WatchTime Magazine - June 2014

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Bo nu s D i g i t al C o nt e nt

A M E R I C A ’ S # 1 W A T C H M A G A Z I N E

TESTS VACHERON CONSTANTIN NOMOS

ARNOLD & SON ARRIVES

DIVE WATCHES DEFINED

A JURA JOURNEY www.watchtime.com J une 2014

BREITLING vs OMEGA A COMPARATIVE TEST

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C O N S TA N T E S C A P E M E N T L . M . THE GREATEST INVENTION SINCE THE TOURBILLON

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EDITOR´S


Letter

Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to Great Places! You’re off and away!

S

omehow, the beginning of the delightful poem, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go,” by Theodor Seuss Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss), came to mind as I considered the contents of this issue. Two articles in particular take us to places that, on our own, we would

We disassemble Omega’s Caliber 9300 (above) and Breitling’s Caliber B04 (below).

The Longines factory and headquarters in Saint-Imier

14

never go. Fortunately, two great WatchTime guides get us there. The first places are the insides of two big-name chronograph watches: Omega’s Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon and Breitling’s Chronomat GMT Blacksteel. Our guide is veteran watch tester Jens Koch, part of our Germany-based watch-testing team. In our cover story, Koch conducts an in-depth comparison of the two watches. The story is the latest in our series of what we internally call “supertests.” For these, our tester works with a watchmaker who literally takes the watch movement apart so that Koch can examine the insides of the movement and report what he finds. For these tests, our team works with Wempe Jewelers in Germany, whose watchmakers are familiar with an array of watch movements. Our first “supertest,” in the December 2012 issue, was performed on the Audemars Piguet ExtraThin Royal Oak 39 MM. The second was on the Panerai Radiomir 8 Days Ceramica in the October 2013 issue. Koch’s story, “Dark Side vs. Black Steel,” chronicles what he and Florian Pikor, Wempe’s chronograph specialist, discovered inside the two famous, in-house movements: Omega’s co-axial Caliber 9300 and Breitling’s Caliber B04. The story is loaded with interesting details about these watches that you will find nowhere else, as well as numerous photographs of the disassembled watches and movements. I’ve made this point before, but it bears repeating: in a watch world awash in soft, brandfriendly, superficial watch “tests” and “reviews” on the web and in print – many paid for by the brands themselves – we’re sticking with rigorous, independ-

ent, in-depth tests written for the benefit of our readers, not our advertisers. You’ll see the WatchTime difference in the story beginning on page 94. The other great place that we’re off and away to is a section of the Jura Mountains that is off the beaten track. In truth, all of the Jura, which runs roughly from Geneva to Basel along the border between Switzerland and France, is off the beaten track. Regular readers know that it is, with Geneva, the historical center of Swiss watch manufacturing. Our executive editor, Norma Buchanan, as part of her series on Swiss watchmaking centers, has in past issues taken us up to the Jura watchmaking towns of La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle, as well as towns below the mountains, like Geneva and Bienne. In her story “The Jura Triangle” in this issue, Buchanan focuses on an important but often overlooked watchmaking region: the villages, too small to be called towns, clustered in the Saint-Imier valley that runs down from La Chaux-de-Fonds to Bienne, and in the surrounding mountain valleys and plateaus. It’s a beautiful, remote region that is steeped in watch legend and lore (the founders of Breitling and TAG Heuer got their starts there), and remains a vibrant production center. It’s home to the Swatch Group powerhouse Longines, Montblanc’s Minerva manufacture, and numerous other watch brands and component suppliers. Buchanan’s mountain trek begins on page 154. I started this missive with the opening of lines of “Oh, the Places You’ll Go.” The poem’s final lines are also apt: So … be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So … get on your way!

Joe Thompson Editor-in-Chief

WatchTime June 2014


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A D A T A B A S E I T H O V ER

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CONTENTS WatchTime, May-June, 2014

94 COVER STORY 94

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DARK SIDE VS. BLACK STEEL By Jens Koch | Both have trendy black cases. Both have manufacture movements. But which is better? In our comparative test, the Omega Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon and the Breitling Chronomat GMT Blacksteel go head to head.

TESTS 128

MATCH POINTERS By Mike Disher | We test Vacheron Constantin’s Patrimony Contemporaine Retrograde Day and Date, an automatic watch with twin retrograde calendar hands pointing to the day and date.

150

GOING FOR GOLD By Jens Koch | Nomos is known for its affordable manufacture watches. With its new, white-gold Lux model, the Glashütte-based brand aims higher: its price, $20,500, puts it in the same tier as high-end brands like Patek Philippe and A. Lange & Söhne. We test the Lux to see how it measures up.

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CONTENTS

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48

64 62

92

FEATURES 48

REDISCOVERING AMERICA

By Joe Thompson | At SIHH, it was clear that China’s watch slump has Swiss producers making eyes at America again. WatchTime talked to Swiss watch executives about the renewed importance of the U.S. market. 58

THE NEW WATCHES FROM GENEVA

Every new watch year begins in Geneva with the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH). Here are new watches unveiled by the 16 SIHH brands, along with new offerings from DeWitt and Clerc, who also exhibited in Geneva during the fair.

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58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74

A. Lange & Söhne Audemars Piguet Baume & Mercier Cartier Greubel Forsey IWC Jaeger-LeCoultre Montblanc Panerai

76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92

Parmigiani Piaget Ralph Lauren Richard Mille Roger Dubuis Vacheron Constantin Van Cleef & Arpels Clerc DeWitt

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CONTENTS

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140

154

110 110

BREITLING MILESTONES By Gisbert L. Brunner | Pilots rely on Breitling’s chronographs, but calendars, world timers and divers’ watches also are part of the brand’s 130-year history. In

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this chronology, we trace the origins and development of major Breitlings like the Chronomat and the Navitimer. 136

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A DIVE WATCH DEFINED By Mike Disher | What makes a watch a dive watch? It’s not as simple as you might think. According to ISO requirements, a dive watch has to pass a battery of tests before it’s worthy of the name.

ARNOLD ARRIVES By Jay Deshpande | With its rapidly growing collection of manufacture movements, Arnold & Son is a little brand generating big buzz. We visit the

La Chaux-de-Fonds-based brand to learn about its watches and its parent company and movement supplier, La Joux-Perret. 154

THE JURA TRIANGLE By Norma Buchanan | A cluster of tiny Jura villages, forming a rough triangle from the Saint-Imier Valley to the French border, played a huge role in watch history. We trace the path of Jura watchmaking from the early 1800s to the present day.

WatchTime June 2014


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CONTENTS

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128

150 DEPARTMENTS & COLUMNS 14

EDITOR’S LETTER Heavy thoughts from an intellectual lightweight

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WORLD OF WATCHTIME

See the global reach of WatchTime and its partners 26

32

22

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WATCH QUIZ Many famous athletes have watch companies in their corners. Test your knowledge of celebrity athletes and the brands that sponsor them.

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ON WATCHTIME.COM A glimpse at what’s on our site to keep you up to date on the latest watch news

FACETIME A photo mélange of readers and their watches

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WATCHTALK Fantasy Rolex watches, Swiss watch-export data, year-end reports from the Swatch Group, LVMH, the Movado Group and Fossil, the death of the last “radium girl,” and more

LAST MINUTE Are luxury mechanicals a risky business for Swiss watchmakers?

ON THE COVER: The Omega Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon and the Breitling Chronomat GMT Blacksteel. Photo by Marcus Krüger

WatchTime June 2014


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hermès. time reinvented.

dressage la montre hermès tames time, mastering i ts measurement. one press on the pushbutton and the chronograph’s second hand starts moving, the counter hands hot on its heels. beneath the dial ticks the steady beat of the manufacture h1925 mechanical movement, embodiment of the house’s high standards. precision and elegance meet and merge, reminding us that each second is truly unique.

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WatchTime is a subsidiary of Ebner Publishing of Germany, whose flagship watch magazines are WatchTime (USA, India, Middle East) and Chronos (Europe, Asia). Ebner also owns the 'Inside Basel.Geneva' event brand.


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ON WATCHTIME.COM Visit our website for more information about the world of fine watches. To read the stories shown here, go to watchtime.com/on-watchtime. ADEMARS PIGET LANCHES SI# NE" RO$AL OAK OFFSHORE CHRONOGRAPHS A03 ;8 *)0*-6''*6 0/* 8 *; R3=0 O/ C3(*8 ;8( ) M00*6= M8* R**8*6, 8* ' )*'8 +63 A)*6 P*8 8 8 =*6@ SIHH ;8( +6 ;  *8 3+ < )8*) R3=0 O/ O++36* C6336 ;8(*.

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CHOPARD TEAMS P "ITH PORSCHE MOTORSPORT A06*)=  336 3+ 8* M00* M0 6(* ) 3+(0 8*/***6 3+ 8* G6) P6< )* M3(3 H836*, C36)  86*8* 8 8* 83 83 6( '= '*(3 8* 3+(0 8 68*6 3+ P36(* M3836368, ;( 8 J* 6*86 83 8* 24 H36 3+ L* M. Scan this code with your smart phone to visit watchtime.com.

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T H E M A G A Z I N E O F F I N E W A T C H E S

Editor-in-Chief/Associate Publisher Executive Editor Managing Editor Technical Editor Associate Editor Digital Media Editor Art Direction/Design Contributing Writers

Translations

Photographers

Joe Thompson Norma Buchanan Dara Hinshaw Mike Disher Jay Deshpande Mark Bernardo Publishers Factory, Munich Gwendolyn Benda Gisbert L. Brunner Rüdiger Bucher Maria-Bettina Eich Jens Koch Alexander Krupp Alexander Linz Martina Richter Gerhard Seelen Thomas Wanka Neha S. Bajpai Aishwarya Sati Howard Fine Magdalena Grau Joanne Weinzierl Robert Atkinson Nina Bauer Marcus Krüger Nicolas Lieber OK-Photography Eveline Perroud Maik Richter Nik Schölzel Zuckerfabrik Fotodesign

WatchTime (ISSN 1531-5290) is published bimonthly for $49.97 per year by Ebner Publishing International, Inc., 274 Madison Avenue, Suite 804, New York, NY 10016. Copyright Ebner Publishing International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May/June 2014 issue, Volume 16, Number 3. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to WatchTime, WatchTime Subscription Service, P.O. Box 3000, Denville, NJ 07834-3000, Tel. 1-888-289-0038. Publications mail agreement no. 40676078: Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to P.O. Box 503, RPO West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill, Ontario L4B 4R6. www.watchtime.com


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W HY JUST BE PRECISE WHEN YOU C AN BE THE MOST PRECISE?

MASTER TOURBILLON DUALTIME. Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 978B with patented jumping date. Winner of the first International Timing Competition of the 21st century, held under the auspices of the Geneva Observatory, Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 978 boasts peerless precision in a new 41.5 mm-diameter pink gold case. Its 71-part tourbillon regulator features an ultra-light grade 5 titanium carriage and a large variable-inertia balance beating at a cadence of 28,800 vibrations per hour.


YO U D E SE RV E A R E AL WATC H.

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WATCHtalk 5/24/2018


Seeing Red (and Blue) A prescient website bats .600 predicting Rolex’s 2014 models, including a red and blue GMT-Master II. ou could look it up, as Casey Stengel would have said. Before Baselworld, the website Monochrome, led by Frank Geelen, a

the humongous Deepsea, it didn’t cause that much of a stir. At first, most enthusiasts were perhaps a bit confused. However, a bit later, when they realized the

watchtime.com contributor, came up with a list of five watches it predicted, and hoped, Rolex would introduce at the fair. (The predictions were posted on watchtime.com two weeks before the fair.) As it turns out, Monochrome was right an odds-defying 60 percent of the time. Here’s a rundown of the website’s hits and misses:

beloved Sea-Dweller was discontinued, disappointment took over. Many Rolex enthusiasts would love to see a renewed Sea-Dweller that holds the middle ground between the Submariner 116610 and the Deepsea. “Let’s imagine a 40-mm Submariner case, with a ceramic bezel, no magnifier on the date, a helium escape valve on the left side and a depth rating of 1,200 me-

Y

CORRECT PREDICTION #1: A RED AND BLUE GMT-MASTER II

Monochrome wrote: “ ... the so-called ‘Pepsi’ GMT-Master is still high on everyone’s wish list. Last year, Rolex introduced the blue/black GMT-Master II, which quickly gained the nickname ‘Batman GMT.’ This year, we will hopefully see the ‘Pepsi GMT,’ featuring the classical red/blue configuration, as seen on the GMT 1675. No technical nor aesthetic changes, except for the new Cerachrom bezel in red and blue.” Monochrome’s dream came true. Rolex introduced a GMT-Master II whose bezel has a red and blue Cerachrom insert manufactured in a single piece, a world’s first. The watch has a 40-mm white-gold case. Price: $38,250.

Monochrome wrote: “When Rolex replaced the old Sea-Dweller 16600 with 32

l a a / x e l o r © Rolex’s new red and blue GMT-Master II

The new Sea-Dweller 4000

ters (or 4,000 feet). That would be more than enough, and it would beat the Tudor Pelagos (thus ensuring that the old master would no longer be letting the young Padawan lead). And please Rolex, no more engraved inner-rings like the one on the Deepsea!” No need to imagine any longer: the new Sea-Dweller Rolex introduced at Baselworld, the Sea-Dweller 4000, is water resistant to 4,000 feet, has a ceramic bezel, no magnifier on the date, and a helium escape valve, just as Monochrome called it. To top it off, it has no engraved inner ring. The case is made of 904L steel and is 40 mm in diameter. Price: $10,400. CORRECT PREDICTION #3: A BLUE-DIAL MILGAUSS

Monochrome wrote: “We heard rumors CORRECT PREDICTION #2: THE RETURN OF THE SEA-DWELLER

a t s o c n i

that the version of the Rolex Milgauss with black dial and ‘normal’ sapphire crystal will be discontinued, meaning that only the model with black dial and green

l e s s o b e d u a l c / x e l o r ©

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WatchTimeMagazine-June2014-slidepdf.com crystal and the one with the white dial will remain in the collection. So, how about adding a blue-dial Milgauss?” How about it, indeed. Rolex did introduce a Milgauss model with a blue dial. The new watch has the same green sapphire crystal used for one of the existing black-dial versions of the watch (a detail that Monochrome, despite its prognosticating skills, did not foresee). The dial, seen through the green crystal, takes on what a steel “magnetic” hue of blue. TheRolex case iscalls 904L and 40 mm in diameter. Price: $8,200.

Still a pipedream: Rolex did not introduce the steel Sky-Dweller shown in this digitally enhanced image. Too bad, says Monochrome.

So far this Daytona, shown here in a digital rendering, exists only in the minds of Rolex fans like those at Monochrome.

INCORRECT PREDICTION #1: A DAYTONA WITH “PANDA” DIAL AND RED “DAYTONA” LETTERING

Monochrome wrote: “Cerachrom bezels seem to be the latest trend for Rolex. They have some superior properties,

including being virtually scratch-resistant and the ability to keep their color forever without fading. They are almost impossible to replace with after-market parts, which is an advantage for Rolex. let’s imagine revival of oneever of the “So coolest watches a that Rolex made, the Daytona 6263 Big Red. In short: ‘Panda’ dial, red ‘Daytona’ text, screwed pushers, and a black bezel. It would have the same case as last year’s platinum Daytona, but in stainless steel and with a ceramic bezel in black. Add to that the famous white face with black subdial configuration, which Rolex

The new blue-dial version of the Milgauss

enthusiasts nicknamed the ‘Panda’ dial. To stayhave as close to the original 6263 as possible, we’d remove the five lines of text on the current dial and replace it with simply ‘Rolex – Oyster – Cosmograph.’ How cool would that be?” Very cool. But Monochrome was cold on this prediction. The company did introduce a new Daytona though, with a platinum case, baby blue subdials, pavé diamond dial, and a bezel set with 36 baguette diamonds. Not exactly what Monochrome had in mind.

e m o r h c o n o m : s o t o h p

Chances that Rolex will ever introduce a stainless-steel Sky-Dweller are slim, however; the Rolex Day-Date, for example, has only ever been made in precious metals. However, we dream of seeing a stainless-steel Sky-Dweller, preferably with an anthracite dial, as imagined here.” In fairness, Monochrome admitted this one was a long shot. Rolex launched some new SkyDweller, withversions different of dialthe and gold strap variations, but no steel model. If you see one next year, remember where you read about it first. (For complete coverage of Baselworld, see the upcoming July-August issue.)

Q&A According to Forbes’s latest ranking of the world’s 1,645 billionaires, who is the world’s richest watch executive?

Johann Rupert, the executive chairman of the Richemont Group, is worth $7.6 billion. On the billionaire list he was ranked #173.

INCORRECT PREDICTION #2: A STEEL SKY-DWELLER

34

l e s s o b e d u

Monochrome wrote: “We would love to see a stainless-steel version of the Rolex Sky-Dweller, the most complicated timepiece in the entire Rolex watch collection.

a l c / x e l o r ©

Rolex, like many other luxury watch brands, tends to first introduce its new models in gold and follow up with stainless-steel versions a year or two later.

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Swing Time anerai has introduced a pendulum table clock based on a design by Galileo from the mid-1600s. The Panerai clock has two brass mainplates

P

that holdthem. the escapement and mainspring between The pendulum hangs off the clock’s right side. A square winding arbor protrudes from the spring barrel through the front mainplate and can be wound with a key. The power reserve of the clock is eight days. The dial has Roman-numeral hour markers and black-lacquered hands. The Panerai Pendulum Clock stands

The pendulum clock has an eight-day power reserve and can be wound with a key that fits over the square arbor.

14.4 inches tall and base. Its glass caserests hason ana mahogany aluminum frame and a door that can be opened to wind and set the clock. Since a pendulum clock must be on even ground to work properly, the clock has adjustable feet and, underneath its engraved nameplate, a bubble level that can help confirm that the clock is horizontal so that its pendulum will swing evenly. cameclock, up with the firstGalileo pendulum butthe he idea wentfor blind before he could finish making a working model. His son Vincenzo took up the project, but he died before it was done. A drawing of Galileo’s clock survived, and in 1887 the Florentine clockmaker Eustachio Porcellotti used it to make a clock like the one Galileo imagined. It was this clock, now in the Museo Galileo

36

The nautical instruments include a barometer, hygrometer and thermometer.

in Florence, that served as a model for the Panerai clock. Panerai is making the clock in a limited series of 30 pieces. It costs $43,200. The company has also launched a set of measuring instruments that underline Panerai’s link to the sea. In 2007, Panerai purchased the Eilean, a 70-year-old yacht, and began a restoration that took

Panerai has introduced a limited-edition set of instruments based on those in the yacht. One is a simple clock with hours and minutes hands ($5,100). Another is a thermometer graduated in degrees Celsius ($4,400). The third is a hygrometer, which displays the percentage of humid-

Each measures 5.5 inches by 5.5 inches and is made of brushed 316L stainless steel. The cases are secured with four hexagonal screws. Each instrument has a black dial printed in the style of a Panerai wristwatch. Below the center of the dial is the Eilean’s logo, featuring the dragon insignia of the Scottish shipyard

over 40,000 hours. When the revamped Eilean made its first voyage in 2009, it was equipped with special maritime instruments designed by Panerai. Now

ity in the air ($4,400). And the fourth is a barometer featuring a center knob with the Officine Panerai logo for adjusting the skeletonized setting hand ($5,200).

where the boat was built. The instruments are through Panerai’s boutiques.

available

– JAY DESHPANDE

WatchTime June 2014


ACCURACY TAKEN TO NE W DEP THS

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PATRAVI SCUBATEC

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Obituary: Mae Keane, Last of the “Radium Girls”

Swiss Watch Exports Edge Higher t n a r u o c d r o f t r a

lems spiraled out of control. Their teeth fell out; their jaws rotted away; some would develop sarcomas of the chin and other malignancies. Nevertheless, it took years for the public to become aware of radiation poisoning. Keane was one of the lucky ones, in a

wiss watch exports last year rose 1.9 percent, to 21.8 billion Swiss francs ($24.5 billion), according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH). That modest increase marks a slowdown from the year before, when watch exports increased 11 percent. The lower rate of growth in 2013 was due to declining sales in Hong Kong and mainland China, Switzerland’s largest and third-largest watch markets, respectively. (See “Rediscovering America” on page 48 for more on Swiss watch sales to these markets.) Exports to some European countries, notably Germany

work, and were and healthy of as ever. But thethey paint wasyoung made of a mixture zinc and radium, and it would have terrible effects on these dial painters. When Mae Keane died on March 1 of this year, she was the last of Waterbury’s “radium girls.” She lived to the age of 107 in relatively good health, but many of the girls she worked with that summer were not so lucky. By the end of the 1920s, 15 of those

strange not very good at at her job.way: Aftershe twowas months working Waterbury, her supervisor told her she was not completing her dials fast enough and urged her to find another job. The work hadn’t appealed to Keane. She didn’t like to use the “lip-point” technique for sharpening her brush, saying that the radium paint was bitter and unpleasant. She went on to take an administrative job

(up U.K. 9 percent), Italypercent), (up 4.6 percent) and the (up 18.2 were chiefly responsible for the overall increase. Wristwatches account for nearly 95 percent of Swiss watch exports; other products, chiefly movements, make up the remaining 5 percent. Wristwatch exports alone grew 2 percent, to SF 20.6 billion. Since the recession year of 2009, the value of Swiss wristwatch exports has

women had died. Similar stories from factories in New Jersey andemerged Illinois. Even if they lived longer, their health prob-

at company, did office shetheretired. Still,and even from work those until few weeks of contact with the radioactive substance, Keane would lose all of her teeth in her 30s. She continued to have pain in her gums for the rest of her life. Keane was born in Waterbury in 1906, the daughter of Irish immigrants. She remained in Connecticut, marrying Timothy Keane, a police officer. She sur-

increased 67 Switzerland percent. Because exports the vast majority of its watches, export data provides a reliable assessment of the country’s watch production and sales.

n the summer of 1924, Mae Keane, then 18 years old, took a job at the Waterbury Clock Co. in Waterbury, Conn. The renowned watch company (which later became Timex) was looking for young women to do delicate work on the dials of its watches. For eight cents per dial, Keane and her co-workers would paint a luminous substance onto the hour indexes. They were taught to dip their brushes into the paint, then sharpen the bristles to a point with their lips. Many of the girls enjoyed the

I

Q&A When did watch manufacturers stop using radium on watch dials? In the late 1960s. However, the deadly technique of “lippointing” ceased in the late 1920s after a lawsuit was brought by a group of workers suffering from radiation poisoning.

h

Mae Keane

vived breast is survived by and her colon niece,cancer. PatriciaKeane Cohn, with whom she lived for the last 13 years of her life in Middlebury, Conn. The plight of the radium girls, a dark chapter in the history of American manufacturing, would ultimately lead to new regulations for industrial safety and a greater awareness of occupational disease. Luminous material on watch dials today is most often Super-LumiNova, a nontoxic paint composed of strontium aluminate. – J.d.

38

S

SWISS GROWTH SLOWS Swiss Watch Exports (billion Swiss francs) 22 20 18 16 14 12

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Source: FH

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WatchTimeMagazine-June2014-slidepdf.com Switzerland exported a total of 28.1 million wristwatches last year, a decrease of 3.6 percent. The average export price of a Swiss watch rose to SF733 ($821) from SF693 ($776). Mechanical-watch exports continued their boom. Last year, Switzerland exported 7.47 million mechanical watches, an 8.2-percent increase over 2012. It was the most mechanical watches Switzerland has exported since 1982, and represents a 73-percent increase over the banner year 2008 that preceded the Great Recession. Since 2010, when the Swiss watch industry rebounded, the number of mechanical watches exported has risen 51.3 percent. In unit terms, mechanical watches made up just 26.6 percent of exports last year. Measured by value, though, they accounted for 77.7 percent of the total. The unit growth for mechanicalwatchlast exports growth4.5 in value year.outpaced The valuetheir increased percent, to 16.0 billion Swiss francs (about $18 billion). The average export price of a Swiss mechanical watch was SF2,143 ($2,400), down from SF2,217 ($2,483) in 2012 and SF2,612 ($2,925) in 2008. Quartz-watch exports declined in unit terms, falling 7.3 percent, to 20.6 million. By value, decreased nearly percent. The they average export by price of a6Swiss quartz watch rose slightly last year, from SF219 ($243) to SF223 ($250).

SWITZERLANDS TOP 15 MARKETS 2013 S'i$$ Wa%ch E"!#%$ i Val&e

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40

n the future, our cars won’t just drive themselves, they’ll wind our

class-style” travel when they don’t need to have eyes on the road. To that end, the

watches us. like science fiction, It may for sound but that’s the idea that Rinspeed, which designs avant-garde, lavish, and often outlandish concept cars, presented at the Geneva Motor Show in March. Rinspeed’s new concept car, the XchangE, is a driverless vehicle with an integrated watch winder designed by the Carl F. Bucherer watch

I

XchangE a variety of features to make road travelhas luxurious. Among them is the watch winder, which is embedded on the adjustable steering column. The winder, inside an engraved globe, holds the Patravi TravelTec chronograph watch. Whenever the car stops moving and idles, the globe turns, winding the watch. In addition to Bucherer, more than 20 firms from a variety of industries partnered

company. Rinspeed founder and CEO Frank M. Rinderknecht’s concept focuses on how passengers can enjoy “business-

with Rinspeed to develop technologies for the XchangE, which is Rinspeed’s 20th concept car. It is valued at over $1 million. – J.D.

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Sa t e l l i t e t i me i n j u s t 3 s e c on ds i n a n y t i me z on e on e a r t h Eco-Drive SATELLITE WAVE F100 y n a p m o C h c t a W n e z i t i C 4 1 0 2 ©


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WatchTimeMagazine-June2014-slidepdf.com FOSSIL GROUP Net Sales

The Year That Was Several publicly held watch companies have announced their financial results for last year. Here’s a rundown.

(billion dollars)

3.5 3.0 2.5 2.0

SWATCH GROUP

Net sales for the Swatch Group in 2013 grew 8.5 percent to 8.46 billion Swiss francs ($9.47 billion). Watch and jewelry sales, which include sales of watch movements, were up 8.8 percent, to SF8.17 billion ($9.15 billion). The results include sales from Harry Winston, which the Swatch Group acquired in early 2013. The purchase brought the number of brands marketed by the Swatch Group to 20. Sales by the company’s electronic systems division declined about 4 percent, to SF299 million ($334.8 million). In a prepared statement, the company pointed out that it achieved its gains despite the “extremely adverse” currency situation. The overvaluation of the Swiss franc, especially against the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen, had a negative impact on second-half sales ofGroup moresaid. than SF100 million, the Swatch Net income grew 20.2 percent to SF1.93 billion ($2.16 billion) and operat-

SWATCH GROUP Net Sales

(billion Swiss francs)

9 8 7

ing profit rose 17 percent to SF2.31 billion ($2.58 billion). The operating profit margin was 27.4 percent compared to 25.4 percent in 2012. The company said that the SF402 million ($453 million) in damages that Tiffany & Co. paid the Swatch Group as a result of their legal fight accounted for about three percentage points of last year’s profit margin. LVMH

Sales for the LVMH watch and jewelry division declined 2 percent in 2013, to 2.78 billion euro ($3.83 billion). The division nonetheless showed organic growth of 4 percent. The division’s chief watch brands are TAG Heuer, Hublot, Bulgari and Zenith. Watch and jewelry sales accounted for just under 10 percent of LVMH’s total sales of €29.15 billion

’10

’11

Source: Swatch Group

42

’12

’13

’09

’10

’11

’12

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Source: Fossil Group

sells leather goods, jewelry, and other accessories. Net income grew 10 percent to $378.2 million. Operating income was up 15 percent to $561.6 million. For the current year, the company expects net sales to increase about 8 to 10 percent. Fossil markets 15 watch brands, including 10 licensed fashion brands and five brands it owns outright: the flagship Fossil brand, Relic, Michele, Zodiac and Skagen. It gets three-quarters its sales from its about wholesale operationofand the remainder from its Fossil and Watch Station stores.

In athat prepared statement, the company noted the division’s directly owned boutiques did very well during the year and that LVMH is continuing to hone distribution of its brands in multi-brand stores.

Net sales for the Fossil Group passed the $3-billion mark last year, climbing 14

million. In the afourth quarter, pany recorded pre-tax chargethe of com$7.8 million associated with its decision to de-emphasize the ESQ brand. Later this year, the company will reallocate retail space from ESQ to its better-performing Movado brand and expects to write down inventory and other costs as a result. Excluding that charge, net sales increased 13.3 percent, to $578.1 million.

percent to $3.26 billion. Watches accounted for 77 percent, or $2.51 billion, of those sales. They increased 17 percent over 2012. The company also

For the current year, the company expects sales to increase about 11 percent to $640 million and net income to increase to about $63.5 million.

FOSSIL GROUP

’09

1.0

($40.23 sales grew 4 percent, or billion). 8 percentLVMH if measured in organic terms. Profits from the watch and jewelry division’s recurring operations increased 12 percent for the year, to €375 million ($517.5 million). Watches and jewelry contributed about 6 percent to the company’s total profit from recurring operations.

6 5

1.5

MOVADO GROUP

Net sales for the Movado Group increased 12.8 percent to $570.3 million for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31. Net income was down 11 percent, to $51.54

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IBG 2014 Dates Set

r e l h c e h ©

the watch highlights of this year’s Baselworld and SIHH shows. His presentation includes videos he has shot in watchcompany workshops and at the Baselworld and SIHH fairs. Information about ticket prices, location and the time of each event will be posted at watchtime.com/ibg, where you t’s time to make plans to attend one of this year’s Inside Basel.Geneva (IBG) events. Now in their ninth year, the events offer watch collectors and aficionados a chance to try on watches from major luxury watch brands, to see a multimedia presentation about the new watches introduced at the Baselworld and SIHH watch shows, and to meet fellow watch

I

can also buy tickets. A list of companies that will exhibit at the the watch events will be posted on the site. If you purchase your ticket by July 1, and use the code EARLYBIRD when making the purchase, you will receive a $20 discount. Tickets are sold on a first-come, firstserved basis. Last year all the events were sold out, and waiting lists were long, so those wanting to attend are encouraged

enthusiasts. The events are a joint venture between WatchTime and noted watch collector Jeff Kingston, and will be held in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. They consist of two parts. Part one is a cocktail reception where attendees are able to spend time examining the watches of the watch-company exhibitors, talking to watch company executives and socializ-

not to delay.

r e l h c e h ©

ing Part withtwo other aficionados. is watch a sit-down, seasonal, gour-

2014 IBG Dates & Chicago, Fida%, Sep". 5 & Ne$ Yok, Monda%, Sep". 22 & Lo! Angele!, Monda%, Sep". 29 & San Fanci!co, Th#!da%, Oc". 2 Fo infoma"ion and "icke"! go "o $a"ch"ime.com/ibg

met dinner, accompanied by a selection of fine wines, during which Kingston reviews

44

WatchTime June 2014

quiz quizs


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Who’s Whose? Attention sports fans: match the athlete on the left with the watch brand that sponsors him or her on the right. Note that some brands sponsor more than one athlete. 1. Eli Manning

What watch brand sponsors tennis champ Rafael Nadal?

A. Rolex

2. Gary Player 3. Rory McIlroy 4. Ian Poulter

B. Audemars Piguet

5. Tiger Woods

C. Hublot

6. Kobe Bryant 7. Guillaume Néry

D. Omega

8. Maria Sharapova 9. Rafael Nadal

E. Movado

10. Phil Mickelson 11. Yadin Nicol

F. Alpina

12. Sergio Garcia 13. Arnold Palmer

G. Ball Watch

14. Lebron James 15. Danica Patrick

H. Longines

16. Darren Clarke 17. Tom Watson

I. TAG Heuer

18. Steffi Graf 19. Michael Schumacher

J. Casio G-Shock

20. Greg Norman 21. Roger Federer

K. Tissot

22. Derek Jeter

46

23. Russell Coutts 24. Aurélien Ducroz

L. Citizen

25. Li Na

M. Richard Mille

A 5 2 ; F 4 2 ; I 3 2 ; E 2 2 ; A 1 2 ; D 0 2 ; B 9 1 ; H 8 1 ; A 7 1 ; B 6 1 ; K 5 1 ; B 4 1 ; A 3 1 ; D 2 1 ; J 1 1 ; A 0 1 ; M 9 ; I 8 ; G 7 ; C 6 ; A 5 ; B 4 ; D 3 ; B 2 ; L 1 : s r e w s n A

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GENEVA 2014

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REDISCOVERING

AMERICA

At SIHH, it was clear that China’s watch slump has Swiss producers making eyes at America again. by JoE thompson

to China, dropped 5.6 percent. The 2013 results presented the Swiss with a classic good news/bad news scenario. The good news is that only four of the top 30 markets fell in export value. The bad news is that two of the four were #1 Hong Kong and #3 China. As a result, Swiss exports were up slightly for “AFTER CHINA, THE STRONGEST the year (1.9 percent) to 21.8 billion Swiss francs ($24.2 FUTURE GROWTH FOR THE billion), a new record. China’s fall from the SWISS WATCH INDUSTRY CAN BE world’s best performing marEXPECTED FROM THE U.S., WHICH ket in 2010 and 2011 to the world’s worst in 2013 caught HARBORS VAST POTENTIAL.” the Swiss by surprise. Swiss EmiliE GachEt, Global REsEaRch, cREdit suissE producers expected, even welcomed, the slowdown in China’s overheated economy in 2012 and last year. What they did not foresee was that China’s new regime would launch an anti-corruption campaign that would tar and feather luxury or Swiss watch producers, America is back. Not back as in wristwatches as emblems of unpatriotic decadence. That surprise booming or back on top. No, the U.S. watch market is sent Swiss watch exports into a tailspin. Ironically, the number recovering, not booming, and it is still a distant second to of Swiss watches exported to China through the first eight Hong Kong on the list of top markets for Swiss watches. months of 2013 was up 9 percent. The value of those exports, But the U.S. is back big time on the radar of Swiss watch though, dropped 17 percent, as hordes of bureaucrats replaced

F

brands.deBehind the scenes, the big story SIHH in (Salon International la Haute Horlogerie) held in at January Geneva was the sudden but sure shift of Swiss sentiment in favor of Uncle Sam. Not since America’s luxury-watch bull run in the middle of the last decade, when exports surged 47 percent between 2003 and 2007, has Switzerland shown such enthusiasm for the U.S. market. The main reason for the sudden sharp interest in the U.S. is the sudden sharp nosedive in luxury-watch sales in China. In 2013, Swiss watch exports to China fell by 12.5 percent. “After

their Vacheron Constantins and Longines Blancpains with cheaper, more politically correct watches from and Tissot. The consequent pileup of luxury-watch inventory in China has the Swiss searching for alternatives. With markets #1 and #3 on the skids, #2, which fell out of favor for many brands during the Great Recession of 2008-2009, is looking pretty good again.

aboard,” lackluster 2012, China recordedofthe the Switzerland’s Federation theworst Swissresult Watchacross Industry noted in its review of 2013. What’s more, the Swiss suffered a wicked one-two punch: exports to Hong Kong, joined at the hip

enough to inflame the hearts ofyear SwissofCEOs. Last yearthe marked America’s fourth consecutive growth since catastrophic collapse of the market in 2009. Swiss exports here last year amounted to SF2.24 billion ($2.49 billion), still shy of the

THE U.S. MARKET, with Swiss-watch export growth of 2.4

percent in 2013, is not a hot spot. But it is a warm spot – an extremely large warm spot – that is getting warmer. That’s

June 2014 WatchTime 49

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record SF2.44 billion set in 2007. But they are headed in the right direction (and are about SF1 billion better than 2009’s dis-

“I BELIEVE THE U.S. CAN BE THE NUMBER ONE MARKET AGAIN, BIGGER THAN HONG KONG.” Juan-Carlos Torres, Ceo, VaCheron ConsTanTin

mal SF1.47-billion figure). From the Swiss perspective, everything about the U.S. economy these days is headed in the right direction. With the stock market at record levels, economic growth up, the real estate market finally improving and unemployment down, the Swiss like what they see. Many Swiss watch CEOs at SIHH told WatchTime that they believe the U.S. has turned the corner and is poised for a new growth spurt. They are counting on the fact that America historically rebounds strongly after setbacks. “America was the biggest surprise at the show in absolute numbers,” said Montblanc CEO Jérôme Lambert at the end of SIHH. “We doubled the number we had forecast for the show. We thought that number was a little bit optimistic for the U.S. and we doubled it. Sales were around five times more than last year.” Daniel Riedo, CEO of Jaeger-LeCoultre, said, “The U.S. market is the one we will focus on in the near future. We feel that the U.S. market now is requiring more classical pieces. The number of collectors and connoisseurs is growing there.” Vacheron Constantin CEO Juan-Carlos Torres, whose brand sits at the top of the luxury-watch pyramid in China, acknowledged the shift in sentiment about the U.S. “Everybody knows the cake is there, and they want a piece of the cake,” Torres said. He is very bullish about the U.S. market. “I believe that the USA can be the number one market again. It cannot beat the entire Asia region. But it can be bigger than Hong Kong again.” (Hong Kong deposed the U.S. as Switzerland’s top market in 2008.) The new upbeat Swiss view of the U.S. market is perhaps best expressed in a Credit Suisse report on the Swiss watch market issued last October. The report called China a short-term

UPS AND DOWNS OF THE BIG THREE

S# a*c" .'&* #% a$+ *& H&%! K&%!, USA a%d C"#%a 2009-2013 (SF b#$$#&%) Hong Kong

USA

China

4.5 4.0 3.5 3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5

’09

’10

’11

’12

’13

’09

’10

’11

’12

’13

’09

’10

’11

’12

’13

Source: FH

50

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WatchTime Magazine-June2014-slidepdf.com “risk” for the Swiss watch industry. Looking ahead, Credit Suisse said its economists “developed a model that identifies export markets for the Swiss watch industry that are likely to grow or contract in the future. After China, the strongest growth can be expected from the U.S., which harbors vast potential.” For those based in the U.S. market, the shift in tone at SIHH was startling. Hugues de Pins, CEO of Vacheron Constantin North America, summarized it succinctly: “It’s amazing,” he said. One senses that the Swiss are weary of the roller-coaster ride of the last six years. After the thrills and spills of the boom market, followed by the deep global recession, followed by the rocketlike rise of Greater China and now its sudden slump (see chart below), a few years of steady, stable, predictable, single-digit growth would be a relief. The fledgling recovery in the U.S. – a capitalist market they know (if not love) and where they know what to expect – promises a reprieve. SLOW, STEADY growth is, in fact, the forecast for the Swiss

watch industry in 2014. “Watch exports should continue to grow in 2014,” FH President Jean-Daniel Pasche told WatchTime at SIHH. Both the FH and Credit Suisse predict that exports this year will beat 2013’s 2-percent increase. “Growth in

“THE U.S. MARKET IS THE ONE WE WILL FOCUS ON IN THE NEAR FUTURE.” Daniel RieDo, Ceo, JaegeR-leCoultRe

SWITZERLAND%S WILD RIDE Ann!al percenage change in "al!e of #ach e$pors, 2004-2013

the watch industry is likely to pick up during this year,” Credit Suisse says. “We expect stronger growth in 2014 than in 2013.” The anticipated recovery in the United States is one reason. A pickup in the long-stagnant European markets is another. Over the past two years, European markets have posted some shocking increases in Swiss watch exports: Germany and the United Kingdom up 45 percent, Italy up 21 percent, Spain up 19 percent, Portugal up 41 percent, Belgium up 80 percent. Chinese tourists are a big factor. But Swiss watch executives say that local demand is improving. In addition, both the FH and Credit Suisse predict that China and Hong Kong will perform better this year, “even if the rate of growth is likely to be more moderate,” the FH says. Finally, the Swiss will also get some relief from the overvalued Swiss franc in 2014. Credit Suisse says that “the Swiss franc continues to weaken gradually in real terms,” which should help exporters. As for SIHH, attendance at the by-invitation-only event was robust (up 9 percent from 2013, with 14,000 visitors) and the mood bullish. The show is dominated by the Richemont Group, with its 11 “maisons” (A. Lange & Söhne, Baume & Mercier, Cartier, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Montblanc, Panerai, Piaget, Roger Dubuis, Vacheron Constantin, and Van Cleef & Arpels). Joining them are two brands in which Richemont has shares –

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’04

’05

’06

’07

’08

’09

’10

’11

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Source: FH

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Ralph Lauren Watch & three Jewelry (50 percent) and Greubel Forsey (20 percent) – and independent brands (Audemars Piguet, Parmigiani Fleurier, and Richard Mille). (Continued on page 56)

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Baume & to Mercier’s Message China  ;/ 16 >;*/ + /; ; #IHH, ;/  ;/; @< *<+ *+;@ +*; ><+ ;/ +  >; ; +<*  ;< >;*/ ><+  B< & M*. A ;/ <<@ >;*/ + ; #IHH, B< ;+ <;  ;/  ; ** ; ;/ *  + >. ;/ ;/ "*/; G< ; /  <<  ;: <;@ ;  + *. /  * ;  ; + **;, C;,  ,  $2,700. #  < < >/ ;/ B&M /+ ; #IHH >  -+, ;+-+; C; 1892 F@ < >;/  * ;  $57,000. /;  ;/   C; B< (>/ <++ ;/  >;/ / ;/ L<-%*;  1830)   , > >++. /   **  /+ ;, + CE A '   ;=> >;/ ;*/. I  ; +; ;   ;<. / ;@ /+ ;/ ;@  ;/ > C; <, ' +, / ; + >;/ C/. L; @ B< & M* +   </  C/ >;/ C/>  F, ;/ *<;@ ; >;*/ + >@ ; */, >/*/ /  ;/ 1,000 ; ;  C/. / ;/ "*/; G< <*+ ; @ ;/; ; ><+    /;  ; +  H K  #; 2013, ;*/ & +, ' +*++ ;  ;/ ;<;@ ;   /  ;/ C/ + H K ;. I @< >; ;   + , @< /= ; ;; ; ;/ ;, / @. I C/, ;/;   ;<. A ; /,   ;/ ; < >;*/  ;/   /;@   ;< */; *;>;*/ ;/; ; ;  ; ;/ 1892 K> =;@ */;@ *;;  E+ >;/  *  91.9 <;  100. ;/ ;/;, B< /+ ;/ ;; 

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Baume & Mercier’s new Clifton 1892 Flying Tourbillon (above right) is based on a Baume pocketwatch that took top honors at the Kew chronometry competition in 1892.

;/ >+ ; **<; >;*/  ;/ ; 10 @. /; >;*/, >  ;/ *@ */=, > ;/ ;  ;/ C; 1892 F@ <. #@ ', <  M +H  ; <; >+  ;/ >.  + L; = ;. /@ >+ >;/ ;/ "*/; G< =; +<*, M<*;< H %F<,   *<= /+-><+ * (!591) >;/  @ ;< ;+ ; 9 **  ;/ =+  +. / =; >+ ;*/; >/ * ;/;  ;+; *;>;*/. / + * 

45.5   +; + / >; ;*  50 ;. /  > +<* 30 *. B< & M* <=+ ;/ C; F@ < ; ;/ ;*/ & + /;  H K. /  ; C/ *<, ' @, >,  /=  <*;< >;*/  184 @ >;/<; ;<;. D; @< ;/ ;/   < +? B< & M* ;< +=;< >  *;, />=.   ;  ; /<; /, ' @ >;/  . I  <+  ;/ ;<. B<; ;   ;   ;< ;/  <;@ + >;*/.

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) < 3 6 = ( ( * * < : > 0 : :  * 6 4 SWISS MADE

Available June 1, 2014

Visit us at JCK Booth #PC305

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“affordable quality” positioning. (To find out why B&M introduced a $57,000 tourbillon watch, see “Baume & Mercier’s

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Message to China” sidebar.) Another trend was celestial watches. They include moonphase watches (Montblanc had two new ones) and watches offering views of the sky. Lange’s Richard Lange Perpetual Calendar Terraluna has a moon-phase display that shows the Northern Hemisphere sky with 2,116 stars. The dial of Van Cleef & Arpels’s unusual Midnight Planetarium watch shows six “planets,” made of semiprecious stones, orbiting the sun in time with the real orbits of the planets in our solar system. (Both watches were shown in our “7 Stars from SIHH” story in the last issue.)

The parrot on the dial of Cartier’s Ballon Bleu Floral Marquetry watch is made out of rose petals.

(Continued from page 52)

Product trends this year were in line with recent years. Perhaps the biggest trend at the show was the intensification of the “thinness” trend of the past two years. Piaget unveiled a new ultra-thin watch, the Altiplano 900P, that is just 3.65 mm thick. CEO Philippe Léopold-Metzger triumphantly announced that the firm has changed its slogan. “Before, we said we were a master of ultra-thin,” he said. “Now we say [we are] the master of ultra-thin.” Of Piaget’s 35 in-house calibers, 23 are ultra-thin, Léopold-Metzger says. Cartier billed its new dive watch, the Calibre de Cartier Diver, as “the thinnest diving watch on the market.” The show even had its own thin war, reminiscent of the quartz-watch thin wars between Japan and Switzerland in 1979 and 1980. This one involved dueling ultra-thin minuterepeater watches. Vacheron Constantin introduced a manualwind minute repeater, the Patrimony Contemporaine UltraThin Calibre 1731, with a case thickness of 8.09 mm. However, Jaeger-LeCoultre answered with the Master Ultra Thin Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon, also called the Hybris Mechanica 11, which is a sliver thinner at 7.9 mm but which has an automatic movement and a flying tourbillon. (All three watches appeared in our “7 Stars from SIHH” story in the April 2014 WatchTime.) Tourbillons, of course, are now a staple of the haut-degamme market; 10 of the 16 brands at the show presented new tourbillon models, including Baume & Mercier. Its Clifton 1892 Flying Tourbillon was probably the biggest surprise of the show since it is such a dramatic departure from the brand’s normal

56

The Midnight Planetarium is representative of another trend that is becoming more prominent: the wristwatch as objet d’art. Van Cleef with its Poetic Complication series and Vacheron Constantin with its Métiers d’Art series have been in the forefront of a trend to create watches with extraordinary dials that are themselves miniature works of art. The trend is growing. Cartier’s new Ballon Bleu de Cartier Floral Marquetry Parrot watch features a dial with an image of a parrot made out of rose petals. Greubel Forsey added a new wrinkle. Its Art Piece 1 Golden Sails watch contains a micro-sculpture of a full-masted sailing ship created by British micro-sculptor Willard Wigan. The ship is exhibited in the side of the watch; you need an opti  cal device to see it.

Greubel Forsey’s Art Piece 1 Golden Sails contains a microsculpture in the case.

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A. LANGE & SÖHNE

A. LANGE & SÖHNE’S headliner this

year is the Richard Lange Perpetual Calendar Terraluna (see “7 Stars from SIHH” in the April issue), and as is the brand’s custom, an enormous replica of that watch graced its SIHH booth. However, Lange CEO Wilhelm Schmid told us that

balance inside the tourbillon cage stops and the seconds hand jumps to the zero position. The watch can then be perfectly synchronized with a reference source or signal. Both the stop seconds and zeroreset systems are patented. The 1815 Tourbillon’s case measures

watches – the 40-mm model will not be discontinued. The overall aesthetic remains unchanged, as does the solid-silver dial and the three-quarter-plate L051.1 movement. The movement consists of 188 parts, many of which are hand-

another new watch almost served as the brand’s centerpiece: the 1815 Tourbillon. The tourbillon has long been something of a contradiction. It is offered as the ultimate in timekeeping precision, yet because of its construction, a tourbillon is difficult to synchronize with a reference time source due to the lack of stopseconds and zero-reset functions. Lange’s new 1815 Tourbillon solves those problems. When the crown is pulled out, the

39.5 mm in diameter and 11.1 mm high. It will be available in rose gold, priced at $164,100, and in a limited edition of 100 pieces in platinum, priced at $201,300. At the other end of the price spectrum, Lange also launched a new 1815 three-hand reference in a 38.5-mm case, which is a bit smaller than the current 40 mm. The case is also slightly thinner, at 8.8 mm, compared with 8.9 mm for the current model. Fear not, lovers of larger

decorated. The plates and bridges are made of untreated German silver, which takes on an attractive patina over time. The balance cock is hand engraved, meaning that no two are exactly the same. The movement runs in 21 jewels at 21,600 vph and has a 55-hour power reserve. Five of the jewels are set in gold chatons. The new 1815 will be offered in rose gold and yellow gold, at $24,800, and in white gold, at $26,000.

The new, 38.5-mm version of the 1815

The 1815 tourbillon

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The new 26470 version of the Royal Oak Offshore comes in steel (below) or rose gold (right).

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The updated Royal Oak Offshore has a transparent caseback.

AUDEMARS PIGUET THE ROYAL OAK OFFSHORE

Ceramic has replaced rubber for the crown and push-pieces.

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Chronograph 42MM got a tweaking this year to make it look more up to date. Audemars Piguet calls it “the 26470 evolution” (the new 26470 models will replace the existing 26170 models). The company said the made-over models were “distinguished by a more technical, sculpted aesthetic.” Black ceramic has replaced rubber in the crown and push-pieces, and the push-pieces have been enlarged. The minutes and hour hands are broader than before, and are faceted to make them

more luminous. A ribbon of polished metal has been added to the edges of the hour markers and to the subdials and the date window. The watch now has a transparent back to show off AP’s in-house Caliber 3126 with its 22k-gold rotor. There are six models in the 26470 family: four in steel and two in rose gold. The steel models are $25,600 on a rubber strap and $26,000 on an alligator one. The rose-gold versions are $40,700 on an alligator strap and $69,200 on a bracelet.

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BAUME & MERCIER several new additions to its Clifton collection, which it launched last year. Among them was a steel-cased chronograph model, powered THIS BRAND UNVEILED

Front and back of the Clifton chronograph

by the ETA 7750 and available on an alligator strap (black or brown) or steel bracelet. The case is 43 mm in diameter and has a sapphire back. The black-strap version has blue hands; the brown-strap and bracelet versions have golden ones. The case is water resistant to 50 meters. Price: $3,800 on a strap and $3,900 on a bracelet. Another new Clifton model is the Retrograde Date Automatic, which also comes in a 43-mm steel case. The movement is a Soprod 9094, which has a power reserve of 42 hours. There is a powerreserve display at 6 o’clock and sapphire crystals on the front and back. The strap is brown alligator. Price: $5,700. The Clifton Retrograde Date Automatic

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THAN JUST THE TIME. Armin Strom has been producing skeleton watches for more than forty years, with every single part intricately and individually embellished by hand. As a result, the beauty of the technology is always visible when checking the time. arminstrom.com

GRAVITY WATER

MANUFACTURE CALIBRE AMR13 16½’’’

PARTNER

Beverly Hills, CA: David Orgell (310) 273 6660 Boca Raton, FL: Les Bijoux (561) 361 2311 Frisco, TX: Timeless Luxur y Watches (214) 494 4241

Las Vegas, NV: Radiance (702) 590 8725 Naples, FL: Exquisite Timepieces (239) 262 4545 Santa Clara, CA: Lustre Inc. (408) 296 3686

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To meet the standards, Cartier designed a new watch case from the ground up. The case is stronger and benefits from a thicker sapphire crystal, yet it measures only 11 mm thick. The divers’ bezel rotates in 120 increments controlled by three clicks, enabling halfminute adjustments. The dial and hands are well supplied with Super-LumiNova to make them easy to read under water. The Diver is powered by Cartier’s inhouse Caliber 1904 MC, featuring ceramic ball bearings in the bidirectional automatic winding system and twin mainspring barrels to deliver consistent torque as the mainsprings wind down. The Calibre de Cartier Diver in stainless steel on a rubber strap will retail for $8,200. Choosing a steel bracelet raises the ante to $8,900.

The Calibre de Cartier Diver

CARTIER at both ends of the haute horlogerie spectrum this year. At the high end was the $204,000 Astrocalendaire (see “7 Stars from SIHH” in the April issue). For those seeking something a bit more affordable (relatively speaking), and a bit more sporty, there’s the new Calibre de Cartier Diver. It generated much talk at the show: “Cartier” and “Diver” aren’t words you’d expect to find in the same name. The new Diver looks the part, but it is not just a pretty face. It’s a genuine ISO6425-certified divers’ watch. This is a claim few others can make. In a nutshell, the ISO standard covers bezel and dial construction and markings; legibility; magnetic, shock, and chemical resistance; and strap and spring-bar strength. It also says the watch must be water resistant to 100 meters and must provide a way for the diver to tell whether the watch is running (this requirement is usually satisfied by a luminous seconds hand). CARTIER MADE BIG NEWS

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For situations requiring a bit more elegance, Cartier launched the 43.5-mm Rotonde de Cartier Day and Night. The eponymous display, indicated by an artistically rendered sun and moon, occupies the entire upper half of the dial. The moonphases are indicated by a retrograde hand that sweeps across the lower half of the dial. Cartier’s in-house Caliber 9912 MC animates the displays. The movement is decorated with straight graining and with the prominent beveling found in Cartier’s Fine Watchmaking collection. The Day and Night will be available in some Cartier boutiques, priced at $42,500 in rose gold and $45,500 in palladium.

The Rotonde de Cartier Day and Night

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800.348.3332

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GREUBEL FORSEY

The Double Tourbillon Technique 30° Bi-color

THIS

YEAR’S BIG WATCH from Greubel Forsey is the QP à Équation. You can read about it in “7 Stars from SIHH” in the April issue. Another new watch is known officially as the Platinum GMT, but calling this watch simply a “GMT” is like calling the

Parked next to the globe is a 24-second tourbillon inclined at 25 degrees relative to the plane of the dial. A secondtime-zone display, set by the adjacent button, appears at 10 o’clock. Turning the watch over reveals a disk showing the time in 24 time zones. The disk rotates in

plane. in Thethe miniature Earth at 8Concorde o’clock arotates same direction, and at the same rate, as our planet, providing the owner with an instant indication of the time around the world. A glance tells you that it is time to rise in Shanghai, time to leave the office in New York, and time for bed in London.

synchronicity withworld-time the globe data. and provides more precise The case measures 43.5 mm by 16.14 mm. Some may wish to hold the world in the palms of their hands. For others, having it on their wrist will do just fine. For them, the Platinum GMT is priced at $630,000. Greubel Forsey also introduced the Double Tourbillon Technique 30° Bi-color, which is available in two case materials: platinum and 5N rose gold. Each case measures 47.5 mm by 16.84 mm, and each features a movement with a deep black chrome finish. ADLC-plated titanium plates engraved with text summarizing the brand’s philosophy highlight the sides of the case. Each version is produced in an edition of 22 pieces. Enthusiasts may recall that an earlier version of this watch won the 2011 International Chronometry Competition in Switzerland with the highest score yet recorded – 915 out of a possible 1,000 points. The Double Tourbillon Technique 30° Bi-color will be priced at $620,000 in platinum and $595,000 in 5N rose gold.

The Platinum GMT

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The Aquatimer

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WatchTimeMagazine-June2014-slidepdf.com Automatic 2000 The Aquatimer Chronograph Edition “Expedition Charles Darwin,” with a case made of bronze

IWC SCHAFFHAUSEN EACH YEAR AT SIHH, IWC updates one

collection, and 2014 is the year of the Aquatimer. The 2014 models have a prominent new feature IWC calls the “SafeDive System.” It consists of an easily grasped external bezel that controls a rotating internal bezel with a divers’ scale. A clutch allows the internal bezel to rotate only counterclockwise, in 1minute increments. To help prevent con-

Included among the new models is IWC’s first wristwatch in bronze, the Aquatimer Chronograph Edition “Expedition Charles Darwin.” It is equipped with IWC’s automatic, in-house Caliber 89365. The 300-meter water-resistant case measures 44 mm by 17 mm and features IWC’s quick-change strap system. The price is $11,100. Diving deeper into the new lineup, we

fusion, the new Aquatimers also feature Super-LumiNova in two colors: blue for the time display and green for dive times.

discover the Aquatimer Automatic 2000, which, as you might guess, has 2,000meter water resistance. Inside the 45-mm

titanium case ticks IWC’s manufacture Caliber 80110 featuring the patented Pellaton winding system with its accompanying shock protection. IWC says the design of this watch is reminiscent of the Ocean 2000, created by Ferdinand A. Porsche in 1982. The Aquatimer Automatic 2000 is priced at $10,100. The new Aquatimer Deep Three in titanium is the third generation of IWC divers’ watches with a mechanical depth gauge. During a dive, the blue depth indicator shows the current depth while the red indicator remains at the greatest depth attained, down to a maximum of 50 meters. IWC says the Deep Three provides a complete backup system to a dive computer. The Deep Three is priced at $19,100.

The Aquatimer Deep Three

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Seebataillon GMT The This

timepiece chosen is

why

an extremely

in

for an elite unit of the German Navy must fulfill extraordinary requirements.

cooperation

r obust watch

with

with a

the

soldier s

of

the

second time z one has

upcoming

“Seebataillon”

been developed

(Marine

Battalion),

that both in design and

functionality is well-equipped for every mission to be undertaken by this new unit of the German Navy – whether on land, see or in the air. And it’s also why this new watch bears their name: The Seebataillon GMT. For more information please contact:

Mühle-Glashütte USA



727-896-8453

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www.muehle-glashuette.de

E.D. Marshall Jewelers Scottsdale, AZ | Topper Jewelers Burlingame, CA | Feldmar Watch Co. Los Angeles, CA | Leo Hamel Fine Jewelers San Diego, CA Partita Custom Design San Francisco, CA | Ravits Watches & Jewelry San Francisco, CA | Right Time Denver & Highlands Ranch, CO | Exquisite Timepieces Naples, FL Old Northeast Jewelers St. Petersburg & Tampa, FL | Little Treasury Jewelers Gambrills, MD | Continental Diamond Minneapolis, MN Joseph Edwards NewYork, NY | Martin Pulli Phliadelphia, PA | Marvin Scott & Co. Yardley, PA | Jack Ryan Fine Jewelry Austin, TX Timeless Luxury Watches Frisco, TX | Fox’s Gem Shop Seattle, WA | Trident Jewels and Time St. Thomas, USVI

GENEVA 2014

The New Watches http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014 The Master

54/144 spice. The small, complications: round diala aperture chrono-

spice. The small, complications: round diala aperture chrono below the Jaeger-LeCoultre graph and a GMT name or is sec-a

Compressor Chronograph

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Ceramic

WatchTimeMagazine-June2014 -slidepdf.com day/night indicator. ond time zone, indicated The movement via ais second JLC’s automatic hour hand. inhouse CaliberThe 757.case It runs measures in 4546 jewels mm and twin barrels by 14.3 provide mm, 65 hours and the of autonomy. The crownMaster features Compressor JLC’s Chronograph Ceramic patented iscompression a limited edition key of 500 pieces, system. priced atA$15,600. half turn of the Those seeking key compresses something aone bitofmore the elegant might crown’s consider four toric the (donutJaegerLeCoultre Grande shaped) Reverso gaskets Night and&locks Day. This a rarity, it in a and, Reverso a secure position an autothat maticismovement, prevents JLC the with says, crown it marks from the first time being the company moved inadvertently. has put an automatic into The a case slim,isclassic water resistant Reverso case (until now toReverso 100 meters. automatics have had larger cases, The e.g. displays the areReverso highly Squadra). Thevisible Nightand & are Daylaid case outmeasvery ures 46.8 mm clearly. by 27.4 mm Theby bright 9.1 mm.red The watchchronograph bears the classic seconds Reverso hand visual elements. addsThesome silver spice. dial wears The

JAEGERLECOULTRE JAEGER-LECOULTRE’S BIG WATCH

this year is the Hybris Mechanica 11, which we covered in our “7 Stars from SIHH” story in the April issue. Among JLC’s other new models was the Master Compressor Chronograph Ceramic. This watch features two useful complications: a chronograph and a GMT or second time zone, indicated via a second hour hand. The case measures 46 mm by 14.3 mm, and the crown features JLC’s patented compression key system. A half turn of the key compresses one of the crown’s four toric (donutshaped) gaskets and locks BIG JAEGER-LECOULTRE’S it in WATCH a secure this year that position is the prevents Hybristhe Mechanica crown from 11, which moved being we covered inadvertently. in our “7The Starscase from is SIHH”resistant water story into the100 April meters. issue. Among The displays JLC’sare other highly new visible models andwas are the Master laid out veryCompressor clearly. TheChronograph bright red Ceramic. Thisseconds chronograph watch features hand adds two useful some

70

three differentsmall, guilloché round patterns dial aperture and large Arabic below numerals. the Blued, Jaeger-LeCoulfaceted baton-style hands tre name markis the a day/night hours and inminutes. Where dicator. you might expect to find a seconds subdialThe you’ll movement find instead is JLC’s a day/night, or 24-hour, automatic indicator, in-house decorated Caliber with contrasting 757. guilloché It runspatterns in 45 jewels on its upper and lower andhalves. twin barrels provide manThe movement 65 hours is theofautomatic autonomy. ufacture Caliber The 967/B. MasterIt is Compressor 4.05 mm thick, with 200 Chronograph parts. It runs Ceramic at 28,800 is a vph in 28 jewels limited and has edition a powerofreserve 500 of 42 hours. Like pieces, allpriced JLC watches, at $15,600. this one has passed JLC’s Those “1,000 seeking HourssomeControl” quality-assurance thing a bit test.more elegant The Reverso might Night consider & Day the is priced Jaegerat $19,200 in rose LeCoultre gold andGrande $9,750 Reverso in steel. Night & Day. This is a rar-

The Grande Reverso Night & Day in rose gold and in steel

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MONTBLANC MONTBLANC

launched two new chronographs at SIHH. Each generated buzz, but for different reasons. One watch is a modern, high-tech piece that breaks new ground technically and aesthetically. The other is a study in traditional watchmaking.

the Montblanc Manufacture in Villeret. (Known as Minerva before and for awhile after it was purchased by the Richemont Group in 2006, it became Montblanc’s high-end movement-making facility.) Minerva sparked interest in high-speed chronographs when it launched its first

TimeWalker usesThe a patented systemChronograph to time events100 to the nearest 1/100 of a second. The movement has two balance wheels: a large one for regular timekeeping that oscillates at 18,000 vph, and a smaller one for the chronograph that operates at 360,000 vph, or 50 Hz. The chronograph has its own mainspring barrel, which provides 45 minutes of power reserve, while the

mechanical 1/100-of-a-second stopwatch in 1916. The TimeWalker Chronograph 100 will be produced in a limited series of 100 timepieces priced at approximately $66,000. Montblanc’s other new chronograph is part of the Meisterstück Heritage Collection, a new family of four watches issued to celebrate the 90th anniversary of

timekeeping barrel runs for 100 hours on a single wind. The movement is made by

the brand’s well-known pen. Known as the Meisterstück Heritage Pulsograph, this watch features a 5N-rose-gold case measuring 41 mm by 11.8 mm. The movement was inspired by Minerva Caliber 13.20, a chronograph caliber dating to 1923. The new movement is a monopusher with a column wheel and horizontal coupling. The plate and bridges are fabricated from nickel silver, then rhodium

The Meisterstück Heritage Pulsograph

plated. The bridges are beveled by hand and manually polished. All levers and springs are manually beveled along their edges. All functional surfaces are individually and manually adjusted. The chronograph bridge is engraved with the name “Minerva Villeret.” The Pulsograph case is set with a diamond cut in the shape of Montblanc’s six-pointed star emblem. This watch will be launched in the fall in a limited edition of 90 pieces and priced at approximately $36,000.

The TimeWalker Chronograph 100

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The Radiomir

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014 1940

Chronograph

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WatchTimeMagazine-June2014-slidepdf.com The Luminor Base 8 Days Acciaio

PANERAI

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THE NEW OFFERINGS

from Panerai included the Radiomir 1940 Chronograph, whose case is based on a transitional design Panerai employed beginning

components are individually chamfered and polished. The balance wheel vibrates at a classic 18,000 vph. The Radiomir 1940 Chronograph is

dow, as they say, but it provides great structural rigidity. The movement runs in 21 jewels at 21,600 vph, or 3 Hz. The variable-inertia

around 1940. In another historical hat-tip, the case, 45 mm in diameter, sports a 2.8mm-thick Plexiglas crystal. The dial is a new design with a tachymeter scale. The continuous seconds are located at 9 o’clock and a 30-minute counter is at 3 o’clock. The case is water resistant to 50 meters. The movement is the OP XXV caliber, developed on a Minerva 13-22 base. Minerva began supplying Panerai with movements in the 1920s. The handwound movement features a column wheel and a swan-neck regulator. Several

available in platinum (PAM 518) for $78,000, rose gold (PAM 519) for $58,500, and white gold (PAM 520) for $61,200. If your interests tend toward simpler fare, there’s the Luminor Base 8 Days Acciaio with a black sandwich dial. This is one of five new Luminor models featuring the P.5000 in-house, eight-day, manual-wind movement. The transparent caseback provides an excellent view, though most of what you’ll see is a massive plate. It makes a better door than a win-

balance is supported by a sturdy bridge that is fixed by two screws. The eight-day power reserve is achieved by coupling two spring barrels, with toothed rims, in series. Panerai says the twin assembly enables longer, thinner springs to be used, resulting in a longer duration and greater uniformity in energy delivery. Panerai tells us that the price for the Luminor Base 8 Days Acciaio is currently set at $7,800, but that may change by the time the watch becomes available.

WatchTime June 2014

METAL TWISTED G-SHOCK http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014

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MTGS1000BD-1A

TRIPLE G RESIST

®

VIBRATION RESISTANCE SHOCK RESISTANCE CENTRIFUGAL FORCE RESISTANCE metal twisted g-shock

A fusion of resin and metal encompassed in a case that has our trademark shock resistance with extraordinary elegance results in the perfect combination of our technologies and impeccable craftsmanship.

©2014 CASIO AMERICA, INC.

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The new Tonda Métrographe chronograph comes in bracelet and strap versions.

PARMIGIANI FLEURIER

76

THE NEW METRO COLLECTION

from Parmigiani Fleurier was inspired, the company says, by the skyscrapers of New

asymmetric shape: the lugs on the left do not extend as far along the edge of the case as those on the right, which reach all

York. It contains men’s and women’s watches. The men’s model, available in several variations, is a chronograph called the Tonda Métrographe. It contains a new automatic movement, the PF315, powered by two series-coupled barrels, and has a power reserve of 42 hours. There are 30-minute and 12-hour counters at 9 and 6 o’clock, respectively, and a window cut into the hour counter showing the

the way to the crown. There are sapphire crystals on the front and back. The watch comes with either a black or tan calfskin strap, paired with a black or white grained dial, respectively, or a steel and titanium bracelet paired with a black dial. The leather straps are made by Hermès (which owns a stake in Parmigiani’s sister company, the movement maker Vaucher. Both Parmigiani and Vaucher are owned

dates for yesterday, today and tomorrow (in case the minutes hand is hiding today’s date). The case is 40 mm and has a subtly

by the Sandoz Family Foundation.) Price: $12,200 on a strap and $12,900 on a bracelet.

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PIAGET

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WatchTimeMagazine-June2014-slidepdf.com (or, rather, waferslim) new introduction for men was the Altiplano 900P, the thinnest mechanical watch in the world. (See “7 Stars of SIHH” in the April issue.) For women, it was a collection of watches and jewelry called Rose Passion, which pay tribute, Piaget THIS BRAND’S BIG

says, to theJosephine world-class rose garden Empress cultivated at that the

Above and left: three diamond Rose Passion watches. One (above) has yellow sapphires, another (far left) a pink sapphire. All have quartz movements. A hand-wound Rose Passion model with cloisonné enamel dial

Château de Malmaison, where she lived after her divorce from Napoleon Bonaparte. (Piaget is donating money to restoring the Malmaison rose garden.) The watches in the collection include one hand-wound model, powered by Caliber 430P, with a grand feu cloisonné enamel painting of a rose ($77,500 for the model shown here). The other watches are all quartz and all heavily bejeweled. One of them, a “secret” watch, has a cover that lifts up to reveal the dial ($186,000). Another features 16 rose petals formed by baguette diamonds and pink, yellow or orange sapphires ($207,000). Still another has a dial surrounded by a frieze of birds and rosebush branches ($53,500).

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LAUREN RALPH

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The Sporting Classic Chronometer

LAST YEAR RALPH LAUREN

launched its first tourbillon watch. This year the brand followed up with another: the Black Safari FlyingCaliber Tourbillon. movement, RL167,Its was made by the Geneva high-end movement maker La Fabrique du Temps, owned by luxury-goods giant LVMH. The watch is self-winding and has a gold-plated micro-rotor. The case, 44.8 mm in is steel with diameter, a shot-blasted, black finish. On the periphery of the dial there’s a ring of brown elm burl wood, inspired by the interior of a vintage Bugatti car owned by the designer Ralph Lauren. (For that reason, the watch bore a different name, the Automotive Tourbillon, when it was Flying first shown to the press two months before SIHH.) Price: $80,000. The brand also introduced two new watches with COSCcertified automatic movements. One is the Sporting Classic Chronometer ($4,100), with a 44.8-mm steel case and seconds subdial at 6 o’clock, and the other is a 39-mm version of the RL67 Chronometer ($3,200), which had been available only in a 44.8-mm size. Its case is steel that has been treated to give it a look the company calls “aged.” Both watches have convex sapphire crystals and screw-in crowns bearing the initials “RL.”

The RL 67 Chronometer The Black Safari Flying Tourbillon

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The finest design Made in Glashütte, Germany: Metro

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Find out more about this and other models at nomos-store.com and nomos-glashuette.com

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The 60-01 Regatta Chronograph Flyback

The RM 63-01 Dizzy Hands

watch is powered by the RMAC2 caliber with flyback chronograph, annual calendar with oversize date, and UTC function. The RM 60-01 case measures 50 mm by 16.33 mm.

RICHARD MILLE

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THIS YEAR RICHARD MILLE

invites us to forget about time by strapping on its new RM 63-01 Dizzy Hands. The watch

The mechanism powering the RM 6301 is Caliber CRMA3, a new movement developed by Richard Mille’s engineers in

keeps time normally until the pusher in the center of the crown is depressed once. At that point, the sapphire glass dial begins to slowly rotate counterclockwise while the hour hand moves clockwise, both at different speeds. The motion renders the time display quite incorrect, freeing the owner from the bonds of time. When the joyous interlude comes to an end, the owner simply depresses the

Les Breuleux. They reinvented principles taken from chronograph design to achieve creative results. A column wheel actuates the dial’s rotation and a hammer reinstates the timekeeping functions. The movement is housed in a 5N-rose-gold case that measures 42.7 mm by 11.7 mm. The RM 63-01 Dizzy Hands will retail for $120,000. The company describes another of its

pusher again, and the dial and hands resume their duties, displaying the correct time.

new watches, the RM 60-01 Regatta Flyback Chronograph, as its “first technical watch for navigating the seven seas.” The

To calculate one’s location, indicator is directed towards the the UTC sun using the UTC pusher located at 9 o’clock, then the bezel is turned so that the UTC hand lines up with the actual local time engraved on the bezel’s circumference. When set in this manner, the compass headings North, South, East and West on the bezel will be correctly aligned. Mille says the RM 60-01 differs from other, similar watches in that it can be properly oriented in the Northern and Southern hemispheres without any additional calculations. The RM 60-01 Regatta Flyback Chronograph will be priced at $150,000.

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ROGER DUBUIS

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WatchTime Magazine-June2014 -slidepdf.com WHEN THE ROGER DUBUIS brand was The chronograph contains Caliber introduced in 1995, Hommage was its first collection. Roger Dubuis has now revamped the Hommage family as the last step in a brand-wide rejuvenation project. At SIHH the brand unveiled 10 new Hommage watches, including those shown here: an automatic and an automatic chronograph. The automatic contains the in-house RD620 movement, which, like other Roger Dubuis movements, is fitted with a micro-rotor. The dial has the same deep-guilloché sunray pattern and tapered, elongated Roman numerals as the other Hommage watches. There is a small seconds subdial at 9 o’clock.

RD680, also made in house, which incorporates a column wheel. The running seconds are shown at 9 o’clock and there is a 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock. The cases of both watches are 42 mm and, like all Hommage models, available in rose or white gold. Each bears a new design feature: the metalized signature of brand-cofounder Roger Dubuis on its caseback, which is made of sapphire. (Other models have the signature on the metal surrounding the sapphire window.) Prices: $31,100 and $33,400 for the rose-gold and white-gold automatic, respectively; $51,400 and $54,900 for the chronograph. Both models bear the Geneva Seal, as do all the brand’s watches.

The Hommage chronograph

Front and back of the Hommage automatic

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GENEVA 2014

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Front and back of a Métiers d’Art Méchaniques Ajourées watch

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Tourbillon Openworked

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VACHERON CONSTANTIN on women’s watches at last year’s SIHH, Vacheron

brushed and polished finishes. The bezels come in black, gray, or blue, all in grand

The Patrimony Traditionnelle 14-Day

Constantin turned focusa back to men this year, and also its threw spotlight on the art of skeletonizing. The brand launched one new openworked model available in four bezel variations: the group is called the Métiers d’Art Mécaniques Ajourées collection (“ajourée” is French for openworked). It also brought out new skeleton versions of two tourbillon watches, the Malte Tour-

feu enamel versions aremodel $75,200). There is also(all a high-jewelry with baguette diamonds on the bezel. The cases are white gold and 40 mm in diameter, and the movement bears the Geneva Seal. The Malte Tourbillon Openworked, outfitted with the skeletonized Caliber 2790 SQ, is decorated with a triangle pattern. All 246 movement parts have been hand drawn and chamfered. The case is

Tourbillon Openworked

billon and the Patrimony Traditionnelle 14-Day Tourbillon. According to Vacheron, the inspiration for the Mécaniques Ajourées collection came from 19th-century European railroad stations, with their arches and airy vaults and their distinctive railway clocks with Roman numerals. The movement in these watches, Caliber 4400 SQ (for “squelette”), is described by the com-

platinum withThe watch a sapphirehas diala with slate and grayfitted dial ring. date and power-reserve display. Price: $252,300. The Patrimony Traditionnelle 14Day Tourbillon Openworked (Caliber 2260 SQ) features Gothic-inspired latticework. As its name suggests, it has a power reserve of two weeks. Thanks to the openworked components, you get a

pany as “hand-sculpted,” featuring manual beveling, engraving, and straightening, fine interior angles and contrasting

good look at the four stacked barrels that are responsible for that feat. Price: $362,300.

AFTER CONCENTRATING

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Swiss movement, English heart WatchTimeMagazine-June2014-slidepdf.com

Made in Switzerland / Modified ETA 2836-2 automatic movement with Big Day-Date

complication Johannes Jahnke / sapphire 38 hour crystal power /reserve / 43mm, Hand-polished, 316L stainless steel by case / Anti-reflective Exhibition case-back / Italian leather strap with Bader deployment

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VAN CLEEF & ARPELS

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Jeanshown by a retrograde hand and an WatchTimeMagazine-June2014 -slidepdf.com Marc Wiederrecht, whose company arced scale on the left side of the dial. Agenhor has been designing and making When the hand reaches the 60-minute complicated movements for Van Cleef & marker, it flies back to “0” and the two Arpels for eight years, has come up with hour indicators jump simultaneously to another one. It’s a jumping-hour, dualthe next hours. time movement incorporated in a watch The watch is an automatic, wound by called the Pierre Arpels Heure d’ici & means of a platinum bidirectionally Heure d’ailleurs (the time here and the winding micro-rotor. The case is white time elsewhere). It is the first complicated gold and 42 mm in diameter. It has a watch in the Pierre Arpels collection. transparent sapphire back through which The watch name appears prominently on you can see the movement, whose bridges the right side of the dial. The local time are decorated with a snailed pattern. The and the time in a second time zone are rotor bears a blue lacquered design that shown in windows at 11 o’clock and 5 mirrors the piqué pattern on the dial. o’clock, respectively. The minutes are Price: $37,200. WELL-KNOWN WATCHMAKER

The two hours disks jump forward simultaneously at the end of each hour.

The micro-rotor is decorated with a blue piqué pattern.

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GENEVA 2014

The New Watches


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CLERC GENÈVE

YEARS AGO, Gérald Clerc, founder of Clerc Genève, launched a newWatchTimeMagazine-June2014-slidepdf.com divers’ watch called the Hydroscaph. It quickly became the firm’s best-selling collection and the face of the brand. The newest member of the family is the a 24-hour day/night indicator at 9 Hydroscaph Limited Edition Central o’clock. An exploded Chronograph. It’s a 60-minute chronoA distinguishing feature of the watch view of the graph timer that uses four central hands to is its rugged steel case with lateral protecwatch’s 103give standard time (via large hour and min- tors that extend its diameter to 49.9 mm. part case utes hands) and chronograph timing (via Made of 103 parts, it is “the most comthin chrono minutes and seconds hands). plex on the market,” Clerc Genève says; it The central chronograph allows for is water resistant to 500 meters. A notable easy reading of the chronograph hands. feature is the locking octagonal rotating Activating the broad pusher at 2 o’clock bezel, set by a crown at 10 o’clock intestarts the central chronograph seconds grated into the case. A retractable flap on hand and the minutes hand, in a differ- the crown locks the bezel to avoid any ent color. The pusher at 4 o’clock stops movement of the bezel during a dive. The watch comes in three versions: the chronograph. Timing is measured to Powering the watch is the C608 auto- stainless steel ($9,300), black diamondthe 1/5-second using the scale around matic movement, produced exclusively like carbon (DLC) ($9,300), and rosethe perimeter of the dial. The watch also for Clerc by Dubois Dépraz. It has a 4-Hz gold and black DLC ($16,000). Clerc will features a small seconds subdial at 3 frequency, a 44-hour power reserve and produce 500 pieces in each finish. Each o’clock, a date window at 6 o’clock and 47 jewels. watch is numbered on the caseback. FOUR

GENEVA 2014

The New Watches


mother-of-pearl. The wearer can track the phase of the moon as it passes through the aperture. “It’s an exact

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moon, not a jumping moon, says Ron Jackson, director of DeWitt America, noting that the moon-phase disk is driven WatchTimeMagazine-June2014 -slidepdf.com by the hour wheel. The case is 43 mm in diameter and 12.25 mm thick. It is made of grade 5 titanium and is water resistant to 30 meters. On the side of the case are “imperial” columns, a signature look of the brand. The polished crown, also made of titanium, is decorated with DeWitt’s stylized “W” logo. That logo is also engraved on the caseback. Powering the watch is an automatic movement (Caliber DW.0161) with a 28,800 vph frequency and a power reserve of 42 hours. Price: $30,600.

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DEWITT YOU MIGHT GUESS from the watch’s name, the most prominent feature of DeWitt’s new Full Moon is its moon-phase display. The watch is the latest addition to the firm’s Twenty-8-Eight collection. The entire dial of the Full Moon is designed around the unusual moonphase indicator on the bottom half of the dial. The skeletonized left side of the sil-

AS

ver dial, with its view the as layered movement, represents theofearth seen on a topographical atlas, says the brand’s founder, Jérôme de Witt. The right side of the dial consists of aventurine glass, whose speckled deep blue color suggests a star-studded night sky. Positioned between the two is the moon-phase module, developed and manufactured entirely by DeWitt. A rose-gold-tone aperture (designed to suggest a telescope) extends over a rotating disk made of aventurine. On it are two moons made of white 92

WatchTime June 2014


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DARK SIDE


Two chronographs robed in black and powered by in-house movements go head to head in our comparative test. BY JENS KOCH


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BL ACK

STEEL June 2014 WatchTime 95


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lack cases are all the rage. So are in-house chronograph movements. Omega and Breitling combine both in two new watches that here go head to Magazine head: the Speedmaster Dark Side of WatchTime -June 2014 slidepdf.com the Moon, from Omega, and Breitling’s Chronomat GMT Blacksteel. The Breitling Chronomat was introduced in the 1940s, but the watch’s styling has been continually updated. The Chronomat GMT Blacksteel has a martial look to it: the gigantic, dark, matte-finished, 47-mm case is more than 18 mm thick; the screwed push-pieces and the rotating bezel, with its four applied cursors, look extremely sturdy. The watch weighs a hefty 209 grams. When you wear the Blacksteel, you almost feel as though you belong to a special-ops task force. The steel of the case is called “black,” but it really looks more like dark anthracite. The DLC (diamond-like carbon) coating is relatively scratch-resistant, but it is thin, and harsh treatment can leave silver-colored scratches on it. The Omega Speedmaster has an illustrious and often-told history: unveiled in 1957, it was chosen for NASA’s manned spaceflight program in the 1960s. The high point of the watch’s space career came in 1969, when Buzz Aldrin wore this model over the sleeve of his spacesuit while strolling across the lunar surface. This new rendition of the Speedmaster is more elegant than other versions thanks to its black case and dial, both made of zirconium dioxide ceramic. The white-gold hands and the applied white-gold indexes, which are coated with Super-LumiNova, look more luxurious than the white hands and applied luminous indexes on other Speedmasters. The black bezel and its tachymeter scale don’t contrast very strongly with the black case. Chrome nitride, which forms an uncommonly hard and very adherent coating, is used for the silver-gray lettering that’s inset along the ceramic bezel. The “Speedmaster” signature and the tip of the elapsedseconds hand provide tasteful red accents. The styling as a whole looks handsome and tidy. Despite its large diameter of 44 mm, this watch is an unobtrusive presence on the wrist. That’s not surprising, really, because as any physicist will tell you, the absence of all light the essential nature of the color black. Perhaps that’s why theis designers opted to give this watch a shiny dial. The reflective surfaces of its face and bezel, together with the polished edges of its case, add some liveliness to this otherwise somber watch. The Speedmaster weighs a scarcely perceptible 91 grams, so its wearer could easily forget that he’s wearing it. (The Chronomat weighs more than twice as much.) Highly domed crystals on the front and back conceal the watch’s thickness: it looks slimmer than its 15.8-mm height would lead you to expect. its watch’s from lightweight titanium. ThisBreitling skims a crafts few grams off theback overall weight, but hides the inhouse chronograph movement. This is not unusual for Breitling:

COMPARATIVE TEST

Omega Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon vs. Breitling Chronomat GMT Blacksteel


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The levers and column wheel are clearly visible in the Breitling B04.

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WatchTime June 2014

The bridges conceal almost most of its models have windowless metal everything in Omega’s backs. The fully threaded Breitling back handsomely decorated Caliber 9300. was no obstacle for master watchmaker http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014

resistant as the steel version: the Dark Side of the Moon is not built for water sports.

Florian Pikor, of Wempe in Hamburg, Germany, who helped us with this test.

The Chronomat GMT Blacksteel is much better in this respect: it’s water

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(Pikor is both a chronograph specialist resistant to 500 meters. The back, crown, and Wempe’s deputy workshop director and chrono buttons are all screwed. You WatchTime Magazine -June 2014could -slidepdf.com for watches.) But the challenge was someeven keep the watch on your wrist what greater when Pikor faced the task of while leaping from a 10-meter diving removing the Speedmaster’s ceramic board. Removing the back gives you a back, which includes a viewing window. clear view of Caliber B04, which is the After learning from Omega that the back GMT version of chronograph Caliber is snap-fit, Pikor deftly separated the B01, which Breitling introduced in 2009. breakage-prone ceramic back from the The B04 is somewhat less buttoned-up rest of the case with no harm done. than the movement in the Omega watch, Caliber 9300, which debuted in 2011. IT’S OBVIOUS THAT the architecture of Breitling’s movement lets you see its cola steel case cannot simply be transferred umn wheel and many of its levers, and it unaltered to a ceramic case. The fully even reveals some of the chronograph’s threaded back on the steel version of the wheels with their zero-return heartCo-Axial Speedmaster couldn’t be used pieces. Omega’s bridges cover nearly on the Dark Side of the Moon because everything, although three milled opencutting threads into ceramic is a difficult ings offer at least a partial view of the coltask. Some manufacturers therefore glue umn wheel. Nonetheless, Omega or press an inner metal case into the outer achieves a very high-quality appearance ceramic housing, cut threads into the thanks to the brand’s own spiraling decoinner case, and then screw a metal back rative pattern, beveled and polished into the threaded periphery. Omega didn’t, edges, and blackened screws with matteinstead opting for the snap-fit back. Nor finished heads. In the Breitling movedoes the case have a movement-holder ment, the levers are stamped from sheet ring or a tube for the crown. Special metal and don’t look very handsome clamping screws affix the movement despite being polished. Like the 9300, the inside the case so the movement can be B04 has screws with polished heads and removed from the rear. Nothing but an its flat surfaces are adorned with decorainsulating ring prevents moisture from tive patterns. penetrating the opening for the crown. The back is insulated with green Viton, EMBELLISHMENTS ARE NICE, but they’re not as important as the fundawhich is nearly immune to chemical corrosion. This watch resists pressure to only mental architecture and engineering of the 50 meters, which makes it half as water movement itself. Our two candidates share several common features here: each movement has a bidirectionally winding rotor, an elegant column wheel (Omega’s has an unorthodox, star-like shape) and modern vertical coupling. The power reserves of both watches outdo ETA’s standard of 46 hours: Breitling’s single barrel has a power reserve of 70 hours; Omega’s two serially arranged barrels have a power reserve of 60 hours and provide greater regularity in the power flow. Even before Pikor disassembled the

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movements, was apparent that Omega uses a sturdyitbridge for its balance while (Continued on page 102)


COMPARATIVE TEST



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100 WatchTime June 2014


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COMPARATIVE TEST


!MEGA "EEDMA%E#

Breitling uses a conventional balance cock borne at only one end. Omega’s

ment via white-gold weight screws on the balance: these facilitate finer regulation and allow the balance spring to breathe

DA#K IDE !F %HE M!! Manufacturer: ! A,

movement has newly shaped Nivachoc shock absorbers, which are reputed to

freely throughout its entire length. For aesthetic reasons, the balance gets a black

SPECS



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provide better centering for the balance chrome coating, which is a good match pivot. Breitling equips its movement with for the rest of the movement and for this shock absorption not just for the balance 2014 watch as a whole. Reference number: WatchTime Magazine -June -slidepdf.com 311.92.44.51.01.003 More of the horological landscape but also for the escape wheel, which Functions: H;, ;,  comes into view after we remove each makes the Blacksteel better able to cope *, *  * watch’s rotor and the bridge for its autowith hard knocks. *;  60  ;  12 The fine adjustment mechanisms difmatic-winding mechanism. The under ;,  ? fer, too. The B04 has an eccentric screw sides of the bridges are unembellished, but  96, CH-2504 B, @

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Movement: A;* -; C

9300, C!C *, 28,800 <, 54 , -* ;*,  , <** * , G;*?; *,  ; <  *   *, *-> *, 60-;  <,  = 32.5 ,  = 7.6  Case: '*; > **, *;<  *?  *< *   , - *  

that moves the tail of the regulator. Omega opts for index-free fine adjust-

this is usual for watches in this price class. Breitling’s movement is easy to service: the

 ,    50  Strap and clasp: C ?   **  ;* Rate results:

D<  *  24 ; (& * * /) D ; +4 / +4 D  +2 / +2 C ; +2 / +3 C  +1 / 0 C  +3 / +2 C  +2 / +2 G <   3/4 A< < +2.3 / +2.2 A< ;: F  261 / 257 H  248 / 247 Dimensions: D = 44.25 ,  = 15.8 ,  = 91  Variations:   ($8,700) Price: $12,000

The Omega has neatly crafted and suitably thick chronograph wheels.



The Breitling movement has thinner, less sturdylooking wheels and

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014 slight scratches on the bridges, but its layout makes it easy

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to servce.

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SPECS


B#EI%LI!G CH#"!"A% G% BLACK%EEL Manufacturer: B AG,

''' 2, CH-2540 G, <>'* Reference number: B041310 BC78 Functions: H, , ' *, ' <   30 '*  '* 12 '* , *' *', *  > Movement: A' - C' B04, C"C @*, 28,800 ;, 47 <, -* , K  ', G* '', @ '* ;'  < '* ', 70- < ;, *' = 30 ,  = 7.2  Case: DLC-'* ' , ;* ' ' ' ; '   ',  '** <- ' '', <' '  500  Strap and clasp: # ' < DLC'* '- ' * ' ' * ' '  


 '  1-  Rate results:

D;'  *  24  (& ' <* /) D'  +1 / 0 D' *< +2 / 0 C<  -1 / -5 C< *< +3 / +1 C<  +3 / 0 C<  -1 / -4 G' *;'  ' 4/6 A;' *;' +1.2 / -1.3 A;' '*: F'  296? / 268? H'  270? / 240? Dimensions: D' = 47 ,  = 18.35 , < = 209  Variations: & DLC ' ($8,570) Price: $10,210 Limited edition of 1,000 pieces

gear-train bridge can be removed together with the automatic-winding subassembly, which is accessible via a second bridge that’s screwed to the gear-train bridge from below. The chronograph wheels are also positioned under a separate bridge. After these parts are removed, the zeroreturn heart-pieces and the chronograph wheels come into view. With Omega’s watch, on the other hand, a watchmaker must first remove the bridge for the automatic-winding mechanism and then unscrew the large chronograph bridge before he can access the chronograph wheels and the zeroreturn heart-pieces. Now we can see that Omega has fabricated all its components from thicker stock than Breitling has. This makes the parts not only sturdier but more expensive-looking than the sometimes thin wheels in Breitling’s movement

(which were nonetheless nicely polished). Omega also shows greater meticulousness in manufacturing and assembly so that fewer tool marks and scratches can be found on its movement than on Breitling’s. Furrows and striations were discernible on some of Breitling’s components, especially when we looked at them through a loupe. Breitling deploys its patented selfcentering system for the zero return. This eliminates laborious adjustments during the assembly process. Omega’s levers have somewhat less friction to overcome, so the push-pieces require a bit less force than their counterparts in Breitling’s watch. BOTH MANUFACTURERS rely on verti-

cal coupling: it offers less to see than in classical horizontal coupling, but it funcJune 2014 WatchTime 103

COMPARATIVE TEST


tions better because it enables the elapsed-seconds hand to begin moving immediately without an initial stutter.

the escapement. The accuracy of the timekeeping is also enhanced by the silicon balance spring, which is relatively

Two pincer-like levers separate the two laterally beveled coupling disks, which are pressed against one another by a

resistant to shocks and almost entirely unaffected by magnetism. Omega is the only brand that uses silicon balance


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are pressed against one another by a only brand that uses silicon balance spring when the pincer opens. springs on a large scale. When Pikor removes the Omega’s Breitling improves the precision of the WatchTime Magazine June 2014 B04 byslidepdf.com pairing each balance with its balbalance bridge, a special feature becomes more clearly visible: the co-axial escape- ance spring at the factory. The brand’s ment. Unlike other calibers Omega has engineers devoted much attention to the used, which were ETA or Frédéric Piguet date display, which jumps instantaneously. movements retro-fitted with the co-axial This feat is achieved via a sprung lever on

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Breitling’s column wheel (left) has a traditional shape (some tool marks are visible); Omega’s an unconventional one.

escapement, the 9300 was designed from the very start to incorporate the co-axial. The escapement works with three functional levels and performs more efficiently than the retro-fitted movements. Unlike a standard Swiss lever escapement, the coaxial escapement separates the functions of arresting and releasing, thus preventing undesirable sliding friction on the pallet stones. Less energy loss and better oil retention are the welcome consequences. Only a very thin film of oil is applied to

the dial side of the movement. The spring accumulates tension hour after hour before it suddenly releases its stored energy to advance the date display at the stroke of midnight. Omega’s date display, on the other hand, begins to switch around 10 p.m. and doesn’t complete its leisurely advance until a few minutes before midnight.



has a jumping elapsed-minutes counter. Omega chose a different way to organize its elapsed-time

the crown out to its second position stops the seconds hand while you reset the hour and minutes hands in the conventional

for 30 minutes and another for 12 hours, Caliber 9300 has a single combined counter

time zone on Breitling’s watch goes forward or backward along with the ordi-

THE BREITLING WATCH

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014 counters: rather than using one counter manner. The hour hand for the second

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at 3 o’clock on which up to 60 elapsed nary hour hand. If you pull the crown out minutes and 12 elapsed hours are tallied. to its first position and then turn it, the WatchTime -June 2014-slidepdf.com hour handMagazine will move in hourly increments This doesn’t improve the legibility and the date display will switch when the very much: the hands differ in length to prevent your mistaking one for the other, hour hand passes midnight. The date will but the printed numerals refer to the automatically jump either forward or elapsed hours only. The elapsed interval backward depending on whether the hour

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can be read just like the time of day, but the elapsed minutes aren’t as readily discernible as they are on Breitling’s counter. It tallies just 30 minutes so the spaces between adjacent minutes markers are twice as large as on Omega’s display. To sum it up: the Breitling is better if you want to time intervals of 30 minutes or less, but the Omega is better if you want to measure intervals of several hours’ duration. The process for setting the time and date is the same on both watches: pulling

hand passes midnight clockwise or counterclockwise. This arrangement isn’t quite as convenient as a rapid-date-reset mechanism, but it enables you to change the hour without changing the positions of the seconds and minutes hands. This is handy when entering another time zone or “springing forward” in spring or “falling back” in autumn. The hour hand for the second time zone remains motionless during this resetting maneuver. (Continued on page 108)

Omega’s balance with regulating screws, silicon hairspring, coaxial escapement



COMPARATIVE TEST



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COMPARATIVE TEST



This version of the Chronomat GMT can even show the time in a third zone:

was a mere 3 seconds; the average daily gain was 2.3 seconds. The situation didn’t change significantly after the chrono-

unlike the unlimited version of the graph was switched on: here the greatest http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014 Chronomat GMT, which has a unidirecdeviation of rate was 4 seconds and the tionally rotating bezel marked with a

average daily gain was 2.2 seconds. The

SCORES OMEGA SPEEDMASTER DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

S'a& a$d c"a& (#a,. 10 &%!$): The c$a(ed #!$# '(&a% a#d i(' ce&a"ic

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minutes scale, the Blacksteel is equipped amplitude remained incredibly stable: c!a'% a&e ha#d'$"e a#d +e!! c&af(ed. 8 with a bidirectionally rotating 24-hour Caliber 9300 lost only 14 degrees of arc O&e'a!%$ (5): The c&$+# a#d %)'hbezel that clicks into place in hourly when the chronograph was switched on 2014 %iece' a&e ea' ($ $%e&a(e; (he h$)& WatchTime Magazine -June -slidepdf.com increments. Using it in conjunction with and the watch was shifted from flat ha#d ca# be &e'e( i# h$)&! i#c&e"e#(', the 24-hour scale on the dial tells you the positions to hanging orientations. +hich "ae' a &a%id-&e'e( f)#c(i$# f$& Breitling’s amplitude declined four times time in a third zone. (he da(e )##ece''a&; (he '(&a% i' a bi( c)"be&'$"e ($ )'e. 4 The movements in both watches are as much.

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COSC certified. Before we disassembled them, we checked their timekeeping accuracy on a timing machine. Breitling’s contestant performed with very slight deviations: all values were within a range of –1 and +3 seconds per day. The average gain was 1.2 seconds. Even with the chronograph switched on, both the greatest deviation of rate (6 seconds) and the average deviation (–1.3) were quite small,

The picture isn’t quite as clear when legibility is considered. Each watch’s dial is protected by a sapphire crystal with nonreflective coating on both sides. Omega’s dial is tidy, but glaringly reflective. Breitling’s dial has numerous indicators and scales, so you may need a few seconds to find what you’re looking for. Omega’s dial gleams more brightly at night, but Breitling’s dial also lets you

Cae (10): The ce&a"ic ca'e ha' a 'a%%hi&e bac, &e'i'(' 'c&a(chi#g a#d i' #ea(!- c&af(ed, b)( i( c$)!d ha*e g&ea(e& +a(e& &e'i'(a#ce. 9

although the strong amplitude declined to low but still acceptable levels in the hanging positions. Those results were excellent, but Omega outdid them. The 9300’s greatest deviation among the several positions

read the time quite well in the dark.

Wea'!$ c%#f%' (10): Thi' c$"%a&a(i*e! !igh(+eigh( +a(ch fee!' *e& c$"f$&(ab!e $# (he +&i'(. 10

an entirely new strap to its Dark Side of the Moon. It’s made of tough coated nylon fabric, with cowhide on the underside and a rubber overlay

OMEGA GAVE

De!$ (15): C$!$& "a((e&': (hi' c!a''ic +a(ch !$$' &ea!! c$$! i# b!ac; (he dia! i' bea)(if)!! 'i"%!e. 14 Le!b!"!- (5): The dia! i' g!a&i#g! &e0ec(i*e, b)( $(he&+i'e (he +a(ch i' ea' ($ &ead b$(h da a#d #igh(.

4

M%+e#e$ (20): The b&a#d' $+# +e!!e#gi#ee&ed ch&$#$g&a%h "$*e"e#( ha' a &e/#ed c$-aia! e'ca%e"e#(, 'i!ic$# hai&'%&i#g a#d &eg)!a($&-f&ee /#e adj)'("e#( "echa#i'". 18 Rae 'e*" (10): C$)!d 'ca&ce! be be((e&; *e& '!igh( de*ia(i$#' i# a!! %$'i(i$#' a#d e(&e"e! '(ab!e a"%!i()de 10

O+e'a"" +a"*e (15): The %&ice i' a%%&$%&ia(e a#d (he +a(ch i' !ie! ($ be *a!)ed b c$!!ec($&'. 12 TOTAL:

89 POINTS

The Breitling watch is 2.75 mm wider and 2.5 mm thicker than the Omega. r e g ü r k s u c r a m


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SCORES BREITLING CHRONOMAT GMT BLACKSTEEL

S,*a a' c%a+ (&a/. 10 $',+): We!!-c'af)ed '*bbe' ()'a% a#d (afe) f$!di#g c!a(% i)h %'ac)ica! e)e#(i$#

Omega’s ceramic pronged buckle; Breitling’s DLC-coated and satin-finished folding clasp

8

O!*a,$' (5): G'ea)e' f$'ce i( #eeded )$ $%e'a)e )he(e %*(h-%iece( )ha# )$ %'e(( O"ega0( b*))$#(; )he h$*' ha#d ca# be 'e(e) i# h$*'! i#c'e"e#)(; )he da)e a*)$"a)ica!! j*"%( ahead he# )he h$*' ha#d %a((e( "id#igh). 5 Ca+! (10): The DLC-c$a)ed ()ai#!e((-()ee! ca(e i( #ea)! "ade a#d )he be/e! i( e!ab$'a)e! c'af)ed; )he ca(e i( high! ,a)e' 'e(i()a#) b*) ha( a# $%a&*e bac. 8 D!+$#' (15): The fa(hi$#ab!e Ch'$#$"a) i( )'a#(f$'"ed i#)$ a "i!i)a'-()!e (%ecia!-$%( a)ch. 13 L!#$b$%$, (5): The "a# (ca!e( a'e a bi) c$#f*(i#g, b*) )he )i"e i( ea( )$ 'ead. 4 W!a*$'# c&"*, (10): A +e' !a'ge a#d +e' eigh) a)ch; )he c!a(% %'e((e( ($"eha) *#c$"f$')ab! agai#() )he i#(ide $f )he 'i(). 6 M!&!', (20): A g$$d, ()*'d ch'$#$g'a%h "$+e"e#) i)h a c$!*"# hee! a#d a# i#()a#)a#e$*(! j*"%i#g da)e di(%!a 17

Ra,! *!+-%,+ (10): G$$d 'a)e %e'f$'"a#ce

9

O!*a%% a%-! (15): C$#(ide'i#g i)( fea)*'e(, i)( %'ice i( ($"eha) high. O# )he $)he' ha#d, $* ge) a a)ch )ha) be!$#g( )$ a !i"i)ed edi)i$#. 11 TOTAL:

81 POINTS

with holes for the broad prong on the buckle, which is made of ceramic. The strap loops are also made of rubber. This material is a good match for the watch and has an appropriate high-tech look, but makes it a bit difficult to coax the prong through the hole in the strap and to guide the strap through its loops. We found it much easier to open and close Breitling’s folding clasp using its two safety buttons. This clasp has received the same dark matte coating as the case. Its built-in extension mechanism is quite practical; it lets us add up to 6 mm in single-millimeter steps. Breitling’s clasp has very narrow gap widths and is precisely crafted. Its disadvantages are sharp edges and corners when the buckle

is open: you wouldn’t want to let the sleeve of a woolen sweater come into contact with them. On the wrist, too, this clasp is much more palpably present than the Omega clasp. Huge capital letters spell “BREITLING” all along the strap, a detail some will love and others loathe. Both test watches sell for more than $10,000: $10,210 for the Breitling and $12,000 for the Omega. Breitling charges an additional $1,640 for the blackened case. Omega’s surcharge is $3,300, but for that money you also get a ceramic case, dial, and clasp; applied gold indices and gold hands. Omega’s movement is the better of the two. It is superior in its craftsmanship, its embellishments, and above all the engineering of its co-axial escapement and silicon balance spring. Breitling’s caliber is certainly not a bad piece of work, but it doesn’t offer quite as good a costbenefit ratio. These two brands’ black models tread diametrically opposite paths. Omega created an elegant version of its tool watch, while Breitling converted its elegant watch into a tool watch. After all the numbers are crunched, the victor’s laurels go to the Omega; but if you’ve got big wrists, you’ll have plenty of fun with  Breitling’s black beauty. June 2014 WatchTime 109

BREITLING BY GISBERT L. BRUNNER


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Pilots rely on Breitling’s chronographs, but calendars, world timers and divers’ watches also are part of the brand’s 130-year history.

1915 CHRONOGRAPH WITH SEPARATE PUSH-PIECE


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WatchTime -June2014-slidepdf.com Early wristwatches were styled after pocketwatches:Magazine their cases were round, they had soldered-on lugs to hold the strap, and the winding crown was at 12 o’clock. The chronograph’s push-piece, which started, stopped and returned the chronograph’s hands to zero, was typically integrated into the crown. Breitling, then based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, was one of the first companies to separate the winding crown and the chronograph’s push-piece, as shown in this model, which dates from about 1915. The crown was moved 90 degrees to the right, to 3 o’clock, and the push-piece was placed above. Breitling took the next step in 1934, when it introduced a second push-piece so the elapsed-time measurement could be momentarily stopped and later resumed.

1941

CHRONOMAT Launched in 1941, the Chronomat was based on a patent document that Breitling submitted in 1940: patent number 217012 granted protection for an instrument-style wristwatch with a circular slide rule. This clever system made it quick and relatively easy to perform various measurements and mathematical operations, e.g., the conversion of speeds or distances from one unit of measurement to another, multiplication, division, and cross-multiplication. This new timepiece attracted many aficionados in sports and industry, and technicians appreciated its special features, which made their work easier. Later versions of the Chronomat with different cases and dials were the earliest ancestors of Breitling’s legendary Navitimer. The watch shown here contains Venus Caliber 175. A special feature of this watch is a counter for 45 elapsed minutes – a detail welcomed by soccer fans. June 2014 WatchTime 111

MILESTONES

Breitling


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1942 CHRONOMAT


MOONPHASE

In 1942, Breitling gave the Chronomat a moon-phase display at 12 o’clock. (The first wristwatch with a moon-phase indicator appeared in the 1920s.) Venus was Breitling’s most important movement supplier during this time, and the Chronomat Moonphase used Venus’s hand-wound Caliber 184. The watch also had a date indicator that was concentric with the moonphase display and a counter for 12 elapsed hours. The Chronomat Moonphase was available in either steel or gold.

1944 DUOGRAPH In the 1940s, many chronograph makers relied on Valjoux ébauches. Not Breitling. In the prior decade, Breitling had started to use Venus calibers in most of its watches. This enabled Breitling to be among the first brands to have access to the newly developed Venus Caliber 179, which was 31.6 mm in diameter and 7.2 mm high. Breitling used this caliber to power its Duograph split-seconds chronograph, which debuted at the Basel watch fair in 1944. The Duograph was equipped with a counter for 45 elapsed minutes and also had a patented button in the crown to operate the split-seconds hand. It was produced in rather small quantities because the mechanism for the split-seconds hand added about 50 percent to the chronograph’s price. Although this model was produced for nearly 20 years in both classic and water-resistant versions, it is considered a rarity.


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MILESTONES

Breitling

1945 http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014

DATORA

1951 UNITIME

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The 35-mm steel Datora chronograph Breitling showed cosmopolitan flair with became a bestseller soon after its debut inWatchTimeMagazine-June2014 its introduction of the Unitime in 1951, a -slidepdf.com 1945, partly because it had a full calenwatch that had a world-time display dar, which was mounted beneath the dial. instead of a chronograph. The grooved The day of the week appeared in one winbezel could be rotated to reset the city dow, the month in another, and a central hand indicated the date. The calendar mechanism required manual correction on the last day of any month with fewer than 31 days. Two buttons on the left side of the case were used for speedy resetting of the displays. A counter for 12 elapsed hours was one of the special features of the watch’s movement, the hand-wound Valjoux Caliber 72c VZHC, which was produced until 1974. The movement was 29.5 mm in diameter and 6.95 mm high. The balance had a frequency of 2.5 Hz. Breitling offered the Datora in a standard version and a water-resistant one; the latter had rounded buttons.

1946 QUADRA

ring under the crystal. When the reference city for the current time zone was moved to 12 o’clock, the hours around the globe were shown by the two-tone 24-hour ring, which had oppositely running teeth coupled to the automatic movement. Central hands showed the time in the local time zone, while a window at 3 o’clock displayed the date in that zone. Felsa supplied the basic movement, Caliber 711, which was self-winding via a bidirectional rotor.

Chronographs, and especially Breitling’s chronographs, have generally appealed mostly to men. But the exception proves the rule, and the Quadra, introduced in 1946, with its petite 26-by-26-mm case, is that exception. The movement was Valjoux’s hand-wound Caliber 69 DX, which debuted in 1936. It was Valjoux’s first miniature caliber: just 23.35 mm in diameter and 5.65 mm high. A classic column wheel controlled the start and stop functions. The push-pieces were positioned very close to the crown. The dial included a pulsometer and a central tachymeter scale. A woman who didn’t like the square case could opt for a round one; both versions used the same movement. Valjoux produced only 3,964 examples of this caliber before production ceased in 1966.


MILESTONES

Breitling

1952 NAVITIMER


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Don’t be misled: this watch’s name, which was trademarked in 1955, has nothing to do with the navy. The Navitimer, WatchTimeMagazine-June2014-slidepdf.com which debuted in 1952, was designed to help pilots coordinate time and navigation: it was equipped with calculating functions. Advertisements described this multifunctional device, which contained the hand-wound Caliber Venus 178, as a “personal onboard instrument.” The built-in slide rule enabled aviators to multiply and divide, convert nautical miles to land miles, and calculate averages, fuel consumption, average gain of altitude, and distances during ascent and landing. Fumbling with paper and pencil while in flight could be at least partially eliminated. Since it was introduced, the Navitimer has undergone various changes, mainly to its case and the calibers it housed, i.e., hand-wound, hand-wound with date, or self-winding, but no one has ever tampered with its most distinctive feature: its circular slide rule.

1954 PILOTS’ CHRONOGRAPH What Breitling unveiled for pilots in 1954 differed from the Chronomat and the Navitimer in almost every respect. The styling of the case and dial was strictly nofrills: legibility was the priority. The black dial with large luminous numerals included nothing that wasn’t absolutely necessary. The window at 3 o’clock was especially noteworthy: rather than showing the date, this aperture contained a digital counter to tally up to 15 elapsed minutes. Other features included a rotating bezel: calibrated for 12 hours, it could be used to quickly set the time for a second zone or to remind the wearer of upcoming appointments. Breitling used a modified, hand-wound Caliber Venus 178 in this watch. The watch later evolved into the model called the Co-Pilot. 116 WatchTime June 2014

MILESTONES

Breitling


NEW DATORA

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Breitling was not immune to the influences of the 1960s. Although round watches didn’t disappear entirely, it was

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WatchTimeMagazine -June 2014 slidepdf.com impossible to ignore the-trend toward styles with straight or only slightly curved lines. Along with square and rectangular cases, the pillow-shaped case enjoyed a renaissance and was adapted to cut-off suit the corners new era’s ments like andtechnical faceted capabilities. edges were Refineadded. Breitling unveiled a synthesis of a pillow-shaped and circular case in 1967. Automatic chronograph movements were not yet available, so daily manual winding was needed to power Caliber 730, which had a counter for 45 elapsed minutes and a date window. There were pulsometer and tachymeter scales on the circumference of the dial, which was marked with applied hour indexes.

1962 NAVITIMER COSMONAUTE With a steel Navitimer Cosmonaute around his wrist, astronaut Scott Carpenter and his space capsule Aurora 7 orbited the Earth three times after a rocket carried them into space on May 24, 1962. Containing a hand-wound Caliber Venus 178 that had been specially modified for Breitling, this watch had an hour hand that required 24 hours to complete one circuit of the dial. The 24-hour graduation was vital to distinguish day from night. The modified display for the hours did not have any effect on the practical slide rule, which could be used, for example, to convert back and forth between kilometers and land or nautical miles. The Navitimer facilitated the drafting of navigation plans, helped to calculate fuel consumption and the time for the next radio call, and served to determine the location or the direction of travel. It was a useful instrument for all pilots. 118 WatchTime June 2014


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DEEP BLUE DEPTHMETER PROFESSIONAL 45mm Case 316 L Stainless steel, Depth Gauge measure 50M/165Ft Below Sea level, Unidirectional Sapphire Luminous Bezel inlay, Chronograph with 1/20 second indicator, AM/PM 24-hour indicator at 9 o’clock, Sapphire Crystal AR Coated, Superluminova hands and hour markers, Water resistant 200m/660 Ft Professional Diver Bracelet

www.deepbluewatches.com

212-213-5128

[email protected]

1969

MILESTONES

Breitling

1968 SUPEROCEAN http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014

CHRONO-MATIC Sales of chronographs declined markedly during the second half of the 1960s. Breitling competitor Heuer formed a partnership to develop theand firstits automatic chronograph and hoped that its launch would help counteract the downturn. The adventure began in 1965, when the two firms, along with Büren Watch and Dubois Dépraz, signed a contract to develop

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Chronograph movements with column wheels to control the the watch; they called the venture Project 99. Büren was taken stopwatch function are costly. Breitling was painfully aware on as movement supplier because of its experience with of this in the 1960s, when sales of such high-priced movemicro-rotors. No2014 other type of self-winding caliber could perWatchTime Magazine -June -slidepdf.com ments were declining. Fortunately, the ébauche maker Venus mit the rearward and thus service-friendly installation of the was still offering its 14-ligne hand-wound Caliber 188. The specially developed chronograph module because the small movement perform the wheel, same functions as a chronograph with could a classic column but a coulisse accomplished the necessary switching – and also reduced production costs. Breitling assembled large numbers of these movements. At the company’s production facility in La Chaux-deFonds (headquarters had been moved to Geneva in 1952), an assembly line with six sequential work stations made it possible for 100 movements to be assembled simultaneously. Breitling used the Venus 188 in several models, including the Superocean, which was introduced in 1968. This chrono-

oscillating weight didn’tFurthermore, interfere withthe thedate tworing arbors the elapsed-time counters. wasofpositioned directly under the dial. Modular architecture also made it possible to install the crown on the left side, where it clearly showed that this was a self-winding watch. Breitling and Heuer were responsible for the design, the dials, the cases and the other components. The first prototypes of Caliber 11, which ran at 19,800 vph, were available in the spring of 1968. The official launch of the Chrono-Matic, the world’s first automatic chronograph with micro-rotor, took place

graph, designed for professional divers, was water resistant to 200 meters and could measure elapsed seconds, but couldn’t tally elapsed minutes or hours. Its dial and hands were designed to be easily read in the dimly lit depths of the sea. Its bezel could be rotated and was calibrated for individual minutes.

simultaneously in Geneva and New York on March 3, 1969. When the curtains rose, the project had already consumed about half a million Swiss francs.


MILESTONES

Breitling


THE EMERGENCY

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The Emergency, which debuted in 1995, was designed to save lives in critical situations. It was developed in collaboration with professional pilots. Breitling equipped the flip-open case WatchTimeMagazine -June2014 slidepdf.com of this big titanium watch with a micro-transmitter set to the international air distress frequency of 121.5 MHz. The trans-

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mitter send signals viaactivated, an extendible antennawould if the wearercould needed help. Once the wire transmitter repeatedly emit a 0.75-second impulse every 2.25 seconds. If transmitted from flat terrain, the signal could be received within 160 kilometers (99.4 miles) of the disaster site by search planes flying at an altitude of 6,000 meters (19,685 feet). Two lithium batteries provided enough power to keep the transmitter operating for 48 hours. The electronic timemeasuring module, which could measure elapsed intervals to the nearest 1/100 of a second, also had a countdown f unction, an alarm, and a time display in a second zone. This information was shown in digital form. Pilots in aerobatic squadrons from many nations chose to wear these watches.

1984 NEW CHRONOMAT Although Breitling was making quartz watches in the early 1980s, the company, which had been purchased by the Schneider family in 1979 and moved to Grenchen, wanted to prove that it still knew how to build mechanical chronographs. The firm wanted to celebrate its 100th birthday with a mechanical comeback. Research in the company’s archives discovered the time-honored name “Chronomat.” The pilots of the Italian Air Force’s aerobatic demonstration team known as the “Frecce Tricolori” (Tricolor Arrows) adopted this timepiece as their official wristwatch. Chronograph fans throughout the world followed suit and the Chronomat of 1984 soon became Breitling’s bestseller. Raised markers on the Chronomat’s bezel made it easier to grip and protected the sapphire crystal against shocks and blows. The marker at 15 minutes could be switched with the one at 45 minutes so intervals could be measured either forward or back. The case had a doubleinsulated crown and water resistance to 100 meters. Various components of automatic Caliber Valjoux 7750 were improved to increase their ability to withstand stress. 122 WatchTime June 2014

2002 50 YEARS OF THE NAVITIMER A watch that remains popular for five decades deserves an appropriate celebrahttp://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014 tion. And that’s what Breitling organized to commemorate the legendary

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Navitimer s 50th birthday in 2002. A vintage logo with two stylized aircraft was added to the Magazine dial. But in all other details, 2014-slidepdf.com WatchTime -June designer Eddy Schöpfer paid meticulous attention to the Navitimer’s original

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styling, beginning the slide rulewere and continuing to the with subdials, which arranged in traditional V-formation. But due to the use of a modularly structured self-winding movement from Dubois Dépraz, the continually running seconds were displayed at 3 o’clock and 30 elapsed minutes were shown at 9 o’clock. The balance ran at 28,800 vph, so only three short strokes were placed between

1998

each of longer full-second Each pair movement underwent an indexes. official chronometer test before it was housed in its 41-mm case, which was available in stainless steel, yellow gold or white gold.

BREITLING B-1

AVENGER 2007 SKYLAND BLACKSTEEL Stainless steel was given a coating of

Boasting a sturdy steel case, the multifunctional Breitling B-1 was also created in cooperation with professional pilots. The best-equipped timepiece in Breitling’s Professional line, the B-1 was introduced in 1998. In addition to an analog time display, this watch also had two liquidcrystal displays. The movement was the quartz Caliber ETA E20, which had been developed exclusively for Breitling, and

highly resistant carbon for the Blacksteel version of the Avenger Skyland chronograph, unveiled in 2007. DLC (diamondlike carbon) coating adheres to stainless steel very well. DLC had proven its merits on surgical instruments and in auto racing. It had also been used to lengthen the lifespan of tools like drills and milling machines. But Breitling could only get enough parts from its supplier for 50 cases,

had an alarm, a chronograph with intermediate and additive stopping, countdown timing, a second time zone with its own alarm, UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), and a perpetual calendar. Boldly styled hands and a specially illuminated display that wouldn’t interfere with night-vision goggles guaranteed errorfree legibility. Breitling’s designers also included the time-honored slide rule,

so many weeks passed before the entire limited series of 2,000 watches could be produced. The watch, an automatic, had a unidirectional rotating bezel and was water resistant to 300 meters.

which could be operated by turning the bezel. 124 WatchTime June 2014

MILESTONES

Breitling


TRANSOCEAN CHRONOGRAPH UNITIME

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Breitling’s headliner for 2012 followed in the footsteps of its world-timer Unitime, which made its debut in 1951. From a technical and functional standpoint, the new watch, the Transocean Chronograph Unitime, was light-years ahead of


its historical predecessor. improvements began and withconthe manufactureThe self-winding chronograph movement tinued with the mechanism under the dial. All indicators could be set and adjusted, either forward or backward, via the crown. When a traveler reaches his destination, he rotates the new reference city to 12 o’clock. This action triggers the central hour hand, the date display and the 24-hour ring to reset themselves automatically; only the minutes and seconds hands continue to run unaffected. The technicians also thought of daylight saving or summer time: they included lit-

2009

tle sun symbols on theBreitling city ringoffers that could be used make one-hour corrections. the city ring to with the cities’ names written in several languages. The 46-mm case is water resistant to 100 meters and, like all Breitling watches, is COSC certified. 

CALIBER 01 Aficionados had long awaited the debut of Breitling’s first manufacture movement, which was launched in 2009, in time for the brand’s 125th anniversary. Caliber 01 is a chronograph movement with a diameter of 30 mm, a height of 7.2 mm, and a rotor to wind its mainspring. A pair of gears conveys the rotor’s energy to the barrel, which stores enough power for more than 70 hours of operation. A column wheel controls the chronograph’s functions; the push of a button triggers a vertical friction coupling to connect the gear train and the chronograph mechanism. The patented self-centering system has an innovative heart-piece to return the chronograph hands to zero. To facilitate servicing, the total number of components was reduced to 346. An innovative regulator system to alter the active length of the balance spring enables a watchmaker to adjust the rate to match the personal wearing habits of each watch’s owner. The balance spring and its Glucydur balance have a frequency of 4 Hz. Each movement is required to pass all COSC tests before it is housed in the Chronomat, whose case has been redesigned. The divers’ bezel can be rotated in only one direction and has 240 teeth so it snaps into place very smoothly. The push-pieces and the crown are screwed.


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AMERICA S PREMIERE WATCH SHOW WatchTimeMagazine-June2014-slidepdf.com

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We test Vacheron Constantin’s Patrimony Contemporaine Retrograde and Date, with its twinDay retrograde http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014 calendar hands.

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By Mike Disher Photos By roBert Atkinson

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E

very watch tells stories, about the manufacturer, and the owner. Our test watch tells at least two stories about Vacheron Constantin. One is based on the twin retrograde displays, and the other is told by the movement behind those displays. This is the Patrimony Contemporaine Retrograde Day and Date. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll call it the Bi-retrograde. To gettothe inside scoop on the Bi-retrograde’s we went Vacheron’s creative director, Christian development, Selmoni. The story picks up in 2004, when the brand launched the Patrimony Contemporaine, Ref. 81180, a two-hand, manual-wind dress watch that set the aesthetic tone for the collection. According to Selmoni, after that launch, Vacheron wanted to develop a complicated model in the collection. Selmoni told us: “The bi-retrograde indication of day and date was a great opportunity for the design team, possibly a perfect blend between complication – the twin-retrograding mechanism – and the pure, elegant design of the Patrimony Contemporaine. I would say that we wanted an alternative, creative way to display a very classic complication.” According to Selmoni, Vincent Kauffmann, the designer of the watch, wanted to maintain the Patrimony Contemporaine’s balanced aesthetics, as opposed to an asymmetrical layout. So he decided to “spread” the day and date displays across the dial. The result, said Selmoni, is a design that “looks very modern and radical and remains pure, almost minimalistic,” thanks in part to a decision to increase the case diameter from 40 mm to 42.5 mm, which was rather large for a dress watch in 2007. The increased diameter also made the Bi-retrograde a substantial presence on the wrist, which we like. June 2014 WatchTime 129

TEST

Vacheron Constantin Patrimony Contemporaine Retrograde Day and Date

Kauffmann’s decision to spread the displays also improved legibility. Retrograde dates, in particular, are often cramped and difficult to read. The large displays also presented technical challenges. One was solved by fashioning the retrograde hands from a light alloy to help them fly back as quickly as possible, and to reduce vibrations when they stop. The fully polished case features front and back sapphire http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014 crystals with a nonreflective coating. The styling is clearly Patrimony Contemporaine, yet when viewed from the side, the 10.4-

SPECS %ache"n cn#anin !a"imn' cnem!"aine "e"g"ade da'/dae Man"fac!"rer: %* c, 10

c ; ;, ch-1228, !-;, #@ Reference n"mber: 86020/000"-9239 F"nc!ion: h;, ;, , ? 

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  mm thickness can t help but be noticed. This is due to the height the retrograde components add to the movement. Vacheron disMo#emen!: a;* manufacture c 2460  g< # (%* case guises the added thickness well by curving the sides of theMagazine WatchTime -June2014 -slidepdf.com c manufacture c 2450 inward toward the back of the watch. This curve also comes in   -; - ;), handy when it’s time to pull out the crown. The crown is set 283 *, * ;into the case, and the curve allows the crown to be pulled out * , 22-  , from below with a fingernail. The caseback is snap-on, giving it 28,800 <, 27 , g;*?; *, a clean look, though some may consider this construction a bit B n<> * , K * economical in this price range. Water resistance is 30 meters. *,  < = 43 ;,  = 25.6 , * = 5.4  The lugs are on the petite side and steeply curved, ending below the caseback. This allows the case to hug the wrist. At Cae: 5n  , - *,   *?  B*< 110 grams, this watch is no featherweight, and we enjoyed the *,  ? *  feel of it on the wrist. B*< *,    30  The retrograde displays are set via two push-pieces set into S!rap and clap: a  

the case. The one at 9:30 thecorrects day of the andside the of onethe hidden between the lugsadjusts at 12:30 theweek, date. Vacheron includes a corrector pen with the watch. If you need to set the watch while away from home, you may find yourself searching for a corrector-pen substitute. Each push advances the day or date one position. The date display does not account for months having fewer than 31 days, and the owner’s manual warns against setting the day or date between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. The Bi-retrograde is secured to the wrist with an attractive, well-padded, hand-stitched alligator strap with large scales and aThe matte finish. Theisedges aretoburnished the lining is soft. extra padding needed balance theand substantial case. The padding makes the strap a bit stiff out of the box, but it softens up with wear. The strap measures 22/20 mm in width and it fits the Bi-retrograde’s curved spring bars. Vacheron’s standard strap for this watch measures 115/75 mm in length, and the long strap measures 125/83 mm in length. The folding buckle is very well made and quite attractive. Polished and matte surfaces, along with complex shapes, confirm a high level of workmanship. The buckle is also extremely

 5n-- ? ;* Ra!e re"l!:

d<  *  24 ; d ; d  c ; c  c  c  g <   a< < a< ;: F  h  Dimenion: d = 42.5 ,  = 10.4 ,  = 110  Varia!ion: &  (". 86020/000g-9508)

+5.4 +2.8 -5.2 +2.8 +5.1 -7.1 12.5 +0.6 331A 290A

Price: $49,600 Timing !e! performed b% Wempe Je$eler, Ne$ York Ci!%

secure, which is a plus and a minus. The buckle is held in the closed position by friction, and rather a lot of it, as opposed to a locking mechanism with push buttons. The high-friction closure means the buckle is less likely to pop open when you don’t want it to, but then it’s also less likely to pop open when you do want it to. Vacheron also deviates from standard practice by attaching the normally adjustable end of the strap to the buckle with a tiny screw. Usually, the holes in the strap slip over a small pin on the buckle. Vacheron’s approach means the strap is much less

size, for example when your wrist swells on a warm day. Adjusting the strap requires a watchmakers’ screwdriver, a keen eye, and a steady hand. All in all, if we were purchasing this watch, we would opt for a strap with a traditional pin buckle.

likely to separate from the buckle when you’re taking the watch off, but it also means that you cannot easily adjust the strap for

The Bi-retrograde’s movement is Vacheron’s in-house Caliber 2460, or 2460 R31 R7, to be precise. This movement con-



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The designer’s decision to spread the days and dates WatchTimeMagazine-June2014-slidepdf.com across the dial improves legibility.

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TEST

Vacheron Constantin Patrimony Contemporaine Retrograde Day and Date

sists of an in-house automatic 2450 base caliber with a bi-retrograde module added to the dial side. It pains us to use the “m” word here, because it is often associated with cost-cutting. Be assured that quite the opposite is true in this instance. The components that power the retrograde displays evidence many hours of highly skilled attention. Selmoni told us that the 2450 and 2460 calibers were created by the late Bernard Guillaume-Gentil, the head of technical http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014 research and development for Vacheron, and that the movements reflect Guillaume-Gentil’s extensive knowledge and expe-

tested to ensure it meets the manufacturer’s claim. Timekeeping is checked after the movement has been cased up. The timekeeping test lasts seven days and is performed on a machine that rotates once a minute for 14 hours, then holds one position for 10 hours. The required accuracy works out to approximately 8.6 seconds per day. All watches bearing the Geneva Seal are sold with a copy of the certificate, which provides the case and movement serial numbers. The movement is also stamped. On our test watch, the Seal can be seen on the back of the mainplate, near the balance wheel.

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When you’re looking through the Bi-retrograde’s sapphire caseback, the winding rotor is the first thing that catches your WatchTimeMagazine -June 2014 slidepdf.com eye. Its solid 22k-gold mass-winds in both directions. It is decorated with an engine-turned Maltese cross design with a brushed sunray finish at the edge. In a lone nod to modernism, THE COMPONENTS the rotor spins on ceramic ball bearings for increased smoothBEHIND THE DIAL ness and decreased wear. Caliber 2460 is adjusted to five positions. It runs at 28,800 ARE IMPRESSIVE. vph in 27 jewels, regulated by a flat Nivarox hairspring and a smooth Glucydur balance. The power reserve is 43 hours. This movement exhibits a very high level of finish throughout. Indeed, the components hidden directly behind the dial are rience. Caliber 2460 is based on an earlier in-house design – perhaps the most impressive. Both sides of the mainplate are Caliber usedlaunched in the Reference and pa rticularly1126, in thewhich modelwas 47247 in 2002.47245, That reference was a limited edition of 247 pieces in platinum with openworked dial that revealed the beauty of the retrograde date mechanism. (The Reference 47247, shown on the opposite page, didn’t have the retrograde days of the week.) Caliber 2460 has earned the Geneva Seal. Beyond geographic requirements, the Seal establishes standards for construction, finishing, functionality, and timekeeping. Some of the requirements include a fully jeweled movement, decorated plates and

decorated with perlage, while the bridges areperfectly decorated with very well executed Geneva stripes, which are aligned across the bridges. The jewels and screws are set in polished holes with polished countersinks. The screw heads are polished,

bridges chamfers, set in polished holes with polishedwith sinkspolished on the bridge side,jewels chamfered going-train wheels, and burnished pivots and pivot shanks. Complications are tested to ensure that they function as intended. The power reserve is The case disguises its thickness well.


The attractive buckle takes some oomph to open.


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The open dial of this earlier model, the 47247, shows the movement off to great effect.

and the grooves beveled. The bridges are decorated with very fine hand beveling. Looking at the movement through a loupe, we noted that the thin chamfers are highly polished, allowing them to reflect other movement components. Though the watch does not have a seconds hand, it does have a stop-seconds or “hack” function, and the mechanism is among the finest examples we have seen. On the whole, this movement creates the impression that it is overbuilt.

Vacheron elected not to include a free-sprung balance, choosing instead a smooth Glucydur balance wheel and a fine adjustment system controlled by a small screw. Consistent with the rest of the movement, the execution is first-rate. We asked Selmoni about the decision not to use a free-sprung balance, and he told us: “We don’t use only one single system for the balance design – it can depend on the technical specifications and requirements of each caliber. However, our solutions are all

Behind the dial,that the includes retrograde displays are controlled by aa main driving wheel two finger pieces. One drives star-wheel for the day, and the other a star-wheel for the date. Both star-wheels are connected with a dedicated cam featuring a rack-indexation of the days and dates. This system returns the retrograde hands across arcs of nearly 180 degrees in less than 1/10 of a second, which requires a significant amount of energy. That energy is supplied by dedicated springs, each sized to provide just the right amount of force. Each component is hand-finished to a very high standard, with polished chamfers on every

respecting theofcriteria of the Geneva Hallmark.” The lack a seconds hand prevented us from checking the timekeeping on the wrist. On the Witschi machine, the greatest deviation of rate was rather large, at 12.5 seconds (+5.4 seconds dial up, -7.1 seconds crown right), though the average deviation was quite good, at +0.6 seconds. The average amplitude in the flat positions was 331 degrees and in the vertical positions it was 290 degrees. The complete timekeeping results appear in the Specs box. What does the Patrimony Contemporaine Retrograde Day

curve – and there are lots of curves. Even the springs evidence very fine craftsmanship.

and Date tell us about Vacheron Constantin? It tells us that the brand often produces timepieces that are at once traditional and

n i t n a t s n o c n o r e h c a v


SCORES Vacheron constantin Patrimony contemPoraine retrograde day/date

The display back reveals perfectly aligned Geneva stripes.


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non-conformist, and that it produces beautifully finished movements. We like the fact that the Bi-retrograde is both an elegant dress watch and a substantial presence on the wrist. Selmoni told us that this watch is one of Vacheron’s bestsellers, and we can see why. Yet if we could wave a magic wand, we would endow this watch with a more user-friendly buckle and a freesprung balance. At $49,600, the Bi-retrograde is certainly not inexpensive. However it’s not the type of display that determines value, but how the display is executed, and Vacheron’s execution is first rate. If you appreciate elegant yet unconventional

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timepieces from top-tier and Date may be for you. manufacturers, the Retrograde Day  134 WatchTime June 2014

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What makes a watch a dive watch? One leading source offers a definitive answer. By Mike Disher

n the watch world, when we ask “What is a … ?”, the search for the answer often begins with one source: Berner’s Illustrated Professional Dictionary of Horology, and that’s where today’s lesson begins. Berner’s defines “diving watch” as a “watch designed to withstand immersion to a depth of at least 100 m and to satisfy requirements specified in ISO standard 6425.” So, there’s your answer. If it is not

for yourself what it takes to make a dive watch, and whether you need one that is ISO certified. ISO 6425 has been around in its current form since 1996. Given the popularity of dive watches, you would think the standards would be well known among watch enthusiasts, but they are not, probably because they are not as widely used as COSC’s chronometer standards. They

certifiedThat under 6425, it isn’t a dive watch. wasISO easy. Or maybe not. The problem is that very few so-called dive watches are claimed to satisfy all of the ISO 6425 standards. Where does that leave us? Are there only a handful of real dive watches in the world? Without doubt, the waters surrounding the question of what it takes to make

are also rather long, a bit technical, and rarely reprinted in full. The meat of the official guidelines is found in sections 6 and 7. These spell out the physical requirements for dive watches and the methods for testing them. The watch must be equipped with a device that allows the user to pre-select a period of time of up to 60 minutes. This may be a rotating bezel or a digital dis-

a “true dive watch” deep and Our goal today is notare to settle thatmurky. debate (as if we could). For this exercise, we will also ignore dive computers, the acknowledgement of which would end this article right about here. We will also leave aside watches intended for diving with mixed gas. Rather, we’ll take a look at what the ISO thinks it takes to make a dive watch. The standards may raise some issues you

play. The device must be protected from inadvertent manipulation. A bezel must have a scale showing 60 minutes with markings showing every 5 minutes. Markings on the dial must be coordinated with those on the pre-selecting device, and must be clearly visible. The time must also be clearly visible, and the minutes hand must be clearly distinguishable from the hour hand.

have not previously considered. Once you know what’s what, you can decide

(“Clearly” is a favorite ISO word.) The time set on the pre-selecting device must


be clear, as must an indication that the watch is running. On analog watches, this is usually satisfied by placing luminous material on the seconds hand. Finally, battery-powered watches must have a visible low-battery indicator. Each of these must be visible at 25 cm, or about 10 inches, in the dark. http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014 There are also requirements governing salt-water resistance and reliability under water. The “resistance to salt

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under water. The resistance to salt water” test requires that the watch be placed in a sodium chloride solution of 30 WatchTimeMagazine-June2014-slidepdf.com grams per liter, which is about the same as seawater, and kept there for 24 hours at 18 to 25 degrees C, or about 64 to 77 degrees F. After the test, the case and accessories are inspected for changes (such as oxidation) and moving parts are tested to make sure they still function properly. The “reliability under water” test calls for the watch to be immersed in about 12 inches of water (not salt water) for 50 hours, again at 64 to 77 degrees F, after which the watch is examined for correct function. (Note that this is not the water-resistance test – that is discussed below). Both before and after the “reliability under water” test, the watch is subjected to a condensation test to determine whether any moisture has penetrated the case. The watch is placed on a plate and heated to between 40 and 45 degrees C, or about 104 to 113 degrees F. When the watch reaches the temperature of the plate, a drop of water at 64 to 77 degrees F is placed on the crystal. After one minute, the crystal is wiped off, and any watch with condensation on the inside of the crystal fails the test, as this result indicates a leak. ISO 6425 incorporates both ISO 764, which governs antimagnetic timepieces, and covers resistance.ISO ISO1413, 764 which requires that shock a watch be placed in a magnetic field of 4,800 amperes along three different axes for 1 minute each and maintain its accuracy to within +/-30 seconds per day as measured before and after the test. So, for example, if the watch was +12 seconds per day before the test and +40 seconds after, it would pass. The to shock-resistance standard is intended simulate the shock a watch

DIVE WATCHES

ISO Standards

This Seiko Sportura model does not meet ISO 6425 standards, and it is marked “water resistant.”


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Cartier’s new Calibre Diver meets all ISO

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WatchTime Magazine -June2014-slidepdf.com 6425 requirements, and it is marked “Diver’s Watch 300 M.”

receives if it is dropped from a height of one meter onto a hardwood floor. The test involves delivering two shocks – one to the 9 o’clock side of the case and one to the top or face of the watch. The shock is delivered by what looks like a croquet mallet suspended between vertical supports so that it swings like a pendulum. Between the supports, at the bottom, is what looks like a large, rubber golf tee. The mallet, which has a plastic head weighing 3 kg or about 6.6 pounds, is raised to a height of one meter and released. The head hits the watch, which sits on the rubber tee, at a speed of 4.43 meters per second, delivering a shock equal to about 5,000 Gs. To meet the ISO standard, after the test the watch must keep time to within +/-60 seconds per day, compared with its rate before the test. The next requirements deal with resistance to external forces. The first test

plate condensation test” described earlier is carried out to ensure that there is no leak. Note that the ISO guidelines do not explicitly require a screw-down crown. Any construction that passes the test is acceptable. The next requirement is resistance to thermal shock. The watch is immersed in hot water (104 degrees F), then cool water (41 degrees F), then hot water again. The watch spends 10 minutes at each temperature, and the transition time from one temperature to the other cannot exceed 1 minute. Both before and after the three immersions, the hot-plate condensation test is applied to make sure no moisture has entered the watch. The final test is water resistance at overpressure equal to 125 percent of the rated depth. The hot-plate condensation test is performed at the beginning to confirm that there is no moisture in the watch. The watch is then immersed in a

every watch. The other tests can be satisfied by testing a statistically significant sample of watches. This is an important difference compared with the lessstringent ISO 2281, used for watches that are merely “water resistant.” That ISO guideline does not require testing every watch to its rated depth, but only a sample. The next time you see an account of a watch rated to 100, 200 or even 300 meters failing at lesser depths, pay attention to whether the watch is an ISO 6425 diver or an ISO 2281 water-resistant model. Finally, the ISO standards include an optional test for air-tightness at an overpressure. The watch is subject to air pressure of two bar, or about 29 psi, and the flow of air entering the watch is measured. Comparable methods, for example using inert gasses, are permitted. The standard states, a bit vaguely, that “watches giving a high flow of air shall be

applies the to the spring bars. With the strap closed, inside of the strap is subjected to an outward force equal to 200 newtons in each direction. This subjects each spring bar to about 45 pounds of force. To make sure the crown and any other setting devices don’t leak, the watch is subjected to 125 percent of its rated depth pressure for 10 minutes while a force of five newtons, or a little over one

pressure equal testertoand, within of1 the minute, pressure 125 percent rated depth is applied. After two hours, the watch is quickly depressurized by reducing the pressure to 0.3 bar, or three meters, within 1 minute, and pressure is maintained at that level for one hour. The watch is removed and dried, and the hotplate condensation test is performed again.

eliminated from the test immediately.” The ISO standards provide that a watch that passes all of the tests may be marked with the word “Divers” followed by the depth rating, for example “Divers 300m” (or similar terms in other languages). Watches that have not passed the ISO test may not be marked “Divers.” Note that the manufacturer is not required to put any specific mark or lan-

pound, is applied to thethis toptest, of the Both before and after thecrown. “hot-

To meet the 6425 guideline, this overpressure testISO must be performed on

guage on the watch to indicate that it satisfies ISO 6425. 



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ARNOLD ARRIVES With its rapidly growing collection of manufacture movements, Arnold & Son is a little brand generating big buzz. By Jay DeshpanDe

t seemed to come out of nowhere. Arnold & Son’s arrival at Baselworld last year caught many watch aficionados off guard. Suddenly, the small brand had an impressive array of new models. Each had an original manufacture movement

ways. There was the Ultra Thin Tourbillon Escapement (known as UTTE), with a movement that broke records for thinness, and the Time Pyramid, with its dramatic see-through dial. Connoisseurs and industry insiders were impressed. Arnold & Son

designed specifically for thatinwatch. Each was highly complicated innovative

is small,are they said. How are they from? doing it?so Where these watches coming


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n o s

& d l o n r a ©

The Time Pyramid, introduced at Baselworld last year


PROFILE

Arnold & Son


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n o s & d l o n r a ©

CEO Frédéric Wenger, right, and Sébastien Chaulmontet in the Arnold factory

Arnold’s secret is its owner, Manufacture La Joux-Perret. This movement and module supplier makes it possible for Arnold to do what few small brands can: forgo a gradual ramp-up, and instead start big and bring out watches that make a splash. La Joux-Perret acquired Arnold in 2010. Since then the brand has focused on producing all manufacture movements, designing highly complicated watches, and presenting a complete collection – fast. The Basel buzz might make Arnold sound like the new kid on the block, but the story of this brand goes farther back. The revamping didn’t happen overnight. WatchTime visited the factories of the movement maker and the brand, housed

CEO of Arnold and La Joux-Perret, to learn more about the relaunch of Arnold. UNTIL 2010, Arnold & Son was one of two brands being marketed by the British Masters Group. But the group had funneled most of its resources into its other brand, Graham. As a result, Arnold had “come to a standstill,” Wenger says. Wenger, the CEO of La Joux-Perret since 2003, was also a minority shareholder in British Masters. “They were hardly doing anything,” he says. “It’s hard for a small company to have two brands.” For La Joux-Perret, Arnold presented the perfect opportunity. LJP has about 50 customers, and they include some of the biggest names in the watch industry. But

other companies, they didn’t have the opportunity to explore their own design ideas. “We were suppliers without power to make things happen,” Wenger says. LJP would suggest some of its more daring ideas to clients, but no one wanted to take the risk. Over time, it became clear that LJP’s creative freedom and control would be stifled until it had its own watch company. So in May 2010, La Joux-Perret bought the rights to the Arnold name, as well as its small inventory of products, and Wenger became CEO of both companies. (British Masters became Graham London, which has offices in the same building as LJP and Arnold.) The Arnold name is one of the most famous in watch history. John Arnold

in the and samespoke building La Chaux-deFonds, with in Frédéric Wenger,

Wenger and his team felt that something was missing. In producing technology for

(1736-1799) was among greatest British watchmakers of allthetime. (See



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Arnold and La Joux-Perret, along with Graham London, share a building in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

n o s

& d l o n r a ©

“John Arnold, Great Briton” sidebar.) He was the first to produce marine chronometers in large quantities and he made watches for the court of King George III. Arnold was also a friend of Abraham-Louis Breguet, whose first tourbillon appeared in an Arnold watch in 1808 as a tribute to his British colleague. under LJP ownership came out in 2011. It was two years later, at Baselworld 2013, that the brand really caught collectors’ eyes. One watch they noticed was the Time Pyramid, based on the triangular design of classic British table clocks. The watch arranges the bulk of the movement in the bottom half of the dial. The balance wheel is placed at 12 o’clock, with nothing on either side of it. The watch has a skeletonized design and ample open space, without a conventional mainplate. (Sébastien Chaulmontet, who is in charge of movement development for Arnold and LJP, says that he wanted the wearer to see the direct contact between the wheels and the lack of any straight bridge to hold them together.)

The UTTE

THE FIRST ARNOLD WATCHES

the its dial are two barrels that giveBeneath the watch 90-hour power reserve.


The HM Perpetual Moon

Although the barrels appear to be symmetrical, only one of them connects directly to the movement. Chaulmontet says that the purpose of this serial arrangement is to prevent timing errors that occur as the mainspring winds down. By having a “mother” barrel feed energy to the “child,” the Time Pyramid extends the period during which the spring supplies power most evenly. Each barrel has its own power-reserve indicator on the dial. Despite all this, the watch is a thin 8.6 mm. It has a diameter of 44.6 mm and, to add to its symmetry, the recessed crown is at 6 o’clock. The Time Pyramid $29,850 in steel and $40,350 incosts rose gold. June 2014 WatchTime 143

PROFILE

Arnold & Son The Time Pyramid

The UTTE also turned heads at Baselworld last year. Its movement is just 2.97 mm thick. Arnold’s main design goal, though, wasn’t thinness as such, but rather a dynamic, 3-D look. The UTTE has a spherical tourbillon cage that rises higher above the dial than the hands do. The watch has two mainspring barrels, giving it a 90-hour power reserve. It is 42 http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014 mm in diameter and is available in palladium ($59,950) or rose gold ($69,000). (For more on the UTTE, see WatchTime’s

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(For more on the UTTE, see WatchTime s test, “The Thinner Spinner,” April 2014.) Another new watch was the HM WatchTimeMagazine-June2014-slidepdf.com Perpetual Moon, which has a prominent, large and realistic moon on its dial, which is decorated with guilloché. This design was first hand-engraved, then copied for the series. The moon-phase is accurate enough that it will only deviate one day in 122 years. A second moon-phase display on the back of the movement makes for easier setting. The Perpetual Moon costs $15,300 in steel and $28,500 in rose gold. Lastly, Baselworld 2013 saw the introduction of a new version of the n o s brand’s first tourbillon, called the TE8 & Métiers d’Art I. It features a specially d l o designed, hand-engraved pattern, which n r a “evolves,” changing in size and angle, as © it moves from the center of the mainplate to the outer edge. Only eight copies of this watch will be produced, and Chaulmontet says that Arnold will not use this engraving design ever again. At $131,900, it was Arnold’s most expensive watch to date. By the end of 2013, Arnold & Son The movement, the manual-wound had 10 manufacture calibers. Arnold has Caliber A&S8513, has a 90-hour power also brought out several special editions, reserve; its two mainsprings can be including the three-piece East India Set, wound via the crown at 2 o’clock. The n o featuring three different hand-painted DTE is limited to 28 pieces. (Information s & mother-of-pearl dials. Chaulmontet says on Arnold’s other Baselworld 2014 d l o that five more new movements will be watches was not available at press time.) n r introduced this year. Arnold launched the To go from zero to 15 distinct move a © first of them a few weeks before Baselments in only a couple of years is impresworld. The TEC1 is a tourbillon and sive, especially for such a small brand. Arnold’s first chronograph, an automatic (Arnold’s annual production is about 700 called the A&S8305. It has a 55-hour watches.) The company won’t maintain Through the back of power reserve. The DTE, also unveiled that pace, Chaulmontet says. Its goal was the TE8 Métiers d’Art I, one can see the shortly before Baselworld, is a dual-time to create all the calibers it needs to make “evolving” engraved watch with two separate tourbillon a complete line of watches in the brand’s pattern.

escapements and gear trains. Eachcrowns. time is set independently by one of two

early the years. As Arnoldwill approaches that goal, introductions slow.


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Magazine -June    * **. H WatchTime  *;= >@  ; ;< ;2014-slidepdf.com ; ;, ; ;   <@. A *; > ;    H. %  ;< ; C; J C 1772 =@ ;< E,  >   ** <; ; #<; H. A;<  @ The movement of Arnold’s ring watch was only 1/3  *;,  M*G<, >   ;* > ; ;*<@ inch in diameter.  @ ; @<  ;@ ; **<;, A =      ; >;* ;;  * <* *;   <;; A    > ,  ; =< >;*    1762. (I; >< * DA & # ;. H N. 36 >;*, >* @   . #<* > ; <;< > J " A  ; ; "@ =;@ ; G>*, > ; ;; *  ;   ; <  ; 1780.) ; ; ; <  *; *,  ; ; >;* ;  ; ;. A     >;*  ; ; ;  *  D*;. B@ ; ! ; ;   ;      K G III. A -< ; 1780, ; >  A N. 68 >;* ; > . A   ; >;  *@* *; *; * ;; ; > **<; ; *; *; N.11  1774     <@, ; =; > @ ;> -0.7  +0.6 *  @. J " ; ; ; B<;   ;. ' 1/3 *  ;  ; ;  . M@  A ;** =; ; A ;  1799, B<; $ ;  "<  1,000 < >< * ; ; @. H  ; *; =;, ; ; A ;   ?*; *@ ;; ; ; *   1775.   *-;; *;  B<; ; < =;:  ;<B@ 1782  = ; ; ; . B<; ;< ; >;* ; =* *<=   . A , >;  *;: D$ ; L;   *, A * John Arnold ;< <; @ B<; *;  >; A-L< B<;. $ ;> >;* =; * ; ;    ; ; >  A. B<; = ;  A  L   ; ; = @  A. B<;  ! F  ; ;*< !; ;    ; @ 1808.

Breguet added a tourbillon to Arnold’s No. 11 chronometer and had it engraved in honor of his friend.


THE NEW SHOP


120/144 The new DTE

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America’s No. 1 watch magazine has a new shop – find issues, specials, videos, reviews and subscription information: www.watchtime.com/shop


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OPEN DISCOVER IT NOW!

brand has long been a dream for Wenger. Before his La Joux-Perret days, Wenger worked for a boutique investment bank in Zurich. But he wanted new challenges. “After a few years if you’ve done so many IPOs and so many M&A deals, it starts to be always the same,” Wenger says. “When you lead a whole company, you have much more: prodDEVELOPING A WATCH

uct development, people management, financial aspects. It’s just broader.” In 2001 he invested in the watch movement supplier Jaquet SA, becoming the company’s director. When founder JeanPierre Jaquet was arrested for robbery and counterfeiting in 2003, Wenger took over as CEO. The company was renamed Manufacture La Joux-Perret in 2004. Arnold benefits from LJP’s years of experience. It has worked with a wide range of watch companies and suppliers, from small independents to the big groups

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Enjoy the new WatchTime shop – open for you 24/7: www.watchtime.com/shop

          

TH E WO RL D OF FI NE WA TC HE S

PROFILE

Arnold & Son

like Swatch and Richemont. Today, most of its base movements come from Sellita (LJP does not itself make a base movement). LJP creates modules for Sellita’s

makes 400 to 500 tourbillon movements for clients like Corum and Hermès. Building up Arnold has meant that La Joux-Perret has to funnel many of its

ness so much,” Wenger says. According to him, the focus of their relationship so far has been on information sharing. Citizen’s production is very automated;

chronograph SW 500 movement, and uses resources to the brand. But since Japan’s Sellita bases to make specialty complica- Citizen Group purchased La Joux-Perret tions for many of its other clients. In LJP’s in March 2012, funding hasn’t been such factories, some 100 to 150 different com- a concern. Citizen is a watch-world giant ponents and modules are being produced (its watch and clock division’s sales for at any given time. Orders range from fiscal 2012 amounted to $1.48 billion). http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014 small, single-component runs of a few Citizen’s ownership has not changed hundred to series production in the hun- the approach in La Chaux-de-Fonds,

La Joux-Perret’s much less so. “But each world can learn from the other,”Wenger observes.“We’ve certainly opened their views to things they didn’t see before. That probably will have an impact on their product development over time. And we visit their factories and see some automated processes that we never

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dreds of thousands. Each year LJP also

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however. “It doesn’t affect our daily busi-

thought could be automated.”




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c#d', d/a')" #c# (ac#)  (a&)" #c# +*dc/. T# c)  +ca'' (+*/a)/ !* La J*-P/, # (* /#a) 100 d!!)/ +*dc/ a b)" +*dcd a/ *)c. W)" /*+ )/ /* *) *+a/* #*  +'ac)" )dda' #' *)/* a (a)+'a/. T# +*c, # +'a), c*'d *)' b d*) !* #"#-)d (*()/. 9I(a") ! * #a /* +/  )"' #' *) b #a)d. A'ad, /# *+a/*) +*bab' c*/ *(/#)" '& 20 c)/. P//)" /# #' *), /a&)" / aa 7 20 c)/, %/ !* /#a/. Ob*', * ca))*/ d* /#a/ !* )/-'' *'(. B/, !* a (*()/ /#a/ c*/ /# ba)d *(/#)" '& 2,000 !a)c, /#) a /# / *! /# a/c# c*/ 1,000 !a)c, * 3,000, /(  7 *8 /a'&)" ab*/ a'(*/ a $20,000 a/c#, #) * *& *) c*(+*))/ /#a/ a. A'*)" /# */, W)" +'a) #* # c#** #c# (ac#) #*'d b d !* #c# /a&, ") /# c*/ a)d +d.

P*)/)" /* *) *! # CNC (ac#), # )*/ /#a/, #' /# (ac#) c*'d b +*"a((d /* (a& a'(*/ a'' /# c*(+*))/ ) a (*()/, / #a /* b d !* #"#-)d +*dc/ a)d +*/*/+)", bca /8 /** '* !* 'a"-ca' . 9A (ac#) '& /#a/ c*/ $400,000. S*,  #* *) /# (ac#)  (ab 100 bc&, d+)d)" *) #*   /. I! / /a& * 10 ()/ /* d* /# /#)", /8 OK !* a /*b''*), b/ /8 )*/ OK !* a (+' (*d'. I! * a)/ /* d* b"" a)//, * #a /* +*dc /# a( +c d!!)/'. La J*-P/ dd / *+a/*), bad *) /# a(*)/ *! *& /#a/ a +*dc/ . T# *)' (*()/ /#a/ a a(b'd ) #* a #"#-)d *). T# (a) /a&aa: a) +c ca) b (ad ) ('/+' d!!)/ a, b #a)d * *) d!!)/ (ac#); /8 a (a// *! #a/ * ca) a!!*d !* ac# *). 9I/8 a'a )d)" /# *+/((, d+)d)" *) a* !ac/*, W)" a.



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GOING for

GOLD http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014

123/144 The Lux is instantly identifiable as a Nomos: its dial and hands

call to mind the Orion, a round watch that is one of Nomos s best-known models. The Lux case looks very compact, and the

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rounded corners2014 and edges feel nice to the touch. The crystal has WatchTimeMagazine -June -slidepdf.com

Nomos is known for its affordable manufacture watches. With its new, white-gold Lux model, the Glashütte-based brand enters a higher price range. By Jens Koch Photos By niK schölzel and nomos

or years, Nomos built simple, hand-wound watches and was known for value. Gradually, the company, based in the German town of Glashütte, augmented those basic models with additional features: a date display, automatic winding, a power-reserve display and even a world-time indicator. As it did so, Nomos steadily lifted the upper limit of its price range. The logical next step was gold watches with finely embellished movements – which is just what Nomos provides in the Lux. Both its case and its movement are tonneau shaped. The outer part of the dial frames the time display in robin’s egg blue. As Nomos points out in a press release, the styling of the dial, including its blue color, recalls a Bauhaus-inspired kitchen clock that Max Bill designed for Junghans in 1957. The blue is a good match for the watch as a whole. It also softens the otherwise severely geometric architecture of slim, straight hands and indexes. (There is also an all-white-dial version of the watch.)

F

a slightly convex bulge. Slender stirrups anchor the strap, giving space between it and the case. They conceal sprung crosspieces that can be opened without tools by moving the little slides on the underside of the strap. The time is perfectly legible. The narrow hands contrast well enough with the dial, but their widths are nearly identical; and the hour indexes are only slightly longer than the minutes indexes. The watch is very comfortable: the strap feels soft and supple; the buckle isn’t unnecessarily bulky. The watch is pleasantly light in weight and no sharp edges can be seen or felt. But with its smooth back, this watch has a tendency to slide around on a narrow wrist. Nomos offers only two options for the strap: black or dark brown horsehide. The Horween Tannery in Chicago supplies this long-wearing leather, tanned over the course of six months. Nomos also uses this so-called “shell cordovan” leather, taken from the horse’s hindquarters, for the straps on its other models, but the Lux strap is more thickly padded for a fuller look than the straps on the other watches. The white-gold buckle is new, too. When it’s closed, the rear crosspiece comes to rest atop the strap, where it doubles as a belt loop. This practical detail is a handsome visual echo of the slender strap lugs. Like the case, the clasp is meticulously polished, although scrutiny through a loupe discovered slight tool marks on the buckle’s underside. Careful examination of the case finds milled notches, which help a watchmaker lift off the snap-on back and bezel. The craftsmanship as a whole is quite good. It’s particularly impressive on the movement. Caliber DUW 2002, made in house, conforms to the tenets of traditional Glashütte watchmaking: it has a three-quarter plate, screwed gold settings, a swan’s neck fine adjustment mechanism and a hand-engraved balance cock. The screw balance and decorations also show signs of excellent craftsmanship: the screws are blued, their heads are polished, and the edges of flat components are beveled and polished. The crown wheel, which is visible through the transparent caseback, boasts a Glashütte sunburst pattern and is positioned at the center of a sunray motif that radiates across the plate. This decoration looks very handsome, but through a loupe one can see vertical stripes left on the plate when the circular graining was milled. A hidden message in cursive June 2014 WatchTime 151

TEST

Nomos Lux

SPECS NOMOS L" Manufacturer: N/ G#*' SA,

writing comes to light when one examines the manual engraving on the balance cock. It reads, “Mit Liebe gefertigt in Glashütte” (“Made with love in Glashütte”). The two directions for fine adjustment – nach (loss) and vor (gain) – are also engraved by

R#& S%*'' KG, F'&#&-A&*L#)'-P#; 2, D-01768 G#*', G'/# Reference number: 920 Functions: H, /', /# '%& manufacture

hand. The window occupies nearly the entire caseback, and through it one can read the gold-filled engravings that give the caliber number, jewel count, serial number and company name. The two barrels are positioned under the jewels, which lack settings. The barrels give the movement an ample 84-hour power reserve. Our tested watch proved its mettle and kept running for http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014 the promised 3½ days. The Lux has a stop-seconds function that enables the wearer to set the watch precisely to a time signal. Pulling out the crown

Movement: C#' D!H#&-& 2002, 21,600 *, 23

'', -'%& (%, %' ##%', #> '% ?'-#&/' /'%*#/, ' ''' = 84 *, &/' = 28.8  32.6 //  3.6 // Case: !*'-)& %#', %#/''&

#*' %#, #- #% * #*' &, #' '#  30 /

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Strap and clasp: H'*&' # *

stops the balance, and hence the seconds hand. The crown is

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*'-)& )'& %'

Rate results: well shaped, making winding and settingWatchTime easy. -June2014 -slidepdf.com D'#  '%& ' 24 * Caliber DUW 2002 is not new. (“DUW” standsMagazine for Deutsche Urhrenwerk, or “German watch movement.”) It has D#  been available since 2006, and was first used in a watch marD# &

+5 -1

C 

+1

C &

+3

C '(

+2

C )* G'#' &'# ( #'

0 6

A'#)' &'# A'#)' #/&':

+1.7

F# 

263<

H#)) 

227<

Dimensions: 36 //  40.5 //, *')* =

8.95 //, ')* = 77 ) Price: $20,500

The blue dial recalls a Bauhaus-inspired kitchen clock from the 1950s.


SCORES NOMOS LUX S+a a&d c$a* (%a. 10 '#&+*): The ob#!" !"ap and "he a""ac"i$el' !lim (b#" no" pefec"l' poli!hed) ponged b#ckle go %ell %i"h "hi! %a"ch! !"'ling. 8

The three-quarter plate movement conforms to Glashütte watchmaking traditions.


Oa+#'& (5): Thank! "o "he co%n! !hape and "he !"op-!econd! f#nc"ion, i" i! ea!' "o %ind "he %a"ch and !e" i" %i"h "o-"he-!econd acc#ac'. 5 Ca* (10): The %ell-caf"ed ca!e i! hand!omel' o#nded and ha! a cambeed !apphie c'!"al. 9 D*#"& (15): Thi! de!ign doe!n" !#i" e$e'one! !"'le, b#" i"! inag#abl' hamonio#! and %ell balanced. L"#b#$#+/ (5): The ho# and min#"e!

13

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hand! ae "oo !imila "o each o"he and

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"he ho# inde&e! ae "oo !ho".

c'%!'+ (10): A !#pple !"ap WatchTimeMagazine-June2014-Wa#&" slidepdf.com

3

and lo% o$eall %eigh" make i" ea!' "o foge" "ha" 'o#e %eaing "hi! %a"ch, %hich ha! a pe!k' "endenc' "o !lide ao#nd on nao% %i!"!. 8 M'-%&+ (20): All "he !pecial fea"#e! of Gla!h""e %a"chmaking, along %i"h plen"' of handcaf"!man!hip, ae e$iden" in "hi! *ne calibe. 16 Ra+ *,$+* (10): The mo$emen" pefomed %i"h good indi$id#al a"e e!#l"! and lo% a$eage de$ia"ion, b#" "he ampli"#de! co#ld ha$e been highe. 7 O-a$$ -a$, (15): The high pice ge"! 'o# a high-q#ali"' %i!"%a"ch, b#" "he e!ale $al#e i! !pec#la"i$e fo a Nomo! %a"ch in "hi! ne%, highe-piced ca"ego'. 12

The Lux also comes in a version with an all-white dial.

TOTAL:

keted under the name of the German retailer Wempe. (The watch is still available, although Nomos no longer sells movements to Wempe.) Nomos finely adjusts the movement in six positions and according to chronometric specifications, although it is not officially certified. The Lux we tested passed the timing tolerances required for chronometer certification, but only barely: on our timing machine, the daily deviations in the various positions ranged between -1 and +5 seconds, so the greatest deviation among the several positions was 6 seconds. The average deviation was a pleasingly low +1.7 seconds, but the amplitude waned in the flat positions. The price for the Lux, $20,500, approaches the prices that Patek Philippe and A. Lange & Söhne charge for three-handed dress watches. For that sum, you’ll get a fine timepiece, but you won’t get the impressive cost-benefit ratio of Nomos’s basic

81 POINTS

models like the Tangente. Image usually plays a big role in this upper price tier, and Nomos hasn’t yet earned a correspondingly refined image. Furthermore, the Wempe Chronometerwerke Glashütte, which has the same movement as the Lux, also in a gold case, costs 40 percent less than the Lux. Nomos has remained loyal to its tradition. The Bauhausinspired styling of this brand’s other watches continues in the Lux, although its tonneau case and blue dial won’t appeal to everyone. We’re enthusiastic about the case, strap, buckle and the Glashütte-style manufacture movement, although scrutiny through a loupe disclosed a few slight traces of neglect. The cost-benefit ratio is not as impressive as in other Nomos models, but you still get a lot for the price. The bottom line: if you’re fond of this watch’s Bauhaus design and its pastel blue dial, your  money will buy you a high-quality watch. June 2014 WatchTime 153

The village of Tavannes. In the center is the old Tavannes Watch Co. factory building.


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THE JURA TRIANGLE

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A cluster of tiny Jura villages, forming WatchTimeMagazine -June 2014 -slidepdf.com

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a rough triangle from the Saint-Imier Valley to the French border, played a huge role in watch history. By Norma BuchaNaN


SWISS WATCHMAKING CENTERS

The Jura Triangle


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I

n 1854, 14-year-old Edouard Heuer, smart, ambitious, and in search of a career, left his hometown of Brügg, at the foot of Switzerland’s Jura Mountains. He didn’t head for one of Switzerland’s big cities, Geneva, Zurich, or Basel, or to bustling Bienne, right next to his hometown. Heuer went to a village called Saint-Imier. By then, the road to Saint-Imier was well trodden: watchmaking had been blossoming there for several decades and was a magnet for job seekers. Heuer, who went on to found the company that became TAG Heuer, now based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, had been preceded by a parade of young comers. Best known to us is Auguste Agassiz, who in 1832 had just finished a banking apprenticeship in Neuchâtel. He went to Saint-Imier to work at a watch company called Comp-

toir Horloger Raiguel Jeune and soon afterward founded the company that would one day dominate Saint-Imier, Longines. Between 1850 and 1890, the village’s

Noirmont and Saignelégier (see map on pages 158-159). All were once watch towns. Some still are. They form a rough triangle with the Suze River as its base and Saignelégier as

population tripled to 7,500 people. Another famous founder got his start there: Léon Breitling, who opened a chronograph workshop in Saint-Imier in 1884. It became Breitling SA, now based in Grenchen. By the end of the century, half of the working population of Saint-Imier was employed in the watch industry. The town’s population had grown nine-fold since 1800. Saint-Imier, which now has a population of just under 5,000, is the largest town in the Saint-Imier Valley, which sits between La Chaux-de-Fonds to the southwest and Bienne to the east. The valley, in Canton Berne, is formed by the Suze River as it descends from the Jura Mountains and empties into Lake Bienne. A handful of musically named, but now largely unsung, villages also sit in the valley along the Suze: Sonvilier (where Chopard founder Louis-Ulysse Chopard started his company in 1860), Villeret, Sonceboz, Cormoret, Courtelary, Cortébert and Corgémont (the “cor” in the last four is derived from the Old French word for “farm house”). Just a few miles to the east and north, respectively, are Tavannes and Tramelan. Still further north, toward the French border, are the villages of Le

its peak. The towns of the triangle are tiny but they loom large in the Swiss watch industry, past and present. Just as the watchmaking cities of La Chaux-deFonds, Bienne, Le Locle and Geneva are all pillars of that industry, so is this constellation of villages. Nowadays, Longines, impossible to overlook because of its huge, gleaming, white factory, is the largest watch company in the triangle. Saint-Imier now has nine watch-industry suppliers, and this past November, COSC, the Swiss chronometer testing agency, opened a facility in the town (it had had one there until the quartz crisis forced its closing in the 1970s). Next door in Villeret is the factory known until recently as Minerva and now called Montblanc Manufacture. Nivarox, the balance-spring-making subsidiary of the Swatch Group, also has a factory in Villeret. Elsewhere in the region are facilities owned by movement maker Dimier 1738 (sister of the Bovet brand) and the watch brands Armand Nicolet and Auguste Reymond (all in Tramelan); the movement maker Soprod (in adjacent Les Reussilles); the Paul Picot brand (Le Noirmont); the private-label company Roventa-Henex (Tavannes); and Maurice Lacroix, Aerowatch and another



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Saint-Imier is the biggest town in the Saint-Imier Valley, in the Jura Mountains northeast of

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WatchTimeMagazine-June2014-slidepdf.com La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Soprod factory (in Saignelégier). Richard Mille has its headquarters in Les Breuleux, in the middle of the triangle. Makers of components and watch-production machines and suppliers of services like

Agassiz’s first comptoir, which was destroyed by fire in 1856. Agassiz then moved his business to the street now known as Rue Agassiz. In the mid-19th century, the watch

and the like − were already using power from the Suze. But those industries were fading in the face of foreign competition. As they died, the factory owners turned to watchmaking, the Jura’s rising star.

finishing and plating dot the entire region.

industry here began a dramatic change. The établissage system started to yield to a new way of making watches, in which most of the manufacturing processes were gathered under one roof and performed by machines, often powered by water. The first such watch factory in the area, an ébauche factory, began operating in 1834 in Corgémont, and it was powered, like many that followed it, by the

The region’s industrialized watch production had its roots across the border in the French Jura, in the town of Beaucourt. There, in about 1770, Frédéric Japy, a former student of the famous Le Locle watchmaker Abraham-Louis Perrelet, built an ébauches factory that turned out tens of thousands of pieces per year, which Japy sold to the établisseurs in the Swiss Jura. His success inspired

Suze River. Other industries, notably textiles and metal-working – for arms, nails, locks,

others. In 1793, a factory opened in Fontainemelon, near La Chaux-deFonds, and over the next decades grew to

in the Jura triangle in the first half of the 18th century, when mountain farmers took it up to supplement their incomes during the winter. Watch manufacturing was organized under a system of divided labor known as établissage, in which paysans horlogers (“farmer-watchmakers”) specialized in WATCHMAKING ARRIVED

making a particular component or performing a particular function, like polishing or beveling. At the hub of the operation was an entrepreneur, often a watchmaker himself, who managed the work flow, financed production, oversaw final assembly and sold the finished watches. He was known as the établisseur. His company was often called a “comptoir.” In Saint-Imier and the other nearby towns, there were many établisseurs. Edouard Heuer worked for one, Kierner & Sons, before becoming an établisseur himself. Agassiz also worked for an établisseur at the start of his career. In Saint-Imier you can see vestiges of the old établissage days. On Place du 16Mars is the building where Breitling started his watch business, as an établisseur. At Rue du Temple 4 is the site of Auguste

The Longines factory and headquarters in Saint-Imier



The Jura Triangle

giant size. (In 1838, its owners bought the already-failing Corgémont factory, just four years after it had opened.) From there, mechanized production spread to

head in 1861 and decided to modernize its production methods by moving all its watchmaking functions under one roof and using energy from the Suze to

other Swiss towns, especially those along power them. Thatcut way, Francillon the Suze. believed, he could production The factories lured workers from the costs and compete better in back-breaking, low-paying work of the major watch markets, farm. They also provided jobs for immiincluding the U.S. grants and their descendants. Political agitation in Canton Neuchâtel in the http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014 1830s and ’40s had forced many people in the canton to leave for the Saint-Imier Valley; these exiles found work making

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watches.

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WatchTimeMagazine-June2014-slidepdf.com a new factory opened in SaintImier, on a piece of meadowland called Les Longines (“long meadows”). The factory was a successor to Auguste Agassiz’s comptoir. In 1852, Agassiz’s nephew, Ernest Francillon, had joined the comptoir. He took over from his uncle as its IN 1867,



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Geneva enev


The Jura Triangle

His was a daring move: the établissage system was still the norm in the valley and many Imeriens had a stake in preserving it. In 1867, Saint-Imier alone had

in 1850, and Elgin, founded in 1864, were by the mid-1870s producing about 200,000 watches per year. Their watches weren’t just plentiful; they were cheap.

The Swiss learned the truth in 1876 at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, where U.S. watch companies showed off their watches and their sys-

47 watch companies subcontracting Worse they werecompanies very well made: betcompanies employing and 1,600 people. ter thanyet, what Swiss could proBut Francillon forged ahead. In 1866, duce for the same price. he bought a failed metal-working mill on Their secret was a system of mechanized mass-production that came to be the Suze and on that site, and an adjoining parcel of land, built a watch factory. known as the “American system of manIn 1867, he erected a second factory ufacturing.” It produced uniform, and building next to the first. That year, he uniformly good, interchangeable compohttp://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014 began labeling his watches with the name nents. Thanks to that system, the U.S. he had taken from the meadows: watch industry was elbowing the Swiss

temThat for making year, atthem. the request of Francillon’s sales agent in New York, who had more than 4,000 of the company’s watches sitting unsold in U.S. stores, David crossed the Atlantic to see the U.S. industry up close, visiting both the exhibition and the companies themselves.

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“Longines.” industry out of America. Swiss watch Francillon hired a 22-year-old engiexports to the U.S. fell from 18.3 million Breitling founder Léon neer, a cousin of Auguste Agassiz namedWatchTime Swiss francs in 1872 to SF4.8 million four 2014-slidepdf.com Magazine -June Breitling started his watch Jacques David, to set up the new factory. years later. career in Saint-Imier in 1884. It began producing watches in 1868. Oddly, the Swiss had little sense of But problems plagued the company, how far the U.S. industry had come, and so much so that at one point, in the early felt no urgency about taking it on. Amer1870s, Francillon thought he would have icans were making watches, they knew, to liquidate it. The first watches that but who cared? The Swiss had the art of came out of the new factory barely ran; watchmaking sewn up, they thought. their escapements were faulty and had to be revamped. The company was mired in debt, much of it due to the expensive new factory. Its biggest problem, though, lay across the Atlantic: Longines was faltering in the American market, which in 1873 accounted for a whopping 80 percent of its total revenue. The culprit was the newly powerful U.S. watch industry. Waltham, founded

What could the newbie Americans know about the skills they had mastered to a fare-thee-well?

A bust of Ernest Francillon in Place du Marché in Saint-Imier

A map of Saint-Imier showing the piece of land, “Es Longines,” where the Longines factory was built.

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WatchTimeMagazine-June2014-slidepdf.com Workers leaving the Longines factory, 1911

When he returned to Switzerland, he reported back to the Intercantonal Society of Jura Industries on what he had seen. His observations echoed those of Edouard Favre-Perret, the Swiss representative to the Philadelphia exhibition, who had written a now-famous paper on the technological advances on display there. The paper, and a subsequent speech Favre-Perret made in La Chaux e mde-Fonds, exploded in the Jura like a s i r bombshell. u o T David got to work modernizing his s i o factory, less than a decade old, incorpo n e r B rating the a The r u J changed.

The Villa Savoye, built in 1900 by a Longines factory manager, is a landmark building in Saint-Imier.

JACQUES DAVID BROUGHT TO SAINT-IMIER A NEW WAY TO MAKE WATCHES AND BECAME A HERO.

The rest of the Swiss watch industry adopted the new methods, too, with a haste and efficiency that surprised their American counterparts. After the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, the Waltham News reported, according to a 1947 book on

lessons he’d learned in America. company’s fortunes soon By the 1880s, Longines was making a complete range of machinemade, in-house movements. By the end of the decade, it was producing chronometers that won certification by the Neuchâtel Observatory. In 1889, it won a Grand Prize at the Exposition Universelle in Paris.

the history of Longines by Francillon descendant André Francillon, “The progress made by the Swiss in watchmaking is absolutely astounding.” The Swiss did not adopt centralized production to the extent Americans did – they continued to use outside suppliers for more operations than U.S. firms did – but their modified, hybrid form of industrial production was nothing like the établissage

On Rue Agassiz, number 15, there’s a mansion that offers a glimpse of the company’s gilded-age prosperity. It is the stately but unostentatious Villa Savoye, built in 1900 by the Longines factory’s general manager of manufacturing, Maurice Savoye. He was the third generation of Savoyes to hold management posts at the Longines factory. (A street in Saint-Imier, Rue Baptiste-Savoye, is named after his father.)

system it replaced. That system disappeared entirely in the early 20th century. Francillon and David are heroes in Saint-Imier. Both have streets named after them, and there is a bust of Francillon in the Place du Marché at the center of the village next to one of Pierre Jolissaint, a politician responsible for bringing the railroad to the Saint-Imier Valley in 1874. The Francillon bust dates from 1906, six years after Francillon died, at age 65. June 2014 WatchTime 161

The Cadrans Flückiger SA dial company in Saint-Imier


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Saint-Imier’s Cinema de la Paix, built in 1919

A monument to Tavannes Watch Co. founder Henri Sandoz in Tavannes

THE MECHANIZATION

of the Longines factory provided a model for the nearby towns. In some, big watch factories came

Sandoz, it wanted one. The town was in an economic crisis caused chiefly by the arrival of the railroad. Local farmers

Tavannes; others under the Cyma brand. The company also sold movements to other watch manufacturers.

to dominate the economy and culture. One such town was Tavannes. There, in 1890, a Le Locle-born watchmaker named Henri Sandoz founded the Tavannes Watch Co. Sandoz had been a precocious watchmaking student and was running his own business by the time he was 18. He was 25 at the time of the Philadelphia exposition. Sandoz heard the news and headed to the U.S. to see the

were being undersold by foreign competitors who could now ship food to the region. The local government intervened to help save the local economy. It built a factory that Sandoz rented, filled with American-made machines, and ultimately bought. The company was financed by two firms owned by the Schwob family, who were members of the moneyed elite in La

The original building is still standing, near the train station. Two floors are occupied by the private-label watch company Roventa-Henex. A metal-polishing company, along with offices for a church and a charity for children, occupy other floors. Next door is the building, now empty, that housed the former Tavannes Machine Co., a sister company to the Tavannes Watch Co. It made machinery

“American system” for himself. While there, he filled a notebook with some 2,000 sketches of machine tools. His dream was to start an Americanstyle factory in his hometown. But Le Locle already had a big watch factory, Zenith, with a powerful and autocratic watch baron, Georges Favre-Jacot, at its helm. So Sandoz went to Tavannes, which had no watch companies. Luckily for

Chaux-de-Fonds. The Tavannes Watch Co., as Sandoz named the firm, soon became one of the biggest watch factories in Switzerland. By 1913, the year Sandoz died, it was making 2,500 watches per day, a rate that puts it in the same ballpark as Rolex today. By 1929, it was making 4,000 watches per day and was claiming in advertisements to be the biggest watch company in Europe. Some of its watches were sold under the name

for the watch industry. The smell of machine oil still lingers inside, nearly 40 years after the company closed its doors. The Tavannes Watch Co. transformed the town. Its population quadrupled between 1891 and 1913. The company built the Hotel Terminus, still standing, especially for its customers. New apartment buildings went up to accommodate watch company workers. A movie theater, the Royal, also used primarily by


company employees, opened in 1917. It is still in use today. Another building, also still standing (on the Grand Rue), served as a kind of community hall for

Roventa-Henex SA now occupies

part of the old workers. It housedand a dining hall, library, Tavannes Watch bathing facilities, the like. Co. building. A well-known architect is associated with Tavannes in the early 20th century. He is René Chapallaz, an adherent of the Heimatstil school of architecture, which focused on local architectural styles like that of Swiss chalets. Chapallaz, based in http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014 La Chaux-de-Fonds, had been a teacher of Le Corbusier. Henri Sandoz hired him

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to workheondesigned several projects in Tavannes. There, part of the Tavannes watch factory, plus a villa for the Sandoz WatchTimeMagazine-June2014-slidepdf.com family; a group of 10 workers’ cottages, e m each with a garden; and an atelier for s i r himself, near the Sandoz villa. In 1907, u o T two years after arriving in Tavannes, he s The house that i o fought with Sandoz for unknown reasons architect René n r e Chapallaz built B and left the town. All his buildings are a for the Sandoz r still standing and are considered must u family in Tavannes

sees for anyone visiting Tavannes. Watch factories were being built elsewhere in the Jura triangle. Several were in Tramelan. The Auguste Reymond factory was founded there in 1903 and was soon making some 200,000 watches a year and employing 200 people. The company still makes watches in Tramelan. The Record Watch Co. also opened that year (but is now closed). It occupied a building now called the Tamerlan. A few years earlier, the Horia factory (also now defunct) had been founded. It made precision parts for the watch industry. The growth of factories had some unwelcome consequences throughout the Jura. One was a rise in alcoholism: employees now received weekly wages in cash, and there was no shortage of fellow workers with whom one could stop for a few drinks after a tedious day at the factory. Local businessmen accommodated them: at one point, there were 50 bars in Saint-Imier alone, one for every 150 of the town’s inhabitants. In 1877, a Swiss pastor founded a temperance organization called the Blue Cross, which held meetings in churches throughout the Jura triangle and set up sobriety-friendly establishments like Saint-Imier’s Temperance House, where workers could enjoy

J


This building in Tavannes provided watch-company workers with a dining hall, bathing facilities and other amenities.

MECHANIZED PRODUCTION SWEPT THROUGH THE JURA TRIANGLE IN THE LATE 19TH CENTURY. SOME WELCOMED IT; OTHERS DIDN’T. June 2014 WatchTime 163


The Jura Triangle

an invigorating cup of coffee in lieu of a shot of whiskey. Despite all the new factories, some remnants of the old-fashioned établissage

small airplane built by the company’s last owner, Pierre Langel. (For information, contact the Jura Bernois Tourist Bureau, which also offers tours of Saint-Imier,

system continued remained.toEven the on largest panies depend a fewcomout-

Tavannes and Tramelan.)

e side suppliers. In Courtelary, you can visit m s i r one of them: the Langel stamping company, u o t which opened in 1917. (It closed in 1997, s i o when its last employee retired. Not even n r the quartz crisis brought it down.) The e B a factory, r

whose many customers included

s e t vintage r u

machines that look as if they’ll

u j the Tavannes Watch Co., is filled with http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014 y

NOTWITHSTANDING, Jura watch factories large and small came to a grinding halt in the 1970s when the quartz revolution took hold. Half of Saint-Imier’s workers lost their jobs and the town’s population was cut by onethird. The Tavannes Watch Co. stopped selling movements in 1982 (the Tavannes LANGEL

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o start clanging and thumping again as c soon as the next shift of workers arrives. s o t In the attic, there’s a surprise bonus: a o h p

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watch brand had the been discontinued in the 1960s; it and Cyma brand were sold to an investor in 1978); the Tavannes

WatchTimeMagazine-June2014-slidepdf.com The Royal movie theater in Tavannes was built in 1917.

Tramelan is an historically important watch town and is still home to several watch companies.

The Horia factory in Tramelan made precision parts for the watch industry.

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A building in Tramelan now called the http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014 Tamerlan was once the Record Watch Co. factory.

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Machine Co. closed in 1976; the Moeris Watch Co., founded 1901, was shut in 1978.in Saint-Imier in Longines survived: it was the flagship brand of a conglomerate called ASUAG, founded at the start of the Great Depression when the Swiss watch industry needed to pool its resources and cut costs. (In 1983, ASUAG merged with another conglomerate, SSIH, to form SMH, now known as the Swatch Group.) But there was devastation throughout the Jura: the quartz crisis cost the entire Swiss watch industry about two-thirds of its jobs. The mechanical-watch renaissance of the late 1980s brought new life to watchmaking in the Jura triangle. Money poured in. Cartier built a gorgeous new factory in Villeret, designed by celebrityarchitect Jean Nouvel. The brand later relocated its facility to La Chaux-de-

family, Jehan-Jacques Blancpain, opened

Fonds, and the factory now belongs to the Swatch Group, whose Nivarox-FAR subsidiary makes assortments there. Also in Villeret, the Minerva company, once a prominent maker of chronographs, caught the eye of the Richemont Group in 2006. Richemont turned it into a maker of high-end movements for its Montblanc brand. It is housed in a building once owned by Blancpain. (The first watchmaking member of the Blancpain

a watchmaking atelier in Villeret in 1735. Blancpain watches were made in Villeret until the brand was purchased in 1981 by the movement-maker Frédéric Piguet in partnership with Jean-Claude Biver.) In Tramelan, two ex-Swatch Group executives in 1999 started a company called Progress Watch, whose claim to fame was its “affordable” tourbillons, used in watches retailing for well under $100,000. Progress filed for bankruptcy

The old Auguste Reymond building in Tramelan. The “Arsa” and “Unitas” on the facade were, respectively, the company’s watch and movement brands.



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The Langel stamping factory in Courtelary was built in 1917. It is open for tours arranged by the Jura Bernois Tourisme bureau.

This factory in Villeret, designed by noted architect Jean Nouvel, was built by Cartier and is now owned by the Swatch Group.

in 2001, but five years later an ex-pharmaceuticals executive, Pascal Raffy,

As in the olden days of établissage, the triangle is sprinkled with companies sell-

bought its successor, named SST. It is now known as Dimier 1738, and is still based in Tramelan. In Saint-Imier, the Flückiger & Fils dial company, founded in 1905, and still occupying a handsome building on Rue Jolissaint, was rescued from financial ruin when Patek Philippe bought it in 2004. And Longines, the region’s grande dame, is going great guns in its stately manse by the Suze, where it makes more than a million watches per year.

ing parts or services to other suppliers or to the brands themselves. They’re firms like EMP Ébauches Micromécanique Precitrame, in Tramelan, which was founded in 1983 when the Swiss watch industry was restructured in the early 1980s in response to the quartz crisis. It makes both CNC transfer machines and movement blanks. Or like Brodbeck Guillochage, in Saignelégier, where Georges Brodbeck sits


at one of his 32 vintage guillochage machines (nine in Saignelégier; 23 in other towns), decorating dials for luxury brands throughout the Swiss watch industry. One of these brands is a little, and littleAS IN OLDEN DAYS, known, high-end brand named Rudis SMALL SUPPLIERS Sylva. Its founder, watch-industry veteran Jacky Épitaux, also owns a small hotel, STILL POPULATE THE featuring a gourmet chef, in the remote and tiny village of Le Boéchet, a few miles JURA TRIANGLE. southwest of Saignelégier and a stone’s throw from the French border. The hotel, the Espace Paysan Horloger, caters to http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014 watch tourists: in the basement is a small

(including one of Brodbeck’s guilloché machines) and other artifacts from Jura watch history. From the hotel, you can travel by car, by bike, or on foot to the nearby villages. Some, not surprisingly, have watch-industry connections. Les Bois, southwest of Le Boéchet, boasted 600 watchmakers in 1900 (its population was 1,450). Le Creux-des-Biches, to the northeast, was in 1888 the scene of a clash between unionized and non-unionized factory workers as industrialization spread, starting a new chapter in the watchmaking book the vil

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lages of the Jura are still writing.

WatchTimeMagazine-June2014-slidepdf.com Montblanc Manufacture, known until recently as Manufacture Minerva, in Villeret

The Cortébert Watch Co. once occupied this building in the village for which it was named.

The independent guillocheur Georges Brodbeck at work in his atelier in Saignelégier


FACEtime


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Mihai Lobont wears his Omega Planet Ocean on the beach on Australia’s Gold Coast. His wife Alex wears a Saint Honoré Haussman.

Derrick Hicks shows off his Omega Speedmaster.

Tommie Hawkins with his Rolex GMT-Master II

Robin Henry at the Durban Botanical Gardens in Durban, South Africa, wearing his TAG Heuer 1000 Professional

At the Houston Auto Show, Jim Wurzburger wears his IWC Aquatimer Chronograph. His son Jakob wears the TAG Heuer Formula 1 that his father wore in college.

Facetime Galleries


To !#bmi" a pho"o, plea!e !end &o# image "o pho"o@%a"ch"ime.com %i"h a !ho" de!cip"ion iden"if&ing each pe!on in "he pho"o and "he %a"ch each one i! %eaing. Plea!e gi$e "he '!" and la!" name of "he %eae and "he band and model of "he %a"ch. If "he pho"o %a! "aken a" an e$en", plea!e !pecif& %hen and %hee i" %a! held. Onl& clea image! in %hich "he face! of %a"ch and %eae aebo"h $i!ible

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On a cruise in the southern Caribbean, Lynn Cutolo wears her recently acquired Hublot Classic Fusion.

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John Stark and his son Jacob enjoy a Washington Wizards game. John wears a Panerai PAM 359.

Facetime Social Media The pho"o! %ill al!o appea on Facebook, T%i""e and Pin"ee!".

In the Mojave Desert, Mark Danzo poses with his Rolex Explorer II (Ref. 216570) in his Ultra4 racer.

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minute

LAST

BY JOE THOMPSON

Credit Suisse’s Curious Question How long can the luxury mechanical watch keep ticking? t’s been a long time since I’ve heard any- Yves Vulcan is the owner and CEO of Darone in Switzerland worry about the wel SA, a marketing and public relations future of the country’s mechanical firm in Lausanne that works closely with watch. Early in my career as a watch jour- dozens of Swiss watch companies. Has he http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/watchtime-magazine-june-2014

I

nalist, was common. first reporting tripthat to Switzerland wasMy in 1979, in the

heard in the industryofraising questions anyone about the viability the Swiss

franc the Swiss watch industry makes. Switzerland’s wristwatch exports amounted to 20.67 billion Swiss francs ($23.5 billion) in value in 2013. Mechanical watches brought in SF16.07 billion ($18.2 billion) of it. Stated simply, the luxury mechanical watch defines the Swiss watch industry. Without it, Switzerland simply is not a watch power. Which brings us back to what Credit Suisse characterized as the “particular

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thick of the quartz-watch revolution. mechanical watch? I asked. He stared at challenge” it says the industry faces: can it Swiss executives then openly fretted about me for a long time while he thought about “defend its role as a status symbol going WatchTime Magazine -slidepdf.com the mechanical’s survival. The consensus it, and then said simply, “No.” -June2014 forward?” Just why Credit Suisse raises view was that the mechanical watch was Little wonder. The Swiss mechanical the question is not clear. (No author is cited doomed and would soon join the buggy watch remains on a remarkable roll. Over for the analysis of the watch industry; the whip on history’s scrap heap. Time marches the past five years, the number of mechan- report covers 30 Swiss industries and is on; old worlds and old technologies ical watches sold has doubled (see chart). written by nine different Credit Suisse inevitably yield to the new. Exports of mechanical watches rose from researchers.) That happen, of course. Swiss anddidn’t their trusty tick-tock pulledThe off one of the most spectacular and surprising recoveries in the history of technology. Today the Swiss mechanical watch has achieved iconic status as an emblem of both high art and science. Imagine my surprise, then, while reporting for my article “Rediscovering America” in this issue (see page 48), to

3.74 the recession to 7.47 million millioninlast year. In year 20132009 alone, mechanical exports rose 8.2 percent to the highest quantities since 1982. Switzerland produces three quartz watches (73 percent of production) for every one mechanical (27 percent). But in value, Swiss mechanicals account for an astonishing 78 percent of the country’s total watch exports. Put another way, mechanicals account for

Perhaps Suisse is concerned aboutthe theCredit prospect of ateam smartwatch revolution transforming the watch industry the way Apple’s iPhone redefined what a phone is and transformed the phone industry. Perhaps Credit Suisse is responding to the sudden and unexpected stigma China’s new regime has slapped on luxury watches as part of its anti-corruption campaign.

come this report in a Credit Suisse Economic across Research on Switzerland’s top industries in 2014: We regard the watch industry’s mediumterm opportunity-risk profile as above average. Major potential demand still exists, particularly in emerging-market countries with high expected growth in prosperity. There are challenges, however. In particular, the question of whether the

nearly 80 centimes (cents) of every Swiss

“Today, 30 percent [watch] exports go around to Greater China,”ofCredit Suisse notes in its report. “Developments there have a strong impact on the industry.” Or perhaps Credit Suisse is simply reminding the industry of something that we tend to overlook in the wake of the mechanical-watch renaissance of the past quarter-century: that in an era of atomic timekeeping, the mechanical wristwatch is

mechanical watch can continue to defend its role as a status symbol going forward will be crucial. The Credit Suisse report did not elaborate. It simply raised, for the first time in nearly three decades, to my knowledge, the question of the mechanical watch’s future, and left it hanging. At Baselworld in March, I asked an astute Swiss-watch-industry observer a

question about the Credit Suisse question.

SWISS MECHANICAL WATCH EXPORTS (million units)

8 7 6 5 4 3 2

’09

’10

’11

’12

’13

Source: Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry

living on borrowed time. That measuring time by winding a mainspring is a 400year-old technology. That there are few examples in the modern world of a 400year-old technology surviving, let alone thriving as the basis of an $18-billion industry at wholesale. Whatever the origin of Credit Suisse’s curious question, it serves as a warning to the Swiss (and us) never to take the mechanical-watch golden goose for granted.

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WatchTime Magazine - June 2014

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