Susanna Tjokro, Contributor, Singapore, s_tjokro@yahoo.com
Yafriro International, which carries 18 watch brands, presented “Time & Luxury” in Singapore recently.
It was the company’s second luxury Swiss timepieces exhibition. The Singapore-based luxury watch boutique (other boutiques are located in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia) focuses on providing limited high-end watches that are prized for their craftsmanship.
Instead of offering luxury timepieces from familiar brands, Yafriro C‚l‚brer Le Temps (Celebrate the Time) distinguished itself by presenting various “young” Swiss watch brands, like deLaCour and HD3.
Many of the timepieces on display at Time & Luxury came fresh from Baselworld 2008 in Switzerland, the leading event for the watch and jewelry industry. Baselworld is an important event for watch aficionados where they can see the latest collections from lesser-known, independent young brands, as well as timepieces from old, traditional companies that have been making watches for centuries.
Fortunately, for watch enthusiasts who did not visit Baselworld, the latest collections and masterpieces from 18 young watch companies, plus beautiful vintage pieces from Schreiner Fine Jewelry, could be viewed at Time & Luxury.
Yafriro offers an eclectic mix of exquisite timepieces from Parmigiani, DeWitt, Jacob & Co., Greubel Forsey, deLaCour, B.R.M, Jean Dunand, Hautlence, Vincent B‚rard, HD3, Andreas Strehler, Manufacture Contemporaine du Temps (M.C.T), Cabestan, Ladoire, Christopher Claret, MaŒtres du Temps, Rosseau 1636 and Rudis Sylva. The collections, from classic to fashionable to futuristic, come in all shapes and sizes.
All brands are from Switzerland, except for the French Bernard Richards Manufacture (B.R.M). However, many B.R.M watches have Swiss-made movements.
Although they are known as young brands, their founders and watchmakers are experts on timepieces, such as Michel Parmigiani who founded Parmigiani Fleurier in 1996 but began his career in the field of restoring horological objects in 1976.
While most brands do not produce their own movements, Parmigiani stands out from the crowd of Swiss watch brands for being among the few brands — such as Rolex, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet — that make their own movements for their timepieces.
Many brands conceal the fact that they order their parts from manufactures throughout Switzerland. As said by Parmigiani sales director Christian Barbier, they just issue specifications for the parts they need and wait for the deliveries. Hence receiving timely deliveries is a problem for many in the watch industry, if one supplier has a problem, it will affect overall production.
On the contrary, Parmigiani watches are completely designed, developed and created with in-house movements at its own factory — except for the watch straps, which are especially made by HermÅ s.
“We are an established watch brand and do everything in house, so we can control the quality and we do not pretend, anyone who visits our factory can see that we make everything ourselves,” says Barbier. Thus, the brand is named Parmigiani Haute Horlogerie Authentique.
With the partnership between Pershing (a prestigious Italian shipyard specializing in luxury yacht construction), this year Parmigiani launched Pershing aquatic sports watches in two collections: the limited edition “One-one-five” and Pershing Chronographs.
One of the most unusual watches at this exhibition is the “futuristic” HLS from Hautlence. “Our philosophy is to display time in a different way by showing beautiful movements,” says Renaud de Retz who founded Hautlence with Guillaume Tetu in 2004. Hautlence is the anagram of NeuchÆ’tel, their hometown. In 2004, Hautlence launched HL and in 2007 they launched HLS, which resembles HL as it was created with the same basis movement, the jumping hour.
The originality of reading the time lies in the double device of a jumping hour, revealed in the window of a cut-out rotating disk, coupled with a retrograde minute display. The small seconds hand is in a little dial at 5 o’clock. The intriguing rods — reminiscent of old trains, says de Retz — drive the jumping hour disc.
When the minute hand reaches 60 minutes, a device activated by a spiral causes the end of the rod to arm a small spring with an inertia block that, in turn, drives the rotation of the hour disc. This system makes this timepiece very distinctive looking and the unusual array of rods driving the hour disc can be admired through the tonneau-shaped beveled sapphire crystal glass.
Each model of Hautlence watches is produced in a limited series of 88 pieces.
Just like in any prestigious watch exhibition, many of the watches on display at Time & Luxury were also equipped with tourbillon movement (French for whirlwind). In 1795, Abraham-Louis Breguet invented tourbillon to counter the effects of gravity that affect the accuracy of pocket watches that tend to stay in the same vertical position. While many people think that a wristwatch can work properly without tourbillon, the movement, however is still highly priced, as it is produced only by the most skilled watchmakers.
Seasoned entrepreneur Thierry Oulevay and Christophe Claret (a distinguished Swiss watchmaker, known for his complicated movements) founded Jean Dunand in 2003. The brand was named after the Swiss-born artist, Jean Dunand, one of the greatest craftsmen of the Art Deco movement. Thus, the styling and overall form of the watch are always consistent with Art Deco ideals of simple geometry.
Jean Dunand has announced a series of new dials in rare gemstones and fossils for the 2008 edition of its Tourbillon Orbital line, including Burma jade, fossilized coral and caviar fossils — this brand, indeed, uses unique materials. “Jean Dunand offers exceptional watches at the very top of the range. We want to produce watches the likes of which have never been seen before. We focus on what other brands don’t do or don’t want to do and we also use unique materials, the result is exceptional timepieces,” says Oulevay.
A prestigious watch exhibition like Time & Luxury gives people an opportunity to savor the art of timepieces as well as the chance to talk to the watchmakers themselves — definitely a must-see event for watch enthusiasts.
Source: The Jakarta Post
