically set for a year: it recognises months with 30 or 31 days but not February so it only needs resetting once a year at the end of February.

The Annual Calendar Ref. 5396 celebrates the 20th anniversary of the complication at Patek Philippe. The 22nd

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Chronographe à Heure Universelle ref. 5930 of its kind displays the day and month at 12 and the date at 6. It features a moon phase whose mechanism is so accurate that it would take over 122 years to deviate by a single day from the actual lunar cycle. A 24 hour marker around the moon phase completes the picture.

The piece is instantly recognisable in its Calatrava-style case and houses the 324 S QA LU 24H calibre, a Gyromax® balance wheel (a Patek Philippe invention) with a patented Spiromax® spring in Silinvar®.

A marriage of reason The Genevan brand is taking us on unchartered territory with the World Time Chronograph ref. 5930. This

watch is the first of its kind to appear in the regular collections. Patek Philippe has only ever made one world time chronograph (the N°862 442 watch from 1940 on show at the Patek Philippe Museum), a unique piece whose dial has pulsometer and asthmometer (breathing) scales designed for a doctor.

Pairing the chronograph function with the world time function is no mean feat.

The dial has to have a certain amount of markers (hands, discs) powered by different mechanisms (self-winding chronograph movement, World Time mechanism) that have to function in perfect harmony. The chronograph has a start/stop pusher at 2 and a reset pusher at 4 which also works as a flyback

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function. The World Time function also stands out for how easy it is to use. The central hour and minute hands tell the time in the time zone whose “name” appears at 12. The hours and 23 other time zones can be seen at a glance with the city disc and 24-hour disc lying closer to the centre. It’s split into black and white areas to show if it’s day or night in the appropriate place. When the traveller arrives in another time zone, they just have to press the pusher at 10. The city disc and 24-hour disc turn anti-clockwise in hour increments whilst the central hour hand spins clockwise in hour increments. The time is set when the name of the appropriate city appears at 12. >

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Grandmaster Chime ref. 6300 A complicated conclusion However, our star of the week was the Grandmaster Chime ref. 6300.

Originally designed and made in 2014 to commemorate Patek Philippe’s 175th anniversary with 7 entirely handengraved limited edition timepieces, the watch is back in the brand’s catalogue. It has overtaken the Sky Moon Tourbillon ref. 6200 (which spent 15 years as Patek Philippe’s most complicated watch in its current collection) with 20 complications including 5 acoustic functions (grande and petite sonnerie, minute repeater, alarm chiming the time and on-demand date repeater).

The watch has its own updated case and is the first grande sonnerie wristwatch in the history of the brand to join the current collection. It stands out for its double-sided case which you can wear either way to showcase the time and gong features or the instant perpetual calendar. Both dials display essential information such as the hours, minutes and date. To keep things light, Patek Philippe has designed additional intelligent mechanisms which stop

any wrong settings. Since the extreme complexity involved in making the reference 6300 means only a very limited number can be made every year (each calibre has 1366 components and each case has 214 parts making a total of 1580 components per watch), this watch will still be very rare.

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TAG He u e r

Carrera Heuer-02T

Luxury has never been so affordable

By Fabrice Eschmann

E

veryone has an opinion about this watch to say the least. Some say it’s ruining the trade, others say it’s live-saving but whatever you think, much ink has and will be spilt over the Carrera Heuer-02T. Why? Its price. It’s scarily low. The piece retails at 14,900 Swiss Francs despite a tourbillon watch costing at least 50,000 Swiss Francs.

The tourbillon was invented by Abraham-Louis Breguet in 1801 to balance the effect of gravity on the balance spring and is seen as the epitome of watchmaking. Very few brands had the manual expertise to make it meaning pieces with a tourbillon are rare. The controversy surrounding the appearance of a mechanism designed to be entirely manufactured is only natural given the questions it brings up.

When Jean-Claude Biver was made head of TAG Heuer in 2014, he stopped the CH80 chronograph calibre being made internally. The brand already made

the 1887 movement which is also a chronograph. What would TAG Heuer do with the second movement?

We got the answer this year at Baselworld with quite a sting in its tail. The former CH80, once renamed 1969, is back as the skeleton Heuer-02T. It now has a flying tourbillon with a titanium and carbon cage like the one in the Monaco V4. The movement has a 65-hour power reserve despite having just one barrel.

But what most shocked the watch world was its price. To achieve under 15,000 Swiss Francs, TAG Heuer designed a system to optimise procedures in the Chevenez site’s workshops. Each step, from manufacture and setting to mounting and assembly, was analysed to automate production to the max.

The COSC-certified chronometer watch with hour, minute, small seconds, tourbillon and chronograph functions went through a battery of 21 days

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of tests. The movement is housed in a 45mm case whose twelve grade 5 titanium parts make it versatile so you can play with materials, colours and finishes. 250 of a second limited and numbered edition of the Black Phantom costing 19,900 Swiss Francs are available.

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Hu b lot

Big Bang Tutti Frutti Linen

Mechanical morsels

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By Sharmila Bertin

C

alling all fans of bright hues and colour blocking, here are four new eye-catching timepieces!

Their acid shades – from soft blue (Ocean Blue) and smooth mint (Turquoise) to lilac pink (Violet) and bright orange (Orange) – make you think of candy… or is that my sweet tooth talking? To be fair, it’s hard not to think of sugary bonbons with the colours and name of the Big Bang Tutti Frutti Linen watches.

OK, let’s leave my stomach to one side and focus on this flamboyant collection designed by Hublot.

Not only do the four bright Big Bang colours grab your attention but so do its materials. Or we should say THE material as it’s made mainly of linen.

Linen? Watches? The pairing may seem a little odd but it really works!

The natural plant-based fibre has been grown by man for nine thousand years.

It was first grown in Asia Minor (which is more or less present day Turkey),

essentially for clothing, and was introduced to Europe about 2000 years ago. Its properties (hypoallergenic, insulating, resistant to light and water) are just as appealing as its unique weft and “natural” side. The fabric is hand-woven in Swiss workshops for the Tutti Frutti Linen collection; dyed using natural pigments then coated in a transparent composite to form the 41mm case and dial or sewn onto rubber to form a strap. The effect is spellbinding!

There are 200 of each model paired with a precious gem: blue or orange sapphire, blue topaz and amethyst glowing with purple. The gems are in six rows of six stones each on the screwdown bezel and also appear on the dial as markers.

The only silver Arabic number lies at 12 on the hour rim. Two large openwork central hands track the hours and minutes whilst the seconds appear in a counter at 3 o’clock. The information for

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the chronograph function appears as follows: seconds in the centre, minutes in a counter at 9 and hours at 6. The understated date display lies at 4.30.

The functions are all brought to life by the self-winding HUB4300 calibre that you can see through the caseback.

Ja qu e t Dr oz

Grande Seconde Dual Time

To travel is to take a journey into yourself *

By Sharmila Bertin

P

ierre Jaquet-Droz was born in 1721 near La Chaux-de-Fonds. He devoted himself to watchmaking from a young age and went onto enrich it with musical movements and automata.

His “mechanical puppets” were initially designed to help sell the watches made in his workshop but soon became an international success. The Swiss watchmaker became a globe-trotter travelling from La Chaux-de-Fonds to Madrid in 1758, opening a studio in London in 1774 and moving to Geneva in 1784. His work crossed oceans and borders to be worn by heads of state in Europe, China, India and Japan.

The founder’s love for travel has been captured by Jaquet Droz and put into a timepiece with a second time zone system oozing the brand’s signature understated elegance. The Grande Seconde launched in 2002 and is reminiscent of an 18th century pocket watch. The latest model has two

interwoven discs on its dial forming Pierre Jaquet-Droz’s signature figure of 8. The discs bring together home and local time on one and the same piece so you can see what time it is in your native country and where you’re going.

There are three versions of the new Grande Seconde Dual Time which blend colour and material to create their own “personality”. The most iconic – and dare I say it, the most “Jaquet Droz”! – has a dial awash with ivory Grand Feu enamel and rose gold hands to match the case; the most understated one wears a veil of silvery white shot through with blue hands; the most “mineral” has an onyx disc whose features are rimmed with silver just like the metallic hands.

The dials only share two splashes of colour: red on the date scale’s 31 and tip of the hand plus blue forming the 24 hours on the second time zone.

The hours and minutes are off-centre at 12 and tracked by two spear-shape

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hands gliding over black Roman hour numerals (apart from the onyx model).

The large seconds counter bears several features: (from outside to inside) seconds, date display and second time zone.

Gaze through the sapphire back of the 43mm case to see the self-winding JD 2662H24 calibre bring to life the Grande Seconde Dual Time’s functions and 65-hour power reserve.

* Tibetan proverb

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OME GA

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Welcome to planet Ω

By Sharmila Bertin

2

016 is the year of the Seamaster collection, particularly its offshoot Planet Ocean which doesn’t just have new features that look as good as they function but is also METAS-approved, twelve months after the Globemaster, giving it the "Master Chronometer" title.

Planet Ocean range: chronograph (9900/9901), GMT (8906) and three-hand self-winding with date at 3 (8801 and 8900).

All the movements are fitted with a Co-Axial escapement and provide a 55 to 60-hour power reserve depending on the model.

Approval worth its weight in gold "Master Chronometer" is an official certificate that proves the watch you own, aside from the COSC-certified calibre inside it, has successfully undergone a series of eight tests approved by the Swiss Federal Office of Metrology (METAS).

The thorough trials test water-resistance, chronometry and magnetic resistance up to 15,000 gauss. When you buy an Omega with the Master Chronometer title, you get a plastic card (like a credit card) so you can check the test results on the Bienne brand’s website.

A new look design Another change: the Seamaster Planet Ocean collection has had a makeover. It now has new sizes, expanding the realm of possibilities whether the wearer is a man or woman with a slim or thick wrist: 39.5mm, 43.5mm and 45.5mm in diameter.

The cases are still topped with mono or bidirectional bezels and a helium valve at 10 but they’ve slimmed down to counterbalance the Planet Ocean’s signature chunky look.

These design updates haven’t affected the watch’s waterresistance which still enables wearers to reach depths of up to 600m.

Mechanical power As Omega’s former president, Stephen Urquhart, said at Baselworld, “Here’s our aim: having most of our mechanical watches Master Chronometer-approved by 2020.” The ambition is taking shape in 2016 with the unveiling of six new Master Chronometer calibres including four in the Seamaster

Dynamic innovation We’re not talking about just a mechanical revolution but also a technical one with brand new materials and unique expertise (SednaTM gold, LiquidMetal®, CeraGoldTM, ceramic).

Ceramic is a hotbed for creative innovation and used

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Seamaster Planet Ocean

throughout the new collection on the dials, chapter rings, bezels and rims around the chronograph pushers. Ceramic joins forces with CeraGoldTM or LiquidMetalŽ on the bezel to engrave the diving scale as well as with orange rubber to mark out the 15 minute area on the 43.5mm Automatic version making it a world first. However, the most incredible technique is on the GMT model’s two-tone bezel which has a black and white ring bearing black and white numerals like a watchmaking yin and yang, all in ceramic.

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E t Er na

Women in the heart of the ocean

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By Sharmila Bertin

N

owadays, finding a sporty watch designed for women is a workout in itself! That is, of course, unless you want to throw your purse at it to be sure to get what you want... Unfortunately, ladies’ timepieces that look exciting and are priced fairly are few and far between meaning women often have to choose from men’s collections (meaning they risk wearing a heavy and hefty wristwatch) or make do with electronic gadgets with digital displays sold in specialist stores (meaning they risk wearing an ugly wristwatch).

Fortunately, Eterna has thought of their sporty female clients and designed a collection especially for ladies based on one of its iconic models. Here’s the Lady KonTiki Diver, a watch with quiet yet confident femininity just like the modern woman.

There’s no fuss or bling here, just a clever blend of technique and design.

It is fuelled by the self-winding Sellita

SW200 calibre (yes, women like mechanical watches too) which provides a 38-hour power reserve and the time and date functions on the dial. Its offwhite dial is free of embellishment and only bears the essentials: the hours and minutes are tracked by two gold dauphine-shape luminescent hands alongside a slender central seconds hand. To break up the monotony and anchor the Lady KonTiki Diver in a world that’s both vibrant and 100% feminine, Eterna’s design team created an hour rim which carefully balances large 3D Arabic numerals (3, 6 and 9) with seven round gold-bevelled diamonds and the famous triangular marker bearing the brand’s low-key logo. The date appears in a black-on-white display at 4 o’clock.

The 38mm steel case (the perfect size) is watertight to depths of 200m and topped with a rotating bezel. The bezel has rose gold PVD notches housing a blue ceramic ring engraved with a gold scale and luminescent triangular

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marker. The two-tone steel link straps (mainly silver metal with a rose gold PVD-coated strip) help hold the watch firmly and comfortably in place whether you’re about to dive into a work meeting or into the heart of the ocean!

B lanc pain

La Grande Vague

When art makes waves

By Sharmila Bertin

S

ome watches are simply beautiful whilst others seem to have a poem engraved on their dials.

The latter are hard to describe given how they’re bursting with symbols and blend a variety of artisan expertise, be it contemporary or classic.

Last year at Baselworld, Blancpain introduced us to a magical piece from the Villeret collection presenting the Hindu god Ganesh sitting on a damascene shakudō background. The watch took us on a voyage through time and across oceans in a single glance, showcasing an artistic Japanese technique that most of us have never heard of: shakudō.

Shakudō is a gold and copper alloy creating an inky purple patina that’s back in 2016 with more “confidence” after being unveiled at Baselworld as part of the Villeret collection. The aptly named "The Great Wave" by Blancpain whisks us away to Japan with stops in Mexico and China. The wave roaring on the dial is taken from "The Great Wave off Kanagawa", the best-known print by Japanese artist Hokusai (1760-1849) who

went onto inspire countless European artists such as Vincent van Gogh (18531890), Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) and Claude Monet (1840-1926). The striking swell that roars up and unleashes its foam like a dragon’s hooked talons before crashing down is a hand-engraved white gold appliqué. It is fitted on a shakudō base then plunged into a copper salt bath called rokushō to produce the right amount of corrosion and a purple black patina. The shakudō is then removed and the appliqué is polished in certain areas to capture the light and create texture before being fitted to the dial.

The dial is made of Mexican silver obsidian, a volcanic glass with a grey glow and radiating spheroliths. In mineralogy, it is seen as a stone of balance which takes us back to the Chinese yin and yang philosophy embodied by the wave and the void. Two silver openwork sage leaf hands, typical of the Villeret watches, lie in the heart of the miniature artwork to quietly track the hours and minutes. The watch is brought to life by the 13R3A calibre whose three barrels

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connected in series provide an 8-day power reserve (approx. 192 hours). The manual wind movement is housed in a 42mm double-stepped platinum case.

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Ar nold & Son

Nebula

A step closer to the stars

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By Sharmila Bertin

W

ith its ethereal, sparkling and symmetrical design, the Nebula is a watchmaking star with nothing to hide but so much to give. The name comes from the Latin word for “cloud”, nebula, and pays tribute to the Crab Nebula celestial wonder.

First seen by a Chinese astronomer between 1054 and 1056 before being officially discovered in 1731 by an Englishman, John Bevis (1695-1771), the supernova remnant caused by a star’s explosion was named the Crab Nebula in the 1840s after a drawing by William Parsons (1800-1867). The Irish astronomer’s sketch of a cloud of gas and interstellar dust (a sort of big oval mass of filaments) made it look like a crab.

Arnold & Son has put a mechanical spin on the heavens with Nebula. What looks chaotic in the sky is the complete opposite on this timepiece. Not only is its dial a veritable ode to symmetry

but so is its back, both vertically and horizontally. The movement’s structure has been designed as the perfect reflection of a mirror. The British brand based in La Chaux-de-Fonds delved into studies on the human brain and its relationship with symmetry to make a thing of beauty and harmony. The layout forms a balanced ensemble, especially the dials and the physical structure.

Consistent and unifying, the symmetry calms, structures and reassures.

The heart of the Nebula is brought to life by the openwork and symmetrical A&S5101 calibre. The manual wind movement is fitted with two barrels and provides a generous 90-hour power reserve (almost four days). Its details differ from one version to the next: NAC-coated (blackening galvanisation technique) skeletonised platinum and palladium-plated bridges on the red gold 41.5mm case or black ADLC-coated skeletonised platinum and NAC-coated bridges on the steel watch. The same

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goes for the ring bearing the facetted triangular hour markers and minute track in anthracite or light grey.

Seven cone-shaped hollow bridges lie on the case like points on a star meeting in the centre where silver or gold hour and minute hands appear whilst the seconds counter stands at 7.30.

U r we r k

The texture shock

By Sharmila Bertin

T

wo mastodons on the velvetcovered wooden display tray seem ready to do battle. A spiky bearing, eye-catching solid skull, intimidating teeth, shiny eyes...

My imagination’s running away with me. But, upon closer inspection, my daydreams may well be very real. You just have to look carefully at these two architectural pieces by Urwerk, the UR105 T-Rex and UR-210 Clou de Paris models, to see their predatory, reptilian and rare side and uncover a pair of dinosaur watches from the 21st or 22nd century.

The thing that really starts your mind ticking is the architecture and texture of both cases. They’re edgy and covered in sharp scales like the tapered body of a large reptile yet despite their aggressive physique, neither of these models “bite”.

On the contrary, both the hand-patinated copper armour on the UR-105 T-Rex and the triangular edges of the black DLCcoated titanium and steel UR-210 Clou de Paris are soft to the touch.

Their sheer size may grab your attention on the tray but they really roar to life when they’re wrapped around the wrist: the 39.5mm wide by 53mm long T-Rex and 43.8mm by 53.6mm Clou de Paris settle comfortably onto the arm with their wide black alligator or fabric straps whose chunky mesh brings the “stud” pattern to mind.

UR-105 T-Rex takes its name, or rather surname, from the Tyrannosaurus Rex , the “tyrant lizard king”, a formidable biped predator over 4m tall that lived during the Cretaceous period. Urwerk was inspired by its huge head whose skin has a ribbed look. The case is covered in 3D copper scales lying concentrically. Various treatments create the metal’s patina: microbeading, micro-sandblasting and oxidation. Rather than a hungry grin, at the bottom of the watch the T-Rex wears a U-shaped display showcasing the hours and minutes fuelled by the self-winding UR-5.02 calibre.

The UR-210 Clou de Paris model is

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a mastodon that’s far easier to tame.

Its edgy skull is only partly covered in thinner and smaller scales carved out using the traditional Clou de Paris pattern. Its self-winding UR-7.10 calibre brings to life vagabond hours and retrograde minutes all rimmed with Super-LumiNova.

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vu lc ain

The president’s wake-up call

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By Sharmila Bertin

T

ime is something you can count but can’t change despite us all dreaming of making good times last longer and cutting short bad times.

Whatever we do, time stays the same.

Its duration remains impassive. Its elasticity is but an illusion. However, we can play with time, watch it pass and change how it looks...on the dial of your watch! That’s exactly what Vulcain is doing with a subtle twist on its signature Cricket calibre.

The manual wind V-40 calibre was founded in 1947 and was a major revolution at the time. The first mechanical alarm on a wristwatch wasn’t piercing like most chiming clocks at the time. On the contrary, the calming, melodic and subtle sound of a cricket sang for twenty seconds to sound the alarm or meeting. Vulcain’s reputation is built on the sweet “ksskss”.

This year the brand has updated its famous movement which is still manual wind, adjusts functions on the dial and is nestled in the 42mm case. What’s new is that the power reserve has risen from 40 to 52 hours, the previously central seconds now have their own counter at 8 o’clock and the alarm hand has moved from the centre to a blue counter at 4.

The technical and aesthetic changes create a better layout on the dial giving it a visual balance that couldn’t be more different to the “classic” 50s Presidents' Watch.

Vulcain has two different types of dial design: matt black or Clous de Paris engraving with a lightly sandblasted sunburst ring. The latter comes in silver white or taupe grey.

The new 50s Presidents' Watch dial bears the hours in metallic markers and Arabic numerals (12 or 12 and 6 depending on the model) with a subtle

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minute track. Two silver dauphineshape luminescent hands track the hours and minutes from the centre.

A small baton-shape hand glides over the seconds on the dial. A disc lying between 3 and 4 with printed figures and markers has a spear-shape hand in the centre to set the alarm.

Pie r r e De roc he

Dynamite on your wrist

By Sharmila Bertin

P

ierre DeRoche is first and foremost the tale of a family bursting with love and passion.

Pierre Dubois, the brand’s co-founder, comes from the Vallée de Joux and a family of watchmakers. The passion for timekeeping is passed down from father to son in the Dubois family. Pierre’s wife Carole Dubois has clearly caught the bug as the couple founded Pierre DeRoche in 2004.

The brand decided not to make classic watches from the outset. On the contrary, it designs models with a strong visual identity and unusual complications such as the TNT collection whose first piece, the TNT Royal Retro, launched in 2009.

What initially grabs your attention on the watch is the dance performed by the retrograde seconds’ six hands. Six red-tipped blue hands run a relay race fuelled by a calibre that’s been specially designed by the family-run DuboisDépraz brand. Other TNTs appeared on

the scene each with their own speciality (Penta, Rendezvous, Royal Retro Power Reserve and Royal Retro GMT ½ Hour).

2016 sees the collection pay tribute to the chronograph with the TNT Chrono 43. Its solid 43mm case has a black PVD-coated titanium chamber fitted with steel parts (wide bezel, edgy lugs, crown protector and screwdown crown). The metal armour encloses a self-winding movement designed by Dubois-Dépraz and providing a 40hour power reserve, the time, date and chronograph functions.

The sapphire dial unveils part of the movement and has luminescent spearshape hands whose sharp tips sweep over suspended hour markers and the slim white minute track. A white tachymeter scale lies on the tilted black chapter ring. A 3-day horizontal date display appears at the bottom of the transparent dial whilst two blackrimmed counters track the seconds

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(at 3) and the chronograph minutes (at 9). Unlike regular chronographs, these counters work on a 60-minute period rather than 30. The seconds are displayed in the middle by a slender central seconds hand varnished in red just like the graduations and chronograph minute hand.

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R e b e llion

Magnum 540 Tourbillon Saphir

Movement, reveal yourself

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By Fabrice Eschmann

I

t took 47,600 minutes, 99 days, to sculpt the eight parts that make this sapphire case. The feat would have been impossible just a decade ago but industrial progress and 3D simulation programmes have taken sapphire in hand despite it being only slightly less hard than diamond. The small independent Rebellion brand, the only one to have its own motor racing team (Rebellion Racing), seized the opportunity. With the support of designer Eric Giroud and watchmaker David Candaux, it made the one-of-akind Magnum 540 Tourbillon Sapphire worth 1.8 million Swiss Francs.

Sapphire was first synthesised in 1902

by French chemist Auguste Victor Louis Verneuil. He gave his name to the process that involves melting aluminium oxide by flame at temperatures of over 2000°C. But the “bubble” it produces (which looks more like a carrot) isn’t big enough to make anything other than watch crystal. Another procedure,

called Kyropoulos, enables small ingots to be made. The advantages: a larger size and almost perfect consistency in the material. These two features opened the door to crazy projects.

Sapphire was long only worked in 2D but it can now be carved from a block using 5-axis CNC machines fitted with milling tools made of diamond, the only thing harder than sapphire. The progress enabled Rebellion to sculpt parts in 3D such as the case, lugs and bezel. The difficulty didn’t end there: some connections and anchor points which are easy to hide in steel, gold and titanium blocks are suddenly eyesores as sheer sapphire puts them on display.

The entire case structure had to be reinvented and redesigned from the smallest screw head to the hardest-toreach side and water-resistant joint, redone in transparent silicone!

But you don’t make this sort of case to show off just any old movement.

Inside the Magnum 540 Tourbillon

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Sapphire, the double-barrelled REB T-14 calibre stands out for the sheer size of its magnesium tourbillon cage.

Its circumference of 540 tenths of a millimetre (hence the name of the watch) to the 17.2mm diameter expands the dial. Rebellion also designed the world’s smallest chain at 9 o’clock to enable the 10-day power reserve with a bevel gear to move.

He r mè s

In the big cat’s shadow

By Sharmila Bertin

W

hen I’m browsing the watch collections by Hermès, particularly the ones with artistic dials, I feel like I’m walking through a zen garden where flora and fauna seem to come to life and the fantastic seems real. I was in this dreamy state of mind when I explored the Parisian brand’s new products at Baselworld. It was pure joy. One of the timepieces on display grabbed my attention with a larger than life tiger based on an illustration by French wildlife artist Robert Dallet (19232006).

During the presentation, a piece

by Robert Dallet (whose 20 year collaboration with Hermès began with a scarf design in 1985) is placed on the table and I decide to turn it over rather than flick through it. I’m struck by a quote from the illustrator on the back of the book: “We need tigers, panthers and ocelots in their natural habitat because their presence contributes

to the universal harmony that’s vital to mankind’s destiny.” I’m a serious nature lover so I can only agree and I can only applaud Hermès’ annual theme: “Nature at full gallop.”

The technique that brought the wonderful tiger to life is shaded enamel which brings together two art forms: engraving and enamelling. It is based on a process called lithophany and was patented in 1841. It took Hermès nearly two years to perfect the craft which involves painstakingly sculpting a raised pattern before coating it with coloured translucent enamel. The tiger is made by an engraver on a white gold plate who sculpts every detail, including its fur, before it goes into the enameller’s expert hands. The deep hollows create the darker parts of the animal (stripes, eyes and muzzle) whilst the shallow ones capture the light more easily.

Two sage leaf-shape silver hands burst from the grey tones near the big cat’s cheek to quietly track the hours and

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minutes beneath the tiger’s watchful gaze. The self-winding H1837 calibre, which you can glimpse through the openwork back, brings the time functions and 50-hour power reserve to life from inside the 41mm white gold Arceau case.

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R ole x

Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona

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A vision in black and white

By Sharmila Bertin

R

olex fans know their brand’s history like the back of their hands. That said, it’s worth turning back the clock to get novices up to speed.

The first Cosmograph Daytona model launched in 1963 and it was inspired by motor racing on Daytona Beach (Florida) from 1903 to the 1950s. The real changes only came into play two years later when the watch underwent a few modifications in 1965. Its pump pushers were replaced by more secure screwdown pushers; its black bezel was given a Plexiglas ring with a white scale; two inscriptions appeared on the dial with “Oyster” to underline its waterresistance and “Daytona” following a request from Rolex’s American branch.

Rolex drew inspiration from the 1965 model to design two Oyster Perpetual

Cosmograph Daytona watches which were unveiled at this year’s Baselworld.

One is fully coated in black and the other plays with black and white.

Both watches are brought to life by the in-house 4130 calibre which fuels the time and date functions and the 72hour power reserve. The self-winding movement with a Perpetual bidirectional rotor is housed in the Oyster’s signature 40mm steel case. The pushers and crown are screwed down just like on its older brother but the Plexiglas bezel has made way for a black Cerachrom ring whose ceramic is highly resistant to scratches, UV and rust. The ring has a thin layer of platinum on it to create a tachymeter scale.

The Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona’s lacquered dial comes in black or white and has black or grey

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counters depending on the model.

White gold baton-shape hands rimmed with luminescent Chromalight track the hours and minutes from the centre.

The seconds tick down in a sub-dial at 6 o’clock. The chronograph display is laid out as follows: seconds in the centre, minute counter at 3 and hours at 9.

The model also has a new feature that’s actually not all that new: the “superlative chronometer” certification.

This in-house approval was founded in the 1950s and updated in 2015. It shows that the watch has successfully passed lab tests (precision, waterresistance, autonomy and self-winding) with stricter criteria than watchmaking standards and comes with a 5-year warranty.

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De sign

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Vacheron Constantin

Lug me tender

By Olivier Müller

W

hat’s the first thing you notice about a watch peeping from a cuff? It’s neither its dial nor its movement but instead its lugs which stand out along the case side. And yet, all too often, their design is “standard” and an afterthought.

Let’s be honest, lugs had a bad start.

And there’s a reason why: the first pocket watches didn’t have them by definition. At the turn of the Great War when wristwatches became more widespread, countless pocket watches were updated by quickly welding lugs on so it could fit onto a strap.

Lugs basically started out as a quick and simple update. However, history is mischievous: these welded lugs (a.k.a. add-ons) are now seen as a must in fine watchmaking! Why? Simply because

they are infinitely harder to finish and polish than those carved into the case itself. That’s how a pre-war trick turned into a prerogative for premium case manufacturers.

Style and technique Lugs have since undergone many a makeover. You can put them into two categories: technique and style. The latter involves a particularly successful design making the lugs a signature feature of the watch. Let’s take Vacheron Constantin’s aptly named "Cornes de vache" (“cow horns”) as an example.

The brand has just redesigned this highly sought-after collector’s model from 1955 and its most striking feature is the lugs’ profile that’s rare to find in watchmaking.

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Another example of style comes from Louis Moinet with Memoris, the chronograph in tribute to the watchmaker of the same name. The piece has an innovative usage for ruby or zircon. It’s inspired by the pivot you’d find in old calibres, a metallic ring enclosing a jewel which acted as a pad. Louis Moinet has taken the pivot and jewel out of the movement and fitted them onto the Memoris’ lugs. The piece has no technical function but it does give watchmaking a cheeky twist.

Last but not least, Parmigiani has made its lugs a signature feature based on the very first wristwatch designed by Michel Parmigiani, the Ionica (1999). You can still see them on all the brand’s models.

Where do they come from? The golden ratio, Michel Parmigiani’s ultimate source of inspiration.

Louis Moinet

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Hysek

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Three’s company As for technique, three brands have opened the doors to innovation: De Bethune, Manufacture Royale and Hysek. The first has turned lugs into rotating cradles to perfectly hug the watch to the wrist. Each lug is connected to an articulated system and wraps around the wrist’s curves. Manufacture Royale has more or less the same idea with mobile lugs connected to a transversal axis.

Hysek has gone down the same road with several pieces in its collections. Among others, Abyss has four independently articulated lugs to enable the angle of the strap to adjust to fit the wrist.

Vox Fe mina

Hysek

de Grisogono

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Doing it for themselves

By Cécile Bernardini

A

re independent brands going to fuel the women’s watch revolution? A few master strokes make it seem that way but there’s still lots of trial and error.

Are independent watchmakers bolder than the "big three" (Swatch Group, Richemont, LVMH) in terms of women’s watches? It’s a bit of a leap…but it strikes a chord!

Most of the major brands have female values running through their veins because of their jewellery collections: Chopard, de Grisogono, Graff and more.

This tendency simply isn’t enough however: the brands have invested in incredible creations which, in their time, have pushed women’s watches forward, just like Chopard’s Happy Diamonds.

Small skull and big talent In their time? It’s a fact. Since the turn of the new millennium, it’s undoubtedly the more humble workshops that seem to have taken over from the big boys.

Ladies’ pieces burst like a supernova at Baselworld’s Palace.

Fiona Krüger epitomises the change: at the tender age of 30, the Scottish designer mentored by Peter SpeakeMarin has put a skilful spin on the classic, not to say over-used, skull theme. There’s nothing revolutionary about it: the case simply encloses the movement. It used to be called a movement of form. But in the form of a skull, well, that’s something new.

Spot on Unfortunately, not many of the trial runs are master strokes. Obviously

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we’re talking about Christophe Claret: he trialled the Margot just once and got it spot on with an award the year it launched at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. What makes the Margot stand out? Its playful and poetic side.

Just think of Van Cleef & Arpels that opened the door with the Complications PoétiquesTM ten years ago which many have since gobbled up.

The playful poetic side also comes out with Louis Moinet whose Stardance sees a star spin around a stardust dial.

Hysek sparks the same wonder with its first step into the women’s world as Kalysta combines jumping hours and flowing minutes tracked by a diamond.

Magical.

Delicate balance Is that the magic formula? Making

people smile and dream? These two qualities often require bravery, major technical developments and bespoke calibres. Lose one of the two and ladies go elsewhere. Look at the Elégante by François-Paul Journe: it took 7 years to develop, has an exclusive electromechanical calibre, a stunningly elegant design but a slow burn – actually, a recent larger version for men has been made to try to breathe new life into it.

Speake-Marin’s Shenandoah, which launched barely a year ago, is struggling to find its place in the limelight.

Louis Moinet

63 Speake-Marin

The best is yet to come To sum up, thinking about the current ingredients in men’s watches’ recipe for success (vintage, technique, chronograph), independent watchmakers that dabble in ladies’ watches admit to trial and error and taking a massive risk.

Some will always play on reliability, such as Michel Herbelin, Saint-Honoré or Pequignet, who have been on the ladies’ watch scene for over 30 years: nothing new but it sells! The ones who try to adapt their men’s watches to suit women are going off course, like the UR-106 by Urwerk which is so far away from their usual creative potential.

But don’t fret, the biggest independent brands haven’t yet drawn their weapons: HYT, Greubel Forsey, Arnold & Son, Hautlence, Manufacture Royale, Romain Gauthier, Ressence and more. The best is (probably) yet to come.

Fiona Krüger

Urwerk

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OpiniOn

Cartier

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Watch equality: "work in progress"

By Olivier Müller

I

t was just a little something said during a friendly conversation off the record with Alain Zimmermann two years ago: "We are one of few watch brands to provide equality in our collections". The CEO of Baume & Mercier is a smart strategist and he knew he’d hit on something: few brands could adopt this position at the time.

Showing off doesn’t mean you’re going to be a success but now that many are calling 2016 the "Year of the Woman" to compensate for falling men’s watch sales, Alain Zimmermann is probably relishing his head start in the woman’s world.

However, equality isn’t automatic, even today. Many will say that, actually, men make up the majority of clients: supply is based on their demand. Nobody would say otherwise: a better selection for women may in fact drive demand. Marketing concepts are unfathomable and crafty which may entail the right strategy in such economically troubled times.

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Rolex

Strong bonds

Equality or equity?

In actual fact, brands like Jaeger-LeCoultre, Montblanc and Richard Mille have an average ratio of one to three or one to four: a single woman’s watch to four men’s watches. It’s hard for them to carve out a credible path in ladies watchmaking.

A more in-depth analysis reveals a fair share of surprises. Let’s take TAG Heuer for example. The ultra-masculine brand that’s into motor sports, endurance and performance has almost as many collections for him as for her! The image a company has sometimes conceals a more subtle reality. Another example is Hublot which unashamedly boasts embroidery and denim yet actually only has 45 women’s watches compared to 116 for men.

As you’d expect, a brand’s original sector plays a decisive role in its vision of equality. Chanel, Chaumet, Poiray and Graff are undeniably rooted in the world of women whilst HYT, Panerai, H. Moser & Cie or Greubel Forsey are almost exclusively for men.

Nevertheless, some brands tend to want to change their natural inclination. Cartier, a jewellery brand originally, now has a very equal range (seven collections for men and seven for women).

You can’t change the way you are… but you can at least balance it out.

Rolex is another surprise. The brand isn’t particularly devoted to equality in its watches. However, it’s the only one to achieve the perfect balance: 96 men’s models, 96 women’s models! It can’t possibly be a coincidence.

Brands that are barely touching the sides of equality do have a way around it. For example, with its 230 men’s models compared to 56 women’s models, Blancpain could draw on its ranges’ interchangeability. A smart play on case sizes and subtle gems means many of its designs are unisex. Patek Philippe, a brand that has a marked difference between the two (140 men’s models, 100 women’s models), can also rely on its many mixed models such as the 35mm Calatrava.

Last but not least, some brands have decided to no longer make a distinction. For example, Breguet designs its collections for watch lovers with no gender distinction. The same goes for Omega’s female and male clients who sail (drown?) in its ocean of 1192 models. The success of this approach is confirmed by the brand’s tangible results, but will be hard for lesser-known brands to replicate, for which the distinction between man and woman makes it easier to understand their worlds.

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T e c hniqu e

ETA phone home!

By Fabrice Eschmann

T

he movement sector was buzzing this year at Baselworld. Whilst several figures chose to battle it out with mechanical movements (Soprod and the A10 movement, Eterna and the 39 calibre, Ronda and its new R150) ETA, which made quite an entrance at the event, decided to promote its quartz movements. The Swatch Group brand is building on a new drive in the entrylevel watch sector to unveil no fewer than 17 extra movements in the G10 and F0X ranges.

Out of the 28.1 million watches that Switzerland exported in 2015, just 7.8 million of them were mechanical.

The rest, 20.3 million timepieces, had quartz movements. It’s a highly competitive sector in which high volume remains an industrial challenge. The quartz movement was invented in 1967 by the CEH (Centre Electronique Horloger) in Neuchâtel using electrophysical features of the material to divide time. By applying tension to a thin strip of quartz, its atomic structure (in geometric crystals) is distorted

making it vibrate on a regular basis.

An integrated battery-fed circuit then maintains the vibrations and sends electric impulses to fuel the seconds hand.

With their wealth of experience in the area, ETA is now expanding its G10 and F0X ranges. The former has six new movements all fitted with PowerDrive technology which controls the movement and speeds up the hands’ rotation on the dial to 200Hz (200 hand jumps per second). In addition to the hour, minute, seconds and date, there’s also a chronograph (traditional, flyback or laptime for 1/10th of a second), a second time zone and even a moon phase.

The F0X collection has gained eleven new models. The movements feature another ETA development: PreciDrive technology which makes the watch precise to ± 10 seconds a year (0.027 seconds a day). The performance easily meets the COSC’s criteria to be recognised as a “Chronometer”. The system here is twofold: on the one hand,

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there’s a thermo-compensation system to check then control the movement based on changes in the ambient temperature; on the other hand, fitting the quartz and integrated circuit in a vacuum-packed case helps protect it from damp and dust.

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de e p b lu e

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eterna

Super Kontiki chronographe

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omega

Seamaster Planet ocean master chronographe

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HySeK

abyss chronographe titane automatique

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Hublot

big bang chronographe automatique "Jeans" photograph Céline Chea - Make-up & Hair Jennifer Maunier - Model Julia THE WATCHES MAGAZINE

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T

ROGER DUBUIS

VOUTILAINEN

Velvet by Massaro

28 GML Center

By Sharmila Bertin

By Fabrice Eschmann

he big names in fashion and haute couture all want it: Massaro. The famous Parisian bootmaker that has been working to showcase men’s and women’s feet since 1894 and has lent its artisan, creative and unique expertise to Genevan watchmaker Roger Dubuis.

Velvet by Massaro is a joint creation with a gold leather strap that’s braided in the centre. The two gleaming straps wrap around a white gold case that dazzles with rows of diamonds.

The self-winding RD821 calibre lies in the heart of the 36mm case; it brings to life the hour and minute functions alongside a 48-hour power reserve.

Two series of black Roman numerals stand on the silver sunburst dial punctuated by two gold applied numerals at 6 and 12 o’ clock. The dauphine hour and minute hands appear in a diamond-covered and gold-bevelled barrel shape in the centre.

A

true watchmaking purist who makes almost all the parts in his own workshops, Kari Voutilainen has long been fond of traditional decorative techniques including engine-turning. However, he’s spent the last few years on a great adventure with the Unryuan studio.

The Unryuan studio lies in a tiny village east of Tokyo and specialises in the age-old decorative art of maki-e. It is used to decorate wooden pieces such as tobacco boxes or bowls and requires years of experience and immense talent.

The two brands began collaborating in 2011 and have produced 6 totally unique designs. The 28 GML Center has a second time zone on a central disc and features a painstakingly detailed dial with Kinpun (gold dust), Jyunkin-itakane (gold leaf), Yakou-gai (green sea snail shell), Awabi-gai (New Zealand abalone shell) and Japanese lacquer.

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AUDEMARS PIGUET

PARMIGIANI

Tonda Métropolitaine Sélène

Royal Oak Chronographe

By Sharmila Bertin

By Sharmila Bertin

he moon’s coppery light glows in a large bevelled display at 12 on the Tonda Métropolitaine Sélène’s blue dial. The russet hue highlights craters formed by lunar seas created by layering tracing. The small seconds lie opposite at 6 with a date display that smiles like the man in the moon.

A lotus flower blossoms in the heart of the intense blue or mother-of-pearl white dial. Its stylised petals are made of two layers of mother-of-pearl: one satin-finished and one polished.

Luminescent, rose gold delta-shape hands burst from the bloom to track the hours and minutes along gold triangular markers.

The time, date and moon phase functions are brought to life by a self-winding calibre by Parmigiani inside the 33mm steel case.

ellow gold was lauded for a long time until its popularity lapsed in the early Noughties. Now it’s making a comeback in Audemars Piguet’s classic collections.

The iconic Royal Oak Chronographe shines like the summer sun and its dial comes in two hues which perfectly match warm yellow gold: timeless white and inky blue adorned by the signature “Grande Tapisserie” pattern. The luminescent hour markers are tracked by two Royal Oak hour and minute hands whilst the seconds counter stands at 6.

The white or blue date display appears at 4.30 and the chronograph counters are placed as follows: seconds in the centre, minutes at 3 and hours at 9. The functions are fuelled by the self-winding 2385 calibre inside the 41mm case.

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HERMÈS

EMILE CHOURIET

A

Classic Wisdom

Slim d'Hermès

By Sharmila Bertin

By Sharmila Bertin

s the great Greek philosopher Socrates (470BC-399BC) said: “wisdom begins in wonder.” There’s wonder in everything around us that gives us joy. Love, nature and life are rife with wonder. Is there anything more amazing than wisdom and wonder?

Emile Chouriet has put its almost magical values into its Classic Wisdom. A wavy line splits the anthracite grey dial in two making it look like two open wings. The line divides the dial into a classic, smooth and shiny sunburst side and a matt, textured and “raw” side. It’s a sandy beach lapping a pebble beach dotted with time markers beneath the hands.

The 40mm steel watch’s self-winding calibre brings to life the hours, minutes, seconds and date.

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ime alone can turn a watch into an icon, make it holy and give it pride of place in people’s hearts. Unveiled in 2015, the Slim d'Hermès has the potential to be a future icon as it oozes perfection. Its lines are smooth and sophisticated, its curves are all in the right places.

Hermès is bringing us two new dial colours this year: slate grey and slightly petrol blue. The dial still has visual balance over three levels and features curvy font designed by Philippe Apeloig laid in silver on a ring, a central disc with rhodiumplated baton-shape hands and a second disc for the small seconds at 6.

As the name suggests, the Slim d'Hermès case is svelte. Its 39.5mm size houses the super-slim self-winding H1950 calibre which brings to life the time functions and 42-hour power reserve.

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75

CUERVO & SOBRINOS

CHOPARD

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Happy Diamonds

Historiador Tierra, Sol y Mar

By Sharmila Bertin

By Sharmila Bertin

he idea behind Happy Diamonds came during a woodland walk: a fun-filled and lively way to tell the time with diamonds dancing on a watch dial. Chopard unveiled the first model (a men’s watch with a cushion-shape gold case and black dial) from a collection which would become iconic in 1976. 40 years later and the Geneva-based family business has given the piece a new twist for ladies.

Chopard has freshened up the cushion-shape case with white gold (36x36mm) and a veil of claw-set diamonds. The dazzling rim frames a white mother-of-pearl dial where 15 loose diamonds perform, the famous Happy Diamonds. The clawset gems spin around a central paved ring with small spearshape hands.

The hours and minutes are brought to life by a quartz movement.

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estled between the Mexican and American peninsulas, the island of Cuba’s slender shape provides miles of beaches lapped by turquoise water. Not only is it bursting with wonderful wildlife both on land and sea, but it is also teeming with precious minerals.

Cuervo & Sobrinos has brought out three vibrant pieces, Historiador Tierra, Sol y Mar, in tribute to its island’s natural wealth: its blue water (“Mar”), fertile land (“Tierra”) and radiant sunshine (“Sol”).

The sunburst dial comes in bright orange, sky blue or lemon yellow. Two elongated spear-shape hands in the centre track the silver hour indices and a dotted minute track. The seconds tick down at 6 whilst the date display lies at 3.

The functions are brought to life by the self-winding CYS 5157 calibre which fuels a 38-hour power reserve from inside the 40mm steel case.

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JUNGHANS

ZENITH

Z

Heritage Pilot Café Racer

Meister Driver Handaufzug

By Sharmila Bertin

By Sharmila Bertin

enith is taking a break from the sky and returning to dry land: as the name suggests, Heritage Pilot Café Racer is inspired by the famous British motorbikes from the 1960s. The bikes were stripped back to basics (single seater, almost inexistent body, straight and low handlebar) to reach speeds of 100mph and their raw retro look oozes from the new model by Zenith.

The Heritage Pilot Café Racer has a sleek vintage steel 45mm case containing the self-winding El Primero 4069 calibre (50hour power reserve) with “Café Racer Spirit” engraved on the titanium back.

Its textured slate grey dial bears an hour rim whose large Arabic numerals are coated in beige Super-LumiNova®.

There are two vintage-style hour and minute hands whilst the seconds appear at 9. The chronograph seconds stand in the centre and the minute counter lies at 3.

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he late 19th century was a milestone in the automobile industry with inventions by German engineers such as Gottlieb Daimler (1834-1900) and Wilhelm Maybach (1846-1929) who were close to Arthur Junghans, the son of the eponymous watch brand founder and car collector.

The love for these revolutionary vehicles, especially 1930s cars, bursts from the Meister Driver Handaufzug watches. Both dials feature a blend of classic colours from the period with a mixture of anthracite, silver and vanilla beige. Each two-tone lacquered dial has a different display: the white minute track takes centre stage on one whilst the other showcases the ivory hours.

The time functions (hours and minutes in the centre, small seconds at 6) are fuelled by the manual wind J 815.1 calibre inside the 37.7mm steel case.

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77

IWC

TUDOR

Montre d'Aviateur Automatique 36

Heritage Black Back Bay Bronze

By Sharmila Bertin

By Sharmila Bertin

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ilot watches have an instantly recognisable design: large size, big Arabic numerals, chunky hands, protruding crown and minimalist dial. Although highly popular with watch enthusiasts, some criticise the case size and depth for comfort or design reasons. To put a smile on these clients’ faces, IWC has designed a smaller and slimmer Pilot’s Watch Automatic 36 which, as the name suggests, has a 36mm steel case. The self-winding 3511 calibre powers the time and date functions along with the 42-hour power reserve.

The dial comes in three colours: silver, slate and blue. The central disc bearing the black and white Arabic numerals and luminescent hour, minute and seconds hands stands slightly above the minute track. A black-on-white date display appears at 3 o’ clock.

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ronze is a glossy blend of copper and metals (aluminium, tin, lead) that’s stronger and heavier than steel. Unlike other iron materials, seawater hardly affects it and rust gives it a beautiful green-grey patina. Bronze has fascinated mankind since the dawn of time and we’ve used it a million ways from prehistoric tools to 21st century watch cases, just like the new Heritage Black Back Bay Bronze by Tudor.

Its 43mm bronze case is slightly larger than its Heritage Black Back Bay brothers and has the self-winding in-house MT5601 calibre which provides a 70-hour power reserve and is COSCcertified.

Its slightly domed milk chocolate dial features luminescent bronze bevelled indices and Arabic numerals with a bronze minute track. The hours, minutes and seconds are tracked by phosphorescent gold hands.

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MB&F

LAURENT FERRIER

HMX Black Badger

Galet Square Boréal

By Sharmila Bertin

By Sharmila Bertin

aximilian Büsser has worked his magic again. He’s pulled an amazing collaboration out of the bag with Canadian designer James Thompson from Black Badger: HMX Black Badger. This limited edition is three series of 18 models each based on the concept timepiece designed for MB&F’s 10th anniversary in 2015. Radar Green, Phantom Blue and Purple Reign: the names in themselves sound like a best-selling sci-fi trilogy.

What was James Thompson’s bright idea? To put his “creative stamp” on the HMX’s rocker covers crafted from the extraordinary artist’s signature luminescent blocks. The result is colours that strike as soon as darkness falls to bring out the jumping hours, trailing minutes and the statement rocker covers glowing blue, purple or green.

The titanium and steel case houses a self-winding calibre, based on a Sellita, providing a 42-hour power reserve.

ho hasn’t dreamt of seeing the Northern Lights, the phenomenon that lights up the night sky with electric green and blue? Has Laurent Ferrier seen the mystic and intriguing sight? Maybe that’s why he wanted to capture the Aurora Borealis on the dial of the Galet Square Boréal. We don’t have the answers but the magic is certainly here.

The black jade dial is adorned by the “sector” hour rim inspired by the 1930s which glows with green Super-LumiNova®. Its shape is reminiscent of a stylised sunrise beneath two arrowshape hour and minute hands rimmed with green SuperLumiNova®. The subtle blue small seconds at 6 and minute track on the edge of the dial are highlighted by slate grey tracing.

The self-winding FBN 229.01 calibre powers the functions in the cushion-shape steel case.

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A. LANGE & SÖHNE

MANUFACTURE ROYALE

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1770 Voltige Plume Noire

Datograph Perpétuel Tourbillon

By Sharmila Bertin

By Sharmila Bertin

t may date back to the 1750s but the most famous intellectual debate is still the battle of wills between the Parisian Voltaire (1694-1778) and Genevan Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). The two writers and philosophers had conflicting beliefs and waged war on the literary battlefield, quill against quill.

The new piece by Manufacture Royale, the 1770 Voltige Plume Noire, is named after the French word for “quill” and its inky dial is adorned by vertical Côtes de Genève. The bottom of the ebony dial features a seconds counter and blue spear-shape hand on a mesh grid-like backdrop. Two openwork spearshape hour and minute hands spring from the centre and glide over the raised blue balance wheel at 12.

These functions are fuelled by the self-winding MR05 calibre inside the 45mm black PVD-coated steel case.

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. Lange & Söhne unveiled the Datograph Perpetual model, a fabulous piece pairing a flyback chronograph with a perpetual calendar on a grey dial, to the press and clients at the 2015 SIHH. The Saxony brand has gone one step further for 2016 by creating a more all-round version of the model: Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon.

The more all-round and more complex Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon has a manual wind L952.2 calibre in its 41.5mm platinum case. The movement fuels the 50-hour power reserve and myriad functions on the black solid silver dial tracked by luminescent gold hands: hours and minutes in the centre, large date at 12, linear power reserve indicator at 9, moon phase and dual counter displaying jumping minutes, day of the week, month, leap year and day/night indicator.

Just 100 of this limited edition timekeeping masterpiece are available.

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HYSEK

BVLGARI

9

Octo Ultranero Solotempo

Furtif Tourbillon Squelette

By Sharmila Bertin

By Sharmila Bertin

3 years after its foundation in Rome, Bvlgari began its watchmaking adventure in 1977 and is still going strong.

Its Roman roots go into the patterns and architecture that are intrinsic to its designs as we can see on the Octo Ultranero Solotempo’s case.

The 41mm case is edgy to say the least. It’s carved out of steel, coated in black DLC and topped by an equally edgy bezel in the same material or rose gold. Its black lacquer dial bears slender hour markers and two Arabic numerals (6 and 12) in rose gold.

The hours and minutes are tracked by two dauphine-shape openwork hands in the centre whilst a slim central seconds hand ticks down the seconds. The subtle white-on-black date display lies at 3.

The functions are fuelled by the self-winding BVL 193 calibre with a 50-hour power reserve.

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he mechanical and eye-catching concept of ultraskeletonisation comes from Hysek. It’s the perfect combination of tourbillon and skeleton which was first unveiled in 2008 in the Furtif collection then in 2014 in the Verdict and IO ranges. The design is back but this year it’s at its most extreme.

The Furtif Skeleton Tourbillon’s movement (manual wind HW15 calibre) is laid bare, revealing its vital functions: the wheel train fuelling the gold hour and minute hands in the centre, the barrel driving the 48-hour power reserve at 5 o’ clock and the flying skeleton tourbillon spinning at 11.

Its oversize square case (44x44mm) is finished with rotating lugs, has a PVD-coated titanium container with two sapphire crystals on the back (metallic stripes on the reverse) and bevelled sides locked down by four gold screws.

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BREITLING

ORIS

T

Williams Engine Date

Avenger Bandit

By Sharmila Bertin

By Sharmila Bertin

he love story between Oris and motor sports goes back to the 70s and has now been sealed by a partnership with British Formula 1 team Williams. The pairing has produced a new watch with a classic name: Williams Engine Date.

The dial of the timepiece is reminiscent of Williams’ racing cars. The partly openwork black and grey dial has several levels and its central minute track is inspired by a car’s dashboard with figures positioned horizontally. The blue splashes on the central seconds hand and date display at 6 are the colour of the team logo.

The self-winding Oris 733 calibre in the 42mm steel case fuels luminescent hands tracking the hours and minutes along an hour rim with baton markers and two large Arabic numerals (3 and 9).

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his new Avenger Bandit is inspired by the grey hue and agile yet solid character of aircraft carriers, the huge warships with an airbase. The 45mm matt brushed titanium case houses a COSC-certified self-winding movement fuelling the time, chronograph and date functions alongside the 42-hour power reserve. The blue grey dial features aeronauticstyle Arabic hour numerals reflected by the numbers engraved on the rotating bezel. The hours and minutes appear in the centre whilst the seconds count down at 9 o’ clock. The chronograph counters are laid out symmetrically: hours at 6 and minutes at 12. All the chronometer features (central seconds tip, graduations and markers on the counters) are splashed with scarlet.

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Port r ait

Eva Leube, a highly independent globe-trotting watchmaker

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By Tiffany Cartier-Millon

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va Leube was born in Germany and fell in love with watchmaking at 16. When she was 23, she got a Masters in watchmaking in Hildesheim (Germany). The young woman started out in a family business in Lucerne before joining master watchmakers Chronos in Cape Town, South Africa.

At the same time, she trained on a vocational Rolex course to enable her to work for the brand in Sydney.

She then specialised in chronometers and complications at Ulysse Nardin in Switzerland then Florida. Three years with Thomas Prescher sated her thirst for knowledge and she had her calling.

Eva Leube made pieces with extremely complex functions for specific clients with the master watchmaker. She realised that this is what she wanted to do. As an admirer of a bygone preindustrial time when everything was painstakingly handmade, she wants to express her creativity and make pieces whose value will endure with her own

hands. The idea behind her first concept had already appeared.

After giving birth to her first son, the busy watchmaker flew the nest to Sydney where she set up her own business.

Throwing herself into entrepreneurship and motherhood at the same time, she proved that passion makes you flourish.

Eva Leube spent 4 years locked away in her workshop designing a prototype: Ari (also the name of her child). She restored and repaired fine watches for clients to fund her project. Away from the “land of watchmaking”, Eva Leube stayed relatively in the shadows before Ari exploded onto the scene at Baselworld 2011. It’s hard to talk about her without bringing up the timepiece. She built a curved calibre using calculations based on a Record movement. The multiple levels give a glimpse of the technical prowess and precision treasures required to make such a mechanism. The incredible complexity is revealed with stunning

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fluidity in a sapphire case flooded with light. It all hugs the wrist like a piece of jewellery, it’s certainly made for women.

The globe-trotter moved from Sydney to Munich. For now, a full-time job is covering her arrears and enabling her to look after her two children. But she’s not settling down: Eva Leube has itchy fingers and a head full of ideas.

As soon as she can, she’ll open a new independent business to bring her ideas to life.

What’s her advice to young entrepreneurs? “Learn everything you can and build yourself until the time comes to design. You have to be ready to give it your all.”

atelier-zuppinger.ch

Crown Royal headgear or watch winder?

Discover the world of Fine Watchmaking at www.hautehorlogerie.org

Crown | The winding crown is a knurled or fluted button of various shapes, held between the thumb and forefinger and used to wind the watch. Some crowns incorporate a mobile pushbutton for operating a chronograph mechanism or to release the cover of a hunter case.

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Piaget Altiplano 1205P

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