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WT_0414_EditorsLetter_02 04.06.14 17:57 Seite 10
EDITORS
Letter
The Brewing Storm

Over Leap Seconds
ave you been following developments with
leap seconds lately? I admit I have not. Thats
a blot on my escutcheon, I know. Given all the
huffing and puffing in these pages about ultra-accurate
time measurement, I should be a leap-second junkie. So,
recently I have been boning up on things. For those of
you, who, like me, have been blithely paying no attention, heres whats going on.
The leap-second lords at the IERS (International
Earth Rotation Service) in Geneva, who determine if
and when to add a leap second to the calendar, passed
on adding a leap second on June 30. They will announce
in mid-July whether the world needs one in the second
half of this year. If so, they will add 1 second to the end
of the day on Dec. 31. They make the decision six
months in advance to allow the worlds computer programmers time to make the adjustment. Speaking personally, I am rooting for IERS to give a big thumbs-up
for Dec. 31. That day would have 86,401 seconds rather
than the usual 86,400, which means the New Years Eve
bash would run even longer. Booyah!
But in truth, its not really up to the IERS. Their
hands are tied. Whether or not we get a leap second in
any given year depends entirely on the rotation of the
Earth. The Earths rotation on its axis determines the
length of a day. The problem, as Markus Kuhn of the
University of Cambridge explains, is that Tidal friction
within the Earth, caused by the gravitational pull of
both the moon and the sun, continuously slows down
the daily rotation of our planet. As a result, days are
getting longer, measured by astronomic time, also called
Universal Time 1 (UT1).
Heres the problem: days are not getting longer
according to atomic time, a measure introduced in 1958
using a network of atomic clocks. International Atomic
Time (TAI) is, of course, ultra-accurate: atomic clocks
have a deviation of 1 second in 20 million years. To reconcile the two times, Universal Coordinated Time
(UTC) was created in 1971 as the standard for global
time. With it came a new concept: the leap second.
When the discrepancy between atomic time (TAI) and
the time as measured by the rotation of the Earth (UT1)
grows to just under 1 second, the IERS inserts a leap second in the calendar. Since 1972, when the system was
implemented, it has added 25 leap seconds (which gives
you an idea of how much the Earths rotation is slowing
H
A single little second is
causing an international
brouhaha among
timekeeping experts.
10
WatchTime August 2014
down). The tradition is to tack the extra second onto the

last day of either June or December.
Dont bother trying to predict when well get the
next leap second. Its useless. The good old Earth spins
at an unpredictable pace. In the eight years between
1972 and 1979, for example, IERS had to add 9 leap
seconds. Conversely, in the seven years between 1999
and 2005, there were none. Chalk that up to an
unusual temporary acceleration of the Earth, Kuhn
says. The last time a leap second was necessary was
June 30, 2012.
Heres the alarming part for leap-second fans. There
is a serious move afoot to get rid of them. Space constraints prevent me (mercifully) from going into the
details here. In short, some international scientific organizations want to modify the definition of UTC and abandon the leap-second system. A U.S. delegation recommends replacing it with a leap hour. A vote on the future
of the leap second is scheduled for the World Radiocommunication Conference in Geneva in the fall of 2015.
Kuhn, who gave a presentation at a 2003 colloquium
on the UTC time scale at which the idea of abandoning
the leap second was first discussed, is alarmed by the
leap-hour alternative. Introducing a leap hour into
UTC will be perceived by computer operators as a
potentially catastrophic hazard to the correct operation
of millions of mission-critical computer systems, he
writes in a web post. A UTC leap hour is a once-everyfew-centuries matter that will hardly play any role in
any system designs and will therefore hit those responsible for dealing with it largely unprepared . Is it realistic to expect IERS a small and obscure service for
astronomers and a United Nations radio-standards
agency will have the political power (or will even still
exist) to cut an hour out of UTC when the first leap
hour is due in the 27th century? Back in 1582, the Pope
still had enough power to cut 10 days from the calendar, but even that took half a millennium to be accepted
everywhere. And that was before we had computers
and liability!
Who knew there could be such Sturm und Drang
over a not-so-silly little second? The fate of the leap second hangs in the balance. Were on the story. Stay tuned
for further developments.
Joe Thompson
Editor-in-Chief
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2:40 PM
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5/22/14
2:42 PM
Page 2
WT_0414_TOC_03 05.06.14 14:19 Seite 14
CONTENTS
WatchTime, July-August, 2014
106
98
COVER STORY
98
114
FLYING SAUCERS
By Martina Richter | These three pilots watches all
have humongous cases, like those of the earliest watches
for flyers. We take a close look at the distinctive features
of all three: the IWC Pilots Watch Top Gun Miramar,
the Bell & Ross BR 03-51 GMT and the Zenith Pilot
Montre DAronef Type 20 GMT.
122
WRITE ON TIME
By Martina Richter | Montblanc Montre launched the
Meisterstck Heritage Collection to mark the 90th
birthday of its well-known Meisterstck pen. We test
the collections perpetual calendar model.
128
CODE NAME ULTRA

By Mike Disher | Bremonts latest limited-edition watch,
the Codebreaker, is literally made of the stuff of history
Britains WWII intelligence operations, to be precise. We test
this GMT flyback chronograph to decipher its story.
TWO TIMERS
By Alexander Krupp | One sporty chrono, the TAG
Heuer Carrera Calibre 1887 Jack Heuer Edition,
meets another, the Tudor Heritage Chrono Blue, in
our comparative test.
TESTS & REVIEWS

106
14
TEST CASE
By Mike Disher | Is Cartiers new dive watch, the
Calibre Diver, more than just a pretty face? We
find out.
A DATAB
ASE
WITH OV
ER
VISIT
WaTchTIme.com
22,000
WATch
eS!
An exciting design
Outstanding features
A digital archive of all issues
of WatchTime
Videos, reviews, comments
and breaking news
A weekly newsletter
WatchTime.com - Your No. 1
watch site in the U.S.
Scan this code with your

smartphone to visit
watchtime.com
WT_0414_TOC_03 05.06.14 14:19 Seite 16
CONTENTS
August 2014
50
46
128
SPECIAL REPORT: BASELWORLD 2014
46
FINALLY, SOME SENSIBLE PRICING

By Joe Thompson | Baselworld showed signs that Swiss
brands are adjusting to the post-China-boom landscape.
That means a greater focus on lower-priced products.
50
THE NEW WATCHES

Our annual roundup of new watches from the worlds
biggest watch fair
83
84
16
ETERNA EYES THE U.S. MARKET

By Joe Thompson | China Haidian, the Hong Kong
group that bought the Swiss brand Eterna in 2011, is
investing heavily to revive it on global markets.
ULTRA COMPLICATIONS GO ULTRA THIN
By Joe Thompson | Breguets Ref. 5377 is the thinnest
automatic tourbillon watch on the market. The brands
CEO Marc A. Hayek tells the story behind it.
86
THOMAS MERCER MAKES BASELWORLD DEBUT

By Mike Disher | The once-famous British marinechronometer maker Thomas Mercer, out of business for
a quarter century, is back. This year it made its maiden
voyage to Baselworld.
94
BABIN BEGINS THE BULGARI MAKEOVER

By Joe Thompson | Now under the leadership of CEO
Jean-Christophe Babin, Bulgari unveils the thinnest
tourbillon watch ever.
96
SHINOLA EXPANDS ITS OPERATIONS

By Joe Thompson | Since opening its factory in Detroit
in 2012, Shinola has been expanding its operations there.
New this year: a leather factory and a line of watches for
Filson.
WT_0414_TOC_03 05.06.14 14:19 Seite 18
CONTENTS
August 2014
122
32
114
DEPARTMENTS
& COLUMNS
10
EDITORS LETTER
The brewing storm over leap seconds
20
ON WATCHTIME.COM
A glimpse at whats on our site to keep you up to date
on the latest watch news
26
WORLD OF WATCHTIME
See the global reach of WatchTime and its partners
28
READERS FORUM
WatchTime readers protest a recent watch-test score,
debunk tourbillons, point out anachronistic watches in
movies, and more
32
WATCHTALK
New CEOs at Rolex, Zenith, and Raymond Weil;
Jaquet Drozs newest writing mechanism; Thierry Stern
plans a party; the biggest U.S. watch advertisers for
2013; Viscontis see-through watch; and more
44
WATCH QUIZ
A commemorative quiz on Patek Philippe,
which turns 175 this year
136
FACETIME
A photo mlange of readers and their watches
138
LAST MINUTE
Richemont, retail giant
ON THE COVER: The TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 1887

Jack Heuer Edition and the Tudor Heritage Chrono Blue.
Photo by Nik Schlzel
18
WT_0414_onwatchtime_02 05.06.14 17:22 Seite 20
ON WATCHTIME.COM
Visit our website for more information about the
world of fine watches. To read the stories shown
here, go to watchtime.com/on-watchtime.
GETTING TO KNOW NOMOS
Nomos watches are well known
in their native Germany but not
in this country. As the brand
makes a push for broader
recognition here, we offer a
sampling of six of the brands
models.
Scan this code

with your smartphone to visit
watchtime.com.
10 MILESTONES FROM
10 YEARS OF GREUBEL FORSEY
A look back at the rst decade of
Greubel Forsey, the ultra-high-end
watch brand specializing in watches
with multiple tourbillons.
TAG HEUER SIGNS SOCCER

STAR RONALDO
TAG Heuer has signed a
new celebrity endorser:
Portuguese soccer champion
Cristiano Ronaldo, forward
for Real Madrid and captain
of Portugals national team
in this summers World Cup.
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW

ABOUT THE MONTBLANC
TIMEWALKER
CHRONOGRAPH 100
At this years SIHH watch fair
in Geneva, Montblanc
introduced its Timewalker
Chronograph 100, capable
of measuring elapsed times
to 1/100-second. Here are
ve interesting facts about it.
ULYSSE NARDIN IMPERIAL BLUE:

CHIMES PLUS TOURBILLON
Ulysse Nardin has a notable history in
chiming watches, from its award-winning
minute-repeater chronograph at the
1893 Chicago Worlds Fair to modern
timepieces such as last years Stranger. At
Baselworld 2014, the brand introduced
its latest chiming watch, the Imperial
Blue, which also has a ying tourbillon.
PANERAIS WATCH FOR TRAVELERS:

THE LUMINOR 1950 3 DAYS GMT
Panerai, known for its divers watches,
has brought out a watch suited for
world travelers: the Panerai Luminor
1950 3 Days GMT 24H, the rst
Panerai to contain the new
manufacture Caliber P.9003.
6/5/14
2:15 PM
Page 1
WT_0414_Masthead 04.06.14 18:03 Seite 22
THE MAGAZINE OF FINE WATCHES
Editor-in-Chief/Associate Publisher
Executive Editor
Managing Editor
Technical Editor
Associate Editor
Digital Media Editor
Art Direction/Design
Contributing Writers
Translations
Photographers
Joe Thompson
Norma Buchanan
Dara Hinshaw
Mike Disher
Jay Deshpande
Mark Bernardo
Publishers Factory, Munich
Gwendolyn Benda
Gisbert L. Brunner
Rdiger Bucher
Maria-Bettina Eich
Jens Koch
Alexander Krupp
Alexander Linz
Martina Richter
Gerhard Seelen
Thomas Wanka
Neha S. Bajpai
Aishwarya Sati
Howard Fine
Magdalena Grau
Joanne Weinzierl
Robert Atkinson
Nina Bauer
Marcus Krger
Nicolas Lieber
OK-Photography
Eveline Perroud
Maik Richter
Nik Schlzel
Zuckerfabrik Fotodesign
WatchTime (ISSN 1531-5290) is published bimonthly for $49.97 per year by Ebner Publishing International, Inc., 274 Madison Avenue, Suite 804, New York, NY 10016.
Copyright Ebner Publishing International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. July/August 2014 issue, Volume 16, Number 4. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to WatchTime,
WatchTime Subscription Service, P.O. Box 3000, Denville, NJ 07834-3000, Tel. 1-888-289-0038. Publications mail agreement no. 40676078: Return undeliverable
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WT_0414_Masthead 04.06.14 18:03 Seite 24
THE MAGAZINE OF FINE WATCHES
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5/29/14
1:58 PM
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THE WORLD OF
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Events
WT_0414_Readers Forum_04_Proof 05.06.14 14:23 Seite 28
READERS
Forum
WHY DOES A MINUTE REPEATER COST INTO THE

HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS THESE
DAYS? MYSTIQUE, NOT MUCH ELSE, IN MY OPINION.
', (
(''
#*
7 STARS FROM SIHH

THE WORLD OF FINE WATCHES
TESTS
A. LANGE & SHNE
JAEGER-LECOULTRE
ORIS
ARNOLD & SON
MHLE-GLASHTTE
VS. MEISTERSINGER
BAUME & MERCIER
LONGINES
H. MOSER
REMADE
BABIES
GOT
BACK
GOOD FOR SOMETHING?

I very much enjoyed the article about the new
Breguet Classique Chronomtrie 7727 [the
cover story of the April issue, by Joe Thompson], and Im impressed with the pieces innovations. The 1/20-second indication at 1
oclock is visually interesting, but as this watch
is not a chronograph, is there any utility to this
feature, or am I missing something?
Dave Hughes
Las Vegas, NV
The Classique
Chronomtrie 7727
BREGUET
MAGNETS IN THE MOVEMENT
72,000 vph: If youve got it, flaunt it with

a 1/20-second subdial.
Joe Thompson replies:

The point of the 1/20-second subdial is to
showcase one of the watchs distinguishing features, its 10-Hz (72,000 vph) frequency, which
enables it to measure time to the 1/20-second.
The indicator does not have any utility beyond
that.
ROYAL GOOF
I was rereading the letters in the April 2014
issue and decided to pen/type this quick note to
you, but only after acknowledging that: 1. this
is not a criticism of you and/or the mag; and 2.
I figure you have already received many notes
on this. With that said, I am still going to chime
in regarding the Kings English comment in
your response to Paul Cheseks letter [about
profanity in Joe Thompsons article on the
Shinola watch brand in the December 2013
issue]. You arent returning to the Kings English, but rather the Queens, as England is still
ruled by a queen, at least as I write this note,
and the sitting monarch is the one who gets the
nod. When there is a power succession in Great
Britain, if the throne passes to one of the
boys and they get a king, then English gets
one too!
David Abrams
Via e-mail
Joe Thompson replies:
Yours is in fact the only letter we have received
about our mistake. Thanks for pointing it out
and our apologies to Her Majesty.
28
ALL SIZZLE?
I have been a reader of WatchTime for quite a
few years and I have to say the latest crop of
new stuff in your April 2014 issue was the
most interesting in quite a while. The push
seems to be in the direction of thinner movements especially when it comes to complications. For instance Jaegers new Ultra Thin Perpetual and Hybris 11 Repeater-Tourbillon are
both amazing in terms of packaging density to
achieve slim cases.
I also note that there are dozens of Swiss
tourbillons proliferating on the market recently.
Even the least expensive of these is still several
tens of thousands of dollars. The Arnold & Son
model you reviewed in that same issue was
mentioned as a virtual bargain in comparison at
only $59K or so, (roughly the cost of a
decked-out Audi, BMW or Mercedes), though
the Arnold would not be my choice due to the
very small dial in relation to its large case, (a pet
peeve of mine why do so many watch companies do that?)
I understand exactly how a tourbillon
works, and its actually not as difficult to implement as the watch companies would like us to
believe. The only real difference between that
and a simple, ordinary running train is the stationary fourth wheel and a small gear on the
escape wheel to orbit the balance-wheel cage
around it. To me, its much, much simpler than
the many extra gears and levers and column
wheel to implement a chronograph, for
instance. Thus, it does not need to be an
immensely costly feature.
To prove this hypothesis, I recently purchased a brand-new watch with a flying tourbillon, coaxially mounted, which keeps perfect
time. The movement has ctes de Genve finishing; it claims to be made in Switzerland; it
has a deployant buckle and it even has a meteorite dial, and all for only several hundred dollars! Admittedly the case is only gold-plated,
but it really looks the part.
I also know a fair bit about the history of
watchmaking in Switzerland and I know that in
the old days of farmer-ateliers assembling
watches, the watch companies used to pay
twice as much for a minute-repeater caliber as
1/22/14
9:42 AM
Page 1
GRAND TOURING SPORT

Citizens exclusive caliber 9012 automatic movement with specially-designed
rotor and 24 jewels viewed through an exhibition caseback.
One-way rotating bezel. Water resistant 300m. 44mm case. Sapphire crystal.
2014 Citizen Watch Company
citizen-signature.com
WT_0414_Readers Forum_04_Proof 05.06.14 14:24 Seite 30
READERS
Forum
I KNOW ITS SUBJECTIVE, BUT DONT YOU

THINK YOU WERE A BIT TOUGH ON THE
SCORE FOR THE ARNOLD & SON UTTE?
A tourbillon: easier to make than

a chronograph?
for a simple three-handed, time-only caliber of

equivalent quality. So why does a minute
repeater cost into the hundreds of thousands of
dollars these days? Mystique, not much else, in
my opinion. I believe the present-day watch
companies are in danger of killing the goose
that laid the golden eggs if they continue to
insist on selling the sizzle instead of the steak. A
tourbillon or a minute repeater is undoubtedly
a fun, historic kind of thing to have, but I do not
believe they need to cost large multiples more
than any other kind of fine watch. My two
cents, (adjusted for inflation).
Chris Russell
Via e-mail
Too tough on Arnold & Sons UTTE?
WatchTime welcomes correspondence from readers.

Send comments to editorin-chief Joe Thompson at
274 Madison Avenue,
Suite 804, New York, NY
10016 or via e-mail to
jthompson@watchtime.
com. Please include your
full name, city and state,
and country (if outside the
United States). Letters may
be edited for length or
clarity.
30
SETTLING A SCORE
I know its subjective, but dont you think you
(or Mike) were a bit tough on the score for the
Arnold UTTE [The Thinner Spinner by
Mike Disher, April 2014]? If you block out
the scores you awarded, and read the nine sections of the score card, avidly mad WIS students of WT, as I am, would absolutely be forgiven for thinking Here is an 88-90. Near
perfect timekeeping in the real world for such
a complicated timepiece should surely outweigh a perceived tiny difference in the finishing, which, by the way, is not at all evident in
the excellent enlarged illustrations of the
movement. [Editors note: Disher gave the
watch an 85.]
David G. L. Worland
Sutton, Australia
Mike Disher replies:
Though there is a potential for overlap, in fact
each category in the WatchTime scoring system rates different things, and a score in one
category does not necessarily influence the
score in a different category. For example, legibility and design are related, as are comfort
and strap/clasp, but good legibility does not
automatically translate to a high design score,
and a well-made strap is no guarantee of a high

comfort score. The weight we assign each
category is reflected in the number of possible
points. For example, the movement is worth
20 points, while rate results are 10. These possible maximums represent WatchTimes values
when judging watches.
We consider the movement and its rate
results separately, so good rate results are no
guarantee of a high movement score, and vice
versa. Pedestrian movements can keep time
quite well, and timekeeping accuracy can vary
from sample to sample, so rate results have relatively less weight in terms of the overall score.
When we score the movement, we look at factors such as its technical sophistication, originality, level of complication, and finish. The
Arnold received a perfect 10 for timekeeping,
as it should have, and in the movement category, it received a 17 because though it is a
tourbillon, it is not a highly complicated movement, and though the movement was well finished, as we noted, it was not up to the highest
standards. If you can imagine movements that
are more complicated, more sophisticated, and
better finished than the Arnolds, you can see
why the movement did not merit a higher
score.
The overall score for the watch is the sum
of its parts, taking WatchTimes values into
consideration. You may have different values,
but in terms of rate results, remember that
another sample of the same model may perform better, or worse, than the sample we tested.
TIME-WARP WATCHES
Just saw American Hustle. Great movie. But I
have to say Bradley Cooper should have left his
yellow gold IWC Da Vinci with brown strap
home. (I doubt that watch was available during the 1970s!) Also, his boss wore a gold
Rolex Sub with ceramic bezel (also not a 1970s
watch). I just thought Id let you know.
Mo Sadrpour
Via e-mail
WT_0414_WatchTalk_07_Proof 05.06.14 14:30 Seite 32
WATCHtalk
Rolex Names a New CEO

For the first time, Rolex picks a CEO from outside
the company: Zeniths Jean-Frdric Dufour.
The Crowned
Heads of Rolex
A century-plus of CEOs
Jean-Frdric Dufour
olex has named Jean-Frdric

Dufour as its new CEO. Dufour,
most recently the CEO of Zenith,
will replace Gian Riccardo Marini. As of
press time, Rolex had not said when the
transition would occur.
The move surprised many in the watch
industry. Rolex has never before chosen a
CEO from outside the company. Sources
say several Rolex executives were contenders for the CEO post, which, as
Marini, who is in his mid-60s, approached
retirement age, was expected to be vacant
soon.
Dufour was named CEO of Zenith in
2009. Since then, he has refocused the
32
brand on its history as a maker of manufacture movements, most famously the El

Primero chronograph. Prior to his tenure
at Zenith, he spent seven years at
Chopard. Before that, he worked for
Blancpain for two years and Ulysse
Nardin for three.
Rolex has historically had very few
changes in management. Until a few years
ago, the company boasted that it had had
just three CEOs in its entire history. Its first
was Hans Wilsdorf, who founded Rolex
in 1905. After he died, in 1960, Andr
Heiniger took over. Heiniger in turn gave
control to his son, Patrick, who was CEO
from 1992 until 2008.
Recently, though, new CEOs have
been coming fast and furious. After
Patrick Heiniger stepped down, Bruno
Meier, formerly Rolexs finance director,
became CEO at the end of 2009. He was
followed by Marini, the former head of
Rolex Italy, in 2011. Now with Dufour
taking the helm, the privately owned company will have had four CEOs inside of
seven years.
At Zenith, which is owned by the luxury-goods giant LVMH, Dufour has been
succeeded by Aldo Magada, effective July
1. Most recently, Magada was international sales and business development
director at Breitling. His watch-industry
career began in 1984 when he joined the
Swatch Group (then known as SMH). He
then moved on to Piaget and back to
SMH, with the Omega brand. In 2000, he
became president of Gucci Timepieces,
and then, between 2002 and 2009, led the
watch brand Technomarine; Reuge, which
makes music boxes; and the Badollet
watch brand. Before joining Breitling,
in 2010, Magada founded his own consulting company.
JAY DESHPANDE
Hans Wilsdorf
1905 to 1960
Andr Heiniger
1960 to 1992
Patrick Heiniger
1992 to 2008
Bruno Meier
2009 to 2011
Gian Riccardo
Marini
2011 to 2014
6/5/14
9:04 AM
Page 1
WATCHtalk
New CEO at Raymond Weil

lie Bernheim has been named CEO
of the Raymond Weil watch brand.
He is the grandson of founder
Raymond Weil, and has been involved in
the companys operations for the last eight
years. Bernheim succeeds his father, Olivier
Bernheim, son-in-law of Raymond Weil,
who became CEO in 1996.
Elie Bernheim attended the Hospitality
Management School of Lausanne before
taking on responsibilities at Raymond
Weil in Geneva. Before becoming CEO,
he was in charge of the brands global
Kobolds New Digs

n April, Kobold celebrated the opening
of a new headquarters and manufacturing facility in Volant, Penn., in the
heart of Amish Country. The site is the
170-year-old Merry Oaks Farm, 60 miles
north of Pittsburgh. Kobold began planning the facility in 2010 and spent four
years renovating the original barn to outfit it as the companys headquarters. The
picturesque location will house Kobolds
business operations as well as its manufacturing. At Merry Oaks, Kobold will
produce components for its watch cases
and movements, as well as dials, hands
and straps.
marketing strategy. In 2012, he and his

younger brother Pierre started another
watch brand, 88 Rue du Rhone, which
markets moderately priced, Swiss-made
quartz and mechanical watches.
Raymond Weil, who founded his
eponymous watch brand in 1976, died in
January. At the time of his death he was
honorary president of the company.
Olivier Bernheim will remain with the
company as president of the board of
directors and as a consultant.
J. D.
Kobolds new headquarters in

Pennsylvanias Amish Country
Joining founder Michael Kobold at

the opening were Gerd-Rdiger Lang, the
founder of Chronoswiss, and writer and
explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, who
appears in Kobold advertisements. Some
250 guests attended.
Kobold was founded in 1998 as part of
an entrepreneurship project at Carnegie
Mellon University. In 2008 it brought out
the Spirit of America, the first watch in
decades to have its case made entirely in
the U.S. The brand specializes in rugged
tool watches for outdoorsmen, and now
also produces knives for a similar clientele.
J. D.
Gerd-Rdiger Lang presents Michael Kobold (second from right) with a 200-year-old polishing tool to
celebrate the opening of the new facility. Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Jack Roseman, a professor at Carnegie
Mellon, are on the far left and right, respectively.
Correction:
The watch quiz on page 46 of the
June issue gave an incorrect answer
for one of the questions. Gary
Player is sponsored by Rolex, not
Audemars Piguet.
WATCHtalk
Signature Piece
aquet Droz has brought out a new
miniaturized mechanical device: a
machine that can duplicate its owners signature. Dubbed the Signing
Machine, it follows in the tradition of
Jaquet Droz automata.
Designed to be comparable in size to a
smartphone its five inches long and
three inches wide the Signing Machine
at first looks like a nondescript black and
gray cassette. Unlock it with a four-digit
security code and wind it via a lever on its
side, though, and the mechanism comes
to life. When you press the button on top
of the case two times, a hinged arm and a
small black stylus slide out. Fit the pen
into the arm and press the button once
more, and the machines complex gear
train will execute your signature. And
while your John Hancock is taking shape,
you can watch the mechanism at work
through a window on the case.
The Signing Machine has 327 components. It is made mostly of titanium to
reduce its weight, and it also has brass and
stainless-steel elements. It is 0.6 inches thick.
The Signing Machine

at rest (left) and with
arm extended
The La Chaux-de-Fonds watch brand

has long drawn upon the heritage of its
namesake, Pierre Jaquet-Droz, the 18thcentury watchmaker whose automata
included highly realistic human figures
such as the Writer, which can be programmed to write out a sentence on a
sheet of paper. The Jaquet Droz brand has
recently brought out a number of new
devices and automata, including the Time
Writing Machine, which can write out the
time, and several watches with lifelike
mechanical birds on the dials.
The Signing Machine is available as a

bespoke piece. Pricing is based on the signature to be duplicated. For more information, visit www.jaquet-droz.com.
J. D.
Scan here for a video

showing the Signing
Machine in action.
http://www.
watchtime.com/
?p=46884
Thierry Stern, Party Planner

atek Philippes 175th-birthday celebration is going to be one helluva
bash, says Thierry Stern, the companys president. During a one-day trip to
New York in May to host an event with
London Jewelers, Stern was fired up about
the festivities hes put together for his
guests in Geneva this October. Weve created something amazing, he said. The
layout that people will see will be quite
astonishing. There will be at least five
separate events. Each will have around
400 guests: retailers, collectors, suppliers,
the press, and Patek employees, many, if
not most, flown in from faraway lands at
Patek Philippes expense.
Most interesting of all, he promises,
will be the watches he unveils at the
36
events. He vows that the collection, or at

least part of it, will be accessible, relatively
speaking, to the brands non-billionaire
fans. I have gotten many questions from
people asking, Are you only going to
launch a unique piece that I cannot get?
But I have to think of people who dont
want to pay $3 million for a watch [the approximate price for Calibre 89, the centerpiece of Pateks 150th-anniversary collection]. I had to do something that would
satisfy, well, not everybody, I cant do that.
But that would satisfy more than just one
or two people. So there will be different
levels of watches, for men and for ladies.
The collection will nonetheless have a
star piece. Many have tried to guess what
it is, Stern said. So far, only one has suc-
ceeded. When I was at Basel, one little

boy, 12 years old, who was there with his
father, said, I think youre going to do
thus and so, and he guessed it exactly. He
was right.
NORMA BUCHANAN
5/29/14
8:39 AM
Page 1
Manfredi Jewels Greenwich, CT

Longs Jewelers Boston, MA | Sylvans Columbia, SC | Old Northeast Jewelers Tampa & St. Petersburg, FL | Levy Jewelers Jacksonville, FL
Madison Jewelers New York, NY | Abt Time Boutique Glenview, IL | New York Jewelers Chicago, IL | Benari Jewelers Exton & Newtown Square, PA
Swiss Time Portland, ME | Schwarzschild Jewelers Midlothian, VA | London Jewelers Greenvale & Southampton, NY | E.D. Marshall Jewelers Scottsdale, AZ
WATCHtalk
U.S. Watch Ad Spending Up Again

n 2013, watch brands spent almost half
a billion dollars on advertising in the
U.S. The total was $492.68 million: a
record high, and up 23.3 percent from the
2012 total. That figure comes from Kantar
Media, which each year compiles estimates
of ad spending for a range of different
products. The figures for 2013 signal that
the U.S. watch market is still growing,
especially as Swiss luxury brands turn their
sights back from China to this country.
Last year was the fourth year in a row
of growth in U.S. watch advertising. Sixtynine brands spent more than $1 million on
ads, a new record. To reach last years top
25, a watch company had to spend $4.66
million. Thats 28 percent more than it
took to make the list in 2012.
Rolex continued to hold its spot at the
top of the list. The brand has been number
one since 2000, when it dethroned Timex.
Last year, it spent $61.48 million, making it
the first brand ever to exceed $60 million.
Rolex beat its 2012 record of $52.14 million by 17.9 percent.
Stronger than ever in the number-two
spot was Breitling, which spent $43.85 million. Although Breitling has been in second
place for seven years, its 2013 total was a
huge jump: 48.7 percent. It hadnt broken
$30 million before this. (No one but Rolex
ever had.) The brand spent more than $33
million on magazine advertising. That was
almost as much as Rolex, which spent $36
million.
In third place, Cartier increased its U.S.
spending by 22.7 percent to hit $24.58 million. Cartier was number five on the list in
2012, but last year it pushed past Omega
and Citizen to its new spot.
The full list of watch firms spending
more than $1 million is available on our website, but heres a sampling of some major
points from Kantar Medias 2013 data:
Omega spent 1 percent less than in 2012,
when the brand made a major media push
because of its role as official timekeeper of
the London Olympics and golfs Ryder
Cup, which was held in the U.S. It dropped
to number four, spending $22.96 million.
In 2013, all of the top 10 brands spent
38
over $10 million; the year before, only

eight brands had spent more than $10
million.
Breguet spent $9.58 million, an increase of
almost 2,000 percent from its 2012 spending of less than half a million dollars. Fellow
high-end brand Patek Philippe spent $7.66
million, a 31-percent increase over 2012.
Three brands were in the top 10 that did
not make that list in 2012: Chanel,
Longines, and Seiko. Chanel had been in
the top 10 in 2011. Last year it spent
$17.87 million, about the same as two
years earlier.
Bulova, which spent $2.97 million, fell
precipitously to number 41. It had been in
the top 10 since 2008. In 2012 it was number six, spending $20.02 million.
Bell & Ross and Montblanc also left the
top 10 in 2013, dipping to numbers 16 and
19, respectively.
Hublot made a splash last year, returning
to the top 25 for the first time since 2010. It
spent $7.59 million in 2013, up 218.2 percent from the year before.
Audemars Piguet, just behind Hublot in
the rankings, increased its spending by 665
percent to $7.39 million. The brand spent
less than $1 million in 2012.
Two brands in the top 25 last year werent
in the U.S. market the year before. One is
Tudor, which returned to the U.S. after a
HALF A BILLION OR BUST
Estimated total U.S. watch advertising

($ millions)
500
450
400
Top 25 Watch Advertisers 2013

Rank
Brand
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
Rolex
Breitling
Cartier
Omega
TAG Heuer
Citizen
Movado
Chanel
Longines
Seiko
Breguet
Tudor
Patek Philippe
Hublot
Audemars Piguet
Bell & Ross
Dior
Swatch
Montblanc
Ball Watch
Armitron
Chopard
Rado
Baume & Mercier
Shinola
Amount
($ millions)
61.48
43.85
24.58
22.96
22.00
20.72
19.83
17.87
16.02
11.15
9.58
8.24
7.66
7.59
7.39
7.11
6.05
6.05
5.64
5.37
5.35
5.20
4.95
4.92
4.66
Source: Kantar Media
17-year absence. It spent $8.24 million.

The other was the new Shinola brand,
which spent $4.66 million, enough to place
it in 25th place.
There were many brands in the top 25
that werent there in 2012. Chopard,
Armitron, Audemars Piguet, Hublot, and
Breguet all appeared on the list for the first
time in recent history. Like Chanel, Baume
& Mercier returned after a one-year
absence.
Leaving the top 25 last year were Casio,
David Yurman, Bulgari, Louis Vuitton,
Timex, Luminox, Ulysse Nardin,
Raymond Weil, and Bulova.
J. D.
350
300
250
200
08
09
Source: Kantar Media
10
11
12
13
Scan here to see a list

of the brands that spent
$1 million or more on
advertising in 2013.
http://www.
watchtime.com/
?p=46887
WATCHtalk
Viscontis SeeThrough Watch

The well-known maker of transparent
demonstrator pens creates a Crystal Demo
watch with a sapphire case and bracelet.
ast year, to celebrate its 25th

anniversary, the Italian luxury-pen
maker Visconti took a page out of
Montblancs book: it launched a watch
line. Its a natural diversification for the
brand, Visconti founder Dante Del
Vecchio says: The pen and the watch are
the only universally acknowledged jewelry for a man.
Visconti watches are designed and
produced in Florence using Swiss
mechanical movements. Del Vecchio has
transferred to his watches the design
characteristics of his pens bold, highstyled looks often made with unusual
materials like ancient ivory, ebonite and

Lucite. Viscontis headliner watch at
Baselworld this year, for example, was
the limited-edition Crystal Demo, featuring a case and bracelet made out of sapphire. Visconti has been making transparent pens, called demonstrators, for two
decades. Del Vecchio reasoned: Why not
make a demonstrator watch?
Under the direction of Antonio
Ambuchi, a former Anonimo executive
who heads research and development for
Viscontis watch division, the firm has
produced a watch that is a head turner.
The giant case (47.5 mm wide, 57.7 mm
The Scuba Abyssus 3000 M watch

with a bronze case
Viscontis goldand-steel Crystal

Demo watch
long and 15.2 mm high) is made of polished sapphire. The front and back of the
watch are covered with a flat sapphire
glass. The result is that you can see into
the watch from every angle. One version
of the Crystal Demo has a bezel and
crown protector made of 18k rose gold.
This is limited to 38 pieces priced at
$38,500. Another version comes with a
bezel and crown protector made of grade
5 titanium; this is limited to 88 pieces
priced at $25,000. The bracelet on the
watches is made of nine sapphire links
and stainless steel with either gold or titanium elements.
The chronograph model in

stainless steel
WATCHtalk
Dante Del Vecchio, Visconti founder
Visconti is best known

for its luxury pens
made in Florence.
The second dominant feature of the

watch is the two curved stainless-steel
bridges that span the case and are stamped
with the Visconti logo. The curved-bridge
motif, inspired by the famous Ponte
Vecchio over the Arno River in Florence,
has been Viscontis symbol for 15 years. I
wanted to make an Italian watch, Del
Vecchio says. The bridge is a wonderful
metaphor, a smooth flowing arc joining
two opposite banks. If man were a builder
of bridges rather than a defender of borders, mankind would be a far happier and
advanced species. Del Vecchio called
Viscontis original collection of six watches
introduced last year the Bridge Over Time
collection ($2,900 to $5,500). All those
watches feature two steel bridges over a
round dial. This design, which Del
Vecchio calls squaring the circle, is
Viscontis signature watch look.
Del Vecchio didnt want to use a
standard commercial movement for
the Crystal Demo. Instead, his team
worked with Switzerlands Technotime to
develop an exclusive demi-squelette, twin
barrel, automatic movement. Visconti
Caliber VI-AC304-01 has 45 jewels, a
Glucydur balance wheel and a five-day
power reserve. Visconti says its average
rate is -3/+12 seconds per day. The seethrough dial shows two retrograde displays: a date calendar at the 1:30 position, and at the 5 oclock position a
power-reserve indicator (in days). The
hour and minutes hands have an exclusive Visconti design, with tips reminiscent
of fountain pen nibs.
Visconti has serious watch ambitions,
Del Vecchio told WatchTime. Growth in
the luxury-pen business has slowed in
recent years, he says. Florence has a tradition of watchmaking. (Panerai, for one,
was born there.) His goal is to revive luxury watchmaking there and create a new
business opportunity for Visconti. He has
created a luxury-watch manufacturing
area within the historic Medici villa
where Visconti pens are produced.
In addition to the Crystal Demo
watch, Visconti introduced at Baselworld
its first chronograph watch, in the Bridge
Over Time series, with limited-edition
pieces (250 each) in titanium, bronze,
black PVD, and stainless steel. The
watches contain an ETA 2892A2 base
movement with a Dubois Dpraz chronograph module and are priced at $6,950 to
$7,250.
The company also introduced its first
professional divers watch, the Scuba
Abyssus 3000M. It comes in titanium,
bronze and steel versions (399 pieces
each). Its monobloc case measures
54.4 mm (at the crown) by 57.9 mm and
is 17.5 mm thick. The watch is water
resistant to 3,000 meters. The watches
are powered by a Soprod movement and
cost $8,350 to $8,950.
JOE THOMPSON
WT_0414_Quiz_02 04.06.14 18:06 Seite 44
WATCHquiz
quizs
Patek.
Past and
Present
10. What was the Gondolo collection

named after?
A. The Rio de Janeiro retailer Gondolo &
Labouriau
B. Joachim Gondolo, Pateks chief watchmaker
C. The gondola boats Antoine Norbert de
Patek saw on a trip to Venice
D. The gondola shape of its case
Test your knowledge of

Patek Philippe, which
turns 175 this year.
11. What title was Antoine Norbert de

Patek given in the 1860s?
A. Count of the Republic of Geneva
B. Captain of the Knights of Malta
C. Knight of the Legion of Honor
D. Count of the Republic of San Marino
1. Before he joined forces with Antoine

Norbert de Patek, what was Jean Adrien
Philippe best known for?
A. Developing a crown-winding system
B. Making top-quality marine
chronometers
C. Marketing the first wristwatch
D. Founding the Journal de Genve
5. In 2009, Patek Philippe SA Genve

became the companys official name.
Which of the following has never been its
legal name?
A. Patek Philippe & Cie.
B. Patek, Czapek & Cie.
C. Patek, Gostkowski & Co.
D. Patek, Philippe SA
12. Patek Philippes first minute-repeating

wristwatch was made for American
automotive engineer Ralph Teetor in
1924. What did Teetor invent?
A. Windshield wipers
B. Cruise control
C. The differential gear system
D. The speedometer
2. Patek Philippes Supercomplication

fetched the highest price ever for a
timepiece when Sothebys auctioned it off
in 1999. What was that price?
A. $6,007,000
B. $15,060,500
C. $11,002,500
D. $24,350,000
6. According to President Thierry Stern,

about how many watches does Patek
Philippe make each year?
A. 25,000
B. 50,000
C. 75,000
D. 100,000
13. Which of the following is true of

Calibre 89, the ultra-complicated watch
Patek Philippe unveiled in 1989?
A. It weighs nearly one pound.
B. It was stolen from the Patek Philippe
museum but later recovered.
C. Patek made just one sample of the watch.
D. None of the above. They are all false.
4. Prior to buying Patek Philippe in 1932,

brothers Jean and Charles Henri Stern
owned what kind of horological business
in Geneva?
A. An bauche company
B. A watch-strap company
C. A finishing subcontractor
D. A dial-making company
7. Which of the following did Patek

Philippe patent?
A. Nivarox
B. Glucydur
C. Gyromax balance
D. Microstella screw
8. The Calatrava was introduced in what
year?
A. 1921
B. 1927
C. 1932
D. 1941
9. What Patek Philippe collection was
launched in 1976?
A. Nautilus
B. Golden Ellipse
C. Twenty-4
D. Gondolo
14. In the world of Patek Philippe, to

whom or to what does the nickname
Jumbo refer?
A. Calibre 89
B. The Stern family mansion on Lake
Geneva
C. A particular version of the Nautilus
D. Claude Peny, company CEO
15. Before Patek Philippe introduced the
Patek Philippe Seal in 2009, all the
movements in its mechanical watches
bore what quality seal or certificate?
A. The Geneva Seal
B. The Chronofiable seal
C. COSC certification
D. The Timelab certificate
Answers: 1A; 2C; 3A; 4D; 5C; 6B; 7C;
8C; 9A; 10A; 11D; 12B; 13D; 14C; 15A
3. What two U.S. business tycoons

competed with each other to possess the
most complicated Patek Philippe watches?
A. James Ward Packard and Henry
Graves Jr.
B. Henry Graves Jr. and J.P. Morgan
C. Henry Ford and J. Paul Getty
D. John D. Rockefeller and Andrew
Carnegie
44
What was the Gondolo

collection named after?
WT_0414_Basel_watches_Intro_04_Proof 05.06.14 14:52 Seite 46
BASELWORLD 2014
The Scene
FINALLY,
some
$EN$IBLE
PRICING
Swiss brands are adjusting to the
post-China-boom landscape.
BY JOE THOMPSON
T
46
he remarkable thing about this years

great global gathering of the watch world
known as Baselworld was its striking
un-remarkableness. Normally the throngs
in the fairs bustling halls are buzzing
about something. Last year it was the eyepoppingly expensive new booths in the
reconstructed Hall 1. In previous years it
was the astonishing high-speed rise of
China as a luxury-watch power. And
theres always chatter about some remarkable, must-see new watch or some corporate derring-do like Citizens acquisition of
La Joux-Perret days before the 2010 show.
But not this year. The throngs were
there (official attendance at the fair held
March 27 to April 3 was around
150,000, according to show organizers)
but the buzz wasnt. Baselworld delivered mixed signals [about] the luxury
markets outlook, noted Frank Mller,
founder of The Bridge To Luxury consulting firm, in an assessment of the fair
in his newsletter. The show lacked true
product highlights. Any hope that Patek
Philippe would provide some gee-whiz

watch fireworks on the occasion of its
175th anniversary this year were quickly
dashed when Patek announced that it
wouldnt unveil its new commemorative collection until the fall.
The shows buzz-free climate seemed
to reflect a watch world adjusting to the
new, post-China-boom landscape. That
boom went bust big time last year, when
Swiss watch exports there dropped 12.5
percent. The result is that the Swiss now
face a world without a true hot spot. That
said, business is not bad. The value of
Swiss watch exports was up 4.5 percent

for the first quarter of 2014. The first
quarter marked a very good start to the
year for exporting companies, noted the
Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry,
which releases monthly export data. But
signals, as Mller noted, are mixed.
Watch exports to five of Switzerlands top
10 markets were down in value through
March (see Switzerlands Top 10 Markets on next page). Number one Hong
Kong has rebounded from a poor 2013.
But the much-hoped-for revival of the
U.S. market (see Rediscovering America
in the June 2014 issue) did not materialize in the first quarter. China, meanwhile,
continued to limp along. It should soon
move out of the red, the FH noted, a
statement that would have been unthinkable two years ago.
The mood at Baselworld, like business generally, was fine, although there
were few surprises on the product front.
There was, however, one notable new
development. For the first time since the
global financial crisis of 2009, some
watch brands are making efforts to introduce new products at lower prices. With
the bloom off the China rose, luxurywatch demand has fallen and pressure on
watch prices has eased. The Swiss
Exhibitors Committee, in a show-recap
press release, cited a trend among prestige brands to include affordable styles in
their collections that will appeal to
emerging markets fast-growing middle
and upper classes.
This year the show is dominated by
presentations of lower-priced product.
Thats what Im seeing, Swatch Group
CEO Nick Hayek Jr. told WatchTime.
Everybody tries to go into the price segAugust 2014 WatchTime 47
ment of Longines because they recognize

that too-high prices are creating a problem. You see it with many brands.
Because the people in the higher end are
stagnating.
Pricing is really a question now,
Yves Vulcan, head of communications for
the Swiss Exhibitors Committee, told
WatchTime. The brands need better
entry-level prices.
Mller noted, The times of substantial
price increases seem to be over for now.
Examples of affordable pricing
appeared up and down the watch-price
pyramid. Harry Winstons new limitededition Z8 GMT watch, the latest in its
series of watches made with a zirconiumbased alloy called Zalium, has a retail
price of $20,300. Previous Z-series models have cost between $30,000 and
$40,000. Among Rolexs introductions
are new unisex (36 mm) Oyster Perpetual
models with new dials, priced at $5,400.
Frdrique Constant introduced a watch
with an in-house movement with a silicon
escapement in its Heart Beat Manufacture collection; the steel version costs
$6,500. Oris introduced its first watch
with an in-house movement in 35 years,
the Oris 110 Years Limited Edition; the
48
steel version costs $6,500. New Oris

mechanical watches start at $1,900 (the
Artix Pointer Day). Claude Bernard, a
brand that specializes in Swiss-made
watches at an affordable price, offers a
chronograph watch with a Dubois
Dpraz module for $1,450. So it went.
As noted, there was no dramatic new
product trend. Trends this year were similar to those at recent Baselworld fairs.
Here are a few noted by WatchTime
reporters:
Tourbillons continue to proliferate. As
at SIHH, a new trend is toward ultrathin tourbillons. Breguet and Bulgari
offered unusually thin tourbillon
watches at the show.
Clean, classic looks on mens dress
watches remain strong.
Skeleton watches, full or partial,
remain in vogue.
In terms of dial colors, blue predominates, prompting the oft-repeated
remark at the show that Blue is the
new black.
Gray, meanwhile, is the new blue, i.e.,
the up-and-coming chic color.
Japanese producers continue to innovate with high-tech satellite technology.
Seiko, Citizen, and Casio introduced
new versions of GPS watches using

satellite-wave technology.
So-called NATO straps, made of nylon
or other fabric and used on military
watches, are very popular.
Aluminum staged something of a
revival at the show with some brands
favoring its ultra-light, ultra-durable
qualities for sports watches.
Baselworld will be slightly earlier next
year, running from March 19 to 26.
MIXED PICTURE
Switzerlands Top 10 Markets

Watch exports, January - March 2014
(million Swiss francs)
Market
1. Hong Kong
2. U.S.
3. China
4. Japan
5. U.A.E.
6. Germany
7. Singapore
8. Italy
9. France
10. U.K.
Value
968.6
537.2
322.8
304.9
281.5
270.5
243.1
239.1
229.9
188.4
% Change
+6.5
+3.2
-0.2
+30.8
+18.5
-5.9
-4.5
-3.3
-3.0
+2.6
Source: Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry
WT_0414_Basel_watches_part1_04_Proof 05.06.14 14:58 Seite 50
BASELWORLD 2014
The New Watches
Rolex
WHEN ROLEX launched the Sea-Dweller
Deepsea in 2008, it deep-sixed the Reference 16600 Sea-Dweller a well-known
watch with a dedicated following. Sure,
the Deepsea offered 3,900-meter water
resistance and a beefy 44-mm case, but to
traditionalists, the Deepsea launch was
Rolexs New Coke moment. This year at
Baselworld, Rolex launched its Coke
Classic, and its called the Sea-Dweller
4000. It combines a time-honored look
with a range of improvements.
The case measures a traditional 40
mm in diameter, and it features a helium
escape valve at 9 oclock. The bezel is
Rolexs patented, in-house Cerachrom, a
high-tech material that is scratch resistant
and does not fade. The hour markers and
hands are illuminated with Chromalight,
another Rolex exclusive that glows bright
blue for excellent legibility in the dark
and under water.
The new Oyster case is water resistant
to 1,220 meters, or 4,000 feet, hence the
4000 in the watchs name. The patented
Triplock crown contributes to this rating.
The case is machined from a block of
904L steel, which is harder and more corrosion resistant than the 316L steel that is
used by many watch brands.
The case protects the Rolex Caliber
3135. This automatic movement is produced entirely in house and certified as a
chronometer by COSC. The movement
features Rolexs exclusive Parachrom balance spring, which Rolex says offers
50
superior stability and shock protection.

The Oyster bracelet with solid links is
also machined from 904L stainless steel.
It features the Oysterlock folding safety
clasp with the Glidelock extension system, which allows the bracelet to be
extended by up to 20 mm in 2-mm
increments for a comfortable fit, and the
Fliplock diver extension link, which adds
26 mm to the overall length, allowing the
watch to fit over a wetsuit. The SeaDweller 4000 is priced at $10,400.
5/29/14
2:09 PM
Page 1
Swiss movement, English heart
C9 HARRISON JUMPING HOUR MK II LIMITED EDITION

Bespoke ETA 2824-2 Jumping Hour automatic modication by Master Watchmaker
Johannes Jahnke / Each piece, of only 250, personally assembled by Johannes and
his team in Switzerland / 43mm, surgical grade stainless steel case with sapphire
crystal and transparent case back / CITES certied, premium grade, Louisiana alligator
deployment strap / 5 year movement guarantee
BASELWORLD 2014
The New Watches
GirardPerregaux
COMING ON THE HEELS of last years
technically innovative Constant Escapement, Girard-Perregaux followed up this
year with another watch designed to
demonstrate the companys watchmaking prowess: the Tri-Axial Tourbillon.
Unlike a traditional, single-plane tourbillon, the Tri-Axial rotates in three cages,
on three planes, at three different speeds:
30, 60 and 180 seconds. The entire mechanism is 13.78 mm in diameter and
weighs only 1.24 grams. The cage and
drive systems are steel while the support
pillars are titanium. The balance wheel
has 16 gold micro-adjustment screws and
beats at 21,600 vph (3 Hz). The mechanical ballet is visible through a dial aperture at 9 oclock. A dome in the sapphire
crystal allows sufficient space for the
tourbillon to rotate.
The manual-winding Caliber GP09300
measures 36.10 mm in diameter and
16.83 mm in height. It contains 317
pieces and offers a 52-hour power
reserve, which can be tracked via a
curved display on the dial. The move-
52
ment features several types of hand

finishing, including mirror polishing,
chamfered edges, and circular graining. A
sapphire window on the left side of the
case allows a view of the tourbillon.
Skeletonized rose-gold hands display
the hours and minutes on a small dial that
features a clous de Paris motif with rosegold numerals and indexes. The minutes
are indicated on a separate ring with white
numerals against a black background.
The Girard-Perregaux Tri-Axial Tourbillon will be limited to 10 pieces, each
priced at $510,900.
BASELWORLD 2014
The New Watches
Patek Philippe
PATEK PHILIPPE expanded its collection of complicated Nautilus models with
the launch of the new Ref. 5990/1A Travel
Time Chronograph in steel. This model
replaces the Nautilus chronograph, Ref.
5980/1A, which was first presented in
2006 to mark the 30th anniversary of the
Nautilus collection.
The new Nautilus displays two time
zones with two hour hands on the same
axis. The lower, home-time hand is skeletonized, and the upper, local-time hand
matches the minutes hand. When youre
home, the two hands are superposed.
When youre on the move, you can adjust
the local-time hour hand in one-hour
steps with the plus and minus correctors
on the left side of the case. Each hour
54
hand has its own day/night indication.

The dial is black with a light-to-dark color
gradation on top of the familiar horizontal embossed Nautilus pattern accented
with 10 applied luminous hour markers
in 18k white gold.
Adding the travel-time complication
required a new case design, and a new
movement. The caliber is CH 28-520 C
FUS. It features a chronograph mechanism with a traditional column-wheel
design and an innovative disk clutch, supplemented with the travel-time mechanism. Patek says this device dates back to
a patent it received in 1959.
The date display coupled with local
time (originally an aperture date at
3 oclock in the Ref. 5980 Nautilus
chronograph model) has been repositioned to 12 oclock as an analog date,

and the counter at 6 oclock that tallied
hours and minutes has been converted
into one that tallies minutes only: 60
rather than 30 as before. This new construction required 47 additional parts, yet
the new movement is only 0.3 mm higher
than its predecessor. Patek saved space by
replacing the tall Breguet overcoil balance
spring with its proprietary Silinvar Spiromax spring, which is flat.
The new Nautilus Travel Time
Chronograph is priced at $57,300.
5/29/14
2:22 PM
Page 1
M 29 Classic Kleine Sekunde

Since 1869, Mhle-Glashtte is all about precise measurement. Already at the end of the 19th century, Robert Mhle created
measuring
devices
capable
of
measurement
accuracy
to
within
hundredths
or
even
thousandths
of
millimetres.
In order to read these values precisely, the millimetres were displayed by a small macro dial gauge, and the
large micro dial gauge made the fractions of the measuring unit visible.
The new M 29 Classic Kleine Sekunde
invokes this design and reinvents it in the language of timepieces by Nautische Instrumente Mhle-Glashtte.
For more information please contact:

Mhle Glashtte USA p 727-896-8453 p www.muehle-glashuette.de
E.D. Marshall Jewelers Scottsdale, AZ | Topper Jewelers Burlingame, CA | Feldmar Watch Co. Los Angeles, CA | Leo Hamel Fine Jewelers San Diego, CA
Partita Custom Design San Francisco, CA | Ravits Watches & Jewelry San Francisco, CA | Right Time Denver & Highlands Ranch, CO | Exquisite Timepieces Naples, FL
Old Northeast Jewelers St. Petersburg & Tampa, FL | Little Treasury Jewelers Gambrills, MD | Continental Diamond Minneapolis, MN
Joseph Edwards New York, NY | Martin Pulli Phliadelphia, PA | Marvin Scott & Co. Yardley, PA | Jack Ryan Fine Jewelry Austin, TX
Timeless Luxury Watches Frisco, TX | Foxs Gem Shop Seattle, WA | Trident Jewels and Time St. Thomas, USVI
WATCH_ppcoplcd4503.1
11/27/13
1:44 PM
Page 1
BASELWORLD 2014
The New Watches
The B-Rocket bike that

Shaw Harley-Davidson
designed for Bell & Ross
Bell & Ross

A HARLEY DAVIDSON concept motorcycle called the B-Rocket provided inspiration for two new Bell & Ross watches,
the BR01 B-Rocket and the BR03
B-Rocket. Bell & Ross commissioned
Shaw Harley-Davidson to design the
bike, which the watch company says
harks back to experimental jet design of
the 1960s, a period Bell & Ross describes
as a heyday in aeronautics when anything seemed possible. Both watches
have the same red and black color scheme
as the bike and the same matte metal finish. The red triangles at 12 oclock on
both watches were borrowed from red
triangles on the bikes tachymeter scale
and turbines. The watches padded
leather straps, with red edges, were modeled on the bikes seat.
The BR01 B-Rocket ($7,200) is
an automatic chronograph with a
tachymeter scale, date window at 4
oclock, 30-minute and 12-hour counters
at 9 and 6 oclock, respectively, and small
seconds subdial at 3 oclock. The case,
which is steel and 46 mm across, is square
like the cases of the brands other BR
models.
The BR03 B-Rocket ($5,800) is an
automatic with a 42-mm case. There is a
big date display under 12 oclock, toward
the center of the dial. Cutouts in the dial
58
The BR03 B-Rocket
The BR01 B-Rocket
provide a view of the two date disks. At 6

oclock, theres a circular power-reserve
indicator that resembles the fuel gauges
in racing cars and motorcycles.
Both watches are water resistant to
100 meters and have luminous hour and
minutes hands and sapphire crystals with
nonreflective coatings. Both are also
being manufactured in limited series of
500 pieces.
BASELWORLD 2014
The New Watches
TAG Heuer
WHEN TAG HEUER launched the
Monaco V4 as a non-functioning concept
watch in 2004, many were skeptical that
the watchs revolutionary belt-drive
movement could be made to run reliably.
Indeed it took the company five years to
bring the watch to market. (See Pilot
Projects in WatchTimes August 2012
issue.) As it turns out, perfecting the original V4 was only a training exercise for
projects yet to come.
At Baselworld this year, TAG Heuer
launched the Monaco V4 Tourbillon.
The brands fighter-pilot-turned-physicist
60
Guy Smon told us that this new V4 is a

fully functional product, not a prototype
or concept watch, and that he views the
V4 not as a one-off movement, but as a
platform for future development. Translation: well see more belt-drive complications in the future.
The new models tourbillon is belt
driven: no surprise since the watch is a
V4. The power-delivery system is the
same as that in the original V4, though
the belts have been modified for this
model. Each of the Tourbillons four
transmission belts is a mere .07 mm in
diameter, which is thinner than a sheet of
photocopier paper. TAG claims that the
belt-drive system eliminates the backlash
associated
with
wheel-and-pinion
designs, allowing the tourbillon to run
more smoothly. The Tourbillon also
incorporates the original V4s linear-mass
winding system.
The movement is housed in a 41-mmsquare case in polished grade 5 titanium
with a black carbide coating.
The Monaco V4 Tourbillon is
designed and hand assembled in house at
TAG Heuers haute horlogerie workshops in La Chaux-de-Fonds. The V4
Tourbillon will be produced in a limited
edition of 50 pieces, priced at $165,000.
BASELWORLD 2014
The New Watches
Jacob & Co.

OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS, Jacob &
Co. has brought out a new, highly complicated watch at each Baselworld. This
years was the Astronomia Tourbillon,
which provides a high-mechanical yet
whimsical take on the celestial watch. To
develop it, Jacob & Co. collaborated
with Studio 7H38, a high-mech design
workshop based in Vaumarcus, in the
canton of Neuchtel.
In essence, the Astronomia plays on
an idea of orbits. There are four elements
around the perimeter of the watch face: a
skeletonized dial with hour and minutes
hands, a tourbillon, and two spheres representing the Earth and the moon. All
four elements rotate around the center of
the dial, making a complete revolution
once every 20 minutes. But thats just the
beginning. While the four planets are
spinning around the dial, theyre also
turning on their individual arms. Both the
moon and the Earth rotate around their
arms axes once every 60 seconds. The
moon is represented by a spherical,
briolette-cut diamond with 56 facets. The
Earth is a white-gold globe that has
62
been enameled and hand engraved to

accurately represent the planets oceans
and landmasses.
The four elements are attached to a
four-armed carrier, beneath which is a
motor barrel. Motor barrels are an alternative to the traditional mainspring barrel, and were popular at the start of the
20th century. Essentially, a motor barrel
reverses the roles of the barrel and arbor
found in a standard barrel. Whereas in a
standard barrel you turn the arbor to
wind the mainspring and then the geared
barrel transmits power to the going train,
here the barrel winds the spring, and that
power is then transmitted through the
arbor to the going train. (The Astronomia is manually wound via the caseback.)
The benefit of a motor barrel is that it
reduces friction and wear on the barrel,
transmitting power more efficiently.
The barrel and central carrier also
turn the time display and tourbillon, but
at different rates than the Earth and
moon. The tourbillon, which beats at
18,000 vph, makes one rotation on its
axis every 60 seconds, as most tourbil-
lons do. Additionally, it revolves on the

arm that carries it, turning once every 5
minutes. Since its also rotating around
the dial once every 20 minutes, the tourbillon turns on three different axes at
once.
With all these axes of rotation, youd
think it could get pretty difficult to read
the time. It doesnt: the arm that holds the
time-display dial is equipped with a differential system, keeping the dial upright
even as it makes its 20-minute orbit.
Whatever position the dial is in, it will
still keep 12 oclock at the top so that its
easily legible.
To fit all of these moving parts, the
Astronomia has a highly domed sapphire
crystal. Its case (47 mm in diameter, 18
mm thick) is made of a DLC-coated polycarbonate composite with rose-gold features. Underneath the various orbiting
bodies, the dial is made of blue aventurine to resemble a star-filled sky. The
Astronomia Tourbillon is being produced
in a series of nine pieces, each priced at
$540,000.
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BASELWORLD 2014
The New Watches
Omega
THIS YEAR OMEGA brought out an
updated version of its 57-year-old divers
watch, the Seamaster 300. The new model
is very close in appearance to the 50s
model: it has a thin black bezel, a large
arrow on the hour hand, and pointed
hour indexes. Even the coloring is nearly
the same, giving the new watch a vintage
appearance. But underneath the dial, the
Seamaster 300 is entirely fresh, with a
new manufacture caliber that draws
upon Omegas most recent technological
advances.
The Seamaster 300s dial reads Master Co-Axial. As Omega fans know, the
Co-Axial in the label refers to the
watchs co-axial escapement, invented by
the great British watchmaker George
Daniels and a mainstay of the Omega
brand. Master, however, is a new designation and refers to the watchs antimagnetic properties. The movement, Caliber 8400, incorporates the same antimagnetic technology that the brand
introduced last year with its Seamaster
Aqua Terra. It is based on the use of antimagnetic materials for various movement
components, including the balance
spring, which is silicon. Most antimag-
The new
Seamaster 300
64
netic watches, by contrast, rely on a protective Faraday cage to shield the movement from magnetism. Omega says its
system makes the Seamaster resistant to
up to 15,000 gauss (1.5 tesla), the highest
level of antimagnetism on the watch market today. Because the watch has no
opaque inner case, Omega was able to fit
the Seamaster with a transparent caseback. From now on, Omega will use
Master on all its watches with this
antimagnetic feature (and has added the
word to the Aqua Terras dial).
Caliber 8400 is a COSC-certified
chronometer and is water resistant to 300
meters (the 300 in the watchs name). It
runs in 38 jewels and has a power reserve
of 60 hours. Its frequency is 25,200 vph.
The black dial of the Seamaster 300
has been sandblasted, and its triangular
hour markers are recessed into the dial.
These indexes are partly filled with vintage Super-LumiNova, and their coloring is unlike what one finds on most contemporary dials. In the dark, these emit a
blue light. The luminous material on the
hour and seconds hands also shines blue,
while the minutes hand and the dot at 12
oclock on the bezel shine green.
The original Seamaster 300 from 1957
The bezel is made of polished black

ceramic, with diving-scale markers in
Omegas proprietary Liquidmetal. The
bezel rotates in one direction. The
scratch-resistant sapphire crystal has a
nonreflective treatment on the inside. The
case, made of stainless steel, has a 41-mm
diameter. It comes on a polished and
brushed stainless-steel bracelet. The
bracelet uses a rack-and-pusher clasp
system that was patented by Omega and
can be extended to fit over a wetsuit.
Six different versions of the new Seamaster 300 are being produced, in platinum, titanium, or Omegas Sedna gold (a
rose-gold alloy that includes palladium).
There are also two-color versions. The
stainless-steel Seamaster 300 shown here
costs $6,600.
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BASELWORLD 2014
The New Watches
Blancpain
LAST YEAR BLANCPAIN brought out
an updated version of its Fifty Fathoms
Bathyscaphe, which was introduced in
the late 1950s. This year the brand followed up with a flyback chronograph
version of the watch. It contains a new
in-house movement, which features automatic winding, a column-wheel chronograph mechanism, vertical clutch, and a
super-fast frequency of 36,000 vph.
The watch (including its chrono pushers, which, unlike those on many watches,
can be operated under water) is water
resistant to 300 meters. The balance
spring is made of silicon, which resists
magnetism. The rotor is made of 18k
gold, coated with the platinum alloy NAC.
The dial, like that of its 1950s predecessor,
is domed and indicates the hours by
means of simple lines and dots rather
Armin
Strom
BIENNE-BASED Armin Strom has
added a date display to its Gravity
watch, which has a micro-rotor visible
through the dial. The original Gravity
watch debuted at Baselworld last year.
The Gravity Date has Armin Stroms
characteristic off-center time display,
with the brand name along the right side
of the dial. The subdial for the small seconds at 9 oclock has two skeletonized
hands. The larger one points to the date,
marked in a ring inside the seconds ring.
The shorter one is a 24-hour hand and
aids in adjusting the date. The black and
white halves of the subdial signal day
and night. Caliber ADD14, including its
gold escape wheel and pallets and its microrotor at 5 oclock, is visible through the
66
dial. The watch has a single

barrel with a five-day power reserve. Its case is 43.4
mm in diameter and 13 mm
thick. In keeping with
Armin Stroms other collections, the Gravity Date
comes in four versions named
after the four elements: Air
(titanium case, white alligator
strap), Earth (black PVD-coated
stainless-steel case, black alligator
strap), Water (shown here; stainless-steel case, blue alligator strap),
and Fire (rose-gold case, brown alligator strap). Each is limited to 100
pieces. The price for the Water version
is $18,300.
than numerals. The date appears in a window at 4 oclock. The dial has a sunburst
finish while the subdials (chrono counters
and small seconds) have snailed finishes.
The rectangular hour and minutes hands
are also a nod to the original Bathyscaphe.
The unidirectional rotating divers
bezel is made of ceramic and has hour
markers filled with the patented LiquidMetal alloy, which enhances the bezels
scratch resistance. The hands and indexes
are coated with Super-LumiNova. The
case, fitted with a see-through back, is 43
mm in diameter and available in a
brushed black ceramic version with black
dial (shown here, $17,000) or in brushed
steel with a gray dial ($15,000). The
watches are fitted with either a NATO
fabric or sail-canvas strap; the steel version also comes on a metal bracelet.
Sinn
THE EZM 13 from Sinn is a divers watch designed to withstand rugged use. Its case, with a diameter of 41.5 mm, is
made of bead-blasted stainless steel. The watch is water
resistant to 500 meters and is certified based on the German
standard DIN 8310. (It is also certified for the German diving standard, DIN 8306.) The watch is protected from magnetic fields up to 80,000 A/m. Special oils lubricate its moving parts to ensure that it works properly from -45 degrees
to +80 degrees C (-49 to +176 degrees F). The EZM 13 uses
Sinns Ar-Dehumidifying Technology, which keeps the dial
from fogging up after rapid temperature changes. The
indexes and hands have a luminous coating. A date window
sits below 4 oclock. Small seconds are at 3 oclock. The
EZM 13 is powered by Sinns automatic SZ02 movement,
which is a modified version of the ETA 7750 with a 60minute counter instead of the usual 30 minutes. The movement has 25 jewels and runs at 28,800 vph. The watch has
a rotating bezel. The screw-down crown and pushers are on
the left side of the case so they wont restrict the motion of
the hand. As an additional protection that many divers
watches lack, the push-piece pins are mounted directly in a
case aperture so that the chronograph can be activated under
water without damaging the movement. Price: $2,900.
MeisterSinger
THE SIGNATURE of the German brand MeisterSinger is its
one-hand dials. In most of its watches, a single hand circles
the dial once every 12 hours; 5-minute increments are
marked between the hour indexes so the wearer can read
both hours and minutes from the same hand. The new
Salthora offers a different twist on that theme: it, too, has
just one hand, but that hand indicates minutes only. Hours
are shown in a jumping display at 12 oclock. The Salthora
is the first MeisterSinger model with a jumping-hour mechanism. The watch is powered by an automatic ETA 2824-2
caliber with an added module for the jumping hour. The
watch has a 38-hour power reserve. To prevent any unevenness of rate that the energy-intensive jumping-hour mechanism might cause, the tension for the switching arm of the
hour disk is provided over the course of the 60 minutes by a
screw attached to the minutes wheel. Power is therefore
siphoned from the barrel continuously rather than all at
once, and the rate is not affected much, MeisterSinger says.
The Salthora has a 40-mm stainless-steel case with an exhibition caseback. It is water resistant to 50 meters. An exact
U.S. price was not available at press time, but it was expected
to be about $3,300.
August 2014 WatchTime 67
Tudor
THE TUDOR HERITAGE RANGER
draws upon a military-style watch of the
same name that the brand introduced in
1967. The most distinctive feature of the
Ranger is its brown leather bund strap.
Like a NATO strap, it is a single piece of
material, running underneath the watch
case. It is especially tailored to the watch,
with a tapered oval to fit the shape of the
case. It has visible white stitching along
the sides; the thin edges are painted black.
Leather also runs around the crosspieces,
so the watch is fully embedded in its strap.
If the bund strap isnt your cup of tea,
Tudor also offers the Ranger with a steel
bracelet, or a darker brown strap in a
more traditional style. All these options
have a satin-finished folding clasp and
safety catch. All versions of the Ranger
also come with an additional fabric strap
in a distinctive woven camouflage pattern.
The Ranger has a high-contrast dial,

with hand-painted, Super-LumiNova
numerals at 12, 3, 6 and 9 oclock. The
numerals are domed to give the dial
greater depth. The watch is powered by
automatic ETA Caliber 2824. Its case is
41 mm in diameter and is waterproof to

150 meters. The crystal is made of sapphire and is domed. The bracelet version
costs $2,950; the leather strap options
are $2,825 each. The Ranger will be in
stores in July.
Casio
A NEW ADDITION to the Pro Trek family,
the PRW6000Y is a rugged outdoors
watch with a compass, barometer and
altimeter, among other functions. With
Casios Triple Sensor Version 3, the sensors for these functions are significantly
smaller than in older models with similar
functions: they take up only 5 percent of
the space they used to and consume 1/10
of the energy. The watch takes altitude
readings once per second at a resolution
accurate to one-meter increments. The
compass can take 60 seconds of continuous measurement.
The solar-powered watch is designed
to charge in low levels of sunlight or in
fluorescent light. It also has an automatic
backlight that adjusts to ambient conditions so that it gives the appropriate
amount of illumination. An atmospheric
pressure-trend alarm can alert you to
sudden shifts in barometric pressure. If

the weather is changing and youre about
to be caught in a downpour, the watch
will make sure youre the first to know.
For accurate timekeeping, the
PRW6000Y employs Casios Multi-Band
6 technology, receiving radio signals from
six atomic clocks around the world. The
watch synchronizes automatically with
timekeeping stations in the U.S., the U.K.,
Germany, China and Japan (which has
two stations).
The PRW6000Ys other features
include a 1/100-second stopwatch, a
countdown timer, multiple alarms and
world time. All of the functions can be
accessed by way of the electronic crown,
which lets you toggle between different
modes and activate the various functions.
The watch comes on a carbon insert
strap. Price: $600.
Tutima
THE HEADLINER for Tutima at Baselworld was the Saxon One Chronograph.
The watch has two unusual features. One
is the center-mounted minutes counter
that tallies elapsed minutes. The other is
the chronograph pushers, which follow
the curve of the case and are quite inconspicuous when the watch is viewed headon. There is a subdial at 12 oclock that
shows 24-hour time. Running seconds
are at 9 oclock and a 12-hour counter
sits at 6 oclock. The case is 44 mm in
diameter and 15.3 mm thick. The crystal
is made of sapphire and has a nonreflective coating on the inside. The brands
signature red stroke indicates the 12
oclock position on the bezel. Price:
$7,700 for the bracelet version and
$7,550 for the reptile-leather-strap one.
Citizen
THE MOST IMPORTANT new watch for Citizen this year was the
Eco-Drive Satellite Wave F100. The watch can receive time signals
from satellites orbiting the Earth and automatically adjust itself to
display the time in any of 40 time zones, indicated by a ring of city initials around the dial periphery. Citizen introduced its first satellitesignal watch in 2011 and last year brought out another with a more
sensitive antenna. The F100 is an improvement over these watches
because it can pick up the signal faster, in 3 seconds or less, shaving 1
second off the time required by the 2013 version. The watch is also
more precise, Citizen says, and will gain or lose no more than 5 seconds a month, compared to 15 seconds for the previous version. The
case, made of titanium, is 45 mm in diameter and 12.4 mm thick. The
bezel is coated with DLC. The watch is powered by Citizens EcoDrive system, which converts natural or artificial light into electricity
and stores it in a cell, eliminating the need for battery changes.
The Satellite Wave F100 (F100 is the name of the movement)
also has a perpetual calendar. There is a date window at 3 oclock;
a subdial between 7 and 8 oclock shows the day and also contains
an indicator showing how much light is entering the watch at any
given time. Three indications near the top of the dial give information about the satellite signal reception. RX means the watch is in
reception mode, OK means it has picked up a signal, and NO
means it has failed to pick one up. Price: $2,000.
Rado
Clerc
THE MOTTLED EFFECT on the bezel of Clercs new
Hydroscaph 140 Carbon Limited Edition Chronograph
is due to the unusual material from which the watch is
made: NTPT (North Thin Ply Technology), a lightweight
carbon composite made of many layers of carbon fiber
no thicker than 30 microns. NTPT has many uses,
including for sails on Americas Cup yachts and for
Formula 1 racecars. Its advantages for use in watch
cases are that its extremely rigid, it is very easily
machined, and, thanks to the process used to make it, it
has a distinctive, wood-grain-like look.
As its name suggests, the Hydroscaph, water resistant
to 500 meters, is a divers watch. The case, 44.6 mm in
diameter (49.6 mm if you include the lateral protectors),
is composed of 103 components and is, the company
says, the most complex case on the market. (The 140
in the watchs name is a reference to the 140 years that
have passed since the original Clerc company was founded
in Paris.) The bezel, which the wearer rotates via the
crown at 10 oclock, can be locked into position by
means of a retractable flap on the middle section of the
case. The lugs are flexible and can be adjusted to fit over
a wetsuit. The caseback is transparent.
The movement, an automatic, is Caliber C608.
Elapsed minutes are indicated by a center-mounted hand
rather than on a subdial. A 24-hour display sits at 9
oclock. The indexes and hands are coated with gray
Super-LumiNova. The watch is being made in a limited
edition of 140 pieces. Price: $12,900.
THE CERAMIC TOUCH TECHNOLOGY that Rado introduced last year has now been added to the HyperChrome collection. The HyperChrome Ceramic Touch Dual Timer can
immediately be recognized as a touch-controlled watch, since it
has no crown. It has hour and minutes hands for two time
zones, displayed on the main dial and on a subdial at 6 oclock.
To set the main time, place your finger at 10 oclock on the
ceramic case. When the minutes hand moves and the watch
beeps, it is ready to be set. Sliding a finger along the left side of
the case will set the hour hand forward or back; the right side
changes the minutes. The minutes hand on the second-timezone subdial will also move to stay aligned with the local-time
minutes hand. To set the second time zone, place a finger at 8
oclock until the watch responds. Setting the hours works the
same way as with the larger time display; the minutes on the
subdial move in 15-minute
increments. This way, the
watch can be set to any time
zone, even ones that are a
quarter hour off from your
home time. To swap the time
on the two displays, touch
the case at 9 and 3
oclock simultaneously
and the hands will
switch places. The
watch comes in
gray, white or
black
ceramic
and on a leather
strap. The version shown here
is $3,000.
BASELWORLD 2014
The New Watches
Christophe
Claret
THIS YEAR CHRISTOPHE CLARETS
new models included the Maestoso. This
watch is doubly rare: it incorporates both
a cylindrical balance spring and a pivoted
detent escapement that took Claret seven
years to perfect. These components date
to the golden age of precision chronometry, when an accurate timekeeper on
board a ship meant the difference
between knowing your location and
being lost at sea. Detent escapements
trump even tourbillons for timekeeping
precision, yet they are almost never found
in wristwatches because they are
extremely sensitive to shocks.
Claret solved the problem with a
mechanism in which an anti-pivot cam,
integral to the spring balance, works in
conjunction with a safety finger. The
ensemble pivots on a ball bearing that
distributes the load on the escapement. A
separate, flexible thrust bearing absorbs
excess energy. Sapphire bridges provide
an unobstructed view of the mechanism.
The movement is
also unusual in that
it runs at 2 Hz, or
14,400 vph. Twin
barrels housing four
mainsprings provide
the power. To guarantee stable energy
delivery throughout
the 80-hour power
reserve, Claret fitted
the movement with a
constant-force spring,
wound by the barrel.
A patented stopseconds mechanism
facilitates precision
time setting. All of this fits in a case measuring 44 mm in diameter.
The Maestoso is available in three
versions: 5N rose gold ($215,000),
anthracite PVD titanium with white gold
($209,500), and anthracite PVD titanium
with rose gold ($205,000).
Doxa
WE RECEIVED A BIG surprise at the
Doxa booth this year. How big? Fiftyseven millimeters big. This year marks
Doxas 125th anniversary, and to celebrate the occasion, the brand presented
the limited-edition (125 pieces, naturally)
57-mm-wide 8 Days Manufacture. Its
powered by a revived version of the eightdays movement the company patented in
1907 for use in a pocketwatch. Indeed,
Doxa claims to have been the first Swiss
company to have patented an eight-days
movement.
The 21-jewel movement features
Geneva-waves finishing, hand engraving
74
and blued screws. The watch is available

in six different models. Two are in stainless steel with complete dials in black or
white, each with a power-reserve indicator. Two have partly skeletonized white
dials and power-reserve displays: one in
stainless steel and one with 10-micronthick rose-gold plating. Two have no
power-reserve indicators: one with a full
white dial, and a pilots model with a
black dial in stainless steel with a vintagelooking brown riveted strap. Each offers
a view of the movement through a sapphire caseback. Water resistance is 30
meters. All models are priced at $3,900.
HYT
THE HYDRO-MECHANICAL horologists at HYT are back
with an expanded lineup of sophisticated water clocks for
the wrist. For those who are unfamiliar with this young
brand, it made a big splash in 2012 because of its innovative
time display, which indicates hours by means of colored liquid. Working first with Jean-Franois Mojon and Chronode
to create the original H1, then last year (and this year) with
Audemars Piguet Renaud & Papi to create the H2, HYT
incorporated micro-mechanical technology from several
fields to create the movement. It uses twin bellows powered
by twin mainsprings to pump a combination of clear and
colored liquids through a thin, circular glass pipe. The line
where the two liquids meet (the meniscus) indicates the
hours. The minutes are indicated regulator-style via a traditional, center-mounted hand.
This year brings the introduction of several new models.
The H2 headliner comes in a black DLC and 5N-rose-gold
case that measures 48.8 mm by 17.9 mm. The screw-down
crown is sheathed in black rubber. The case is water resistant to 50 meters. The manual-wind movement runs at
21,600 vph in 28 jewels. The power reserve is eight days.
This new model will be produced in a limited series of 20
pieces and priced at $160,000.
MhleGlashtte
GERMANYS EQUIVALENT of the Navy SEALs are known
as the Kampfschwimmers, or combat swimmers. These
special operations forces train for deployment on land, sea
and air. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the elite units
founding, Mhle-Glashtte is launching the Kampfschwimmer watch. The sunburst dial is an attention-grabbing electric blue. The buzz-saw bezel is a nod to the commando
divers insignia, which prominently features a sawfish. The
complete insignia, with a special 50th-anniversary notation,
is engraved on the solid caseback. The case measures 44 mm
in diameter; the crystal is domed and 2.5 mm thick.
The movement begins life as a Sellita SW-200 automatic
caliber, which Mhle-Glashtte modifies by adding its own
oscillating weight and Glashtte ribbing decoration. The
company also adds its so-called woodpecker neck fine
adjustment system, which is similar in appearance and function to the better-known swan-neck system.
The Kampfschwimmer will arrive at Mhle-Glashttes
40 U.S. retailers in August or September, priced at about
$3,600.
BASELWORLD 2014
The New Watches
Breva
Breguet
BREGUETS NEW CLASSIQUE Tourbillon Quantime
Perptuel is being offered in two references: 3797, with a partial
dial; 3795, a skeletonized version without a dial.
Breguet says it paid particular attention to legibility when
creating the design by raising the time display slightly above
everything else. The hours and minutes chapter ring is frosted
sapphire, and its position just above the other displays sets it
apart. This construction is striking and effective, though the
raised ring slightly obscures September and December on the
month display. If you can remember which month it is, this
wont be an issue. Just north of the time display, a blue-tipped
pointer marks the date on an arc that sweeps across the top of
the dial.
The one-minute tourbillon is located at 6 oclock, secured
from above by a bridge with a complex shape. A blued triplehand mounted above the tourbillon indicates the seconds. The
subdial for the days at 9 oclock is engine-turned in waves, and
a snail cam allows the days hand to jump instantaneously. At 3
oclock, a blued-steel hand points to the months on a dial
engine-turned in a sunburst pattern.
The skeletonized Reference 3795 omits the dial entirely to
reveal the movement. The bridges feature lace-like engraving.
Both references are available in rose gold or platinum. The
prices for Ref. 3795 are $240,600 and $254,900, respectively.
For Ref. 3797, theyre $164,900 and $179,200.
76
LAST YEAR AT BASELWORLD the then-brand-new

brand Breva unveiled the Gnie 01 Terre, featuring a
sophisticated mechanical weather station for the wrist.
This year, Breva followed up with the Gnie 02 Air. Both
are 100-percent Swiss-made timepieces created with
movement constructor Jean-Franois Mojon of Chronode. The new 02 Air replaces the originals barometric
weather forecast indicator at 2 oclock with a large,
fine-scale altimeter.
The hours and minutes are displayed on the other
large subdial, located at 8 oclock. Arcing around the top
of the main display is the large-scale altitude indicator,
which displays up to 5,000 meters, or 16,400 feet. The
small seconds indication appears below that, at 12
oclock.
The altitude indicators are driven by two aneroid
capsules that measure air pressure. The capsules in the
02 Air were developed specifically for this watch, and
they differ from the ones used in the 01 model. One of
the capsules can be seen in the background at the bottom
of the dial. A high-precision arm multiplies the capsules
expansion and contraction by a factor of 200 to generate
the correct altitude indications. To measure altitude, the
air valve must be open, and an indicator at 4 oclock tells
you whether the valve is open or closed. Below that is the
65-hour power-reserve indicator. The movement consists
of 415 components and the 44.7-mm case has 88 parts.
The Gnie 02 Air is a limited edition of 55 pieces in
grade 5 titanium and is available with calibrations in
either meters or feet. The retail price is $132,000.
Longines
LONGINES REGISTERED the name
Conquest with the Swiss Federal Intellectual Property Office in May 1954. At
Baselworld, the brand launched a new
collection of limited-edition, commemorative watches to honor the 60th
anniversary of the patent filing, the new
Longines Conquest Heritage 1954-2014
collection.
It consists of four timepieces, one in a

stainless-steel case and three in gold cases,
each bearing the same dial design as the
original Conquest from 1954 and with a
modest (some would say downright
retro) case size of 35 mm. Also echoing
the originals, the new Conquest watches
have casebacks decorated with the gold
seal of Longines quality, a gold-and-
enamel medallion. In another nod to

their historical predecessors, the watches
all have Conquest inscribed on the
dials in the same typeface as the originals. The dials on three of the models in
stainless steel, yellow gold and rose
gold are silvered and adorned with the
same sunburst motif as the 1954 model.
The other yellow-gold watch has a gilded
dial, a tribute to a later Longines
Conquest model. The dials of the steel
and yellow-gold models have applied
yellow-gold-colored indexes, while the
rose-gold model has rose-gold-colored
applied indexes. All the watches contain
Longiness automatic Caliber L633,
which powers a simple, three-hand time
display.
Longines uses two versions of its
gold-and-enamel quality seal medallion
on the screw-down casebacks of the
watches: the gold models have the version that depicts a constellation, while the
steel model has one that represents a fish.
All the watches have black alligator
straps. The gold models are limited to
only 60 pieces each, priced at $5,500; the
steel model, shown here, is limited to 600
pieces and costs $1,850.
Nomos
THE MOST SIGNIFICANT feature of the Metro, a new
watch from the Glashtte-based Nomos, is its in-house
movement. For the first time, Nomos has produced its
own escapement. The Swing System, as it is called, is
the result of seven years of research and development.
The Metro has a simple design, in keeping with
Nomoss characteristic minimalism. The dial is plain
white with red and mint green accents. Small seconds are below the center-mounted hour and minutes hands. A large date window is at 6 oclock. A
power-reserve-indicator wheel is just off center
between 12 and 1. The case is stainless steel, with a
diameter of 37 mm. The Metro is 7.65 mm thick and
has sapphire crystals on both sides. Through the caseback you can see Caliber DUW4401 at work. It is a manualwind movement with a 42-hour power reserve. Its tempered
blue balance spring is also visible through the back. The Metro
comes on a black Horween leather strap and is water resistant
to 30 meters. Price: $3,780.
BASELWORLD 2014
The New Watches
Peter Speake-Marin
THIS YEAR AT BASELWORLD, independent watchmaker Peter SpeakeMarin launched his first chronograph.
Its part of his Spirit collection, whose
watches feature Speake-Marins signature, canister-shaped Piccadilly case and
an hour hand with the tip shaped like a
spade. The watch is called the Spirit
Seafire. The Seafire was Britains first
modern carrier-based airplane an
ocean-going version of the famed Spitfire. Indeed, the name is a contraction of
Sea and Spitfire.
The watch features central chronograph seconds, elapsed minutes at 12
oclock, and elapsed hours at 6 oclock.
The continuous seconds can be tracked
via a small, circular cut-out in a rotating
version of Speake-Marins trademark

topping tool at 9 oclock. To aid legibility, each of the hands is treated with Super-LumiNova, and the central hour and
minutes hands are skeletonized. The dial
is black lacquer with three-dimensional
Super-LumiNova markers.
The 42-mm case is grade-5 titanium,
and the solid caseback is engraved with
the Spirit motto Fight, Love & Persevere. Speake-Marins decision to use a
third-party movement means you need
not be a hedge fund manager to own this
watch. The Seafire will list for 7,900
Swiss francs, which translates to about
$8,960 at current exchange rates. (Precise U.S. prices were not available at
press time.)
Laurent Ferrier
THIS INDEPENDENT WATCHMAKER,
known for his command of subtle details,
offers new interpretations of his Galet
Micro-Rotor with new dials. Ferriers
original dials feature applied slender
gold arrow hour markers, which give
the watches an elegant look. The new
dials are black and opaline silver, and
each features a traditional railroad
minutes track and straight reliefworked Arabic numerals. The new
dials, like the originals, are
fashioned from solid silver.
The black dial is housed in a
rose-gold case, and the
opaline silver dial is
offered in a white-gold
case. Each case measures
40 mm in diameter and is
11.1 mm thick.
The movement in the new
models is unchanged. Each Galet
Micro-Rotor movement features an
exclusive silicon escapement with
double direct impulse on the balance.
78
Ferrier explains his system using a

swing/balance wheel analogy. In a standard escapement, you push the swing
once, then wait for it to return to you. In
Ferriers escapement, the swing receives a
push, and at the top of its arc, it receives
a second push. The power reserve
remains a healthy 80 hours.
The movements are skillfully finished,
with hand-drawn flanks, beveled wheel
spokes, polished screw heads, and handcrafted interior angles. The micro-rotor
bridge and balance cock feature mirror
polishing done by hand, and the 18k-gold
micro-rotor is decorated with handapplied guilloch. If youre wondering,
hand drawing the flanks means hand
filing the sides or edges of the plates and
bridges, then applying a satin finish. This
process removes burrs and machine tool
marks and establishes a foundation for
chamfering or beveling, which creates an
angle that can be polished.
The new Galet Micro-Rotor models
are priced at $48,000.
Harry Winston
THE SWATCH GROUP acquired Harry Winston last year,
and as you might expect, there have been a few changes,
some of which are evidenced in the latest Project Z watch,
the Z8. For the uninitiated, Project Z is a series of watches
produced over the past several years to showcase Harry
Winstons use of Zalium, a zirconium-based alloy that is
exclusive to the brand. Zalium is said to be lighter and harder
than titanium, and extremely resistant to corrosion.
The first bit of news is that the new Z8 features a movement supplied by Blancpain. The Z8s caliber is based on the
Blancpain automatic base Caliber 1150. As modified by
Blancpain for Harry Winston, the caliber is known as
HW3502. It features a flat silicon balance spring, a unique
openworked winding rotor, and a circular Geneva-waves
decoration that is exclusive to Harry Winston.
The Z8 is a GMT, or two-time-zone watch. The primary
hours and minutes are located in the upper right quadrant of
the dial. A day-night indicator appears in an aperture in the
hours and minutes chapter ring, and the date appears just
below the chapter ring. The second time zone is indicated by
a retrograde display that runs in an arc along the edge of the
dial from 6 oclock to 10 oclock. In an unusual move, the
retrograde display shows
local time. For convenience, the retrograde display can be set forward
and back. Most retrogrades can be set in
only one direction.
All adjustments on
the Z8 are made
via the crown.
In another bit
of news, the Z8 is
priced well below
past Z-series models, which have
typically come in at
between $30,000 and
$40,000. The Z8 is
priced at $20,300, and
it is a limited edition of
300 pieces.
Zenith
ZENITH PUT ITS signature chronograph movement on
a diet to create the new El Primero Lightweight. The
process of adding lightness began with the movement
plates, all five of which were machined from titanium.
The escapement (pallet lever and escape wheel) is silicon.
To save more weight and improve the view, the movement and the dial were skeletonized. Even the date disk
went under the knife. In a nod to tradition, the chronograph totalizers are light gray, blue and anthracite
emblematic of the 1969 El Primero chronograph. The El
Primero 400B caliber still beats at 36,000 vph, enabling
it to time events to the nearest 1/10-second. Zenith elected
not to add the Striking 10th complication, saving precious micrograms and reducing the retail price by about
$3,000. (That complication allows the central chronograph seconds hand to circle the dial every 10 seconds,
rather than every 60 seconds, making it easier to read
elapsed 1/10s of a second.)
The diet also extended to the 45-mm case, which is
fashioned from carbon fiber and aluminum, with titanium chronograph push-pieces and crown. Together, the
case and movement weigh a minuscule 45 grams. Add
the strap, and the tally is 72 grams, which is exceptionally
light: a small, three-hand dress watch in steel on a strap
will weigh 60 to 80 grams.
In the sports car world, the lightest versions often
cost much more than the regular models. Thats because
manufacturers have to recover the costs of creating specialized parts from exotic materials over a small production run. The same math applies here. The El Primero
Lightweight will be produced in a limited edition of 250
pieces, priced at $19,000.
BASELWORLD 2014
The New Watches
Hamilton
Ulysse
Nardin
ULYSSE NARDIN plans to end its use of third-party
movements by 2017. To that end, the brand has been
introducing in-house movements more frequently than
before. Baselworld 2014 saw the introduction of the
brands sixth new manufacture caliber in two years.
Known as UN-334, the movement is made 100-percent
in house, including the silicon escapement and hairspring, and the patented balance wheel. The movement
appears in the new Dual Time Manufacture, a travel
watch that is extremely easy to use.
The central hour and minutes hands display local
time, while home time is displayed in a digital, 24-hour
format in the aperture at 9 oclock. As you travel across
the zones, the hour hand can be adjusted forward or
back via the pushers at 8 and 10 oclock. The hand can
be adjusted across midnight in either direction, and the
date automatically aligns with the displayed local time.
The pushers allow local time adjustment without your
having to take the watch off, and without affecting timekeeping, as can happen when you pull out a crown.
The Dual Time Manufacture is available in a
redesigned 42-mm case with a display back to show off
the new movement. Three versions are available: rose
gold on a strap ($26,500), stainless steel on a bracelet
($11,400) and stainless steel on a strap ($10,500).
80
HAMILTON HAS UNVEILED a new limited-edition

pilots watch, the Hamilton Khaki Takeoff Auto
Chrono. The watch takes its design cues from a cockpit
clock that Hamilton produced during World War II. It
can be removed from its leather strap and placed in a
wooden presentation box bearing printed aviation references such as No Step and Pull to Open. While the
watch is in the box, it resembles its WWII-era predecessor, which was at the time considered the most complicated aircraft clock.
The watch has a bidirectional turning reflector and
flange, driven by the bezel, which can be used for a countdown. Another turning action is used to separate the
46.3-mm case, made of stainless steel and coated with
black PVD, from its strap, which can be stowed at the
bottom of the box when not in use. The boxs surface has
visible aluminum rivets and plates as well as four contemporary instruments to complement the watch and
complete the instrument-panel look.
The Hamilton Khaki Takeoff Auto Chrono Limited
Edition contains Hamiltons proprietary H-31 caliber,
with chronograph functions and 60-hour power reserve.
The predominantly black dial has contrasting yellow
details, and the hour markers
are coated with Super-LumiNova. The central chronograph hand has an airplaneshaped pointer. In another
nod to historical timekeepers, the crown is
positioned
at
12
oclock,
with
the
chrono pushers on
either side. The
watch is limited
to 1,999 numbered
pieces,
priced at $3,295.
Breitling
THE BREITLING CHRONOMAT pilots
watch turns 30 this year. To mark the
occasion, Breitling has launched a special
series that recalls the look of the original.
The Breitling Chronomat Airborne is
available in two case sizes (41 mm and 44
mm in diameter) and two dial colors
(black and silver).
The original Breitling Chronomat
was designed for the Italian Frecce Tricolori aerobatics team. The new Chronomats are distinguished by their satinbrushed rotating bezels, equipped with
four raised rider tabs. These tabs make
the bezels easier to rotate even when
youre wearing gloves. Other new fea-
tures include the rubber-inlay indexes on

the bezel and the cream-colored, luminous indexes on the dial. The stainlesssteel case has a polished finish. The models with black dials have silver-toned subdial counters and the silver-dial ones
have black subdial counters. The caseback is engraved with the inscription
Edition Spciale 30e Anniversaire
(Special 30th Anniversary Edition)
and the silhouette of an Aermacchi, one
of the planes flown by the Frecce
Tricolori.
The Breitling Chronomat Airborne is
available on a steel bracelet ($9,060) or a
black military-style fabric strap secured
by a folding clasp ($8,030). It contains
Breitlings
manufacture
automatic
chronograph Caliber BR01, which is
certified by COSC.
Chopard
THE NEWEST Chopard Mille Miglia watch is the most
distinctly Italian timepiece in the Mille Miglia collection,
which is inspired by the Mille Miglia (1,000 Miles)
Brescia-to-Rome-and-back vintage car race.
Chopard has partnered with the race since 1998, producing special watches for it annually. This year, the
brand opted to focus on the races early years, when it
was dominated by Italian racing teams and automobiles
such as Alfa Romeo and Ferrari, by creating a watch that
echoes the colors of the Italian flag.
The Chopard Mille Miglia 2014 (like many previous
Mille Miglia watches, a chronograph) features a red
tachymeter scale and hands, and a white dial with green
minutes circle. Unlike previous Chopard Mille Miglia
watches, which have straps made of rubber with a 1960s
Dunlop racing-tire motif, the 2014 edition has one made
of overstitched Barenia calfskin leather reminiscent of
the bonnet straps on vintage racing cars.
The slender fonts on the dial are similar to those used
in the 1920s. The chronograph hours, chronograph minutes, and small seconds are displayed on subdials at 6, 9
and 3 oclock, respectively. The lugs on the 42-mm case
(in either steel or 18k rose gold; 12.3 mm in thickness)
are soldered rather than screwed in. The movement is
COSC certified. The watch is $5,520 in steel and
$19,110 in gold.
BASELWORLD 2014
The New Watches
Herms
THE HERMS DRESSAGE LHeure
Masque (literally, the masked hour)
derives its name from the unconventional
motion of its two time-telling hands, in
which the hour hand remains hidden
behind the moving minutes hand until it
is summoned to its proper position with
the press of a push button integrated into
the crown. After you release the button,
the hour hand snaps back to its position
behind the minutes hand. The watch also
has a dual-time-zone function, in a window at 6 oclock. The hour remains hidden (under the letters GMT) until the
button is pressed, after which the hour
numeral of the chosen second time zone
pops into the window. The second time
zone is set by means of the push button at
9 oclock.
The watch contains Herms Caliber
1925, here modified with an exclusive,
patented mechanism that creates an interaction between the rack, pinion, and gear
trains to stimulate the hour cam into
pointing to the correct hour on
demand. The dual-time indication is driven directly by
the base caliber, an automatic movement with
28 jewels, a frequency of 28,800
vph,
and
a
45-hour power
reserve.
The watch
comes in steel
or 5N rose
gold. The caseback is transparent. The steel
version is limited to 1,000
pieces and priced
at $20,750; the
rose-gold version is
limited to 500 pieces and
priced at $43,750.
82
Glashtte
Original
THE GLASHTTE ORIGINAL SEVENTIES Chronograph
Panorama Date features an entirely new chronograph movement, Caliber 37-02, which was designed and manufactured
in house.
Glashtte Original Caliber 37-02 is an integrated automatic chronograph movement with a 70-hour power
reserve from a single spring barrel and a simplified columnwheel mechanism. It has a bidirectional rotor and four gold
screws on the balance rim for regulation.
The movement has a flyback mechanism. The small seconds display shares its subdial at 9 oclock with a black and
white power-reserve indicator, while the 30-minute chronograph counter occupies the position at 3 oclock. The 12hour counter, with Arabic numerals 1 through 12 on a
rotating disk, is in a semicircular window beneath the 12
oclock position; directly below it at 6 oclock is the big date
window.
The case is steel and measures 40 mm across. The caseback is transparent: through it you can see the skeletonized
21k-gold rotor with the brands double-G logo.
There are three versions of the watch, with dials in galvanized ruthenium, silver, and blue. Prices range from
$14,900 (for rubber or leather strap) to $16,400 (for
bracelet).
Eterna Eyes the
U.S. Market
Its Chinese owners are investing heavily

to revive the brand on global markets.
terna, the 158-year-old Swiss watch company, is engaged in a comeback bid

financed by investments in the brand by
its parent company, China Haidian Holdings Ltd. As a result, Eterna is opening
new accounts in the U.S. after a long
absence, Eterna vice president of marketing and sales Bruno Jufer told WatchTime
at Baselworld.
China Haidian, based in Hong Kong,
with shares traded on the Hong Kong
Stock Exchange, is a watch manufacturer
and distributor in Hong Kong and Mainland China with total revenues of 3.18
billion Hong Kong dollars (U.S. $407.2
million) in 2013. China Haidian acquired
the struggling Eterna in 2011. It marked
the start of a major push by the Hong
Kong group to increase its clout in the
global watch market, and Asia in particular, by acquiring Swiss watch brands. It
bought Switzerlands Corum in 2013 and
Rotary (via the takeover of the Londonbased Dreyfuss Group) in April.
Since the takeover, China Haidian has
worked to revive Eterna, including
resuming in-house-movement production
at Eternas headquarters and factory in
Grenchen, Switzerland. Eterna ran in the
red last year to the tune of H.K. $183.2
million (U.S. $23.5 million) because of
China Haidians investment efforts. China
Haidian noted in its 2013 annual report,
The net loss was due to new product
development cost, new market development cost, incremental operating cost,
Eternas 1948 Legacy

Big Date watch
Caliber 3030, one of Eternas

two in-house movements
development cost for mechanical movements, and in particular, promotional

and advertising cost incurred for the
branding and strategic marketing activities conducted in Mainland China, Hong
Kong and overseas. In addition, China
Haidian reorganized Eterna last year,
bringing in Jufer, and revising the product
portfolio and pricing. Jufer is a Swiss executive formerly with Antoine Martin. He
reports directly to China Haidian CEO
Jianguang Shang. (Antonio Calce, CEO
of Corum, who was put in charge of both
brands briefly last year, is no longer
involved in the management of Eterna.)
Eternas top markets are Europe and
Asia, Jufer says. But the brand is global
and has distribution in the U.S., the Middle East and Latin America. Inevitably,
the U.S. is on Eternas radar. The U.S. is
the driver for global economic growth,
China Haidian stated in its annual report
issued in March 2014.
Eterna today has five core product
collections (Classic, Contemporary, Adven-
ture, Heritage, and Ladies), some of

which contain Caliber 39 and Caliber
3030, Eternas two manufacture movements. At Baselworld it unveiled the
1948 Legacy Big Date watch, containing
the latter caliber, a self-winding movement, which is a successor to an Eterna
caliber from 1974. It features a rotor
mounted on ball bearings, inspired by the
firms famous Eterna-Matic movement of
1948. The first to use ball bearings in a
rotor, it reduced wear and tear on the
movement parts and is considered a
major advance in self-winding technology. Caliber 3030 is fitted with a ballbearing device similar to the original
Eterna-Matic movement.
The 1948 Legacy Big Date watch has
an elegant design modeled after the 1948
version. It comes in satin-finished stainless steel, with a rose-gold bezel and
crown. The watch is 41.5 mm in diameter
and is water resistant to 50 meters. Suggested retail price: $9,950.
Joe Thompson
BASELWORLD 2014
The New Watches
Ultra Complications go
Ultra Thin
Breguets Ref. 5377 is the

thinnest automatic tourbillon
watch on the market.
uddenly, for ultra-complicated watches

like minute repeaters and tourbillons,
ultra-thin is in. At Baselworld, Bulgari and
Breguet showcased ultra-thin tourbillons.
Bulgaris is the thinnest manual-wind tourbillon watch ever (total
height, 5.0 mm); Breguets is the thinnest automatic tourbillon on
the market (7.0 mm). At SIHH in January, Jaeger-LeCoultre
unveiled its Master Ultra-thin Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon
(7.9 mm) and Vacheron Constantin introduced the thinnest manual minute repeater (8.09 mm): the Patrimony Contemporaine
Ultra-Thin Calibre 1731.
So whats going on? To find out, we asked Marc A. Hayek,
CEO of Montres Breguet, the worlds leading producer of tourbillon watches. We see a trend toward thinner watches again,
he said. Thinner classic watches are becoming stronger, and
Breguets Extra-Thin Self-Winding Tourbillon 5377
84
Marc A. Hayek, CEO of

Montres Breguet
with that, it makes sense to go thinner. The client wants a very

thin, elegant, comfortable, beautiful piece of mechanical art. So
for a tourbillon, or a three-hand, or a tourbillon perpetual splitsecond chrono, you try to keep the proportions as fine and thin
as possible.
With that in mind, Hayek says he pushed his research team
at Montres Breguet in LOrient, Switzerland, to design a new automatic tourbillon movement that would do two things: allow for
extraordinary thinness, but also maintain the technical and
design characteristics of a contemporary Breguet tourbillon.
The result is the Breguet Classique Extra-Thin Self-Winding
Tourbillon 5377 in platinum ($163,800) or rose-gold
($149,500) that is 42 mm in diameter and just 7.0 mm in height.
Its movement, Caliber 581DR, measures just 3.0 mm high.
Breguet engineers achieved the desired slimness, Hayek says, by
taking the most extreme approach, completely rethinking and
changing the whole system for how you create an automatic
watch. The crucial step was replacing the traditional winding
rotor with a peripheral rotor, the first in Breguet history. Its
made of platinum and winds in both directions. Hayek is
delighted with the peripheral rotor solution and not just because
of the additional thinness. I have a little bit of a rotor fetish
Seiko
Caliber 581DR, just 3.0 mm thick, features Breguets first peripheral rotor.
because I like to see the movement. The problem with a traditional rotor, he says, is that you hide a little bit of the beauty.
That doesnt happen on the 5377. Instead one sees the tourbillon in a titanium carriage, the barrel (mounted on roller bearings), and traditional Breguet guilloch decoration on the
bridges and mainplate, barrel and the rotor itself. Dont be surprised if peripheral rotors show up in future Breguet movements. Seeing what possibilities it opens, Hayek says, maybe
it will not stay reserved for the tourbillon. We should probably
think about it the next time we do an automatic movement.
Reference 5377 incorporates seven Breguet patents. The
movement contains a silicon balance spring and an escapement
made of silicon and non-magnetic steel. It has a frequency of
28,800 vph, high for a tourbillon watch. It also has a 90-hour
power reserve. The watchs silvered gold dial includes four
engine-turned patterns. The tourbillon is off center, with the
small seconds on the tourbillon axis. The power-reserve indicator is at the 8:30 position.
Hayek points out that while the 5377 is the thinnest automatic tourbillon watch on the market today, it is not the
thinnest ever made. Previously, Audemars Piguet made a thinner
one in limited numbers, but it is no longer in production.
Breguets goal was not to set a world record, Hayek says. If you
want to break the record for the thinnest watch, you dont do a
guillochd gold dial. You dont build a movement with the possibility of this kind of decoration and engraving. Honestly, we
didnt aim to make a record. For Breguet, we dont need this. We
want as thin as possible and this beauty! If you miss the
thinnest by four tenths of a millimeter, its not important.
SEIKO MAY BE one of the best-known watch brands in the

world, but ask the average American about Prospex watches,
and they are likely to respond with a blank stare. Among American Seiko enthusiasts, however, Prospex has achieved near-cult
status, fueled in part by their limited JDM, or Japan Domestic
Market, availability.
At Baselworld, Seiko announced that it is launching the
Prospex line internationally.
The Prospex name is a play on professional specifications (as in pro specs), and these tool watches are known
for toughness and value.
The global Prospex launch is headed up by the Kinetic
GMT Diver. It uses the same double-case system that Seiko
used for its well-known Professional 600M watch of 1975.
The 47.5-mm case has elements of Seikos much-loved tuna
divers watches (as in tuna can size and shape). The dial and
nonreflective sapphire crystal are designed to maximize legibility. The Caliber 5M85 Kinetic movement is powered by the
motion of your wrist and is accurate to +/-15 seconds per
month.
This Reference SUN019 Kinetic GMT Diver is available
with a steel bracelet or with a silicone strap, priced at $695.
J.T.
The signature TM801 caliber
The Classis
The Legacy
Thomas Mercer Makes
Baselworld Debut
The British marine-chronometer
maker made its maiden voyage
to the fair this year.
ritish-based Thomas Mercer may be the

biggest name in precision timekeeping
youve never heard of. Between 1858 and
1984, the company produced one-third
of all marine chronometers made more
than 30,000 chronometers in all, in 150
different styles. In 1912, chronometer
No. 8306, winner of the First Prize at the
Greenwich Trials, was granted the honor
of being requested by the Royal Greenwich Observatory on behalf of the Admiralty. The company made the chronometer that accompanied the 1915 voyage of
Sir Ernest Shackleton. Today, that piece
is on display at the National Maritime
Museum of Greenwich. When John Harrisons famous clocks were restored
between 1920 and 1930, Thomas Mercer
made replacement parts for H1 and H3.
In 1923, Thomas Mercer won the Group
Prize at the Neuchtel Observatory
86
Chronometer International Trials. At the

1950 Kew Trials, chronometer No. 8256
broke the competitions record.
By the 1980s, GPS technology had
overtaken mechanical chronometers,
and in 1984, Thomas Mercer closed
its doors. Following a 25-year hiatus,
the brand was re-launched, and
2014 marked its first appearance at
Baselworld.
The companys signature caliber is
known as the TM801. The construction
closely follows the brands original
movements, though with a few improvements. The key-wound, eight-day caliber
incorporates a chain fusee and a spring
detent escapement with helical spring.
The brand says it is the only company in
the world making this escapement. One
innovation is the so-called ovalizing
balance. An Invar bar that is unaffected
by temperature changes forces the balance into an oval shape. The company
says that this, coupled with an uncut rim,
makes centrifugal errors practically disappear. The movement runs in 17 jewels
at 14,400 vph.
The movement is as beautiful as it is
accurate, and it appears in two marine
chronometer models. The smaller-cased
version is known as the Legacy and
the larger-cased as the Classis. Each
allows the chronometer to be locked in
either the dial-up or the movement-up
position. Both models feature beautiful
wood cases. The Classis models tall case
has 12 sides, each of which presents key
information about one of the 12 most
significant ocean voyages in history.
Thomas Mercer makes only about 15
regular production pieces per year,
including 12 Legacy models, priced at
105,000 pounds, and three Classis models, priced at 260,000 pounds. Each
Classis requires about 1,500 hours to
complete. The company also produces a
small number of bespoke pieces each
year. Its CEO, Alessandro Quintavalle,
hinted at possible future products,
including table chronometers, mantel
clocks and pocketwatches.
MIKE DISHER
BASELWORLD 2014
The New Watches
Marvin
Gucci
THIS YEAR Gucci introduced the Handmaster collection of automatic watches
with rectangular cases and black dials.
There is a small seconds subdial at 9
oclock and a power-reserve display at 5
oclock. An angled date window sits in
the top right corner of the dial. The
Handmaster is powered by the Sowind
Manufactures
GP3300
movement
(GP stands for Girard-Perregaux),
which the brand also used in last years
Gucci Dive. (Gucci and Sowind, which is
the parent company of Girard-Perregaux,
are both owned by the Kering Group,
known until recently as PPR.) The watch
has a 46-hour power reserve. The inner
rectangle on the dial bears Guccis signature diamond pattern. The stainless-steel
case measures 32.5 mm across and 33
mm from top to bottom. Through the
exhibition caseback you can see a rotor
decorated with the same diamond pattern
as the dial. The watch is water resistant to
50 meters. It comes on a black crocodile
strap. The Handmaster is being produced
in a 50-piece limited edition. It costs
$8,600. A rose-gold version is also available for $18,400 in a limited edition of 25
pieces.
88
THE MARVIN brand added a new

dive watch the Bathyscaphe Diver
to its Malton collection. The cushionshaped case, made of stainless steel, is
43 mm across, and the screw-in
crown has a clip-down crown protector. Eight screws secure the caseback.
The watchs most distinctive feature is
the diving adjustment wheel beside
the top left lug. This wheel, which is
bright red, turns the internal bezel to
set dive times. The bezel has 120
notches. The Diver is water resistant
to 200 meters. It is powered by a
Sellita SW200 automatic movement,
which has a 38-hour power reserve.
The Diver comes with both a rubber
strap and a calfskin-lined Teflon fab-
ric strap matching the dials accent

color: red, green, gray, yellow or blue.
The Diver is available with a PVDtreated case, and there is also a threelink-bracelet version of the watch.
Price: $1,720.
Milus
AMONG MILUSS offerings at Baselworld was a new version of the Tirion
TriRetrograde with rose-gold case
and carbon-fiber bezel and dial. The
Tirion TriRetrograde is an automatic
watch with hours, minutes and date.
Its most interesting feature is the three
retrograde displays grouped tightly at
the center of the dial. Each counts off
20 seconds. As each hand completes
its arc, it snaps back and the next

hand begins to count. This function is
made possible by an adapted ETA
2892-A2 H8 caliber. The retrograde
module was made by Agenhors JeanMarc Wiederrecht, a master of retrograde displays. The case is 45 mm in
diameter. The date is displayed at 6
oclock, and the date ring is visible
around the dial. Price: $37,000.
Shinola
THE YEAR-OLD SHINOLA brand
brought out its first chronographs at
Baselworld as part of its Runwell collection. The chronographs use the
Argonite 5021 and 5030 movements,
Swiss quartz calibers by Ronda that
are assembled in Shinolas downtown
Detroit factory. The 5021 chronographs have a traditional two-subdial
layout with date window at 6 oclock.
The 5030 version places the date at 4
oclock and has a third subdial for
chronograph hours at 6 oclock. Runwell chronographs come in two sizes,
with diameters of 41 mm and 47 mm.
There are more than 10 color options
for the dial. Steel bracelets and leather
or rubber straps are available, as well
as a NATO-strap design. Cases come
in stainless steel or stainless steel with
PVD treatment. Runwell chronographs are priced from $750 to $975.
Luminox
A COMPANY that made its name on
watches designed for Navy SEALs,
Luminox has now turned to developing watches for commercial space
flight. The Space Expedition Corp.
(SXC) partnered with Luminox to
develop the new SXC Steel GMT
5120, a quartz GMT watch in stainless steel. The watchs GMT hand is
mounted at the center of the dial; the
bezel features 24-hour gradations to
correspond to this second-time-zone
hand. A date window is at 3 oclock.
All the watchs hands have tritium gas
tubes that glow in the dark. The
watch comes in black with red or blue
accents on the dial and strap. Several
more versions are available in lightweight carbon-reinforced polycarbonate. Price: $795.
Maurice
Lacroix
SILICON TAKES center stage in

Maurice Lacroixs Masterpiece Gravity
watch: the watchs escape wheel,
escape wheel pinion, pallet lever, pallet
lever staff and balance staff are all
made of it. Some of these components
are visible in the bottom left section of
the dial. Silicons advantages are that it
is three times lighter than steel, so less
energy is required to move it, and it
requires no lubrication. It is, however,
brittle; the balance oscillates at the
slow pace of 18,000 vph so there
will be less stress on the silicon
components.
The case is made of steel and is 43
mm in diameter; there is also a PVDcoated steel model. The crystal is made
of sapphire and domed so that it magnifies the visible components, making
them appear to sit high within the case.
The hour-and-minutes dial is also
domed and is surrounded by a clous de
Paris pattern. Price: $13,900.
BASELWORLD 2014
The New Watches
Movado
88 Rue
du Rhone
IN HONOR of this years World Cup in
Brazil, 88 Rue du Rhone brought out a
watch called the Rio. This chronograph
has a 45-mm stainless-steel case with a
five-link bracelet. It is powered by a Ronda
quartz caliber. On the royal blue dial, displays are accented with the colors of
Brazils flag. The 30-minute counter at 9
oclock and the 10-hour counter at 3
oclock both have green hands and yellow and green markers. Overlapping
with the running-seconds display at 6
oclock is a two-digit big date display.
The central chronograph seconds hand is
yellow and has the brands signature
eight-shaped counterweight. A tachymeter scale runs around the edge of the dial.
The hour and minutes hands have a luminous coating. The Rio is water resistant
to 50 meters. One hundred pieces will be
available in the U.S. market. Price: $950.
90
Chanel
THIS YEAR CHANEL added to the
J12 Chromatic line a womens watch
in a new material: the brands patented
beige gold, an alloy of rose gold
formulated so that it doesnt tarnish
as much as standard rose-gold alloys.
Beige gold is combined with titanium
ceramic on the 38-mm case. The J12
Chromatic Beige Gold is powered by
an automatic movement with a 42hour power reserve. The watch has a
dark gray dial with a guilloch pattern
under its beige-gold hour indexes, and
a brushed pattern at the center. Luminous material is applied to the hour,
minutes and seconds hands. There is a
date window between 4 and 5
oclock. The rotating bezel, along
with the screw-down crown, is also
made of beige gold. The caseback and
triple-folding clasp are in steel. The
J12 Chromatic Beige Gold is water
resistant to 200 meters. Price:
$10,000.
A NEW QUARTZ chronograph with a

mesh bracelet has been added to
Movados Circa collection, which
debuted in 2012. Circa recalls vintage
Movado design from the 1940s, with
clear Arabic numerals at 12 oclock,
silver-colored dauphine hands for the
hour and minutes, and angular, coneshaped hour markers. The chronograph has a matte black dial with a
tachymeter scale on its perimeter.
Subdials show 30 elapsed minutes
and 1/10s of chronograph seconds;
the running-seconds display is at 2
oclock. A date window sits between
4 and 5 oclock. The 42-mm case is in
stainless steel with a black PVD treatment. The black bracelet is made of
polished, PVD-treated stainless steel.
It has a push-button deployant clasp.
The Circa chrono is water resistant to
30 meters and has a Swiss movement.
Price: $1,495.
Zannetti
RICCARDO Zannettis specialty is elaborately engraved and enameled dials, and
his large watches provide an excellent canvas for his craftsmanship. This year the
Zannetti brand added to its Professional
Diver collection with new marine-themed
designs. Among them is the Skeleton Piranha, which has a dial made of legal mam-
Linde
Werdelin
LINDE WERDELINS SpidoLite was
designed as a sports watch (especially for
skiing) that was lightweight but hardy.
This year the brand has taken the idea
further: the SpidoSpeed Green is more
extensively skeletonized, in both case and
movement, than previous watches in the
collection. It has a forged-carbon outer
case, measuring 44 mm by 46 mm. It is

15 mm thick. Its inner case, crown and
chronograph pushers are made of DLCcoated titanium. The LW06 chronograph
movement is skeletonized, with rosegold-treated components and blued
screws. An LW pattern is visible on the
rotor, and the exhibition caseback is
treated with DLC and has a satin finish.
The strap is made of textured calfskin
and has a titanium buckle. Like all Linde
Werdelin watches, it can be attached to
the brands ski instrument or dive computer (which are sold separately). The
watch comes in a numbered edition of 99
pieces and costs $25,200.
Alexander
Shorokhoff
THE MOST EYE-CATCHING feature of
the Glocker from Alexander Shorokhoff
is the eight sectors on the dial, each in a
different shade of mother-of-pearl. Beginning with the darkest hue just before 6
oclock and gradually shifting to brighter
colors until after 9 oclock, these iridescent sectors are intended to represent the
way the sky lightens progressively in the
moth ivory, with a hand-engraved image of

a piranha in multicolored champlev
enamel. The watch has a 51.3-mm steel
case that is 16 mm thick. Its unidirectional
rotating bezel is also made of steel and has
a black aluminum ring. The Skeleton Piranha has a nonreflective sapphire crystal
and Super-LumiNova on its three hands.
Inside is an ETA 2824 automatic movement. The watch comes on a black rubber
and leather strap. It is water resistant to
550 meters. Price: $5,680.
morning. The Glocker has a modified

Swiss AS.1475 caliber by A. Schild. This
hand-wound movement runs in 18 jewels
at a frequency of 18,000 vph. It has a
power reserve of 40 hours. The case is
made of stainless steel and is 43.5 mm in
diameter. Its sapphire crystal is nonreflective. There are two crowns on the right
side of the case: one to set the time, and
one for the black and white alarm hand.
The Glocker is water resistant to 50
meters and has a calf-leather strap. Price:
$2,850.
BASELWORLD 2014
The New Watches
Bulova
Carl F. Bucherer
FOCUSING ON WOMENS watches this
year, Carl F. Bucherer presented a highly
bejeweled piece for its Pathos collection,
the Pathos Diva Joaillerie. Its white-gold
case has 370 diamonds on it, while the
white-gold bracelet has 404 diamonds.
All told, they come to a total carat weight
of 12. The dial combines white gold with
mother-of-pearl and has sloping, stylized,

white-gold Roman numerals at 3 and 9
oclock. The dial has 96 additional diamonds. The watch is 34 mm in diameter
and 9.45 mm thick. The Diva Joaillerie
has a CFB 1851 quartz movement. It is
water resistant to 30 meters. Price:
$192,000.
Badollet
THIS NEW AUTOMATIC chronograph from Bulova is part of the companys Swiss-made Accu-Swiss line. It
belongs to the Murren collection,
which features styles inspired by mid20th-century design. Murren watches
have what Bulova calls marquis
bracelets and domed dials. The model
shown here, made of steel and fitted
with a sapphire crystal, is 41 mm in
diameter and 15 mm thick. Its powered by a Sellita SW500 and is water
resistant to 30 meters. The bracelet has
a two-button deployant clasp. Price:
$2,450.
92
THE BAMBOO WATCHES from

Badollet get their name from their
openworked dials, which are inspired
by the airiness of bamboo scaffolding.
The new Crystalball Bamboo has a
44-mm case. The movement, Caliber
BAD5600, is manually wound and
runs in 19 jewels at a frequency of
21,600 vph. It has a 120-hour power
reserve. The watch has a rose-gold
case, crown and bezel. The middle
part of the case is polished black ceramic; the dial is made of onyx.
The front and back sapphire crystals are nonreflective. At 6 oclock
is the flying tourbillon, above
which you can see the grid-like
skeletonized structure of the
movement. The watch comes on an

alligator strap with a gold folding
clasp. It costs $280,000.
Schaumburg
THE GERMAN WATCH company
Schaumburg has added this new model to
its Aquamatic collection of divers watches.
Its called the Aquamatic 4 Carbon AGrade, and it has a carbon-fiber dial and
Super-LumiNova on the hour indexes
and the three hands. The case is made of
stainless steel and is 45 mm in diameter
and 14.8 mm thick. The engraved bezel
has a luminous marker at 12 oclock,
composed of a mixture of Super-LumiNova and ceramic. At 3 oclock there is a
date display. The watch has an SW 20A
movement, based on a Sellita automatic.
The Aquamatic 4 is water resistant to
500 meters. Price: $1,900, or $2,050 for
a version with PVD treatment.
Dior
THIS YEAR, Dior adds a chronograph to its Chiffre Rouge collection.
The Chiffre Rouge A02 is a COSCcertified automatic chronograph in an
angular case of brushed stainless steel.
The case is distinguished by its uneven
lugs, guilloch-engraved crown and
the red reset pusher at 4 oclock. The
watchs dial has a black galvanic
treatment with luminous markings on
the hour and minutes hands. Three
subdials provide the running seconds,
chronograph hours and chronograph
minutes. A red-lettered date aperture
is found between 4 and 5 oclock. The
A02s movement is an ETA 2894,
which has a frequency of 28,800 vph
and a 42-hour power reserve. Underneath the black-tinted sapphire caseback, a rotor is visible with a Dior
Homme engraving. The watch
comes on a black alligator strap and is
water resistant to 50 meters. Price:
$6,550.
Deep
Blue
DIVE-WATCH SPECIALIST Deep Blue
has brought out a new watch with a highly
illuminated dial. The Daynight Recon T100 gets its name from the many tubes of
tritium gas that adorn the dial. There are
61 tubes that mark the minutes and hours
in yellow, green, and orange. The hour,
minutes and seconds hands also have tubes.

Additionally, the bezel has a luminous tritium marker at 12 oclock. The Daynight
Recon T-100 has a stainless-steel case with
a 45-mm diameter; it is 51 mm lug to lug
and 16.5 mm thick. The unidirectional
rotating bezel, which has a ceramic inlay,
has Super-LumiNova on its markers. The
watch has a nonreflective sapphire crystal
and an exhibition caseback. A date window is at 6 oclock. Inside is an automatic
ETA 2824-2 movement. The Daynight
Recon T-100 is water resistant to 500
meters. It comes on a steel bracelet with a
divers safety clasp. Price: $1,199.
BASELWORLD 2014
The New Watches
Babin Begins the
Bulgari
Makeover
Bulgari unveils the thinnest

tourbillon watch ever.
t Baselworld, Jean-Christophe Babin had

been in his new post as CEO of LVMHs
Bulgari for only nine months just a
short time, as he put it in an interview
with WatchTime at the show. Somehow
though, one expected Babin, the former
CEO of TAG Heuer and one of the Swiss
watch industrys most high-powered,
high-profile executives, to make a splash
at the show.
He did. Bulgaris headliner watch on
the mens side (it also makes loads of
womens watches) was the Octo Finissimo
Tourbillon ($132,000). Its 1.95 mmthick movement makes this flying tourbillon simply the thinnest on the market
no others even come close, Bulgari
boasts in a press release, and the
thinnest ever made. The Finissimo tourbillon caliber is made entirely in house.
The watchs 40-mm platinum case is just
5.0 mm high. Previously, the Octo was a
single model within the Bulgari collection. It contained a movement supplied
by Vaucher. Babin has elevated Octo into
a new family of mens watches with manufacture movements meant to showcase
94
Bulgaris Octo Finissimo

Tourbillon watch, right,
is just 5 mm high.
The Octo Finissimo
watch, lower right, is also
5 mm high.
the vertical integration of Manufacture

Bulgari, which employs 350 people at
various plants in Switzerland.
The new Octo collection, named after
its eight-sided case, is one of what Babin
calls the four pillars of Bulgaris product lineup. The others are the BulgariBulgari collection of watches for men and
women, and two womens collections:
Serpenti and the brand-new Lucea, which
Babin calls a major launch for the brand.
On these four pillars, Babin plans to
reposition Bulgari in the top 10 of the
Swiss luxury watch brands, he says.
Bulgari, of course, is much more than
watches. Its core product is jewelry. It
also has accessories and even a line of
hotels and resorts. In 2013, LVMH
Chairman Bernard Arnaud tapped Babin,
who had headed LVMHs TAG Heuer
since 2000, to run the biggest brand in
the groups watch and jewelry division.
LVMH acquired Bulgari in 2011, doubling the size of its watch and jewelry
division overnight.
For the first two or three months I
was diving deep into the brand and its
Perrelet
Bulgaris new Octo Velocissimo

chronograph watch
roots, Babin told WatchTime. Those

roots are in Rome, where Sotirio Bulgari
founded the firm in 1884. There Babin
found the source of Bulgaris design
codes, which he described as bold, disruptive, architectural. Rome is big,
magnificent, timeless, he says. The history of Rome is full of art, full of architecture. Everything in Rome is larger than
life.
Babin also boned up on the company
by learning from Bulgari family members
who ran the firm for years: Paolo and
Nicola Bulgari, former chairman and vice
chairman of the firm, respectively, and
Francesco Trapani, whom Babin succeeded
Bulgari CEO Jean-Christophe Babin
as CEO. (Trapani is now a member of the

LVMH board of directors; Paolo Bulgari
is an advisor to the board.) In addition,
Babin says with a smile, I gave some
input on watches.
You see that input in the new Octo
watches unveiled at Baselworld. The
Octo series contains two new in-house
movements: the ultra-thin, hand-wound
Finissimo and the automatic Solotempo.
The Finissimo movement marks
Bulgaris entrance into the world of ultrathin complication watches. A companion
piece, the Octo Finissimo watch, also
uses the Finissimo caliber; this version is
2.23 mm thick. It features a subsidiary
seconds dial between the 7 and 8 oclock
position. As with the Tourbillon model,
the platinum case is 40 mm in diameter
and just 5.0 mm thick ($26,200).
The new Octo Solotempo watch is 38
mm in diameter (versus 41.5 mm previously). The Solotempo features a rotor
mounted on ball bearings. This movement will serve as Bulgaris new base caliber in the future.
New, too, in the Octo family is a
chronograph watch featuring the Velocissimo caliber, a high-frequency (36,000
vph) movement equipped with a column
wheel, a silicon escapement, and automatic winding. The Octo Velocissimo
watch sells for $9,350. (This is the only
movement in the Octo line not made in
house.)
As for Bulgaris Grald Genta and
Daniel Roth names, Babin has eliminated
them. Bulgari acquired the two brands in
2000. Later, under Trapani, they were
reduced from full-fledged brands to collections within Bulgari. Now they are
defunct. With Genta and Roth, we
acquired technical know-how, Babin
says. But we didnt acquire a business.
Sales were small. The farther along we
go, they mean less and less. We have
abandoned the brands. As long as I am
president, they wont be used. For
Babin, its all about building Bulgari.
THE TURBINE PILOT is a new collection for Perrelet, combining the

brands characteristic dial-side rotating turbine with the large and legible
features of an instrument watch. The
Turbine Pilot has a 48-mm stainlesssteel case. Its outer bezel works in
conjunction with an inner rotating
bezel to serve as a circular slide rule
for in-flight calculations. The crown
at 3 oclock turns the inner bezel in
both directions. The watch has an
automatic P-331 movement. The time
is set via an integrated crown at 9
oclock. Hands and hour markers
have luminous coating. The hour
markers are on a sapphire crystal
above the black titanium turbine
blades, giving a layered effect. The
Turbine Pilot is water resistant to 50
meters and has nonreflective sapphire
crystals on both sides. It comes on a
black rubber strap or a calfskin strap
with gray stitching. The price of the
model shown here is $6,550; a version with a black PVD coating is
$7,200.
J.T.
BASELWORLD 2014
The New Watches
Shinola Expands Its
Operations
New this year: a leather factory
and a line of watches for Filson.
hinola, the Detroit-based watch, bike and

leather-goods producer, arrived at its second Baselworld fair loaded with news of
new initiatives. Shinola Chairman Tom
Kartsotis and President Jacques Panis
briefed WatchTime on recent developments at the firm. Among the highlights:
Watch production at its Detroit factory is expected to reach 150,000 units in
2014, up from 55,000 in 2013.
The company continues to expand.
It employed 260 people as of April, with
136 of them involved in manufacturing
watches, bicycles and leather goods in
Detroit.
A highlight of its 2014 collection is
a chronograph watch in the Runwell collection called the Black Blizzard. The
watch has a titanium case and a U.S.made rubber bracelet, and will retail for
$1,500. (Thats the top of the Shinola
line; the opening price point is $475.) The
name, Kartsotis explained, comes from
the dust storms called black blizzards
that plagued the American Midwest in
the 1920s and 1930s.
Shinola will produce a second brand
of watches in Detroit this year under the
Filson label. Filson is a producer of outdoor clothing, luggage and bags, founded
in 1897 in Seattle. It produces 90 percent
of its merchandise in the United States. It
is a sister brand to Shinola, acquired by
Shinolas parent company, Bedrock Manufacturing, in 2012. The watches will be
made in Detroit using Shinolas Argonite
quartz movements, and sold in Filson and
96
Shinola stores and on their websites.

They will also be available in department
stores. Four watch collections are
planned: Mackinaw Field, with a compass made in Detroit; a GMT watch
called Journeyman; Bush Pilot, a worldtime watch; and RiverMaster, which has
a rotating bezel. Prices are expected to
range between $550 and $950.
Shinola will begin producing leather
watch straps in house this year. In May, it
opened a leather factory in 12,000 square
feet of space in the College of Creative
Studies in Detroit, which also houses
Shinolas watch factory. Partnering with
Shinola on the project is Braloba, a Swiss,
family-owned firm that makes leather
goods. Another partner is Galli SpA, an
Italian firm that makes leather-goods
machines. Galli will design and produce a
line of custom-built machines for Shinolas
factory. The factory will employ 40 people at the outset and produce a portion of
Shinolas leather watch straps. Eventually
Shinola aims to produce small leather
goods and handbags as well as straps,
Kartsotis says.
J.T.
Eberhard
THIS YEAR EBERHARD added new
designs to its Chrono 4 collection.
The Chrono 4s dial lines up a great
deal of information in its four subdials. From left to right, it has a 30minute chronograph counter, a 12hour chronograph counter, a 24-hour
display and a running seconds subdial. A date aperture is at 12 oclock.
Around the edge of the dial is a
tachymeter scale. On the new version
with steel case and black dial, the
skeletonized hands have luminous
coating. The rims of the subdials are
silver in color and snailed. The 24hour display, like the central chronograph seconds hand, is red. The
Chrono 4 has a modified ETA 2894-2
automatic movement, and it runs in
53 jewels. The caseback is fixed with
eight screws; the watch is water resistant to 50 meters. On a rubber strap as
pictured here, it costs $6,500.
Tissot
Jaquet
Droz
JAQUET DROZ HAS added new
models to its Grande Seconde SW
line, which rethinks the distinctive
overlapping-dials design of the
Grande Seconde for a sportier
look. The new Grande Seconde
SW Steel comes in two diameter
sizes: 41 mm and 45 mm. The dial
has vertical Geneva waves interrupted by a cosmetic crosspiece.
As with all the Grande Seconde
watches, the dial for the hours and
minutes, with its Roman numeral
indexes, is smaller than the seconds dial. The bezel is ridged
around its outer edge. The Grande
Seconde SW Steel is available in
light gray, dark gray or blue. Each
has an alligator-leather strap to
match the dial. Through its exhibition caseback, you can see the
2663A-S automatic movement,
which has two barrels for a power
reserve of 68 hours. The watch
costs $14,700.
TISSOTS LE LOCLE collection is named for the town in

the Swiss Jura where the brand is
headquartered. The latest in the
line, the Tissot Le Locle Small Second, contains Tissots all-new automatic Caliber 2825, which allows the
placement of subdials anywhere on the
dial. Both the small seconds subdial and the
date are located in unconventional spots, at the 5
oclock and 9 oclock positions, respectively. The case is steel and has
a see-through caseback. The watch comes on a leather strap ($825) or
a steel bracelet ($875). A two-tone version on a bracelet ($995) and
rose-gold PVD model on a strap ($950) are also available.
JeanRichard
JEANRICHARD HAS added this watch
to its Terrascope collection. The case is
made from polished and vertically satinfinished stainless steel. Its diameter is 44
mm and its thickness is 12.6 mm. The
watch has an engraved screw-down
caseback and is water resistant to 100
meters. Inside is an automatic JR60
movement, which runs in 26 jewels

and has a 38-hour power reserve.
On the stamped white dial, the three
rhodium-coated hands have luminous material. The suspended hour
markers also have luminous coating.
A date window is at 3 oclock. Price:
$3,050.
WT_0414_TAGvsTUDOR_04_Proof 05.06.14 16:55 Seite 98
TWO
TIMERS
One sporty chrono, the TAG Heuer Carrera
Calibre 1887 Jack Heuer Edition, meets
another, the Tudor Heritage Chrono Blue,
in our comparative test.
By AlexAnder Krupp
photos By niK schlzel
COMPARATIVE TEST
TAG Heuer vs. Tudor
100 WatchTime August 2014
SPECS
TAGHEUERCARRERACALIBRE1887
JACKHEUEREDITION
Manufacturer: TAGHeuerSA,
RueLouis-JosephChevrolet6a,
CH-2300LaChaux-de-Fonds,Switzerland
Reference number: CAR2C11.FC6327
Functions: Hours,minutes,small
seconds,date;chronographwith
countersfor30elapsedminutesand
12elapsedhours
Movement: TAGHeuerCalibre1887,
automatic;28,800vph,39jewels,stopsecondsfunction,rapid-resetfunctionfor
thedatedisplay,neadjustmentvia
eccentricscrew,Incablocshock
absorption,columnwheel,rocking-pinion
coupling,Glucydurbalance,power
reserve=50hours,diameter=29.3mm,
height=7.1mm
hese two chronographs have their roots in the 70s. TAG

Heuers Carrera Calibre 1887 Jack Heuer Edition, which
debuted in April 2013, uses a 1970s-inspired design in which
the chronograph pushers sit at the top of the case. Tudors
Heritage Chrono Blue is an updated version of the distinctive
Montecarlo chronograph, launched in 1973. Like the Montecarlo, which was produced for only a short time, the Heritage
Chrono Blue has a bi-compax design and a rotating bezel that
can indicate a second time zone. We examined these sporty
instrument watches to see what happens when they go head
to head.
The design of the TAG Heuer watch is sometimes called a
bullhead: the crown is at 12 oclock and the chronograph
pushers are on either side of it, suggesting (mildly) a bulls horns.
This arrangement, which has its origins in stopwatches, began
to migrate to wristwatches in the 70s. It prevents the crown
from pressing uncomfortably against the back of the wearers
wrist. Furthermore, the chronograph can be conveniently started,
stopped and reset with the index finger.
To keep the pushers free of obstruction, the TAG Heuers
lugs slope down more severely at the top of the case than at the
bottom. Still, the watch fits easily under a shirt cuff. We found
little to detract from its wearing comfort, although the wellcrafted folding clasp is a bit bulky. The closure has a locking
mechanism that enables you to alter the strap length, so the
45-mm case wont slip back and forth on your wrist.
The case is complex. The bezel is stainless steel with a glossyfinished coating of titanium carbide. As the name suggests, titanium carbide is a composite of titanium and carbon. The substance has a hardness of 4,000 Vickers. For comparisons sake:
ordinary steel of the sort used for most watch cases has a hardness between 200 and 240 Vickers. The outer, uncoated stainless-steel portion of the case is elaborately milled, with different
surfaces that are polished, satin-finished, or sandblasted. The
movement is contained in a section of the case made of titanium
coated with a matte-finished layer of titanium carbide.
TAG Heuer did not cut any corners. The sapphire crystal,
which is domed and has diagonal edges, is expensive to pro-
Case: Stainlesssteelandtitanium,
partlycoatedwithtitaniumcarbide,
domedsapphirecrystalabovedialis
nonreectiveonbothsides,sapphire
windowincasebacksetinsideametal
ringheldinplacebyfourscrews,water
resistantto100m
Strap and clasp: Fullyremborded
alligator-leatherstrapwithmattecoating;
securedfoldingclaspmadeoftitanium
coatedwithtitaniumcarbide
Rate results:
Deviationsinsecondsper24hours
(Withchronographswitchedoff/on)
Dialup
+5/+1
Dialdown
+6/+3
Crownup
+5/+3
Crowndown
-3/-6
Crownleft
-1/-1
Crownright
+4/-4
Greatestdeviationofrate
Averagedeviation
9/9
+2.7/-0.7
Averageamplitude:
Flatpositions
318/269
Hangingpositions
291/244
Dimensions: Diameter=45mm,
height=16mm,weight=121g
Price: $7,800
duce. The caseback is also of high quality. Unscrewing four big

black screws makes it possible to lift off the titanium-carbidecoated stainless-steel ring that holds the small pressure-fit, darkly
tinted sapphire window and its steel frame. A bit of force and
the appropriate tool are needed to remove the window itself.
The inner surface of the crystal is printed with the signature and
family crest of Jack Heuer, who headed the brand from 1964 to
1982 and served as its honorary president from 2001 until the
end of 2013.
COMPARATIVE TEST
TAG Heuer vs. Tudor
SPECS
TUDORHERITAGECHRONOBLUE
If this case offers anything to complain about, its a susceptibility to moisture. The water resistance is listed as 100 meters.
However, our tester the watchmaker Martin Thom from
Depperich Jewelers in Reutlingen, Germany believes that a
chronograph like this without threading on its buttons isnt
really safe under water. Even if the wearer doesnt take this
watch into the water, the additional openings in the case and the
suction that accompanies the operation of the buttons increase
the risk of surface moisture penetrating the cases interior.
THE CASE OF THE Tudor Heritage Chrono Blue is simpler
than that of the TAG, but it does have many high-quality features. For starters, its pushers and crown are screwed, which
contributes toward making the case water resistant to 150
meters a claim that Thom confirmed in our test. Furthermore,
the edges, chamfers, knurling, polishes and satin-finishing are
very precisely crafted perhaps too precisely, considering the
sharp lower edges of the cases middle piece. Last but not least,
the time-zone bezel clicks into position without play or wiggle.
It is graduated in 48 increments: this number enables you to set
the bezel to time zones that differ from adjacent zones by half
an hour or 15 minutes, as is the situation, for example, in
Venezuela, India, Nepal, and parts of Australia.
While the screw-in crown and pushers improve security,
they make it more difficult to set and wind the watch. In addition, the bezel isnt as easy to operate as you would expect.
Although its easy to grasp, it has a downward slope, so your
fingers are liable to collide with the lugs, buttons and crown
when you try to turn it. Finally, the knurling on the outer edge
of the bezel has a pesky tendency to snag shirt cuffs and sweater
sleeves.
The TAG Heuer watch is powered by column-wheel Calibre
1887, which debuted in 2010. TAG Heuer developed this movement using Seikos automatic Caliber 6S78 as a base and manufactures it in Switzerland at facilities that the company built
expressly for this purpose. TAG Heuer altered the 6S78 by
enlarging its diameter, lessening its height, and completely
replacing its escapement. Changes were also made to the shapes
of the plate, bridges and rotor.
The company chose this base movement not only because it
offers high-quality chronograph control via a column wheel,
but also because its architecture includes a rocking pinion. This
type of chronograph coupling was invented by the brands
founder, Edouard Heuer, who patented it in 1887 whence the
calibers name. Seikos movement also appealed to TAG because
of its efficient click-winding system, which Seiko calls the
magic lever.
The movement boasts a variety of decorative patterns and
the screws heads are finely polished. Although a few flat parts
have beveled edges, such details are invisible through the tinted
sapphire caseback.
Tudor, on the other hand, doesnt use its own movement.
Instead, the Heritage Chrono Blue has an ETA 2892 caliber
with chronograph module 2054 from Dubois Dpraz. The base
movement is ETAs high-quality Top version, which has an
Manufacturer: RolexSA,RueFranoisDussaud35,CH-1211Geneva26,
Switzerland
Reference number: 70330B
seconds,date;chronographwithcounter
for45elapsedminutes
Movement: ETA2892TopwithDubois
Dprazmodule2054,automatic;28,800
vph,55jewels,stop-secondsfunction,
rapid-resetfunctionforthedatedisplay,
Etachronindexwitheccentricscrew
forneadjustment,Incablocshock
absorption,camswitching,horizontal
coupling,Glucydurbalance,power
reserve=42hours,diameter=30mm,
height=6.9mm
Case: Stainlesssteel,bidirectional
rotatingbezelwithaluminumscale,at
sapphirecrystal,screwedcrownand
buttons,fullythreadedscrew-inback
madeofstainlesssteel,waterresistant
to150m
Strap and clasp: Textilestrapwith
prongedbuckle,additionalstainless-steel
braceletwithsecuredfoldingclasp
Rate results:
Dialup
+4/+3
Dialdown
+8/+7
Crownup
+3/+2
Crowndown
+8/+8
Crownleft
+9/+8
Crownright
+1/0
Averagedeviation
8/8
+5.5/+4.7
Averageamplitude:
Flatpositions
300/289
Hangingpositions
270/253
height=13.4mm,weight=97g
Price: $4,425
Anachron balance spring and a Glucydur balance that is impervious to temperature variation. Decorative patterns cover all
visible surfaces except those directly under the balance.
The module, which is installed on the dial side of the movement, allows for a 45-minute counter like the one on the old
Montecarlo (although the minutes counter and the running seconds subdial, which were at 3 and 9 oclock, respectively, on the
Montecarlo, have traded places on the new watch). A classical
horizontal coupling switches the chronograph on and off. A
cam switch controls the chronographs functions. This construction is assembled from stamped parts and is less costly than
the milled column wheel in the TAG Heuer, but it requires
greater force to operate the chronograph buttons.
TAG Heuer relies on

its own Calibre
1887, while Tudor
uses a Top quality
ETA movement with
a Dubois Dpraz
module.
SCORES
TAGHEUERCARRERACALIBRE1887
JACKHEUEREDITION
Strap and clasp (max. 10 points):
Thealligator-leatherstrapwithmatte
coatingissewnwiththelabor-intensive,
fullyrembordedmethodandissecured
byahigh-qualityclaspwithasliding
mechanismtoadjustthestrapslength.9
Operation (5): Thecrowniseasily
graspedandthebuttonsrunsmoothly,
butyourngertipbumpsagainstthe
strapwhenyoupressthebuttons.
4
Case (10): Interestingconstructionand
goodcraftsmanship
9
Design (15): Thecase,strapandclasp
aresportierthanthedial.
12
Legibility (5): Reectionsandlow
contrastresultinpoorlegibilityforthe
ordinarytimeandtheelapsedtime.
3
Wearing comfort (10): Despiteitsthick
caseandstableclasp,thiswatchtswell
aroundthewristthankstothesliding
adjustmentofthestrap.
9
Movement (20): TAGHeueralteredand
industrializedtheSeiko6S78base
movementtomakeCalibre1887,whichis
wellconstructedandvisuallyappealing. 16
Rate results (10): Verylowaverage
deviationwiththechronographswitched
onandoff,butsignicantdifferences
amongtheseveralpositions
7
Overall value (15): Thequalityand
performancearegood,butthepriceis
high,asisthesurchargeabovetheprice
forthebasicmodelswithCalibre1887. 11
TOTAL:
80 POINTS
COMPARATIVE TEST
TAG Heuer vs. Tudor
SCORES
TUDORHERITAGECHRONOBLUE
BOTH WATCHES run well, but not exceptionally well. We

were particularly unimpressed by the large deviation among the
individual positions: 9 seconds per day for the TAG Heuer and
8 seconds per day for the Tudor. The average daily deviations
are better: Calibre 1887 kept to a nearly perfect +2.7 seconds,
while Tudors ETA movement ran a little bit faster at +5.5 seconds. TAG Heuer accordingly achieved a better average value,
but it earned this through minus values in a few positions;
Tudors values were positive in all positions. On the wrist, each
watch gained an average of 4 seconds per day.
Like the fine adjustment, the watches legibility was often
poor. On the TAG Heuer, the polished hands and indexes sometimes caused strong glare and inadequate contrast. The legibility problems on the Tudors dial are confined to the chronograph. There are too many intervening strokes and each one is
too long, so its hard to decipher the elapsed seconds to say
nothing of trying to read the little elapsed-minutes counter. The
good news is that the time is perfectly legible by day or by night.
If someone is equally interested in both watches, price could
be the deciding factor. In return for $4,425, Tudor gives you a
handsome and thoroughly well-crafted chronograph with a
large-series movement and a standard module. TAG Heuers
watch is more expensive at $7,800, but gives you a very highquality timepiece with an unconventional case and the brands
own caliber.

Thesturdytextilestrapattachestoa
detailedandwell-craftedprongedbuckle.
Thesteelbraceletwithsecurefolding
claspthatcomeswiththewatchisless
eye-catchingthanthetextilestrap,but
itsqualityisbetter.
9
Operation (5): Thescrewedpushersand
therotatingbezelsdownwardslope
detractfromuser-friendliness.
3
Case (10): Verytidycraftsmanship,butwe
foundsharpedgesontheunderside
8
Design (15): Thedesignwasappealing
backinthe1970sandremainssotoday. 14
Legibility (5): Dayornight,theordinary
timeiseasiertoreadthanthe
chronographselapsedtime.
4
Wearing comfort (10): Thiswatchis
pleasanttowearonstraporbracelet,
butthegroovedbezelrubsagainstyour
shirtcuff.
8
Movement (20): ATopquality,serially
manufacturedcaliberisjoinedwitha
chronographmodulefromDubois
Dprazandenhancedwithnumerous
embellishments.
13
Rate results (10): Theaveragerateis
somewhatbetterthanthedeviations
amongthevariouspositions.
Overall value (15): Thepriceis

appropriateforthehighqualityitbuys. 12
TOTAL:
78 POINTS
6/11/14
12:41 PM
Page 1
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Chicago September 5, 2014
Register online today at www.watchtime.com/ibg
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Purchase your ticket by July 1, 2014 with code EARLYBIRD

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T H E W O R L D O F F I N E W AT C H E S
WT_0414_Cartier_05_Proof 05.06.14 17:05 Seite 106
Is Cartiers new dive watch,

the Calibre Diver, more
than just a pretty face?
Lets find out.
By Mike Disher
Photos By roBert Atkinson
ust about now, some of you are

thinking A Cartier dive watch?
Great, Ill wear it with my neoprene
tux. If something like that crossed your
mind, read on, and be educated.
The International Organization for
Standards, or ISO, is well known to
watch enthusiasts. Just about everyone
knows the magic numbers -4 to +6. They
are part of ISO 3159 governing mechanical wrist chronometers. ISO 1413 sets
standards for shock-resistant watches,
and ISO 764 covers antimagnetic watches.
Theres also an ISO standard for dive
watches: number 6425. We took an indepth look at it in our last issue. (See A
The Diver is perhaps

the best-looking
member of the
Calibre de Cartier
family.
TEST
Cartier Calibre Diver
SPECS
CARTIERCALIBREDIVER
Manufacturer: CartierSA,Chemindes
Alisiers10,CH-2300,LaChaux-de-Fonds,
Switzerland
Reference number: W7100056
Functions: Hours,minutes,subsidiary
seconds,date
CARTIER
Movement: Automaticmanufacture
Caliber1904MC,186components,
decoratedwithGenevawaves,28,800
vph,27jewels,twinbarrels,Glucydur
balance,atNivaroxhairspring,Incabloc
shockabsorber,Etachronneregulation,
diameter=25.6mm,thickness=4mm,
powerreserve=48hours
Case: Stainlesssteelwithdomedsapphire
crystal,solidcasebacksecuredwitheight
screws,waterresistantto300m,
complieswithISO6425
Strap and clasp: Blackrubberstrapwith
stainless-steelpinbuckle
The luminous
material is not
blindingly
bright, but it
lasts more than
18 hours.
Rate results:
(Fullywound/after24hours)
Dialup
Dialdown
Crownup
Crowndown
also treated with Super-LumiNova,

though the oversize XII is the sole radiant Roman. On the bezel, only the inverted
triangle glows, so the other bezel markings are not visible in the dark. In our test,
the Super-LumiNova glowed brightly for
about one hour. After two hours, the
luminous output had declined to the
point that it was visible only to eyes
adjusted to the dark. Though the luminous output dropped off quickly, luminous elements remained legible for more
than 18 hours. If you check your watch in
the middle of the night, you will be able
to read it.
The strap is soft rubber, and at 120
mm by 74 mm, it will fit over a wetsuit
only if your wrists are small. The strap is
23.5 mm wide at the lugs, limiting
precise-fitting aftermarket options. The
pin buckle is solid and attractive. It has
the same fine brushed finish as the case,
with the Cartier name engraved on the
frame. The upper, outer edge of the frame
displays a fine, polished bevel.
Behind the solid caseback is Cartiers

in-house automatic Caliber 1904 MC,
which debuted in 2010 in the original
Calibre de Cartier. This movement was
designed by Cartiers resident horological
mastermind, Carole Forestier-Kasapi,
and the architecture emphasizes chronometric stability. The twin, series-coupled
barrels do not increase the power reserve,
which is 48 hours. Rather, they smooth
out the energy flow as the mainsprings
wind down. Cartier claims that this
design also improves movement durability,
as the barrels generate less friction-inducing force. The movement runs in 27 jewels at 4 Hz, or 28,800 vph.
A bidirectional rotor mounted on
ceramic bearings winds the mainsprings.
The bearings need no lubrication and
increase longevity. Cartier uses a
V-shaped pawl in place of a standard
reverser to increase winding efficiency
and improve shock resistance.
The rotor and automatic winding
bridge are finished with Geneva stripes,
+9.4/+10.8
+9.9/+7.9
+4.9/+7.5
+7.3/+12.4
Crownleft
+4.8/+9.1
Crownright
+6.4/+7.8
Averagedeviation
5.1/4.9
+7.1/+9.2
Averageamplitude:
Flatpositions
304/276
Hangingpositions
272/252
Variations: Steelonbracelet($8,900);
rosegoldandsteelonstrap($10,600);
rosegoldandsteelonbracelet
($13,000);rosegoldonstrap($28,100)
Price: $8,200
Timing tests performed by Wempe
Jewelers, New York City
while the mainplate wears perlage, or circular graining. The smooth Glucydur balance wheel, flat Nivarox balance spring,
and Etachron fine adjustment system regulate the release of energy.
Given Cartiers goal for the twin
mainspring barrels, we tested the Calibre
Diver on the Witschi machine at full wind
and again after 24 hours, or halfway
through the power reserve. Our test
watch appears to have been regulated to
run consistently fast. Fully wound, the
Calibre Diver averaged +7.1 seconds per
day in six positions, with each position in
positive territory. After 24 hours, that figure increased to +9.2 seconds. The greatest deviation of rate at full wind was 5.1
seconds (+4.8 seconds crown left and
+9.9 seconds dial down). After 24 hours,

that figure improved to 4.9 seconds (+7.5
seconds crown up, +12.4 seconds crown
down). The Calibre Diver performed
much better in real life, running +2 seconds over 24 hours on the wrist. The
complete timing results appear in the
Specs box.
Most of our tests end at this point, but
as noted, our test watch meets the ISO6425 requirements, and because many
dive watches do not, well touch on what
that means.
ISO 6425 sets out physical requirements for dive watches, such as water
resistance to a given depth, and it defines
specific tests to ensure the requirements
are met. The physical requirements for
The rubber
strap is long,
strong and
comfortable.
mechanical, analog dive watches include

a device to pre-select a period of time
of up to 60 minutes (usually a rotating
bezel), legibility in the dark, an indication that the watch is running (usually
satisfied with a luminous seconds hand),
salt-water resistance, resistance to
external forces, reliability under water,
resistance to magnetism (ISO 764) and
shocks (ISO 1413), and resistance to
thermal shocks (rapid changes in water
temperature).
Among the tests spelled out in ISO
6425, the most significant is the requirement that every watch must be tested to
125 percent of its rated depth. This is the
so-called overpressure test. This test
every watch requirement is much more
demanding than that set out in ISO 2281,
the standard for watches that are merely
water resistant. That standard requires
testing production samples, not every
watch. If your watch meets ISO 6425,
you can be sure it was tested to 125 percent of its rated depth before leaving the
factory. If it does not meet ISO 6425, you
may be wearing an untested watch.
We asked Cartier to outline its
Calibre Diver testing procedures. It provided a summary of some of the tests it
performs:
Water resistance at rated depth: 100
percent of watches are individually tested
for water resistance at 375 meters, or 125
percent of the rated depth.
The following tests are applied to a
statistically significant sample of production watches:
Pressure change test: The watch is submerged to 375 meters in one minute. It
remains at that depth for two hours. It is
then quickly brought up to a depth of
three meters, where it remains for one
hour. This is repeated twice to test resistance to both overpressure and sudden
changes in pressure. Following this procedure, the watch must pass a condensation test to ensure that no water has penetrated the case.
Sand in the bezel test: The watch is
submerged in a solution of salt water
and sand. The bezel is then turned at a
rate of two complete turns per second
for 1.5 hours (a total of 10,800 turns).
Bezel function must remain unaffected.
TEST
CARTIER
Cartier Calibre Diver
The Calibre Diver is

powered by Cartiers
automatic Caliber
1904 MC with twin
mainspring barrels.
SCORES
CARTIER
CARTIERCALIBREDIVER
Therubberstrapandpinbucklearewell
made,andtheypasstheISO6425
strengthtest.
8
Operation (5): Thepolished,seven-sided
crownisslightlyslippery.Theunidirectionalbezelispreciseandwellmade. 4
Case (10): Thein-housecaseisslimfora
divewatchanditpassestheISO6425
tests.
9
Design (15): TheCalibredeCartierlook
translateswelltotheworldofthedeep. 13
Legibility (5): Allindicationsareclear.
Theluminouscoatingcouldbeabitmore
powerful.
4
Wearing comfort (10): Thesoftrubber
strapiscomfortableandthewatchsits
wellonthewrist.
8
Movement (20): Anautomatic
manufacture caliberwithtwinbarrels
16
Rate results (10): Ourtestwatchran

consistentlyfast,andthegreatest
deviationwasonlyaverage.Timekeeping
onthewristwasgood.
7
Overall value (15): Adistinctive
diverthatisclearlyCartierwith
ISO6425cred
TOTAL:
12
81 POINTS
Temperature change test: The watch is

placed in water at 40 degrees C, or about
104 degrees F, for 10 minutes, then moved
to water at 5 degrees C, or about 41
degrees F, for 10 minutes, then back to 40
degrees C. Following this procedure, the
watch must pass a condensation test to
ensure that no water has penetrated the case.
Magnetic field test: The watch is subjected to a magnetic field at 4,800 A/m
for four cycles of 1 minute each. Following the exposure, the watch must keep
time to +/-30 seconds per day, and amplitude must be within 20 degrees, com-
pared with figures obtained before

the test.
Pressure on the case, strap and crown:
The watch is exposed to simulated daily
shocks including accidental drops, sports
practice, and sharp movements. The
strap is subjected to a force of 200 newtons, or about 45 pounds, for 1 minute.
The watch is then submerged to 375
meters, where it stays for 1 minute. Finally,
while at 375 meters, a force of five newtons, or about one pound, is exerted
directly on the top, or dial side, of the
crown for 10 minutes. Following this
The small Divers

Watch inscription
on the caseback can
appear only on
watches that satisfy
the ISO 6425
standards.
procedure, the watch must pass a condensation test to ensure that no water has
penetrated the case.
In addition to the tests Cartier identified, ISO 6425 also requires these tests:
Salt water resistance: The watch spends
24 hours in a salt solution that closely
matches sea water, after which it is examined for oxidation. The watch is then disassembled to make sure all components
function properly.
Underwater reliability: The watch spends
50 hours under water, after which it is examined for correct function.
Low light visibility: Indications must

be visible at 25 cm, or about 10 inches, in
the dark.
ISO 6425 provides that a watch that
passes all of the tests may be marked with
the word Divers followed by the depth
rating, for example Divers 300m (or
similar terms in other languages). Watches
that have not passed the ISO 6425 test
may not be marked Divers. Note that
the manufacturer is not required to put
any specific mark or language on the
watch to indicate that it satisfies ISO
6425.
The Calibre Divers looks received

uniformly positive comments while we
had it, and the movement is a solid manufacture piece. At $8,200 in steel on a
strap and $8,900 on a bracelet, the price
is right there with other top-drawer dive
watches. As a new model, the Cartier
cant match the provenance other brands
offer, but meeting the ISO 6425 requirements goes a long way toward establishing the Calibre Divers bona fides. If
youre looking for a tough dive watch
that will stand out in a crowd, Cartiers
Calibre Diver may be for you.
WT_0414_Three Large Pilots Watches_06_Proof 05.06.14 17:14 Seite 114
COMPARATIVE REVIEW
Three Pilots Watches
By Martina richter
Photos By ZuckerfaBrik fotodesign
These pilots watches from Bell & Ross,

IWC, and Zenith have humongous cases,
like those of the earliest watches for
flyers. We take a close look at the
distinctive features of each.
he three pilots watches in our review

have one conspicuous feature in common: an extremely large case. IWCs Big
Pilots Watch Top Gun Miramar and
Zeniths Pilot Montre dAronef Type 20
GMT have 48-mm-diameter cases. The
case of the Bell & Ross BR 03-51 GMT, a
square, is 42 mm across. Both the Bell &
Ross and the Zenith have a GMT function, which means the time in a second
time zone is shown on the dial independently from the main time display. The
watches from IWC and Zenith share two
common traits: each has an in-house
movement and both are associated with
important chapters in pilots-watch history.
We collaborated with helicopter pilot
Mirza Kaufmann, who flies a rescue

chopper for Germanys ADAC automobile club, the equivalent of our AAA, for
our review.
While Bell & Ross began in Paris in
1992 and is much younger than IWC or
Zenith, the company has been making
watches for use aboard aircraft from its
earliest days. Its goal has been to create
watches that meet Swiss watchmaking
standards and can withstand extreme
stress. Its watches are worn by professional divers, astronauts, mining personnel and other specialists as well as by
pilots. The companys Aviation line of
watches, which includes the model we
reviewed, recalls the look of vintage
cockpit instruments.
Schaffhausen-based IWC has been
making pilots watches since 1936, when
the company introduced a special watch
for aviators. It had a black dial and large,
bold, luminous numerals and hands. The
company followed this in 1940 with the
Big Pilots Watch 52 T. S. C. It had a 55mm-diameter case and a weight of 183
grams and remains the largest wristwatch
ever made by IWC. A so-called observation watch, it had a central sweepseconds hand, which could be stopped
for to-the-second time setting and for
synchronizing with other pilots watches.
COMPARATIVE REVIEW

The Bell & Ross
BR 03-51 recalls cockpit
instruments. Its secondtime-zone display is at
6 oclock.
IWCs Big Pilots Watch has

observation-watch styling: a ring
of hour indexes closer to the
center of the dial, apart from the
minutes and seconds.
Zeniths Pilot Montre
dAronef Type 20 is a
direct descendant of
Zeniths first pilots watch.
IWCs new Big Pilots Watch, introduced in 2002, was inspired by its historical predecessor, but rather than housing
a pocketwatch movement like its forebear, the new model was equipped with
modern manufacture Caliber 5000,
which has automatic winding and a
seven-day power reserve. The Top Gun
edition, which has been part of IWCs
family of pilots watches since 2007,
combines a 1940s instrument-style look
with modern technology and contemporary materials. Five new Top Gun models
were introduced in 2012; the Miramar in
our review is part of this group. It pays
homage to the California city that was
home to the first U.S. Navy Fighter
Weapons School, from 1969 to 1996,
known as the Top Gun flight-training
program.
Zenith was one of the first watch

brands to build observation watches and
cockpit instruments for pilots. The original Zenith Type 20 onboard watch
(montre daronef in French) appeared
on the instrument panels of many planes
starting in 1938, including the Caudron
Simoun C.635, which the French Air
Force used for surveillance. Type 20
was used to summarize the specific
requirements of watches worn by professional pilots. Among other specs, these
watches had to be able to withstand sudden temperature fluctuations, strong
magnetic fields, atmospheric disturbances and the bone-jarring vibrations of
airplane engines. Legibility requirements
were met with large black dials, oversized
Arabic numerals, and hands coated with
plenty of white luminous material. Type
20 watches were also equipped with special, easy-to-grasp crowns that pilots
could pull out and turn without having to
remove their gloves.
THE NEW PILOT Montre dAronef
Type 20 in our review is the successor to
Zeniths first pilots watch. It is equipped
with a GMT function (GMT, for Greenwich Mean Time, is now known as Coordinated Universal Time and remains the
standard time system used by pilots). The
GMT function of yesteryear, which displayed Greenwich Mean Time alongside
the primary time, has evolved into a variable indicator for whichever second time
zone the user requires. Helicopter pilot
Kaufmann confirmed that pilots appreciate the functionality of a second-timezone display. On the Zenith watchs dial,
a long central hand with a large red

arrowhead at its end shows the hour in a
second time zone. This hand can be easily
repositioned by means of an elongated
push-piece at 10 oclock. It advances in
one-hour increments each time the pushpiece is pressed. The hand completes one
circuit of the dial every 24 hours.
If you arent using the Zeniths GMT
hand to show the time in a second zone,
you can simply let it serve as a 24-hour
hand. The 24 hours are shown on a finely
calibrated railroad-style scale along the
dials edge, but this scale is marked so
lightly that its hard to read with the
naked eye. But Zeniths indicator is clearer
than the GMT function on Bell & Rosss
watch, which only has a 12-hour cycle.
This is a drawback because a second time
zone really only makes sense if its calibrated for 24 hours. When it isnt, its
hard to tell whether a given hour in the
second time zone is a.m. or p.m.
Furthermore, the indicator for the
second zone on the Bell & Ross isnt as
easy to bring into position as it is on the
Zenith, so if you choose the Bell & Ross,
youll want to follow these instructions
carefully. Pull out the crown to its third
position (the hand-setting position) and
turn the crown counterclockwise. This
will cause the hands for the primary time
to move clockwise along with the hands
for the second zones time, which turn on
the subdial at 6 oclock. Now that youve
correctly set the hands for the second
zones time, turn the crown clockwise to
set the hands for the primary time. The
hour hand for the second zone will
remain motionless while the minutes
hand for this zone moves backwards in
synchrony with the hands for the primary
time. This procedure may take a bit of
getting used to, especially since when you
set the hands for the second time zone
you must also pay attention to the big
date display: this indicator automatically
advances when the primary time zones
hour hand passes midnight and wont
THE IWC AND ZENITH BOTH HAVE

IN-HOUSE MOVEMENTS; THE BELL & ROSSS
IS FROM SOPROD AND TECHNOTIME.
turn the other way. Fortunately, if you

inadvertently move the date forward
while setting the hands for the primary
zone and the second zone, you can quickly
correct your mistake using the rapid-reset
function for the date display, which
is activated when the crown is in its
middle position.
BELL & ROSSS movement is based on
Soprods relatively new Caliber A10 and
enhanced with the TT651.24H module
from Technotime. Caliber A10 has been
on the market since 2010 and is regarded
as an alternative to the ETA 2892-A2, for
which Technotime originally built the
module. The TT651.24H can be used to
power either a second time zone or, as its
name suggests, a 24-hour disk with a

day-night indicator. The module includes
a double-disk big date display. If the
watch is running, the date display
advances almost exactly at midnight,
although its hard to see this change
because the wide hands for the primary
time zone hide almost the entire window
of the big date display.
Bell & Rosss watch is the only one in
our comparative test that doesnt have a
manufacture caliber, but its rate results
were good. Measured on our electronic
timing machine, the BR 03-51 GMT
gained an average of 5.9 seconds per day
when fully wound and an average of 1.8
seconds per day after running for 24
hours. On the wrist, this watch showed a
Each caseback bears a

reference to the watchs
pilots-watch heritage.
COMPARATIVE REVIEW
respectable average gain of 2.25 seconds

per day.
Zeniths watch contains an enhanced
version of the brands in-house Elite caliber, introduced in 1994. In its modified
version, with a second time zone, it has
since 2012 been designated as number
693. It provides nearly all of the features
of the basic caliber: a bidirectionally
winding and ball-borne rotor, a 50-hour
power reserve, a subdial for the running
seconds, and a stop-seconds function for
to-the-second time setting. The family of
Elite calibers isnt as diverse as that of the
El Primero, Zeniths famous automatic
chronograph movement, but it nonetheless includes earlier versions with a second
time zone (numbers 672 and 682). The
difference in version 693 is the absence of
a date display, which we think was left out
as an historical allusion to the Pilot
Montre dAronef Type 20, but which
some contemporary pilots might regard
as a deficiency.
This calibers small diameter (25.6
mm) requires inserting a wide retaining
ring between it and the rim of the case.
Circular graining embellishes this ring,
but only partially conceals the 22.4-mm
difference between the diameters of the
Elite caliber and the steel case. However,
the movement and the retaining ring are
hidden behind the opaque caseback, so
their mismatched sizes are seldom seen.
Eight screws secure the solid-steel caseback, which is decorated with Zeniths
shield-shaped emblem and an engraving
of the airplane flown by Louis Blriot, the
pioneering French aviator who, in July
1909, became the first person to fly across
the English Channel. (He himself built the
aircraft that he flew on the crossing.) The
phrases Zenith Flying Instruments and
Montre dAronef Type 20 arc around
the embellished central disk.
ON THE WRIST, THE BELL & ROSS GAINED

A RESPECTABLE 2.25 SEC./DAY; THE IWC
AND ZENITH RAN ALMOST PERFECTLY.
The Elite caliber ran with good and
only slightly divergent rate results: it
gained 4.1 seconds during the first day
after it had been fully wound and its daily
loss was 0.8 seconds after running for 24
hours. The timekeeping was excellent on
the wrist, where it scarcely deviated from
perfect results during a two-week test.
IWCs manufacture Caliber 51111 is
a member of its caliber family 5000,
which debuted in 2000. This is one of the
largest automatic movements made by
IWC and was designed especially for the
Big Pilots Watch. With a stately diameter
of 37.8 mm, it does not need a broad
retaining ring and can be screwed directly
into the large case of the Top Gun Miramar. Caliber 5000 has undergone several
changes during the past 14 years. Its frequency was increased from 18,000 to
21,600 vph, which necessitated a complete reworking of the gear train. The
revisions began with the barrel, to preserve the full 168 hours, or seven days, of
its power reserve. This movement could
run even longer, but its stopped after seven
days so it doesnt suffer the effects of
reduced power as the mainspring
unwinds completely.
IWCs Caliber 51111 delivered very
well-balanced performance: it gained 2.5
seconds during the first day after it had
been fully wound and 2.1 seconds on the
second day. The watch performed excellently during our two-week-long wearing
test: its deviation from perfect timekeeping never exceeded 1 full second per day.
This movements patented self-winding
ratchet system recently underwent
improvement. To reduce wear, the new
system uses ceramic ratchets to pull a specially hardened stainless-steel wheel. All
IWC automatic winding systems will
gradually be brought up to this technical
standard.
The interesting architecture of Caliber
51111 is hidden behind an opaque, fully
threaded, screw-in back. A Top Gun

plaque in the middle of the caseback
failed to survive the aerobatic maneuvers
of our ADAC test pilot. When the stunts
were done, the plaque had separated
from the caseback and the choppers captain held the loose component in his
hand. Despite the mishap, he liked this
pilots watch.
IWCS TOP GUN Miramar blends new
features with the companys pilotswatch heritage: modern materials and
the observation-watch styling of the
1940s, camouflage colors and high standards of legibility, and a roughhewn
appearance with the price tag of a luxury
watch. The glossy gray zirconium oxide
case looks luxurious. Its ceramic material
is baked at 2,000 degrees C and then
processed with diamond-tipped tools.
This material is antimagnetic, acid
resistant, lightweight and kind to the
skin. The matte gray titanium used for
the back and for the distinctively large
crown has the same properties. (IWC
and Porsche Design pioneered the use of
titanium in watch construction in the
1970s.)
The crowns conical shape and deep
ridges contribute to the Top Gun Miramars ease of operation. The crown can
be screwed down or pulled out easily for
rapid resetting of the date display and for
setting the hands. The gray of the dial
matches the crown. The numerals, indexes
and hands are beige. This is an unconventional color combination, but it works
well and complements the sturdy green
fabric strap, which is secured by a
pronged buckle.
Observation-watch styling inspired
the IWCs dial, which has an outer
wreath of strokes for the minutes and seconds and a red inner circle with red Arabic numerals for the hours. Aviators in
the 1930s and 40s had to be able to read
SPECS
IWC
BIGPILOTSWATCHTOPGUNMIRAMAR
Manufacturer: IWCSchaffhausen,
Baumgartenstrasse15,CH-8201
Schaffhausen,Switzerland
SPECS
BELL&ROSS
BR03-51GMT
Reference number: IW501902
Manufacturer: Bell&Ross,
8rueCopernic,75116,Paris,France
Reference number: BR03-51-S-88888
Functions: Hours,minutes,central
seconds,bigdate,secondtimezone
Movement: SoprodTT651,basedon
SoprodA10,automatic,28,800vph,
gold-platedbrassbalance,Incablocshock
absorption,25jewels,diameter=
25.6mm,height=5.1mm,40-hour
powerreserve
Functions: Hours,minutes,central
seconds,date,power-reservedisplay
Movement: IWC51111,basedonIWC
5000,automatic,21,600vph,Glucydur
balance,Incablocshockabsorption,
42jewels,diameter=37.8mm,height=
7.5mm,168-hour(7days)powerreserve
Case: Ceramic,titaniumback,curved
sapphirecrystalwithnonreectivecoating
onbothsides,waterresistantto60m
Strap and clasp: Textilestrapwith
prongedbuckle
Case: PVD-coatedstainlesssteel,sapphire
crystalwithnonreectivecoating,water
resistantto100m
Rate results:
Strap and clasp: RubberstrapwithPVDcoatedstainless-steelprongedbuckle
Dialup
Rate results:
Dialup
+4.9/+3.9
Dialdown
+4.1/+1.2
Crownup
+6.7/-0.9
Crowndown
+5.3/+3.0
Crownleft
+8.7/+1.6
Averagedeviation
4.6/4.8
+5.9/+1.8
Averageamplitude:
Flatpositions
273/248
Hangingpositions
240/211
Variations: Titaniumcasewithcarbon
berdial,syntheticstrapwithfolding
clasp($5,500)
Price: $4,900
+7.9/+7.1
Dialdown
-0.1/+5.8
Crownup
+0.5/-3.9
Crowndown
+0.6/+5.1
Crownleft
+3.5/-3.6
8.0/11.0
Averagedeviation
+2.5/+2.1
Averageamplitude:
Flatpositions
338/280
Hangingpositions
287/249
Dimensions: Diameter=48.2mm,
Variations: Titaniumcasewithblack
dial,strapwithfoldingclasp
Price: $18,200
SPECS
ZENITH
PILOTMONTREDARONEFTYPE20GMT
Manufacturer: ZenithInternationalSA,
RuedesBillodes34-36,CH-2400,
LeLocle,Switzerland
Reference number:
03.2430.693/21.C723
seconds,secondtimezone
Movement: Elite693,automatic,28,800vph,
Glucydurbalance,Kifshockabsorption,
26jewels,diameter=25.6mm,height=
3.9mm,50-hourpowerreserve
Case: Stainlesssteel,curvedsapphire
crystalwithnonreectivecoatingon
bothsides,waterresistantto100m
Strap and clasp: Calfskinstrapwith
prongedbuckle
Rate results:
Dialup
+9.3/+4.5
Dialdown
+5.2/+2.5
Crownup
+1.6/-9.3
Crowndown
+1.0/+3.9
Crownleft
+3.4/-5.7
8.3/13.8
Averagedeviation
+4.1/-0.8
Averageamplitude:
Flatpositions
324/270
Hangingpositions
285/238
Variations: RedBaroneditionwithDLCcoatedtitaniumcase,limitedto500
pieces($8,600)
Price: $7,900
COMPARATIVE REVIEW
the minutes and seconds with great accuracy for navigational purposes, so many
pilots watches showed them on a separate ring so they would be easier to see.
The dial has a power-reserve display at 3
oclock and a relatively large date indicator at 6. This date display is the only element that departs from the militarily
inspired camouflage look: it has a whiteon-black color scheme and is highly legible. This watch remains easy to read in
the dark. Luminous material glows on all
the hands except the seconds hand; it also
coats the indexes at 3, 6 and 9, as well as
the orientation triangle above the 12.
By comparison, the dial of Zeniths
Pilot Montre dAronef Type 20 looks
like a fireworks display of luminous
numerals and hands. Twelve vintage-style
Arabic numerals are made entirely from
white Super-LumiNova, contrasting
sharply with the matte black dial and rising above it. They and the ruthenium
hands for the hours and minutes all glow
bright green in the dark. The little white
seconds hand above its subdial at 9
oclock and the steel hand with a red tip
for the second time zone are readily visible by day, but cannot be seen at night.
The Pilot Montre dAronef Type 20
inherited its dial design from Zeniths
first pilots watch. It also shares that

watchs 48-mm-diameter case and its
large, fluted, onion-shaped crown, which
can be easily screwed shut or pulled out
and turned to wind the mainspring or set
the hands. A plaque below the time-zone
button on the left side of the case bears
the letters HB, the country code for
Swiss airline registration. The letters are
followed by a numeral specifying each
watchs serial number. Two angular and
relatively narrow but well-made stirrups
are screwed to the satin-finished middle
piece of the case. These hold the sturdylooking brown calfskin strap, which has
contrasting stitching that gives it a highquality and authentic look. A robust
pronged buckle bearing Zeniths star
emblem secures the strap.
The case of the Bell & Ross watch is
PVD-coated stainless steel. The movement is inserted into the case from above
and the caliber is screwed to the back.
The bezel assembly is fastened to the case
by four screws, one at each corner
of the square. The slits in the heads of
these screws are not positioned uniformly, a detail that might annoy some
connoisseurs.
The crown is comparatively small but
its large knurls make it easy to operate. It
cannot be screwed shut. The dial is tidy

and easy to read with just enough stylistic pep to keep things interesting. The
primary hour hand is outlined in orange,
the same color as the hour hand for the
second time zone. The two windows of
the big date display are positioned under
the 12. Only the dates digits, the 9 and
the 12 are shown as large Arabic numerals on the matte black dial. The remaining hours are marked by index strokes.
When the lights go out, the 9, the 12, the
hour hand, the minutes hand and the
indexes all glow in a handsome sky-blue
color (a hue that could be an allusion to
the fact that this watch is destined to take
off into the wild blue yonder).
We admit that these three watches
cannot be compared directly because their
features and prices differ. Despite its manufacture movement, its well-balanced rate
results and its high-tech material, IWCs
watch seems overpriced. Zeniths model
offers an appealing combination of functionality, simple operation, a manufacture
movement, stable rate results and an
acceptable price. Bell & Rosss watch has
an unbeatable price, but it doesnt have a
manufacture movement and its secondtime-zone indicator shows 12, not 24,
hours and is difficult to set.
All three watches from left to right,

the IWC, Zenith and Bell & Ross
are easy to read at night.
WT_0414_Montblanc_04_Proof 05.06.14 17:26 Seite 122
WRITE
ON
TIME
Montblanc Montre launched the Meisterstck
Heritage Collection to mark the 90th birthday of
its well-known Meisterstck pen. We take a close
look at the collections perpetual calendar model.
By Martina richter
ontblanc introduced the Meisterstck

fountain pen 90 years ago. With a deep
black finish, gold rings and clip, a cap
inlaid with the Montblanc star emblem,
and a handcrafted nib, the pen became a
famous status symbol.
Montblanc brought out its first collection of watches in 1997 and named them
after its celebrated pen (meisterstck is
German for masterpiece). To commemorate the pens 90th birthday, Montblanc
has introduced a family of four new
watches, the Meisterstck Heritage Collection. Among them is the Meisterstck
Heritage Perpetual Calendar, which contains an SW 300-1 automatic base movement from Sellita enhanced with a Dubois
Dpraz module.
The Perpetual Calendars case is made

of 5N rose gold. It is 39 mm in diameter
and 10.3 mm thick and has a slender, highly
polished bezel. Its straight, vertical midsection is decorated with a fine satin finish.
Short lugs attach a black, lightly padded
alligator strap that has a rose-gold
pronged buckle. The watch weighs just
79.5 grams. It fits snugly and comfortably
on the wrist.
The highly polished caseback has four
screws, also highly polished, and a sapphire window. Inscribed on the caseback
are the level of water resistance, 3 bar, or
30 meters; and the case material,
Au750, or 18k gold. The Montblanc
name between the lugs at 12 oclock is
quite prominent; the engraved Meister-
CLOSE-UP
Montblanc Meisterstck Heritage Perpetual Calendar
stck Heritage at 6 oclock seems less significant in comparison, especially in light

of previous Meisterstck models, which
had a rather flashy Meisterstck
engraving along the left side of the case.
The case of the Meisterstck Heritage
series looks much more refined.
Several inset buttons on both sides of
the case are used to adjust the calendar
mechanism. One button near 4 oclock
advances the moon-phase display, while
another near 8 oclock is used for the day
of the week, and the one between 10 and
11 oclock is used for the month display. A
button at 10 oclock advances the date and
day simultaneously. If these indications are
not in sync, you must first set the date and
then the day using the button at 8 oclock.
The crown, of a new design, shows
the Montblanc star in elegant polished
relief on a matte sandblasted background instead of as a white inlay, as on

other Montblanc watches. The crown is
rather small but can still be readily
grasped and turned thanks to prominent
grooves around its edge. It is also easy to
use your fingernail to pull the crown to
the time-setting position; however, you
may pass over another crown position
without noticing. The crown hangs
slightly below the mid-section of the
case, which also makes operation simpler. There is a hack mechanism for the
time-setting position, despite the lack of
a seconds hand. (Montblanc had this
indication replaced by Dubois Dpraz.)
We noticed that the stem turned out of
round during winding and setting,
although this had no negative effect during our review.
THE DIAL HAS a silver-white background

with a delicate sunburst pattern that varies
in appearance depending on the angle and
intensity of the light. The perpetual calendar is displayed on several subdials. The
day and date are printed in black on inset
rings: the day at 9 oclock is shown as
English abbreviations and the date at 3
oclock alternates as Arabic numerals for
the odd-numbered days and as black dots
for the even-numbered ones. By contrast,
the abbreviations for the months at 12
oclock and the display for the moonphase at 6 oclock are printed directly on
the dial. A small arrow set on a lower level
within the month ring turns to indicate the
leap year. The first three years are printed
in black with the leap year shown as a red
4. Divisions between the years are simple
black lines.
The button at 4 oclock resets the moon-phase display; buttons on the other side of the case are used to adjust the day, date and month.
The base movement, a Sellita SW300-1, can be seen through the caseback.
A blue moon-phase disk with a golden

moon and stars turns beneath a doublearc opening in the dial at 6 oclock. The
other calendar indicators feature blued
steel hands while gold-plated, faceted
dauphine hands point to the time. The
hours are marked with faceted applied
indexes, gold plated and streamlined, in
three different lengths. The markers at 3, 6
and 9 oclock are shortened to leave room
for the calendar dials and the logo. Along
with the Roman numeral 12, this results in
a well-balanced circular display. Each
applied marker is firmly fastened to the
dial at two points. The minutes markers
are printed along the outer rim of the dial,
which is slightly curved to the outside to
make them more visible. The resulting
look, including the slightly curved sapphire crystal, recalls classic 1950s designs.
ONCE A PERPETUAL calendar is correctly set and running, it will always show
the correct date. Although a standard calendar will need to be reset at the end of
months shorter than 31 days, a perpetual
calendar knows how long each month
is and adjusts itself accordingly. Only in
the year 2100 will the calendar need to be
reset, assuming the watch is kept running
continuously until then (an unlikely

proposition). If (or, rather, when) the
watch stops running before 2100, you can
adjust the calendar using the inset buttons
as described above a simple process
when you use a correction stylus. The
moon-phase display requires more attention: it will need to be reset after 2.5 years.
Montblanc has named its Sellita/
Dubois Dpraz movement Caliber
MB29.15. The Sellita 300, an alternative
to the ETA 2892, has been on the market
for just five years, so modifications to it
are still rather rare. The calendar module
has been in existence somewhat longer
and has been modified for Montblanc.
Changes were made in the month display
and, in this version, the leap-year cycle.
Montblancs month display shows one
entire year. The four-year leap-year indicator advances at the first of each month.
Unfortunately, on our timepiece, an error
was made when this disk was set. The
leap-year arrow did not point to the correct spot on the four-year circle.
Calendar functions are always driven
by the hour wheel. Because this wheel
makes two complete rotations each day
while the calendar advances only once in
24 hours, the calendar mechanism
requires a transmission gear. This wheel

moves a complex system of gears, levers,
springs and clicks that advance the date,
day, month and year as well as the moonphase display. The Dubois Dpraz calendar module in the perpetual calendar is a
continuously rotating type, which
means that the calendar functions (date,
day and month) are not advanced instantaneously via a large yoke (i.e., a jumping
perpetual calendar), but rather via continuously rotating wheels. The hands move
at two different speeds, first slowly and
then suddenly, and not necessarily simultaneously a real pleasure to watch.
While the transmission wheel is turning, a cam mounted on top slowly begins
advancing the lever for the calendar system. On the dial side, the movement of the
day-display hand is easiest to see since it
only has seven reference points for each of
the days on a relatively large display. The
day hand begins slowly advancing at
around 10:30 p.m. The date hand begins
to move a half hour later. Its movement is
more difficult to see because the dial
shows 31 days. The month is advanced via
the 48-hour disk. Here, too, it begins slowly
and then jumps. Except for the incorrectly
placed leap-year disk, every mechanism
CLOSE-UP
Montblanc Meisterstck Heritage Perpetual Calendar
SPECS
MONTBLANCMEISTERSTCKHERITAGE
PERPETUALCALENDAR
Manufacturer: MontblancMontreS.A.,
ChemindesTourelles,CH-2400LeLocle,
Switzerland
Reference number: 110714
Functions: Hours,minutes,perpetual
calendarwithdate,day,month,leap
year,moon-phasedisplay
Movement: MB29.15,basedonSellita
SW300-1,automatic,28,800vph,goldplatedbrassbalance,Incablocshock
absorption,25jewels,diameter=25.5
mm,height=5.2mm,42-hourpower
reserve;perpetualcalendarmoduleby
DuboisDpraz
Case: 5Nrosegold,curvedsapphirecrystal
withnonreectivecoating,sapphire
windowincaseback,waterresistantto30m
Strap and clasp: Alligatorstrapwith5N
rose-goldprongedbuckle
Rate results:
The crown has a new design: the Montblanc star emblem is not a white inlay, as on
other Montblanc watches, but polished gold against a matte background.
Dialup
Dialdown
Crownup
functioned well, regardless of whether the

calendar advanced from July 31 to August
1 or from February 28 to March 1. The
latter action takes a bit longer and begins
at around 7:00 p.m. with the date advancing from the 28th to the (non-existent)
29th and ends, like the other actions,
around 12:30 a.m. The date wheel is
advanced every 24 hours. This wheel also
has a stepped cam; a click falls over it at
the end of the month and advances the
date accordingly. The information on
whether to advance one day or several
comes from the stepped cam. A lever on
this cam determines when to start the
advance and also pushes the cam ahead.
Montblanc says that all its perpetual
calendars are subjected to 500 hours of
quality-control testing to check their
function and rate. This very first model,
a prototype, may not have undergone the
full testing process; otherwise the testers
should have detected the incorrectly
placed leap-year disk. The rate results
could also use some improvement. In its
fully wound state its rates remain steady
but after only a short period of time (six
hours) they fall off considerably, especially in the dial up and crown down
positions. One would expect similar
results when the watch is worn on the
wrist, but this could not be tested accurately due to the lack of a seconds hand.
Despite these faults, the perpetual
calendar from the new Meisterstck
Heritage collection has plenty going for it.
Its price alone is attractive, especially in
this era of super-expensive luxury watches.
And so is its styling, at once classical and
distinctive.
-0.2/-7.4
+4.3/-2.9
-5.0/-9.1
Crowndown
+1.3/-4.9
Crownleft
+1.8/-1.0
Averagedeviation
9.3/8.1
+0.4/-5.1
Averageamplitude:
Flatpositions
301/268
Hangingpositions
269/238
height=10.3mm,weight=79.5g
Variations: Stainlesssteel($12,800)
Price: $21,600
The dials of all the watches in the Meisterstck Heritage Collection have a sunburst finish,
dauphine hands and applied markers.
PPCO Placed_1754
4/9/14
8:45 AM
Page 1
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T H E W O R L D O F F I N E W AT C H E S
WT_0414_Bremont_06_Proof 05.06.14 17:41 Seite 129
Deciphering the
Bremont Codebreaker
By Mike Disher
Photos By roBert Atkinson
remont has carved out a niche for itself by

weaving bits of historical DNA, usually
British, into the fabric of selected timepieces. The EP120 and P-51 limited editions incorporated parts from famous
WWII fighters. The Victory featured fragments of oak timber and copper from
Admiral Nelsons flagship at the Battle of
Trafalgar. Our test watch, known as the
Codebreaker, incorporates three genuine
artifacts from one of the most exciting
chapters in WWII history. The Codebreaker, a limited edition of 240 pieces,
pays tribute to Bletchley Park an estate
in the English countryside that served as
the center for British code-breaking operations. (See Alan Turing and Bletchley
Park sidebar.) It was there that Alan
Turing and other luminaries designed
early computers to break the complex
codes created by the German Enigma and
Lorenz machines.
TEST
Bremont Codebreaker
SPECS
BREMONTCODEBREAKER
Manufacturer: BremontWatchCo.,
P.O.Box4741,Henley-on-Thames,
Oxfordshire,RG99BZ,U.K.
Reference: CodebreakerSS
seconds,date,chronographwith
ybackfunctionand30-minutecounter,
secondtimezone
Movement: CaliberBE-83AR(ETA7750
base),157parts,automatic,28,800vph,
39jewels,Incablocshockabsorption,
Glucydurbalance,Nivarox1balance
spring,Etachronneadjustment,42-hour
powerreserve,diameter=29.9mm,
height=7.9mm
Case: Stainlesssteel,domedsapphire
crystalwithnonreectivecoatingon
bothsides,screw-downcasebackwith
domedsapphirecrystalwithout
nonreectivecoating,lugwidth=22mm,
waterresistantto100m
Strap and clasp: Paddedblack
crocodilestrapwithmachinedstainlesssteelpinbuckle.Alsosuppliedwitha
calfskinNATO-stylestrap
Rate results:
Deviationinsecondsper24hours
Dialup
Dialdown
+6/0
+6/+2
Crownup
Crowndown
+4/-2
+5/+2
Crownleft
+2/-2
Crownright
+2/-1
4/4
Averagedeviation
+4/0
Averageamplitude:
Flatpositions
302/274
Hangingpositions
273/264
Dimensions: Diameter=42.4mm,
Variations: Rosegold(limitededitionof
50pieces,ReferenceCodebreakerRG,
$33,995)
Price: $18,500
Limitededitionof240pieces
Timing tests performed by Wempe
Jewelers, New York City
Bremont says the Codebreakers

design is inspired by classic 1940s officers watches. Its a GMT flyback chronograph with subdials located south of the
border, so you know theres something a
bit out of the ordinary under the hood.
The first thing that grabs your eye
when you look at the dial is the bright red,
arrow-shaped tip that tracks the second
time zone on a 24-hour index at the edge
of the dial. Everything else is black or
white. The continuous seconds are indicated on the register at 8 oclock, and the
30-minute chronograph totalizer appears
at 4 oclock. The slightly oversized date is
at 6 oclock. We appreciate Bremonts
decision to replace the 4 and the 8 on
the dial with small dots, avoiding digits
partially consumed by the subdials. Speaking of the subdials, they are decorated
with a subtle, raised 101010 binary-
code motif. This is the only Bletchley Park

connection visible when you look at the
watch straight on.
Daytime legibility is excellent. All of
the hands reach their respective tracks.
The white hands and the red arrow
tip provide excellent contrast against the
matte black dial. During our test, the luminous material was not extremely bright
at any point, though to eyes well adjusted
to the dark it remained visible for
18 hours.
The case and bezel are stainless steel,
though the color looks more like titanium.
We measured the case at 42.4 mm in
diameter and 17 mm thick, including the
domed, nonreflective sapphire crystal.
The lugs are a bit short, and the case is
fairly thick. As a result, the watch tends
to sit high on the wrist rather than
hugging it.
On close inspection, a 101010 binary-code motif is visible on the continuous-seconds

and minutes-counter subdials.
The case and lugs have a complex

shape. A black DLC ring with parallel
grooves circles the case band, running
behind the lugs. The lugs have a sculptural
shape unlike anything we have seen
before. The case has a fine, brushed finish, though that finish does not extend
into the space between the lugs.
The first true Bletchley Park artifact is
found on the 9 oclock side of the case.
The limited-edition number is set into the
black band, and the digits are cut from
actual punch cards that were used in the
code-breaking efforts. A small crystal
covers the number, and Bremont assures
us that the rare digits are protected
against water. Note, however, that if you
submerge the watch, you should not use
the chronograph under water.
Across the dial, the second Bletchley
Park memento is affixed to the crown. Its
a round piece of pine wood from the floor
of Hut 6 in the Bletchley Park complex.
Originally constructed as temporary
office buildings, the huts housed various
code-breaking operations. Hut 6 has
been described as the nerve center of
the Enigma decoding effort.
The crown and push-pieces are easily
accessed, thanks to the lack of crown
guards. The crown is very easy to use. In
the first setting position, a clockwise turn
adjusts the date, while counterclockwise
sets the GMT hand. The second setting
position adjusts the time, and a stopseconds mechanism makes precise setting
a breeze.
The chronograph starts with a light
push, and stops with a bit more pressure.
Both actions are smooth, and a faint yet
crisp click confirms each input. The
chronograph seconds hand starts
smoothly, but when running it exhibits a
bit of the stutter often associated with
7750-based movements, though its not
as pronounced as we have seen in other
watches with this base caliber. All hands
reset precisely to zero, and the flyback
function works precisely.
The Codebreakers 22-mm black
crocodile strap is well padded and generously long at 122/77 mm. Curved spring
bars secure it to the lugs. The milled pin
buckle is decorated with an engraved
Bremont logo. Like the space between the
The oversize
crown is set with
a piece of pine
wood from
Hut 6 at
Bletchley Park.
The limitededition number

is made from the
digits of punch
cards that were
used to break
Germanys
Enigma codes.
TEST
Bremont Codebreaker
SCORES
BREMONTCODEBREAKER
Thestandardtwo-piecestrapttedto
ourwatchisofgoodbutnotexcellent
quality,thoughthelengthisgenerous.
Somemightexpectmorethanapin
buckleonasteelwatchpricedat
$18,500,butthatislikelythemost
comfortableoption.
7
Operation (5): Thecrownandpushpiecesofferagoodfeelandprecise
functioning,thoughthechronograph
secondshandisnotentirelysmooth.
Theybackfunctionworkswell.
Astop-secondsfeaturesimplies
precisesetting.
Case (10): TheblackDLCcaseband

andcomplexlugsmakethiscaseunique.
Atthisprice,wewouldprefertosee
thenebrushednishappliedbetween
thelugs.
7
Design (15): Thedesigndeeseasy
categorization.Ithasavintagemilitary
air,butfewpiecesfromthateraoffered
thesecomplications,nottomention
subdialslocatedbelowthecenterof
thedial.
12
Legibility (5): Clear,high-contrast
displaysoffergoodlegibilityday
andnight.
A machined piece from an original Enigma rotor winds the Codebreaker.
Can you decipher the coded names?
lugs, the inner buckle surfaces are less

well finished than those visible to the
world. The Codebreaker is also delivered
with an attractive calfskin NATO strap.
When you turn the watch over, an
expansive, slightly domed display window reveals the movement, and the final
Bletchley Park artifact is front and center.
The Codebreakers rotor design is
inspired by the Bombe machine, used to
decrypt Enigma-encoded messages. The
winding rotor incorporates a machineworked part from an original Enigmamachine rotor wheel. The Codebreakers
rotor is engraved with a lightly encrypted
message. (Hint: look for two proper
nouns, one of which appears on the dial.)
The movement itself bears caliber
number BE-83AR. That is the same cal132 WatchTime August 2014
iber number borne by the movement in

Bremonts Victory timepiece, though the
movements are clearly dissimilar.
Bremont told us the calibers bear the
same number because each uses the same
ETA base, though each watch has a distinctive and bespoke complication module. The Codebreakers movement was
built to Bremonts specifications by La
Joux-Perret, and it is exclusive to
Bremont. The movement runs in 39
jewels at 28,800 vph. The single barrel
provides a 42-hour power reserve.
On close inspection, the movement is
of typical, mid-tier quality. Plated perlage
improves the aesthetics, though there are
no polished surfaces, anglage, or other
signs of fine hand finishing. In our test
watch, the tip of the rabbit ear
Wearing comfort (10): Thethickcase

andshortlugsmeanthewatchsitsabit
highonthewrist.
8
Movement (20): Atried-and-true
third-partybasemovementwitha
bespokeandexclusivecomplication
module.Thefunctionisgood,though
thenishisindustrial.
13
Rate results (10): Verygoodresults
ontheWitschiwithonlya4-second
maximumvariationinrate.Excellent
real-worldperformanceat+1second
perdayonthewrist
9
Overall value (15): Thevaluecalculation
dependsentirelyononesdesireto
ownapieceofWWIIhistoryandto
supporttheassociatedcause.We
assumethatanyonewhoconsiders
purchasingthiswatchwillvaluethe
historyhighly,andfromthatperspective,
thevalueisgood.
12
TOTAL:
76 POINTS
BREMONT WATCH CO.
BREMONT WATCH CO.
An original
Enigma
machine, used to
encode sensitive
German military
communications
The mansion at Bletchley Park. The site was chosen for its proximity to
train lines connecting Oxford, Cambridge and London.
Alan Turing and Bletchley Park

Located in the Buckinghamshire countryside about 50 miles northwest of
London, Bletchley Park is a stately
mansion that provided the setting for
one of the most exciting chapters in
WWII history. Purposely located far from
central London, the home and its
grounds served as the center for the
U.K.s wartime code-breaking activity.
The German military used machines with
names like Enigma and Lorenz to encode
communications between various armed
forces headquarters (Army, Navy, High
Command, etc.) and commanders in the
eld. Those working at Bletchley Park
were charged with cracking the codes.
Today Alan Turing is best known to
many as the father of the so-called
Turing test, an intelligence test for
computers. To history buffs, Turing is also
well known for his contributions at
Bletchley Park. Working with Gordon
Welchman, and building on the work of

Polish cryptanalysts, Turing and his team
designed the Bombe a machine used to
decode the ciphers generated by the
German Enigma machines. The British
used the code name Ultra to refer to the
intelligence generated at Bletchley Park.
As the number of people working at
Bletchley Park increased, several
prefabricated wood buildings, known as
huts, were constructed to serve as
ofces. To hide the nature of the work
that went on inside, each hut was known
by a number. Hut 6, whose pine oor was
used to make the crown of the Bremont
Codebreaker, housed efforts to solve
the German Army and Air Force Enigma
ciphers.
Efforts to crack increasingly complex
codes led teams at Bletchley Park to take
early steps along the path to modern
computing. The German High Command
used Lorenz machines to encrypt its most

sensitive orders. The Lorenz ciphers were
much more complex than those generated
by the Enigma. To break the code, a
group led by engineer Tommy Flowers
created Colossus, the rst fully
programmable, large-scale electronic
digital computer.
It has been said that the work of the
9,000 scientists, mathematicians and
others working at Bletchley Park
shortened the war by as much as two
years, saving millions of lives. Yet for
decades after the war, the British Ofcial
Secrets Act prevented Bletchley Park
employees from revealing their work, and
the facilities fell into disrepair. Today, the
Bletchley Park Trust is undertaking an
extensive restoration program, and Turing
and Flowers are considered wartime heroes
who made signicant contributions to the
birth of modern computing.
TEST
Bremont Codebreaker
appeared to have been accidently ground

or filed down slightly. This is visible in the
image on page 132.
The movement is surrounded by an
orange Bakelite spacer. Bremont says the
color and material replicate those used in
Turings Bombe machines. The Bombes
rotors had very distinctive colors red,
green, yellow and orange.
The Codebreaker performed very well
on the Witschi machine. The greatest deviation of rate was 4 seconds both with the
chronograph off and with it on. The average deviations were +4.2 seconds and 0
seconds, respectively. On the wrist, the
Codebreaker ran +1 second over 24 hours
with the chronograph off. The movement
is not COSC certified, but it ran well within COSC specs, and Bremont told us that
the same level of performance is expected

in all Codebreaker movements.
Last but not least, this is a rare instance
in which the packaging deserves special
mention. Each watch is delivered in a
handsome leather pouch. In addition to
the watch, the pouch holds two notebooks
with faux-aged covers. One is the warranty
and the other is the owners manual. Each
looks as though it was typed on a WWIIera Underwood. The pouch also holds the
leather NATO strap, two pencils, a strapchanging tool, and a Zippo lighter
embossed with the Bremont Codebreaker
name. The packaging is an original and
thoughtful addition to this Bletchley Park
tribute.
At the end of the day, your interest in
the Codebreaker, and your opinion
about whether it offers good value, will

depend almost entirely on your interest
in Bletchley Park and the events that
transpired there during the 1940s. The
uninterested are likely to view this watch
as an overpriced novelty. The interested
will view it as a chance to own a piece of
history (or three), and to support a good
cause, as Bremont is donating a portion
of the sales proceeds to support the
ongoing restoration at Bletchley Park.
These differing views on the question of
value make the Codebreaker itself some
thing of an enigma.
The leather pouch that accompanies each

Codebreaker contains a leather NATO
strap, a spring-bar tool, and a Zippo
lighter, among other items.
WT_0414_Facetime_02_Proof 05.06.14 17:48 Seite 136
FACEtime
While Maxwell
Hodge (born
March 18) sleeps
on his fathers
chest, Adam
Hodge wears a
Shinola Runwell
Chronograph.
Covering Maxwell
from the sun is a
Panerai hat.
Lisa Chau at
the Breguet
boutique in
Manhattan,
wearing a
platinum
Breguet
Heritage
Tourbillon
Friends Dan Rickwalder (left, Rolex Pepsi GMT) and Troy McHenry
(Universal Genve Aero-Compax chronograph) pose in front of the Country
Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.
While fishing in the

Florida Keys, John
Barlow wears his UTS
Adventure GMT and
his son Grant wears a
Citizen divers watch.
Ernie Eugenio wears

his Victorinox Swiss
Army Alpnach
automatic on a visit
to the Puerto Princesa
underground river in
Palawan, Philippines.
WT_0414_Facetime_02_Proof 05.06.14 17:49 Seite 137
Facetime
Galleries
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send your image to
photo@watchtime.com with
a short description identifying each person in the photo
and the watch each one is
wearing. Please give the rst
and last name of the wearer
and the brand and model of
the watch. If the photo was
taken at an event, please
specify when and where it
was held. Only clear images
in which the faces of both
watch and wearer are visible
will be considered for publication. Images must be in
JPEG format, no smaller than
1 MB. Only the best-quality
and most interesting photos
will be considered.
Members of the Central Band of the British Royal Air Force show off their watches during rehearsal at the Royal
Albert Hall in London. From left to right, Josh Hayward wears a Rolex Datejust; Adam Smith, an Omega
Speedmaster Professional; Jonathan Pippen, a Rolex Explorer II; Kim Lagos, a Rolex Milgauss; and Alexandra
Pippen, a TAG Heuer Aquaracer.
Facetime
SocialMedia
Michael Gelormini wears his new Montblanc
Star 4810 Chronograph Automatic while on a
cruise in the Caribbean.
The photos will also appear

on Facebook, Twitter and
Pinterest.
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facebook.com/
watchtimemagazine
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twitter.com/watchtime
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pinterest.com/watchtime
Outside the
Colosseum in
Rome, Anna
Zakrepine sports
her Rolex
Datejust in
stainless steel
with jubilee
bracelet and
diamond bezel.
WT_0414_LastMinute_04 04.06.14 18:01 Seite 138
LASTminute
BY JOE THOMPSON
Richemont the Retailer

he Richemont Group, whose stable
of 14 watch and jewelry brands runs
(alphabetically) from A. Lange &
Shne to Van Cleef & Arpels, released its
financial results for fiscal 2014 on May 15.
In watching the broadcast of Richemont
managements fascinating presentation of
the results to financial analysts, I was
struck by the extent to which and the
speed with which Richemont has
expanded its retail operations. In the fiscal
year ended March 31, 55 percent of the
groups total sales of 10.65 billion
($14.48 billion) came via its retail network.
Not long ago, that network played
second fiddle to wholesale. Sure, Cartier
and Montblanc had lots of stores. But
Richemonts forte was its collection of
manufacturing maisons. To sell its luxury
products to the public, it relied primarily
on jewelers. In fiscal 2007, 2008 and
2009, for example, the wholesale network was king. It accounted for a mighty
58 percent of total group sales versus 42
percent through Richemonts own stores.
Now those percentages are nearly
reversed. What happened?
Three things, as Richemont responded
to hard times and new technology. During the global financial crisis of 2009,
Richemont reevaluated the performance
of its retail clients. It opted for a new
strategy expressed by the mantra Fewer
partners, more partnership. The idea
was to work more closely and productively with fewer, better retailers. It
pruned its wholesale network, in some
cases dramatically. In the U.S., Cartier
and Baume & Mercier cut two-thirds of
their accounts.
The second move, related to the first,
was that Richemont aggressively expanded
its own retail stores. The group went on a
boutique binge. Since 2009, the number
of Richemont-owned boutiques (not
including Richemont-brand stores run by
third parties under license deals) has
increased by one-third, from 797 to
1,056, in the last fiscal year. The strategy
has worked spectacularly. Year after year,
the boutiques outperform wholesale.

Richemont retail sales grew by 14 percent
last year versus 6 percent for wholesale.
The 6-percent growth in wholesale
reflects continued cautiousness from our
third party partners, noted Richemont
Co-CEO Richard Lepeu in the presentation to the analysts. The boutique binge
will continue.
Co-CEO Bernard Fornas explained
why: There are basically 40 key cities in
the world where we should be very well
represented, and obviously in all the
emerging markets there is still a lot of
room for improvement, for development,
and for penetration [by] our brands. So
the future [of] retail is promising.
Richemont expects a net increase of 39
boutiques in this fiscal year.
The third thing Richemont did is
embrace e-commerce. In April 2010, it
acquired Net-a-Porter.com, the leading
online luxury-fashion retailer, which
launched Mr. Porter, a mens fashion site,
the next year. That boosted retail sales.
(Clothing is now Richemonts third bestselling product after jewelry and watches.
The group acquired Peter Millar LLC, the
American luxury-apparel company, in
2012.) But it also gave the group the comRICHEMONTS RETAIL SALES SURGE
Percentage of total Richemont Group
sales from the groups own retail network*
55
52
49
46
43
40
09
10
11
12
*For scal year ended March 31

Source: Richemont Group
13
14
RICHEMONTS BOUTIQUE BINGE

Total number of boutiques the group owns
1,100
1,000
900
800
700
600
09 10 11 12 13 14 15*
*Richemont Group estimate
Source: Richemont Group
petence and confidence to begin selling

other brands online. We deployed stateof-the-art e-commerce platforms across
the world, Fornas said, to enable our
jewelry maisons, the specialist watchmakers and Montblanc to sell online. USA and
Europe are already operational. Japan and
China will follow this fiscal year, with Asia
Pacific the following year.
Each brand decides whether or not to
sell online. We dont necessarily dictate, said Richemonts Chief Financial
Officer Gary Saage. The brands have to
come to their own conclusions. Me, personally, I think they all should. Certainly
the growth rate is higher for the watch
brands than it is for Net-a-Porter, but its
coming from a fairly small base. The two
brands that have embraced it the most
are Cartier and Montblanc. I think the
watch brands are coming. Saage noted
that in the U.S., Baume & Merciers online sales, if ranked with the brands U.S.
retail accounts, would be in the top 10.
(Montblancs U.S. online sales would
rank even higher in the top two,
Montblanc sources tell WatchTime.)
Well see what the other watch brands
decide to do about e-commerce. Whatever they do, Richemont the retailer will
only get bigger.
6/4/14
2:01 PM
Page 1
Perpetual Manufacture
Patented Perpetual Calendar with Dual Time function.
Manufacture movement. Self-winding.
18 ct rose gold case. Also available in platinum case.
Limited Edition of 250 pieces.
U LY S S E - N A R D I N . C O M
For a catalog, call 561 988 8600 or

usa3@ulysse-nardin.com

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WatchTime Magazine

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79 WATCHES FROM BASELWORLD

AMERICAS #1 WATCH MAGAZINE

Display until September 16, 2014

WT_0414_EditorsLetter_02 04.06.14 17:57 Seite 10

The Brewing Storm

WatchTime August 2014

down). The tradition is to tack the extra second onto the

Sign up with your phone!

Scan this code with your

WT_0414_TOC_03 05.06.14 14:19 Seite 14

CODE NAME ULTRA

TESTS & REVIEWS

WatchTime August 2014

Scan this code with your

WT_0414_TOC_03 05.06.14 14:19 Seite 16

FINALLY, SOME SENSIBLE PRICING

THE NEW WATCHES

ETERNA EYES THE U.S. MARKET

WatchTime August 2014

THOMAS MERCER MAKES BASELWORLD DEBUT

BABIN BEGINS THE BULGARI MAKEOVER

SHINOLA EXPANDS ITS OPERATIONS

WT_0414_TOC_03 05.06.14 14:19 Seite 18

ON THE COVER: The TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 1887

WatchTime August 2014

WT_0414_onwatchtime_02 05.06.14 17:22 Seite 20

Scan this code

TAG HEUER SIGNS SOCCER

FIVE THINGS TO KNOW

ULYSSE NARDIN IMPERIAL BLUE:

PANERAIS WATCH FOR TRAVELERS:

WT_0414_Masthead 04.06.14 18:03 Seite 22

THE MAGAZINE OF FINE WATCHES

WT_0414_Masthead 04.06.14 18:03 Seite 24

THE MAGAZINE OF FINE WATCHES

EBNER PUBLISHING INC.

Management & Administration

EBNER PUBLISHING GROUP

WT_Media_Worldwide_09 04.06.14 18:04 Seite 26

WT_0414_Readers Forum_04_Proof 05.06.14 14:23 Seite 28

WHY DOES A MINUTE REPEATER COST INTO THE

7 STARS FROM SIHH

GOOD FOR SOMETHING?

MAGNETS IN THE MOVEMENT

72,000 vph: If youve got it, flaunt it with

Joe Thompson replies:

WatchTime August 2014

GRAND TOURING SPORT

2014 Citizen Watch Company

WT_0414_Readers Forum_04_Proof 05.06.14 14:24 Seite 30

I KNOW ITS SUBJECTIVE, BUT DONT YOU

A tourbillon: easier to make than

for a simple three-handed, time-only caliber of

Too tough on Arnold & Sons UTTE?

WatchTime welcomes correspondence from readers.

WatchTime August 2014

and a well-made strap is no guarantee of a high

WT_0414_WatchTalk_07_Proof 05.06.14 14:30 Seite 32

Rolex Names a New CEO

olex has named Jean-Frdric

WatchTime August 2014

brand on its history as a maker of manufacture movements, most famously the El

WT_0414_WatchTalk_07_Proof 05.06.14 14:30 Seite 34

New CEO at Raymond Weil