Thin
The general feeling of thin times has had its impact on watch design, and this was the year of the ultra-thin for Piaget with the release of the Altiplano 43mm in two versions: the 43mm Anniversary Edition with Calibre 1200P and the 43mm with Calibre 1208P. In fact so lean are these watches that they boast two world records: the world’s thinnest automatic movement at 2.35mm (calibre 1208P is also 2.35mm thick) and the world’s thinnest mechanical automatic watch at 5.25mm. The anniversary edition is available in a limited edition of 235, in honour of its world record thinness, but because these were launched at the start of the year your chances of now buying one are, well, slim.
The regular Altiplano 43mm will become a regular production watch for Piaget. Significantly, both movements are quite large, even if they are thin, at 13 1/4 lignes or 29.9mm, making them ideally suited to power the new Altiplanos in their contemporary sizes. At the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) Piaget confirmed that it was not interested in playing the vintage or retro card with the Altiplano collection. They mean for these watches to be wedded to the wrists of the contemporary man of elegance and taste.
Large
IWC Schaffhausen, has a long tradition of making watches for men and this year, IWC revamped the entire Portuguese line. Staying faithful to its tradition of being a reassuringly beefed up watch, the new Yacht Club Chronograph takes its design cues from contemporary yachts but the link with classic Portuguese watches has been preserved. Water-resistant to 6 bar, the Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph is powered by the rugged IWC-manufactured 89360-calibre movement and features a flyback function, quarter second scale and subdial with an analogue display for recorded times of longer than a minute. It comes in steel with a black or silver-coloured dial and in red gold with a slate-coloured dial and black subdials. Large watches are still very much in and there are examples too numerous to mention or show. Even Piaget’s ultra thin Altiplano measures a full 43mm in diameter so the era of the big watch is far from over.
Retro
Another strong trend that has emerged in recent years is that of brands investing in their own know-how, either to legitimise their watch making efforts, or sometimes to make up for a lack of history. This trend continues unabated and can be clearly seen from Cartier. We reported earlier this week (see: A Christmas for Cartier?) that the new Calibre de Cartier series will house only in-house Cartier-built movements, thus making it their only collection to feature this. That such an historic luxury brand places such high value on the idea of controlling one’s own destiny shows that brands with lesser histories are sure to follow.
