Enquire about the impact of smart watches on the Swiss watch industry at Baselworld every year, and you’re bound to leave some people feeling very ticked-off. Luxury watch brands at the biggest and most important watch fair in the world, held at Basel, Switzerland, are no longer interested in chatting about the possibility of building a competitor to Apple watch when the onus of carrying on the legacy of Swiss horology lies on them.
This is the forum where most notable Swiss watch brands, including Omega, Rolex, Tag Heuer and others bring in novelties and make some of the most significant announcements of the year. Last year, Tag Heuer’s Connected watch in collaboration with Google and Intel, hogged headlines at Basel for being the first Swiss-smartwatch made by a dominant watch brand. This year, however, there was no such revelation.
In fact, the overall atmosphere at Baselworld this year appeared less stimulating than before, and diminishing spectators and a less-than-savoury buzz about apparent poor sales did dampen the mood. However, none of this dissuaded watch brands from bringing forth innovative horological wonders. Here’s our list of the top five watches from Baselworld.
There are so many elements in the Astronomia Moon yet none that are just plain ornamental. The globe seen right on top completes a round on its axis in 24 hours inside a tinted half-domed sapphire, symbolising night and day. The next layer of this 3D marvel is a celestial dial, which is a carpet of zodiac signs. This dial rotates a full circle in the same time as the earth orbits the sun with respect to the zodiac signs.
The Jacob & Co. Astronomia Sky will be produced in limited edition of 18 pieces. Jacob & Co. is a New York based Jewellery and Watch Company whose creations are sported by David and Victoria Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo to name a few connoisseurs.
Hublot Big Bang Unico Sapphire The Hublot Big Bang Unico Sapphire is a fully transparent watch but that’s not a first! If you’re assuming it is easy to achieve absolute transparency with modern technology, try making it durable as well. What Hublot has managed to achieve with the Unico Sapphire is a transparent sturdiness that comes from sapphire, which is almost as scratch resistant and hard as diamonds. Hublot Big Bang Unico Sapphire is carved out from big blocks of sapphire to deliver maximum transparent area. Even the dial machinery is made from transparent resin to maintain the sheerness. Only a few pieces including screws are made of metal on this watch.
MB&F Starfleet Black Badger This one might appear like a stage-model for Beyonce’s next concert or even a star trek ship, but it is actually a table watch! MB&F has wisely used luminous work to highlight the fine architecture of the Starfleet Machine Black Badger table watch. This complicated looking watch has a rather easy way of telling time. There are two domes that will attract your attention. The biggest dome indicates hours and minutes, while the smaller dome indicates power reserve. MB&F’s glowing little alien ship is not powered by battery. It is a hand wound beauty and a must have, if you’ve managed to save that $34,071 USD for a dream space machine that marks time.
Ulysse Nardin Grand Deck Marine Tourbillon There is a world of difference in the new Ulysse Nardin Grand Deck Marine Tourbillon and any other navy-inspired watch out there. Most marine watches will probably have a ship engraved or enamelled on the dial. What makes Grand Deck sail ahead of other marine watches is that it takes you on a subtle sailing trip while counting minutes on the dial.
A closer glance at the watch reveals fine wires that are connected to a sailing-pulley like mechanism. These wires work along with the retrograde or fly-back hand that tells time on the blue tainted strip. The Grand Deck is priced at a whopping $280,000. It is still less than the cost of a sail boat!
HYT Skull Bad Boy HYT’s new watch at Baselworld 2016 is as unusual as the brand, which is known to make watches that do not use traditional ways of telling time. HYT watches use liquid that flows around a reservoir to tell the passing hours. HYT’s newest is the Skull Bad Boy that does not use hands to tell time but uses black liquid instead. The watch looks pretty cool, but what isn’t cool is that it is very difficult to read time on it in the dark because the black liquid that runs around the capillary produces no luminosity. “It was a deliberate decision”, explains Vincent Perriard, CEO of HYT. “There were other solutions which would have made the piece visible at night. But if we wanted to play with the darkness inherent to the Skull Bad Boy, we had to go all the way. Night is part of the world of shadows and darkness. Perfectly in tune with its spirit.”
The power reserve indicator sits in the right eye socket, which gets darker as the watch reaches the end of its 65-hour power reserve. The left eye socket houses the seconds disc.
Shilpa Dhamijais the Editor of LuxuryVolt.com.