The SIHH 2012 PuristsPro Live Report - Day 1
The 2012 SIHH PuristSPro Live Report
- Jon Z. (Z3)
Dear fellow Purists,
Again comes the refreshingly chilling Geneva January and the venerable watch show SIHH. As somebody who has done it in the past years, it is my utmost honor to report to you, once again, in a relatively "live" fashion the novelties that various brands would introduce, through the lens of my camera, with in-situ photos.
Day 1 - Arrival and General Atmosphere
As I was getting ready to depart for Geneva, my home city Seattle has just begun to experience one of the worst snow storms in the city's recent history. We sat on the runway for half an hour, as the plane got de-iced (it's fortunate, had I left a day later, the delay would've been very bad).
Off we go!
10 hours later, making a connection at Frankfurt and admiring from the above the forests, small towns, and neatly organized plots of farm land.
Arriving on Monday afternoon and waling directly from the airport to the Palexpo, where the SIHH is held.
At the main lobby, and getting ready to check in.
The SIHH's consistent look and feel year after year - an atmosphere of hushed elegance and restlessness - a result of uniform cream-color decor, soft lighting, and business people and journalists bustling about in nicely-cut suits and impeccably tanned shoes...
The Roger Dubuis' booth has an awesome and potentially seizure-inducing lightning show , to showcase it's new "Pulsion" collection. The concept of the name is for a "high energy" watch line that makes one's pulse go faster when seeing it - my pulse certainly elevated when I walked into the booth.
IWC wins the coolest booth design - their focus on the Pilot line prompted them to design the booth as a aircraft carrier, complete with a flight simulator.
At 5:30pm, the opening ceremony starts, with speeches by Swiss officials and attended by Who's Who in the watch industry
Now, on to the novelties!
Yours Truly,
Jon Z. (Z3)
This message has been edited by AnthonyTsai on 2012-01-18 19:51:48 This message has been edited by AnthonyTsai on 2012-01-23 18:52:39
The SIHH 2012 PuristsPro Live Report - Cartier
The 2012 SIHH PuristSPro Live Report
- Jon Z. (Z3)
Day 1 - Cartier
This year Cartier has refocused on the Tank line and introduced the "Tank Anglaise", adding to the Tank family consisted of classic designs such as the original Louis Cartier Tank, the Tank Francaise, the Tank Americaine, the Tank Divan, etc...
The mesemerizing artistic pieces (always a treat for the eyes at Cartier!) feature techniques such as straw marquetry, enamel grisaille, and gemstone mosiac.
The haute horlogerie domain feature pieces such as the Rotonde Cadran Love Tourbillon, the Rotonde Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon, and the Rotonde Annual Calendar (due to time constraint at the press conference, I was not able to take live photos of these).
The rectangular shaped Tank Anglaise, which comes in three sizes, in three metals (white gold, pink gold, and steel), features a two-piece crown design where instead of pulling out the crown in one piece when setting time, the smaller center piece of the crown is pulled out. The time is then set by turning the larger crown rim.
The three sizes
Display back of the automatic movement model.
Wrist shot - a slightly curved comfortable watch to wear - typical of Cartier Tanks
Versions with diamonds
Louis Tank XL Slimline in pink gold and white gold, a very elegant yet reasonably large mechanical winding dress watch (Calibre 430 MC ) sized at 40.4mm by 35mm, and only 5mm thick - a classic Cartier re-invigorated.
The Artistic pieces.
The koala motif, featuring straw marquetry technique
The tiger motif with enamel grisaille
The cockatoo with engraved mother of pearl and champleve enamel
The horse motif with gemstone mosaic - a mind-boggling painstaking process where each little gemstone is set by hand.
Some additional eye candies for your viewing pleasure. Checking out the 3-dimensional ladybugs.
2012 is the year of the Dragon in Chinese lunar calendar, so it is no surprise that many brands are embarking on this opportunity.
Hope you have enjoyed the report.
Yours Truly,
Jon Z. (Z3)
Thanks for taking the time to share the highlights....
The SIHH 2012 PuristsPro Live Report - Audemars Piguet
The 2012 SIHH PuristSPro Live Report
- Jon Z. (Z3)
Day 1 - Audemars Piguet
For the Royal Oak lovers, this year is an exciting year. Exactly 40 years ago, the original Royal Oak design was conceived by Mr. Gerald Genta as the first steel luxury sport watch, and the rest is history. Who doesn't love the octagon shape, the white gold screws, the tapisserie dial, and the integrated bracelet so finely finished in multiple styles...
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of Royal Oak, AP came out with the Openworked extra-thin in platinum (40 limited edition), the 41mm extra thin tourbillon in platinum, and the extra-thin 39mm (featuring cal 2121) with a dial design (the AP logo at 6'O clock) that pays tribute to the original 1972 Jumbo.
Another notable mention is that the regular Royal Oak automatic (with 3120 movement) and the Royal Oak chronograph (with 2385 movement) are now enlarged from 39mm to 41mm - a welcomed enlargement to some, especially for the Chronograph.
Openworked extra-thin Royal Oak in platinum
With commemorative rotor.
Openworked Tourbillon
The extra-thin (Jumbo) in rose gold and steel
The extra-thin tourbillon in 41mm.
The movement design is true to the original tourbillon design in the 1980's.
The enlarged 41mm Royal Oak Automatic and Chronograph. The clasp of the bracelet is also redesigned to be thicker.
The Year of the Dragon limited edition tourbillon in the Jules Audemars case, with 3 variations (gold on red, gold on gold, and white on red)
The Year of the Dragon Jules Audemars perpetual calendar, with the dragon rotor.
For the Offshore lovers, this year is relatively calm...
the Diver in Forged Carbon.
And AP's first regular production Platinum offshore (previously all the platinum pieces are limited editions)
Some ladies' novelties.
Royal Oak in 37mm
Size comparison of the 37mm and the 33mm Royal Oak
This year the ChronAP is introduced in the rose gold case.
In my humble opinion, AP's approach this year has been quite different from the previous years with major launches of exciting limited edition Offshores. Although not as exhilarating, the seemingly conservative product introduction represents a return to tradition and a much welcomed break from all that glitter...
Hope you have enjoyed the post.
Yours Truly,
Jon Z. (Z3)
Thank you for the AP report Jon!
The original Jumbo look so yummy!
Got to get me one of these one day! Now that the original dial with AP logo on 6 came out, I will no longer chase 5402ST 
. Wow, well done AP! 39mm is very nice.
Ken
It's nice but the chase for the historical piece is still fun =)
Thank you for great report!
Dragon rotor is... it's just surprising.
and i love all the RO models.
thank you for sharing nice pics!
You sum it up perfectly...
I have been quite impressed with AP's offerings year after year. This year offers additional refinements to the collections and in the end allows customers, new and old, quite a bit of assortment to choose from. And many of these new models fall into the lower price points for an AP watch, and that is a welcomed development.
Yes, for this year's novelties, AP's prices are still "within reach"
Platinum OS is nice
Love the AP live report!
the in the metal photos are just spectacular!
Love the new Jumbo re-issue...
I need to try on the 41mm 15400 to see how it fits...what did you think of the larger proportions?
Thank you for the excellent reporting Jon!
Thanks for the live report
Regards,
ED-209
Conservative... well described the collection
EXCEPTIONAL coverage Jon, as usual of course.
Thanks Friend.
Thanks Michael for your kind words.
Best,
Jon
