Time Moves On

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X marks the Watch

Generation X is getting older. They are heading in their thirties and and forties and they are now at the age where they have a bit more spending cash and they need somewhere to spend it. And so, luxury watch companies are catching up with them, giving them new and cool designs that fit their edgy personalities.

Classics are still cool, like Parmigiani and other elegant brands for the business type who want a great watch for work and after hours. And a lot of designs now are becoming a bit more complicated, with see through cases that let you see the mechanics of the watch, as well as moon tide and various time zones. Generation X likes to have all their information in one place.

The rise of digital luxury watches is being seen as well, to match with the want of new technologies that come out every year. What’s cooler than a techie watch for the generation who loves their electronics?

Advertising is also aiming for this generation, with more relevant celebrities wearing their timepieces and giving live twitter updates of these big stars wearing their pieces and going to events.

Generation X is definitely picking up up on the luxury watch trend, in their own unique way, of course!

BIG BANG White Caviar

For self-professed big Bang fans like Mr Maragh (and for star Hublot endorser Usain Bolt), check this out

Hautlence HL2 Watch Hands-On

From this year's recently concluded Baselworld show. Note the ska soundtrack.

Best of the Best in Basel

Decided to excerpt most Watch guy Ariel Adams' summary of Basel World 2011, with his list of the Top 11 pieces form this year's exhibits. Don't agree with all the choices (the Harry Winston is yucky!) but the Chronoswiss is a winner in my book for the reasons Adams outines.

feast your eyes!

As new watches take a few years to develop, it is possible that what we are seeing is a side-effect of a few years of economic woes. I have a feeling things will pick up again in the next few years if good sales at least remain consistent. What trends did I see? Unlike the strong adherence to sober designs that I wrote about in my SIHH 2011 overview, Baselworld was certainly more edgy. While retro and classic designs are still in, they certainly aren’t the cornerstone of what 2011 is about. Retro-revivals seem to be mostly well thought-out save for a few pieces which will appeal to mostly collectors.

Color was a big thing, as brands look for innovative ways of getting people’s attention. I saw a lot of bold tones in watches both inexpensive and very high-end. There isn’t really a focus on any one color, but all colors seemed to be of interest to brands. I will however say that I saw a lot of blue colors - which is a bit unusual.

Aside from a few key brands that really love to dazzle with complications, watches that wow with engineering prowess were lacking. Not a lot of new movements, but those fresh movements you did see, felt impressive. All in all 2011, felt like one big build-up to 2012 - and what that means will take a year to find out.

Without further delay, here is my list of the top 11 watches for 2011, followed by noteworthy honorable mentions. These aren't in a particular order, just the best 11 overall.

•      Corum Admiral’s Cup Legend 42

Now that the Admiral’s Cup collection is an icon unto itself, Corum was able to offer a affordable version in a slimmer case that has the core shape of the line with a demeanor that is more business casual, versus boat deck chic.

•       Harry Winston Opus Eleven

Really what else can I say that a mere glance doesn’t communicate? The movement in this watch boggles your mind, and even after you understand it, you want to see it again. Denis Giguet is now going to be a famous man round these parts for what he has done here. This watch totally stole the show.

•       Porsche Design Heritage Compass watch

The original was a quizzical watch for your Porsche driving weekend survivalist. Now over 30 years later Porsche Design re-visits the watch with an analog compass in the case, and builds it the way they wanted to originally.

•       Glashutte Original Seventies Panorama Date

Loving this watch on my wrist was a big surprise as I wasn’t sure what to make of the retro gradient dial and TV screen shaped cased. GO makes a perfect steel casual watch for all occasions that is the right mix of interesting and sober.

•       Patek Philippe Ref. 5270

Who thought black oxidized gold could make a watch look so special. Everything you love about Patek is here in a contemporary size and look that will have you selling off your record collection to afford one.

•       Hublot Minute Repeater Tourbillon Chronograph Carbon Fiber

I am convinced Hublot never anticipated this, but their zealous use of high-tech carbon fiber helps improve a very traditional complication. Most minute repeaters in today’s watches are muted by gold and platinum metal cases that absorb sound. Carbon fiber doesn’t keep in the sound as much, but does keep the water out.

•       Citizen Satellite Eco-Drive

Japanese technical innovations each year are more often than not the most useful. This watch gets signals from navigational satellites hovering over our planet to stay accurate in all parts of the world – a feature someday all quartz watches might have.

•       Zenith Stratos El Primero

It just looks great. Zenith’s new design ethos pays off with a sexy new sport watch with an El Primero heart. Beautiful comfort and detailing at a reasonable price.

•       Breuget Type XXI 3810 Titanium

This is your iconic high-style military aviator’s watch done in titanium with some fresh design features that seem to make a great watch look even better. Breguet re-affirms that it knows how to make a good sports watch – when they feel like it.

•        Omega Speedmaster Co-Axial Automatic Chronograph

The lineage of the Moon Watch lives on in a more modern package with probably the best new mainstream movement of the 2011 show. Newly upped to 44.25mm in size, this Speedmaster keeps the core look we love, with a movement we all want to have.

•       Chronoswiss Balance

Likely an underdog winner, the Chronoswiss Balance proves that symmetry is your friend. Traditional in design, the cultured look of the watch holds a refined retrograde seconds movement with chronograph. Chronoswiss hit a sweet spot between classic beauty with functional utility and legibility.

Honorable Mentions:

There can only be 11 in a Top 11 list. An honorable mention goes to the following pieces. The pieces below are all great as well. Some are in this list merely because they are not new enough (just new variants) or because they are still in a prototype phase. If you think other piece require honorable mention comment below.

Also really great....

-          Romain Jerome Octopus

-          4N Watch

-          Casio G-Shock Collection

-          Bremont BC-SOLO

-          Perrelet Seacraft Chronograph

-          Ball 3000 Meter Diver

-          Christophe Claret 21 Blackjack

-          Urwerk UR-202S

-          Bulgari Serpenti

-          Jacob & Co. Digital Ghost

-          Loiseau 1f4

-          Temption CGK205

-          Hautlence HL2

-          Seiko Credor Spring Drive Minute Repeater

Reading You, By Your Watch

The following, from the Wall Street Journal, is food for thought for horophiles 

By KEN KESSLER

As an indicator of one's status or taste – or lack thereof – watches have become the new shorthand. Since the Great Watch Revolution of the 1980s, when mechanical timepieces returned in force as a backlash against cheap-and-nasty quartz, and when vintage watches started to appear in auctions in greater numbers, awareness of the wristwatch has acquired a new significance.

Journal Report

Read the complete Watches and Jewelry report.

Previously, anything more obscure than a Timex or an Accurist was appreciated only by cognoscenti. Watches were far too small to be in-your-face indicators of serious wealth – not like the Ferrari 212 Barchetta or Maserati 300S that a Porfirio Rubirosa or a Roberto Rossellini might have parked in front of Monaco's Hotel de Paris.

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John Weber

Take Rolex. While everyone now recognizes the name, back in the 1950s and 1960s the brand was known almost exclusively by the pilots and professional divers who actually needed the functions the watches offered. Today, watch literacy has soared and the hugely popular television series, Mad Men, even uses watches to trace the ascent of hero Don Draper. By Series Three, Draper is seen wearing a Rolex Explorer.

As for brands such as Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin and even the ineffably famous and recognizable Cartier, they were only understood by aristocrats and the gentry. Yes, there were exceptions: Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Gene Autry, Howard Hughes (allegedly) and other iconic celebs wore Patek Philippes. Marlon Brando and Che Guevara owned Rolexes, while Steve McQueen foreshadowed the modern watch fanatic with his Rolexes and TAG Heuers. Now, the red carpet at the Oscars is a watch-lover's orgy. But this is not to suggest that populism nor egalitarianism have overtaken the prestigious image such watches impart. What has changed is that now everyone from the cab driver to the doorman, to the dentist to the divorce lawyer – especially the divorce lawyer – knows the difference between fine timepieces and those sold to mere mortals.

As a result, one's choice of watch is as important as the quality of the handbag, the cut of one's suit, the appropriateness of a tie's pattern, the height of the heel. If such things matter, you might consider watches fitting both your personality and the occasion.

The Italians advise three timepieces at the very least: One that suits your occupation, a dress watch for sober, formal or evening wear, and a robust watch for sport or holiday. And as for finding a watch to suit your personality, or even the one you wish to project, read on. And if you are still in doubt, just buy a Rolex Air-King.

The Fashion Icon

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Dior VIII (from £3,050)

John Galliano's psychotic outbreak notwithstanding, Dior is on a roll, especially with its watches. It is part of a welcome trend wherein the fashion and jewelry houses making watches have decided to offer something worthy of an illustrious name, rather than put their logos on sub-par swill sold through shopping centre jewelry stores.

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Dior VIII

Of course, in fashion, the name is everything, and The Fashion Icon will have her own preferences: For Dior, you could also read Chanel, Chaumet, Cartier (the absolute perennial favourite), Graff, Harry Winston or another great label making serious timepieces. But Dior VIII, a family of watches with heavily faceted bracelets and bezels, available with or without diamonds, in two sizes (33mm and 38mm), and with automatic or quartz movements, offers something else dear to Fashion Icons: It's so new that it's tomorrow.

The Traveller

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Vogard Timezoner (from £3,500)

What distinguishes The Traveller's timekeeping needs from those whose forays abroad are less frequent? For one afflicted with wanderlust, nothing less than a 'world-timer' will suffice, for it allows The Traveller to know the time, at a glance, in any time zone on the planet. And while nearly every watch manufacturer produces a wristwatch able to show the time in two or more zones, Vogard makes nothing but world-timers.

Vogard Timezoner

Two features in particular make the Vogard so appealing. The first is the watch's patented method of changing the home or destination time so quickly and easily. The second is the option for ordering the watch with any of 24 cities or locations engraved on the bezel.

The Banker

Patek Philippe Calatrava (from £12,980)

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Patek Philippe Calatrava

Given the current public mood, the banker should err toward the style of his pre-1980s forebears: That of sobriety. Whereas once bankers and other executives in the financial sector were encouraged to 'power dress'. To do so today is inadvisable. Bankers now rate somewhere between al Qaeda and lawyers in the public eye. In these straitened times, The Banker must possess an air of discretion, of solidity, of dependability. To achieve this, there is one, and only one watch: The Patek Philippe Calatrava. In continuous production since 1932, born in the Depression, as it were, the Calatrava combines no-nonsense functionality with elegance. To the untrained eye, it is anonymous. To the individual who knows, it says that the wearer prefers Romanée-Conti to, well, anything else.

The Entrepreneur

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Richard Mille RM038 (£380,000)

Unlike The Banker, The Entrepreneur has to inspire potential investors, and nothing suggests pending success like existing success. Better still, The Entrepreneur knows the value of a personal detail, such as a watch, for breaking the ice. Amongst the high-fliers in an exclusive bar in Tsim Sha Tsui, in the nose of the 747 or at the links at St. Andrews, a bold watch speaks volumes.

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Richard Mille RM038

You don't need to know anything about watches to appreciate that a Richard Mille timepiece is something out of the ordinary.

This particular Richard Mille oozes high tech. It is a tourbillon made to withstand the shocks and abuses of The Entrepreneur's most important selling tool: A round of golf.

Developed for Bubba Watson, to wear on the links, the RM038 follows on from another Richard Mille watch subjected to cruel and inhuman punishment: Rafael Nadal wore one while winning
Wimbledon.

The Bohemian

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Van Cleef & Arpels (£77,500)

Inspiration? The free spirit with limitless imagination. Execution? A blend of techniques, including champlevé enamel and mother-of-pearl inlay, as mastered by one of the world's greatest jewelry houses. The 19th Century writings of Jules Verne, the father of science fiction, have stirred Van Cleef & Arpels to create a series of limited edition timepieces with dials illustrating four of his novels, but most notably, Five Weeks In A Balloon.

Bohos love whimsy. Is there any mode of transport more evocative of the so-called century of Bohemianism than a hot-air balloon?

At the dial's centre, the balloon rises slowly above Zanzibar. What better than its anchor and a seagull to act as retrograde hands for minutes and hours?

A white gold case, a Jaeger-LeCoultre 846 mechanical movement, severely limited production – this is the watch of an individualist.

The Daredevil

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Panerai Luminor Base Logo (£3,100)

As the name suggests, The Daredevil is fearless, probably to the point of absurdity. No challenge is too threatening, no risk too great. Hang gliding, surfing, off-roading, snowboarding – think Tom Cruise rock climbing at the opening of Mission Impossible 2.

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Panerai Luminor Base Logo

The watch to withstand all that has to be either incredibly cheap-and-cheerful (Casio sells millions of G-Shocks for good reason), or over-engineered and, well, scary.

Designed for the Italian Navy's underwater saboteurs in the 1930s, Panerai's Luminor re-surfaced to become THE cult diving watch of the 1990s and onward. Its patron saint? Sylvester Stallone, who wore them in a number of his more macho films. Not only that, but he gave one to Arnie, who featured it in Eraser. Go on: Try breaking one.

The Spy

Bremont Supermarine 500 (from £2,995)

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Bremont Supermarine 500

Imaginative James Bond inspired watches with built-in lasers, homing devices, suspension cables, magnets and the like are, alas, pure fiction. And, as any real spy would not want to call attention to his or her presence, anything too large or too flashy would call attention to the wearer. Equally, a spy's watch must be dependable, functional, accurate to the second and able to serve a number of roles in difficult situations. So, if the Bremont Supermarine 500 is rugged enough for Bear Grylls, precise enough for chronometer certification, legible underwater, secure to 500m and resistant to magnetism, it should survive Messrs Bond, Bauer, Bourne and the like. And Bond himself would appreciate one other feature: It's British.