Those who innovate

Those who innovate

Innovation: the lifeblood of watchmaking

REPORT

By Pierre Maillard

January 2022

Innovation doesn’t start with a blank page. It’s a historical accumulation – each successive stage building on the ones that came before. In watchmaking, the future belongs to the innovators. And that’s a universal truth.

Innovation: the lifeblood of watchmaking

REPORT

By Pierre Maillard

January 2022

Innovation: the lifeblood of watchmaking

Innovation doesn’t start with a blank page. It’s a historical accumulation – each successive stage building on the ones that came before. In watchmaking, the future belongs to the innovators. And that’s a universal truth.

T

he reason that watchmaking has continued to flourish over the centuries is that it has continually innovated. Innovation – in its original sense of “renewal” – is a continual process. Think of a plant that grows back each spring: they’re the same, and yet always different. Innovation doesn’t start with a blank page. It’s a historical accumulation – each successive stage building on the ones that came before.

There are countless examples: the new geometry of the tourbillon relies on an ancient principle discovered by Archimedes; watch display cases that use the principle of suspension are inspired by the magician Houdin; monocrystalline silicon was identified back in 1854... the list goes on.

But innovation is essentially about strategically leapfrogging the competition – as illustrated by the way silicon has gradually made its way into watch movements. In other words, innovation is the lifeblood of watchmaking. The future belongs to the innovators. And that’s a universal truth.

Innovation: the lifeblood of watchmaking

WATCH FILES
Those who innovate

“Greubel Forsey is about fundamental research”

“Greubel Forsey is about fundamental research”

Over the course of its 20-year existence, Greubel Forsey has presented ten Fundamental Inventions. The tenth, which coincides with the brand’s twentieth (...)

“The tighter margins become, the greater AI's relevance for the luxury industry”

“The tighter margins become, the greater AI’s relevance for the luxury industry”

Digital Luxury Group (DLG), a specialist in digital marketing and analysis for luxury brands, has acquired Re-Hub, an artificial intelligence platform for (...)

Watchmaking's new clothes

Watchmaking’s new clothes

The ongoing neo-vintage trend hasn’t put R&D on hold. Specialist suppliers continue to drive innovation – despite not always being credited for their (...)

New Materials

New Materials

GALLERY

COSC: competition for the arbiter of precision horology

COSC: competition for the arbiter of precision horology

The Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute, the COSC, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023. This non-profit foundation has played a crucial role (...)

Société Suisse de Chronométrie: 100 years of innovation

Société Suisse de Chronométrie: 100 years of innovation

PORTRAIT

Dedicated to the knowledge sharing and technology transfer that spurs all watchmaking innovations, the SSC is one of the (few) actors that prove it is (...)

Purtec's watchmaking dream team

Purtec’s watchmaking dream team

Arnaud Faivre founded TEC Ebauches in 2008, rapidly developed its offerings, diversified its business and on that basis launched the TEC Group in 2018. (...)

Bovet Récital 28 Prowess 1: a spectacular world first

Bovet Récital 28 Prowess 1: a spectacular world first

For the first time, we have a world time watch that accounts for seasonal time changes, including UTC, American Summer Time (AST), Europe and America (...)

Ludwig Oechslin: “The Freak opened up decades of possibility”

Ludwig Oechslin: “The Freak opened up decades of possibility”

For a series of portraits celebrating the Prix Gaïa, presented by the Musée International d’Horlogerie (MIH), we met the incomparable Dr. Ludwig Oechslin at (...)

The watchmaker who registered the very first Swiss patent

The watchmaker who registered the very first Swiss patent

The story of Paul Perret (1854-1904) is quite unusual. He was famous not for one single accomplishment but for three different ones: he revolutionised (...)

APRESDEMAIN: Rethinking watch communication

APRESDEMAIN: Rethinking watch communication

Using vintage to get new generations interested in watches isn’t as contradictory as it may seem, at least not for APRESDEMAIN. This specialist (...)

Horage: a “tech-mech” watch company

Horage: a “tech-mech” watch company

Horage has come a long way. The brand presented its first collection and made clear its intentions at Baselworld in 2009. These were complicated times and (...)

APRESDEMAIN: Rethinking watch communication for after tomorrow

APRESDEMAIN: Rethinking watch communication for after tomorrow

Using vintage to get new generations interested in watches isn’t as contradictory as it may seem, at least not for APRESDEMAIN. This specialist (...)

Concepto, the integrated watch factory

Concepto, the integrated watch factory

MOVEMENTS

In less than 20 years, Valérien Jaquet has succeeded in setting up an impressive movement manufacture, now almost completely vertically integrated. (...)

SilMach revolutionises 50 years of quartz calibres

SilMach revolutionises 50 years of quartz calibres

For the past half-century, the motor driving quartz movements has barely changed. Besançon-based SilMach – with strategic partner Timex Group – intends to (...)

Timelab perpetuates Geneva's horological reputation

Timelab perpetuates Geneva’s horological reputation

Heir to a long scientific tradition, Timelab issues its own chronometer certificates and awards the prestigious Poinçon de Genève. This private foundation (...)

Ressence reinvents the crown

Ressence reinvents the crown

A watch that never needs winding? An electronic module that interacts with a mechanical movement to automatically perform the functions of a traditional (...)

Stephen McDonnell, MB&F's movement wizard

Stephen McDonnell, MB&F’s movement wizard

PORTRAIT

Winner of the Aiguille d’Or at the 2022 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, the LM Sequential EVO takes a completely different view of the chronograph. We were (...)

The Tempus Fugit project: time flies with no return

The Tempus Fugit project: time flies with no return

As everyone knows, but tries not to think about, our time will one day run out. That is written into our DNA. It was handed down to us from our ancestors (...)

AIS Collective, a Swiss start-up taking care of watches

AIS Collective, a Swiss start-up taking care of watches

PORTRAIT

The ChronoPen designed by the young brand and already distributed by Seddiqi and Hodinkee is a tool for cleaning water resistant watches. Other products (...)

The accelerating race for new materials

The accelerating race for new materials

In an industry dominated by age-old know-how, the introduction of new materials has accelerated in the 21st century. Almost every year, new alloys and (...)

Octo Finissimo Ultra: how Bulgari broke an eighth record

Octo Finissimo Ultra: how Bulgari broke an eighth record

The model is only 1.80 mm thick from the caseback to the top of the sapphire crystal – as thin as a 20 cent coin. On the 10th anniversary of the Octo (...)

Sapphire: the quest for transparency

Sapphire: the quest for transparency

INNOVATION

Sapphire, used in watchmaking for almost a century, has become a high-tech material in its synthetic form. In an era of transparency, it is increasingly (...)

Displays: watches in ethereal suspension

Displays: watches in ethereal suspension

INNOVATION

The young “promotional magic” company Levita has just won one of the six 2021 Luxury Innovation Awards at the Luxury Innovation Summit held in Geneva at the (...)

The CSEM brings life to the dial

The CSEM brings life to the dial

INNOVATION

The use of a silicon module on the dial makes it possible to imagine a multitude of animations of the watch face. This technology developed in the CSEM (...)

Recycling self-luminous watches

Recycling self-luminous watches

INNOVATION

Swiss microtechnology company mb-microtec is the inventor of a self-powered illumination technology called “trigalight”, used in watches. It has set up a (...)

Swatch's new plastic

Swatch’s new plastic

INNOVATION

In 2020, Swatch began converting its collections to use a new bio-sourced plastic derived from castor oil. This new plastic is also combined with ceramic (...)

Decoration: a new rainbow PVD

Decoration: a new rainbow PVD

INNOVATION

Swiss company Positive Coating has introduced a world first: colour gradients for watch components. A striking demonstration of this innovation can be (...)

Breguet's flexible hands: when innovation becomes poetry

Breguet’s flexible hands: when innovation becomes poetry

REINE DE NAPLES

Watch hands are rigid by nature and describe a perfect circle. And so the first watches were quite naturally round and the vast majority of them are still (...)

Silicon: the gateway to the future of mechanical watches?

Silicon: the gateway to the future of mechanical watches?

INNOVATION

In autumn 2022, the patent protecting the industrial production of silicon balance springs will enter the public domain. In the view of many players, (...)

Behind the scenes: Omega's R&D in the 21st century

Behind the scenes: Omega’s R&D in the 21st century

INNOVATION

Co-Axial escapement, silicon balance spring, 18K Sedna gold: while continuing to draw inspiration from the 1950s, Omega has fully revamped both the (...)

Why white platinum will topple rhodium in watches

Why white platinum will topple rhodium in watches

INNOVATION

Historically, ébauches have been rhodium-plated for a very long time. But now that rhodium has become the most expensive metal in the world, a genuine (...)

The (near-)perfect tourbillon is within reach

The (near-)perfect tourbillon is within reach

INNOVATION

It has been an acknowledged fact for several decades that the tourbillon, invented by Abraham-Louis Breguet to offset the effects of gravity in pocket (...)

“In Switzerland, there is fintech and medtech but no luxtech”

“In Switzerland, there is fintech and medtech but no luxtech”

INTERVIEW

With Luxury Venture Group, Deependra Pandey wants to create an incubator and venture capital firm dedicated exclusively to supporting new companies in the (...)

Initium: the time is right for home watch assembly

Initium: the time is right for home watch assembly

HOROLOGICAL WORKSHOPS

The events sector has been badly affected by the pandemic. A Swiss company that specialises in running introductory watchmaking workshops, Initium, is (...)

MicroLean Lab: an industrial breakthrough

MicroLean Lab: an industrial breakthrough

INNOVATION

MicroLean Lab, part of HE-Arc Ingénierie, based at St- Imier in the Jura Arc, is in the process of designing a genuine micro-factory that will fit into one (...)

Success story: a reorientation towards protective masks

Success story: a reorientation towards protective masks

PORTRAIT

With the pandemic now a part of everyday life, mask production is becoming a huge industrial market. Thousands of factories have opened in China to produce (...)

Bulgari's Octo Finissimo, behind the scenes

Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo, behind the scenes

INTERVIEW

To get a better idea of how the interaction between aesthetics and engineering came about in this collection, Europa Star met its masterminds Fabrizio (...)

Jacob & Co. The Astronomia Art Phoenix

Jacob & Co. The Astronomia Art Phoenix

WHEN INNOVATION MEANS EXTRAVAGANCE

You have to actually handle this incredible timepiece at least once to fully appreciate its absolute extravagance.

Bovet 1822: The Brainstorm Chapter Two

Bovet 1822: The Brainstorm Chapter Two

WHEN INNOVATION IS A STAGE

Back in 2016, Bovet introduced into their collections a highly innovative, asymmetric case in the shape of an antique writing slope. Here comes a new (...)

A Swiss R&D team introduces “hosted watch manufacturing”

A Swiss R&D team introduces “hosted watch manufacturing”

NEW CONCEPT

Becoming a “manufacture” is the dream of many smaller and even large watch brands hoping to differentiate themselves, especially in the middle of a global (...)

Mauron Musy: a new sealing technology

Mauron Musy: a new sealing technology

WHEN INNOVATION IS WATER-RESISTANCE

Born as a spin-off of a Swiss sub-contractor specialising in exteriors and precision machining for watchmakers, Mauron Musy has built its reputation as (...)

Romain Gauthier: The Insight Micro-Rotor Squelette

Romain Gauthier: The Insight Micro-Rotor Squelette

WHEN INNOVATION IS DECORATION

Exactly 350 hours of anglage and polishing per watch. Or, as one of the anglage specialists at Romain Gauthier puts it, “a genuine test of mental strength. (...)

Girard-Perregaux: The Cosmos Infinity

Girard-Perregaux: The Cosmos Infinity

WHEN INNOVATION MEANS TWO GLOBES

A solar day contains 24 hours. A sidereal day, the exact measurement of celestial time, lasts 23 hours and 56 minutes. To do full justice to this minute (...)

Urwerk: the UR-100

Urwerk: the UR-100

WHEN INNOVATION MEANS SPACE-TIME

Let’s stay in space with the UR-100, the “fourth episode in the intergalactic saga of the 100 collection”, as Martin Frei, co-founder of Urwerk, in-house (...)

Louis Moinet: The Space Revolution

Louis Moinet: The Space Revolution

WHEN INNOVATION IS SCIENCE FICTION

We already knew that Jean-Marie Schaller, the CEO of Louis Moinet – named after the astronomercum- watchmaker who had more or less fallen into oblivion – (...)

De Bethune: the DB28 Steel Wheels Sapphire Tourbillon

De Bethune: the DB28 Steel Wheels Sapphire Tourbillon

WHEN INNOVATION IS TRANSPARENCY AND LIGHTNESS

Denis Flageollet, the founder and master watchmaker at De Bethune, has always said he takes his inspiration from classic, high-end horology while (...)

Bernhard Lederer's Central Impulse Chronometer

Bernhard Lederer’s Central Impulse Chronometer

WHEN INNOVATION MEANS TWO ESCAPE WHEELS

We might as well say it straight out: it is absolutely impossible to sum up here every feature that constitutes the huge originality of the calibre 9012, (...)

Ferdinand Berthoud: the Chronomètre FB 2RE

Ferdinand Berthoud: the Chronomètre FB 2RE

WHEN INNOVATION MEANS COMBINATION

The Chronomètre FB 2RE, the architecture and modular case of which are directly inspired by the Marine No. 6 clock built by the great horologist Ferdinand (...)

Greubel Forsey Balancier S

Greubel Forsey Balancier S

INNOVATION IN INCLINATION

A large balance wheel measuring 12.6mm, set at 7 o’clock and inclined at an astonishing angle, immediately catches the eye. Is it inclined for purely (...)