Geneva Watch Week: De Bethune, F.P. Journe, Speake-Marin

As you know, a lot of brands take the advantage of the SIHH to organize presentations in the center of Geneva, at the Geneva Time Exhibition or in their own premises to unveil their latest novelties. Clearly, the year starts in January for them and not at Baselworld and it is even more obvious this year due to the late opening date of the Fair (end of April).

I propose you to browse some watches I liked during the Geneva crazy week.

I would like to start wirth De Bethune. Actually, I had my first appointment with them and it was the best way to start the week!

The DB28 SkyBridge proposes us a journey in the sky. You can spend hours watching all the details, the shades of colours... the bridge has a technical role: due to the concave dial, it is required to hold the wheels. Do you notice the hours indexes and the little precious stones which are here just to give the shining touch?

The DB16 is a premiere: for the first time, if I'm not wrong, a wristwatch combines QP + Tourbillon + dead beat second. This second hand animates the dial of this complex and beautiful watch:

At the GTE, Yvan Arpa was presenting the latest Artya watches. My fav is by far this watch decorated with movement parts. It uses a small ETA automatic movement dedicated to women watches in order to totally hide the rotor:

Fabien Lamarche (Julien Coudray) is currently working on a new movement  with a long power reserve and a 4hz frequency... featuring a large balance wheel. It will be housed in this case and aesthetically speaking I think that it is a good improvement. Look at the dial, no inscription on it anymore... good move!

Peter Speake-Marin was at the GTE to show his full collection because yes, we can say it, Peter has a structured collection now which was his objective during the last years. So I shot the Dong Son, a spectacular watch whose dial is decorated with a motif inspired by the prehistoric bronze drums of Viet-Nam:

Hautlence had a lot of up and downs during the last years but with the new owner (the holding of G.H.Meylan), the first results of the new strategy become visible. The HLRQ has a dynamic design which keeps the Hautlence DNA and is sold with a more realistic price.

I was totally under the charm of this Laurent Ferrier Galet Classic with applied figures...

Jämes Pellaton is the brand launched by Michel Dalawibi. The objective is to create high-end chronometric watches which follow the principles defined by Jämes-Cesar Pellaton. The Tourbillon movement is produced by Renaud&Papi.

 
François-Paul Journe unveiled during the week this new Perpetual Calendar with central hands. Look at the dial lay-out which is very clever. I like the presence of the big power reserve display which is very useful for a PC watch. The leap-year indicator is hardly visible on the other hand but it is not an issue since it is mainly used when the watch is set.

Linde Werdelin was presenting its first complication with a Moonphase indicator entirely created and produced in-house. The watch below is the Oktopus II Moon Gold. Why this complication? Because it is useful for the divers... yes! Let's imagine you wish to dive during the night, maybe you will choose the night with the best light condition!

One of the current trends in watchmaking is the growing use of chains.

The objective is not the precision by itself but to manage to get as long as possible a constant behaviour.

The Logical One contains the key ideas of Romain Gauthier who can now go much further than with the Prestige.

The crown is only used to set the time because the movement is wound thanks to the pusher on the left.

It is a joy for the eyes to see the front side of the Logical One. It seems to be really deep.

Congrats to Romain Gauthier for this beauty, I'm glad to see him back with this exciting project.

Last watch of the selection also features a chain in a well-known context: the Christophe Colomb Hurricane. The objective is to combine the quest for accuracy with the regularity of the chain-fusée system.

A great achievement by Zenith.

Thanks a lot to the brands staffs for the warm welcome during the whole week.

Fx