0024watchworld.com

The SIHH is just finished (in our upcoming issue you will find a huge SIHH special) and we’re already looking forward to BaselWorld 2012, that will take place from 8 till 15 March. One of the first pre-Basel novelties that needs to be in the spotlights (or not, because the watch likes darkness…) is the TechnoMarine Night Vision: a watch with a high Superluminova-level.

The Superwatch Award of the Geneva Time Exhibition (GTE), held this month at the Espace Hippomène in Geneva, was divided this time into two categories: Design and Movement. A jury, consisting Geoffroy Ader (Sotheby’s), Elizabeth Doerr (journalist), Axel Kufus (professor of watchmaking), Anders Modig (Plaza Watch) and Jean-Marc Wiederrecht (Agenhor) selected the following winners.

Jaeger-LeCoultre boss Jerome Lambert told me last year that he expects the industry to concentrate more and more on ultra high-end collectors’ pieces with six-figure prices and ultra-limited production runs – such is the importance of super-collectors with the spending power to help brands ride out economic storms. According to people I spoke to, the upper echelon collectors at SIHH were happy with what they saw.

Open worked and skeletonised watches are hardly a new phenomenon, but a striking number of brands were taking this route at SIHH. Most noticeably, Audemars Piguet celebrated 40 years of the Royal Oak watch with a skeletonised, extra-thin version of its design classic and a very smart skeletonised tourbillon model, both in platinum – limited editions of 40 watches each. Meanwhile Piaget continued its slimline odyssey with the world’s thinnest ever skeletonised automatic watch, the Altiplano Automatic Skeleton.