Watches & Wonders Highlights: Discussion

xto · 2024-04-21T17:38:43Z

Explore xto's personal highlights from Watches & Wonders, including insights from Breguet, Audemars Piguet, Roger Dubuis, Parmigiani Fleurier, and Frederique Constant.

Please forgive overlap with posts made at the time and forgive me if the formatting is bad - I haven't before done a long post and I'm still learning how to get things sized right.

Also, the things that touched me are not necessarily the obvious heavy hitters - no Pateks here, no Rolexes, no APROs - so if that's what interests you, you maybe disappointed.

With that preamble, here's what I loved about my week in Switzerland (not even mentioning food and drives in the country!)

A visit to Manufacture Breguet where I was able to show how their demonstration of anglage two years ago had inspired me to do some of my own

At Musee des Ateliers Audemars Piguet, trying my hand at perlage

Then at W&W,

A long chat with product managers at Roger Dubuis in which I learned that they use tourbillons not because they (mis)believe that they add precision but because they allow “stacking” of the escapement, allowing greater freedom in movement layout.

In the Parmigiani Fleurier booth I learned that “rattrapante” can (of course) be applied to hour hands, not just second hands which in turn they employed in a GMT watch with a very tempting dial

Discussing with Christian Fleurier the aesthetics of making a design feature out of a simple click spring, the heritage aspects of their very delicate (and appealing) hands and the importance of movement and dial layout decisions.

Seeing the prototype of a Frederique Constant tourbillon with a most beguiling aventurine dial (non-published photo as the watch is not publicly offered – the dial is much more blue than captured here)

Seeing the Vacheron Constantin Berkley watch – impressive but a pocket watch only if one has literally very deep and strong pockets!

Watching an artisan in the Ulysses Nardin booth doing guilloche by hand, with his thumb pressure ensuring that the graver doesn’t dig too deep and ruin the pattern

Seeing a power tool being used in the Jaeger-Lecoultre booth to create bevels on movements. And here I thought (hoped?) that all anglage was by hand!

Getting the chance to adjust the clutch of a Zenith El Primero

Seeing the co-axial escapement coming alive in the Omega DeVille Tourbillon at the Omega boutique at the factory – too big for my wrist and my wallet. I wish they would publish a video that focused on that unique escapement, it’s a treat.

At the Musee International d’Hologerie, seeing three pieces by Abraham-Louis Breguet: a prototype, the inspiration for a current offering and a clock that I would love to have on my desk!