48 DEPARTURES STYLE
48 DEPARTURES STYLE COLLECTOR’S CORNER SIT DOWN WITH any die-hard watch collector and it’s more than likely that timepieces aren’t their only obsession. Collecting is, after all, often referred to as a bug, immensely contagious and irrational, with a tendency to cross-infect other categories. “Collecting stimulates our brains in areas that connect to our pleasure centre,” says neuroscientist and psychiatrist Shirley M Mueller, author of Inside the Head of a Collector: Neuropsychological Forces at Play. Over time, she says, we’ll be enticed to collect “more and more vigorously” and that, unsurprisingly, “collecting Film Superheroes Watch geeks are a funny bunch. Not content with the names given to their favourite watches, many are apt to give them nicknames, and what better moniker than that of a superhero – who can make the world right again, and that in record time. Rolex boasts the best of them: Hulk (a Submariner with a matching green bezel and dial), Batman (a GMT Master-II with blue and black bezel) and Pikachu, a striking yellowdial Oyster Perpetual (pictured) that was discontinued this year, to the mass mourning of many a Rolex fan. But superhero namesakes aren’t limited to The Crown: Snoopy has graced Bamford London’s GMT, in caped and masked form, plus also landed as an astronaut on the Omega Speedmaster – which we love, to the moon and back. Move over 007 and Omega: this year is the 50th anniversary of The Godfather, and Jacob & Co is paying serious homage with its new Opera (pictured), a mechanical wonder that – wait for it – actually plays the film’s theme song via a pair of music-boxlike rotating cylinders that are further inscribed with famous quotes from the film (“It’s not personal Sonny, it’s strictly business”, among them). Horology fans will also be taken in by the triple-axis high-speed tourbillon that sits alongside nods to the epic gangster film: a black-lacquered piano etched with an image of Marlon Brando, a handpainted red rose and a white-gold case engraved with scenes from the film. Literally an offer you can’t refuse. Art frequently transcends a mere pastime and often becomes a passion”. Watch brands have cottoned on to the fact that their most loyal fans also have fixations beyond horology – and that sometimes those worlds even collide, spurring brands to break out from their comfort zones and engage with outside disciplines – and coming up with even more covetable creations. From motorsport to movies, zodiac to superheroes, here’s our pick of the ultimate collectors’ watches that coolly sync up two of your fave fixes in one. As if Patek Philippe watches weren’t collectable enough, the ne plus ultra of Patek collecting is its Rare Handcrafts collection, a set of some 60 timepieces – dome clocks, wristwatches and pocket watches – that are reserved only for the maison’s most loyal clients. Made annually, the museum-like creations pay homage to exceptional artistic crafts, from marquetry and guilloché to exquisite hand-engraving and enamelling. Themes from nature to travel are regularly explored, but it’s the artistic celebration of its hometown, Geneva, that’s perhaps the most moving and unmistakably Patek, such as this year’s Bol d’Or dome clock (pictured) crafted in cloisonné and paillonné enamel. Depicting the eponymous 123km sailing race from Geneva to Le Bouveret and back, the clock is especially close to the watchmaker’s heart: patriarch Philippe Stern was crowned Roi du Lac, or King of Lake Geneva, for his record-holding seven wins.
ALL IMAGES COURTESY THE WATCHMAKERS Music Cars The synergy between cars and watchmaking is well documented – cue tie-ups between TAG Heuer and Porsche, Girard-Perregaux and Aston Martin, Bremont and Jaguar. But leave it to Breguet, one of watchmaking’s most storied houses (whose eponymous founder invented the tourbillon, among other horological mileposts), to throw in the most desirable motorsport-themed timepiece going. In the 1990s, the watchmaker teamed up with Lamborghini (yes, really) to create 60 dash clocks (pictured) for the carmaker’s Diablo model, and today, these timepieces are ultra-collectable (one resides in Breguet’s museum), setting enthusiasts’ pulses racing with the chronograph’s gilded green-lacquer finish, classic Breguet blue steel hands, Roman numerals for the time and Arabic ones for the chronograph. The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak has always beat to the pulse of contemporary culture, especially music, from an early collaboration with Jay-Z in 2005 to DJ legend Mark Ronson recently signing on as a brand ambassador. For the Royal Oak’s 50th birthday, Audemars Piguet has highlighted its musical ties with a super-cool and quite unexpected special Royal Oak Offshore, the signature Tapisserie dial transformed into the pattern of an equaliser. Available in various finishes – titanium, black ceramic or gemset in white gold (pictured) – the design adds to the growing repertoire of music-themed watches, from Bulgari and DJ Steve Aoki’s co-design, to Hublot partnering with Lang Lang and the Chinese rapper and actor Lay Zhang. Zodiac Every Chinese New Year, European watchmakers pay homage to the celebrated Asian festival by releasing limited-edition watches adorned with the year’s zodiac animal. There have been spellbinding automatons at Jaquet Droz, super-cute anime versions for Louis Vuitton’s Tambour Horizon smartwatch and bejewelled animals at Harry Winston. But by far the most sophisticated is Blancpain’s exceptional Traditional Chinese Calendar (pictured), where complications rather than mere zodiac depictions do the talking (the year’s animal is etched on the caseback versus the usual dial). The watch ingeniously pits a Gregorian calendar alongside a Chinese one, the latter displaying a traditional double-hours, day, month with indication of leap months, signs of the zodiac, five elements and the ten celestial stems – not to mention a special moonphase highlighting traditional Chinese months. DEPARTURES 49
