Overview
This year's Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) in Geneva was awash with interesting new designs and technology, and even some way-out concepts. Demand was strong at both SIHH and the BaselWorld fair, and exhibitors were happy.
One of the most popular themes this year was the sea, especially regatta watches, but above all watchmakers paid tribute to women with a dazzling array of watches with mechanical movements, some with complications.
Under the heading of way-out ideas, Girard-Perregaux has surely taken first prize this year with its Jackpot Tourbillon. This is a serious watch complete with a tourbillon movement, but with a much more frivolous - but fully functional - slot machine feature built in. On the dial at 12 o'clock, windows reveal the three playing card symbols of a slot machine, while a cut-out at 6 o'clock reveals a gold bridge, underneath which is the tourbillon cage. Along the right-hand edge of the case, curving carefully around the crown, is the handle that sets the drums of the slot machine spinning. There are 125 possible combinations.
Girard-Perregaux also showed its serious side at SIHH, offering two versions of the ww.tc (world wide time control). The ww.tc - Financial indicates the times in different zones around the world, and also shows the hours when four major stock markets - New York, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo - are open for business.
Lange & Sohne produced one of the horological highlights of this year's trade shows in Switzerland: a hand-wound watch with a power reserve of 31 days, the Lange 31. No mechanical watch has ever been able to run longer on a single winding.