As COVID 19 continues to wreak havoc around the world, luxury events and fairs have had to think of alternative ways to hold their events and the organizers of Geneva's exclusive Watches & Wonders luxury fair (formerly Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie), held a virtual event instead...
What is usually an extremely high-brow event which only a select few have access to, the new online platform and virtual event has in fact managed to open up access to a much larger audience ensuring that the approx. 30 brands who would have been exhibiting can still reach showcasing their stunning creations.
Here we highlight our top picks ..
CARTIER PASHA DE CARTIER SKELETON:
Pasha de Cartier has been a cult watch since its creation in 1985.
An extroverted watch embracing an assertive graphic signature: a square in the circle of its dial, four bold and oversized Arabic numerals, a chained crown and a bracelet accentuated by the clous de Paris. With its distinctive codes and design, the new Pasha de Cartier watch is classic yet contemporary and remains as edgy as ever.
The revamped Pasha de Cartier, which headlines this year’s collection, retains much of the charm of the original while adding a smattering of modern features, including the chained, blue spinel crown and a “QuickSwitch” interchangeable strap system.
Price: $25,300
HERMES ARCEAU L’HEURE DE LA LUNE
Travelling in another dimension, cosmic and dreamlike, setting foot on the moon and losing one’s sense of time and space.
The Arceau L’heure de la lune watch offers a unique vision of Earth’s satellite with the simultaneous display of moon phases in both northern and southern hemispheres.
Two mobile counters gravitate on a lunar, Martian or Black Sahara meteorite dial, revealing mother-of-pearl moons in step with an exclusive module, coupled with a Manufacture Hermès movement, genuine meteorite is inlaid with two mother-of-pearl moons
Price: $25,200
A. LANGE & SOEHNE ODYSSEUS
In 2019, German high-horology maestro A. Lange & Soehne shook up the watch world with the introduction of its first steel sport-luxury watch on an integrated bracelet, the Odysseus.
This year, Lange has introduces a new case in 18k white gold version replacing the bracelet with a sporty, ventilated rubber strap—the first such wristlet ever used on a Lange timepiece along with it's steel face this sporty little piece is a stunner.
Price: $40,600
JAEGER-LECOULTRE MASTER GRANDE TRADITION GRANDE COMPLICATION
The Master Grande Tradition series epitomises Jaeger-LeCoultre’s horological ingenuity and artistic creativity.
This masterpiece incorporates 2 of the most romantic yet technically challenging complications in horology – a minute repeater and a celestial vault.
The Orbital Flying Tourbillon embodies Jaeger‑LeCoultre’s mastery of astronomical complications in its celestial vault complication. In order to depicts a stunning sky-chart of the Northern Hemisphere night sky as seen from the 46th parallel – the latitude of Jaeger‑LeCoultre’s home, Jaeger‑LeCoultre talented watchmakers have invented a complex mechanism based on the sidereal day. Slightly shorter than a solar day (on which we base civil timekeeping), a sidereal day is based on Earth’s rotation measured relative to the ‘fixed’ stars, which takes precisely 23 h, 56 min and 4.1 seconds.
The sidereal day is used by astronomers to follow the apparent movement of the stars across the night sky. Indicated on the periphery of the dial are the day, date, month, and zodiac signs, which correspond with the constellation map dazzlingly, presented on the watch's face
This limited edition of just eight pieces each in rose gold and in white gold features a new aesthetic that reaffirms Jaeger-LeCoultre’s mastery of the artistic crafts.
Price: Upon request.
MONTBLANC 1858 GEOSPHERE
The Montblanc 1858 Geosphere watch is one of the key icons of the 1858 line with its two distinctive domed turning hemisphere globes and world time complication.
This year, Montblanc presented the 1858 Geosphere in grade 5 titanium combined with a glacier blue makeover contrasting with icy white design details.
Inspired by the legendary professional Minerva watches from the 1920s and 1930s which were conceived for military use and exploration, reinterpreting these legendary timepieces, the Montblanc 1858 product line expresses the spirit of mountain exploration, embodying the modern trend of returning to nature.
The Montblanc 1858 Geosphere is dedicated to the world’s Seven Summit mountaineering challenge, the holy grail of mountaineering adventures. It comes in a 42 mm titanium case combined with blue and contrasting icy white design details, finding inspiration in the colours of glaciers. The timepiece features a manufacture world-time complication developed by the Montblanc watchmakers in Villeret: two domed globes, turning in opposite directions, that complete a full rotation in 24 hours.
Price: $5,800
PIAGET ALTIPLANO ULTIMATE CONCEPT
Since its introduction of the groundbreaking Caliber 9P back in 1957, Piaget has been at the forefront of making watches and their movements as thin as technology and style trends allow.
In 2018, after four years of research and development, the watch-and-jewelry brand achieved a new level of horological slimness with the Altiplano Ultimate Concept watch, whose case was an astounding 2 mm thick. Following two years of further refinements, the model still has “Concept” in its name but is now commercially available. Among space-saving innovations are its cobalt alloy case, which also serves as the movement’s baseplate.
The crown is telescoping and retractable, and its patented bridge structure is placed unconventionally over the dial, rather than beneath it. The mainspring barrel is exposed and drumless, and the balance wheel sits unconventionally on the side of the dial.
Finally, the crystal is wafer thin. Perhaps most impressive, Piaget has designed the watch so that the bridges, hands, mainplate, and other elements can be color-customized.
Price: Upon request.
ROGER DUBUIS EXCALIBUR DIABOLUS IN MACHINA
Everyone knows that the devil is in the details and because creative irreverence is a temptation that Roger Dubuis finds irresistible, Excalibur Diabolus in Machina pushes sophistication to breaking point.
Roger Dubuis has chosen to tune its minute repeater to the sound of the tritone, the famous “Diabolus in Musica” chord outlawed in medieval religious music, the secret key to all clever and complex melodic harmony.
The watch also packs a minute repeater, a flying tourbillon, and a host of other mechanical and design elements. The minute repeater horological complication allows the wearer to check the time using a pushpiece that activates a ring tone with a low pitch for the hours, a high pitch for the minutes, and two tones for the quarter hours.
At 11 o’clock is a disc that has been skilfully blended with a Roman numeral. Marked with the words Hours, Quarters and Minutes, the disc starts to turn as soon as the minute repeater is activated, visually showing the time intervals being chimed. To achieve this, the watchmakers have enriched this second visual indication with the minute repeater’s main feeler-spindle system, which requires mechanically seeking information on the time before striking it - A unique piece.
Price: $571,000
