The 2016 edition of the SIHH sees Christophe Claret, De Bethune, H. Moser & Cie, Hautlence, HYT, Kari Voutilainen, Laurent Ferrier, MB&F, and Urwerk exhibiting at the first big watch show of the year, while Ralph Lauren is leaving. The addition and subtraction of these marques enlarges the upcoming Geneva watch fair to encompass 24 brands in total.
Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, and the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority is set to launch Dubai Watch Week, the first dedicated horology exhibition in the UAE.
Dubai Watch Week will be held in Dubai from October 18 through 22, 2015.
The five-day event targets both local and international watch collectors and aficionados in what is sure to be the Gulf’s largest dedicated watch event.
It’s that time of year again when the list of watches competing in the next edition of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) is published. The list represents all of the watches competing in the first round of the competition from which the jury will preselect six in each category for a total of 72. Check out all of the competing watches as well as those we have written about here.
The Goodwood Festival of Speed is an automotive pilgrimage; it is to cars what Glastonbury is to music. My father and I have often made the journey from our respective homes in Sussex and Oxfordshire to meet on the Friday, the opening day of the festival, to see the amazing spectacle that takes place at this hill climb. And, of course, what watches did I see at the event?
International timing competitions used to be the Formula 1 of watchmaking, and the watchmakers who prepared the high-precision (pocket) watches were treated like Formula 1 drivers. And that shouldn’t be surprising because until recently, the primary raison d’être of a timepiece was to tell the time. To tell THE time, not the approximate time. An error of 30 seconds day isn’t much . . . until you miss your train by 10 seconds.
Since its reboot four years ago, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève – watchmaking’s highest profile event, often described as the “Oscars of watchmaking” – has attracted a few celebrity watch collectors to the jury in addition to some of the most knowledgeable experts in the world of watches.
Kiss drummer Eric Singer, an avid watch collector for decades, is the latest. During a recent interview session, he struck me not only as a serious collector, but also as an honest-to-goodness “watch guy.” I am very pleased he has joined the jury of this excellent event.
I have been involved in the watch world for 26 years; my first visit to Baselworld was in 1991. The massive fair halls have undergone two major reconstructive changes during this long period, in addition to several smaller updates. The last major reconstruction was finished in 2013. In no way, though, was I prepared for how the complex looks and feels when Art Basel is on compared to how I know it during the hustle and bustle of Baselworld.
There are an unusually large number of design awards, but not one of them holds a candle to the Red Dot, which is inarguably the most famous and important of them.
The Red Dot awards prizes for design in a multitude of categories, from refrigerators to lawn mowers and everything in between. These prizes are also awarded on many levels, e.g. Best of the Best, Honorable Mention, etc.
However, until the 2015 edition of the competition, there has never been a dedicated watch category.
Two of the watches in 2015 received the highest honor of Best of the Best: Horological Machine 6 Space Pirate by MB&F and the Apple Watch.
During twelve days at the end of May and the beginning of June 2015, Patek Philippe took over the trendy Saatchi Gallery in London for its wonderfully orchestrated Grand Exhibition. The exhibition was meticulously organized to be followed in an ordered sequence and featured the brand’s modern core ranges along with a host of vintage watches, including a number of royal examples. And even two watches belonging to queens of England.
In 1985, Svend Andersen and Vincent Calabrese founded the AHCI: Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants. The aim was to help independent watchmakers survive at a time when large brands and quartz watches were dominating the horological world. In 1985 very few people even knew that there was such a thing as independent watchmaking, as advertising and exhibitions (of which there were very few) were far too expensive for them to participate in. Today, 30 years later, the AHCI boasts 35 members and four candidates. Not bad for an organization I once described as “like herding cats.”