It’s always a pleasure to discover something entirely new during Baselworld 2017, and at my last meeting of the fair, this happened again. On this occasion I was shown the best watch I had never heard of: the James C. Pellaton Royal Marine Chronometer, a shining example of haute horology if I have ever seen one.
While there are no lack of lights, colors, and sparkles during the day at Baselworld, it’s when the lights go down that you get to learn which watches come out and party after the sun goes down.
Here are a few of the watches that I saw donning their colorful glow-in-the-dark party clothes at Baselworld 2017!
Following the 2016 Zenith Christophe Colomb Tribute to the Rolling Stones, in 2017 Zenith presents a limited edition Pilot Type 20 model that also utilizes the famous tongue logo from the English rock band as the collaboration’s swan song.
As the Naissance d’une Montre project will be concluded when the eleven timepieces are completed, Time Aeon, whose main objective is to perpetuate the art of handmade mechanical watchmaking, had invited three students from three different watchmaking schools to learn the handmade way of working in horology – on display at SIHH 2017. Here, Philippe Dufour talks to Marc-André Deschoux of The Watches TV to explain.
Beat Haldimann creates wristwatches that are for watch enthusiasts who “are about content, not brands,” as he puts it. And in 2017, his H11 and H12 arrive in stainless steel cases with beautifully frosted dials.
When you strip away complexity, there is nowhere to hide: everything has to be absolutely perfect because the viewer’s gaze has no distractions. Just as the smallest of scratches on the otherwise unblemished paintwork of a new car appear magnified to our eyes, the design and execution of a relatively simple watch have to be flawless.
It should surprise no one that the Greubel Forsey Balancier has achieved that.
Playfulness, unexpectedness, imagination, creativity, and, yes, perhaps even friendliness. When I look at the stunning Hermès L’Heure Impatiente, I see all of this, a timepiece placed squarely in the lovely Slim d’Hermès line and boasting an ingenious striking module by Jean-Marc Wiederrecht of Agenhor. Read on to find out what its unusual super power is!
When you walk into the Struthers’s Birmingham workshop, you feel like you could be stepping a century back into the history of horology. Until you spy a few of Rebecca Struthers’s tattoos, that is. And then you know you are in the here and now. Meet Craig and Rebecca Struthers: two modern watchmakers doing things the old-fashioned way. Sort of.
Here is something a little different that was sparked by disaster and created a legacy, especially in Russia, with regard to the design of clocks and watches in telegraph and radio rooms ever since.
In honor of the upcoming 100th edition of Baselworld, which opens its doors on March 23, 2017, we present you with an overview of some of the new models that have already been revealed – at least online.