Switzerland’s largest watch conglomerate, the Swatch Group, just announced a strong set of results for 2018, with all key metrics up for the year. Revenue for the year rose 6.1% to SFr8.5 billion, with net profit rising 14.8%, and the net margin growing to 10.2%, compared to 9.5% a year before. The numbers echo the Swiss watch industry’s year as a whole, evidenced by the statistics just released by trade body Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry.

According to the group, business was so good, in fact, that the group’s components makers hit their production capacity, leading to delays in delivery.

But the situation was slightly more nuanced across the year, with a slowdown taking hold in the second half, particularly in the fourth quarter, just as it was for the rest of the watch business. According to the Swatch Group, the last three months of 2018 were slow, with December being an especially bad month.

One consequence of that was a continuing upward creep in inventory, which rose SFr600m in the year. Some of it was for raw materials like gold and diamonds – including the 18.96-carat Harry Winston Pink Legacy bought for SFr50m – but some of it was also semi-finished and finished watches, primarily from Omega and Longines.

The group added that its habillage division, made up of specialist companies that make components like cases, dials and hands, was working “at or even above capacity limits”, resulting in delayed deliveries of watches, especially those from Omega and Longines. This has been born out by the significant delays in several high profile Omega limited editions of recent years, including the 1957 Trilogy and first Speedy Tuesday.

The recently revived Omega cal. 321 movement unveiled for an upcoming Speedmaster model

January was off to a strong start for Swatch Group, which expects the rest of 2019 to be positive. Amongst the key drivers of sales in 2019 will be Omega, which will roll out commemorative Speedmaster watches for the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing, as well as “Minus 1” limited editions for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

The results announcement also included a declaration that all mechanical watches from Swatch Group brands will eventually be equipped with antimagnetic hairsprings.

Source: Swatch Group

Within its recent announcement of its key results for 2018, the Swatch Group included a tantalising peek into the future of its watch brands, which include Omega, Longines and Tissot. The group will eventually equip all mechanical watches produced by all of its brands with antimagnetic hairsprings.

As Switzerland’s largest watch conglomerate, the Swatch Group produces well over 15m watches across its 17 brands, although the vast majority, some 10m, are quartz Swatch watches. Nonetheless its mechanical watch output still adds up to over 2m watches annually.

Specifically, the hairsprings will be either silicon or Nivachron, a recently developed alloy announced just last year. Silicon hairsprings are already common in the watches of Omega, and are being used more widely in Longines and Tissot timepieces. Nivachron, on the other hand, will make its debut in February 2019 in the new Swatch Sistem51, a low-cost automatic put together entirely by machine.

The adoption of antimagnetic hairsprings will lead to “a substantial quality improvement in terms of precision and reliability”, according to the Swatch Group, and consequently will be backed up a “longer guarantee period”. Omega, for instance, recently starting offering a five-year warranty for all its watches, regardless of the hairspring material. Swatch Group says these improvements “will translate into clear market share gains in 2019 and beyond”.

That being said, the group’s rivals like Rolex and Richemont are not standing still. Rolex already boasts its own “paramagnetic” Blue Parachrom hairspring, and has rolled out silicon hairsprings in selected models. On the other hand, Richemont suffered a setback late last year when it was obliged to give up the use of silicon hairsprings in the Baume & Mercier Baumatic watches, due to the threat of legal action from the consortium that funded the development of the silicon hairspring, which naturally includes the Swatch Group.

One of Franck Muller’s signature watches is the Crazy Hours, which has the hours arranged at random on the dial, leaving the hour hand to to jump around the dial as the time passes. And another is the Secret Hours, which has the hands motionless at 12 o’clock, only spreading to indicate the time only when a button is pressed. And so the latest from Franck Muller is hardly a surprise: the Remember has hands, both hour and minute, that move backwards, or anticlockwise, as time passes.

The idea of a backwards watch is not a new one, being found even on pocket watches from the 19th century. It’s also a feature of inexpensive novelty watches today, but Franck Muller is the first luxury watchmaker to do it, in the trademark Franck Muller aesthetic naturally.

Characterised by the oversized “exploding” numerals that are Franck Muller’s signature, the dial takes after the Crazy Hours, featuring a stamped guilloche dial covered in glossy lacquer that has numerals scattered across its surface in slightly darker print. The hour markers run counterclockwise, as does the minute track on the periphery of the dial.

The watch is powered by the automatic FM 2800 INV, which is actually an ETA 2892 modified for the hands to go counterclockwise. It’s self-winding and has a 42-hour power reserve.

The case is Franck Muller trademark Cintree Curvex, one of the most successful form watch cases ever. A surprisingly elegant and well conceived design in its smaller sizes, the Cintree Curvex was inspired by Cartier tonneau watches of the 1930s, which according to lore Mr Muller restored by the dozen in the 1980s.

Offered in 18k white or rose gold, or stainless steel, the Remember available in two sizes, the large 7880 that measures 36mm by 50.4mm, and the small 2850 that’s 31mm by 43mm.

Price and availability

The Cintree Curvex Remember large model (ref. 7880 B SC AT REM) in 18k rose gold is priced at SFr22,600, while the same in steel costs SFr13,600. And the Remember small model  (ref. 2850 B SC AT REM) in gold is SFr18,000, and in steel it’s SFr11,000. Prices exclude taxes.

Montblanc is now going all out in offering relatively affordable complicated watches, a strategy exemplified by the 1858 Split Second Chronograph that was one of the highlights of SIHH 2019. But it’s been doing the same for the perpetual calendar for some time now, and the Heritage Manufacture Perpetual Calendar is its best entry into the category to date.

In 2014, Montblanc unveiled what was then the most affordable perpetual calendar on the market, priced at just US$12,800 in steel. Its affordability was largely thanks to a low-cost Sellita base movement topped with the common Dubois Depraz perpetual calendar module (although Frederique Constant has since claimed the title of cheapest perpetual).

But the movement was unremarkable and also small compared to the 40mm watch case, which meant the calendar sub-dials were uncomfortably clustered around the centre of the dial. That’s now changed because the Heritage Manufacture Perpetual Calendar is powered by a newly developed and smartly constructed movement that is unique to Montblanc, although not in-house per se (more on that below).

Part of an entirely new, retro-inspired collection, the Heritage perpetual calendar not only boasts a new calibre, but it’s also a masterclass in recasting vintage design elements for modern tastes while keeping it affordable.

Inspired by 1950s classics

Montblanc watch chief Davide Cerrato has made no secret of the fact he regards storied chronograph maker Minerva – founded in 1858 in Villeret – as something of a neglected treasure since it was acquired by Montblanc in 2006.

Mr Cerrato has made it his mission to leverage on Minerva’s lengthy history as a watchmaker to boost the watchmaking of Montblanc, which only began in the late 1990s. This has meant mining the archives and museum, and drawing on a multitude of elements from vintage Minerva watches, particularly those from the mid-20th century.

As a result, the Heritage Manufacture Perpetual Calendar has a classically handsome look of a mid-century wristwatch. In fact, it is slightly reminiscent of the Universal Geneve triple calendar watches of the 1940s and 1950s that had similarly positioned triple sub-dials.

The case is modern in size but not overly large, which helps preserve the vintage aesthetic. It’s 40mm in diameter, and available in stainless steel but also in 18k rose gold in a 100-piece limited edition.

The case middle is rounded while the bezel is narrow, giving the dial more real estate. The lugs are short and elegantly curved, which ensure a good fit on the wrist.

At 12.3mm in height, it is slightly thicker than the entry-level Meisterstück Heritage Perpetual Calendar from 2014 but still relatively slim. But more importantly it is well proportioned, and does not feel thick.

Classically handsome

But what sets it apart from the competition is the near-perfect dial design that is clean, functional and almost scientific in its sensible layout. In addition to the customary day, date, month, moon phase and leap year indicators, the watch incorporates a second time zone display with a skeletonised GMT hand that can be hidden under the hour hand when not in use.

The dial is balanced because the sub-dials are well-proportioned and positioned comfortably between the edge of the dial and its centre. Each sub-dial contains two indicators, which are all easily read except for the 24-hour scale at nine o’clock that serves as the day and night indicator for the second time zone. The number of hashmarks on the scale, along with its size, mean that reading the hours takes a moment.

Like the other retro-inspired watches in the 1858 and Heritage lines, the dial sports the vintage-style Montblanc emblem taking from its pens of the 1930s.

In keeping with the vintage look, the dial itself is slightly domed – a detail made even more obvious by the sloping edges of the recessed sub-dials. The style is further enhanced by a domed, “box-type” sapphire crystal.

The dial is silvered, with two different surface textures, giving it a two-tone appearance. The central portion and minute track are smooth opaline, while the chapter rings for the hours is grained. It features applied dot hour markers along with an applied “12”, accompanied by lanced-shaped hands – all of which are elements drawn from mid-century Minerva wristwatches.

To be fair these design elements were not unique to Minerva. In fact, they were generic for the period. But Montblanc and Mr Cerrato have done a better than average job – there are countless vintage-inspired watches out there – at blending the various details into a relatively distinct look repeated throughout the whole of the Heritage line. As far as vintage-inspired watches go, the execution is fresh, purposeful and perhaps one of the most complete realisations of Mr Cerrato’s approach to date.

The new(ish), but great, movement 

The proportions of the dial are telling of the significant changes inside the watch, which is powered by the self-winding cal. MB 29.22. It has a frequency of 4Hz and a 48-hour power reserve. It’s a brand new, proprietary movement made exclusively for Montblanc by ValFleurier, the large movement manufacturer owned by Swiss luxury goods conglomerate Richemont, Montblanc’s parent company.

Notably, the base movement is identical to that found inside the Vacheron Constantin FiftySix base models and the Piaget Polo S automatic. But the movement actually made its debut almost a decade ago as the 1904 MC when the Calibre de Cartier was launched in 2010.

Although the base movement is shared, it has been tweaked here to include a customised rotor and blued steel screws, giving it a separate visual identity. The movement has been dressed up enough to be visually attractive, although all of the decoration is obviously done by machine, as is appropriate at this price point.

What’s more interesting is the perpetual calendar module, which boasts several interesting and useful features. Instead of relying on conventional springs and levers to drive the calendar indications forward, and only forwards, the mechanism is entirely gear-based. Additionally, the calendar mechanism also incorporates a safety feature that prevents accidental damage to the movement by disengaging the correctors and preventing adjustments between 8pm and 12pm.

The gear-based calendar mechanism has the advantage of allowing the pre-synchronised calendar displays to be set forward or backwards without fuss or the risk of upsetting the mechanism by improper adjustment. But it also results in calendar indications that advance over a period of time, instead of jumping crisply at midnight.

It’s nonetheless an elegant solution to a complex problem that was pioneered by Ludwig Oechslin in 1996 with the Ulysse Nardin Perpetual Ludwig and more recently used by Cartier in its Astrocalendar. The thread linking the Cartier and today’s Montblanc is the talented Carole Forestier, who was then head of development at Cartier and now has the same role at ValFleurier.

Concluding thoughts

In the quickly growing class of affordable perpetual calendars, the Heritage perpetual calendar is one of the strongest contenders. The styling is attractive, even if not imaginative, but more importantly, the movement is well constructed and practical, putting it miles ahead of the competition that typically utilises ETA and Dubois-Depraz mechanics (as Montblanc once did).

While Montblanc’s chronographs powered by Minerva movements have a higher degree of traditional finishing and craft, they are mostly backward looking. In contrast, the Heritage perpetual calendar boasts a sophisticated modern construction, and so it is equally strong value.

Price and Availability

The Montblanc Heritage Manufacture Perpetual Calendar in stainless steel (ref. 119925) is priced at €15,000, while the 100-piece limited edition in red gold (ref. 119926) is priced at €25,000.

Longines is an unsung powerhouse of the watch industry, producing some 1.4m watches a year – with the majority being mechanical – for a turnover of over SFr1.5 billion. Only six other Swiss watch brands – Rolex, Omega, Cartier, Patek Philippe, Tissot and Audemars Piguet – can claim over SFr1 billion in annual watch sales. And the company is also led by an unsung powerhouse of the watch industry, Walter von Kanel, a 78-year old who joined Longines 50 years ago.

So it is perhaps not a surprise that the 50 millionth watch rolled off Longines’ production line some time in late 2018. The milestone watch is a Master Collection Annual Calendar in 18k rose gold, with the case numbered “50000000” and a commemorative emblem on the sapphire case back. That important case serial number now joins Longines’ unrivalled database of watches produced.

More so than most other watchmakers, Longines has detailed records on every watch it has ever made since it was founded in 1832. Every watch that has emerged from Longines since has been numbered and then recorded – a remarkable system that has remained uninterrupted since the beginning. The feat is evidenced by the ease of obtaining an archive extract from the company.

More impressively, Longines’ records have since been digitised, and the Longines Electronic Archives (LEA) is a digital database that is likely the most extensive in the business. When Longines first announced the LEA two years ago, it already contained over 45m entries, and now includes watch number 50,000,000.

The commemorative watch is based on the Master Collection Annual Calendar, launched just last year and the most affordable mechanical annual calendar on the market by a large margin.

Like all other Longines watches the L897 movement inside is produced by ETA exclusively for Longines, which only assembles watches in its Saint-Imier factory. It is based on the ETA A31.L81, which is an upgraded ETA 2892 fitted with an annual calendar module on top. Notably, it has the same, unusual 3.5Hz frequency as Omega’s Co-Axial movements.

The 50 millionth watch now sits in the Longines Museum, alongside extensive exhibits detailing the rest of the company’s history across its 50 million watch production.

Swiss watch exports rose to SFr21.2 billion for the whole of 2018, a rise of 6.3% compared to the previous year, according to trade body Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FHS). The positive performance for the year came despite a soft second half, with exports starting to weaken in September 2018. Because Switzerland produces primarily luxury watches, its timepiece exports are a proxy for the entire luxury watch market, so the numbers point to a slow start to 2019 for the industry at large.

The three most important watch markets – together accounting for over a third of exports – grew in 2018, with Hong Kong up 19.1%, the United States up 8.2%, and China, 11.7%. But like the world as a whole, both Hong Kong and China saw exports dip in the second half. Exports to Hong Kong eked out a 0.5% rise in December, while in China they fell 10.1%.

Europe fared poorly for 2018, with Swiss exports down 8.3% for the region, which includes Eastern Europe. Sales in key markets in Europe rely substantially on tourists, and because tourist numbers dipped in several major countries, sales were hit.

The United Kingdom saw tourist arrivals fall in 2018 after a sharp rise in 2017 due to a sterling pound weakened by Brexit, and Swiss watch exports correspondingly fell 4.4% for the year. Though France gained 9.1%, growth went into reverse as 2018 came to a close, with December showing a sharp 11.6% drop, mainly due to the yellow vest protests that started in November.

None of the industry insiders at the recent SIHH trade fair were bullish for the first half of 2019, with uncertainty being the primary sentiment. The export figures bear that out.

Source: FHS

A cult figure in streetwear, Japanese designer Hiroshi Fujiwara has applied his aesthetic sensibility to objects produced by some of the world’s biggest brands, including Louis Vuitton and Moncler (and he even got a cameo in Lost in Translation).

Mr Fujiwara also a vintage watch collector who shares photos and thoughts on his personal portal Ring of Colour, so it’s unsurprising the TAG Heuer Carrera he styled is well put together, very much the work of someone who is intimately familiar with vintage watches.

Announced late last year and only recently arriving in stores, the TAG Heuer Fragment Design Carrera Heuer 02 is inspired by the Carrera ref. 2447 NT of the 1960s. The “NT” suffix is short for “noir, tachymetre”, hence the black dial with a tachymetric scale on its periphery.

The Carrera on a Louis Vuitton duffel bag designed by Fragment Design

Proper proportions

The Carrera Fragment Design feels a lot like the 2447 NT, with a few extra details in the mix, but its crucial quality is proper proportions. Mr Fujiwara’s sensitivity to the nuances of vintage watches are evident here.

The cuff-style strap in glossy black crocodile is a smart touch 

The case is bigger than the original, at 39mm in diameter compared to just 36mm, and also thicker due to the movement, but largely retains the same proportions. That extends to the characteristic facetted lugs as well as the domed sapphire crystal. In fact, crystal is highly domed enough it might pass for an acrylic crystal at first glance.

As a result, even though the Carrera Fragment Design is significantly larger than the 2447 NT – 39mm vs 36mm, and also thicker – the watch doesn’t appear substantially larger and still retains the look of the original.

Lightning bolts front and back

Despite the perfect case proportions, and despite the faux vintage Super-Luminova on the dial and hands, the Carrera Fragment Design has enough extra details on the dial to mark it out as a modern watch. Fragment Design’s double lightning bolt logo sits at 12 o’clock, along with “Fragment” in between four and five.

Examined up close the dial is notably well done, better than the average for watches at this price point. All the markings are precisely printed, even on the chronograph registers with concentric guilloche.

The Fragment Design logo is repeated on the sapphire back, which reveals the Heuer Calibre 02 movement. It’s an in-house, automatic chronograph movement that features a column wheel and vertical clutch, pretty much standard equipment for modern chronograph calibres. And its power reserve is a longish, and useful, 75 hours.

The Heuer Calibre 02 is relatively thin for a chronograph movement at 6.95mm, the Valjoux 7750 is 8mm by comparison, but still larger than the hand-wound Valjoux 72 in the original Carrera ref. 2447 NT. But because the proportions of the case are correctly done, the watch feels properly sized.

The movement features a black-coated rotor and balance cock, which suits the style of the watch well. Though the decoration is industrial, it is clean and thorough. That means wheels have circular graining while recessed areas of the bridge are sandblasted.

Importantly, the Heuer Calibre 02 is the brand’s upper end chronograph movement, and distinct from the Heuer Calibre 01 (also known as the cal. 1887) that is based on the Seiko 6S78 or TC78 movement. And a variant of the Heuer Calibre 02 powers TAG Heuer’s affordable chronograph with tourbillon.

Concluding thoughts

The Carrera Fragment Design looks and feels like a watch that was conceived by someone who knows exactly what he is doing. Everything about it works well, which is hard to accomplish with vintage remake watches, especially given the constraints of modern watchmaking like movement thickness and water-resistance.

It’s also accessibly priced, and also priced on par with the competition in the segment of sports chronograph with in-house movements, like Breitling for instance. The only comparable watch that is priced significantly lower is the Tudor Black Bay Chrono, which despite being a champion in terms of value, doesn’t quite match the Carrera in terms of appealing style.

Unsurprisingly, the Carrera Fragment Design won’t be the last collaboration between TAG Heuer and Mr Fujiwara. Jean-Claude Biver, now the non-executive chairman of the LVMH watch division, confirmed earlier this month that the second Fragment Design watch will be introduced in 2019. It’ll be another vintage-inspired chronograph, probably the Autavia, given a facelift by Mr Fujiwara.

Hiroshi Fujiwara. Photo – TAG Heuer

Price and availability

The Carrera Heuer 02 by Fragment Hiroshi Fujiwara (ref. CBK221A.EB0171) is a 500-piece limited edition available only at TAG Heuer boutiques and tagheuer.com. It’s priced at US$8100, or S$11,400.

To mark the bicentennial of Singapore’s founding when Sir Stamford Raffles arrived on the island’s shores in 1819, Omega has unveiled a 200-piece Seamaster limited edition in stainless steel.

Based on the retro Seamaster first introduced for last year’s Olympics, the Singapore edition is a blend of vintage styling and the latest in movement technology. The steel case measures 39.5mm and is modelled on the Seamaster case of the 1950s, with a thin, polished bezel and lyre lugs. It features a domed dial finished in white lacquer, matched with applied, blued arrow-shaped indices and leaf hands.

Inside is the Master Chronometer cal. 8800, part of Omega’s latest generation of movements. It boasts the lubrication-free Co-Axial escapement, and magnetism resistance of over 15,000 Gauss thanks to the Si14 silicon hairspring and patented alloys for the escapement parts, along with a 55-hour power reserve.

Each watch is numbered on the left side of the case

The Singapore element of the edition is found on the back: framing the movement is a ring laser engraved with iconic buildings and landmarks of Singapore, ranging from classic colonial structures to the striking skyscrapers made famous in Crazy Rich Asians. The ring includes the Raffles Hotel, Cavenagh Bridge, Esplanade theatre and Marina Bay Sands casino resort.

Notably, the Seamaster for Singapore is only the latest in Omega’s City Editions series, which has seen several city-specific limited editions rolled out since 2018. They include London, New York, Venice, Paris and also Switzerland. All are based on the same Seamaster model, but differ in their dial colour and movement ring engraving.

Price and Availability

The Omega Seamaster Boutique Exclusive Singapore Limited Edition (ref. 511.13.40.20.04.002) is limited to 200 pieces and is priced at S$10,500. It’s already available at Omega boutiques in Singapore.

Addition January 29, 2019: Included information on other City Edition watches.

The Royal Oak Extra-Thin in white gold is a good-looking watch.

Already the Royal Oak “Jumbo” is a beauty, angular without being aggressive, wide yet flat, and seemingly timeless despite having been born in a decade that didn’t produce many classics. And in white gold with the dial in “salmon” (or copper or pink gold), it gets even better.

But the caveat: the watch was announced as a 75-piece limited edition on the first day of SIHH 2019, leading to a mad scramble for one. But that was a mistake according to an Audemars Piguet spokesperson, who also added that several other watches were wrongly labelled as being limited editions. The Royal Oak Extra-Thin in white gold was, from the beginning, intended to be an edition of 75 pieces per year. Numbers aside, it still is an gorgeous watch, and will still be exceedingly rare.

The combination of white gold and “salmon” is uncommon both ways. The metal is uncommon as Audemars Piguet only produced a few examples of the Royal Oak ref. 5402 in white gold in the 1980s. And ditto for the dial colour, which was found on a portion of the 700 steel Royal Oak Jubilee watches made in 1992 (the rest were blue-grey), though the dial of the Jubilee limited edition was more pink than today’s white gold model.

As is standard with most Royal Oaks, the dial is engine-turned by hand on a rose engine, giving it an intricate chequerboard motif that Audemars Piguet labels petite tapisserie.

The dial is not quite pink or salmon, but a cross between yellow and gold that is striking, especially in contrast with the white gold case (which is white-white, more on that below). And its designers smartly made the date disc almost the same colour as the dial (the disc is a bit more pink), making it unobtrusive.

White white-gold

In its original steel the Royal Oak feels refined and precious thanks to its delicately finished case that artfully shows off the contrasting brushed and polished surfaces. In white gold it’s even better, just because it looks and feels more expensive.

Stainless steel, being mostly iron, has a greyish tinge to it. White gold, on the other hand, has a brighter, more luxuriant colour with a more pronounced silvery tone. That being said, most white gold has a yellowish hue that is often camouflaged with rhodium plating to give it a bright white colour.

The Royal Oak in white gold has a plated finish, giving it a brilliant silver colour that looks really, really good. A giveaway is the contrast in colour between the bezel and hands, which are rhodium-plated white gold, against the natural finish white gold hexagonal nuts in the bezel.

Needless to say the finish of the case and bracelet is par excellence, though it means scuffs and scratches show up easily.

The movement

The cal. 2121 inside is both a strength and a weakness. It originally made its debut as the Jaeger-LeCoultre cal. 920 in 1967, but only as a ebauche, or movement blank, which Jaeger-LeCoultre supplied only to the “holy trinity” of Swiss watchmaking, Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin.

That the movement is over 50 years old yet still used with pride by both Audemars Piguet and Vacheron Constantin (though each now manufactures the movement itself) is a testament to its brilliant and elegant engineering. It’s still one of the thinnest automatic movements on the market, and unusually amongst slim movements, is fitted with a full rotor that sits on a beryllium ring supported by four ruby rollers.

But with its slimness and age comes two drawbacks. One is the relatively short 40-hour power reserve, and the other, which is more significant, is the lack of a quickset date. Advancing the date means repeatedly going back and forth between 9pm and 1am to advance the date one day at a time, which can be a massive hassle especially with the small crown. But because the Royal Oak “Jumbo” is the Royal Oak “Jumbo” with the cal. 2121 inside, the inconvenient date is a fact of life, just like how the Bugatti Veyron has only two seats.

Audemars Piguet has improved the movement over the years, mostly invisibly in order to improve it functionality and robustness. But the decorative finishing of the movement has also progressed, compared with an example from 20 years ago. The jewels and screws now sit in more pronounced countersinks, while the bridges have polished bevels (as opposed to stamped anglage).

It’s worth noting that the 22k gold rotor is finished to a higher degree than the movement bridges, with its edges having wide bevels that are polished by hand to a mirror finish.

On the wrist

Compared to last year’s Royal Oak “IP” in titanium and platinum, the white gold version is significantly heftier, but it’s a reassuring weight. The delicate surface of the gorgeous white gold is more of a concern, since it marks extremely easily.

The angular form of the Royal Oak translate into a slightly more angular feel on the wrist when compared to its great rival from Geneva (yes, the Patek Philippe Nautilus), which has a more rounded form. But because the Royal Oak “Jumbo” is so thin, it wears well.

What is an inconvenience is the difficultly of getting an ideal fit for the bracelet. As the links are relatively large, a perfect fit is sometimes only possible with a “1.5” link that’s one and a half times as large as a standard link. The link has to be ordered as an extra and in precious metal costs about US$1000.

Price and availability

The Royal Oak Extra-Thin “Jumbo” in white gold (ref. 15202BC.OO.1240BC.01) is priced about US$55,000, or S$77,700. It’ll be available only at Audemars Piguet boutiques.

Correction January 29, 2019: Included a comment from Audemars Piguet spokesperson explaining the watch was originally intended as a 75 piece run per year from the beginning.

There was once a time when you could keep your shoes on at airport security, and budget airlines had yet to be invented. In hindsight the golden age of commercial aviation was a brief one, just three decades or so after the second world war. Three giants of the jet age were Pan American World Airways, Trans World Airlines, and Swissair, once great airlines that have all gone ignominiously bust.

Breitling has just rolled out its first capsule collection, a trio of Navitimer 1 chronographs with seventies detailing, each a tribute to these airlines, which saw saw their heyday in the same the era that gave birth to the Navitimer. Developed in collaboration with the Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association (AOPA), the Navitimer was kitted out with a distinctive slide rule bezel to aid pilots with inflight calculations, essentially serving as wrist-borne navigation computer. The Navitimer survived to become an iconic wristwatch, but the airlines did not.

The Airline Editions are based on the Navitimer 1 B01 Chronograph 43, but with tweaks that lend it a 1970s air. That means wide, baton-shaped hands for the time and sub-dials, as well as broader hour markers and coloured segments on the minute counter. All have a 43mm steel case that contains the Breitling B01 movement, the brand’s in-house automatic chronograph calibre. It’s visible through the display back, which is printed with the airline’s logo.

The collection kicks off with the Navitimer 1 B01 Chronograph 43 Swissair Edition (ref. AB01211B1B1X1), which has a black dial with white registers and red accents, the colours of the Swissair logo.

It remembers an airline that was once regarded as one of the best in the world, especially in the 1980s. But Swissair grew through foolish acquisitions in the 1990s, and was finally taken down by the September 11 attacks. It went bust and is not related to the Swiss International Air Lines of today, better known as Swiss, which is now the country’s national airline.

Next is the Navitimer 1 B01 Chronograph 43 Pan Am Edition (ref. AB01212B1C1A1), the most distinctive of the trio thanks to its pale blue, red and white livery.

The watch was inspired by an airline that was once the largest in the world until the 1970s. Pan Am was the first buyer of the Boeing 747, and its headquarters in New York City was the biggest office building in the world when completed in 1963.

But after struggling for several decades, it finally went under in 1991, though its logo has become a popular emblem for retro luggage and objects, being evocative of another era of airline travel.

The last watch in the collection is a nod to America’s other flag carrier once upon a time, Trans World Airways (TWA). The Navitimer 1 B01 Chronograph 43 TWA Edition (ref. AB01219A1G1X2) has a silver dial, grey sub-dials and red accents.

Like Pan Am, TWA started foundering in the 1980s, and went bankrupt for the third and last time in 2001.

Price and Availability

Each Airline Edition is available on a leather strap or steel mesh bracelet. All three will be will be produced for a limited time, but are not a numbered, limited edition. They’ll be available at Breitling boutiques and retailers starting April 2019.

Prices are yet to be announced, but the ordinary versions of the Navitimer 1 B01 cost US$8590 on a leather strap, so expect these to be priced similarly.