2024-02-02 18:47:07
An hourglass that reminds us of one of the most iconic objects in watchmaking history (Ikepod).
HUBLOT: Simplicity in ultra-complication…
Even if you have relatively little chance of coming across this Hublot MP10 on your wrist of your bistro neighbor, it would be a shame not to get to know him: it’s very simple, this watch has no dial, no hand, no oscillating weight, but it can display the time using a system of rollers, while offering a circular power reserve and an inclined tourbillon which winds automatically thanks to two circular masses. Its real name: MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System Titanium. The apparent complexity of its mechanism actually hides a very ergonomic approach to the services that a wristwatch can provide: from top to bottom, you can immediately see and in a very logical arrangement the hours, minutes and seconds, as well as the power reserve (green and red zones) and the inclined tourbillon in the seconds ring. The time setting and winding crown is located at noon. The lateral masses which ensure automatic winding operate exactly like the rotor of a classic watch, but in parallel, laterally and linearly, for a power reserve of 48 hours. Certainly, the dimensions of this titanium case are not modest (41.5 mm wide by 54.1 mm high), but they are in line with the price of the watch, which will fetch around 270,000 euros for 592 components – taxes included, thank you! Don’t swim too much with this MP-10, which is only waterproof to thirty meters, the safety limit of a good shower
HAMILTON : « Blue Suede Shoes »…
Now under the Swiss flag (Swatch Group), the Hamilton house still has some beautiful memories of the time when it was one of the most beautiful American watch brands. In 1957, for example, Hamilton opened a new chapter in the history of watches by presenting the first electric watch for the general public: it was the Ventura, all the more avant-garde because its case was both triangular and asymmetrical. . His first fan was, at the time, Elvis Presley, who made Ventura famous by bringing it to the screen in his musical Blue Hawaii. The adventure continues with a new Ventura, dedicated this year to another global success of “King” Presley, the song Blue Suede Shoesa true matrix of the rock’n’roll spirit launched in 1956: six models very faithful to the first Ventura, in multiple shades of blue, with different case colors, two chronograph versions (below) and several bracelets (quartz movements). Nearly seven decades following its launch, the Ventura has lost none of its futuristic seduction, nor its still revolutionary style: on the wrist, it still has just as much of an effect, especially among young enthusiasts, who can’t believe it. not the audacity of this design, of absolute elegance when so many other watch reissues wallow in the facilities of a photocopied vintage…
IKEPOD: The return of the hourglass…
This year, the independent brand Ikepod (now French) will celebrate its thirtieth anniversary, following a creative journey that has marked contemporary watch design [les premières montres avaient été dessinées par Marc Newson, auquel on doit le style final de l’Apple Watch, dont le bracelet ressemble de très près à celui des premières Ikepod]. In the 2010s, Ikepod imagined – once more with Marc Newson – a giant hourglass (30 cm high) which became one of the first great classics of the 21st century. How to integrate such an hourglass into a watch? Impossible is not French: Christian-Louis Col, the new host of Ikepod, and Alexandre Peraldi, its new designer, had the right reflex in stylizing this hourglass to preserve only the spirit in a new series of Megapod, whose 100 pieces already seem destined for the much envied status of collectors and perhaps even future icons of watchmaking creativity in the 2020s. It is the seconds hand which takes the form of an hourglass, perfectly identifiable, with seven versions of dials and hands for these automatic watches offered from of 1,350 euros on the brand website[attention, ces 100 pièces sont disponibles dans des séries très iégales en volume, certaines en 25 exemplaires, d’autres en huit exemplaires]. As surprising as it may seem, this 46mm case knows how to be very portable. An insider tip: with or without an hourglass, these Megapods will be removed from the catalog by early next year, making them even more desirable as collectors contemporary – the price of Ikepod watches is starting to explode at auction…
BAUSELE: A pixelated fin…
Let’s dream a little regarding golden beaches, turquoise waves and surfers with bleached hair by the salt overlapping the colorful planks. To help us dream, let’s trust Christophe Hoppe, “Chris” to his friends, French by roots and Australian at heart, who founded the independent brand Bausele on the other side of the world, whose watches hide, in their crown winding, a few grains of red sand from Australian beaches. To go further, let’s salute the nod from Romaric André, the (French) host of second/seconde, a creative laboratory which loves to add an offbeat grain of salt to some classics of contemporary watchmaking – that’s what which we today call a “collab” (collaboration) and second/seconde is not shy regarding it. So forward to a new Sydney Diver one of the fins of a surfboard, sometimes a shark fin, or even one of the “shells” (some speak of “sails”) which cover the famous Sydney Opera House – it’s up to everyone to choose the allegory of their choice. For the rest, for just under 1,400 euros, you will have one of the best nautical watches of recent years (water resistance: “Deep”, you had to dare), with different options for dials and bracelets, in an original style…
RALF TECH: The mustaches of the big 8…
The independent French brand Ralf Tech, which launched a series WRX watches adorned with a dragon in 2022 [hors année Dragon] might only offer us another one, with other colors and new finishes in 2024 – which this time will be a “real” year of the Dragon! The new dragon automatic WRXs feature a Ceramfine bezel, an innovative alloy of ceramic and titanium. Note the stylized “8” formed by the dragon coiled in the center of the dial: it is a “magic” number in Asian cultures – the series of these Golden Dragon (below) will therefore logically have eight pieces! Elementary, my dear Watson… Allow 4,500 euros for this tricolor dragonnade which celebrates our entry into the year 4722 of the Chinese zodiac calendar: with this WRX, you will still be able to celebrate this Lunar New Year at a depth of 500 meters (guaranteed waterproofness, tested and certified) – as long as playing with the symbolism that Asians are fond of, this dragonnade might have pushed this sense of great depths up to 888 meters…
GOOD TO KNOW: In brief, in bulk and in complete freedom
•••• STATISTICS : apparently, everything is going well for Swiss watchmakers, with export growth of around 7.6% in 2023, for an annual value of 28.6 billion euros. A misleading figure, insofar as it corresponds to the stocks of watches moved from Swiss factories to foreign markets, that these are not actually watches and that we must consider this growth as purely an accountantsince resulting from the increase in the average price of luxury watches exported (see below): two-thirds of this accounting growth is due to watches with a boutique price equal to or greater than 30,000 euros. The United States (+7% despite a difficult end to the year) took over the podium of the leading market for Swiss watches from China, although all Asian markets prevailed over both the American continent and the European markets. (+9.3% growth for Italy, 8.1% for France or 7.6% for the United Kingdom). Same illusion for the volume of exports: + 7.2% to 16.9 million watches (including 10.6 million quartz watches and 6.2 million mechanical watches) – a total considerably improved by only sales of the MoonSwatch (Omega + Swatch). Six years ago, in 2017, watchmaking Switzerland still exported 24.3 million watches each year. The average price of watches exported in 2023 was 1,508 Swiss francs (compared to 773 Swiss francs average price per watch exported in 2017) – enough to conclude, as above, that growth is essentially accounting, but carefully cosmeticated as organic growth. ! •••• DRAGONS : thus, there will have been around forty Western European brands to dedicate a “zodiacal” watch to the new Year of the Dragon in Asia [même Ralf Tech en a été d’une de ses « plongeuses » : voir ci-dessus]. What wouldn’t we say if forty Asian brands offered, during the end of year celebrations, a watch that would pay homage to Santa Claus, the wise men or the figures of the Marseille tarot? Flying in tight formation, this horde of dragons is more than fundamentalist realistic: they are not missing a scale, a claw or a hair of a mustache [lors des précédentes années du Dragon, qui reviennent tous les douze ans, quelques marques avaient malencontreusement confondu dragons chinois t dragons vietnamiens, cousins qui se regardent en chiens de faïence !]. So much the better if it helps business in the watchmaking houses: these “dragonnades” at least have the merit of giving work to European craftsmen (miniaturist painters, enamellers, engravers, etc.). It’s a shame that brands have not yet integrated the fact that these “zodiacal” propositions Swiss Made or Made in France seem perfectly out of date in the eyes of new Asian generations, as would “Archange Saint-Michel”, “Nostradamus” or “Castor et Pollux” watches from Asian manufacturers… •••• OMEGA : Did you miss the MoonSwatch in your Swatch store or didn’t want to wait in line to beg for one? No worries: Omega offers you eleven suitcases of eleven watches each! Eleven “Mission to Mooshine Gold” suitcases, which are all “unique pieces”, with bioceramic watches with hands coated in Moonshine yellow gold (an Omega exclusive), each of which has a particularity such as a strawberry motif for the Line of July strawberries or a floral design for the May Flower Moon. These suitcases will be sold at auction by Sotheby’s, the funds raised will be entirely donated to the Orbis International association, which fights once morest blindness among children…
• THE DAILY WATCHES
All the news regarding brands, watches and those who make them is available every day in Business Watches & Jewelrywatchmaking information media outlet since 2004…
1706909237
#hourglass #starts #spin #suitcase #walk #Moon #latest #watch #news #Candlemas
