Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 2 2024 i CROWN

In the last two years, we’ve seen and heard a lot of people talk about TAG Heuer being avant-garde in technical and aesthetic terms, and it’s something that is important to us. It’s part of our name: TAG stands for Techniques d’Avant-Garde. Being avant-garde to us is not just about making high-end watches; the avant-garde spirit is part of our identity. On the technical front, we’re creating avant-garde movements led by Carole [Forestier-Kasapi], and in materials, we are exploring new frontiers as well. At TAG Heuer, we’ve used a lot of titanium and carbon in the past for various purposes. With carbon, we’ve used it for case making and hairsprings as well, and we wanted to push that concept further. So, we looked at polycrystalline diamond. It’s a material that…

There were plenty of visitors eager to catch a glimpse of the Baume & Mercier Hampton – Polyptyque Edition Musée Soulages 10th Anniversary watch, a homage to the artist released shortly before he passed away. Like the first release in 2022, the challenge was to find techniques and materials expressing the same monochromatic, textured design that iconises Soulages’ oeuvre. Applying electrolysis on laser-cut brass and soft levant stone for the matte finish, with an extra layer of glaze for protection, the dial captures the spirit of Soulages’ work, housed in a black PVD-treated steel case with a matching cellulose strap. The design of the hands, in black with 18K gold domed tips, was personally selected by Soulages. Perhaps inspired by this creation, Baume & Mercier has also released a two-hand,…

Like many other brands, Cartier unleashed a mega-drop of new designs and concepts last year. It continues to expand on these ideas of mini timepieces and watches-as-jewellery, as well as highly unisex designs. Here are some of the highlights that caught our eyes and opened our wallets. The Santos – Grand, Colourful, and Dual Time The Santos de Cartier remains its most important story to tell and timepiece to sell. It literally represents Cartier’s foray into wristwatch-making and shaped watchmaking. One key addition to the line is the Santos de Cartier Skeleton in yellow gold. Currently only in steel or rose gold, it comes in a full gold case with bracelet and, more importantly, yellow gold skeleton Art Deco style numerals that are applied over the rhodium-plated movement. The result…

This year marks the 25th anniversary since the first Mille Miglia release, and Chopard commemorated the milestone with an exhibition that celebrated the racing career of its long-time friend Jacky Ickx. Chopard also released the seventh series of Mille Miglia watches that’s dedicated to the vintage car race. The new Classic Chronograph JX7 has a glass box crystal and a midnight blue dial that mirrors the colour of Ickx’s Le Mans racing helmet. The Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph JX7 The Le Mans helmet is particularly notable – it was the first full-face helmet ever worn during the race. With twin windows enhanced by white stripes, it was monikered the ‘owl’. This is replicated on the watch dial’s counters, which display the small seconds, 12-hour, and 30-minute totalisers at 3, 6,…

Since its Watches and Wonders debut in 2022, Grand Seiko has ranked high on attendees’ interest. It launched its first mechanical complication – the Kodo Constant-force Tourbillon in 2022 and followed that up with its first mechanical chronograph – the Tentagraph – last year. This year, it’s covering all the bases with a slew of elegant dress watches as well as handsome sports tickers while turning heads with a 20th-anniversary tribute to the Spring Drive Calibre 9R, an update to the GPHG-winning Kodo, and even a new high-beat movement. Here are some of the highlights. Evolution 9 (Refs: SLGW002 & SLGW003) Grand Seiko’s headliner may not be as flashy as its previous years’, but it’s no less deserving of your attention. At first blush, the duo captivates with the textured…

Each year, Hermès’ creative director comes up with a concept that ties the different aspects of the luxury brand together, and each department interprets it in a cohesive manner. The luxury house’s theme for 2024 focuses on its roots, and in a way, Philippe Delhotal is also taking stock of Hermès’ watchmaking origins with the new Hermès Cut line. With a circular bezel upon a rounded cushion form, the Cut is designed as a simple, fuss-free accessory that you can wear to the grocer or a gala. The Hermès Cut A large hour ring with block Arabic numeral indexes (the font is unique to this watch) encircles the minute track, a reverse of the typical watch design, and is shown with a simple three-hand display sans date. There’s a crown…

Back in 2019, when Panerai first partnered with Luna Rossa for the 36th America’s Cup, CEO Jean-Marc Pontroué pointed out the obvious affiliation between the two brands and how he intended this to be a long-lived partnership. Five years on, the next America’s Cup is just around the corner, and Panerai is all set to take this partnership to the next level with a slew of high-tech Submersibles and one thrilling Experience Edition for sailing aficionados. The first of these watches is the Submersible GMT Luna Rossa Titanio PAM01507, which features a new Super-LumiNova standard, X2, on its hour indexes and hands. The improved material offers greater luminosity for longer periods to light up the navy blue sunburst dial with a small seconds display at nine o’clock, a small date…

The Piaget Polo 79 is certainly one of the most talked about watches at the Geneva watch fair; after all, this is the revival of an icon. At Piaget, watch aficionados were far more interested in a different product: the Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon. This watch pushes the extremes of high watchmaking to set a record for the slimmest tourbillon watch ever produced at just 2mm thick. That’s the same as the original Altiplano Ultimate Concept, which was released as a proof-of-concept in 2018 and then retailed in 2020. Piaget has set numerous milestones in the field of ultra-thin watchmaking. Some may find ultra-thin watches to be a bit of a fad, but in truth, developing a very thin watch constitutes a major challenge for everything from durability and performance…

Until about five years ago, Trilobe was more of a concept that Gautier Massonneau was tinkering with. Its distinct format of displaying time with concentric rings has quickly earned plenty of interest. More impressively, it’s pushing its product development hard, from developing its X-Centric calibre to exploring new ways of expressing classic complications through its design. The challenge, of course, is that the displays are eccentric, meaning the leftover space they do not utilise on the dial is not a regular shape. That means Tirlobe has to completely rethink how a complication has to be visualised on its watches. It’s both an advantage and disadvantage – while the perfect idea may take longer, it will also be unique to the brand. But it is taking its first step into this…

A long the main square in Geneva’s Old Town, Urwerk’s headquarters occupy a little three-storey townhouse. It houses the watchmaking atelier, a little museum of watchmaking history, and a generous lounge area. That’s where a row of long glass tubes – each housing a column of eight glowing digits that are continuously changing, with black bases – are standing. They look like massive lightsabers but also cryptographic encryption machines. Instead, the Spacetime Blades are futuristic grandfather clocks sans pendulum or chimes. For the past couple of years, Urwerk’s chief designer, Martin Frei, has been obsessed with the relationship that space, time, and light (as a wave and particle) have. In astronomy, distances across space are measured based on the speed of light in a vacuum and the amount of time…

Calibre 1736E Carrousel Répétition Minutes The focus on high watchmaking at Watches and Wonders, particularly on the tourbillon, leads us to cast our eyes on its much-forgotten cousin: the karrusel, or carrousel. Patented in November 1892 by Bahne Bonniksen, the karrusel was designed to be a sturdier alternative to its Breguet counterpart. Using a secondary gear to drive its rotation, the karrusel required less power to achieve a similar effect. Sadly, it never took off; Richard Lange and Patek Philippe were a few watchmakers that produced small numbers until Blancpain revived it in 2008. Its calibre 1736E combines the karrusel with a melodious minute repeater on a full gold movement that’s hand-engraved with scalloped lines radiating from the capstones. The hammers of the repeater are similarly decorated with a floral-like…

With its Poetic Complications, Van Cleef & Arpels offers a unique look at watchmaking through the eyes of a talented jeweller. Spinning tales through visually captivating dials, the Maison brings its faeries to life through various crafts that range from enamelling to gem-setting and shaping. In more recent years, the Poetic Complications have been divided into Extraordinary Dials and Extraordinary Objects. The latter are its automaton clocks that are truly works of art. The Extraordinary Dials are no less breathtaking. With the Lady Arpels Jour Enchanté (Enchanted Day), the watchmaker depicts the earliest hours of the morning, when its fairies rise to pick flowers and collect dew. Taking over two years to develop and with each dial requiring at least 180 hours of work, this limited edition model is rich…

While Chanel has been producing timepieces for nearly 40 years now, it was only at the turn of the century when Jacques Hélleu completed his design of the sailing-inspired J12, housed in an all-ceramic construction and powered by a mechanical movement. However, in just over 20 years, it has reached numerous milestones that many watch brands would not pursue. Today, it has its own manufacture producing in-house developed movements that are beautifully finished through its own creative style. The Couture O’Clock collection, which is a capsule produced in limited numbers, is a more recent sub-release from its Watch Creation Studio. It often has quirky and brilliant concepts that bring elements of the couture house into horology. This year, in particular, Arnaud Chastaingt incorporated the brand’s core collections into the Couture…

While Gérald Genta is not the only watch designer who developed stylish sports watches with integrated bracelets, he’s certainly the undisputed champion of that particular segment. Genta’s idea of design-led fine watchmaking focused less on valuing a timepiece by its performance and more on the emotions ignited by its expression. It’s apt that the creative genius who essentially invented this category now has a luxury sports model that bears his name. It’s also apt that the designer who has translated the Maestro case into a sports model is Octavio Garcia, who spent many years reinterpreting Genta’s Royal Oak design into new references. The Masterlink line is named for the Maestro case that Genta designed, but it is also a clever reference to the man himself. The nuances between the Maestro…

Every year, Hublot comes up with a remarkable number of references that deliver its Big Bang collection in an assortment of colours, dials, and finishes. It demonstrates just how effective and efficient Hublot’s marketing and R&D departments function together almost as a whole, delivering innovation in a 40-odd millimetre-size case. Materials are more of a highlight this year, and the lightest of materials have been paired with its strongest movements. Hublot’s star movements include the seven-barrelled HUB9011 calibre that powers the MP-11 and the HUB6200 with its large dual-axis tourbillon that equips the MP-13. The latter model was presented in titanium at last year’s Geneva fair, and this year, it returns clad in a new ultra-lightweight outfit. The MP-13 Tourbillon Bi-Axis Retrograde Black Carbon has a case and bezel made…

In 2018, Laurent Ferrier presented his first complicated calendar reference, the Galet Annual Calendar, with a scientific-style dial that emphasised legibility and a simple, elegant layout. Six years on, he’s finessing the annual calendar in the Classic case once more, but with a new layout and an extra complication that strengthens its design by shedding excess elements. The Classic Moon is its first moonphase complication, mounting the double moon display with the small seconds counter, which has been enlarged for visual impact. The Classic Moon Blue is perhaps closer in style to the Galet Annual Calendar, with individual bevelled windows for the day and month discs. Gone are the compass markings on the dial, and the minute track is shrunk down while the hour indexes (a mix of bar and…

The last few years since former Bulgari CEO Guido Terreni stepped into the executive role at Parmigiani Fleurier have been nothing short of transformative for the brand. Terreni focused on the product segment he was most familiar with – luxury sports watch – and the result was the incredibly successful Tonda PF. Once the commercial aspect of the brand was firmly in place, he moved on to what many collectors consider to be the very heart of Parmigiani – the Toric collection. Toric (which in mathematical or physics terms refers to the shape of a ring, like a doughnut) is the very first watch that Michel Parmigiani ever made in his name. It holds true to very pure design principles with a shape that follows the torus and emulates traditional…

Benoît Mintiens may well be the most relaxed of founders at Watches and Wonders Geneva this year. In a couple of years, Ressence will turn 15, and he may well have a major release for 2025/6, but after having given us the blue and black Type 1 Round N and B, the Type 8 S, and the sage green Type 3 EE last year, 2024 seems to be more about getting things just right for tomorrow. His steady and unrushed development of Ressence is demonstrably successful; the indie brand is one of the most recognised designs in trendy watchmaking today. Instead of adding more products that he will need to set aside resources to produce, Mintiens is giving the Type 1 a colourful makeover. The model turns 10 this year,…

It has been over a decade since TAG Heuer presented a new split-seconds chronograph. Back when Jean-Christophe Babin was still leading the brand, the watchmaker sought to make a statement with haute horlogerie. The watches made quite a splash, but no one really knew whether they were successful commercially. The Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph With Carole Forestier-Kasapi leading the technical team, we already knew the Split-Seconds Chronograph was on its way, and sure enough, the brand announced this new Calibre TH81-00 that’s produced in partnership with Vaucher. It’s unique from its previous creations, including the split-seconds chronographs produced back in the 1910s, since it has a titanium plate and bridges. That makes it an ultra-light split-seconds chronograph with a skeletonised winding rotor, black DLC-coated or gradient blue-treated titanium arches, and matching…

It’s 23 years since Ulysse Nardin’s first Freak, and two things are amazing about this. One, it hasn’t run out of ideas to add to the Freak. Two, the earliest Freak models still hold up well aesthetically today against their newer variations, even when measured by the design trends of this decade. Because the Freak has always epitomised unconventional and futuristic watchmaking, it’s rarely tied to traditional watchmaking practices or crafts. The Freak S Nomad is the latest in a series of releases that fuse old with new and bring a new dynamic to the series. The New(-ish) The Freak S Nomad houses the UN-251 calibre. The baguette flying carousel movement is regulated by two large oscillators with silicon balance wheels and DIAMonSIL escapements. A vertical differential keeps track of…

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Each year, post-fair (BaselWorld, then SIHH and BaselWorld, then SIHH, and now, Watches and Wonders), we sit down and consider how each brand and novelty adheres to an ongoing trend or breaks away from it. Trying to see a bigger picture from a set of approximately 300 watches is never simple. But 2024 is different. The trends shaping the novelties you see in this issue are less obscure, perhaps because many of them are aimed at specific audiences. With such clarity, this year’s timepieces score high on design while evoking strong emotions among watch enthusiasts. 1. GOOD AS GOLD AROUND THE WORLD If the last decade was focused on discreet luxury, 2024 seems to represent a significant shift from that direction within the watch industry. The fair’s participants did not…

The Watches and Wonders Geneva fair stood out this year in one particular aspect. It was clear that watchmakers were placing great attention on the visual aesthetics and design of their timepieces. This was evident, especially at Rolex, where dial textures and materials were carefully curated to elevate each model. The watches conveyed a youthful, fresh identity for the watchmaker’s old and new icons. Here are the highlights. The Oyster Perpetual Day-Date The Day-Date holds a unique place among Rolex’s collections. It has been a symbol of prestige since 1956, worn by leaders, visionaries, and creatives who have shaped our past and present sociocultural landscape. The watch has an enduring identity and style – the distinct format of its day and date display, then a world-first, has become the standard…

The Portugieser is one of IWC’s oldest product lines, turning 85 this year. Named after two Portuguese merchants who commissioned a highly precise wristwatch equipped with a pocket watch movement, the watch had simple Arabic numerals and feuille hands that created a balance between classic and contemporary. To take the Portugieser collection forward, creative head Christian Knoop fashioned new dial colours and treatments, taking inspiration from the elements that Portuguese seafaring explorers would have faced. With four series – Horizon Blue, Dune, Silver Moon, and Obsidian, each is in a particular hue with a sunburst finish, following which 15 layers of transparent lacquer are applied for a true glow-up – there’s an almost ephemeral presence when the light casts down on each dial. The star of the collection is the…

Last year was massive for Patek Philippe, with the Grand Exhibition in Tokyo coinciding with one of the biggest releases of new and updated references. It feels fair that for 2024, Thierry Stern is giving his team a break. There are just 11 references introduced this year, 10 of which are updates and line extensions of existing models. Nevertheless, there is plenty to love from Patek Philippe this year. The big technical release for 2024 is the Ref. 5330G-001 World Time Date, which is a permanent model of the special edition created for the Tokyo Grand Exhibition. Brilliantly designed, the watch has an ingenious date module that follows the local time, changing forward and backwards as you cross the international date line. According to Philip Barat, director of watch development…

It was, of course, inevitable that Zenith would release a Defy Skyline Chronograph; the only question was what it would look like. The stamped four-point star pattern that is central to its look complicates the chronograph’s dial, unlike the watchmaker’s usual designs. Fortuitously, the Defy Skyline Chronograph has found a good balance. The perforated dial carries the brand’s typical chronograph layout with red-tipped hands for the choronograph’s function and Super-LumiNova-coated hands for timekeeping. But each counter has indications that go to ’60’, something that makes sense when you realise the central chronograph seconds has a readout of ‘10’. Keeping the 1/10th of a second display to highlight its El Primero engine, the chronograph counters feature elapsed seconds and minutes. The 42mm stainless steel case and bracelet maintain the same angles…