Hublot unveils the MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System Titanium, the watchmaker’s tenth Manufacture Piece (MP) and a technical standout among a wide-ranging set of debuts for the Swiss watchmaker during LVMH Watch Week.
The new Hublot MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System Titanium.
Additional debuts include a colorful green model within Hublot’s Unico Saxem series, new yellow and light blue Orlinsky tourbillon models, two new Big Bang Integrated time-only ceramic models and a host of Spirit of Big Bang gem-set watches.
No Hands
Continuing the avant-garde focus of the MP series, the MP-10 shows the time without hands, instead indicating hours and minutes via an aluminum roller display built directly within a linear movement.
Seconds are shown directly on the tourbillon case on the lower section of the dial. All three of these primary indicators utilize the same white lacquer typography and red triangular marker.
A fourth indicator displays the state of the watch’s 48-hour power reserve. This is shown with red and green disc.
Hublot powers the automatic movement and its 35-degree-inclined tourbillon via two linear weights, one of either side of the movement.
Hublot explains that its watchmakers have developed a patent-pending system of shock absorbers for these weights in order to wind the movement bidirectionally.
In addition to its automatic system, the MP-10 can be wound manually by rotating the crown at 12 o’clock. The time is set using a second crown on the case-back.
Hublot notes that while the two-piece titanium case (54.1 mm by 41.5mm by 22.4mm)is relatively straight-forward, the sapphire crystal that sits on top is the watchmaker’s most complex yet as it combines inclined planes on three axes. The same applies to the integrated rubber strap, which Hublot calls “the most refined ever designed by the Manufacture.”
Price: $264,000. Hublot is offering the MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System Titanium as a limited edition of fifty watches.
Zenith unveilsboutique editions of its existing Pilot Automatic and Pilot Big Date Flyback watches, both of which feature the brilliant blue dials we’ve seen on previous Zenith boutique-only launches.
The new Zenith Pilot Automatic, Boutique Edition
These latest models give a new look to two of Zenith’s top 2023 debuts. Each highlights the watchmaker’s signature sky blue hue as rendered on textured, grooved dials meant to recall the corrugated metal sheets of vintage aircraft. Both watches also sport the word Pilot on the dial, which Zenith notes is an especially significant detail. That’s because only Zenith holdstherightstomarkitsdialswiththeterm.
Zenith makes one of the two new watches, thePilot Automatic Boutique Edition, witha 40mm stainless steel case that features a distinctive flat-top round bezel, which complements the watch’s satin-brushed, rounded case.
Above the date window you’ll see a luminescent hour marker in the form of a flat white line. This detail is meant to recall the artificial horizon instrument in plane’s cockpit.
The new 42.5mm Zenith Pilot Big Date Flyback, Boutique Edition.
As the second of the new boutique-only watches, the new 42.5mm Pilot Big Date Flyback BoutiqueEdition offers a monotone sky-blue big date wheels to match the dial. More complicated with its flyback function, the watch’s namesake display that, combined with its large crown, was originally made for pilots who wore thick sheepskin gloves.
The flybackfunction allows the chronograph to be reset to zero and restarted by a single push of abutton, simplifying the pilot’s operations and offering the possibility to record consecutive timeswithouthavingtostopandrestart.
From the back of the Pilot Big Date Flyback the wearer can eye an El Primero 3652 chronograph caliber with its “artificial horizon” rotor visible. (See below for all technical specifications).
Zenith fits the watch onabluerubberstrap and also provides abrowncalfskin strap. All the straps come with an integrated quick-release mechanism for easyswappingwithouttools.
Prices: $7,500 (Pilot Automatic) and $11,500 (Pilot Big Date Flyback), both available in Zenith physical and online boutiques.
Keypoints:AutomaticElPrimerocolumn-wheelchronographwithflybackfunction.PatentedBig Date at 6 o’clock. Instantaneous Big Date jump in 0.007 sec (0.02 for discs jump &stabilization).FullInterchangeablestrapsystem.BoutiquesEdition.
Chronoswiss adds two new dial hues to its Flying Regulator Night & Day collection.Each steel-case limited edition offers its own artistic interpretation of the ongoing 41mm Chronoswiss regulator-dial collection, which emphasizes a large central minute hand set atop smaller hour and seconds indicators. The Night & Day editions add a specialized, artisanal day/night subdial at the 9 o’clock position.
The new Chronoswiss Flying Regulator Night & Day Midnight.
This dark blue version is meant to echo a dark night sky and is accented with a three-dimensional day/night display adorned with laser-cut stars.
These stars, created with a generous dollop of SuperLumiNova, shine with notable intensity in the evening.
The new Chronoswiss Flying Regulator Night & Day Whiteout.
On the other hand, or wrist in this case, the new Flying Regulator Night & Day Whiteout echoes a daytime scene, specifically a meteorological ‘whiteout’ where the horizon blends with the sky.
Chronoswiss has also crafted an artisanal guilloché dial for this watch, here meant to recall this natural whiteout phenomenon.
As noted, both new watches retain the quite distinctive Chronoswiss regulator dial layout with notably separate hour and seconds rings. The three-dimensional dials within this series show off the ETA-basedChronoswiss caliber C.296 automatic movement via an opening in the small seconds subdial.
Of course, the movement is also visible through the sapphire caseback, a wristwatch feature Chronoswiss pioneered in the 1980s.
Chronoswiss is offering each debut as a limited edition of fifty watches.
Frederique Constant celebrates its thirty-fifth anniversary and the fifteenth anniversary of its Manufacture tourbillon with a limited-edition version of its Manufacture Highlife Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar.
The new Frederique Constant Manufacture Highlife Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar.
The Geneva-based watchmaker will release thirty-five examples of the new 41mm by 12.65mm pink gold watch.
With a contemporary design, the watch melds both of its namesake technical complications within a blue dial, carefully adapting the upper half the tourbillon aperture to fit alongside the calendar displays.
This shape differs from the classically round aperture found within the watchmaker’s existing tourbillon models.
On the dial you’ll find the day, date and month indications at the 12 o’clock, 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock positions. Each shows its indication with a hand, though the month/years display (at the 12 o’clock position) requires two hands. In addition to the month hand, another hand indicates leap years.
Frederique Constant’s characteristic Highlife globe pattern subtly underpins the watch’s dial, complete with map-like meridians and parallels. Each dial sector is finished slightly differently in either satin or sunburst patterns to enhance readability.
Frederique Constant’s own tourbillon regulator is fit with the watch’s seconds hand, which rotates just above the balance wheel, a series of blued screws and a gold-finished baseplate. Artisans engrave each plate with the watch’s individual serial number.
The movement here is Frederique Constant’s own FC-975 Manufacture caliber, which the watchmaker decorates with circular grained and Côtes de Genève finishes. The movement boasts a 38-hour power reserve and water resistance to 30 meters.
Frederique Constant supplies the watch with interchangeable leather and rubber straps, allowing its owner to easily switch between traditional and sportierlooks.
Movement: FC-975 in-house automatic caliber, perpetual calendar, tourbillon, 38-hour power reserve, 28,800 alt/h.
Case: 41mm by 12.65mm brushed and polished rose gold three-part with
scratch-resistant and anti-reflective convex sapphire crystal. See-through case back. Water-resistant to 30 meters.
Dial: Blue with matte finishing and globe pattern embossed in the center, rose gold plated applied indexes filled with white luminous treatment, rose-gold-plated hour and minute hands filled with white luminous treatment, date counter with rose-gold-plated hand. Heart Beat opening at 6 o’clock with 60-seconds tourbillon, rose-gold-plated seconds hand, day counter at 9 o’clock with rose-gold-plated hand. Month and (leap) year counter at 12 o’clock with rose gold plated hands.
Strap: Navy blue alligator leather with nubuck finishing. Also included: additional navy blue rubber strap.
Throughout history watches and clocks have been designed to show the passage of time in a variety of ways beyond the current time. Think of the various functions for elapsed time, moon phase, sunrise, sunset, dual time, world time, countdown timers and tides. These movements and mechanisms have evolved to frenetically slice time into thinner and thinner segments striving for split-second accuracy.
With his own perspective, Israel-based Itay Noy uses modern mechanical technology to slow us down. With a longer view of the time continuum, Noy’s latest watch, Seven-Day Cycle, encourages us to visualize where each day resides in the longer scope of the week and in your own daily progression through time. Two companion models in the collection, Rest Day and Shabbat, fill out the full Seven-Day Cycle series with equally intriguing approaches to traditional timekeeping.
Three watches in the Itay Noy Seven Day Cycle series. At top is Shabbat, with Seven-Day Cycle (left) and Rest Day (right).
I first met Itay Noy many years ago at the Basel Fair. His small and unassuming display at the back of Hall 5 was nothing impressive – merely a vitrine with his early models that looked nothing like watches I had seen before.
I stopped and met with Itay and was as impressed by his enthusiasm and belief in his own vision as I was of his unusual take on timekeeping. While I’m typically skeptical of success for most new brands, his firm belief in himself and his designs led me to consider that Itay Noy had a better-than-average chance of surviving in the challenging and crowded field of watch brands.
More than twenty years later Itay Noy has not only survived but continues to thrive by evoking his own timekeeping designs hand-built in Israel in very small volumes – with dials and functions inspired by both secular and religious dogma.
The Seven-Day Cycle watch (below) reveals the weekdays on the dial with the seventh day as Sunday.
The Rest Day model.
“Instead of a single window revealing the traditional names of weekdays, I skeletonized all weekdays on the dial as numeric values (first day, second day and so on) and the seventh day as a rest day,” Itay Noy says of Rest Day.
“Each day will be highlighted in turn. Each watch can be personalized to the owner’s faith or preferences simply by choosing any day of the week as his (or her) rest day.”
The Shabbat watch from the Seven-Day Cycle series.
On the Shabbat watch, find the Hebrew weekdays on the dial and the seventh day is Shabbat. Each day will be highlighted in turn. In addition, each day a new Hebrew letter will appear in the small window at 6 o’clock and together complete the sentence: “God finished the work he has done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had; (Genesis 2:2).
This shape differs from the classically round aperture found within the watchmaker’s existing tourbillon models.
