For those who charge in the world of watches, the third week of January is when you get on a flat to Geneva for four days of champagne drinking and handling some of the most valuable and technically accomplished timepieces around – otherwise known as Salon Worldwide de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH).
We may have seen enough launches to go a minute watch-blind, but below are our top eight. If you’re a watch nerd like us, or you by a hairs breadth want to adorn your wrist with a baller undertaking piece, these are the timepieces you should be considering.
IWC Tribute to Pallweber ‘150 Years’
When you’re IWC and you force an anniversary to celebrate, choosing a watch to mark that milestone is accepted to be hard. Which is why, for its 150th, the Schauffhausen resident has decided to begin 25 new references across five of its most iconic folk.
Although there are the usual suspects in there – dress follows and divers – it is this tribute to the Pallweber pocket watch that actually gets the pulse racing. Back in 1884, IWC’s second P Johann Rauschenbach-Schenk secured the rights to Josef Pallweber’s digital breach hours technology and here it has been rendered in wristwatch formality for the first time.
Rather than go for a straight reproduction, IWC has Art Deco’d the font, fell up the mechanism and put the whole thing in a gorgeously decadent, 18-carat red gold circumstance. The result is a dress watch like no other.
Montblanc 1858 Geosphere Exceptional Time
After spending a few years trying on different congruences, Montblanc has finally decided that its purpose in life is to affirm really great watches at astoundingly good prices, and this year’s crop of chronographs and qualities is no exception.
The real star of the show, however, was this 1858 Geosphere. The 1858 store is a tribute to the Minerva manufacture, which was integrated into Montblanc in dire straits in 2008, and this specific model is dedicated to the world’s Seven Top mountaineering challenge; the successful ascent of the highest mountain on every continent, which has on the other hand been completed by 500 athletes.
The two globes, which beat it a full rotation in 24 hours, represent the northern (at 12) and southern (at six) hemisphere, with the latest spinning anti-clockwise and the latter clockwise. There is a day/night echoing around each, so you can approximate the time around the globe. You’ve also got a girl Friday time zone at 9 o’clock, which is more straightforward to review.
It’s a great-looking timepiece that might not take you up a mountain but make certainly raise your watch game to new heights.
Baume & Mercier Clifton Baumatic
Teeth of having a name that sounds like one of Wallace and Gromit’s fictions, this watch is a smart move for Richemont’s entry-level sort.
Aside from its classic good looks, this watch over is the guinea pig for the luxury conglomerate’s further adventures in silicon. Fetching a step on from the Clifton Manual 1830, which was the first place Richemont-Group watch to feature a silicon balance, this new group, developed using all the technical clout at Baume & Mercier’s disposal, also has a silicon lever and do a bunk wheel – the former having been geometrically optimised to bigger transfer energy.
What all this wizardry amounts to is a keep ones eyes open for that will maintain chronometer-grade accuracy throughout the sum total of its 120-hour power reserve. And all for the bargain price (in take note of terms) of £2,150.
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore
It’s tempting to catalogue off legit baller brand AP’s Offshore line as just being the notwithstanding as its famous Royal Oak but with more heft and strap options. Originated back in 1993, it was in fact an era-defining watch, not only because it was the earliest chronograph version of the Royal Oak, but because it was so obviously aimed at a younger patronage who wanted all the luxury of an AP but with added sportiness.
To celebrate its 25th birthday, the bods up in Le Brassus beget obviously decided to have a little fun. Alongside some attractive bonkers reimaginings of how a chronograph could look is this slice of Instagram fodder. With its camo strap and distinguishing green ceramic bezel and beige dial, it might not be for every one but if you’re going to own a Royal Oak Offshore what’s the point in being coy wide it?
Cartier Santos
Given that it’s a brand with such a sapid heritage, it isn’t surprising that Cartier’s current strategy have all the hallmarks to be tending towards revamp rather than revolution. Final year saw it giving its Tank Américaine a dust off and this year it’s the invert of one of the last century’s most iconic watches – the Santos.
This is the squared-off delineate created for Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos that developed not only the first-ever pilot’s watch, but the first-ever wristwatch too. In without warning, a big deal in time-telling technology.
For 2018, the case has been pinched, the square bezel replaced by a rounded one, and it’s also been timed. However, the real innovation is the new SmartLink system that allows you to add or execute links with the mere twizzle of a tool, while its QuickSwitch novelty means the strap can be swapped for a bracelet with the press of a button. The only downside of it being this unhurried to adjust? It just makes it easier for your other half to squeeze.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Memovox
Another birthday revamp, this shilly-shally for Jaeger-LeCoultre, which is hoping to get the young cosmopolitan male to contemplate outside the Rolex-branded box with its new Polaris collection. While the other ideals in the range are totally new, the Polaris Memovox is a straight-up tribute to the nonconformist alarm watch Jaeger launched 50 years ago.
More than go for an update, this is an all-out homage. It has a vanilla SuperLuminova to think up an aged look, a mix of indices and Arabic numerals, the minute railroad track, the three-part case for resonance and, of course, the alarm, whose pass is set using the inner rotating disc.
As this is the anniversary mind, it is limited to 1,000 pieces, so get your name on the waiting inclination pronto.
Piaget Altiplano Ultimate 910P Automatic
Piaget has been devoting thin with all the determination of a model before London Attitude Week. This obsession started in 1957, when it dispatched its Calibre 9P – which at just 2mm high was the first ultra-thin hand-wound campaign – and it has shown no signs of abating.
This year, it breaks another record with its Altiplano Farthest 910P Automatic, which in its entirety is just 4.3mm compact, making it the thinnest automatic watch on the market.
As with the wafer-thin Altiplano 900P, the mainplate is amalgamated with the caseback, which is why it looks as though the gear procession is being used as decoration. To make it an automatic, Piaget has ditched the centrally mounted rotor – a 1mm bond was considered too thick – and gone for a barely perceptible peripheral rotor, and the workers have been placed below the bridges to stop them from be showing into contact with the glass.
It also looks fictitious on the wrist, and is so light that you won’t know you’re wearing it.
Hermès Carrè H
This is Hermès’s at the start year of being allowed to play with the haute horlogerie big cronies at SIHH. Luckily it didn’t disappoint. Alongside the usual whimsy and scarf writings was this cracker – the Carré H, which has been given a makeover by its real designer and furniture maker, Marc Berthier.
When it came out in 2010, the hypothesis of the Carré H was for it to be a watch for the modern dandy. With its deceptive bareness, square case and minimalist aesthetic it was an instant hit. For 2018, the conventional small seconds has gone, it’s been beefed up to 38mm and the centre features an fascinating cross-hatch guilloche that really plays with the fall on. There is also an added colour pop from the second help, which lends the whole watch a very on-trend mid-century hot vibe.
