The Best Watches From SIHH 2018
For those who work in the world of watches, the third week of January is when you get on a plane to Geneva for four days of champagne drinking and handling some of the most expensive and technically accomplished timepieces around – otherwise known as Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH). We may have seen enough launches to go a little watch-blind, but below are our top eight. If you’re a watch nerd like us, or you just want to adorn your wrist with a baller design piece, these are the timepieces you should be considering.
IWC Tribute to Pallweber ‘150 Years’
When you’re IWC and you have an anniversary to celebrate, choosing a watch to mark that milestone is going to be hard. Which is why, for its 150th, the Schauffhausen resident has decided to launch 25 new references across five of its most iconic families. Although there are the usual suspects in there – dress watches and divers – it is this tribute to the Pallweber pocket watch that really gets the pulse racing. Back in 1884, IWC’s second owner Johann Rauschenbach-Schenk secured the rights to Josef Pallweber’s digital jump hours technology and here it has been rendered in wristwatch form for the first time. Rather than go for a straight reproduction, IWC has Art Deco’d the font, plumped up the mechanism and put the whole thing in a decadent, 18-carat red gold case. The result is a dress watch like no other.
Montblanc 1858 Geosphere World Time
After spending a few years trying on different identities, Montblanc has finally decided that its purpose in life is to make really great watches at astoundingly good prices, and this year’s crop of chronographs and calibres is no exception. The star of the show was this 1858 Geosphere. The 1858 collection is a tribute to the Minerva manufacture, which was integrated into Montblanc back in 2008, and this specific model is dedicated to the world’s Seven Summit mountaineering challenge; the successful ascent of the highest mountain on every continent, which has only been completed by 500 athletes. The two globes, which make a full rotation in 24 hours, represent the northern (at 12) and southern (at six) hemisphere, with the former spinning anti-clockwise and the latter clockwise. There is a day/night ring around each, so you can approximate the time around the globe. You’ve also got a second time zone at 9 o’clock, which is more straightforward to read. It’s a great-looking timepiece that might not take you up a mountain but will certainly take your watch game to new heights.
