On September 17 the Musée International d’Horlogerie (MIH) in La Chaux-de-Fonds will present the Gaïa Award to individuals who have advancedwatchmaking through their work and achievements in three categories.
For 2020, the awards will be presented to:
—Antoine Preziuso (winner in the Craftsmanship, Creation category) for his “systematic approach to mechanical watchmaking in his exceptional creations and his perseverance in developing his brand and his dedication to sharing his passion.”
Antoine Preziuso
— Denis Savoye (winner in the History, Research category) “for his exceptional career as a theorist, historian and builder of sundials.”
Denis Savoie
— Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei (winners in the Entrepreneurship category) for “the pioneering role their company (Urwerk) has played in defining watchmaking in the 21st century watchmaking.
Martin Frei (left) and Felix Baumgartner
The public ceremony (entry only with prior registration due to the health measures) will take place September 17 at the Musée international d’horlogerie (MIH) in La Chaux-de-Fonds.
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— and who continue to contribute — to the reputation of watchmaking – through its history, its technology and its industry.
New talent
In addition to the three award categories, the MIH also presents the Horizon Gaïa, an incentive grant for ongoing work made possible by the Watch Academy Foundation to encourage new talent.
The Museum of Horology in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.
The 2020 Horizon Gaïa incentive grant has been awarded to Zoé Snijders, who is taking her Master’s in Conservation-Restoration for technical, scientific and watchmaking instruments at the Haute École Arc in Neuchâtel. Her knowledge means she will be able to understand a mechanism as complex as the Delvart astronomical clock, an object that combines science with belief, history and watchmaking expertise, and which entered the MIH collections in 2015. Snijders will study the origin, symbolism and operation of the clock, with the aim of raising its profile among the museum’s visitors.
Eight years after Seiko debuted its GPS-connected, light-powered Astron, the Tokyo-based watchmaker launches a new Astron dedicated to Seiko’s founder Kintaro Hattori. The new Seiko Astron GPS Solar Kintaro Hattori 160th Anniversary watch commemorates Hattori with a special sixteen-facet zirconia ceramic bezel, representing one facet for each decade since Hattori’s birth.
The new Seiko Astron GPS Solar Kintaro Hattori 160th Anniversary Limited Edition.
This latest Astron, powered by the GPS-controlled Caliber 5X53, is a dual timer with automatic high-speed timezone adjustment (including Daylight Savings Time) while traveling in any time zone, with accuracy to 15 seconds per month even without receiving the GPS signal. The watch’s 42.8mm case and bracelet are made of titanium with a scratch-resistant coating. The watch’s dark hue, accented in gold, is meant to honor Seiko’s heritage.
Seiko has placed Hattori’s name and three reminders of his legacy on the case back, including the trademark “S” that he registered in 1900. His motto “One step ahead of the rest” appears above it near the name Seiko, which the company first used in 1924.
Seiko is offering the watch, a limited edition of 2,500, in a presentation box with a commemorative “S” mark badge and includes a card carrying a message from Kintaro’s great-grandson and the company’s current Chairman & CEO, Shinji Hattori.
The Seiko Astron GPS Solar Kintaro Hattori 160th Anniversary Limited Edition will be available in October, the month of Kintaro’s birth, at Seiko Boutiques and at selected retail partners worldwide. Price: $3,900.
Specifications: Seiko Astron GPS Solar Kintaro Hattori 160th Anniversary Limited Edition (Limited edition of 2,500)
Movement: Caliber 5X53 GPS controlled time and time zone adjustment, dual-time with AM/PM indication, perpetual calendar correct to Feb 2100 , automatic DST adjustment, high speed time zone adjustment , time transfer function , signal reception result indication, world time function (39 time zones), power save function. Accuracy: ±15 seconds per month (without receiving a GPS signal and at temperatures between 5°C and 35°C)
Case: 42.8mm x 15.6 mm titanium case with super-hard black coating zirconia ceramic bezel, dual-curved sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating, water resistance to 200 meters, magnetic resistance to 4,800 A/m,
Bracelet: Titanium with three-fold clasp with push button release. A crocodile strap is also included.
Ulysse Nardin this week refreshes its Executive Dual Time with a slightly smaller case, reduced lug size, thinner bezel and a decidedly cleaner dial. This new, dressier version, however, retains the watchmaker’s instant second-time-zone display adjustment, a feature Ulysse Nardin debuted in 1994 well ahead of just about any other manufacturer.
Ulysse Nardin’s system, still among the simplest available, allows the user to adjust the local time hour hand forward or backward (in one-hour increments) with the touch of the “+” and “-” pushers located opposite the crown. The ‘dual time’ window will continue to display the hour at the wearer’s home. The date adjusts automatically with the local time as indicated by the hands, though it can also be adjust manually using the crown.
Subdued dial
Now in the same case as the newly prominent Skeleton X models, the new Dual Time presents a more subdued dial, with several alterations, when compared with the previous version. The new case also measures 42mm in diameter, a bit smaller when compared to the earlier collection’s 43mm measurement.
First, smaller Roman numerals at the twelve, three, six and nine o’clock locations no longer dominate the dial as they do on existing models. In addition, Ulysse Nardin has moved the watch’s seconds markers from the rectangular track in the dial’s center to the inner bezel. And finally, the ‘dual time’ text no longer circles the round home time display, but more simply abuts it on two lines.
Ulysse Nardin’s Caliber 24, which combines the brand’s superb dual-time module to an upgraded ETA base caliber, is visible through the exhibition case back. Look for a new oscillating weight with a prominent, encircled UN logo Ulysse Nardin through the sapphire back.
Ulysse Nardin is offering the new Dual Time in either a rose gold case with a blue dial or a stainless steel case with a blue or a black dial. All are water resistant to fifty meters and each piece is individually numbered. Prices: $22,800 (Rose gold), $8,300 (black or blue dial, steel case).
Movement: Caliber UN-24 (UN module on ETA base), patented quickset second time (home) display at 9 o’clock, patented Big Date display, small seconds-hand counter. Power reserve is 42 hours.
Dial: Black or blue with home time at 9 o’clock, large date
Frederique Constant this week brings back its Highlife collection, one of the Geneva watchmaker’s earliest lines, updated with an integrated steel bracelet and a contemporary dial design. The watchmaker debuts the newly returned collection with three new models: The Highlife Perpetual Calendar Manufacture, Highlife Heart Beat and Highlife Automatic COSC.
One model from Frederique Constant’s new Highlife Perpetual Calendar Manufacture collection.
All three new Highlife models display the same 41mm case as the original collection from 1999, but the new dials feature a globe design that the Geneva brand says is “intended to unify the collection and symbolize the Earth, harmony, and perfection of the circle.”
While not Frederique Constant’s first integrated bracelet, these Highlife debuts mark a premiere of a newer, interchangeable bracelet that allows the wearer to swap the bracelet without additional tools by pressing on the two pushpins at the end of the bracelet or strap to disconnect it from the case and click a new one into place.
Versatility is a focus here. Each watch will come with an additional leather strap and a rubber strap, and Frederique Constant is also offering a set of three additional crocodile calf suede straps in brown, blue, and black (purchased separately).
Perpetual Calendar
When it made its first perpetual calendar four years ago, Frederique Constant stuck to its mission of offering a high value-to-price ratio across all its collections. That premier Slimline Perpetual Calendar model wowed collectors and critics alike with its thin Caliber FC-775 movement, attractive dial layout and a double-take price (less than $9,000 for the steel-cased model).
With this latest example, the Highlife Perpetual Calendar Manufacture, Frederique Constant’s continues that mission. The watchmaker’s starts with that in-house FC-775 perpetual calendar caliber and places in the newly integrated steel case/bracelet, fronted by the globe design on the dial.
As with previous examples, the new Highlife Perpetual Calendar Manufacture features three counters: day at 9 o’clock, month and leap year at 12 o’clock, date at 3 o’clock and moon phase at 6 o’clock. The watch’s polished hands and all the index hour markers are topped with a luminescent material.
Frederique Constant is making three different variations of the watch. One (pictured above) offers a very cool two-tone style that combines steel and rose gold plating on the bezel, bracelet, and crown. For added luxury you’ll also get a textured black rubber strap with a rose gold-plated buckle.
The second version features a blue dial with silver hands and index hour markers and comes with a blue rubber strap and a steel pin buckle. The third version comes with a white dial, silver index hour markers, a black leather strap and a black rubber strap. Prices start at $9,095.
Open Heart
The new Highlife Heart Beat collection revisits this brand’s initial ‘iconic’ design.
When it debuted in 1994, the Heart Beat was only serially produced non-skeleton Swiss-made collection that boasted an open dial, displaying the automatic caliber’s escape wheel at the 12 o’clock position. Frederique Constant kicked off a design trend with that original Heartbeat collection, and today regrets the fact that it never protected the initial design, an error the brand says was “rooted in the brand’s youthful inexperience.”
From the new Frederique Constant Highlife Heart Beat collection.
The new versions retain that open window into the movement at the top of the dial, which here appears at the pole position on the globe dial design. Portions of the automatic Sellita-based FC-310 caliber are visible from both front and back through the sapphire crystal.
This Highlife Heart Beat model offers a variation with a rose gold-plated case and a white dial, set with a brown leather strap and shipped with a rubber strap in the same shade.
The new Highlife Heart Beat is now available in three different steel versions. The first offers a white dial and rose gold-plated case with only a brown leather strap and a brown rubber strap. The second features a blue dial with a steel bracelet, complemented by a blue rubber strap and the third features a black dial with a steel case and bracelet and arrives with a black rubber strap. Prices start at $1,995.
As the first COSC-certified watch from Frederique Constant, the new Highlife Automatic COSC (Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute) echoes the original Highlife collection from 1999.
A two-tone model from Frederique Constant’s new Highlife Automatic COSC collection.
The simplest design of the new globe-dial Highlife collection, this time-only series combines the hands seen on the Heart Beat and the date from the Perpetual Calendar Manufacture, but powers them both with its automatic Sellita-based Caliber FC-310.
Look for four models: one with a two-tone steel bracelet and a white dial, one with a steel bracelet and a blue dial, and a model with a black leather strap and a white dial. The fourth design offers a variation with a rose gold-plated case and a black dial, all set with a brown leather strap and shipped with a rubber strap in the same shade. Prices start at $1,895.
H. Moser’s new Streamliner Centre Seconds, the second model from the independent Swiss brand’s integrated steel Streamliner collection, focuses on timekeeping basics by displaying simple hours, minutes and seconds. But echoing so many H. Moser debuts, the real eye-catcher is the stunning fumé dial, here in “Matrix Green.”
The H. Moser Streamliner Centre Seconds
The dial appears to glow, framed within its brushed steel 40mm case that links ever so smoothly to the matching steel bracelet – with no sign of a lug.
To reach that integrated ergonomic end zone, H. Moser extends a carefully curved bracelet atop the wrist directly into the case. Not only does it feels smooth on the wrist with articulated, gently waving links, the bracelet looks resplendent with its vertically brushed and polished finishing.
H.Moser explains that its rounded curves required the Streamliner’s designers to hollow out the case middle, satin-finish the sides and then alternately brush and polish surfaces throughout.
Any watch named Streamliner needs to have a domed sapphire crystal, which H. Moser wisely uses to top the Centre Seconds. Under that subtly curved dome you’ll find unusual hands (including a curved minute hand) formed with inserts made from Globolight, a ceramic-based material that features SuperLuminova.
Inside this H. Moser Streamliner Centre Seconds model is the watchmaker’s own automatic HMC 200 caliber. The movement is equipped with a regulating organ manufactured by H. Moser & Cie.’s sister company, Precision Engineering AG. Nicely decorated by H. Moser with its brand-developed double stripe décor, the caliber also stands out from other with a gold oscillating weight. Price: $21,900.
Specifications: H. Moser Streamliner Centre Seconds, Reference 6200-1200
Movement: HMC 200 self-winding caliber, frequency of 21,600 Vph, automatic bi-directional pawl winding system, 18-karat gold oscillating weight engraved with the H. Moser hallmark, power reserve of 3 days, original StraumannHairspring, finish with Moser stripes.
Case: 40mm by 9.9mm steel topped by a gently domed sapphire crystal, see-through case back, screw-in crown adorned with an “M”, water-resistant to 120 meters.
Dial: Matrix Green fumé with sunburst pattern, applique indices, hour and minute hands with Globolightinserts.
Bracelet: Integrated steel bracelet, folding clasp with three steel blades, engraved with the Moser logo.
