Timelab, the body that administers the Poinçon de Genève, or Geneva Seal, is holding a exhibition on the certification at the Rath Museum in Geneva from 28 February to 18 March. Those in Switzerland for Baselworld can visit. The exhibition displays movements and tools related to the seal, as well as explains the various criteria needed to receive the seal. The rules for the Geneva Seal were recently revised drastically, including function and durability tests, to keep up with the times.

The Musee Rath is at Place Neuve. Entry is CHF10 on all days except Wednesdays when it is CHF5 and on Sundays when entry is free. Under-18s also have free entry. It is closed on Mondays. I would only go on a Sunday.

– SJX

The Rolex website has a big teaser for an upcoming watch at Baselworld 2012, which rumour has it is the Sky-Dweller. We’ll find out in a day.

Update 8 March 2012: Full details and photos of the Sky-Dweller annual calendar.

Laurent Ferrier has just announced an 18 piece limited edition run of the Galet Micro-Rotor in platinum with a white grand feu enamel dial. The sublimely elegant dial has black numerals and blackened solid gold hands, complemented by a pale blue sub-seconds track.

This uses the same FBN (Ferrier-Barbasini-Navas) Calibre 229.01 as the regular Galet Micro-Rotor and the case is the same 40 mm diameter.

Visually this is closer to the Galet Classic Tourbillon than the first version of the Galet Micro-Rotor with the brushed metallic dial finish. This limited edition is the best looking iteration of the Galet Micro-Rotor so far. I do hope to see more like this.

– SJX

Heritage Watch Manufactory (HWM), a small brand co-founded by watchmaker Karsten Frasdorf, will show the Firmamentum at Baselworld 2012. Some may remember Mr Frasdorf from the now defunct independent brands Marc Brogsitter and then Fabrication De Montres Normandes.

At HWM Mr Frasdorf continues his signature movement style, brushed bridges and a large balance wheel, with an emphasis on chronometry. The Firmamentum is styled a navigation watch in the traditional sense – think sailing and navigation by the stars – because it displays the hour angle, sidereal time and solar time. It accomplishes this with an astonishing 15 hands and five subdials. Here is a brief explanation of all the subdials:

A, B and C are the arc hour, minute and seconds displays respectively used for the hour angle D shows the arc hours and minutes for solar or sidereal time E is the right acsension (short hand) and 24 hour indicator for solar or sidereal time F is the 12 and 24 hour indicator as well as declination (long hand) G is the constant seconds hand The button at two o’clock switches the variable speed gear train between display solar (24 hours a day) and sidereal time (23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.091 in seconds a day). And the button at four o’clock is a hack seconds mechanism that stops the seconds hand as well as the balance wheel for precise time setting. Both of these pushers can be locked to prevent accidental activation. All of HWM’s watches are designed by Eric Giroud, who is more famous for the work he has done for MB&F like the steampunk LM1 or the pod racer HM4. Despite this sterling design pedigree, the Firmamentum looks exceptionally complicated, both conceptually and practically. Coincidentally I recently wrote about the new Arnold & Son TB88 dead seconds chronometer, and how it was an improvement over the outrageously complex longitude watches Arnold & Son specialised in a few years back. The HWM Firmamentum is in the same category of bizarrely complicated in my opinion. Nevertheless it is technically impressive and hats off to Mr Frasdorf for thinking of this.

– SJX With thanks to Monochrome for providing info on the subdials.



Harry Winston Opus 11 by Denis Giguet

Swiss watch portal Watchonista has put up a page dedicated to the Harry Winston Opus collection, containing information on all 11 Opus watches to date. Very soon Opus 12 will be revealed at Baselworld. Stay tuned.

– SJX