Timepieces that ruled Baselword 2017 - Men's Folio
Time, News

Timepieces that ruled Baselword 2017

  • By Yong Wei Jian

Take The Wheel: No watchmaker would ever dream of handing over the reins of watch design to a third party, but that’s exactly what Hublot did in celebration of Ferrari’s 70th Anniversary. The premise is simple: what Ferrari designs, Hublot will create. And under the steer of the marque’s head of design, Flavio Manzoni, a perfect fusion of auto design and watchmaking is achieved in Techframe Ferrari Tourbillon Chronograph. The same creative processes used to develop a sportscar is applied here, starting with the engine- HUB311, Hublot’s new monopusher chronograph calibre with manual winding and five-day power reserve- around which a high performance chassis is built. The lattice case is constructed out of King Gold, titanium, or PEEK carbon (each limited to 70 pieces), with all the coloured components in the famous Ferrari red. 

Image trilogy 1957_Seamaster-railmaster-speedmaster

Rule of Three: In 1957, Omega released three timepieces that went on to become legends: the Seamaster 300, the Railmaster, and the Speedmaster. To commemorate the 60th anniversary of that fated year, the brand now offers a trio of limited re-editions (with a few upgrade). All three watches are cased in stainless steel and feature black “tropical” dials, each with their own retro-style logo- a playful reference to how the 1950s suppliers used to interpret Omega’s logo. The Seamaster 300 and Railmaster are elevated with Master Chronometer movements, while the Speedmaster retains its iconic 1861 “moonwatch” calibre. Available individually at 3.557 pieces each, or as a trilogy box set (557 pieces) containing all models marked with “trilogy” on the dial. 

 

TRANCHE_BR-Tourbillon-Micro-Rotor_02

Missing Case: There’s been a recent mini-trend of timepieces playing with transparency by using sapphire crystal cases, and while the BR X2 Tourbillon Micro-Rotor looks to be the same, it in fact eschews case construction altogether. Rather, the Calibre BR 380 is framed inside a solid stainless steel band and sandwiched between two pieces of sapphire crystal, resulting in the spectacle of a magnified movement within the icnonic Bell & Ross square. The mechanical architecture is kept relatively simple: a semi-skeleton steel plate offering time with the tourbillon as the seconds indicator on the front, and three bridges with bevelled angles converging on the micro-rotor on the back.