SIHH 2019: What we’ve learned
With 2019’s first major watch fair out of the way, what can we expect for the rest of the year (and beyond)"
By Chris Hall
Complicated watches are back
You may feel like they never went away, with pieces like this, and this, starring in 2018?s roster. But taking the industry-wide view, we have definitely been through a more subdued couple of years, where steel-cased and time-only pieces got priority. Well, not any more. There were perpetual calendars and tourbillons everywhere you looked at SIHH, as well as two or three genuine mega-watches (Best In Show has to go to Jaeger-LeCoultre?s Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel). The watch world might be slightly premature on this front ? it?s not as if the export stats have really shifted that much ? but you get the sense they just couldn?t hold themselves back any longer.
The heritage train might be slowing down
Say what you like about the Code 11:59, it’s not a heritage reissue
True, the brands at SIHH skew heavily towards young independents and avant-garde specialists, but there is a definite feeling that chasing the 1950s/60s/70s *delete as preferred* marketing magic might be on the wane. Audemars Piguet was nothing if not brave with the Code 11:59, and everyone from Jaeger-LeCoultre and IWC to Girard-Perregaux and Panerai (even Panerai, for whom ?heritage? is four-fifths of its strategy) presented distinctly forward-looking takes on their staple watches. Only Montblanc remained t...
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