In the September-October issue of WatchTime (on sale now), we look at over 60 watches from Baselworld 2013. WatchTime’s Mike Disher was on the lookout for watches from smaller brands and independent watchmakers. Below he takes a look at some of the unconventional watches shown at Baselworld 2013. For more information on these watches and their creators, pick up the September-October issue.
Breva presented the Génie 01, three years in development, which the brand is touting as the first watch with mechanical time, altimeter, and barometer, as well as a power-reserve display. The hours and minutes are displayed on a semi-transparent disc at the 8 o’clock position, while at the 2 o’clock position, another disc displays weather conditions with symbols for sunny, cloudy, and stormy weather. The Génie 01 is a limited edition of 55 pieces in white gold, priced at $155,000, and 55 pieces in 4N rose gold priced at $150,000.
Independent Russian watchmaker Konstantin Chaykin payed homage to 19th century photographer Eadweard Muybridge with his Cinema watch. Muybridge famously used his zoopraxiscope, an early type of
projector, to prove that galloping horses lose all contact with the ground during each stride. The watch features an animation (viewed through an aperture at 6 o’clock) recreating Muybridge’s galloping horse image. The animaiton is achieved by a disc engraved with 12 frames of the galloping horse, which spins when triggered by a pusher at 9 o’clock. The watch has a price of €50,000.
Valerii Danevych, who caught our attention last year with a watch carved almost entirely out of wood, returned to Baselworld this year with yet another wooden tourbillon. The professional woodworker spent 1,800 hours over a period of seven months creating this watch. Its movement is comprised of 154 parts made from eight types of wood, and the whole thing weighs in at just 32 grams. Danevych will be selling the unique piece at €100,000.
Rather than making his own movements from scratch, watchmaker Stefan Kudoke focuses on the aesthetic of his creations, skeletonizing and engraving movements, and creating dials and hands. Kudoke collaborated with Austrian watchmaker Richard Habring to create the KudOkTourbi (short for Kudoke Oktopus Tourbillon), based off Habring’s H2 Flying Tourbillon. Kudoke engraved and skeletonized the movement, adding an octopus of rose gold whose tentacles form the hour and minute hands. A limited edition of eight pieces, the watch is priced at €29,000, or €7,990 without a tourbillon.
Nord Zeitmaschine returned to Baselworld for its second year with its latest watch, the Quickindicator, which the brand claims has the fastest moving minutes hand in the world. The Quickindicator’s dial has two smaller overlapping circles inside a larger circle. The minutes hand must travel 360 degrees through each circle, with each trip taking 20 minutes, adding up to one hour. Since the circles aren’t concentric, the minutes hand moves around the dial to reach each circle. The Quickindicator is available in three versions, at approximately $15,000.
