30 Highlight Watches You’ll See at WatchTime New York 2017, From A to Z


The wait is almost over! WatchTime New York, America’s largest luxury watch show, kicks off tonight at Manhattan’s Gotham Hall and continues tomorrow. Thirty watch brands will be on hand to show off their newest timepiece treasures; here we showcase each brand’s highlight model, from A. Lange to Zenith.

A. Lange & Söhne’s 1815 Annual Calendar is its first annual calendar watch with an analog date function. It is powered by a manually wound movement (Caliber L051.3) and shows the date in an elegant, analog style, on two horizontally aligned subdials. The watch’s case (in white gold or rose gold) measures 40 mm in diameter. The argenté-colored dial, made of solid silver, features blued-steel hands, black Arabic numerals, and a peripheral railway-track minutes scale. The two subdials use golden hands to indicate the day and date at 9 o’clock, and the month at 3 o’clock. A third subdial at 6 o’clock hosts the moon-phase display —calculated to remain accurate for 122.6 years—as well as the running seconds counter. In-house Caliber L051.3, visible through a sapphire exhibition caseback, is a slender 5.7 mm thick, which includes a calendar module only 1.4 mm in height. Fully wound, the manual-wound movement carries a power reserve of 72 hours.

A. Lange & Sohne 1815 Annual Calendar - RG
A. Lange & Sohne 1815 Annual Calendar in rose gold (Ref. 238.032)

Alpina’s Startimer Pilot model has represented affordable luxury in the popular category of aviation-inspired watches. The Geneva-based brand’s new Startimer Pilot Quartz GMT, one of the watches the brand will showcase at the event, brings even more affordability, as it is equipped with a Swiss quartz movement. Outwardly, all the famed aviation design codes remain. For good readability, the watch’s dial features oversized, luminous Arabic numerals and a red-and-white GMT hand. The local time and the time in a second time zone are indicated either on a two-tone dial— with a 24-hour scale contrasted to indicate day and night time — or on an all-black dial. The GMT function can be adjusted using the crown. The 42-mm case is available in stainless steel or in black PVD- treated steel. To make the watch even more individual, wearers can combine the case of their choice with nylon straps in different colors.

Alpina Startimer Pilot Quartz GMT (AL-247BR4FBS6)
Alpina Startimer Pilot Quartz GMT (AL-247BR4FBS6)

Armin Strom, the independent Swiss brand known for its skeleton movements, will showcase an entirely new technological development that enables consumers to design their own one-of-a-kind watch from the ground up — the Armin Strom Watch Configurator. As one of the few independent watchmakers with the ability to create its own watch movements under one roof, Armin Strom offers with its online Watch Configurator a greater level of personalization than has any other brand’s online bespoke system thus far. After entering a virtual reality version of Armin Strom’s Swiss watchmaking workshop, guests can begin by choosing any movement available in Armin Strom’s repertoire — up to and including tourbillon and five-day power-reserve calibers. The guest can then select colors, engravings, and even which parts of the movement are skeletonized, and finally move on to the choices for case material, style and color of the dial and hands, type of clasp, and even the color of the stitching on the strap.

Armin Strom Watch Configurator
Armin Strom Watch Configurator

The Ateliers deMonaco Tourbillon Casino de Monte-Carlo is a unique piece, inspired and named after the historical monument in Monaco located next to the famous Hôtel de Paris. The watch depicts the scene on its solid white-gold dial, which is hand engraved by Ateliers deMonaco’s master engraver. It is composed of three superimposed plates that create an impressive, detailed relief featuring the palm tree avenue as well as the steps of the Casino, the Casino’s façade and its two famous domes, and the sky with its overhanging clouds. The opening of the tourbillon’s cage dominates the center of the dial and reveals the movement’s sapphire bridge. The watch is powered by one of the first patented movements from Ateliers deMonaco, called Tourbillon XP1. It has an extremely precise tourbillon with tolerance of 0 to 2 seconds per 24 hours. The watch’s 44-mm case is white gold with an ultralight titanium core, and brushed, polished and assembled by hand; the caseback is hand engraved.

Ateliers deMonaco Casino Tourbillon - front
Ateliers deMonaco Tourbillon de Casino Monte-Carlo

The Baume & Mercier Clifton Manual 1830 appears simple on the outside, but inside is an all-new proprietary movement, the first to be equipped with an exclusive, accuracy-improving system called TwinSpir. Inside the 42-mm rose-gold case is the new manual-winding Caliber BM12-1975M, designed by Baume & Mercier in collaboration with the movement specialists at Manufacture Horlogerie Valfleurier. The movement boasts a power reserve of 90 hours. The TwinSpir technology is centered around a newly developed hairspring with a composite structure combining two layers of silicon, alternatively oriented and bound through an extra layer of silicon dioxide, which also acts as a thermo-compensating element. Combined with the movement’s other noteworthy technical element — a newly designed, inertia-type balance wheel—the technology has several benefits, including enhancing the precision of the movement in various positions and over time; limiting the movement’s sensitivity to surrounding magnetism; and ensuring a greater resistance to small shocks and repeated vibrations. The watch has an opaline silvered dial with rose-gold hour numerals and indices and gilt hour and minutes hands, and the movement’s haute horlogerie decorations are on display through a screw-down sapphire caseback.

Baume & Mercier Clifton Manual 1830 - two-shot
Baume & Mercier Clifton Manual 1830

The new BR 03-92 Diver, designed with the consultation of experienced divers and other underwater experts, is Bell & Ross’s first dive watch in the square case shape for which it has become renowned. Its squared ergonomic case, made of satin-polished steel and measuring 42 mm in diameter, is water-resistant to 300 meters. It is equipped with a 60-minute unidirectional bezel with a luminescent dot at 12 o’clock for orientation. Its crown is protected by an impact-resistant guard and is fitted with a rubber insert for easy handling. Inside the case is an inner cage made of soft iron, which protects the movement from the effects of magnetic fields. The indices on the deep black dial are filled with white Super-LumiNova, which is also used on the minutes and seconds hands, and the hour hand is easily distinguished by its bright orange color. The insert on the unidirectional rotating bezel, upon whose scale the minute hand indicates the time spent underwater, is made of black anodized aluminum.

Bell & Ross BR03-92 Diver
Bell & Ross BR03-92 Diver

The new Ref. 6652 watch from Blancpain’s elegant Villeret collection is the first in that line with a day-and-date complication. The Ref. 6652 features a stainless steel case measuring 40 mm in diameter. Its matte white dial features a double window at 3 o’clock for the day of the week and date and a small seconds subdial at 6 o’clock. The day change is instantaneous, while the date change is semi-instantaneous. Leaf-shaped cut-out hands indicate the time on applied Roman numeral indices. The watch contains the automatic Caliber 1160DD, which has a yellow gold winding rotor, a glucydur balance wheel, and a silicon balance spring. Blancpain uses silicon because of its low density, which renders the spring lighter and more shock-resistant; and its imperviousness to magnetic fields, which aids in the movement’s timekeeping precision.

Blancpain Villeret Day-Date - angle
Blancpain Villeret Day-Date

Bremont’s Supermarine Type 300 and Type 301 are the latest additions to the British brand’s range of vintage-aircraft inspired divers’ watches. The Type 300 derives its name from the historic “Type 300” prototype Spitfire aircraft developed by the Supermarine aircraft company in the 1930s. Its 40-mm stainless steel case is scaled down from those of its predecessors, the S500 and S2000, and also slimmer, at just 13 mm thick from crystal to caseback. Nevertheless, the new Supermarine case is professional-grade for diving, remaining water-resistant to 300 meters. Two dial variations are available, black and blue, with laser-engraved ceramic inserts for the unidirectional diving bezel in a matching color. For divers who want both a smaller case and a more vintage look, there is the Type 301, which has Super-LumiNova-filled hour indices instead of Arabic numerals on its matte black dial. The watches are powered by the automatic, chronometer-certified Bremont Caliber BE-92AE.

Bremont Supermarine Type 300 - blue dial, strap
Bremont Supermarine Type 300

The Breguet Marine Equation Marchante 5587 combines a tourbillon with both a perpetual calendar and an innovative equation-of-time function for a rare, triple-high-complication timepiece. The watch displays the running equation of time at a glance using a “running” (marchante) central hand on the dial rather than on a more traditional subdial showing the minutes to be added or subtracted to the current civil time. The cam that controls the equation-of-time function, tourbillon and perpetual calendar is shaped like a figure eight, and visible on the dial through a window that also displays the tourbillon carriage. It runs on a sapphire disk so as not to block the view of the tourbillon. The watch, which is available in a 43.9-mm case in platinum or rose gold, celebrates Abraham-Louis Breguet’s appointment in 1814 as a member of the Bureau des longitudes in Paris, a group of experts who measured the earth’s physical properties, and the Breguet brand’s role as official marine chronometer maker to the French Royal Navy.

Breguet Equation-of-Time
Breguet Marine Equation Marchante 5587

Carl F. Bucherer’s Manero Chronograph Flyback features three colorful new dials, in rose-gold and stainless steel cases. The steel model has a matte blue-gray-colored dial, while the two rose-gold versions feature a dial in either matte black or a galvanized champagne gold. Each watch has a minute track in a subtle variation of the main dial color, two recessed subdials at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock, and a tachymeter scale on the dial’s flange. The applied, faceted hour indices and lance-shaped hands are in materials that match the case. Inside the 43-mm case is Carl F. Bucherer’s automatic Caliber CFB 1970, which powers all timekeeping operations, including its flyback chronograph function, which is capable of making multiple time measurements in quick succession, since both chronograph hands can be reset to zero while the stopwatch is still running.

Carl F Bucherer Manero Chronograph Flyback - trio
Carl F Bucherer Manero Chronograph Flybacks
No Responses to “30 Highlight Watches You’ll See at WatchTime New York 2017, From A to Z”

Show all responses
  1. I thought the event was well worth the expense of going to NYC.
    Bremont had the most watches I wanted to buy and Nick English is a true watch and auto enthusiast and gentleman.
    There is at least one more Heuer I need to add to my collection, the Monaco.
    MB&F quality and novelty was without equal.
    The Zenith Defy 21 was on my list as a future purchase but seeing it in person makes me doub—because of difficult legibility.
    I was impressed with the new designs from Bell & Ross and will certainly add one to my collection.
    The demographic of watch buyers/enthusiasts at the show was older than I thought it would be.
    I was impressed with the quality of the representation at the manufacturers counters.
    The Watchtime team did a great job!!!!

    Reply
  2. Thomas Garvey

    New York, I’ve seen all the new, same O, same O, watches. Hope something new
    develops about SERVICE instead of sale, sale, sale, to China, and India. No decent time on
    Service. I’m thinking of dumping my collection in the River. Keep waisting your time.

    Reply
Leave a Reply