Introduced three years ago as the entry-level sports chronograph from Patek Philippe, the ref. 5960/1A was originally in white with black accents. Now the colour scheme – the ref. 5960/1A-010 – has been inverted for Baselworld 2017.

Hardly earth shattering news but it’s from Geneva’s best so some hearts will beat faster nonetheless.

The new dial is “ebony black opaline”, while the rest of the watch remains the same. A 40.5mm steel case with a matching steel bracelet, and the automatic calibre CH 28-520 IRM QA 24H inside.

Price and availability 

Pricing has yet to be announced, but expect it to cost similar to the US$51,000 of the existing ref. 5960/1A in silver.

First published in 1997, Breguet, Watchmakers since 1775. The life and legacy of Abraham-Louis Breguet was written by Emmanuel Breguet, a seventh generation descendant of Abraham-Louis and now curator of the Breguet museum. With the original edition long out of print, the book has just been published in its second edition, and made available by Breguet for an affordable price.

Corporate vanity coffee table books are rarely worth attentive study, but Abraham-Louis Breguet is such a significant figure in watchmaking that the updated Breguet tome is definitely worth a read. Add to that the Breguet museum’s impressive collection and the book is hard to turn down.

Measuring 27cm by 29cm and weighing 2.6kg (or 5.7lbs), the second edition is a weighty piece of reading. At 452 pages, the second edition is over 60 pages longer than the first, to accommodate the new images, illustrations and historical timepieces acquired by the Breguet museum since 2000 (like the Bugatti Royale clock purchased last year).

Necessarily, the new edition also includes a chapter covering the Swatch era, after the Swiss watchmaking conglomerate took over Breguet in 1999. It details Swatch founder Nicolas Hayek’s leadership of the company until his passing in 2010, during which its turnover grew 10-fold.

Price and availability 

Breguet, Watchmakers since 1775. The life and legacy of Abraham-Louis Breguet will be available at Breguet boutiques worldwide, priced at SFr130 or €120, equivalent to US$130.

Already available in a variety of iterations, ranging from a gilded dial to the sporty Overseas, the Vacheron Constantin world time that’s capable of tracking 37 times zones is now available with a fired enamel dial.

In the time honoured tradition of Louis Cottier-style world time watches, the Traditionnelle World Time depicts a map of the world in vitreous enamel. While such enamel maps are usually executed in cloisonné, this has been done in the grisaille technique.

Grisaille involves painting the rich blue enamel base with white enamel that is then shaded by scratching the surface with needles and brushes, creating the impression of depth for the continents.

Similarly, the cities disc is also blue fired enamel, with the cities representing standard 24 time zones with one hour offsets printed in white. The remaining cities are offset by 15 or 40 minutes, and are printed in pale blue.

Dial aside, the rest of the watch is identical to the stock Traditionelle World Time. The case is platinum, 42.5mm in diameter and 11.62mm high. Inside is the calibre 2460 WT, a self-winding movement with a 40-hour power reserve. It’s based on the calibre 2460, the in-house movement found in most of Vacheron Constantin’s upper-end watches.

Price and availability

The Traditionelle World Time with blue enamel dial (ref. 86060/000P‐9772) is a limited edition of 10 pieces available only at Vacheron Constantin boutiques. It’s priced at SFr103,652 or S$145,700, equivalent to about US$104,000.

A circular porthole in the centre of the dial of the Dōdekal One D110 shows an oversized hour numeral, shown with a nine-segment display, inspired by the digital displays found in 1970s electronics or even 1990s pagers.

To be unveiled in a few days at Baselworld 2017, the Dōdekal One the latest from MCT, which last year saw its watchmaker-founder Denis Giguet return to the helm.

Driven by cams and gears, the segments of the display travel on an irregular track to show the hours. Each changeover of the numeral at the top of each hour takes 2.5 seconds.

Minutes are indicated conventionally, with a red-tipped hand that travels around the dial.

The D1 movement inside is self-winding, with a 50-hour power reserve.

The cushion-shaped case is 43mm by 43mm, styled like MCT’s signature Sequential One wristwatch.

Intriguing as the mechanism is, fancy digital display watches don’t have a good track record for reliability, with the Harry Winston Opus 8 having never made it to production, and the De Grisogono Meccanico dG being occasionally unreliable. The proof of the Dōdekal One will be in its working.

Price and availability

The Dōdekal One is priced at SFr55,000 in titanium and SFr61,000 in titanium and pink gold, each limited to 25 pieces.