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TO THE Baselworld 2017 had lots to celebrate

It’s been called the world’s most important watch and jewellery event: and in 2017, Baselworld, the showcase for Swiss watchmaking, outdid itself.

Part of the reason for that was the happy intersection of big anniversaries to celebrate, reflecting the show’s location in the town of Basel, located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet. Biggest of these was the centenary of the first Baselworld; but several of the exhibitors had some big numbers of their own to commemorate.

According to François Thiébaud, president of the Swiss exhibitors, the once faltering local industry is in pretty good health. A hundred years ago

TUDOR HERITAGE

The Heritage Black Bay family has welcomed its first in-house manufacture chronograph with self-winding movement, column wheel and vertical clutch.

The Tudor Heritage line draws inspiration from the most emblematic models in the history of the brand; for instance, the Heritage Black Bay’s general lines, domed dial and crystal were inspired by the first Tudor diving watches. It features the particularly prominent winding crown from the famous 7924 reference of 1958, aka the Big Crown, and its characteristic angular hands, known as Snowflake, were borrowed from the Tudor watches used by the French National Navy in the 1970s. Its burgundy bezel, black dial, rose-gold hands and markers and cream-coloured luminescent coating create a distinctive retro feel.

Boasting a 70-hour power reserve, a silicon balance spring and certification by the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute, the Manufacture chronograph Calibre MT5813 that drives the Heritage Black Bay Chrono is derived from the chronograph manufacture calibre Breitling 01, with a highprecision regulating organ developed by Tudor. It’s the result of a recent collaboration between the two brands, which now pool their expertise in the design and production of certain mechanical movements.

HYSEK COLOSSAL

This new Grande Complication, says Hysek, boasts unprecedented technology; the most ambitious undertaken in over ten years. In 2007, the Colosso marked Hysek’s first foray into the world of super complications and also became something of an icon for the company.

Ten years later, the Colossal takes up the baton with more than a thousand components, having taken more than three years to develop and fully made in-house. Only eight are being made.

The Colossal brings together three Hysek favourites: Jumping Hours, a Jumping Perpetual Calendar, and a three-dimensional Moon Phase. Putting all that together in a linear display posed a massive technical challenge, transitioning from a circular display using flat gears to a linear display using vertical gears.

There’s also a problem specific to roller displays: the shift from 23:59 to 00:00. Logically speaking, the hour unit roller (the “3” in 23:59) should continue on its course to display a 4; but that would end up displaying the non-existent time of 24:00, inevitably followed by 25:00. Solving this required an exclusive, patent pending, world first. A few minutes before midnight, the roller moves backwards from “3” to “9”; it can then jump to 0, allowing midnight to be properly displayed as 00:00.

The Moon Phase system involves a fixed Moon, encompassed by a cupola in constant rotation above it. As this dome revolves, it gradually reveals the different phases of the Moon. The cupola completes a complete 360° rotation in 29,5 days. This design posed a dual problem. The first of these was actually inventing a Moon Phase of this type in the first place; and, because the complication does not simply involve a rotating disc but an entire dome, a suitable ceramic ball-bearing system had to be developed.

Colossal also features three other complications: a dual time zone, a power reserve, and a seasonal day-night indicator. The GMT display takes the elegantly simple and space-saving form of a disc placed atop the seasonal roller, powered by the vertical shaft on which the roller rotates. The power reserve and seasonal day-night indicator are displayed on the side of the watch, through two sapphire crystal windows (as on the Colosso).

The Colossal is regulated by a flying tourbillon, whose cage is assembled on ceramic ball bearings. Hysek has chosen an automatic winding mechanism, featuring a micro-rotor made of platinum. In addition, two barrels, arranged side by side, work in parallel, providing a 42-hour power reserve. Winding and unwinding at the same time, they deliver sufficient power to trigger all the functions, especially important when various rollers have to jump forward at the same time. (Source: Hysek).