Text: Lisa Epifanova THIS YEAR BASELWORLD CLEARLY DEMONSTRATED - THE WORLD OF CLASSIC CLOCK MECHANICS TODAY HAS NEVER ARE FULL OF INSPIRING IDEAS AND READY TO SURPRISE EVEN EXPERIENCED COLLECTORS.
Paranormal activity
It would seem that it can be more traditional than the watch industry, numbering more than five hundred years, and yet every year it grows with unexpected and sometimes very surprising characters. More than 1,500 brands were represented at Baselworld this year! And each with its own unique concept, history, inventions or design idea. Walking around the exhibition, one could stumble upon completely unexpected phenomena - for example, a real "barber" with a barber, working with a dangerous razor, which a young brand from Hong Kong brought to its booth. Thus, its founder wanted to honor the memory of the traditions of his father.
However, these are all exotic phenomena that form rather as an addition to the general Baselworld mood. While the tone of the exhibition itself has been set for many years by the main defendants in the Swiss watch industry - brands displayed in the main hall of Hall 1. They form the main trends of prestigious mechanics, which we will soon see in the windows of watch boutiques.
The main directions of development of Haute Horlogerie are most easily judged by the debutants of the main hall. This year, on the second floor, next to de Grisogono, Hermes and Graff, two interesting names appeared. Firstly, Faberge, which changed its owner and immediately created an extraordinary time line, in which you can see the architectural “soaring” Visionnaire I tourbillon, exclusively designed for the Giulio Papi brand, and the Peacock jewelry retrograde created by Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, and A luxurious Summer in Provence jewelery jewelery adorned with a gemstone floral pattern. The second premiere was the brand L. Kendall, named after Larkum Kendall, the famous watchmaker of the XVIII century, a friend of John Harrison. He created the K1 marine chronometer, accompanying Captain Robert Cook in the voyage. As you might guess, the brand presents classic exquisite models with ultra-precise mechanisms. This project was launched by Munir Muffaridzh, a well-known watch entrepreneur, owner of U-Boat and the first to “promote” Officine Panerai, whose taste and flair in watch trends can be relied on with confidence.
Classic as it is
Thus, it can be seen that in men's watches fashion is dictated by pure, refined classics with small but thoughtful elements of luxury of past centuries, as well as unusual, virtuoso “author's” complications. Instead of piling up all the possible functions in one mechanism, which had recently dominated watchmaking, there is now a clear tendency to “simplify” the design, free the dial from extra counters, and the case from extra buttons. The hit of the season is a model with the only complication (second time zone, world time, perpetual calendar, tourbillon), but served with taste, functionally and visually thought out.
So, Patek Philippe presented two characteristic novelties: the SplitSeconds chronograph for the first time without an eternal calendar and, perhaps, the most unexpected and discussed model of the year - Calatrava Pilot Dual Time with a second time zone and in an unusual “aviation” style for the brand. For the first time I got rid of the chronograph in the manufactory caliber and Breitling - in the SleekT model, a new B35 movement with only an indication of world time is installed. On the other hand, the Hautlence brand has significantly developed the Invictus collection of basic chronographs - on the basis of last year's limited edition, invented with Eric Canton, a regular line of bright sports accessories appeared. Blancpain introduced the new Villeret with just one complication - the Big Date calendar. This is a very practical function, which also does not violate the exquisite style of the ultra-thin body. rely reliably.
As already mentioned, the ultra-thin classic seemed to have found a second wind. Similar rigorous models were introduced by previously unseen brands: Zenith released the Elite three-pointer with a new manufacture caliber, Bulgari introduced a thin curved version of the Roma, Bell & Ross created the unexpected WW1 Edition Limitada cigar classic, and Rolex the iconic Oyster Perpetual with a smooth gray dial and thin gray marks, and Hermes - a completely new Slim line with the original intermittent markings.
At the same time, the classic design for some Watch houses has become an excellent occasion to demonstrate colorful decorative techniques, rooted back centuries. So, Girard-Perregaux in the amazing Chambre des Merveilles collection of 3 models in a case of 40 mm in pink gold presented the evolution of the vision of the world, recreating medieval maps from China, Spain and Germany on the dial.
And Blancpain in the same ultra-thin Villeret line portrayed the elephant god Ganesha in the Shakudo model, created in a single copy using the shakudo - an alloy based on copper and gold, from which samurai swords were made in Japan.
Structures and panoramas
In the collections of high mechanics there are even more skeletons and three-dimensional mechanisms that are maximally open to the eye. A striking example is the Breguet Tradition collection, this year marking the 10th anniversary of the first model with a wheel gear, partially located on the dial. In honor of this date, the manufactory presented a series of 3 new mechanisms, spectacularly revealing the classic complications: retrograde second hand, chronograph and minute repeater. Thanks to the panoramic design of the mechanism on the dial, the operation of each function can be studied in detail. Moreover, in the repeater (also supplemented by the tourbillon carriage), you can see that the gongs are not located parallel to the main wheel system, as is customary, but vertically, which provides greater sound resonance.
The Bulgari manufactory also opened the dial of its minute repeater Carillon Tourbillon, where in the enlarged up to 48 mm case you can now see through the sapphire dial the entire musical structure, consisting of as many as three pairs of gongs and hammers instead of the usual two.
Girard-Perregaux has exposed the caliber GP095000002 with the new repeater system in the Minute Repeater Tourbillon with Gold Bridge. It is noteworthy that only two bridges are visible from the side of the dial - the third was donated to show the repeater, but it was preserved in the main structure, simply placed on the side of the back cover.
Graff London Jewelery House decided this year that the skeleton design allows inlaid not only the case, but also the mechanism, and introduced the world's first “diamond MasterGraff Structural Tourbillon Skeleton” tourbillon, in which thin wheel bridges are paved with baguette diamonds and emeralds .
And the title of “King of Panoramic Mechanics” this year deservedly received the company Jacob & Co. She completed last year’s Astronomia concept with a planetary design, in which the tourbillon and dial rotate in orbit along the circumference of the case along with mock Earth and Moon (and a special differential controls that the dial is always upright), and complemented it with a rich diamond inlay.
The record for the cost of hours was set by Graff, introducing a watch bracelet decorated with pear-shaped stones weighing 152.96 carats and priced at $ 40 million. Although he is far from his last year’s own record - Hallucination watches strewn with multi-colored stones for 55 million. True, representatives of the London House do not give out a secret - were they eventually sold or not.
Precious rainbow
Aggressive invasion of color, not only in design, but also in jewelry, is another important trend of the new era. Cases of such different brands as Rolex (Oyster Perpetual Datejust Pearlmaster), Dior (Grand Bal with multi-colored spinel) and de Grisogono (multi-colored briquettes shimmer in the Grappoli collection) decorated the real rainbow of gemstones. Bright stained-glass enamel adorns the Classic Fusion Enamel Britto dial, while Harry Winston's Premier Precious Butterfly dial is striking in the glow of butterfly wings. Some of the ladies' premieres turned out to be so memorable and original that it seems that soon they will set the tone in the watch fashion as a whole. First of all, this is due to the fact that female mechanics appears, probably, for the first time absolutely on equal terms with men.
If until recently, most of the women's collections were simply somehow remade from the men's ones (on the principle of “smaller, simpler, but with diamonds and mother of pearl”), now serious designers and engineers are engaged in their creation.
Special “female” complications were noticed even at the SIHH Geneva salon (in particular, for example, in the Cartier Reves de Pantheres), now this poetic design was almost exactly repeated by Blancpain in the model with the Women Day Night disc. In the same place, in Geneva, it was noticeable that the theme of flowers will be the leitmotif of the year for ladies watches. And so it happened: Baselworld stands seemed to have blossomed like exotic greenhouses. Zenith adorned the dials of Star Flower models with flowers, Breguet turned the watch case Crazy Haute Joaillerie into a giant precious flower, whose petals are loosely fixed diamonds weighing more than 70 carats. And the most believable flower "blossomed" on the case of a Lady 8 Flower watch from Jaquet Droz, reminiscent of the "eight." In its lower part there are arrows against the background of the image of a butterfly, and in the upper part there is a lotus bud. When the button is pressed at the “2 o'clock” mark, the lotus petals begin to diverge, opening the core of the diamond cut diamonds. So watchmaking, as Baselworld showed this year, can also be just beautiful.
