SIHH 2014: Montblanc, Roger Dubuis, Cartier, Greubel-Forsey

Many of them have meanwhile turned into true friends...

I had the great pleasure to (once again) share all my appointments with Oliver, which guarantees a thrill of a time since us two are so different and yet the same. Mutual learning, put in practice!

At Montblanc Category Director Watches, Alexander Schmiedt, explained to us the new Heritage collection, which combines all the codes of fine watchmaking into one collection, nicely sorted into different levels of price and sophistication. It is a collection that is remarkably refined and does not, like so many MB collections before, loudly shout 'Meisterstück'. 

Watchmaking at Montblanc finally comes of age...





Speaking of coming-of-age: Another greatly anticipated rendez-vous was the one with Roger Dubuis. The brand created a thrilling teaser campaign (here and here) around its refreshed Hommage collection. First images were received with lukewarm reception, but RD's head of the technical department, Gregory Bruttin, demonstrated that the new Hommage exemplifies how the brand aims to achieve an overall greater consistency across collections.





A particularly thrilling meeting took place at the Cartier booth: more than 1h quality time with Carole Forestier-Kasapi, Head of the Movement Creation Atelier of the maison, Ms Forestier-Kasapi essentially is the not only one-woman force that has lifted Cartier to new watchmaking heights but moreover one of the real game-changers in the industry. One of her first creations was Zenith's Elite calibre (still used today...). Then there is Ulysse-Nardin's Freak and a lot of creations that earned Cartier a place in the watch firmament.

This meeting was certainly one of the absolute highlights of the fair...

There are brands and there are brands. Greubel-Forsey is all one need to whisper to convince us two to immediately attract our attention. There is not a single GF creation we would despise. Being the industry's chronometric laboratory we were immensely glad to have a private meeting with Stephen Forsey.

We made great use of this opportunity. We even talked about the use of steel brushes... and learned that a kidney is useful but not essential...





Already high above (more mortal's) ground we decided to take a space rocket deeply into the infinite sky - horologically speaking this can only mean a visit with De Bethune: The crew of ultra-creative and productive wizards did not disappoint (will they ever?) and presented us with two (and a half?) fantastic new creations, and a promise for the near future (that's the 'half')!

Our journey came to a literal end with a trip outside the busy halls of SIHH in a tiny (but for us well-industrialised) suburb of Geneva, Meyrin. DeWitt had their doors open, and seized the opportunity understand how this small manufacturer slowly but with impetus consolidates its collection and strengthens is brand identity. We have seen some outsides and insides, and were flabbergasted on how these helped us to better understand the brain-workings of Mr Jérôme de Witt!

That's it, we will be rolling out our reports as we find time (and confess being partly in the hands of the European postal services - we did not find sufficient time to exchange our images, so hard drives are being send between Berlin and Vienna...).

Stay tuned!

Magnus