Eastern promise of the luxury watch market

AS the centre of gravity in watch-buying moves to China, watchmakers put on a show in Hong Kong geared to Asian tastes.

A. Lange and Sohne Grand Complication.

IT was just a matter of time before the Swiss watch industry took the mountain to Muhammad, so to speak. China is the engine of the booming Swiss watch industry with Hong Kong the leading market worldwide, accounting for about 20 per cent of all watch sales last year, a 6.8 per cent increase on 2011. Each January the world's biggest watch and jewellery conglomerate, Richemont, stages the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva (other watch brands show in Basel later in the year). It's an invitation-only event where Richemont's watch brands, which include Cartier, IWC, Baume & Mercier and Panerai, unveil their latest creations to the media and retailers. But as the centre of gravity of the watch industry has increasingly shifted East, at least in terms of the end user, it makes less sense to force the world to come to Geneva. So in late September SIHH moved to Hong Kong as Watches & Wonders. It was an unusual event as the region's retailers and watch press had already seen most of what was on show in January and the official line from Richemont was this was not a sales event. Watches & Wonders was open to the public and was pitched as an educational platform. According to one watch industry executive, its success and future will be measured in part by how Richemont's competitors react.

Richard Mille Panda Tourbillon

In a not so subtle nod to the Chinese market, Richard Mille chose Watches & Wonders to unveil its jewel-encrusted panda tourbillon. The watch is limited to just 15 pieces in an 18-carat red and white gold gem set case. The panda is sculpted in 18-carat white gold and set with diamonds and black sapphires. The happy little panda is situated in a bamboo forest of yellow gold, the leaves and stems of which have been engraved and painted entirely by hand. Richard Mille is a relative newcomer to the Swiss watch industry and was founded in 2001 in Les Breuleux by a French businessman of the same name. The brand is known for its complex mechanisms as well as high jewellery pieces.

Vacheron Constantin Patrimony Contemporaine Ultra-Thin

Minute repeater watches first appeared in the 18th century before the advent of electric lighting to help the wearer tell the time in the dark and are making something of a comeback. It's all about the degree of difficulty and skill in producing the mechanism. When activated by the wearer, the minute repeater on this watch will sound the hours in a low-pitch gong, the quarter hours are played by a low and high-pitched gong in quick succession and then the minutes are chimed in a high-pitched gong. Vacheron Constantin claims this watch has the thinnest minute repeater movement (3.9mm) housed inside the slimmest minute repeater watch (8.9mm).

A. Lange & Sohne Grand Complication

A. Lange & Sohne was founded by Ferdinand A. Lange in 1845 in Dresden as a maker of high-precision pocket watches. After after World War II, however, the company was nationalised and the name all but disappeared. In 1994 it was relaunched by Lange's great-grandson and today the company manufactures a relatively limited number of watches each year. The Grand Complication watch is said to be the most complex watch the company has ever created. The limited-edition watch features a grande and petite sonnerie (striking mechanism), a splitseconds chronograph with flying seconds as well as a minute repeater, a moon phase and perpetual calendar.

Audemars Piguet Millenary Minute Repeater

Also showcasing a minute repeater complication at Watches & Wonders was Audemars Piguet. The company, which was founded in 1875 and is still family owned, claims to have been the first company to make a minute repeater wristwatch in 1892. When minute repeaters became obsolete after the advent of electric lighting, the art of making them was more or less lost. Audemars Piguet claims to be one of the first manufacturers to revive the art in the late 1980s. The Millenary Minute Repeater is housed in an 18-carat pink gold oval case with a white enamel dial, black Roman numerals and blue hands.

Roger Dubuis Velvet High Jewellery

Roger Dubuis is another relatively new watchmaking brand. The company was founded in 1995 by Roger Dubuis and Carlos Dias in Geneva. Dubuis had worked for Patek Philippe and also spent several years designing complications for other brands before going out on his own. Roger Dubuis prides itself on being the only watch brand to carry the Hallmark of Geneva certification on its entire production and is known for its highly decorative collections of watches for men and women. Featured here is one of the Velvet High Jewellery collection. The self-winding automatic watch features 1300 diamonds totalling nine carats.

Mont Blanc TimeWalker World-Time Sinosphere

Another company making a direct play for the hearts and wallets of Chinese consumers is Mont Blanc. The TimeWalker World-Time Sinosphere watch is a multi-time-zone watch that features 24 time zones on the dial. To avoid any confusion as to where the centre of the world is these days - at least for the Swiss watch industry - China is placed at the top and is in red. (Although China spans five time zones, the whole country uses China Standard Time.) As if to reinforce the Chinese connection the watch is limited to 88 pieces, eight being considered a lucky number in China. The watch comes in a 42mm stainless-steel case with 18-carat red gold bezel.

Baume & Mercier Clifton 1892 Flying Tourbillon

The elegant Clifton watch has been a huge hit for Baume & Mercier, so for Watches & Wonders the brand launched a limited-edition flying tourbillon version of the design. A tourbillon aims to counter the effects of gravity on a mechanical watch by mounting the escapement and the balance wheel in a rotating cage (at 9 o'clock on the Clifton) which does a complete rotation once a minute. It becomes a flying tourbillon when cantilevered and supported on only one side rather than on a bridge. The watch case is in 18-carat red gold and 45.5mm in diameter. The manually wound movement has a 50-hour power reserve and production is limited to 30 pieces.

Cartier Tank MC

The Tank watch is Cartier's most enduring watch design. Since it was designed by Louis Cartier in 1917, there have been many versions of the watch in a variety of sizes. The design is said to have been inspired by the shape of the military tanks in Paris at the time and it is one of the most copied designs by other watchmakers. For Watches & Wonders, Cartier released what it says is the first version of the Tank design for men only. What makes it masculine is its size: it comes only in a 44mm case. Pictured is the 18-carat pink gold version, which also has a pink gold crown set with a sapphire. The self-winding watch features a date at 3 o'clock and small seconds at 6 o'clock.

Panerai Radiomir 1940

Panerai, which was founded in 1860, has always been considered a utilitarian watch. The Florence-based company became an official supplier to the Royal Italian Navy in 1900 and didn't made civilian watches until much later. For Watches & Wonders, Panerai gave its watches the luxe treatment - this was China, after all - and released two limited-edition versions of the Radiomir 1940 in 18-carat red and white gold. Pictured is the red gold version, which has a hand-wound mechanical movement with an eight-day power reserve. The numbers and markers on the dial are created with a sandwich construction whereby they're actually cut-outs on a darker top layer. Limited to 300 pieces.