The timepieces debuting at SIHH 2022 that have the industry buzzing

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The timepieces debuting at SIHH 2022 that have the industry buzzing

Alee of adjacent week's SIHH exhibition, CNA Lifestyle gathered the opinions of some of the world'south most influential watch publications.

11 Jan 2022 06:15AM (Updated: 04 Jul 2022 03:11PM)

Each Jan, the SIHH (Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie) kicks off the watchmaking world'due south agenda. The exhibition usually sets the tone for the residual of the year, so information technology's studied closely by the manufacture as well as by timepiece collectors and aficionados.

Simply typically, around November the previous year, watchmaking companies start issuing pre-SIHH novelties. Similar moving-picture show trailers building anticipation for the films' bodily theatrical releases, these teasers are meant to whet horological appetites for what'southward to come at the fair.

For the watch press, the teasers provide useful material for content, specially during the traditionally "repose" weeks in late December and early on Jan. Those mag pages and webpages aren't going to fill themselves, right? And speaking of webpages, here'southward what some of the virtually influential watch blogs and publications are saying about the novelties.

AUDEMARS PIGUET
ROYAL OAK OFFSHORE CHRONOGRAPH

With the Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph beingness an Audemars Piguet bestseller, the company took to declaring three new additions to the family. Specifically, it built on the popularity of a armed forces-inspired model released in early on 2018: The three novelties are clad in camouflage colourways.

Noted Singaporean collector/lookout man journalist Su Jia Xian, who runs watchesbysjx.com, published a straightforward description of the watches. Merely, in keeping with his practise, he also included retail prices in Singapore dollars – useful for local collectors.

The influential local blog Deployant as well carried news of this trio, saying that "The colours look stunning in the press photographs, and nosotros await forward to seeing and photographing them alive in SIHH." The report ended with a teaser: "According to Audemars Piguet, their new 2022 drove promises many more than surprises. Stay tuned."

CARTIER
SANTOS, LIBRE AND PRIVE

Cartier was the most prolific of all the watchmakers, announcing its novelties in 3 tranches: the Prive collection in tardily Nov; the Libre series in mid-December; and a new variation of the Santos just final calendar week.

Su provided coverage of all reveals. Not surprising, because how he was once the moderator of the Cartier forum on PuristSPro.com.

Of Prive – a new line of tonneau-shaped men's watches – he noted that it'southward "a nod to Collection Privee Cartier Paris (CPCP), a line of high-cease mechanical watches produced for a decade starting in 1998". He as well argued that its reincarnation is the issue of its absence having "fabricated collectors' hearts abound fonder".

Of Libre – a collection of 4 bejewelled women's watches– he gave a succinct description of the watches' specifications and offered estimated retail prices as well.

The latest Santos variant features a blue dial, which Su says lends the watch a "slightly more sporty feel". He also noted the subtle design details, observing the degrade result of the blue colouration and the "unusual" Roman numerals, which come up with a mirrored finish.

GIRARD-PERREGAUX
LAUREATO PERPETUAL CALENDAR

According to Revolution, the new Laureato Perpetual Calendar is function of Girard-Perregaux's "ongoing effort to keep the Laureato drove in a steady state of growth". The study also highlighted that the motility, Calibre GP01800-0033, was developed from scratch, and designed to be as user-friendly as possible.

"Ease of employ on the new calibre is ensured past the fact that the date, calendar month and bound year indicator tin all exist adjusted using the crown, both backwards and frontward," it read. In some perpetual calendar watches, the indications take to be adjusted using a stylus-like corrector.

A Blog to Picket contributor Kenny Yeo couldn't help but notice how the punch resembled a smiley face, thanks to the layout of the indications. He was as well impressed by the relative svelteness of the example thickness (eleven.84mm) – "remarkable for a sports spotter with a perpetual calendar complication" – and by its decent water resistance rating (100m) – "making it a watch that you can truly and confidently take to the water".

HERMES
ARCEAU 78

Being a colonnade of Hermes's timepiece drove, it was only right that the Arceau receive a makeover for the model's 40th anniversary in 2018.

Also having its case enlarged to 40mm, the Arceau 78 too welcomed an aesthetic upgrade. As Crown Sentry Blog's Editor-in-Chief Alvin Wong wrote, "what really makes the Arceau 78 stand up out is the bead-blasted finish on the bezel and anthracite dial", although he would have "loved the scout fifty-fifty more if it came with an automatic movement".

Meanwhile, Watchesbysjx's Su wasn't too concerned past this feature. "Like the majority of Arceau models, the watch is powered past a fuss-free, Swiss-fabricated quartz motility," he remarked.

IWC
PILOT'South Watch

The globe's well-nigh influential watch publication, United states-based hodinkee.com, carried but one study of the pre-SIHH watches: IWC's Pilot's Watches. This quartet comprises the Double Chronograph Tiptop Gun Ceratanium; Chronograph Spitfire (Bronze); Timezoner Spitfire Edition "The Longest Flight"; and Constant-Force Tourbillon Edition "Le Petit Prince".

The new editions, said Hodinkee Senior Writer James Stacey, "show the latitude of technology, watchmaking, and style available in what is likely IWC's core product line". Of the four, the Double Chronograph Top Gun Ceratanium was the i he was "most interested to see" in real life.

Deployant gave a fairly detailed overview of the watches, making certain to highlight the make's technical firsts. For example, the Timezoner Spitfire Edition "The Longest Flying" is the first-ever IWC model to combine the patented Timezoner machinery with an entirely automatic IWC-manufactured motion.

For Watchesbysjx, the two Spitfire editions were the most pregnant, considering "all Spitfire watches will at present be equipped with in-house, or manufacture, movements [as opposed to stock ETA or Sellita movements]" – a motion enabled by the recent opening of a new manufacturing facility in Schaffhausen.

Su likewise noted that IWC is the chief sponsor behind Silver Spitfire – The Longest Flight, a round-the-globe flying involving a WWII-era Spitfire happening this summer.

JAEGER-LECOULTRE
MASTER ULTRA-THIN MOON ENAMEL

With cases just ten.4mm loftier or less, Jaeger-LeCoultre's Principal Ultra-Thin drove is impressive in its own right. But the focus of this new variant is on the punch ornament, specifically, the artistic traditions of guillochage (a blazon of engraving) and enamelling.

Deployant pointed out that "Jaeger-LeCoultre remains ane of the few Articles offering gem-setting, engraving, guillochage and enamelling at its workshops, artistic techniques that require delicate and subtle work", and that "the guilloche enamel… features a deep, intense midnight blueish which achieves perfect harmony with the example of this limited edition".

Singapore-based spotter authority Revolution also sang praises of the dial treatment. Editor-in-Chief Darren Ho wrote, "Rose engine turning is a special fine art… Just it's highly prized, every bit the mode it reflects and scatters light over the patterned surface creates a mesmerising visual outcome."

Crown Watch Blog'southward Managing Editor Melissa Kong summed up the full general sentiment: "While it's slender and sophisticated, what's most striking… is actually how gorgeous the punch looks. If Jaeger-LeCoultre's indicate was to bulldoze habitation its artistic capabilities, this model is correct on the money."

MONTBLANC
STAR LEGACY NICOLAS RIEUSSEC CHRONOGRAPH AND TIMEWALKER CHRONOGRAPH

For its pre-SIHH 2022 offering, Montblanc revisited and refreshed two pillar collections: Nicolas Rieussec and TimeWalker.

The Star Legacy Nicolas Rieussec Chronograph was updated with anthracite-coloured dials. And even though the lookout wears big with a diameter of 44.8mm and thickness of fifteen.02mm, Watchesbysjx'southward Cheryl Chia thought that the "rounded surfaces and curves go far seem less aggressively large compared to similarly sized chronographs."

As for the TimeWalker collection, which received two new chronograph models with contrary panda dials (white chronograph sub-dials on a black master dial), Chia described the pieces as having "retro-racing car vibes". While both watches appear like at a glance, the Automatic Chronograph is powered by a Sellita movement while the Manufacture Chronograph is driven by an in-house engine. And there are a host of subtle details that set the watches apart, all of which are dutifully noted by Chia.

PANERAI
SUBMERSIBLE CHRONO GUILLAUME NERY EDITION (PAM 982)

With a water resistance rating of 300m, the PAM 982 is made for French freediving champion Guillaume Nery.

A Blog to Watch Contributing Editor Zach Pina idea that the lookout man worked well from a design standpoint – "the striking blue tones and textures experience like a natural match to the source inspiration" – but felt that its flyback chronograph move didn't offer "whatsoever existent benefit to a freediver".

Watchesbysjx's Chia had no such bug. "Despite being a complicated dive watch, the Submersible Chrono is legible, thanks to its smart chronograph layout," she wrote.

PARMIGIANI FLEURIER
TORIC CAPITOLE AND TONDA METROPOLITAINE SELENE

Parmigiani Fleurier'south Toric Capitole defenseless the attending of Watchesbysjx's Su, while the Tonda Metropolitaine Selene constitute favour with the Deployant team.

Su observed that while the wandering hours mechanism used on the Toric Capitole isn't a new device, it'due south being put "on show for the commencement fourth dimension, instead of being subconscious underneath the dial". He also pointed out that although the intricate pattern on the dial is repeating, information technology's actually done by mitt, not with a car.

The handiwork plant on the Tonda Metropolitaine Selene, a ladies' watch with a moon stage indication, delighted the folks at Deployant too. "Decorative operations carried out by hand requite it a tangible and unique value," read the blog entry, in reference to the treatment of the rose gilt moon and its realistic craters.

PIAGET
ALTIPLANO TOURBILLON METEORITE

Although Monochrome Watches' Editor Rebecca Doulton felt that Piaget's Altiplano Tourbillon Meteorite wasn't an "globe-shattering novelty", she said information technology still had "a lot going for it".

She was impressed past how the watchmaker/jeweller fitted the meteorite dial into the ultra-sparse (vii.4mm-thick) case. "Cutting meteorite into wafer-thin slices is not the easiest of tasks", she observed, but "Piaget's background in gemstone cutting came in handy to whittle it down to size". Doulton too thought that the eccentric dial layout worked well, "giving the functions a kind of planetary/orbiting feel".

Watchesbysjx'due south Su gave some insight into the meteorite itself. "The meteorite used for picket dials is of the fe variety, made upwards by and large of iron and nickel. It's gray in its natural state, with a distinctive, streaky Widmanstatten pattern created by the nickel-iron crystals within. Atomic number 26 meteorite is usually etched with acrid to bring out the definition of the Widmanstatten pattern, and tin also be coloured, which is what Piaget has done," he wrote.

VACHERON CONSTANTIN
LES CABINOTIERS GRANDE COMPLICATION PHOENIX

Vacheron Constantin'southward Les Cabinotiers is a bespoke watchmaking department that creates mechanically and artistically intricate pieces for the well-heeled. This year's offer is a Grande Complexity lookout with xv complications (or functions), including a perpetual calendar and a minute repeater. It's housed in an elaborate case hand-engraved with a phoenix motif.

Crown Watch Weblog's Wong called it "a sentinel and so imperial that it deserves a mini palace of its own". He was blown away by both the complication of the movement (it has 602 parts) as well as by the beauty of the case, which takes 300 hours – that's around 2 months' work – to engrave.

The Deployant team was also full of adoration. Of the motility (Calibre 2755) and its 15 complications, the report said: "The watchmakers of the Les Cabinotiers department take succeeded in all-around all these functions within the limited space of the case by maximum miniaturisation of all components, while preserving their reliability."

The timepieces debuting at SIHH 2022 that have the industry buzzing

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