A revealing ‘micro-trend’
Now, let’s enter the arena and move a bit closer to the activity as we try to ascertain—when looking at the most powerful and the more modest brands, while observing the independent designers and the ‘watch dealers’—the most important features of this year’s show. In this great mixture of the most diverse and even contradictory trends, a few general movements and a few precursory signs emerge, which are above and beyond the simple (relative) back-surge of gratuitous extravagance.
We can therefore distinguish a ‘micro-trend’, limited obviously to a few watches, but nonetheless interesting in that it tells us about our ‘civilizational’ relationship to the measure of time, even to the ‘decrement…’ This ‘trend’ is best—and most poetically—represented by the already famous watch by Hermès called Le Temps Suspendu (see our editorial in this issue). This timekeeper allows its wearer to ‘suspend’ the display of time and then to return to it when he wants. It was not born by mere chance at Hermès. As Luc Perramond, CEO of Montres Hermès explains, “this nearly philosophical—or at least poetic—expression of the suspension of time is particularly appropriate for Hermès, whose own watch territory is that of ‘imaginary time’. A strategic timepiece in the expression of this territory, Le Temps Suspendu—whose mechanism is the brain child of Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, manager of the creative watch ‘laboratory’ Agenhor in Geneva—is a watch born out of an affirmation: ‘time is a friend; time is a resource; Hermès has all the time.’”

LE TEMPS SUSPENDU by Hermès

(This affirmation takes on even more significance in the context of the battle currently being waged by Hermès against LVMH.) At BaselWorld this year, however, this timepiece was not the only one of its kind. Hublot also presented a watch indicating ‘your time according to your choice’—the MP 02 Key of Time by Hublot (invented by Mathias Butet, ex-BNB). This timekeeper proposes to either accelerate time by four times or to slow it down by one-quarter, or of course to let it run correctly. But where the solution proposed by Hermès is perfectly simple in close correlation with the targeted goal (to truly suspend the measure of time that passes in favour of the subjective perception), Hublot’s Key of Time has the appearance of a highly complex and ultra-contemporary mechanical machine in black DLC, created more for its performance than for meditation. In addition, because it is equipped with a flying tourbillon vertically positioned to tick off the seconds on the edge of the watch, the seconds follow their route regardless of the speed (accelerated or slowed) chosen by the wearer. Thus, it contradicts itself, we might say, and does not really allow the wearer to ‘forget’ the time.

MP 02 KEY OF TIME by Hublot

An entire other proposition of managing one’s own time comes from the new brand BorgeauD (see the article, ‘The Septagraph by BorgeauD ’, on europastar.com). The Septagraph watch mechanically transcribes the principle of the Indian calendar Rahu-Kaal, and allows the wearer to reserve a 90-minute period of personal time each day. This lapse of ‘different’ time, whose occurrences vary each day of the week, is indicated by an arrow cut in the dial, which becomes instantaneously coloured before slowly receding during the daily 90 minutes of ‘strategic time’ that the wearer devotes to himself, to the exclusion of all other worries. Another and different way of ‘suspending’ the socially accepted rules of time. A premonition?

In the fast lane
These three watches express in their own way the subconscious of our era where everyone fears the dangerous and inexorable race ahead, a race that threatens the very survival of humanity over time. But, while some want to escape the tyranny of the instantaneous and the performance, others (and sometimes even the same ones) chase after time to better divide it into tenths, hundredths, or even thousands of a second.
In this ‘fast lane’ of the watchmaking highway, TAG Heuer is way out in front. Already in the starting block with its Carrera Mikrograph 1/100th Second Chronograph, introduced at the end of January 2011 (a motor turning at 50 Hz, or 360,000 vibrations per hour and mechanically measuring a hundredth of a second), the brand has now come out with a high-powered vehicle whose engine races at 500 Hz, or 3,600,000 vibrations per hour, enough to measure a thousandth of a second (with a chronographic power reserve proportional to this speed, this means about 2 minutes and 30 seconds). And, at this speed, just imagine that the escapement can manage without a balance!
So, you might ask, what purpose does this infernal mechanical machine serve anyway, knowing that you need between 0.4 and 0.6 of a second for the human nervous system to mobilize its nerves and muscles used in engaging a movement? But, then, as we all know, the majority of even the most common chronographs have never really been used for counting down short times, not even for timing a soft-boiled egg.
But, more seriously, the veritable breakthrough by TAG Heuer with its Mikrotimer Flying 1000 concept watch, with a dozen patents pending, opens new horizons in mechanical timekeeping. TAG Heuer is an in vivo laboratory in mechanical watchmaking, following, as we recall, its Magnetic Pendulum of last year, the first mechanical movement without a balance spring (still in the testing stages).
We will return in more detail in our next issue to this very important innovation, in the company of Guy Semon, Vice President of the science and engineering department at TAG Heuer. Already, however, this completely original device demonstrates the efficiency and relevance of how engineering, mathematics, materials, tribology, vibratory calculations, and, yes, traditional watchmaking can come together. We might call it the ‘fusion’ of the future, if the word ‘fusion’ had not already been entirely monopolized by Jean-Claude Biver. But in this ‘fusion’ that outlines the time measurement of tomorrow, TAG Heuer has taken a great lead with its ‘concept watches’ that are arriving at great speed.

MIKROTIMER FLYING 1000 CONCEPT WATCH by TAG Heuer

The ‘concepts’ that are taking off
The economic crisis has not killed the need for the ‘concept watch’, in fact, perhaps, just the contrary. Research is and remains more than ever the domain where new roads are solidly established—roads that will not all end at an oasis, as some will simply wander among the sand dunes.
One ‘concept’ that should ‘fly’ above the sands is that designed by Denis Giguet for the Opus 11 (‘Eleven’, excuse me) by Harry Winston. Think of a merry-go-round or roundabout, for example, one that is composed of the famous teacups. The cups are arranged on a platform that turns, and they in turn rotate on their saucers. Then imagine this transposed to the world of watches: a large gear supports four hour mobiles that each support, in turn, six reversible palettes (more precisely, three pairs of palettes), giving 24 palettes in all. On these brass palettes are etched graphic lines representing fragments of numbers. Arranged four by four at the centre of the watch, these palettes together form the variable number of the hour. Every 60 minutes, this number literally ‘explodes’, and the palettes rise up vertically, pivot, and turn during three seconds before recomposing, at the centre, the new number of the current hour. This absolutely original kinetic spectacle is produced by a machine composed of 566 elements, elliptical gears producing vertical impulsions, spirals, rockers, a triangular gear, conic pinions, and much more. The ensemble is protected by a transparent sapphire crystal in the shape of a shell. This was certainly the most amazing and playful watch at BaselWorld, even if we might feel some hesitation at the addition of two lateral ‘pavilions’ encompassing the minutes and the balance. Why not dare to just show the hour, as that would have been more radical? (The entertaining video can be seen on europastar.com or at http://youtu.be/iDu0V-OtBTQ).

This Opus 11 is the most emblematic example of a real trend. Although certainly a niche trend, it is one that encompasses a type of whimsical and three-dimensional timekeeping accumulating kinetic plays. It is the product of a second generation of independent niche brands that concentrate their research on the display of time. Among them, we can mention: Hautlence, which finally presented its remarkable HL2.0, with its in-line regulator organ rotating on itself; Urwerk and its new UR-110 with its counter-rotation modules (à propos to these two brands, see our preceding issue ES 2/11); MB&F and its ‘frogs’ at the crossroads of a machine and the batrachians; and even Ladoire, and its sculptural Black Widow timepiece.

OPUS 11 by Harry Winston and Denis Guiget

• BaselWorld 2011 – In search of the perfect watch – Part 1
• BaselWorld 2011 – In search of the perfect watch – Part 3
• BaselWorld 2011 – In search of the perfect watch – Part 4

Source: Europa Star June - July 2011 Magazine Issue