The Salon International de la Haute Horologie, or SIHH, is watch industry event closed to the public, that showcases the cutting edge of design and technology in the watch industry. The watches are always extravagant and over-the-top, a different kind of watch than the ones found at Baselworld. We looked to the classic Swiss watch companies to see how the historical business are interpreting modern watchmaking. Check out what’s new from the top watchmakers in the industry below.
1. Cartier
The world-renowned French jeweler, brought the fine art techniques of haute jewelry to the watchmaking business this year at SIHH. With six new releases, Cartier demonstrated its artistic and mechanical prowess. The watchmaker released a skeletonized version of their new Cle de Cartier watch model and a rose gold version of the unique Crash. The Cartier Crash is a unique design with a movement that is specifically created for the odd case shape.
Cartier took the Rotonde de Cartier Earth and Moon a step further by adding a meteorite dial for a striking effect and another release of the Rotonde de Cartier Day/Night Retrograde Moon Phase. The watchmaker released other artistic and mechanical endeavors including gem-set Panthères Et Colibri with an animated dial. Pressing down the crown cases a smaller panther to appear beneath the larger and a hummingbird to complete an arc motion. Cartier made use of the panthere motif again with a gem-set panther wrapped around a mystery dial.
2. Audemars Piguet
At SIHH Audemars Piguet’s most impressive release was the Royal Oak Concept Supersonnerie which features the fruits of extensive acoustic research from the brand. Minute repeaters are typically quiet or need to be held to the ear to hear, but not this Royal Oak. This watch is about 10 times louder than the average minute repeater. The watchmaker also released a Royal Oak with a double balance wheel, one wheel stacked on top of the other, making the watch much more accurate.
The brand, for the most part, focused primarily on producing variations of the Royal Oak. The watchmaker released a brightly-colored collection of Royal Oak Offshore Diver Chronographs. The diver and the chronograph editions of the Royal Oak Offshore are two of the most popular selections from AP, and they decided to combine the two with this release. The collection comes in four colors: green, orange, yellow and blue.
3. Jaeger-LeCoultre
Jaeger Le-Coultre celebrated the 85th anniversary of their classiv Reverso this year at SIHH. The Reverso is the most iconic and varied model from the watchmaker and this year JLC added more to the list. First, the released the classic Reverso in three sizes — small, medium and large. They also released two new versions of the Classic Duo in rose gold or stainless steel.
The watchmaker also added two new Reverso models to their Tribute collection. First, the Reverso Tribute Duo which has a larger case at 42mm and two time zones on two sides with a day/night indicator. Finally, they released the Reverso Tribute Calendar. On the front the watch features the day, month and date with a moonphase indicator. The back features a second timezone along with a day/night indicator.
4. A. Lange & Sohne
A. Lange & Sohne also celebrated an anniversary — the 200th anniversary of the company’s founder. In honor of this anniversary, the watchmaker released seven new models. The watchmaker improved upon one of their important models, the Datograph. The stop times are accurate within one-fifth of a second, which is a personal best for the company. They only released 100 special editions of the Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon.
This year was the year of the moonphase and A. Lange & Sohne added their own to the selection. The new Grand Lange 1 Moon Phase features a luminous dial that was achieved by a sapphire crystal dial that’s thin enough to let UV light in. Only 200 were made. Finally, the watchmaker released their thinnest model with the Saxonia Thin. The case is only 5.9mm, features a simple dial and comes in 18k white or rose gold.
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