Innholdsfortegnelse for September/October 2020 i CROWN

‘Hours & Minutes’. ‘Avant-Time’. Or, God-forbid, ‘Vibrations’. Boy, we sure went through some bad ideas trying to name this magazine. But guess what? Here we are, this baby is on its 7th birthday, and CROWN does have a crisp and punchy ring to it, don’t you think? I still can’t quite put a finger on whether it seemed like a long time ago or only yesterday, when a foolhardy team decided that it was opportune to launch a watch magazine in the midst of the Asian financial crisis. And we had big plans, too. Did you know that CROWN started off as an interactive, tablet-based app? There wasn’t anything like it. In hindsight, perhaps that’s exactly why such an app didn’t exist. Even today, we can’t be sure. What we…

At a watch company where ‘astonishment’ is a rudimentary benchmark, and where making wristwatches with miniature mechanical robots that flap their wings and chirp like lifelike birds isn’t just an esteemed endeavour, but one to be expected, it is astonishing indeed, that Jaquet Droz’s most celebrated and distinctive creation is also one of its simplest. There is no secret to the appeal of the Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde wristwatch. All there is to it, really, is that figure of ‘8’ motif on the dial. A timepiece that you can recognise from 10 paces away, the Grande Seconde is instantly identifiable by that face, which features two sub-dials: a smaller one at the top showing the hour and minutes, and a larger one at the bottom for the seconds. But don’t…

Not that Patek Philippe’s president, Thierry Stern, would mind it, but his responsibility as the final tester for his brand’s minute repeaters has just gotten more arduous. It is well-documented that every single one of Patek Philippe’s minute repeaters needs to be checked personally by Stern before they are shipped to their owners. With the new Ref. 5303R-001 Minute Repeater Tourbillon, Stern will now have to also look as well as listen to the watch’s chimes. Pulling back the curtain on one of horology’s most sensory complications, Patek Philippe has re-engineered its hand-wound Calibre R TO 27 PS movement, which debuted in 1992, so that it can display both the minute repeater and tourbillon mechanisms on the dial of the Ref. 5303R Minute Repeater Tourbillon. The deft mechanical manoeuvring means…

Widely regarded as the first word in modern dive watches, the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms rocked the world simply because there wasn’t anything quite like it before. Developed from a serendipitous confluence of two distinct desires – first from Blancpain’s then-CEO and avid diver, Jean-Jacques Fiechter, who was driven to explore the limits of what a dive watch could do; and later from the company itself, by a challenge from the French frogmen unit to produce military-grade timekeepers fit for combat and underwater use – the first Blancpain Fifty Fathoms watch was introduced in 1953 and practically wrote the blueprint for generations of dive watches to come. While much has been made of the original Fifty Fathom’s groundbreaking features such as a lockable bezel to set remaining dive times, optimum legibility,…

Let’s play a quick round of word association. When we say Hermès, what’s the first object that comes to mind? Bags? Scarves? Or, more specifically, a Birkin or Kelly? Chances are, ‘traditional high-end complications’ would have been a far reach for most – even, dare we say, well-learned watch connoisseurs. That is not to say that Hermès doesn’t make technically sophisticated watches. It does – and extremely well, too. Creations like the Time Suspended, which features a built-in mechanical memory system that won Best Men’s Watch at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve (GPHG) in 2011, and the more recent Arceau L’heure de la lune, a moonphase watch that uses mobile counters for the time and date, which move around the ‘moons’, that won the Calendar and Astronomy Watch prize…

For the 14th consecutive year since the debut of the Project Z collection, Harry Winston has continued to entice and surprise with a creation that is decidedly distinct from the rest of its repertoire that typically brims with extravagant baubles and brilliance. The Project Z watches set themselves apart through both spirit and form. Core to the collection is the material Zalium, a proprietary alloy comprising primarily zirconium and aluminium, that’s known for its ultra-hardiness. Emanating a unique tone that’s several shades lighter that gun-metal, Zalium is rated to be tougher than titanium but extremely light. It is also notoriously hard to machine – one cannot simply stamp out a case from Zalium, but instead, needs to fastidiously machine it from an ingot. Although the look and properties of Zalium…

Known for its avant-garde sensibilities and moxie to create timepieces that push the envelope on traditional watchmaking, Corum is no stranger to innovative timepieces. The brand developed a ‘LAB’ collection two years ago, where it could experiment with more technical pieces in which mechanical mastery comes to the forefront, and has since launched the LAB 01 and, now, the LAB 02 models. While the LAB 01 models exude a sporty vibe with black DLC tonneau cases, barrel-shaped movements and rubber straps, the LAB 02 is altogether more elegant. In fact, we’d even put it in the same aesthetic bracket as the stately Golden Bridge collection. Going back to the universally classic round case, the LAB 02 leaves nothing to the imagination with a skeletonised mainplate, parading the movement underneath a…

A. Lange & Söhne • #02-05A Ion Orchard Tel: 6509 1712 Audemars Piguet • #B2-207, The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands Tel: 6688 7595 • #01-03, liat towers Tel: 6836 4918 Ball Watch For enquires, please call 6235 1811 Baume & Mercier For enquires, please call 6510 2767 Bell & Ross • #01-15 Mandarin Gallery Tel: 6884 6471 Blancpain • #B2-237 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands Tel: 6634 8771 Breguet • B2M-236 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands Tel: 6638 6006 Breitling • #01-03/04, Palais Renaisance Tel: 6732 8582 Bulgari • #B2-200 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands Tel: 6634 8313 • Level 1, Takashimaya Department Store Tel: 6735 6689 Cartier • #B1-39A, #B2-38 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands Tel: 6688 7388 • #01-20, #02-10 Ion Orchard Tel:…

Making key changes to its top management, the world’s largest watchmaking conglomerate, the Swatch Group, has decided to keep things safe and stable with only internal appointments. Senior long-serving management executives, including CEO of Omega, Raynald Aeschlimann, and CEO of Rado, Matthias Breschan, have been appointed to new positions. Aeschlimann now joins the Swatch Group’s executive group management board, while Breschan, a member of the extended group management board, is tasked with an additional portfolio as CEO of Longines. Other brands seeing new CEOs at the helm include Tissot, which will be headed by Sylvain Dolla, previously Hamilton’s CEO; and his position at Hamilton will be filled by Vivian Stauffer, previously the brand’s head of sales. Equally notable is the retirement of Walter von Känel, ex-CEO of Longines and a…

We admit, the watch world is nothing like the fashion business, defined by the seasons and cyclic trends that are neatly pigeonholed and packaged for mass consumption. No sir, watch enthusiasts are far more discerning and individualistic. Meanwhile, watch brands would certainly disapprove of the frivolity of seasonal trends – if not to guard the integrity of their painstaking creations, but to rally against the sheer impracticality of doing business that way. After all, timepieces require far more resources – and expensive ones – to make than clothes and, naturally, both creator and consumer would demand way longer shelf lives. But that is not to say that there’s no such thing as horological trends. We have seen from the explosion of plus-size cases in the late-1990s to their recent down-sizing;…

Whoever decided the theme for this year’s Cartier novelties would be ‘Unexpected Encounters’ was spot on. With attention in recent years focused on the Santos, Tank and Panthère collections, no one was really expecting to see a new Pasha de Cartier - what more an entire collection running the gamut from straightforward stainless steel options to a skeletonised tourbillon version ringed with diamonds? The last time we saw much fanfare at the launch of a new Pasha was six years ago at Watches & Wonders Hong Kong, when the Maison debuted a stunning Pasha de Cartier Skeleton Dragon Motif, brimming with Eastern exoticism and glamour. Ever since then, it seemed the Pasha was content to stay in the shadows. Until now, that is. Evolution Of An Icon Clearly not a…

Although TAG Heuer’s ‘Swiss Avant-Garde Since 1860’ slogan appeared only in the 2000s, its brazen claim was acknowledged without fuss by the brand’s peers and enthusiasts. In fact, it was as if the tagline was a universally accepted truth that people simply needed to be reminded of – never mind that TAG Heuer’s bold assertion was, at that time, also allayed and glamourised in equal parts by Hollywood celebrities and sports stars enlisted to front its advertising campaigns. Away from the bright lights and stardust, however, TAG Heuer presents a strong case. Watch historians may argue that Edouard Heuer founded the company in 1860, in the midst of the late-18th to the early-19th century golden age of watchmaking that brought forth a wealth of groundbreaking mechanical innovations considered to be…

While high-jewellery watches are not new to Breguet, sightings are certainly few and far between. Some of the flashiest creations that blew us away in recent memory include the likes of the fittingly monikered Breguet B Crazy from 2015, literally a fireworks-like display of diamonds on the wrist with over 1,100 fixed and mobile baguette-cut diamonds on the case and dial; and the equally insane Crazy Flower from 2010, a glitzy impression of a flower comprising almost 400 diamonds in a variety of cuts and settings. Like the Breguet B Crazy and Crazy Flower, this year’s Marine Haute Joaillerie Poseidonia, inspired by the colourful and dramatic Posidonia Oceanica aquatic plant found in the Mediterranean ocean, ranks amongst Breguet’s most eye-popping high-jewellery creations. That the Marine Poseidonia’s canvas stems from Breguet’s…

Want to know what passion sounds like? We’ve got three words for you: Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud. The company is the brainchild of Chopard’s co-president Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, who, upon being bowled over by a Berthoud marine clock in the Chopard Museum collection, took it upon himself to resurrect the legacy of Ferdinand Berthoud, one of the greatest pioneers of precision watchmaking. Though unheralded outside niche collecting circles, Berthoud was a genius at constructing highly accurate seafaring timekeepers known as marine chronometers. Back in the 18th century, where European powers imposed dominance by conquering newfound lands and seas, a dependable marine chronometer to help ascertain coordinates at sea was vital to a fleet’s survival and success. The construction of such timekeepers, which had to be super stable and robust, while being highly…

Hard as it is to believe, the mesmerising swirls that seem to find their way onto every available space on the dial of the Glashütte Original PanoLunar Tourbillon aren’t calculated works of art. Guided by nothing but decades of experience and their trusted burins, the engravers at Glashütte Original’s Pforzhiem factory slowly etch these fantastic floral patterns on solid gold blanks. Nothing is pre-conceived or planned. There are no patterns to follow and no movement too trivial, as these artisans carefully decorate the dials entirely freehand. There are many mechanical marvels to be enjoyed in the PanoLunar Tourbillon, but there’s nothing quite like seeing them elevated by such extraordinary ornamentation.…

Okay, our lives are complete now. 2020 isn’t the horological equivalent of an incomplete jigsaw with a missing piece right smack in the middle, now that Rolex has reversed its earlier decision not to unveil new watches this year. What a relief. And what familiar delight we take in seeing the world’s most recognised luxury watch brand returning to the spotlight, sending the Internet into a frenzy, and triggering collectors into making half-jokes about having to wait in line yet again to snare their new favourite Rollie. Certainly, the demand versus supply debate is in full swing on social media chatter. As Rolex’s not-too-subtle, underwater-themed teaser ads leading to its big reveal prove, the biggest stars of the brand’s 2020 line-up are new Submariner and Submariner Date models – timepieces…

Can we all take a moment to applaud Urwerk’s ingenuity in modern watch design? Much has been said of the brand’s devotion to mechanical avant-gardism. However, Urwerk’s arsenal of orbiting satellite time-displays, retrograde systems, and so many other examples of progressive mechanical horology would have been rendered a chaotic mess, if not for its co-founders’ insistence that form and function are equally vital to their creations. This year, Urwerk again demonstrates its unique blend of mechanical virtuosity and visual drama with the new EMC Time Hunter, reviving a tech geek’s favourite from 2013 by literally giving the watch a fresh coat of swag. Nicknamed ‘Desert Sage’, the latest version of the EMC Time Hunter is sheathed in matte beige to evoke the colour of vast, arid sandscapes. The shade is…

“REWORKING AN ICON IS THE MOST DEMANDING EXERCISE CREATIVELY” What is Cartier’s design language and vocabulary? Cartier’s mission is to create strong designs that stand the test of time and maintain their relevancy. Bringing relevance and modernity to our icons is a very demanding creative process. In a nutshell, our creative process is a constant balance between nurturing our icons and exploring unexpected new shapes. Cartier has been enjoying the commercial success of the Tank and the Santos for many years now. However, the Pasha has been largely out of the limelight in recent years. Why did the Maison feel it was time to revive it? Pasha is a Cartier signature, with a strong awareness among historical core clienteles, such as the European, American and Japanese, who are still today…

Dripping with almost a thousand brilliantcut and pear-shaped diamonds each on a bed of intricately woven gold, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s two new high jewellery watches are meant neither for the faint of heart nor the shallow-pocketed. The brand’s brazen bejewelled spectacles are clearly designed to turn our attention to its gem-setting mastery, an oftunheralded virtue that really deserves as much praise as its numerous mechanical innovations. Having said that, the sweetest irony presented in the aforementioned 101 Snowdrop and 101 Bangle high-jewellery timepieces, is that the watches’ shimmering extravaganza wouldn’t have been as alluring – or possible, even – if not for one of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s most astonishing mechanical creations, the Calibre 101. Introduced in 1929, the Calibre 101 is about the size of a long pinkie nail. A mere 14mm x 4.8mm…