Some will speak of Covid-19 as a catastrophe for the watch industry – deprived of its two major world fairs, but also of its stores, its sales, its factories and its watchmakers. We prefer the term apocalypse. It is not negative. Borrowed from biblical Latin, it means “revelation”. On the way to the apocalypse!
By Olivier Muller
The watchmaking crisis is a revelation of hidden talents, of the resilience of manufacturers, of the pleasure of collectors in preserving the taste for beauty, for fairness, for good workmanship. 2020 may not be the most exciting year, but it will be the most instructive. Some brands have managed to defy expectations by offering models that can match all the trends of the year. Most of them arrive in stores these days.
The classic watch is often synonymous with Breguet… and vice versa – so much so that the manufacture offers a collection soberly named Classique. The 2020 vintage is available in white gold with a blue dial decorated with hand guilloche, the lightly engraved patterns on the dial that give it its relief. One reads the hours, minutes, seconds, the day and the date, as well as a poetic phase of the Moon completed with its age, i.e. its cycle. At 39 mm, the piece is perfectly designed and willingly unisex – an already timeless classic.
When we talk about an obvious watch, we mean one that works perfectly, requires little maintenance, resists the ravages of time, is precise and offers a good autonomy. This is exactly what the new Clifton Baumatic from Baume & Mercier promises, with 5 days of power reserve, COSC-certified precision, insensitivity to ambient magnetism and revisions to be planned every 5 years – at least – instead of 2 years as a rule. All this in a new gold and grey livery that displays an elegant moon phase at 6 o’clock. Why deprive yourself ?
> Our complete selection can be found in the next edition of L’Honoré Magazine, which will be published in early July <
