If you attended Watches and Wonders 2022, you may have noticed the large exhibition called Time Design right near the entrance, which was organized by the cultural arm of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie. If you missed the Time Design exhibition at the fair, you may now see it until May 8, 2022 in the FHH’s space at Pont de la Machine right in the center of Geneva. It is free and open to the public.
Most of the timepieces at Watches and Wonders 2022 were from the higher end of fine watchmaking as most of the participants constitute the haute horlogerie maisons of the world. There were however a few notable exceptions – notable and affordable. Here Łukasz Doskocz highlights some of the showstoppers from the Palexpo halls that will hopefully not break your bank.
When Martin Green first got into watches in the late 1990s, Breguet was one of the brands that captivated him right from the beginning. And one Breguet stood out to Martin more than others: the Hora Mundi. Now he thinks that the new Hora Mundi 5557 is even better and with a complicated dial that is simply sensational.
Brittany “Nico” Cox is fascinated by looking at philosophical problems from a tactile perspective, and automata are a practical application of these ideas. Cochlea, a unique piece automaton, is the first in a series of ten animated imaginary animals she is creating.
Here are three of Sabine Zwettler’s highlights premiering at the Inhorgenta 2022 watch fair in Munich, each of which comes from a German brand and each of which will do anything but break the bank.
When they hear the name Fabergé, most people immediately think of Imperial Easter eggs. The egg tradition hatched in 1885 when Tsar Alexander III commissioned his first Easter egg from Fabergé as a gift to his wife, Empress Maria Feodor. This became a yearly tradition, with Fabergé creating 49 eggs in total for the Russian court up to 1916. Here we have the story of the Yusupov Egg of 1907 and how it was restored by Parmigiani.
In 1995 Piaget, who was then part of the Vendôme group that would later become Richemont, entered the highest segment of the watch market by releasing a grande sonnerie wristwatch developed by François-Paul Journe. At the time, Journe was a freelance movement designer and hadn’t officially founded F.P. Journe yet.
A special edition of the Zenith Chronomaster Revival based on anime character Lupin the Third has recently launched, the Chronomaster Revival Lupin The Third Final Edition. It is the last of the three editions since 2019 and in Joshua Munchow’s opinion it is the most striking one yet.
Konstantin Chaykin’s Moscow Comptus Easter Clock masterpiece isn’t designed for the wrist but for the mantel. And it presents further evidence that the man Joshua Munchow dubs the “Wonderboy Russian Watchmaker” is one of the greatest watch- and clockmakers in the game today.
Celebrating its “rebirth” at Baselworld 2015, Fabergé introduced the first egg of the new era as a unique piece: the incredible Pearl Egg, “the first egg created in the ‘imperial class’ since 1917.”