VIDEO: The stripped-back Santos – Cartier’s Santos de Cartier Skeleton
Last week we had a look at the ‘regular’ version of Cartier’s updated Santos, and today the less-is-more Skeleton is under our lens. To be specific, we’re talking about the large steel model (though there’s a pink gold version as well), which comes on the QuickSwitch and SmartLink equipped steel bracelet, replete with those prominent screws — you also get an additional alligator strap, allowing you to change your look should the fancy take you. So far, so standard for the new Santos. But what’s special here is the dial, or lack thereof, as you would expect. The manually wound 9611MC movement has been designed from the ground up as a skeleton movement, a process that means the architecture has been designed for maximum visual impact — the bridges have taken the form of Cartier’s iconic exploding Roman numerals; a pleasing blend of negative space and mechanics. And while the stripped-back style of the skeletonised Santos might not be to all tastes, it’s an important skill in Cartier’s history, and there’s no faulting the execution here.
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Few watches can rival Cartier’s Santos in terms of on-the-wrist recognition and sheer weight of history. The design debuted in 1904 and has remained fundamentally unchanged in form since. But while the new Santos might look familiar, quite a lot has changed. Small changes have been made to the design and ergonomics of the case, resulting in a watch that looks and wears better on the wrist. Bigger changes have been made to the inside, with an in-house movement upgrade and, most excitingly of all, a new QuickSwitch strap change system that allows you to swap your strap quickly and painlessly. This is something I’d be really excited to see rolled out more widely across the Cartier collection. On a related note, there’s a similar functionality for the bracelet, allowing you to add and remove links without tools. These changes on their own are all fairly incremental, but package them up together, on a design as strong as this, and the Santos suddenly becomes a very compelling proposition.
Late last year, one of the more surprising (and contentious) inclusions in my “best watches of 2017” list was the Apple Watch Series 3. For me, the addition of cellular functionality made the already formidable smart watch that much more intimidating — and appealing. So, as you can imagine, I was keen to get my hands on one for review, and just after SIHH a courier dropped one off at my desk. Fast forward to now and I’ve had the grey ceramic Apple Watch Series 3 Edition on my wrist on and off for a few months. Did it live up to the phone-free utopia that I imagined when it was released? Well, obviously watch the video to get the full rundown but, spoiler alert, it turns out I’m just not ready to go iPhone cold turkey, but you could definitely do it, and I suspect that by the time Series 4 rolls around, it will have gotten even easier.
If you look at the last two years, the price of vintage Heuer has rocketed, but so far the uplift has not raised all boats on the modern TAG Heuer and Heuer tide. David Chalmers, founder of Calibre 11, the “home of TAG Heuer and vintage Heuer collectors”, asks the CEO of TAG Heuer, Jean-Claude Biver, why is it so? For those not interested in watching the 90-second response from Mr Biver, the transcript is below. If you look at the last two years, the price of vintage Heuer has rocketed, but I wonder how much benefit has that given to TAG Heuer, because normally you follow the idea of saying vintage Rolex values go up, new Rolex values go up because of the perception around the brand. It seems as though that hasn’t necessarily happened with vintage Heuer and TAG Heuer. “No, it has not happened in the past because there was such a discrepancy between the beautiful, traditional, old TAG Heuer pieces from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. When you are looking at the pieces of now, people would say, ‘Oh, is it the same brand?’ because the past was so much better than the present. Now, with…
Earlier this week we showed you a behind-the-scenes peek at how Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Polaris is put together. Well, we kick it up a notch and have a look at some of the brand’s most complicated — and most beautiful — pieces, find out a little bit about how they’re made, and meet the talented artisans who make them. Central to this story is Christian Laurent, JLC’s master watchmaker, a man with a twinkle in his eye and a clear passion for his work. During my visit, Mr Laurent presented JLC’s high complications, running through the brand’s achievements — innovative watches like the Duomètre and the Gyrotourbillon — which clearly demonstrate Jaeger-LeCoultre’s high-end credentials. Speaking to him later, Mr Laurent expanded on the importance of humans in making those watches: “We don’t make hundreds of pieces; for high complications it’s always very limited numbers — only the human hand is capable of doing these things.”
Holding a watch in your hands, and wearing it on your wrist is one thing. But seeing where that small, highly precise piece of machinery was designed, and how it comes to life is something completely different, as I found out when I visited Jaeger-LeCoultre’s manufacture in the Vallée de Joux earlier this year, and saw, firsthand, how the Polaris is made. Of course I had seen the watches before, when the new collection was presented at SIHH, but seeing them at the Salon, accompanied by glossy power points, held by white-gloved hands in orderly display trays, is completely different to seeing them in their birthplace. There are certain phrases that we’re prone to trotting out in the watch industry, expressions like ‘in-house’ and ‘hand-finished’, which become a lot more real when you visit that house, and shake the hands of the people who do the finishing. Seeing the very human care and time that goes into these watches — on every step of the way — is a really worthwhile reminder that these watches are about so much more than telling the time. 
It’s always fun seeing Bell & Ross at Baselworld. Aside from the quality, and strong, distinctive DNA of their core offerings, the design-oriented brand is exceptionally good at creating narratives and mythologies around their watches. Case in point is the new Racing Bird series, a colourful take on their vintage line, inspired by a concept plane that (honestly) we wished was much closer to reality. Their collaboration with Renault’s F1 team has the same high speed, high-tech inspiration, but here it’s very much reality. And then there are the latest versions of their 2017 hit, the large and very much in charge BR 03-92 Diver, now offered in two new variants: a blue dial and a (smoking hot) bronze case. And finally there are smart, sensible, and very legible updates to their core — we particularly liked the catchily titled Horolum and Nightlum. So while it’s still squares aplenty over at B&R, there’s plenty of tales to tell and new looks to fall for.
Yacht rock is one of the Time+Tide office’s favourite genres of smooth, easy listening music, so it should come as no surprise that we’re more than willing to get behind the Franck Muller Vanguard S6 Yachting, which see’s the brand’s typical large, curvex case in mirror-like gold holds — well, less watch than you’d expect thanks to the heavily skeletonised movement inside. the bridges share the same stylish, angular geometry that we’ve seen on other Vanguard models. Here the bridges are in blue, which provides some beautiful contrast with the gold. Things start getting nautical when it comes to the finer details, with the compass points on the outer chapter ring and a seconds ‘hand’ at six that resembles a ye olde wind rose. All told this is a cool, very Franck Muller watch, big bold and with a distinctively fun personality. 
Just because Jaquet Droz is a relative newcomer to Australia doesn’t mean they don’t have history. The brand dates back to the mid-18th century, and, besides watches and clocks, is famous for their incredible automata. And while the incredibly complex, high-end art/engineering pieces are still important for the brand, we thought we’d keep it real and focus on their slightly more down-to-earth offerings from Baselworld 2018, offerings that focused heavily on their signature Grande Seconde model, with its oversized seconds subdial. And like any good signature model, the Grande Seconde is versatile. It excels at traditional — as evidenced by the black enamel moonphase model, and the yellow gold and grand feu Tribute — but can pivot nicely to contemporary, with the addition of a ceramic case or skeletonised treatment. Excellent stuff from a niche brand, with a strong and sophisticated identity.
Oh what a difference a strap makes. Last year, when Longines chose to pair their mighty Legend Diver — a watch the Vice President calls the most successful heritage model ever — with a Milanese loop bracelet, they succeeded in creating a third wave of interest in the model that made its way to the door of Time+Tide in Melbourne. The first wave was at its launch in 2007, auspiciously without date. The second wave was the date version that inevitably followed, and the third was the 2017 release with Milanese bracelet. With its heavy, supple bracelet in polished steel making the polished case shine even brighter, we looked at the watch with completely fresh eyes. Now, like eager surfers, we await even more sets of surprising and surging waves from the winged hourglass brand, which has chosen this versatile all-rounder as the shape of many new things to come.