Baselworld 2015: Industrial watchmaking turns to externals
Have we run the gamut of horological complications? Barring some outside flashes, like the arrival of the smartwatch and the exchange rate of the Swiss franc, watchmaking has entered the era of finishing.
By Joel Grandjean
Editor-in-Chief
In watchmaking jargon, habillage, or finishing, is concerned mostly with the watch's esthetics: the inside, the sides, increasingly on the caliber side, and on all exterior aspects, not just the dial.
Métiers d'art meet a plethora of grandes complications
A certain type of niche and high-end watchmaking is attempting to take over the segment by covering it in the all-inclusive cloak of the métiers d'art (crafts). But it also includes some purely horological skills: polishing, engraving, skeletonizing, guilloché, deburring, beveling, enameling… Yes, these skills, too. Because obviously, the brands, in their frenzied race to generate a new concept, are not hesitating to leave Helvetic fields to seek out their métiers d'art markets: here and there, they uncover a master from the country of the rising sun, the last remaining exponent of a noble art threatened with oblivion, or they find an arcane factory in France, Italy, or some more distant, non-European clime, which owns a unique process, maybe with some sort of ancestral added-value or using a material that watchmaking, in a grand and generous gesture, is prepared to ennoble and rehabilitate.
This hunt for surviving craftsmanship is done without the slightest obstacle, because it is happening at a time when the collectors and trade media are not looking. Indeed, there is not a single brand that does not have some declination featuring horological complications. Soon, they will all have a tourbillon, a minute repeater, or a perpetual calendar. Those complications have been produced from every possible angle, with exposed bridges or vertical hammers. They have been interpreted with all sorts of axes and gyro-axes, they have been doubled and tripled, even quadrupled... And in the process, the epitome of vanity, they were given space on a dais dedicated to minimal height or maximum decibels.
Exciting exceptions
So in 2015, the appearance of the nth tourbillon should not really make more ink flow. It's become almost trite, even while the mastery of this art should continue driving everyone to ecstasy and produce a chorus of admiring oohs and aahs.
From time to time, though, a designer does manage to thrill us with a very personal way of re-creating, in a unique manner, what watchmakers of yore did, but with ten times fewer new materials and without machine precision.
Whether they have been bought up in the wake of verticalizations or continue to exist as independents, these designers have succeeded in keeping the interest of the world's collectors. One can locate them, be they a member of the AHCI, a genuine hive of proven or promising talent, or of a luxury brand aiming to achieve horological legitimacy. And they continue to sprinkle their magical and inventive powders throughout our horological news media.
On the complications side, there is still space to explore. Notably the stars, especially since the intersidereal dimension is directly related to time. And then, there is the path of poetic complications, which refreshes a tradition related to watchmaking, one that originated in the same mountainous regions, the art of the automaton-makers and their original animations. And finally, there are the disruptive paths, invented continuously by so-called "new horology," which relies heavily on things like chain transmissions, linear displays, outrageous ways of reading time, or inconceivable recyclings of material.
The watch finishing, promises, promises
Before coming to Baselworld, almost for the thirtieth time now, I had a stubborn prejudicial thought inherited from my drifting through the SIHH in January. I must admit, in spite of my honorable efforts to get rid of them, I am now more convinced than ever that we have entered the era of finishing. The strangest thing is: I am in no way troubled by the fact. First of all, I already perceive the limits of this new path involving rare crafts, which brands would be wrong to shun. It's an anachronistic competition that will always fascinate me, especially in light of the ingenious and unusual quality of some of the approaches. There is still a lot to do, that is for sure.
The other reason for my fascination is the fact that this era of finishing, which is gentrifying horological crafts other than those that had been passed on from "little hands to golden fingers" over time, is inevitably causing a resurgence of the so-called "simple" complications (quite a linguistic abbreviation!). Large dates, decentralized small seconds hands, ingenious chronograph arrangements, turning bezels, or bracelet clasps with improved safety systems, linear or retrograde power reserve indicators…
And, finally, another advantage of our new era is that it allows some gems of micromechanical ingenuity to change sides. No longer will they be just the turf of those who manufacture complications, but they will also drive the industrialization of the sector. Indeed, for a gifted watchmaker, there is as much inventiveness and joy at getting to know an original complication or to get a talking piece to actually function, as there is in finding new industrialization processes. The quest for efficiency in manufacturing large volumes is a challenge on the same footing as producing unique pieces.
PS: Smartwatches & Co.
In 2013 in Basel, while work was being completed on the grounds of the event, talk was all about the new booths rather than on watches.At Basel 2015, I was sure that there would be chatter about the smartwatches. In this particular field, there are some fabulous outbreaks of inventiveness that show that watchmakers still have reams of intelligent solutions in their files. But it would seem that the generalist press, spurned by self-appointed alarmists, would like for this Swiss horology, so arrogant in its expression and sometimes in its manners, to have predicted nothing and to finally fall from its perch. I did not want these interferences, plus the problematic issue of the Swiss franc under attack, to hide the real turning point in the sector, its passage into the era of finishing and industrial excellence.
Front picture: Courtesy of Baselworld