Revolution Hong Kong - Autumn 2012 - Parallels Plesk Panel
Revolution Hong Kong - Autumn 2012 - Parallels Plesk Panel
Revolution Hong Kong - Autumn 2012 - Parallels Plesk Panel
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IN AWE OF GOLD<br />
THE METAL’S<br />
PRESENCE IN WATCHES<br />
LANGE AKADEMIE<br />
PRESERVING AND<br />
PASSING ON THE ART<br />
CITY SLICKER<br />
RANGE ROVER’S<br />
STREET SMART EVOQUE<br />
autumn <strong>2012</strong><br />
#20<br />
HK$80<br />
HONG KONG 20<br />
CARTIER<br />
TANK CAPTURES ERAS,<br />
CONQUERS BORDERS
The LANGE ZEITWERK rang in a new epoch<br />
in mechanical watches.<br />
The LANGE ZEITWERK.<br />
The first mechanical<br />
wristwatch with a precisely<br />
jumping digital display of<br />
hours and minutes as well<br />
as a patented constant-force<br />
escapement.<br />
For the master watchmakers at A. Lange & Söhne, the LANGE ZEITWERK<br />
was a formidable challenge. Never before had a mechanical wristwatch<br />
with a patented constant-force escapement indicated the hours and minutes<br />
with a precisely switching digital display. Every minute, its jumping<br />
numerals display moves one or both minute discs forward. At the top of<br />
every hour, it also advances the large hour ring by precisely one digit. It<br />
is one of the most advanced mechanisms in precision horology today.<br />
Meanwhile, Lange’s masters have taken things a step further. With the<br />
A. Lange & Söhne <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> 1881 Heritage, Tsim Sha Tsui Tel: (852) 2312 2085 A. Lange & Söhne Shanghai Huaihai Middle Road 812, China Tel: (8621) 6323 2109<br />
Central: Carlson Watch AON China Building Tel: (852) 2525 5478 Elegant Watch and Jewellery IFC Mal Tel: (852) 2117 0000 Emperor Watch and Jewellery New World Tower Tel: (852) 2522 1788<br />
<br />
<br />
Tsim Sha Tsui: Elegant Watch & Jewellery Ocean Terminal Tel: (852) 2735 8481 Prince Jewellery and Watch Peking Road Tsim Sha Tsui Tel: (852) 2369 2123
LANGE ZEITWERK STRIKING TIME, they succeeded in creating a wristwatch<br />
that also accompanies the passage of time acoustically. Its striking mechanism<br />
produces a high-pitched tone every quarter hour and a low-pitched tone<br />
every hour. The energy required for this process is accumulated, when the<br />
Now, it can also be heard.<br />
The LANGE ZEITWERK<br />
STRIKING TIME.<br />
A masterpiece that<br />
sounds the time at<br />
a quarter-hour cadence.<br />
Thus, the passage of time<br />
becomes audible as well.<br />
numerals discs are braked at the end of every minute jump. To assure that<br />
the sounds carry and reverberate harmoniously, the master watchmakers<br />
tune the gongs across a major third with great skill and acoustic intuition.<br />
They invest months of manual work to craft this resonant masterpiece.<br />
A. Lange & Söhne Seoul 2F, Lotte Avenue, South Korea Tel: (82) 2756 7568 A. Lange & Söhne Tokyo 6-7-19, Ginza, Japan Tel: (813) 3573 7788<br />
Wanchai: Right Watch Elizabeth House Tel: (852) 2893 5290 Causeway Bay: Emperor Watch and Jewellery Russell Street Tel: (852) 2833 2812<br />
Yes Watch Mody Road Tsim Sha Tsui Tel: (852) 2367 1971 Macau: Luck Hock Watch Hotel Lisboa Tel: (853) 2837 1429 Luck Hock Landmark Tel: (853) 2878 6038 www.lange-soehne.com
Greubel Forsey<br />
www.greubelforsey.com - info@greubelforsey.com - Tel. +41 32 925 45 45
H ONG KONG<br />
Elegant Watch & Jewellery<br />
Tel. (852) 2868 1882 · (852) 2735 8481<br />
<br />
GMT<br />
M ACAU<br />
Luck Hock Watch<br />
Tel. (853) 2838 1429<br />
<br />
<br />
S HANGHAI<br />
Time Art Gallery BY Greubel Forsey<br />
Tel. (86) 21 5301 6833
TRIRETROGRADE TIRION REPETITION MINUTES<br />
The Milus Tirion Repetition Minutes TriRetrograde is a chiming watch. It indicates the time via a chime<br />
when its push-piece at 9 o’clock with engraved clef is actuated. The two steel hammers of the striking<br />
mechanism positioned on stainless steel bearings create a deep tone for the hours when triggering the<br />
minute repetition, a high and deep double strike for the quarter-hours and a high tone for the minutes.<br />
HONG KONG: 44-46 Queen’s Road Central +852-2524 3374 | 100 Queen’s Road Central +852-3470 0009 | Causeway Bay Plaza +852-2838 6222<br />
KOWLOON: iSQUARE +852-2312 0118 | Ocean Centre, Harbour City +852-2992 0050<br />
CHINA: Nanjingxi Rd, Shanghai 021-3225 0030 | Qianmen Street, Beijing 010-6702 9660 | Han Street, Wuhan City 027-8711 0733<br />
Chunxi Road, Chengdu 028-8455 0177 | Langqing Plaza, Chongqing 023-6795 7900
THE VALUE OF LIFE<br />
WWW.MILUS.COM<br />
Sole Agent: Milus (Far East) Limited<br />
8/F, World Wide House, 19 Des Voeux Road, Central, <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> +852-2155 3555
014 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
CONTENTS<br />
CONTENTS<br />
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
PARTIES, FACES, PLACES<br />
34 HERMÈS: A VOYAGE THROUGH TIME<br />
ARNOLD & SON DEBUT BASEL COLLECTION IN HONG KONG 36<br />
38 RICHARD MILLE POLO TEAM TAKE<br />
HOME DEAUVILLE GOLD CUP<br />
IWC OPENS AT GALAXY MACAU 40<br />
42 CARTIER’S NEW TANK ANGLAISE<br />
UNVEILED IN SHANGHAI<br />
HUBLOT RE-OPENS HONG KONG BOUTIQUE 44<br />
46 JAEGER-LECOULTRE OPEN AT PRINCE’S BUILDING AND BEIJING
TO BREAK THE RULES,<br />
YOU MUST FIRST MASTER<br />
THEM.<br />
THE WATCH THAT BROKE ALL THE RULES, REBORN FOR<br />
<strong>2012</strong>. IN 1972, THE ORIGINAL ROYAL OAK SHOCKED THE<br />
WATCHMAKING WORLD AS THE FIRST HAUTE HOROLOGY<br />
SPORTS WATCH TO TREAT STEEL AS A PRECIOUS METAL.<br />
TODAY THE NEW ROYAL OAK COLLECTION STAYS TRUE TO<br />
THE SAME PRINCIPLES SET OUT IN LE BRASSUS ALL THOSE<br />
YEARS AGO: “BODY OF STEEL, HEART OF GOLD”.<br />
OVER 130 YEARS OF HOROLOGICAL CRAFT, MASTERY AND<br />
EXQUISITE DETAILING LIE INSIDE THIS ICONIC MODERN<br />
EXTERIOR; THE ALWAYS PURPOSEFUL ROYAL OAK<br />
ARCHITECTURE NOW EXPRESSED IN 41MM DIAMETER. THE<br />
AUDEMARS PIGUET ROYAL OAK: CELEBRATING 40 YEARS.<br />
ROYAL OAK<br />
IN STAINLESS STEEL.<br />
SELFWINDING MANUFACTURE<br />
MOVEMENT.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
AUDEMARS PIGUET (HONG KONG) LIMITED<br />
Tel: +852 2732 9138 - www.audemarspiguet.com
016 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
CONTENTS<br />
48 GIRARD-PERREGAUX YOUNG WATCHMAKERS IN BEIJING<br />
BREMONT LAUNCH THE HMS VICTORY WATCH 50<br />
51 HUBLOT CELEBRATES THE MIAMI HEAT<br />
JAEGER-LECOULTRE OFFICIAL PARTNER<br />
OF THE SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 52<br />
54 ORIS PAYS TRIBUTE TO CHET BAKER<br />
AUDEMARS PIGUET ROYAL OAK EXHIBITION IN BEIJING 56<br />
58 RICHARD MILLE’S SECOND HONG KONG BOUTIQUE
018 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
CONTENTS<br />
WHAT MAKES US TICK<br />
68 WATCH WORDS: MECHANICAL OSCILLATORS<br />
DRESS YOUR WRIST: THE RUGGED OUTDOORS 70<br />
74 BOTTOM TIME: BLANCPAIN FIFTY FATHOMS<br />
TREND WATCH: THE NEW BLACK 78<br />
PRIMETIME<br />
86 RICHARD MILLE’S LE MANS CLASSIC EDITIONS<br />
OMEGA’S SEAMASTER<br />
PLANET OCEAN ‘SKYFALL’ 88<br />
90 GLASHÜTTE ORIGINAL’S<br />
SENATOR MOONPHASE SKELETONIZED<br />
AUDEMARS PIGUET’S ROYAL OAK<br />
CHRONOGRAPH LEO MESSI 92<br />
94 TAG HEUER’S MIKROTOURBILLONS<br />
CHOPARD’S L.U.C QUALITÉ FLEURIER 96<br />
98 C3H5N3O9’S EXPERIMENT ZR012<br />
F.P. JOURNE’S OCTA SPORT LIMITED EDITION 100<br />
102 URWERK’S UR-210
020 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
CONTENTS<br />
COVER STORY<br />
CARTIER TANK: A LANDMARK IN DESIGN 106<br />
WATCH CULTURE<br />
GREUBEL FORSEY: THE MIND’S EYE 118<br />
124 A. LANGE & SÖHNE: EXCELLENCE IN SAXONY<br />
PRECIOUS METTLE 132<br />
138 THE MIDAS TOUCH<br />
OMEGA AND THE LONDON OLYMPICS <strong>2012</strong> 148
022 REVOLUTION REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
CONTENTS<br />
TIME COMPLICATIONS<br />
158 THE ECSTASY & THE AGONY<br />
WATCHES OF TOMORROW<br />
182 CARTIER: LIVING IN A VACUUM<br />
SOMETHING GOLD, SOMETHING NEW 190<br />
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
200 TIMELY PROJECTIONS<br />
DRINKS: ABSINTHE 214
024 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
CONTENTS<br />
TEST DRIVE: RANGE ROVER EVOQUE 220<br />
226 MOTORING: GENTLEMEN RACERS<br />
FACES<br />
JÉRÔME & VIVIANE DE WITT 236<br />
243 JEAN-MARC PONTROUÉ<br />
MANUEL EMCH 248<br />
252 JORN WERDELIN
IN AWE OF GOLD<br />
THE METAL’S<br />
PRESENCE IN WATCHES<br />
LANGE AKADEMIE<br />
PRESERVING AND<br />
PASSING ON THE ART<br />
CITY SLICKER<br />
RANGE ROVER’S<br />
STREET SMART EVOQUE<br />
autumn <strong>2012</strong><br />
026 REVOLUTION<br />
#20<br />
On the cover:<br />
Bori wears a Tank Anglaise<br />
in 18k pink gold with diamonds,<br />
and an Escada dress<br />
Photography: Davide Butson-Fiori<br />
Hair: Alexander Chui<br />
Make-up: Stephen Harvey<br />
Stylist: Priscilla I’Anson<br />
<br />
REVLUTION<br />
HK$80<br />
HONG KONG 20<br />
CARTIER<br />
TANK CAPTURES ERAS,<br />
CONQUERS BORDERS<br />
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028 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
REVLUTION<br />
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030 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
EDITOR’S NOTE<br />
SETTING NEW<br />
BENCHMARKS<br />
We welcome you back from the summer holidays with a<br />
packed issue! Cartier in particular, have been giving us a<br />
tremendous amount to talk about – from the introduction<br />
of their newest Tank Anglaise, a look back at the design<br />
and history of this iconic line, to the futuristic ID Two<br />
and the technological breakthroughs it incorporates.<br />
Their ability to break through conventional wisdom sets<br />
a new benchmark not only for themselves, but for the<br />
watchmaking industry as well.<br />
No less spectacular was the visit to Germany a few<br />
weeks ago to attend the Lange Akademie, where the<br />
brand’s excellence in design, development, assembly and<br />
finishing were on full display. A. Lange & Söhne are also<br />
bringing this kind of experience to key cities around the<br />
world, catering to their avid collectors who may not have<br />
an opportunity to visit Saxony and see their expanding manufacture firsthand – the Connoisseur’s<br />
Akademie should not be missed!<br />
We also bring you a preview of a project that Greubel Forsey embarked on with Willard Wigan, an<br />
extraordinary artist whose specialty, micro-sculptures, make most of the parts in even the smallest watch<br />
movement look gargantuan in comparison. The Art Piece 1 will be unveiled in a few weeks only, at next<br />
year’s SIHH (yes, it’s already around the corner!)<br />
My good friend Wei Koh takes a look at what he considers some of the top achievements in watchmaking<br />
in recent years, and contrasts it with, well, the ones that have failed to impress him. I must point out<br />
that there is one of his selections that I wouldn’t agree with: the F.P. Journe Centigraphe Souverain. No,<br />
it doesn’t mark every 1/100th of a second precisely, but I would argue that measuring such precision<br />
in a mechanical wristwatch is almost moot, given that you would be hard pressed to be able to activate<br />
the chronograph to accurately measure such a small interval. I feel that it’s a perfect example of<br />
Journe’s lateral thinking, and that being able to stop the 1/100th hand at points other than fixed<br />
interval is an interesting, albeit controversial approach. I will let you judge for yourself though, as you<br />
read through Wei’s “Ecstasy and Agony.”<br />
Turning to the next few weeks, I am absolutely honored to be on the jury of this year’s Grand Prix<br />
d’Horlogerie de Genève. As you know, it’s one of the major events on the horological calendar, recognizing<br />
the key achievements in the industry from the past year. My fellow jurors and I did the pre-selection a<br />
short while back, but we will have a very interesting discussion and debate on the remaining 70 watches<br />
still in competition. Look for the full results to be presented in our next issue. Until then, I hope you enjoy<br />
leafing through our newest issue!<br />
Sean Li<br />
Editorial Director
34 HERMÈS: A VOYAGE THROUGH TIME<br />
36 ARNOLD & SON DEBUT BASEL<br />
COLLECTION IN HONG KONG<br />
38 RICHARD MILLE POLO TEAM TAKE<br />
HOME DEAUVILLE GOLD CUP<br />
40 IWC OPENS AT GALAXY MACAU<br />
42 CARTIER’S NEW TANK ANGLAISE<br />
UNVEILED IN SHANGHAI<br />
44 HUBLOT RE-OPENS HONG KONG BOUTIQUE<br />
46 JAEGER-LECOULTRE OPEN AT<br />
PRINCE’S BUILDING AND BEIJING<br />
SPLITSECONDS PARTIES,FACES,PLACES<br />
48 GIRARD-PERREGAUX YOUNG<br />
WATCHMAKERS IN BEIJING<br />
50 BREMONT LAUNCH<br />
THE HMS VICTORY WATCH<br />
51 HUBLOT CELEBRATES THE MIAMI HEAT<br />
52 JAEGER-LECOULTRE OFFICIAL<br />
PARTNER OF THE SHANGHAI<br />
INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL<br />
54 ORIS PAYS TRIBUTE TO CHET BAKER<br />
56 AUDEMARS PIGUET<br />
ROYAL OAK EXHIBITION IN BEIJING<br />
58 RICHARD MILLE’S SECOND<br />
HONG KONG BOUTIQUE
“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time”<br />
<br />
<br />
Marthe Troly-Curtin<br />
SPLIT SECONDS
034 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
HERMÈS<br />
VOYAGE THROUGH TIME
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
HERMÈS<br />
Hermès held a colorful exhibition telling the story of Hermès timepieces at Elements<br />
Mall. It was creatively narrated through the eyes of American artist Hilton<br />
McConnico, a scenographer, poet and longtime supporter and partner of the<br />
brand. The exhibition, a true visual treat with bursts of color and light humor,<br />
led visitors through such themes as the origin of time, free time and time suspended,<br />
to name just a few. After its stint in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>, the exhibition then<br />
moved on to Singapore, and Lille, France.<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 035<br />
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT<br />
The Gift of Time Room;<br />
Free Time Room;<br />
Balanced Time Room;<br />
Time Suspended Room;<br />
The Origin of Time Room;<br />
The Stroke of Time Room
036 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
ARNOLD & SON<br />
ARNOLD & SON DEBUT<br />
BASEL COLLECTION IN<br />
HONG KONG<br />
An exclusive launch of Arnold & Son’s Basel collection was held<br />
at Oriental 100 QRC, where the brand has a shop-in-shop. Present<br />
alongside Arnold & Son VIPs and valued guests was Philippe<br />
Boven, Executive Vice President of the brand.<br />
On display from their <strong>2012</strong> Basel collection were the True Beat<br />
Retrograde (TBR), Double Balance Sidereal (DBS) and Double<br />
Balance GMT (DBG) – all part of the new Instrument Collection.<br />
FROM TOP<br />
A designer was on hand to explain the new collection;<br />
Philippe Boven, Executive Vice President of Arnold & Son
Embrace an incredible world<br />
The only Manufacture to be 100% Poinçon de Genève certified. The most demanding signature in fine watchmaking.<br />
Visit us at rogerdubuis.com<br />
1881 Heritage, Kowloon - The Peninsula, Kowloon - Pacific Place, <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> - Galaxy, Macau<br />
<br />
<br />
Creative Center RD, Creative Director Alvaro Maggini
038 REVOLUTION<br />
FROM LEFT<br />
The exhilarating match;<br />
RM 011 Polo de Deauville Flyback Chronograph;<br />
Team Richard Mille with the Deauville Gold Cup<br />
<br />
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
RICHARD MILLE
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
RICHARD MILLE<br />
REVOLUTION 039<br />
RICHARD MILLE<br />
POLO TEAM TAKES<br />
HOME DEAUVILLE<br />
GOLD CUP<br />
Deauville, a renowned and prestigious seaside resort in France, hosted over 900 guests who gathered to<br />
witness a truly exciting polo match. Neck and neck until the end, it was the Richard Mille team who took<br />
their score up to 14 from 12 at the last chukker, with two penalties converted by brand ambassador Pablo<br />
MacDonough. Royal Barriere fought back in penalties to bring the score up to 14-all and as a result, the<br />
match went into overtime. Luckily, an extra chukker fought by Richard Mille led to an extra penalty,<br />
resulting in the team’s well-deserved victory.<br />
Richard Mille chose this perfect opportunity to unveil the new limited edition RM 011 Polo de Deauville<br />
Flyback Chronograph. Featuring a white gold case and titanium DLC-treated caseband and black<br />
rubber strap, its inspiration is, as expected, taken from the Deauville International Polo Club, including<br />
its color palette and club logo engraved on the sapphire crystal case back.
040 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
IWC<br />
IWC AT THE<br />
GALAXY MACAU<br />
IWC Schaffhausen has recently opened its first boutique at the<br />
Galaxy Macau. Three years prior, the manufacture opened its<br />
Asian flagship store in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>.<br />
The new boutique’s interiors – combining modern with timeless<br />
– is luxurious but functional, and was designed by IWC’s<br />
very own interior design team. IWC’s array of Portuguese, Da<br />
Vinci, Pilot, Ingenieur, Aquatimer and Top Gun models are sure<br />
to settle nicely at the store, which features separate lounge and<br />
main areas.<br />
FROM TOP<br />
The exterior of the IWC store at the Galaxy Macau;<br />
Its interior is a tasteful mix of classic and contemporary
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
IWC<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 041
042 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
CARTIER<br />
CARTIER’S NEWEST<br />
TANK UNVEILED IN<br />
SHANGHAI<br />
Cartier’s Tank designs are instantly recognizable the world over with their<br />
unmistakable characteristics, which include elegant parallel brancards<br />
that resemble tank tracks, Roman numerals, chemin-de-fer chapter ring,<br />
and the blued-steel sword-shaped hands.<br />
With their rich 165-year history, Cartier has added a new addition to<br />
their illustrious Tank family: the Tank Anglaise. A sumptuous gala themed<br />
“Never Stop – Tank,” was held at the Shanghai Exhibition Center. In addition,<br />
a wonderfully comprehensive visual history of the Tank was presented<br />
with the use of art installations from each corresponding era, as well as rare<br />
design manuscripts to aid in setting a chronicle of its journey.
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
CARTIER<br />
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT<br />
A garden-inspired showcase;<br />
The Shanghai Exhibition Centre was an ideal venue to celebrate the legendary world of Tank;<br />
The Tank Anglaise;<br />
Roseline Luo, Miss Universe China 2011;<br />
Josephine Chien, Managing Director of Cartier China; actor Andy Lau; actress Monica Bellucci; Bernard Fornas, President and CEO of Cartier<br />
International; and Nigel Luk, Regional Managing Director of Cartier North Asia;<br />
The classic and avant-garde design incorporated elements of the iconic Cartier red box into the event interior<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 043
044 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
HUBLOT<br />
HUBLOT’S HONG KONG<br />
BOUTIQUE MAKEOVER<br />
Hublot unveiled the new face of their <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> boutique<br />
with an event attended by Ricardo Guadalupe, CEO of<br />
Hublot; Emil Klingelfuss, Chairman of Swiss Prestige Ltd.;<br />
Jacqueline Ng, CEO of Swiss Prestige Ltd.; and Donnie<br />
Yen, celebrated actor.<br />
Conceived by renowned New York architect Peter<br />
Marino, this boutique exudes the same pared down elegance<br />
and tranquility as its brethren around the world. Hublot’s<br />
‘Art of Fusion’ philosophy is expressed in the materials<br />
used in its boutique interior such as natural buckskin,<br />
bronze and ebony.<br />
FROM TOP<br />
Hublot’s <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> boutique boasts a sleek new interior;<br />
Ricardo Guadalupe, CEO of Hublot and Donnie Yen
BROUGHT TO YOU BY DEWITT<br />
> > AT THE HEART OF IT<br />
Introduced in 2010, the tourbillon model of the<br />
Twenty-8-Eight series was a breakthrough for De-<br />
Witt, as it incorporated its first entirely manufacture<br />
tourbillon movement. Deemed as one of the<br />
most challenging watch mechanisms to make, its<br />
tourbillon upholds the manufacture’s stringent<br />
standards to which every watch is entirely assembled,<br />
adjusted and tested by a single watchmaker.<br />
The tourbillon can be appreciated through a sapphire<br />
crystal back, proudly exposing the meticulous<br />
angling, polishing and satin finishing of the<br />
barrel and cage-bridges. Côtes de Genève decorations<br />
embellish the superior quality movement.<br />
Impeccable detailing adorns the new Twenty-<br />
8-Eight Skeleton Tourbillon, and its mechanism<br />
proudly displayed through a fully transparent<br />
dial. Beating at 18,000 vph, the haute horlogerie<br />
masterpiece guarantees high precision. A labyrinth<br />
of curves, circles and straight lines decorate<br />
the carved-out main plate made of a sandbrushed<br />
nickel silver base with black gold surface<br />
finishing, and a yellow gold inscription of the<br />
caliber reference – all these beautifully encased<br />
in a 43mm case made of 18k rose gold. The Haute<br />
Joaillerie version made of white gold is further<br />
decorated with eight brilliant cut diamonds as<br />
hour indicators.<br />
Rose gold makes a persuasive appearance in<br />
the 43mm case of the Twenty-8-Eight Automatic,<br />
which is complemented with grade 5 Neotitanium,<br />
a new metal applauded for its extreme lightness<br />
and robustness. The metal was previously reserved<br />
for the aerospace industry, the surgical field and<br />
Formula 1 extremes.<br />
DeWitt’s Twenty-8-Eight collection shows<br />
what’s at the core of their brand and watches<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 045<br />
FROM LEFT:<br />
Twenty-8-Eight Skeleton<br />
Tourbillon in rose gold;<br />
Twenty-8-Eight Skeleton<br />
Tourbillon Haute<br />
Joaillerie version in<br />
white gold
046 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
JAEGER-LECOULTRE<br />
JAEGER-LECOULTRE<br />
NEW BOUTIQUES IN<br />
BEIJING, HONG KONG
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
JAEGER-LECOULTRE<br />
Jaeger-LeCoultre has opened its first concept boutique in China, located on<br />
the first floor of Park Life, a luxury shopping center in Beijing. Joining CEO<br />
of Jaeger-LeCoultre, Jérôme Lambert, at the store’s opening were renowned<br />
Chinese actress, Zhao Wei; International Director of Jaeger-LeCoultre, Nicolas<br />
Baretzki; Managing Director of Jaeger-LeCoultre North Asia, Julien Renard;<br />
and Managing Director of Jaeger-LeCoultre China, Daniel Chang. Guests<br />
were treated to the sight of the manufacture’s latest creations, the Duomètre<br />
Sphérotourbillon and Gyrotourbillon I.<br />
For its Beijing shop, Jaeger-LeCoultre adapts a new interior design concept<br />
underlined mainly simplicity and elegance. The brand opened its first boutique<br />
in China in 2001.<br />
Meanwhile, Jaeger-LeCoultre opened its fourth boutique in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> at<br />
the Prince’s Building. The design inspiration of the 25-square-meter boutique<br />
was the tranquil atmosphere of the Vallée de Joux in Switzerland.<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 047<br />
CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT<br />
Interior of the Prince’s<br />
Building store;<br />
Models wear the Rendez-Vous<br />
Lady’s watch and Duomètre<br />
Sphérotourbillon;<br />
VIP area of Jaeger-LeCoultre<br />
Beijing Park Life new boutique;<br />
Interior of the Beijing boutique;<br />
(From left) Jérôme Lambert,<br />
Chief Executive Officer of<br />
Jaeger-LeCoultre; Chinese<br />
actress, Zhao Wei; Nicolas<br />
Baretzki, International Director of<br />
Jaeger-LeCoultre at the Beijing<br />
Park Life concept store;<br />
Jaeger-LeCoultre’s boutique in<br />
Prince’s Building
048 REVOLUTION<br />
FROM TOP<br />
Watchmaking atelier;<br />
Dominique Loiseau shares the stage with Alexandre Bigler;<br />
Fabienne Conti at the Imperial Palace<br />
<br />
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
GIRARD-PERREGAUX<br />
GIRARD-PERREGAUX’S<br />
WATCHMAKERS TAKE<br />
ON BEIJING<br />
After a warm reception in New York, Girard-Perregaux’s<br />
Young Watchmakers Tour headed for Beijing,<br />
making stops at the capital’s many historical spots<br />
where posterity photos of these aspiring watchmakers<br />
were taken while working on their workbenches.<br />
The culmination of the Beijing leg of the tour saw<br />
the Zen Living Space transformed into “GP World,”<br />
where Girard-Perregaux’s timepieces were showcased,<br />
and its history relived. Guests were also given the<br />
opportunity to participate in one-on-one watchmaking<br />
workshops. Dominique Loiseau, Girard-Perregaux’s<br />
famed watchmaker and the genius behind some of the<br />
brand’s most iconic pieces, took part in the festivities,<br />
co-hosting a talk with Alexandre Bigler, watch expert<br />
from Christie’s <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>.
BROUGHT TO YOU BY BELL & ROSS<br />
> > WELL-TIMED NAVIGATORS<br />
Further pushing the boundaries of aviation-inspired<br />
watches, Bell & Ross soars with three new<br />
additions to its BR01 Collection, a line inspired<br />
by aeronautical instrumentations, in particular,<br />
those crucial to air navigation.<br />
The BR01 Horizon, the BR01 Altimeter, and the<br />
BR01 Turn Coordinator, as their names suggest,<br />
are derived from actual instruments found in the<br />
cockpit, namely, the altitude indicator, altimeter,<br />
compass, and turn coordinator. The watches stay<br />
faithful to the aesthetics of the navigation tools that<br />
inspired them, and at the same time are innovative<br />
in that they introduce new ways in telling time.<br />
Looking almost identical to the altitude indicator<br />
found in a cockpit, the dial is comprised of two<br />
parts representing the sky (in grey) and the earth<br />
(in black), separated by a white line (representing<br />
the horizon) marking the 9 o’clock to 3 o’clock<br />
axis. Making sure it looks sleek on the wrist, at 12<br />
o’clock is a bridge, which likewise echoes aviation<br />
instruments, carefully concealing the attachment<br />
of the hands.<br />
Apart from the watch’s thoughtful esthetics,<br />
optimum legibility is ensured with its raised dial;<br />
white luminescent-coated hands and index markers<br />
set against a jet-black dial; and an anti-glare,<br />
matte black carbon-finished case.<br />
Again, the BR 01 Altimeter is an homage to the<br />
actual altimeter found in the cockpit. At 3 o’clock<br />
is a window reminiscent of the altimeter’s atmospheric<br />
pressure indicator that now serves as a date<br />
display, while the typeface of its hour markers is<br />
similar to that of an altimeter’s, and the hour, minute<br />
and seconds hands also resemble those found in<br />
the aviation tool. Likewise, the BR 01 Altimeter’s<br />
hands and index markers are coated in white photo-luminescent<br />
material to ensure readability.<br />
Lastly, we turn our gaze to the BR01 Turn<br />
Coordinator, which, as you may have correctly<br />
guessed, is inspired by the turn coordinator. Two<br />
concentric discs or “windows” graduated to 12<br />
hours and 60 minutes make up its inventive dial.<br />
Staying true to its aviation instruments theme,<br />
a vertical white marker serves as the hour and minute<br />
hands. The BR01 Turn Coordinator, however,<br />
owes its innovative design to a number of technological<br />
feats, such as finding the right materials<br />
and technique to make ultra-light discs necessary<br />
to maintain the power reserve and accuracy<br />
of the watch. Though lightweight, the discs had<br />
to be made sturdy enough to avoid deformity and<br />
more importantly, resist friction. Accuracy was<br />
paramount to making it work, and Bell & Ross triumphed<br />
beautifully as its watchmakers succeeded<br />
in having the discs self-regulate to the nearest micron<br />
to make sure that they are constantly parallel.<br />
All three timepieces are available in a limited<br />
production of only 999 pieces each.<br />
Bell & Ross continues<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 049<br />
TOP LEFT<br />
BR01 Horizon;<br />
BR01 Turn Coordinator;<br />
BR01 Altimeter
050 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
BREMONT<br />
BREMONT LAUNCHES<br />
HMS VICTORY WATCH<br />
The HMS Victory, a legendary 18 th Century warship with an illustrious<br />
history, is regarded as one of the finest of its time, most<br />
famous as Lord Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in<br />
1805. After suffering considerable damage during various battles,<br />
the ship needed to undergo major re-fits in 1814, 1888 and in<br />
1903, when she was struck by another boat and almost sunk at<br />
her mooring. Luckily, the Society for Nautical Research was set up<br />
in 1910 and in 1922, the HMS Victory took her place on dry dock<br />
where she remains, until this day, as the only serving warship from<br />
the 18 th Century to still be in commission.<br />
Having worked closely with the Royal Navy Fleet air arm<br />
Heritage, co-founder of Bremont, Giles English, was fascinated<br />
by reports of the restoration of HMS Victory, with Lord Nelson<br />
himself having attended the same school. This year, Bremont has<br />
joined forces with the National Museum of the Royal Navy to bring<br />
us a limited edition watch collection, each piece featuring original<br />
parts of the HMS Victory and a dial resembling an old ship’s clock,<br />
to honor both this remarkable ship as well as its historical past.<br />
The Victory Limited Edition was launched at the HMS Victory<br />
in Portsmouth, UK, despite the pouring rain. The Giles brothers<br />
were joined by Admiral Sir Jonathan Band, GCB, DL, chairman of<br />
the Trustees of the National Museum of the Royal Navy.<br />
FROM TOP<br />
Nick and Giles English with Admiral Sir Jonathan Band, GCB, DL,<br />
Chairman of the Trustees of the National Museum of the Royal Navy<br />
The rose gold Bremont Victory watch;<br />
The Royal Armouries fire an 1805 canon to mark the occasion
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
HUBLOT<br />
HUBLOT<br />
CELEBRATES<br />
THE MIAMI<br />
HEAT<br />
Hublot, the official watch and timekeeper of the Miami<br />
Heat, joined the team in celebrating its <strong>2012</strong> NBA<br />
Championship win at the AmericanAirlines Arena.<br />
In front of ecstatic fans, Hublot ambassador, player<br />
Dwyane Wade, presented each of his teammates with<br />
a commemorative White Hot Hublot Big Bang that’s<br />
engraved with a special team championship logo at the<br />
back of the case. To witness the event was Rick de La Croix,<br />
President of Hublot Latin America.<br />
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP<br />
White Hot Hublot Big Bang watch;<br />
The Miami Heat celebrate their victory at the AmericanAirlines Arena;<br />
Dwyane Wade presents teammate Mario Chalmers with a Hublot;<br />
Hublot ambassador Dwyane Wade<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 051
052 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
JAEGER-LECOULTRE<br />
JAEGER-LECOULTRE<br />
OFFICIAL PARTNER<br />
OF THE SHANGHAI<br />
INTERNATIONAL<br />
FILM FESTIVAL
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
JAEGER-LECOULTRE<br />
REVOLUTION 053<br />
A fervent supporter of the restoration of classic<br />
Chinese films, Jaeger-LeCoultre acted as official<br />
partner of the <strong>2012</strong> Shanghai International Film<br />
Festival for the second consecutive year. This<br />
year, Jaeger-LeCoultre sponsored the restoration<br />
of two famous classic films: Eight Thousand Li of<br />
Cloud and Moon and Crossroads.<br />
A glamorous, star-studded public auction<br />
was held on the opening night of the festival<br />
to raise funds for the Chinese film industry. In<br />
attendance were 200 foreign and local journalists,<br />
and over 1,000 guests from across the globe,<br />
including actresses Zhao Wei, Chen Chong,<br />
Zhang Yuqi, and directors Wang Quan’an and<br />
Jean-Jacques Annaud.<br />
With the help of the stars who donated items<br />
precious and significant from their careers, and<br />
Jaeger-LeCoultre’s contribution of a Rendez-<br />
Vous Night & Day watch, the event managed to<br />
raise a noteworthy amount and increase awareness<br />
of this cause.<br />
FROM FAR LEFT<br />
Attending the public auction were Tang Lijun, Managing Director of<br />
SIFF; actor Huang Haibo; actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta; actress Han<br />
Chae Young; director Jean-Jacques Annaud; director Jia Zhangke;<br />
actress Zhao Tao; Miss World Zhang Zilin; Wang Quan’an, director; and<br />
actress Zhang Yuqi ;<br />
The international premiere of Detective Hunter Zhang was held in New<br />
Hengshan Theater;<br />
Director Wang Quan’an wearing Jaeger-LeCoultre Grande Reverso and<br />
actress Zhang Yuqi wearing Joaillerie 101;<br />
Jaeger-LeCoultre donated a new Rendez-Vous Night & Day timepiece to<br />
support Chinese old film restoration;<br />
American actor Aaron Eckhart wearing Master Grand Réveil;<br />
Miss World Zhang Zilin wearing Jaeger-LeCoultre Joaillerie-101-<br />
Manchette
054 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
ORIS<br />
ORIS PAYS TRIBUTE TO<br />
CHET BAKER<br />
Oris honors one the music industry’s icons, jazz musician<br />
Chet Baker – known among others for his soulful<br />
renditions of “My Funny Valentine” – with the Chet<br />
Baker Limited Edition.<br />
The special edition timepiece comes in a stainless<br />
steel case with a case back featuring a silhouette of<br />
Baker with his trumpet. Continuing with its musical<br />
theme, the watch’s hour indices are presented in<br />
bars from the song “My Funny Valentine,” while the<br />
double bar line at 8 o’clock stands for the first eight<br />
bars of the song, and of course, a musical clef at 12<br />
o’clock. The piece is fitted with a black leather strap<br />
and a stainless steel folding clasp. The commemorative<br />
watch is available only in 1929 pieces, signifying<br />
the year the musician was born, and comes with a<br />
mechanically driven metronome.<br />
The Chet Baker Limited Edition was among the<br />
pieces showcased at a cocktail held at the Gateway<br />
Arcade at Harbour City, where it launched “Oris<br />
Exhibition <strong>2012</strong>.” Actress and TV personality, Aimee<br />
Chan, was the event’s special guest.<br />
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP<br />
Oris Chet Baker Limited Edition;<br />
The musical timepiece comes with a metronome;<br />
Actress and TV personality Aimee Chan
BROUGHT TO YOU YOUU BY MILUS<br />
> > THE POWER OF THREE<br />
Since its founding in 1919, Milus has stood for<br />
masterful pieces of design and craftsmanship.<br />
The Swiss watchmaker artfully combines mechanical<br />
finesse with elegant style and the most<br />
precious of materials to create outstanding<br />
watches and jewellery. Each design has all the<br />
makings of becoming horological classics.<br />
TIRION REPETITION<br />
MINUTES TRIRETROGRADE<br />
Two years in the making, the exquisite Tirion<br />
Répétition Minutes TriRetrograde made its<br />
debut at Baselworld 2010, to critical acclaim.<br />
Skilled watchmakers meticulously assembled<br />
more than 400 individual parts in a 140-hour<br />
operation to ensure that each hand-decorated<br />
component is repeatedly tested to achieve optimal<br />
sound quality and precision. A technical<br />
milestone, the Tirion Répétition Minutes<br />
TriRetrograde features the Milus M08-35M<br />
handwound movement with 90-hour power reserve.<br />
A date window and a 20-second retrograde<br />
display in three sectors are presented on<br />
a skeletonised dial. The 46mm case comes in<br />
rich 18k red gold.<br />
TIRION TRIRETROGRADE<br />
This year, Milus is issuing its original Tirion Tri- Tri-<br />
Retrograde in two 42mm versions, adding ding on on to to<br />
the 45mm and 47mm models. The Clous us de Paris<br />
version features a white dial with a delicate licate guilloché<br />
centre, while a charcoal flange frames the<br />
transparent dial of the skeleton version. Both feature<br />
domed sapphire crystals and transparent rent casebacks<br />
that allow a clear view of their highly y precise 3838<br />
TriRetrograde movements.<br />
SNOW STAR HERITAGE<br />
And for those who want watches that at have truly<br />
been a part of history, Milus offers its Snow Star<br />
Heritage sets. In World War II, the US Navy put<br />
“life barter kits” in their navy planes s for pilots to<br />
trade or sell in case they were caught ght or needed<br />
help. The kit included rings, gold pendants ndants and a<br />
Milus Snow Star “Instant Date” watch. atch. To commemorate<br />
this, Milus has created an n 18-carat red<br />
gold version of the watch with a limited mited series of<br />
99 numbered pieces, while a steel model d l has h been b<br />
issued at 1940 numbered pieces. Specially designed<br />
aviation-themed cufflinks complement the<br />
watches for the perfect ensemble.<br />
Milus shows off key timepieces from<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 055<br />
FROM TOP:<br />
Tirion Répétition<br />
Minutes TriRetrograde;<br />
Tirion TriRetrograde,<br />
42mm Version;<br />
Snow Star Heritage
056 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
AUDEMARS PIGUET<br />
CELEBRATING THE<br />
ROYAL OAK IN BEIJING<br />
After making stops in New York, Milan and Paris,<br />
Audemars Piguet finally took the Royal Oak 40 th anniversary<br />
celebrations to Asia. Its first stop in the region<br />
was Beijing, where the highly anticipated travelling<br />
exhibition – which was open to the public – found a<br />
temporary home in the Ullens Center for Contemporary<br />
Art (UCCA).<br />
Vanguard artists, Sebastien Leon Agneessens,<br />
Quayola and Dan Holdsworth, lent their genius in<br />
capturing the charms and uniqueness of the manufacture’s<br />
birthplace, La Brassus in the Vallée de Joux, via<br />
the use of installation, photography, sound and film<br />
throughout the exhibition. Visitors feasted their eyes<br />
on no less than 100 iconic timepieces and memorabilia,<br />
many of which date back to the early Seventies.<br />
Moreover, Audemars Piguet craftsmen were present to<br />
show first hand the artistry that goes into each and<br />
every Royal Oak. The Beijing exhibition also presented<br />
for the first time the number 10/100 of the<br />
platinum edition of the Royal Oak Leo Messi limited<br />
series, which was launched earlier this year.
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
AUDEMARS PIGUET<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 057<br />
The opening gala was attended by Audemars<br />
Piguet’s interim CEO, Francois-Henry Bennahmias;<br />
Asia Managing Director, Oliviero Bottinelli; and<br />
Chief Artistic Officer Octavio Garcia. A number of<br />
international and local personalities likewise graced<br />
the event, including American actor, Chris Noth;<br />
renowned Chinese stars, Hu Jun and Kitty Zhang; as<br />
well as international supermodels, Du Juan, Bonnie<br />
Chen and Kiki Zhang. The artists behind the exhibit,<br />
Agneessens and Quayola were also at the event.<br />
The exhibition then headed to Singapore for its<br />
final stop.<br />
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT<br />
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak 40 Years Exhibition in Beijing;<br />
The opening gala;<br />
The Irrepressibles perform at the party;<br />
(Left to right) Artist Davide Quayola, Country general manager<br />
Li Li; and artist Sebastien Leon Agneessens;<br />
(Left to right) Audemars Piguet ad interim CEO Francois-Henry<br />
Bennahmias; super model Kiki Kang; American actor, Chris Noth;<br />
and Audemars Piguet Asia Managing Director Oliviero Bottinelli;<br />
(Left to right) Oliviero Bottinelli; Actor Hu Jun; actress Kitty<br />
Zhang; Francois-Henry Bennahmias
058 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
RICHARD MILLE<br />
RICHARD MILLE’S<br />
SECOND HONG KONG<br />
BOUTIQUE<br />
Richard Mille has inaugurated another store in <strong>Hong</strong><br />
<strong>Kong</strong>, this time at the Elements mall in Kowloon. The<br />
300-square-foot boutique is Richard Mille’s second in<br />
the city; the first one is located at Pacific Place mall.<br />
The grand opening kicked off with a ceremonial ribbon<br />
cutting, followed by a lavish party held at the W Hotel.<br />
The event was officiated by none other than Richard<br />
Mille, and attended by CEO of Richard Mlle<br />
(Asia) Ltd, Dave Tan, and brand ambassador and top<br />
model, Baptiste Giabiconi. Guests were treated with a<br />
display of a few limited edition timepieces, including<br />
the RM 052 Skull Tourbillon, RM011 Flyback Chronograph<br />
India GP edition, RM 030 Automatic with<br />
Declutchable Rotor India GP edition, RM037 Unisex<br />
Automatic, RM051 Phoenix-Michelle Yeoh, and the<br />
RM055 Bubba Watson.<br />
Proving he not only can strut but carry a tune as<br />
well, Giabiconi kept guests entertained with a few song<br />
numbers, while local drummer and songwriter, Jun<br />
Kung, and DJ Gilbert Yeung kept guests on their feet<br />
throughout the night.<br />
FROM TOP CLOCKWISE<br />
Baptiste Giabiconi, Richard Mille and Dave Tan at the ribbon cutting ceremonies;<br />
Jun Kung belts it out for guests;<br />
Guests enjoy the evening’s entertainment;<br />
Richard Mille boutique at the Elements mall
SPLIT SECONDS<br />
RICHARD MILLE<br />
CERTIFIED BY HONG KONG AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS<br />
SHANGLIU TATLER AUDITED CIRCULATION<br />
135,725 COPIES *<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 059
060 REVOLUTION<br />
> > CLIFTON: THE EPITOME OF<br />
CLASS AND CONFIDENCE<br />
FROM LEFT<br />
Clifton Triple Calendar<br />
Moon Phase;<br />
Clifton Automatic<br />
in 18k red gold<br />
<br />
BROUGHT TO YOU BY BAUME & MERCIER<br />
Baume & Mercier has managed to perfect the art<br />
of tapping the hopelessly sentimental in all of us<br />
via its rather effective and heart warming “Life<br />
is about moments” campaign, while its casually<br />
elegant watches have such an approachable and<br />
accessible yet exclusive style, you’ll want to have<br />
them on your wrist everyday.<br />
Following its successful Hampton line, Baume<br />
& Mercier brings us the Clifton collection,<br />
this time inspired by timepieces from the 1950s<br />
– an era many regard as the “golden age of the<br />
Baume & Mercier captures the urban<br />
gentleman with the Clifton<br />
<br />
<br />
wristwatch.” A “gentlemanly” watch, Clifton embodies<br />
today’s urban man who has, in a matter<br />
of speaking, conquered the world. Sophistication<br />
and refinement are at the very core of the collection,<br />
with watches defined by perfect proportions<br />
and polished lines that exude the wearer’s inner<br />
confidence and impeccable taste. Don’t get this<br />
accomplished chap wrong though; he may be the<br />
go-getter willing to burn the midnight oil, but he<br />
also knows how to kick back and relax, knowing<br />
perfectly well that life is not entirely about an en-
BROUGHT TO YOU BY BAUME & MERCIER<br />
viable bank account but rather, precious recious moments.<br />
Seven timepieces make this distinguished istinguished line,<br />
but for now, we turn our attention n to two of its exemplary<br />
pieces: the Clifton Triple e Calendar Moon<br />
Phase and the Clifton Automatic in 18k red gold.<br />
Echoing the 1950s New York urban rban watch, the<br />
Clifton Triple Calendar Moon Phase ase dons a silver<br />
dial and a 43mm steel case. The piece features a<br />
calendar complete with day and month indicators,<br />
and moon phases; and is powered by a self-winding<br />
caliber, a Dubois Dépraz 9000, finished nished with circular-grained<br />
bridges, and black and d rhodium-plated<br />
screws, which can be appreciated through its sapphire<br />
crystal caseback. Perfectly equipped for that<br />
weekend dip in the pool or perhaps that the inviting<br />
blue seas a few yards away from your East coast<br />
beachfront home, the Clifton Triple Calendar Moon<br />
Phase is water-resistant to 50 meters. The watch is<br />
fitted with a black alligator strap that’s accompanied<br />
by an adjustable triple folding clasp.<br />
If discretion is more your style, you’re well<br />
suited d for ffor the h 39mm 39 Clifton Cl f Automatic A in 18k<br />
red gold. A silver-colored dial complements its red<br />
gold case, which is polished and satin-finished to<br />
highlight its double-beveled case. Reminiscent of a<br />
Baume & Mercier watch of the late 50s, this ClifCliff ton Automatic is classic and at the same time has<br />
a good hint of retro. The reluctantly reluctantly inconspicuous<br />
piece can sit comfortably under a crisp shirt, or go<br />
perfectly well with your weekend garb. Despite its<br />
subtlety, however, the Clifton Automatic can also<br />
easily morph into a dressy timepiece that’s perfect<br />
for that black tie event – thanks to to its satinfinished<br />
dial and elegant gilt Arabic numerals and<br />
index markers, and traditional ardillon buckle.<br />
The piece is powered by a Clifton M0A10058 Automatic<br />
caliber, which is stunning with a Côtes<br />
de Genève decorated oscillating weight, circulargrained<br />
bridges, and black and rhodium-plated<br />
screws that can be admired from its sapphire crystal<br />
caseback. Keeping it on your wrist is a black<br />
alligator strap fitted with a pin buckle.<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 061
062 REVOLUTION<br />
ABOVE<br />
Parmigiani founder,<br />
Michel Parmigiani<br />
<br />
BROUGHT TO YOU BY PARMIGIANI<br />
> > THE BIRTH OF A BRAND<br />
MICHEL PARMIGIANI<br />
As one of the most exciting watch brands to come<br />
out of Switzerland in recent years, Parmigiani<br />
has managed to realize what many brands have<br />
taken hundreds of years to achieve: unmatched<br />
innovation and unbridled success. In such a short<br />
space of time, the brand has gone from strength<br />
to strength, with its success heavily dependent on<br />
one man: Parmigiani founder, Michel Parmigiani.<br />
At the heart of every successful brand lies<br />
an innovator; one person who creates, builds<br />
and maintains an image that can stand the<br />
test of time. Born in the Val-de-Travers area of<br />
Neuchâtel, Switzerland, Michel went on to become<br />
a fully trained and practicing watchmaker at<br />
Charting the history and course of<br />
Parmigiani is a journey unto itself<br />
<br />
<br />
the Fleurier School of Watchmaking. A constant<br />
dedication towards his own education in the finer,<br />
more specific crafts of the watchmaker over the<br />
following years meant that Michel grew to become<br />
one of the most technically proficient watchmakers<br />
of his generation.<br />
But it wasn’t just his technical ability that<br />
drew praise; Michel had long held a fascination<br />
for timepieces of different eras and it was here<br />
that a symbiosis was born that would hold<br />
profound importance not just for himself, but for<br />
the world at large.<br />
RESTORATION EXPERTISE<br />
After successfully embarking on a solo career at
BROUGHT TO YOU BY PARMIGIANI<br />
the age of 26, it was then that the future owners<br />
of Parmigiani, the Sandoz Family Foundation,<br />
met with Michel and commissioned him with the<br />
task of restoring the foundation’s collection of<br />
watchmaking artifacts.<br />
This constant dialogue between traditions of<br />
yesteryear and technical innovation of today has<br />
ensured that the building blocks of the Parmigiani<br />
brand have foundations steeped in history, and<br />
improved by modernist methods and technical<br />
breakthroughs. This unique methodology led to the<br />
creation of the Parmigiani brand in 1996 in the Valde-Travers,<br />
with each timepiece since then imbued<br />
with design or mechanical touches that stay true to<br />
the history behind the Swiss watchmaking industry.<br />
WATCHMAKING EXCELLENCE<br />
After this initial background of restorative<br />
excellence, the brand building began. At its<br />
very core, Parmigiani has the deft hand of a<br />
master watchmaking innovator, and it wasn’t<br />
long before the accolades and world’s firsts<br />
began to appear. Several innovations such<br />
as the development of the pivoted detent<br />
escapement for chronometry meant that the<br />
brand now had a reputation for technical<br />
excellence, with interest coming from other<br />
brands without the technical know-how to<br />
produce such refinements in-house.<br />
This innovation then led to the creation of<br />
the Fleurier Quality Foundation, a watchmaking<br />
certification that enables buyers and other brands<br />
to identify exactly which timepiece has gone<br />
through the rigorous testing procedures that are<br />
upheld by the Parmigiani brand. The criteria for<br />
attaining this mark of quality include upholding<br />
precision by submitting the piece to the Swiss<br />
Official Chronometer Institute (COSC); utilizing<br />
the Chronofiable tests to ensure durability and<br />
reliability; a 24-hour test on the custom-built<br />
Fleuritest simulator, a machine capable of exacting<br />
some of the most rigorous physical conditions for<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 063<br />
ABOVE FROM LEFT<br />
Parmigiani<br />
Heure Passante;<br />
Toric Minute Repeater<br />
watch with sector<br />
time display
064 REVOLUTION<br />
ABOVE CLOCKWISE<br />
FROM TOP LEFT<br />
Watchmaker working<br />
on a movement;<br />
Parmigiani’s boutique<br />
in Moscow;<br />
Tonda 39 Qualité Fleurier<br />
<br />
BROUGHT TO YOU BY PARMIGIANI<br />
a watch; and finally, a validation process designed<br />
to guarantee the technical and aesthetic qualities<br />
necessary for the requirements of haute horlogerie.<br />
Launched by Chopard, Parmigiani, Bovet<br />
Fleurier, and Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier,<br />
the Fleurier Quality Foundation has created an<br />
absolutely indispensable tool for watchmakers<br />
and wearers alike.<br />
Currently, there is a limit of just 5,000<br />
timepieces that leave the hallowed halls of the<br />
Parmigiani brand. Each timepiece that exits the<br />
workshops of the five Parmigiani sites in Fleurier,<br />
La Chaux-de-Fonds, Alle and Moutier that make<br />
up the Manufactures Horlogères de la Fondation<br />
(MHF) has gone through an exhaustive process of<br />
technical precision and craftsmanship.<br />
In just a few short years, the MHF has managed<br />
to achieve what other brands could barely do in<br />
200. Six collections and 19 calibers developed<br />
entirely in-house (including six world firsts in the<br />
Bugatti 370, the Bugatti Super Sport, the Hijiri<br />
Calendar, and the Large Date Minute Repeater)<br />
form the basis of its remarkable achievements.<br />
The commitment to its founding values of the<br />
restoration of mechanically constructed works of<br />
watchmaking art and mastery has melded a unique<br />
and highly regarded reputation present in 70<br />
<br />
<br />
countries across five continents. The brand now has<br />
11 ateliers opened, in Beijing (with three ateliers),<br />
Istanbul, London, Moscow, Shanghai and Tianjin,<br />
along with three Parmigiani Studios in Dubai,<br />
Munich, and Porto Cervo on the Italian coast.<br />
The secret to Parmigiani’s success can be<br />
attributed to one more factor after Michel and<br />
the vision and commitment of the Sandoz Family<br />
Foundation, which has enabled the brand to move into<br />
a rarefied world of technical expertise: the complete<br />
independence of its watchmaking manufacture.<br />
INDEPENDENCE OF WATCHMAKING<br />
Several decisions made since 1990 have<br />
enabled the growth of Parmigiani’s MHF technical<br />
watchmaking excellence. This was fundamental<br />
to Parmigiani’s vision to create and manufacture<br />
each and every component from the largest dial<br />
down to the smallest screw – completely in-house<br />
and under a strict and exacting set of technical<br />
guidelines to ensure the quality at Parmigiani<br />
would be of the exact same standard across every<br />
aspect of manufacturing. With over 550 qualified<br />
staff spread across 50 different specialist trades,<br />
every component from dials to movements is<br />
developed in-house.<br />
One of the first was the integration of
BROUGHT TO YOU BY PARMIGIANI<br />
Atokalpa in 2000, a company specializing in<br />
the manufacture of train wheels, pinions and<br />
micro-gears, which together form the most<br />
crucial of moving parts in a mechanical watch.<br />
Since 2005, the MHF has been able to produce<br />
all the constituent components of the escapement<br />
and the regulating organ, in all around 15<br />
parts, including: the escapement wheel, pallet<br />
fork, plate, balance and balance spring. This<br />
has enabled Parmigiani to successfully design<br />
and produce the high-quality parts necessary to<br />
manufacture movements of such a high pedigree.<br />
Another crucial integration was the<br />
incorporation of Elwin in 2001, a bar turning<br />
specialist dating back to 1912, followed by<br />
Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier in 2003, which<br />
was designated the specialist workshop for<br />
high-end and prestige markets by creating<br />
high quality movements for Parmigiani and<br />
other haute horlogerie brands; a dial face<br />
specialist was integrated just two years later,<br />
with Quadrance et Habillage incorporated into<br />
the industrial structure to meet a need for the<br />
highest quality dials.<br />
But perhaps the most inspiring addition to the<br />
MHF has been the incorporation of the renowned<br />
high-end case production workshops of Bruno<br />
Affolter SA, in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Now renamed<br />
Les Artisans Boîtiers, the workshop uses techniques<br />
and equipment of such power and complex<br />
technical reach that what formerly was thought to<br />
be technically out of reach has been made possible<br />
within the confines of the MHF.<br />
Each integration – and with the establishment of<br />
specialist workshops in each and every sub division<br />
of the manufacturing process – the complete<br />
independence of Parmigiani’s MHF has meant that<br />
each and every component is now manufactured<br />
under the brand’s careful guidelines and steady,<br />
guiding hand. This has led to the brand being one of<br />
a very select few in the world of watchmaking that<br />
vertically integrates every stage of manufacturing<br />
within the confines of a single brand.<br />
With influences dating back hundreds of<br />
years, and a unique fusion of tradition and<br />
technical expertise built up and proven both in<br />
the laboratory and in the field, Parmigiani has<br />
risen in the space of a few short years to become<br />
one of the Swiss watchmaking wonders of the<br />
world. With the perception, determination<br />
and innovation found in the guiding hands<br />
of Michel and the Sandoz Family Foundation,<br />
who knows how much farther the watchmaking<br />
world can go?<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 065<br />
ABOVE<br />
Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier
68<br />
<br />
WATCH WORDS:<br />
MECHANICAL OSCILLATORS<br />
78<br />
70 DRESS YOUR WRIST: THE RUGGED OUTDOORS<br />
BOTTOM TIME: BLANCPAIN FIFTY FATHOMS<br />
TREND WATCH: THE NEW BLACK<br />
<br />
<br />
74
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated”<br />
Confucius<br />
<br />
<br />
HAT MAKES US<br />
TICK
068 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WHAT MAKES US TICK<br />
WATCH WORDS<br />
JACK FORSTER (text)<br />
WATCH WORDS<br />
Mechanical oscillators like the pendulum and balance wheel<br />
are what actually tell time — and today’s latest experiments<br />
by<br />
TOURBILLON<br />
some of watchmaking’s most daring researchers are<br />
paving the way for the watches of tomorrow
WHAT MAKES US TICK<br />
WATCH WORDS<br />
I<br />
n the immortal words of Harry Callahan, I know what<br />
you’re thinkin’ — but before you sniff, say to yourself, “For<br />
God’s sake, man, I know what a tourbillon is, don’t insult<br />
my intelligence,” and turn the page, lend me your ear, I<br />
prithee — I’m going somewhere with this.<br />
Most discussions of the tourbillon focus not on what it is<br />
physically, but on what it does; and of course the odds are<br />
pretty good that if you’ve picked up this magazine at all, you’ll<br />
know that Breguet invented the tourbillon, patented it in 1801,<br />
that it’s intended to create a single averaged rate error in the<br />
vertical positions and so simplifies the task of matching the<br />
vertical rate to the flat rates of the oscillator, thus making the<br />
watch immune to positional rate variations. Those who object<br />
to the tourbillon do so on the grounds that it eliminates no error<br />
at all — that it merely smears together the four different errors<br />
in the four different vertical positions into a single mélange of<br />
imprecision, and that four wrongs don’t make a right — but<br />
that’s another argument.<br />
But what makes a tourbillon watch a tourbillon watch? The<br />
question came up during an exchange on that most unsuitable<br />
medium for rational discourse, Twitter, when several of us got<br />
into a brouhaha over what constitutes a double tourbillon —<br />
and, specifically, whether the Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon<br />
30° is a “real” double tourbillon.<br />
For comparison, one of the participants in this 140-character<br />
horological symposium instanced the Roger Dubuis and Breguet<br />
double tourbillons — two separate cages, two balances, two<br />
escapements. Surely these, went the thesis, were examples of<br />
“real” double tourbillons.<br />
To know what a double tourbillon is, it seemed to me, one ought<br />
to think about what a tourbillon is — that is, what makes a<br />
tourbillon watch a tourbillon watch and not something else.<br />
Despite the lamentably freewheeling tendency to use the term<br />
“tourbillon escapement” (which can be found in professional<br />
reference texts going back generations; my 1946 copy of<br />
Britten’s The Watch & Clock Maker’s Handbook uses the<br />
terms “tourbillon” and “tourbillon escapement” virtually<br />
interchangeably) it seems to me that the tourbillon, strictly<br />
speaking, is not an escapement, but a regulating mechanism. To<br />
illustrate this, one need merely consider that a tourbillon watch<br />
may be fitted with any of a number of different escapements:<br />
there are tourbillon watches with lever escapements, sidelever<br />
escapements, chronometer-detent escapements, co-axial<br />
escapements, and so on.<br />
A watchmaker friend challenged me on the subject of a double<br />
tourbillon necessarily meaning two oscillating organs — two<br />
balances. “Is a tourbillon a tourbillon without a balance?”<br />
he asked, rhetorically. My reply was that we can refer to the<br />
components of a watch — composite or single — without<br />
requiring that the balance be thought of as a part of that<br />
component. A mainspring barrel, out of a watch, disconnected<br />
from the balance, is still a mainspring barrel.<br />
It then occurred to me to ask someone who should know, if anyone<br />
does: Stephen Forsey, of Greubel Forsey, whom I’d last seen in<br />
REVOLUTION 069<br />
A: BARREL<br />
B: GEAR TRAIN<br />
C: THIRD WHEEL<br />
D: ESCAPE WHEEL<br />
E: FIXED FOURTH WHEEL<br />
F: CARRIAGE PINION<br />
G: BALANCE<br />
. Power from the barrel (A) flows through the gear train (B) to the third<br />
wheel (C)<br />
. The third wheel (C) drives the carriage (not pictured) via the pinion of<br />
the carriage (F)<br />
. As the carriage rotates, the escape wheel (D), which is geared to the<br />
fixed fourth wheel (E), moves along the perimeter of the fixed fourth<br />
wheel, sending energy to the balance wheel (G)<br />
Geneva during SIHH (he was gamely nursing a badly injured<br />
back and was both introducing the Garde Temps project as well<br />
as the new Greubel Forsey GMT watch). An email to Stephen at<br />
the manufacture sat in limbo for a few days, but in the fullness<br />
of time, Stephen responded that a tourbillon is composed of a<br />
fixed wheel and a functionally distinct, rotating cage or carriage.<br />
The definition is reductive and accurate — after all, it is only the<br />
presence of those parts that makes a watch a tourbillon. Without<br />
the cage and fixed fourth wheel, one simply has an ordinary watch.<br />
Greubel Forsey’s “double tourbillon” is therefore certainly a<br />
real double tourbillon — it is simply that it is one with a single<br />
oscillator, unlike double tourbillons made by Roger Dubuis<br />
and Breguet, for instance, in which there are two regulating<br />
systems (two tourbillons, two escapements and two oscillators)<br />
linked by a differential. The habit of referring to the tourbillon<br />
as a “tourbillon escapement” has been decried by some experts<br />
as sloppy; I once regarded this attitude as egotistically selfserving<br />
hairsplitting from individuals over-invested in being<br />
perceived as experts — but having thought about it, I think I<br />
see the point. The tourbillon is no more an escapement than it<br />
is a remontoir or chain-and-fusée — both, like the tourbillon,<br />
intended to improve rate stability (over power reserve rather<br />
than across positions, but the basic purpose is the same).<br />
Fine distinctions? Sure. But without such niggling semantic<br />
debates, as one of my favorite watch writers, Kenneth Ulyett,<br />
put it, “keen horologists would be deprived of the pleasure of<br />
arguing with each other”.
070 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WHAT MAKES US TICK<br />
DRESS YOUR WRIST<br />
MOUNTAIN GUIDE<br />
They say the thing about mountaineering is that first<br />
and foremost, you need the best equipment available<br />
to conquer your Everest (I hear that palanquins<br />
and about four to six well-fed bearers come in<br />
particularly useful) and for the descent, keep it old-school with<br />
a paper map — the Google Maps app will predictably let you<br />
down at a vital fork in the road. National Geographic’s Seconds<br />
from Disaster stories are enough to put anyone off setting out<br />
into bear country unprepared, so with equipment in mind, the<br />
digital era is also best avoided for your timekeeping needs. With<br />
our temporal and sartorial guide on how best to approach the<br />
sheer drops or winding gravel tracks, you can be sure that your<br />
tackle and tools will not fail you at the pinnacle moment.<br />
Zenith’s El Primero Stratos Flyback is the perfect equilibrium<br />
between sporty and sophisticated; its sexy-as-hell black alloy<br />
case complements the timeless design. Altitude enthusiasts can<br />
ascend in classic aviation style with the very handsome Bell &<br />
GARY LIM (text) +SIDNEY TEO(photography) +ESTHER QUEK (styling)<br />
Ross BR 123 Heritage, inspired by airplanes from the 1940s era.<br />
Its stainless-steel case in black PVD finish exudes a high-tech<br />
style that’s matched only by its take-no-prisoners toughness.<br />
Whether you are clambering over rock, snow or ice, you’ll want<br />
a watch that can tackle the elements with ease. Performancetested<br />
and designed together with actual US Navy SEALs (who<br />
says military men aren’t stylish?), Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Master<br />
Compressor Diving Chronograph GMT Navy SEALs is armored<br />
in an ultra-tough, super-stealthy black titanium case — the<br />
ultimate warriors’ watch for the assault on any summit. <br />
<br />
<br />
Zenith El Primero Stratos Flyback in black Alchron<br />
case and black Cordura fabric strap<br />
Brown cotton outerwear, Timberland; brown<br />
polyester cardigan, The North Face; khaki nylonelastane<br />
trousers, Salomon
WHAT MAKES US TICK<br />
DRESS YOUR WRIST<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 071<br />
Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Compressor Diving<br />
Chronograph GMT Navy Seals in black titanium case<br />
and black calfskin strap<br />
Blue and gray nylon windbreaker, brown polyester<br />
cardigan and black and orange nylon backpack, all<br />
The North Face; brown, orange and white check<br />
cotton shirt, Z Zegna
072 REVOLUTION<br />
Bell & Ross BR 123 Heritage in black PVD stainlesssteel<br />
case and tan natural leather strap<br />
Blue nylon windbreaker and black and yellow<br />
backpack, both The North Face; khaki cotton-nylon<br />
trousers, Columbia<br />
<br />
WHAT MAKES US TICK<br />
DRESS YOUR WRIST
Montblanc TimeWalker TwinFly Chronograph<br />
GreyTech in gray titanium case and gray<br />
alligator strap<br />
Blue and gray nylon windbreaker, The North Face;<br />
green rayon-viscose-polyester sweater, Z Zegna<br />
<br />
WHAT MAKES US TICK<br />
DRESS YOUR WRIST<br />
“It’s not the mountain<br />
we conquer, but ourselves”<br />
— Sir Edmund Hillary<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 073<br />
Fashion Stylist: Marie Lee<br />
Fashion Assistants: Firda Samat and Malavika Manay<br />
Photography Assistant: Matthew Ng<br />
Grooming: Keith Bryant Lee using Clinique and Hatsuga<br />
Model: David B/Diva
074 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WHAT MAKES US TICK<br />
BLANCPAIN<br />
BOTTOM TIME<br />
BLANCPAIN FIFTY FATHOMS<br />
‘TRIBUTE TO FIFTY FATHOMS AQUA LUNG’<br />
Guard, this is motor-vessel Bonsai, we have<br />
a missing diver in the water. Repeat, missing<br />
diver.” I scanned the choppy water as we<br />
“Coast<br />
motored in increasing arcs, realizing the nearimpossibility<br />
of spotting a person in the 7-foot (2m) swells.<br />
I’d rehearsed this scenario in my head a hundred times, but<br />
nothing could prepare me for the sense of dread I was feeling. I<br />
should have listened to that same sense when we were bouncing<br />
out to the wreck site with no other boats in sight. Now here we<br />
were, facing a search for one missing diver in a very big ocean<br />
JASON HEATON (text) +GISHANI RATNAYAKE (photography)<br />
with dusk falling and storm clouds piling up on the horizon.<br />
Training kicked in and I twisted the bezel of my Blancpain Fifty<br />
Fathoms to mark the beginning of our search and scanned the<br />
water for movement.<br />
The Florida Keys are an archipelago of islands that curl off<br />
from the mainland United States like the tail of a kite. A series<br />
of shallow reefs sits just offshore and the Gulf Stream bathes<br />
them in clear, warm water. Forward-thinking government<br />
protection has kept the environment healthy and the reefs teem
WHAT MAKES US TICK<br />
BLANCPAIN<br />
with countless species of colorful fish, as well as larger pelagics<br />
that cruise in from the deeper water between here and Cuba.<br />
It is a diver’s paradise and has been ever since the heyday of<br />
recreational diving in the 1960s. Driving down Highway 1,<br />
past low-slung motels and souvenir shops, feels much like it<br />
must have in those days, when divers discovered the wrecks<br />
and reefs offshore and flocked there by the thousands. No doubt<br />
many of them wore a no-frills, sturdy underwater watch with<br />
the evocative name “Fifty Fathoms”, from a small Swiss brand<br />
called Blancpain. Diving in the Keys feels historic and it was<br />
somehow appropriate to wear Blancpain’s modern tribute to<br />
their legendary dive watch during four days of diving there.<br />
By now, most people know the history of the Fifty Fathoms,<br />
but it bears repeating. French secret-agent-turned-combatdiver<br />
Robert Maloubier sought a suitable dive watch for his<br />
newly formed team of Special Forces divers and approached<br />
Blancpain for help. They built a watch to Maloubier’s<br />
specification, with a unidirectional rotating timing bezel,<br />
large luminescent dial-markers and a case that was at least<br />
water resistant to a depth of 91 meters, or the more poeticsounding<br />
50 fathoms, a depth then thought to be the maximum<br />
a man could dive on air. The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms was<br />
released in 1953, the same year another famous dive watch<br />
made its debut: the Rolex Submariner. Which one came first<br />
is a question we may never answer, but the evolutions of each<br />
took different paths through the decades and both pioneers<br />
are still at the top of their class today.<br />
Tropical storm Debby was playing catand-mouse<br />
with Florida for several<br />
days. The stiff southerly wind was<br />
whipping up whitecaps and big seas<br />
that left our small group feeling<br />
green on the ride out to the dive<br />
sites on day one. Of course, once<br />
underwater, all was serene and<br />
we enjoyed long bottom times<br />
on the shallow reefs before<br />
ascending for the rodeo ride on the boat.<br />
We played peek-a-boo with a hiding southern<br />
stingray on French Reef and sized up some<br />
monster goliath groupers over on Molasses. The<br />
weather was keeping other divers away so we enjoyed<br />
empty reefs.<br />
The Florida Keys are not only known for their reefs, but<br />
also for numerous shipwrecks. Out of Key Largo, a trio of<br />
intentionally sunk ships, the Spiegel Grove, the Duane and<br />
the Bibb, are popular with divers due to their accessibility<br />
and abundant fish life. On our second morning, we descended<br />
the fixed mooring line on the USCGC Duane, a former Coast<br />
Guard cutter sunk in 131 feet (40m) of water. Contrary to<br />
the unfavorable surface conditions, the current on the wreck<br />
was light, and visibility infinite. Descending past the crow’s<br />
nest, we passed through a fleet of barracuda that hung<br />
motionless, their dead eyes following us ominously. On the<br />
wreck, a school of Bermuda chubs circled slowly around the<br />
derelict bridge while a giant grouper disappeared inside the<br />
REVOLUTION 075<br />
engine room. We swam from bow to stern before ascending<br />
the line for a short decompression stop just below the waves.<br />
Unlike the Rolex Submariner, which has remained largely<br />
unchanged over the years, the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms<br />
has seen countless iterations, with cases, dials and bezels<br />
mirroring the styles of the times in which they were<br />
produced. Undoubtedly one of the most popular models was<br />
the one produced in the late 1960s that was branded “Aqua<br />
Lung”, in reference to Cousteau’s game-changing invention.<br />
It was this model to which Blancpain chose to pay tribute<br />
with the limited edition I was wearing in the Florida Keys.<br />
Instantly recognizable and often mimicked, the Tribute to<br />
Fifty Fathoms Aqua Lung features a domed sapphire crystal<br />
with minimal minute hashes and a diamond-shaped descent<br />
marker. The dial is spare, with only the lovely scripted<br />
“Aqua Lung” and “Fifty Fathoms” below the Blancpain logo.<br />
Painted markers at 12, three, six and nine o’clock hark back<br />
to the watch’s forebear and the hands are the same pointed,<br />
military style as Captain Maloubier would have demanded.<br />
Unlike some similar recent Fifty Fathoms versions, the<br />
45mm steel case has a completely brushed finish — in my<br />
opinion, a must-have feature of a military-inspired watch.<br />
Unlike the original, the luminescent paint used is nonradioactive<br />
SuperLuminova and may be the brightest, most<br />
legible watch dial I have ever used. The strap Blancpain fits<br />
to this noble tribute piece is a stitched textile with large<br />
rally-style holes that mimics the style of the Tropic rubber<br />
straps that would have held the original Fifty Fathoms<br />
Aqua Lung to divers’ wrists. Instead of an ordinary<br />
pin buckle, Blancpain has fitted a fold-over<br />
deployant with double pushbutton<br />
release. The clasp also<br />
includes a clever extension that<br />
folds in on itself and provides<br />
just enough extra room to slide<br />
the watch over your hand and<br />
easily fits over a 5mm wetsuit<br />
sleeve.<br />
On our last day in the Keys, we<br />
decided to drive two hours west<br />
to the end of the archipelago, Key<br />
West, to dive a newly sunken wreck, the USNS General Hoyt<br />
S. Vandenberg. The “Vandy” as she is known, was a Navy<br />
missile tracking communications ship that had a second<br />
career as a prop in the movie Virus before being intentionally<br />
sunk in 140 feet (43m) of water about 7mi (11km) offshore<br />
from Key West. Her large parabolic antennae and massive<br />
size have become the latest divers’ attraction in the Keys and<br />
we wanted to see her.<br />
Since we dived in the morning, our two-hour drive to Key<br />
West put us on the water around 3:00pm for a very slow,<br />
bucking ride out to the wreck site. The wind had picked up<br />
and waves were building. Still, we were told that if we could<br />
tough out the rough boat ride, currents were said to be light
076 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WHAT MAKES US TICK<br />
BLANCPAIN<br />
<br />
<br />
Blancpain has reissued<br />
several iterations of its<br />
historical and iconic dive<br />
watch — the Tribute to<br />
Fifty Fathoms Aqua Lung<br />
is in reference to the 1960s<br />
model inspired by Jacques<br />
Cousteau’s invention<br />
The massive projection off the left<br />
side of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master<br />
Compressor Diving Pro Geographic<br />
Navy SEALs houses the depth-gauge<br />
mechanism and, while looking slightly<br />
unwieldy, actually contributes to the<br />
watch’s strong utilitarian outlook<br />
(despite the luxury of its pink-gold case)
WHAT MAKES US TICK<br />
BLANCPAIN<br />
on the wreck. But it was clear as we tied into the mooring<br />
ball that this would be a difficult dive. The mooring line was<br />
taut in the ripping current and as we each splashed into the<br />
water, it was all we could do to grab hold of the trailing bow<br />
line of our small boat to keep from drifting to Cuba. One<br />
by one, the five divers in our group pulled ourselves hand<br />
over hand to the mooring line and on down to the wreck,<br />
the current threatening to rip our masks off our faces. I<br />
managed to set the bezel on the Fifty Fathoms to track my<br />
bottom time, but today it was destined to be a short one. The<br />
current was too dangerous and we all agreed through a flurry<br />
of hand signals that it would be best to live to dive another day.<br />
Just as we decided it would be wise to cancel the dive, there<br />
was confusion as one diver had gone missing from the back of<br />
our rag-tag conga line. Somehow, she had been pulled off the<br />
mooring line and sent into the current, helpless to swim against<br />
REVOLUTION 077<br />
it. We all quickly ascended and scrambled back on the boat,<br />
adrenaline overriding our exhaustion. The captain picked up<br />
the radio, set to emergency channel 16, and notified the Coast<br />
Guard of our situation. The search was on.<br />
Blancpain has a history of innovation and fine watchmaking,<br />
and holds the distinction as the world’s oldest watch brand, since<br />
it was officially incorporated in 1735. Through the centuries,<br />
Blancpain has seen many changes, including its name, when the<br />
brand was known as “Rayville-Blancpain” in the 1950s. It was<br />
during this time when Captain Maloubier and his lieutenant,<br />
Claude Riffaud approached them with their specifications for<br />
the combat diver’s watch. This would become the brand’s most<br />
recognizable and collectible watch. Despite the Fifty Fathoms’<br />
simple, unadorned movement and spartan styling, good vintage<br />
examples routinely fetch US$10,000 to US$20,000 on the<br />
collector’s market. It only made sense for Blancpain to capitalize<br />
on this heritage with a series of tribute pieces.<br />
The Fifty Fathoms “Tribute to Fifty Fathoms Aqua Lung”<br />
resembles its historical reference in appearance only. Now, rather<br />
than a workmanlike, undecorated automatic movement, the watch<br />
features a twin-barrel, 35-jewel self-winding caliber (Blancpain<br />
1315) that boasts 120 hours of power reserve. In place of the old<br />
engraved antimagnetic caseback, the Tribute to Fifty Fathoms<br />
Aqua Lung proudly displays the movement, which is decorated<br />
and features a winding rotor made to look like a ship’s propeller.<br />
While the purist in me wanted a plainer caseback, I begrudgingly<br />
learned to love watching the propeller spin.<br />
Spotting a person in the open ocean, among whitecaps and<br />
high swells, is a difficult proposition. And, complicating<br />
our search, we could only guess as to which direction our<br />
missing diver had drifted or where she surfaced. So, the<br />
captain motored the boat slowly over the waves in an<br />
ever-increasing radius with all of us scanning the water.<br />
Suddenly, almost directly in front of our bow, I spotted<br />
her, waving an inflatable marker buoy over her head<br />
and shouting. Relief flooded over me. I glanced at my<br />
watch — 26 minutes had passed, but it felt like hours.<br />
We picked up our lost companion and headed for the<br />
safety of Key West and a round of well-deserved beers.<br />
With the Tribute to Fifty Fathoms Aqua Lung, Blancpain<br />
has succeeded in creating a faithful rendering of its own<br />
classic and an icon of an entire genre. At the same time, it<br />
has managed to build a thoroughly modern, sophisticated<br />
timepiece that is at once haute horlogerie and a utilitarian<br />
tool, capable of surviving the bashing on a bucking dive boat,<br />
a five-knot current and 16 fathoms of depth over four days of<br />
arduous diving. When I returned home from Florida, I noticed<br />
that the famous Blancpain timing bezel was still set where I’d<br />
left it during our search, a grim reminder of an unfathomably<br />
frightening day on the water.
078 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WHAT MAKES US TICK<br />
TREND WATCH<br />
A change of seasons is at hand leading us to look to more sullen hues,<br />
well, shades of black, to be exact<br />
Perfect for any occasion, or if you happen to be in an indecisive<br />
mood, black is hard to get wrong and you look effortlessly<br />
stylish. If you think black is boring, it’s time to get creative<br />
with unexpected textures, materials, patterns and cuts. As it<br />
happens, the horological world has too been infiltrated by gothic tones,<br />
with black proving a key trend this year. We take you from conventional<br />
to cutting-edge, classic to ultra-modern – the versatility of this color is<br />
uncontested. Black is definitely here to stay!<br />
1 IWC BIG PILOT’S WATCH TOP GUN<br />
The combination of tradition and classic functionality with<br />
advanced technology and state-of-the-art materials is nothing new<br />
in the world of watches. Whether it’s to pay homage to designs of<br />
yesteryear or simply the inability to fix what is not broken, the<br />
glut of throwback “vintage” redesigns are a constant and welcome<br />
fixture on the scene. IWC look back 72 years to their maiden flight,<br />
that has seen the Big Pilot’s Watch through decades of aviation<br />
history. Re-launched a decade ago, it presents itself this year in<br />
a 48mm scratch-resistant zirconium oxide case with a titanium<br />
crown – both signature materials used in the Top Gun line. The<br />
IWC-manufactured 5111 caliber boasts a pawl-winding system<br />
that builds up to seven days of power reserve when wound by<br />
hand. The dial remains minimalist with a contrasting black and<br />
white color palette, a power reserve indicator at 3 o’clock and date<br />
window at 6 o’clock.<br />
2 YVES SAINT LAURENT MENSWEAR FALL <strong>2012</strong><br />
With half the collection focused on precise military-influenced<br />
tailoring and lux fabrics such as leather and fur, we found this<br />
outfit to be rather perfect for this theme. Referring to this as an<br />
“all-leather ensemble” we admit is intimidating and may conjure<br />
up unflattering images of has-been wrestlers and marauding super<br />
villains, but this <strong>2012</strong> Yves Saint Laurent version introduces panels<br />
of felt and a fur collar to break up the severity. Pieces can of course<br />
be incorporated into a myriad of other outfits as separates, but we<br />
urge you to give this top-to-toe leather look a go.<br />
MELISSA LIM (text)<br />
3 PANERAI TUTTONERO LUMINOR 1950<br />
3 DAYS GMT AUTOMATIC CERAMICA<br />
Part of the Contemporary Collection, this classic Luminor 1950 case<br />
gets a shroud of black in the form of high-tech ceramic. The advanced<br />
technology of this material allows for optimum comfort as well as being<br />
lightweight on the wrist, scratch-resistant, and five times harder than<br />
stainless steel. Each link on the bracelet is asymmetrical and curved at<br />
the surface to further ensure comfort. The unmistakable lever device<br />
protecting the winding crown is synonymous with any Luminor, and<br />
its dial is constructed via sandwich method, while the numerals, hour<br />
markers and hands are coated in an ecru Superluminova to guarantee<br />
visibility in the dark.<br />
4 HUBLOT BIG BANG BLACK CAVIAR<br />
Inspired by the one-of-a-kind One Million $ Black Caviar, which was<br />
completely encrusted in rare baguette black diamonds amounting to<br />
34.5 carats, is the Big Bang Black Caviar. This time, it is completely<br />
made from lightweight ceramic – including the crown and dial – making<br />
it 30% lighter than steel. The uniform shades of black ceramic have<br />
been polished and beveled to mimic the diamonds of its predecessor.<br />
In addition, its scratchproof, anti-allergenic, unalterable and rustproof<br />
qualities make for a sportier, more accessible watch. The piece is armed<br />
with an automatic mechanical movement HUB1112 that will keep it<br />
powered for up to 42 hours.<br />
5 HENDRICK’S GIN<br />
With a tagline like “it’s not for everyone” and those lust-worthy black<br />
apothecary bottles, you could say our interest was sufficiently piqued,<br />
and the liquid magic that lurks inside deserves equal praise. This New<br />
World gin is distilled in Old World Scotland and combines no less than<br />
11 botanicals with a quirky and unexpected addition of rose petals and<br />
cucumber; do not expect a typical gin here. Though the quintessential<br />
juniper remains front and center on the palette, the rose and cucumber<br />
notes freshen up the taste with lingering hints of coriander and citrus,<br />
making it ideal for a G&T. Add cucumber instead of lemon for an<br />
unusual yet refreshing drink.
1<br />
5<br />
<br />
WHAT MAKES US TICK<br />
TREND WATCH<br />
4<br />
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2<br />
2<br />
REVOLUTION 079 079<br />
3
080 REVOLUTION<br />
6<br />
<br />
WHAT MAKES US TICK<br />
TREND WATCH<br />
11<br />
<br />
<br />
7<br />
10
9<br />
<br />
WHAT MAKES US TICK<br />
TREND WATCH<br />
8<br />
6 ULYSSE NARDIN BLACK SEA CHRONOGRAPH<br />
Built to battle the steely, unforgiving seas during a blustering storm,<br />
the commanding Black Sea Chronograph offers divers the same level<br />
of reliability that has come to be expected from any master diver<br />
watchmaker. The piece is able to reach depths of 200 meters due to the<br />
materials employed in its construction, such as the 45.8mm stainless<br />
steel case that is coated in rubber; the buckle made of lightweight<br />
ceramic; and its likewise lightweight rubber strap. Keeping with the<br />
maritime theme of the watch and brand, the chronograph seconds<br />
hand is decked with the iconic Ulysse Nardin anchor. The rubberized<br />
pushers allow for swift start and stop functions, while Superluminova<br />
illuminates the dial for easy readability under dark conditions.<br />
7 VERSACE MENSWEAR FALL <strong>2012</strong><br />
With each issue, we need to add a wearable, theme-appropriate suit<br />
because let’s face it, it’s never a bad idea to suit up; overdressing is always<br />
better than underdressing, in our opinion. Taking into account our<br />
theme this issue, a boring standard black suit or tuxedo just wasn’t going<br />
to cut it. The black velvet brings a nostalgic touch of the conventional<br />
tuxedos of decades past to this contemporary version. If velvet is a touch<br />
too Hugh Hefner for you, choose a different material or texture such as<br />
leather, tweed, or a combination of anything you want. Keep in mind,<br />
because it is all black, you can afford to be more adventurous!<br />
REVOLUTION 081<br />
8 GIVENCHY BROGUE BOOT HIGH TOPS<br />
This fall, Ricardo Tisci continues to project an air of urban masculinity<br />
by blurring the lines between classic menswear and sportswear. These<br />
leather wing tip brogue high tops are a walking contradiction, not<br />
to mention a proper mouthful! Is it an ordinary leather lace-up or a<br />
sneaker? It’s both! Boasting the comfort of a sneaker on the inside and<br />
chic work-appropriate shoes on the outside, one wonders why someone<br />
hasn’t thought of this before. Wear it with your suit to the office and<br />
your colleagues will be none the wiser. Go on, it will be our little secret.<br />
9 YVES SAINT LAURENT BAGS<br />
When news broke that newly appointed creative director Hedi Slimane<br />
was to change the iconic fashion house’s logo to ‘Saint Laurent Paris,’<br />
the uproar and tears shed were heard across the sartorial world. While<br />
some questioned the need for it, others applauded this bold decision.<br />
Whether or not you agree with it, the fact remains: all products bearing<br />
the iconic ‘YSL’ logo shall soon be (if not already) flying off the shelves,<br />
destined to be tucked away in the fashion archives as collector’s items.<br />
The Chyc bag would be a perfect formal bag for work, while the<br />
Hamptons tote has a more relaxed feel for play. Both showcase the<br />
indelible ‘Y’ in very opposing ways, of course, because we always like<br />
to give you options.<br />
10 MB&F HM4 BLACK THUNDERBOLT<br />
FOR MARCUS LONDON<br />
A number of HM4 variations have already seen themselves gracing the<br />
pages of REVLUTION, and the Black Thunderbolt is no exception.<br />
Known for his collaborations with other watchmakers or designers (the<br />
brand name after all stands for Maximillian Büsser & “Friends”), the<br />
aim is to bring new advanced technological and sculptural forms to<br />
high-quality watchmaking, with influences ranging from aviation to<br />
superhero cartoons. This is MB&F’s first and only “boutique exclusive”<br />
piece, with the honor bestowed upon luxury watch boutique, Marcus<br />
London. The two signature jet-turbine-styled pods, power reserve on the<br />
left dial, hours and minute on the right, sit atop a horizontal platform<br />
that houses the engine. Controlled by their independent crowns and<br />
powered by two parallel mainspring barrels, the HM4 Thunderbolt<br />
offers up to 72 hours of power reserve, which is transferred to the pods<br />
via vertical gear trains. Turn the watch over to reveal a plate engraved<br />
with ‘Marcus- Pièce Unique’ as well as a peek at the micro engineering<br />
of the engine.<br />
11 ROGER DUBUIS EXCALIBUR DOUBLE FLYING<br />
TOURBILLON SKELETON IN BLACK TITANIUM<br />
This “full black” titanium version of the emblematic Excalibur Double<br />
Flying Tourbillon introduces a skeleton movement to bring together<br />
the philosophy of this watch: power, lightness and transparency.<br />
Having first debuted skeleton movements back in 1995, Roger Dubuis<br />
is known for their modern and ethereal interpretations. This 45mm<br />
powerhouse is as technical on the exterior as it is in the interior. It<br />
combines two signature devices of the brand: the skeleton and the<br />
double flying tourbillon. Comprising 319 parts, this hand-wound<br />
movement beats at a frequency of 21,600 vph with a power reserve of<br />
48 hours, and is limited to 88 pieces.
082 REVOLUTION<br />
> > SOPHISTICATED<br />
MINIMALISM AT ITS BEST<br />
ABOVE<br />
Girard-Perregaux<br />
1966 Minute Repeater<br />
<br />
BROUGHT TO YOU BY GIRARD-PERREGAUX<br />
As one of the most renowned watchmakers in<br />
the world, it comes as no surprise that Girard-<br />
Perregaux once again managed to produce<br />
something of such exquisite beauty that attendees<br />
at the <strong>2012</strong> Salon International de la Haute<br />
Horlogerie (SIHH) were left speechless in awe.<br />
A stunning new watch, the Girard-Perregaux<br />
1966 Minute Repeater is just one of a range of<br />
beautiful watches being released by the exalted<br />
Swiss manufacture.<br />
The classic repeater watch is one where mechanical<br />
excellence has historically been demanded.<br />
It is traditionally a complication inside<br />
a mechanical watch that audibly chimes or produces<br />
an audible notification of the hours and<br />
minutes at the press of a button. An incredibly<br />
difficult complication to master, repeater watches<br />
were traditionally used in the days when electric-<br />
ity was scarce, luminous materials were not yet<br />
available, and audio cues were required.<br />
From the earliest days of the Girard-Perregaux,<br />
its watchmakers have strived to push<br />
mechanical and technical boundaries, proven<br />
through various accolades and awards from the<br />
Astronomical Observatory de Neuchâtel in recognition<br />
of Girard-Perregaux’s commitment to<br />
watchmaking excellence.<br />
Within the new 1966 Minute Repeater beats<br />
one of the most complex movements ever created.<br />
Constructed to allow a device featuring two circular<br />
gongs coiled inside the case, small hammers<br />
beat at regular intervals. Apart from the incredible<br />
difficulty and precision required to achieve<br />
this, engineers and designers at Girard-Perregaux<br />
also had to perfect the sound of each chime.<br />
The setting of the chimes remains one of the<br />
A successful expression of mechanical<br />
excellence and understated styling
BROUGHT TO YOU BY GIRARD-PERREGAUX<br />
most undervalued qualities of a repeater complication,<br />
but one that has the utmost importance for<br />
a refined watch enthusiast. Designers put the complication<br />
through the strictest acoustic tests before<br />
finally announcing that the perfect sound had been<br />
achieved. The diameter of the caliber and the interior<br />
diameter of the case are perfectly balanced,<br />
a ratio that guarantees maximum resonance. The<br />
caseback is curved in order to increase the volume<br />
of air between the movement and the case, which<br />
significantly improves the propagation of the sound.<br />
The curved case then had to be designed and diamond<br />
polished to such a high standard to guarantee<br />
maximum resonance at all times.<br />
The watch contains a handwound mechanical<br />
movement - the GP E09-0001 caliber - that<br />
features 317 components, with a rhodium plated<br />
and circular-grained mainplate, offering a power<br />
reserve of over four days. Water resistance is 30<br />
meters. For such elegance and with the rarity of<br />
its movement, combined with the extremely difficult<br />
challenge of producing such a complication,<br />
Girard-Perregaux has once again shown the world<br />
the mastery it is capable of.<br />
But it’s not just mechanics and complications<br />
that drive the designers at Girard-Perregaux; one<br />
of the main driving forces of the brand is to create<br />
the most beautiful watches in the world, and the<br />
new 1966 Minute Repeater is no exception.<br />
The new 1966 Minute Repeater is of a classic,<br />
subtle design, in keeping with the ethos of<br />
supreme elegance that echoes through the walls<br />
of the Girard-Perregaux workshops in La Chauxde-Fonds,<br />
Switzerland. The designers have chosen<br />
a half-arrow shape recalling the Gold Bridges,<br />
Girard-Perregaux’s signature. The extremities of<br />
the arms are rounded to a semi-cylindrical shape,<br />
giving the watch face a beautiful, subtle elegance.<br />
Each part of the movement and the case requires<br />
a steady hand, with craftsmen polishing<br />
and smoothing each component using stones,<br />
buffs, pegwoods and diamond pastes in order to<br />
achieve perfect rounding.<br />
The 42mm case comes in rose gold, a classic<br />
choice being of more elegance than the standard<br />
yellow gold. Combining a classic appearance<br />
with a unique complication, the design<br />
aesthetics are a successful expression of minimalist<br />
sophistication.<br />
The enamel dial with arabic numerals afford<br />
this timepiece an understated beauty that<br />
one could elegantly wear it out in Paris, Milan,<br />
New York or <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>, and only a very select<br />
few would have an idea of just what you<br />
have under the hood, nor of the relative value<br />
on your wrist.<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 083<br />
ABOVE<br />
The handwound mechanical<br />
movement can be admired<br />
through the watch’s<br />
transparent caseback
90<br />
Richard Mille’s<br />
Le Mans Classic Editions<br />
Omega’s Seamaster<br />
Planet Ocean ‘Skyfall’<br />
Glashütte Original’s<br />
Senator Moonphase Skeletonized<br />
96<br />
<br />
“The power of imagination makes us infinite”<br />
86<br />
Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak<br />
Chronograph Leo Messi<br />
TAG Heuer’s Mikrotourbillons<br />
Chopard’s L.U.C Qualité Fleurier<br />
98 C3H5N 3O9’s Experiment ZR012<br />
100<br />
92<br />
94<br />
88<br />
F.P. Journe’s Octa Sport Limited Edition<br />
102 <br />
<br />
Urwerk’s UR-210<br />
John Muir
PRIME TIME
086 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
PRIME TIME<br />
RICHARD MILLE<br />
MELISSA LIM (text)<br />
RICHARD MILLE<br />
DOUBLE TROUBLE<br />
Richard Mille expands their partnership with Le Mans Classic Race with<br />
two high-performance watches<br />
The sixth iconic biennial Le Mans Classic vintage<br />
car race took place this July, and saw Richard<br />
Mille playing a major part as official timekeeper<br />
and principal partner since its inception in<br />
2002. The world-renowned international race<br />
was held on the famous 13-kilometer long circuit that’s<br />
known for drawing in record-breaking crowds. This year, to<br />
add to the excitement, Richard Mille – an avid motor fan<br />
himself – participated in the exhilarating marathon of a<br />
race. To commemorate the partnership between the two, the<br />
manufacture produced two limited edition high-performance<br />
sports watches.<br />
First up is the RM 011 automatic chronograph, featuring a skeletonized<br />
automatic movement with a flyback chronograph and<br />
annual calendar functions. The date display at 12 o’clock, as<br />
well as the chronograph counters and hands are all emblazoned<br />
with Le Mans Classic colors, such as those found in the rumble<br />
strips of the racing circuit. The 24-hour counter positioned at<br />
6 o’clock pays further tribute to this remarkable endurance<br />
race that sees 400 cars and drivers competing in<br />
teams from 4pm on Saturday to 4pm on Sunday. The entire<br />
watch relied heavily on machine-manufacturing processes,<br />
with the barrel-shaped case alone requiring no less<br />
than 200 distinct steps. The satin finished bezel is microblasted<br />
with the double Le Mans racing strip down the center.<br />
The RM 008 LMC tourbillon split-seconds chronograph, like<br />
the RM 011, incorporates a micro-blasted double racing strip<br />
on the bezel, as well as the blue and yellow stripes of the race<br />
circuit into the minutes and seconds of the chronograph that is<br />
indicated by the tourbillon. The RM 008 features the Le Mans<br />
Classic logo at 12 o’clock and is housed in a titanium case,<br />
boasting torque and function indicators. The epitome of watchmaking<br />
and motor sports, as well as exclusivity, the RM 008 is<br />
limited to only two pieces. <br />
<br />
<br />
RM 008 LMC TOURBILLON<br />
Movement: Manual-winding tourbillon<br />
movement; 70-hour power reserve<br />
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds; split<br />
second chronograph; torque and<br />
function<br />
Case: Titanium; 48mm x 39.7mm; double<br />
micro-blasted racing strip down<br />
center of bezel<br />
Dial: Torque and function indicators<br />
Strap: Black DLC-treated<br />
Limitation: 2 pieces
PRIME TIME<br />
RICHARD MILLE<br />
<br />
<br />
RM 011 LMC AUTOMATIC CHRONOGRAPH<br />
REVOLUTION 087<br />
Movement: Skeletonized automatic movement;<br />
50-hour power reserve<br />
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds; flyback<br />
chronograph with 24-hour counter;<br />
rotor with variable geometry<br />
Case: Titanium; 50mm x 40mm; double<br />
microblasted racing strip down<br />
center of bezel<br />
Dial: Skeletonized; date display at 12<br />
o’clock; 24-hour counter at 6 o’clock<br />
Strap: Black rubber<br />
Limitation: 150 pieces
088 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
PRIME TIME<br />
OMEGA<br />
CHARLENE CO (text)<br />
OMEGA<br />
SKY’S THE LIMIT<br />
Omega launches a commemorative piece<br />
for the latest James Bond film
PRIME TIME<br />
OMEGA<br />
SEAMASTER PLANET OCEAN 600M SKYFALL LIMITED EDITION<br />
MOVEMENT: Co-axial caliber 8507; self-winding movement; 60-hour power reserve<br />
CASE: Stainless steel; 42mm; domed scratch-resistant sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment; water<br />
resistant to 2,000 feet; screw-in crown; transparent case back<br />
DIAL: Matte black; unidirectional rotating bezel; indices and hands coated with Superluminova<br />
FEATURES: Hours, minutes, seconds; date; chronometer; helium escape valve<br />
STRAP: Stainless steel<br />
Since Daniel Craig reprised the role of the perpetually<br />
cool James Bond, Omega has been rather enthusiastic<br />
in immortalizing the iconic character through their<br />
equally awesome Seamaster series. From Craig’s<br />
first outing as Bond in “Casino Royale” in 2006, to<br />
“Quantum of Solace” two years later, Omega has released a total<br />
of five themed watches, with both subtle and apparent details<br />
clearly distinguishing them as “Bond, James Bond” watches.<br />
This year, the widely anticipated 23 rd installment of the series<br />
comes in “Skyfall,” its release coinciding with the 50 th anniversary<br />
of the Bond film series. Marking its seventh appearance<br />
in a Bond film, Omega introduces the Seamaster Planet Ocean<br />
600M ”Skyfall” Limited Edition watch, which, like its Seamaster<br />
brethren and surely to the relief of 007 hopefuls, is well<br />
equipped for underwater action. The 42mm piece is built with<br />
a unidirectional rotating diving bezel – a standout with its matt<br />
REVOLUTION 089<br />
black ceramic ring and chromium nitride diving scale – and a<br />
helium escape valve. The piece is powered by Omega’s new coaxial<br />
caliber 8507 and water resistant to up to 2,000 feet.<br />
Every bit masculine, the watch comes in a stainless steel case<br />
– brushed and polished – fitted with a screw-and-pin bracelet<br />
and a clasp engraved with, of course, “007.” To ensure its legibility<br />
deep underwater, its applied indices and rhodium-plated<br />
hands are coated with white Superluminova, emitting a bright<br />
blue light against the matt black dial they’re laid on, while the<br />
minute hand and dot on the diving bezel give out a green light.<br />
Continuing on the Bond theme, the identifiable “007” logo is<br />
put in place of 7 o’clock, while its rotor has “Skyfall 007” engraved<br />
in black varnish.<br />
The Seamaster Planet Ocean 600M Skyfall will be available<br />
only in 5,007 pieces.
090 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
PRIME TIME<br />
GLASHÜTTE ORIGINAL<br />
MELISSA LIM (text)<br />
GLASHÜTTE ORIGINAL<br />
SKELETONS<br />
IN YOUR CLOSET<br />
Glashütte Original makes no bones about it
PRIME TIME<br />
GLASHÜTTE ORIGINAL<br />
During a year bursting at the seams with<br />
flashy skeletonized movements, it is fair to<br />
say it would take one that’s nothing short of<br />
extraordinary to find its way onto the radar<br />
of discerning watchmakers and aficionados<br />
alike. However, not all skeletonized movements are built<br />
the same and one glance at the Glashütte Original Senator<br />
Moon Phase Skeletonized Edition tells you it is definitely<br />
something exceptional.<br />
It is not uncommon, or altogether unreasonable, to liken a new<br />
design with a predecessor or vintage counterpart; it comes with<br />
the territory. In this case, inspired by and reworked from the<br />
Glashütte Original 1845 Classic Up/Down with Moon Phase, a<br />
model that first debuted ten years ago, this year’s Senator Moon<br />
Phase Skeletonized Edition offers an insight into its magnificent<br />
micro machinery.<br />
The “Up/Down” of its predecessor, of course, refers to the elegant<br />
40-hour power reserve indicator that remains on its successor between<br />
1 and 2 o’clock. Along with the moon phase and seconds, it<br />
GLASHÜTTE ORIGINAL SENATOR<br />
MOONPHASE SKELETONIZED EDITION<br />
REVOLUTION 091<br />
Movement: Glashüttte Original caliber<br />
49-13; manual winding;<br />
40-hour power reserve<br />
Functions: Hours, minutes; small<br />
seconds; power reserve<br />
indicator; moon phase<br />
Case: Red gold; 42mm; sapphire<br />
crystal case back<br />
Dial: Galvanized silver;<br />
skeletonized<br />
Strap: Matte black alligator leather;<br />
deployant buckle<br />
Limitation: 100 pieces<br />
is one of three subdials to lie atop the intricate galvanized silver<br />
skeletonization that is entirely made in-house.<br />
A visual treat for any watch lover, the manually wound caliber<br />
49-13 is completely visible through the front and back, thanks<br />
to the antireflective sapphire crystal, which allows the wearer<br />
to peer into the layers of complications and admire the expertly<br />
finished components. In addition, the delicate engravings that<br />
adorn both sides of the movement are a result of expert craftsmanship,<br />
giving the watch an even more three dimensional, intricate<br />
feel. The skillfully finished red gold case adds a classic<br />
touch and enhances the blue and gold moon phase display, as<br />
does the black chapter ring and finely sketched Roman numerals.<br />
Certainly exclusive, only 100 will be made available worldwide,<br />
with the limited edition number of each piece engraved<br />
in gold lettering at the back – a stark contrast to the galvanized<br />
steel of the movement on the case back. To complete<br />
this sophisticated look is a matt black alligator strap and<br />
deployant buckle; it rounds off another fine example of the<br />
superb watchmaking skills in Glashütte.
092 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
PRIME TIME<br />
AUDEMARS PIGUET<br />
CHARLENE CO (text)<br />
AUDEMARS PIGUET<br />
LEGEND IN<br />
THE MAKING<br />
Audemars Piguet dedicates a Royal Oak to an exceptional sportsman
Audemars Piguet has<br />
a knack for taking<br />
on the sports world’s<br />
crème de la crème as<br />
ambassadors, having<br />
the likes of Novak Djokovic, Michael<br />
Schumacher and LeBron James in<br />
this elite circle. This time, the Le<br />
Brassus watchmaker collaborates<br />
with arguably the most brilliant<br />
football player at the moment,<br />
24-year-old Argentine Leo Messi,<br />
who plays for FC Barcelona, on a<br />
watch that’s created in his honor.<br />
The Royal Oak Leo Messi is the sole<br />
special edition Royal Oak of <strong>2012</strong>,<br />
the same year Audemars Piguet<br />
marks its 40 years in watchmaking.<br />
<br />
PRIME TIME<br />
AUDEMARS PIGUET<br />
Apart from his sheer talent – his<br />
throng of achievements include setting<br />
a world record for scoring the<br />
most goals in a season during the<br />
2011–<strong>2012</strong> series – Messi is also a<br />
genuinely generous player who motivates<br />
his teammates to perform<br />
their best. At just 24 years young,<br />
he’s led his team to win an astounding<br />
five Spanish championships and<br />
three Champions Leagues. As if that<br />
wasn’t enough, Messi – who is also a Unicef ambassador – is<br />
admired for his loyalty to the club that took him in when he was<br />
14; and for his philanthropy, having started a foundation for<br />
underprivileged children. So while homages are more typically<br />
reserved for, well, the more senior, Messi’s is most certainly well<br />
earned and deserved to say the least.<br />
Messi started his affair with the Royal Oak in 2005 when he<br />
was presented with one to celebrate his first La Liga title; he has<br />
since been drawn to them, even starting his own collection. In<br />
2010, he was named brand ambassador.<br />
On the Royal Oak Leo Messi, Audemars Piguet made certain<br />
that it was distinct enough not only so that it can be justly<br />
referred to as a “special edition,” but also to befit this young<br />
sports legend in the making. The piece comes in a slightly larger<br />
size at 41mm, and is fitted with an alligator strap instead of<br />
the usual steel bracelet; a rubber strap is also included, should<br />
you feel inclined to wear the watch in more sporty endeavours.<br />
Further, and for the first time in the series, its dial does away<br />
from the Royal Oak signature tapisserie motif, and the bezel<br />
is given a richer and rather intriguing blue and grey sheen by<br />
virtue of the material, tantalum. The Royal Oak Messi features<br />
three chronograph counters, as well as a small seconds counter<br />
REVOLUTION 093<br />
AUDEMARS PIGUET ROYAL OAK<br />
LEO MESSI LIMITED EDITION<br />
MOVEMENT: Self-winding mechanical calibre<br />
2385; 40-hour power reserve;<br />
21,600 vph<br />
CASE: 41mm; steel/tantalum,<br />
pink gold/tantalum and<br />
platinum/tantalum<br />
DIAL: Three chronograph counters;<br />
small seconds counter;<br />
brushed silvered ring<br />
FEATURES: Hours, minutes;<br />
small seconds; date;<br />
chronograph functions<br />
STRAP: Alligator<br />
LIMITATION: 500 steel/tantalum,<br />
400 pink gold/tantalum,<br />
100 platinum/tantalum<br />
that is lined by a finely brushed silvered ring, and is driven by<br />
the self-winding mechanical caliber 2385.<br />
The Leo Messi Royal Oak is offered in combinations of steeltantalum,<br />
pink gold-tantalum or platinum-tantalum, with only<br />
500, 400 and 100 pieces, respectively, each of which thoughtfully<br />
packaged in a lacquered shoe box-shaped case, made even<br />
more precious with a special message from the great yet endearingly<br />
humble Messi himself.
094 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
PRIME TIME<br />
TAG HEUER
Driven by speed, precision and performance, TAG<br />
Heuer’s never really bothered with tourbillons in<br />
the past. Strictly function-wise, the tourbillon’s<br />
original goal of improving accuracy has been<br />
rivalled by the modern precision techniques<br />
that have only gotten better and accurate through time; these<br />
complex yet certainly beautiful mechanisms are instead<br />
executed mainly for aesthetic purposes, as a statement of the<br />
watchmaker’s art and skill. Having said that, when TAG Heuer<br />
finally decided to pursue this much-loved complication, being<br />
somewhat more than fashionably late to the party, it not only<br />
had to be a stunner, it also had to be at the very least daring,<br />
and in line with its fervor for ultimate performance. Drum rolls<br />
and enter the MikrotourbillonS, with which TAG Heuer’s most<br />
definitely hit a precision high.<br />
Touted as the manufacture’s “most ambitious luxury chronograph<br />
to date,” the MikrotourbillonS is the first ever tourbillon<br />
on a 1/100 th of a second chronograph – the fastest one of<br />
its kind – that can be started and stopped. The ingenuity of<br />
the MikrotourbillonS, given its never-before-seen dual-chain,<br />
double-barreled tourbillon, stuns at the very least.<br />
If your imagination is wild enough, do picture this: two rotating<br />
tourbillon mechanisms – one for time telling and the other<br />
for timekeeping – visible on the dial, with the first operating<br />
at a standard rate of 28,800 beats per hour, as its hand sweeps<br />
the dial at a standard tourbillon speed of once a minute; while<br />
the second drives the 1/100 th -of-a-second chronograph at a<br />
stunning 360,000 beats per hour. And if you’re still not in a<br />
frenzy with such an image, discover that it has no cage and can<br />
be started and stopped at whim, due to its revolutionary dual<br />
chain architecture.<br />
TAG HEUER MIKROTOURBILLONS<br />
<br />
PRIME TIME<br />
TAG HEUER<br />
CHARLENE CO (text)<br />
TAG HEUER<br />
REVVED-UP<br />
TOURBILLONS<br />
TAG Heuer reinvents the classic complication in the only way it knows how<br />
MOVEMENT: 1/100th second chronograph function; 2 tourbillons; automatic<br />
bi-directional rewinding movement; first tourbillon operating at<br />
360,000vph; second tourbillon: 1 rotation every 5 seconds<br />
CASE: 45mm; sandblasted tantalum and solid rose gold; double antireflective<br />
curved sapphire crystal; solid rose gold push buttons<br />
and crown with rubber; water resistant to 100 meters<br />
DIAL: Anthracite dial with Côtes de Genève; 2 chronograph counters;<br />
Arabic numerals<br />
FEATURES: Hours, minutes; central hand; 1/100th of a second chronograph<br />
at 3 o’clock; 1/10th of a second at 6 o’clock; power reserve<br />
counter at 12 o’clock<br />
STRAP: Hand-sewn anthracite high-tech soft touch alligator strap;<br />
tantalum folding clasp with applied TAG Heuer logo<br />
REVOLUTION 095<br />
One would expect that this complex mechanism would be an<br />
energy-hungry monster, but TAG Heuer is one step ahead.<br />
To enable this powerhouse, the MikrotourbillonS is installed<br />
with the same integrated movement found in the earlier TAG<br />
Heuer Mikrograph 1/100 th of a second chronograph, which is<br />
equipped with two independent kinematic chains, each devoted<br />
to serving the watch and the chronograph.<br />
This astounding mechanism innovation is, charmingly enough,<br />
housed in TAG Heuer’s iconic Carrera from the 1960s. Its case<br />
is made from tantalum with rose gold horns, and embellished<br />
with a Côtes de Genève decoration, and fitted with a hand-sewn<br />
alligator strap.<br />
It will probably take some time to even wrap your mind around<br />
the incredible inner workings of this mechanism but when you<br />
do, or better yet, have the privilege of seeing it in the flesh, prepare<br />
to be left speechless.
096 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
PRIME TIME<br />
CHOPARD<br />
MELISSA LIM (text)<br />
CHOPARD<br />
CLASSICALLY<br />
BRILLIANT<br />
Chopard impresses with this triple-certified powerhouse
PRIME TIME<br />
CHOPARD<br />
To acquire the world-renowned Fleurier Quality<br />
Certification is to be considered a true feat attainable<br />
only by the elite. It entails a stringent series of<br />
tests combining COSC, Chronofiable and Fleuritest,<br />
to examine the precision, reliability, durability<br />
and quality of aesthetics of a watch. The Fleurier Quality<br />
Foundation, an independent certification body, was formed in<br />
2001, with the partnership between a Technical Committee<br />
and the Foundation Council ensuring absolute objectivity. Admired<br />
and coveted the world over, it is open to all Swiss and<br />
European watch brands, and the L.U.C. Qualité Fleurier joins<br />
the ranks as Chopard’s fourth certified watch.<br />
While the Chopard L.U.C. Qualité Fleurier may not pack a<br />
punch at first glance, a closer look will guarantee intrigue and<br />
admiration. Whatever this watch may lack in flair aesthetically,<br />
it makes up for with a promise of consistency. Tucked away inside<br />
the 39mm case at the 6 o’clock position, lies the L.U.C.<br />
Fleurier caliber 96.09-L, which provides 65 hours of power reserve<br />
– thanks to the two “Twin” technology stacked barrels<br />
that boasts a frequency of 28,800 vph.<br />
Proudly displayed front and center are the “Qualité Fleurier” and<br />
“Chronometer” inscriptions, which along with the 18-karat rose<br />
gold case, baton-shaped hour markers, and hands, provide a clas-<br />
sic yet subtle contrast from the silver-toned dial. Being the only<br />
adornments, the dial remains clutter-free and focused on optimal<br />
readability, keeping with the general aesthetics of the piece and<br />
exemplifying the elegance and sophistication of haute horlogerie.<br />
This exceptional watch is available with a brown alligator<br />
leather strap and is limited to 300 pieces. With its triple certification<br />
and the Chopard name under its belt, one can rest<br />
assured they are investing in a truly remarkable piece. <br />
CHOPARD L.U.C. QUALITÉ FLEURIER<br />
<br />
<br />
Movement: L.U.C. caliber 96.09-L; self-winding; 65-hour<br />
power reserve; 28,800 vph<br />
Functions: Hours, minutes; small seconds at 6 o’clock<br />
Case: 39mm; rose gold; sapphire crystal case back;<br />
water resistant to 30 meters<br />
Dial: Silver-toned; sunburst satin-brushed<br />
Strap: Brown alligator leather; rose gold pin buckle<br />
REVOLUTION 097
098 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
PRIME TIME<br />
C3H5N3O9<br />
C3H5N3O9<br />
MECHANICAL<br />
CHEMISTRY<br />
Max Büsser and Felix Baumgartner join forces for<br />
an unusual and potentially explosive project
A<br />
significant shockwave was generated a few weeks<br />
ago when we heard of not only a new watch, but of<br />
a new project that combines the creative and technical<br />
juices of two of the best-known proponents<br />
of lateral thinking in haute horlogerie: Maximilian<br />
Büsser and Felix Baumgartner.<br />
Maximilian Büsser’s Horological and Legacy Machines – now in<br />
their fourth generation for the HM series, and first generation<br />
for the LM series – has created a very loyal following in just<br />
a few years, and anticipates with bated breath the next “machine.”<br />
In the same vein, Felix Baumgartner at Urwerk, along<br />
with Martin Frei, has made his mark with the brand’s signature<br />
satellite-based complications, choosing to display time any<br />
which way but with traditional hands.<br />
Therefore, the name of this new project, C3H5N3O9, is particularly<br />
apt as it’s the chemical formula for nitroglycerine, a<br />
volatile explosive compound that is vulnerable to shock alone,<br />
making its production and transport, difficult at best. With<br />
two well-established names in the industry, and, admittedly,<br />
both rather strong-willed and proud of their individual achievements,<br />
volatility will definitely be part of the mix.<br />
Their first collaboration takes the form of the Experiment<br />
ZR012. While they enlisted the help of noted designer,<br />
Eric Giroud, for the case of the watch, there are<br />
definite cues from both MB&F and Urwerk in the timepiece.<br />
The mechanism is inspired by the Wankel rotary<br />
engine, which was developed by a 17-year old German<br />
called Felix Wankel almost 100 years ago. It’s a very efficient<br />
design, but also quite complex and necessitates<br />
such precise machining of the parts that it never made<br />
significant inroads into the car industry.<br />
On the Experiment ZR012, you’ll find the rotary engine<br />
design elements on two planes; the tips of the triangular<br />
shaped rotors (or Reuleaux polygons if we really must<br />
get technical) trace an epichrotoid curve, indicating the<br />
minutes on the upper plane, and the hours on the lower<br />
one. The case is in zirconium, while the articulated lugs<br />
are in titanium. On the back of the watch is the power<br />
EXPERIMENT ZR012<br />
<br />
PRIME TIME<br />
C3H5N3O9<br />
Movement: Manual winding; 2 Wankel engine-inspired Reuleaux<br />
polygon rotors; 28,800vph;<br />
39-hour power reserve; 42 jewels;<br />
328 components<br />
Functions: Hours, minutes<br />
Case: Zirconium case with titanium lugs;<br />
sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment;<br />
water resistant to 30 meters<br />
Strap: Brown calf leather strap; titanium and<br />
white gold folding buckle<br />
Limitation: 12 pieces<br />
REVOLUTION 099<br />
reserve indicator, which helps to track what remains of the 39hour<br />
reserve from a full manual wind.<br />
Now here’s the kicker: should you be interested in adding an<br />
Experiment ZR012 to your collection, and have 110,000 Swiss<br />
Francs burning a hole in your private bank account, the watch<br />
is available by ordering on the internet only. Bear in mind that<br />
there will only be twelve ZR012’s produced, and C3H5N3O9 will<br />
require a deposit of 33,000 Swiss Francs to earn your place in<br />
the queue.<br />
The team behind C3H5N3O9, which also includes Serge Kriknoff,<br />
Büsser’s partner at MB&F; Martin Frei, Urwerk’s designer; and<br />
Cyrano Devanthey, Urwerk’s research and development watchmaker,<br />
go to great lengths to explain that this is not a brand<br />
per se, but rather an “experimental platform.” The Experiment<br />
ZR012 will be followed next year by its RG012 twin, replacing<br />
zirconium with rose gold, but the subsequent projects – should<br />
there be any – would be entirely different and not necessarily<br />
a high-end mechanical watch. It remains to be seen what will<br />
inspire this unusual partnership over the next few years!
100 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
PRIME TIME<br />
F.P. JOURNE<br />
F.P. JOURNE<br />
DARK RACER<br />
F.P. Journe’s Octa Sport turns to a black limited edition to remember<br />
his Indy 500 adventure with famed racing driver Jean Alesi
PRIME TIME<br />
F.P. JOURNE<br />
François-Paul Journe turned a few heads last year<br />
when he presented his first “sports” watch, the<br />
Centigraphe Sport. After all, even though he has<br />
the Centigraphe movement, and has had a previous<br />
limited edition chronograph, his timepieces and<br />
design cues have been much more classical in nature, and not<br />
generally aimed at accompanying the wearer in most strenuous<br />
physical activities. You will recall that the Centigraphe Sport’s<br />
calling card is the extensive use of aluminum, not only for<br />
the case and bracelet, but also for the movement, giving it an<br />
extraordinary lightness. A few months later, it was joined by<br />
the Octa Sport, sporting a new rubber bracelet and the same<br />
aluminum elements and shock proofing that are now trademarks<br />
of his Sport series.<br />
As if the all aluminum look was not a radical enough departure,<br />
Journe created a limited edition Octa Sport to commemorate<br />
his association with Jean Alesi’s valiant attempt at running a<br />
rather underpowered car at the famed Indy 500 race; this time,<br />
he chose to present the Octa Sport Indy 500 in a blackened<br />
aluminum case. Black watches have indeed been favored by collectors<br />
of sports watches in recent years, but few would have<br />
guessed that Journe would be joining the fray. It does give the<br />
limited edition of 99 pieces – numbered 501 to 599 – a rather<br />
unique look. The blackened aluminum retains the special coat-<br />
ing that makes it particularly scratch-resistant, while being anti-allergenic<br />
and anti-corrosive, which will appeal to those who<br />
are concerned that the coating may be easily marred – a drawback<br />
that some types of blackening treatments may endure.<br />
The dial is also black, and features the F.P. Journe logo with his<br />
signature “Invenit and Fecit” dictum, and, optionally, a commemorative<br />
Indy 500 logo with Jean Alesi’s signature and the<br />
Lotus logo.<br />
Other technical features remain the same as the Octa Sport,<br />
namely a 120-hour power reserve with an indicator near 10am;<br />
hours and minutes via central hands; small running seconds at<br />
5pm; and a day/night indicator at 8pm; topped off by a large<br />
date at 1pm. The entire watch – rubber strap and all – weighs<br />
a scant 53 grams, even though it takes no less than 354 components<br />
to put it together. To put this weight in perspective, this<br />
is less than the weight of two “standard” letters, as defined by<br />
the post office!<br />
It’s unfortunate that this incredible lightness did not allow Jean<br />
Alesi to do more than a handful of laps at this year’s Indy 500, but<br />
we are assured that he is all the more motivated to try again next<br />
year. We wish him the best of luck, and look forward to perhaps<br />
another horological feat from F.P. Journe to accompany him. <br />
F.P. JOURNE OCTA SPORT INDY 500<br />
REVOLUTION 101<br />
MOVEMENT: Calibre FPJ 1300-3; unidirectional automatic winding;<br />
made of aluminium alloy; 40 jewels; Circular Côtes de<br />
Genève on bridges<br />
CASE: 42mm; blackened aluminium alloy with rubber inserts<br />
DIAL: Blackened aluminium alloy and sapphire; Superluminova<br />
hands and appliqué indices; 12 luminescent points<br />
FEATURES: Hours and minutes; small seconds; day/night indication;<br />
power reserve indicator; date<br />
STRAP: Rubber
102 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
PRIME TIME<br />
URWERK<br />
URWERK<br />
POWER MONITOR<br />
Urwerk’s newest gives us a new insight into the daily function<br />
of the mechanical movement<br />
In a horological world that seems hell bent on introducing<br />
a new collection at every opportunity, Urwerk has been<br />
keen to progress much more gradually. It’s almost hard to<br />
believe that they signed their iconic 103 series’ marching<br />
orders two years ago now. You will recall though that<br />
it was, in fact, in preparation for introducing their UR-110<br />
series, with its newest interpretation of their signature satellite<br />
complications.<br />
The UR-110 quickly gained appreciation from the knowledgeable<br />
crowd of watch collectors. Its unique case design made it stand<br />
on its own, bearing little resemblance to its predecessors, yet instantly<br />
recognizable as one of Felix Baumgartner’s and Martin<br />
Frei’s brainchildren. This time ‘round, they’ve turned their attention<br />
to the 200 series, and are now introducing the UR-210.<br />
Unmistakably an Urwerk, the UR-210 transforms their signature<br />
satellite complication yet again. The emphasis on the<br />
minute “hand” is particularly prominent, as it seemingly encases<br />
the hour satellite display. As a retrograde hand, it will<br />
only move through its assigned 120 degree arc; at the end of<br />
each hour, it snaps back, in less than 1/10 th of a second, to its<br />
starting point to retrieve the cube that displays the next hour.<br />
The UR-210 though, is perhaps Urwerk’s most interactive watch<br />
yet; you may recognize the power reserve<br />
display at 1 o’clock, but it’s mirrored this<br />
time at 11 o’clock by a new indicator,<br />
which Urwerk calls a winding efficiency<br />
indicator. Its basis is the difference between<br />
the energy that is consumed by<br />
the movement, and the energy that is being<br />
produced by the automatic winding<br />
mechanism over the previous two hours.<br />
Taking the two extremes, the red zone<br />
means that the UR-210 is running down<br />
its stored energy, and that you’re not<br />
moving anywhere near enough to generate<br />
any discernable winding energy. At<br />
the green zone, you’re engaging in some<br />
sort of calisthenics, generating considerably more power than<br />
is needed to replenish the single mainspring barrel so it can<br />
provide its 39 hours of power reserve.<br />
At this point, the decision is yours; you can now influence the<br />
winding efficiency by means of a selector switch on the back<br />
of the UR-210. At the “Full” position, the winding rotor will<br />
be unimpeded, and any movement is likely to generate some<br />
power. Select the “Reduced” position and you’ve engaged an<br />
air turbine compressor that acts as a damping system for the<br />
rotor, reducing its effectiveness, but in turn avoiding unnecessary<br />
wear on the movement. Lastly, the “Stop” position will,<br />
as you might have guessed, completely immobilize the winding<br />
mechanism, such that the UR-210 relies entirely on its power<br />
reserve. While a similar system was introduced with the UR-<br />
202, this is the first time that you can visually gauge the effective<br />
state of the winding mechanism, leading you to act on it<br />
should you see fit.<br />
We make no excuses for our obsession with mechanical horological<br />
hearts. With the UR-210, Urwerk has given us another way to<br />
interact with them beyond the mere time setting or daily winding<br />
routine; future wearers of the UR-210 will be lead to explain why<br />
they are even more frequently staring at their watch!
PRIME TIME<br />
URWERK<br />
URWERK UR-210<br />
REVOLUTION 103<br />
MOVEMENT: Caliber UR-7.10; self-winding coupled to turbines; 51 jewels;<br />
28,800vph; 39-hour power reserve<br />
FEATURES: Patented revolving satellite complication with wandering hour<br />
and three-dimensional retrograde minute hand; power reserve<br />
indicator; winding efficiency indicator<br />
CASE: Titanium and steel; sapphire crystal glass; water resistant to<br />
30 meters; satin finish; circular graining, sandblasted,<br />
circular and straight satin-finished plate; satin-finished and<br />
diamond-polished satellites; bevelled and polished screw heads<br />
DIAL: 3D minute hand in aluminum with brass counterweight;<br />
central cylindrical spiral in spring-steel; hour satellites in<br />
aluminium; central carrousel and screws in Titanium Grade 5;<br />
Super-LumiNova treatment on markers, dials, indices,<br />
hands, and satellites<br />
STRAP: Black leather
104 REVOLUTION<br />
> > TAKE THE HIGH ROAD<br />
ABOVE<br />
Gerry Tosh, global marketing<br />
manager of Highland Park<br />
Single Malt, with<br />
the-one-of-a-kind<br />
Highland Park 50 years<br />
<br />
BROUGHT TO YOU BY EDRINGTON GROUP<br />
Among the Edrington Group’s esteemed whiskies,<br />
a notable one is the Highland Park Single<br />
Malt. Martin Daraz, brand ambassador of Highland<br />
Park Single Malt and The Macallan in the<br />
US and Asia Pacific, calls the tipple the Indiana<br />
Jones of whisky, compared to a James Bond-like<br />
The Macallan. “Both come from the same world;<br />
both pioneer the realm of whisky-making, and<br />
both are targeted to the committed drinker, but<br />
they do so differently,” he says. “Highland Park<br />
gives a characteristically luscious, smoky and<br />
sweet palette.”<br />
Gerry Tosh, global marketing manager of<br />
Highland Park Single Malt, takes the analogy<br />
even further. He calls the tipple the Sherlock<br />
Holmes of whisky, because it allows the discerning<br />
drinker to investigate a wide variety of flavours<br />
derived from maturation in Spanish and<br />
American oak, including its signature smokiness.<br />
“Walk into a bar in Scotland and ask for a<br />
whisky tasting, and the bartender will give you a<br />
Highland Park 12 Years. It’s smoky; it’s sweet; it’s<br />
got everything,” says Tosh.<br />
Arguably “the most respected whisky in the<br />
world,” Highland Park Single Malt hails from<br />
northern Scotland’s Orkney Islands – a place so<br />
The complexity and single-malt prowess of HIGHLAND PARK<br />
wows whisky drinkers’ palates the world over
BROUGHT TO YOU BY EDRINGTON GROUP<br />
windy that the tallest vegetation in the region<br />
doesn’t grow past the knees. On average, wind<br />
blows at 161km/h for at least 80 hours a year.<br />
Yet, it’s precisely these trying circumstances<br />
that allow for Orcadian peat and a climate of<br />
two to 12 degrees Celsius that, when combined,<br />
give Highland Park Single Malt an award-winning<br />
edge.<br />
Founded in 1789 by Magnus Eunson, Highland<br />
Park prides itself as one of the world’s few<br />
distilleries that still does floor malting, where<br />
tonnes of malted barley are laid out across the<br />
distillery to be smoked with peat. The tree-less<br />
Orkney Islands, however, nurture a distinctive<br />
peat: one that comprises mainly heather and dry<br />
grass, and gives a uniquely dark, honey aroma.<br />
Pair these qualities with Edrington’s famed sherry<br />
oak casks, and you’ve got a drink that remains on<br />
whisky connoisseurs’ top 10 lists year after year.<br />
Two years ago, Highland Park also launched<br />
a 50-year-old 1960 vintage. With only 275 bottles<br />
produced, each masterpiece is encased in an intricate<br />
cage of ornate handcrafted sterling silver<br />
by Scottish jewellery designer Maeve Gillies, who<br />
took inspiration from the island’s elemental forces.<br />
“It has been our goal to make vintages every<br />
now and then,” says Tosh. “We’re very excited<br />
about the 50-year-old, judging from the success<br />
the years before have brought us. It’s about<br />
strength and depth in history, and of course, a<br />
matter of making a quality of whisky that is absolutely<br />
amazing.”<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 105<br />
ABOVE<br />
Highland Park<br />
Single Malt 21 years,<br />
World Whisky of<br />
the Year 2009
106 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
COVER STORY<br />
CARTIER
COVER STORY<br />
CARTIER<br />
REVOLUTION 107<br />
A LANDMARK<br />
IN DESIGN<br />
CARTIER’S TIMELESS TANK WELCOMES<br />
A NEW MEMBER TO THE COLLECTION<br />
+DAVIDE BUTSON-FIORI (photos) +PRISCILLA I’ANSON (styling) +STEPHEN HARVEY (makeup)<br />
<br />
<br />
+ALEXANDER CHUI @ IL COLPO HAIR (hair) +BORI N (model)
108 REVOLUTION<br />
No one does timeless elegance quite as exquisitely<br />
and enduringly as Cartier – a brand that has, over<br />
the last century, presented some of the most iconic<br />
and identifiable timepieces we’ve come to know<br />
and admire. Case in point, when Cartier watches<br />
are mentioned – whether you’re a serious watch collector or not<br />
– it’s certain that almost instantaneously, the Santos, Pasha,<br />
Baignoire, Tortue and Tank will come to mind.<br />
Even more remarkable is that Cartier has so successfully<br />
sustained interest in their lines even decades after their launch,<br />
and long after the initial buzz of novelty has died down. While<br />
these models have seen many reinterpretations, their most<br />
fundamental aesthetic element – their form – remains at the very<br />
heart of the piece. We focus our attention on one of these iconic<br />
models, which to many is Cartier’s boldest and most memorable<br />
design: the Tank.<br />
WHAT’S IN A NAME?<br />
As you may have already guessed the inspiration for the Tank<br />
is, in fact, the military. As Europe marched to World War I,<br />
the British did so equipped with the latest artillery at that time,<br />
including what spectators could only then describe as “iron<br />
rectangular assault vehicles with a tractor tread,” or what<br />
we would later come to know as army tanks. Louis Cartier is<br />
believed to have patterned the design of the Tank watch after the<br />
top view of this ironclad weaponry, with the brancards echoing<br />
the treads; and the rectangular case, the cockpit of the vehicle.<br />
While the Tank is today a certified classic, it was very much<br />
avant-garde when it was first presented in 1917. Widely known<br />
for their penchant for tradition, Cartier went out on a limb with<br />
the Tank in that it completely shied away from the generous<br />
curves and arches that were en vogue at that time. Instead,<br />
they introduced clean lines, geometric forms and essentially, a<br />
more discreet, understated appearance with the lugs and case<br />
seamlessly integrated and appearing as an extension of the<br />
strap. These components made the Tank watch simultaneously<br />
quadrilateral, with the traditional circular hour dial giving way<br />
to the square or rectangular form.<br />
TANKS<br />
TREAD<br />
THROUGH<br />
TIME<br />
<br />
COVER STORY<br />
CARTIER<br />
1917<br />
TANK NORMALE<br />
The Tank Normale was modelled after<br />
the top view of a military tank, with its<br />
brancards echoing the treads, and the<br />
case representing the cockpit of the<br />
vehicle. Its was a design leap in that it<br />
took a chance on a pared-down look<br />
over then fashionable elaborate curves.<br />
Clean, crisp lines and defined shapes<br />
were its distinct characteristics, and<br />
would come to define the many Tanks<br />
that would later succeed it.<br />
<br />
<br />
OPENING SPREAD<br />
Tank Louis Cartier XL Slimline<br />
THIS PAGE<br />
Tank Américaine<br />
1921<br />
TANK CINTRÉE<br />
Following the Tank Normale is the Tank<br />
Cintrée or the “curved” Tank. Function-<br />
and style-wise, it set the foundation<br />
for the Tank Américaine of the 1980s.<br />
The Tank Cintrée’s arched rectangular<br />
case is the first major modification to<br />
the original 1919 version, and intended<br />
for the timepiece to follow the natural<br />
contour of the wrist. By virtue of its<br />
rectangular case, this 1921 Tank has<br />
been deemed by many to be another<br />
bold move on Cartier’s part.
On Bori is the Tank Americaine in 18k pink gold<br />
with diamonds, large model;<br />
Panthere de Cartier necklace in 18k white gold<br />
with diamonds, sapphires, onyx and emeralds;<br />
Panthere de Cartier ring in 18k white gold with<br />
diamonds, onyx and emeralds;<br />
Escada shirt, Escada pants and Celine heels<br />
1922<br />
TANK LOUIS<br />
CARTIER OR<br />
TANK L.C.<br />
<br />
COVER STORY<br />
CARTIER<br />
The Tank Louis Cartier, or Tank L.C. is<br />
distinguished mainly by its soft edges<br />
and round upper lugs – its “smoothed<br />
geometry” supposedly somewhat<br />
echoing the traditional round watch.<br />
The Tank L.C.’s most significant<br />
departure from the original Tank<br />
was the thinning of the two vertical<br />
brancards and the borders of the case<br />
at 6 and 12 o’clock.<br />
TANK CHINOISE<br />
The Tank Chinoise is the last of the<br />
five Tanks made in the early days of<br />
the series. Inspired by the structure<br />
of the Chinese temple porticos, it is<br />
one of the few watches in history to be<br />
inspired by an architectural feature.<br />
Asia had left quite an impression on<br />
Louis Cartier, from his regular visits<br />
to antique dealers in Paris. It was a<br />
derivation of the 1919 Tank in that<br />
their squares are identical with two<br />
crossbars extending onto the lateral<br />
brancards. Featuring a commanding<br />
square case, it is believed to be the<br />
most masculine Tank.<br />
<br />
<br />
1928<br />
REVOLUTION 109 109<br />
TANK À GUICHETS<br />
As the trend for watches with numerical<br />
displays took on, Cartier introduced the<br />
Tank à Guichets. In this bold piece we<br />
see the glass, dial and hands replaced<br />
by a plate with two windows or guichets,<br />
each displaying a number on a turning<br />
disc: one indicating the hours, the<br />
other the minutes. The concept of the<br />
Tank à Guichets was founded on the<br />
jumping hour, while its unconventional<br />
naked metal with small windows for a<br />
dial was no doubt a show of modernity.<br />
Maintaining that subdued feel, Cartier<br />
used brushed platinum or gold to give it<br />
a matte appearance.
110 REVOLUTION<br />
FROM TOP<br />
Cartier boutique at 13 Rue de la Paix, Paris, circa 1915;<br />
Design sketch for a watch created for Princess Mdviani, wife of Louis Van Allen, 1935<br />
1932<br />
<br />
COVER STORY<br />
CARTIER<br />
TANK BASCULANTE<br />
As playing sports became increasingly<br />
popular in the 1930s, watchmakers<br />
scrambled to find a way to protect<br />
the dial and bezel from scratches and<br />
shock. Cartier responded with the<br />
Tank Basculante, a wristwatch with<br />
a dial that can be concealed upon<br />
pivoting the watch 180 degrees via<br />
an integrated winding mechanism<br />
positioned at 12 o’clock; it will then<br />
reveal a gold case back engraved with<br />
the owner’s initials.<br />
1936<br />
TANK ASYMÉTRIQUEE<br />
Showing its design versatility, Cartier<br />
went out of character with the Tank<br />
Asymétrique, skewing the balance<br />
of the watch and shifting 12 and 6<br />
o’clock to the corners, and the winding<br />
mechanism at 2 o’clock. A version made<br />
in 1963 was named the Tank Oblique.<br />
Beyond aesthetics, the (rebellious)<br />
Tank Asymétrique can be interpreted<br />
as the paradoxes of an era, and the<br />
clamor for serious change.<br />
<br />
<br />
1952<br />
TANK RECTANGLE<br />
(BROAD MODEL)<br />
The Tank Rectangle is pure class,<br />
with its generous dimensions, dense<br />
graphics and satin-finished gold<br />
rectangular case that matches its<br />
gold dial. The watch has an octagonal<br />
winding crown embellished with a<br />
cabochon sapphire, and a leather strap<br />
equipped with a folding buckle made<br />
of yellow and pink gold.
Widely known for their penchant for tradition, Cartier went out on a<br />
limb with the Tank in that it completely shied away from the generous<br />
curves and arches that were en vogue at that time.<br />
Through the Tank, the French house became one of the first<br />
to demonstrate that less can be more – a tenet that many<br />
designers took on soon after with their work. This approach,<br />
however, was as much socially relevant as it was a design<br />
milestone. Remember that the Tank came just right at the<br />
end of the war and at the dawn of a new century, and its<br />
pared-down appearance and seamless structure was a perfect<br />
embodiment of modernity, innovation, and to some extent,<br />
modesty. It was also a time when women were taking on a<br />
more active and important role in the workforce, and as a<br />
consequence abandoning their elaborate, restrictive dresses<br />
for more sensible, silhouette-baring clothes.<br />
A 1917 prototype of the Tank was symbolically presented<br />
to General John Pershing, the commander of the American<br />
Expeditionary Forces responsible for leading American<br />
troops along the Western Front, at the end of the war. Actual<br />
production of the first series of the Tank, the Tank Normale,<br />
however, would only commence two years later. From<br />
mid-November towards the end of 1919, six models were<br />
produced – all of which sold out by January the following<br />
year. Needless to say, it was an instant hit, and as Cartier<br />
recognized the growing prominence of women in society, the<br />
house released a jewelry version, making it among the first<br />
watch brands to target this demographic.<br />
TANKS ACROSS THE DECADES<br />
The beauty of the Tank lies in its minimalism. Apart from<br />
the sapphire cabochon on the winding crown – a Cartier<br />
signature – the timepiece is kept simple, with the dial clear<br />
of anything but hours and minutes. Even in the Tank’s later<br />
1960<br />
MINI TANK<br />
ALLONGÉE<br />
<br />
COVER STORY<br />
CARTIER<br />
From an imposing Tank Rectangle, the<br />
Tank gets a more refined appearance<br />
with the Mini Tank Allongée. Targeting<br />
women with its delicate case, its<br />
brancards are embellished with<br />
diamonds, recalling Louis Cartier<br />
jewelry watches in the 1920s.<br />
incarnations, and amidst the emergence of a rather feature-<br />
and complication-crazed watch market, Cartier has managed<br />
to resist from further embellishing the Tank’s pristine dial,<br />
which allows all attention to be given where it is most certainly<br />
deserved: its ingenious design.<br />
A suite of Tank models would soon follow the Tank Normale;<br />
in the 1920s alone, Cartier presented four: the Tank Cintrée,<br />
Tank Chinoise, Tank Louis Cartier and Tank à Guichets. In<br />
the 1930s, Cartier introduced the Tank Basculante, and the<br />
“rebellious” Tank Asymétrique and Tank Oblique; and in 1952,<br />
the Tank Rectangle, followed by the Mini Tank Allongée in<br />
1960; and in 1977, the Tank Must de Cartier Vermillion and<br />
Burgundy dial.<br />
The Tank Américaine of 1989, and the Tank Française later in<br />
1996 – said to pay tribute to two of Cartier’s iconic boutiques<br />
in New York and Paris – would gain worldwide admiration.<br />
The Tank Américaine was inspired by the Tank Cintrée, taking<br />
cues from the latter’s curved case while modernized with a<br />
more compact rectangular form and rounded brancards. An<br />
adjustable folding buckle would likewise make a debut, updating<br />
the mechanism used by Cartier since 1910. The Américaine is<br />
also a tribute to the Tank watch presented to General Pershing.<br />
Seven years later, Cartier gave the Tank a refreshed look in the<br />
Tank Française with bevelled brancards, concave curved links<br />
and a curved form. Finishes were carefully selected as to give the<br />
watch a strong appearance. Its most notable change, however,<br />
would be its curved case being set in a chain-link bracelet, whose<br />
corrugated edges echo the treads of armored tanks.<br />
1974 1977<br />
TANK ALLONGÉE<br />
The elongated case of the Tank Louis<br />
Cartier gave way to the Tank Allongée.<br />
Its main distinguishing characteristics<br />
are its change from square to<br />
rectangle, and its miniaturization.<br />
A feminine watch in principle, the<br />
Tank Allongée was made available<br />
only in 2 calibers – the 7 and 8 lines<br />
– as the 9 line models were reserved<br />
primarily for men’s watches. Curiously,<br />
however, it was the Tank Allongée that<br />
transitioned to a men’s watch more<br />
organically than other Tanks.<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 111<br />
TANK MUST<br />
DE CARTIER<br />
The Tank Must de Cartier was made<br />
more contemporary giving color to<br />
the dial by using onyx, coral, ivory,<br />
lapis lazuli, tortoiseshell and garnet.<br />
To showcase the gems in all their<br />
glory, the numerals were removed,<br />
leaving only the gold baton hands, an<br />
engraving of “Must de Cartier” and the<br />
Cartier logo at 6 o’clock; it maintains<br />
however, the distinct sapphire<br />
cabochon on its crown.
112 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
COVER STORY<br />
CARTIER<br />
The Tank Américaine aine is the first Cartier<br />
watch featuring a curved, waterproof<br />
case. Another descendant escendant of the Tank<br />
Cintrée, the Américaine éricaine dons a more<br />
compact rectangular gular case with flatter<br />
brancards and thinner inner horizontal sides.<br />
Other distinguishing hing features are its<br />
modern octagonal al crown and folding<br />
buckle.<br />
Tank Française<br />
TRIUMVIRATE COMPLETE<br />
Cartier took its time before adding another member to its Tank<br />
family – all of 16 years. As they say, you can’t hurry art.<br />
Having paid homage to two of its historic boutiques – New York<br />
and Paris with the Tank Américaine and Tank Française – it<br />
was just a matter of time before Cartier cast the spotlight on the<br />
third distinguished boutique from its origins: London.<br />
Seamless integration has always been one of the main pillars of<br />
the Tank and the Tank Anglaise certainly will not disappoint<br />
purists. The Anglaise’s case – in true Tank fashion – flows<br />
effortlessly into the bracelet, while the crown is thoughtfully<br />
concealed behind its vertical brancards, giving only a classy<br />
hint of its existence by virtue of a sapphire cabochon for the<br />
gold version, and a diamond for the jewelry version. The series’<br />
other distinct features likewise make an appearance, such as the<br />
Roman numerals, chemin-de-fer chapter ring, and blued-steel<br />
sword-shaped hands.<br />
Unlike the earlier Tank Française, which focuses mainly on<br />
the jewelry aspect of the piece, the Tank Anglaise is certainly<br />
all about the watch and its harmonious integration with the<br />
rest of its parts. The Tank Anglaise returns to the classic dial,<br />
rejuvenating it with silver lacquer.<br />
1989 1996 <strong>2012</strong><br />
TANK AMÉRICAINE MÉRICAINE TANK FRANÇAISE FRANÇ<br />
TANK ANGLAISE<br />
The Tank Française is, argu arguably, a<br />
jewelry piece first and foremost. fore<br />
For this stunning timepiece, timepiece Cartier<br />
created a metal metal bracelet like lik a piece<br />
of jewelry then tailored a watch w into<br />
it. Don’t be mistaken though thoug as the<br />
Tank Française is still very much a<br />
Tank, with its Roman nume numerals, railroad<br />
minute track circle, and pa parallel vertical<br />
brancards extending above<br />
and below<br />
the case.<br />
<br />
<br />
Characterized for its sheer robustness,<br />
the latest version of the Tank pays<br />
homage to the vibrant city of London<br />
– its passion and influence in the arts,<br />
and how it has produced some of<br />
today’s most brilliant world-renowned<br />
artists. Harmony being paramount<br />
to the Tank Anglaise, it maintains the<br />
uninterrupted flow between the case<br />
and the bracelet, while its crown is<br />
carefully embedded into the brancard<br />
with only a jewel in sight.
COVER STORY<br />
CARTIER<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 113<br />
Bori wears the Tank Française<br />
in 18k pink gold and steel,<br />
large model;<br />
Maryling jacket,<br />
Salvatore Ferragamo<br />
shirt and skirt,<br />
Givenchy heels
114 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
COVER STORY<br />
CARTIER<br />
<br />
<br />
Tank Anglaise
COVER STORY<br />
CARTIER<br />
While it stays true to the Tank tradition, the Tank Anglaise<br />
makes a statement with its strong lines and flawless<br />
proportions. The Anglaise is currently available in three<br />
sizes to suit men or women, in three colors of gold, with<br />
the large models powered by the Manufacture 1904 MC<br />
movement with its upper bridges and oscillating weight<br />
decorated with Côtes de Genève. This is significant as it is<br />
the first Tank to have a movement designed, produced and<br />
assembled entirely in-house, which can be admired through<br />
its open case back. It also comes in a jewelry version, with<br />
various interpretations of diamonds, from a spectacular<br />
full diamond setting, across the gold bracelet, around the<br />
case, and on the dial, to more discreet versions, making the<br />
Tank Anglaise a versatile watch that can suit any occasion.<br />
LEGACY CONTINUES<br />
Not to be overshadowed, Cartier this year also re-introduces<br />
one of its most breathtaking and timeless pieces, the<br />
Tank Louis Cartier. Refreshing the piece, Cartier tones down<br />
its rigid, precise lines, giving it a softer, more approachable<br />
Unlike the earlier<br />
Tank Française,<br />
which focuses mainly<br />
on the jewelry aspect<br />
of the piece, the Tank<br />
Anglaise is certainly<br />
all about the watch<br />
and its harmonious<br />
integration with the<br />
rest of its parts.<br />
On Bo Bori is the Tank Anglaise<br />
in 18k<br />
pink gold with diamonds,<br />
medium mediu model;<br />
Escada Escad jacket and dress,<br />
Prada heels<br />
REVOLUTION 115<br />
appearance. The piece is but 5.1mm thick, making it the<br />
most svelte in the Tank family.<br />
The French house also shows that it can tread dangerously with<br />
the Tank Folle, which evokes the character of the Crash watch<br />
from the 1960s. If smooth lines and perfect proportions were<br />
paramount with the Tank Anglaise, the Tank Folle goes exactly<br />
the opposite direction with its deconstructed, yet harmonious<br />
lines. Apart from its eccentric profile, it still maintains other<br />
Tank prerequisites, such as the Roman numerals and blued-steel<br />
sword-shaped hands but given an interesting twist, while the<br />
brancards and winding mechanism are studded with diamonds.<br />
Very few brands have been able to carry out what Cartier has been<br />
doing impeccably for more than a century: create designs great<br />
and memorable enough to be considered icons, and revisiting them<br />
so as to introduce the line to a new breed of collectors, without<br />
disappointing their loyal followers. We can only look forward to the<br />
future incarnations of the Tank, in fact Cartier’s campaign could not<br />
be more appropriate: Never Stop Tank.
118 GREUBEL FORSEY: THE MIND’S EYE<br />
124 A. LANGE & SÖHNE: EXCELLENCE IN SAXONY<br />
132 PRECIOUS METTLE<br />
138 THE MIDAS TOUCH<br />
148 OMEGA AND THE LONDON OLYMPICS <strong>2012</strong>
“It takes an endless amount of history to make<br />
even a little tradition”<br />
<br />
<br />
Henry James<br />
WATCH CULTURE
118 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WATCHCULTURE<br />
GREUBEL FORSEY<br />
SEAN LI (text)<br />
THE MIND’S EYE<br />
GREUBEL FORSEY AND WILLARD WIGAN JOIN FORCES ON ART<br />
PIECE 1, TAKING MECHANICAL ARTISTRY TO AN ENTIRELY NEW SCALE<br />
When your passion revolves around fine<br />
mechanical watches, you’re likely to have<br />
a certain appreciation for looking at<br />
life through a loupe. After all, with the<br />
naked eye, it’s not easy to truly grasp the<br />
workmanship that goes into the movements whose virtues<br />
we are constantly espousing. Even when the movement is in<br />
plain view through a sapphire caseback, or if it’s skeletonized<br />
and you can peer even more into the heart of the watch, it’s<br />
easy to forget the challenges posed by working on such a<br />
scale, and the amazing skills that are truly required to put<br />
the myriad of parts together, and to ensure that the sum of<br />
these parts functions reliably. Many ardent watch collectors<br />
will have tried their hand at these in workshops, only to<br />
be left perplexed at why it’s taken them 15 minutes to put<br />
two screws on a balance wheel (not to mention the damage<br />
inflicted on said screws in the process), or why they managed<br />
to get all the parts together, and yet the darn thing still<br />
won’t tick over. By the same token, if you’ve ever visited a<br />
manufacture, or even a small workshop, you will have seen<br />
that it takes a particular environment and mindset to be able<br />
to, day in, day out, perform any of the related tasks.
WATCHCULTURE<br />
GREUBEL FORSEY<br />
Now picture a craft where the scale is even more diminutive, one<br />
that is dwarfed by even the smallest part on any watch. This is a<br />
world that lives on the head of a pin, or in the eye of a needle. It’s<br />
inhabited by infinitesimally small sculptures, which are virtually<br />
invisible within your day-to-day environment, but which come to<br />
life should you view them through a microscope – a watchmaker’s<br />
loupe would not do them justice. This dimension is one that Willard<br />
Wigan has lived in and crafted for the past 50 years.<br />
At a very young age, Willard Wigan found himself having<br />
some trouble at school. Not being able to pick up reading and<br />
writing as easily as his schoolmates – eventually determined<br />
to be dyslexic – he found that he was considerably more<br />
interested in the life of the ants in his garden. At five years’<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 119<br />
THIS SPREAD CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT<br />
Sketch of the concept watch;<br />
For Wigan’s work to be actually seen and<br />
appreciated, Greubel and Forsey incorporated a<br />
magnifying viewing window at 9 o’clock
120 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WATCHCULTURE<br />
GREUBEL FORSEY<br />
THIS SPREAD CLOCKWISE FROM TOP<br />
Wigan looking into the hole of a needle;<br />
A few of Wigan’s microsculptures:<br />
The Olympic Flame and Nefertiti ;<br />
Rendering of the Art Piece 1<br />
old, he started making furniture for the ants, and for the past 50<br />
years, has devoted his entire life to the world of microsculptures.<br />
Proclaiming himself as the greatest micro-artist who has ever<br />
lived, and, truth be told, it would be difficult to argue. Viewing his<br />
works of art can be somewhat frustrating, as they are impossible<br />
to view without a microscope. Just imagine that the head of a<br />
needle gives him ample space to put one of his sculptures, and<br />
in some cases, he’s put several of them, fully detailed and, just to<br />
top it off, painted. His tools comprise fragments of objects that he<br />
finds around him. His paintbrush is made of the hair from the leg<br />
of a dead fly – which, incidentally, had already passed by the time<br />
he plucked it. His tools are diamond chips for scalpels; spider<br />
webs that can be used as support within the eye of the needle;<br />
honey as adhesive; Kevlar, cotton, nylon, or human eyelashes. He<br />
has even crafted a diamond ring so small that it can rest at the<br />
tip of an eyelash.
WATCHCULTURE<br />
GREUBEL FORSEY<br />
Wigan goes to great lengths to explain though that this<br />
work comes at a price. It requires significant physical<br />
training, as he has learned to move in between heartbeats,<br />
and to keep as still as possible. Should you meet him,<br />
don’t be surprised if he asks you to put your finger against<br />
his, to show you that, even without any espresso-induced<br />
shaking, you’re not very likely to be able to hold still for<br />
more than a few seconds. He takes tremendous pleasure<br />
when each piece is finished, but states that he endures<br />
significant physical suffering in the process of crafting it.<br />
It comes as no surprise though that his achievements have<br />
been globally recognized, receiving an MBE (Member of the<br />
British Empire) award from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth<br />
II in 2007, and keynoting the Technology, Entertainment<br />
and Design Institute’s (TED) World Conference in 2009.<br />
REVOLUTION 121<br />
Wigan’s world intersected with the horological one in May of<br />
that same year, when he met with Robert Greubel in London.<br />
The idea was to collaborate on a timepiece that would merge<br />
Wigan’s microsculptures with the technical mastery of Greubel<br />
Forsey. Even through the language barrier – Greubel’s English<br />
vocabulary is on par with Wigan’s French, that is, rather<br />
minimal – the artists managed to find a common ground and<br />
to communicate through drawings and gestures, and embarked<br />
on a project that would become Greubel Forsey’s Art Piece 1.<br />
The project was presented for the first time at The Shanghai<br />
Art Fair in September this year. Underlining the importance<br />
to all parties involved, Robert Greubel, Stephen Forsey, and<br />
Willard Wigan were in attendance. Greubel, in particular,<br />
was a surprise; he is well known for his proclivity to staying<br />
close to home, so seeing him make the journey from the<br />
coziness of La-Chaux-de-Fonds, to the expanse of Shanghai,
122 REVOLUTION<br />
THIS PAGE CLOCKWISE FROM TOP<br />
Robert Greubel, Stephen Forsey and Willard Wigan;<br />
Sketches of the Art Piece 1;<br />
Wigan’s dragon microsculpture;<br />
Peering microscopically into the prototype, you will<br />
see this mask<br />
<br />
WATCHCULTURE<br />
GREUBEL FORSEY
WATCHCULTURE<br />
GREUBEL FORSEY<br />
The idea was to collaborate on a timepiece that would merge Wigan’s<br />
microsculptures with the technical mastery of Greubel Forsey.<br />
was unexpected. The timepiece is not quite completed yet,<br />
with the final piece scheduled to be unveiled at next year’s<br />
Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) in January<br />
in Geneva. The basic concepts were shown though.<br />
As with all of Greubel Forsey’s timepieces, Robert Greubel<br />
and Stephen Forsey sought to develop a way that would<br />
showcase Willard Wigan’s microscopic world on the wrist,<br />
and not just to adapt an existing one from their collection<br />
with one of Wigan’s sculptures. For a brand that has been<br />
obsessed with a quest for perfection, that approach would<br />
have been considered a let down. The Art Piece 1 features<br />
a carrousel, in a sense, a miniaturized art gallery, with<br />
several of Wigan’s sculptures, each crafted specifically for<br />
this project. A significant challenge was to develop a way<br />
to actually view and appreciate Wigan’s work, which was<br />
REVOLUTION 123<br />
achieved by the addition of a magnifying viewing window at<br />
9 o’clock. At this late stage, you would see a mask staring<br />
back at you with the same surprised look that you probably<br />
would have at seeing it in the first place. Greubel Forsey’s<br />
favored complication, the tourbillon, is also featured and<br />
in plain view, although its usual scale takes on a different<br />
proportion when you realize how large it is compared with<br />
Wigan’s sculptures. And time itself takes a secondary place<br />
in the Art Piece 1; at this stage, it’s hidden inside a window<br />
on the watch, and revealed only when a pusher is activated.<br />
REVOLUTION will of course be on hand when the Greubel<br />
Forsey Art Piece 1 is presented in its entirety in just a few more<br />
weeks. In the mean time, we revel in this concept that brings<br />
even more to the fore the mix of artistry and technical mastery<br />
that can turn a mechanical device into a masterpiece.
124 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WATCHCULTURE<br />
A. LANGE & SÖHNE
WATCHCULTURE<br />
A. LANGE & SÖHNE<br />
REVOLUTION 125<br />
EXCELLENCE<br />
IN SAXONY<br />
SEAN LI (text)<br />
REVLUTION gets a unique glimpse into the Lange Akademie,<br />
and the German brand’s obsession with quality and finishing
126 REVOLUTION<br />
REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WATCHCULTURE<br />
A. LANGE & SÖHNE<br />
An age-old dilemma facing all the watchmaking<br />
brands, young and old, is how best to educate their<br />
retail network to ensure that their own histories,<br />
brand values, and the quality of their timepieces<br />
are properly presented to a prospective watch<br />
buyer. After all, most watches are sold in a retail environment<br />
where each brand shares the space with a number of other<br />
brands, competing for the same attention and coveted moment<br />
when the enthusiast overcomes all resistance and hands over<br />
the credit card.<br />
Of course, each retailer must decide beforehand which brand<br />
will be present in a particular store, and receives some form<br />
of training material to go along with the branded display<br />
cases and catalogs to be handed out. However, this material<br />
must be absorbed by the individual salesperson, which can<br />
be an arduous task when confronted with the specificities of<br />
so many high-end watches.<br />
There is a brand though that is known for stretching the<br />
limits when it comes to its commitment to quality and the<br />
finest arts of watchmaking. They very proudly tell you<br />
that every single surface of their components is finished<br />
to a high degree, even those that are hidden from view and<br />
are unlikely to be seen, except by the watchmakers who<br />
put the movement together and take it apart for servicing.<br />
The brand also assembles each movement twice, initially<br />
to ensure that all components are properly made, and that<br />
they work together as anticipated. After first assembly, and<br />
the initial functional controls are made, the movement is<br />
disassembled, then all the component finishing is done<br />
before being re-assembly and subsequent casing of the<br />
watch. We’re of course referring to A. Lange & Söhne,<br />
which burst back onto the fine watchmaking scene after<br />
the reunification of Germany, and has continued to build<br />
from strength to strength to be considered one of the most<br />
prestigious brands on the planet.<br />
You would expect then that A. Lange & Söhne would<br />
seek to achieve a higher level of training for its retailers,<br />
so that the brand’s lofty guidelines can be adequately<br />
conveyed to a potential customer, to try and bring that<br />
extra bit of the spirit and dedication that’s pervasive<br />
throughout its manufacture in Glashütte to the person<br />
who’s contemplating the watch in front of them on the<br />
presentation tray.<br />
EXCELLENCE IN TRAINING<br />
To achieve this goal, in 2007 the brand created the Lange<br />
Akademie, with a specific mission to train and qualify the<br />
sales associates from their official retail network. Taking place<br />
at Lange’s state-of-the-art manufacture in Glashütte and at
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT<br />
A. Lange & Söhne’s headquarters in<br />
Glashütte, Germany;<br />
Ground breaking ceremony at the building<br />
A. Lange & Söhne moved into in 1990;<br />
Its Technology and Development Centre<br />
completed in 2003<br />
<br />
WATCHCULTURE<br />
A. LANGE & SÖHNE<br />
their dedicated watchmaking school in another<br />
nearby town called Bärenstein, the training<br />
given to each associate is in great depth and<br />
detail that usually spans three days, so that<br />
they gain product knowledge, manufacturing<br />
know-how, and can achieve a level of confidence,<br />
passion and commitment commensurate with<br />
the special timepieces that they are tasked to<br />
sell. It currently runs anywhere from ten to<br />
fifteen courses per year, and since its inception,<br />
the Akademie has given rise to approximately<br />
500 graduates.<br />
It doesn’t mean that each sales associate just<br />
gets the training once, and is then sent on their<br />
merry way to evangelize. There are, in fact,<br />
different stages that can be attained – from Lange<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 127
128 REVOLUTION<br />
Every surface of Lange’s components, even those<br />
unseen, is finished to a high degree, and their<br />
movements assembled twice to ensure components are<br />
properly made, and that they work properly together<br />
<br />
WATCHCULTURE<br />
A. LANGE & SÖHNE
WATCHCULTURE<br />
A. LANGE & SÖHNE<br />
Ambassador, to Coach, followed by Expert. Even those who<br />
reach Expert grading are invited back for “sustainability”<br />
training to learn about new calibers, or other significant<br />
developments, on a regular basis.<br />
Every aspect of Lange’s philosophy and manufacturing<br />
technique is explained, and the attendees are given hands on<br />
exercises to gain an increased appreciation of what they have<br />
been exposed to, either during a visit to the workshops, or in a<br />
classroom environment.<br />
NEW INSIGHTS<br />
REVLUTION was given a unique opportunity to participate,<br />
along with other members of the media from around the world,<br />
in a slightly shorter Lange Akademie session over the course of<br />
two days instead of three. The classroom sessions provided us<br />
with a number of unique facts about Lange watches, as well as<br />
developments that have occurred since their re-launch in the<br />
late 1990s. For example, while Lange’s ability to manufacture<br />
balance springs has been well communicated, it could surprise<br />
more than a few that the project was actually started during the<br />
time of the late Günter Blumlein, one of the founding fathers of<br />
the modern A. Lange & Söhne. It’s a capability that took some<br />
10 years to develop, with the first in-house balance spring being<br />
used in 2004, in the Double Split. Today, 75% of the balance<br />
springs that Lange uses are produced in-house, certainly no<br />
mean task given that there are some 20 different classifications,<br />
with diameters ranging from 0.05mm to 0.014mm.<br />
REVOLUTION 129<br />
Finishing is such a vital part of<br />
Lange’s ethos that this department<br />
actually works hand-in-hand with<br />
the movement construction and<br />
development department on each<br />
new movement, to optimize how the<br />
movement will be put together with the<br />
available finishing techniques.<br />
Of course, we spent a significant amount of time on the<br />
finishing, engraving, and quality control – aspects Lange<br />
feels truly set them apart from the rest of the industry. Here,<br />
we learned that for “black” polishing – so named because<br />
it’s polished to such a high degree that it can appear black<br />
depending on the incident light – can take up to five days on<br />
a single part. For perlage, or the circular graining that can<br />
be seen on some plates, Lange uses 17 different diameters.<br />
That number doesn’t really sink in until we’re told that only<br />
three diameters are available on the market, which means that<br />
Lange have had to make 14 different diameters of the required<br />
tools in-house. While a Lange 1 may require up to five different<br />
diameters during its finishing, the Tourbograph is the only<br />
one that will use every one of the 17 diameters somewhere on<br />
its movement. Finishing is such a vital part of Lange’s ethos
130 REVOLUTION<br />
THIS SPREAD FROM LEFT<br />
Datograph Up/Down;<br />
Rigorous testing of Lange watches<br />
<br />
WATCHCULTURE<br />
A. LANGE & SÖHNE
WATCHCULTURE<br />
A. LANGE & SÖHNE<br />
that this department actually works hand-in-hand with the<br />
movement construction and development department on each<br />
new movement, to optimize how the movement will be put<br />
together with the available finishing techniques.<br />
Quality control is another one of Lange’s obsessions, with 12<br />
specialists whose sole task is to control the esthetics and function of<br />
each part. Each and every watch is submitted to no less than three<br />
quality inspections; first after the winding mechanism is assembled,<br />
then after final assembly, and finally after the movement is cased<br />
and the watch is prepared for delivery. Yet again, Lange has had to<br />
develop specialized measuring tools to aid in their quality control<br />
endeavors. Even lubricants do not escape scrutiny; the Lange 1<br />
requires three different oils and three different grease types. While<br />
random checks are performed throughout, 100% of the parts are<br />
controlled prior to final assembly, to ensure that the finishing<br />
process did not affect its dimensions, and that all components are<br />
within the required tolerances.<br />
GETTING YOUR HANDS DIRTY<br />
As informative as the presentations are, it’s the hands-on<br />
sessions that are most eye opening. It’s not until you’ve spent<br />
some 20 minutes trying to get a tiny part polished to perfection,<br />
getting every minute swirl off the surface only to have it rejected<br />
by the instructor because it’s still not good enough that you<br />
gain a true sense of the magnitude of work involved in putting<br />
even the simplest Lange watch together. The sought-after blued<br />
screws, which involve heating the steel screws to harden them,<br />
is another exercise in frustration; it sounds excessively simple<br />
but trying to get four tiny screws heated properly so that they<br />
REVOLUTION 131<br />
are actually the same hue of blue is almost akin to alchemy. You<br />
need to place the screws individually in their holders, and place<br />
them over a flame and wait for the metal to change color. The<br />
fact that the screws actually continue morphing slightly after<br />
they’re removed from the flame adds insult to injury, making<br />
the final task of getting just four screws prepared a daunting<br />
one. Several classmates were heard muttering under their<br />
breath, saying, “I just can’t do this” on more than one occasion.<br />
Thankfully, Lange has now expanded the Akademie concept<br />
to reach beyond the sales associates, and have created the<br />
Connoisseurs’ Akademie, aimed at their loyal collectors. The<br />
format is similar, except, it’s condensed into an evening when<br />
guests can try their hand at some of the same exercises before<br />
moving on to enjoying a fine dinner, where they can talk about<br />
their newfound insight into their favorite timepieces.<br />
While we would urge you to attend the Connoisseurs’<br />
Akademie at the next opportunity, we would also recommend,<br />
if at all possible, to visit Lange in Glashütte. It’s there,<br />
walking through the workshops and seeing the watchmakers<br />
and engravers at work that you can feel the pride that goes<br />
into their timepieces. They truly make no excuses about it; it’s<br />
not, ultimately, about efficiency. Lange has always remained<br />
very secretive about the number of watches they produce in<br />
any given year, but rest assured that the number is minute<br />
compared with many other prestigious brands. The fact<br />
that Lange has just broken ground on an extension to the<br />
manufacture shows the growing interest in their watches, and<br />
we would surmise the effectiveness of the Lange Akademie in<br />
conveying their message to collectors around the world.
132 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WATCHCULTURE<br />
GOLD<br />
SARAH MURRAY (text)<br />
PRECIOUS<br />
METTLE<br />
THE ALLURE OF GOLD HAS ENCHANTED MAN SINCE TIME<br />
IMMEMORIAL. MORE RECENTLY, THE HOROLOGICAL WORLD SEEMS<br />
TO HAVE SURVIVED THE ONSLAUGHT OF ALTERNATIVE MODERN<br />
MATERIALS ONLY FOR GOLD TO RETAIN ITS FASCINATION. AND SO,<br />
DESPITE INFLATED PRICES OF THIS NOBLE METAL, THE APPEAL OF<br />
THE CLASSIC GOLD WATCH HAS NEVER LOST ITS SHINE
WATCHCULTURE<br />
GOLD<br />
Like the foolish Emperor in this classic tale, the<br />
world of horology, as of late, has taken to using<br />
bizarre materials that have little or no place<br />
in or on a watch, and as such, has led to an era<br />
of horological modernism bordering on utter<br />
madness. Initially, the intentions were reasonable, justified even;<br />
to make an extremely lightweight, strong watch for example,<br />
it is acceptable to use a metal like titanium, so we’ll let truly<br />
practical, advantageous applications of a select few modern<br />
materials slide. But, the industry got a little carried away.<br />
Coating a Submariner or Nautilus in black PVD (as some soidisant<br />
boutique watch customizers do) is sacrilege; selling it for<br />
an inflated price is positively wicked. The words “carbon fiber”<br />
are bandied about far too often, as if the material is designed<br />
to be the savior of the future of humanity; when in actual fact,<br />
more often than not, it takes form as carbon-reinforced plastic.<br />
These prevailing trends have opened the floodgates for new<br />
aesthetic materials, creating a revised and distorted definition<br />
of luxury. At what point did ceramic, tantalum and zirconium<br />
become an acceptable alternative to man’s most precious and<br />
noble metals?<br />
As man celebrated the momentous occasion of having first<br />
fermented grapes, turning them into wine, and around the time<br />
that rice was first cultivated in Asia, another magical discovery<br />
was unearthed in the form of near-pure, shiny, yellow nuggets,<br />
gleaming in muddy streambeds and rocks. In fact, recognition<br />
of the material and its ability to easily be unearthed by hand,<br />
was one of the fundamental factors to its accidental discovery. It<br />
was around 6,000 BC and man had discovered gold. Along with<br />
copper, it is one of the oldest metals to have been worked by man,<br />
and our fascination has yet to cease; rather, it has tormented our<br />
desires for many thousands of years. However, copper — an<br />
equally important metal in terms of society’s ancient industrial<br />
developments — was more suitable than gold for tools and<br />
weapons. While easily recognizable in the ground, gold was still<br />
a scarce metal; however, its aesthetic and physical attributes<br />
made it particularly appealing to man. The earliest civilizations<br />
realized its incredible properties of intrinsic beauty combined<br />
with malleability, virtual indestructibility and precious rarity.<br />
Thus, the eternal value of gold was established.<br />
The oldest existing examples of gold are usually found in<br />
jewelry or ornamental form rather than its practical copper or<br />
bronze cousin which were workhorse materials. As a precious<br />
metal, gold came to represent wealth and was chosen to adorn<br />
our bodies as jewelry. As a noble material, its natural resistance<br />
to corrosion highlighted a huge part of its appeal in that it<br />
endures forever. This gave it a religious and cultural relevance<br />
intrinsically linked to immortality and power. Gold is mined<br />
on every continent except Antarctica, and so, most ancient<br />
cultures and modern civilizations have at some point had<br />
access to its natural stores, and upon its discovery, have been<br />
allured by its beauty and value. In Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey,<br />
gold represents wealth and immortality. Ancient Egyptians<br />
wished to enter the afterlife with gold burial customs, and as<br />
early as 3,000 BC, they were already comparing its relative<br />
value to that of silver, which, while precious, was not as revered<br />
due its slightly more corrosible nature.<br />
“The collar’s always around the<br />
neck, the sleeves always come<br />
off the shoulders, the waist<br />
always goes around the middle!<br />
When will they invent something<br />
original?”<br />
— The Emperor’s New Clothes, Hans<br />
Christian Andersen<br />
FROM TOP<br />
This gold-cased pocket watch<br />
from Girard-Perregaux dates from<br />
circa 1860; The miniaturization of<br />
movements allowed watches to be<br />
fitted into rings — this no. 180 small<br />
gold ring watch with alarm from<br />
Breguet, circa 1835, was once owned<br />
by Prince Alexandre Demidoff<br />
REVOLUTION 133<br />
Clearly a significant part of gold’s appeal is that it endures<br />
forever, and today, the majority of gold is still used for<br />
jewelry. Its symbolism is a powerful reflection of our cultures<br />
and traditions, as a declaration of love or as an outward<br />
demonstration of success; gold, in every respect, projects the<br />
immense value we have attributed to it.<br />
Like a mechanical watch, one of gold’s most valuable<br />
attributes is that it will subsist forever, and the marriage of<br />
these two entities is a perfect amalgamation of transcendent<br />
beauty, emotional significance and material strength. Its<br />
use in horology is predated by the earliest clocks which were<br />
made of bronze, brass, forged iron or copper, with steel or iron<br />
movements. As watches gradually moved to be worn on one’s<br />
person, gold was the material of choice for the chain on which<br />
the pendant watch would hang either around the wearer’s<br />
neck or stay protected in a pocket, and gold coins were what<br />
the watch would have been purchased with.
134 REVOLUTION<br />
Gold bars being prepared<br />
for melting in Chopard’s<br />
gold foundry<br />
<br />
WATCHCULTURE<br />
GOLD
WATCHCULTURE<br />
GOLD<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 135
136 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WATCHCULTURE<br />
GOLD<br />
FROM TOP<br />
An antique 18K gold<br />
Breguet self-winding pocket<br />
watch, circa 1793; this 1904<br />
Cartier Santos with a gold<br />
case marked a departure<br />
from classic watch- and<br />
jewelry-making at the time;<br />
possibly the most iconic gold<br />
wristwatch of all time, the<br />
Rolex Oyster Perpetual Day-<br />
Date with a President bracelet<br />
Skills of goldsmiths and in metalworking began to improve<br />
and become more widespread as skilled artisans fled religious<br />
persecution from parts of Europe toward Switzerland. When<br />
the balance spring was introduced in 1675, the case was<br />
adjusted to accommodate the larger size of the movement,<br />
and most were made from gilded brass, silver or gold. (Silver<br />
continued to be used well into the 20th century in watchcases,<br />
but due to it being prone to corrosion, it was rarely used after<br />
the mid-20th century.) Toward the late 17th century, the courts<br />
of Versailles reintroduced the watch as an object of refinement.<br />
From the 1730s, watches became an important aesthetic dress<br />
accessory, and while silver and brass were still used, gold began<br />
to be used as a common case material. This period of aesthetic<br />
importance saw the rise of decorative enameling, which was<br />
often displayed in watches cased in gold — its delicate variations<br />
in colour an aesthetic complement to the artistic skills of<br />
enamelers. This period saw a distinct emphasis on sophisticated<br />
ornamentation and decoration coupled with increased precision<br />
in the movements. The visual appeal of gold and its increased<br />
availability ensured its place in watchmaking. By the early<br />
20th century, wristwatches had made their appearance, and<br />
so, the ornamental quality was of utmost importance as<br />
they remained in the realm of jewelry design. Jewels, enameling,<br />
precious stones and gold, were desired more than ever before in<br />
a watch.<br />
A<br />
century later, the enormous cultural value of gold and what<br />
a<br />
gold watch has come to represent are as significant as ever. In<br />
bbusiness,<br />
the presentation of a gold watch represents gratitude<br />
aand<br />
respect. Your first gold watch is a symbol of success or<br />
aaccomplishment.<br />
As a material, gold has been adopted by every<br />
sstrata<br />
of society, as a symbol of taste or wealth, in jewelry, in<br />
ddentistry,<br />
in ornaments. Lenin even famously declared his desire<br />
tto<br />
create toilets from the lustrous metal — somewhat of a waste.<br />
TThe<br />
gold watch has even taken on symbolic relevance within<br />
tthe<br />
culture of hip-hop, where, in the late 1980s, it exemplified<br />
iits<br />
ultimate role as a status symbol among the nouveau riche<br />
oof<br />
a subculture and MTV generation who came to represent<br />
radical change in the politics of race.<br />
The virtues of this pretty, shiny metal have played a hugely<br />
significant role throughout our social history. It has had the<br />
ability to convey a commanding message capable of empowering<br />
a social group, while its mythical properties provided the<br />
earliest civilizations with creations initiating worship.<br />
While even the horological world can be subject to trends,<br />
particularly in relation to the advent of new materials, even the<br />
oldest metal in the world is not immune to the weight of changes<br />
in tastes. Currently and for some time, the gold of choice has<br />
been that of rose gold — an alloy of gold and copper in various<br />
proportions, depending on the intensity of the reddish tinge<br />
desired. Watch brands have even explored their own gold alloys;<br />
Rolex, for example, has created Everose gold, which includes<br />
the addition of platinum to ensure longevity of the rose color.<br />
But it would appear that the horological world is encouragingly<br />
reverting to discreet luxury, with gold (yellow, pink or white)<br />
and other more traditional materials such as stainless steel,<br />
finally taking their place ahead of obscene uses of man-made<br />
materials better kept within the realms of aviation. This move<br />
toward classicism and away from unnecessary modernism<br />
serves to underline the importance that what endures is the<br />
internal value of a mechanical watch, deepened by the external<br />
value of gold. A mechanical gold watch demonstrates emotional<br />
and cultural significance and exudes lasting, eternal value.
A 1kg gold bar from the<br />
Chopard gold foundry<br />
<br />
WATCHCULTURE<br />
GOLD<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 137
138 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WATCHCULTURE<br />
THE MIDAS TOUCH<br />
<br />
<br />
IMAGES OF ROLEX DEEPSEA CHALLENGE COURTESY OF ©ROLEX/JEAN-DANIEL MEYER
WATCHCULTURE<br />
THE MIDAS TOUCH<br />
REVOLUTION 139<br />
Rolex Oyster Perpetual<br />
Cosmograph Daytona in yellowgold<br />
case and yellow-gold bracelet<br />
THE<br />
MIDAS<br />
TOUCH<br />
There is that unavoidable association one has with images of the<br />
feminine form blanketed in gold (“No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die”).<br />
Death via skin suffocation caused by gold paint has been proven<br />
a myth, much to the good of the precious metal of that hue and its<br />
metaphorical lethality for the soul is still ever present. The soft clink of<br />
gold upon a wrist is both celebration and cautionary symbol — it lies<br />
at the confluence of power, desire and human nature<br />
<br />
<br />
SIDNEY TEO (photographer) +ESTHER QUEK (fashion director)
140 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WATCHCULTURE<br />
THE MIDAS TOUCH<br />
<br />
<br />
Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso<br />
Classique in yellow-gold case and<br />
brown alligator strap.<br />
Metallic gold elastane bikini<br />
bottom, Mileti<br />
OPPOSITE<br />
Cartier Tank Anglaise in yellowgold<br />
case and yellow-gold<br />
bracelet. Tank Française Ring in<br />
yellow gold and diamonds, and<br />
Agrafe Necklace in yellow gold<br />
and diamonds, both Cartier
WATCHCULTURE<br />
THE MIDAS TOUCH<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 141
142 REVOLUTION<br />
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak<br />
Tourbillon Chronograph in yellowgold<br />
case and yellow-gold bracelet<br />
OPPOSITE SPREAD<br />
Omega Constellation 27mm<br />
“StarS” in yellow-gold case set with<br />
diamonds and yellow-gold bracelet<br />
<br />
WATCHCULTURE<br />
THE MIDAS TOUCH
WATCHCULTURE<br />
THE MIDAS TOUCH<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 143
144 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WATCHCULTURE<br />
THE MIDAS TOUCH<br />
<br />
<br />
Piaget Polo in two-tone<br />
yellow-gold and white-gold<br />
case set with diamonds and<br />
two-tone yellow-gold and<br />
white-gold bracelet;<br />
Metallic gold elastane bikini<br />
bottom, Mileti;<br />
Possession Classic Chain<br />
Motif Ring in yellow gold,<br />
and Possession Band Chain<br />
Motif Ring in yellow gold and<br />
diamonds, both Piaget<br />
OPPOSITE<br />
Bulgari Serpenti in yellowgold<br />
case set with diamonds<br />
and yellow-gold double-coil<br />
bracelet. Monete Sautoir<br />
necklace in yellow gold with<br />
antique bronze coins, Bvlgari
WATCHCULTURE<br />
THE MIDAS TOUCH<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 145
146 REVOLUTION<br />
Chopard Classic watch in yellowgold<br />
case and black alligator strap<br />
Fashion Stylist: Marie Lee<br />
Fashion Assistants: Firda Samat & Malavika Manay<br />
Photography Assistant: Matthew Ng<br />
Hair: Aaron Ng from Decorum Hair & Makeup<br />
Make-Up: Rina Sim using M.A.C<br />
Model: Barbara B/Upfront<br />
<br />
WATCHCULTURE<br />
THE MIDAS TOUCH
WATCHCULTURE<br />
THE MIDAS TOUCH<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 147
148 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WATCHCULTURE<br />
OMEGA<br />
WEI KOH (text)<br />
OMEGA<br />
AND THE<br />
LONDON<br />
<strong>2012</strong> OLYMPICS
WATCHCULTURE<br />
OMEGA<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 149
150 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
I<br />
t’s an extraordinary thing to be in the audience when<br />
an athlete from your country wins an Olympic medal.<br />
And while this might be a more commonplace occurrence<br />
for citizens of global superpowers like China, the United<br />
States, or the <strong>2012</strong> host nation, the United Kingdom, for<br />
someone from Singapore, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime moment. OK,<br />
so the athlete in question, Feng Tianwei, who defeated Japan’s<br />
Kasumi Ishikawa for the women’s bronze medal in table tennis,<br />
is China-born and only became a Singapore citizen in January<br />
2008. The more cynical amongst us could postulate that her<br />
allegiance to her new home nation could be somewhat tenuous.<br />
And it’s true that previous to this, my perception of ping-pong<br />
was limited to the idea of a sport played by senior citizens in<br />
recreation centers or by college students looking for creative<br />
ways to get each other drunk. And finally, I am not given to<br />
public displays of enthusiasm, preferring to invoke the mid-’60sjazz<br />
house practice of snapping one’s fingers in a demonstration<br />
of appropriately genteel appreciation. But damn it all if I didn’t<br />
get swept up in the nationalistic frenzy of the moment.<br />
As Feng and Ishikawa traded dizzying volleys so blindingly<br />
rapid that the sound of their paddles reached my ears only<br />
after the ball had already traveled across the table, after Feng<br />
routed Ishikawa and raised her fist in victory, I found myself<br />
leaping off my seat, screaming in Mandarin — a language I<br />
have no working knowledge of — and beating together two<br />
plastic inflatable Singapore flags, as a wave of elation so<br />
palpable that I can still feel it today, swept over me along with<br />
the rest of the Singaporeans gathered<br />
there that day.<br />
The week that followed would be<br />
one of the most extraordinary of my<br />
life. I would witness Michael Phelps<br />
win his 19th Olympic medal, and<br />
watch the amazing Gabrielle Douglas<br />
perform a gymnastics routine with<br />
effortlessness and confidence to rival the<br />
legendary Nadia Com˘aneci’s perfect-10<br />
performance in 1976. And even though I wouldn’t see it live,<br />
I could hear the roar explode through the arena when it was<br />
announced that my hero, Britain’s first Tour de France winner<br />
Bradley Wiggins, had decimated the competition to take the<br />
Olympic gold in the individual time trial, and put an emphatic<br />
exclamation mark on his status as the world’s best bicyclist.<br />
For a nation undergoing its share of economic turmoil, the UK<br />
was given a moment of wonderful optimism by the Olympics,<br />
a collective resetting of the consciousness toward rebuilding<br />
the future. Indeed the appearance of the Spice Girls — yes,<br />
including Posh — at the closing ceremony seemed to be an<br />
almost mythical rain dance to bring back that late-’90s era<br />
when money did indeed fall from the sky. For me, this Olympic<br />
Games and Omega, the Swiss watch brand that was my host,<br />
brought back a flood of memories.<br />
The last Olympics I attended was with my grandfather at the 1984<br />
Los Angeles Games. My grandfather could be described as a bon<br />
vivant, a man who spoke German, French and Italian, as well<br />
as Mandarin, Fukienese and Shanghainese. He had a penchant<br />
for ivory-colored linen suits and Ferragamo crocodile loafers. He<br />
wore his wavy hair slicked back like a Chinese Valentino, and<br />
he had courted and married a Shanghainese model and actress.<br />
His skin had turned chestnut brown from years on the tennis<br />
court and golf links. He was jovial and generous to a fault. He<br />
purchased me a tiny red sports car, which as a child I apparently<br />
used to terrorize the faculty and ground staff at Singapore’s<br />
National University where my father was made Dean of the<br />
Law School at the tender age of 28. Because he loved sports, he<br />
had made it a point to visit every Olympic Games he could, and<br />
there are phenomenal images of him and my father at the 1976<br />
Montreal Olympics. My grandfather was in a powder blue linen<br />
safari suit, gazing at the camera with a look of unbridled joy.<br />
In 1984, I was 14 years old and it was deemed that I was old<br />
enough to attend the Games with my grandfather. So, we set<br />
off for Los Angeles together. However, at 14 years old, a typical<br />
teenager, I was sullen, taciturn and willful, yet that week, we<br />
reveled in watching Carl Lewis equal Jesse Owens’ incredible<br />
four gold medals. When we returned to New York, we said our<br />
goodbyes; a year later, my grandfather<br />
passed away. The fact that I was not more<br />
communicative with him during that<br />
incredible summer was something that I<br />
regret to this day.<br />
However, my grandfather was also the<br />
individual who created a passion in<br />
me for wristwatches. He always had a<br />
spectacular watch on his wrist, and very<br />
often, it was an Omega. Indeed he gave<br />
my mother a stunning platinum Omega the day she married<br />
my father. Some 40 years later, the watch was badly in need of<br />
an overhaul. So one day, I picked it up from my parents’ home.<br />
I should mention that attempting to remove anything under my<br />
mother’s watchful eye is like trying to sneak out a Delacroix<br />
from the Louvre. But nonetheless I persisted and, with my<br />
father’s help, eventually succeeded.<br />
I presented it to Omega and Swatch Group’s Southeast Asia<br />
president David Ponzo. He looked the watch over carefully as I<br />
explained its history. What I find extraordinary about Omega<br />
is the brand’s absolute commitment to restoring and refinishing
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP<br />
Gabrielle Douglas’ athletic grace;<br />
Michael Phelps makes history with his haul<br />
of four gold medals in the London Games,<br />
bringing his Olympic gold-medal tally to 22;<br />
the Spice Girls reunite for a special<br />
performance at the Games’ closing ceremony;<br />
Briton Bradley Wiggins wins the Olympic gold<br />
on home soil in the men’s cycling individual<br />
time trial<br />
<br />
WATCHCULTURE<br />
OMEGA<br />
REVOLUTION 151<br />
any watch that is up to 100<br />
years old. What was obviously<br />
difficult about restoring the<br />
timepiece in question was<br />
that it was not one of the<br />
brand’s more iconic models,<br />
but clearly a small, elegant<br />
women’s model that had been<br />
made in smaller quantities.<br />
But Ponzo remained confident<br />
that his brand would be able<br />
to restore this meaningful<br />
keepsake from the past.<br />
Several months later, he<br />
rang me and I went down to<br />
the Swatch Group office to<br />
meet him. He presented the watch to me and the change was<br />
dramatic: the restoration had transformed a dusty antique<br />
to a watch that was simply breathtaking. The dial had been<br />
completely remade. I know from a discussion with the director<br />
of Nivarox, the legendary Swatch Group supplier of oscillators<br />
and escapements, that for vintage Omegas, Nivarox will remake<br />
historically accurate balance wheels and escapements if needed.<br />
The Swatch Group and Omega’s commitment to preserving the<br />
timepieces that it creates is simply unparalleled and a marked<br />
contrast to many brands that happily churn out watches with<br />
little or no concern as to their service needs for the future. Said<br />
Ponzo, “For us at Omega and Swatch Group, a watch is a precious<br />
thing. It is supposed to endure indefinitely and becomes the host<br />
to many personal memories. So, we have invested enormously<br />
to ensure that we can restore and maintain these timepieces for<br />
generations to come.”
152 REVOLUTION<br />
The appearance of<br />
the photoelectric<br />
cells used over the<br />
years has changed,<br />
but not their function<br />
Omega’s new electronic starting<br />
blocks made their debut at the<br />
<strong>2012</strong> London Games<br />
<br />
WATCHCULTURE<br />
OMEGA<br />
Chronometer-certified Omega chronographs were<br />
selected for the 1932 Olympic Games<br />
The swimming<br />
starting block<br />
features lights to<br />
indicate the top<br />
three finishers<br />
Automatic touch pads<br />
eliminated the possibility<br />
of human error in timing<br />
<br />
<br />
The Racend<br />
Omega Timer<br />
was later<br />
renamed<br />
Photofinish<br />
for the 1952<br />
Olympics<br />
Omega’s new Electronic Start<br />
System includes a flash gun<br />
that is connected to a speaker<br />
behind each runner, so that no<br />
one has an unfair advantage<br />
Old-school starting pistol in<br />
the 1948 Olympic Games<br />
Omega’s Swim Eight-O-Matic Timer
WATCHCULTURE<br />
OMEGA<br />
ABOVE Advertisements proudly proclaiming Omega’s role in the<br />
Olympics over the years FAR RIGHT The Omega Countdown Clock at<br />
Trafalgar Square for the <strong>2012</strong> London Olympics BELOW the Quantum<br />
timing system is accurate to 1/1,000,000th of a second<br />
I had the living proof of Omega’s commitment in my hands<br />
and was absolutely blown away. My mother was also similarly<br />
delighted to have the watch returned, because Ponzo was right.<br />
A watch is more than just a timepiece; it is a chalice into which<br />
we put our memories. This particular one was a tremendous<br />
tribute to a man who had had an enormous effect on all our lives.<br />
Beyond Omega’s commitment to the perenniality of its<br />
timepieces, this Olympics has also brought to bear the brand’s<br />
incredible commitment to timing innovation specific to these<br />
games. It can be said that the greatest sports timing innovations<br />
of the last century have all been brought about because of<br />
Omega’s relationship with the Olympic Games.<br />
Omega’s involvement with the Olympic Games began with 30<br />
high-precision chronographs, all of which had been officially<br />
certified as chronometers after passing individual trials at the<br />
famous Neuchâtel Observatory. This observatory was legendary<br />
for its international timing competitions, and it was this added<br />
certification that convinced the 1932 Olympic Committee<br />
to choose Omega chronographs as their official timekeepers.<br />
The results, which were recorded to one-fifth and 1/10th of a<br />
second, were flawless, convincing the committee to embark on a<br />
REVOLUTION 153<br />
relationship with Omega that endures<br />
to this day.<br />
In 1936, Omega upped the number of<br />
chronometer-certified chronographs<br />
to 185; these were amusingly<br />
transported to Berlin in a suitcase<br />
of a 29-year-old watchmaker named<br />
Paul-Louis Guignard. The 1936<br />
Berlin Olympic Games were of<br />
particular geopolitical importance as<br />
Hitler saw them as an opportunity<br />
to demonstrate the unerring veracity<br />
of his theories on racial supremacy.<br />
His expectation was to see the athletes of all other countries<br />
destroyed by the superior performance of German athletes.<br />
Initially, he did not want Jews or blacks to participate in the<br />
games. However, when other nations threatened to boycott the<br />
games, he relented. Importantly, these Games were the first to<br />
be televised live around the world.<br />
Although Germany had a prosperous Olympics, Hitler’s beliefs<br />
were radically challenged by black athletes like Jesse Owens,<br />
who routed the competition in track and field and won four<br />
Olympic gold medals. As the single most successful athlete of the<br />
1936 Olympics, Owens’ success had undermined Hitler’s Aryan<br />
ideals. In each event where the slight five-foot-10, 165lb Owens<br />
defeated far-larger German athletes to win the gold, an Omega<br />
chronograph was there to immortalize his victory, demonstrating<br />
the brand’s inseparable role within the annals of cultural history.<br />
Such was Omega’s commitment to improve timing technology<br />
at the Olympics that in 1948, it introduced the first cellular<br />
photoelectric eye where timing was automatically triggered<br />
when a start gate opened. At the same time, the British Race<br />
Finish Recording Co. Ltd developed the first photofinish<br />
camera nicknamed the “Magic Eye”. In conjunction with
154 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WATCHCULTURE<br />
OMEGA<br />
Omega’s boundary-pushing new technology, it heralded a new<br />
era in timing accuracy. Logically, in 1952, Omega introduced<br />
the era of quartz and electronic timing aids. In 1956,<br />
improvements included the Swim Eight-O-Matic Timer, the<br />
first semiautomatic timekeeping tool for swimmers replete with<br />
a digital display, which finally allowed officials to distinguish<br />
between competitors who finished within fractions of a second<br />
of one another.<br />
In 1960, these timers played a crucial role in a controversial<br />
decision related to American swimmer Lance Larson. Larson<br />
came in first in the 100m freestyle race according to an<br />
electronic timer, as well as all three Omega chronographs. But<br />
the president of the International Swimming Federation gave<br />
the gold to Australian John Devitt instead. This resulted in the<br />
creation of automatic touch pads to eliminate human error from<br />
all future timing results.<br />
Created in 1961, the amazing Omegascope was launched at the<br />
1964 Games. Omegascope unveiled the idea of “real time” in<br />
televised sporting events, superimposing luminous numbers of<br />
the bottom of the television screen and leaving absolutely no<br />
margin for error, as times were available to all viewers of all<br />
events. Omegascope proved to be a tremendous success, bringing<br />
a heretofore-unknown level of interaction and participation<br />
between the viewer and the events.<br />
In 1968, “integrated timing” was introduced, meaning that<br />
automatic and electronic timekeeping now provided statistical<br />
analysis with results visible to judges, coaches, the media and<br />
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP<br />
With a design inspired by the first steel<br />
Seamaster from 1948, the Seamaster 1948<br />
Co-Axial ‘London <strong>2012</strong>’ Limited Edition<br />
features an 18K gold medallion engraved<br />
with the London <strong>2012</strong> Olympic Games<br />
logo on the caseback; the Seamaster Aqua<br />
Terra Co-Axial ‘London <strong>2012</strong>’ is available<br />
in brushed stainless steel, as well as in<br />
a two-tone red-gold and stainless-steel<br />
version; the Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra<br />
Co-Axial Chronograph ‘London <strong>2012</strong>’ in<br />
red gold and stainless steel<br />
the public. Photo printing also allowed results to be more widely<br />
disseminated than ever before.<br />
In 1972, the Olympics was occasioned by a dramatic turn<br />
of events when a gold medal in the men’s 400m individual<br />
swimming medley was awarded based on the basis of the<br />
1/1,000th of a second. Initially, Sweden’s Gunnar Larsson and<br />
USA’s Tim McKee were announced to have finished in the same<br />
time on the Olympic scoreboard. But after the results were<br />
reexamined, it was decided that Larsson finished 0.002s faster,<br />
demonstrating Omega’s extraordinary role in deciding the fate<br />
of the Olympic champion Larsson. This is the first and only<br />
Olympic medal to be awarded based on 1/1,000th of a second.<br />
The 1976 Olympics is best remembered for the incredible<br />
performance of Romanian gymnast Nadia Com˘aneci’s perfect<br />
10/10 score across every gymnastic discipline. Her first perfect<br />
score was awarded for a mandatory routine on the uneven bars<br />
and was the first-ever perfect 10 awarded in the history of<br />
women’s gymnastics.<br />
In 1980, Omega’s Game-O-Matic calculated and displayed each<br />
competitor’s ranking the moment the finish line is crossed — a<br />
system that is still used to this day.<br />
In 1984, Omega introduced its false-start detectors. Omega was<br />
also instrumental in awarding Nancy Hogshead and Carrie<br />
Steinseifer the very first shared Olympic gold when Omega<br />
timing devices accurately demonstrated that both athletes<br />
completed the 100m freestyle in precisely 55.92s.<br />
In 1988, Omega boasted the first timekeeping results and data<br />
analysis that would be stored in databases for posterity.<br />
In 1992, Omega released Scan-O-Vision, a system that digitally<br />
measures time to 1/1,000th of a second as speed skaters<br />
crossed the finish line. Incredibly Scan-O-Vision essentially<br />
photographed time itself by fusing together one continuous<br />
picture in a single document.
The 1996 Olympics was seminal for Omega as, for the first time,<br />
the Games introduced “global” timekeeping for every sport and<br />
every discipline, with Omega taking charge of timekeeping,<br />
data handling and distribution of results for every event.<br />
This encompassed technical breakthroughs across the board,<br />
including GPS in sailing events as one of the 20 innovations<br />
introduced by the Swatch Group in the 1996 Games.<br />
In 2000, Omega unveiled “Live Timing”. No more than 15s<br />
after a swimmer hit his touch pad, an entire set of split times,<br />
ranking and more was available at www.omegatiming.com.<br />
In the 2006 Winter Games, transponders were strapped to<br />
the ankles of speed skaters to capture moments of sudden<br />
acceleration, the speed around a hairpin bend and the sudden<br />
end of a challenge when a racer crashed into the ice.<br />
In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps beat his rival<br />
in the 100m butterfly by 1/100th of a second, the smallest<br />
permissible margin. Omega’s electronic timekeeper recorded<br />
this tiny margin, and although the result was passionately<br />
disputed, high-speed video cameras demonstrated that Omega’s<br />
system had performed perfectly.<br />
The <strong>2012</strong> Olympic Games in London represents something of a<br />
homecoming for Omega. Says Omega’s CEO Stephen Urquhart,<br />
“In 1948, the Olympic Games were held in this city. Omega<br />
was responsible for timing each discipline in every sport.<br />
That edition of the Games was remembered for the technical<br />
milestones in timekeeping; the photoelectric cell, our fully<br />
automated timing system and the first photofinish camera ever<br />
used at the Olympic Games. Then and now, we were proud to be<br />
at the service of the International Olympic Committee and the<br />
world’s greatest athletes.”<br />
To commemorate this incredible occasion, Omega has launched<br />
the Olympic Collection London <strong>2012</strong>. The first of these watches<br />
is a ravishing Omega Seamaster based on the original 1948<br />
design of the first automatic steel Seamaster: the Seamaster<br />
1948 Co-Axial “London <strong>2012</strong>” Limited Edition. The continued<br />
The Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra<br />
Co-Axial Chronograph ‘London<br />
<strong>2012</strong>’ in stainless steel is stamped<br />
with the London <strong>2012</strong> Olympic<br />
Games logo on its caseback<br />
relevance of this watch 64 years later is an apt demonstration<br />
of the absolutely timeless design integrity of Omega. After more<br />
than half a century, the timepiece is still as aesthetically perfect<br />
as ever. At 39mm in diameter, its size is in perfect alignment<br />
with the prevailing neoclassic ethos of today. Its sublimely<br />
restrained case features a polished bezel and lugs, and a<br />
contrasting brushed caseband. The crown of the watch features<br />
a vintage Omega logo. Turn the watch over and you’ll see an<br />
18K gold medallion engraved with the London <strong>2012</strong> Olympic<br />
Games logo. The dial of the watch is a stunning opaline silver<br />
with a small seconds display at six o’clock featuring a flameblued<br />
steel seconds hand. The hour indices as well as the<br />
Omega logo are all made from white gold. Beating inside is the<br />
Omega caliber 2202, replete with the brand’s famous Co-Axial<br />
escapement. The Seamaster 1948 will be produced in a limited<br />
series of 1,948 watches.<br />
The second model from the collection is the Omega Seamaster<br />
Aqua Terra Co-Axial Chronograph “London <strong>2012</strong>”. The muscular<br />
44mm-diameter watch is available in brushed stainless steel, as<br />
well as in a two-tone red-gold and stainless-steel version, both<br />
featuring a stunning blue PVD-coated dial that is embossed with<br />
a vertical-striped teak pattern. The casebacks of both watches<br />
are stamped with the London <strong>2012</strong> Olympic logo.<br />
Finally, the Seamaster Aqua Terra Co-Axial “London <strong>2012</strong>”<br />
is a lovely expression of Omega’s design integrity in a 34mm<br />
watch that is perfect for ladies or those with smaller wrists.<br />
This watch is available in stainless steel, as well as a two-tone<br />
stainless-steel and yellow-gold model. Both watches feature the<br />
unique blue PVD-coated dial with teak motif and the London<br />
<strong>2012</strong> Olympic Games emblem on the back of the watch.<br />
All three of the Olympic Collection London <strong>2012</strong> models are<br />
fitting testaments to Omega’s extraordinary relationship with<br />
the most legendary Games and greatest athletes on earth. Since<br />
1932, Omega has relentlessly pursued the greatest technical<br />
advances — all at the service of more accurately immortalizing<br />
the feats of these athletes. And in this commitment, they have<br />
been unparalleled and unequaled.
158<br />
<br />
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”<br />
THE ECSTASY & THE AGONY<br />
<br />
<br />
Arthur C. Clarke
TIME<br />
COMPLICATIONS
158 REVOLUTION<br />
WEI KOH (text)<br />
THE<br />
<br />
COMPLICATION<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOROLOGY<br />
ECSTASY<br />
& THE AGONY<br />
Contemporary Horology’s 10*Best (& Worst) Technical Innovations<br />
<br />
<br />
nical Innovations<br />
*In no particular order
It is interesting that most dynamic social changes —<br />
the most incendiary systemic upheavals that fracture<br />
and reconstruct human culture — occur at the end of<br />
one century and the beginning of the next. “It was the<br />
age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,” wrote Charles<br />
Dickens in reference to the twilight of the 18th century,<br />
which brought with it the French <strong>Revolution</strong> — that period<br />
of immense social upheaval that resulted in the abolition of<br />
absolute monarchy in France and the conspicuous removal of<br />
numerous aristocratic heads in the process — but he could just<br />
as easily have been talking about the state of haute horlogerie<br />
in the third millennium.<br />
Because the last couple of decades have, in terms of true<br />
horological breakthroughs and the sincere advancement of<br />
watchmaking’s enduring story, truly been an “epoch of belief”,<br />
“a season of Light” and “the spring of hope”. But running<br />
concurrent to this technical grandeur — these beautiful<br />
attempts to encapsulate an element of the divine through<br />
the gear wheels, levers and springs that define the language<br />
of horology and that must have motivated Switzerland’s first<br />
Huguenots to pour the hidden contents of their souls into tiny<br />
timekeeping devices — has also been the collective work of<br />
opportunists, charlatans and blackguards.<br />
And it is this latter category that has simultaneously cast a<br />
dark shadow over the legitimate work of true watchmakers<br />
that has transformed the past years into what must also be<br />
called an “epoch of incredulity”, “a season of Darkness” and<br />
“a winter of despair”.<br />
Because these individuals have deracinated the faith of<br />
unwitting consumers by the production of high-concept high<br />
complications with total disregard to their underlying horological<br />
value and long-term reliability. They have hijacked and usurped<br />
the term “contemporary horological art” — unfortunately coined<br />
by yours truly — and used this to justify their spinning, turning<br />
micro-mechanical abominations which either tell time poorly<br />
or, in some cases, not at all, before invariably breaking down<br />
shortly after their purchase, which has been just enough time for<br />
the company that made them to file for bankruptcy, leaving the<br />
owners of these watches bereft of recourse.<br />
Now it’s time for this magazine to take a stand to weed out the<br />
good from the bad, the wheat from the chaff, because if the<br />
watch industry wishes to continue in success despite troubling<br />
global economic conditions, we’ll need to enforce a new zerotolerance<br />
policy for marketing drivel. We need to underscore<br />
and support true horological value at every opportunity and<br />
every turn. Because the championing of mediocrity will cause<br />
more and more consumers to turn away from watchmaking in<br />
frustration at having wasted money on watches with absolutely<br />
no enduring value.<br />
It is important that REVLUTION takes this stand, because we<br />
have, in the past, been equally smitten by what we once perceived<br />
to be watchmaking’s nouvelle vague, a creative new wave<br />
that would redefine watchmaking by transforming it a highly<br />
contemporary, emotional art form. Richard Mille and URWERK<br />
created this genre and remain the sole brands/individuals in this<br />
category that, to me, still evoke legitimacy.<br />
COMPLICATION<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOROLOGY<br />
REVOLUTION 159<br />
But let me be the first to state, for the record, that the remaining<br />
majority of the brands, which have essentially imitated the work of<br />
these pioneers, will no longer be in existence in a few years’ time.<br />
So, listen to me if you’ve been duped into buying a ridiculously<br />
priced triple tourbillon with resonance that broke down after<br />
two days and that you can’t get fixed because the company that<br />
made it doesn’t exist anymore. Listen to me if you’ve been conned<br />
into bringing home that 1/100th-of-a-second chronograph only<br />
to realize that its balance wheel beats at 3Hz. Listen to me if<br />
you’ve drunk the Kool-Aid and pulled the trigger on that PVDcoated,<br />
carbon-festooned, time-telling sculpture only to realize<br />
when you look in the mirror with it on, that you resemble a<br />
70-year-old woman trying to squeeze into a macramé thong.<br />
Listen to me if you understand that you’re not wearing your<br />
watch, but your watch is wearing you.<br />
In the immortal words of Peter Finch from the seminal movie<br />
Network, “I want all of you to get out of your chairs. I want you<br />
to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and<br />
stick your head out and yell, ‘l’m as mad as hell and I’m not<br />
going to take this anymore!’”<br />
Because if this were the auto industry, the charlatans populating the<br />
watch world with watches with zero empirical performance veracity<br />
would be sued into non-existence in the space of a heartbeat.<br />
To the brands and individuals creating this type of watches:<br />
heed this warning. You do not want to be that last lonely<br />
woman sitting at the discothèque bar when the lights come on,<br />
still desperately trying to sell your withered wares to a crowd<br />
that’s already moved on.<br />
It’s time to look deep inside yourself and ask yourself if you have<br />
the capacity to reinvent yourself, to reach deep and access that<br />
inner emotional space that will allow you to create real, legitimate,<br />
eternal horology. And if you do look within and are met with a<br />
hollowness that says you are wanting, then perhaps it’s time to<br />
move on to another medium such as performance art, which has<br />
historically been far more tolerant of pervasive bullshit.<br />
In the last quarter-century, extraordinary men like Philippe<br />
Stern, Rolf Schnyder, Nicolas G. Hayek, Philippe Dufour and<br />
Günter Blümlein have strived to write the next chapter in<br />
horology’s enduring story. But this renewed Golden Age has<br />
also opened the door and paved the way for some of the most<br />
unconscionable acts of time-telling chicanery and horological<br />
idiocy that the world has ever had to suffer.<br />
It’s time to clear the air, set things straight, and assign praise<br />
and blame with emotionless clarity. In so doing, you will<br />
find that a great number of brands and individuals are, to<br />
this day, still legitimately advancing true haut-de-gamme<br />
watchmaking and that much of the snake-oil salesmanship<br />
over the past decade rests solely at the doorstep of a small<br />
number of individuals.<br />
While REVLUTION USA’s editor-in-chief Jack Forster<br />
has warned me that to some greater or lesser extent, the allmechanical<br />
watchmaking is subjective, to my thoughts, the<br />
world can clearly be divided into ecstasy and agony. Here they<br />
are in no particular order. Let the division begin.
160 REVOLUTION<br />
1) ASTROLOGICAL COMPLICATIONS: ASTROLABE BY<br />
ULYSSE NARDIN AND SIDEREAL-TIME DISPLAY BY<br />
PATEK PHILIPPE<br />
In 1983, Ulysse Nardin’s indomitable new owner Rolf Schnyder<br />
was skiing with his compadre Balthasar Meier when Meier<br />
chirped, “You must make a watch that does not yet exist.”<br />
Meanwhile, technical genius Ludwig Oechslin had been<br />
inspired during the restoration of the Farnesian clock at the<br />
Vatican to create his own astrolabe clock, which tells the time<br />
based on the position of the sun and stars as seen from earth.<br />
Astrolabes are grand complications, based on the observation of<br />
celestial phenomena, which reached their height in popularity<br />
in the Middle Ages and faded away by the end of the 17th<br />
century. They represent a true zenith in human imagination<br />
and mathematical ability, but no one had ever thought about<br />
putting one in a wristwatch, until Schnyder walked into Jörg<br />
Spöring’s atelier and saw Oechslin’s astrolabe clock.<br />
“Who would want this in a wristwatch?” asked Oechslin. As it<br />
turned out, Schnyder did, and the resulting astrolabe watches<br />
repositioned Ulysse Nardin from the maker of reliable marine<br />
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP<br />
The Patek Philippe Star Calibre 2000; the Ulysse<br />
Nardin Astrolabium Galileo Galilei; the two faces of<br />
the Patek Philippe Calibre 89<br />
<br />
COMPLICATION<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOROLOGY<br />
chronometers into one of the true hothouses for real horological<br />
innovation. The astrolabe also took pride of place in the<br />
Astrolabium Galileo Galilei, a cornerstone of Ulysse Nardin’s<br />
breathtaking Trilogy of Time.<br />
In 1989, with the Swiss industry recovering from the vestigial<br />
trauma of the Quartz Crisis, Patek Philippe created a pocket<br />
watch ostensibly to celebrate its 150th anniversary, but also<br />
as a profound statement of confidence in the return of highcomplication<br />
watchmaking.<br />
Evoking the Graves and Packard pocket watches of legend,<br />
the Calibre 89 packed 33 complications, including a secular<br />
calendar as well as a sidereal-time display which shows the<br />
star map over a fixed location at any given time. This amazing<br />
astrological complication then appeared in Patek Philippe’s<br />
Star Calibre 2000, another double-faced pocket watch, before<br />
appearing in wristwatch form in its Sky Moon Tourbillon.<br />
What is charming about these astronomical complications is<br />
that they connect us with some of the most ancient methods of<br />
tracking the passage of time.
2) THE ADVENT OF SILICON:<br />
ULYSSE NARDIN’S FREAK<br />
Unfortunately, this magazine’s heralding of the Freak<br />
as watchmaking’s first act of modern art also opened<br />
the door to a vast array of ridiculous timepieces trying<br />
to emulate this watch in looks, but not in technical<br />
content. What you need to understand about the<br />
Freak is that as wild as it looks, it is reductionist<br />
horological purity in extremitas. It is minimalist<br />
watchmaking at its best, and it is in this way that<br />
it differs from the slew of horological pretenders<br />
that followed it.<br />
The various “modernist” watches that emulated the<br />
Freak in each instance piled additional indicators,<br />
rotating discs and oddly shaped hands to artificially<br />
induce a more complex way of telling time for purely<br />
superficial purposes. In contrast, every part of the<br />
Freak has a purpose. It is a seven-day-power-reserve<br />
carousel tourbillon that uses components of its own<br />
movement as the time-telling indications. Hours<br />
are read off the barrel cover, which completes a<br />
full rotation every 12 hours, and minutes are read using the<br />
escapement bridge, which completes a full rotation every hour.<br />
The Freak is the product of Rolf Schyder and Ludwig Oechslin,<br />
but its initial spark belongs to one of watchmaking’s great<br />
heroes — Carole Forestier-Kasapi, the current head of high<br />
watchmaking at Cartier.<br />
The Freak is also responsible for introducing silicon into the<br />
watch industry, because its Dual Direct escapement, created<br />
by Oechslin but based on Breguet’s natural escapement, used<br />
two silicon escape wheels. Traditional materials were too heavy<br />
to turn them efficiently, so Pierre Gygax, Ulysse Nardin’s<br />
technical director, together with Michel Vermot and the CSEM<br />
COMPLICATION<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOROLOGY<br />
The proprietary escapement (left) by<br />
Ulysse Nardin and seen in the Freak<br />
(below) uses two escape wheels<br />
with unique tooth profiles, which<br />
are executed in silicon to extremely<br />
fine tolerances<br />
REVOLUTION 161<br />
(Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology), created the<br />
first production silicon escape wheels used in a contemporary<br />
wristwatch. While experiments into silicon’s mechanical<br />
viability had been conducted by several companies — in<br />
particular Rolex — it was Ulysse Nardin that had the courage<br />
to put this material in an actual production watch.<br />
Results were mixed with some watches having to be retrofitted<br />
with LIGA nickel-phosphorous wheels, but Schnyder stood by<br />
and fixed each and every Freak. Eventually, silicon technology<br />
was refined and perfected, to a large part thanks to the<br />
Ulysse Nardin-owned Sigatec, but only because the Freak<br />
first introduced this material to horology. Today, silicon is<br />
responsible for the first true forays into high-frequency watches.
162 REVOLUTION<br />
3) THE WORLD’S FIRST GRANDE-ET-PETITE-SONNERIE<br />
WRISTWATCH: PHILIPPE DUFOUR’S GRANDE ET<br />
PETITE SONNERIE<br />
A grande et petite sonnerie is, irrefutably, the most complex,<br />
delicate, maddeningly difficult to craft and therefore the most<br />
badass of all complications. It is a watch that plays the hours<br />
and quarters in passing, in grande mode, or just the hours in<br />
petite mode, and can also be switched to silent. It can also be<br />
played like a traditional minute repeater. The genesis of the<br />
modern grande-et-petite-sonnerie era came about in 1983,<br />
when Audemars Piguet commissioned Philippe Dufour — then<br />
a renowned restorer — to create five grande-et-petite-sonnerie<br />
pocket watches.<br />
Dufour then built from scratch five magnificent, jeweled-tothe-hammers<br />
movements. He completed these watches in 1988<br />
(although one watch had to be immediately repaired, as the<br />
AP representative who came to pick it up, the jolly but rather<br />
sizeable Martin Wehrli, accidentally crushed it in the car door<br />
of his Porsche).<br />
Four years later, in 1992, Dufour literally stunned<br />
the watch industry into slack-jawed amazement<br />
with the world’s first grande-et-petite-sonnerie<br />
wristwatch, which is also commonly agreed<br />
upon to be amongst the best-sounding striking<br />
watches, and hands down the best-sounding<br />
grande sonnerie ever crafted.<br />
HONORABLE MENTIONS<br />
All watch brands that have managed to<br />
ascend to the top of the complication<br />
heap through the creation of an in-house<br />
grande et petite sonnerie, including Bulgari<br />
(ex-Genta/Roth, created by Pierre-Michel<br />
Golay), Audemars Piguet (created by<br />
Renaud & Papi, led by Giulio Papi), Jaeger-<br />
LeCoultre (created by David Candaux), F.<br />
P. Journe (created by François-Paul Journe)<br />
and Franck Muller (created by Pierre-<br />
Michel Golay).<br />
The Philippe Dufour Grande<br />
et Petite Sonnerie with a<br />
magnificent open dial, revealing<br />
the sonnerie and repeater<br />
mechanism<br />
<br />
COMPLICATION<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOROLOGY<br />
During an evening in Singapore, when maverick watchmaker<br />
François-Paul Journe unveiled his grande et petite sonnerie, a<br />
question was posited from the collectors: “Which sounds better,<br />
yours or Philippe Dufour’s?” Journe replied, “That is a stupid<br />
question. The Dufour is so rare — only six [not including the<br />
five made for AP] were ever made. It would be ridiculous to<br />
think of a moment when we could have a chance for a direct<br />
comparison.” One collector raised his hand — on his wrist was<br />
a Dufour Grande et Petite Sonnerie. “I’ve got one,” he called<br />
out. Another person raised his hand, “I’ve got one, too.” And<br />
so began the great Dufour vs. Journe grande-sonnerie shootout<br />
before the eyes and ears of the assembled collectors. The victor?<br />
Dufour, hands down.
The manual-winding Blancpain rattrapante<br />
chronograph caliber 1181 with isolator<br />
4) SPLIT-SECONDS CHRONOGRAPHS WITH ISOLATORS<br />
You have to give credit to Blancpain and Frédéric Piguet.<br />
Think about this. In 1987, when the Swiss watch industry was<br />
taking its first tentative steps back to re-embracing mechanical<br />
watchmaking, Blancpain made the decision to come out with the<br />
caliber 1180, the most advanced Swiss chronograph movement<br />
ever made.<br />
It was not only the thinnest chronograph caliber at the time,<br />
but it featured a column wheel, was automatic winding (in the<br />
cal. 1185 version), and used a vertical-clutch coupling system<br />
so that the chronograph could be run indefinitely with no<br />
adverse effect on timing. A year later, Blancpain and Piguet<br />
one-upped this by introducing the most advanced split-seconds<br />
chronograph caliber ever made! What was so special about this<br />
COMPLICATION<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOROLOGY<br />
The new and improved isolator<br />
mechanism of Patek Philippe’s inhouse<br />
caliber CHR 29-535-PS (far<br />
left), used in the ref. 5204<br />
HONORABLE MENTIONS<br />
REVOLUTION 163<br />
Shortly after this, Breguet and Lemania incorporated an isolator into their<br />
Lemania CH 27 split-seconds chronograph. When Patek Philippe saw this,<br />
according to their technical guru Jean-Pierre Musy, they also fitted their<br />
Lemania-based split-seconds chronograph with an isolator, the returnlever-lifting<br />
wheel taking the form of the now-famous “Octopus”.<br />
The isolator was brought to another level by the Lange Double Split,<br />
which features isolators not just for the seconds, but also for the<br />
minute indicators. Finally, Patek Philippe has just elevated the splitseconds<br />
chronograph with isolator to an all-new performance level<br />
with the ref. 5204 which features a unidirectional return-lever-lifting<br />
wheel, as well as a new improvement to ensure that the split-seconds<br />
and seconds hand meet together with no sloppiness or play when the<br />
split-seconds function is released.<br />
movement? Traditionally, when the split-seconds function is<br />
activated, two brakes clamp down on the split-seconds wheel,<br />
while the chronograph seconds wheel continues to turn. How<br />
does the split-seconds hand catch up with the chronograph hand<br />
when the brakes are released? There is a spring-loaded return<br />
lever fitted with a jeweled roller that rolls around a heart cam<br />
created specifically to synchronize these hands. But the pressure<br />
placed by the lever on the heart cam creates sizeable resistance<br />
and affects the amplitude of the balance wheel. Blancpain<br />
and Frédéric Piguet fitted their split-seconds chronographs<br />
— the cal. 1181 (manual-winding) and cal. 1186 (the world’s<br />
first automatic split-seconds chronograph caliber) — with an<br />
isolator that lifted the return lever off the heart cam when the<br />
split-second functions was activated, and then released it when<br />
the split-seconds function was released.
164 REVOLUTION<br />
5) THE PRECISE JUMPING MINUTE COUNTER:<br />
A. LANGE & SÖHNE’S DATOGRAPH<br />
Annegret Fleischer is another name that rightly belongs<br />
in high watchmaking’s hall of fame, having created what<br />
for many is the reference in manual-winding chronograph<br />
movements. It was the legendary Günter Blümlein’s dream<br />
to empower a Germ`an watch brand with as much equity<br />
as brands like Patek Philippe or Vacheron Constantin. “He<br />
was an engineer,” recalls IWC CEO Georges Kern, “and so he<br />
always thought about the movement first.” Indeed, he built<br />
Lange & Söhne’s reputation on the technical brilliance of its<br />
movements. In 1999, he tasked Fleischer and her colleague<br />
Helmut Geyer to create what would become one of the most<br />
talked-about chronographs in the world.<br />
While the Lange 1’s asymmetric dial layout divided people<br />
into two camps, the Datograph’s harmonious, symmetrical<br />
and damnably handsome dial united collectors in agreement<br />
Chronograph-minuteswheel<br />
jumper<br />
Chronograph minutes<br />
wheel (ratchet teeth)<br />
Chronograph-minuteswheel-advancing<br />
pawl<br />
Chronograph<br />
seconds wheel<br />
<br />
COMPLICATION<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOROLOGY<br />
BEHIND THE JUMPING MINUTE DISPLAY<br />
HONORABLE MENTIONS<br />
The precise jumping minute counter has now<br />
been adopted by Patek Philippe for its CH 29<br />
in-house chronograph caliber.<br />
that it was one of the best-looking time-writers ever.<br />
But it was the in-house movement inside that blew them<br />
away. Bear in mind that during this era, the world’s most<br />
prestigious brands Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin<br />
were still relying on the beautiful but rather long-in-thetooth<br />
Lemania caliber for their chronographs. In contrast,<br />
the Lange movement bristled with technical innovations.<br />
It came with a grande date display and a highly ingenious<br />
precise jumping minute counter, which uses a snail cam and<br />
a ruby finger to ensure that the elapsed minute indicator<br />
would always jump precisely on the stroke of the minute. So<br />
amazing was the Lange Datograph that the aforementioned<br />
Philippe Dufour, master of the grande et petite sonnerie,<br />
put down his own hard-earned cash to buy one. His choice<br />
was the now-discontinued rose-gold, black-dialed model,<br />
which collectors have since dubbed the “Dufour Dato”.<br />
When I asked him why he bought this watch, he explained,<br />
“Because it is the best chronograph in the world.”<br />
Chronographminutes-wheeladvancing<br />
lever<br />
Sprung ruby finger<br />
contacting snail<br />
cam (hidden, co-axial<br />
with chronograph<br />
seconds wheel)<br />
<br />
<br />
1) The chronograph seconds wheel turns<br />
counter-clockwise, carrying a co-axial snail<br />
cam (hidden below chronograph seconds<br />
wheel)<br />
2) A ruby finger is sprung (via the minutewheel-advancing<br />
lever) to maintain<br />
continuous contact with the snail cam, and<br />
lifts the minute-wheel-advancing lever and<br />
pawl to move over the ratchet teeth of the<br />
chronograph minutes wheel<br />
3) Upon one complete turn of the<br />
chronograph seconds wheel, the ruby finger<br />
falls off the highest point<br />
of the snail cam<br />
4) The minute-wheel-advancing pawl, having<br />
engaged with the ratchet teeth of the<br />
chronograph minutes wheel, advances the<br />
chronograph minutes wheel a single step<br />
5) The chronograph-minutes-wheel jumper<br />
tensions the chronograph minutes wheel and<br />
prevents it from advancing further than one<br />
step per minute<br />
FROM FAR LEFT<br />
The original A. Lange & Söhne Datograph; the<br />
new A. Lange & Söhne caliber L951.6 is what<br />
powers the <strong>2012</strong> update of the Datograph, called<br />
the Datograph Up/Down (far right)
6) DUAL-AXIS TOURBILLONS:<br />
JAEGER-LECOULTRE’S<br />
GYROTOURBILLON<br />
The tourbillon complication<br />
was patented by Abraham-Louis<br />
Breguet in 1801 to combat the<br />
negative influence of gravity on<br />
the performance of watches in the<br />
vertical positions. In the beginning<br />
of the third millennium, several<br />
watchmakers began toying with the<br />
idea of a tourbillon that rotated on<br />
different axes. Among the first of these was<br />
Thomas Prescher’s as well as Franck Muller’s<br />
<strong>Revolution</strong> 2 (this project was helmed by<br />
former Patek employees Michel Navas and Enrico<br />
Barbasini, teamed with Pierre-Michel Golay). But it is<br />
Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Gyrotourbillon 1, conceptualized by Eric<br />
Coudray and Magali Métrailler, that wins my vote for the<br />
best dual-axis tourbillon, for the fact that Jaeger-LeCoultre<br />
boldly entered this watch into the first international timing<br />
competition in Le Locle to empirically demonstrate its<br />
superior chronometric abilities. In the end, it came in second<br />
place — beaten by another Jaeger-LeCoultre tourbillon,<br />
the 4Hz Master Tourbillon — but this result is still strong<br />
empirical evidence of the complication’s vast technical merit.<br />
While the Jaeger-LeCoultre Gyrotourbillon 1, with its<br />
perpetual calendar and equation-of-time indicator,<br />
was a technical powerhouse, its successor, the stunning<br />
Gyrotourbillon 2 in the brand’s signature Reverso case,<br />
featuring the first-ever cylindrical hairspring in a wristwatch,<br />
combined technical virtuosity with staggering beauty. Sadly,<br />
the Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2 was robbed during the 2008<br />
Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix when it inconceivably lost<br />
out on the L’Aiguille d’Or (Golden Hand) to F. P.<br />
Journe’s Centigraphe, a 1/100th-of-a-second<br />
chronograph, which neither divides time to<br />
1/100th of a second, nor was released that<br />
year, greatly discrediting this awards<br />
ceremony in the eyes of many.<br />
The good news is that the Gyrotourbillon<br />
has positioned Jaeger-LeCoultre as one<br />
of the most innovative manufactures<br />
around, a reputation that in last decade<br />
has proven to be irrefutably true.<br />
COMPLICATION<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOROLOGY<br />
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT<br />
The Jaeger-LeCoultre Gyrotourbillon<br />
1; the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso<br />
Gyrotourbillon 2<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 165<br />
The Jaeger-LeCoultre<br />
Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2<br />
utilizes a helical hairspring<br />
for greater concentricity in<br />
the oscillation of the spring
166 REVOLUTION<br />
7) HIGH-FREQUENCY WATCHES<br />
PART I: SINGLE-OSCILLATOR<br />
WATCHES — AUDEMARS PIGUET’S<br />
CHRONAP 6HZ WATCH, BREGUET’S<br />
TYPE XXII AND CLASSIQUE<br />
CHRONOMÉTRIE REF. 7727 10HZ<br />
WATCHES, AND CHOPARD’S L.U.C<br />
8HF 8HZ WATCH<br />
Really high-frequency watches can be<br />
divided into two categories. The first<br />
category is single-oscillator watches<br />
that are beating at a high frequency.<br />
The first and therefore most deserving<br />
watch in this category is Audemars<br />
Piguet’s spectacular ChronAP, which,<br />
interestingly enough, is the only watch<br />
that doesn’t uses silicon to achieve its<br />
high vibrational speed of 6Hz. Instead,<br />
it uses a single-impulse escapement.<br />
In contrast, Breguet’s Type XXII and<br />
Classique Chronométrie ref. 7727, and<br />
Chopard’s L.U.C 8HF all take advantage<br />
of silicon for escapement components. The<br />
advantages of silicon parts are that they<br />
do not need lubrication, are not affected<br />
by magnetism, are light, and can be<br />
fabricated to extremely high tolerances<br />
— all of which play a part in creating a<br />
high-frequency watch. The actual benefit<br />
of a high-frequency watch is the idea<br />
that when the watch receives a massive<br />
or micro shock, the balance wheel will<br />
regain its optimal amplitude faster than<br />
with a lower-frequency watch.<br />
Of the various high-frequency watches,<br />
the one timepiece that most impressed<br />
me is Breguet’s ref. 7727. This is because,<br />
in addition to its 10Hz vibrational speed,<br />
it also uses magnetic pivots to allow the<br />
balance wheel to essentially float in a<br />
fixed position regardless of how the watch<br />
is placed. The combination of its 10Hz<br />
speed and this amazing innovation is<br />
a demonstration of CEO Marc Hayek’s<br />
incredible technical ambition with his<br />
brand and should be congratulated.<br />
<br />
COMPLICATION<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOROLOGY<br />
<br />
<br />
FROM TOP<br />
The Breguet Classique<br />
Chronométrie ref. 7727;<br />
the Breguet Type XXII;<br />
the Audemars Piguet<br />
Jules Audemars<br />
ChronAP;<br />
the Chopard L.U.C 8HF
PART II: MULTIPLE-OSCILLATOR<br />
WATCHES — TAG HEUER’S<br />
MIKROGRAPH AND MIKROTIMER,<br />
AND MONTBLANC’S TIMEWRITER<br />
The second category of high-frequency<br />
watches belongs to multiple-oscillator<br />
watches where a smaller balance wheel<br />
vibrates at very high speed so as to provide<br />
a particularly accurate chronograph reading.<br />
In this realm, the King of Accuracy is TAG<br />
Heuer: in 2004, it made the world’s first<br />
chronograph to vibrate at 360,000vph<br />
with a modular system, then in 2011 with<br />
an integrated system; it also created the<br />
Mikrotimer Flying 1000, which has an<br />
oscillator that beats at 3,600,000vph to<br />
divide time to the 1/1,000th of a second.<br />
This year, Montblanc introduced its<br />
TimeWriter II Chronographe Bi-Fréquence<br />
1000, which also has a balance wheel that<br />
beats at 50Hz, with a device it refers to<br />
as an “thousandths wheel” in the gear<br />
train that theoretically allows an accurate<br />
chronograph reading down to 1/1,000th<br />
of a second.<br />
Zenith, the first brand to elevate the<br />
frequency of production watches to 5Hz, also<br />
has a high-speed chronograph in the pipeline<br />
using a super-fast-vibrating oscillator.<br />
<br />
COMPLICATION<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOROLOGY<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 167<br />
FROM TOP<br />
The 2011 TAG Heuer Carerra<br />
Mikrograph 1/100th of a Second<br />
and the Mikrotimer Flying<br />
1000; the front and back of<br />
the Montblanc TimeWriter II<br />
Chronographe Bi-Fréquence 1000
168 REVOLUTION<br />
A<br />
D<br />
G<br />
<br />
8) VERTICAL-CLUTCH CHRONOGRAPHS<br />
Look further up the page and you’ll see that Blancpain’s<br />
caliber 1180 already appears as one of the modern era’s best<br />
technical innovations. But the modern era of the verticalclutch<br />
chronograph would not reach critical mass until more<br />
than a decade afterward. In 2000, Rolex unveiled the cal. 4130<br />
— its 4Hz in-house, vertical-clutch chronograph movement —<br />
used to power the iconic Daytona. The next vertical-clutch<br />
movement to make news was the in-house Jaeger-LeCoultre<br />
4Hz caliber 752, launched in 2005 in conjunction with<br />
the brand’s Extreme World line of sports watches. In 2006,<br />
Patek Philippe pulled the covers off its own vertical-clutch<br />
chronograph caliber, the CH 28. Next came Chopard’s GT3<br />
(now renamed the L.U.C 10 CF) vertical-clutch movement, in<br />
2007, which featured a zero reset of the small seconds hand.<br />
At some point, it appeared that the Richemont Group had<br />
decided to adopt vertical-clutch chronographs for the majority<br />
of its brands with Piaget, Panerai and Cartier all with inhouse<br />
vertical-clutch chronographs. Breitling highlighted the<br />
B<br />
E<br />
H<br />
COMPLICATION<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOROLOGY<br />
F<br />
I<br />
C<br />
creation of its own vertical-clutch chronograph movement,<br />
the B01, in 2009. The most recent new vertical-clutch timewriter<br />
is Roger Dubuis’ RD680 found in their La Monégasque<br />
collection. This movement features the Geneva Seal. It should<br />
be noted that Omega chronographs use a version of the<br />
famous Piguet movement, providing their watches with great<br />
mechanical credibility.<br />
What makes vertical-clutch chronographs such a significant<br />
innovation? In part, it is due to the fact that they are easier<br />
and therefore less expensive to produce and adjust. But they<br />
also offer two major benefits. The first is that because the<br />
chronograph wheel and the clutch wheel engage on flat surfaces<br />
rather than on toothed rims, no backlash of the chronograph<br />
seconds hand occurs. The second is that because these<br />
movements are designed to be run with the chronograph on,<br />
you can leave your chronograph running indefinitely without<br />
affecting overall timing accuracy, which is particularly useful<br />
when timing a long event such as an endurance race.
9) THE ROLEX PARACHROM HAIRSPRING<br />
The Border Collie is a magnificent dog. Not only is it the<br />
world’s most intelligent breed — OK, it ties with the poodle,<br />
but which testicularly intact man is going to caught dead with<br />
one of those? — but it is also the world’s hardiest. It is capable<br />
or running nonstop all day alongside horses, chasing wayward<br />
cows, occasionally being kicked in the muzzle, but still able to<br />
will them into submission. Rolex’s magnificent watches are the<br />
Border Collies of horology.<br />
I have a much-abused 40-year-old Rolex that, I suspect,<br />
has never been serviced, that runs better than most of the<br />
tourbillons I own. The Rolex is the perfect desert island tool.<br />
The beauty of the Rolex watch is that you could use it to pound<br />
nails through boards, smash open coconuts and it would still<br />
keep perfect time to within a few seconds… a month! But<br />
OPPOSITE PAGE<br />
A Blancpain cal. 1180<br />
B Rolex cal. 4130<br />
C Jaeger-LeCoultre cal. 752<br />
D Patek Philippe CH 28<br />
E Chopard L.U.C 10 CF<br />
F Panerai P.2005<br />
G Piaget cal. 880P<br />
H Breitling B01<br />
I Roger Dubuis RD680<br />
<br />
COMPLICATION<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOROLOGY<br />
REVOLUTION 169<br />
Rolex, in the words of Spinal Tap, turned things “up to 11”<br />
in 2000 when they commenced to augment their movements<br />
with the in-house parachrom hairspring fabricated from<br />
a combination of 85-percent niobium (a material with<br />
extraordinary metal memory) and 15-percent zirconium to<br />
create the best-performing hairspring since Charles Édouard<br />
Guillaume invented the damned things.<br />
Parachrom springs are amagnetic, which instantly helps to<br />
avoid what service centers<br />
report as 75 percent of the reason consumers bring watches<br />
in: magnetized hairsprings. The Parachrom hairspring was<br />
launched in 2000 as part of Rolex’s in-house Daytona caliber,<br />
but has since gravitated to almost all their movements,<br />
demonstrating Rolex’s extraordinary in-house capacity.
170 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
10) BETTER PERPETUAL CALENDARS<br />
A perpetual calendar is a beautiful watch to behold. On your<br />
wrist, you have a reading for time, day, date, month, year,<br />
and often, the phase of the moon. This watch will keep telling<br />
all information as its name implies, in perpetuity, on the<br />
condition that you keep it wound.<br />
But the thing is, we often don’t; and when it comes the time to<br />
reset our perpetual calendars, it can be intimidating. Try to<br />
set them during the delicate midnight changeover and you can<br />
jam the mechanism. Also, all those little pushers are so fussy<br />
and significantly increase the chances of you accidentally<br />
scratching your watchcase by incompetently stabbing away<br />
with the supplied pushpin.<br />
There’s got to be a better way, you say? Welcome to the<br />
synchronized perpetual calendar. It is impossible to refute the<br />
added practicality and ease of adjustment they provide. The<br />
first synchronized perpetual calendar was created by IWC’s<br />
former technical director and horological elder statesman,<br />
Kurt Klaus. Rather than having to adjust day, date, month,<br />
COMPLICATION<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOROLOGY<br />
FROM LEFT<br />
The IWC Da Vinci<br />
Perpetual Calendar<br />
Edition Kurt Klaus; the<br />
Ulysse Nardin GMT<br />
Perpetual Calendar<br />
year and moonphase separately, you simply turned the crown<br />
and all these indicators would advance together.<br />
There were only two drawbacks to this design. The first was<br />
that the watch did not compensate for the fact that in years<br />
ending in “00”, the leap year was omitted (the watch had to be<br />
sent back to the factory to have the indications decoupled and<br />
adjusted) and that if you accidentally adjusted this indication<br />
too far in advance of your current date, you would either have to<br />
wait for time to catch up, or send the watch back to the factory.<br />
This latter issue was addressed by Ulysse Nardin with their<br />
Ludwig Oechslin-designed perpetual calendar, which while<br />
synchronized, could be adjusted both forwards and backwards.<br />
This provided the added practicality for travelers who might<br />
arrive at time zones where the date is one day earlier than<br />
that at the home city they left. Indeed the intelligent powers<br />
that be at Ulysse Nardin capitalized on this by adding a GMT<br />
complication to their perpetual calendar, synchronizing all<br />
calendar information to local time and creating the most<br />
badass travel watch in existence. The only small bugbear with
the Ulysse Nardin watch was that the calendar information<br />
changeover at midnight was semi-instantaneous and actually<br />
began slightly before midnight.<br />
Though they never talk about it, Lange & Söhne has one of<br />
the world’s most innovative perpetual calendars, which solves<br />
the issue presented by the Kurt Klaus module by allowing<br />
for synchronized as well as unsynchronized adjustments.<br />
All information can be advanced using a central push-piece,<br />
but look closer and you’ll see that watch also has individual<br />
pushers. This is advantageous, for example, when you are in<br />
a year ending with “00” and you need to manually adjust the<br />
watch to not reflect a leap year. The Langematik Perpetual, the<br />
first watch to feature this module, was also the first perpetual<br />
calendar with outsized date.<br />
In 2006, H. Moser & Cie., along with Andreas Strehler, created<br />
one of my favorite perpetual calendars. The Moser Perpetual 1<br />
is minimalistic and unconventional in that it does not have a<br />
FROM LEFT<br />
The Ateliers deMonaco Quantième<br />
Perpetual Calendar; the H. Moser<br />
& Cie. Moser Perpetual 1<br />
<br />
COMPLICATION<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOROLOGY<br />
REVOLUTION 171<br />
moonphase or day indicator. What it does have is date, month<br />
and leap-year cycle (displayed on the movement). What I like<br />
about the watch is the way in which months are read off the<br />
12 hour indices using a small hand mounted on the canon<br />
pinion, keeping the dial super clean. Further, this perpetual<br />
calendar is synchronized, instantaneous and can be adjusted<br />
backwards or forwards.<br />
But the man responsible for what is, in my opinion, the most<br />
impressive perpetual calendar to date is Pim Koeslag, one of<br />
the two founders of Ateliers deMonaco. Take note of his name<br />
because it is affixed to an individual destined to be one of<br />
horology’s future greats. You press the pusher in the crown<br />
of the watch to select which calendar indicator you want to<br />
select, and then adjust it backwards or forwards using the<br />
crown. Which indicator you’ve selected is clearly shown by a<br />
hand in the subdial at six o’clock. I would love to see this gem<br />
of a movement in a more stylistically subdued, smaller and<br />
thinner classic-themed case for it to be the perfect watch.
172 REVOLUTION<br />
That ends my list for the best technical<br />
innovations in contemporary watchmaking.<br />
Some other watches that I feel are deserving of<br />
credit are:<br />
THE ULTRA-LIGHT WATCHES OF<br />
RICHARD MILLE<br />
It is incredible to me that Rafael Nadal is actually<br />
wearing a 20-gram haut-de-gamme tourbillon<br />
during competition. Richard Mille created a very<br />
specific aesthetic, which is today much imitated,<br />
but his watches are unique in that they serve the<br />
purpose of lightness, increased shock resistance<br />
and added comfort. His are the real deal, while<br />
others are mere styling exercises!<br />
DUAL-OSCILLATOR WATCHES<br />
You could divide these types of watches into<br />
two categories. The first is watches with<br />
differential that average the errors between<br />
the two oscillators. Among these are Philippe<br />
Dufour’s Duality, Roger Dubuis’ Double Flying<br />
Tourbillon and Greubel Forsey’s Quadruple<br />
Tourbillon à Différentiel Sphérique. However,<br />
to really embrace these watches — at least the<br />
commercially produced ones — I need to see<br />
empirical proof that two oscillators are better<br />
than one. The second type of dual-oscillator watch<br />
uses two gear trains to separate timing functions<br />
from an additional complication. These include<br />
Jaeger-LeCoultre’s ultra-cool Duomètre, as well<br />
as TAG Heuer’s high-frequency chronographs<br />
— the Mikrograph 1/100th of a Second and the<br />
Mikrotimer Flying 1000.<br />
ZENITH’S CHRISTOPHE COLOMB<br />
Interestingly, I believe Giulio Papi of<br />
Audemars Piguet Renaud & Papi was<br />
working on a similar solution to<br />
keep the balance wheel flat at all<br />
times, but kudos to Zenith for<br />
achieving this first. However,<br />
I would very much like to<br />
see this watch entered in<br />
chronometric competitions.<br />
FROM TOP<br />
The Richard Mille RM 027 Rafael<br />
Nadal; the Philippe Dufour Duality;<br />
the Greubel Forsey Quadruple<br />
Tourbillon à Différentiel Sphérique;<br />
the Roger Dubuis Excalibur Skeleton<br />
Double Flying Tourbillon<br />
<br />
COMPLICATION<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOROLOGY
COMPLICATION<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOROLOGY<br />
<br />
<br />
FROM TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT<br />
The Zenith Christophe Colomb;<br />
the Cartier ID One; the De<br />
Bethune DB 28 Tourbillon; the<br />
Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels<br />
Poetic Wish<br />
REVOLUTION 173<br />
CARTIER’S ID ONE<br />
This watch was not destined for production, but<br />
was a test bed for new technology. I particularly<br />
liked the idea of having a watch that was<br />
amagnetic and never needed regulation. ID One<br />
is a symbol of the technical merit of a brand that<br />
was once considered more aesthetically driven,<br />
but has now become a true major technical force<br />
to be reckoned with. Having just returned from<br />
Cartier’s manufacture to witness the unveiling<br />
of the incredible ID Two, I am continuously<br />
impressed with Cartier’s extraordinary ambition<br />
to truly bring all-new levels of performance to<br />
the mechanical watch. I am also delighted to see<br />
that elements of ID One are being integrated into<br />
commercial watches as with the carbon-crystal<br />
oscillator, escapement and escapement bridge<br />
found in the new Astrotourbillon Carbon Crystal.<br />
DE BETHUNE’S DB 28 TOURBILLON<br />
De Bethune deserves some praise for doggedly<br />
pursuing true horological innovation during a<br />
time when many so-called independent brands<br />
were making nothing more than styling exercises<br />
using outsourced marketing watches. The level<br />
of study and innovation that Denis Flageollet<br />
has focused around improving oscillators is<br />
truly remarkable, and his pinnacle achievement<br />
has been his tourbillon, which features both a<br />
silicon oscillator beating at 5Hz and a silicon<br />
cage that completes one rotation in 30 seconds.<br />
VAN CLEEF & ARPELS’ POETIC WISH<br />
Van Cleef & Arpels makes, hands down, the most<br />
beautiful and wonderfully expressive women’s<br />
watches in the world. In this instance, emotional<br />
expression is executed perfectly.
174 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
“‘Is this not a beautiful piece of cloth?’ asked the two swindlers,<br />
showing and explaining the magnificent pattern, which, however,<br />
did not exist” — Hans Christian Andersen, The Emperor’s New Clothes<br />
1) THE WATCH THAT DIDN’T TELL TIME<br />
Aspiring watch-industry impresarios love to use the word<br />
“sold out” as in, “Hey, I made a watch with no hands that costs<br />
US$300,000 and it’s all sold out.” What they don’t tell you is<br />
that what they mean is they’ve convinced enough retailers to<br />
display their watches — not that they’ve found enough gullible<br />
people to actually buy them.<br />
Such was the case when Yvan Arpa, the founder of RJ-<br />
Romain Jerome — the brand famous for using a minuscule<br />
amount of Titanic’s steel in their watches — launched his<br />
magnum opus: a watch that didn’t actually tell time. Arpa,<br />
like several other brands on this list, commissioned complete<br />
watches from a company called BNB, which specialized in<br />
“high-concept” complications. Company founder Mathias<br />
Buttet once admitted to me, “I am not a watchmaker; I am a<br />
micro-engineer. My concern is not horology, but mechanical<br />
animation.” Which essentially means he could get things to<br />
turn and rotate, emulating haute horlogerie, with little concern<br />
for their underlying horological or chronometric merit.<br />
Thus liberated from the confines of traditional, responsible<br />
watchmaking, he collaborated with Arpa on this particular<br />
gem, the Day&Night Tourbillon. With its exposed train that<br />
COMPLICATION<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOROLOGY<br />
would shut down power to the day tourbillon after 12 hours,<br />
and then send it to the night tourbillon for the next 12 hours,<br />
the Day&Night was retailed at US$300,000 and embodied the<br />
era of excess and marketing hype that was pre-financial-crisis<br />
watchmaking.<br />
It was huge, brazenly eye-catching, with fashionable modernist<br />
styling, bore the requisite PVD coating on its intentionally<br />
rusted parts, was ridiculously expensive — and made no<br />
sense whatsoever.<br />
Upon being shown the watch, I asked, “If it divides time into<br />
12-hour periods, how do you set it such that each 12-hour<br />
period precisely coincides with nightfall?” The response was a<br />
look of perplexity. I continued, “So, essentially you could just<br />
look out of your window and get a more accurate reading for<br />
day or night?” More perplexity.<br />
While watches were moving toward ever-more-wildly<br />
emotive expressions of time, the removal of time indications<br />
altogether was essentially the straw that broke the camel’s<br />
back and ignited my burning antagonism against this<br />
entire genre of watchmaking. What was next? The watch<br />
that didn’t work at all?<br />
<br />
<br />
The RJ-Romain Jerome<br />
Day&Night Tourbillon
2) GOOD VIBRATIONS<br />
Look, I have a lot of respect for Oprah. She’s an amazing<br />
entrepreneur, a stellar success story, and she is obviously<br />
brilliant and generous, and may well be on the short list to<br />
be canonized as a new-world saint. However, what I don’t<br />
need from Oprah is her advice on what watch to buy. Even<br />
more so when she shamelessly touts a brand that has largely<br />
constructed their unique sales pitch around one of the most<br />
idiotic concepts of all time. Amazingly enough, when I met<br />
the creators of Philip Stein, they too were at a loss to explain<br />
exactly how the “Natural Frequency Technology” inside<br />
their watches is supposed to help what they call “overall<br />
well being”. I strapped one on while talking to them and<br />
it just made me feel angrier. I have too much affection<br />
for real horology than to open up the back door to snakeoil<br />
salesmanship that attempt to use watchmaking as a<br />
platform to sell their bullshit. Amusingly, on their website,<br />
Philip Stein uses the following statement to back up the<br />
legitimacy of their harmonic technology: “Based on initial<br />
feedback from Philip Stein wearers, we commissioned in<br />
2009 a clinical trial to study the effects of the Natural<br />
Frequency Technology on relaxation and sleep. Although<br />
the study was preliminary and statistically inconclusive,<br />
some of the findings were very promising.” I find it<br />
incredible that a brand would actually state that the very<br />
COMPLICATION<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOROLOGY<br />
FROM LEFT<br />
The Philip Stein Prestige<br />
Automatic Gents; the HD3<br />
Bi-Axial; the HD3 Idalgo XT1<br />
REVOLUTION 175<br />
fundamental technology that justifies their existence is<br />
“statistically inconclusive”.<br />
3) WATCHES WITH ILLEGIBLE INDICATIONS OF TIME<br />
THAT THEN BREAK DOWN REPEATEDLY<br />
Several watches by HD3 Complication — an artistic<br />
exercise for designers Jorg Hysek, Fabrice Gonet and Valérie<br />
Ursenbacher — find their way was on this list, not because<br />
of the lack of artistic merit of the designers involved. They<br />
are, for the record, very nice and aesthetically talented<br />
people. Their watches appear here for the fact that the basic<br />
premise of the brand was highly problematic. The idea was<br />
to completely outsource ambitiously wild-looking timepieces<br />
from a company (BNB) that then went out of business,<br />
leaving every single person who had purchased one of these<br />
watches without any recourse to get them repaired. And<br />
repaired they would have to be, because each one of these<br />
watches was created with aesthetics as the priority, with<br />
little thought as to whether the inclusion of multiple discs to<br />
tell hours, minutes and seconds — as was in the case of the<br />
Hidalgo watch — would be in the least bit reliable.<br />
They were not. The message here is that watches can no<br />
longer be designed with self-indulgently wild aesthetics<br />
with little regard for horological viability.
176 REVOLUTION<br />
FROM LEFT<br />
The Confrérie Horlogère La Clef du Temps;<br />
the AK Genève Warp HMS Automatic MKII<br />
<br />
4) CONTROLLING THE PASSAGE OF TIME<br />
At one point or another, BNB — the company founded by<br />
Mathias Buttet — supplied the vast majority of tourbillons<br />
and other complicated watches to any brand without the inhouse<br />
capacity to create these themselves. In my dealings<br />
with Buttet, I’ve always found him to be a perfectly nice man,<br />
but when BNB closed down in 2010, it meant that all of the<br />
complicated watches created by him for other brands could<br />
now no longer be serviced or repaired unless the company<br />
that commissioned them had somehow created this technical<br />
equity in-house. (Some brands did and should be applauded<br />
for it.) But for watches with an aggregate price of well over<br />
US$100,000 and with definite regular service intervals<br />
needed, you can see where the problem lies.<br />
I have witnessed one of the world’s most powerful retailers<br />
personally hand-carrying a BNB-fabricated watch back to<br />
Geneva to try to resolve a repair issue himself. Multiply this<br />
situation by the number of BNB tourbillons ever produced and<br />
you get an idea of the sheer scale of the impending disaster.<br />
The lesson here is simple. Never ever, ever buy a complicated<br />
watch unless it is made in-house by a brand that you know<br />
has a legitimate history in high complications and has been in<br />
existence for longer than a few weeks. For God’s sake, if you<br />
are going to buy a repeater, tourbillon or perpetual calendar,<br />
get one from a brand that has real in-house capacity!<br />
At some point, Buttet decided to create his own brand —<br />
Confrérie Horlogère. By creating an internal competition<br />
among his watchmakers, he arrived at several ideas, the first<br />
one of which being La Clef du Temps, or the Key of Time. So<br />
why does this watch belong on this list?<br />
COMPLICATION<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOROLOGY<br />
To begin with, the design of the watch is<br />
probably the most bizarre in the history<br />
of the Swiss industry, combining an<br />
amorphous space-age-ish case with a dial<br />
decorated with lavish engraving. The<br />
strap of the watch consisted of several<br />
elastic bands reminiscent of the devices<br />
Italian soccer players use to tie their<br />
hair up with. But the kicker was the<br />
complication. The watch would allow<br />
you to either slow time down or speed it<br />
up — superficially anyway, on its display.<br />
Why you want to do this, I have no idea. And<br />
of course, if this wasn’t enough, the watch<br />
also had a vertical tourbillon, just like that in<br />
Concord’s Tourbillon Gravity.<br />
5) THE RIDICULOUS-LOOKING SPACESHIP<br />
WATCH WITH THE CYLINDRICAL MOVEMENT<br />
I have to admit that during the crazy days of 2008, in<br />
a horological world that seemed to be redefining its own<br />
language, I was initially impressed by the unfortunately<br />
named Arny Kapshitzer’s spaceship-themed watches.<br />
But when the world came crashing back to reality and we woke<br />
up to the fact that the watch you buy today should endure<br />
perennially, I realized that I, too, had been swept up in the<br />
temporary insanity of the pre-crisis era.<br />
Look, there are many silly watches out there that want to look<br />
like spaceships or manga star-cruisers. The fact is, this one<br />
was particularly horrible-looking, appearing sort of like a<br />
women’s electric grooming device affixed to a watchstrap. It<br />
is, in scale, enormous, rivaling some of the industry’s most<br />
inanely oversized seven-barreled tourbillon timepieces. But AK<br />
Genève’s main technical talking point was that the movement<br />
was designed to be totally cylindrical, which is to say it was<br />
made differently simply for the sake of being different. But<br />
in the context of pervasive horological silliness, why does AK<br />
Genève and its timepieces deserve the Wrath of Khan?<br />
The story behind this brand was that Kapshitzer’s patron<br />
was a now-deceased entrepreneur and journalist who founded<br />
watchmaking’s most conspicuous awards ceremony, which is<br />
well known to have been one of the most corrupt competitions<br />
in Swiss horology. Were the individual in question still alive,<br />
there is no doubt that a Kapshitzer special, through the magic<br />
of nepotism, would be the recipient of this competition’s grand<br />
prize. Thus, the AK Genève watch and the people behind it<br />
embody a dark era that is thankfully over.
6) WATCHES WITH DINOSAUR DUNG DIALS<br />
Has it really come to this? Have we become so<br />
gullible that there are people out there who are<br />
compelled to buy a watch with a dial made of<br />
fossilized feces?<br />
7) WATCHES WITH FAULTY MEMORIES<br />
After the spectacular parties, after the<br />
champagne flowed, after we were each driven<br />
around Shanghai first in our own personal<br />
rickshaws and then in a convoy of magnificent<br />
vintage cars, after we were introduced to the<br />
watch’s designer and its technical team, after I<br />
gave it an award, it was my friend Joe Thompson,<br />
the elder statesman of watch journalism, who<br />
asked me the salient question, “Is it just me or<br />
did we never see a working watch?” He was, of<br />
course, correct.<br />
The idea behind the Mémoire 1 was great.<br />
Basically, it was a watch where the hands could<br />
be used to tell time, but you could also switch<br />
to chronograph mode and the hands would<br />
become chronograph elapsed-time indications.<br />
But the sad thing was that after all the hype, after<br />
leadership changes, after spectacular amounts<br />
of ink were dedicated to it, the watch basically<br />
never appeared and was never mentioned again.<br />
In truth, Mémoire 1 was a victimless crime in that<br />
no one actually put down money for the watch<br />
only to have it not materialize or only be delivered<br />
a decade later. But as an act of all show and no<br />
go, all talk and no substance, it was spectacular.<br />
“Listen, here’s the thing. If you<br />
can’t spot the sucker in your first<br />
half-hour at the table, then you<br />
are the sucker”<br />
— MIKE MCDERMOTT, ROUNDERS<br />
COMPLICATION<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOROLOGY<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 177<br />
FROM TOP<br />
The ArtyA Coprolite; the Maurice<br />
Lacroix Memoire 1
178 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
8) IT DIVIDES TIME TO 1/100TH OF<br />
A SECOND… WELL, KIND OF<br />
There is no doubt that François-Paul Journe is a brilliant<br />
watchmaker. With his Chronomètre à Resonance, he created<br />
a watch that has been the source of enormous debate for many<br />
years, with still no conclusive evidence proving or disproving<br />
its function. One thing that is a little suspicious is that winding<br />
either of the two crowns causes both barrels to arm, meaning<br />
you cannot run one movement without running the other to see<br />
how they perform independently, and then contrast this with<br />
how they perform together through the magic of resonance. But<br />
he went a little too far with his purported 1/100th-of-a-second<br />
chronograph named the Centigraphe Souverain.<br />
Clearly if the watch has one oscillator beating at 21,600vph or<br />
3Hz, it will not be able to divide time to 1/100th of second in<br />
the way that TAG Heuer’s Mikrograph does. So, how does F. P.<br />
Journe’s Centigraphe achieve this?<br />
COMPLICATION<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOROLOGY<br />
The Centigraphe Souverain has a foudroyante display where<br />
a hand adopts six positions a second. However, the subdial in<br />
this display is calculated to 100 units. So, if it only adopts six<br />
positions per second, how can it record a timing down to 1/100th<br />
of a second? Journe has decoupled the foudroyante hand in a<br />
way that when you press the stop switch on his chronograph,<br />
this hand can be arrested at any position between the six actual<br />
positions it consistently adopts each second.<br />
But the problem is that it actually stops at the six positions<br />
fractionally longer than it does in any of the positions in between,<br />
and so its movement around the dial is not consistent because<br />
it is essentially braking and accelerating between each of these<br />
positions. So does it actually divide time to 1/100th of a second?<br />
When REVHLUTION Asia’s editor Suzanne Wong asked Journe<br />
this, he replied, “It is accurate as it needs to be.” Sure, the watch<br />
is in possession of a neat visual trick, but a true 1/100th-of-asecond<br />
chronograph, the Centigraphe Souverain is not.
9) PHYSICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION<br />
Honestly, if I see one more watch that has been<br />
thoughtlessly festooned with a black coating<br />
for no apparent reason than to unleash the<br />
watch’s inner aggressiveness and bring forth<br />
the beast that lurks within, I’m going to bang<br />
my head against the wall. There is an intelligent<br />
way to use alternative materials to enhance<br />
the performance of a watch. IWC pioneered<br />
ceramic cases so as to render them scratchproof,<br />
and titanium cases for their resistance and light<br />
weight. Rolex started to adopt ceramic bezels<br />
for the same reason, and this year’s Tudor<br />
Pelagos, with its ceramic bezel impregnated<br />
with luminous dive markers, is an act of genius.<br />
I applaud Panerai’s research into new materials<br />
that have resulted in their composite-material<br />
cases. Carbon-fiber cases are acceptable to me if<br />
the purpose is to significantly lighten the weight<br />
of a watch, such as in Richard Mille’s RM 027<br />
or Audemars Piguet’s Alinghi Team. (Though,<br />
personally, I feel the world is turning back to<br />
embrace the traditional materials of steel, gold<br />
and platinum.) But what I am truly sick of is the<br />
myriad of watchcases that have thoughtlessly<br />
been colored black as the result of trend.<br />
Beyond the endless aesthetic repetition, the fact<br />
is that PVD is a highly imperfect process that<br />
results in cases that can and, if you wear them<br />
long enough, will scratch. Is it just me who finds<br />
it ironic that a watch that has been made to<br />
look more aggressive or military-themed using<br />
PVD has also been rendered many times more<br />
fragile? A PVD case can only be refinished<br />
at enormous expense, so much so that most<br />
brands refuse to do it, or will simply re-case<br />
the watch. Basically, PVD-coating a watchcase<br />
compromises its performance.<br />
<br />
Conversely, look at the watches that have<br />
actually served military duty: what do the<br />
fantastic Rolex ref. 5517 Milsubs, the Tudor<br />
Marine Nationale watches, the array of<br />
magnificent Panerai military watches and the IWC B-Uhr<br />
watches all have in common? They are all made out of plain<br />
steel. And each scar, each scratch looks like a campaign ribbon<br />
pinned to the chest of a real soldier’s uniform. The PVD-coated<br />
watch, in comparison, looks like (and makes the man wearing<br />
it look like) a hairdresser hopped up on amyl nitrate and tarted<br />
up in faux military garb for Halloween.<br />
10) PARASITICAL COMPANIES MAKING A LIVING BY<br />
TURNING PERFECTLY GOOD WATCHES BLACK AND<br />
THEN CHARGING A RIDICULOUS PRICE FOR THEM<br />
I have another magazine called The Rake, which is dedicated<br />
to classic elegance. So imagine my surprise when I discovered<br />
that in Paris, there is a magazine called Dandy, which copied our<br />
COMPLICATION<br />
CONTEMPORARY HOROLOGY<br />
REVOLUTION 179<br />
A trio of black-(de)faced Rolexes by Pro-Hunter, clockwise from top: the Military Submariner,<br />
the Daytona and the SeaDweller DeepSea<br />
cover paper stock, our fonts, our layouts and even selected many<br />
of the same images we use. In short, it sucks when people ride on<br />
other people’s hard work to make their living.<br />
The most extreme examples of this are companies that survive<br />
parasitically on real watch companies by coating their watches<br />
black. This is another reason the introduction of PVD unleashed<br />
all kinds of hell on the world. The owner of companies like Pro-<br />
Hunter, which to me do nothing but deface the work of the world’s<br />
most legitimate watch brands such as Rolex, Patek Philippe and<br />
Audemars Piguet, should be similarly be black-coated by being<br />
tarred, feathered and driven out of the boundaries of the civilized<br />
world so that they can no longer perpetuate their sacrilegious acts<br />
of horological perversity.
182 Cartier: Living in a vacuum<br />
Something gold, something new 190<br />
“There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds”<br />
Gilbert K. Chesterton<br />
<br />
<br />
ATCHES OF TOMORROW
182 REVOLUTION<br />
REVOLUTION
WATCHES OF TOMORROW<br />
CARTIER<br />
REVOLUTION 183<br />
LIVING<br />
SEAN LI (text)<br />
IN A<br />
VACUUM<br />
CARTIER LEADS THE WAY WITH THE NEW ID TWO CONCEPT WATCH,<br />
STRETCHING YET AGAIN THE BOUNDARIES OF HOROLOGICAL IMAGINATION
184 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WATCHES OF TOMORROW<br />
CARTIER<br />
Today’s watchmaking industry is one that is,<br />
justifiably so, very proud of its heritage. Some<br />
prestigious brands have been developing their<br />
know-how over decades, if not centuries. Save<br />
for a few renegade brands, modern watches<br />
are animated by the same basic mechanical<br />
principles, albeit considerably improved over the years by<br />
the application of modern technologies, whether it’s in the<br />
manufacturing process itself, or with specific components. On<br />
occasion though, someone comes along with such a tangential<br />
approach that we are forced to review even the most fundamental<br />
concepts in horology.<br />
The fact that one of the leading proponents of this futuristic<br />
thinking is the legendary Cartier is somewhat surprising, but<br />
it must be said that we are getting accustomed to it. Carole<br />
Forestier-Kasapi and her technical team have been very hard<br />
at work, not only on developing the mechanical future for<br />
Cartier – from the workhorse 1904MC caliber, to the various<br />
complications such as the brand’s first annual calendar – but<br />
also its forward looking vision through its “Innovation &<br />
Development,” or ID concept watches.<br />
You will remember that the first of these was the ID One,<br />
which sought to address the basic problems of regulation of a<br />
mechanical movement during production. While this might not<br />
necessarily excite the average watch collector, the fact is that<br />
the regulation of a movement is a very time-consuming part<br />
of the assembly process – one that is highly dependent ndent on the<br />
individual skill of the watchmaker, and on the precision ecision of the<br />
parts that are provided. Removing this variability, ity, not only<br />
at the initial point of production, but also over the he life of the<br />
watch, is one of the holy grails of watchmaking. Cartier artier proved<br />
that the concept is viable, and is, in fact, commercializing ercializing it<br />
for the first time with the Rotonde de Cartier Astrotourbillon<br />
rotourbillon<br />
Carbon Crystal watch.<br />
With the introduction of the ID One only three years ago, and its<br />
numbering, it was only logical that there would be an ID Two.<br />
What we didn’t know at the time was what shape it would take,<br />
nor what ideological concept it would seek to address. ss. So when<br />
whispers that the ID Two would be presented this year, much<br />
head scratching ensued to try and deduce what Cartier rtier would<br />
unveil at their state-of-the-art manufacture in Switzerland. erland.<br />
We know that modern wristwatches are not particularly rly energyefficient.<br />
Watchmakers have worked around that problem,<br />
focusing on the end result of ensuring that the watches atches are<br />
accurate within a certain range, rather than going back ack to the<br />
root of the problem and deconstructing it. After all, this his is how<br />
they’ve done it for eons, so why not continue?<br />
Carole Forestier-Kasapi, though, is making a habit of asking<br />
herself and her team: “Why? What can we do about bout it?”<br />
Certainly not meant to be rhetorical questions, her zealous<br />
team, which includes Edouard Mignon, product and services<br />
<br />
<br />
In order to better understand<br />
the basic problems, Cartier<br />
presented the ID Two with a<br />
series of technical demonstrations<br />
– in a way showing us their<br />
train of thought throughout the<br />
development process, and the<br />
technologies that they used to<br />
produce the whole concept.
WATCHES OF TOMORROW<br />
CARTIER<br />
THIS SPREAD FROM LEFT<br />
Edouard Mignon, product and services director for Cartier’s<br />
Watchmaking Innovation;<br />
The ID Two’s four mainsprings are arranged<br />
in a two-barrel construction;<br />
Its differential gear train compensates loads, reduces friction,<br />
and optimizes efficiency<br />
director for Cartier’s Watchmaking Innovation, is quick to put<br />
on their worn-out thinking caps and search for answers. When<br />
confronted with this low efficiency, which Cartier quantifies by<br />
saying that 75% of the energy contained within a movement is<br />
wasted, how does a movement need to be changed to ensure that<br />
it makes much better use of the energy available? The result<br />
is the Cartier ID Two concept watch, which the brand proudly<br />
presents as the world’s first high efficiency watch.<br />
In order to better understand the basic problems, Cartier presented<br />
the ID Two with a series of technical demonstrations – in a way<br />
showing us their train of thought throughout the development<br />
process, and the technologies that they used to produce the whole<br />
concept. The first step was to store the maximum amount of energy<br />
given a particular volume; the ID Two is, after all, a wristwatch,<br />
REVOLUTION 185<br />
and it would not behoove Cartier to produce something that<br />
would not fit under the average shirt cuff, even if they have been<br />
trending ng towards larger cases in recent years.<br />
STORING THE ENERGY<br />
In mechanical wristwatches, the energy is stored in the<br />
mainspring, which has traditionally been made of a metal<br />
alloy. This has allowed the mainspring to be highly durable,<br />
but presents a challenge with power delivery, specifically<br />
relating to the torque; a highly wound mainspring will<br />
generate considerably more torque – all other things being<br />
equal – than one that is almost unwound. This has an<br />
impact on the accuracy of the watch, due to the variance<br />
in the power delivery. Apart from centuries of experience in<br />
the production of metal mainsprings, there are mechanical
186 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WATCHES OF TOMORROW<br />
CARTIER<br />
<br />
<br />
FROM LEFT<br />
The ID Two’s monobloc case<br />
minimizes the length of the<br />
special gaskets and improves<br />
the “air resistance;”<br />
The caseback is held in place by<br />
the vacuum alone
WATCHES OF TOMORROW<br />
CARTIER<br />
ways of addressing this, such that the shape and elasticity<br />
are relatively well controlled, and give predictable power<br />
output. The team at Cartier decided that this wasn’t good<br />
enough, and, inspired by the fiberglass used in pole vaulting<br />
– which manages to launch the athletes and yet return to<br />
their equipment to their original state – has developed the<br />
first fiberglass mainsprings used in watchmaking.<br />
The mainsprings are arranged in a two-barrel construction, with<br />
two mainsprings within each barrel in opposing concentricity<br />
to even out the power delivery from each barrel. These, in<br />
turn, are arranged serially to extend the available power. The<br />
fiberglass mainsprings are coated with a special polymer, to<br />
make the friction negligible within the spring, likewise are<br />
the barrels, but this time in ADLC (amorphous diamond-like<br />
carbon), to reduce any negative impact from friction as the<br />
mainsprings unwind. The result of these developments alone<br />
is that 30% more power is stored. But that’s not enough; it<br />
doesn’t yet address the way this power makes its way through<br />
the watch’s gear train.<br />
REVOLUTION 187<br />
Apart from centuries of<br />
experience in the production of<br />
metal mainsprings, there are<br />
mechanical ways of addressing<br />
this, such that the shape and<br />
elasticity are relatively well<br />
controlled, and give predictable<br />
power output.<br />
DELIVERING POWER<br />
The next step is to optimize the use of this additional power,<br />
which Cartier has done with two specific developments: a<br />
differential gear train constructed to compensate loads, reduce<br />
friction through the use of ADLC coating again, and optimize<br />
efficiency with specific gear teeth geometry; and carbon crystalsilicon<br />
wheels, which are significantly lighter and harder than<br />
steel, with the added benefit of being impervious to magnetism<br />
and corrosion. This system alone improves the transmitted<br />
energy by 10%, but when combined with the adjustment- and<br />
lubrication-free escapement from the ID One, the total gain in<br />
power delivery is more than 25%.<br />
HIGHEST OPTIMIZATION<br />
Now we have 30% more power, and a 25% improvement on<br />
how that power is used, but that’s still not enough; there’s one<br />
more hurdle that Cartier has leaped over: aerodynamic friction.<br />
We might not necessarily think of the impact of air molecules<br />
at such a scale, but there is no doubt that it’s significant. In a<br />
highly effective demonstration, Cartier showed that removing<br />
the air around a more traditional movement, for instance their<br />
1904MC caliber, generated significantly greater amplitude in<br />
the balance wheel. Which is all fine and well, except that we’re<br />
not about to walk around with vacuum chambers around our<br />
wrists. Tests were done to see whether improved aerodynamics<br />
could be used as an approach, by profiling the shape of the<br />
balance wheel, but this did not result in significant savings, and<br />
it was determined that the entire movement should, in fact, be<br />
placed within a vacuum. Again, much, much easier said than<br />
done; not only do you have to take the air out of the watch, you<br />
have to make sure that it doesn’t get back in. While the industry<br />
is accustomed to waterproofing, air molecules are much, much<br />
smaller than water molecules, and existing methodologies were<br />
not sufficient to guarantee that the watch could maintain its<br />
vacuum over a significant period of time.
188 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WATCHES OF TOMORROW<br />
CARTIER<br />
CARTIER’S<br />
ASTROTOURBILLON<br />
CARBON CRYSTAL<br />
It’s almost unfortunate that Cartier chose to unveil<br />
its Rotonde de Cartier Astrotourbillon Carbon<br />
Crystal watch at the same time as the ID Two. It’s<br />
a virtual footnote to the technical achievements<br />
that its concept watch cousin has showcased, but<br />
it’s nonetheless a significant timepiece in its own<br />
right. As the first commercial application of Cartier’s<br />
Innovation and Development laboratory, it shows<br />
us that the brand is very serious about its ability to,<br />
one day, put these technological breakthroughs into<br />
production. The new Astrotourbillon Carbon Crystal<br />
features a tourbillon escapement that – thanks<br />
to the combination of DRIE (Deep Reactive Ion<br />
<br />
<br />
Etching) manufacturing processes producing carbon<br />
crystal components that are precise to the micron,<br />
and their inherent extreme hardness – requires no<br />
adjustment during assembly and no lubrication to<br />
ensure its durability. The entire tourbillon cage,<br />
which incorporates a platinum counterweight – a<br />
metal generally known for its high density equating<br />
to significant weight – is only 0.46 grams. The<br />
niobium-titanium case provides added protection as<br />
it’s non-magnetic, corrosion- and scratch-resistant,<br />
and in fact provides a certain shock resistance as<br />
well. It will remain a rare piece though, as only 50<br />
pieces will be produced.<br />
Carole Forestier-Kasapi,<br />
director of Movement<br />
Development at Cartier
WATCHES OF TOMORROW<br />
CARTIER<br />
Cartier approached this in two ways: minimizing the number<br />
of parts for the case, thereby reducing the number of potential<br />
entry points for the air molecules; and by developing new<br />
gaskets that would make it that much harder for air molecules<br />
to penetrate. The case of the ID Two is made of only two parts,<br />
which are made of a transparent ceramic compound that<br />
Cartier has dubbed “Ceramyst.” Given that there is just the<br />
monobloc case and a transparent back, the ID Two requires<br />
48% less gasket length to isolate its movement from external<br />
molecules. In addition, these gaskets have been developed to be<br />
“high performance,” that is, they are nanoparticle doped, which<br />
reduces their porosity and roughness, minimizing the chance of<br />
any air leak. As a comparative measure, if you were to create<br />
a vacuum within a “standard” watch, it would maintain that<br />
state for one day only before the air molecules would enter the<br />
case and equalize the air pressure; a watch that’s rated to being<br />
waterproof to 30 meters would maintain that state for up to<br />
three months, while the ID Two will maintain its vacuum for<br />
ten years. The vacuum also ensures that the case back simply<br />
stays in position due to the difference in air pressure outside<br />
the watch, with the end result being that power consumption<br />
is decreased by 37%. Coincidentally, one of the downsides of a<br />
vacuum is that it reduces a liquid’s boiling point; were it not for<br />
the lubrication-free technology inherited from the ID One, the<br />
REVOLUTION 189<br />
vacuum would not have been feasible for the simple reason that<br />
the lubricants would boil away at room temperature.<br />
MORE THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS<br />
When you add it all up, the additional power from the<br />
fiberglass mainsprings, improved power delivery from the<br />
differential gear train and adjustment and lubricationfree<br />
escapement, and the reduced power consumption due<br />
to the vacuum within the case, the Cartier ID Two’s high<br />
efficiency results in a power reserve that is a truly massive<br />
32 days, all in a watch that is only 42mm in diameter and<br />
15.5mm thick.<br />
Cartier’s ID Two concept watch has again showcased<br />
the brand’s commitment to mechanical watchmaking<br />
at the highest level. Carole Forestier-Kasapi’s team has<br />
deconstructed – it must be said in spectacular fashion –<br />
another of the basic problems that had become almost an<br />
inevitable given in the industry, and proved that with a lot<br />
of lateral thinking, and undoubtedly, significant resources,<br />
horology still has tremendous potential for technological<br />
development. Not to be particularly impatient, but the ID<br />
Two has only made us that much more eager to discover what<br />
Cartier has in store for the ID Three!
190 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WATCHES OF TOMORROW<br />
NEW GOLD ALLOYS<br />
<br />
<br />
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT<br />
The Rolex Cosmograph Daytona<br />
in 18k Everose gold, the Hublot<br />
Big Bang Ferrari Magic Gold and<br />
the A. Lange and Söhne ‘Homage<br />
to F. A. Lange’ Tourbograph<br />
‘Pour Le Mérite’ in 18k ‘honeycolored’<br />
gold
WATCHES OF TOMORROW<br />
NEW GOLD ALLOYS<br />
CEDRIC TENG (text)<br />
SOMETHING GOLD,<br />
SOMETHING NEW<br />
PEOPLE CHANGE AFTER MARRIAGE, AND MATERIALS DO TOO. REVLUTION EXAMINES<br />
SOME OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS UNIONS BETWEEN GOLD AND OTHER MATERIALS<br />
W<br />
hen they weren’t working on achieving<br />
eternal life, medieval alchemists pursued<br />
the relatively humbler goal of making<br />
gold. Their conviction that it was possible<br />
to transmute lead into gold stemmed<br />
from the belief that all forms of matter<br />
were made up of four essential elements, namely air, earth,<br />
fire and water, through the manipulation of which one could<br />
theoretically transform anything into something else. Today,<br />
chemistry has replaced alchemy, but the fascination with gold<br />
still exists, and modern-day descendants of the alchemists have<br />
embraced science and technology not so much to create, but to<br />
develop gold, and make it even more desirable to a society that<br />
has been taken in by its charms for millennia.<br />
Magic has been replaced by metallurgy, and the alchemists of<br />
today are none other than the teams of materials researchers<br />
that ply their trade in laboratories all around the world. Far<br />
from trying to create supernatural stones and enchanted elixirs,<br />
they busy themselves with the arduous task of inventing new<br />
substances in watchmaking and reinventing old ones.<br />
In the area of gold, alloying is probably the single most important<br />
process that has sparked its ever-growing demand. Ductile and<br />
malleable though it may be, pure gold is incredibly soft. The<br />
process of alloying not only addresses this problem, but also<br />
allows brands to manipulate the color of the eventual product.<br />
These combinations breathe new life into classic materials, and<br />
result in creations that are more than a mere sum of their parts.<br />
Amongst the many gold alloys developed are the three stalwarts<br />
of the watch industry: rose (or red) gold, yellow gold and white<br />
gold, and almost all manufacturers incorporate this trinity into<br />
their spectrum of products. Rose gold involves the introduction<br />
of varying amounts of copper to gold — the more the copper,<br />
the deeper the color. Yellow gold is closest in color to the original<br />
material, and therefore allows for the highest percentage of<br />
gold in the eventual product, even when composited with other<br />
metals like silver or zinc. The process of creating white gold is<br />
slightly more complex. Gold is combined with a white metal,<br />
REVOLUTION 191<br />
most commonly nickel or palladium, and then rhodium plated<br />
to give it a brighter and more consistent silver glow.<br />
Recent years have seen a surge of startling new innovations<br />
in the field of gold alloys that have taken the already sky-high<br />
desirability of the material to an unprecedented level.<br />
Its radiance and warmth make rose gold one of the most<br />
desirable materials in the world of watchmaking. Yet this<br />
charm is but ephemeral, as the metal tends to gradually lose its<br />
distinct color tones. And while time is usually the antagonist in<br />
the quest for eternal beauty, this time, he is only a sidekick to<br />
the real perpetrator — chlorine.<br />
A powerful disinfecting agent, chlorine is omnipresent in our<br />
daily lives. Public swimming pools routinely utilize chlorinebased<br />
substances to keep the waters fit for human recreation.<br />
Laundry bleach also has copious amounts of chlorine to keep<br />
our white shirts clean, speckless and free from the stubborn<br />
spaghetti sauce stains that seem magnetically attracted to fine<br />
fabric. And in its ubiquity lies its danger — contact between<br />
chlorine and your prized rose gold watch will gradually strip the<br />
gorgeous red tint straight off.<br />
Scientifically speaking, the difference in the reduction potential,<br />
which is the ease with which a substance gains or loses its<br />
electrons, between copper and chlorine is what causes oxidization<br />
to occur when they come into contact. The creation of the byproduct,<br />
copper chloride, gradually reduces the amount of copper<br />
content in the gold alloy, causing the eventual discoloration.<br />
But before you systematically toss out every single bottle of<br />
laundry bleach within a two-mile radius, and build your own<br />
private swimming pool in the backyard filled with naught but<br />
fresh spring water from the French Alps, we must remind you that<br />
the water you get off the tap also contains traces of this dastardly<br />
devious chemical. This means that unless you commit to taking<br />
off your watch before contact with any dubious sources of water,<br />
or decide to strike personal hygiene off your list of priorities, odds<br />
are you’d eventually be left with a yellow gold watch instead.
192 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WATCHES OF TOMORROW<br />
NEW GOLD ALLOYS<br />
Far from being satisfied with seeing their customers have the<br />
soul-wrenching experience of watching their most treasured<br />
timepieces discolor, Rolex developed a patented 18k rose gold<br />
alloy, fittingly called Everose gold. Just as the class and quality<br />
of a Rolex has never showed signs of fading, this new material<br />
promises to retain its rosy tones for an eternity.<br />
Everose gold involves the introduction of a dash of platinum to<br />
the usual suspects, gold and copper. One of the least chemically<br />
reactive metals, platinum is incredibly resistant to common<br />
acids and oxidization, two banes of the metallurgical world.<br />
In one of the earliest written accounts on the properties of<br />
platinum, Italian scholar Julius Caesar Scaliger discoursed on<br />
the resilience of platinum — “which neither fire nor any Spanish<br />
artifice [the metal first became known to European culture<br />
through alloys used in Mesoamerican culture, discovered by the<br />
Spanish] has yet been able to liquefy”.<br />
The formula for Everose gold is 76 percent gold, 22 percent copper<br />
and two percent platinum. While the percentage of platinum<br />
might appear nominal, it is what makes all the difference. The<br />
inert platinum plays the role of the overprotective chaperone<br />
for the more promiscuous copper atoms, preventing any illicit<br />
misdemeanors when chlorine comes calling. Since the copper<br />
atoms are what give the gold alloy its color, safeguarding them<br />
helps to retain the material’s original tint. Thus Rolex owners<br />
can safely don their favorite Rolex timepieces on laundry day, for<br />
a trip to the pool, or, if they so desire, a long soak in the hot tub.
LEFT<br />
Everose gold features on the case and bracelet of<br />
the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona<br />
RIGHT<br />
Twelve brilliant cut diamonds are set into the bezel<br />
of the Rolex Datejust Special Edition in Everose gold<br />
<br />
WATCHES OF TOMORROW<br />
NEW GOLD ALLOYS<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 193
194 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WATCHES OF TOMORROW<br />
NEW GOLD ALLOYS<br />
Of course, gold alloying is not just about improving its<br />
decorative function. Introducing more sturdy elements<br />
improves the resilience and hardness of gold, giving it both<br />
better form and substance.<br />
The fact that our hands are almost indispensable in completing<br />
our everyday tasks makes the wrist a horribly hazardous<br />
place for a watch. Opening doors, driving down the freeway<br />
or uncorking a bottle of bubbly all put your wristwatch at the<br />
mercy of fate and circumstance, making it susceptible to the<br />
odd bump or scratch. This means that the materials that go<br />
onto the timepiece must be able to emerge entirely unscathed<br />
from your daily duels with inanimate objects.<br />
There are two common scales we use to measure the hardness<br />
of a material, namely the Vickers hardness test and the Mohs<br />
scale of mineral hardness. The Vickers test measures the amount<br />
of physical deformity a material displays upon pressure from<br />
a standardized source. A harder material would show less of an<br />
indentation, thereby giving it a higher score on the scale. The Mohs<br />
scale works on the principle of big fish eats small fish, as it orders<br />
materials based on its ability to scratch one another, without really<br />
considering the difference in hardness between them.<br />
Pure gold has a hardness of around 2.5 Mohs, which translates<br />
to 30 Vickers. To put that in context, that is about the same<br />
hardness as the keratin in our fingernails. And anyone who<br />
has chipped a nail in his or her lifetime will concur on its<br />
unsuitability for watchcases. Even after alloying, most gold<br />
materials would still be on the losing end of an encounter with<br />
something as common and unimposing as a copper penny.<br />
Celebrating its 165 th anniversary in 2010, watch<br />
manufacture A. Lange & Söhne paid tribute to its founder,<br />
Ferdinand Adolph Lange, by unveiling the “Homage to F. A.<br />
Lange” collection. This collection featured limited editions<br />
of three classic models, namely the Tourbograph “Pour le<br />
Mérite”, the Lange 1 Tourbillon, and the 1815 Moonphase.<br />
While any of the watches alone would already command the<br />
attention of the well-versed watch enthusiast, the defining<br />
trademark of this triumvirate was the use of a new 18k<br />
gold alloy on the cases. An ode to the German tradition of<br />
pragmatism, the alloy was simply called honey-colored gold,<br />
after its distinctive pigmentation.<br />
As unique as the color may have been, what made it a real<br />
step forward was its strength. A meld of gold, manganese, zinc<br />
and silicon, the new alloy had a Vickers rating of around 300,<br />
making it almost twice as hard as common yellow gold and on<br />
par with some forms of steel. This level of durability should<br />
be more than enough for most consumers to overcome the fear<br />
of scratches — amychophobia, if you were wondering — that<br />
may come with wearing a gold watch, and go about life without<br />
looking like they were nursing a broken wrist.<br />
But for those who are still unable to overcome this paralyzing<br />
paranoia, Hublot’s new gold alloy must come as a welcome relief.<br />
Hublot might just be the firm that is leading the way for the<br />
watchmaking world in terms of developments in gold alloys.<br />
Hublot worked together with precious metal manufacturer<br />
Cendres+Métaux to create King Gold back in 2010. This 18k rose<br />
gold alloy boasts an amazing 24 percent copper composition,<br />
giving it the deepest tones among its competitors at the time.
LEFT TO RIGHT<br />
All three watches in A. Lange and Söhne’s ‘Homage<br />
to F. A. Lange’ edition — the Lange 1 Tourbillon,<br />
the Tourbograph ‘Pour le Mérite’ and the 1815<br />
Moonphase — come in 18k ‘honey-colored’ gold<br />
<br />
WATCHES OF TOMORROW<br />
NEW GOLD ALLOYS<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 195
196 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
WATCHES OF TOMORROW<br />
NEW GOLD ALLOYS<br />
Last year, Hublot unveiled their new 18k gold alloy, fittingly<br />
christened Magic Gold, and the material lives up to its name<br />
with its near-mystical physical properties. With a hardness of<br />
1,000 Vickers, it not only far outstrips all other gold alloys in<br />
terms of its durability, but also puts to shame plenty other more<br />
industrially used metals, such as hardened steel. With diamond<br />
being one of the few materials that can actually leave a mark<br />
on it, unless you live in a house that has been generously “iced”,<br />
chances are your watch will still look to be in pristine condition<br />
years (and possibly centuries) on.<br />
The fusion of gold and ceramic is what gives this new material<br />
this indestructibility. In recent times, the adoption of ceramic<br />
in watches has been the hot topic on the lips of many in<br />
the watchmaking industry. While there are detractors, its<br />
functionality cannot be denied. Durable yet lightweight, many<br />
timepiece manufactures have incorporated ceramic into their<br />
products, and its popularity looks set to continue growing.<br />
Working together with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology<br />
in Lausanne, Hublot took almost three years of research and<br />
development to perfect the process of creating this new alloy.<br />
Boron carbide is first shaped and then sintered to create a<br />
mold that is both hard and porous. The introduction of molten<br />
gold under extraordinarily large amounts of heat and pressure<br />
The use of Magic<br />
Gold gives the Hublot<br />
Big Bang Ferrari<br />
not just a unique<br />
aesthetic, but also<br />
incredible durability<br />
causes the liquefied metal to fill up the pores in the mold and<br />
fuse together to form a single material. Diamond-tipped tools<br />
then take over the unenviable task of milling and processing it<br />
into the desired shape.<br />
What makes this novel production process even more<br />
groundbreaking is the fact that its applicability is not restricted<br />
only to gold, but other metals as well. And unscratchable gold<br />
may only just be the tip of the iceberg, heralding a new wave of<br />
indomitable creations.<br />
Already, Hublot has utilized this new material for its iconic<br />
Big Bang collection, unveiling the Big Bang Ferrari in Magic<br />
Gold. With patents pending, we can expect this material to<br />
become one of the brand’s signatures in the foreseeable future.<br />
But it is in this same future that we also expect to see strong<br />
innovation from the other luxury brands in the industry<br />
with regard to gold alloying. The fact that gold is still the<br />
single most definitively luxurious metal in the modern day<br />
is widely accepted. Regardless of where you come from,<br />
gold still symbolizes wealth, power and regality. And the<br />
unceasing demand for it should be more than enough impetus<br />
for companies to strive for new breakthroughs, and pursue<br />
creations that are more than worth their weight in gold.
WATCHES OF TOMORROW<br />
NEW GOLD ALLOYS<br />
MEETING THE<br />
GOLD STANDARD<br />
The insatiable worldwide demand for gold has<br />
spawned an entire catalog of its alloys, but not all<br />
of these alloys are equal. Each one can have vastly<br />
disparate amounts of pure gold in the recipe, affecting not<br />
just the properties of the alloy, but the eventual price as<br />
well. These varying compositions are reflected in an alloy’s<br />
karat rating.<br />
This karat rating takes 24K gold to be “pure” gold, and<br />
shows how much out of a total of 24 parts of an alloy is<br />
pure gold. For example, 12K gold consists of 12 parts pure<br />
gold and 12 parts other materials. Due to the possibility<br />
of creating gold in enormously varying purities, some<br />
countries have adopted laws that govern the lowest amount<br />
required for it to be marketed as a gold product. In the<br />
United States, the minimum purity required to advertise<br />
your wares as gold is 10K, while across the Atlantic, in Italy<br />
and France, the baseline goes up to 18K.<br />
Aside from the amount of gold present, alloys are also<br />
available in a kaleidoscope of colors, a result of the<br />
different mixtures of metals.<br />
In watchmaking, the three stalwarts of the watch industry<br />
are rose (also pink or red) gold, yellow gold and white gold,<br />
and mostly in 18K, which many feel is the best balance<br />
between luxury and functionality.<br />
Rose gold involves the introduction of varying amounts<br />
of copper to gold. And while the terms pink, rose and red<br />
gold are sometimes used interchangeably, red gold usually<br />
refers to the 6N version of the alloy, which has a higher<br />
copper content and thus a deeper color as compared to<br />
rose gold (usually 5N) and pink gold (usually 4N).<br />
REVOLUTION 197<br />
The 3N and 2N alloys come under the umbrella of yellow<br />
gold, which is composited with other metals such as silver,<br />
and maintains much of the original hue as pure gold. The<br />
process of creating white gold is slightly more complex.<br />
Gold is first combined with a white metal such as palladium<br />
(nickel was previously commonly used, but it was phased<br />
out due to skin allergies), and then usually rhodium plated<br />
to give it a brighter and more consistent silver glow.<br />
Due to the precise procedure required to produce these<br />
alloys, some watchmaking companies have developed their<br />
own gold foundries for better quality control and greater<br />
in-house convenience. One such company is Chopard,<br />
which makes five variants of 18K gold at its foundry<br />
in Meyrin, Switzerland: white gold, 2N and 3N yellow<br />
gold, and 4N and 5N rose gold. For every batch of alloy<br />
produced, a sample is sent to the Swiss Precious Metals<br />
Control to certify its gold content, before the material is<br />
actually ready for use.<br />
And even amid the rising prices of gold, every gold ingot<br />
made at the workshop still contains a little over the<br />
necessary amount for it to enter the 18K classification. “It’s<br />
a Chopard guarantee,” says Paulo, one of the two Chopard<br />
employees tasked with the heavy responsibility of making<br />
gold, “an additional token of quality”. <br />
<br />
<br />
FROM LEFT<br />
Gold and other<br />
materials are placed<br />
in an oven to be<br />
melted down;<br />
Removing blocks of<br />
the completed alloy<br />
from the mold
TIMELY PROJECTIONS<br />
DRINKS: ABSINTHE<br />
TEST DRIVE: RANGE ROVER EVOQUE<br />
MOTORING: GENTLEMEN RACERS<br />
200<br />
214<br />
220<br />
226<br />
“You will never be happy if you continue to<br />
search for what happiness consists of.<br />
You will never live if you are looking for the<br />
meaning of life”<br />
<br />
<br />
Albert Camus
LA DOLCE VITA
200 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
PROJECTIONS<br />
T imely<br />
Projections<br />
Watches are usually worn on the wrist, but truth be told,<br />
it’s not always the best canvas for admiring their mechanical beauty<br />
<br />
<br />
JESPER MCILROY (photographer) +MEGUMI SEKINE (makeup) +KEN HUI (hair) +LEA T. (model)
ON TATIANA:<br />
Richard Mille RM020<br />
Tourbillon pocket watch<br />
Salvatore Ferragamo dress;<br />
Linda Farrow Projects<br />
eyewear from I.T.;<br />
Gareth Pugh safety pin<br />
cape<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Jaeger-LeCoultre Duomètre à<br />
Sphérotourbillon in rose gold
Audemars Piguet Openworked<br />
Extra-Thin Royal Oak<br />
Tourbillon 41mm in platinum
Roger Dubuis Pulsion<br />
Skeleton Flying<br />
Tourbillon in titanium<br />
<br />
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
PROJECTIONS<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 203
204 REVOLUTION<br />
ON VALENTINA<br />
Bell & Ross WW1-92<br />
La Fée Verte bra and shorts<br />
available at Sheer<br />
<br />
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
PROJECTIONS
ON LENA<br />
Zenith Pilot Doublematic<br />
Rosamosario camisole; Cosabella<br />
bra and panties; Wolford stay-ups<br />
available at Sheer<br />
ON VALENTINA<br />
Hublot Classic Fusion<br />
Chronograph<br />
Zinke bodysuit available at Sheer<br />
Badollet Ivresse <strong>2012</strong> Caliber
MB&F HM3 Poison Dart Frog
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
PROJECTIONS<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 207<br />
HYT H1 Liquid Mechanical Movement
Urwerk UR-110 RG
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
PROJECTIONS<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 209
210 REVOLUTION<br />
A. Lange & Söhne L072.1<br />
caliber (Richard Lange<br />
Tourbillon “Pour Le Mérite”)<br />
<br />
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
PROJECTIONS
212 REVOLUTION<br />
A. Lange & Söhne L951.6<br />
caliber (Datograph Up/Down)<br />
<br />
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
PROJECTIONS
Hautlence HL 2.0
214 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
MELISSA LIM (text)<br />
<br />
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
ABSINTHE
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
ABSINTHE<br />
A scapegoat for decades, it is now absinthe’s time to shine<br />
REVOLUTION 215<br />
<br />
It is merely human nature to be drawn to the mysterious, the forbidden…<br />
the taboo. We all have at some point heard of absinthe or “the<br />
green fairy” – a drink so elusive, few have dared to sample it. In fact<br />
there seems to be no other more enigmatically threatening yet fascinating<br />
drink over the years out there. After nearly a century of prohibition,<br />
this mysterious green spirit has certainly garnered an air of depraved<br />
charm, set to make a comeback. Join us, if you dare, on the journey to find<br />
out why.<br />
BEGINNINGS<br />
The origin of absinthe, known by its botanical name as Artemisia Absinthium,<br />
however disputable, stems as far back as 1792 in the Swiss town of<br />
Couvet, where French doctor Pierre Ordinaire developed the very first version.<br />
By mixing wormwood with other herbs and alcohol, he discovered a<br />
cure-all elixir that treated everything from anemia to malaria. As a result,<br />
both the French and Swiss claim it as their own, and thus began absinthe’s<br />
long and very controversial road to where it is today.<br />
It was then a man named Major Dubied obtained a secret formula, and<br />
together with his son Marcellin, and son-in-law Henry-Louis Pernod, debuted<br />
the first absinthe distillery named Dubied Père et Fils in 1797. Seven<br />
years later, Henry-Louis went on to open a second distillery in Pontarlier,<br />
France, seeing production rise to a whopping 30,000 liters from a paltry 16<br />
liters a day. Decades later saw the French Foreign Legion quaffing absinthe<br />
in an attempt to ward off disease while battling in Algeria.<br />
Once back on home turf, the troops were seen demanding this newly discovered<br />
drink at the cafés and salons of Paris.<br />
By 1860, the consumption of absinthe was so rampant in bars, cafés, bistros<br />
and cabarets; the hour of five in the afternoon was christened ‘l’heure<br />
verte’ (the green hour), and particularly popular amongst all manner of<br />
artists, poets and wealthy dilettantes sampling a taste of bohemia. During
216 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
ABSINTHE<br />
The hour of five in the<br />
afternoon was christened<br />
‘l’heure verte’ (the green hour),<br />
and particularly popular<br />
amongst all manner of artists,<br />
poets and wealthy dilettantes<br />
sampling a taste of bohemia.<br />
<br />
<br />
THIS SPREAD FROM LEFT<br />
Varga Lounge’s Green Fairy<br />
cocktail; and Bohemian Method<br />
OPENING SPREAD<br />
A variety of absinthes and<br />
traditional fountains can be<br />
found at The Blck Brd
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
ABSINTHE<br />
the next decade, wine was scarce due to the devastation of vineyards<br />
in France by the Phylloxera bug and as a result, absinthe<br />
stepped in its place as the drink of choice.<br />
PROHIBITION<br />
In 1905, it was reported that a Swiss farmer named<br />
Jean Lanfray ruthlessly murdered his wife and children after<br />
what was said to be an “absinthe binge” (though rumors later<br />
surfaced claiming absinthe was only one of numerous other<br />
alcohols he drank that day.) Unfortunately, this appalling act<br />
sparked outrage nationwide, generating an aggressive campaign<br />
to ban absinthe. First prohibited in Belgium in 1906, it<br />
was then banned in Switzerland in 1908, and in the United<br />
States in 1912.<br />
However, it wasn’t until 1915 that absinthe was officially<br />
banned in France, which ironically, was during the peak of its<br />
popularity. This was the period of the temperance movement<br />
that gradually crept across Europe, which due to the timing,<br />
deemed absinthe the scapegoat for all alcohol overindulgence<br />
and delinquencies. Wine producers were now pressured to regain<br />
their presence after their phylloxera outbreak and with<br />
absinthe no longer a viable option, pastis, a reformed version<br />
of absinthe excluding the key ingredient of wormwood, was<br />
consumed as a replacement.<br />
Remaining relatively absent for the next 75 years, it wasn’t<br />
until 1990 that modern European Union food and beverage<br />
laws were implemented, effectively lifting this near centurylong<br />
ban. Absinthe production was back with a vengeance, in<br />
full swing, and by the early 21st century, there were almost<br />
200 different brands from France, Switzerland, USA, Spain<br />
and the Czech Republic.<br />
STYLES OF ABSINTHE<br />
Absinthe is distilled using a method of production not unlike<br />
a high quality gin, where botanicals are macerated in a base<br />
alcohol before a distillation process to take out bitter notes and<br />
impart levels of complexity. The five major herbs include grande<br />
wormwood, green anise, fennel, star anise and hyssop, giving it<br />
a distinct licorice flavor. Any chlorophyll extracted from these<br />
herbs is what gives absinthe its distinct green hue, and is to absinthe<br />
what tannins are to wines and brown liquors.<br />
Absinthes served at <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>’s premier bars are separated<br />
into three major styles and two less ubiquitous, and to most, undesirable<br />
styles. It must be noted they are not dictated by their<br />
origins; for instance, one made in Switzerland can be Frenchstyle.<br />
Absinthe is not regulated or defined globally in the way<br />
that spirits such as Scotch whisky or gin are, giving manufacturers<br />
free rein to label their product “absinthe” without any<br />
rules or regulations. It is also, despite common belief, not considered<br />
liquor as it is not bottled with sugar like other spirits.<br />
REVOLUTION 217<br />
Swiss style or “balance absinthe” is clear and bottled directly<br />
after distillation and reduction. French style, on the other<br />
hand, is known as “verte absinthe” – thanks to its peridot hue<br />
– though it begins as a blanche – from the introduction of new<br />
herbs into the clear distillate. Vertes were the most commonly<br />
drunk absinthes in the 19th century, however, artificially<br />
colored green absinthes can also be classified a verte. Worth a<br />
mention, though more as a caution, Bohemian style absinthes<br />
(also called Czech style) tend to contain little to none of the<br />
same herbs and flavor profiles as proper absinthes according to<br />
tradition. Snubbed by connoisseurs, it is cold-mixed with herbal<br />
essences, and artificially colored and is considered a modern<br />
creation, along with the “fire ritual” which only came into exis-
218 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
ABSINTHE<br />
tence in the 1980s. As for the lesser-known and revered varieties,<br />
American-style absinthes closely resemble the French’s but<br />
boast tangy citrus flavors, and favored when making the iconic<br />
Sazerac cocktail. Finally, the Spanish variation of “Absenta”<br />
uses Alicante anise that gives it a sweet, citrus flavor.<br />
HIT OR MYTH?<br />
One of the greatest reasons people are petrified of absinthe<br />
is the belief that it is effectively a poison causing hallucinations<br />
that drive you crazy; its nearly century-long prohibition<br />
does not help matters. Thujone is a neurotoxin found in wormwood<br />
–the main component in absinthe – and is toxic but only<br />
in enormously high doses. Indeed, scientific research negates<br />
this controversy by proving one would have to ingest so many<br />
bottles though in which case the alcohol content alone would<br />
kill you before you experience any of the hallucinogenic effects<br />
of thujone. Rest assured, there will be no green fairy hovering<br />
over your shoulder.<br />
As such, absinthe is on the up and up in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>, and The<br />
Blck Bird, a popular bar boasting a large outdoor terrace, has<br />
its entire absinthe collection supplied exclusively by Absinthe<br />
Asia, which is helmed by expert and enthusiast, Alex Cumine.<br />
“Absinthe is like nothing else on the market due to its<br />
sophisticated and complicated flavors. More and more people<br />
are trying it and once they try a top quality absinthe, such as<br />
Butterfly Boston 1902, they never go back to the cheaper or<br />
bohemian styles,” he muses. Both himself and Eric Stephen-
CLOCKWISE FROM RIGHT<br />
Lily & Bloom’s Death by Paris<br />
cocktail; The Prohibition style interior<br />
of Lily & Bloom sets the perfect<br />
mood; The Blck Brd’s classic Sazerac<br />
<br />
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
ABSINTHE<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 219<br />
son, bar manager at Lily & Bloom – a prohibition style speakeasy<br />
– agree the best way to sample absinthe for the first time<br />
is to ease into it with a cocktail such as the classic Sazerac.<br />
Though its main ingredient is rye whiskey, the presence of<br />
absinthe is unmistakable. According to Stephenson, the aniseed<br />
and herb qualities of absinthe work well in complimenting<br />
other flavors. Still in a cocktail state of mind? Head to<br />
Varga Lounge to sample the Green Fairy that takes you on a<br />
diametrically opposite experience to the Sazerac. It combines<br />
pineapple juice and freshly squeezed lemon and lime with La<br />
Salle absinthe, a Spanish variety which owner Kenneth Howe<br />
regards as a neutral flavor perfect for cocktails.<br />
Once an initial palate for absinthe has been established, it is<br />
time to move on to a more traditional method of imbibing. “The<br />
French Ritual”, though somewhat arduous, is to some the only<br />
way to drink absinthe – to drink it on its own or as a shot would<br />
be to those in the know, blasphemous! The French Ritual or<br />
“The Perfect Pour” involves placing a sugar cube on a perforated<br />
spoon laid across the rim of a glass of absinthe. Using a<br />
fountain to drip ice water on to the sugar dissolves it into the<br />
absinthe slowly to create a “louche,” which is where the originally<br />
translucent absinthe turns an opalescent white color with<br />
a faint green tinge. While the three or fours parts water to one<br />
part absinthe may seem excessive, keep in mind absinthe has<br />
an extremely high alcohol content and diluting it is necessary to<br />
both ones enjoyment and to highlight the aroma of the numerous<br />
herbs, complex flavors and essential oils. A modern interpretation<br />
named the “Fire Ritual” or “Bohemian Method” can<br />
also be employed. It is similar to the French Ritual, however,<br />
the sugar cube is set on fire before the ice water is dripped on<br />
it to douse the flame. The result is a caramelized aroma, and<br />
while not necessarily traditional, it certainly puts on a show!<br />
Absinthe is also unexpectedly complimentary to food, in particular<br />
fish, oysters, chicken, soft cheeses and chocolate. Its slight<br />
acidic nature helps to cut through fats and its subtle sweetness<br />
and touch of bitterness means it is able to show through even<br />
hearty flavors. Who needs wine when you could have an absinthe<br />
fountain next to you at the dinner table?<br />
Whether you choose to accept scientific proof that it is safe to<br />
consume or not, the appreciation of absinthe is on the rise in<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>. Whether you are in search of some excitement or<br />
already consider yourself a rebel, we urge you to take a walk on<br />
the wild side. There is no other drink boasting a more sordid<br />
past or, for that matter, that which will leave you in the same<br />
frissons of exhilaration now and for years to come.
220 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
TEST DRIVE
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
TEST DRIVE<br />
REVOLUTION 221<br />
SEAN LI (text)<br />
<br />
<br />
RANGE ROVER TRIMS DOWN WITH THE EVOQUE, AND SHOWS<br />
THAT IT’S VERY CAPABLE AT TACKLING THE URBAN JUNGLE
222 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
TEST DRIVE<br />
There was a time when a large, highly sprung, fourwheel<br />
drive vehicle meant that you were likely living<br />
in a rural environment with a significant need for<br />
transportation over non-paved terrain. In the past<br />
few years though, our roads have been invaded by numerous<br />
urban off-roaders; even the Italians are getting into the fray,<br />
with Maserati and, yes, even Lamborghini, presenting sports<br />
utility vehicle concepts, which will be available in the not too<br />
distant future.<br />
If we are to look to the origins of such vehicles though, there<br />
is little doubt that Land Rover, and its luxury arm, Range<br />
Rover, will come to mind. For more than 60 years now, Land<br />
Rover has focused on tackling the most difficult terrains<br />
on many far-flung expeditions. Just over 40 years ago, they<br />
branched out into vehicles that would be adept at handling<br />
asphalt, as well as mud, with the comfort of a luxury saloon;<br />
since then, Range Rovers have become familiar sights even in<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>’s concrete jungle.<br />
One characteristic of Range Rovers is that they generally don’t<br />
change very much. Over their first 40 years, only three generations<br />
of Range Rovers were developed. They were somewhat<br />
box-like, with genetics clearly derived from utilitarian, low<br />
speed applications, favoring loading room and interior space<br />
over aerodynamics and fitting within standard, not to mention<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> sized, parking spaces. So there was considerable<br />
surprise when in 2008, Range Rover presented the LRX concept<br />
car – their take on the compact SUV. It would take some<br />
three years, but the LRX would become the Evoque, which<br />
started production just over a year ago.<br />
The first thing that strikes you when seeing the Evoque is that<br />
it is, indeed, rather compact. This could be in large part due<br />
to the familiarity with the girth of previous Range Rovers; the<br />
Evoque is positively minute in comparison. The styling is also<br />
considerably more modern, almost sleek, and that’s just the<br />
four-door version; there is a coupé for those who may not make<br />
much use of those rear seats on a regular basis.
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
TEST DRIVE<br />
The Evoque Prestige is compact in Range Rover<br />
standards, but for a car, provides a lot of room for<br />
passengers. Apart from the Evoque Prestige, the<br />
Pure and the Dynamic are also available in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong><br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 223
224 REVOLUTION<br />
The Evoque Prestige brings<br />
customization to a whole new level,<br />
having to choose among 12 body colors;<br />
four roof colors; five interior themes;<br />
between oak or Makassar wood, and<br />
metal finish; and a leather or dark cherry<br />
wood steering wheel<br />
<br />
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
TEST DRIVE<br />
The engineers have not completely forgotten the Range Rover DNA; the Evoque<br />
still has full time four-wheel drive and a number of off-road settings.<br />
<br />
<br />
RANGE ROVER EVOQUE PRESTIGE<br />
Engine: 2.0 Litre Si4 turbocharged direct-<br />
injection petrol aluminum engine<br />
Maximum Power: 240PS AT 5,500 rpm<br />
Maximum torque: 340Nm at 1,750 rpm<br />
Transmission: 6-speed automatic transmission including<br />
drive select with paddle shift & sport mode<br />
Performance: 0 - 100 km/h in about 7.6 seconds<br />
Dimensions: 4,365mm X 2,125mm X 1,605mm (LxWxH)<br />
Curb Weight: 1,640 kgs<br />
Distributor: LAND ROVER HONG KONG<br />
+852 28917780
Step into the Evoque though, you’ll find that the interior is still<br />
spacious for a car this size, but snug if you’ve ever been in a<br />
“classic” Range Rover. The panoramic roof goes a long way to<br />
bringing some airiness and a sense of space to the passengers.<br />
The engineers have not completely forgotten the Range Rover<br />
DNA though; the Evoque still has full time four-wheel drive,<br />
and a number of off-road settings (there is a two-wheel drive<br />
Evoque, but it’s not available in the <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> market). There<br />
wasn’t much opportunity to try those out, so we will instead focus<br />
on the Evoque’s characteristics as it makes its way through<br />
mid-afternoon traffic.<br />
The particular model that we test drove was the Evoque Prestige,<br />
which puts an emphasis on higher trim levels. There are<br />
two other versions available in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>: the Pure, as an entry<br />
level model; and the Dynamic, which adds Adaptive Dynamics,<br />
Range Rover’s more advanced suspension. This allows the suspension<br />
to automatically adjust its stiffness depending on road<br />
conditions and driving style. It also adds a dynamic mode to<br />
the automatic transmission, making the throttle response more<br />
aggressive. We’ll have to take their word for it though, as the<br />
Prestige version is equipped with a standard suspension that<br />
has been tweaked to tackle more general conditions.<br />
The <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> market also gets access to only one engine variant:<br />
the 2-liter Si4 turbocharged petrol engine. This engine<br />
develops 240 horsepower and 340 Nm of torque, which is sufficient<br />
to get the Evoque from a standstill to 100 kilometers per<br />
hour in about 7.6 seconds, and on to a top speed of 217 kilometers<br />
per hour. As we drive off, the power is delivered smoothly,<br />
with little perception of any turbo lag. The Evoque ably handles<br />
the steeper roads going up to the Peak, and the Prestige’s suspension<br />
does a good job of absorbing the occasional rough patch<br />
– although it must be said that it’s tuned more towards sporty<br />
than comfortable. While there are paddles mounted on the rear<br />
of the steering wheel, the automatic transmission doesn’t really<br />
lend itself to flicking through the gears. Having said that, it<br />
works well in both traffic jammed conditions, and keeping the<br />
power available in more spirited driving on twisty roads.<br />
With Range Rover demonstrating that they’ve very well tuned<br />
the Evoque’s road-going abilities, we turn our attention to the<br />
interior and exterior options. This is where the Range Rover<br />
shows a bit more of their hand with the Evoque and its target<br />
market. While there are few mechanical options to tick<br />
on the order form, the color and interior variations are mind<br />
boggling on the Prestige edition, and definitely not for the indecisive.<br />
We count no less than twelve body colors available;<br />
depending on that choice, you also have up to four roof colors<br />
to choose from (body color, white, silver or black). Then you<br />
have to match the exterior with five different interior “themes”<br />
that will determine the color of the Oxford leather instrument<br />
panel and seats, and even different floor mats. Finally, you<br />
have to decide whether you want an oak or Makassar wood, or<br />
metal finish, and in the case of the latter, if you’d like it satin<br />
brushed or bear a “botanical” pattern. We should not omit<br />
that you can also choose between a leather and dark cherry<br />
wood steering wheel.<br />
Just to take this customization a little further, you can also adjust<br />
the interior lighting, selecting from five different colors and<br />
with varying brightness to suit your particular mood that day.<br />
You do have to choose, too, whether you want to upgrade the<br />
standard Meridian 11-speaker sound system to the surround<br />
sound system, pumping out some 825W of audio power. Lastly,<br />
you can also equip the Evoque with an automated parallel<br />
parking feature – something to consider should your driver be<br />
given the night off.<br />
Since its launch in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> this year, the Evoque has been<br />
met with considerable success, almost reaching their yearly<br />
sales target within the first four months. It’s certainly an attractive<br />
package, with good power, an excellent interior, and a<br />
striking profile. There are some rumors that Range Rover might<br />
expand the Evoque’s line-up even further, with perhaps an R,<br />
performance oriented version, and – wait for it – a convertible!<br />
In the meantime, the Evoque should definitely be on your short<br />
list should you be in the market for a compact SUV that will set<br />
you apart from the crowd.
226 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
GENTLEMEN RACERS
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
GENTLEMEN RACERS<br />
REVOLUTION 227<br />
<br />
SEAN LI (text)<br />
<br />
<br />
REVLUTION LOOKS AT SOME OF THE OPTIONS THAT HONG KONG<br />
RACERS HAVE FOR UNLEASHING THEIR INNER SPEED DEMONS
228 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
GENTLEMEN RACERS<br />
An interest in high-end mechanical timepieces often<br />
goes hand-in-hand with a similar affliction for<br />
other machinery, namely, fine automobiles. Some<br />
aficionados and collectors are attracted to the classics<br />
from yesteryear, and are content to store them away, have them<br />
regularly hand polished, and occasionally take them for a gentle<br />
(or not) spin across their favorite open road. Others prefer the<br />
more spirited modern cars, that are, in spite of ever more stringent<br />
environmental regulations, able to achieve performance figures<br />
that we could only dream about in our youth, when the closest<br />
we could get to these machines would be through posters on our<br />
walls or across a velvet rope at a car show.<br />
As they say, the difference between men and boys is the price<br />
of their toys, and do we ever have access to some great cars to<br />
play with! Frustratingly, and in spite of an incredible concentration<br />
of high performance cars, <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>’s roads do not<br />
provide the best environment to explore much more beyond a<br />
fraction of this available performance. And in any case, sports<br />
car drivers tend to have a very competitive streak in them, and<br />
there comes a point where the Gran Turismo or Forza Motorsport<br />
simply doesn’t provide the required adrenalin rush. So<br />
what’s a local motorhead to do? Fear not, for even though we<br />
may not have many local options, we are still centrally located<br />
to access a few racing circuits in Asia; in addition, the sports
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
GENTLEMEN RACERS<br />
car manufacturers have been keen to provide some fantastic<br />
turn key options.<br />
STUTTGART’S FINEST<br />
The first of these options is the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia. The<br />
series was launched in 2003, and is celebrating its 10 th consecutive<br />
season in <strong>2012</strong>. It has continually gained in popularity, and<br />
has attracted significant attention from professional drivers and<br />
teams, as it plays a supporting role in a number of Formula 1<br />
races in the region. This gives it a unique visibility, and also a<br />
great opportunity for aspiring race drivers to compete on the<br />
same weekend, and at the same venue, at the F1 circuit.<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 229<br />
OPENING SPREAD CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT<br />
Starting line at the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia;<br />
Ferrari Days is an event reserved for their own range of cars;<br />
Making it to the finish line at the first race of the<br />
Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Asia Series;<br />
Competing car at the Super Trofeo Cup;<br />
drivers rush during the compulsory driver change halfway<br />
THIS SPREAD<br />
The Porsche Carrera Cup Asia at the<br />
Ordos International Circuit in Inner Mongolia
230 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
GENTLEMEN RACERS<br />
Being a one-make series, the conditions are highly regulated,<br />
and are designed to level the playing field as much as possible.<br />
For the first few years, teams were required to share<br />
the same engineering service teams so that all cars were prepared<br />
as identically as possible prior to the race. However,<br />
with the increased professional attention, Porsche allowed<br />
teams to engage their own mechanics in 2010.<br />
The official designation of the car itself is the 911 GT3 Cup.<br />
While it bears an outer resemblance to the Porsche 911 that you<br />
will see in showrooms, this one is a pure racing machine, and<br />
would not actually be road legal (that is, you cannot decide to<br />
park it in your garage for your daily commute).<br />
For amateur drivers, and those who really are looking to have<br />
as much of the racing logistics handled for them, the Technical<br />
Service Package is still available, which will provide mechanics<br />
at each race, handle all maintenance and servicing, transportation<br />
of the car to each race, and all pre-race set-up tasks. So<br />
as a driver, your main concern will be finding a suitable color<br />
scheme and the appropriate racing gear.<br />
The professional presence in the Carrera Cup should not deter<br />
you from participating either, as previous race experience<br />
is taken into consideration; those who are still considered amateurs<br />
are entered within Class B, which allows you to compete<br />
against drivers of a similar ilk, and not be discouraged by the<br />
“pro” who is disappearing in the distance. Class B drivers have<br />
their own podium, and their own championship.<br />
MARANELLO’S CHALLENGE<br />
Just as Porsche and Ferrari have traditionally competed in the<br />
showrooms, Ferrari has joined the motorsports fray in Asia, and<br />
this year brought the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli to the region.<br />
Already popular since 1993 in Europe and North America,<br />
it was only natural that Ferrari would choose to give its<br />
Asian drivers an opportunity to test their mettle on the track.<br />
While in spirit, there is some overlap with the Porche Carrera<br />
Cup, there are some key differences between the two championships.<br />
The first is that the series is open to teams of two drivers<br />
per car, so that you can share the car over the weekend, with a<br />
separate qualifying and race run for each. The second is that
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
GENTLEMEN RACERS<br />
the races start with a rolling start, rather than the standing<br />
start you may be used to seeing in many racing series. Again,<br />
racing amateurs should not be concerned about entering the Ferrari<br />
Challenge, as they are also catered to with a dedicated classification<br />
under the Coppa Shell. For the current season, the car in<br />
question is the Ferrari 458 Challenge, which is a race-developed<br />
version of the road going 458 Italia.<br />
This year, the Ferrari Challenge and Porsche Carrera Cup will<br />
share the stage as support races for the Singapore F1 race, which,<br />
by the time you read this, will have already been run. For the<br />
rest of the season, Ferrari focused on having separate events, including<br />
two “Ferrari Days” reserved for their own range of cars.<br />
Should you have a closer attachment to Maranello, this can be a<br />
significant attraction to the Ferrari Challenge series.<br />
THE BULL RUN<br />
Another new series this year, with its roots from Europe, is the<br />
Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Cup. Again, the concept<br />
is that you enter with a level playing field, as the cars, in this<br />
case, are the Lamborghini Super Trofeo; it’s a lightweight race<br />
version of the Gallardo LP570-4. The basic principles remain<br />
the same as that of Porsche and Ferrari, with as much assistance<br />
as possible to enable you to drive without spending half<br />
your time on the logistics of getting the car to the track, and<br />
putting together a competent pit crew.<br />
Lamborghini are keen to insist though that a key difference with<br />
the Super Trofeo cup is that it’s very much built around gentlemen<br />
drivers. With rolling starts as well, the racing in the series<br />
is focused more on light endurance racing, with each race lasting<br />
50 minutes; the Porsche Carrera Cup and Ferrari Challenge<br />
races are generally targeted to be less than 30 minutes long with<br />
the number of laps for each race determined in advance, based<br />
on the average predicted lap time in dry weather; wet conditions<br />
could shorten the number of laps. An additional twist is<br />
that a driver change is actually required halfway through each<br />
race, adding an important tactical element to each event.<br />
GETTING READY<br />
So with Porsche, Ferrari and Lamborghini offering such professionally<br />
managed packages, enabling the well heeled amateur<br />
<br />
<br />
The <strong>2012</strong> Ferrari Challenge,<br />
Asia Pacific Series, makes its stop in<br />
Shanghai<br />
REVOLUTION 231
PORSCHE 911 GT3 CUP<br />
Engine: Normally aspirated 3,797cc<br />
six-cylinder boxer<br />
Max power: 450 hp at 7,500 rpm<br />
Transmission: Six-speed sequential<br />
Weight: approx. 1,200 kgs<br />
www.carreracupasia.com<br />
FERRARI 458 CHALLENGE<br />
Engine: Normally aspirated 4,497cc<br />
six-cylinder boxer<br />
Max power: 570 hp at 9,000 rpm<br />
Transmission: Dual-clutch 7-speed F1<br />
Weight: 1,220 kgs<br />
corseclienti.ferrari.com<br />
LAMBORGHINI GALLARDO SUPER TROFEO<br />
Engine: Normally aspirated 5,204cc V10<br />
Max power: 562 hp at 8,000 rpm<br />
Transmission: Six-speed sequential E-Gear<br />
Weight: approx. 1,340 kgs<br />
www.supertrofeo.com<br />
<br />
driver to take to the track and prove to your friends that you really<br />
are as fast as you claim (or not), how do you choose among<br />
them and finally enter?<br />
All three require a racing license of course; you do need some<br />
training and certification to ensure that you will not pose a danger<br />
to yourself, and particularly to your fellow racers. There are<br />
also turn-key solutions, with racing schools around the world<br />
that will be more than happy to provide classroom training so<br />
that you don’t scratch your head when the track marshals keep<br />
waving that blue flag at you in your first race, and with the seat<br />
time and instruction to maximize your speed and confidence<br />
around any track. You also need to join the motorsport association<br />
for your respective nationality or residence; in the case of<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>, it’s the <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> Automobile Association.<br />
You then need to decide which series appeals to you the most.<br />
Each has a different number of events, with some overlaps with<br />
the tracks that they will end up racing on. Beyond your particular<br />
preference for Porsche, Ferrari or Lamborghini, you need to<br />
decide which level of racing you’re most comfortable with. Mixing<br />
it with the “pros” can be a daunting task, and it will realistically<br />
take a new driver quite some time before the lap times<br />
start tumbling and even approaching the competitive racers.<br />
Needless to say, all of this does add up very quickly between<br />
the cost of car itself and the entry and participation fees, which<br />
then extends to insurance, spare parts, tires, not to mention the<br />
travel to the tracks. There is another option though.
LA DOLCE VITA<br />
GENTLEMEN RACERS<br />
REVOLUTION 233<br />
FROM TOP<br />
The Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo<br />
Cup is a lightweight race version of the<br />
Gallardo LP570-4;<br />
Sideways in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>’s Central district<br />
provides a mean virtual driving center<br />
VIRTUAL OPTION<br />
We may have alluded lightheartedly at a couple of the popular<br />
racing games available today, but it must be said that they have<br />
progressed in leaps and major bounds since the days of Pole<br />
Position. In fact, given that they often use geographic mapping<br />
from real tracks, they can serve as a training tool to help you<br />
prepare for an actual day on the race track.<br />
Your significant other might object though to having the racing<br />
seat, steering wheel and pedals taking up so much space<br />
in front of the television. And as good as the console games<br />
have become, there is something lacking when competing only<br />
against the simulation itself.<br />
For those who are looking for more of the competitive spirit, you<br />
can make your way to Sideways, which touts itself as a virtual<br />
driving center. Located in the heart of Central, you can book<br />
some time in one of their networked simulators, either by yourself,<br />
or with up to 14 friends. You may not be taking the wheel<br />
of your supercar, but rest assured that once you start comparing<br />
your lap times with the driver sat next to you, the competitive<br />
spirit will take over. Waiting for the race to start, watching<br />
the lights counting down, and hoping that you make it through<br />
the first turn unscathed is a very immersive experience. You<br />
have the added advantage of being able to try different cars and<br />
tracks in the same session, if you wish.<br />
There you have it, three professionally managed series in Asia,<br />
backed by the iconic supercar manufacturers, or a racing simulator<br />
option; personal preferences and means will dictate which<br />
option you end up choosing, but be prepared, for once the racing<br />
bug bites, it can be particularly addicting!
JÉRÔME & VIVIANE DE WITT<br />
236<br />
243<br />
JEAN-MARC PONTROUÉ<br />
MANUEL EMCH<br />
248<br />
252<br />
JORN WERDELIN
“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to<br />
succeed is more important than any other”<br />
Abraham Lincoln<br />
<br />
<br />
FACES
236 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
INTERVIEW BY CHARLENE CO<br />
KEEPING IT<br />
IN THE FAMILY<br />
DEWITT HANDS OVER THE REINS TO THOSE WHO KNOW<br />
AND LOVE THE BRAND MOST
Perhaps not known to many, DeWitt overhauled its management<br />
last year, and returned its founder and president<br />
to a more active role in the company. Jérôme de Witt didn’t<br />
go back to the trenches on his own; he called on his wife,<br />
Viviane de Witt, to join him as Vice President of the company,<br />
a move that bodes well with a belief they hold close<br />
and dear: that it’s all about family, and treating everyone<br />
as such.<br />
An interesting dynamic between the two is immediately apparent.<br />
Jérôme is driven by a creative mind that manifests<br />
itself quite endearingly through his gentle tone and calm demeanor,<br />
while Viviane has a sharp and no-nonsense way, and<br />
quickly kly fills in imp important details that may occasionally be<br />
missed ed when the monsieur is caught up in sharing his design g<br />
ideas s and philosophies.<br />
REVLUTION V V LUTION caught up with the pair while on their visit<br />
to <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>.<br />
The e last time we talked, which was last year at Baselworld,<br />
you u mentioned that the company was going through a rough<br />
patch, tch, how are things now?<br />
Jérôme ôme de Witt: Things are better. It’s hard to act on problemsms<br />
if you’re not aware of them, but if you are, you<br />
can n do something about it. So that’s what we<br />
decided cided to do this year. I thought I could<br />
maintain aintain a certain distance from the<br />
company, ompany, take on a more relaxed<br />
role ole but I realized that this was<br />
not ot possible because the brand<br />
Twenty-8-Eight Skeleton Haute<br />
Joaillerie version<br />
<br />
FACES<br />
DEWITT<br />
REVOLUTION 237<br />
in fact needs a face, as well as my guidance, direction and designs.<br />
And the company was not happy so we had to solve the<br />
problem, and we came back as a family – me and my wife. It<br />
had to go back to family because I say my watches are my roots<br />
and I’m giving a lot of myself and giving that responsibility to<br />
someone else – someone outside of the family – was problematic<br />
because how do you speak about something that you don’t understand,<br />
or something that was not created by you? The person<br />
I put in charge was not from this business so it was very hard for<br />
her and we came to the conclusion that I had to go back, and be<br />
active in the company again.<br />
How did the company react to this so-called comeback?<br />
JDW: People were very happy to see me back in this capacity.<br />
My wife and I came back in February this year, which was<br />
welcomed by the company; ppeople p were happy to work again.<br />
I always treated everyone as family so we didn’t really have<br />
these levels, hierarchy. But we came back and brought back<br />
that mind set; we had departments and that was it – no hierarchies.<br />
I’ve always felt that I was in this position mainly to show
238 REVOLUTION<br />
them the way, to guide them and also give them the opportunity<br />
to learn new things, and to improve. And I always told them,<br />
for you to improve you have to be happy with your work.<br />
So would you say it was a restructuring?<br />
JDW: Yes. Everyone in management changed.<br />
<br />
FACES<br />
DEWITT<br />
Viviane de Witt: Well, production is the same, R&D is the same,<br />
and it was only the so-called “chiefs” we changed; people who had<br />
wings growing but not for the company but for themselves. It was<br />
a decision that was totally necessary, so clear and easy to make.<br />
JDW: My wife actually always says I am too kind.<br />
So you’re the fierce one then?<br />
VDW: Yes, well in a team you always need a kind one and a<br />
fierce one! But certainly we are both going to serve the company<br />
and not serving anyone else’s goals or agenda.<br />
JDW: My wife is very strong and she knows what she wants, and<br />
I think it will be interesting to work together. We are both first<br />
and foremost concerned about the watches, and the quality of<br />
the watches.<br />
Will this change in management affect the company at all?<br />
VDW: No, no, no, no. This is already all behind us. Nothing has<br />
changed, only the people changed, only a few people in fact,<br />
and it’s all behind us now. There was a bit of a diversion in our<br />
straight line and we just need to bring it back to the way it was,<br />
to correct it. That’s all. It’s very simple.<br />
JDW: We’re maintaining the same philosophies, everything is<br />
the same and the only thing we changed are some people who<br />
didn’t have the same vision and goals we had.<br />
VDW: Yes, because, they wanted to use the company to grow<br />
themselves and as I said, their own wings were growing but not<br />
for the company but for themselves.<br />
Sounds intriguing! But maybe I won’t delve too much into that<br />
now since as you said, it’s all behind you now. Mrs DeWitt, it is<br />
in fact the first time you are actively involved in the company?<br />
VDW: Yes, in this company.<br />
How do you feel about this new role? Have you set new goals<br />
for the company?<br />
VDW: My only goal is to help my husband. He’s the founder<br />
of the company, and I’m here to support him and make the<br />
company run more smoothly around him. He loves creating<br />
watches, that’s his passion, but it’s another story to manage 70<br />
people and it’s not exactly the part he wants to do, whereas it’s<br />
easy for me because I’ve run businesses before; I have an auction<br />
company.<br />
Can we say that you’ll be involved in a more management<br />
level, while Mr DeWitt will focus more on the creative side?<br />
VDW: We are together; we’re a team!<br />
JDW: At the end of the day, instead of having 8 or 12 hours of<br />
work, we have 24 hours a day!
FACES<br />
DEWITT<br />
REVOLUTION 239<br />
Is that a good or bad thing?<br />
VDW: It’s a good thing, and it’s fun. It really is! We see<br />
happiness again in the company as it became very tense,<br />
because if you have chiefs who want to prove themselves<br />
and satisfy their ego this is going to happen and this is not<br />
the philosophy my husband wanted for the company. It’s a<br />
family business, and we don’t see our people as numbers<br />
but as members of that large family. And when they’re considered<br />
numbers that ambience is lost; people want to feel<br />
they belong. The DeWitt company is not just an image, it’s<br />
a real touch.<br />
How was DeWitt before these presumably “dark days”?<br />
VDW: My husband ran it for years! Then it grew and he felt that<br />
someone else should manage the company.<br />
JDW: In fact I thought bringing someone in would mean that<br />
I could be freer. It’s very different creating and looking at<br />
figures and I thought having someone doing the latter would<br />
mean I could focus more on creating. When you polish something,<br />
you have to do so in one way. If you change the direction,<br />
it’s completely different. And this was in a way what<br />
happened with the company, the direction changed slightly so<br />
it wasn’t the same company.<br />
And since we’ve been married for 20 years, I know my wife<br />
so well and she knows me – she knows my strengths as well<br />
as my weaknesses, it’s just easier to work and create something<br />
together because we don’t have to speak, we just need<br />
to react; we know what each other is thinking. And when<br />
we’re back home, I don’t have to tell her about my day because<br />
she knows exactly what happened. So this move can<br />
only be positive!<br />
Do your children have any interest in getting into the business?<br />
VDW: All our children are already very busy!<br />
I understand that you have some experience in jewelry; will<br />
you be contributing this knowledge to DeWitt?<br />
VDW: Why not, but first we must really be strong on the watches,<br />
we must enlarge our markets and be stronger here – it’s<br />
market No. 1 in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> – so we have to be stronger, and<br />
of course in China. Asia is very important. My husband must<br />
spread out the product across the world.<br />
Speaking of which, you opened this store in Elements last<br />
year; how’s it doing?<br />
JDW: It’s a new mall and it’s picking up slowly but we have some<br />
good results. We have three stores in Beijing and one in Shanghai.<br />
We have points of sales in China, or actually “corners” because<br />
they are partly POS and own shops.<br />
VDW: Well that’s another thing, we were very far from the market<br />
because someone else was visiting, and now we want to do<br />
it ourselves and be closer to our friends and work together, improve<br />
together. We have to work together and to do that we have<br />
to be here; we can’t do that from Switzerland. You have to go to<br />
the markets to help with the sales.
240 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
FACES<br />
DEWITT<br />
So I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of you here in Asia?<br />
VDW: Yes, definitely!<br />
What are your plans/objectives for this <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> trip?<br />
VDW: We plan to meet the <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> retailers and discuss how we<br />
can enlarge the company further. It’s a beginning of a new story.<br />
JDW: But at the same time we want to maintain and strengthen<br />
the same philosophy.<br />
Can you talk a bit more about product development? What’s<br />
in store for DeWitt in that area?<br />
JDW: This year, we plan to focus on movements, new models<br />
and quality. We will continue work at our R&D department and<br />
reinforce their efforts. We are working with some complications<br />
as well as some basic movements. Next year we will be celebrating<br />
10 years and I hope to succeed in bringing in our own movement.<br />
We’re targeting to finish this movement next year, which<br />
is going to be our basic movement; this means we need to have<br />
something very strong that we can use in all our models. When<br />
we do this, all our watches will be using our own movement.<br />
This is an interesting project but also a big challenge in quality.<br />
Have you encountered any hurdles in this project so far?<br />
JDW: When you start from scratch you can’t pretend to know<br />
everything. I prefer to stick to the traditional ways, the methods<br />
I learned. When I choose to use a new method, technique, or<br />
I think we can have<br />
in-house movements in all<br />
our collections by 2015 or 2016<br />
DeWitt Twenty-8-Eight Skeleton Tourbillon<br />
decide to do something bold, I have to think how it will be in 25<br />
years. It has to be classic even decades from now.<br />
We have a collection of watches in the office, many of them are 200<br />
or 250 years old, all in working condition. Once in a while, we repair<br />
or maintain them, like changing the oil for instance. I like to go back<br />
to these old watches and see how they are made, and not be quick<br />
to adapt new technologies. I prefer to use old-fashioned materials.<br />
You also mentioned earlier about working towards getting the<br />
Geneva Seal, can you expound on that a bit?<br />
JDW: I stopped working with the Geneva Seal because I disapproved;<br />
I was not in favor of their way of controlling it.<br />
Some people were using the Geneva Seal incorrectly and now<br />
they decided to review the qualifications and now it’s becoming<br />
very strong. I am happy with the reviews they are doing;<br />
they – like DeWitt – for a while was in a curve, and like us,<br />
back in a straight line.<br />
Sounds like a very busy and exciting year…<br />
JDW: Yes. This year, we also plan to be more in touch with the<br />
markets; we have to be very near to them. I feel I have a duty.<br />
When someone is buying a DeWitt, that person is giving me his<br />
confidence, approval, and also a lot of money. We have mutual<br />
respect and confidence for one another and in exchange, I have<br />
to deliver this watch and respect for this confidence. It’s a relationship<br />
and you have to nurture it so it lasts.
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FACES<br />
ROGER DUBUIS<br />
POINT<br />
INTERVIEW BY SEAN LI<br />
BLANK<br />
JEAN-MARC PONTROUÉ, ROGER DUBUIS’ CEO,<br />
DOES NOT HOLD BACK TO ENSURE<br />
THE BRAND’S FUTURE AT ALL LEVELS<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 243
244 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
FACES<br />
ROGER DUBUIS<br />
Jean-Marc Pontroué joined Roger Dubuis just a year ago, after<br />
spending more than ten years at Montblanc in product development<br />
and strategy, and was joined a few months ago by none<br />
other than Roger Dubuis himself, the famed watchmaker who<br />
founded the brand but had been exploring different pastures<br />
over the past few years. Together, they are rebuilding the brand<br />
that was famed for its spectacular movements, and its commitment<br />
to having every single watch certified with the Geneva<br />
Seal. In a recent visit to <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>, he speaks very frankly<br />
about the challenges the brand faces behind the scenes, and<br />
why their focus on the Geneva Seal sets them apart.<br />
Tell us what it’s like to have Roger Dubuis back with<br />
the manufacture.<br />
Today, Roger Dubuis doesn’t need to work; he does it because<br />
he’s a gentleman who works to please himself. He doesn’t need<br />
it; he’s done many things in his life and had left the manufacture<br />
for several years. He comes back to be home, and there’s<br />
none of the animosity that may have been there. On top of that,<br />
he sees many of the same people he had hired himself, notably<br />
the watchmakers. These are people he takes great pleasure engaging<br />
in discussions with. There’s this attraction to a company<br />
that he had left but still bears his name; I think he’s having fun<br />
with it, and with the travels to meet journalists and collectors<br />
around the world.<br />
Now on the Roger Dubuis brand itself . There’s still a significant<br />
challenge given some previous issues on quality and after-sales<br />
service; what are you putting in place to correct this, and to<br />
communicate the improvements?<br />
On the issues on after-sales service, we have re-industrialized<br />
the 31 calibers that are part of the Roger Dubuis heritage, that<br />
is, the “hidden” part of the brand. Claude Vuillemez took up<br />
the reins in production about four years ago, and he re-vamped<br />
all existing movements, whilst creating two new ones: the 620,<br />
which is the automatic; and the 680, a chronograph. We find<br />
these two movements in a number of watches, and were developed<br />
from the start to avoid as much as possible any problems<br />
with quality; they have also benefited from all the capability<br />
Richemont has in this domain. Now, we have a return rate that’s<br />
aligned with the industry, which is around 10%; the average<br />
rate is between 8% and 15%. We are so convinced with the improvements<br />
that we will start offering a third year of warranty<br />
from the next SIHH; all the watches that we produce from then<br />
will have a three-year warranty. We’re more confident now as<br />
we have far fewer of these quality issues that have hounded us<br />
in the past, although I must admit that I’m not in the best position<br />
to talk about this since by the time I joined the company,<br />
much of the work has been done.<br />
Of course, but unfortunately, it’s part of the history of the brand,<br />
and there must be some effort made to address it.<br />
I worked at Montblanc where in a number of markets, people<br />
would tell me that the pens would leak. I’d ask them to bring me<br />
the pens and you’d see that there was no reason for them to leak.<br />
Much of it is in the mind; it’s like trains, we’re convinced that<br />
they’re often late when in fact only 1% of trains are late – at<br />
least in Switzerland, France and Germany. General misperceptions<br />
are those that can take an incredibly long time to change.<br />
In a manner of speaking, if you don’t want any problems with<br />
your watch, buy a quartz watch. With the re-industrialization<br />
of Roger Dubuis and all the criteria we have in place, such as<br />
the new Geneva Seal, the COSC, and an internal laboratory that<br />
verifies the precision of our watches, that’s triple certification<br />
right there even before launching a product. We take more time<br />
because we do have increased visibility in the business. Things<br />
get complicated when you try to skip necessary steps – look at<br />
the number of cars that are recalled. We need to respect the<br />
stages for certification, and this is the strength of Richemont.<br />
The group has clearly established procedures and steps that you<br />
can’t skip. So the quality issues that Roger Dubuis may have<br />
experienced in the past were linked to not following established<br />
and essential procedures in developing products. Now, we have<br />
development plans that span between three and five years on<br />
the movement, as well on the entire watch, which should be sufficient<br />
time to develop, test and re-engineer if necessary.<br />
Why is it that after-sales service – and I’m not referring to just<br />
Roger Dubuis – can be perceived as an afterthought?<br />
You don’t need to convince me! There’s a significant deficiency<br />
in the development of after-sales service and this will be one<br />
of the biggest challenges for this industry in the next 10 to 15<br />
years. Why? First of all, there’s a lower degree of acceptance<br />
of minor quality issues today. Secondly, watchmakers used to<br />
service only the 7750 movement for 50 to 100 brands, but tomorrow<br />
there will be as many different movements as there are<br />
brands, expecially with the Swatch group stopping deliveries<br />
of movements to a number of brands. There will be tremendous<br />
demand for watchmakers who are able to work on specific<br />
movements – whether it’s from Zenith, Roger Dubuis, Vacheron
FACES<br />
ROGER DUBUIS<br />
<br />
<br />
REVOLUTION 245<br />
Excalibur Double Flying Tourbillon<br />
Skeleton in black titanium
246 REVOLUTION<br />
<br />
FACES<br />
ROGER DUBUIS<br />
Constantin, etc. So that’s why at Richemont, among the top<br />
priorities is to train and school watchmakers; it’s a sensitive<br />
subject and one of the great challenges crucial to ensuring the<br />
future. We can’t allow ourselves – with the ambitions we have<br />
for our brand – not to have good after-sales service. For me, it’s<br />
more than that, and it’s not just to repair our products, but also<br />
to assure that we have good relations with our clients. Today, it’s<br />
a problem we need to manage but it can be done, just like servicing<br />
your watch. It has to be said, however, that watch oweners<br />
need to get their watches serviced regularly. Watches are,<br />
after all, the only products with which there is so little follow-up<br />
even if you use it every day, and it’s a mechanical device in every<br />
way. Even airplanes, which are used for 20 hours out of 24<br />
in a day, have their breaks when they stop at airports. We are in<br />
a true paradox; brands have not used communication channels<br />
effectively, while some clients are not aware of the importance<br />
of maintenance.<br />
I’d say that it’s also very much linked to communication, but<br />
also a question of time; a car is serviced in two to three days,<br />
while a watch can be gone for three months.<br />
Another problem we’ve had was that we sold 50% more watches<br />
in the last five years, so there will be the related issue of providing<br />
more after-sales service. It’s a tsunami that’s coming, and I<br />
don’t want to be pessimistic! Even if we now have a 10% return<br />
rate, multiply this by the number of additional pieces that we’ve<br />
sold and we will have real bottleneck in after-sales service. This<br />
brings me back to Richemont’s efforts – the impetus of building
FACES<br />
ROGER DUBUIS<br />
La Monégasque in pink gold<br />
effective and efficient service platforms, empowering them to<br />
do repairs locally, doing away with having to send them back<br />
to Switzerland where only a few watchmakers can do the work.<br />
The double tourbillon skeleton, for instance, might always be<br />
repaired in Switzerland, but we have also to reconsider doing<br />
so in certain countries where it’s complicated enough to bring<br />
them in and sending them back simply accumulates the potential<br />
issues. In short, we empower the servicing subsidiaries, the<br />
local platforms, and we have watchmakers who are constantly<br />
traveling to educate and train local watchmakers on new calibers.<br />
This is long-term work we’re putting in place. This is why<br />
we are stabilizing the Roger Dubuis collection; previously we<br />
followed a business model of limited editions with subsequent<br />
limited movements, which created tremendous complexities in<br />
the business. We are more levelheaded in the sense that our current<br />
movements are designed and built to be the workhorses for<br />
our watches. They are movements of Geneva Seal quality but<br />
don’t have the complexity of historical movements in that we<br />
might have made only two of them; you can imagine the importance<br />
of keeping additional parts in this case.<br />
From a different aspect, the Geneva Seal has always been a<br />
strong marketing message from Roger Dubuis; do you think that<br />
it’s a well-understood message, or is it perhaps a little obscure?<br />
It’s very misunderstood because it’s a topic that needs to be explained<br />
by the marketing people. While we have many topics<br />
REVOLUTION 247<br />
We don’t brand ourselves<br />
“Swiss Made,” instead we<br />
have the Geneva Seal, which<br />
provides our clients with the<br />
guarantee on the origin of<br />
the product. We often insist<br />
that our clients visit the<br />
manufacture, because it’s<br />
really the cathedral of our<br />
organization and people can<br />
see, on site, what we tell them<br />
in our literature or verbally.<br />
that should be handled by the technicians and watchmakers,<br />
the Geneva Seal needs to be handled by the watchmakers in<br />
its implementation, but explained by marketing. If you start<br />
to explain these complexities to the client, the client wants to<br />
know why. What are, for instance, the advantages of the Geneva<br />
Seal without having the existing knowledge of having been a<br />
watchmaker for four generations? What are these advantages?<br />
We go from the certification of a movement, to a horological certification<br />
on a number of criteria that will guarantee the implementation<br />
– whether it’s the power reserve, the water resistance<br />
or shock resistance. So for us, the challenge is explaining in<br />
just a few words what the client benefits from the Geneva Seal.<br />
An additional advantage we have, once we can explain it, is to<br />
make them understand our origins. More and more brands play<br />
with the “Swiss Made” tag. Watches really are the only luxury<br />
product that takes such liberties with the definition. Today, for<br />
example, with leather – which for a long time ideally should be<br />
either “French” or “Italian” – some brands no longer hesitate<br />
to say they’re made in China. It’s been the same with ready-towear<br />
for a long time. Watchmaking, on the other hand, continues<br />
to be called “Swiss Made” even if some components aren’t<br />
made in Switzerland. The fact that we don’t brand ourselves<br />
“Swiss Made” and instead have the Geneva Seal, which provides<br />
our clients with the guarantee on the origin of the product.<br />
It’s one of the reasons we often insist that our clients visit<br />
the manufacture, because it’s really the cathedral of our organization<br />
and people can see, on site, what we tell them in our literature<br />
or verbally; they can see for themselves the authenticity<br />
of our working methods, as well as the actual people working<br />
on the pieces. Whether it’s a ladies’ or a men’s watch, a simple<br />
movement or a grande complication, we work on them with the<br />
same level of passion and accuracy.
INTERVIEW BY JACK FORSTER<br />
AN UNEXPECTED MATCH<br />
MANUEL EMCH BRINGS ALONG A FRESH SET OF EYES AS THE CEO OF RJ-ROMAIN JEROME
FACES<br />
RJ-ROMAIN JEROME<br />
With its provocative tagline, “DNA of Famous Legends” and<br />
its equally provocative use of steel from the wreck of the<br />
Titanic, RJ-Romain Jerome immediately became a lightning rod<br />
for both attention and controversy when it was launched in 2004.<br />
However, of all the moments in its history, perhaps none took the<br />
watch world more by surprise than when, in 2010, it was announced<br />
that the company’s new CEO would be none other than<br />
Manuel Emch, who had himself become famous for his work with<br />
a company whose values, on the face of it, could not seem more<br />
When did you first become aware of RJ-Romain Jerome<br />
watches, and what was your initial impression of the designs?<br />
I became aware of the brand pretty early. The brand was created<br />
in 2004 and started with golf watches. The concept “DNA of<br />
Famous Legends” was then launched in 2006. Although I found<br />
the concept very unique and strong, I was not convinced with<br />
the first designs, but felt that the brand had a lot of potential.<br />
When did you take charge of RJ-Romain Jerome, and under<br />
what circumstances?<br />
I took over the management of the brand at the beginning of<br />
2010. At that time, RJ-Romain Jerome had no organization<br />
and the production was outsourced to BNB [BNB Concept]<br />
that was filing for bankruptcy at the same time I took over<br />
my responsibilities. I only had a few hours to take over our<br />
components and finished watches, and then I had to build an<br />
in-house production unit in a few days. Besides this, we needed<br />
to develop a new collection for the upcoming Basel fair that<br />
was to be held three months later. Finally, I also had to hire<br />
a complete team of watchmakers, quality controllers and a<br />
technical designer.<br />
When you took over the company, what, in your view, were<br />
the biggest assets and biggest challenges you faced?<br />
My first mission was to completely restructure and rebuild<br />
the basics of the company: organization, processes, flows,<br />
new products, a whole new team, adapted headquarters and<br />
obviously a new booth for the upcoming Baselworld. I also<br />
had to develop a whole new brand identity, meaning a new<br />
advertising campaign, catalogs, website, as well as developing a<br />
social media presence. I also added a blog (rj-timeout.com) that<br />
talks about our sources of inspiration.<br />
Besides the massive and demanding workload, this period was<br />
highly stimulating and it was clear to me how to proceed in the<br />
most efficient way, as the DNA of the brand was very strong. My<br />
experience of building a brand almost from scratch with Jaquet<br />
Droz — a company that I started with two people and less<br />
REVOLUTION 249<br />
diametrically opposed to RJ-Romain Jerome: Jaquet Droz, whose<br />
ultra-high-craft enamel dials, patrician restraint in design and<br />
high-touch sophistication seemed utterly at odds with RJ-Romain<br />
Jerome’s taste for modernity and even melodrama.<br />
We finally caught up with Manuel Emch to get some answers<br />
to questions we’ve long wanted to ask him — and, in between<br />
flights to Greenland, Iceland and Sweden, he generously took<br />
the time to give us in-depth answers.<br />
than CHF500,000 turnover before reaching more than CHF30<br />
million turnover with a very strong identity, a manufacturing<br />
unit and more than 80 people working for the company —<br />
my background as both a designer and a manager, as well as<br />
my experience as a business process reengineer helped me to<br />
quickly start the development of the brand.<br />
The design philosophies of RJ-Romain Jerome and that of<br />
your previous firm, Jaquet Droz, couldn’t be more different.<br />
Many of us were surprised, to say the least, when you took<br />
over at RJ-Romain Jerome. Are you directly involved in the<br />
conception and design process?<br />
I’m very strongly involved in conception and I do most of the<br />
designs myself. I do act as an artistic director for the company<br />
in regard of the brand identity and I’m therefore very proud<br />
that we not only won awards for the design of our new watches<br />
[Steampunk, Space Invaders, Moon Fighter], but also, twice<br />
in a row, the prize for the most innovative watchmaking<br />
advertising campaign.<br />
Do you feel that there is a connection between the work you<br />
did at Jaquet Droz and the work you are doing now at RJ-<br />
Romain Jerome? How has the sensibility necessary for the<br />
former made the transition to the latter?<br />
Although the two brands seem very different from each other,<br />
they have a lot of things in common. I work based on philosophy<br />
and identity, and my work scheme is the same independently<br />
of the brand. First, I extract the philosophical aspects in order<br />
to have a frame that helps me to build the brand, and then I<br />
adapt my designs accordingly. In terms of craftsmanship and<br />
mechanical know-how, the brands are very similar, which<br />
makes it even easier.<br />
RJ-Romain Jerome’s basic design philosophy has to do with<br />
drawing on historic legends associated with three worlds: sky,<br />
sea and land. Thus far, the company has created associations<br />
with these worlds through incorporating actual material —<br />
from the wreck of the Titanic, moon dust, and so on.
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Do you think that such direct, physical associations are<br />
essential, or will there be associations with legends of these<br />
worlds that are purely design in nature in the future?<br />
We do work on both axes: a materialized axis around the air,<br />
the earth and the sea by incorporating physical materials from<br />
important moments of the history of mankind — conquest of<br />
the moon, the Statue of Liberty, the Ejafjallajökull volcano<br />
or the Titanic — and a more immaterialized axis which pays<br />
tribute to cultural references of the X and Y generations.<br />
This latest axis enables us to target a younger and more<br />
hedonistic customer that has been left aside by most of the highend<br />
watchmaking companies. Through capsule associations, we<br />
collaborate with legends in the field of arts such as contemporary<br />
art — a first edition of 10 unique watches made by the most<br />
influential contemporary Swiss artist will soon be released but<br />
only sold in contemporary art galleries — video game art and<br />
tattoo art. We also cooperate with other icons of this generation,<br />
such as DeLorean or Colette.<br />
Can you discuss the source of moondust for the RJ-Romain<br />
Jerome Moon Dust-DNA collection, and which parts of the<br />
Apollo vehicles were available for incorporation into the<br />
watches? Such material must be difficult to source.<br />
We managed to source most of the materials through auctions in<br />
Houston that sold elements of this incredible moment of history<br />
— the Apollo 11 mission. We also got materials from the ASE, the<br />
association of space explorers that regroups most of the astronauts<br />
and cosmonauts that traveled into space. They were not the most<br />
difficult materials to source, but by far the most expensive. We had<br />
to spend several hundred thousands of dollars to buy elements of<br />
the spacecraft and a real piece of stone from the moon.<br />
The Titanic-DNA watches preceded your leadership of RJ-<br />
Romain Jerome. When they were first released, there was<br />
controversy concerning using material from a site that was<br />
the location of such enormous loss of life. Do you feel there<br />
are ethical issues in using such material for commercial<br />
purposes, and if so, how are those issues addressed in the<br />
design and presentation of the watches?<br />
It is definitively a polarizing legend, but one has to look at it<br />
with an open mindset as the reactions on using elements from<br />
the Titanic are completely different depending on the countries.<br />
It is indeed considered as a positive message in some cultures.<br />
This provocative legend also helped the brand to emerge in<br />
a highly dense environment where a very large number of<br />
watchmaking companies compete for the same customer mostly<br />
using one claim: heritage or history in existence. I do not believe<br />
that the success of a company can simply rely on what may have<br />
been done by its founders some 200 years ago. Is it more ethical<br />
to pretend to have an existence over several hundreds of years,<br />
which have been made up by investing heavily into marketing?<br />
It’s up to the client to judge whether or not this is something he<br />
feels comfortable with.<br />
One of your most successful new designs has been the Space<br />
Invaders watches. What was behind the inspiration to use<br />
design elements from this classic video game in a watch?<br />
Simply the fact that video games play a huge part in my<br />
generation’s cultural background and therefore it creates<br />
immediate emotional links that are essential in watchmaking.<br />
We do not only sell mechanical know-how, unique craftsmanship<br />
and beautiful designed objects, but also emotions; therefore<br />
the storytelling part is essential. The incredible success of this<br />
watch and all the new customers that it dragged to our brand<br />
are clear indications that we are on the right track!<br />
The world of video gaming represents an entire culture of<br />
design and narrative, which has remained, except for the<br />
Space Invaders watches, essentially totally unexplored by<br />
watch designers. Do you feel this world could be explored<br />
further as a source of inspiration and can you share with us<br />
any ideas or projects you might be working on for the future?<br />
As mentioned, tribute to video game art is one of our strategies<br />
and we will soon release our Pac-Man watch that will be a<br />
limited edition of four different series of 20 watches — 80<br />
pieces all together, as the game was released in 1980. We indeed<br />
wanted to have different executions as the game has different<br />
levels. Furthermore, we just released five series of eight Space<br />
Invaders watches in five new colors. Among these five editions,<br />
there is one only available at Colette, in Paris, and that has been<br />
presold. Interestingly, one of the watches has been bought by<br />
Maxim, the leader of [electronic music group] The Prodigy,<br />
another icon of my generation!<br />
We have already started to work on future associations, as this<br />
collection has become a real collectors’ line.<br />
RJ-Romain Jerome was founded in 2004. In an industry that<br />
places such a premium on heritage, what challenges, and<br />
what potential advantages, do you see in being a company<br />
with no burden of history to answer to?<br />
It gives us a lot of creative freedom; it helps us to think in an<br />
iconoclastic way and to push boundaries [not only] in terms<br />
of innovation and design, but also in terms of marketing and<br />
distribution. There is also a risk involved as we need to build<br />
a strong identity, and therefore cannot not lose ourselves in<br />
this creative freedom.
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RJ-ROMAIN JEROME<br />
OPENING PAGE<br />
Manuel Emch wears the Titanic-DNA<br />
Tourbillon Steampunk A La Grande<br />
CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE<br />
RJ-Romain Jerome’s Moon Dust Red Mood<br />
Chrono, Steampunk Metal Octopus and<br />
Space Invaders watch<br />
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LINDE WERDELIN<br />
INTERVIEW BY SEAN LI<br />
BEST OF<br />
BOTH WORLDS<br />
JORN WERDELIN’S PASSION FOR SKI AND DIVING, AND A LIFELONG<br />
FRIENDSHIP WITH MORTEN LINDE, CREATED A UNIQUE BRAND<br />
THAT MERGES MECHANICS AND ELECTRONICS
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Linde Werdelin’s watches have gained a cult following in their ten short years. Their sports-oriented watches have always<br />
eschewed conventional wisdom, and rather than try to mechanically provide the functions that avid skiers or scuba divers<br />
seek, Morten Linde and Jorn Werdelin have instead developed dedicated instruments that attach to the front of the watch. Having<br />
recently launched in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>, Jorn Werdelin came through to explain the history of the brand and the ideas behind its devices.<br />
Can you tell me about the beginning of Linde Werdelin?<br />
26th of August 2002, we registered our website domain, lindewerdelin.com.<br />
In a sense that’s when we started work; that’s when<br />
Morten and I had the idea. In those days, the Internet was a<br />
hassle; we thought we’d better register the name. We first got<br />
going in 2003 really. It was a very organic thing; Morten and I<br />
have known each other for a long time. In 2002, I was building<br />
a house in Denmark, so I traveled often between Denmark and<br />
London. Every time I saw Morten, we talked about ideas, so<br />
it’s really difficult to say when we started because it sort of just<br />
developed – a watch, with an instrument, and its functionality.<br />
I guess at some point at the end of 2002 we decided, ok, let’s<br />
pursue this idea with mechanical timepieces with instruments<br />
for sports that you can attach. At the beginning, people said it’s<br />
impossible; you can’t do it, because first of all you can’t combine<br />
mechanical with the electronic sitting right on top. It would be<br />
too bulky, it would have an impact on the movement – you can’t<br />
attach it, you can’t combine the two, it’s not luxury to combine<br />
electronics and mechanics. And then you can’t build a brand,<br />
build respect or desire. And I think all those things are very<br />
true! But we pursued that idea anyway, and for the first two or<br />
three years, every summer and every winter, we sat down and<br />
said “Should we continue or not?” To take a little breather and<br />
say “Are we on the right track or is this just crazy?”<br />
At the end of 2006, we launched the first watch, which was<br />
the Biformeter, and the first instrument, which was the Land<br />
instrument that was the predecessor of The Rock. That came<br />
out in October 2006, and then we started selling, for almost six<br />
years now. Immediately after we had launched the Biformeter<br />
with the Land instrument, we realized that some people were<br />
thinking that we had a concept. The way we feel is that we<br />
make watches with attachable instruments. They’re two quite<br />
separate things, even if they go together, it’s sort of our raison<br />
d’être. What does Linde Werdelin do? Well, we make watches<br />
with instruments, and nobody else does that. We’ve been very<br />
keen, and put in a lot of work into making some really unique,<br />
particular timepieces. When you look at the watches, you don’t<br />
need the instruments, and vice versa; when you use the instruments,<br />
you don’t need the watches. So it’s almost incidental that<br />
they go together, but obviously it’s very important for us because<br />
it’s the original idea, it’s the reason that we are here, and<br />
it’s our uniqueness that we have those two things.<br />
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Can you tell us about the watches that you are now producing?<br />
We have two families; one is the Spider family, which has two<br />
versions, the SpidoLite and the SpidoSpeed. That goes with The<br />
Rock, and that’s mountain or skiing inspired. The reason that<br />
the case is skeletonized is that we needed to do a light watch;<br />
the idea came because we had some team going to Everest, and<br />
when they came back they told us that they had taken the watch<br />
off at base camp because it was too heavy. Obviously, when you<br />
go up, you need as minimum weight as possible. Besides being<br />
a little disappointed, we were lucky they used the instrument,<br />
in particular the barometer, but Morten came up with the idea<br />
of why don’t we do it like a racecar, and take away everything<br />
in excess, and strip it away. We skeletonized the case and came<br />
up with a watch that we made in 20 pieces which was called the<br />
Trigon back in 2008 I think it was. From then on, we developed<br />
the SpidoLite, which became the SpidoSpeed. That’s the mountain<br />
and skiing angle.<br />
Our other family, or other universe is diving, which is The Reef,<br />
and then the Oktopus, which we launched in Basel this year. For<br />
the Oktopus II, we redefined what a dive watch is, because for<br />
us, and that’s unique in the watch world, when we go diving,<br />
it’s with our watch, and then the instrument on top of it. All the<br />
functionality for diving sits in the instrument; none of the functionality<br />
for diving sits in the watch. Traditional watch brands,<br />
for example, have a turning bezel. We completely discarded that<br />
because we have it in The Reef. Then obviously that brings a<br />
little bit of “Is that a dive watch that doesn’t do any diving?”<br />
Well, it is, because any dive watch that uses only mechanics is<br />
a compromise, because obviously you cannot get the functionality<br />
that you need for scuba diving today into a mechanical<br />
watch; it’s a calculator that tells you when you go down, how<br />
quickly you can go, safety stops, decompression, and so on. You<br />
can’t put that in otherwise it would be the size of a house! So in<br />
that sense, we think we make the only dive watch that’s capable<br />
for proper scuba diving today. What we wanted the Oktopus<br />
to do was to be able to take the movement into the water, and<br />
up again, which is not unusual, but to protect that is another<br />
story. We built the central part of the case for that, and then we<br />
have four case parts that attach to the strap, and then the two<br />
case parts that sit at 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock that we use to attach<br />
the instrument. That was the second thing that the watch<br />
needs to do. The third thing, we wanted it to be as anticorrosive
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as possible, because not only do people dive with it, they also<br />
swim with it in the sea, and they forget to rinse it. Salt water<br />
is incredibly corrosive over time, it’s not swimming once – that<br />
doesn’t do anything – but doing so over the years is destructive,<br />
so we decided to use titanium, ceramic, and gold. They are as<br />
anticorrosive as it comes.<br />
What started it originally? Was it a shared interest in watches?<br />
My father and grandfather had watch shops, so I grew up with<br />
that. I worked in my father’s shops until I was in my twenties.<br />
Then I moved to France, then to England where I still live.<br />
Then we started talking about this mutual interest for watches<br />
and functionality, because Morten is a product designer by education,<br />
and is quite Danish in functionality, materials, form<br />
and function – classic Danish design and production mentality.<br />
In 2002, Morten had made a couple of watches for Jorg<br />
Jensen and Links, some other watches companies, so he was<br />
onto that idea already about taking functionality and adding<br />
it or taking it out of the watches. That is what inspired it; at<br />
the same time, I had been skiing in Canada, I do as much skiing<br />
as I can, and I had my watch, but I needed to take it off<br />
because I had to take another instrument that had a certain<br />
functionality I needed. Why can’t I keep my watch on and just<br />
click on the functionality? That’s the basis of the idea. There’s<br />
something quite Danish in that, quite utilitarian, and what<br />
watches used to be. Watches used to be tools, and have gone<br />
from being tools to being lifestyle choices. In some sense, we<br />
approach some of that functionality back in the watch even<br />
though it’s separate. We agree with most of our colleagues that<br />
the beauty of a watch is also in the mechanics, the movement,<br />
the construction – all the work that goes into making a beautiful<br />
piece. By putting electronics into that compromises it. By<br />
keeping them separate, we can do the best of instruments, and<br />
the best of what we think the watch should be. Most of the<br />
time, I wear just the watch; I need to be happy and delighted<br />
with what I’m wearing, without the instrument.
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REVOLUTION 255<br />
THIS SPREAD FROM LEFT<br />
The Reef;<br />
Oktopus in titanium and rose gold
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LINDE WERDELIN<br />
SpidoSpeed Anthracite DLC<br />
What about the people who are buying your watches? Do most<br />
of them also buy an instrument?<br />
Everybody appreciates the story and the idea behind what we do,<br />
and the personality we have. There are very few brands where<br />
the people on the dial are actually owning, managing, and developing<br />
and doing everything. Most of our customers, they buy<br />
the watch only. I would be disappointed if it were only skiers and<br />
divers that would buy because then, we would be back to it being<br />
just a concept. Now, what we have, are customers who love<br />
our watches. The instrument is almost an accessory that you can<br />
choose or not, like when you buy a car, and you say, “I’d like to<br />
have the sat-nav system, I’d like the leather, and this or that.” But<br />
you still only buy the essence of a car, and that’s the same thing<br />
with our watch. You can choose a strap, and you can choose the<br />
instrument or not. Probably now, it’s about 8 out of 10 customers<br />
that buy the watch only, but we do have more and more instruments<br />
that are being sold, especially with the dive computer, because<br />
it’s a must. You just cannot dive without a dive computer,<br />
no matter what you say about a dive watch, you must have a dive<br />
computer. This is the best solution.<br />
Everybody appreciates the<br />
story and the idea behind what<br />
we do, and the personality<br />
we have. There are very few<br />
brands where the people on<br />
the dial are actually owning,<br />
managing, and developing and<br />
doing everything.<br />
The T brand as it is, is maturing. Now you’re available in<br />
<strong>Hong</strong> H <strong>Kong</strong>, how do you see that progression? You’re not<br />
approaching a<br />
the traditional watch retailers.<br />
No, N because we are small, and independent; when I say independent,<br />
p we are not financed by anyone. Morten and I own<br />
our o business, we manage it, we run it on a daily basis, so we<br />
have to be quite careful about how we expand, and how we<br />
grow production. This year, we make and sell 500 pieces; next<br />
year, it will probably be about 600, or 700 – a slow, consistent<br />
growth. That’s the production end of it. The distribution<br />
end of it, what we have learned over time is that we don’t work<br />
in supermarkets, we work in the delicatessen store. We’ve got<br />
certain watch retailers that sell big brands, and the customers<br />
there know what they’re going to buy; top five, top ten brands<br />
in the world. And then you’ve got the delicatessen store, where<br />
an interested customer comes in who is on the lookout for something<br />
new, something interesting, something with a story. He’s<br />
almost buying more products, more story than just buying a<br />
brand. When I met Anthony [of Gurus] about a month ago, we<br />
immediately connected. <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>, for instance, is a market<br />
dominated by mainland China and big retail groups, but even<br />
if they like what we do, and we know some of them do because<br />
I’ve met with them, we are not for them and they are not for<br />
us. Their customer, and the way they transact business, doesn’t<br />
cater to what we do because people need to have the time to look<br />
at it, to understand it, and to get involved in it. Similarly, for<br />
the retailer, they need to be interested in what we do, to have<br />
a passion, to have an understanding. Gurus is like a curator of<br />
interesting, new, innovative, different products, from cameras,<br />
to watches, to stereos. They pick and choose. And in that sense,<br />
it works well for us in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>.