Visitors to the 2019 SIHH can expect to find 17 independent watchmakers and boutique brands in the Carré des Horlogers. Here is a sampling of some of the pre-announced watches that we can expect to see from these maverick creators.
When brands look to the past to find the absolute best details to combine into a killer timepiece, the result can be a terrific diver, a classy chronograph, or, in the case of American watchmaking company RGM, a fantastic pocket watch-inspired, enamel-dialed wristwatch like the Pennsylvania Series 801 Classic Enamel. Joshua Munchow feels this watch stands apart as a culmination of the brand’s ideology.
There are some watches you fall for the moment you see them. Sometimes that initial infatuation passes and you move on to the next temporary obsession, but then there are those instances in which the more you see, talk about, and learn about a piece and its origins the more you resolve to save up to buy one. For GaryG, the Grönefeld 1941 Remontoire was one of the latter.
Laurent Ferrier won the award for best Men’s Complication watch at the 2018 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève for the Galet Annual Calendar Montre École, an imagining of an annual calendar based on Monsieur Ferrier’s original ‘montre école’ (final exam watch). Joshua Munchow appreciates the watch’s simplicity and legibility and feels that it’s a perfect example of what an annual calendar can be.
The Andreas Strehler Sauterelle à Lune Perpétuelle contains a moon phase mechanism that will only need adjustment by one full day every 14,189.538 years. And not only does the Lune Perpétuelle have an extremely accurate moon phase, but with the help of the constant force mechanism it is even more accurate for the little intervals as well.
An exciting new brand and its first watch aren’t things that come along often. So when Joshua Munchow saw this watch by chance at Baselworld, he exclaimed “Ooh that’s cool!” and hustled over to speak with the gentleman manning the very small stand. The brand was Phenomen, and the watch was its first model, the Axiom. For him, the Axiom feels a little bit MB&F, a little bit Urwerk, and a whole lot of cool.
What Makes Me Tick loves watches made by small independent artisans because they fully embody the vision of their makers, who have put blood, sweat, and tears into creating them. Among the independent brands, De Bethune is most probably his favorite. In fact, no “probably” about it: De Bethune is his favorite. Here’s how his customized DB28 Maxichrono came to be.
The Vault V1 is one of the newly introduced watches this year that made a profound impression on Martin Green. Now the V1 serves as a canvas for artists, and Laurent Auberson, designer of the Vault V1, has applied paint splatter on the dial of the watch that plays a vital part in telling the time.
Joshua Munchow likes brands that blur the lines and stir up discussion. One such brand that has been building steam over the last few years is Lundis Bleus, an independent Swiss marque out of La Chaux-de-Fonds producing some really cool timepieces with a mixture of sourced components and in-house production with clear disclosures about both.
The resemblance between the Hysek Design Colonne du Temps and a Romaneque column is more than just fleeting, especially since it has the word column in its name. Released at Baselworld 2018, this clock marks the return of Jorg Hysek, a prolific watch designer and founder of an eponymous brand, who has spent the last two years sailing his boat in quasi-retirement.