Jaeger-LeCoultre celebrates its 180th year with the Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon 3.

—ROBERTA NAAS, ATimelyPerspective.com

As mentioned on ATimelyPerspective.com a couple of days ago, Jaeger-LeCoultre celebrates its 180th anniversary this year, and as such it unveils the 10th watch in its Hybris Mechanica series of Grande complications—the Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon 3. The watch features a flying spherical tourbillon and—for the first time—an instantaneous digital display chronograph. It is, in fact, the masterpiece of the “Tribute to Antoine LeCoultre” Jubilee trilogy.

The absence of an upper bridge makes this watch mesmerizing. It is composed of two carriages, respectively rotating in one minute and 24 seconds—meaning 2.5 times a minute—and is accomplished not only thanks to the inventiveness of the engineers and watchmakers of the manufacture, but also to the use of cutting-edge equipment such as the five-axis machining center. Finally, ultra-light materials such as aluminium are all that would suffice to achieve the authentic micromechanical feat of an ensemble composed of just about 100 parts, yet weighing less than one gram.

This watch houses the new 592-part Jaeger-LeCoultre Caliber 176, built by the Grande Maison in the Vallée de Joux to combine gyrotourbillon with chronograph function. The Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon 3 Jubilee is also a single-push piece chronograph, further paying homage to the brand’s early years but deftly offering visionary, cutting-edge accomplishment. The new extra-white platinum case measures 43.5 mm in diameter and 15.5mm thick. Just 75 pieces of this complex power house will be built.

Founder and editor-in-chief of ATimelyPerspective.com, Roberta Naas is a veteran award-winning journalist in the watch industry with more than 25 years of experience. She was the first woman watch editor in the US market—breaking in to an “all boys network” with a pioneering spirit that would be her signature to this day. Naas brings responsible, factual—yet always timely and insightful—reporting of the watch industry to the forefront.

FROM LEFT: Franck Muller Heart Watch, $37,800. Cvstos Re-belle Heart, $8,200.

—ROBERTA NAAS, ATimelyPerspective.com

With Valentine’s Day just a couple of days away, think about the woman in your life and treat her to a gift that will remind her of you with every glance at the time. Here are a few interesting Valentine’s Day watches to consider.

Franck Muller has an entire heart collection that pays homage to love and women with a curved Cintree Curvex case. The ‘heart’ is the emblem of this fascinating multi-faceted line, with versions in silver, burgundy, and blue hues. The alligator strap matches the dial color for added elegance.

Cvstos also has a heart series of watches, with a heart-shaped aperture in the middle of the dial for viewing the finely finished movement. This watch brings a sense of function with the form.

Founder and editor-in-chief of ATimelyPerspective.com, Roberta Naas is a veteran award-winning journalist in the watch industry with more than 25 years of experience. She was the first woman watch editor in the US market—breaking in to an “all boys network” with a pioneering spirit that would be her signature to this day. Naas brings responsible, factual—yet always timely and insightful—reporting of the watch industry to the forefront.

Franck Muller Vintage 7-Days Power Reserve.

—ROBERTA NAAS, ATimelyPerspective.com

First shown to the world at the recent World Presentation of Haute Horlogerie & Jewellery in Monaco, the new Franck Muller Vintage (Curvex) 7-Days Power Reserve Mechanical wristwatch was the star of the Geneva Watchland exhibition thanks to its retro appeal and fine mechanics.

The 7-Days Power Reserve mechanical watch—with its 213-part movement—was entirely designed and manufactured in Geneva in the brand’s Genthod factory. Each brass arch is delicately decorated with Côtes de Genève stripes and each bearing is set with a bright red ruby. The movement features 27 rubies.

To achieve the seven days of power reserve, Franck Muller has equipped the movement with an extra barrel. The aperture at 11:00 displays the amount of power left at any given time. The Vintage 7-Days Power Reserve is being built in limited numbers in both 18-karat pink gold for $23,200 and in stainless steel for $13,700—each watch features a sapphire caseback to view the finely finished movement.

Founder and editor-in-chief of ATimelyPerspective.com, Roberta Naas is a veteran award-winning journalist in the watch industry with more than 25 years of experience. She was the first woman watch editor in the US market—breaking in to an “all boys network” with a pioneering spirit that would be her signature to this day. Naas brings responsible, factual—yet always timely and insightful—reporting of the watch industry to the forefront.

FROM LEFT: Hamilton's Jazzmaster Viewmatic; Hamilton's Khaki X-Patrol.

In the upcoming film, A Good Day to Die Hard (February 14), Bruce Willis’ character John McClane introduces the world to a brand-new Hamilton watch—the Jazzmaster Viewmatic—while his co-star Jai Courtney, who plays McClane’s estranged son Jack, sports the new Khaki X-Patrol. Both watches represent Hamilton’s commitment to Swiss precision mechanics and innovative American design.

The Khaki X-Patrol ($1,695) provides both metric and imperial units on a unique conversion table, making it ideal for any jetsetter or, as the case may be for the McClanes, international spy catchers. The 42mm watch comes with a stainless steel case, black and silver dial, a black-stitched leather and rubber band, and water resistance up to 100m. Meanwhile, the Jazzmaster Viewmatic ($795), more closely resembles Hamilton’s classic wristwatches with a 45mm stainless steel case, automatic movement, and a luxurious brown-stitched leather band.

This latest collaboration is one of many instances in which Hamilton has graced the silver screen. When Willis played McClane in the previous Die Hard film, Live Free or Die Hard, he also sported a Hamilton timepiece. Watches from the brand have also played supporting roles on the wrists of actors in movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey, I Am Legend, and Men In Black.

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Jaeger-LeCoultre’s newest Reverso pieces with mother-of-pearl dials. One of the newest Metiers d’art watches for women from Vacheron Constantin. Richard Mille’s new world time watch. Cartier’s Mysterieuse Tourbillon timepiece.

With SIHH 2013—the 23rd edition of this luxury by-invitation-only watch show—now over, it is important to note several key trends that emerged with the unveiling of the newest timepieces. The watches shown in Geneva during the fair last week will make their way to the market—and to discerning wrists around the globe—beginning in summer and on through the fall.

Women’s watches – including a healthy dose of women’s mechanical watches—and bravo to that! It is high time that the brands give women their due and offer them mechanical masterpieces. Women’s watches were the highlight of several brands’ unveilings, with Piaget creating an entire new women’s watch collection and with Vacheron Constantin leading the pack with an exclusively female watch unveiling of magnificent scope.

Métiers d’Arts – including a wealth of stunning new artistic dial treatments ranging from mosaics, to wood marquetry, enamel mixed with sculpture and more. This year promises to be the most artistically advanced in dials ever.
 
Multi-timers and perpetual calendars – yes, for those who travel the world (or like to say they do), dual-,  multi-time zone watches and GMTs are more prevalent than ever. Add to that a wealth of perpetual calendar watches emerging and we have a traveler’s delight.

Haute horlogerie at its finest – it is the year for traditional watchmaking in the highest form, as several brands unveil multi- and even Grand Complication watches—with A. Lange & Sohne strutting a $2.4 million watch and Audemars Piguet releasing a Grand Comp in titanium. Additionally, other brands continue in their quest to finely hone the art of high horology.

Stay tuned this week for other exciting new pieces from the show on atimelyperspective.com.

LEFT: Piaget’s Emperador Coussin Minute Repeater. RIGHT: The watch’s inner workings.

Piaget—the master of ultra-thin calibers—now releases the automatic Emperador Coussin Ultra-Thin Minute Repeater. Although it’s thin (setting another double record for the brand thanks to its slender 4.8mm caliber and 9.4mm case), it packs powerful sound. Made entirely in-house in Piaget’s two Manufactures, the new 1290P caliber represents the fourth major complication developed by Piaget (which boasts 11 major complications among its 35 in-house developed movements). The movement was, in fact, in the development stages for three years, with six engineers dedicated to bringing it to fruition.

Developed on the basis of Caliber 1200P (the world’s thinnest automatic movement), the 1290P houses an amazing 407 parts—a mind-blowing number that demanded exceptional miniaturization and a refusal to compromise on the sound or on technical reliability. A daunting feat indeed, that called for each part to be skillfully thought out and shaped. Some components measure as little as 0.07 mm. The microrotor is designed in platinum to guarantee the best possible winding power within a minimum thickness.

In celebration of over 120 years of timekeeping, iconic American watch brand Hamilton offers the Khaki Navy Pioneer Limited Edition as a nod to the brand’s classic marine chronometers made in the 1940s. To honor the year Hamilton was founded, there are 1,892 numbered pieces in the collection ($2,950), each housed in a Pará rubber tree wooden box to echo the packaging of the original marine chronometers.

Although American in design, Hamilton’s Khaki Navy Pioneer Limited Edition boasts Swiss-made, hand-winding movement to power the watch, with water resistance up to 100 meters. The style is equally reminiscent of the original watches, but still modern, with ocean-blue hands, a velvety-silver dial, a stainless steel case at 46.5mm, and a patterned bezel.

The timepiece also features a stainless steel cradle to transform it into a table-clock, or a brown-stitched leather band to serve as a wrist adornment. For a complete list of stores or for more information, see hamiltonwatch.com.

In a truly advanced mode, Omega unveiled its newest technology: the creation of a watch that is resistant to magnetic fields greater than 1.5 tesla (15,000 gauss), far exceeding the levels of magnetic resistance achieved by any previous watch, and solving a problem that has challenged watchmakers for centuries. It was in the early 1930s that watch brands developed soft inner iron cases for their pilot's watches to fight the effects of magnetism that would render the watch useless in magnetic fields.

Since then, strides have been made in this arena, but Omega pulls out all the stops with this watch. The new movement was introduced yesterday in Geneva by Omega’s top executives and heads of development, research and engineering. The technology developed by the team of scientist, metallurgists, engineers, and watchmakers, led to the first prototype of the movement, which has been fitted in an OMEGA Seamaster Aqua Terra.

Unlike other efforts to combat the effects of magnetism, the OMEGA movement does not rely on a protective container inside the watchcase, but instead relies on the use of selected non-ferrous materials in the movement itself. Several patents are pending for the new movement.

Magnets are now more present in our daily lives than they have ever been. Watchmakers have to deal regularly with the issue of magnetism, as it is necessary for them to demagnetize mechanical watches whose performance has been compromised by exposure to magnetic fields, a problem that will be solved with the new movement. The new movement, the OMEGA Co-Axial calibre 8508, should be introduced to the market in 2013.

Combining its strengths—sophisticated haute horlogerie and high-tech sports watchmaking—Panerai now unveils the limited-edition PAM 530 Luminor 1950 Rattrapante 8 Days Titanio. The split-seconds chronograph is built with a vertical clutch and two column wheels to operating two hands—superimposed and partially independent—to measure partial times or a second event simultaneously with the first event. To make it easier to read, the hand of the small minute counter moves in jumps instead of continuously. The dial features two superimposed disks with a layer of SuperLuminova between them for better underwater visibility—a hallmark of Panerai since the 1930s.

The hand-wound P.2006 movement is built in the Officine Panerai Manufacture in Neuchatel according to the strictest standards of excellence. It offers eight days of power reserve made possible by a special patented system of three spring barrels. The indicator is linear and depicts the remaining power reserve above 6:00. The rugged 47mm case is created of titanium and is fitted with Panerai’s lever device to hermetically seal the winding crown—ensuring 100 meter water resistance. The caseback is sapphire to allow viewing of the movement.

LEFT: The stunning dial of the Saxonia Automatic. RIGHT: Back of the Saxonia Automatic.

Recently, on a three-continent tour with A. Lange & Sohne to witness its newest boutique openings, I had the amazing opportunity to spend the week with the Ladies Saxonia Automatic on my wrist. This watch is beautiful—simply, elegantly, comfortably beautiful.

The 18-karat pink gold watch houses Lange manufacture caliber L086.4 self-winding movement with 209 parts and 31 jewels. Made of untreated German silver, the movement is lavishly and meticulously hand engraved—and visible via the sapphire case back. This proved to be a slight problem for watch-loving me, who kept wanting to take the watch off and look at the movement. It offers 72 hours of power reserve when fully wound and that was just fine—as this was a watch I didn’t want to take off my wrist.

From the dial side, the watch is equally as beautiful thanks to the soft-hued pink gold, meticulously set with diamonds on the case and featuring a solid silver white tint faced with mother-of-pearl dial. The watch has a very legible sub-seconds dial with stop seconds on it, and—thanks to the movement and the great Lange & Sohne craftsmanship—it runs like a dream. Beautifully appointed with a hand-stitched white croco strap, the watch is fantastic for day wear and night wear! It retails for $43,100.