Results of the XIX Salon of Watchmaking in Geneva

let down by Ekaterina Istomina and Alexey Tarkhanov

Last weekend, the 19th Salon of Watchmaking (Salon de la Haute Horlogerie, SIHH) completed its work at the Geneva exhibition complex Palexpo. All eighteen glorious previous years, ever since the brilliant watch and jewelry brands controlled by the influential Richemont Group left the “people's” watch exhibition in Basel, this Geneva “salon of the outcasts” was, perhaps, one of the most revealing luxury shows in world. Thus, SIHH, a small city in the Art Deco style, set up in the seventh pavilion of Palexpo, hosted a “narrow” list, throughout the day it showed objects whose cost easily exceeded the bar of a million francs, and in the evening it received all the chosen ones under the shadow of the soiree , “Hollywood” parties and prim dinners in secluded villas in the Cologny area. SIHH was the Chignon castle of luxury - pompous, invincible, uncompromising.

In 2009, the salon was of interest not only because of its invariably precious premieres. There were two more reasons. The first reason is private, specific, which could only be appreciated by those who visited the Geneva Salon for many years in April, immediately after the Basel Exhibition. The Geneva salon “moved in time”; for the first time in its entire existence, it took place not in April, but in January. And he won incredibly: there was no eternal fatigue after the exhibition in Basel, and the premieres were remembered better, and no one slept during the presentations (and this was once a completely common thing, to be honest), and interviews with watchmakers and jewelers took on the appearance of meaningful conversation, not painful silence on both sides. As the witty president of Jaeger-leCoultre, Jerome Lambert, noted in this regard: “I remember how three people used to come for an interview. One was holding the recorder with all his might, the second was barely asking questions, and the third was just sleeping with his head on my table.” And I understood how terribly tired people were after Basel. Now everything is different.”

The second reason is, of course, the beloved and hated global financial crisis. Already in December, the Geneva watch industry was full of panic rumors unusual for this peaceful city: they say that terrible layoffs are already underway at watch manufactories, staff are being cut everywhere, sales are falling everywhere. SIHH had to give an answer: what will the main luxury showcase of the world look like today? Will the ominous wrinkles of financial decline, the evil grimaces of the global crisis be noticeable? Nothing has changed in the Art Deco town: strawberries, desserts, limousine services, champagne, exotic incredible beauties at the reception desk. In personal conversations, the presidents of the brands (there are 16 of them represented at SIHH) radiated cautious optimism, the essence of which boiled down to the fact that the houses entrusted to them were so old and experienced that they had somehow survived both wars and crises. Like, we will survive another crisis.

Although there was one sign that clearly signaled concern about the crisis. We are talking about an exhibition at the entrance to the SIHH pavilion, dedicated to the fight against counterfeit watches and jewelry. The slogan chosen for the exhibition was shocking: “Fake watches are for fake people” (“Fake watches for fake people”). Two prominent organizations - the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH) and the Fondation de L'Industrie Horlogerie (FHS) - issued a special appeal, which emphasized that the financial crisis is a time when counterfeit Swiss watches sold over the Internet will increase. many times. Both organizations vowed to the public to create a grandiose database in which all participants in the gigantic criminal chain will be recorded - from manufacturers of “fakes” to carriers and sellers of counterfeits. So, in a moment of crisis, real Swiss watchmakers declared war on fake Chinese watchmakers. Real Swiss watchmakers, of course, will lose in a fight with the watch “manufacturers” of the vast Celestial Empire, but they intend to fight to the bitter end.

The crisis has so far had almost no impact on the new range of watches and jewelry. The secret here is simple: many brands did not have time to adjust trends, because sketches and mechanisms are usually designed at least a year and a half before their presentation. Although, needless to say, the first anti-crisis measures are already shining in some trends.

Black line

1966 Annual Calendar and Equation of Time, Girard-Perregaux

Watches with a black case and black dial could be found at almost all the stands of the main brands. The beautifully drawn www.tc Shadow Girard-Perregaux, the brutal Baume & Mercier Riviera Magnum XXL, dark as the water in the port, the Panerai Luminor Regatta and the designer carbon series of the iconic Audemars Piguet Royal Oak are evidence of the ongoing fashion for black.

What's strange here, you ask? Black color is always fashionable - and even when models in black are not shown on the catwalk (as was the case last season), every self-respecting architect or designer wears a black dress. You can trust the man in black to the last - this is a solemn and multifunctional color: be it a wedding or a funeral. But watches have only just now learned to be dressed in immaculate black clothes.

It was easier to make a case from precious platinum than to apply an even, deep and, most importantly, durable coating to the metal. Technologists have been struggling with this problem for years. And finally, watchmakers have developed new ways of working with black. Conventional coatings have radically improved, the technique of sputtering thin diamond layers that protect color has appeared, matte black carbon has come into force, and ceramics have shone.

Watch designers rejoice at this like children, they have gone so far as to black-paint even white gold (as Maximilian Büsser does in the new version of HM #1) or combine diamond pavé and baguettes with black parts. And when you tell them about the provocativeness of the combination of a slightly plasticine-looking carbon fiber and a diamond baguette around the dial, they smile and say: “From a chemical point of view, this is the same thing - this carbon fiber and this one.”

Guests from the past

Vintage is designed not only for lovers of classic watches who are tired of the abstract art of modern designers. The historical model, of course, allows you to be a little retro - although, it must be said, there are few things more fashionable than classic watches of post-war design. Everyone showed vintage at SIHH-2009. IWC has updated its historic Vintage collection in rose gold, this time highlighting the Jubilee Edition Portofino Hand-Wound. Audemars Piguet came up with a wonderful continuation of the rectangular Tradition and round Jules Audemars. Vacheron Constantin very opportunely remembered its American history - this is how the “lopsided”, but somehow fantastic Hommage d`Amerique watch, made “in the footsteps” of the 1921 watch, appeared. Girard-Perrgaux remains faithful to its famous Vintage 1945 series, embellishing it with more and more complications, as if rewarding an old faithful. This year the Tourbillon With Three Gold Bridges was released and the well-deserved “45” received an overcoat with conversations - a tourbillon with three gold bridges. In addition, Girard-Perregaux now has a special collection, the very name of which refers to the past. So, Girard-Perregaux 1966 - with a classic women's flat watch and a men's model with a perpetual calendar and the “equation of time” function, which is very troublesome to produce.

Of course, exact repetitions of historical models are much more rare than their free interpretation. Old models must follow the new fashion primarily in size. The watch is increasing in diameter, and the designers continue to insist that this is still the same iconic model, which, however, could have grown along the way. But, rummaging through the archives, designers are reintroducing solutions that found themselves on the sidelines of watch evolution. In this case, we are talking not only about the appearance of the watch, but also about its mechanisms.

A brilliant example is the new A. Lange & Sohne model, called Richard Lange Pour le Merite. Its mechanism, developed several years ago and already appeared at the Geneva Salon, has a rare, almost museum-quality device for maintaining constant force of the mechanism - the so-called fusee, a chain transmission, the operating principle of which is a bit like the gearbox of a sports bicycle. Only two or three brands in the world are capable of making such an amazingly progressive, avant-garde vintage movement.

Do it yourself

Last year, Vacheron Constantin introduced its Quai de l`Ile model, which could be equipped at the order stage, like a luxury car. Starting from the glass of the dial and ending with the inscription on the back cover. At the current Geneva Salon, few brands dared to go so far - especially since every high-end manufacturer has special clients who require personalization of their purchase. There is also a fundamental opportunity to meet these whims halfway. After all, the wait for some models lasts years, and your wishes may be taken into account.

But the idea of adjusting the clock yourself seems to be attracting more and more. In anticipation of models with open architecture, literally made to measure, almost all manufactories have made it easier for customers to choose bracelets and straps to begin with. New fasteners are gradually appearing, allowing them to be easily and quickly changed without the help of watchmakers. Previously, this was considered an option only for amphibious watches designed for divers. The watch owner could install a rubber strap long enough to fit a wetsuit sleeve, rather than having to go underwater with an expensive and pampered crocodile strap on his arm. Now, in no time, replacement straps have begun to be produced even for the most basic watches.

See right through

Skeleton watches have always been an indicator of the capabilities of watch manufacturers and one of the favorite complications of collectors. This year, Piaget was pleased with the thinnest skeleton Altiplano, a series of openwork movements was presented by Audemars Piguet (this brand of skeleton watches turned out to have as many as eight pieces) and Vacheron Constantin (the flat women's model with diamonds on the case, the diameter of which is only 28 mm, deserves special attention).

The skeleton is a real test for a watchmaker and a visual aid to the resistance of materials: how many more microns and milligrams of unnecessary steel can be removed without damaging the mechanism. And as a rule, this technical task is so captivating that it is difficult for the watchmaker to stop. Thus, many skeletons we have seen resembled a piece of cheese after a mouse attack.

In addition, some individual skeletons have one unpleasant feature - revealing the openwork inside of the watch, they do not have the most user-friendly interface. It is not easy to place numbers and marks on the thinnest spider legs. The only options are numbers printed on the glass, or additional marks on the dial ring. Was it worth it to simplify the mechanism so much in order to ultimately complicate the case so much?

Cartier designers came up with a decorative but effective solution. In the new Santos 100 Skeleton they have used the architectural design of their signature Roman numerals. The bridges on which the wheels spin are shaped like numbers - from I to XI. Santos 100 is a large, masculine, very energetic model, and with the new skeletonized movement it has not lost any of its power and recognition. This is one of the rare and, most importantly, successful attempts to transform a skeleton from a technical phenomenon into an aesthetic one.

At all levels

The dials absolutely refuse to be flat. At the first opportunity, watchmakers distribute the indications onto different dials, assembled under glass into a free volumetric composition. In their Ballon Blue Chronograph, Cartier has placed the stopwatch in the center, placing its hand on a strategic elevation. And at its foot, the minute and hour hands, half covered by it, move.

The remarkable Jules Audemars Chronograph was shown by Audemars Piguet - a true kinetic sculpture with two spring barrels, a separate hours/minutes dial and a separate seconds dial and power reserve indicator, compositionally balancing the gold escapement wheel left open. This model was designed for Audemars Piguet by Frédéric Garino, a charismatic watchmaker and former French Air Force flight engineer who presented the fantastic Opus 8 at the last Basel.

No less interesting is the dial of the Montblanc Collection Villeret 1858 Grand Tourbillon Heures Mysterieuses. At its new manufacture in Villeret, Montblanc produced a striking watch with a slightly egg-shaped gold case. Here, at the blunt end there is a freely rotating tourbillon, and at the sharp end there is a dial with two “magic” hands, as if hanging in the air. Of course, these are transparent circles spinning, but the old trick is, as always, impressive.

Baume & Mercier also made the black dial of the Riviera Magnum XXL translucent, revealing the watch's internal architecture. And even their classic Hampton model added a smart cutout on the chest, through which you can see the moving balance wheel.

Enamels and stones

Even the classic A. Lange & Sohne enamel dial, which seems almost smooth, is composed of planes located at different heights. This white dial is actually a real feat of enamel art. The enamel plates from which it is assembled must be cut accordingly. It's as difficult as cutting patterns out of glass. No matter how hard the enamellers try, many dials end up being scrapped.

Enamel is the most difficult technique. It requires a real artist, developed technology and endless patience. Sometimes it is easier to pave the dial with precious stones than to make it in classic enamel. The Jaeger-leCoultre manufactory has already presented its usual enamel dials. They traditionally schedule the turnover of their famous spinning Reverso each year; this time round dials were also shown. The enamels reproduce either maps of the world or masterpieces of classical painting like “Venus in front of the mirror.” Of course, these miniature wonders will not replace the collections of the Prado or the Louvre, but they are ready to remind you of them at least every minute. It seems that enamels or mother-of-pearl inlays, which are very common this season, are gradually replacing the solid diamond coating of dials, which was beloved just a year ago. In those cases where diamonds still remain, we are most often talking about watches “with a secret”, which deserve a separate story.

Overproduction of million-dollar diamonds

One noticeable trend is the absence of million-dollar diamond watches, cyclopean, surprisingly heavy objects that might appeal to a respectable American rapper. Similar items began to appear in the early 2000s, but the renaissance of the piece unique full pave, a huge and, as a rule, extremely complex watch from a mechanical point of view, completely decorated with large baguette-cut precious stones, occurred in 2004-2007. Then each brand, having released some top-end complex mechanical model (for example, Polo Tourbillon Piaget or LUC Tourbillon Chopard), very soon presented the same watch, but in a full diamond “peel” (diamonds were “covered” with a wide bracelet of links and its clasp).

Today, this savage rap style has come to an end: companies are committed to more intelligent, more complexly conceived jewelry beauty. The only brand that presented such a watch at SIHH was the venerable Girard-Perregaux manufactory: we are talking about the women's model Cat`s Eye Haute Joaillerie.

However, there is no point in rejoicing at the current “overproduction” of these barbaric diamonds: there is no doubt that in the near future all brands will come to their senses and return to the production of mighty million-dollar diamond watches, rightly judging that the public will consider such opuses as objects for investment. Although there is an opposite opinion on this matter: a number of brands believe that during a crisis, more sense and better sales can be achieved from classic models that are not in a fabulously high price category.

The Rise of Mother of Pearl

Watch purists can easily find fault here: is there any significant news here, because mother-of-pearl is a classic material for watch dials? Meanwhile, the disappearance of high-profile diamond models that used pave for dials led to a marked rise in standard mother-of-pearl. It is this (as well as enamel) that today is assigned the role of the central decorative material, a material that will not simply and routinely accompany a watch, but will make it an inspiredly aesthetic, bright, original, highly artistic object. The most remarkable in this sense are the experiments of the always so artistic manufactory Jaeger-leCoultre, which presented a collection of women's jewelry watches, the design of which involves mother-of-pearl. In this case, Jaeger-leCoultre craftsmen used for the dials not the usual solid pieces of mother-of-pearl (which is exactly what was done before), but small plates of different shades (from beige with pink tints to dark green “beetle” color). These fragile plates were assembled like a mosaic and complemented with barely visible diamonds. The result is stunning examples of dials reminiscent of the decorative standards of the Art Deco style. Another interesting option for using mother-of-pearl is to combine it with multi-colored diamond scattering and precious chips (Montblanc, Parmigiani, Van Cleef & Arpels).

Watch with a big secret

The plot of “hidden time” is very old: in fact, the first pocket watches always had a cover that protected them, a carved dial made of precious metals, and later made using white or multi-colored enamel. At the beginning of the 19th century, lids began to be gradually abandoned, and the subsequent era of wristwatches completely buried the lid. The theme of “hidden time” returned to fashion in the 1920s and lasted until the end of the 1940s - specifically in the jewelry segment. The popularity of the ancient mysterious plot was due not only to the fact that during those two decades (incredibly prolific for both mechanics and design) jewelry watches strictly followed the formula “watch as a precious trinket.” The era itself between the two wars dictated a certain etiquette, according to which publicly looking at a watch (and being interested in the exact time in general) was considered blatantly indecent. It was then that great examples of jewelry watches with the secret of Van Cleef & Arpels appeared, a brand that is still considered the main specialist in this niche. Now the house from Place Vendôme (whose new diamond watch is secretly called Rendez-vous) has been joined, firstly, by the house of Cartier itself with a very beautiful La Panthere model, the case of which “copies” the legendary ring in the form of the open mouth of a panther from the line “ yellow" La Panthere, introduced in 2006. The gold case-mouth slides over the bracelet, shifts, allowing you to see the small dial. Piaget also has “secret” jewelry watches, however, this is a rather traditional product for this brand. But one cannot help but note the Vacheron Constantin Kalla Haute Couture a Secret diamond jewelry model, made in a single copy in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Kalla model, which was the most expensive watch in the world at the time of its creation.

Patrimony Traditionelle, Vacheron Constantin

Looking for black tie: semi-precious and semi-precious stones

The passion is emphasized by the handmade decorativeness of the dials, the skillful, poseur and elegant decorativeness, which led to the appearance of very exotic “guests” in the jewelry and watch arena. We mean semi-precious and ornamental stones. They can be used both to decorate the dial (for example, aventurine in Van Cleef & Arpels men's watches) and be part of the mechanism (like chalcedony in Audemars Piguet's Millenary Chalcedony men's model). It is noteworthy that semi-precious and semi-precious stones are used specifically in black tie men's watches. From this circumstance, we can conclude that companies are now actively looking for some new options for designing such ceremonial male watches, whose former appearance - simple white diamonds on the rim of a platinum or gold corps - already managed to take the order.

Over Size

In 2006, Cartier showed a collection of Tankissime, miniature "tanks" which laid a course on feminine, tiny, defenseless hours. This year, everything is exactly the opposite: the same Cartier house presented a new version of his historical model Baignoire, released in 1912, but with a strongly enlarged corps. In the house itself they like to say this: "Cartier does not follow the trends, Cartier creates them." Today, this high -pair phrase is a fairly clear print of the current trend: a trend is a large clock building.

It was no coincidence that we used the expression “current trend”, since large buildings for the first time extremely powerfully thundered in the early 2000s, however, later the demand for them verse. Returning to the new version of the historical watches of Cartier (the house, like many other brands, devoted a lot of effort and funds and vintage), I must say about a certain incident. The fact is that the former Baignoire were exclusively female hours, but the new Baignoire already (and not without good reason) claim the status of "Unisex" (of course, only those whose buildings are made of white gold). We testify that the large oval case of Baignoire looks worthy on the male hand. By the way, Cartier Van Cleef & Arpels did not keep up with his colleague in the workshop and showed his own oval big hours - this is Timeless XL (they are intended only for women).

However, in the framework of SIHH, many hours with large cases (such as Ingenieur IWC with 46 mm brutal in diameter) were shown, however, everyone resolutely overshadowed the militant “Panerai watchmakers with the Radiomir vintage clock, which has 60 mm in the diameter of the diameter . And this indicator should be called an absolute record. This watch, made for the first time in 1956 in honor of the Egyptian military divers, is not placed even on the widest male wrist. Thus, Radiomir can only act as a collection trinket. It seems to us to wear them obviously meaningless.

Sports: Diving and Yachting

Thematically sports clock are quite boring. Watchmakers are constantly forced to choose between the "aviators", automobile and mining plots and the sea genre. These stories with humble doom alternate with each other from year to year. This year it was the turn of the sea clock, which was the last time for the world in 2007, in the year of the final round of the america`s cup in Valencia. The most noticeable in the sea genre were IWC and Jaeger-Lecultre. The manufactory from Shafhausen did water exercises with its main premiere: the audience presented a new generation of the Aquatimer model (not only the possibility of deeper immersion, but also rapidly changed rubber bracelets, and this is also the trend of the season). And Jaeger-Lecultre showed three models of the compact and assembled Master Compressor Navy Seal`s series in the pink gold (or steel) and black ceramic buildings.

Piaget sailed in a much more glamorous way: its central complex clock, Polo Tourbillon Relatif, it supplied the “suffix” Yachting Inspiration. The affectionate-blue color of the case is by no means new for these hours, it was first declared in 2007, when Piaget completed the restoration of tower watches at the Torro Orologio Venice Torro. After that, the “Venetian” version of the Polo Tourbillon Relatif, distinguished by just such an inimitable blue color, came out. This year, the powerful Polo Tourbillon Relatif case turned out to be decorated with tiny figures of sailboats - they can be seen both on the clock and on the sides of the case.

We add that the most trendy ones should be recognized as blue and blue, followed by pink and purple.

Magazine "Kommersant Weekend" (Ukraine) No. 15 dated 01.30.2009, p. 16

The clock has not yet struck the crisis