Glorious Times at SIHH 2017

SIHH draws its vitality from Geneva, the home of watchmaking and a place rich in tradition that is heir to incomparable expertise. Each year, it transforms Calvin’s city into a hotbed of innovation while reconnecting it with centuries of history.

History and Philosophy

Since 1991, SIHH has been the one event not to be missed in fine watchmaking. It highlights the most covetable creations and anticipates future developments.

Opening up a new dimension

SIHH expands in size for its twenty-seventh edition, with the arrival of new brands. Joining the now thirty exhibitors in 2017 are Girard-Perregaux and Ulysse Nardin; the show also welcomes five newcomers to the Carré des Horlogers.

Furthermore, this exclusively trade-only event is, for the first time ever, opening its doors to the public on Friday, 20^th January, its last day.

45,000 of exhibition space; 17 historic Maisons; 13 independent artisan-creators; 1 200 accredited journalists.

Exhibitors

A.Lange & Söhne, Audemars Piguet, Baume & Mercier, Cartier, Greubel Forsey, Girard Perregaux, IWC, Jaeger LeCoultre, Montblanc, Officine Panerai, Parmigiani Fleurier, Piaget, Richard Mille, Roger Dubuis, Ulysse Nardin, Vacheron Constantin and  Van Cleef & Arpels.

Carré des Horlogers

Christophe Claret, De Bethune, H. Moser & Cie, Hautlence, HYT, Kari Voutilainen, Laurent Ferrier, MB&F, Urwerk

A. Lange & Söhne

A. Lange & Söhne is presenting seven new products on the occasion of the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) in Geneva.

This year’s highlight is the TOURBOGRAPH PERPETUAL “Pour le Mérite”, which brings together five traditional mechanisms in one watch: fusée-and-chain transmission, tourbillon, chronograph, rattrapante function and perpetual calendar. The product family of this highly complex classic also features the new 1815 ANNUAL CALENDAR with a manually wound movement and analogue date, weekday and month, as well as a moon-phase display.

With a chiming movement that acoustically signals the time in ten-minute intervals, the ZEITWERK DECIMAL STRIKE makes time audible in a new way. Its case is made of honey gold, used exclusively by Lange.

At the beginning of December 2016, A. Lange & Söhne presented the new LANGE 1 MOON PHASE with a day/night indication. With the LITTLE LANGE 1 MOON PHASE, it has been provided with an elegant companion in pink gold featuring a guilloched, argenté-coloured dial.

The SAXONIA family is growing with the addition of two new models with a mother-of-pearl dial. This product family is also complemented by a LANGE 31 version in white gold with a grey dial, which has a power reserve of 31 days and a patented constant-force escapement that provides uninterrupted operation.

Baume & Mercier

The SIHH 2017 confirms that Baume & Mercier is positioned as closely as possible to the reality of the market. This is a year of promises kept. In this start of the year, considered the season of good sense, the House is more justified than ever in offering premium products recognized throughout the world for their suitable positioning, perfectly in step with client expectations.

2017 is a sport-minded year at Baume & Mercier. You'll pick up on that even before you set foot on the stand. An authentic Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe occupies the central hall, announcing the 3^rd year of our collaboration with Shelby American. The Brand is launching the new edition of its Clifton Club Cobra on the trail of this iconic sports car…

The same quirky sportsman spirit is expressed throughout the stand, with walls hung with surprising decorative structures made of grids embedded with objects that represent the worlds of each of its collections. But the Brand also keeps women in mind, setting the tone for ladies who visit the stand: 2017 is a sparkling, creative year for women at Baume & Mercier. The walls of their area reveal a breathtaking photo exhibition with a style that is somewhat unexpected for the Brand, making the watch a true fashion accessory: The Baume & Mercier woman is taking off!

Panerai

The Florentine brand presents a revolutionary watch demonstrating its Laboratory Di Idee’s innovative ability: the 49mm PANERAI LAB-IDTM in which the past and the future come together. This new Special Edition, consisting of only 50 units, is notable for the timeless design of the Luminor 1950 collection, but it also presents a series of technological innovations.

The case of the Luminor 1950 is made of carbotech, a composite material based on carbon fibre, which was introduced into the world of watchmaking by Panerai. As well as ensuring exceptional technical performance, it has a dense, uneven blackness which varies with the cut of the material, making each watch unique. It is also used to make the case and the bridge device with its locking lever protecting the winding crown, thus helping to ensure the watch’s water-resistance to 10 bar (a depth of about 100 metres).

It is powered by the P.3001/C hand-wound calibre with a power reserve of three days, now presented for the very first time in an extraordinarily innovative version, semi-skeletonised, completely without additional lubrication and with only four jewels. It can work without service for exactly 50 years as its parts are made of tantalum-based ceramic alloy.

Piaget

On Monday January 17th, actor and international brand ambassador for watches, Ryan Reynolds joined Piaget at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva, Switzerland. The luxury Maison was marking the 60th anniversary of the launch of its legendary Altiplano watch during the international gathering of the world’s finest watchmakers.  To celebrate the occasion, Ryan Reynolds sported the new limited edition Altiplano timepiece from the 60^th Anniversary Collection, with its characteristically elegant design and ultra-thin horological sophistication.

 “The Altiplano watch has become an icon over the past 60 years, evolving with the times but always supremely elegant,” says Ryan Reynolds. “It is a pleasure to be in Geneva for these special celebrations as this ultra-thin Piaget watchmaking marvel looks ahead to its next 60 years.”

During SIHH 2017, Piaget introduced its latest novelties and horological innovations including new Altiplano timepieces with their distinctively slender movements allowing creativity to be unleashed in the dials and cases, highlighting Piaget's unique style.

IWC Schaffhausen

IWC Schaffhausen tempts women with its new Da Vinci Automatic 36 available in gold or stainless steel, with or without diamonds, and with a coloured alligator leather strap by Santoni. The most exclusive model is the Reference IW458310 fashioned in rose gold and linked bracelet and flaunting 54 pure white diamonds on its bezel. All watches are powered by the 35111 calibre and are tested for water resistance to 3 bar and boast a power reserve of 42 hours.

Vacheron Constantin

Vacheron Constantin is the world’s oldest Fine Watchmaking manufacturer with an uninterrupted history since its founding in Geneva in 1755.  At the SIHH 2017 it unveiled its new astronomic and striking watches featuring exceptional complications. These new models are entirely in keeping with the tradition of excellence cultivated by the Manufacture, notably illustrated by the big reveal – marking the Maison's 260th anniversary – of Reference 57260: the world's most complicated pocket watch with its 57 complications.  

The three Hallmark of Geneva certified Métiers d’Art Copernicus celestial spheres 2460 RT models feature three dials inspired by the baroque depictions of the 17th century Dutch-German cartographer Andreas Cellarius. The collection's dials feature two parts: an oval centre adorned with a pink gold stamped and hand-engraved Sun motif: and an outer disc dedicated to decorative craft variations. A reproduction of the heliocentric system offers a fascinating scenography of the sky.

Around the outer dial rim, the time is displayed by two triangular peripheral hands: a cut-out one for the hours and a solid one for the minutes. The key highlight of this watch is the elliptical path of the Earth around the Sun, reproducing the heliocentric system. The depiction of the Earth spinning on its own axis as well as orbiting around the Sun is extremely realistic, with the device operating the latter function requiring only one correction in 8,000 years! All functions are adjusted via the crown and it’s developed and manufactured by Vacheron Constantin.

Van Cleef & Arpels

Watchmaking has been part of Van Cleef & Arpels’ heritage since its foundation. Each watch narrates a moment of grace, luck or happiness, inscribed in the Poetry of Time®. Reflecting the

Enchanting Nature™, butterflies and fairies this year offer a new experience of the passage of time, revealed with dreamlike beauty and harmony.

On the occasion of the SIHH 2017, Van Cleef & Arpels is delighted to unveil its first Extraordinary Object: the Automate Fée Ondine. The fruit of long years’ work and an intense collaboration with automaton maker François Junod, the project also owes its existence to the savoir-faire of the numerous craftsmen who have taken part in its creation.

Bringing together the jewelry and watchmaking traditions, this unique piece marks a new chapter for the Maison, in keeping with precious objects such as carriage and table clocks.The highly complex mechanism – which animates various elements and also tells the time – gives pride of place to an ephemeral poetry: movement and lightness, the beauty of nature, the grace of a fairy waking from sleep and the nuances of precious stones and enamel. This bejeweled tableau comes to life with infinite delicacy.

The Maison’s imagination, creativity and attachment to ancestral crafts have come together in this Extraordinary Object to instill a dreamlike sense of wonder.

Cartier

The Parisian luxury brand introduces two new models at the SIHH 2017. The Rotonde de Cartier Minute Repeater Mysterious Double Tourbillon and the Rotonde de Cartier Skeleton Mysterious Hour.

The 45mm titanium Rotonde de Cartier Minute Repeater Mysterious Double Tourbillon is the first Cartier watch bringing together the minute repeater complication and the mystery complication. In it the double tourbillion mechanism floats within a round sapphire window at 10 o’clock unlike the early 20^th century clocks by the Maison with ‘floating’ hands. The minute repeater chimes the time via a push-piece at 4 o’clock. It’s powered by the in-house hand wound 9407 MC caliber.

Greubel Forsey

One of the rarest complications to accomplish, the grand sonnerie places a watch maker in a niche of its own. It indicates the time by sound, chimes the time every hour, or every quarter and hour, can chime the hour, quarter and minute on demand, or even enter an entirely silent mode. This year Greubel Forsey presented its 43.5mm Grand Sonnerie comprising 935 parts. It took ten years to make the movement and its case is in titanium to keep the weight down and make the chimes sound clear. It has a separate power supply for the time-keeping section (72 hours power reserve) and the chimes (20 hours power reserve). This was done to maintain the time-keeping accuracy of the watch which gets affected by the chiming mechanism. It has 30m water resistance. To enhance precision the Maison fitted its hand-wound movement with a 24-second, 25 degree inclined tourbillion!

Montblanc

Montblanc revamps the TimeWalker collection with the new TimeWalker Chronograph UTC. It comes in a 43mm DLC-coated case with black ceramic elements and boasts a black ceramic uni-directional rotating bezel with 24-hour indication. The black dial recalls an old car dashboard with two vertically aligned subsidiary dials for the chronograph with one being a 30-mionute register and the other a 12-hour register. It is water resistant to 100 meters.

Parmigiani Fleurier

Inspired by the brilliant and unpolluted, crystal clear night skies of Val-deTravers, Parmigiani Fleurier fashions the Tonda 1950 Galaxy. Its strikingly attractive dial is made of aventurine, a material with an equally fascinating history. In 18^th century, Murano, a glassblower made a chance discovery when he dropped a sliver of copper into melted glass. He named it ‘per aventura’ meaning by chance in Italian. The eye is instantly drawn to to starlit dial showcased by the bezel and case set with diamonds like a halo, while a milky white opal on the crown recalls a nebula. It is driven by the PF702 proprietary movement, decorated with Cotes de Geneve.

Roger Dubuis

Roger Dubuis has announced its newest watch and it's a partnership with racing tire maker Pirelli. The two brands have teamed up to create the new and blue Excalibur Spider Pirelli with double flying tourbillon in a limited series of just eight pieces.The watch is supported with a double flying tourbillon with the carriages placed side by side within a highly skeletonized movement, caliber RD105SQ which is made of 365 parts. The tourbillons both act as sub-seconds registers and are surrounded by seconds tracks that are inspired by speedometers. Fittingly, the power reserve is inspired by racing car fuel gauges. The case measures 47mm and is made of black DLC-coated titanium with blue rubber accents the official Pirelli color. The retail price of this watch is 280,000 CHF, the owners will receive an invitation to a two-day VIP motorsports event as guests of Pirelli.

Roger Dubuis tied up with racing tire maker Pirelli to present the blue Excalibur Spider Pirelli with double flying tourbillion presented in a limited series of eight pieces.

Ulysse Nardin

Ulysse Nardin will no longer be part of Baselworld but will instead take part in SIHH alongside the Richemont brands. One of its most spellbinding collections is the 40mm steel Ulysse Nardin Classico Manufacture with an enamel and guilloche dial. It is powered by an in-house movement, the Calibre UN-320 an automatic engine with silicium hairspring and anchor escapement which offers 48 hours power reserve.  

Girard Perregaux

Girard Perregaux, one of the founding members of SIHH returns to SIHH after four years at Baselworld. It presents the new WW.TC watch that is part of the 1966 collection for the modern jet set individual who works on a global scale. WW.TC stands for World Wide Time Control. It has a classic style in clean smooth lines and two crowns on opposite sides of the case, one at 3 o’clock and the other at 9 o’clock. The dial has a 24-hour rotating disc featuring an easy-to-read night and day indicator. The 40mm case allows the wearer to read the time of all 24 world cities on the dial with ease. Inside it beats a manufacture automatic movement that comes with a power reserve of 46 hours.

Richard Mille

Richard Mille introduced NTPT carbon for the very first time in the industry in 2013. At SIHH 2017 it unveils a pair of ladies watches with gem-set North Thin Ply Technology (NTPT) carbon cases – the Automatic RM 07-01 Ladies and Automatic RM 037 Ladies. It’s a material used in the sails of racing yachts. Its extreme hardness makes it difficult to set diamonds. So hand-polished prongs in rose or white gold are produced separately and then inserted around the .25mm bearings. The latter has a larger case (52.63 mm x 34.4 mm) and its movement, the automatic CRMA1, offers several additional functions, including an oversize date and function selector. The NTPT Full Set version boasts no less than 250 diamonds. 

Audemars Piguet

The new 37mm Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Frosted Gold celebrates 40 years of the Roayal Oak for ladies and is created by a surface treatment process rooted in an ancient gold hammering terchnique called the Florentine technique.  It has an iconic Genta-look and a hand-guilloche dial and an in-house movement Calibre 3120.

Jaeger-LeCoultre

Jaeger-LeCoultre unfurls several new models in its Rendez-vous collection of luxurious ladies watches. And among them is a new moon-phase watch and versions of the existing Night & Day model which comes with a case of 38.2mm with elliptical, grained-texture dials with guilloche centres, floral shaped hands and a day and night indicator in a semicircular window near the 6 o’clock position. It is matched either by a stainless steel bracelet or a light blue ostrich leather strap.