1
GENEVA 2012: 25 PAGES OF NEW WATCHES THE MAGAZINE OF FINE WATCHES TESTS & REVIEWS HUBLOT KING POWER UNICO SCHAUMBURG CONCEPTUM PILOTS' WATCHES: Breitling, Bell & Ross, Zenith and 6 more SEIKO'S GRAND MECHANICALS www.watchtime.com April 2012 $8.95 74470 94830 Display until May 8, 2012 ROLEX SIZING UP THE SUBMARINER

2
©2012 movado group, inc. se ® extreme. unique layered case construction in stainless steel/black carbon fiber. fine swiss automatic movement with exhibition case-back. movado.com and select retailers nationwide.

3


4
arceau. time suspended La Montre Hermès reinvents time and attunes it to the tempo of your desires. Press on the pushpiece at 9 o'clock and suspend time near noon. Beneath the dial the watch goes on ticking. Press again, and the time and date are displayed once more. Time resumes its march, and you the course of your life. This exclusive Hermès calibre is a world premiere. hermès, time reinvented

5
1.800.441.4488 Hermes.com

6


7
THE C LASSIC WORLD TIME L O O K C L O S E R AT D AV I DY U R M A N. C O M

8


9
Pocket Watch VINTAGE PW1 49 mm . Wristwatch VINTAGE WW1 45 mm - Alligator strap Bell & Ross Inc. +1.888.307.7887 . [email protected] . e-Boutique: www.bellross.com

10
EDITOR'S Letter Musical Chairs Norma Buchanan Mike Disher Mark Bernardo Dara Hinshaw ecently your trusty WatchTime team engaged in our own little version of musical chairs. Some initiatives launched by WatchTime's new publisher Dominik Grau brought our editorial staff some new opportunities and responsibilities. They are part of a series of changes underway at WatchTime that we'll announce over the course of 2012. Hence the musical chairs. Normally when you play musical chairs, there is one less chair than the number of people playing. In our case, happily, we had one more. Here's what's going on. Norma Buchanan, our longtime senior editor, has been promoted to executive editor, a new position at the magazine. She will be running the magazine on a day-to-day basis. I remain editor-in-chief. But I have some additional responsibilities (plus an additional title: associate publisher) and will be spending time on some new and exciting editorial projects for WatchTime. More on those later as they come to fruition. Buchanan, a respected watch journalist, marks her 25th year covering the watch industry this year. Mike Disher moves from being WatchTime's online editor to technical editor, another new position on the magazine. In that capacity, Disher will give us something we've lacked: our own in-house technical writer. Until now, we've relied on Chronos, our sister magazine in Germany, for most of our technical articles. Disher will bring a new voice and a new viewpoint to our coverage of high horology. As part of that coverage, he will conduct watch tests for the magazine. Disher is a longtime watch guy, who for years managed TimeZone.com, the wellknown watch enthusiast site. He joined WatchTime in 2008 to spearhead the relaunch of our website, watchtime.com. Mark Bernardo is moving from the managing editor position he has held for nearly six years to become the magazine's digital media editor. Changes are coming fast and furious in the digital media arena and Bernardo will lead our effort to take advantage of them. They involve watchtime.com as well as our applications for the iPad (we were the first watch magazine with an iPad app), the iPhone, and soon the Nook. We'll have more to say about Bernardo's digital plans and projects later this year. The new chair we've added is for Dara Hinshaw, who has taken over from Bernardo as managing editor. The managing editor's position is the nerve center of our print media operations. She sets and enforces deadlines; reads all copy; critiques and approves layouts; proofs every page; determines the number of print forms in the issue; creates the ad-edit template; interfaces with the publisher, the sales manager, and the printer; and performs dozens of other highly detailed tasks. Lucky for us Hinshaw knows the drill. For the past 17 years she was managing editor for two watch-related publications, Chronos (no relation to the German Chronos) and Watch & Clock Review. We are delighted to welcome her to WatchTime. Other changes are on the way. This will be the final issue for the pen, car, booze and cigar columns. With the expansion of our editorial team, we need and want more editorial pages for watch coverage. The non-watch columns, introduced in 2006, have had a good run. We've enjoyed them, learned a lot, and are grateful to Jan DiVincenzo (pens), Richard Carleton Hacker (spirits), Laurance Yap and Marty Bernstein (cars), and our own Mark Bernardo (cigars) for their contributions over the years. For us, now, though, it's all watches, all the time. Joe Thompson Editor-in-Chief WatchTime April 2012

11


12
CONTENTS WatchTime, March-April 2012 COVER STORIES DIVING MASTER The Rolex Submariner has been with us for almost 60 years with only minor changes to its design. How does this pioneering divers' watch stand up to testing today? DIVERS' CHOICE A look at the various models of the Rolex Submariner series UNDER THE SEA The story of the world's most popular dive watch TESTS & REVIEWS 126 ERGONOMIC THEORY We test the Schaumburg Conceptum, an affordable German-made model that strives for Bauhaus simplicity in its dial and ergonomic comfort in its case. POWER PLAY With the launch of its Unico movement, Hublot became a manufacture. We see how the Unico performs in the brand's King Power Unico All Black watch. READY FOR TAKEOFF We sent nine pilots' watches into the skies to see how they'd fare during a stomach-wrenching series of aerobatic stunts. 12 WatchTime April 2012

13
WATCH 18K ROSE GOLD ULTRATHIN CASE MANUAL WINDING MANUFACTURE MOVEMENT 131 COMPONENTS 40-HOUR POWER RESERVE SWISS MADE FOR PRIVATE APPOINTMENTS 888.475.7674 RALPHLAURENWATCHES.COM

14
CONTENTS April 2012 44 52 SHOWCASE: GENEVA WATCH FAIRS 2012 SAVORING THE SWEET SPOT With sales at record highs thanks to Asia, and no competition other than each other, Swiss luxury watch brands are leading a charmed life. THE NEW WATCHES A portfolio of watches introduced at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie and the satellite shows in Geneva. FEATURES 86 SEIKO'S GRAND PLAN For 50 years, to get a Grand Seiko, you had to go to Japan. Not anymore. THE CURIOUS CASE OF CHANEL WATCH Not a fashion brand, nor a traditional mechanical brand, nor a women's jewelry brand, Chanel is something else entirely. But what? BACK IS BEAUTIFUL 5 WatchTime presents its latest gallery of luxury mechanical watches whose exhibition casebacks are as eye-catching as their dials. 102 WatchTime April 2012

15


16
CONTENTS April 2012 DEPARTMENTS & COLUMNS 10 EDITOR'S LETTER READERS' FORUM WATCHTALK Swatch Group gets the green light to begin restricting movements; Biver steps down as Hublot CEO; new watches from SpeakeMarin and van der Klaauw; and more WATCH QUIZ Match the actor/movie with the watch he or she wears in the film. FINE CARS With the new GS 350, Lexus may again change the luxury car business. FINE PENS The Conklin Crescent still leaves no expletives to delete. FINE SPIRITS Irish whiskeys aim for connoisseurs with new super-premium bottlings. FINE CIGARS A friendly father-son competition produces a sublime line of premium cigars. FACE TIME A photo mélange of readers and their watches LAST MINUTE A reporter's notebook: SIHH 20 22 ON THE COVER: The Rolex Submariner Date. Photo by Nik Schölzel 16 WatchTime April 2012

17
CHANEL BOUTIQUES 800.550.0005 ©2012 CHANEL®, Inc. J 12® Watch in white high-tech ceramic set with diamonds (~1.6 carat). Self-winding mechanical movement. 42-hour power reserve. Water-resistant to 200 meters. chanel.com

18
THE MAGAZINE OF FINE WATCHES Editor-in-Chief/Associate Publisher Executive Editor Managing Editors Online Editor Special Projects Editor Car Columnist Pen Columnist Spirits Columnist Art Direction/Design Illustrations Contributing Writers Translations Photographers Joe Thompson Norma Buchanan Mark Bernardo Dara Hinshaw Michael Disher Amy Bernstein Marty Bernstein Jan DiVincenzo Richard Carleton Hacker Publishers Factory, Munich Sascha Pollach Gwendolyn Benda Gisbert L. Brunner Rüdiger Bucher Maria-Bettina Eich Jens Koch Alexander Krupp Alexander Linz Witold A. Michalczyk Martina Richter Gerhard Seelen Lucien F. Trueb Thomas Wanka Iris Wimmer-Olbort Howard Fine Joanne Weinzierl Nina Bauer Imagina Marcus Krüger Nicolas Lieber OK-Photography Eveline Perroud Maik Richter Nik Schölzel Zuckerfabrik Fotodesign CEO Managing Director/Publisher Advertising Director Advertising Manager Production Director Newsstand Circulation Gerrit Klein Dominik Grau Sara M. Orlando Rosangela Alonzo Michael Kessler Ralph Perricelli and Irwin Billman MCC 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. March/April 2012 issue, Volume 14, Number 2. 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

19
,Q  9DFKHURQ &RQVWDQWLQ FUHDWHG WKH IDPRXV SDQWRJUDSK D PHFKDQLFDO GHYLFH DOORZLQJ IRU SULQFLSDOZDWFKPDNLQJ FRPSRQHQWV WR EH UHSURGXFHG ZLWK WRWDO SUHFLVLRQ (OHYDWLQJ WKH TXDOLW\ RI LWV WLPHSLHFHV HYHQ IXUWKHU WKLV LQYHQWLRQ ZKLFK DOVR UHYROXWLRQL]HG 6ZLVVZDWFKPDNLQJZRXOGSURSHOWKHEUDQGLQWRWKHIXWXUH .IQ\PN]T \W \PM PQ[\WZa ]XWV _PQKP Q\[ ZMX]\I\QWV Q[ J]QT\ >IKPMZWV +WV[\IV\QV MVLMI^W]Z[ \W UIQV\IQV ZMXIQZIVL ZM[\WZM ITT_I\KPM[Q\ PI[XZWL]KML [QVKM Q\[ NW]VLQVO" I [QOV WN M`KMTTMVKM IVL KWVNQLMVKM _PQKP KWV\QV]M[\WMTM^I\M\PMJZIVL¼[VIUMIVL[\I\]ZM 9]IQLMT¼1TM:M\ZWOZILM)VV]IT+ITMVLIZ 8QVSOWTLKI[M8ZMKQ[QWVUWWVXPI[M  0ITTUIZSWN /MVM^I;MTN_QVLQVOUMKPIVQKITUW^MUMV\ :MN :178!

20
READERS' Forum "YOUR ARTICLE FAILED TO MENTION THE PROBLEM OF MILLIONS OF ROLEX COPIES MADE IN CHINA AND AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET." CHINA COUNTERFEITS Your always excellent magazine dealt with some aspects of Rolex in China ["With Rolex in China" by Norma Buchanan, February 2012], but failed to mention the problem of millions of copies of Rolex and other fine Swiss watches made in China and available worldwide on the Internet. China has no respect for any product or intellectual property and there are probably more Rolex copies sold there than the real thing. But I imagine if anyone mentioned this "problem," his access to China would cease. China has successfully played this game, by their rules, for a long time and will continue to do so. G.W. Pope Brandon, MS The problem of counterfeit watches made in China was beyond the scope of our article. But you are right about the magnitude and seriousness of the problem. JT KEEPING TABS No doubt about it, the Audemars Piguet Caliber 3120 is a very beautiful movement. Sadly, it managed to get only 6 out of 10 for rate results in your test ["Diving Class" by Alexander Krupp, February 2012]. You may have forgotten, but back in 2004, you tested the 3120 in the Jules Audemars case. (We keep tabs!) In that test, the rate results were 7 out of 10. So, things are getting worse! In any case, the ETAequipped Chanel J12 outdid it in the rate results. Makes one wonder, then, whether high horology is all it is cracked up to be. Except, of course, that I can't recall Patek Philippe ever getting anything less 8 or 9 in the rate tests. Joe Rice Sunderland, United Kingdom LESS HYPE, PLEASE I bought the December issue especially to read the test of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Compressor Navy SEALs Diver watch ["Send In the SEALS" by Alexander Linz]. A year ago, I bought the NSA [Navy SEALs Alarm] version in titanium. There is a lot of publicity about the toughness of this watch and its 1,000-hour testing. I have worked as a professional diver and am active in sports, so I was attracted to the watch by its appearance, the name of the brand, and the collaboration of the SEALs. However, in my case (no pun intended), the watch has not proven itself to be tough. The first problem was a crown that dislodged during a time adjustment (fixed under warranty). The second was the ceramic ring falling from the bezel. Lastly, there was a loose-fitting bezel that seems to move by itself, with somewhat poor tolerances, which was definitely not as noted by your test on the steel version. I like the watch very much but I am disappointed by the overzealous marketing hype. And I do note that my model is different from the one in your review. Based on what I read in your review, I understand that feedback from the SEALS has improved the engineering on the bezel, at least in the steel version. The NSA is an expensive diving watch and I think it should have been fully "debugged" before going to market. Russell Ascott Via email I was disappointed to learn that JaegerLeCoultre's limited-edition Master Compressor Navy SEALs watch demonstrated large rate variations between various positions. I would expect more from a watch that has undergone 1,000 hours of Master Control testing, contains Jaeger's tried and true Caliber 899, has all the input from the Navy SEALs, and carries an $8,800 price tag. Moreover, given the fact that only 1,500 pieces were produced, you would think the company could pay a little more attention to the basic timekeeping aspects of this watch and a little less to marketing hype. Perhaps we should "Send in the SEALs" with a Rolex Sub instead. Scott Dong Princeton Junction, NJ WatchTime welcomes correspondence from readers. Send comments to editor-in-chief Joe Thompson at 274 Madison Avenue, Suite 804, New York, NY 10016 or via e-mail to [email protected]. Please include your full name, city and state, and country (if outside the United States). Letters may be edited for length or clarity. Rolex exhibition in Shanghai Reverse view of the JLC Navy SEALs watch Caliber 3120 in the Offshore Diver WatchTime April 2012

21
IWC. Engineered for men. Big Pilot's Watch. Ref. 5004: Your wrist never felt this big before. The case of the top model in the IWC Pilot's Watch range is a gigantic 46.2 mm in diameter. And the technology inside it is even more impressive: the largest IWC-manufactured automatic movement with its Pellaton winding system is protected against strong magnetic fields by a soft-iron inner case. And, needless to say, envious glances. Mechanical IWC-manufactured movement | Pellaton automatic winding system | 7-day power reserve with display | Date display | Soft-iron inner case for protection against magnetic fields | Antireflective sapphire glass | Water-resistant 6 bar | Stainless steel | IWC. Engineered for men.

22
WATCHtalk Switzerland's Coming Component Crunch An appeals court ruling in December gave the Swatch Group the green light to begin restricting movements to third parties. fter years of warnings by its top executives, the Swatch Group has begun scaling back the number of watch movements and parts it supplies to other Swiss watch firms. Using 2010 production levels as a base, Swatch this year will cut its deliveries of mechanical movements to watch assemblers by 15 percent and to other movement producers, like Sellita, by 30 percent. It will cut its supply of escapements, the regulating instrument in a mechanical watch, by 5 percent. The cutbacks are controversial and have sparked a fierce debate in Swiss watch circles, not to mention a scramble to find alternative suppliers. On one side are those who accuse the Swatch Group and its CEO, Nick Hayek, Jr., of monopolistic behavior that will damage the industry and force some firms out of business. On the other side are those who applaud the Swatch Group's attempt to force watch companies to make their own movements and end the severe dependence of many watch firms on Swatch Group-produced movements and parts. Ironically, the cutbacks were authorized by Switzerland's anti-trust unit, called the Competition Commission (Comco). Last June, Comco announced that, at the Swatch Group's request, it Nivarox hairsprings: They're not for everybody "WE DO NOT WANT TO BE A SUPERMARKET FORCED TO DELIVER TO EVERYONE WHATEVER THEY WANT." SWATCH GROUP CEO NICK HAYEK, JR. was launching an investigation into the legality of the group's intention to stop supplying movements and parts to third parties. Comco ruled that pending its investigation, on an interim basis, it would allow some cutbacks; it fixed the reduction percentages for 2012. Comco says it expects to finish its investigation and issue a final ruling by the end of 2012. Comco's decision to let Swatch cut supplies this year provoked protests from some Swatch Group customers who rely on the movements and parts for their watches. Eleven of them appealed the de- cision to Switzerland's Federal Administrative Court in Bern. Under Swiss law, the litigants sued independently and secretly. Frédérique Constant, Edox, and Sellita, Switzerland's second largest mechanical movement producer, acknowledged that they filed appeals. In addition, Raymond Weil and Louis Erard were among the nine brands that pursued the appeal to the end, according to Swiss press reports. (Two brands, one reportedly TAG Heuer, withdrew their complaints.) The firms petitioned the court under the Swiss Cartel Act to rescind the Comco decision and for-

23
EXHIBITION FROM AVANT-GARDE TO ICON A JOURNEY THROUGH THE ORIGINS OF AN ICONIC TIMEPIECE MARCH 22-25 / 2012 NEW YORK CITY / PARK AVENUE ARMORY PARK AVENUE AT 67TH ST Audemars Piguet launches an exhibition celebrating the 40th anniversary of its iconic Royal Oak - the first ever luxury sports timepiece, which sparked a complete paradigm shift in the watch industry. Providing a demonstration of the brand's proven ability to outsmart standard norms, this not-to-be-missed occasion using design, photography, sound and film input from three 21st century artists and including 100 exceptional timepieces, will kick off its worldwide tour on March 22 in New York. AUDEMARS PIGUET BOUTIQUES NEW YORK: 65 EAST 57TH STREET, NY. 888.214.6858 BAL HARBOUR: BAL HARBOUR SHOPS, FL. 866.595.9700 audemarspiguet.com

24
WATCHtalk "CERTAINLY, A NUMBER OF SMALLER WATCH MANUFACTURERS WILL BE FORCED OUT OF BUSINESS." FRÉDÉRIQUE CONSTANT CEO PETER STAS bid any supply cuts. They argued that the giant Swatch Group has a monopoly-like share of the production of mechanical movements (around 70 percent) and hairsprings (more than 90 percent) and that cutbacks would severely damage small firms who rely on the group for parts. "The decision of the Comco came as a bombshell in the Swiss watchmaking industry," said Peter Stas, founder, owner and CEO of Frédérique Constant, in a statement issued just prior to the Administrative Court ruling in December. "In the western world, when a monopolistic stakeholder decides to cut supply, antitrust authorities protect smaller players, giving them time to organize themselves. However, in this case, Comco immediately awarded the Swatch Group an ability to reduce deliveries up to 30 percent. Certainly, a number of smaller watch manufacturers will be forced out of business." Frédérique Constant, which makes a portion of its own movements, "is large enough to develop its own watch calibers," Stas said. "Still the company needs another five years before it can produce the critical assortment, the watch oscillating system." But, in mid-December, the Federal Ad24 WatchTime April 2012 ministrative Court rejected the appeal by the nine watch companies and ruled in favor of the Swatch Group. Nick Hayek applauded the ruling. "We do not want to be a supermarket, forced to deliver to everyone whatever they want," he told The Wall Street Journal. For years, the late Swatch Group Chairman Nicolas G. Hayek, Sr., and Hayek, Jr., have urged Swiss watch brands to begin making their own movements and parts because the day was coming when they might no longer be able to rely on the Swatch Group. "I have been telling them since 1988 that they should start making their own movements," the elder Hayek said in an interview with WatchTime in 2010 ["Power Play," August 2010]. "What I am saying now is that I am not going to deliver anything -- no movements, no ébauches, no NivaroxFAR hairsprings, nothing -- except to people who are real watchmakers and manufacturers.... It will include everything. You can't have anything from us that we don't want to deliver to you." Clearly, the Hayeks meant what they said. "I am not a politician that tries to play games," Hayek, Sr., told WatchTime. "If we don't want to deliver, we are not going to deliver, unless forced by law." So will Comco force the Swatch Group to continue supplying components to the industry? The answer, most Swiss watch executives think (including Nick Hayek, Jr.), is yes and no. The smart money in Switzerland expects Comco to rule in the Swatch Group's favor. Comco will say that the Swatch Group is under no obligation to sell its parts to every Swiss watch firm that wants them. However, it will rule that the Swatch Group must agree to a reasonable phase-out schedule to allow customers to develop other sources of supplies and for other suppliers to emerge. Look for Comco to outline a schedule of reductions over some years and the Swatch Group to agree to it. The precedent for this scenario was set in a previous Comco investigation of the Swatch Group. That episode a decade ago involved the Swatch Group's decision to halt ETA supplies of kits of loose movement parts for mechanical watches to third parties. Hayek, Sr., announced the policy in 2002. It led to a Comco investigation and a 2004 ruling that the restrictions should be phased in gradually. In succeeding years, the group reduced sales according to a Comco-set schedule. Swatch finally stopped all sales of ébauches, as the kits were called, at the beginning of 2011. As the watch industry awaits the Comco decision and the expected phase-out of supplies, companies are looking to secure supplies of movements and parts and to bolster their own production capacity. Once Comco rules, the production landscape will change dramatically. Precisely who will supply hairsprings to firms that can't get them from Nivarox is not at all clear at this point. Moreover, brands that have waited to invest in in-house movement production could have a rough time. For some smaller players, as Peter Stas warns, the end may, indeed, be nigh. -- JOE THOMPSON Swatch Group will cut supplies of mechanical movements by 15 percent this year.

25
pa n e r a i . c o m tradition a n d innovation. luminor 1950 10 days gmt - 44mm Available exclusively at Panerai boutiques and select authorized watch specialists. BAL HARBOUR SHOPS o BEVERLY HILLS o BOCA RATON o LA JOLLA o NEW YORK o PALM BEACH

26
WATCHtalk Biver Steps Down As Hublot CEO But he is not going anywhere, he says, and plans to be chairman of Hublot for five more years. Passing the torch: Hublot Chairman Jean-Claude Biver (left) and CEO Ricardo Guadalupe ean-Claude Biver, one of the watch world's best-known and most charismatic figures -- restorer of Blancpain in the 1980s, reviver of Omega in the 1990s, rebuilder of Hublot in the last decade -- stepped down as CEO of Hublot SA as of Jan. 1. Succeeding Biver as CEO is Ricardo Guadalupe, previously Hublot's COO. The Jan. 6 announcement caught the watch industry by surprise and set off waves of speculation about the meaning of the news. Did it portend a departure of the 62-year-old Biver from Hublot and the LVMH Group for something more suited to his entrepreneurial skills? Would he take a larger role in LVMH's 26 WatchTime April 2012 expanding watch division? (The world's largest luxury group, LVMH owns the TAG Heuer, Zenith, and Dior brands and acquired Bulgari last year.) Had ill health (Biver contracted a rare form of Legionnaires' disease in 1996 and occasionally deals with the aftereffects) brought a premature end to an illustrious career? Or had he decided to simply slow down and smell the roses (or in his case, the cheese: he produces 5 tons of it a year on his farm in the mountains above Montreux)? The answers to those questions are no, no, no and no, Biver told WatchTime at a meeting in Geneva shortly after the announcement. Biver explained that he will remain with Hublot as chairman of the board and continue as the official spokesman for the brand. He will be involved in matters of strategy, product development and corporate relations, and deal with collectors, the press and the watch trade, as before. What's changed is that Guadalupe, as CEO, is now responsible for the day-to-day running of the Hublot firm. Even that is not much of a change, Biver said, since Guadalupe has been performing that role, part of a longplanned transition. "We have now formalized what Ricardo was doing," Biver said. "It is a triple win, as Ricardo is benefitting, so is Hublot and so am I." Don't expect dramatic changes from the move. Guadalupe and Biver have worked together for nearly 20 years. They came to Hublot together in 2005 and together executed the strategy that transformed the brand from a producer of mid-priced quartz watches to a luxurywatch phenomenon over the past six years. "I am happy that Ricardo now has the responsibility and the fruits of his engagement and work," Biver said. Biver says he is beginning to slowly wind down his watch career, which began in 1975. "I believe it is the responsibility of every entrepreneur to plan and execute his succession and that is what I am doing," Biver said. Ever philosophical, Biver says there are four phases to a lifelong career. "I have started my third quartertime. The first quarter took about seven years and was the quarter of learning (although you never have to stop learning, and as long as you learn you are young and alive). The second quarter-time took me 30 years and was the time of action. Now I have started the third quartertime, which is the transition, which I suppose will take me five years. Finally, one day I will have to come to the last quarter-time, which is the departure, and might take me one or two years." -- JOE THOMPSON

27


28
WATCHtalk Art, Astronomy and Aquarius Perhaps no watchmaker is more closely associated with astronomical watches than the Netherlands' Christiaan van der Klaauw. This is no surprise given his background. He received his education at an instrument-maker school founded by a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who worked in the same lab as Einstein, Bohr, Lorentz and Röntgen. He served his apprenticeship at the oldest state-sponsored observatory in the world, founded in the Netherlands in 1633. His first timepieces were inspired by Christiaan Huygens, inventor of the pendulum clock. Van der Klaauw's latest creation is the Aquarius Planetarium. This 40-mm platinum piece features the world's smallest planetarium display, showing the cycles around the sun of the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. As intriguing as the astronomical display may be, the eye is first drawn to the richly engraved solid-gold dial created by master engraver Kees Engelbarts -- a familiar name to watch enthusiasts. The Aquarius Planetarium is a unique example, and its price befits a "1 of 1" timepiece: $111,111. If you're not an Aquarius, don't worry. Van der Klaauw will create a single example of his Planetarium watch for each zodiac sign, but only by special order. -- MIKE DISHER Christiaan van der Klaauw's Aquarius Planetarium Front and back views of the Speake-Marin Pioneer Spirit watch Talisman of Time The story of this new piece from Speake-Marin has two parts. It begins 15 years ago, with a watch that brand founder Peter Speake-Marin purchased when he was restoring timepieces in Piccadilly, London. As he tells it: "It was an authentic military watch from the first half of the 20th century that I restored on my own time and wore regularly as my personal timekeeper. I always wanted to create my own piece based on this personal favorite and have toyed around with ideas to realize this ambition ever since I founded Speake-Marin." The second part of the story takes place more recently. During SpeakeMarin's travels, he has seen the effects of disasters, both natural and economic, on people around the world. "[W]hat has struck me... is the drive people possess to fight on, to adapt and to forge forward," he says. "Having seen firsthand how basic human spirit always seems to prevail, the themes of determination, tenacity and love were at the forefront of my mind 28 WatchTime April 2012 when I created this timepiece, and so I have paid tribute to them by christening it 'Spirit' and by engraving the motto: 'Fight, Love and & Persevere' on the caseback." The Spirit Pioneer's two sides embody both the original creative spark and Speake-Marin's recent experiences. The bold dial reflects the military inspiration, yet the design is clearly Speake-Marin's style. Richly applied Super-LumiNova on top of black lacquer creates depth. The SpeakeMarin brand logo, railroad-track chapter ring and "topping tool"-motif are in white lacquer. The 38-mm-diameter steel case is the brand's familiar Piccadilly design, which features classic lines in a modern form. Inside, the caliber FW2012 movement is wound by SpeakeMarin's "topping tool" motif rotor. The large balance wheel oscillates at 28,800 vph and the power reserve is 42 hours. The Spirit Pioneer is a limited edition of 68 pieces, each priced at $9,950. -- MIKE DISHER

29


30
WATCHtalk ON WATCHTIME.COM HONORING ASSMANN WatchTime's website is loaded with information about watches. For the stories shown here, go to watchtime.com/on-watchtime. Glashütte Original presents the Limited Edition Senator Observer 1911 - Julius Assmann. This 25piece limited edition pays homage to the pioneering spirit of the brand's founder, and to famed Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, who used a Glashütte Original timekeeper on his historic voyage. 2011 YEAR-END QUIZZES Have you been taking notes? We celebrate 2011 with two quizzes containing 24 questions about news stories from the world of watches. As always, the answers appear at the end. Have fun, and good luck! REFERENCE CHECK WATCHTIME TALKS WITH DWYANE WADE NBA star Dwyane Wade recently joined Hublot at the opening of the brand's new boutique, in Bal Harbor, Florida, to introduce his own Hublot watch, the King Power Dwyane Wade. A portion of the proceeds from sales of the watch will go to his children's charity, the Wade World Foundation. WatchTime's Mark Bernardo goes one-on-one with Wade, talking watches, LeBron, and more. 50 YEARS OF 007 To celebrate 50 years of James Bond films, Omega is releasing a special update of the popular Seamaster Diver 300m James Bond watch, which has been worn by 007 in every adventure since GoldenEye. Patek Philippe and Rolex enthusiasts speak an arcane digital language. Do you know it? Test your vocabulary with this quiz. We've compiled a dozen reference numbers - six from each brand -- and your task is to match them with the appropriate model name or description. The answers appear at the end. Good luck! UP AND DOWN WITH THE DATOGRAPH When it debuted in 1999, A. Lange & Söhne's Datograph was a sensation, and today many collectors consider it a must-have timepiece. The newest version demonstrates that Lange's engineers can improve on an already-excellent design. Get the full details, and download some great wallpaper images, in our story. 30 WatchTime April 2012 WORLD'S LARGEST JLC COLLECTION AUCTIONED France's leading auction house recently offered more than 250 exceptional timepieces retracing nearly 180 years of JaegerLeCoultre's history. This was the largest Jaeger-LeCoultre collection ever offered for sale. All the brand's icons were represented, including Reverso, Memovox, Polaris, Geophysic, and more. WatchTime presents some highlights from the sale. BOTTLED LIGHTNING De Bethune is focusing its research efforts on developing super-high-frequency escapements. While most mechanical escapements today operate at 18,000 to 36,000 vph, De Bethune is thinking faster - much faster. Together, engineers, watchmakers, and a physicist are working to develop a next-gen escapement powered by non-mechanical forces that "ticks" between 1 and 7 million times per hour.

31
Amazing Butterfly Symphony Poetic Complications watch, white gold, diamonds, onyx and mother-of-pearl marquetery. Haute Joaillerie, place Vendôme since 1906 www.vancleef-arpels.com - 877-VAN-CLEEF

32
THEticker Special Baselworld Edition 3,914 1,892 103,200 Number of hotel rooms in Basel Number of visitors to Baselworld (2011) Price per night in dollars for a small, one-person room on a hotel ship brought in to house Baselworld attendees (2012) Number of countries with companies exhibiting (2011) Cost in dollars of current Baselworld renovation project 500 million Number of companies exhibiting (2011) 6271.72 Number of watch companies exhibiting (2011) 4.59 Millions of cubic feet of building materials used to construct exhibitors' stands 3,055 Number of journalists attending (2011) Millions of square feet of exhibition space 624,312 32 WatchTime April 2012 Total square feet of carpet in exhibition halls 15.53 Total length in miles of all the fair's aisles

33


34
WATCHquiz quizs Show Time Match the actor/movie with the watch he or she wears in the film. 1. Russell Crowe/Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World 2. Josh Brolin/Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps 3. Rudolph Valentino/Son of the Sheik C. Gucci 4. Tommy Lee Jones/Batman Forever D. Juvenia 5. Harrison Ford/The Fugitive E. Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore 6. Roger Moore/Live and Let Die F. Ball Trainmaster 7. George Clooney/Burn After Reading G. Rolex Submariner 8. Woody Harrelson/The Messenger H. Chopard Strada XXL 9. Elvis Presley/Blue Hawaii I. Breguet 10. Harvey Keitel/Pulp Fiction J. Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox 11. Sharon Stone/Basic Instinct II K. Tissot 12. Leonardo DiCaprio/Blood Diamond L. IWC Aquatimer 13. Harrison Ford/Random Hearts M. Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso 14. Gregory Peck/Mirage N. Seiko 15. Denzel Washington/The Taking of Pelham 123 16. Jude Law/Repo Men 17. Arnold Schwarzenegger/End of Days 18. Roger Moore/Moonraker 19. Tom Cruise/Jerry Maguire 20. Jimmy Stewart/Rear Window 34 WatchTime April 2012 Who wore a Vacheron Constantin American 1921 in what movie? A. TAG Heuer S/el B. Hamilton Ventura O. Vacheron Constantin P. Casio G-Shock Q. Breitling Chrono Avenger R. Oris Classic Pointer Day S. Cartier Tank T. Oris Big Crown Answers: 1I; 2O; 3S; 4T; 5M; 6G; 7P; 8J; 9B; 10C; 11H; 12Q; 13R; 14D; 15F; 16L; 17E; 18N; 19A; 20K

35
3: >@7;3@= 16@=<=;/AB3@ =>3< eeehS\WbVeObQVSaQ][ :WTS Wa W\ bVS []dS[S\b 4]` []`S W\T]`[ObW]\ ^ZSOaS Q]\bOQb( &$$ $%# %'

36
FINEcars Lexus Looks Forward exus, the luxury division of Toyota, had a terrible 2011: Japan's disastrous earthquake and resultant tsunami and nuclear meltdown, followed by floods in Thailand, crippled production and sales of America's reigning best-selling luxury automaker for months. Its competitors, BMW and Mercedes, turned Lexus's adversity to their advantage, and now BMW is the numberone-selling luxury vehicle. But don't count Lexus out. With its factory and supply problems solved, the brand is back, at the top of its game and very aggressive. It introduced a terrific new vehicle, the 2013 GS 350, which is more than just a new model: it is the beginning of a new Lexus brand, which may again change the luxury car business, to the chagrin of its competitors. Two decades ago, when the first Lexus was introduced to American buyers, the luxury car market changed forever. Detroit's market leaders at that time -- Cadillac and Lincoln -- produced bloated barges of dubious quality that floated MARTY BERNSTEIN With the new GS 350, Lexus may again change the luxury car business. highway are reasonable. The new exhaust produces a sound that is certain to resonate with fans of serious sports cars. There's a silky smooth, six-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters and a drive mode selector to change settings, with Eco, Normal, Sport and "Sport S+" options. The media preview and test drive was staged at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on special courses. This alone signifies a new approach for the brand, known for its serene gentility rather than the glitz and glitter of The Strip. What I learned in Las Vegas is not going to stay in Vegas. Two challenging layouts tested and pushed both drivers and vehicles to authenticate the new GS handling, responsiveness and performance characteristics while demonstrating the car's new sporty-driving bonafides. It gets a checkered flag for all the GS attributes, especially the scintillating F-Sport option package. The Lexus GS 350 sets a new standard in spacious luxury-vehicle interiors, offering quality, comfort and unpretentious elegance through its use of handsome materials, colors and attention to the smallest details. The seats are very comfortable and adults won't feel cramped in the back seats. Adding to the driving experience are the intuitive, easyto-use high tech infotainment system and devices. One push of a button operates the climate, audio, and phone controls; an optional navigation system with a gigantic 12.3" screen; and a terrific sound system from Mark Levinson. One of the best things about the new Lexus 2013 GS 350, which is at dealers now, is the price. At $46,900, it is the same as that of the previous model. ? The 2013 Lexus GS 350 down the highways. Most of their dealerships were haughty, disdainful and patronizing. BMW and Mercedes were perceived as more Euro-niche than luxury, with limited distribution, and not yet as juggernauts. Lexus's objective was to establish a new hallmark in automotive luxury. Its vehicles, while not cutting-edge, were smartly styled with unequaled, unparalleled and exceptional manufacturing quality, comfort and refinement. Obsessive customer service at every dealer was the rule, not the exception. This dedication changed consumer perceptions of luxury cars' expectations and in the process created legions of satisfied fans. Result? While other luxury brands played catch-up, Lexus became the luxury-car leader for the entire second half of its two-decade history. Now, the GS 350 sports sedan leads the parade. It's a significant departure from most people's idea of a Lexus, i.e., serene and sedate, but never sporty. On the contrary, this one is a real sports sedan, with aggressive styling that makes it look agile, responsive, nimble and, yes, sporty from every angle. The cutting-edge styling is meant to set a new direction for all future Lexus vehicles. The very nice base model GS 350 sedan can be upgraded to premium and sumptuous luxury versions. There's an FSport package option that turns the GS into a stealth racecar. Later this year, there will be a hybrid, the Lexus GS 450h. Rear-wheel drive is standard, but there's an AWD option, too. Under the hood is a 3.5-liter V6 engine generating 306 horsepower and 277 lbs. of torque that does 0-60 mph in 5.7 seconds. EPAestimated ratings of 19 mpg city, 28 mpg WatchTime April 2012

37
©2011 Harry Winston, Inc. OCEAN SPORT (TM) COLLECTION

38
FINEpens JAN DIVINCENZO Twain's Pen in 2012 The Conklin Crescent still leaves no expletives to delete. he Conklin Pen Co. came back to life in 2001, spurred by the collectors' market, and like other reanimated Golden Age companies, it marked that milestone by issuing a commemorative limited edition. Its 100th Anniversary Crescent, released that year, was a replica of the company's most iconic and successful model in black-chased or blue-marbled celluloid with sterling overlay, and it no doubt made 388 high-end collectors happy. The rest of us, however, waited for a regular edition. Not that we weren't glad that an important pen company was back among the living; it's just that production-line models are within easier reach and a better gauge of general health. Finally, in 2009, the Yafa Pen Co., which owns Monteverde, Delta, Stipula and Aldo Domani, acquired Conklin and issued the 2009 "modern" Mark Twain Crescent. This pen is essentially a replica of Twain's Conklin Self-Filling Pen S4, which retailed in 1904 for $4.95. Twain received his S4 gratis (the letter from Conklin reads, "This pen is forwarded with the compliments of the CONKLIN PEN CO. and we trust it will be received in this manner.") and he The Mark Twain 2012 Crescent in green marble replied with the famous letter containing the blurb that Conklin used in its advertisements: "I prefer it to ten other fountain pens, because it carries its filler in its own stomach, and I can not mislay even by art or intention. Also, I prefer it because it is a profanity saver; it cannot roll off the desk." Twain used his complimentary Crescent from 1904 to 1907, mostly to edit proofs (he was dictating all his first drafts at the time) and received no other compensation but what at the time was a state-of-the-art pen, equipped with Conklin's plush, number-4 nib. Patented by Roy Conklin in 1901, the crescent filler mechanism consists of a rubber sac compressed by a crescentshaped button situated on the side of the barrel. Though not the first sac filler, this was the first commercially viable one, and it enjoyed a quarter century (1902 to 1925) of production. By 1921 the Crescent was the most successful pen on the market, proving more robust than competing lever fillers of the time, largely due to the efficacy of Conklin's patented filler, which put direct lateral pressure against the entire length of the sac, making for a more complete fill. Conklin's decrescendo started when the Duofold, a button filler, arrived, making the Crescent's metal fin look unwieldy and unnecessary. In 1929, to tap the demand for a more streamlined (symmetrical) look, Conklin issued the Symmetric. In 1931 the company tried to command the center of the filler game again with the Nozak ("no sac"), a piston filler. However, its sales continued to decline against Parker, Sheaffer and Wahl, 1952, after the ballpoint and its spawn put the fountain pen out of commission, the company ceased all production. The late 1990s saw a renewed interest in crescent fillers among high-end collectors, as signified by Visconti's Copernicus (1996) and Millenium Arc (2000), Stipula's Novecento Saturno (2000), and the new Conklin Pen Co.'s series of limitededition Crescents. Finally, thanks to Yafa, the modern Mark Twain Crescent came within reach at $130, a price that, though suspiciously low, actually bought a whole lot of pen. The modern Crescent fills as the original did: turn the locking ring to align the open slot with the crescent button, press the button all the way down, submerge the tip, release the button and wait for it to return to its original position. From 2009 to 2011 it came in four colors of acrylic resin: red desert, yellow-blue marble, spring green gold-leaf marble and midnight black, all with silver-plated trim and Twain's signature engraved on the cap band. The Mark Twain 2012 Crescent arrived in four new colors: green marble, orange marble, cream marble with yellow-gold trim, and chased black with rose-gold trim. The steel nib is available in four sizes (broad, medium, fine and stub) and tends to run finer than average. At 5 inches uncapped, 5.5 inches capped and 6.75 inches posted, this medium-large pen is not as unwieldy as it looks; in the writing position the filler button presents no obstruction and the balance is perfect. For $100 and change, it's probably the best profanity saver available. ? WatchTime April 2012

39
For every single week of the year. The Patravi Calendar is the first watch in a round case equipped with a movement manufactured entirely by Carl F. Bucherer. The CFB A1004 functional module, the peripheral rotor, the big date switching mechanism and the week display are eloquent proof that the Patravi Calendar is the perfect timepiece for aesthetes and lovers of complex technology alike. www.carl-f-bucherer.com

40
FINEspirits Resurgence of the Shamrock ou've got to hand it to the Irish -- they don't know when to give up. Their fight for national independence only touches on the surface of their determination, for it is this same spirit that is now resulting in a renewed interest in another version of their national spirit, Irish whiskey. It's no secret that Irish whiskey is far from being the largest spirits category in America. Ironically, it was once the tipple of choice in saloons and salons throughout Europe and America, but the early 20th century dealt it a debilitating onetwo-three knockout punch. First was Prohibition, followed by the Irish War of Independence and right after that, the Irish Civil War. All of these elements combined to produce a devastating loss for Irish whiskey, a malaise from which it is only just now emerging. Photo: Richard Carleton Hacker RICHARD CARLETON HACKER Irish whiskeys aim for connoisseurs with new super-premium bottlings. Michael Collins blend. Both of these bottlings are only distilled twice, as compared to most other Irish whiskeys, which are triple-distilled. But perhaps the most dramatic Irish whiskey to enter into the competition is Redbreast, from Midleton Distillery in County Cork and now owned by Pernod Ricard, which heralds in a new "Single Pot Still" category. First came the reintroduction of the Redbreast 12 Year Old, using the original 1903 recipe (made by Jameson, by the way) consisting of twothirds bourbon barrels to one-third sherry casks. Then, last year, Redbreast brought back the cult-favorite 15 Year Old, a heartier, non-chill filtered pour. And now, this year, it has introduced the 12 Year Old Redbreast Cask Strength Single Pot Still Irish whiskey. Bottled at a rollicking 115.4 proof, it is packed with butterscotch, fig and vanilla flavors. But the rebirth of Irish whiskey is only just beginning. Last May, when I was dining at the Midleton Distillery with Alex Ricard, chairman and CEO of Irish Distillers Group, he said, "The time has come to prepare for the comeback of not only Irish whiskey, but of whiskey itself.... For the next 22 years, at least, I can guarantee that every year we will have new releases and innovations based upon people's passions and tastes." If you need further proof that Irish whiskey is set for a meteoric rise, consider that America's iconic bourbon maker, Jim Beam, has entered into an agreement to purchase Cooley Distillery, makers of not only Kilbeggan, but Connemara, Tyrconnell, and Greenore. Indeed, it looks like the Emerald Isle is about to get even greener. ? Heralding a rebirth of Irish whiskeys, these four brands launched the new Single Pot Still category, which is unique to the Midleton Distillery. At this point, only Redbreast is imported into the U.S., but Green Spot may be on our shores next. A large part of this renaissance is due to a massive marketing effort by industry giant Pernod Ricard for its super-hero brand, Jameson, which currently commands 70 percent of the world's Irish whiskey market. In fact, Jameson 12 is the best-selling Irish whiskey in the world. Its nearest competitor is Bushmills, founded in 1608 and Ireland's oldest continuously working distillery. These two brands primarily make up the Irish whiskey category in America, along with a few more obscure labels, such as Kilbeggan, the oldest licensed distillery in the world. Founded in 1757 -- 149 years before Bushmills -- economic conditions forced it to shut down in the early 1900s. It reopened in 1987, when it was purchased by Cooley Distillery, Ireland's last independent whiskey distiller, who perhaps anticipated Irish whiskey's forthcoming rebirth. To be sure, the renaissance has already begun, as evidenced by Knappogue Castle, which is primarily known for vintage-dated, lighter-tasting whiskeys. However, its newest, Knappogue Castle Sixteen Year Old Sherry Cask Irish Single Malt, departs from this tradition. More popularly known as Twin Wood, it was distilled in 1994, put into old bourbon barrels for a little over 15 years, then finished for nine months in Oloroso sherry butts. Apples, olives, and nutty yeast make this amber-hued whiskey unique, but don't delay searching for it, as only 1,900 signed and numbered bottles were produced. Michael Collins is another hard-tofind but favored Irish whiskey, and it too has embraced its increased popularity with a fuller-bodied 10 Year Old Single Malt as a companion to its lighter WatchTime April 2012

41


42
FINEcigars Prometheus Unbound reek mythology buffs are familiar with the story of Prometheus, the Olympian titan who defied Zeus, king of the gods, by bringing fire to humanity and was punished for his transgression by being bound to a rock and tormented by a giant eagle for eternity. Cigar lovers are familiar with another Prometheus -- the line of luxurious lighters, humidors and other cigar accessories named for the mythological bringer of fire. In recent years, many of them have also discovered a cigar called God of Fire, a joint effort by Los Angelesbased Prometheus and the famous Fuente cigarmaking family of the Dominican Republic. But not all of them are aware of the intergenerational family competition that resulted in these coveted and exceedingly rare cigars. Fuente is a name that resonates with nearly all aficionados of fine cigars. A family business headed by patriarch "Don" Carlos Fuente, Sr. and his son, Carlos, Jr. ("Carlito"), the company produces such popular smokes as Arturo Fuente, Don Carlos, Fuente Hemingway and, most notably, MARK BERNARDO A friendly father-son rivalry produces a sublime line of premium cigars. the ultra-premium Fuente Fuente Opus X, under its own label, along with other choice cigars for its partner firm, J.C. Newman (Diamond Crown, Cuesta-Rey) and other companies like Ashton (Ashton Virgin Sun Grown) and Antillian (Sosa). The idea for God of Fire was hatched in spring 2003, when Carlito Fuente met with Prometheus founder and CEO Keith K. Park over dinner in the Dominican Republic. The two companies had already worked together on some Fuente-branded humidors and lighters, and Park had long been interested in expanding the Prometheus brand beyond accessories and into cigars. The opportunity presented itself when it became clear to Park that the elder and younger Fuente, despite the brilliant cigar blends they had come up with together for the market, had different tastes when it came to their personal "perfect cigars." Park's solution was to have both Carlos and Carlito produce their ideal blend and release both, in very limited quantities, under a new label. The first God of Fire cigars were released in 2004, packaged in an elegant red humidor with the brand's ornate logo featuring an illustration of the bound, tormented Prometheus. Both the Don Carlos and Carlito blends used specially selected Dominican long filler from the Fuentes' family farm, Chateau de la Fuente, but each had a distinctively different flavor profile thanks in part to their wrappers: the Don Carlos blend used a silky Ecuadorian Sumatra leaf and the Carlito blend, a velvety, spicy Cameroon. The elder Fuente's cigar appealed to a refined palate seeking complexity and smoothness, with its medium-to-full-bodied flavor and well-balanced notes of cedar, espresso and caramel, whereas cigar lovers more inclined toward more robust intensity in their smoke preferred the son's recipe, with its full-bodied, earthy undertones and rich layers of anise and dark cocoa. Both lines were well received by the cigar connoissuers and garnered high ratings in magazines like Cigar Aficionado. Subsequent years brought new Carlito and Don Carlos cigars in different sizes. Like collectible Bordeaux and Burgundy, each annual release of God of Fire cigars is vintage dated so buyers can enjoy the subtle differences between one year's blend and another's. However, even though God of Fire cigars engaged a wide spectrum of cigar connoisseurs with its two distinct blends, there was one customer who may have felt a little left out: the hardcore maduro lover, whose humidor contains nary a cigar that doesn't sport a dark, oily wrapper. That oversight was rectified last year, with the release of God of Fire Serie B, a new blend that features the expertise of both Fuentes and is available in two sizes, each with its own wrapper: the 5½ x 54 Robusto Gordo, which has an Ecuadorian Sun-Grown wrapper, and the even darker 6 x 56 Gran Toro, wrapped in an oily Connecticut broadleaf. I've had the pleasure of sampling both; not for the timid of palate, they offer flawless construction and a full-bodied explosion of rich, spicy flavors -- the Robusto Gordo with more pepper, cinnamon and coffee bean notes and the Gran Toro with a creamy, chocolaty undertone and an aroma of musk and oiled leather. Like all God of Fire cigars, they're not easy to find, but worth seeking out. ? The new God of Fire Serie B WatchTime April 2012

43
Embrace an incredible world Counting time has forever changed. Roger Dubuis elevates creativity to the truly exceptional. La Monégasque reflects the precise sophistication of those who demand elegance in all things.It combines the highest standards in watchmaking with exceptional inventiveness. Only Roger Dubuis movements all bear the Poinçon de Genève mark of excellence that celebrates its 125th anniversary this year. 1-888-RDUBUIS / www.rogerdubuis.com Creative Center: In-House

44
THE GENEVA SHOWS The Scene at SIHH

45
SAVORING THE SWEET BY JOE THOMPSON PHOTOS BY NICOLAS LIEBER With sales at record highs thanks to Asia, and no competition other than each other, Swiss luxury watch brands are leading a charmed life. SPOT Asian visitors to SIHH increased six percent over the previous year. very year, on the opening day of the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH), the Richemont Group, whose watch brands dominate the show, issues the results for the third quarter of its fiscal year. For the top watch executives at Richemont's 11 brands, the exercise is slightly nervewracking. They are never sure what their straight-shooting and congenitally bearish executive chairman, Johann Rupert, is going to say. Three years ago, in the teeth of the Great Recession, Rupert said in so many words that the luxury watch market had tanked, declaring famously, "We see no cause for optimism." This year, with Europe in a sovereign debt crisis, the U.S. economy anemic, and the overvalued Swiss franc battering Swiss export industries, there seemed to be plenty for the man some insiders call Rupert the Bear to growl about. Instead, he was positively purring. Richemont's figures were fantastic. December sales were up 21 percent over December 2010; third-quarter sales were up 24 percent; nine-month sales were up 31 percent at constant exchange rates; the specialist watchmakers division was up 33 percent in that period. "The group's overall performance remains solid," Rupert said. "The group's activities over the past nine months enable us to reconfirm our expectations that operating profit for the full year [ending in March] will be significantly higher than last year." Rupert didn't come out and say it, but the evidence at SIHH, which ran from Jan. 16 to 20, and elsewhere around the Swiss watch industry, is that for Swiss watchmakers, the boom that collapsed in the Great Recession of 2009 is back. The week before SIHH, the Swatch Group announced that December 2011 was the group's single best month ever for sales. Swatch Group watch division sales for the year (it has 18 watch brands) were up 26 percent over 2010. They propelled the group past the 7 billion Swiss franc mark in revenue for the first time. April 2012 WatchTime 45

46
THE GENEVA SHOWS The Scene at SIHH As a whole, the Swiss watch industry, led by luxury pieces, shattered all-time records last year and is almost certain to set another record this year. After 11 months (December figures were unavailable at press time), the value of 2011 Swiss watch exports was up 19 percent. China (+51 percent through November), Hong Kong (+29 percent) and other booming Asian markets (South Korea was up 30 percent; Thailand, 39 percent) led the way, of course. But it's not just Asia rising. Of the top 30 markets that account for more than 90 percent of Swiss watch sales, 27 were up last year. (Portugal, Greece and Israel slipped.) Significantly, 22 of the 27 had double-digit growth. That includes the United States, with an 18 percent jump, albeit over a weak performance in 2010. (See "Swiss Watch Hot Spots" table.) All of this explains the almost eerily cheery atmosphere at SIHH. "I must say, we have a very optimistic view," remarked Piaget CEO Philippe LéopoldMetzger in presenting his brand's new products to the press. That spirit within the Palexpo, the Geneva exhibition hall where SIHH is held, clashed with events Almost all of the 18 brands at SIHH are in the top tier of the luxury watch market. outside, where problems abound, including in Switzerland. "The Swiss economy experienced a very bumpy ride in 2011," Credit Suisse said in a report on the Swiss economy issued the week after the fair. "2012 is likely to be a challenging year for most sectors." But not for Swiss watchmaking. "The outlook for the watchmaking industry is bright," Credit Suisse wrote in its 2012 Sector Handbook, an analysis of the prospects for 33 Swiss industries. "We expect it to continue growing in 2012, even if growth rates seem likely to fall short of last year's." Credit Suisse said, in effect, that Swiss watchmakers have found a sweet spot. Last year's soaring Swiss franc wreaked havoc on other Swiss export industries such as mechanical and electrical engineering and metalworking, which face stiff price competition from other countries. But, Credit Suisse said, "Watchmaking has so far not been harmed by the franc's strength or the global economic slowdown." That's because, unlike with quartz watches, where they face stiff competition from Asian producers, the Swiss have a virtual monopoly on the market for luxury mechanicals. With demand for luxury mechanicals soaring, particularly in Asia, Swiss watchmakers are "outstandingly positioned," Credit Suisse says. "The watchmaking industry will again hardly notice any crisis in 2012." SIHH organizers acknowledged the good fortune of its exhibitors, almost all of whom produce watches for the haut de gamme segment ($10,000 and up). The show's final report, announcing that attendance surpassed 13,000, up 10 percent from 2011, noted the show's upbeat atmosphere. "While the global economic climate remains on an unsteady footing, suggesting little room for optimism, the fine watch segment sailed through 2011 and there is every reason to believe that the coming months will bring the profession more good news." Indeed, one sign of the industry's current good karma is that even the bad news was good. On the second day of the show, China announced that its economy slowed to 8.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011. "Only 8.9 percent!" cried Jean- WatchTime April 2012

47
The H1 is the first timepiece ever to combine mechanical and liquid engineering. H1 is a proprietary Swiss movement - with a 65 hour power reserve and manual winding - driving a unique high-tech fluidic module. HYT - a new dawn in watchmaking. HY T WATCHES .COM

48
THE GENEVA SHOWS The Scene at SIHH Richard managing director Bruno Grande in mock horror. Said Baume & Mercier CEO Alain Zimmermann, "Any European country would celebrate for two months to have that kind of slowdown." Meanwhile, other problems that bedeviled the industry in 2011 have eased. The overvalued Swiss franc, which forced painful price increases last year, has stabilized. "The franc will by no means be as dramatic as last year," says Philippe Merk, CEO of Audemars Piguet. Ditto for the production and supply bottlenecks of the past two years that resulted from what Merk calls "the uncertainty and constant change, so quick and so radical." They have eased a bit, too. "What we have now," he says, "is a certain predictability and stability for planning." IT WAS AGAINST this background of "calm confidence," as the show organizers put it, that the brands unveiled their new watches. At SIHH, at the Geneva Time Exhibition (a satellite show now in its third year) and in ateliers and hotel suites around Geneva where independent firms showed their wares, some clear trends emerged: o Technical marvels. Prominent watch collectors invited to SIHH gave the show a big thumbs-up for the number of important pieces unveiled this year. On the short list of favorites of collectors we talked to were the following: A. Lange & Söhne's Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar includes a world's first for a wristwatch: a rotating peripheral month ring. The tourbillon has a patented stop-seconds mechanism. The tourbillon is hidden, but the word "TOURBILLON" printed below the XII marker on the off-center dial lets the world know what's inside. Lange's selfwinding manufacture caliber L082.1 has a whopping 624 parts. The Jaeger-LeCoultre Duomètre à Sphérotourbillon is the first tourbillon with a stop-seconds flyback function. (For details, see the cover story of the February issue of WatchTime.) The Rotonde de Cartier Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon watch with the Geneva Seal is Cartier's first minute-repeater watch made in house. Five years in 48 WatchTime April 2012 the making, the titanium watch contains Caliber 9402 MC, which has 447 parts. A set of two Van Cleef & Arpels watches, the Lady Arpels Poetic Wish and the Midnight Poetic Wish, are powered by the first repeater mechanism and the first ever complete movement made by Agenhor SA, owned by celebrated watchmaker Jean-Marc Wiederrecht. In addition to the five-minute repeater, the movement features three automatons that indicate the time on demand. Collectors raved about the technical achievement, but the watches' romantically themed dials (two lovers in Paris pining for each other) presented a hurdle for some. "I wouldn't wear it but I would definitely have it in the safe," said one. Also generating big buzz was Montblanc's second watch in its TimeWriter series, the Chronographe Bi-Fréquence 1,000, a mechanical chronograph that measures seconds to the nearest 1/1,000. The watch, created by watchmaker Bartomeu Gomila at Montblanc's Villeret manufacture, features a separate chronograph balance, visible at the 10:30 posi- Top 10 Swiss Watch Hot Spots, 2011 PERCENTAGE GROWTH IN EXPORT VALUE, JANUARY-NOVEMBER Country 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. China Thailand South Korea Hong Kong Kuwait Austria Russia Singapore UAE Malaysia % Growth +51.4 +38.7 +30.1 +29.0 +26.9 +24.8 +22.3 +20.3 +19.7 +18.5 Export Rank 3 14 11 1 28 18 16 5 9 26 Source: Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry

49
G LOBAL C O L L EC TI O N jacobandco.com 212.719.5887 48 East 57th Street New York, NY

50
THE GENEVA SHOWS The Scene at SIHH "THE SWISS WATCHMAKING INDUSTRY WILL HARDLY NOTICE ANY CRISIS IN 2012. THE OUTLOOK FOR THE INDUSTRY IS BRIGHT. WE EXPECT IT TO CONTINUE GROWING IN 2012." CREDIT SUISSE FORECAST, JANUARY 2012 tion on the dial, which oscillates at a rate of 50 hertz. The 1/1,000-seconds are indicated linearly via a pointer on a 0-to-9 scale located at 12 o'clock. o Tourbillons. It's quaint to think that some years ago some folks (I was one) actually wondered if success would spoil the tourbillon. The now definitive answer is "Don't be ridiculous." Of the 18 exhibitors at SIHH, 12 showed new tourbillon watches. o Elegant ultra-thins. The revival of thin, two- and three-hand, classic mechanicals roars on. The titles tell the tale. JaegerLeCoultre has four new watches with "ultra-thin" in the name. Audemars Piguet introduced the Extra-Thin Royal Oak and the Extra-Thin Royal Oak Tourbillon in its 40th anniversary Royal Oak collection. Piaget's Altiplano Skeleton Ultra-Thin is the world's thinnest self-winding skeleton watch (5.34 mm high) and has the world's thinnest self-winding skeleton movement (2.40 mm). Vacheron Constantin is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its first tonneau watch with a new Malte collection of tonneau watches. The Malte 100th Anniversary Edition watch and the Malte Small Seconds are paragons of classical elegance. Parmigiani, Van Cleef, Cartier and others all boasted about the thinness of certain new models. o Big and thick. Not everybody is slimming down, however. The jumbo watch trend, which lost steam over the past two years, is back big time. Leading the way was IWC, which introduced a number of new pilots' watches, all of them monsters. The new Spitfire Chronograph is 46 mm by 17.5 mm. The new Top Gun collection features watches with 46- and 48-mm diameters and heights up to 16.5 mm. Panerai, of course, continues to bang the bigwatch drum. Of its 10 new models, six were 47 mm wide and one was 48. Baume & Mercier added a 44-mm version to its 42-mm Capeland. "More sporty, men- oriented markets wanted a bigger watch," explained Zimmermann. Girard-Perregaux's new Annual Calendar Equation of Time is 41 mm, up from 38. o Titanium and ceramic. Increasingly, titanium cases, once restricted to low- and mid-priced sports watches, appear in expensive watches containing high complications like tourbillons (Roger Dubuis, Girard-Perregaux, Richard Mille) and minute repeaters (Cartier). Montblanc and Parmigiani also introduced new titanium models. Ditto for ceramic cases. IWC's Big Pilot's Watch Top Gun has a ceramic case and Panerai used black ceramic in three of its new Luminor 1950 models. o Vintage looks. The past continues to be present in watch styling. Panerai, GirardPerregaux, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Ralph Lauren all contributed to the retro chic trend. Panerai rammed home the point by engraving the word "vintage" on the case between strap attachments at 6 o'clock on two new limited-edition Radiomir retro pieces, the California 3 Days and the S.L.C. 3 Days. POSTSCRIPT o Bit by bit, watch brands are adding some spectacle to the ultra-posh proceedings at SIHH. IWC installed a Top Gun flight simulator in its booth. Guests were able to climb into the cockpit and test their skills at taking off and landing on an aircraft carrier. The Ralph Lauren booth featured one of Ralph Lauren's prized automobiles from his extensive collection: a 1933 Bugatti Type 59, one of only eight ever made. A display plaque explained that the car is "considered by many to be the prettiest racecar ever built." Plunked in the middle of the A. Lange booth was a 3.5-ton rock -- technically, amphibolite -- from the Ore Mountains, not far from Lange's headquarters in Glashütte in Germany's state of Saxony. A plaque explained that the ore deposits led to the development of Dresden and ultimately of watchmaking in Saxony. o SIHH announced that the show will take place a week later next year, running from January 21-25. ?

51
dedicated to perfection GRAND SEIKO. It started as a dream five decades ago. A dedicated team of SEIKO watchmakers set themselves a new challenge; to create a watch that would be more accurate, more reliable and more practical than any other luxury watch in the world. The result was Grand Seiko, a collection that is, simply, one of the best watches in the world. Today, the Grand Seiko tradition is celebrated in a mechanical watch with a 10-beat movement. Thanks to SEIKO's advanced MEMS technology and high-durability SPRON alloy, the new high-precision escapement delivers an accuracy of -3 to +5 seconds a day+3 with a power reserve of 55 hours. What started as a dream has become a legend, proving the value of 130 years of dedication to perfection. grand-seiko.com +1 +2 +1 MEMS: Micro Electro-Mechanical System +2 SPRON is a registered trademark of Seiko Instruments Inc. +3 Mean daily rate measured in static positions © 2012 SEIKO WATCH CORPORATION

52
THE GENEVA SHOWS The New Watches Cartier THE BIGGEST news at Cartier was a new type of Tank watch, the Tank Anglaise. It differs from existing Tank models -- the Française, Americaine, Louis Cartier, et al -- in that its crown is integrated into the case. Cartier used a similar crown design in its Ballon Bleu of 2007. The Tank Anglaise comes in three sizes. The smallest has a quartz movement and the larger two, automatic ones. The movement of the very largest, shown here, was made in house, and is called Caliber 1904 MC. The watch measures 36.2 mm by 47 mm and is made of rhodium-plated white gold ($41,600). All three sizes are available in yellow and rose gold and in diamond versions. Cartier also added several complicated models to its Fine Watchmaking Collection. They include Cartier's first in-house annual calendar, the Rotonde de Cartier Annual Calendar ($37,500 in rose gold). The watch contains the manufacture automatic 9908 MC caliber, consisting of the 1904 MC with a calendar module. Day, date (shown in a big-date display at 12 o'clock) and month are set through the crown. The day and month are indicated by two center-mounted hands with curved red segments at the ends. The company introduced another first: its first in-house minute repeater, the Rotonde de Cartier Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon. To make the gongs chime as loudly as possible, it made the case very large (45 mm) and very light (it's made of titanium, although there's also a rose-gold version). The gongs are connected to the plate and the plate to the case at four junctions. A rotating mechanism called an "inertia and friction governor" controls the speed at which the repeater spring is wound. This governor can be seen in the tourbillon aperture at 12 o'clock. The watch contains the inhouse 9402 MC caliber, which bears the Geneva Seal. Price: $314,500. Photo 2000@Cartier 2011 Rotonde de Cartier Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon Tank Anglaise Vincent Wulveryck@Cartier 2011 Rotonde de Cartier Annual Calendar WatchTime April 2012 Laziz Hamani@Cartier 2011

53


54
THE GENEVA SHOWS The New Watches A. Lange & Söhne THE LANGE 1 collection, famous for its off-center time display and big date, has a new member, its most complicated yet: the Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar. The layout of the Lange 1 dial, with its relatively small time display, left lots of room for the perpetual calendar indications, all of which are placed outside of the time dial. The month is shown on a rotating ring on the periphery of the dial, the first such month ring ever used on a wristwatch, Lange says. The ring, along with the retrograde day indicator, date, moon-phase display and leap-year indicator (at the bottom of the dial), all switch instantaneously. The moon-phase will run true for 122 years, after which it will need to be adjusted by one day. The calendar is adjusted by means of recessed push-pieces that allow the indications to be advanced individually or collectively. There is a day/night indication at 6 o'clock in the off-center time dial. In order to give the dial indications the maximum amount of space, the watch's designers placed the aperture for viewing the tourbillon not on the front of the watch but on the back. The word "tourbillon" appears under the "XII" in the time dial. The watch has a patented stop-seconds device, extremely unusual in a tourbillon watch, so that the wearer can set the time to a time signal. The watch contains the new, in-house L082.1 automatic caliber, made of 624 components. The balance spring was also made in house and has a frequency of 21,600 vph. The winding rotor has a middle segment made of 21k gold. Its peripheral section is made of platinum, whose heft gives the rotor added momentum and thus helps it wind the mainspring with relatively little motion from the wearer's arm. The power reserve is 50 hours. The watch has a 41.9-mm case. The model shown here is platinum (a limited series of 100 pieces, $341,900). There will also be a rose-gold version. Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar Back and front of Caliber L082.1 WatchTime April 2012

55
FOLLOW YOUR CONVICTIONS "MY DECISION TO GO PRO AT 17 WAS CONTROVERSIAL. THAT IS, UNTIL I BECAME EUROPEAN NO.1" Justin Rose, Professional Golfer In 1998, Justin Rose stayed true to his beliefs, joining the European Tour against all the odds at just 17 years old. At Maurice Lacroix, we create our unique movements and award-winning designs by hand - because, like Justin, we too follow our convictions. For more information visit www.MauriceLacroix.com Les Classiques Chronographe Phases de Lune

56
THE GENEVA SHOWS The New Watches Montblanc THE FONDATION Minerva, the ultra-high-complications branch of Montblanc, has come out with a watch called the TimeWriter II Chronographe Bi-Fréquence 1,000. Its distinguishing feature -- and it is quite a distinction -- is that it measures elapsed time to the 1/1,000-second. It does so by means of a 360,000-vph balance, which can measure time to the 1/100-second, working in conjunction with a special "1/1,000s wheel" in the gear train. The balance, which is visible at the 10:30 position, sets the pace for providing impulses to this wheel, which rotates on its own axis 10 times per second. It thus provides the resolution with which 1/100s of a second can be subdivided into sets of 10 increments. The chronograph seconds and minutes (up to 15) are shown in a subdial at 6 o'clock by, respectively, a long, red-tipped hand and a short, all-red hand. The 1/100s of a second are shown by a center-mounted hand rotating once per second. The 1/1,000s of a second are shown on an arcing scale at 12 o'clock that is divided into 10 segments. When the chronograph is stopped, by means of the single pusher between the upper lugs, the wearer can read the elapsed minutes, seconds, and 1/100s of a second, adding to that total the "leftover" 1/1,000s of a second as shown on the curved scale. The watch has a second balance for straight timekeeping. This balance has a frequency of 18,000 vph and is visible at 7 o'clock. Regular hours and minutes are shown at the center of the dial and running seconds are indicated by an immobile triangle at 9 o'clock. The watch was developed by the Spanish-Swiss watchmaker Bartomeu Gomila (he was the first citizen of Spain to graduate from WOSTEP). The watch will be made in a limited series of 36 pieces, with the first pieces available in October. Each will be priced at $305,900. Montblanc's other new watches included the Rieussec Chronograph Open Hometime, which contains the new Caliber MB R210. The watch combines the features of the existing Rieussec chronograph, most notably, the rotating seconds and minutes dials at the bottom of the dial, with a new function: a second time zone, indicated by a rotating ring inside the regular time display. There is a day/night display at 9 o'clock. The case is rose gold. Price: $36,400. Rieussec Chronograph Open Hometime TimeWriter II Chronographe Bi-Fréquence 1000 WatchTime April 2012

57
[ SILVERSTONE ] STOWE RACING YELLOW MAKE YOUR NEXT WATCH A GRAHAM. ('0$56+$// -(:(/(56  ('0$56+$//-(:(/(56 HANDCRAFTED IN SWITZERLAND WWW.GRAHAM-LONDON.COM

58
THE GENEVA SHOWS The New Watches Girard-Perregaux THE SIMPLY styled 1966 collection has been expanded with a high-complication model: the 1966 Minute Repeater. The watch's designers took several steps to give the two gongs as loud and clear a tone as possible. They made the caseback convex in order to increase the volume of air between the movement and case, thereby enhancing the sound. They diamond-polished the lower part of the caseback, which, the company says, reduces acoustic interference. And they saw that the ideal amount of space exists between movement and interior of case to produce the maximum resonance. The movement, the E09-0001, 5.36 mm thick, is hand-wound and has a frequency of 21,600 vph. It has a power reserve of 4 days. The case is rose gold and has a sapphire caseback. Through it, you can see the balance cock, which has the same arrow shape as the bridges on Girard-Perregaux's famous Tourbillon with Three Gold Bridges models. The case is 42 mm wide. Price: $270,000. The company also introduced a variation on its tourbillon-with-three-bridges design: a version of the Laureato in which the bridges are made not of gold but of spinel. The watch contains the 96000004 movement, an automatic with a platinum microrotor co-axial to the barrel. The seconds hand is on the tourbillon. The bracelet and case (42.60 mm in diameter) are titanium and the bezel is platinum. The watch is being manufactured in a limited series of 10 pieces: $215,000. The 1966 Minute Repeater and its movement The Laureato Tourbillon with Three Bridges

59


60
THE GENEVA SHOWS The New Watches Patrimony Traditionnelle 14-Day Tourbillon Malte Tourbillon Malte Small Seconds Vacheron Constantin THE MALTE COLLECTION has been redesigned and given a new shape: the tonneau. Among the new Malte watches is a model called the Malte Small Seconds, with the in-house caliber 4400 AS, a manualwind movement with a power reserve of 65 hours. It is only 2.80 mm thick. The case measures 36.70 mm by 47.61 mm and is made of rose gold. Price: $24,600. There's also a tourbillon in the new Malte collection. The Malte Tourbillon has a shaped, manualwind movement, the in-house Caliber 2795, which has a frequency of 18,000 vph. The seconds hand is on the tourbillon cage. The watch is rose gold. Price: $183,900. Vacheron also introduced a new tourbillon in its round Patrimony Traditionnelle collection. Called the Patrimony Traditionnelle Tourbillon 14-Days, the watch has, as its name suggests, a remarkably long power reserve of 14 days, the longest of any tourbillon watch on the market. The movement has four barrels, mounted in coupled pairs. It contains the new, in-house, manual-wind Caliber 2260. The seconds hand is on the tourbillon carriage. The watch is 42 mm in diameter, 12.20 mm thick, and made of rose gold. Price: $279,800. All these watches bear the Geneva Seal. 60 WatchTime April 2012

61
See Us in Basel Hall of Emotions 5.1

62
THE GENEVA SHOWS The New Watches Gouverneur chronograph Gouverneur automatic Gouverneur tourbillon Piaget THE HEADLINE introduction for Piaget was a new collection of dress watches called Gouverneur. Their distinguishing feature is the shape of their cases and bezels: all have a round case and an oval dial opening. Each dial, in turn, has a circular chapter ring, creating a round, oval, round pattern from the dial to the outside of the case. There are three versions available: an automatic, an automatic chronograph and a tourbillon with moon-phase display. All have in-house movements (the chronograph and tourbillon calibers are new this year) and in-house cases (43 mm in diameter) as well. The watches come in rose or white gold; the white-gold models are set with diamonds. All come on leather straps. The automatic contains Caliber 800P, which is just 4 mm thick. It has two barrels, which give it a 62 WatchTime April 2012 power reserve of 85 hours (rose-gold version: $26,000). The white-gold model has a black rotor; the rose-gold one a rose-gold-colored one. The chronograph, powered by the 882P caliber, 5.6 mm thick, has a flyback function. It, too, has two barrels. Its power reserve is 50 hours. The watch is unusual in that its two counters show not the elapsed minutes and running seconds, but the elapsed minutes and a second time zone (at 9 o'clock). There is only one seconds hand: the center-mounted chronograph hand (rose gold, $37,000). The tourbillon model contains Piaget's 4.5-mmthick, manual-wind 642P caliber. The tourbillon is a "flying" tourbillon (meaning that it has no upper bridge) that makes one revolution per minute. Price upon request.

63
CHRONO CLASSIC CERAMIC SWISS ARMY KNIVES CUTLERY TIMEPIECES TRAVEL GEAR FASHION FRAGRANCES | WWW.SWISSARMY.COM Inspired by the ingenuity of the Original Swiss Army Knife, your companion for life.

64
THE GENEVA SHOWS The New Watches Master Ultra Thin Réserve de Marche JaegerLeCoultre THE MOST talked-about new watch from Jaeger-LeCoultre was its Duomètre à Sphérotourbillon, the subject of WatchTime's January-February 2012 cover story. That watch has a double-axis, inclined tourbillon and two independent barrels for powering the time indications and the escapement. Price: $262,000. Jaeger also introduced several new variations on existing models. To mark the 20th anniversary of its Master Control collection, the company launched larger versions of its Master Control and Master Ultra Thin Réserve de Marche watches. Both are now 39 mm in diameter. The Réserve de Marche model, shown here, has the same movement as before, the automatic Caliber 938. It is a mere 4.9 mm thick; the watch itself is 9.85 mm thick. The crown is used for winding and setting and the push-piece for adjusting the date. The watch comes in rose gold ($20,305) or steel ($9,825). Another new watch by Jaeger was inspired in some of its design elements by JLC's Memovox Deep Sea of 1959. The new watch is the Deep Sea Vintage Chronograph. Containing Caliber 751G, which has a 65-hour power reserve, it shows elapsed hours at 9 o'clock and elapsed minutes at 3 o'clock. There is no running seconds hand, only a centermounted chronograph seconds hand. On the back of the watch is an engraving borrowed from the 1959 model: it shows a frogman surrounded by bubbles. The watch is made of steel and has a diameter of 40.5 mm. It is water-resistant to 100 meters. The crystal is made of Plexiglas. Price: $11,790. The Duomètre á Sphérotourbillon Deep Sea Vintage Chronograph WatchTime April 2012

65
Old Northeast Jewelers Tampa & St. Petersburg, FL | Long's Jewelers Boston, Burlington, Natick & Peabody, MA | Lasker Jewelers Rochester, MN Wick and Greene Jewelers Asheville, NC | Berger & Son Las Vegas, NV | Bassano Jewelry New York, NY | Rose Jewelers Southampton, NY Harold Jaffe Toledo, OH | Shreve & Co. Portland, OR | Shannon Fine Jewelry Houston & The Woodlands, TX | Pounder's Jewelry Spokane, WA

66
THE GENEVA SHOWS The New Watches Capeland with a newly redesigned steel bracelet A new, larger Capeland with 44-mm case Hampton models with new steel bracelets Baume & Mercier LAST YEAR Baume and Mercier underwent a relaunch, discontinuing most of its models and redesigning those that remained. Now the company is tweaking its lineup by adding a few new variations on existing models. Among them is a new, larger, 44-mm case for the Capeland chronograph. The company will continue to make the 42-mm size. The larger versions contain the La Joux-Perret 8120 or 8147-2; the 42-mm ones contain the ETA 7753. Baume has also redesigned the Capeland bracelet so that it has curved links and a new folding clasp. It has added new, blue dials and blue alligator straps to some models. The Capeland models shown here are $4,350 (top right) and $7,500 (top left). In the Hampton collection, the company has introduced a new steel-bracelet version. The large version of the Hampton (45 by 32.3 mm, $3,550) shown here contains the automatic ETA 2895. WatchTime April 2012

67
H5 GROUP CORP. 2825 N. University Drive, S-110 Coral Springs, FL. 33065 954-575-7980 www.perrelet.com [email protected]

68
THE GENEVA SHOWS The New Watches Audemars Piguet THE ROYAL OAK, Audemars Piguet's iconic luxury sports watch with the octagonal bezel inspired by a divers' helmet, turns 40 this year. To mark the occasion, the brand is offering two limited-edition pieces in platinum cases. The Openworked Extra-Thin Royal Oak Limited Edition 40th Anniversary ($141,400) contains a manufacture movement, automatic Caliber 5122 (only 3.05 mm thick, the same as the movement in the first Royal Oak watches, Caliber 2121), which is not only ultra-slim but has been entirely skeletonized, including its hanging barrel. The finishing on the bridges and mainplate, which include satin-brushing, polishing and circular graining, have all been executed by hand and the galvanic treatment on the components gives them a sleek anthracite color. The rotor is made of gold and bears the raised inscription "AP Royal Oak 1972-2012" as well as the same "tapisserie" pattern that adorns the Royal Oak dial. The case has a diameter of 39 mm -- identical to that of the original Royal Oak, which in its day was considered extravagantly large -- and is water-resistant to 50 meters. The other limited-edition model is the similarly slim Openworked Extra-Thin Royal Oak Tourbillon ($353,600), which contains the new Audemars Piguet manufacture Caliber 2924, which, at only 4.46 mm, is one of the thinnest tourbillon movements on the market. The platinum case of this watch is 41 mm in diameter, and the skeletonized movement features a yellow-gold barrel, gear train and balance, which contrast with the anthraciteRoyal Oak Chronograph in rose gold treated gray steel parts. The hours and minutes are displayed on the dial side, while the power reserve of 70 hours is indicated on the back of the movement. Both 40th anniversary models are limited to 40 pieces. Other new, non-limited models commemorating the Royal Oak's birthday include the new Extra-Thin Royal Oak, which contains Caliber 2121 and is available in a 39-mm-diameter case in stainless steel ($22,500) or rose gold ($60,100); the Extra-Thin Royal Oak Tourbillon, with hand-wound Caliber 2924, in steel ($170,900) or rose gold ($229,800); and the Royal Oak Chronograph, which sports a new case diameter of 41 mm and a redesigned subdial design for enhanced legibility. The watch is available in steel ($23,900) or rose gold ($45,500 on strap, $70,800 on bracelet) and in various dial colors. Openworked ExtraThin Royal Oak Limited Edition Extra-Thin Royal Oak Tourbillon in rose gold WatchTime April 2012

69
FI N E WATC H E S & T IM E PI E C E S MAY 21, 2012 | DALL AS | LIVE & ONLINE CONSIGN NOW TO OUR MAY AUCTION Rolex Ref. 6265 Cosmograph Daytona, circa 1978 Sold For: $21,510 HA.com/5081*60060 Piaget Protocole Exceptional 18k White Gold Diamond & Sapphire Wristwatch Sold For: $50,787 HA.com/5081*60073 Patek Philippe & Co. Very Fine Rose Gold Minute Repeater With Split Seconds Chronograph For Jaques & Marcus New York, circa 1893 Sold For: $23,900 HA.com/5081*60240 A. Lange & Sohne Very Fine Rose Gold Wristwatch With Large Date, Power Reserve Indicator & Offset Time Dial Sold For: $17,925 HA.com/5081*60251 Patek Philippe Exceptional Ref. 2526 Gold Self-Winding Wristwatch With Superb Enamel Dial, circa 1954 Sold For: $29,875 HA.com/5081*60295 Boucheron Important & Very Fine Platinum & Gold Set Diamond, Ruby, & Enamel Bezel Wind Fob Watch Sold For: $21,510 HA.com/5081*60297 For a free auction catalog in any category, plus a copy of The Collector's Handbook (combined value $65), visit HA.com/WTM23438 or call 866-835-3243 and reference code WTM23438. For more information contact Jim Wolf at 214-409-1659 [email protected] Annual Sales Exceed $800 Million | 700,000+ Online Bidder-Members 3500 Maple Avenue | Dallas, Texas 75219 | 800-872-6467 D A L L A S | N E W Y O R K | B E V E R LY H I L L S | S A N F R A N C I S C O | PA R I S | G E N E VA TX & NY Auctioneer license: Samuel Foose 11727 & 0952360. Buyer's Premium 12-25%. See HA.com for details.

70
THE GENEVA SHOWS The New Watches Spitfire Perpetual Digital Date-Month Big Pilot's Watch Chronograph Top Gun Miramar Pilot's Watch Chronograph Top Gun IN KEEPING WITH its recent tradition of spotlighting one of its collections each year, IWC is now focusing on its Big Pilot's Watches, introducing six new models and increasing the case sizes of several others. Among the headliners in IWC's year of the pilot are the new Big Pilot's Watch Top Gun Miramar and Pilot's Watch Chronograph Top Gun Miramar, which help to establish the naval-aviation-inspired Top Gun collection, launched in 2007, as a subbrand within the Big Pilot's Watch line. Named for the former site of the U.S. Navy's Top Gun pilot training program south of San Diego, the watches sport a distinctly military-style design, with gray ceramic cases, matte anthracite dials with beige hands and green textile straps. Both feature IWC manufacture movements: the Big Pilot model, with its stately case diameter of 48 mm, contains the company's largest automatic movement, which offers a 168hour power reserve. The chronograph watch contains IWC caliber 89365, which has a flyback function. The watches have titanium casebacks engraved 70 WatchTime April 2012 with the emblem of the U.S. Navy Top Gun Fighter Weapons School. Prices are $18,200 for the threehand version and $12,700 for the chronograph. The Top Gun collection has also expanded with the debut of the Big Pilot's Watch Perpetual Calendar Top Gun ($38,600), which includes a four-digit year display, moon-phase display and seven-day power reserve; the Big Pilot's Watch Top Gun ($18,200), which features a tiny, signal-red aircraft silhouette on the seconds hand to create contrast with the stark black-and-white dial; and the Pilot's Watch Chronograph Top Gun ($12,700), which contains an IWC in-house movement with a flyback function. The Spitfire sub-brand of the Pilot's Watch collection now boasts a perpetual calendar, the Spitfire Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month ($55,900), the first IWC Pilot's Watch that displays the date and month in large digits; and a new Spitfire Chronograph ($10,700-$27,400), which contains IWC's manufacture Caliber 89365 and a dial design influenced by a cockpit altimeter.

71
ALT1-C/CR *WZVQV\PMIQZLMÅVMLQV\PMKWKSXQ\KZMI\MLQV-VOTIVLZMITQ[MLQV;_Q\bMZTIVL" *ZMUWV\UMKPIVQKITKPZWVWUM\MZ[IZMUILMJa XZWNM[[QWVIT[\WM`IK\QVO[\IVLIZL[NWZ\PMZM[\WN ][ JZMUWV\KWUdNIKMJWWSKWU<M[\ML*MaWVL-VL]ZIVKMd\_Q\\MZKWU*ZMUWV\?I\KP+WU Watch Brand of the Year

72
THE GENEVA SHOWS The New Watches Panerai Luminor 1950 3 Days GMT Automatic Ceramica "Tuttonero" Radiomir California 3 Days Radiomir S.L.C. 3 Days PANERAI EMBRACES the dark with its new Luminor 1950 3 Days GMT Automatic Ceramica, nicknamed Tuttonero (Italian for "all black"). The watch's case and bracelet are made entirely of a matte black ceramic, based on zirconium oxide powder, which is finished in a complex process that renders it harder than stainless steel and makes it extra resistant to scratches, corrosion, and high temperatures. The only non-ceramic element in the bracelet, the steel buckle, also has a brushed black PVD coating. The matte black color scheme even extends to the movement, manufacture Caliber P.9001/B, visible through a sapphire caseback, which has also been treated with a blackening process. The watch, whose 44-mm case is water-resistant to 100 meters, has a black "sandwich-style" dial with luminous Arabic numerals and hands, a date window at 3 o'clock and a second-time-zone subdial at 9 o'clock. Its power reserve of three days is displayed on the movement. The price is $17,400. In its Radiomir collection, Panerai introduced two new vintage-inspired models, the Radiomir California 3 Days and Radiomir S.L.C. 3 Days (both $9,400). Both watches feature historical design elements from the original Radiomir prototype created in 1936 for Italian Navy divers, including the 47-mm cushionshaped case and conical crown, but each is made distinct by its dial. The California 3 Days bears the so-called "California" dial, with alternating markers and Arabic and Roman numerals to indicate the hours, a date at 3 o'clock, and the Officine Panerai "OP" logo on the dial. The S.L.C. 3 Days has an even more minimalist dial, with alternating bar- and dotshaped hour indices. The dial also features a relief drawing of a slow-speed torpedo (in Italian, Siluro a Lento Corsa, from which the initials S.L.C. are derived), which Italian naval commandos would ride on underwater missions. Both watches contain the hand-wound manufacture Caliber P.3000, which offers a 3day power reserve, and both have steel cases water-resistant to 100 meters. WatchTime April 2012

73


74
THE GENEVA SHOWS The New Watches Two new Ralph Lauren 867 Slim Classique models Safari RL67 Chronograph Ralph Lauren LAST YEAR, Ralph Lauren introduced its Art Deco-inspired Slim Classique model, whose slim silhouette was complemented by its very traditional (to some, downright retro) dimensions of 27.5 mm square. This year's Slim Classique models, called Ralph Lauren 867 (named for Lauren's flagship store at 867 Madison Ave. in New York City) add some sparkle to the picture. One has a single row of brilliant-cut diamonds (96 total) on the bezel and a glossy black frame; the other has two rows on the bezel plus more brilliant-cut diamonds set into the lugs and one rose-cut diamond set into the crown (for a total of 201). Like their non-diamond predecessor, these watches, both in white gold, are powered by the ultra-thin Caliber RL430, made exclusively for Ralph Lauren by the master of thin watch movements, Piaget. Both have a silver opaline dial with black Roman and Arabic numerals and Breguet hands. The watches have black alligator straps with white-gold pin buckles. Price: $18,900 for the model with one row of diamonds; $20,500 for the model with two rows. From the sportier end of the spectrum, the brand offers the new Safari RL67 Chronograph, one of several new additions to the Sporting Collection. The watch's stainless-steel case (available in both 39-mm and 45-mm sizes) is a striking gunmetal gray, having undergone a special chemical and thermal treatment that blackens the surface and also makes it four times harder than the steel most often used in watch cases. Continuing the watch's rugged, wilderness-explorer theme, the strap is made of weathered olive-green canvas. Like other Ralph Lauren Sporting chronographs, this one is powered by the automatic Caliber RL751/1, made exclusively for Ralph Lauren by Jaeger-LeCoultre. Price: $9,850. WatchTime April 2012

75
Get ready for the New WatchTime.com! o An exciting redesign o Dozens of new, outstanding features o A digital archive of all issues of WatchTime o Videos, reviews, comments and breaking news o A weekly newsletter o WatchTime.com - Your No. 1 watch site in the U.S. TH AG E M AZ IN IN F F E O AT E W CH ES The new www.WatchTime.com will be yours to enjoy in April 2012

76
THE GENEVA SHOWS The New Watches Roger Dubuis AFTER ROLLING out its La Monegasque collection last year, Roger Dubuis put its focus on another entirely new line this year, called Pulsion. Watches in this new collection are characterized by their unusual case structure, in which the sapphire crystal is screwed directly onto the case, allowing the numerals to be engraved on the underside of the crystal and treated with luminescent material. The two Pulsion models that made their debut at SIHH are the Pulsion Skeleton Flying Tourbillon in titanium ($126,000) and the Pulsion Chronograph in black titanium ($38,400) or rose gold ($39,400). The Skeleton Flying Tourbillon has a 44mm-diameter round case and is powered by the manual-wind Caliber RD505SQ, developed at the Roger Dubuis manufacture in the Canton of Geneva. Made up of 165 parts, the movement bears an anthracite treatment that complements the gray of the titanium case. The openworked dial (another hallmark of the Pulsion line) shows off the differential tourbillon. The Pulsion Chronograph contains another manufacture movement, the automatic RD680, with micro-rotor winding, column-wheel chronograph, and 48-hour power reserve. The multi-level dial has counter subdials at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock, a decorative pattern on its black exterior surface, and the numerals "6" and "12" machined onto small circles and screwed into the dial. The 44-mm case is offered in blackDLC-coated titanium or rose gold. Both new models come on black rubber straps that are integrated into the case, with titanium folding buckles. Like all current Roger Dubuis watches, the Pulsion models meet the new, stricter requirements for the Geneva Seal, issued by the Canton of Geneva as a mark of quality watchmaking. Pulsion Chronograph in rose gold Geneva Sealapproved Caliber RD620 Pulsion Skeleton Flying Tourbillon WatchTime April 2012

77
Greubel Forsey KNOWN FOR ITS multiple-tourbillon watches, Greubel Forsey has created a new timepiece that combines an innovative GMT complication with the brand's wellknown inclined 24-seconds tourbillon. Called simply The GMT, the watch has a novel three-dimensional method of indicating a second time zone: a rotating titanium globe at 8 o'clock, secured on an axis at its south pole, which completes one rotation every 24 hours and is synched up with a day-night indicator ring divided into a black half (for the nighttime hemisphere, or 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM) and white half (6:00 AM to 6:00 PM). At a glance, a wearer in New York, for example, can see that evening is falling over Geneva as he takes his midday lunch break. At 10 o'clock, a second-time-zone subdial can be set, by a dual-function pusher on the caseband, to indicate the time in a specific zone. The home-time hours and minutes are at 1 o'clock, small seconds at 2 o'clock, and the 72-hour power-reserve indicator at 3 o'clock. The 25º inclined tourbillon cage is positioned at 5 o'clock. On the watch's caseback is a world-time disk with the names of 24 cities representing the world's time zones, which the wearer aligns with the outer or inner (for daylight savings times) chapter ring to set the time on the dial-side globe. The watch has a 43.5-mm white-gold case and comes on a black alligator strap; price upon request.

78
THE GENEVA SHOWS The New Watches Lady Arpels Poetic Wish Van Cleef & Arpels WELL-KNOWN watchmaker Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, founder of the complications specialists Agenhor, designed and made the movement used in two new VC&A watches, a men's model (Midnight Poetic Wish) and a women's model (Lady Arpels Poetic Wish). The movement is a 5-minute repeater that not only chimes the time on demand but displays it visually, also on demand, by means of three automata on the dial. When the wearer pushes the button at 2 o'clock, the human figure moves along the linear hour scale and stops at the correct hour. The cloud moves along the hour scale toward the figure. When these two automata meet, a third automaton, a star (on the men's watch) or a kite (on the women's model) ascends along an arced path to indicate the minutes. As the automata are moving, the repeater's two chimes ring out the hours and five-minute increments. The dials are decorated with scenes from Paris, including the Eiffel Tower and the Notre Dame Cathedral. Together, the watches are meant to depict two lovers pining for each other and sending messages, via the star and kite, over the Paris skyline. The repeater's chimes represent the ringing bells of the cathedral. The back of the watch has two dials: one for hours and minutes and the other for seconds. The hammers and chimes are also visible through the back. This is Agenhor's first repeating movement and its first complete movement. Prices: $49,500 for the women's watch and $58,000 for the baguette-set men's model shown here. VC&A also unveiled a new men's watch inspired by a watch that Pierre Arpels, son of one of the company's founders, designed in 1949. The watch is an elegant dress model containing the Piaget 830P caliber. It comes in 38- or 42mm sizes, in a rose-gold or white-gold case. The model shown here (42 mm) is $18,200. Pierre Arpels watch in rose gold Midnight Poetic Wish WatchTime April 2012

79
JeanRichard THE DIVERSCOPE, JeanRichard's divers' watch in the cushionshaped case, offers a novel complication in its new model, the Diverscope LPR -- a linear power-reserve indicator visible through the number "12" on the opaline black dial. The movement, automatic JR 1010, based on the brand's in-house JR 1000, has a plate, covered with white luminous paint, which is linked to a cam via a conveyor support and connecting rod. When the movement is wound, the plate moves upward and fills the cut-out Arabic numerals at the 12 o'clock position with white. As the energy in the movement is depleted, the plate moves downward and the white area inside the 12 recedes, letting the wearer know that it's time to wind the watch. (The "LPR" in the watch's name stands for "Linear Power Reserve"; the watch holds about 48 hours of power.) In addition to the power-reserve function, the Diverscope has a date display at 7:30, and screw-locked crowns at 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock controlling, respectively, the setting of the time and the movement of the inner, rotating divers' bezel. The watch is water-resistant to 300 meters and comes with two straps, one made of rubber and one made of Kevlar, both fastened by a folding steel clasp with a doublepushbutton security system. The Diverscope LPR is the first Diverscope watch in a stainless-steel case -- previous models were in titanium cases -- and costs $9,500. Built to Make History Tools should embody quality that inspires confidence and design that beckons to be used. These are the tools that endear themselves to their owners; becoming emblematic of a shared history and spirit. Paradive Type I-B with luminous sapphire bezel For additional information, dealers or to order direct visit: www.mkiiwatches.com

80
THE GENEVA SHOWS The New Watches Our Wristwatches Represent Nautical Virtues: Clear Display, Precision and Reliability. Richard Mille NOWADAYS, a sapphire crystal is a standard feature on a luxury mechanical watch, and a sapphire window in the caseback to show off the movement has become common, as well. But a watch with a whole case made of sapphire is something special. Richard Mille's Tourbillon Split Seconds Competition Chronograph RM 056 Felipe Masa Sapphire is the first timepiece to pull off this feat of engineering, with its front bezel, caseband, and back bezel all milled from solid blocks of sapphire in a complex, delicate machining process that required specially designed, diamond-tipped cutting tools (with a 9.0 Mohs rating, sapphire is one of the hardest and most scratch-resistant materials on Earth). According to the company, each case required more than 1,000 hours of machining, which included 430 hours of preforming the case parts and 350 hours of polishing. The bezel is treated with antiglare coating. The sapphire case allows a panoramic view of the skeletonized movement, Caliber RMCC1, a manualwinding tourbillon movement that includes a chronograph, split-seconds function, power-reserve display, and torque and function indicators. Based on Richard Mille's existing RM008 movement, it is extremely lightweight (under 10 grams, and 20 percent lighter than the RM008), thanks in part to its grade 5 titanium baseplate. The watch comes in a limited edition of five pieces, priced at $1.65 million each. 80 WatchTime April 2012 S.A.R. Flieger-Chronograph Since 1994 we have produced timepieces for professional navigation. At sea, precision, reliability and optimum clarity of display are what count. The S.A.R. Flieger-Chronograph, which we have developed in cooperation with rescue pilots from the German Navy, is totally committed to these nautical virtues. It is in line with our understanding of basic time measurement and completely meets the requirements of professional pilots. For more information please contact: Mühle-Glashütte USA 727-896-8453 p www.muehle-glashuette.de E.D. Marshall Jewelers Scottsdale, AZ Right Time Denver & Highlands Ranch, CO Old Northeast Jewelers St. Pete & Tampa, FL Little Treasury Jewelers Gambrills, MD Fox's Gem Shop Seattle, WA

81
Parmigiani PARMIGIANI adds to its Tonda collection this year with the new Tonda Retrograde Annual Calendar. The watch contains Caliber 339, which adds an in-house calendar module to Parmigiani's PF 331 base caliber with automatic winding, making it the 17th movement developed at the brand's workshops in Fleurier. Like other annual calendars, it requires only one manual date correction each year -- from February to March -- except in leap years, when February 29 will automatically move to March 1. The date indicator is a retrograde hand on the outer dial that points to a scale numbering 1 to 31. The day of the week is in a window is at 9 o'clock and the month in a window at 3 o'clock. The moon-phase display, located at 6 o'clock, has two indications, one each for the Northern and Southern Hemisphere, and requires correction only after 120 years. The Tonda Retrograde Annual Calendar is available with either a charcoal gray or silver dial with a barley-grained pattern in the center surrounded by an opaline ring; it comes on an alligator strap made by Hermès, in either a rosegold or white-gold case; each costs $32,800. April 2012 WatchTime 81

82
THE GENEVA SHOWS The New Watches Urwerk THE UR-100 Torpedo, introduced at last year's SIHH, is now embellished with a suit of gold armor. With its 5N rose-gold bezel, the UR-110 RG continues the company's tradition of telling time using a system of orbiting satellites. Time is shown on the right side of the watch, so it can be seen without raising one's shirt cuff. As with the UR-100, the satellites follow a vertically arched line, using gradations from 0 to 60 minutes, to tell the time. The three hour-satellites and their arrow-shaped torpedoes (for which the original model is named) are mounted on planetary gears and take turns showing the time as they pass the 60-minute track. Just like the original, the UR-110 RG has a control panel on the dial that indicates day/night and "oil change" (time for service) as well as hours and minutes. Small seconds are shown on a subdial. The grade 5 titanium case is a generous 47 mm by 51 mm in diameter, with a large sapphire crystal. The titanium caseback covers the UR 9.01 automatic movement, which has a unidirectional rotor regulated by double turbines. Its single barrel has a power reserve of 39 hours. It sells for $130,000. The 801P Aircraft (left) and its movement (below) THIS YEAR, the American watch brand RGM marks its 20th anniversary. The brand is closely associated with Pennsylvania watchmaking, and it is known for its pilots' watches, which, until now, have been powered by movements produced in Switzerland.    To create something special for the anniversary, company founder Roland G. Murphy looked to clocks produced by the Hamilton and Elgin watch companies for use in World War II aircraft. One clock in particular provided the design inspiration for this new pilots' watch -- the first to house RGM's inhouse manual-winding caliber 801 movement. Known as the 801P Aircraft, the watch has a polished stainless-steel case measuring 42 mm in diameter. Sapphire crystals in the front and back show off the eye-catching dial and the American-made movement inside. The 19-jewel caliber is available in rhodium or gold, finished with Geneva waves and perlage. Strap options include black or brown alligator and ostrich. A stainless-steel bracelet is also available. The price on a strap is $6,400, and on a bracelet, $7,150.

83
De Bethune DE BETHUNE celebrates 2012 -- a significant year in the Mayan Long Count calendar -- with a series of 12 timepieces called the Ninth Mayan Underworld. These pieces celebrate Mayan culture by capturing the essence of Mayan stone carving. The solid gold dials have been hand-engraved by Michèle Rothen, and enhanced by 31 flame-blued steel inserts. The hour circle displays the numerals of the Mayan numbering system, while the inner ring presents the 20 glyphs of divinities, animals and sacred objects representing the various days of the calendar. The dial center features the baktun, a period glyph used specifically for calculating the "Long Count" and comprising 144,000 days. To highlight the dial, the hands are made in sapphire rimmed with blued steel using a procedure exclusive to De Bethune. The company says these pieces represent the brand's unique celebration of the mystical and scientific Mayan genius, and the symbolic advent of a new world. The price is $95,000. Louis Moinet LOUIS MOINET'S new Jules Verne Instrument III was inspired by the author's novel, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The watch was envisioned as a high-precision instrument for the book's protagonist, Captain Nemo, as he sails aboard his Nautilus submarine in search of adventure. The design of this chronograph follows the lines of the Nautilus. It is equipped with a subaquatic-looking monopusher and an original function indicator (patent pending) that was inspired by the famous Chadburn telegraph transmitters on historical ships. The dial is adorned with the signature Louis Moinet "côtes de Jura" pattern. The hands feature cut-out segments filled with white and blue luminescent material. The watch is fitted with a screw balance beating at 28,800 vph. The winding rotor is mounted on ball bearings and has an openworked section. The movement is engraved with a black-finish "côtes de Jura" motif and features blued steel screws. It has a power reserve of 48 hours. The lightweight 45.5-mm case is made of polished grade 5 titanium and is water resistant to 50 meters. The lower bezel is coated with black PVD, and the upper bezel is rose gold. The crown and pusher are a blend of rose gold and black PVD. The watch is also available in titanium and stainless steel. Each model is limited to 365 pieces. Price: $23,500 in rose gold and titanium; $18,900 in titanium and stainless steel. Both models come on a rubber strap. April 2012 WatchTime 83

84
THE GENEVA SHOWS The New Watches Here There Be Dragons If you needed more proof that the luxury watch industry is embracing the emerging markets of China and other Asian countries in a big way, look no further than the crop of timepieces introduced at SIHH that commemorate the Chinese Year of the Dragon in 2012. From Richard Mille, there is the Tourbillon RM 057 Dragon - Jackie Chan, a limited edition of 36 pieces developed with the input of the world-famous Chinese action star with whom Mille previously collaborated on the RMJC Tourbillon, a unique piece sold at auction for $860,000. The watch has a baseplate made of black onyx, which in Chinese mythology is considered a stone of inspiration and protection against negative thoughts. The dial has a golden engraving of a scaled dragon, which grasps the tourbillon bridge in one of its clawed talons. Chan's round, engraved signature is set into the baseplate and rotates once every 60 seconds along with the tourbillon. The watch contains the manual-wind RM057 movement and has a 50 mm by 42.7 mm tonneau-shaped case made of rose gold. The dragon is entirely hand-engraved in white gold ($575,000) or rose gold ($565,000). Audemars Piguet has added a trio of dragon-themed models to its Jules Audemars collection, all of them with tourbilThe Tourbillon RM 057 Dragon - Jackie Chan from Richard Mille The Dragon and the Pearl of Wisdom, a unique piece by Parmigiani lons. The Jules Audemars Dragon Tourbillon contains AP's manual-wind manufacture Caliber 2906, which boasts a 72hour power reserve, and features a gold dragon on the dial, each one hand-engraved at the brand's atelier in Le Brassus, Switzerland. There are two versions with a red enamel dial behind the dragon figure, one with the case, hands, and dragon figure in white gold ($214,200, limited to eight pieces); the other with the case, hands and dragon figure in rose gold ($203,900, limited to eight pieces). There is also a model without enamel, with a rose gold dial, hands and dragon, for $194,800 and limited to 18 pieces. Numerals with an 8, of course, are regarded as lucky in China. Because of the hand engraving, each watch is unique, and comes in a special presentation box. Parmigiani's tribute to the Year of the Dragon is not a watch at all but a unique automaton clock that the company has named The Dragon and the Pearl of Wisdom. Designed by the brand's founding watchmaker, Michel Parmigiani, the device features a striking sculptural figure of the Imperial Dragon from Chinese legend, which travels once per hour around the clock's base in pursuit of the elusive, incandescent pearl of wisdom that forever evades its clutches: six times per hour, as the dragon approaches the pearl, the pearl moves forward, at which moment a gong sounds to alert the clock's owner. The complex mechanism is inside the clock's base, which is cut from a block of rock crystal. It is surrounded by a gilded silver ring divided into 12 hours by indices made of jade; one Chinese hour is equivalent to two traditional hours. The ring makes one turn around the base every 24 hours. Both the dragon and the pearl are adorned with precious stones, including diamonds, rubies, sapphires and several shades of jade. The entire clock, including the timekeeping mechanism, contains nearly 1,000 components and required more than 5,800 hours of work. The Year of the Dragon is said to bring luck, and one lucky collector can lay his hands on this for around $3.5 million. Audemars Piguet's Jules Audemars Dragon Tourbillon, in white gold (left) and rose gold (below, left) WatchTime April 2012

85
ESSENTIAL GEAR. Invented in the United States. Made in Switzerland. Tony Kanaan Series No. 1148: 44mm asymmetrical black PVD case with carbon fiber inlay sides, polished ceramic bezel, black PVD crown and pushers, antireflective sapphire crystal, integrated genuine leather strap with signature buckle, created in Tony Kanaan's signature colors, water resistant to 100 meters, and Luminox self-powered illumination. Swiss Made. Preferred timepiece of Champion Race Driver Tony Kanaan. Luminox.com TRY IT BEFORE YOU BUY IT Virtual Reality allows you to try on any Luminox watch using a PC or MAC. Try one on today and experience the Luminox Always Visible technology. Available at fine jewelers, watch specialty shops, outdoor stores, and other fine retailers nationwide. TRY IT BEFORE YOU BUY IT. o o o o Cut out, fold and wrap Go to luminox.com/vr Download the software View the collection on your wrist

86


87
Assembling a Grand Seiko movement at Morioka Seiko Instruments EIKO'S GRAND PLAN For 50 years, to get a Grand Seiko, you had to go to Japan. Not anymore. BY JOE THOMPSON April 2012 WatchTime 87

88
CLOSE-UP Seiko's Grand Seiko 88 WatchTime April 2012 April 2012 ast fall I made back-to-back reporting trips, first to Japan, then to Switzerland. On the Swiss trip, in a meeting with a prominent CEO of a Swiss watch brand, the subject of Japanese watches came up. Unprompted, he declared "Seiko makes the best mechanical watch in the world. I hate to say it, but it's true." He was referring to the Grand Seiko, a luxury mechanical watch that Seiko has produced in Japan for 52 years for the Japanese market. Two days later, in a conversation about my travels with the technical director of another Swiss watch firm, he said, unprompted, "I would love to have a Grand Seiko." Behind the scenes and off the record, such heresy is not unheard of in Switzerland. In the Mecca of mechanical watchmaking, one occasionally encounters open admiration for a watch that is a paradox -- an expensive, small-batch, chronometer-quality mechanical made by the world's most famous producer of quartz watches. In watch circles, Grand Seiko enjoys something akin to cult status. One reason is its exotic Japanese origins: Grand Seikos contain hand-made manufacture movements with Seiko-made components, including hairsprings. Another reason is its rarity: Seiko barely makes enough Grand Seikos for Japan and a couple of other Asian markets. But mostly its cult status stems from its per- formance: Grand Seiko's claim to fame is that each one must pass a battery of tests more rigorous than Switzerland's COSC conducts for its official chronometer designation. Seiko calls the tests, which it performs itself, the Grand Seiko Inspection Standard. Seiko doesn't overtly claim that Grand Seikos are better than Swiss mechanicals, but it comes close. "The very best of mechanical watchmaking" is how Seiko phrases it. It leaves it to others, such as watch collectors who buy Grand Seikos on visits to Japan and sing their praises on various watch websites, to make the claim for them. Now foreigners no longer have to trek to the Orient to seek this object of watch-collector fascination. In a dramatic break with a half-century of tradition, Seiko announced in 2010 that it would sell Grand Seikos on 20 global markets. Four models are now available in the United States, ranging in price from $4,400 to $25,000. The latest arrivals are the 130th Anniversary Commemorative Edition, which is a replica of the original Grand Seiko watch of 1960. (The anniversary reference is to the founding of the Seiko firm by Kintaro Hattori in Tokyo in 1881.) The watch features a new hand-wound mechanical movement, Caliber 9S64, and comes in three limited-edition versions: stainless steel (1,300 pieces at $6,500), 18k yellow gold (130 pieces at $16,500) and platinum (130 pieces at $25,000). The other models are the Grand Seiko Hi-Beat 36000 watch with a new automatic movement with a frequency of 36,000 vph ($7,200); three Grand Seiko Automatics ($4,400 and $5,100); and a Grand Seiko Automatic GMT ($5,500). The decision to distribute Grand Seiko internationally is the latest step in Seiko's effort over the last decade to elevate the brand's image by showcasing its ability to make luxury watches in addition to its standard quartz fare. In recent years, Seiko has launched on global markets Kinetic, Spring Drive and even a few mechanical watches priced above $1,000. The arrival of Grand Seiko mechanicals is the pièce de résistance in Seiko's grand brand-elevation plan.

89
SPECS GRAND SEIKO 130TH ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATIVE COLLECTION Manufacturer: Morioka Seiko Instruments, 61-1, Itabashi, Shizukuishi-cho, Iwate-gun, Iwate, Japan Reference number: SBGW033 Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds Movement: Caliber 9S64, manual-winding; diameter = 28.4 mm; height = 4.9 mm; 24 jewels; 146 components; Spron610 balance spring; 28,800 vph; 72hour power reserve; magnetic resistance = 10,000 A/m Case: Stainless steel; diameter = 35.8 mm; high-definition dual-curved sapphire crystal with nonreflective coating; 30-meter water-resistance Strap and clasp: Crocodile with stainless steel buckle Rate: Mean daily rate between -3 to +5 seconds per day under static conditions; between -1 to +10 seconds per day when the watch is worn Variations: Limited edition of 130 pieces in 18k yellow gold ($16,500); limited edition of 130 pieces in platinum ($25,000) Limited edition of 1,300 pieces Price: $6,500 Yellow-gold and platinum Grand Seikos from the 130th Anniversary Commemorative collection and the movement that powers them, Caliber 9S64

90
CLOSE-UP Seiko's Grand Seiko The strategy has its critics, of course. "There is only one thing wrong with Grand Seiko," the Swiss CEO who so admires it said with a Cheshire-cat smile: "The name!" His point is that for all Grand Seiko's technical merits, consumers outside of Seiko's home market will be loath to spend $4,000-plus for a steel mechanical watch (let alone $16,000-plus for a gold one) bearing a brand name they have long associated with mass-produced quartz watches. THAT SEIKO even makes mechanical watches, let alone chronometer-quality ones, will come as a surprise to many people, who only know it as the brand that launched (in 1969) and led the quartz-watch revolution. But there is far more to Seiko than just quartz. Seiko Watch Corp.'s proudest boast is that the group is the world's only watch producer to master four timekeeping technologies: quartz, Kinetic, Spring Drive and mechanical. (Two of those, Kinetic and Spring Drive, are exclusive to Seiko.) In The original Grand Seiko watch from 1960 The first watch to carry the Seiko brand, 1924 Seiko's first wristwatch, the Laurel, from 1913 fact, Seiko has a long history as a mechanical watch producer. Today the giant Seiko Group is a totally vertically integrated mechanical watch manufacture. It produces mechanical watches across the price spectrum, from inexpensive, mass-produced, automatic watches called Seiko 5 at the bottom of the price pyramid to Grand Seikos at the top. It makes all the components and movements in-house. Americans are not familiar with the mechanical side of Seiko because, until recently, none were sold here. WatchTime April 2012

91
Seiko began making mechanical watches, pocketwatches then, in 1895. It has been making mechanical wristwatches longer than most Swiss watch companies. Next year it will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Laurel, the first wristwatch made in Japan. (For reasons unknown today, Seiko's custom from the beginning was to give new products English names. "Perhaps Kintaro was already thinking of future export possibilities," writes Masaharu Nabata in The Seiko Book: The Real History of Seiko Watches.) Most Swiss watch companies did not begin producing wristwatches until after World War I. The Laurel, Nabata writes, most likely contained components made entirely in-house. By 1913, Seikosha, as the company was called, was making its own balance springs and enamel dials. The first watch to carry the Seiko name was a wristwatch with a small seconds hand at 6 o'clock that debuted in 1924. In 1937, Seiko created a second factory, Daini Seikosha (literally "Second Seikosha") exclusively for watch production. World War II crippled Seiko's watchmaking development. Production shifted to military products during the war; afterward, the Japanese watch industry had trouble rebounding. It wasn't until 1954 that Seiko achieved its pre-war production level of 100,000 watches per month. In the mid-1950s, however, Seiko went on a crash program to raise its mechanical watchmaking expertise to world-class standards. It was that technical push that led to the creation of the Grand Seiko series. A turning point in Seiko's mechanical watch history was the Seiko Marvel of 1956, a 17-jewel manual-wind with an 11.5-ligne movement that represented a quantum leap in accuracy for Japanese watches. Seiko entered the watch in domestic watch competitions sponsored at the time by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. The Marvel lived up to its name. It took the top five places and seven of the top 10 in the 1957 competition. In 1958, it took nine of the top 10 spots. The next year Seiko introduced the Gyro Marvel, with an automatic movement containing a major mechani- SEIKO HAS MADE MECHANICAL WRISTWATCHES SINCE 1913 - LONGER THAN MOST SWISS WATCH COMPANIES. The Grand Seiko Automatic ($4,400) The Grand Seiko Automatic GMT ($5,500) cal innovation that is a Seiko exclusive, the Magic Lever. (It's a device that increased the transfer of power to the mainspring and delivered faster winding speed. It did so by harnessing all the energy created by the rotor as it revolves in both directions. Seiko calls it "one of the key breakthroughs in the modern history of mechanical watchmaking"; it is still used in most Seiko automatics today.) In this period Seiko produced watches like the Cronos and Crown that are prized by Seiko collectors today. April 2012 WatchTime 91

92
CLOSE-UP Seiko's Grand Seiko Flush with the success of these products, Seiko felt ready to take on the world champions in mechanical watchmaking, the Swiss. Seiko assembled a team of its top watchmakers on a project to create what they called "an ideal watch." The goal was to produce the most accurate, durable, legible and easiest-to-wear watch in the world. This was Grand Seiko. Writes Nabata, "All the technicians involved with the development of Grand Seiko knew that their goal was to exceed Swiss chronometer standards. The company set out to make Grand Seiko watches to a standard higher than any timepieces ever made before in Japan; Swiss chronometer standards were the key to this ambition." Grand Seiko debuted in Tokyo on Dec. 18, 1960. The original watch had a manual-wind movement, Caliber 3180, with a frequency of 18,000 vph. Its styling was sleek and simple and it carried the designation "chronometer" on the dial. The emphasis was clearly on the movement. Despite a gold-filled case, the watch sold for 25,000 yen, equivalent at the time to two months' salary of a college-educated professional. Seiko put the watches through a testing regimen more rigorous than that of Switzerland's COSC. Today, Grand Seikos are SEIKO HAS JOINED ZENITH IN THE PRESTIGIOUS 36,000-VPH CALIBER CLUB. SPECS GRAND SEIKO HI-BEAT 36000 Manufacturer: Morioka Seiko Instruments, 61-1, Itabashi, Shizukuishi-cho, Iwate-gun, Iwate, Japan Reference number: SBGH 001 Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, date Movement: Caliber 9S85, automatic; diameter = 28.4 mm; height = 6.0 mm; 37 jewels; 221 components; Spron530 balance spring; 36,000 vph; magnetic resistance = 4,800 A/m; 55-hour power reserve Case: Stainless steel; high-definition dual curved sapphire crystal with nonreflective coating; screw-down crown; exhibition back; 100-meter water-resistance Bracelet and clasp: Stainless steel, threefold clasp with push-button release Rate: Mean daily rate between -3 to +5 seconds per day under static conditions; between -1 to +10 seconds per day when the watch is worn Dimensions: Diameter = 40.0 mm; height = 13.0 mm; weight = 151 grams Price: $7,200 Seiko's automatic Caliber 9S85 (below, left), with a frequency of 36,000 vph, powers the Grand Seiko Hi-Beat 36000. WatchTime April 2012

93
WatchTime Mobile Edition Watchtime Digital Editions* iPad / iPhon Nook* e (comin g soon ) now o n: iPad iPhone Nook Edition *The Nook edition of WatchTime will also be available on Android, PC and Mac (please download the Nook app)

94
CLOSE-UP Seiko's Grand Seiko Seiko makes its own hairsprings using an in-house alloy called Spron. Making wristwatches at Daini Seikosha in Tokyo in the late 1930s Grand Seiko watches and movements are assembled by hand in Seiko's Shizuku-ishi Watch Studio. SEIKO IS A COMPLETELY VERTICALLY INTEGRATED MECHANICAL MANUFACTURE, MAKING ITS OWN COMPONENTS FROM HAIRSPRINGS TO CASES AND BRACELETS. 94 WatchTime April 2012 tested in more positions, at more temperatures, for more days. (See "Standard Procedures: Seiko versus COSC" sidebar.) After a couple of years, Seiko removed the "chronometer" designation from the dial since the watches were tested at a standard greater than the international standard. Seiko produced the first generation of Grand Seikos from 1960 to 1975. Seiko itself caused Grand Seiko's demise: the company's pioneering advances in quartz watch technology killed demand for mechanical watches. It stopped making Grand Seikos in 1975. By the early 1980s it halted virtually all mechanical watch production. Miraculously, a decade later, Seiko mechanicals came back, when the trusty tick-tock found new life as a luxury item. In 1991, Seiko resumed full-scale mechanical-watch production. In 1998, Seiko launched a second generation of mechanical Grand Seiko watches with a new mechanical caliber, the 9S5 series of automatic and hand-wound calibers, reserved exclusively for Grand Seikos. (Seiko had relaunched the Grand Seiko series in 1988, but with quartz move-

95
AMERICA'S NO. 1 WATCH MAGAZINE Take home delivery and never miss an issue again. Your paid subscription of only $49.97 (six BIG issues) not only saves money off the newsstand price but also includes the WatchTime Buyer's Guide 2012 (a $14.95 value)--FREE! RIBE SUBSC E! TO SUBSCRIBE: Visit our web site at: WWW.WATCHTIME.COM Or use the subscription reply card found in this issue. Six issues plus the 2012 Buyer's Guide--only $49.97! The Buyer's Guide is an easy-to-use one-stop information resource for the sophistica- One year Canada--U.S. $59.97 ted gift-giver or watch buyer. You'll enjoy discovering over a thousand watches--more One year all other countries--U.S. $89.97 than 150 brands in twelve price categories from $500 to over $50,000! Though the Watch- In the U.S., phone toll-free: Time Buyer's Guide has always been a popular year-end resource for our readers, until now it was sold separately on the newsstand. Now it will come to your mailbox! 1-888-289-0038

96
CLOSE-UP Seiko's Grand Seiko Shinji Hattori: No More Two Seikos "WE ARE TRYING NOW TO INTEGRATE OUR COLLECTIONS TO PRESENT ONE NEW SEIKO TO THE WORLD." SEIKO WATCH CORP. CEO SHINJI HATTORI The man backing Seiko's push to showcase its luxury mechanical watches on world markets is Shinji Hattori, chairman of Seiko Holdings Corp. and CEO of Seiko Watch Corp. Recently WatchTime editor-in-chief Joe Thompson met in Tokyo with Hattori, great-grandson of Seiko founder Kintaro Hattori, to discuss mechanical watchmaking. The following is an excerpt from the interview. WT: Why has Seiko decided to make a push into the luxury mechanical watch sector in recent years?  SH: The main reason is globalization and the maturing of the image of Seiko. For years there were, effectively, two Seikos. One was in Japan, where we have had Grand Seiko for more than 50 years, as well as the Credor brand. But there was a different Seiko in the rest of the world, where we have been the leader in midrange quartz watches. In today's globalized world, many people from outside Japan see and like our higher priced, high-grade Japanese models, and so we are trying now to integrate our collections to present one new Seiko to the world. WT: What are the benefits of this strategic decision for Seiko? And what are the risks? SH: There are risks, of course. We cannot expect consumers in the U.S.A. to immediately accept Seiko at prices 10 times higher than the current prices, but, over time, we will get there. And the benefits are huge. We will be able to raise the average price of what we sell as the proportion of higher-priced merchandise increases, and we will achieve synergies in our production by rationalizing the two collections into one. WT: From a product development standpoint, does Seiko intend to produce a full range of mechanical watch products, including high complications? Or does Seiko plan to specialize in a certain segment of the mechanical market? SH: For Seiko, the accuracy is very important. The word seiko in Japanese means "precision." Our strength is in this area of uncomplicated, high functionality, as you know from Grand Seiko. So, yes, we will produce a very small number of complications under the Cre- dor brand as you have seen in recent years. [Editor's note: the reference is to the Credor Spring Drive Sonnerie and Minute Repeater watches.] But the core of our offer in mechanical watches will be high-quality watches that deliver industry-leading accuracy over time and which are reliable, durable and simple. WT: Are there particular Seiko mechanical watch projects that you are pleased about? SH: There are many! The recent Credor pieces made by the Micro Artist Studio are very special and have had a major impact on the luxury market. But perhaps most of all, I am proud of the Grand Seiko Hi-Beat watch we launched in 2010. I believe that the hi-beat mechanical caliber is the highest form of the watchmaker's art, as it requires excellence in every aspect: engineering precision, materials and innovation. I believe our hi-beat caliber to be one of the very best mechanical calibers in the world. WT: Seiko has a tradition of innovation in quartz watch technology. Will the same go for mechanical watchmaking? WatchTime April 2012

97
SH: We are constantly innovating in mechanical watchmaking. You can find many examples in our current mechanical watches. We have created new Spron alloys for our springs. We have made significant improvements to the precision of our components with MEMS technology. Last year we introduced new calibers in Grand Seiko (9S64) and in Seiko (8R39). Our innovations are, however, not just innovations for their own sake. All contribute to better precision over time and that will always be our focus. WT: Do you see any difference in approach to mechanical watchmaking between Japanese and Swiss producers? SH: There are more similarities than differences because I think that our friends in Switzerland and Seiko share a common determination to develop and expand the market for high-grade watches. Perhaps one small difference is that Seiko designs, produces and assembles its high-end mechanical models in house. We have always done so and we always will. And another is perhaps that we are always ready to look for radical solutions. For example, let's look at Spring Drive. When we sought to dramatically increase the precision over time of the mechanical watch, we looked not only at refinements of existing technologies. We looked at completely new ideas and Spring Drive is the result. It is a mechanical watch with a totally new kind of regulator and it delivers a level of accuracy that other mechanical watches can never achieve. WT: What are Seiko's top markets for luxury mechanical watches today? SH: For historical reasons, Japan is of course the biggest market. After Japan, the other Asian markets are very good for Grand Seiko and our other high-end mechanical lines. Many people in these markets have been aware of Seiko's excellence in prestige watches for many years and that is why the take-up of Grand Seiko has been so strong in markets like Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and, in the near future, China and India. In Europe and the U.S.A., it's a longer road that we must travel, but we have already about 60 retail partners for Grand Seiko outside of Japan and we are very pleased with our progress. ments. To this day, the Grand Seiko line in Japan includes quartz and Spring Drive models.) In 2006, Seiko upped the ante with a new caliber, the 9S6 series, with a 72-hour power reserve. TO FIND OUT what makes the Grand Seiko so grand, you travel north out of Tokyo 340 miles to the mountainous Iwate prefecture on Japan's northeast coast. In the center of the prefecture is the city of Morioka, with majestic views of nearby Mount Iwate. The city of Shizuku-ishi, just outside Morioka, is the home of Morioka Seiko Instruments Inc. MSI is a powerhouse in Seiko Instruments Inc., one of the two giant watch-producing companies in the Seiko Group. (The other is Seiko Epson.) The factory, with 550 employees and 30,000 square meters of floor space, churns out 10 million watches a month. These are the quartz pieces that made Seiko world famous. Within MSI, however, there is another world. It's called the Shizuku-ishi Watch Studio. Here a staff of 60 highly skilled watchmakers and technicians make watches the old-fashioned way. The Watch Studio is a full-fledged manufacture, the only one in Japan. Here, says an MSI executive, "we develop, we design, we manufacture and we assemble luxury mechanical watches." At spotless workbenches in a large, spotless room, 19 watchmakers manufacture mechanical watches, one by one, by hand. Attached to each watchmaker's spacious desk (the word "workbench" doesn't do it justice) is a plaque with the watchmaker's name in Japanese and English. Each desk is customized for the watchmaker. The lacquered wood desks and cabinets in the studio are Iwayado Tansu, traditional craft furniture that is a specialty of the Iwate region. The watchmakers make and finish the components, they assemble the movement, and they adjust and regulate it. Using customized tweezers, they adjust the curves of hairsprings, made of an exclusive, Seiko-developed alloy called Spron, which are only 0.03 mm thick. Then technicians test the movement. A lot. The THE GRAND SEIKO TEST IS TOUGHER THAN THE COSC TEST FOR SWISS CHRONOMETERS. first round is for 300 hours, after which the watchmakers fine-tune the movement again. At that point it is ready for its 400hour Grand Seiko inspection. Movements that pass are then assembled by hand into a case that has been hand-polished. Each steel, gold, or platinum case is polished using a special technique called Zaratsu, or blade polishing, which creates a flat, smooth, mirror finish. The complete watch then gets a final inspection. In total, every Grand Seiko watch spends more than 1,000 hours being tested and inspected. Each watch comes with a rating certificate certifying that it has passed the Grand Seiko Inspection Standard. The Shizuku-ishi workshop produces more than 20 different mechanical watch calibers in two families, Caliber 68 and Caliber 9S. Caliber 68 is a series of movements used in thin mechanical dress watches that Seiko sells in Japan under the Credor label. Caliber 68 is an ultra-thin, hand-wound movement just 1.98 mm thick. The Caliber 9S series, which Seiko calls "the flagship of Seiko," is used exclusively in Grand Seiko watches. With all the handiwork involved in the calibers of both families, the manufacture's annual output is small. How small is a Seiko secret; Japanese sources put the number of Grand Seikos produced per year in the thousands rather than tens of thousands. Seiko created the Caliber 9S series for the revival of the mechanical Grand April 2012 WatchTime 97

98
CLOSE-UP Seiko's Grand Seiko A Seiko watchmaker working on the ultrathin Caliber 68 used in Credor watches for the domestic market Seiko collection in 1998. The first movement, 9S55, was Seiko's state-of-the-art mechanical movement, an automatic with 50-hour power reserve. But to live up to the Grand Seiko ideal, Seiko felt the watch should run for an entire weekend without winding down. They achieved that in 2006 with a new caliber (the 9S6 series) that runs for 72 hours on a full charge. "The long power reserve of 72 hours relieved a major concern," says one Morioka Seiko executive. "There is no need to reset the hands on Monday morning, because the watch will continue operating through the weekend." Seiko says the improved power reserve is the result of two major advances in component manufacturing at MSI over the past few years. One is the introduction of Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) engineering in parts production. MEMS is a technology developed for the integrated circuit industry that is now being applied to watchmaking. The other involves improvements in Seiko balance springs and mainsprings made with Spron, the highly elastic in-house alloy that Seiko Instruments developed for mainsprings. MSI says Spron, which is a registered trademark of SII, delivers more torque and resistance to shock. Calibers in the 9S6 series use a longer, wider, and thinner mainspring made of Spron510, an improvement over the Spron200 mainspring in the 9S5 series. Balance springs are made of The Morioka Seiko Instruments factory in Iwate Prefecture in northern Japan A master watchmaker at his desk in the Shizukuishi Watch Studio at Morioka WatchTime April 2012

99
A Grand Seiko Hi-Beat watch with the Grand Seiko certificate Standard Procedures: Seiko vs. COSC How does Seiko's Grand Seiko Inspection Standard differ from the COSC tests required for a Swiss mechanical chronometer? In three ways, Seiko says. "The Grand Seiko standard involves more tests in more positions and at more temperatures than today's chronometer standard," Seiko says in a statement. Here are the differences: 1. Seiko tests its Grand Seiko movements in six positions versus five for COSC. Both Seiko and COSC check the accuracy, or rate, of the movement in various positions simulating the various angles a watch is in when on the wrist. Seiko, however, adds one additional position: the position of the watch when it is not being worn and placed vertically on a flat surface, crown right, with 12 o'clock at the top. 2. Seiko tests Grand Seiko movements with two temperature variations versus COSC's one. Changes in temperature can affect the performance of a watch. COSC checks the thermal variation of daily rate between 8 and 38 degrees Celsius and requires that the rate variation not exceed +/- 0.6 seconds per day. Like COSC, Seiko checks thermal variation between 8 and 38 degrees Celsius. But Seiko conducts a second test for variations between 23 and 38 degrees Celsius. The extra temperature rating is closer to body temperature. Seiko has a slightly tougher standard than COSC, +/0.5 seconds per day. 3. Seiko tests Grand Seiko movements for 17 days versus COSC's 15. The two extra days are for the test of the movement in the sixth position. The Grand Seiko standard has been revised several times over the years. The current standard was set in 1998, when Seiko revived the mechanical Grand Seiko collection with the Caliber 9S family of movements. The following table outlines the differences between the COSC and Grand Seiko standards. Spron610, with greater shock-resistance and anti-magnetism (10,000 A/m). The caliber also has a new MEMSmade escape wheel and pallet. Compared to traditional machined parts, MEMS technology produces components that are lighter, more precisely cut and more durable, with smoother surfaces. The result, Seiko says, is greater accuracy. Seiko uses the same technology in the Grand Seiko Hi-Beat 36000 watch introduced last year. Seiko is one of just two watch firms (the other is Zenith) to manufacture a 10-beat caliber. High-frequency watches have better accuracy because they deliver 50 percent more torque than a standard eight-beat movement. The downside of 10 beats is a low power reserve and low durability. Seiko's Caliber 9S85, however, manages a power reserve of 55 hours. Like other members of the 9S family, it has a MEMS-manufactured escape wheel and pallet and Spron610 balance spring. The mainspring is made of a new material, Spron530, which SII developed with the Metal Material Laboratory of Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. ? TESTING PROGRAM/CRITERIA COSC CHRONOMETER Secs/day Mean daily rate Mean rate variation Maximum rate variation Maximum difference in rate between vertical and horizontal positions Greatest rate difference Rate variation per 1°C between 8° and 38°C Rate variation per 1°C between 23°and 38°C Rate resumption Number of positions Time period Source: Seiko Watch Corp. -4 - +6 2.0 5 GRAND SEIKO Secs/day -3 - +5 1.8 4 -6 - +8 10 -0.6 - +0.6 (not applicable) -5 - +5 5 15 days -6 - +5 8 -0.5 - +0.5 -0.5 - +0.5 -5 - +5 6 17 days April 2012 WatchTime 99

100
AMERICA'S MOST LUXURIOUS WATCH SHOW! SHARE A WATCH NIGHT OUT WITH FELLOW WATCH AFICIONADOS! At each event you will enjoy: o New locations! The finest 5-star hotels and upscale private clubs o A 2-hour watch fair and cocktail reception with signature hors d'oeuvres o A firsthand look at this year's new watches from the sponsoring brands and rare timepieces, which are never seen in stores o A preview of vintage watches for upcoming Antiquorum auctions o Meet WatchTime's team and the editor-in-chief, Joe Thompson o Custom designed seasonal gourmet menus developed by the head chefs in each hotel exclusively for IBG o Premium wines and champagnes selected in collaboration with sommeliers o Jeff Kingston's multimedia presentation o A whiskey tasting served by The Dalmore Event schedule and locations: Date > September 11 > September 18 > September 20 > October 2 > October 4 City Chicago Philadelphia New York San Francisco Los Angeles Fee $139 $139 $149 $139 $139

101
inside a guided tour behind the scenes of BASELWORLD and SIHH BASEL GENEVA 2012 See these prestigious brands at all five events Additional brands will participate at each event. For the full list of brands for each event, go to: www.watchtime.com/live-events/i-b-g-2012 Seating will be limited. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Register immediately: Toll free 1-800-596-5898 Online at: www.watchtime.com For any questions please email our event manager Rose Alonzo, [email protected].

102
Exploded view of the flying tourbillon movement, by Audemars Piguet Renaud et Papi, used in Chanel's new high-horology version of its Première women's watch (right)

103
Not a fashion brand, nor a traditional mechanical brand, nor a women's jewelry brand, Chanel is something else entirely. But what? BY NORMA BUCHANAN CHANEL WATCH t Baselworld 2005, the halls were alive with the twirl of tourbillons. Of the dozens of brands that launched tourbillon watches at the show, one gained particular attention: Chanel, best-known for its quilted purses, tweed suits and, above all, No. 5 perfume. That a frivolous fashion brand like Chanel had jumped on the tourbillon bandwagon was a sure sign, many said, that the tourbillon was dead. But the scoffers, as it turned out, were wrong. The tourbillon, as everyone knows, didn't die: it's as much an esteemed symbol of high watchmaking as ever. And Chanel, as more people are learning, is no frivolous fashion-watch brand. In fact, Chanel has been an outlier in the fashion-label watch world since the first Chanel watch came out a quarter-century ago. From the beginning, the brand was expensive and Swissmade, when the typical fashion-brand watch was made in China and sold for less than $100. As Nicolas Beau, Chanel's international watch director, recalls: "Only watch brands and jewelers [like Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels] were offering high-end watches made in Switzerland." April 2012 WatchTime 103 The Curious Case of

104
PROFILE Chanel In 2000, Chanel made another offbeat move. It launched a watch called the J12, a big, sporty watch with an automatic movement. What was unusual about the watch, aside from the fact that it had a pronounced masculine feel to it (especially with its mechanical movement) but was being marketed under a women's label, was its case material: ceramic. Rather than wooing women with diamonds and steel, as other brands were doing, Chanel had put its money on a material that, at the time, was used by almost no brand but high-tech-materials specialist Rado. Since then, Chanel has strayed even further from watch-marketing conventions. Overwhelmingly a women's brand, the brand has nonetheless brought out a string of watches with movements clearly intended to impress mechanical-watchminded men. In 2008, it introduced a version of the J12 with an Audemars Piguet movement. The watch was called the J12 Calibre 3125 and its movement was based on the AP 3120, to which Chanel added a new balance bridge and a rotor clad in ceramic. And, even more unusual for a women's brand, it has launched a series of high-complication pieces with movements from complications specialist Audemars Piguet Renaud et Papi. Visitors to this year's Baselworld will see the latest and splashiest example yet of Chanel's flamboyant unorthodoxy. It's another tourbillon, this one a flying tourbillon, and it's cased in an extra-large version of the brand's Première model. The watch, a hybrid of haute horlogerie and haute joaillerie, is being manufactured in a limited edition of 20 pieces to mark the 25th anniversary of the Première collection. The Première, so named because it was the brand's first watch, is a delicate (although less so in this large version) octagonal jewelry watch shaped like the very fashionable Place Vendôme in Paris. The movement, named the Camélia Flying Tourbillon caliber, is the work of Audemars Piguet Renaud et Papi. Its chief point of distinction is the camellia -- a design motif used on many Chanel products because it is said to have been Chanel founder Coco Chanel's favorite flower -- sitting atop the tourbillon and rotating with it once per minute. The tourbillon carriage is itself shaped like a camellia. The watch is set with 7.7 carats of diamonds. It will retail for about $300,000. The new Première is the second Chanel watch with a Renaud et Papi movement. The first, the J12 Rétrograde Mystérieuse, came out in 2010 and itself made quite a splash. It features a retractable crown that sits above the watch face, perpendicular to it, so that it doesn't mar the perfect circle of the watch case. In that position, the crown obstructs the normal path of the minute hand, so Renaud et Papi chief Giulio Papi devised a complicated solution: when the minute hand gets to 2 o'clock, where it runs into the crown, it shifts into reverse, moving backward through a 50-minute arc (the source of the "retrograde" in the watch's name), which it completes in just 10 minutes. When it arrives at the arc's end, at the 4 o'clock position, it resumes its normal forward motion and speed. During the 10 minutes when the minute hand is moving backward, and hence not providing the correct time, the watch-wearer can read the minutes indication digitally in an aperture at the 5:30 position. The aperture is visible only when you look at it head104 WatchTime April 2012 "WHEN YOU SEE HOW POWERFUL THE MEN'S WATCH BRANDS ARE, YOU'D BE CRAZY TO GO UP AGAINST THEM." -- NICOLAS BEAU on; this is why the watch (also equipped with a tourbillon), is "mystérieuse." Beau says that from now on Chanel will introduce a highcomplication watch like the J12 Rétrograde or the Première flying tourbillon every two years. The next ones will also come from Renaud et Papi. Some of the complications will be incorporated in men's watches and some in women's. The point of such complications is to give the brand legitimacy in the world of luxury watches, says Beau. Even though such high-horology pieces, and mechanical movements in general, are of far greater interest to men than to women, Chanel isn't using them to woo men to the brand (in most markets, about 80 percent of Chanel watch wearers are women). Taking on the likes of Jaeger-LeCoultre in the complicated-men's-watch arena would, he says, be nuts. "When you see how powerful the men's watch brands are, the investment they make, you'd be crazy to go up against them," says Beau. "At the end of the day, Chanel will always remain the ultimate house of luxury for women." Rather, high complications are a way for the brand to justify its presence in the upper-price-tier of the watch market. "If

105
you are going into high-end watchmaking, you have to have a masculine side," Beau says. The strategy is working, he maintains: The reaction to the J12 Rétrograde was much different than to the eyebrow-raising 2005 tourbillon. "In 2005, we were still very young. It was only the third year we were in Basel. We were still viewed as a brand alien to the heart of Swiss watchmaking. By 2010, we were much better understood. It's very rare now to get questions about whether we have legitimacy or not in this business." BUT COMPLICATIONS are only part of the brand's campaign to obtain "legitimacy." A bigger part lies in the brand's cases, bracelets and dials, i.e., the set of external parts known in the in- dustry as habillage. Beau believes that Chanel's real ace in the hole is this focus on watch aesthetics. Chanel is on the winning side of an industry-wide shift to greater interest in cases and dials, he says. "There has been so much creativity in movements that people are now starting to talk more about the habillage, which is the core of our knowhow. Our creativity is the habillage of the watch." And the core of Chanel's habillage is the ceramic cases and bezels used in the brand's leader collection, the J12. Chanel's former artistic director Jacques Helleu (who died in 2007) designed the J12 with a black ceramic case that garnered much attention because it was at the time quite unusual. (The J12 is named for a class of yachts that Marcel Bich, co-founder of the The J12 Rétrograde Mystérieuse, with movement by Audemars Piguet Renaud et Papi

106
PROFILE Chanel CHATELAIN IS ALMOST UNIQUE IN THE WATCH INDUSTRY BECAUSE IT MAKES CERAMIC COMPONENTS FROM SCRATCH. The G&F Chatelain SA factory, which assembles Chanel watches and makes many of their components Bic pen company, used to train sailors for the teams he funded to compete in the America's Cup races of the 1970s.) Helleu designed the watch as one he himself would want to wear; as it turned out, women following the then-new trend toward larger watches snapped it up. In 2003, three years after the J12 was launched, Chanel came out with a white version of the watch, also in ceramic. Introduced at one of the most troubled Basel fairs ever -- the woes included the outbreak of the war in Iraq and the SARS epidemic -- the watch was a surprise hit, Beau recalls. He credits the watch with being the chief force behind the subsequent women's-watch trend toward white watches. The Noir Intense J12 of 2009 made use of ceramic in a new way: faceted like baguette gemstones and set in concentric circles around the bezel and dial. In 2010, Chanel launched the Marine J12, a collection aimed at men, which incorporated a new color of ceramic, blue, in its bezel. Last year came a fourth type of ceramic, titanium ceramic. It offers the advantages of ceramic, including scratch-resistance and low thermal conductivity, but has the look of steel. Chanel chose the material after experiments with gray mineral ceramic, the type of ceramic used for the black, white and blue J12 models, yielded cases that looked as if they were made of plastic or worse, Beau says. Titanium and other metallic ceramics (Chanel gets its titanium ceramic from a supplier in Japan) are used in aerospace applications. Chanel named the titanium ceramic version of the watch Chromatic in honor of the fact that it reflects a rainbow of colors, creating a bright, shimmery effect. CHANEL ITSELF makes many of its cases and bracelets -- not just ceramic ones, but steel and gold ones, too -- in the G & F Chatelain SA factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Chatelain, which started out as a bracelet maker in 1947, is owned by the brothers Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, who also own 106 WatchTime April 2012 Fitting a J12 bezel and crystal to its case Chanel. They are the grandsons of Pierre Wertheimer, who was Coco Chanel's business partner. The Wertheimers are among the world's richest people. According to Forbes magazine, they were worth $6 billion as of last March. They owe most of their vast wealth to the enduring success of Chanel No. 5. Gérard Wertheimer is the chairman of the Chanel watch division. The Wertheimers bought Chatelain in 1993 to make cases and bracelets for Chanel watches. Chatelain is now in the midst of an expansion project that will double the factory's size to 16,000 square meters. Chatelain makes cases and bracelets not just for Chanel but for other brands including Bell & Ross, in which the Wertheimers hold a minority interest. It also assembles watches for Chanel and Bell & Ross. The factory is 12 years old and located in the industrial area on the western outskirts of La Chaux-de-Fonds known as Les Eplatures (within half a mile or so are facilities owned by Patek Philippe, TAG Heuer, Jaquet Droz, Cartier, Greubel Forsey and others). Until about 2000, Chatelain occupied several smaller buildings closer to the center of La Chaux-de-Fonds. It employs 320 people.

107
Seating the ceramic links of a J12 bracelet prior to polishing Pellets of ceramic raw material before being fired; assembling a J12 bracelet Chatelain is almost unique in the watch industry. It makes Chanel's black and white ceramic components there from scratch (the blue ceramic, like the titanium ceramic, is made elsewhere, but both will one day be moved in-house, Beau says). The Swatch Group is the only other watch company that can make ceramic parts from scratch. Zirconium dioxide powder is mixed with a binder material and injected into a mold. The molds -- 20 different ones are required for the various links in a J12 bracelet -- are put in furnaces and heated to more than 1,000 degrees Celsius. The process is painstaking and slow: It can take a few days to heat or cool components so as to avoid damaging them. Any mistake in temperature or humidity could turn a batch of bracelet links into chalky powder. The components are polished by machine using a process outsiders are not allowed to see. Chatelain also performs gem-setting, another important part of Chanel's habillage: the brand's high-jewelry pieces garner as much attention as its high complications. When the factory expansion is completed later this year, all watch assembly will take place in the new section of the building. There, in-house habillage components will be combined with dials, hands and sapphire crystals from outside suppliers. ETA provides both automatic movements (the 2892) and automatic chronograph movements (the 2894). It also supplies the quartz movements that are used in Chanel models measuring 33 mm and less in diameter (38-mm-and-larger models have mechanical movements). Beau sees the brand, thanks to its multipurpose J12 collection, as an umbrella big enough to cover just about any type of watch Chanel designers can dream up. "Men expect a serious mechanical watch. Women expect a serious aesthetic watch," Beau says. He hopes to make them both happy. ? April 2012 WatchTime 107

108
Pros + Excellent design + Superior finishing + Noteworthy in-house movement Cons - Distracting Cyclops date window - Imperfect regulation

109
The Rolex Submariner has been around for nearly 60 years, with only minor changes to its design. How does this pioneering divers' watch stand up to testing today? BY JENS KOCH PHOTOS BY NIK SCHÖLZEL DIVING April 2012 WatchTime 109

110
TEST Rolex Submariner Date The clasp is secure and easy to use and can extend the bracelet in small increments.

111
SPECS ROLEX OYSTER PERPETUAL SUBMARINER DATE Manufacturer: Montre Rolex SA, Rue François-Dussaud 3-7, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland Reference number: 16610LN Functions: Hours, minutes, central seconds, date display, hack mechanism hen Rolex introduced the Submariner in 1953, it was the first divers' watch with a rotating bezel and water resistance to a depth of 100 meters. The design was an instant success, and since then, only minor changes have been made. Applied markers and polished sides on the case and bracelet have been added, as well as a larger case with a crown guard (1959) and a date display (1965). The most recent change was made in 2010 with the introduction of a ceramic bezel for the steel Submariner Date. Although it was designed almost 60 years ago, the Submariner is still both attractive and modern. The combination of the smooth, reflective surface of the unidirectional, ceramic bezel, the shiny black dial and the flat sapphire crystal gives this watch an elegant feel, making it just as appropriate for business as for casual wear. Even though the dial is still easy to read, these features -- especially the flat, untreated crystal -- tend to detract from overall legibility. In addition, the Rolex "Cyclops" date window makes it hard to read the date unless you are looking at the watch straight on. At any other angle, the date disappears and a portion of the dial becomes magnified. However, this could be considered an advantage for people with reduced vision since the date is magnified so much. Movement: In-house movement 3135, automatic; diameter = 28.5 mm; height = 5.37 mm; 28,800 vph; 31 jewels; Kif shock absorber; blue Parachrom hairspring with Breguet overcoil; Glucydur balance with Microstella fine regulation; 48-hour power reserve Case: Stainless steel, threaded caseback, sapphire crystal, crown guard, screwdown Triplock crown, water resistant to 300 meters Strap and clasp: Stainless steel Oyster bracelet with safety clasp with adjustable extension Rate results: (Deviations in seconds per 24 hours) Dial up 0 1 -5 -1 -4 -2 6 -1.8 295° 257° The Submariner should not be viewed strictly as a divers' watch. Its position as Rolex's professional divers' watch was taken over in 1967 by the even sturdier Sea-Dweller, with its helium valve, its water resistance to 3,900 meters, and its lack of a Cyclops date window. At 12.5 mm thick, the Submariner is thinner than the Sea-Dweller by more than half a centimeter. Its water resistance of 300 meters is sufficient for recreational divers. Divers will also appreciate the Rolex Triplock crown, which has five seals to keep out moisture. The case and bracelet are made of salt-water-resistant 904L stainless steel. The bezel is suited not just for diving but for other applications -- any interval can be timed precisely to the minute. Simply line up the triangle on the track to the minutes hand to tell how long your pasta has been cooking or your parking meter has been running. The black Cerachrom ceramic bezel ring has been a feature of the Submariner since 2010. This material has an extremely hard surface that resists scratching. The Cerachrom bezel is a huge improvement over the aluminum one on the preceding model, which could be scratched easily. Platinumfilled recessed numerals and markers on the ceramic ring provide a good con- Dial down Crown up Crown down Crown left Crown right Greatest deviation of rate Average deviation: Average amplitude: Flat positions Hanging positions Dimensions: Diameter = 40 mm, height = 12.5 mm, weight = 148 grams Price: $8,000 April 2012 WatchTime 111

112
TEST Rolex Submariner Date SCORES ROLEX OYSTER PERPETUAL SUBMARINER DATE Bracelet and clasp (max. 10 points): The well-designed and superbly finished steel bracelet is secured with a sturdy folding clasp with adjustable extension. 9 Operation (5): The fluted crown with quick date adjustment and hack mechanism is as easy to use as the smoothly ratcheting rotating bezel. 5 Case (10): The overall quality is high. Other noteworthy features include polished and satin finishes, a sophisticated crown gasket, salt-water-resistant steel and scratch-resistant ceramic bezel. 9 Design (15): Only minimal changes have been made to the design during the past 60-odd years. This classic watch is both attractive and timeless. 15 Legibility (5): The hands contrast well with the dial. Although the Cyclops window is somewhat distracting, the displays are clearly visible and glow bright blue at night. 5 Wearing comfort (10): The well-made clasp extension, the smooth inner surface and the flat case make this steel watch very comfortable to wear. 10 Movement (20): The manufacture movement, designed for sturdiness, durability and consistent rate results, has been improved with an in-house hairspring. 18 Rate results (10): The slight negative result and greatest deviation are not ideal. The drop in amplitude between the horizontal and vertical positions is too high. 7 Overall value (15): The fairly high price is justified by the high quality in every detail and the watch's lasting value. 14 TOTAL: 92 POINTS trast to the curved gold hands and applied gold markers. Since the sapphire crystal is only slightly higher than the bezel, it is better protected from impacts than on older Submariner models. Like the Sea-Dweller Deepsea, the Submariner uses the luminous material Chromalight on its dial and bezel. Its blue glow is considerably brighter than that of Super-LumiNova. The color gives the watch an elegant look and makes it extremely easy to read in the dark. The triangle at 12 o'clock and the bar markers at 6 and at 9 o'clock provide orientation. The luminous zero marker on the bezel is also easily visible. Even the seconds hand has a luminous dot so a diver can confirm at a glance that his watch is running. The watch is comfortable to wear due to its flat case and moderate weight (about 150 grams). Its comfort is enhanced by the smooth caseback, the flat inner surface of the folding clasp and the supple steel bracelet. The new Glide-Lock clasp is heavier than its predecessors and enables you to adjust the bracelet more precisely. This makes it easy to give your wrist a bit more space after physical activity or on hot days, so there's no longer a need to wear the steel bracelet loosely, as before. A safety bar and easy-to-operate catch keep the clasp from opening accidentally. Nevertheless, the clasp is just as easy to use as the fluted crown and bezel. The finishes are also impressive -- the sides of the bracelet and clasp are polished while the upper surfaces have a satin finish. The only thing missing is a transparent caseback. Although the in-house movement 3135 (which has powered the Submariner Date since 1989) was designed primarily as a workhorse, it still offers something to see: a sunburst finish on the perforated rotor and automatic bridge, perlage on the bridges, a matte line finish on the steel parts, beveled and polished edges and polished screw heads. The red-anodized, low-friction aluminum reversers add a splash of color. The watch contains a new blue hairspring made of a niobium-zirconium alloy with an oxidized outer layer. It was added to the Submariner in 2010. This new alloy, which Rolex has dubbed "Parachrom," is completely resistant to magnetic fields and withstands shocks much better than conventional hairsprings. Even without this improvement, this caliber is considered to be one of the best automatic movements on the market. Its sturdy and durable design permits extremely precise adjustment. A sturdy balance bridge takes the place of a conventional balance cock with one-sided support. Two knurled adjusters are used to fine-tune the balance endshake. The Breguet overcoil ensures the consistent concentric expansion and contraction of the hairspring, and the Microstella screws on the inner side of the balance wheel enhance the rate performance. However, results of the wearing test showed a "minus" rate of 3 seconds per day. The Witschi Chronoscope XI showed the greatest deviation among positions, a rather disappointing 6 seconds per day. The average deviation was -1.8 seconds per day. Even the amplitude drop between the horizontal 112 WatchTime April 2012

113
The sturdy Rolex Cal. 3135 was improved with the addition of an in-house hairspring. positions (dial up and dial down) and the vertical positions was too high. Overall, though, the rates were acceptable. The Submariner Date has a fairly high price of $8,000. But significant improvements have been made, such as the recent addition of the scratch-resistant ceramic bezel and the in-house hairspring. Special mention should also be made of the extremely high quality of the watch in every detail, from the hands and the bezel ratchets to the polished screws in the movement, all of which justify the price. The brand's positive image and the fact that its models change very little over time help the watch retain its value. A lengthy waiting period to acquire one, once a problem, no longer seems to be affecting the Submariner Date. The Submariner Date is an attractive everyday watch in the best sense of the word. It can be worn on any occasion and has no major flaws. Nonetheless, the Cyclops window is a point of contention, and the rate results could be better. We appreciate the superior finishes, wearing comfort and good legibility. The Submariner rightfully enjoys its place as a role model for divers' watches. ?

114
TEST Rolex Submariner Date The Submariner is easy to operate and read under water. SUBMARINER 114 WatchTime April 2012 DIVING WITH THE s a supplment to our standard test (see preceding article), we gave the Submariner a practical test to find out if it was truly suitable for diving. German diving instructor Jens Köppe took the Rolex under water for a 40-minute dive. But before he could begin we had to replace a bracelet link that had been previously removed. Even though the bracelet could be extended several times, it was still not long enough for the watch to be worn over a thick wetsuit or gloves. Rolex's Deepsea SeaDweller solves this problem with an additional fold-out extension piece. During the test, our diver used a waterproof writing tablet and noted that the operation of the rotating bezel was "sim-

115
ple, nice and smooth." The diving time was easy to set with or without gloves. Before the dive, Köppe noted the superior legibility of the watch, even under poor light conditions. This was also true during the test. The elapsed dive time could be read very easily under water. Köppe also liked the Submariner's minimalist design, featuring large markers instead of numerals. The actual time was also easy to read, which can be important for divers because changing tides may present the risk of being carried too far out to sea. The diving time was legible even when general visibility was limited by water-borne particles, as can occur at depths of only a few meters. The watch was nonetheless somewhat hard to read when viewed from the side due to the highly reflective surface of the crystal. The Submariner gained points for its wearing comfort. "Very good, no trouble at all," our diver said. The high quality of the watch impressed him above and below the surface of the water. It had, he said, "a great feeling." The watch's high price might make some people reluctant to take it on a dive, where it can be scratched from unavoidable contact with often-heavy diving equipment (this, in fact, occurred during our test). At the end of the day each owner must decide for himself whether to use this watch for actual diving. The Submariner passed our test. It showed itself to be a true divers' watch that can be used under actual diving conditions. It should be noted that a divers' watch cannot replace a dive computer. Rather, it should be used as a supplementary instrument. While simple dive computers often provide safety-related information such as depth, diving time and zero time (the time one can remain at a given depth without a decompression stop), they don't show the actual time or the total time the diver has spent in the water - the perfect reason to wear a watch with a rotating bezel. Diver Jens Köppe tested the Submariner Date under water. April 2012 WatchTime 115

116
PORTFOLIO Rolex Submariner D VERS' CHO CE A look at the various models in the Rolex Submariner series SPECS SUBMARINER DATE Reference number: 116610LV Movement: Rolex 3135, automatic; power reserve = 48 hours Case: Stainless steel 904L, sapphire crystal, unidirectional bezel with ceramic track, screw-down crown, water resistant to 300 meters, diameter = 40 mm, height = 12.5 mm Bracelet and clasp: Stainless steel 904L, folding clasp, divers' extension Price: $8,550 SPECS SUBMARINER Reference number: 14060M Movement: Rolex 3130, automatic; power reserve = 48 hours Case: Stainless steel 904L, sapphire crystal, unidirectional bezel with aluminum track, screw-down crown, water resistant to 300 meters, diameter = 40 mm, height = 12.5 mm Bracelet and clasp: Stainless steel 904L, folding clasp, divers' extension Price: $6,300 SPECS SUBMARINER DATE Reference number: 116610LN Movement: Rolex 3135, automatic; power reserve = 48 hours Case: Stainless steel 904L, sapphire crystal, unidirectional bezel with ceramic track, screw-down crown, water resistant to 300 meters, diameter = 40 mm, height = 12.5 mm Bracelet and clasp: Stainless steel 904L, folding clasp, divers' extension 116 WatchTime April 2012 Price: $8,000

117
SPECS SUBMARINER DATE Reference number: 116613LB Movement: Rolex 3135, automatic; power reserve = 48 hours Case: Yellow Rolesor (stainless steel 904L and yellow gold), sapphire crystal, unidirectional bezel with ceramic track, screwdown crown, water resistant to 300 meters, diameter = 40 mm, height = 12.5 mm Bracelet and clasp: Stainless steel 904L and yellow gold, folding clasp, divers' extension Price: $12,200 SPECS SUBMARINER DATE Reference number: 116618LN Movement: Rolex 3135, automatic; power reserve = 48 hours Case: Yellow gold, sapphire crystal, unidirectional bezel with ceramic track, screwdown crown, water resistant to 300 meters, diameter = 40 mm, height = 12.5 mm Bracelet and clasp: Yellow gold, folding clasp, divers' extension Price: $31,300 SPECS SUBMARINER DATE Reference number: 116613LN Movement: Rolex 3135, automatic; power reserve = 48 hours Case: Yellow Rolesor (stainless steel 904L and yellow gold), sapphire crystal, unidirectional bezel with ceramic track, screwdown crown, water resistant to 300 meters, diameter = 40 mm, height = 12.5 mm Bracelet and clasp: Stainless steel 904L and yellow gold, folding clasp, divers' extension Price: $12,200 SPECS SUBMARINER DATE Reference number: 116619LB Movement: Rolex 3135, automatic; power reserve = 48 hours Case: White gold, sapphire crystal, unidirectional bezel with ceramic track, screwdown crown, water resistant to 300 meters, diameter = 40 mm, height = 12.5 mm Bracelet and clasp: White gold, folding clasp, divers' extension Price: $34,000 SPECS SEA-DWELLER DEEPSEA Reference number: 116660 Movement: Rolex 3135, automatic; power reserve = 48 hours Case: Stainless steel 904L, titanium caseback, sapphire crystal, unidirectional bezel with ceramic track, screw-down crown, helium valve, water resistant to 3,900 meters, diameter = 44 mm, height = 17.7 mm Bracelet and clasp: Stainless steel 940L, folding clasp, divers' extension Price: $10,650

118
UNDER THE The story of the world's most popular dive watch BY GISBERT L. BRUNNER

119
April 2012 WatchTime 119

120
HISTORY TEST Rolex Submariner Date The Submariner Ref. 6204 was created in 1953. In 2009 a similar watch sold at Antiquorum for SF30,000 (then about $26,000). A "James Bond" Rolex: this Ref. 6536 from 1959 sold for SF4,840 (roughly $3,800 at the time) at Antiquorum in 2006. he story of the Submariner, launched in 1953, really begins in 1926, when Rolex introduced its now-famous water-resistant Oyster case. Thanks largely to its threaded back and screwdown crown, the case provided a degree of impermeability no watch company had achieved before. The Oyster became even more resistant to water and dirt in the early 1930s, when Rolex began incorporating its new, self-winding rotor mechanism. (Rolex dubbed its self-winding watches "Perpetual.") Not having to wind the watch manually meant that the crown needed to be unscrewed only occasionally for setting. Rolex had discovered with its first manual-wind Oyster watches that failing to screw the crown down after winding rendered the supposedly water-resistant watch vulnerable to water and dust entering the case through the crown hole. As the 1930s progressed, Rolex began to develop watches made specifically for use under water. (The early Oyster and Oyster Perpetual were not thought of as watches for swimming; the point of their impermeable cases was to protect the movement from dirt and accidental exposure to moisture.) The Rolex catalog from 1935 shows a 47-mm wristwatch, Ref. 2533, which has a cushion-shaped Oyster case and a pocketwatch manual-wind movement from Lépine, with a small-seconds display at 9 o'clock. At the time, though, the watch was simply too large for prevailing tastes, and was not a commercial success. But it was a harbinger of a now well-known dive-watch collaboration that paired Rolex with the Italian company Panerai, which at the time supplied underwater equipment to the Italian Navy. In the mid-1930s, the Navy asked Panerai to supply it with dive watches. Because Panerai had no watchmaking capacity of its own, it turned to Rolex, which sent it watches with Oyster cases and movements made from ébauches from the Swiss watch-and-movement maker Cortébert. Panerai delivered its first dive-watch prototype to the Italian Navy in 1936, and the company continued to use Rolex-supplied movements into the 1950s. The partnership with Panerai gave Rolex important experience in the manufacturing of dive watches. IN THE EARLY 1950S, Rolex decided to make its own bona fide dive watch. The idea came from a Rolex director and marketing executive named René-Paul Jeanneret, who was a diving enthusiast and friend of Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Thanks to his hobby, Jeanneret was aware of the technical and design requirements for a dive watch. He persuaded Hans Wilsdorf, who half a century after founding Rolex was still at the company's helm, to initiate a professional divers'-watch project. 120 WatchTime April 2012

121
Sean Connery (here with Ursula Andress in Dr. No) wore Rolex Submariners in his role as James Bond. In 1953, Rolex made a spectacular move. That September, Swiss scientist Auguste Piccard, in the submersible vessel Bathyscaphe FNRS-2, descended an amazing 3,131.8 meters into the ocean. Wilsdorf, a marketing genius, had seen to it that a specially developed Rolex, equipped with a strikingly luminous dial and prominent Rolex logo, was affixed to the vessel's hull. When the submarine rose out of the water, the timepiece emerged unaffected by the dive and was ticking normally. That same year, Rolex introduced the first Submariner. It was water resistant to 100 meters, but Rolex soon increased these specs to 180 meters. The watch had a matte, black dial, large luminous markers and luminous hands for the hours, minutes and seconds. It also had a knurled rotating bezel with clear markings in five-minute increments and an arrow-shaped zero marker with a luminous dot pointing toward the center. Rolex described it as "The Diver's Friend." The earliest Submariners did not have the white Submariner name on their dials. It appeared only at the end of 1954. Nor did they have the signature crown guard -- the two "shoulders" on the right side of the case. In collectors' circles some early Submariner models are known as "James Bonds." And for good reason: in the first four James Bond films, Agent 007 wore Rolex watches, as he did in the novels by Ian Fleming. The watches bore the reference numbers 6200, 6538 and 5510. The submarine Trieste and the Rolex Deep Sea Special prototype reached the deepest point in the ocean in 1960.

122
HISTORY Rolex Submariner By the time it hit the market, the Submariner had passed rigorous field tests. The Institute for Deep Sea Research in Cannes issued a report on Oct. 26, 1953, on the five months of tests it had conducted with the watch, consisting of 132 dives in depths of 12 to 60 meters. The statement from the laboratory read as follows: "Despite the extremely high salt content of the Mediterranean waters, and the tropical temperature and humidity to which the watch was exposed between the individual dives, it showed no corrosion at all.... Likewise, no moisture was detected within the watch. All other previous tests with water-resistant watches from top brands showed water penetration from Cuban leader Fidel Castro sporting a Rolex Submariner in 1967 122 WatchTime April 2012

123
the first moment of the dive, indicated by the condensation that formed on the inner surface of the crystal. The watch was worn multiple times during dives with an extended crown (i.e., the crown was pulled out to the position for setting the hands). To conclude these tests, the watch was attached to a thin cord and dropped to a depth of 120 meters -- twice as deep as 60 meters, the maximum depth achievable with self-contained compressed air equipment. No leaks were detected even after a one-hour period at this depth." Rolex had consulted a number of experts while developing the watch. Jeanneret offered many ideas for the outer design of the case, dial and rotating bezel (which at that time still turned in both directions) for underwater reading of the remaining time of the dive. In 1959, the first Submariner with a crown guard (Ref. 5512) was introduced. The crown guard gave the watch the distinctive shape we now associate with the Submariner. The launch coincided with another impressive Rolex diving feat. On Jan. 23, 1960, the submarine Trieste, with its 2-meterwide pressure sphere, big enough to hold two people, descended for the 65th time into the depths -- this time with the goal of reaching the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the ocean. Inside the pressure sphere were Piccard's son, Jacques Piccard, and the American Marine lieutenant Dan Walsh. Outside the sphere was a very special Rolex prototype, a watch, with Oyster case, designed to withstand the pressure of the 10,916-meter descent, which exerted a pressure on the vessel of about 1,125 kg/cm. The idea, of course, was to prove that the Oyster case could survive the ordeal. Excitement was great when the sphere resurfaced after its triumphant dive. How would the watch look? Would the hands still show the correct time? Just as with the 1953 Bathyscaphe dive, the Rolex emerged unscathed. It looked and ran exactly as it had above the water. This 1970 "Red Sub," with red lettering, was sold in 2006 by Antiquorum for SF20,060 (then nearly $16,000). A Submariner for the French diving company Comex, Ref. 5513 from 1970, is a prototype with a helium valve that brought a price of SF76,700 (just over $60,000 at the time) at Antiquorum in 2006. This Submariner model with a brown dial, known as the "Tropical" dial, Ref. 5513 from 1967, was auctioned by Antiquorum in 2001 for SF15,000 (then about $8,800). WHEN THE SUBMARINER KEPT TICKING AFTER AN OCEAN DESCENT OF 3,132 METERS ON THE HULL OF THE BATHYSCAPHE, ROLEX DUBBED THE WATCH "THE DIVER'S FRIEND." April 2012 WatchTime 123

124
HISTORY Rolex Submariner Steve McQueen wearing a Submariner during the filming of Papillon in 1973 124 WatchTime April 2012

125
This 2002 Submariner Ref. 16610LV with green bezel, which marked the Submariner's 50th anniversary, was sold by Antiquorum in 2010 for SF5,750 (then about $5,400). The Sub Through the Years The history of the Submariner is one of gradual evolution. The following table lists a half-century of Submariner models and their distinguishing features. YEAR REF. 1955 6538 FEATURES Formerly Ref. 6204 with Cal. 1030 developed in 1950, 6536 Formerly Ref. 6205 with Cal. 1030 developed in 1950, both now have a slightly larger crown. 6536/1 Chronometer version of Ref. 6536 with Cal. 1030 6538 Great Britain selects the Submariner for the Royal Navy. 1956 New hand design; luminous dot on second hand is shifted toward center. Rotating bezel gets minute scale for first quarter hour. 6538A The 6538 has the same thick case as Ref. 6200. 6536 Red zero-point triangle on rotating bezel 6538 Royal Canadian Navy selects the Submariner. Military versions have ID and service numbers on the caseback, otherwise they are like standard models. 1958 5510 Formerly Ref. 6200 with Cal. 1530 introduced in 1957 5508 6536/1 with Cal. 1530; zeros on the bezel are more angular. 1959 5512 Crown guard, case diameter is now 40 mm (was 36 mm); "Superlative Chronometer, Officially Certified" is printed on dial. 6538 "Superlative Chronometer, Officially Certified" is printed on dial. 1962 5513 Altered crown guard, with Cal. 1530 1963 5513 Equipped with Cal. 1520, introduced that year 1966 1680 Date display; Plexiglas with Cyclops lens; red "Submariner" writing on dial (until 1973); new Cal. 1575 1969 16618 Submariner introduced in gold. 1979 16800 Submariner gets a sapphire crystal. Water resistance increases to 300 meters. 1981 16800 Submariner gets a unidirectional bezel so unintentional turns make 16618 the diving time only shorter, never longer; with Cal. 3085, introduced in 1981. 1983 16613 Submariner also available in "Rolesor," a combination of steel and gold. 1988 16610 Submariner with Cal. 3135 2003 16610LV Anniversary model with green bezel Later that decade, Rolex introduced a new dive-watch feature. It was designed to solve a problem that had emerged as a result of the introduction into professional diving of breathing gases that blended oxygen and helium. These gases enabled divers to descend deeper than before. But divers who wore their watches in decompression chambers filled with the new gas mixture often faced a rude surprise. Helium molecules penetrated the watch crystals and seals and entered the watch cases, and when the pressure in the chamber was reduced during decompression, the helium gas that had built up inside the watch was unable to escape quickly enough, so the watch crystal popped off the watch like a Champagne cork. Among the divers using these new gas mixtures were those employed by the French firm Compagnie Maritime d'Expertise (Comex). Comex worked with Rolex to find a solution to the popping-crystal dilemma and in 1967 Rolex patented a valve that allowed the dangerous buildup of gas to escape easily. At first Rolex used the valve in standard Submariner models (Ref. 5513). A modified version was produced in Geneva solely for Comex. It bore the Comex name on the dial and a special identification number on the back. The second signed Comex series was given its own unique reference number, 5514. In 1966 Rolex developed the Sea-Dweller, at first marketed as a particularly water-resistant version of the Submariner. (It is now a separate collection.) The first Sea-Dweller (Ref. 1665) was water-resistant to 600 meters. In 1978, Rolex introduced the new Ref. 16600 with a sapphire crystal and an improved helium valve. (These days, Sea-Dweller models have helium-release valves; Submariners don't.) This watch withstood depths to 1,220 meters. The 1665 existed for several more years, but after 1981, the company produced only the heftiest version of the Sea-Dweller, the 16600. It was not until 1981 that the Submariner was equipped with a unidirectional bezel. It took so long because starting in 1952, Blancpain held a patent for a ratcheting rotating bezel, which it used on its Fifty Fathoms watch. This kept Rolex and other watch companies from using the bezel. In 2008 Rolex brought out its Sea-Dweller Deepsea, which withstands water pressure to a very impressive 3,900 meters thanks to a new case design that incorporates what Rolex calls a "Ringlock System." It consists of an interior support ring, a 5mm-thick domed sapphire crystal and a titanium caseback. It's a far cry from the Oyster case of 1926, but in its unprecedented impermeability, a direct descendant. ? April 2012 WatchTime 125

126
TEST Schaumburg Conceptum Ergonomic Theory We test the Schaumburg Conceptum, an affordable German-made model that strives for Bauhaus simplicity in its dial and ergonomic comfort in its case. BY ALEXANDER KRUPP PHOTOS BY OK-PHOTOGRAPHY Pros + Well-conceived case construction + Clean dial design + Easy-to-operate crown Cons - Uncomfortable and inconvenient strap and clasp - Simple, undecorated movement hen the watchmakers at Schaumburg were designing the new Conceptum watch, their focus was clearly not on the movement: the prototype we tested was outfitted with a standard ETA 2824, in the third-best of four quality grades. The caliber has been left unembellished except for a specially purchased, finely satin-finished rotor. (Schaumburg also makes a more expensive version with a chronometer certificate.) Rather, the goal was primarily to create a large, highly legible watch with an ergonomic case that would provide maximum comfort on the wrist. A small brand based in the Schaumburg district in the German state of Lower Saxony, Schaumburg sought to make a case that would be very comfortable to wear despite its stately diameter of 43.5 millimeters. Thanks to its movable lugs, this watch fits uncommonly well whether your wrist is thick or slender. The lugs can be pivoted so far downward that the strap attaches below the back of the case. The only criticism we had of this design was that the movable elements are affixed with so much play that they rattle audibly when you put on or take off the watch. The technical refinement of the lugs is matched by the good design of the rest of the case and dial: a black PVD-coated bezel with six indentations surrounds a distinctive, uncluttered dial with a raised outer scale. Slightly farther inward are a dozen double hour indices, which like the hands are coated with gray luminous material. Except for the minute hand, which is somewhat too short, the styling is very harmonious and consistent: the needleshaped seconds hand perfectly matches the index strokes that mark the minutes; the hour hand and minute hand have exactly the same width as the doubled hour indices. Since our tested watch is an early sample, its indices weren't applied exactly parallel, and there is no luminous material on the six rectangular minute indices along the dial's rim: like the hour markers, these will also be gray in the serially produced models. The hands and indices match each other beautifully and we were also im- 126 WatchTime April 2012

127
SCORES SCHAUMBURG CONCEPTUM Strap and clasp (max. 10 points): Operation (5): The strap is synthetic and has a double-folding clasp. 8 5 7 13 4 7 10 8 12 The watch contains an ETA 2824 with a customized rotor. Case (10): Design (15): Legibility (5): Wearing comfort (10): Movement (20): Rate results (10): Overall value (15): TOTAL: SPECS SCHAUMBURG CONCEPTUM Manufacturer: Schaumburg Watch Gnomonik GmbH, Kirchplatz 5, D-31737 Rinteln, Germany Reference number: Conceptum No. 02 Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds; date; stop-seconds function Movement: ETA 2824 "Elaboré," automatic; 28,800 vph; 25 jewels; index adjustment with eccentric screw; Etachoc shock absorption; 38-hour power reserve; diameter = 25.6 mm; height = 4.6 mm Case: Stainless steel with PVD-coated bezel; flat sapphire crystal with nonreflective treatment on inner surface; fully threaded caseback with sapphire viewing window; water-resistant to 50 meters Strap and clasp: Hand-sewn synthetic calfskin with double-folding stainlesssteel clasp Rate results: (Deviations in seconds per 24 hours) Dial up Dial down Crown up Crown down Crown left Crown right Greatest deviation of rate Average deviation: Average amplitude: Flat positions Hanging positions Dimensions: Diameter = 43.5 mm, height = 12 mm; weight = 114 grams Variations: With green (rather than gray) luminous material; with chronometer certificate ($2,050) Price: $1,400 303° 276° +5 +6 +3 +7 +3 +4 4 +4.7 74 POINTS pressed by the choice of a black background for the date disk, which helps it to integrate unobtrusively into the black dial. The synthetic strap is a good choice for this watch's technical, modern styling. It has an embossed pyramid pattern on its outer surface, and the underside is genuine leather, which helps to prevent perspiration. The gray of the stitching matches the luminous material on the dial, contributing yet another detail to the watch's overall harmonious impression. Unfortunately, although the watch is designed for maximum wearing comfort, its strap and clasp are less than ideal in this respect. The clasp, which is clearly "off the rack," has sharp edges that detract from its overall comfort. Not only does it press uncomfortably into the skin on the inside of the wrist; we found it very difficult to slide the strap's broad and nearly nonslip end through the two loops. Repeated attempts to coax the strap's end through them quickly abrade the lacquer off its edges. Nonetheless, we awarded the strap and clasp seven points out of 10 because of the cleverly constructed, movable lugs. We'd suggest that the production models of the Conceptum be equipped with a genuine cowhide strap, sewn with the same matching gray stitching, but secured by a conventional pronged buckle. These changes would make the strap as comfortable to wear as the case. ? April 2012 WatchTime 127

128
ower lay With the launch of its Unico movement, Hublot became a manufacture. We see how the Unico performs in the brand's King Power Unico All Black watch. BY MARTINA RICHTER PHOTOS BY ZUCKERFABRICK FOTODESIGN

129
April 2012 WatchTime 129

130
CLOSE-UP Hublot King Power Unico ublot's path to manufacture status was an unusual one. In 2007, three years after becoming the brand's CEO, Jean-Claude Biver decided to make an in-house movement. Because Hublot had limited production capacity, he planned to make no more than 2,000 or so pieces per year of the caliber, which he dubbed "Unico." But when the Swiss movement maker BNB Concept went bankrupt in early 2010, his plans changed. Hublot bought BNB's machinery (and hired 30 of its watchmakers), and suddenly had the capacity to manufacture some 20,000 Unico movements per year. To make the shift from small-series production, 80 percent of the movement had to be redesigned. This caused a delay of several months between March 2010, when Biver first introduced the movement, and the time when the finished version was ready for its steppedup production runs. The movement, Caliber HUB 1240 Unico, made its debut in the King Power watch. With an impressive diameter of 48 mm, the watch made a very big splash in our editorial office. The piece we borrowed to review was a member of the 500-piece All Black limited series (it was, in fact, the very first piece in the series). Opinions about it were mixed. "Much too big" was the verdict of some editors. "Too expensive," others said. Comments such as "barely legible" and "drearily dark" were also heard. But let's not be hasty. This article may shed a different light on this big watch. The uncommonly large King Power case was created especially for the Unico caliber. Although the watch's stated case diameter is 48 mm, the watch actually measures well over 50 mm when measured across the crown or across the lugs. The watch is 17.6 mm thick. It embodies the brand's concept of "fusion," the combination of different and often unusual materials in the same watch, which Biver introduced with the launch of the Big Bang in 2005. The watch also illustrates Hublot's fondness for avantgarde styling. Considering the size of this gigantic watch, its weight, 161 grams, really isn't that great because the case incorporates some lightweight materials. There are black composite resin insets on the case sides, while titanium is used for the The heavy metal rotor winds the mainspring in both directions of rotation. 130 WatchTime April 2012

131
The column wheel, visible through the dial, bears an "H" for "Hublot." The subdials for small seconds, at 3 o'clock, and elapsed minutes, at 9 o'clock, are easy to overlook. crown and push-pieces. The case's body and back are made of micro-blasted ceramic. The watch's porthole-like appearance (hublot is French for "porthole") is created by the case's lateral protuberances and by the six H-shaped, black-PVD-coated titanium screws that fasten the bezel. Some connoisseurs are annoyed by the random orientation of the slits in these screws' heads, but Biver calls this "authenticity." After all, a screw must be tightened until it's firmly seated, not merely until the slit in its head is tangent to an imagined circle. Only the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak accomplishes both. The King Power's screws hold the ceramic bezel, which is overlaid with black rubber and surrounds a sapphire crystal that's nonreflective on both sides. A second pane of sapphire is integrated into the caseback, where a second set of six polished Hscrews fasten the back to the case. This design element is also found on Hublot's distinctive integrated and screwed lugs, on the sides of the case at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock, and on the black titanium-ceramic clasp. The single-hinged folding clasp is shaped like the Hublot "H" logo. A double prong holds the longer part of the large rubber strap to the end of the clasp. The strap fits securely thanks to two prongs of unequal length. The clasp snaps smartly shut and opens when you press two lateral buttons. The lugs and the rubber strap are hallmarks of Hublot, but they've undergone a complete metamorphosis here. The strap can now be adjusted (it formerly had to be cut to the size of the wearer's wrist). It's also much thicker than the original strap and it's smooth only on its inner surface. On the outside it's deeply textured with a pattern recalling the tracks of an armored tank -- a fitting choice for the muscularlooking King Power. The strap, lugs and clasp collaborate to ensure that the King Power remains securely fastened on your wrist. Despite this watch's size, it fits snugly, isn't topheavy, and doesn't slide toward your hand. The operating buttons have nonslip rubber tops on titanium elements coated with black PVD. The winding crown is well protected but is nonetheless easy to grasp and pull out when you need to adjust the date or set the hands. Ribbed covers on the chronograph's angular push-pieces ensure that the stopwatch functions can be activated quickly. The silvery brown, center-mounted elapsed-seconds hand looks shiny at first glance. But a closer look reveals that it actually has a fine satin finish that reflects light in such a way that you can see the hand clearly from any angle, even at a distance. The same is true of the hour and minutes hands. The time is always legible, even if so much light is shining through the sapphire crystal and onto the transparent dial that you can see the movement beneath it. You might even want to keep the chronograph running constantly so that you can confirm, from the chronograph seconds hand, that the watch is running. The watch has a seconds hand on a subdial at 9 o'clock, which could be used for this purpose, but it is easy to miss. The elapsed-minutes counter at 3 o'clock and the applied black calibrations on the transparent dial are also easy to overlook. The dial looks like glass, but it is acApril 2012 WatchTime 131

132
Pros + Manufacture movement + Special "fusion" construction + Good rate, with or without the chronograph on + Impressive design + Good wearing comfort despite large size + Secure strap and clasp The balance is positioned under a heightadjustable bridge. You can see the two-part toothed index and, underneath the bridge, the silicon pallets and escape wheel. The stop-seconds lever to block the balance can be seen at lower left. Cons - Legibility of some functions is limited - Limited legibility at night - High price tually a form of carbon fiber. Positioned above the dial is a black ring with a wreath of engraved minute markings. The hours are marked by matte black, micro-blasted appliqués. Like the hour and minutes hands, they are filled with black Super-LuminNova, but their luminosity could use some improvement: even if light falls on the dial all day, the luminous effect lasts only a short time. A skeletonized date ring rotates beneath the dial. The date appears between 132 WatchTime April 2012 4 and 5 o'clock, where the skeletonized numerals pass over a white plane. Although the contrast is good, this display, too, is rather hard to read. If you press the push-piece at 2 o'clock to stop the chronograph, the columnwheel turns at 6 o'clock. This rotary motion, and the pivoting of the horizontal coupling (positioned above and toward the left of the column wheel), can both be seen easily with the naked eye. As a special feature of the Unico movement, which combines 330 individual components, the column-wheel mechanism with flyback function is positioned on the dial side of the movement. To get a good view of this mechanism, we're willing to accept a few compromises in the watch's legibility. But the Unico movement has even more surprises up its horological sleeve. There's not one horizontal coupling, but two. The elapsed-minutes counter, too, is directly coupled. The energy needed for this coupling is transferred from the barrel via gears with a transmission ratio, while the power for the elapsed-seconds hand is conveyed conventionally from the fourth wheel. Consequently, the elapsed-minutes hand progresses in what appears to be smooth, unbroken motion: you can see that after 60 seconds have elapsed, the elapsed-minutes hand doesn't jump. Incidentally, the flyback lever simultaneously returns both elapsed-time hands to their zero positions. The Unico Caliber HUB 1240 does not offer an elapsed-hours function. To facilitate to-the-second setting, it has a stop-seconds feature: a blocking lever acts on the balance to stop both its

133
oscillations and the progress of the continually running seconds hand. Another special feature is the removable escapement, which will be familiar to those who have examined watches made by H. Moser & Cie. In addition to offering you the option of having your initials engraved here, the removable escapement module also makes it easier for a watchmaker to service the movement. The subassembly can be removed and exchanged for a new one whenever necessary, or it can be installed in other Hublot movements. The Glucydur balance swings back and forth under a bridge with an adjustable height. Like all other bridges in this movement, it has been galvanically treated, beveled, and micro-blasted. The movement can be finely adjusted using a two-part index system: specially designed and well executed, this system is quite effective, as is shown by the watch's good rate performance. The stability of the rate is further enhanced by the escape wheel and the pallets, which are made from high-tech silicon, a lowwear and extremely resistant material. We measured an average daily gain of 4.3 seconds when we first placed the fully wound watch on an electronic timing machine; the daily gain decreased to 3.7 seconds 24 hours later. The amplitudes were relatively high, but remained stable even after the power reserve had been allowed to decline somewhat. The King Power performed better on the wrist. We wore the watch for several weeks and measured a daily gain of just 1.6 seconds. It also maintained this good performance with the chronograph switched on, which means you could leave the chronograph running all the time without sacrificing precision. The watch has a power reserve of three days. It has bidirectional winding and its winding rotor runs on ceramic ball bearings, which need no lubrication. This first look showed that the Unico caliber performs well and runs at a stable rate. Not every function is highly legible, but the design of the first limited edition is so appealing that we're willing to overlook the less-than-ideal legibility. ? SPECS HUBLOT KING POWER UNICO ALL BLACK Manufacturer: Hublot SA, Ch. de la Vuarpillière 33, 1260 Nyon, Switzerland Reference number: 701.CI.0110.RX Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, date, flyback chronograph Movement: In-house movement HUB 1240 Unico, automatic; 28,800 vph; 38 jewels; diameter = 30.4 mm; height = 8.05 mm; Incabloc shock absorber; flat Nivarox hairspring; Glucydur balance; 72hour power reserve Case: Micro-blasted ceramic and titanium; case sides inset with black composite resins, titanium crown and push-pieces; nonreflective sapphire crystal in front; sapphire caseback; water resistant to 100 meters Strap and clasp: Rubber strap with titanium and ceramic, single-hinged folding clasp Dimensions: Diameter = 48.0 mm, height = 17.6 mm, weight = 161 grams Price: $19,900 Ceramic, titanium, composite resin and rubber are combined in the case, bezel and pushers.

134
We sent nine pilots' watches into the skies to see how they'd fare during a stomach-wrenching series of aerobatic stunts.

135
Ready for Takeoff PHOTOS BY ZUCKERFABRIK FOTODESIGN BY GWENDOLYN BENDA AND MARTINA RICHTER April 2012 WatchTime 135

136
REVIEW Pilots' Watches an your watch handle a humpty bump? A humpty bump is an aerobatic maneuver in which the plane flies upward vertically, perpendicular to the ground and, after spinning around once, does a back flip and descends in a coma-inducing loop. We thought that this stunt, along with a series of other equally hairy aerial tricks, would be a good way to test a pilots' watch's mettle. We selected two three-hand pilots' watches and seven pilots' chronographs to accompany a trio of pilots -- aerobatics champion Klaus Lenhart and his protégés Axel Schütte and Andreas Langer -- while they performed an aerobatic program, specially designed for our test, in the skies above the Swabian Mountains in southern Germany. Lenhart, who is the owner and CEO of Germany's Leki sporting goods company, flew a sporty, single-seat Leki Extra 330 SC; Schütte, an Extra 300 L; and Langer, a Giles 202. The program consisted of 14 aerobatic figures, lasting a total of about 5 minutes. Including takeoff and landing, the watches were subjected to stress for about 20 minutes. They encountered Gforces ranging from +7 to -4. By comparison, a passenger aircraft banking for a turn exerts about 2 Gs; a rollercoaster ride 4 to 6 Gs. We measured each watch's rate behavior on a timing machine before and after the aerobatic flight. The pilot's appraisal of each timepiece was also included in the overall verdict. In particular, the pilot judged each watch's legibility under various lighting conditions during the flight, as well as rendering judgment on its wearing comfort, user friendliness and timekeeping reliability. 136 WatchTime April 2012

137
ORIS Swiss Hunter Team PS The Swiss Hunter Team PS Edition pays homage to the historical aircraft of the Patrouille Suisse. The watch has a giant, 8.5-mm-wide crown. With its wide, deep grooves, the crown is very easy to use and, despite what you might guess, does not press uncomfortably into the back of the wearer's wrist. The watch itself, with a nearly 44-mm diameter, approaches gargantuan status and is as large as any watch should be, Lenhart said. He was a bit disappointed to discover that the fluted bezel cannot be rotated. The Oris's dial boasts outstanding legibility. All of the hands are exactly the right length and are well proportioned, and their Super-LumiNova BG W9 coating glows in the dark with a handsome turquoise gleam. The luminous Swiss cross on the short end of the seconds hand is a real eye-catcher: it's the "trademark" of this special edition and in daylight it shows the classic white-on-red color scheme. Contrary to our expectations, the slim white end of this hand doesn't glow in the dark. Its outermost tip extends all the way to the ring on the dial's edge, where the strokes for seconds (or minutes) are located, and the inner end of the white portion is tangent to a wreath of numerals for indicating the hours from noon to midnight in 24-hour style, i.e., from 13 to 24. Lenhart liked the attractive styling, which is emphasized by a curved sapphire crystal that's nonreflective on the inside. The multi-part case is sealed by a fully threaded back, which contains a transparent pane of mineral crystal bearing an image of the Swiss Hunter teams. This logo, together with the winding rotor, conceals the unembellished Oris Caliber 733. Based on a Sellita Caliber SW 200-1, this movement is identical in its structure to the ETA 2824-2. It ran quite well, gaining 4.8 seconds per day when fully wound. This gain remained unchanged after the test flight. The movement accelerated somewhat after it ran for 24 hours, gaining 7.8 seconds. The Big Crown Swiss Hunter Team PS has a slightly domed leather strap with a pronged buckle. A red sling secures the band's second loop. The watch is packaged in a special case along with a certificate and a silk scarf. The watch's crown is 8.5 mm wide, making it easy to grasp and turn. SPECS ORIS SWISS HUNTER TEAM PS Manufacturer: Oris SA Functions: Hours, minutes, central seconds, date Movement: SW 200-1, automatic; diameter = 25.6 mm; height = 4.6 mm; 26 jewels; 28,800 vph; 38-hour power reserve; nickel balance; Nivarox hairspring; Incabloc shock absorber; Etachron fine regulation; satin-finishing Case: Stainless steel with sapphire crystal and mineral crystal caseback window; water resistant to 100 meters Strap and clasp: Leather strap with stainless-steel pronged buckle Dimensions: Diameter = 43.89 mm, height = 11.82 mm, weight = 96 grams Price: $1,750 PROS: + Rate results/running performance + Craftsmanship + Easy-to-use large crown + Day/night legibility + Wearing comfort CONS: - No rotating bezel - Unadorned movement The emblem of the Swiss Hunter Team adorns the glass caseback. The Super-LumiNova coating on the numerals, indices and hands is clearly visible in the dark. The seconds hand bears a Swiss cross on its shorter end. April 2012 WatchTime 137

138
REVIEW Pilots' Watches PROS: + Day/night legibility + Craftsmanship + Wearing comfort + Running performance when fully wound CONS: - Crown moves stiffly when setting second time zone - Buckle prong is too slender The dial has large, clear calibrations that are easy to read in daylight. With a date display and a second time zone, this watch offers functions not typically found in a pilots' watch. The hands and markers glow brightly, but there are no single-minute indices. SINN 857 S UTC The Sinn 857 S UTC, with its imposing stainless-steel case with black PVD coating, makes a solid first impression, as does its cowhide strap, although the prong on the buckle seems a bit delicate. Examining the case and strap under a watchmakers' loupe reveals clean craftsmanship, and the strap feels pleasantly supple. Lenhart strapped the watch on and confirmed its wearing comfort: "The case feels nice and light, and the strap fits comfortably," he said. After the aerobatic flight, he was still impressed by the comfortable fit of the 857 S UTC, and he reported that its operating elements performed well, too. The bidirectionally rotating bezel clicks authoritatively into place and the crown, despite its bold profile, fits well between the fingers. Only when setting the second time zone do you 138 WatchTime April 2012 feel an obvious resistance, which can probably be traced to the movement. The dial scores points with large, cleanly printed calibrations and sharply pointed hands that are long enough to be read easily. Lenhart said the dial is easy to read when there's sufficient light. However, when lighting is poor, you can only make out the time to the nearest fiveminute interval, which is inadequate for an aviator. The watch contains the ETA Caliber 2893-2, which performed with admirable precision both on the ground and in the air. With a fully wound mainspring, it gained about 2.5 seconds: it ran 2.9 seconds fast before the flight, 2.2 seconds fast immediately afterwards, and 2.6 seconds fast 3 days later. To sum up: the Sinn 857 S UTC offers high legibility, excellent craftsmanship, wearing comfort and ease of operation, as well as a famous-name movement that delivers acceptable rate performance. This watch, with its sporty-chic styling, will probably persuade the wearer to overlook the imprecision of 5-minute calibration at night, the resistance in the crown and the slender prong on the steel buckle. The watch's outstanding daytime legibility and a rotating bezel were features that Lenhart especially liked. SPECS SINN 857 S UTC Manufacturer: Sinn Spezialuhren GmbH Functions: Hours, minutes, central seconds, date, second time zone Movement: ETA 2892, automatic; diameter = 25.6 mm; height = 4.1 mm; 21 jewels; 28,800 vph; 42-hour power reserve; Glucydur balance; Nivarox hairspring; Incabloc shock absorber; Etachron fine regulation; decorated with Geneva waves, circular graining and spiral patterns; polished, blued screws Case: Stainless steel with hardened coating; sapphire crystal; water resistant to 200 meters Strap and clasp: Cowhide strap with stainless-steel pronged buckle Dimensions: Diameter = 42.97 mm, height = 11.94 mm, weight = 102 grams Price: $2,170

139
BELL & ROSS BR 03-94 Chronograph Steel The Bell & Ross BR 03-94 Chronograph Steel reminded Axel Schütte of a cockpit instrument. With its large hour and minutes hands, this chronograph looks like the coarse/fine altimeter in his plane, Schütte said. This resemblance is enhanced by the 42-mm-square stainlesssteel case with four screws at the corners to keep it securely closed. This watch looks quite handsome on the wrist. Schütte was particularly impressed by its legibility. Large white hands contrast very well with the matte black dial. Good legibility is made even better by the large numerals 12 and 6, which work well with 60 white minutes indices. The case's matte finish also enhances the legibility: only the edges of the case are polished, thus reducing the likelihood of annoying glare or reflections. The date is placed between 4 and 5 o'clock, where it doesn't eclipse any of the minutes indices. However, the date display is somewhat small, so more than a fleeting glance may be needed to read it. The finely matte-finished case prevents glare and reflections. As is appropriate for a pilots' watch, additional information about the model and its components is shown on the caseback. Of course, a pilot doesn't check the date very often. He's far more interested in knowing the exact time, and that's one area in which Bell & Ross excels. In our test, the fully wound watch gained 3.3 seconds and we measured its balance's amplitude at 294 degrees. The rate was even better when the chronograph was switched on: the daily gain decreased to just 2.4 seconds, although the amplitude declined somewhat, to 286 degrees. The Bell & Ross was relatively unaffected by wild loops and other aerobatics. After the maneuvers, our timing machine measured a gain of 0.7 seconds and the balance's amplitude was 274 degrees. These overall satisfying results were confirmed by a measurement we made 3 days after the flight, when this flight-friendly chronograph gained 2.6 seconds and its balance oscillated with an amplitude of 294 degrees. "The Bell & Ross is essentially comfortable to wear," Schütte said. The rubber strap holds the watch firmly on the wrist and prevents it from slipping or sliding, although Schütte said the rubber made his wrist perspire during the flight. The smoothly running crown contributes to the user-friendliness of the BR 03-94. To-the-second setting is easy thanks to a stop-seconds function, which instantly stops the small seconds hand when the crown is pulled outward. Operating the chronograph mechanism is a bit more difficult: Schütte reported that the push-pieces were a bit clumsy to handle and somewhat hard to operate. If you happen to press the wrong button by mistake, your measurement is not lost because the zero-return function is blocked. Numerals, hands and indices all glow in the dark with a bright blue hue. The indicators' large dimensions make it very easy to read the time. PROS: + Easily recognizable + Good rate results + Design + Legibility CONS: - Pushers are difficult to operate - Strap uncomfortable in heat - Date display is too small SPECS BELL & ROSS BR 03-94 CHRONOGRAPH STEEL Manufacturer: Bell & Ross Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, chronograph, date Movement: ETA 2894-2, automatic; diameter = 28 mm; height = 6.1 mm; 37 jewels; 28,800 vph; 47-hour power reserve; gold-plated nickel balance; Nivarox hairspring; Incabloc shock absorber; bipartite index fine regulation; decorated with Geneva waves and circular graining; blued screws Case: Stainless steel with nonreflective sapphire crystal; water resistant to 100 meters Strap and clasp: Rubber strap with stainless-steel pronged buckle Dimensions: Diameter = 42 mm, height = 12.1 mm, weight = 149 grams Price: $5,300 Instead of screws in the back, four screws in the front keep the monocoque case of the Bell & Ross securely closed.

140
REVIEW Pilots' Watches SPECS BREITLING CHRONOMAT GMT Manufacturer: Breitling SA Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, chronograph, date, GMT, tachymeter, rotating bezel Movement: Breitling 04, automatic; diameter = 30 mm; height = 7.2 mm; 47 jewels; 28,800 vph; 70-plus-hour power reserve; Glucydur balance; Nivarox hairspring; Kif shock absorber; index fine regulation; decorated with Geneva waves and satin finishing; polished screws, COSC-certified Case: Stainless steel with nonreflective sapphire crystal; water resistant to 500 meters Bracelet and clasp: Stainless steel with folding clasp Dimensions: Diameter = 47.8 mm, height = 18.4 mm, weight = 263 grams Price: $9,820 This boldly styled watch boasts a 24-hour display, a rotating bezel, a tachymeter scale and water resistance to 500 meters. The time-display components are clearly distinguished from each other. The red arrowhead on the 24-hour hand is more prominent than the elapsed-seconds hand. BREITLING Chronomat GMT For many watch lovers, a Breitling is the epitome of a pilots' watch. The Chronomat GMT, which we chose for our test, has a chronograph with tachymeter scale, a date display, and -- always a useful function for pilots -- a second time zone with 24-hour display. The last indicator, which relies on an additional central hour hand, is a feature of the new Breitling Caliber 04, based on Caliber 01, which was developed in-house. The newer caliber boasts exactly the same traits as its predecessor: a column-wheel chronograph with vertical coupling, a 70-hour power reserve, and a COSC chronometer certificate. The Chronomat GMT performed impeccably: after it had been fully wound, it ran with an average daily gain of just 1.1 seconds, and it maintained this excellent precision when we tested it right after landing and again 24 hours later. The watch ran slightly faster when the chronograph was switched on. This is as good as it gets. When Langer strapped the Breitling watch to his wrist, he found the bracelet to be much too long, although it could be fairly easily shortened via the screwed lugs. The size and weight didn't bother our pilot at first, but afterwards he remarked that this big timepiece tended to get snagged. Langer shared Lenhart's opinion about the rotating bezel: both pilots agreed that this is a useful accessory. Langer demonstrated its usefulness by turning it into position for a specific interval, although he found the tachymeter scale on the edge of the dial PROS: + In-house caliber + Multiple functions + Precise rate + Good nighttime legibility + Good craftsmanship and design + Well-known brand CONS: - Reflections on the dial during the day - Case tends to get snagged - High price The large luminous dot on the rotating bezel can be seen easily, even in a dark cockpit. too small for his taste. Furthermore, he said, "there's always something sparkling, glittering or glaring in the sunlight," making it more difficult to read the time. Nonetheless, the time display is more prominent than the chronograph function and is always the first thing you see, especially when the dial is viewed in the dark. A dot on the bezel glows quite clearly and helps you see at a glance where 12 o'clock is. You have to unscrew the buttons before starting the chronograph. The large, easy-to-grip crown is also screwed down. When it is unscrewed and pulled out to its middle position, it can be used to adjust the hour hand either forward or backward; it also re-adjusts the date display accordingly. This is very useful when traveling through different time zones. The 24-hour hand makes it easy to keep track of the hour in your home time zone. 140 WatchTime April 2012

141
The dial of the Damsko DC67 Si is easy to read. The day and date are just below the dial's midline. "Si" stands for silicon, from which the hairspring is made. SPECS DAMASKO DC67 SI Manufacturer: Damasko Uhrenmanufaktur Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, day/date, chronograph, rotating bezel Movement: ETA 7750, automatic; diameter = 30 mm; height = 7.9 mm; 25 jewels; 28,800 vph; 50-hour power reserve; screw balance; Nivarox hairspring; Incabloc shock absorber; bipartite index fine regulation; decorated with Geneva waves, circular graining and satin finishing; blued screws Case: Stainless steel with ice-hardened PVD coating; nonreflective sapphire crystal; water resistant to 100 meters Strap and clasp: Shrunk leather and rubber strap with pronged buckle Dimensions: Diameter = 43.2 mm, height = 13.6 mm, weight = 117 grams Price: $3,850 The entire dial of the Damasko DC67 Si glows in the dark thanks to a coating of Super-LumiNova C1. PROS: + Modified movement + Good rate results + Good case construction + Multiple functions + Good day/night legibility + Reliable operation + Comfortable to wear CONS: - High amplitude after test flight - Strap rubs against lugs DAMASKO DC67 Si This watch is packed with high-tech features. Its manufacturer, Damasko, headquartered near Regensburg, Germany, is an expert in case construction. The case of the DC67 Si is milled from a solid block of steel and has a specially hardened PVD coating. It withstands pressure to 100 meters, is secured against low pressure, and is protected against magnetic fields up to 80,000 A/m. This watch also boasts a patented system for its crown and pushpieces. Viton insulators for these buttons are equipped with a long-lasting lubricant and have extremely high chemical stability. The same traits distinguish the O-ring The bezel on the Damasko can be operated easily. The same is true for the chronograph buttons and the threaded crown. in the fully threaded, screw-in caseback. The bezel rotates in both directions and, thanks to a patented mechanism, it clicks accurately into place, a detail that its tester, Langer, particularly liked. The easy-togrip ring runs smoothly on ceramic elements and leaves no uncertainty about precisely where it's positioned -- exactly what a pilot demands. A pane of sapphire, with nonreflective treatment on both sides, offers a clear view of the dial, whose black-on-white color scheme is somewhat unconventional for a pilots' watch. (A white-on-black version is also available.) Langer praised its distinct numerals and the prominence of its time display. This watch is very easy to read, including in the dark, because the entire background of the dial is luminous. The chronograph functions perform well. The buttons demand a bit of extra pressure, but work reliably. Before the crown can be used, it must first be unscrewed, but this is no problem thanks to the narrow grooves in the crown's sides. The crown can be grasped easily and pulled into its individual positions. Damasko also made technical changes in the movement, the ETA 7750, equipping it with a reinforced barrel and a rotor that runs on ceramic bearings. Damasko manufactures the rotor. The brand also switched the positions of the day and date displays. The letters "Si" in the model's name stand for "silicon": a deep-etching process is used in the manufacture of this watch's silicon hairspring, which "breathes" beneath a balance with weight screws along its rim. The special escapement system helps the DC67 Si achieve very good rate values: an average gain of 3.8 seconds when fully wound and +1.9 seconds immediately after the test flight. Those values meet the manufacturer's objective: to build a watch that keeps time as accurately as a certified chronometer. We did notice, however, that the amplitudes were very high immediately after the flight, but when we repeated the measurements later, everything had returned to normal, with the watch deviating from perfect timekeeping by 5.3 seconds per day. When Langer took off this watch, he noticed that part of the strap rubs against the tapered lugs, a detail that could be improved. As for the strap's wearing comfort, Langer had no criticisms: with leather on top and rubber inside, he said it felt pleasant against his skin. April 2012 WatchTime 141

142
REVIEW Pilots' Watches HANHART Pioneer Twin Dicator The Pioneer Twin Dicator was still just a prototype when we tested it as part of our pilots' watch review. Although it debuted as a new model just last year, it seems familiar because it echoes the styling of historic Hanhart chronographs. The story began in 1938 with the monopusher chronograph Caliber 40: the lone button was marked in red and positioned above the crown, close to the lug. The button was repositioned downward one year later. This red button is a distinctive feature on watches from this German-Swiss company. Needless to say, Lenhart was pleased to see the rotating bezel. This one turns a bit too easily, but we expect that this will be corrected in the serially manufactured model. Some colored markings and the engraving on the back aren't exactly right, either. The elapsed-time hands, for example, should end in red tips, and a reversed color scheme should be used on the combined subdial for the elapsed hours and the running seconds at 9 o'clock, where the chronograph function should be red and the small seconds hand should be white. The historical bicompax arrangement, with a subdial for the seconds on one side and another subdial for the elapsed minutes on the other, has been preserved, although the Twin Dicator also tallies elapsed hours. Hanhart created this additional function through a complex, modular reworking of the ETA 7750 caliber. Now these displays have been moved toward the edge of the dial. As far as the legibility of the time is concerned, our test pilot had absolutely no complaints. The white Arabic numerals contrast clearly with the black background, and the somewhat old-fashionedlooking "skeleton" hands are easily distinguished from each other. The difference As on many Hanhart watches, the top chrono pusher is closer to the lug than the bottom one. Stylish red accents give the watch pizzazz. PROS: + Modified movement + Well-balanced rate behavior + Historical design + Good day/night legibility + Reliable operation + Comfortable to wear CONS: - Chronograph counters are small - Strap is too short between the hands is even more obvious in the dark because they glow more brightly than the 10 Arabic numerals. The Twin Dicator's movement runs quite uniformly: it gained 4.3 seconds when fully wound and 4.2 seconds immediately after the test flight, thus proving that this watch is a genuine flying ace. The riveted strap matches the pilots'watch styling perfectly. "It's comfortable to wear, but a bit too short for me," Lenhart said. SPECS HANHART PIONEER TWIN DICATOR Manufacturer: Hanhart AG Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, chronograph, rotating bezel Movement: ETA 7750, automatic; diameter = 30 mm; height = 7.9 mm; 35 jewels; 28,800 vph; 42-hour power reserve; Glucydur balance; Nivarox hairspring; Incabloc shock absorber; bipartite index fine regulation; decorated with satin finishing; skeletonized rotor Case: Stainless steel with sapphire crystal; water resistant to 100 meters Strap and clasp: Calfskin strap with rivets; pronged buckle Dimensions: Diameter = 45.2 mm, height = 15.58 mm, weight = 137 grams Price: $5,850 In the dark, the hands contrast especially well with the Arabic numerals. 142 WatchTime April 2012

143
Only at second glance can the orientation triangle at 12 o'clock be distinguished from the tip of the hour hand. MÜHLE S.A.R. Flieger-Chronograph The exterior of the S.A.R. Flieger-Chronograph is impeccably crafted, except for the folding clasp, which has sharp edges. Lenhart appreciated the matte finish on the stainless steel case because it doesn't cause glare in the cockpit, but he wasn't very impressed by the rubber strap. "It's not very good when one perspires, but it's still better than a heavy, stainless steel bracelet," he said. Lenhart liked the legibility of the dial. He didn't mind that the hour and minutes hands sometimes slide behind the seconds subdial and that the edges of all hands are rather rough, but he warned that the hour hand's triangle could easily be mistaken for the triangle marking 12 o'clock. This danger also lurks at night, when the absence of minute strokes further detracts from the legibility. Our test pilot was impressed by the Mühle's user-friendliness: the rotating bezel clicks firmly into place, and the crown and push-pieces are on the left side of the dial, where a pilot can easily reach them while flying. The crown performs well: there's no unwanted play in the hands when the wearer sets the time. Clean craftsmanship, with the sole exception of a scratch on the rotor, distinguished automatic Caliber MU 9408, which is based on an ETA 7750. Among other changes, Mühle equips the base caliber with a three-quarters plate and a woodpecker's-neck fine adjustment mechanism. Unfortunately, the finishing seems somewhat pedestrian. The MU 9408 gained a little more than 3 seconds before the flight, both when fully wound and after having been allowed to run for 24 hours. As the mainspring gradually slackened, the amplitude declined from 284 to 260 degrees. The rate behavior remained similar when the chronograph was switched on, although the amplitude decreased to 246 degrees under the stress of being left running for 24 hours with the chronograph switched on the entire time. The test flight confused the movement, but only temporarily. It was running slow by 2 seconds immediately upon landing, but ran 3.2 seconds fast three days later. The amplitude increased to 295 degrees directly after the flight, but returned to normal three days later. With acceptable legibility and a high degree of wearing comfort, the S.A.R. FliegerChronograph is a welcome companion on an aviator's wrist. The absence of a leather strap detracts from the wearing comfort, but this minor issue is quickly forgotten when one admires the craftsmanship and the reliability of the movement, which coped quite well with the aerobatic flight. SPECS MÜHLE S.A.R. FLIEGER-CHRONOGRAPH Manufacturer: Mühle Glashütte GmbH Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, chronograph, rotating bezel Movement: MU 9408, based on ETA 7750, automatic; diameter = 30 mm; height = 7.9 mm; 25 jewels; 28,800 vph; 48-hour power reserve; gold-plated nickel balance; Nivarox hairspring; Incabloc shock absorber; woodpecker's-neck fine regulation; decorated with sunburst patterns, circular graining and satin finishing; blued, polished screws Case: Stainless steel with sapphire crystal front and back; water resistant to 100 meters Strap and clasp: Rubber with folding clasp Dimensions: Diameter = 45 mm; height = 16.65 mm; weight = 169 grams Price: $3,999 The case has a matte finish, which prevents glare in the cockpit. PROS: + Good craftsmanship + User friendly + Reliable movement + The brand's own modifications CONS: - Less-than-ideal wearing comfort of strap and clasp The pushers are on the left side of the case, making them easy to reach. April 2012 WatchTime 143

144
REVIEW Pilots' Watches PROS: + Daytime legibility + Craftsmanship + Wearing comfort + User friendliness + Rate behavior CONS: - Poor nighttime legibility - Rotating bezel is hard to turn TUTIMA Grand Classic Chronograph UTC Tutima specializes in pilots' watches. Collectors appreciate this brand's historic models, and NATO pilots wear Tutima's Chronograph 798 as part of their official equipment. Langer gave good grades to the Grand Classic's case and strap. "The case is pleasantly lightweight and shaped for comfort," he said. He was also pleased to discover that the case, thanks to its fluted bezel, didn't cause unwanted glare. The supple strap fit well and the clasp stayed closed without pressing uncomfortably against the inside of his wrist. The buckle's prong is both massive and flexible. The calibrated scales are neatly printed on the dial, but irregularities are noticeable in the luminous material on the hands. This watch was easy to read in the cockpit, Langer reported. He didn't mind the absence of indices on the seconds subdial, but noted that the minutes indices were invisible in the dark. The Grand Classic is user-friendly with one exception: the rotating bezel is so firmly mounted that Langer couldn't turn it with just one hand. The pushers, too, required quite a bit of force, but when they trigger their functions, they emit a clicking sound that's audible above the noise in the cockpit. The crown turns smoothly between your fingers. The watch contains the automatic ETA 7754, which is well crafted and handsomely decorated. It ran with a constant gain of nearly 4 seconds, both when fully wound and after being allowed to run for 24 hours. The rate remained unchanged, regardless of whether the chronograph was switched on or off. The aerobatic flight slowed the movement somewhat. The caliber gained 2.9 seconds immediately after returning to earth, and the gain increased to 3.4 seconds 3 days later. The amplitude was unaffected by the aerobatic maneuvers: it was not quite 310 degrees when the watch was fully wound, and it decreased to 290 degrees after the timepiece was left running for 24 hours or when the chronograph was on. The amplitude dipped to 265 degrees when both occurred simultaneously, i.e., the watch had been running 24 hours and the chronograph was switched on. The Grand Classic Chronograph UTC proved its suitability for airborne duty. The daytime legibility is good, the craftsmanship is neat, and the degree of wearing comfort is high. All functions except the rotating bezel were easy to use, and the movement ran even more accurately after the flight than before. The bezel on the Tutima is so firmly mounted that it won't always turn with just one hand. The minutes can't be read in the dark. SPECS TUTIMA GRAND CLASSIC CHRONOGRAPH UTC Manufacturer: Tutima Uhrenfabrik GmbH Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, second time zone, date, chronograph, rotating bezel Movement: ETA 7754, automatic; diameter = 30 mm; height = 7.9 mm; 25 jewels; 28,800 vph; 46-hour power reserve; goldplated Glucydur balance; Anachron hairspring; Incabloc shock absorber; bipartite index fine regulation; decorated with Geneva waves, circular graining and satin finishing; blued, polished screws Case: Stainless steel with sapphire crystal front and back; water resistant to 100 meters Strap and clasp: Leather strap with pronged buckle Dimensions: Diameter = 43.08 mm, height = 16.4 mm, weight = 112 grams Price: $4,000 The second time zone is shown by a skeletonized, center-mounted hand. 144 WatchTime April 2012

145
PROS: + In-house caliber + Good rate results + Day/night legibility + Wearing comfort CONS: - No stop-seconds function - Rate slightly in the "minus" column - Start/stop button operates stiffly At night the chronograph seconds hand can only be seen as a dark vertical line that halves the index at 12 o'clock. The smallseconds subdial is also invisible at night. The time display dominates the dial, but the stopwatch function is also easy to read. SPECS ZENITH CAPTAIN PILOT CHRONOGRAPH Manufacturer: Zenith SA ZENITH Captain Pilot Chronograph This chronograph from the relatively new Captain line is currently Zenith's only pilots' watch. Delving into Zenith's history, we discovered the story of its pilots' watches. In response to a special request from the Italian air force, Zenith built the Cairelli chronograph in the 1960s. Although the modern Captain Pilot Chronograph is intended to hark back to this watch, its exterior has little in common with it, except for one important detail: the bicompax arrangement of a classic pilots' watch. The elapsed minutes are shown at 3 o'clock and the running seconds appear on a subdial at 9 o'clock. The Captain Chronograph, 42 mm in diameter, has a highly legible dial, earning praise from Lenhart, who also liked the watch's wearing comfort. The simple but well-shaped stainless steel case fits well around the wrist, and the comfort is further enhanced by the high quality of the rubber-lined alligator strap. Long, white wedges mark the hours. These team up with elegantly tapering white hands that contrast clearly with the black dial and the chronograph functions. The chronograph indicators are easy to read, as is the small-seconds subdial and the date at 6 o'clock. Lenhart said that the chronograph pusher at 2 o'clock was too stiff, but he liked the smoothly operating crown. This watch contains the well-known, in-house El Primero caliber, which doesn't provide a stop-seconds function. This 5-hertz caliber runs in all situations with little deviation of rate, but with a slight loss of 0.2 second per day when fully wound and a loss of 1.1 seconds immediately after the test flight. Zenith's chronograph and its quickly oscillating balance can measure intervals to 1/10-second, so the dial is correspondingly calibrated around its edge. Zenith's watch is also the only one in this review with a telemeter scale, which calculates distances by using the speed of sound. With it, we determined, luckily at the end of our testing session, that there was an electrical storm 7 kilometers away: the chronograph measured 21 seconds between a lightning bolt and a thunderclap. ? Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, date, chronograph, telemeter Movement: Zenith El Primero 4002, automatic; diameter = 30 mm; height = 6.6 mm; 31 jewels; 36,000 vph; 50-plushour power reserve; gold-plated nickel balance; Nivarox hairspring; Kif shock absorber; bipartite index fine regulation; decorated with Geneva waves, circular graining and satin finishing; skeletonized rotor; blued, polished screws Case: Stainless steel with sapphire crystal front and back; water resistant to 50 meters Strap and clasp: Alligator and rubber strap with pronged buckle Dimensions: Diameter = 41.86 mm, height = 12.26 mm, weight = 83.5 grams Price: $6,400 The 36,000-vph El Primero is very precise but lacks a stop-seconds function.

146
WatchTime presents its latest gallery of luxury mechanical watches whose exhibition casebacks are as eye-catching as their dials. 146 WatchTime April 2012

147
A. LANGE & SÖHNE Richard Lange Tourbillon "Pour le Mérite" Reference: 760.032 Movement: In-house Caliber L072.1, hand-wound; tourbillon; stop seconds; fusée-and-chain transmission; diameter = 33.6 mm; height = 7.6 mm; 21,600 vph; 32 jewels; 36-hour power reserve Case: Rose gold, diameter = 42 mm, height = 12.2 mm, curved sapphire crystal with nonreflective coating on both sides, sapphire caseback secured with six screws, water resistant to 30 meters Strap and clasp: Hand-stitched alligator strap with rose-gold folding clasp Variations: Platinum (100 pieces, $223,600) Price: $185,300

148
CUERVO Y SOBRINOS Torpedo Pirata Barbanegra Reference: 3051.5BB Movement: ETA 7751, automatic; chronograph; complete calendar; moon-phase display; diameter = 30 mm; height = 7.9 mm; 28,000 vph; 25 jewels; 42-hour power reserve Case: Bronze, titanium and stainless steel with DLC coating; diameter = 45 mm; height = 15.5 mm; sapphire crystal with nonreflective coating on both sides; sapphire caseback secured with four screws, water resistant to 50 meters Strap and clasp: Alligator strap with titanium buckle Limited edition: 100 pieces Price: $10,400 148 WatchTime April 2012

149
PATEK PHILIPPE Triple Complication Reference: 5208P Movement: In-house Caliber R CH 27 PS QI, automatic; perpetual calendar; moon-phase and day/night display; minute repeater; monopusher chronograph; diameter = 32 mm; height = 10.35 mm; 21,600 vph; 58 jewels; 48hour power reserve Case: Platinum, diameter = 42 mm, height = 15.7 mm, sapphire crystal, platinum caseback secured with six screws, additional sapphire caseback Strap and clasp: Hand-stitched alligator strap with platinum folding clasp Price: SF825,000 (U.S. price not available) April 2012 WatchTime 149

150
GIRARD-PERREGAUX Vintage 1945 XXL Reference: 25880-52-721-BB6A Movement: In-house Caliber GP3300, automatic; diameter = 26.2 mm; height = 3.2 mm; 28,800 vph; 46 jewels; 46hour power reserve Case: Rose gold, dimensions = 35 x 36 mm, height = 10.8 mm, curved sapphire crystal with nonreflective coating on the inside, sapphire caseback secured with four screws, water resistant to 30 meters Strap and clasp: Alligator strap with rose-gold folding clasp Variations: Stainless steel ($9,860) Price: $21,900 150 WatchTime April 2012

151
H. MOSER & CIE. Moser Perpetual 1 Golden Edition Reference: 341.101-008 Movement: In-house Caliber HMC 341.101, manual-wind; perpetual calendar; "Flash Calendar"-display; power-reserve indicator; "Straumann Double Hairspring" escapement module; diameter = 34 mm; height = 5.8 mm; 18,000 vph; 26 jewels; seven-day power reserve Case: Rose gold, diameter = 40.8 mm, height = 11.1 mm, sapphire crystal with noneflective coating on the inside, sapphire caseback secured with four screws, water resistant to 30 meters Strap and clap: Alligator strap with rose-gold folding clasp Variations: Palladium with gray dial ($58,400) Price: $99,200 April 2012 WatchTime 151

152
MAURICE LACROIX Masterpiece Calendrier Rétrograde Reference: MP6508-SS001-130 Movement: In-house Caliber ML 190, automatic; retrograde date; power-reserve indicator; diameter = 36.6 mm; height = 8.2 mm; 18,000 vph; 57 jewels; 52-hour power reserve Case: Stainless steel, diameter = 43 mm, height = 16 mm, curved sapphire crystal with nonreflective coating on both sides, sapphire caseback secured with four screws, water resistant to 50 meters Strap and clasp: Alligator strap with stainless-steel safety folding clasp Variations: Black dial, rose gold ($21,200) Price: $6,400 152 WatchTime April 2012

153
MONTBLANC Nicolas Rieussec Chronograph Automatic Reference: 106488 Movement: In-house Caliber MB R200, automatic; chronograph; second time zone; day/night display; diameter = 31 mm; height = 8.5 mm; 28,800 vph; 40 jewels; 72-hour power reserve Case: Stainless steel, diameter = 43 mm, height = 14.8 mm, curved sapphire crystal with nonreflective coating on both sides, sapphire caseback secured with six screws, water resistant to 30 meters Strap and clasp: Alligator strap with stainless-steel safety folding clasp Variations: White dial Price: $10,700 April 2012 WatchTime 153

154
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx PANERAI Luminor 1950 3 Days 47 mm Reference: PAM00372 Movement: In-house Caliber P.3000, manual-wind; diameter = 37 mm; height = 5.3 mm; 21,600 vph; 21 jewels; 72-hour power reserve Case: Stainless steel, diameter = 47 mm, height = 16.5 mm, curved plexiglas crystal without nonreflective coating, screwed sapphire caseback, water resistant to 100 meters Strap and clasp: Calfskin strap with stainless-steel buckle Price: $10,400 154 WatchTime April 2012

155
BREITLING Chronomat GMT Reference: AB0410 Movement: In-house Caliber 04, automatic; chronograph; second time zone; COSC-certified; diameter = 30 mm; height = 8.3 mm; 28,800 vph; 47 jewels; 70-hour power reserve Case: Stainless steel, unidirectional bezel, diameter = 47 mm, height = 18.7 mm, curved sapphire crystal with nonreflective coating on both sides, screwed stainlesssteel caseback, screwed crown and push-pieces, water resistant to 500 meters Strap and clasp: Rubber strap with stainless-steel safety folding clasp and diving extension Variations: Different dials, straps and buckles ($8,635$9,820) Price: $8,870 April 2012 WatchTime 155

156
PORSCHE DESIGN P'6620 Dashboard Reference: 6620.13.46.0269 Movement: ETA 7753, automatic; chronograph; diameter = 30 mm; height = 7.9 mm; 28,800 vph; 25 jewels; 48-hour power reserve Case: Titanium with PVD coating, diameter = 44 mm, height = 14.5 mm, sapphire crystal with nonreflective coating on both sides, titanium caseback, screwed crown, water resistant to 100 meters Strap and clasp: Natural rubber strap with black-PVD pin buckle Variations: Different dials and straps, rose gold ($36,500) Price: $6,100

157
RICHARD MILLE RM 011 Felipe Massa Flyback Chronograph Reference: RM 011 Movement: Exclusive Caliber RM 011-S, automatic; flyback chronograph; countdown timer; annual calendar; dimensions = 30.3 x 32.8 mm; height = 9 mm; 28,800 vph; 62 jewels; 55- hour power reserve Case: Titanium with "Titalyt"-surface treatment, dimensions = 40 x 50 mm, height = 16.2 mm, curved sapphire crystal with nonreflective coating on both sides, sapphire caseback secured with eight screws, water resistant to 50 meters Strap and clasp: Calfskin strap with Titalyt and stainless-steel double folding clasp Variations: Rubber strap Price: $105,000 April 2012 WatchTime 157

158
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx TAG HEUER Carrera Caliber 1887 Reference: CAR2111.FC6291 Movement: Caliber 1887, automatic; chronograph; diameter = 29.3 mm; height = 7.1 mm; 28,800 vph; 39 jewels; 40-hour power reserve Case: Stainless steel, diameter = 43 mm, height = 16 mm, curved sapphire crystal with nonreflective coating on both sides, screwed sapphire caseback, water resistant to 100 meters Strap and clasp: Alligator strap with stainless-steel safety folding clasp Variations: Brown alligator strap, stainless-steel bracelet, black dial Price: $4,800 158 WatchTime April 2012

159
ZENITH El Primero Chronomaster Open Reference: 03.2080.4021/21.C496 Movement: In-house caliber El Primero 4021, automatic; chronograph; power-reserve indicator; diameter = 30 mm; height = 7.9 mm; 36,600 vph; 39 jewels; 50-hour power reserve Case: Stainless steel, diameter = 42 mm, height = 14.5 mm, curved sapphire crystal with nonreflective coating on both sides, sapphire caseback secured with four screws, water resistant to 100 meters Strap and clasp: Alligator strap with stainless-steel buckle Variations: Silver dial, stainless-steel bracelet and double folding clasp ($9,000), stainless steel and rose gold ($9,800), rose gold ($18,200) Price: $8,000 April 2012 WatchTime 159

160
FACEtime Gregory Stanley (left) and Christian Santoso celebrating Chinese New Year at Loewys Bar, Jakarta, Indonesia. On Stanley, Breguet XXII and Lange Double Split rose gold. On Santoso, Vacheron Constantin Malte Chronograph rose gold and Lange 1 with white-gold guilloché dial. After a gondola ride to the top of Sandia Heights, NM, brothers Matthew Leung (left), 1978 Rolex Submariner 1680 and Kyle Leung, 1963 Rolex GMT Master 1675, take in the views. Giovanni Geronico sports his Longines Legend Diver while enjoying the surf in Crete, Greece, with son Matteo. Home for the holidays: Diane Kieser displays her Movado Bold White Midsize alongside Dave Kieser, showing his Rolex Datejust Oyster Perpetual, two-tone. Charles L. Jones Jr., far right, wearing his 1978 gold Rolex I, celebrates Thanksgiving with son Charles L. Jones III in stainless-steel with gold-trim Breitling and grandson Brody Charles in gold Tiffany watch. 160 WatchTime April 2012

161
It's a Panerai party: Adam Goldberg (right) celebrates his 40th birthday in his new PAM 177, a gift from his brother, Scott Goldman (left.) Goldman wears a PAM 312. An excursion to Israel takes Beth and Jay Rosin on an underground archeological dig in her Panerai PAM 119 and his Girard-Perregaux 11 Pro. Family members and Rolex wearers celebrate during a holiday cruise to the Caribbean (from left to right): A.J. Gordon, Steven Gordon, Shari Gordon and Shannon Gordon. Colin Riordan models his Omega Seamaster Chronograph Chronometer by a cliff above the Blue Grotto on the Maltese island of Filfla. To submit a photo, please send your image to [email protected] with a short description identifying each person in the photo and the watch each one is wearing. Please give the first and last name of the wearer and the brand and model of the watch. If the photo was taken at an event, please specify when and where it was held. Only clear images in which both the face of the watch and the wearer are visible will be considered for publication. Images must be in JPEG format and no smaller than 1 MB. Only the best-quality and most interesting photos will be considered. April 2012 WatchTime 161

162
LASTminute By Joe Thompson Reporter's Notebook: SIHH erewith, random musings from the first of the year's two great watch gatherings. o Is fine watchmaking at long last rediscovering the power of fine design? Seems so from the evidence at SIHH. Overshadowed for years by high-mechanical technical advances, fine design was trumpeted to an unusual extent this year. A number of brands touted watches famous not for complicated calibers but their sheer good looks. At Audemars Piguet, this is the year of the Royal Oak. The octagonal steel rebel, 40 now, still looks great as it heads into middle age. AP introduced eight new models. Cartier introduced a new version of its iconic Tank -- the Tank Anglaise, which takes its place next to successful updates of the 1919 original, Tank Française and Tank Americaine. Vacheron Constantin trumpeted the brand's long (100 years this year) love affair with the shapely contours of the tonneau case with four new tonneau watches in its Malte collection. Van Cleef & Arpels, best known as a ladies' line, unveiled a new version of its signature men's piece, the sleek, elegant Pierre Arpels watch. The original was the personal watch of Arpels, a second-generation head of the firm, in 1949. VC&A did not produce the watch commercially until 1970. o The original Royal Oak watch was shockingly expensive -- and shockingly large. The watch sold for 3,330 Swiss francs when it was introduced in 1972, a fortune then for a steel watch. That we knew. What we didn't know until a presentation about the original at SIHH was that it was huge: 39 mm in diameter, which was gargantuan in the early '70s. One of the reasons for its high price is that it was more expensive then to fabricate steel than gold. Audemars made the prototype in white gold because it was cheaper than to make it in steel. One goal of the year-long celebration of the Royal Oak at 40, says CEO Philippe Merk, is to continue separating the Royal Oak collection, modeled on the original design by Gérald Genta, from AP's bulkier Royal Oak Offshore collection, which has become a sports performance line. o Will others follow? Vacheron Constantin announced that from now on, it will stamp the Geneva Seal hallmark not only on the movement of watches that meet the Seal's criteria, but also on the case. Vacheron says its new Patrimony Traditionnelle 14-Day Tourbillon is the first timepiece to meet the new criteria for the Geneva Seal introduced last fall. A look at the back of the watch reveals the seal in the traditional spot, on a Geneva wave on the movement, but also on the rose-gold case. We'll see if Roger Dubuis, Cartier, Chopard and other Geneva Seal practitioners follow suit. o Keep your eye on Girard-Perregaux. Michele Sofisti, the new CEO installed by GP's majority owner, PPR, in September, is making changes. Sofisti, a former head of Swatch and Omega, is currently doing double duty as head of PPR's only other watch holding, Gucci Watches. He repeatedly runs up and down a Jura mountain from GP in La Chaux-de-Fonds at the top to Cortaillod at the bottom, where Gucci is based. He created buzz at SIHH by announcing that GP and its sister brand, JeanRichard, would leave SIHH for Baselworld in 2013. (Gucci is a longtime Basel exhibitor.) Sofisti told WatchTime he is focusing his attention initially on the GirardPerregaux brand. Step one is to reduce the overly large number of references in the line. On the drawing boards are changes in products and marketing, which will be unveiled in 2012. To bolster GP's high-mech credentials, he has brought celebrated watchmaker Dominique Loiseau into the GP fold. Loiseau has his own atelier, but the only outside brand he will work for is Girard-Perregaux. To run JeanRichard, Sofisti has brought in his former Swatch Group colleague, Bruno Grande, formerly CEO of the late Wyler Genève firm. o The prize for the most plentiful new products goes to Cartier. Marketing development chief Thierry Lamouroux says that the firm launches 100 to 120 new watch models every year, a fraction of which are shown at SIHH. o Look for SIHH organizers to find replacements for the departing GirardPerregaux and JeanRichard. If they don't, the salon becomes even more of a Richemont brand event. Two fewer brands will bring the number of exhibitors to 16, only three of which (Audemars Piguet, Parmigiani and Richard Mille) have no affiliation with the Richemont Group. Richemont owns a 20 percent share of Greubel Forsey and a 50 percent share of Ralph Lauren Watch & Jewelry. The other 11 brands there are all Richemont subsidiaries. ? Clockwise from top: Pierre Arpels, Vacheron Constantin's watch with two Geneva Seals, Michele Sofisti, the original Royal Oak 162 WatchTime April 2012

163


164