Watches & Wonders, inaugurated three years ago as an Asian version of the SIHH, has evolved into an important horological exhibition for local press and watch aficionados thanks to its strategic location in Hong Kong. Here we bring you an overview of 12 interesting timepieces launched at this prestigious fair.
The panther is Cartier’s most famous animal. But why is this so, and how has this ‘beastly’ line managed to remain in the watch and jewelry collection for more than 100 years? A look at the relationship between Louis Cartier and “the Coco Chanel of jewelry” Jeanne Toussaint sheds some (spotted) light on the first watch design, the Art Deco painting that inspired the collection, and the popularity that propelled it.
For Quill & Pad’s themed “Ladies’ Week” in my role as resident collector, my thoughts turned immediately to that other collector in my life: my charming wife. MrsG is perhaps most enthusiastic about her collection of Southwestern Native American arts and jewelry, but let’s get started with a look at her interesting watches, which include excellent examples from Jaeger-LeCoultre, Blancpain, Alain Silberstein, Audemars Piguet, and more.
Sparkle. It’s why the way diamonds are presented is critical to the intended effect of razzle-dazzle we all love so much. For this reason, people have been experimenting with setting techniques for a long time, and a few examples have become part of jewelry canon. Cartier’s new “vibrating” setting is inspired by an old setting that looks to change the options available. It debuts with the Ballon Bleu de Cartier Serti Vibrant watch, an intense diamond experience bound to fascinate the eyes of men and women alike.
For the past five years, I’ve had the delightful experience of traveling to Switzerland with several friends to experience SIHH week, before finishing up with a Friday night dinner at which we review our impressions of the week by answering what watch we thought was best of show at SIHH; what was the worst watch; what current-production watch that we saw at any event during the week would we buy if money were no object; and what current-production watch did we see that we would buy with our own money?
In the past, a skeletonizer would have taken many hours to saw and file away at an existing movement in order to remove all that is superfluous. Today, skeletonized movements are for the most part conceived to be such right from the start. At the 2015 edition of SIHH, we found five such skeletonized watches, all of which were designed as such from the get-go.
A tourbillon is actually a type of escapement and not a real complication. Tourbillons are not only quite complicated in themselves – some more complicated than others – they come in a very wide variety of shapes, sizes and functionality. Here are five tourbillons presented at the SIHH 2015 by Cartier, Greubel Forsey, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Parmigiani, and Roger Dubuis.
You may be familiar with the old Christmas diddy “The Twelve Days Of Christmas.” Let me sing you the final verse of this song, including what my true love gave to me on the twelfth and final day, in horological terms…
In this age of digital information, watch companies try to get ahead of the competition by releasing news on their new timepieces ahead of the big watch fairs. This year is no different, and in honor of the upcoming 25th edition of the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH), we present you with an overview of some of the new models that have already been revealed.
The Cannes Film Festival is where Grace Kelly first met Prince Rainier in 1955. So the The opening film could therefore not be a more fitting one: Grace de Monaco, a new film by French director Olivier Dahan, is set to open the 67th edition of the glittering event and Cartier figures prominently into this 30-million-dollar feature film.