Following on the Presage watches that feature dials made with traditional Japanese crafts, including Shippo enamel and Arita porcelain, Seiko has introduce the Presage Senbei.

Senbei, or 煎餅, is a traditional Japanese rice cracker that’s made by baking over charcoal as it is painted with a savoury sauce. It is sometimes eaten with a piece of seaweed, or nori, on top.

Just like how Seiko incorporated tuna into its iconic “Tuna” dive watch, Seiko has translated that into a watch dial that’s essentially a piece of senbei. The senbei is the product of a skilled artisan whose family has been baking senbei for generations.

The dial is baked, painted with soy sauce, and then – in a true stroke of creative genius – applied with Roman numerals delicately cut out of seaweed.

Three different dial types are available: soy sauce, sesame, and crystal sugar. They offer different dial textures and colours, and different flavours naturally.

From left: soy sauce, sesame, and crystal sugar

The rest of the watch is identical to the standard Presage automatic. The case is stainless steel, 40mm in diameter, with the automatic 6R27 inside.

Price and availability

Prices have yet to be announced, but this article will be updated as soon as they are. For more, visit Seiko.

Phillips recently opened its second selling exhibition in Hong Kong, with over 100 watches up for sale, from affordable vintage timepieces to high-end modern complications.

It’s a big selection but a handful of items stood out, being personal favourites, including a white gold Richard Lange Pour le Merite by A. Lange & Söhne and an impressive Cartier Mystery Clock.

One value proposition is the Patek Philippe ref. 3970EP chronograph with perpetual calendar, here in platinum with a black dial featuring baton indices.

The ref. 3970 was preceded by a watch that is sought after and exceptionally valuable, the ref. 2499, and succeeded by another desirable watch that is pricey but not quite as valuable, the ref. 5970. But the ref. 3970 itself is less costly, and relative to its cousins, strong value for money.

That’s due to the long spell it was in production, as well as the small case diameter of 36mm.

But it’s still a Patek Philippe chronograph with perpetual calendar, and part of a historically important series of timepieces. And it’s powered by the most impressive iteration of the Lemania 2320 movement, which was used by many brands but most heavily improved by Patek Philippe.

As later generation 3970s go, the platinum version is one of the least common, and this example is well preserved, with all the hallmarks and case details still fresh. It’s also complete with the original boxes and certificate that confirms the watch left the factory with this dial.

The ref. 3970EP is priced at 950,000 Hong Kong dollars, or about US$121,000. It’s towards the upper limit in the range this watch usually goes for, but the watch is crisp and complete, and the price is negotiable.

And the final pick isn’t a value proposition but is a special version of a highly regarded watch, the Voutilainen Vingt-8 in titanium.

One of just 10 made, and numbered as such on the back which is unusual for Voutilainen, this Vingt-8 has a mirror polished titanium case with the brand’s signature teardrop lugs.

This is numbered “10/10”.

The dial is dark grey and finished with three different types of guilloche, and fitted with Voutilainen’s signature hands.

But what makes it different from most Voutilainen watches (that have Arabic or Roman numerals) are the baton hour markers. Like the hands the hour markers are finished in a bright, matte silver, and give the watch a distinctly more modern look.

The movement is the standard cal. 28 – wonderfully decorated and characterised by an oversized balance wheel and double escape wheels.

The Vingt-8 is complete with boxes and papers, and is priced at 748,000 Hong Kong dollars, equivalent to US$95,000.

Exhibition details

The Hong Kong Watches Selling Exhibition: II takes place from March 25 to April 2, and is open daily from 10am-6pm.

Phillips
14/F, St. George’s Building
2 Ice House Street
Central, Hong Kong

Sotheby’s upcoming Hong Kong auction was to boast timepieces made by two of the greatest watches of the 20th century – George Daniels and Philippe Dufour. Alas, one was not to be.

Originally lot 2299 in the catalogue but now withdrawn, the Philippe Dufour creation was a Simplicity wristwatch, 37mm and platinum, with an unusual dial in silver with rose gold-plated markers (typically the markers match the colour of the case). The watch was ostensibly numbered “108”.

But the watch was actually no. 103, which was stolen in London a few months ago and travelled halfway around the world to Hong Kong.

Mr Dufour himself confirmed that the watch in the catalogue was the stolen watch no. 103.

Notice the “108” on the plate. Photo – Sotheby’s

As it turns out, the number plate on the movement was ineptly and mechanically re-engraved with “108”. Despite looking strikingly different this was not picked up prior to the owner contacting Sotheby’s.

Mr Dufour also confirmed the engraving was done by machine thus not original; all Simplicity movements have hand-engraved plates for the brand and serial number.

(My money’s on the number plate being original, and merely flipped over and then re-engraved on the reverse.)

Fortunately, the owner of the watch is in the process of recovering it, with the cooperation of Sotheby’s.

In contrast, the next lot in the auction, 2300, has absolutely impeccable provenance.

It’s a fairly ordinary example of the George Daniels Millennium wristwatch, if such a watch can be ordinary. Preserved in excellent condition and probably rarely worn, the case is yellow gold, and the dial silvered, with gold chapter rings and gold hands.

The Sandberg Millennium wristwatch. Photo – Sotheby’s

As was the late Dr Daniels’ habit, the watch is marked with the owner’s initials and year of production, in this case “MGRS 00” – short for “Michael Graham Ruddock Sandberg” and “2000”.

The display back showing the movement of the Millennium, which is actually based on an Omega (or more specially ETA) calibre. Photo – Sotheby’s

The late Lord Sandberg was the chairman of HSBC from 1977 to 1986, a period of international expansion for the bank and also a formative one for the the Hong Kong economy as it transitioned from one dominated by British trading houses to local tycoons. His reign at HSBC was capped by the opening of the bank’s headquarters in Hong Kong, designed by Sir Norman Foster and then the world’s most expensive office building.

But more importantly, Lord Sandberg was one of the world’s most important watch collectors of his time. He accumulated over 400 timepieces that truly reflected the collecting taste of the era (and are pretty much out of fashion today), primarily Swiss, English and French pocket watches from the 18th and 19th century, many with elaborated enamel decoration. His impeccable tastes makes it somewhat unsurprising that he owned a Daniels, which was probably the most important wristwatch in independent watchmaking in the late 1990s.

A good number of them were watches of the highest quality produced for the Chinese market, then the world’s biggest consumer of such timepieces. And the collection also included many automata, like singing bird boxes.

“The Amphora”, attributed to Piguet & Capt. Photo – Antiquorum

The entire collection was sold, except for a handful of watches like the Millennium, at Antiquorum in 2001, with many items ending up in the important collections around the world. In fact, the most expensive lot of the sale, an amphora-shaped musical watch with automaton (pictured above) was purchased by the Patek Philippe Museum for almost 1m Swiss francs.

The Daniels Millennium has an estimate of 1.5-2.5m Hong Kong dollars, or about US$200,000-300,000. You can see it here. And for more on Lord Sandberg’s list, see the obituary we published last year.

Update March 30, 2019: The nature of the Simplicity at the auction was discovered several weeks ago, and being acquainted with the owner I had minor involvement in the process of retrieving it. But due to several reasons, as well as at the owner’s request, the story was not published until now.

Oris has just announced Divers Sixty-Five Ctime, a limited edition version of its popular retro-style dive watch produced especially for Ctime, a Chinese watch magazine and forum based in Shanghai that was founded in 2014.

The Ctime edition is based on a version of the Divers Sixty-Five launched last year. It retains the original design modelled on a 1965 Oris wristwatch, but matches the steel case with bronze bezel (that has a black aluminium insert), a more restrained two-tone combination than the usual steel and gold.

It’s matched with a dark green dial that features the Ctime logo at six o’clock, along with a commemorative engraving on the case back.

Another feature unique to this edition is the red triangle on the rotating bezel. The red marker on the bezel is a subtle reference to a phenomenon unique to China. On Chinese stock markets, positive price movements are shown in red, while downwards changes are in green.

Key facts

Diameter: 40mm
Material: Steel with bronze bezel
Water resistance: 100m

Movement: Oris 733 (Sellita SW200-1)
Power reserve: 38 hours

Strap: Brown suede leather strap, additional green and grey NATO-style strap
Accessories: Special packaging with aged leather travel pouch and strap removal tool

Price and availability

The Divers Sixty-Five Ctime (ref. 733 7707 4397) is a limited edition of 100 watches, priced at 14,900 renminbi, or about US$2200.

Nearly all have been spoken for by Ctime members, but 10 will be available in July on the official Oris e-store on Tmall.com.

Why did I start a watch brand?

It’s a fair question, and one I’ve been asked frequently enough to dictate I properly explain somewhere, for the record.

I suppose watchmaking isn’t just something you pick up on a whim one day, nor is it something that, even if you had a burning desire to do, can easily begin by submitting a CV to a headhunter.

Watchmaking, in its purest definition, is a vocation, not a profession. You physically have to make something, and in the process of doing so – from scratch, of course – then understand everything from engineering to metallurgy to physics to aesthetics. It is the kind of intellectual pursuit undertaken successfully by only the most dedicated, the most skilled, or the most masochistically insane.

I am not a watchmaker in the purest definition, nor am I dextrously skilled, but I am fairly dedicated and probably also insane. After all, eight years ago I did quit when I was at the top of the corporate game to start over as a photographer. And now, not having learned my lesson, history repeats.

Ming Thein

‘Twas the turn of the century…

Horology is really a homecoming of sorts for me. In a nutshell, an interest in all things mechanical and the desire to buy a “nice” watch sometime in 2000 or 2001 lead to research and the quick realisation that the pieces I liked I would never have any hope of being able to afford unless I got extremely lucky. (The “nice” watch I eventually landed on was the Omega Dynamic chronograph, which I still have.)

But the accumulation of knowledge has always been much cheaper, if not downright free. I learned everything I could about anything horological; focusing on the movements, complications and the mechanical side of things before giving a second thought to the aesthetics. At the time I thought many others had done design better and more coherently already.

And my preferences were strongly influenced by my favourite brands of the time, leading to rather derivative looking attempts at my own movement designs. I’m sure those early movement attempts had more than their fair share of flaws and wouldn’t have any hope in running. Often I’d realise this before completing the drawings – yes, with pen and tracing paper back then.

The keyword here is “visual”: I guess this is the way my brain works; everything translates or decomposes into patterns, shapes, colours, luminosity. I had to try to design my own and see if I could do better with the little knowledge I had. A movement may be mechanically superb, but if it’s visually boring, I’d rather have an interesting solid case back. “Interesting” also doesn’t necessarily mean complex – this took me some time to learn, too.

Ochs und Junior x MING Celestial

In parallel, I met some very nice people on the internet that were as crazy about watches as I was; the movers and shakers of the watch world in 2019 all occupied one little corner of the internet in 2001, and I remember meeting them in person in various events around Europe in those years. Fortunately, I was living in London at the time which made access much easier. Whilst I still felt massively out of place financially at those gatherings – I remember making excuses for more than one dinner, being on a student or lowly audit junior budget – at least I could hold my own on the knowledge front.

There was also the inspiration of several other fellow collectors who were photographing their own pieces for various reasons – and kind enough to lend the watches to me to photograph, too. In this way I was able to experience a watch and take away a small slice of my own impressions for posterity. Perhaps not the full experience of ownership, but at least something to visually remember the piece by. This would later turn into the foundations of my photography career and mark the first loop of the cycle of watches to photography to corporate and back to photography.

Ochs und Junior x MING Simpleton

One’s initial desires as a collector do not necessarily stay; we are swayed and drawn by the iconic pieces, then the “something different”, then the complex, and at that point you’re commissioning piece uniques. Not everybody makes it this far, of course; you need to have a certain level of income to climb the ladder.

Two important things to note here. Firstly, if you look hard enough, there are watches that fill all of those criteria at every price point. A modern grand complication wristwatch will set you back six figures or more (the currency doesn’t even matter at this point), but back then, a little hunting would yield the same functions in a pocket watch, quite possibly better finished but certainly larger and easier to appreciate, in the low thousands. The options have only gotten even greater in recent years with the rise of microbrands and internet retail.

Secondly, assuming you make it through a few steps of the cycle – you find that increasingly bigger infusions of horology are required to keep the passion going. No longer are we content to be invited to a cocktail night at a boutique but we must go visit the independent watchmaker’s atelier, examine the screws under a microsurgical microscope and choose the cows used to make our straps.

Then there is a certain fatigue that sets in after a while, not to mention either financial ruin or the frustration of watching but being unable to take part (for the same reasons of impending financial ruin).

In the meantime, I’d stopped shooting watches professionally because I found it was starting to severely reduce my enjoyment of the hobby. Rare pieces that would appear once in a blue moon at collectors’ gatherings were now presented in every variant on a tray, to be captured  “front, side, back and, 3/4 views; thank you”.

Ming and friends

I went to a watch show in Asia in 2014 as the guest of a friend and serious collector who was there to investigate a potential heavyweight purchase, along with a few other friends who accompanied him for moral support and to eat the beef noodles.

We left somewhat disillusioned by the lack of quality service, the pretentiousness and, well, the feeling that even entry-level watches were starting to become silly money. Case in point: in 2002, a decent, used Submariner or Speedmaster could be had for a little over a thousand US dollars, while a new entry-level Patek Philippe or Lange, or a complicated JLC, was perhaps five thousand, and that already felt like silly money. Then add twelve years, and multiply everything by five or more. Inflation exists, but not at 15% per annum.

Our group wondered if there were alternatives. We started looking into independents, and for me personally, the watchmakers that would be willing to entertain serious customisation without breaking the bank. That meant compromising on the movement, but as it turns out, there were still interesting alternatives to be had.

Ochs und Junior took up the challenge and gave me very simple, but reliable, annual calendar and high accuracy moon phase watches, but more than that, forced me to adapt the design to be coherent with the immutable parts (cases, dial layout and indications, production limitations).

Until this point, I was still designing, evolving both my movement conceptualisation skills and aesthetics. By now, I’d developed a coherent design language and put over 50 watches, including movements, on paper. These watches would represent the baby steps towards seeing them come to life.

But first, the ornamental complexity had to go, so design would be reductive instead of additive. It was an interesting process that forced me to really identify and simplify critical elements required for time telling and cutting stylistic cues down to the bare minimum. The Simpleton and Celestial collaborations with Ochs und Junior were the product of those experiments, and it’s probably clear that design elements from both made it into MING.

During this process, the possibility of making our own watches became the subject of discussion amongst that same group that went to the fair – myself, K.M. Chan, Y.F. Chek, J. Lim, and two new additions, M. Bosse and P. Rajsingh, all of whom would go on to become the founders of MING.

In the meantime, there were questions to be answered. What price point? What style? How would we make it at least self-sustaining, if not commercially viable?

Some of the founders of MING: (clockwise from left) KM Chan, P. Rajsingh, J. Lim, Ming Thein, and YF Chek. Dr Magnus Bosse is not pictured.

We did agree that simpler – reductivism again – would be better, and more expensive doesn’t necessarily increase the horological merit. If anything, it would be much more difficult to design something interesting with a very limited production budget. We were aiming for a sort of palate cleanser born of the experience of dining too richly. Several conclusions were reached, which form the underlying principles of the Horologer MING company.

– The watches have to be mechanical, else they lose most of the soul and all of the production budget as well as market acceptance required to make something interesting.

– The watches have to represent value, regardless of price point – we need to deliver bang for the buck and something that can hold its own in any company.

– The watches must have integrity and coherence from both a design and mechanical standpoint. They need to be honest – we use the right movement at the right price point and won’t glorify a basic ETA or Sellita, but if there’s something to show off we will.

– We give credit to our production partners if they contribute critical elements to the watch.

– We preserve brand value for ourselves and our customers by holding pricing and committed production numbers – no reissuing of limited runs no matter what the demand, and our underestimation of it.

– We aim to deliver an excellent and consistent level of customer service.

– We need to charge enough to stay in business, support existing customers and reinvest in interesting products.

– We prefer to spend money on making a more interesting product rather than promoting a less interesting one (and can’t afford to outspend other advertisers anyway).

– Above all, we need to believe in our product, both the watches and the overall experience. Being collectors ourselves, we continually assess all customer-facing elements of the business to make sure we ourselves would be happy if on the other side of the table.

Some of these tenets have other cascading consequences, such as holding pricing and no discounts, or consistency of customer experience and delivery of value. For instance, it means that conventional retail is out because of the margins demanded, and because of the risk of discounting which in turn further erodes margins. That puts limitations on our reach and physical ability to show watches, and in turn impacts sales, economies of scale, and sustainability of business.

Of all the industries and businesses I’ve been involved in, this one is perhaps the most difficult as there are so many moving pieces. We do not and will likely never make our anything ourselves. We might finish some elements (like heat bluing cases). but the reality is the necessary ecosystem and supplier network does not exist in Malaysia. The expertise is simply not here.

We acknowledge this by working with the best partners we can find for a given project, whatever the level of the piece may be. It means we have Schwarz-Etienne for the 19-series movements and assembly, Sellita and ETA in the 17-series, and others for forthcoming pieces I can’t talk about, with yours truly doing most of the photography. So history repeats, but this time, I can do all of the crazy photographic stuff that more conventional marketing says away from.

It would probably have been a much easier sell to purchase an old name and some claim to history, rather than picking an Asian name while acknowledging we were 100% fresh off the boat, but that would have been disingenuous.

We have no heritage, but we are creating it as we go along. There are no expectations or rules we have to follow, or even a conventional business model, for that matter.

There was nothing to prevent us launching the 19.01 immediately after the 17.01, with an order of magnitude increase in price. The step was partially because we wanted to avoid being pigeonholed as a microbrand, and partially because we severely underpriced the 17.01 and consequently lost money on every single watch sold. Validation came in the form of a 2018 GPHG shortlisting for the 19.01, and the prices at which 17.01s trade on the secondary markets.

The debut, the MING 17.01

MING 19.01

The way we operate puts us into a strange space – agile and flexible enough to do a wide variety of projects with a wide variety of partners, but serious enough to put out projects that punch far above what most new brands manage. In short, we found a way to make the watches we want to wear.

To that end, there’s actually an element of predictability to our releases. Each one, so far, replaces something in my personal collection, specifically watches I’d researched extensively and found to be the best of their kind when considered for an overall balance of aesthetics, mechanics and quality.

I don’t pay as much attention to brands as the ownership and wearing experience, and how the physical elements change under different light. Were they alive, or one dimensional? Did different situations reveal better, or worse facets? Conceptually, what elements could I take with me?

Keen observers will notice that all of our watches have a few crucial, unchanging characteristics: strong symmetry; flared lugs; curved strap ends; legibility, and distinct minute and hour hands; elements that beget visual layering so the watches can look very different under different lighting conditions; a distinctive luminous signature; crowns that are easy to interact with; wearing balance and comfort.

All elements are reduced to their essence, anything decorative must also not interfere with the reading of time, and the hierarchy of the wearer’s attention must be preserved. We have design principles rather than a hard catalog, which makes the visual link between a 17.01 and a 19.01 and the Simpleton clear. It also means that rather than use a made-up name, my investors insisted I use my own – a commitment to a design I believed in. Which also increases the pressure to perform.

At present, there’s still a lot we want to do, watches in my collection that have not been replaced, and ideas that have not been tried. At any given time there are over 40 works in progress on the “board”, which is a 15ft by 8ft stretch of wall in the office where designs sit and mature. Things fall off, things get added, things get prototyped and evolved. Any given design has had at least six months to a year of gestation and sitting time before we go to prototyping, because of lead times and cost, and also because often we are too close to a design at the start to be objective about it.

Even so, there have been watches that were prototyped and will never see the light of day for whatever reason, and there are others that have been reshuffled in the schedule, and others still that require quite a bit more R&D to bring to life.

I have of course not given up on the dream of making our own movement, but they will need to be saved for some special complications that has never been done. After all, why reinvent the wheel?

At times, it feels like we have been in this game for an eternity. But the reality is 17.01 landed in August 2017, and we’ve not even been two years in the public sphere. The MING journey is just beginning. I look forward to seeing where it takes us.

Ming Thein graduated from Oxford in 2003 and started his career as an auditor at KPMG. Amongst other things he has been the Chief of Strategy for Swedish camera maker Hasselblad as well as a professional photography. He cofounded Horologer MING in 2017.

All images courtesy Ming Thein.

Richard Mille has been on a tear with its ladies’ watches of late, thanks to Cécile Guenat, who’s in charge of female watches and also daughter of Richard Mille cofounder Dominique Guenat. Having unveiled an in-house tourbillon with the RM71-01 Automatic Tourbillon Talisman last year and the Bonbon collection at SIHH 2019, Richard Mille has just taken the covers off its first wristwatch with a Carbon TPT bracelet.

The new RM 07-01 with Carbon TPT bracelet migrates the brand’s signature material from the case to the bracelet for the first time.

According to Richard Mille, the bracelet took 13 months to develop. Each link is comprised of several plates of carbon composite and a frame of titanium, held together by the brand’s signature screws, which total 44 on a full length bracelet. The bracelet weighs only 29 grams.

The bracelet is made of the same material favoured for Richard Mille watch cases, being a carbon composite comprised of carbon fibre layers set in resin and set in an autoclave. Each layer of carbon fibre is aligned at 45 degrees offset to the previous layer, giving the watch its hardiness as well as the distinct pattern.

While the new RM 07-01 bracelet is the first in carbon composite, it’s not the first bracelet from Richard Mille. The brand offered various bracelets in gold for the RM 07-01 and the RM 037 in the past, as well as a titanium bracelet for the RM 011 Felipe Massa. But in general, bracelets have been the exception rather than the norm for the brand.

Price and Availability

The RM 07-01 Ladies’ in Carbon TPT with Carbon TPT bracelet is priced at 200,500 Swiss Francs before taxes, which is about US$201,000. It will be available starting April 2019.

Correction March 29, 2019: The retail price is 200,500 Swiss francs, and not 400,500 as stated in an earlier version of the article.

A nonprofit that promotes watchmaking education, the Horological Society of New York (HSNY) is the oldest watchmaking guild in America. Now 153 years old, the HSNY will soon host its annual gala that will include a charity auction to raise money for scholarships to fund watchmaking students.

The Henry B. Fried scholarship was inaugurated in 2017, with each recipient getting US$10,000 to fund study at full-time watchmaking schools in the United States. Several scholarships will be handed out during the annual gala.

Helping to fund the scholarships and the HSNY is the live auction that takes place during the gala. Conducted by HSNY sponsor Christie’s, the auction will see a diverse line-up of horological experiences and memorabilia go under the hammer.

The items in the catalogue include “new old stock” HSNY lapel pins from 1930 (pictured above), a trip to Audemars Piguet in Le Brassus, and a watchmaking class conducted by Francois-Paul Journe himself.

The gala takes place on the evening of April 17, 2019, at the Manhattan Penthouse on Fifth Avenue.

Tickets to the gala cost US$200 for general admission, and US$1500 for a table for 10. For more information and ticket reservations, visit the Horological Society of New York.

All items for the charity auction will be on show at the HSNY offices from 2pm-4pm on, April 16, 2019.

Horological Society of New York
20 West 44th Street, Room 506
New York, NY 10036

The bestselling Casio G-Shock “Full Metal” launched last year is now available in another finish: aged IP, a black ion-plating that’s been treated to give it a worn patina.

Dark grey and noticeably worn, the new finish contrasts starkly with the existing “Full Metal” models, especially the gold-plated version.

Finish aside, the rest of the watch is identical to the standard models. The case is constructed with an inner resin bumper to protect the electronics, giving the watch the same shock resistance as the basic resin G-Shock.

Its functions include world time, stopwatch, and alarm, as well as radio-controlled time synchronisation. The watch can also be connected to a smartphone app via Bluetooth, which allows time-setting and adjustment of the functions from the phone.

Price and availability

The G-Shock “Full Metal” in aged IP (ref. GMW-B5000V-1) will be available starting June 2019. It’ll retail for US$1000.

Update March 28, 2019: Price in US dollars added.

With Baselworld haemorrhaging exhibitors, smaller brands that in past years would never have been given the time of day are now front and centre.

The upside is establishment independents like MB&F and Urwerk enjoy larger, more prominent locations, mostly in Hall 1.0. But the flipside is also true: the chancers and no-hopers also get indecent exposure.

The big boys

MB&F showed its new ladies’ watch, the LM FlyingT, but the real news was the men’s Legacy Machine complication slated for launch later in the year.

Though nothing was officially revealed of the watch, movement constructor Eric Coudray was repeatedly spotted at the MB&F booth. He is best known as the inventor of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Gyrotourbillon, and is now a free agent after bailing from Cabestan as it takes on water. More will be revealed in good time.

The highlight of Voutilainen was the 28ti, a variant of its signature Vingt-8 with the movement inverted. That means the bridges, balance and so on are visible on the dial of the watch, with the reverse being what would normally be under the dial.

28ti

It’s an unusual and slightly showy watch that was well received commercially but feels a bit affected. While the watch might be unnecessary, the finishing is typical Voutilainen, with all edges chamfered and flanks grained, so the intrinsic quality is beyond reproach.

Akrivia had on hand the latest prototype of the critically acclaimed Rexhep Rexhepi Chronometre Contemporain. The eponymous Mr Rexhepi has expended significant effort refining the simple but elaborately decorated wristwatch, and it shows. The watches are being delivered around now, with Mr Rexhepi forecasting perhaps a dozen or so will reach clients this year.

And on the other side of the river from Baselworld, Greubel Forsey debuted the GMT Quadruple Tourbillon, which combines its awesome twin double-axis tourbillons with the globe-based dual time zone display. It’s a lot of watch for a lot of money, but mighty impressive.

Four axes and one globe

Up and coming

Exhibiting at the AHCI stand, and at the much more affordable end of the spectrum, was Stefan Kudoke, who unveiled the first two of a new series of watches. One is time-only, while the other, which is the more unusual and attractive of the two, features a hand-engraved day and night display.

Historically known for elaborate and figurative skeleton watches, Mr Kudoke is now going down the path of simpler and cleaner watches, all powered by the Kaliber 1. The movement is inspired by 19^thcentury pocket watches, but constructed with the help of Austrian watchmaker Habring2, allowing Mr Kudoke to keep the watches accessibly priced.

Kudoke 2

And at the extreme end of the affordability spectrum is Chronotechna, a Czech watch brand that got its start with the “blackest watch ever made“, essentially a wristwatch with a dial coated in a substance that absorbs almost all incident light.

While the crystal takes away some of the effect, the dial is still weirdly and flatly black, almost like there is nothing there. That’s a lot of novelty for under US$500, and Chronotechna plans to use the same substance for its next model, a diver’s watch that will be similarly priced.

Way more artisanal are three notable young watchmakers, Cyril Brivet-Naudot, Remy Cools, and Sylvain Pinaud, along with clockmaker John-Mikael Flaux, all of whom are worth keeping an eye on.

All four hail from the same watchmaking school in France. Each produces an original, largely hand-made timepiece, ranging from a tourbillon for Mr Cools, to an interesting time-only watch by Mr Brivet-Naudot. Only in their twenties, the talent and skill of the quartet promise great things to come.

The wind from the East

The number of Asian watchmakers at the AHCI stand was notable, with six in total, probably the highest tally ever.

Four of the watchmakers were from China – including Tan Zehua and Lin Yong Hua – exhibiting watches with impressive and inventive mechanics, but in quirky designs that are not easily appreciated by an international audience.

The Lin Yong Hua Dragonfly Man

But as another Chinese watchmaker not present at Baselworld, Qin Gan, has demonstrated, independent watchmaking in China is evolving and adapting quickly.

Also exhibiting was Tokyo-based Daizoh Makihara, who is relatively early in its career as an independent watchmaker, but has already shown significant talent in movement finishing.

Curiouser and curiouser

One of the more curious developments at Baselworld were the high-end sports watches launched by several brands.

While the Royal Oak and Nautilus are amongst the hottest watches in the world today, the rest of the segment is largely populated by runners-up, has-beens, and the never-will-be.

But adversity breeds bravery, which explains the new Jürgensen One sports watch. Designed to be a series of repeating circles, the Jürgensen One retains the brand’s signature hands, but leaves behind everything else.

The one and only

The Jürgensen One is no doubt an attempt in growing the brand, but it lacks the refinement of style or finesse in details that characterised the early, artisanal watches produced by the brand’s late owner Peter Baumberger and the talented Englishman Derek Pratt.

The luxury sports watch bandwagon is unfortunately a full one, as Laurent Ferrier will soon be launching a sports tourbillon that resembles a cross between a Nautilus and a Piaget Polo S. Although it was not officially announced, it seemed to be known to everyone at Baselworld.

Also not officially launched but widely known is the new H. Moser & Cie. Pioneer diver’s watch, which is the only sensible sports watch of the lot. Reasonably priced as such things go, the watch is typical Moser quality and also conservative in its design ambitions, making it a fairly appealing proposition in the space.

Industry news

Beyond the products there was little news of note, save for one major happening. Marco Lang agreed to depart Lang & Heyne late last year, and is now in the process of exiting the brand he co-founded. He has been succeeded by the talented and respected Jens Schneider, a movement constructor who spent 17 years at A. Lange & Söhne starting right from the beginning in 1991, followed by a stint at Moritz Grossmann.

Despite Mr Schneider’s prowess, demonstrated in movements like that in the Lange Datograph and Grossmann Benu, that leaves Lang & Heyne with neither a Lang nor a Heyne, a situation that is often a death knell for an independent brand.

And that wraps up the independent watchmaking summary for Baselworld 2019. Stay tuned for the general fair rundown in a few days,.

Since SIHH 2019 in January, A. Lange & Söhne has unveiled one limited edition Lange 1 each month to mark the Lange 1’s 25th anniversary. It started with the Lange 1 “25th Anniversary”, then the Grand Lange 1 Moon Phase “25th Anniversary” a month later, and now the Little Lange 1.

While largely overshadowed by its bigger brother, the Little Lange 1 has been present almost since the beginning of the brand, making it well suited for a commemorative watch.

It was introduced in 1998, four years after the Lange 1, at the request of retailers in Asia who wanted a smaller version of Lange’s signature watch. The Little Lange 1 just 36.8mm, the watch is 1.7mm smaller than the full sized, 38.5mm Lange 1.

Though conceived as a men’s watch, Lange has since dedicated the series to women, more or less, offering the timepiece in brighter colours. Last year, for instance, Lange unveiled three versions with guilloche dials in grey, brown, and purple.

The Little Lange 1 “25 Anniversary”, however, is a more subdued affair, dressed in the same colours as the other anniversary models. That means a silver dial and printed blue numerals.

In this guise, the anniversary Little Lange 1 resembles the originals of 1998, and more like the smaller version of a men’s watch.

The Little Lange 1 “25th Anniversary” is fitted with the manually wound L121.1 movement launched in 2015 as the second generation Lange 1 calibre. The movement features an instantaneous jumping date display and a power reserve of 72 hours, courtesy of the twin mainsprings.

Like the other anniversary watches, the engraving on the balance cock is filled with dark blue lacquer, and also includes a “25” that replicates Lange’s oversized date display.

With ten 25th anniversary editions planned – one a month from January to October, when the actual anniversary date occurs – there are another seven more limited editions to go, each announced on the 25th of the month. All 10 anniversary watches will be sold as a set – only 25 sets will be made – but each watch has its own retail price, making it possible for a retailer to split a set.

Price and Availability

The Little Lange 1 “25th Anniversary” (ref. 181.066) is limited to 25 pieces and priced at €35,500 including German VAT, or about 54,200 Singapore dollars.

Update April 16, 2019: The 10 anniversary watches will be sold as a set.