Patek Phillippe at Sincere Haute Horlogerie

Sincere Haute Horlogerie at the Hilton Hotel in Singapore was in Singapore’s first avant-garde watch retail store. It underwent a revamp recently and now boasts a Patek Phillippe shop-in-shop (which takes the place of the Franck Muller shop-in-shop). During the opening event the Patek Philippe Tiger Marquetry limited edition (ref. 5077P) was presented. It’s a set of four timepieces depicting a tiger on the dial in marquetry – composed of hundreds of tiny pieces of various wood. Typically the Patek limited edition artisan quartet feature enamel dials which makes this quite unusual.

– SJX Photos courtesy Sincere Watch

The Habring2 dead seconds

Habring², an Austrian watchmake run by Maria and Richard Habring, has just released its 2011 catalogue in PDF format (opens in a new window). Richard was formerly at IWC and was one of the creators of signature IWC mechanisms like the split seconds and flying tourbillon. Habring² are interesting, honest and well priced and the catalogue is worth a read. It’s not just a catalogue of models but also includes explanations of several mechanisms like the dead seconds. 

– SJX

The unique watches created for Only Watch 2011 were in Singapore for a day long exhibition at Malmaison by The Hour Glass. Here are photos of a couple of the timepieces. One that I did not photograph but is worth a look is the Ikepod hour glass.  Pardon the poor photos, they were taken with a point-and-shoot through the display case. Some of the watches include links to a description in a separate post. – SJX

Bell & Ross BR01 Casino

A variant of the BR01 radar

The “0” indicate on the roulette wheel indicates the hours

and the white dot the minutes while the seconds is in the centre

Bernhard Lederer BLU Gagarin tourbillon

Created to mark the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s voyage

Contains a one minute tourbillon that makes one revolution around the dial in 108 minutes which was the length of Gagarin’s orbit

Breguet Grande Complication Reveil Musical

A 45 mm alarm watch that plays a short piece of music

Impressive complication but perhaps a bit gimmicky,

and the case is too large for a Breguet

Celsius X VI II Piece Unique

Mobile phone with cool fibre optic display for dual time and power reserve

Estimated at EUR40,000-60,000, this costs a fraction of the Celsius tourbillon phone

De Bethune DB25 08-01-1297

Stunning wandering hours with blued titanium dial

If I had to pick one this would be it 

Montblanc Villeret 1858 Vintage Pulsograph

A mere change of dial but beautiful, classical movement

MB&F HM4

Louis Vuitton Tambour II Diving Chronograph

For some reason I really like the look of this!

At the estimated price of EUR40,000-60,000 it’s an outrageous price for a LV chrono but still

The LV watch comes with a matching box that probably accounts for 10% of the price

Hublot Oceanographic 4000

4000 m dive watch in carbon fibre case

Again, a change of colours versus the regular model

Hermes Arceau le Temps Suspendu

A useless but clever complicationcreated by Jean-Marc Wiedderecht that suspends time

Patek Philippe ref. 3939 in stainless steel

The last of the 3939; only a Patek will turn up at auction sealed in a plastic bag

Any bets on how much this will go for?

TAG Heuer Monaco Mikrograph

Measures up to 1/100th of a second thanks to a second balance wheel and barrel

Box designed by South African artist Paul du Toit

Ulysse-Nardin Freak Diavolo

Flying tourbillon and carrousel

Stainless steel case

The blue rubber insert on the bezel is tacky

Urwerk UR-103 Phoenix

Engraved by Jean-Vincent Huguenin

Vacheron Constantin Metier d’Art Dove

One of my favourites, very elegant and distinctive

Combination of guilloche, engraving, enamelling and gemsetting is shrewdly done

Zenith Destro chronographs

Chronographs with the crown on the left

Not blazingly creative

Van Cleef & Arpels

Double retrograde Poetic Complications

Same movement as the other Poetic Complications retrograde but attractive nevertheless