The Men’s Paradise
Organized at the end of January, the LVMH Watch Week was, obviously, held online. The digital event allowed the group’s watchmaking manufactures to unveil the first novelties of the year. Between ultra-thin movement, high-tech materials, modern evolution and unexpected partnership, Bvlgari, Hublot, Zenith and TAG Heuer imagined beautiful masculine pieces. Let us round up the dials.
Thinness honoured by Bvlgari at the 2021 LVMH Watch Week.
Holding many records in the ultra-thin world, Bvlgari is enjoying the success of the Octo Finissimo and its very facetted design.
Measuring 43 mm across and only 8.75 mm thick, the Octo Finissimo S Chronograph GMT is a real watchmaking supermodel.
No new calibres among the collection but seductive variations such as the Octo Finissimo S Chronograph GMT.
Only 8.75 mm thick, this model is a steel – hence the “S” in the name – variation of the original 2019 piece in titanium, which is still the world’s thinnest self-winding chronograph (6.9 mm thick). The width difference is due to the separate properties of the metal alloys.
The steel model is equipped with the same calibre BVL 318 (3.3 mm thick): a marvel of micromechanics with a peripheral rotor visible through the back of the 43 mm case.
With the Octo Finissimo S Chronograph GMT, Bvlgari offers a perfect blend of aesthetic thinness and sports functionality.
On the front, the dial plays on a blue background with contrasting silver sub-dials (GMT at 3 o’clock, 30 minutes chronograph at 6 o’clock, running seconds at 9 o’clock) and luminescent features for a clear reading.
Hublot 2021 LVMH Watch Week novelty: the perpetual quest for a new material
Nothing seems to be able to stop the Nyon manufacture in its intense quest for new materials. DNA of the brand since the very beginning, the “Art of Fusion” expresses itself today with this Big Bang in… orange sapphire: a world’s first!
After the transparent, then black, yellow, blue and red sapphire, Hublot adds another shade on its chromatic palette.
Beyond the triumphant aesthetic effect, it is indeed a true technical feat in the area of coloured sapphires. A great accomplishment for Hublot, which proves once more the brand’s mastery in the creation of innovating materials and in the difficult machining of sapphire.
Sapphire at the heart of the Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Orange Sapphire unveiled at the LVMH Watch Week
It does not end here: sapphire is truly omnipresent since the manufacture used it for the bridges of the brand new calibre powering it… in full transparency. Completely exposed to our gaze, this automatic calibre is compensated by a tourbillon at 6 o’clock and boasts an embedded grey gold micro-rotor at 12 o’clock.
This Big Bang Tourbilon Automatic Orange Sapphire, edition limited to 50 pieces, will doubtlessly create jealousy among the avant-garde, high watchmaking connoisseurs.
Zenith: modern version of an icon
To reinvent an icon by propelling it into the future without disavowing the past: this was the difficult task undertaken by the Zenith manufacture. And the revisit of the El Primero chronograph (1969) was more than successful, as showed by the ever-expanding waiting lists!
With a successful evolution, the Chronomaster Sport is unquestionably the star of the Zenith novelties at the LVMH Watch Week.
The Chronomaster Sport has indeed style, with its powerful and distinguished lines. But while this steel instrument plays the sports card, the designers managed to keep intact the inherited, classic elegance that has always characterized the El Primero chrono and its round case.
The Chronomaster Sport features the new calibre El Primero 3600 enabling to measure 10th of a second increments.
While the new automatic movement El Primero 3600 powering this model operates at a 5 Hz frequency (36,000 vibrations/hour) like the original 1969 calibre, Zenith cleverly equipped it with a one-tenths of a second scale. The centre hand revolves around the dial in ten seconds, showing the information on the dedicated scale of the black ceramic bezel.
One glance is enough to recognize the iconic set of three coloured counters (blue, light grey and dark grey). Here, each one of them is graduated in sixty units: chrono seconds and minutes (at 3 and 6 o’clock) and small seconds (9 o’clock). A great idea which unifies the whole piece and asserts the personality of this beautiful novelty that flaunts its mechanism at the back.
TAG Heuer and Porsche: unity makes strength
After six decades spent crossing paths on circuits, TAG Heuer and Porsche have announced in the wake of the LVMH Watch Week a long-term partnership.
A natural rapprochement that will see the two brands work in close cooperation from now on in many areas: auto sports, e-sport but also golf and tennis.
To celebrate the birth of this major collaboration, TAG Heuer logically chose to design a special edition of an iconic watch: the Carrera chronograph. A name which, of course, has also always designated the most powerful Porsche cars.
To discover more, read our full article on the partnership and the TAG Heuer Carrera Porsche Chronograph:
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