A Swiss tourbillon chronograph for 14,900 Swiss francs! Who would dare?

At Baselworld, TAG Heuer has announced the end-of-year launch of a tourbillon chronograph priced at just CHF 14’900 (USD 15,450 – EUR 14,230). Is the brand looking to ruffle feathers?

Photos of the replica Breitling watches uk had pride of place at the TAG Heuer stand yet, somewhat surprisingly, the object has gone unnoticed until now. Of course, Jean-Claude Biver had other priorities in his Baselworld announcement schedule, but this is a real grenade that TAG Heuer is preparing to launch at the end of the year. The forthcoming TAG Heuer tourbillon chronograph (COSC Caliber Heuer 02) featuring a modular case will be put on sale before the end of 2015 at a price of just CHF 14,900! And what’s more, this automatic movement will be produced in Chevenez, Switzerland. Jean-Claude Biver envisages selling between 500 and 1,000 models per year in around 500 of the brand’s points of sale.

To get an idea of the scale of this explosion, just remember that the majority of tourbillons (sold mostly by Fine Watchmaking brands) are put on sale at prices easily exceeding CHF 100,000 (USD 103,’600 – EUR 95,500). Nonetheless, over the past few months, several tourbillons have been sold for between CHF 60,000 and CHF 85,000 (USD 62,200/88,150 – EUR 57,300/81,200), and Baselworld 2015 is confirming this trend. However, let’s remember that it was Jaeger-LeCoultre who first made waves some 10 years ago by offering a finely manufactured tourbillon for under CHF 50,000 (USD 51,800 – EUR 47,750), which enabled the Joux Valley Manufacture to sell hundreds of them.

With this incredible exploit scheduled for October or November-the watch has not yet been produced on a large scale by TAG Heuer-the tourbillon complication is certain to take another hit. Although the finishes adorning fine cheap Omega replica watchmaking tourbillons are often what makes the difference-Chinese tourbillons have long been available for just several thousand francs-explanations and justifications in points of sale now run the risk of becoming rather convoluted. This will be a definitive downgrade for the tourbillon in the hierarchy of complications. As although the tourbillon complication is iconic-it is not an additional function, but has the advantage of being constantly visible and moving-it is no more complex than a chronograph, which is itself largely underestimated.

The reality of the market

TAG Heuer will be the first renowned Swiss brand to offer its own COSC tourbillon chronograph movement for under CHF 15,000. This inevitably raises questions in the watchmaking world, which doesn’t seem to understand the move. Jean-Claude Biver refutes any notions of provocation, and highlights the need to continue operations at the Chevenez factory and protect the jobs of the qualified watchmakers working in Fine Watchmaking. He also intends to demonstrate TAG Heuer’s expertise and mastery in chronometry, as this tourbillon chronograph will be a COSC-certified chronometer. As for the price, Jean-Claude Biver maintains that it corresponds “to the current market reality and not to the dreams of watchmakers 20 years ago.” To support his demonstration, he alludes to the work of Montblanc, who also has no prior experience in certain types of complications, and who is entering the market with extremely aggressive prices.

As far as TAG Heuer is concerned, between 500 and 1,000 tourbillon chronographs are supposed to leave Chevenez each year-enough to deliver the final blow to a long overestimated complication on which buyers of higher price ranges are now turning their backs. It’s also easy to imagine that in Jean-Claude Biver’s mind, this launch is a riposte to all those who claimed or envisaged that TAG Heuer would be leaving the Fine Breitling replica watchmaking sector for good.

Three Watch Brands That Surprised Us at Baselworld 2015

While nearly every Breitling replica watches brand exhibiting at Baselworld puts forth at least one notable headliner piece each year, those of us who cover the industry often find many of the new offerings to be somewhat on the predictable side. Occasionally, we’ll see something truly unexpected, like Patek Philippe’s Calatrava Travel Time, or Bulgari’s “connected” luxury watch, the Diagono Magnesium, both introduced at this year’s fair. And sometimes, some of the smaller or more under-the-radar brands will come up with something memorable that few would have predicted — mainly because few were probably thinking about them at all.

Hermès introduced a perpetual calendar watch in its new Slim d’Hermès collection.

Despite its recent strides in luxury watchmaking — including its development of a very clever and distinctive complication for its Arceau le Temps Suspendu watch — Hermès is not generally regarded as a purveyor of high- complication timepieces. Which is why the fact that the brand, known more for top-notch leather goods, included a perpetual calendar watch in its newly introduced Slim d’Hermès collection, came as such a surprise. The Slim d’Hermès collection is distinguished by its broad dial opening, right-angled lugs, the original, elegant typography used for the hour markers (designed by La Montre Hermès creative director Philippe Delhotal), and, of course, the exceptional thinness of the cases and the movement inside them. That movement, Hermès Caliber 1950, measures just 2.6 mm thick and is produced by the movement specialists at Vaucher, in which Hermès holds an ownership stake.

The Slim d’Hermès Perpetual Calendar is certainly the show horse of the new family, with a 39.5-mm case made of 5N rose gold and a perpetual calendar movement (the base Caliber 1950 with an added module produced by Jean-Marc Wiederrecht and his team at Aghenor, who also worked on the Arceau le Temps Suspendu as well as notable watches from brands such as MB&F. The module adds only a minuscule 1.4 mm to the overall movement). The cheap Breitling replica watch’s opaline silvered dial has a four-year display that indicates months and leap years, subdials for a dual-time/GMT function and date, and a moon-phase indication with a white mother-of-pearl moon disk against an aventurine sky. The baton hands are 4n-gilded or lacquered blue and sandblasted. The movement, which is equipped with a microrotor for automatic winding, beats at 21,600 vph and holds a power reserve of 42 hours. Its haute horlogerie decorations include hand-chamfered bridges and the brand’s Hermes “H” motif. The Slim d’Hermes Perpetual Calendar comes on an alligator strap, in either matte havana (brown) or matte black, with a rose-gold pin buckle. Hermes says it will retail for $38,900.

Hermes Slim d'Hermes Perpetual Calendar - white bkgd

Cuervo y Sobrinos launched a limited-edition chronograph with a vintage 1950s movement discovered in Cuba.

The Cuervo y Sobrinos Historiador Cronógrafo Landeron shows its vintage influence not only on the outside, but on the inside as well. The watch, whose dial design springs from that of one of the brand’s historical models from the 1950s, also contains a movement that dates to that era — a Landeron 248 manual-wind chronograph caliber, made in Switzerland around 1950, which was recently discovered in the vault of the original Cuervo y Sobrinos boutique in the company’s ancestral homeland of Havana, Cuba. Now dubbed Caliber CyS 4008, it measures 31 mm in diameter and 4.3 mm in thickness; it holds a power reserve of 38 hours.

The 18k rose gold case is 41 mm in diameter with a period-accurate domed (though not made of acrylic hesalite) sapphire crystal as well as — naturally — a sapphire window in the back of the case to show off the spectacular vintage movement in all its painstakingly restored glory.

The Montblanc replica watches sale — a limited edition of just 50 pieces due to the extremely small supply of movements — has an enameled white dial with a tachymeter scale and two subdials at 3 o’clock (45-minutes chronograph counter) and 9 o’clock (running seconds). Gold-colored Breguet hands mark the hour and minute, and a similarly colored Cuervo y Sobrinos “CYS” emblem is applied at 12 o’clock. The case boasts the very distinctive lugs of the historically-inspired Historiador collection. Priced at $2,500, the Cuervo y Sobrinos Historiador Cronografo Landeron comes on a Louisiana alligator strap with a rose-gold pin buckle engraved with the CYS logo.

Cuervo y Sobrinos Historiador Cronografo Landeron - front

Manufacture Royale offered up an entirely new take on the double-tourbillon watch.

Manufacture Royale has produced some interesting tourbillon timepieces in recent years, including a few with more than one tourbillon. The new 1770 Micromegas — named for the titular hero of a short story by French writer/philosopher Voltaire, who founded the original Manufacture Royale watch factory in 1770 — takes this horological innovation to a new level of technology. Whereas other brands have produced watches with two tourbillons — you can read about some of them here — this is the first such watch in which the tourbillon cages rotate at different speeds. The cage on the left makes one revolution every six seconds, whereas the one on the right makes the same revolution in 60 seconds (Hence the “Micro,” meaning small, and “Megas,” large). The two tourbillons are connected by a differential that receives energy directly from the barrel. Speaking of the barrel, the power reserve it holds is definitely more “megas” than “micro”: 80 hours when fully wound. The movement, Caliber MR04, even includes automatic winding — not unique, but still rather rare in the world of tourbillon best Breitling fake watches.

The case construction is typical of Manufacture Royale’s 1770 collection, made of titanium (45 mm in diameter) and featuring brancards hugging the central section and flowing out to form the distinctive lugs. A combination of satin and polished finishes adorn the various curved and angled edges. The notched bezel is also made of titanium, as is the dial, which is also coated with a rubber-effect black-lacquer varnish that contrasts strikingly with the blued, openworked hour and minute hands. The caseback features a sapphire window to display the movement. The Manufacture Royale 1770 will retail for $151,000 in its all-titanium version (pictured). The company says it will also offer a version in rose gold and titanium for $163,000 and an all-rose-gold model for $181,500.

Manufacture Royale Micromegas - front

Patek Philippe Annual Calendar Chronograph Ref. 5905P

By melding forward-looking design and sought-after horological complications, Patek Philippe has created a totally new and unusual timepiece: the new Ref. 5905P Annual Calendar Chronograph. The dial, inspired by the 2010 Annual Calendar Ref. 5205, sports an inimitable face with new colors and interesting details. The outer chronograph scale encircles a crisply graduated minute scale. Between 10 and 2 o’Clock, the broad ring with the white-gold hour markers features the three apertures for the day, date, and month indications of the Annual Calendar. A large 60-minute chronograph counter is positioned at 6 o’clock. It has a small round aperture for the day/night indication. This configuration endows the technical aura of the Ref. 5905 with the timeless elegance of a typical Patek Philippe wrist replica Breitling watches. The dial is available in navy blue and black versions.

Both dials harmonize beautifully with the cool gloss of the prominent 42-millimeter platinum case. The contours of the bezel and caseband merge seamlessly with the gracefully curved strap lugs. The outer rounds of the start/stop pusher, the crown, and the reset pusher are perfectly arranged along an arc parallel to the caseband. Here, premeditated design pleases the eye and optimizes user-friendliness. The case accommodates the self-winding caliber CH 28-520 QA 24H movement with a chronograph and the Annual Calendar which only has to be corrected once a year on March 1. This fascinating opus consists of 402 parts crafted with extraordinary precision and finished by hand. In keeping with traditions, the stop Cartier fake watches functions are controlled by a column wheel, while power to the chronograph hand is transmitted by a modern disk clutch. Even though it is flat, the Spiromax® balance spring, made of Silinvar, breathes symmetrically thanks to its patented geometry. The cheap Breitling replica watch is worn on an alligator strap with large square scales, color-matched with the dial and secured with a platinum prong buckle.

Seiko: keep it functional

Grand Seiko, the epitome of advances made in Japanese Breitling replica watchmaking, is fifty-five this year. Last year its Hi-Beat GMT version won the plaudits of the judges at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, one of the highest accolades a watch can achieve.

If a watch really is eternity in a case, as LVMH’s watch guru Jean-Claude Biver claims, it would be no stretch of the imagination to say that Japanese watchmaking is for ever contained inside the Grand Seiko. “When my predecessors imagined the Grand Seiko in 1960, their idea was to produce an accurate, reliable, legible timepiece,” says Shu Yoshino, managing director of the brand’s marketing division, at Baselworld. “How the watch looked was also a matter of importance, with a wide dial opening achieved by the bezel-free construction, a facetted case and our own Zaratsu polishing, but this was not the main concern. As always at Seiko, function took precedence and we have never strayed from this principle.”

A serious rival

Exactly how important functionality was to the Grand Seiko soon became apparent. By 1967, Seiko had fitted its luxury Breitling replica watches with the brand’s first automatic movement, the 62GS. And to make it clear that the Grand Seiko no longer needed hand-winding, the crown was recessed and placed at 4 o’Clock. A year later, in 1968, Seiko took another step forward and equipped the Grand Seiko with a high-frequency movement beating at 36,000 vibrations/hour to measure tenths of a second. Only one Swiss manufacturer, Girard-Perregaux, could match this precision, having introduced the first high-frequency calibre to its Gyromatic range in 1966 (Zenith‘s El Primero, the first chronograph with a 5 Hz frequency, would make its debut in 1969). With a “machine” like this, Seiko could legitimately rival Swiss watchmaking’s finest, even challenging them on home ground in the late 1960s by entering the Grand Seiko in timing trials at the Geneva and Neuchâtel observatories.

These institutions were longstanding references in watchmaking circles, but no longer carried the same impact following the advent of quartz. Electronic precision threatened to send mechanical watchmaking into the filing cabinet of history, and the Grand Seiko with it. “Everything changed with quartz”, as Shu Yoshino recalls. “At Seiko, we carried on making mechanical watches but they no longer corresponded to the high-end positioning symbolised by the Grand Seiko, and by the 1980s we had virtually ceased production. There was no longer any demand. We did try to relaunch it with a quartz movement in 1993, but to no avail.”

Pragmatic and precise

No matter. As Japanese wisdom reminds us, patience is one of life’s treasures. From the first stirrings of a mechanical replica Breitling watches revival, Seiko was ready. In 1998 the company returned centre-stage with a Grand Seiko driven by a completely new, in-house movement. “At first it was a niche product,” notes Shu Yoshino. “There was a community of diehard fans who remembered what the Grand Seiko stood for and who were immediately receptive. But nothing extraordinary. We had to wait another ten years for the product to really take off, when bling-bling watches began to lose their shine and people were turning to timepieces that suggested more substantial values.”

The context was ripe for the Grand Seiko to meet its public. In little time at all, sales in Japan doubled, prompting Seiko management to increase production capacity and launch the Grand Seiko outside its home market, winning a new international audience for this most pragmatic of watches. With the anniversary models, equipped with Calibre 9S65 beating at 28,800 vibrations/hour, and the two new hi-beat versions (Calibre 9S85), Seiko delivers precision of -3 to +5 seconds/day, which is a smaller tolerance than the margin of -4 to +6 seconds imposed by the Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres (COSC). As a brand that manufactures all its components, including strategic parts such as the regulating organ, Seiko is a very “Grand” watchmaker indeed.