PRIMETIME - February 2021
Watchmaking in the News
Welcome on the first edition PRIMETIME - Watchmaking in the News of 2021 and we have plenty of things to share with you but the year has already started strong for us.
Think of De Bethune’s take on the Reverso with the brilliant Kind of Two tourbillon using very intelligently the brand’s flexible lug system, the super spectacular sapphire version of the HM9 by MB&F, what an amazing transparent sculpture exposing this very unusual movement architecture and its two balance wheel, the final edition of the witty Swiss Alp Watch or the sharp looking Endeavour Minute Repeater by H. Moser, yet another crazy minute repeater with the third version of the Opera by Jacobs & Co, the special and relevant Phoenix unique timepiece, a beautiful and meaningful collaborative project.
LVMH brands which initially wanted to repeat last year’s success when they hosted an event in Dubai in mid January before the Covid mayhem took over the world, something which had turned out pretty well for them, both in terms of communication but commercially speaking too. So this year Hublot, TAG Heuer, Zenith and Bulgari ideally wanted to do a repeat, but yes way too early for any physical event and instead they went down the digital route with video keynotes and other product presentation but the problem is that even if the idea was obviously a good one, well the actual realisation was not that exciting.
Hublot came with new coloured version of their full ceramic Big Bang initially launched last year in black, but now available in white, grey and blue and around the 23’000 Swiss francs mark. They also introduced a new orange sapphire Big Bang Tourbillon, slightly different mouvement with this dial sided micro rotor and this one will be priced around 170’000 Swiss francs.
URWERK launched a new version of the UR-100 called the the UR-100V T-Rex and taking a decoration pattern seen on some previous models, such as URWEK’s take on a reversing timepiece with the T8 T-Rex launched a few years back. The UR-100 is turning out to be quite a successful model for the brand, with a lower price point and this new bronze cased version is set at 50’000 Swiss francs and is limited to 25 pieces.
And just wanted to remind you that in terms of watch brand - car partnership, we still don’t know who or if someone will take up the space vacated by Hublot which had enjoyed a 9-year long partnership with Ferrari and it is still rumoured that Richard Mille are the ones the most likely to take the spot. The brand is already quite involved in F1 being sponsors of McLaren, Alfa Romeo, Haas without mentioning practically all F1 drivers wearing an RM watch and this not always via sponsorship deals, which is an even better communication tool, but yes RM would make sense and probably one of the only brands capable of carrying it successfully with the means they have. Rolex as the overall sponsor of F1 and Richard Mille as a multiple sponsor of some teams and drivers.