BaselWorld Trend Report - GQ Deputy Editor Writes For TIME², Part II

Then the downturn happened and things in the Swiss industry moved unimaginably quickly: to a certain extent, ‘bling’ was out (too showy) but so too was the suggestion that simply building a beautiful and everlasting watch wasn’t enough: suddenly it very much was. Call it a return to ‘class’.

HERITAGE

Accordingly, one of the strongest trends at this year’s BaselWorld watch fair was towards heritage pieces – more classically derived styles, with less ornamentation and with fewer – and more useful – functions. GMT functions offering a dual time zone feature were especially popular, as were longer power reserves.

Brands like Longines, Glaschutte, Tissot and Bulova looked back to their respectively strong lineages, while Gucci and Hamilton took advantage of important birthdays this year and next (90 and 120 years respectively) to release watches that spoke proudly of their brand values.

BLUE

Blue has apparently been a stronger seller given the number of watches on show boasting blue dials, blue steeled hands and even entire cases in blue-hued composites. But grey too, has joined the fray, replacing black as the accepted ‘stealth’ colour. Except few would call it grey (too close to ‘greige’ and the suggestion of non-colouration?)

Chanel’s legendary J12 – less now a chronological ‘monobrand’ than an entire single-family series – debuted its own “chromatic” version of the J12 in a new titanium ceramic that looked eerily like, well, grey. Combining the two trends on a budget, Gc offered its own take on the twin style trends with its Slim Class model with blue steeled hands on a grey dial for just £375.

[See True Blue for current season blue watch inspiration.]

MILITARY

Unsurprisingly within this heritage strand (and given that many mechanical watch companies that survived the quartz boom on government contracts alone) military inspired pieces were also widely prevalent: Hamilton offering some reliably camouflaged watches in its workmanlike Khaki range while Oris unveiled a further addition to its aeronautically derived Big Crown series with its Aviation Big Crown.

OVER-SIZED

But despite the swing towards elegant, simpler watches first spotted at last year’s fair, big watches still abound – with brands like U Boat and the TW Steel range, in particular the latter’s Goliath CEO Dress watch, standing out.

And while Hublot may have reissued a range of its original, comparatively small, ‘Porthole’ watches on their slim rubber straps, the star of its show was still the ceramic Aero Bang Skeletonised, using a new ceramic/metal alloy it calls “the world’s hardest man made material”, and a new pigmenting process that has allowed itself to produce a Big Bang in its Vendome range it calls - you guessed it, “All Blue”.

In Addition...

Other developments of note: tourbillon movements are slowly moving into the financial range of the average watch buyer with a couple of examples costing around £30,000 (a steep decline from the £100,000+ we’d all become accustomed to before JLC’s breakthrough a few years ago).

And some serious watches-as-nightlight affairs: Rolex brought a new Expolorer II to the fair with improved all-round readability, and both Ball & co.s patented gas tube-equipped dials and Luminox selection of almost “super-superluminova” models made sure that even when the lights went down, the ‘best in show’ shone on...

See Basel-11 for more BaselWorld news.

See TIME2 for current season luxury and deaigner watches.