Horological Meandering

SIHH 2009... Some gems but mostly a waste of time

 

I've seen the countless reports, the press pics, the live pics here and elsewhere and one word comes to mind... Dissapointed. well theres no pleasing everyone of course but I figure the brands could do a little better. The pricing on some of the new releases also seem to defy all logic, excuse me have you heard that there is a global financial crises going on and the global economy is in the pits? Who are you selling these watches to u think? The retailers aren't gonna be dumb enough to pick some of these up... hmm

First the Good. There is the Richard Lange Pour Le Merite. Its cool and lovely. Only bad thing is the price tag of course, probably above S$150k for the gold version, God knows what they're gonna price the platinum at (think S$200k). I think it'll do well though. The new upsized 1815s to 40mm are cool, the dark dialled L1 Tz and Dato Perp are cool too. Lange easily had the best showing of all the brands at SIHH.

MB&F - ok with the ceramic stuff but cufflinks? what next? belts, rings, pendants, pens, shoes, t-shirts... ok if they stop at the cufflinks though. hmm i may even fancy a pair, heathen that i am I like the HM2 line the most so more variations are cool. I don't like the ceramic plus red gold version dat much though.


For IWC, the Portuguese in the Antique collection in rose gold looks interesting. The AP Jules Audemars Chrono looks quite alright but the pricing for what it is... uhm make it all of AP's new releases - pricing is just crazy. The VC Traditionelle range looks smart. And the JLC Ladies GMT Diving Ceramique piece is nice. The rest of JLC releases just so so for me.



More AP Offshore Limited Editions - random color generator in overdrive with all sorts of crazy color combos spewing out. All kinds of stupid tieups (highway, some fight club dude, vegas something) to come out with more Offshores. The Offshore is a good design but this overkill may be too much. Total dilution of a great line... oh and the RBIII is horrible compared to RBII. AP Millenary line and the other Jules Audemars watches are aesthetically not my cuppa. The ChronAP is overpriced, oversized and overhyped.

Panerai Ferrari watches - Why bother? Honestly...
Panerai new models - They all are beginning to look the same. Our wives/girlfriends were right after all. I guess they have to be as they are variations of the ones that came before. Of course the prices are interesting for what they are. They also came out with the 60mm Egiziano which no one in their right mind would wear. A collectible to display at home perhaps? Should have made it in steel then... but it doesn't serve a key purpose of being a wrist watch does it...

Ralph Lauren watches - Repeat after me 'What were they smoking?' They should have hired me and I would have told them to do something else with the money Expand the bath towel range perhaps...

De Bethune - Pretty weird & bad designs. Maybe ok if they were building dodgy French spacecraft or something. Kinda looks like some flat metallic beetle with a disease or modern art hairclips to be worn together with some chopsticks in the hair.

IWC - Aquatimers look like Seikos or Citizen or something similar. Probably designed by their marketing department as with some of their other lines.

Van Cleef & Arpels, Piaget & Cartier - Don't care for these brand's watch products if you can call them that. Stick to jewelry. Same goes to Bvlgari.

GP, Jean Richard & Baume & Mercier, Montblanc, Parmigiani, Roger Dubuis - They just don't do it for me. Well maybe 1 or 2 out of 100 pieces(arbitrary number) in their combined new lineup are ok... but just ok...

So if I were Richemont, I would only give bonuses out to Lange, and if I were Swatch, bonuses only to VC. But of course after I have the numbers on the orders placed for them

If any of the brands or groups above are smart, they would hire me to do their strategy so next year won't be as appalling as this one kiddin. so what were your likes and dislikes?

cheers
raph