Another Baselworld has passed, and it left us with new collections and timepieces to pine after. One such watch is the Art Deco–inspired DeWitt’s Twenty-8-Eight Regulator ASW Horizons. The title, “Horizons,” comes from Bel Geddes’s 1932 book, which became a reference for creative minds of his generation. Present in the timepiece is the already well-known caliber DW 8014, automatic tourbillon, made up of 320 components. Horizons pays tribute to New York Art Deco, specifically, and the bustling city of the 1930s. On that theme, the dial showcases a buildinglike structure made up of four columns that lead to the innovative tourbillon.
This year, Harry Winston also focused on tourbillon complication, with Histoire de Tourbillon 2, a follow-up to the 2009 collection of rare timepieces. This series comes in a limited edition of 20 timepieces, featuring a biaxial flying tourbillon. The watch also reinterprets how we tell time. The seconds are at nine o’clock, the hours with day and night indication are at two o’clock, and minutes fall at six o’clock. Each time display is isolated in its own case and on its own level. It’s not only innovative, but monumental, with its diameter measuring in at 48.5mm. That is some serious time-telling.
Jaquet Droz paid tribute to its Grande Seconde with the Troubillon J013034240. A round white-gold case features a Grand Feu enameled dial adorned with a Côtes de Genève. The tourbillon carriage is made out of sapphire crystal, a material used for the brand’s signature figure 8, as well. Combining the inventive of sapphire crystal usage and the traditional enameling puts this watch squarely between avant-garde watchmaking and classical craftsmanship, something we have come to love and expect from Jaquet Droz.
Switching gears (from watch to automobile gears, that is), Porsche Design premiered its P’6930 Chronograph in Basel. Its design comes from the P’6910 indicator, outfitted in black PVD-coated titanium. It’s powered by a COSC-certified automatic movement and the chronograph’s titanium case is huge — 47mm. The watch’s style is inspired by the Porsche Carrera GT (2005–2006). And typical of Porsche Design, the aesthetic is clean and the legibility clear. The hands are partially skeletonized and coated in luminous green and white material for reading while racing.
This year, Zenith combined bold contemporary design with rigorous watchmaking traditions in its Open Power Reserve El Primero Chronomaster. The brand describes it as “100% technical and 100% passion.” Its movement, revealed through the dial at ten o’clock, is made up of 36,000 vibrations (10 per second), which is 25 percent higher than other movements today. Details like this and its Côtes de Genéve guilloche work, skeleton star, and column-wheel chronograph mechanism take this timepiece to the next level. And if that isn’t enough to convince you, it comes in four different versions — it’s practically bespoke!
