Classic Watches with Subtle Innovations at SIHH 2014

Montblanc Meisterstück Heritage Perpetual Calendar

There’s just 16 luxury watch brands that exhibit at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH), but the amount of watches that are produced each year is staggering. This year was no exception as I go through the new pieces. This new group represents classic watches, with unusual twists. Each is very different even though they can be grouped under the same category of watches.

Montblanc Meisterstück Heritage Perpetual Calendar
In terms of brands, the story of SIHH has to be Montblanc. First came the Montblanc TimeWalker Chronograph 100, which combines the expertise in its watch manufacturing facility in Le Locle with its Villeret manufacturing facility, known for its handmade movements.

Perhaps just as significant was the release of its Meisterstück Heritage Collection. The line was inspired by the 90th anniversary of the brand’s iconic Meisterstück writing instrument. The top piece in this collection is its perpetual calendar model (top photo), which has to be the first watch with a perpetual calendar and a moon phase for 10,000 euros ($13,700). An 18k rose gold model costs about 16,900 euros ($23,200).

The classic 39mm watch is powered by the automatic caliber MB 29.15.

The date is shown at 3 o’clock, the day of the week at 9 o’clock and the month at 12 o’clock. On the inner scale of the month display, the leap-year cycle is shown by a blue triangle and a leap year is indicated by a red number 4. The moon’s phases are emulated in a window at 6 o’clock; with the moon’s age indicated in days at this window’s upper edge. The only drawback I see is a lack of space between the sub-dials. Other than that this watch has earned the Meisterstück (masterpiece) name.

Van Cleef & Arpels Heure d’ici & Heure d’ailleurs
Another brand that had an exceptional SIHH was Van Cleef & Arpels whose biggest introduction was the Midnight Planétarium Poetic Complication. Now comes the Pierre Arpels Heure d’ici & Heure d’ailleurs, which translates as “The Time Here and the Time Elsewhere.” This watch manages to combine the romantic and practical notions of travel and it does so simply, playfully and elegantly.

First the practical, the dual timezone watch comes in a 42mm white gold case with a crown-set diamond. The dial is made of white lacquer with piqué motif. The automatic movement was developed by the Swiss watchmaking firm, Agenhor, exclusively for Van Cleef & Arpels. It has a double jumping hour and retrograde minutes.

There’s a pureness to the appearance of the white dial that displays the two timezones equally. The main timezone is in the aperture at the top of the dial and the secondary timezone in a lower aperture. There’s a single hand between the hour displays that indicates the minutes on the graduated scale.

The hours of the first and second time zones jump at the same time, thanks to a single sector that synchronizes the two hour discs and the retrograde minute hand. When the latter reaches 60 minutes on the graduated scale, it returns to its starting position at the same instant that the hour display changes.

To do this, the automatic movement is equipped with a platinum micro-rotor that takes up little space. By oscillating in two directions, it can supply energy continuously.

Officine Panerai Radiomir 1940 Chronograph
This watch is available in platinum, red gold and white gold. The 45mm classic cushion case has two push-buttons that control the chronograph functions, the cylindrical winding crown and the bezel. It was originally created by Officine Panerai for the Royal Italian Navy.

The red gold version has a brown dial with the combination of graphic hour markers, Roman and Arabic numerals (known as “California”). The platinum version has an ivory dial, with simple baton or dot hour markers. Common to all three versions is the tachymeter scale for calculating average speed and the two chronograph counters.

The mechanical, hand-wound OP XXV caliber movement is developed on a Minerva 13-22 base. The Minerva manufacture (now owned by Montblanc and known as Villeret) has had historic links with Panerai since the 1920s, when the Swiss manufacturer was a supplier to the Florentine watchmaker.

It is available in a limited edition of 100 for both gold versions and 50 for the platinum version.

Parmigiani Toric Résonance 3
The “oversized” date on this watch solves a practical problem of being able to easily see the display. But aside from the practical and aesthetic considerations, Parmigiani said the impetus behind the eye-shaped window came from a watchmaking challenge. The discs on the date mechanism are the same size as the dial. Despite being cut to a great degree of fineness, they require huge amounts of energy to activate them and even more to stop them dead following the instantaneous jump.

To accomplish this, the first cam accumulates energy through continuous friction over time. This arms the large lever continuously, releasing it every 24 hours onto a 31-tooth wheel. The second cam serves as the brake, by controlling a spring-mounted lever. This device keeps the large date discs permanently immobile, releasing them for just a fraction of a second every 24 hours to allow the instantaneous jump.

The center of the dial employs hand-crafted guilloché decoration that enhances the depth of the date. The 45mm watch is powered by the mechanical hand-wound Caliber PF 359, which also has a minute repeater sounding the hours, quarter-hours and minutes.

Baume & Mercier Clifton Flying Tourbillon
This watch is inspired by a tourbillon pocket watch presented by Alcide Baume in 1892 at the Kew Observatory in England. It is powered by the Val Fleurier P591 mechanical hand-wound movement has a 50-hour power reserve. The flying toubillon, located at 9 o’clock, makes a single rotation per minute. A sub-dial displaying seconds is located at 6 o’clock. The 45.5mm case is made of 18k red gold.

Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin
The ultra-thin classical automatic watch has an aesthetically pleasing traditional design. However, creating this sort of simplicity isn’t always simple to achieve. The 38.5 mm timepiece, available in pink gold or stainless steel, is refined and elegant. A single sub-dial on the “eggshell” white dial shows seconds. The thickness of the watch is a mere 7.58mm.

Jaeger-LeCoultre was able to achieve this level of thinness and simplicity through its automatic movement Caliber 896. The 3.98mm thin movement has a 43-hour power reserve.

Ralph Lauren Safari Watch
The luxury design brand introduced a 39mm version of its Safari Aged Steel Chronometer (RL67) as a follow-up to the collection introduced at SIHH 2013. The hand-wound mechanical movement Caliber: RL 300-1 is COSC-certified for the accuracy and precision of its chronometer. It has a 42-hour power reserve. The case is made of aged black steel and the dial of “azure” anthracite with matte varnish and beige luminescent hour and minute hands and hour markers, and a shiny orange second hand.

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Some of the Best Luxury Watches from SIHH

Montblanc Nicolas Rieussec Rising Hours

The recently concluded Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) tradeshow in Geneva, featured only 16 luxury brands but their output of quality timepieces provided a showcase for innovation, craftsmanship and design that remain the hallmarks of the Swiss watch industry. Below are a few examples of some of the timepieces that were on display.

Montblanc Nicolas Rieussec Calibre MB R220

Montblanc Nicolas Rieussec Rising Hours
The hour display of this watch (top and above photos) is made possible by Montblanc’s new Calibre MB R220, which has a patented mechanism consisting of two rotating discs positioned one atop the other, to show not only the individual 12 hours, but to also indicate whether its day or night. The Arabic numerals 1 to 12 are on the upper disc, which is situated above the bicolor day/night disc. The 12-hour disc rotates continually, while the day/night disc turns in intervals and at variable speeds to produce the desired color change (blue for the night, black for the day) in the cut-out numerals. This motion is controlled with the aid of a Maltese cross-shaped mechanism consisting of two cam-like wheels. In addition to this double-disc mechanism, four other disc displays rotate. The day of the week is shown in a window at the 9 o’clock and the date appears in an aperture at the 3 o’clock. This is the latest version of the collection named after the inventor of the chronograph.  

A. Lange & Söhne Grand Complication
The German watch brand has developed a timepiece with a host of complications that include chiming mechanism with grand and small strikes; minute repeater; a monopusher type split-seconds chronograph, with minute counter and rattrapante function and jumping seconds accurate to a fifth of a second; perpetual calendar with date, day of week, month in four-year cycle; and moon phases. The movement is a Lange manufacture Calibre L1902, manually wound. The white enamel dial reveals a railway-track minute scale and the four characteristic, symmetrically arranged subsidiary dials. This exclusive collectors' item is housed in a 50mm pink gold case comes. It is available in a limited edition of six watches.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Grand Complication
The mechanical heart of this 44mm timepiece is its three advanced functions, forming what is considered in the industry as the basis of a Grande Complication movement. Its traditional selfwinding movement combines minute repeater, split-second chronograph and perpetual calendar functions. It’s also equipped with a minute repeater mechanism, enabling it to sound the hours, quarters and minutes on demand. And it houses a perpetual calendar complication that also displays lunar cycles. It affords the possibility of performing timing operations and reading off intermediate or “split” times due to the split-second complication, which is an Audemars Piguet signature in its Grande Complication models. The selfwinding Calibre 2885 has 648 parts. It is available in a titanium case (pictured) or an 18K pink gold case. Both models are limited to three pieces each.

Richard Mille RM58-01 Tourbillon World Timer
The 12-year-old watch brand is an infant when it comes to the venerable world of the Swiss watch industry, but it has grown up at lightning speed with technical innovations and partnerships with athletes in sports ranging from track and field to soccer to auto racing. This manually winding movement has hours, minutes and a 10-day power reserve shown on an indicator at 2 o’clock. The caliber RM58-01, 34mm in diameter, is supported on a baseplate of grade 5 titanium, a material also utilized for the bridges. The tourbillon, positioned at 9 o’clock and oscillating at a frequency of 3Hz, is accommodated in a four-part case made from titanium and red gold. The shot-blasted, satin-brushed and polished rotating bezel bears the names of 24 world cities, symbols of the international 24 time zones on its brown upper flange. The RM 58-01 does not need any adjusting push-piece to change from one time zone to another. The time is set by rotating the bezel anticlockwise, making adjustment a quick operation. All the traveler needs to do is position the name of the city where he or she has just landed at 12 o’clock, which automatically sets local time and the time in the other 23 world cities due to the 24-hour scale engraved on the flange. The black and white disc distinguishes day from night for the user automatically, so there is no possibility of confusion. The timepiece, produced as a limited edition of 35 timepieces, was made in partnership with Jean Todt, a French motor sport executive, who wanted a watch to travel the world with. Profits from the sale of this watch will be transferred to two key initiatives close to Todt’s charities: the Global Campaign for Road Safety and the ICM Brain and Spine Institute, which he co-founded.

Roger Dubuis Excalibur Quatuor
This deep grey watch is made of silicon, chosen for its low weight and its incomparable hardness. It is half the weight of titanium, which is half the weight of steel, yet it is four times harder. Silicon has a similar atomic structure to diamond and working with it requires just as much skilled expertise. The brand also boasts a technological advancement in which four carefully positioned sprung balances work in pairs to compensate immediately for the rate variations caused by the changes in position of the watch when worn. “What the tourbillon achieves during the course of a minute, the Excalibur Quatuor achieves instantly,” the brand says. A classic watch operating at a frequency of 4 Hz is considered to be highly precise. But the Excalibur Quatuor operates at a frequency of 16 Hz. As each balance oscillates four times per second, the frequency of the watch is multiplied by four as the balances do not oscillate simultaneously. The ticking of a classic watch is replaced by what which the brand describes as “the gentler sound of truly high precision.” The timepiece is limited to a production of three pieces. There is a pink gold version of the watch that has a run of 88 pieces.

Cartier Montre Rotonde Double Mystery Tourbillon
Cartier unveiled its new movement at SIHH: the 9454 MC Double Mystery Tourbillon, certified by the Geneva Seal. The flying tourbillon, which turns once on its own axis every 60 seconds, appears to be floating completely free in space, with no visible connection to any gear train. The illusion is complete when the same tourbillon cage performs a second rotation at a rate of one turn every five minutes. The slate-colored dial is made of galvanised, guilloché, silvered open-work grill. The watch hands are sword-shaped in blued steel. It’s all contained in a 45mm platinum case with the crown set with a sapphire cabochon.

Baume & Mercier Clifton Complete Calendar – Moon Phase, Blue Dial
This is one of a series of Clifton watches released by the Swiss watch brand at SIHH This version of the line, the 43 mm Clifton Complete Calendar, has a blue, sun satin-finished dial. The case back has been opened up to allow lovers of fine mechanics to observe the components of its automatic movement (Dubois Dépraz 9000). Its calendar display is mounted upon an alligator strap, which is closed by a triple folding clasp with security push-pieces.

Parmigiani Tonda Woodstock
In order to project a colorful and musical dynamism, the Swiss watch brand turned for the first time to the refined and delicate art of marquetry. This ancient process consists of cutting out and assembling veneers—wooden veneers in this case—on a flat surface in order to create a decoration for the timepiece. The Tonda Woodstock’s special dial is designed with a Gibson guitar motif with an American flag in wood marquetry.

Piaget Emperador Coussin Ultra-Thin Minute Repeater
Thin is in at Piaget and Emperador Coussin unveiled at SIHH shows it continues to set standards in its development of ultra-thin complications housed in ultra-thin cases. This 48mm 18k pink gold watch boasts the Piaget 1290P, which the brand says is world’s thinnest mechanical self-winding minute repeater movement (4.8 mm). The case itself is also considered the world’s thinnest at 9.4 mm. Details of the movement finishes include sunburst guilloché bridges, bridges hand-beveled and hand-drawn with a file, blackened and polished screws.

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