The year of 2018 is drawing to a close. Hong Kong Jewellery picked some of the new novelties from renowned watch brands. The sense of audacious creativity, delicate minimalism and exquisite craftsmanship will undoubtedly amaze our discerning audience.
Corum
Since 1955, Corum has adopted creativity and boldness as its guiding principles. This October, the Swiss watchmaker brought opposites – precious yet casual, modern yet legendary – together for its new Eleganze collection that is 100-percent dedicated to women.
The collection embodies Italian-style chicness offering models saturated with hard gemstones including tanzanite, aquamarine, tourmaline and amethyst, alongside jewellery versions set with traditional gemstones such as diamonds and sapphires. The collection is housed in a 40-mm case, only available for a maximum of eight to 18 pieces.
This is the first time in Corum’s history to use an automatic regulator movement. The display type of Eleganze is rarely used by the brand. It tells the time with three separate counters – an hour counter, a minute counter and a second counter. Therefore, there are no central hands. The three counters are aligned, inducing a vertical way of telling the time, intuitive and instantaneous.
Jaquet Droz
Minimalism has been a buzzword in recent years, whether it is in the design or fashion industry. The 280-year-oldSwiss fine watchmaker Jaquet Droz enlarged the Astrale family by adding two new ‘Grande Heure Minute’ watches in this autumn, paying homage to astronomy. These exclusive variations showcase a minimalist expression of the art of watchmaking in which only the essential remains on the dial – hours, minutes and seconds.
The brand demonstrates its masterful attention to the tiniest detail in these two novelties. Dainty rhodium-plated studs are employed as five-minute markers, introducing a barely perceptible relief, while a rhodium-plated ring lends the motion work a subtle sheen. This composition inspired by the stars is punctuated by the brand’s signature off-centered seconds hand at nine o’clock. Ringed by an off-centered circle, the hand suggests the revolution of a celestial body in a nod to the Astrale collection.
Each housed in a 43 mm steel case, the duo is powered by a high precision self-winding movement – the Jaquet Droz 1169.Si caliber. ‘Si’ refers here to silicon, a key element in contemporary watchmaking that is expertly put to use in this caliber. Hard-wearing, rust-proof, non-magnetic and unaffected by temperature fluctuations, silicon endows the balance spring and pallet lugs with stellar longevity and astronomical precision. Thanks to a 68-hour power reserve this performance can be maintained for almost three days.
Moritz Grossmann
Independent German watchmaker Moritz Grossmann celebrates its 10th anniversary in November 2018. As part of the celebration, the brand unveiled two novelties – the Benu ‘Blue Steel’ and the Atum ‘Schaffo’ skeleton.
Both one-off watches stay true to their respective line’s trademarks. The Benu ‘Blue Steel’ showcases the brand’s watchmaking features and the craftsmanship in the 19th century. An elegant deep blue applied on Arabic numerals, minute markers and elements inside the movement, is just perfect to harmonise with the cool stainless steel case and the white grand-feu enamel dial.
One of Moritz Grossmann’s trademarks are the very fine hands which are filed, ground and polished by hand and then annealed in colour over an open flame in the unchanged, historic method; on the Benu ‘Blue Steel’, the hands are blue.
The Atum ‘Schaffo’ was created in collaboration with iconic Swiss watchmaker and designer Christophe Schaffo. The dial consists of an elegant, narrow ribbon of rhodium-plated German silver featuring the minute markers, revealing the exquisitely finished movement, where each component has been chamfered, chased and engraved by hand. Blackened stainless steel is used for the case, winding crown and pusher which – along with black alligator leather strap – form a stunning contrast to the dial.
Schaffo’s artistic creativity, technique and craftsmanship are outstanding and renowned around the world. He painstakingly stamped, cut and milled to minimise the material used for the caliber 100.5 in the Atum ‘Schaffo’.
The result is a masterpiece of
skeletonisation.
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