A SELECTION OF OUR FAVORITE NEW RELEASES AT THE 2019 SIHH IN GENEVA
Mavericks of the industry, Urwerk introduces the Maverick
The self-winding Maverick in bronze and titanium is the latest version of URWERK’s Maverick UR-105 CT wandering hour watch. It’s a watch made in honor of mad artists, eccentric inventors, people who think up world-changing ideas. The “Maverick” is a blank canvas or a lump of clay, ready to be imprinted with the personality of the owner and acquire the patina of his lifestyle. It is built to take the hard knocks of its transformation into the most personal of possessions. The assaults of the environment — hot, cold, damp or dry — as well as the hazards of everyday life only serve to improve its looks.
URWERK Maverick UR-105 CT
Hermès has unveiled a stunning new timepiece that possesses a truly unique moon phase complication.
Designated the Hermès Arceau L’Heure De La Lune, the watch features a duo of fixed moons made of mother-of-pearl on the dial. Additionally, a pair of hovering lacquer dials float above and complete a full rotation around a central axis of the dial once every 59 days. The orbiting dials, in turn, reveal the two moons of the dial, indicating the current moon phase in both the southern and northern hemispheres at once. One of the floating dials indicates the hour and minutes, while the other one displays the date. The watch is available with two different dial configurations, one with a meteorite dial and graduated grey lacquered discs and the other with an aventurine dial and white lacquered discs. The two moons also have two different designs, the lower moon featuring the lunar surface, while the upper moon sporting a pegasus motif by artist and designer Dimitri Rybaltchenko. A 43mm white gold Arceau case encases the Hermès caliber H1837 movement, which is fitted with a special module called the “L’Heure De La Lune” which is made of over 100 components.
Hermès Arceau L’Heure De La Lune Moonphase
Greubel Forsey Balancier Contemporain
In creating the Greubel Forsey Balancier Contemporain, a white gold 33-piece limited edition, Greubel Forsey imagined providing a particularly compact showcase for its exclusive balance-wheel system. Creating such a moderately-sized new movement and dial imposed the challenge of maintaining well-balanced forms and pleasing proportions, along with clear legibility and cutting-edge performance. This highly original creation is distinguished by its 39.6 mm diameter, a first from Greubel Forsey which generally builds larger timepieces. The challenge here was not only to house the large balance wheel within a limited space but above all to achieve optimal proportions and an attractive three-dimensional construction, as well as safeguarding the emblematic aesthetic codes of the timepieces built within the Atelier.
Greubel Forsey Balancier Contemporain
Greubel Forsey Art Piece Edition Historique
Looking into the wide open heart at its three-dimensional construction and highly original geometry, the new Greubel Forsey Art Piece Edition Historique crowns the avant-garde aesthetic approach behind numerous exceptional creations. Combining technicity, exclusivity and the finest craftsmanship, this 33-piece limited edition presents a new vision of time in the spirit of the revived and renewed notion of Fine Watchmaking by Greubel Forsey.
Greubel Forsey now pays tribute to this artistic and architectural approach with a creation that sums up and magnifies its true spirit. Following on from previous Art Pieces, the Art Piece Edition Historique houses within its 44 mm-diameter case a new movement with a variation on the theme of the Double Tourbillon 30°: a mechanism designed to enable the balance wheel to oscillate consistently in all planes ensuring maximum precision. The new 475-part hand-wound movement boasts a 72-hour power reserve with optimal chronometric performance, ensured by two series-coupled fast-rotating barrels.
The hours are discreetly displayed by a red hand on a separate rotating ring, while the minutes appear on request through an aperture thanks to a simple press on the crown-fitted pusher. By giving pride of place to the tourbillon and power reserve in relation to the hours/minutes indication, the Art Piece Edition Historique asserts itself as a ‘philosophical timepiece’. It draws the collector to experience a new relationship with temporality, based on a deeper consideration of the time passing and the time that remains. A true ‘carpe diem’ invitation to make the most of the moment in hand.
Greubel Forsey Art Piece Edition Historique
H. Moser & Cie Swiss Alp Concept Black: An Ear for the Passage of Time
After removing both logo and indices from the dial of its Concept models, it now presents a watch with no hands which gives the time without displaying it. The glossy black dial features a one-minute flying tourbillon at 6 o’clock. And nothing else. To find out the time, you need to use your ears. As it was in the time before the use of electricity became widespread: people had to use minute repeaters to discover the time when it was too dark to see. H. Moser & Cie. is using this delightful nod to a highly prestigious watchmaking tradition to play with contrasts: this most minimalist of creations integrates a minute repeater and a tourbillon in a rectangular case that looks like a smartwatch.
Inside the case, with its modern rectangular design with rounded corners, H. Moser & Cie. has placed a form movement equipped with a flying tourbillon and one of the most difficult complications a manufacturer can produce: the minute repeater with shaped chimes. The Swiss Alp Watch Concept Black marks a return by the Schaffhausen-based Manufacture to the fundamentals of traditional watchmaking, restoring the watch to its rightful place as an instrument for measuring time which sounds the hours, and not a time-wasting “smart” device displaying notifications. Like a manifesto for the art of mechanical watchmaking, imbued with all the elegance inherent to H. Moser & Cie. Even the time setting system is discreet with adjustments made via the crown. A marking engraved on the crown allows the time to be corrected using a graduation, which only appears when the crown is pulled out, with twelve indices each representing five minutes. A subtle system that respects the minimalist spirit of the model.
To amplify the sound of the hours, quarter-hours and minutes produced by the two angled gongs, the case had to be significantly reworked, with the middle completely hollowed out to create sufficient space for a resonance chamber. With perfect mastery, H. Moser & Cie. has managed to achieve a beautiful sound that combines amplitude, a certain length and a pure note.
The one-minute flying tourbillon at 6 o’clock is certainly eye-catching. Visible behind a skeletonized bridge, it is fitted to a ball bearing to improve the precision and chronometry. Resolutely contemporary and in line with modern times, the tourbillon appears to float weightlessly on the completely naked dial, looking like a smartwatch on standby, in the kind of clever nod that H. Moser & Cie. delights in.
H. Moser & Cie Swiss Alp Concept Black
Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle Twin Beat Perpetual Calendar
When worn, the Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle Twin Beat Perpetual Calendar beats at a high frequency that is aligned with modern active lifestyles, displaying the hours, minutes, date, month, leap year cycle and power reserve on its dial. When the watch is not being worn, its in-house developed calibre 3610 QP can be slowed down in order to guarantee an extended power reserve of at least 65 days. The Traditionnelle Twin Beat Perpetual Calendar utilizes a patent-pending mechanical system that allows instantaneous switching between Active mode (5Hz, 36,000 vph), and Standby mode (1.2Hz, 8,640 vph). Both the Active and Standby balances are driven by the same mainspring barrel, which is the most efficient way of distributing energy and the only way to have a single power-reserve indication.
Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle Twin Beat Perpetual Calendar
With its biomorphic curves, animated spheres, ‘winking’ eye and beating heart, HM6 is MB&F’s most organic machine to date.
In each of the four corners of HM6’s biomorphic case is a 360° sphere, capped top and bottom by transparent sapphire crystal domes. Up forward, two spheres rotate vertically respectively displaying hours and minutes. Back aft, the twin spherical turbines spin, regulating the automatic winding system to reduce stress and wear.
The transparent cupola on top houses a flying tourbillon and offers a tantalizing glimpse into the sophisticated engine inside. The sapphire crystal display portal on the back reveals more of the 475 finely finished components making up the highly complex movement, which required over three years of development. The sapphire crystal plates of the HM6-SV and Alien Nation editions offer even more comprehensive views − top and bottom − to the movement within.
Horological Machine N°6 Final Edition finishes a series started in 2014. With the 8 pieces of HM6 Final Edition, the number of pieces made in the Horological Machine N°6 series comes to a total of exactly 100.
MB&F HM6 Final Edition
MEDUSA by MB&F + L’EPÉE 1839
In its tenth collaboration with Switzerland’s premier clockmaker, L’Epée 1839, MB&F plunges into warm ocean waters where the beautiful and ancient jellyfish proliferate. Medusa is a dual-configuration clock, housed in hand-blown Murano glass, that can be ceiling mounted or stood upon a desk.
The central mass of Medusa is formed by a large transparent dome of hand-blown Murano glass that evokes the bell-shaped body of a mature jellyfish. Two rotating rings, one displaying the hours and the other displaying the minutes, are visible through the dome, and the time is read off a single fixed indicator that extends over the rings. Like a jellyfish glowing in the abyss, Medusa glows in the dark thanks to Super-LumiNova. A movement beats underneath the time indication, forming the pulsating heart of this mechanical creature.
Medusa comes in three limited editions of 50 pieces, each in a different color – blue, green and pink – chosen to reflect the natural hues of a jellyfish.
MEDUSA by MB&F + L’EPÉE 1839
Ressence Type 2: The First Mechanical Watch with a Smart Crown
The development of the Ressence Type 2 e-Crown® came down to one simple but fundamental question: What if I could trust and rely on my mechanical watch as much as I do for my phone. The e-Crown automatically sets and adjusts the Type 2 to the right time when needed. The e-Crown is activated and controlled by tapping the crystal on the dial of the Type 2, offering a new tactile experience and user-friendliness to mechanical watches. Visually, it is represented on the dial by the selector sub-disc and its four modes (time zone 1, time zone 2, app and e-Crown off). Driven by user experience, it combines the reliability of electronics with the emotion and beauty of mechanical engineering. The Type 2 is manually set via the lever on its case back. By double tapping the crystal, the manually set time is digitally registered by e-Crown. There is no need to think about checking and adjusting the watch anymore, e-Crown does it automatically. Even after three months of inactivity, once the watch is fastened to the wrist and the wearer taps the crystal, e-Crown will automatically set it to the right time.
“The best way to envision the future of fine-watchmaking is by creating it.” -Benoît Mintiens, Ressence founder and creative mind.
Ressence Type 2 e-Crown
Ressence developed the e-Crown app to reach an unseen level of convenience and modernity. Using Bluetooth to connect with the Type 2, the app displays a scroll down list of cities to choose from for both time zones to send directly to the smart crown. The Type 2 uses light energy to power the e-Crown. Photovoltaic cells (some hidden behind 10 micro-shutters on the dial) will use outside light as an energy source making the watch self-sufficient; a fundamental quality in the nomadic world of today. For added travel convenience, e-Crown can register two time zones. Set the second time zone the same way as the first one and switch from one to another via the mode selector on the dial. Ressence’s pursuit to improve the mechanical watch is uniquely its own and the Type 2 is a perfect example of the brand’s determination to build products that question what a wristwatch can be in the 21st century. The emphasis is not primarily on timing precision but to create a better product as a whole – considering such characteristics as legibility, usability, and user experience. Type 2 has a power saving function. When the watch is not on your wrist for more than 12 hours, e- Crown will automatically hold the barrel of the mechanical movement. When putting the watch back on your wrist, e-Crown will release the barrel and Type 2 will start running again by double tapping the sapphire.
“Fine-watchmaking must embrace new technologies to bring back functionality and excitement for the new generations.” -Tony Fadell, iPod inventor, Nest founder and Ressence tech coach.
Ressence Type 2 e-Crown
Jaeger LeCoultre Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel
The latest generation of multi-axis tourbillon to emerge from Jaeger‑LeCoultre – further advancing the art of multi-axis tourbillons, the watch features a tourbillon that is significantly smaller than those in the preceding Gyrotourbillon timepieces. As a rule, reducing the size of a mechanism also reduces its error tolerance, which is why successful miniaturization efforts are so highly valued and complex. In creating a smaller tourbillon, Jaeger‑LeCoultre has created a truly wearable Gyrotourbillon, bringing high complication out of the watch safe and onto the wrist for everyday enjoyment. The Westminster chime is familiar to everyone as the famous melody of the Big Ben clock at the Palace of Westminster in London. Its four-phrase melody is composed of four notes played in different sequences and different quantities at each quarter of the hour. It uses four sets of gongs and hammers to create the Westminster chime to indicate the quarters when the minute repeater is activated, incorporating a complex mechanism that places it at the most prestigious tier of chiming watches.
Jaeger LeCoultre Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel
Time is Fluid: New HYT H1.0 Collection
Last but not least, HYT added three new models to its H1.0 collection — a design where the HYT’s unique movement with bellows is on full display. The new models all come in stainless steel with DLC coating, available in either black DLC with green fluid and minute hand, anthracite DLC with red fluid and minute hand, or steel with blue fluid and minute hand. These new versions of the H1.0 complete the collection whose design is just plain cool.
HYT H1.0
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