Having visited the recent Watches & Wonders 2015 fair in Hong Kong, Karen Kwa picks highlights from 12 brands that’ll make you want to invest in them – including a watch with the naughtiest messages.
Having visited the recent Watches & Wonders 2015 fair in Hong Kong, Karen Kwa picks highlights from 12 brands that’ll make you want to invest in them – including a watch with the naughtiest messages.
Vacheron constantin
The new Heures Creatives collection taps on different artistic periods for its three watches – Art Nouveau for the curved Heure Romantique, Art Deco for the geometric Heure Discrete and the ’70s for the graphic Heure Audacieuse. Each timepiece is powered by a mechanical hand-wound movement which provides about 40 hours of power reserve.
The curved case of the Heure Romantique (price unavailable) is adorned with 104 round-cut diamonds. The watch also has a mother-of-pearl dial.
Cartier
You could call the Cle de Cartier Flying Tourbillon a complicated beauty – dominating its dial at 6 o’clock is a 60-second flying-tourbillon complication. The case is covered in 478 brilliant-cut diamonds, which even extend to the key-inspired crown that gives the watch its name.
Cle de Cartier Flying Tourbillon in rhodium- finished 18K white gold with diamonds, croco strap and sapphire crown (price unavailable).
Roger dubuis
It’s hard to think of a more masculine brand than Roger Dubuis, with its large timepieces distinguished by bold skeleton details. The 42mm Creative Skeleton Excalibur Broceliande fits the brand’s DNA, but this model is also super-feminine, with diamonds and a pink croco strap. The skeleton bridges are entwined with diamond-set vines, and hand-painted pink and purple leaf details. Only 28 are available worldwide.
Van cleef & arpels
A first for the French brand: combining gold engraving and stone marquetry (using stone to form decorative patterns) with the technique of feather art. Each of the three limited-edition Lady Arpels Oiseaux Enchantes watches features a bird motif created by feather artist Nelly Saunier – and her skills call for a degree of precision that runs to the tenth of a millimetre. Only 22 of each limited-edition design are available in the world.
A. Lange & sohne
To achieve its pretty pale blue dial, the Little Lange 1 was given a blue tint and topped with a thin layer of mother-of-pearl. And what better way to emphasise the blue hue than with a matching leather strap? We also love the oversized date display (which has become the German brand’s insignia) and the timepiece’s power reserve of three days.
Little Lange 1 in white gold with leather strap, $49,800, and in pink gold with leather strap, $48,000.
Richard mille
What you see above is one of the tamest messages the RM69 Erotic Tourbillon (price unavailable) will display when you press the 10 o’clock pusher. Each facet on the dial holds a phrase or word like “I long to”, “let me”, “I need to”, “explore”, “your lips”. The watch has 216 message permutations, and for a better view of the lines, the push piece at the case’s 8 o’clock position will temporarily rotate the hour and minute hands out of the way. Only 30 pieces are available in the world.
Panerai
It’s almost impossible to miss the Radiomir 1940 3 Days Acciaio 42mm PAM00574 ($10,900) when it comes with a lime-green strap. Panerai has also switched the Super- Luminova (a glow-in-the-dark pigment) hour markers and hands from vintage beige to green. The timepiece is equipped with a new entry-level in-house P.1000 movement, and a three-day power reserve.
IWC
The Swiss watchmaker’s flagship model might be its 75-year-old Portugieser, but at Watches & Wonders, pride of place went to the Portofino collection. Two new versions of the diamond-set Portofino Automatic 37 ($15,400) have been introduced: a blue-dial-and-strap combo inspired by the Ligurian Sea, and a stunner with a silverplated dial and raspberry-coloured strap. Both have bezels set with 66 diamonds and feature croco straps created in collaboration with shoemaker Santoni.
Baume & mercier
According to the 185-year-old Swiss brand, the use of jade on the limited-edition Promesse watch ($17,000) is its way of paying homage to Asia. But making this timepiece didn’t come easy. “The development of this watch was a nightmare because of the jade’s fragility. The jade used is less than 1mm in thickness,” says Alexandre Peraldi, director of design at Baume & Mercier. There are only eight Promesse Jade watches available in the world.
Jaeger-lecoultre
For the Swiss brand, the choice of ivy as a decorative motif dates as far back as 1890, when the pattern appeared on a pocket watch with a crimson enamelled case. Fast-forward to this year, and the plum shade of the translucent enamel on this Rendez- Vous Ivy Tourbillon accentuates the “branches” that culminate at the 3, 9 and 12 o’clock numerals.
Montblanc
The German brand’s Boheme Moongarden displays names for each month’s full moon instead of the traditional names of the months. Ice is January, Snow is February, Chaste is March, Seed is April, Bright is May, Dyan is June, Rose is July, Red is August, Fruit is September, Harvest is October, Hunter is November, and Oak is December. There’s also a day/night indicator in the form of a moon-phase disc at 6 o’clock.
Piaget
The Limelight Stella (price unavailable ) is the brand’s first complicated watch made exclusively for women. The timepiece has a moon-phase disc which tracks the phases of the lunar cycle, indicating if it’s a new, full, half or quarter moon). top things off , the counterweight of the second hand is in the shape of a star.
