FROM THE EDITORS Letters + Events
This impressive GMT
Quadruple Tourbillon from
Greubel Forsey debuted in
late March.
Michael Thompson
INNOVATION AND NOVELTY
Editor-in-Chief | [email protected]
ven before our trip to Baselworld, we’ve seen a good deal of healthy innovation in 2019 within our world of watches. And
there’s no reason to expect this small but potent tide to only rise as the year progresses.
During the past few months, we’ve seen forward-thinking watchmakers present watches that utilize materials and
techniques novel within horology, creating new types of watchcases, unusual escapements, super long power reserves and at
least one freaky oscillator.
E
WITHIN THE SAME TIME FRAME, OTHERS HAVE
DOUBLED DOWN on using high-tech carbon and dramati-
cally-cut-and-colored sapphire to construct cases we’ve only
dreamed about in decades past.
One maker, Richard Mille, sweetened the mix with a full
collection called Bonbon that takes advantage of the company’s
own existing technical innovation and coats it with complex
layers of confection.
Inside and outside the halls of SIHH 2019 we generally saw
a wave of new perpetual calendars and a host of watches with
interesting moonphase displays. Also notable: schools of salmon
dials swimming upstream amid a much larger sea of new green
and blue dials. In addition, watchmakers debuted more mete-
orite dials than we’ve seen in previous years. Enamel dials and
vividly engraved dials also were more numerous in 2019, with
many the focus of special editions.
Inside this issue of International Watch you’ll find examples
6 | INTERNATIONAL WATCH | SPRING 2019
of each type of innovation noted above. We scoured the recent
Geneva debuts and present our findings throughout this issue,
along with just a few last-minute 2019 previews (including a first-
ever collection for women from MB&F and an
impressive GMT Quadruple Tourbillon from Greubel Forsey,
(pictured above).
We plan, as usual, to keep you informed about all the inter-
esting debuts we find at Baselworld and elsewhere on our
various online channels as well as in our next print issue. If the
first few months of 2019 are any indication of what’s in store, we
expect to be quite busy detailing much more technical innova-
tion for your wrist.
Regards,