The SIHH adventure is coming to an end. Just half a day more and we will leave Geneva and the elegant halls of the Palaexpo.
Today's most beautiful watch? For us, the Royal Oak Offshore Diver by Audemars Piguet. But in the following photos you will find other legitimate contenders for the title. The third day is not yet over, but we have already seen many beautiful watches. We will close the show with the IWC presentation, which we will not have time to document immediately on our blog, as we literally had to fly to the Hotel La Reserve to discover the novelties of the Custos brand. We can tell you in advance that one of the most interesting models that IWC will be presenting at the Salon is an unprecedented sporty Portuguese case in a chronograph version.
But now to our review. The first to make our hearts flutter was Richard Mille, for the first time at SIHH in this 2010. Breathtaking was its ultra-thin (at least by Mille standards, at 8.60 mm thick) but extra-large RM017 tourbillon in its rectangular case. Even better, but for the moment we are not allowed to show it (there is only a prototype, which we have been able to admire), is the ultra-light RM027: a mere 18 grams in the classic tonneau case, made of hi-tech materials and with a breathtaking movement architecture.
Nice surprises from Montblanc, which is continuing the project of the Minerva Haute Horlogerie Research Institute and presenting a first concept developed by two watchmakers from the Fleurier manufacture, with a dial that opens up to reveal the chronograph data display, but we will be able to explain this better in the pages of L'Orologio. Here we show you another Minerva masterpiece: the Exo Tourbillon, in which, for the first time, the balance-spiral is external (placed above) the tourbillon cage, in which only the escapement is enclosed. The balance still rotates with the entire cage, but it has an exceptional diameter that has made it possible to maximise the ratio between the moment of inertia of the balance itself and that of the cage, for greater rate stability. Plus, it's a joy to behold. The price of the watch is naturally significant: 185,000 euros in white gold for only eight pieces produced.
But let us come to the highlight of the day: the Audemars Piguet presentation (preceded, yesterday, by an evening of music and motors). The company focuses on speed and again on innovative materials (at least for watchmaking) and presents the Royal Oak OffShore Grand Prix Chronograph, with a carbon case, ceramic and carbon double disc bezel, titanium and ceramic pushers, and an anodised aluminium dial. Inside, the usual AP 3126/3840 calibre (manufacture base with added chronograph module). Production will be limited to 1,750 pieces, priced at €28,800.
More affordable is the new Offshore Diver: a beautiful 30-atm diver with an internal rotating bezel (on the flange), 42 millimetres in diameter but rather thick. Automatic, inside it has, of course, the IWC-manufactured AP 3120 calibre and is offered at €11,850 in steel. There are many other novelties from the House, which we will be publishing in issue 185 of L'Orologio, especially on the Offshore line (starting with an extraordinary tourbillon chronograph with a Renaud & Papi movement), but there are also variations on the Royal Oak and the Millenary, also with complications.
Finally, the operation of historical legitimisation undertaken by Girard-Perregaux is courageous. In addition to focusing on the classic with the extension of the beautiful 1966 line, this year it celebrates the 40th anniversary of the industrialisation of the first Swiss quartz wristwatch. It was in fact GP that was the first Swiss watchmaker to launch a quartz wristwatch at the Basel Show in 1970. This was the result of independent research by the manufacture, which contributed to setting the quartz reference frequency at 32768 Hz, a world standard still in use today. For the occasion, GP presents a Laureato in steel equipped with a fine watchmaking quartz movement, finished like the best mechanical movements. The price? At the level of an automatic: 8,500 euros for a limited production run of just 40 pieces.
