03 MECHANICAL MARVELS

Complications are what really set haute horlogerie apart from the time-telling hoi polloi. And much to our delight, this year’s offerings are positively packed with them.

Blancpain’s popular diving line, the Fifty Fathoms, occasionally welcomes extras like moonphases and chronographs, and it does so again this year – via novelties like the Bathyscaphe Quantieme Annuel. It’s the first annual calendar watch in the Fifty Fathoms line, and uses a movement based on the existing Calibre 1150. Elsewhere, Patek Philippe’s sporty, younger Aquanaut family welcomes its first chronograph, borrowing the movement from the Nautilus Ref. 5980. Tudor’s own diving watch, the Black Bay, gets a GMT function this year (a first for the brand) and its styling makes it a serious rival to big brother Rolex’s GMT-Master II and its Pepsi bezel.

Impressive things have been going on under the hood as well, as seen in the Baume & Mercier Clifton Baumatic. It’s a time-only watch, but arguably one of the most advanced ones out there, thanks to its silicon balance spring, silicon escape wheel and lever, and optimised “Powerscape” escapement design for more efficient energy transfer. From the independent end, we have the Ulysse Nardin Freak Vision, a regular production version of its concept watch Innovision 2 from last year, boasting its unusual silicon and nickel escape wheel, Anchor Escapement and floating pallet fork.