Are we pumped for SIHH 2018 yet? Just like the “holiday shopping season” and beginning around the same time, it seems like the new-product announcements get earlier every year. With still more than a month to go, the 2018 models that we will get to see in Geneva in January have already started coming in. The Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) watch industry trade show, just like its organizing body the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH), has continued to grow and evolve each year, adding more brands as well as a day where the show is open to the public for the first time in 2017 – this time around, it will be Friday, January 19th, 2018. Now with a total of 35 brands, SIHH 2018 promises even more variety than in previous years.
Yes, these items are solutions to issues desperately sad and/or dull and/or unhappy folks would say shouldn’t have been around in the first place — and, even from a strictly sensible approach, they’re really perfect. You don’t want a watch dial up to come in at a 12° angle to be able to read the time precisely the way you do not want an automobile capable of performing well over 400kph to purchase from A to B.However, it seems that if watchmakers are confronted with the challenge of producing a watch that goes with a hyper- or supercar, they think big and think up to out of the box, as possible. It’s their great, often once in a lifetime chance to make something completely bonkers and eliminate it — just consider this double-balance Roger Dubuis Aventador S, the Hublot LaFerrari, this Blancpain Lamborghini that came with a tourbillon plus a carrousel for no fantastic reason whatsoever, or, of course, this Parmigiani Fleurier Type 390. It’s a brand flexing its muscles, and that is all good!The Sort 390 really looks very cool when worn the wrong way around — and the timing is confronting off too, which can be a plus sometimes. . .It’s not just muscles but bank accounts that these hyper-creations make flex. Price for your Bugatti Chiron hypercar starts at about $2,500,000, even though a watch in the 10-10 piece limited runs of the Parmigiani Fleurier Bugatti Type 390 will place you back 295,000 CHF.Today marks the launch of the Parmigiani Fleurier Bugatti Type 390, a watch designed to decide on the latest Bugatti Chiron hypercar. In line with most of the bits that came from Parmigiani’s today 13-year partnership with carmaker Bugatti, the Sort 390 is just another very unusually shaped bit filled edge to edge with an equally distinctive movement. The same as the Bugatti Chiron, the Parmigiani Type 390 also seems to have been superbly and exceedingly over-engineered, so as to get the attention of even the most tired and tired watch and car enthusiast.
You already know that SIHH is one of the two most important events for the watch industry, as its exhibitors – while much fewer than at the biggest industry trade show, Baselworld – represent many major and influential brands, and this is the time of year when they introduce their most important new products. Vis-à-vis Baselworld – where around 300 brands represent the breadth of the watch industry from high-end and mainstream to obscure startups – SIHH has always carefully maintained an image of exclusivity and “prestige.”
So, while a few brands do introduce models in the “mid-level luxury” range that the average person might be able to consider saving up for and possibly actually wearing… you can expect a lot of skeletonization, avant-garde designs, artisanal techniques and haute horology finishing, “high complications,” precious materials, and stratospheric prices. Haute horlogerie is in the name, after all. It has largely been a spectator’s show for fans of high-end watchmaking, but with recent industry trends emphasizing more “down-to-earth” (it’s all relative) models, some balance and variety can at least be hoped for.
SIHH 2018’s 35 Exhibiting Brands
The Richemont Group along with some independent brands long represented the handful of SIHH exhibitors. However, the show’s 2016 edition added a “Carré des Horlogers” section with nine “artisan-creators and independent workshops” and expanded that number in 2017. This year, the Carré des Horlogers brands are up to no fewer than 17, with the primary exhibitors (referred to as “Historic Maisons”) at 18 for a total, again, of 35. The primary exhibitors are joined by Hermes, and the Carré des Horlogers adds five brands with Armin Strom, DeWitt, Ferdinand Berthoud, Élégante by F.P.Journe, and Romain Gauthier. See the full list of exhibitors in the image above.
From a media perspective, Baselworld has tended to spread our resources very thinly in past years with simply too much to cover at once, so with some prominent brands having moved from Baselworld to SIHH, we can hope for some balance between the shows. Around 20,000 visitors are expected this year, and the FHH promises improved facilities and connectivity in order to make our job of bringing you high quality content more efficient – so we’ll see what that’s like in January. That’s just a glimpse into our point of view in preparing for the show.
We’ll continue providing news of new products ahead of the show – if mostly only renders and official product images from the brands with basic information before being able to see the watches in person to photograph and evaluate them in their glorious and gritty reality. SIHH 2018 runs from January 15th to the 19th, and again, the last day is open to the public with tickets on sale at the SIHH website. sihh.org