Cut For Time: Bremont, Chopard, Girard-Perregaux, And Hublot Introduce New Watches With Cool Backstories
Hublot has dedicated its new timepiece to animal conservation, Revolution has collaborated with Chopard, Bremont pays tribute to a special woman, and Girard-Perregaux is celebrating its soon-to-open boutique in China.
The New Bremont SOLO “Lady K’
Bremont founders and real-life brothers Giles and Nick English come from a family of intrepid travelers and creative minds. In addition to being a professional pilot, their father built, by hand, a boat for their mother named the Lady K.
The new SOLO Lady K watch is inspired by Nick and Giles’ mother’s “artistic and adventurous spirit - which were of equal match to their father’s pilot profession,” according to the brand. One such adventure was her sailing trip aboard the Lady K from the UK to Africa. The SOLO Lady K certainly would have been a fitting timepiece for this adventurous lady, packing the reliability and durability of a modified automatic chronometer movement called the 11 ½”’ BE-92AV.
The stainless-steel watch’s design is decidedly feminine - its bezel is set with 60 brilliant-cut diamonds. The dial is available in either white mother of pearl or black Tahitian mother of pearl, with both models evoking the sea upon which the Lady K sailed. Diamonds grace the dials as well, set in eight of the hour indices, with 12 o’clock, 3 o’clock, and 9 o’clock displayed as Arabic numerals, and with a date window at 6 o’clock. Diamonds or not, this watch is ready to take upon the high seas.
Chopard’s New Limited Edition Flying Tourbillon
Chopard has partnered with Revolution to create a new limited-edition timepiece, the Chopard L.U.C 1860 Flying T, Special Revolution. The watch, which measures just 36.5mm across, features a flying tourbillon and distinctive design details, including a solid gold copper-colored dial with hand guilloche decoration.
The idea to collaborate on this timepiece came at a meeting between Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, Co-President of Chopard, and Wei Koh, Founder of Revolution Magazine and The Rake. While viewing new watches during a visit to Scheufele’s Chateau Monestier La Tour vineyard in Bergerac, France, Koh saw his “beloved” Chopard 1.96 movement, now modified to include a tourbillon. The watch measured 40mm across, but Scheufele shared that the movement was just slightly thicker than the original 1860 watch.
Koh posed a question to Scheufele, asking if he could create a flying tourbillon watch in exactly the same dimensions as the L.U.C 1860 watch (the first watch Scheufele launched at Chopard). Scheufele said, “Wei, I like this idea very much. Shall we do this together?”
The new watch, limited to just 5 pieces, is not just “the world’s smallest automatic flying tourbillon,” according to Koh. It is also “the world’s only Geneva Seal flying tourbillon that is also COSC-certified as a chronometer.” That’s quite an accomplishment.
Hublot’s New Big Bang Unico SORAI
Hublot’s newest Big Bang Unico timepiece is dedicated to preserving the highly endangered black rhinoceros. SORAI, which stands for Save Our Rhino Africa India, is an organization that supports animal sanctuaries and local efforts to reduce poaching. Poaching is the greatest single threat to this species of rhinoceros. Just in the past 10 years, two thirds of the rhinoceros population in South Africa’s Kruger Park have been killed by poachers.
Before 2020, poaching had declined significantly, in part due to the support of SORAI. However, when the threat of the coronavirus closed South Africa’s borders to tourists – whose sheer numbers in the national parks helped to deter poachers – the poachers took advantage of the deserted park as the pandemic ensued. Now the black rhinoceros population has again plummeted to less than 500 in the vast park.
A portion of the sales of the limited-edition Big Bang Unico SORAI will be donated to Care for Wild - the largest rhinoceros sanctuary in the world, which is supported by SORAI. Only 100 watches of this two-tone green edition will be made, and it will be available on either a camouflage rubber or Velcro strap. Of course, the safari-ready watch features Hublot’s legendary UNICO chronograph self-winding movement with a 72-hour power reserve.
Girard-Perregaux’s Laureato Absolute Infrared
Girard-Perregaux is on the verge of opening its first boutique in China. In celebration of this significant milestone in the brand’s history, Girard-Perregaux has created the Laureato Absolute Infrared, a limited edition to be sold exclusively in China. It is the second watch Girard-Perregaux has created exclusively for the Chinese market - the brand released a Quasar Infrared a few months ago.
Red is a natural accent color choice for China, but Girard-Perregaux didn’t stop there when creating the new timepiece. The timepiece incorporates the manufacture self-winding GP03300 movement with a robust power reserve of 46 hours, and its 44mm case is crafted from titanium with a PVD (physical vapor deposition) coating. And the watch’s octagonal bezel has been a signature of the brand since 1975’s Laureato.
Prominent red hour indices stand in contrast to the watch’s black forged carbon dial. The hour and minute hands are also tipped with red, and the red stitching on the watch’s black rubber strap extends the primary color around the wearer’s wrist. In another nod to the Chinese culture, where the number 8 is considered lucky, the Laureato Absolute Infrared will be limited to 88 pieces.