For the second year in a row, Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair will feature the special section of exhibited products, reserved for the prestigious brands. World Brand Piazza will include rare watches with supreme design and advanced craftsmanship from 12 world-renowned manufacturers. The list of brands that will take part in the exhibition is twice the size of the premier World Brand Piazza and consists of A. Lange & Söhne, Audemars Piguet, Blancpain, Breguet, Chopard, Franck Muller, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Omega, Panerai, Piaget and Vacheron Constantin. The special zone of Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair is going to be held under the patronage of Prince Jewellery & Watch Company.
A. Lange & Söhne Lange Double Split Watch 404.035
A. Lange & Söhne will be displaying three very special products at this year’s World Brand Piazza. The first one is a hand-wound timepiece, named Lange 31, for its extraordinary power reserve of the entire month. This impressive product also possesses a constant-force escapement that enables equal power delivery during 31 days. It also has a key winding mechanism. The second piece by the brand is its pink gold version of Langematik Perpetual, the very first automatic watch with an oversized dial and a perpetual calendar with options to be both individually corrected and collectively advanced. The last piece by A. Lange & Söhne is Lange Double Spilt watch that has two rattrapante hands. Furthermore, both of its rattrapante hands, as well as chronograph hands are flyback hands.
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Chrograph 26400SO.OO.A002CA.01
Audemars Piguet will be exhibiting three latest chronographs from its iconic Royal Oak Offshore collection. All three hand-crafted mechanical automatic watches (with the reference numbers 26400SO.OO.A002CA.01, 26400AU.OO.A002CA.01 and 26400RO.OO.A002CA.01) have trademark “Méga Tapisserie” motifs on their dials, and cases constructed of two materials. They all include ceramic parts, paired with steel, forged carbon or pink gold.
Very Rare, Very Expensive
The third participant in World Brand Piazza is Blancpain which will display its Le Brassus Minute Repeater Carrousel Watch. This self-winding watch is constructed in the limited edition of 30 pieces and has a rose gold case, with a white grand feu enamelled dial.
The next in the line of exclusive brands is Breguet which will display two of its exceptional products. The first one is dazzling Riene de Naples timepiece in 18K white gold. This diamond ornamented wristwatch with an automatic movement has an astronomic retail price of around $275,000. Compared to this price, the value of the second displayed watch seems almost affordable. The second watch by Breguet, Classique 18-carat timepiece has an extra-thin hand-engraved automatic movement, and it is “just” $71,000 worth.
Breguet Reine de Naples 8939BB6DJ49DD0D
The fifth participant is Celsius X VI II which will be presenting their magnificent LeDix product that puts together a clamshell cellular phone and an exquisite mechanical watch into a single product. The amazing hybrid is constructed from brushed and polished grade 5 titanium, and has a flying tourbillon protected with shock absorbers.
Celcius X VII II LeDix
Chopard will display four timepieces. The first one is L.U.C. Turbillon Heritage watch with a palladium case, constructed in the limited edition of just 25 pieces. Other watches by Chopard at World Brand Piazza will be ultra-thin Chopard L.U.C XP Urushi Watches with an 18K rose gold case and Urushi lacquer painted dial. The brand chose watches that feature a peacock, a jungle and a tiger on their dials.
Mysterious and Unparalleled
Geneva-based watchmaker, Franck Muller, will show two of their wristwatches at the special section of Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair. The first one is the Double Mystery, a diamond decorated timepiece with a “mystery” function. This wristwatch has no hands or numerals. Instead, it utilizes a mechanism with a special gear-train with two rotating disks that revolve at different speeds (one is for hours and the other one is for minutes).
The Swiss brand will also display Giga Tourbillon Watch that has a huge tourbillion with the diameter of 20 mm. It also possesses a reversed movement, so the bridges are on the dial side. Besides, the Giga tourbillion was made with four barrels which guarantees a 10-day reserve. The watch by Franck Muller has an in-house developed escapement that drives a balance wheel with inertia moment which is four times higher than of a usual tourbillion. This characteristic enables it to produce noise that resembles the sound of a marine chronometer.
IWC Schaffhausen Portuguese Grande Complication Watch
The next brand in World Brand Piazza is another Swiss manufacturer, IWC Schaffhausen that prepared two more watches for the exhibition. The first one is Portuguese Grande Complication wristwatch. It is fitted in an 18-carat red gold case and supplied with many useful functions, such as a perpetual calendar, a perpetual moon phase indication, a chronograph and a minute repeater. The other displayed watch will just like the first one have a red gold case and a silver-plated dial. This product is named Portuguese Tourbillon Mystere Retrograde and it includes a flying tourbillion and a retrograde dial indication. The watch is equipped with a seven-day power reserve. The wearer of this automatic mechanical watch can clearly see the remaining power reserve on the right side of the dial.
Limited Series, Resistant Products and In-House Built Mechanisms
The next manufacturer, Jaeger-LeCoultre, will exhibit three models. These will be the Master GDE Tradition Turbillon QP (made in a limited series of just 18 pieces), even more rare hand-wound Gyrotourbillon I (only 3 pieces in the series) with a power reserve of eight days, and the Master Tourbillon SQ, made in 18-carat pink gold, and supplied with the second time zone feature and with a tourbillion.
Omega will present watches from two of their collections: the Ladymatic and the Seamaster Planet Ocean. The watches from the Ladymatic line have 34 mm wide cases, made of red or yellow gold, or steel and with polished or diamond ornamented bezels. They are powered with the Omega Co-Axial calibre 8520/8521 that is exceptionally shock resistant. The products from the Seamaster Planet Ocean Collection (made for men and women) also have the same movements, or similarly resilient 8500/8501 or 9300/9301 chronographs. Another extraordinary quality is their ability to withstand water pressure to amazing 600 meters.
The next two brands, Panerai and Piaget will showcase two watches. Panerai has prepared an exclusive lefty watch with plenty of power reserve – the Luminor 1950 Left-Handed 8 Days Titanio, and the Luminor 1950 3 Days 47 mm. Both watches have shock-resistant hand-wound movements, developed and constructed completely within the company.
Panerai Luminor 1950 Left-handed 8 Days Titanio Watch
Piaget’s duo of displayed watches will be the Polo Flying Tourbillon (Ref. No. G0A29065) and the Limelight Chronograph Exceptional Piece (Ref. No. G0A33145). The first piece possesses the world’s thinnest tourbillion movement, with the thickness of 3.5 mm and 627 diamonds on its case and dial. The second watch at display is also decorated with glittering diamonds (even the bracelet is covered with precious stones). In total, it has impressive 1448 gems. Besides, it includes a chrono function and the second time zone.
Piaget Polo Watch G0A29065
The last, but certainly not the least participant in display is Vacheron Constantin which will showcase three hand winding watches from the Métiers d’Art-– La symbolique des laques collection, decorated with Japanese Maki-e, the most sophisticated of all existing lacquer techniques. All three pieces (33222/000R-9506 – Pine Tree and Crane, 33222/000R-9517 – Plum Tree and Nightingale 33222/000G-9521 – Bamboo and Sparrow) have almost the same features. Each of them has an in-house built 14-carat gold ruthenium treated mechanism with 18 jewels and a power reserve of over 30 hours.
Vacheron Constantin Métiers d'Art Collection
With such an impressive list of products from 12 watchmaking giants, World Brand Piazza at Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair is a place that is certainly worth visiting.
It sounds like a great exhibition, these are all really very respectable brands. I would especially like to see watches from Chopard and Vacheron coz i already read about the technique used on their dials and it sounds very interesting and complicated