Mike Thompson
After a few days of perusing the halls of Baselworld 2016, a few early favorites have become evident.
I’m enjoying Seiko’s ongoing globalization, which places so much of
what Seiko’s local Japanese market has long enjoyed into stores
worldwide. With Grand Seiko now firmly embedded within the United States
at a selection of retail stores and at the brand’s own New York City
boutique, Seiko plans to add many more of its previously domestic-market
mechanical timepieces in those same global locations worldwide.
The resulting new (for the globe) collection is Presage,
featuring a wide range of calibers, and designs, aimed at enthralling a
wider audience than it draws to its pricier and dressier Grand Seiko
collection. Presage comprises sixty models and uses the full range of
Seiko’s mechanical calibers, from the accessible 4R, through 6R to the
exclusive 8R. Highlights include the 6R27 multi-hand power reserve model
and a series using a new version of the 4R57 caliber. This new caliber
is Seiko’s first with a center power reserve indicator, and is available
in a series of five designs, including a limited edition. Every Presage
watch has 100 meters of water resistance.
My early favorite from Presage echoes the earliest chapter of Seiko’s
heritage in mechanical watchmaking, which stretches back to 1913 with
the Laurel, Seiko’s and Japan’s first wristwatch. Seiko is offering two
Limited Edition automatic chronographs with designs that echo the 1913
Laurel. These watches feature two types are artisanal dials: one in
white enamel and the other with black Urushi lacquer. The lacquer dials
are made individually in the studio of master craftsman Isshu Tamura in
western Japan using the centuries-old art of Urushi, a technique that
creates a particularly deep black color that also strengthens with age.
Each dial is painted and polished by hand several times over a period of
three weeks. Both models use the 8R48 caliber, which has vertical
clutch and column wheel systems, and both are offered in editions of
1,000 in celebration of Seiko’s sixty years of automatic watch making.
Look for them in September.
Dressy Elite & Techy Chrono
The
Zenith Elite 6150, already a stand-out dress
series from last year, this year adds a rich rose gold case that enhance
its three-hand elegance. The watch’s smoothly polished 42 mm-diameter
case, engraved hour-markers and thin leaf-type hands whisper class and
softens the character of this basic dress piece.
Breitling, not known for its tuxedo watches, offered
an example of decidedly non-dressy ceramic-cased timepiece technology
with the impressive 46mm Superocean Heritage Chronoworks. Here,
Breitling has revisited its Manufacture Breitling Caliber 01 with the
intent of increasing its efficiency. The caliber is an automatic
chronograph movement featuring a modern structure, column-wheel
construction, a vertical coupling-clutch and a seventy-hour power
reserve. Breitling says it “reexamined all the movement organs, seeking
to pinpoint the slightest loss of energy, the tiniest pointless
friction, the smallest “excess” weight increasing inertia.”
The resulting piece features five technical advancements that has this Chronoworks movement fitted with:
1) A ceramic baseplate and gear-train bridges
2) Three wheels (center wheel, third wheel, fourth wheel) in silicon, a material twice as light as compared to standard wheels
3) A silicon escapement. The Swiss lever escapement was maintained, but
with a wheel and lever made of silicon serving to reduce weight and thus
inertia, as well as eliminating the need for pallet jewels.
4) A variable-inertia balance adjustable via four tiny gold weights situated around the rim.
5) Elastic toothing. As Breitling explains, the chronograph wheel and
pinion, which can jerk when used, are here equipped with elastic
toothing molding the shape of the opposite teeth, by means of a
nickel-phosphorous structure.
Breitling says that these five technical changes led to a significant
increase in the energy efficiency of Breitling Caliber 01. As a result,
Breitling watchmakers were also able to equip it with a slimmer (and
thus longer) spring, which increases the resulting caliber’s power
reserve from 70 to 100 hours: a 45% gain. Manufacture Breitling Caliber
01 Chronoworks is also officially chronometer-certified by the COSC. The
icing on this technological cake is the woven rubber strap that echoes
the original woven steel bracelet from the 1957 Breitling Superocean.
This 2016 Breitling Heritage Chronoworks ($39,295) is a 100-piece
limited edition that will be found at Breitling authorized retailers as
well as its boutiques.
Tim Mosso
Two days into the Baselworld 2016 is sufficient time to gain a first
impression, and this year’s zeitgeist is a combination of value-plays
and moon-shot “statements.” Naturally, these trends often co-exist
within the same houses as brands strive to hedge their bets and read the
tea leaves of dramatically different market segments. Against a
backdrop of sales dips in the year-to-date industry as a whole but also a
late manic upturn in the bellwether U.S. stock indices, Baselworld has
offered a series of watch trends suitable for a volatile world at large.
No first impression of Basel novelties could start anywhere but collector mindshare hegemon,
Rolex;
the Geneva giant launched two powerful plays in its bedrock stainless
steel sports watch segment. At the value end of the spectrum, Rolex has
re-launched the Air King line that had been placed on hiatus for the
prior model year. The family name is a long-lived one within the Rolex
catalog that has stood as an enduring point of entry for collectors
seeking a “crown” for the wrist.
No longer petite and no longer subtle, the historically low-key and
34mm Air-King has followed the path of its three-hand Explorer brethren
(3mm case growth spurt in 2010) and reemerged as a bigger and bolder
model in its own right. The new 40mm Air-King reference 116900
emphasizes the model’s historic link to aviation with a striking full
Arabic numeral dial that features green accents and a personality that
belies its roughly $6,700 U.S. retail price.
While this represents one of the most accessible prices of entry into
the ranks of Rolex ownership, the caliber 3131 automatic nevertheless
retains the new proprietary “Superlative Chronometer” status (-2/+2
daily deviation certification) that Rolex advertises in addition to COSC
Swiss Chronometer certification.
Rolex also recapitulated its commitment to the bedrock stainless
steel Cosmograph Daytona with a new reference 116508 bearing the
signature 904L steel alloy beneath a new Cerachrom black ceramic bezel.
While ceramic bezels have made periodic appearances in the Daytona line
since 2011, the 2016 novelty marks the first instance of the stainless
steel model being offered in conjunction with a ceramic tachymeter
bezel.
Both variants of the new Daytona 116508 are being offered with the
black ceramic bezel, but customers will have a choice of either white or
black dials to complement the kiln-fired halo. While Rolex frames the
new Daytona variant as a tribute to the first of the “black tach”
Daytonas, the 1965 reference 6240, the inclusion of Cerachrom is a
forward looking evolution of the breed that reinforces Rolex’s
dedication to its steel staple models. At roughly $13,300 U.S., the new
116508 carries a clear price premium over the conventional steel
Daytona, but it remains far clear of the precious metal variants.
If there was any sense of trepidation or hedging in the product
strategy of Basel’s corporate denizens, it evaporated at the gates of
Hublot’s hulking black citadel.
The brand launched the latest effort of its MP unit (“Master Piece” in
Hublot parlance), the MP07, as a strident statement of excess for those
who enjoy the week-long power reserve of the LaFerrari but prefer a
supercar brand-neutral superwatch.
For convenience all nine mainspring barrels and the 32-day power
reserve of the MP-07 are energized by a power tool accessory similar to
that featured on the original LaFerrari. The MP-07 features a flying
tourbillon under a lateral display with magnifying crystal, and the
side-scroll time display is designed to be read at a glance while the
owner’s hands are engaged on the wheel of an automobile. In a year when
others seek to hedge their bets, Hublot is angling for hedge funds; the
MP-07 retails for a supercar-rivaling $276,000 U.S.
Hublot reinforces its core Big Bang collection with the 2016 Big Bang
Meca-10 in black ceramic (500 pieces) and an unlimited edition in
titanium. This complication rides on the strength of a new manual wind
manufacture caliber 1201. Its 10-day power reserve explains half of the
model’s nomenclature; the unique mechanically inspired movement
architecture explains the remainder of the name.
A glance at dial or caseback of the Meca-10 reveals what Hublot
describes as an engineering-inspired mass of interlocking scaffold
bridges with evacuated cavities and hash angles that recall raw
mechanical imagery. Skyscraper frames, alloy racecar spaceframes, and
elemental modernist sculpture helped to drive this signature aesthetic.
Amid the mass of “Meca,” Hublot includes two separate power reserve
indicators. The first is located at six o’clock and acts as a rotary
dial; its red colored companion sits hidden at three o’clock until
summoned with two days of energy remaining.
The Hublot Big Bang Meca-10 in black ceramic and titanium will retail for $22,000 and $19,900 U.S., respectively.
Glashütte Original bridges the gap between
Baselworld 2016’s value plays and its countervailing blue-sky boldness.
GO’s new 40mm Senator Excellence collection is rooted in the classicism
of a core three-hand design with tapered lugs, automatic practicality,
and versatile character.
At heart, the Excellence collection is a launch platform for the new
caliber 36 manufacture movement. Its antimagnetic silicon hairspring is
the first such component in the company’s history, and durability gains a
second ally in the “bayonet” movement mount designed to endure a
reported one-meter free fall onto hardwood – a German watchmaking
standard GO adopted for the Excellence. A pared down barrel arbor
combines with a new hairspring design and improvements to the drivetrain
to yield a 100-hour power reserve.
The Saxon manufacturer dedicated four years of development to the new
caliber 36, and each movement will ship with a unique validation of
this effort. Glashütte will forward each Senator Excellence model with a
certificate displaying the performance of the watch across a vast range
of positions, amplitude at several hourly intervals after a full wind,
and under a full power reserve trial.
GO’s full battery of tests for this new in-house evaluation standard
will encompass 24 days, and it will exceed the COSC Swiss Chronometer
process in both duration and scope. Fully cased watches will be tested
(COSC tests only movements), and owners with truly in-depth inclinations
will be able to access even more esoteric aspects of their watch’s
recorded performance on a GO website chronicling the entire test
sequence of each individual serial number.
The three Senator Excellence models will be available in both rose
gold and stainless steel with silvered or black dials featuring either
stick indices or luminescent Arabic numerals. The pricing spread for the
new watch ranges from $9,700 for the steel variants to $17,700 for rose
gold. At a Baselworld fair that seems split between value and
exuberance, the new Glashütte Original Senator Excellence lineup offers
the most practical solution for those who prefer to have it both ways.
The post First Impressions: Baselworld 2016 appeared first on iW International Watch Magazine.
