Words such as smart, multitasking, trendy and amazing do not usually appear in the same conversation as terms such as state of the art, mechanical, complex and movement. Swiss watchmakers, when confronted with the hype around watches getting smarter, shrug and go about their business, painstakingly adding one complication here, another movement there, to create masterpieces that allow connoisseurs to celebrate innovation one step at a time.
Some of the most talked about developments in the past couple of years include liquid-filled watches, hydro-mechanical timepieces and natural frequency technology fitted inside the watch.
“There is no comparison between masterpieces and popular technology. When it comes to the Swiss watch industry, in spite of the downturn, we see a growth in exports year after year — in the past two years, they grew by 37 per cent in the UAE alone. The demand for Swiss watches is getting higher and higher and they are becoming more and more attractive. You cannot compare fashionable technology with Swiss watchmaking,” says Shadi Badran, Head of Category — Watches, Accessories and Eyewear at Paris Gallery, in response to a question about smart watches presenting competition to luxury brands at the store.
New devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Gear, Sony’s SmartWatch, Pebble’s E-Paper Watch and Apple’s soon-to-appear iWatch may stoke customers’ imagination, but the industry says these are hardly alternatives to luxury watches. After all, no one lost sleep over Seiko’s television-watch for the wrist years ago. People happily pay exorbitant prices for Swiss watches, starting at $700 (about Dh2,571) and going up to $300,000 for a Patek Philippe Nautilus 5719/1G 18k White Gold Diamond. In the world of luxury watches $5,000 is just the starting point.
However, this is not to say that the Swiss watch industry has been caught napping. Baselworld, the world’s largest meeting place for luxury watches, saw two Android-powered smart watches being released this year, one by Dutch company Burg and another by Italian brand i’m. At Baselworld, Blancpain, which celebrated a series of world firsts in its Carrousel Volant and Carrousel Minute Repeater models, brought together the two horological complications with a flyback chronograph in a self-winding version.
Swiss watch majors from Blancpain to Tag Heuer are also ahead of the game when it comes to innovation. Tag Heuer, in partnership with tech group Oracle, promises to not only match the iWatch but add its centuries of know-how to it.
“No one can duplicate what the Swiss do in watchmaking. They are creating wonderful movements. You can draw a parallel to cars with the Swiss watch industry. In terms of appeal, it’s like complicated car engines. If you open up the hood, you can see a work of art in terms of an engine. There are smaller and less sophisticated engines but people are paying for the engine,” says Steve Venables, Independent Sales Representative, Middle East, Fendi. Italian brand Fendi’s watches qualify for the prestigious Swiss-made stamp, which specifies that 50 per cent of the watch movements must be made in Switzerland.
Connoisseurs of Swiss watches will list a history of innovations that have paved the way for watches to be the most accurate tellers of time — Breguet’s gravity defying addition of tourbillon in 1795 is prized for its accuracy. “In the past ten years, the tourbillon has become more popular in the region,” says Badran. He lists some of the firsts in the watch industry in recent years.
“Accuracy is prized. Some brands offer hydro-mechanical watches, which use unique bellows to pump liquid around the dial to indicate hours. There are watches that use satellites to update time, which means wherever you go in the world dual time will be adjusted based on the country you are in,” he adds.
Not anti-fashion
Timeless as they are, Swiss watches are not anti-fashion, meaning there is room for eye-catching innovation too.
One of these is Fendi’s Crazy Carat collection, which features a patented rolling gemstone mechanism. “We have a special movement, in which you can change the gemstones inside the movement to reveal three different colours by turning the crown. It is not considered a technical movement but you get different coloured stones resulting in a wonderful fashion accessory,” says Venables. Another rather whimsical innovation has been the use of Natural Frequency Technology by Philip Stein where a metal disc is fused with frequencies and information that communicate and interact with human energy fields. >
One of the key frequencies is 7.83 Hz, which is the earth’s natural frequency. Makers Will and Rina Stein claim that the technology mimics frequencies that are beneficial to well-being and life, leaving the wearers healthier and happier.
Crossovers
One of the most talked about watches this year is the Ressence Type 3, which uses invisible fluid technology to tell the time. “The indications and their mechanisms are mounted inside a bubble crafted from extremely tough, anti-reflective sapphire crystal. The mechanism is enclosed in an upper compartment filled with a naphtha-type liquid. Refraction bends light when it passes from one material to another, such as air to glass or glass to air. With the fluid-filled dial indications, refraction is greatly minimised, which tricks the brain into seeing the dial in two-dimensions rather than three. A thermal valve automatically adjusts for any expansion or contraction of the fluid,” says a statement from the makers explaining how it works.
Ressence Type 3, in fact, occupies both worlds — the gizmo-laden digital media fan base of cool stuff and the premium club of watch aficionados where it is part of a list of this year’s best luxury Swiss watches.
In fact, the hype around watches that do more — manage your calls, text messages and click pictures — is helping the cause of wrist jewellery. Badran says, “Customers are now more educated. In the GCC the demand has gone up. I can see a better future for the Swiss watchmaking industry because consumers know more. This is where the internet is helping — you can learn about new technology from Switzerland, Australia and the US with just a click.” 7
