Day 3@Salon
Hiren Kumar Bose returns fascinated by the organic jellyfish-inspired design of MB&F’s latest and Panerai’s 50-year-guaranteed diver’s watch
BAUME & MERCIER Clifton Club
Baume & Mercier extends its Clifton Collection with a new series, the Clifton Club, which as usual is directed towards the urban, active, elegant men or today’s “gentlesportsmen”. Powered by a Swiss Made mechanical self-winding movement with date function and proven reliability (tested for shock resistance to 550G, adjustments in three positions) the watches boasts a distinctive design that offers elegance, sporting prowess, functionality and comfort on the wrist. Hewn in very high-quality stainless steel (316L), the case has a round opening and a well-balanced diameter of 42 mm, to suit all wrist sizes. With a thickness of 10.3 mm, the watch can be slipped discreetly under a shirt cuff or worn conveniently while practicing a sport. The Collection, which draws its aesthetic inspiration from the great watches of history, the horn-to-horn bevel that runs around the case echoes the elaborate curves of the watch, a classic Clifton signature detail. In the same vein, the integrated protected crown fits perfectly with the sporty, refined shape of this timepiece. The colour schemes (black, white, blue) make the Clifton Club a fully polyvalent watch. Water-resistant to 100 m, it is designed to be ideally suited to water sports and boating.
JAEGER-LECOULTRE Master Control
Commemorating its Master Control line which debuted in 1992 Jaeger-LeCoultre is launching three new commemorative editions — the Master Control Date, Master Chronograph and Master Geographic — all reminiscent of their vintage style. The Master Control Date has a beautiful silver and white “sector” dial with blue accents and open hands in the process. It’s powered by JLC’s thin, workhorse caliber 889/1 automatic and the stainless steel case couldn’t be more perfectly sized at 39mm in diameter and 8.5mm thick. Endowed with JLC’s calibre 751G the Master Chronograph has an automatic chronograph and a dual time zone with a 65-hour power reserve. Subsequently, the watch gets a slight bump in size to 40mm in diameter and 12.1mm thick while the Master Control Date has calibre 939B/1, which bestows the 39mm watch with a subdial and indicator that can display a second-time-zone.
MB&F HM7 Aquapod
The eponymous brand’s Horological Machine collection has a new sibling: Aquapod, the seventh in its series. The organic jellyfish-inspired design of HM7 Aquapod is counter-balanced by the very mechanical horology within: a central 60-second flying tourbillon tops the concentric vertical movement architecture, with indications radiating out from the centre like ripples in a pond. Like many jellyfish, HM7 glows in the dark: on the hour and minute numerals, around the inside of the movement and along the tentacle-like winding rotor. The 303-component, 72-hour power reserve HM7 Engine was developed in-house by MB&F. Spherically three-dimensional, all its mechanisms – from the winding rotor at the bottom, to the flying tourbillon on top – rotate concentrically around the centre. The curves of the high-domed sapphire crystal are mirrored in the shape of the time display rings.
PANERAI Lab-ID Luminor 1950 Carbotech 3 Days
This 49mm watch, encased in “Carbotech,” Panerai’s name for its carbon fibre weave, comes with a 50-year guarantee. What the brand means by that is: it can run for 50 years without servicing. To achieve this feat, the watch foregoes traditional oils and lubricants on the inside of the watch in favour of internal components made out of advanced materials like tantalum-based ceramic and DLC-coated silicon, which, under the same principle as synthetic jewel bearings, have a lower coefficient of friction. Thus eliminating the need for traditional lubricants that normally need to be replaced with regular servicing. The dial itself gets a coating of carbon nanotubes arranged to absorb light and minimize reflection and giving the blue-hued SuperLumiNova a sharp contrast from the rest of the watch face and an almost alien-like appearance.
