Cartier Tank Americaine 18kt White Gold Diamond Ladies Watch WB701831

Following a comprehensive wrap-up of the most significant news related to the year of 2013 in watchmaking (in three previous posts that you can read here, here and here), it's time to launch the debate regarding the season that is about to officially start with the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie and satellite events. Here are a dozen points worth mentioning, including a few star timepieces that will be shown next week in Geneva.
 

01:00 ONE DOWN
New records are to be expected, but that doesn't mean it is going to be a good year for everyone in the watch business. And it can indeed be said that the first big victim of 2014 is the Geneva Time Exhibition - the show gathering mostly independent and niche brands that last year finally found the perfect location: the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices. In January 2013, it hosted over 30 exhibitors and around 7,000 visitors; the fifth edition was slated to start next Sunday but was cancelled following the withdrawal of several brands considered to be strategic - with a few claiming difficulties and others opting to focus on the launch of their new releases later on during Baselworld. 
 

02:00 GET WELL SOON, JACK!

Another happening of the so-called Geneva Wonder Week was just cancelled: TAG Heuer's honorary president Jack Heuer, who had finally retired at 81 after helping celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the Carrera in 2013, won't be able to launch his autobiography because of a ski accident in Gstaad a few days ago that required hospitalization! His life is not in danger, but TAG Heuer was forced to call off Jack's last 'official' appearance and the brand's only scheduled event for the City of Calvin next week - whereas in the past three years it held an exhibition at the Halle de Secheron, because then CEO Jean-Christophe Babin felt there were so many new releases coming out regularly that it was only natural to have another special moment in the year besides Baselworld to showcase them. Not this year with Stephane Linder at the helm - and, for a brand that gained fame with its iconic chronographs, expect many simple three-hand timepieces and a diver variation of the Carrera in 2014. 
 

03:00 VERTICALIZATION & CANNIBALIZATION
The move towards verticalization (both in manufacturing and distribution) has been a major trend in the past decade and will be accentuated in 2014, with the b getting ber. The powerful luxury conglomerates and the wealthier brands acquired most of the independent subcontractors that once characterized the democratic tapestry of the Swiss watch industry (companies producing movements and components, cases, dials and hands), thus forcing smaller and medium-sized brands to deal with supply constraints and look elsewhere in Switzerland, because under the new Swiss Made regulations some of them can no longer import parts from abroad. New business opportunities lie ahead, but it's a mine field for the weaker. 

04:00 HUNGRY PANTHER

Under the inspired guidance of Carole Forestier, the brilliant head of the haute horlogerie department, Cartier has become insatiable and is expected to unveil yet another crop of exceptional timepieces at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie - including five new movements. A few appetizers are already known: the Rotonde de Cartier Astrocalendaire (with a concentric perpetual calendar around a flying tourbillon), the Rotonde de Cartier Earth Moon (with an on demand moonphase sliding over a tourbillon) and the Cartier Tank MC Two Tone Skeleton (with open-worked movement), along with the Calibre de Cartier Divers' Watch and new Tortue models. But expect much more from the brand of the panther next week in Geneva and later on during the year.
 

05:00 UNBEARABLE THINNESS OF THE BEING

The dialectic between Piaget and Jaeger-LeCoultre regarding ultra-slim timepieces will continue in 2014 and each millimeter conquered in the process is bound to establish a new milestone. Piaget recently announced that the remarkable Altiplano 900P would set a new record for a self-winding timepiece at 3.65mm, and right afterwards Jaeger-LeCoultre unveiled its remarkable Master Ultra Thin Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon (the 11th instalment of the exclusive Hybris Mechanica collection) at just 7.9 mm thick - with a caliber composed of 471 parts.
 

06:00 COPERNICAN REVOLUTION
With a massive avalanche of smart watches expected to complement a first wave disclosed in 2013, Swatch's automatic System51 (one of the most significant timepieces unveiled at Baselworld and winner of several accolades as Watch of the Year) may play a decisive cultural role in the near future. Swatch audaciously states that it is the equivalent of a Copernican idea in watchmaking, featuring the first Swiss mechanical movement completely assembled through an automated process and made by welding 51 components together to form a single assembly centred on one screw. What's more, its worldwide commercialization in 2014 is bound to attract the young iGeneration to mechanical watchmaking due to its affordable price of around 100 euro. Swatch today, Breguet tomorrow?

07:00 UNITED COLORS OF CHOCOLATE
The chromatic palette of the iconic Reverso will be broadened with a brand-new arrival: the chocolate-toned Grande Reverso Ultra-Thin 1931 follows in the footsteps of the Grande Reverso 1931 Rouge (2012) and the Grande Reverso Ultra Thin Duoface Blue (2013) - all three of them inspired by original models from the 1930s and evoking the finest hours of Art Deco. They embody several main trends in contemporary watchmaking: slim cases, streamlined looks, essential timekeeping, reinterpretations from the past, colorful variations, limited editions. Expect other icons to adopt new colors as well in 2014 and tribute-mania to continue.

08:00 WHITENING HEIGHTS

Eleven years after the advent of Chanel's groundbreaking version of the J12 in ceramics that made white 'acceptable' in prestige watchmaking, Audemars Piguet will introduce an impressive avant-garde Royal Oak Concept GMT Tourbillon that combines white hi-tech ceramics (for the bezel, crown, pusher and hourglass-shaped movement structure ) with a 44mm titanium case. 
 

09:00 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF THE MOON

2014 is shaping to be yet another stellar year regarding celestial timepieces devoted to the Earth's satellite. It started with the unveiling of the new Grand Lange 1 Moon Phase at Lange & Soehne's pre-SIHH event in Dresden and several other new watches boasting new ways of showing the moon have already been introduced or will soon be presented: the Rotonde de Cartier Earth Moon with an 'on demand' (by pressing a pusher) moving stone lapis lazuli disc that descends over the tourbillon to represent the crescent moon, the hi-tech ceramics Chanel J12 Moonphase, Louis Moinet Stardance with a moon phase created from a fragment of the Enstatite EH3 Meteorite and Montblanc's Star Twin Moonphase are just a few of many more yet to be introduced in 2014.
 

10:00 HAUTE HORLOGERIE TO HIGH JEWELRY

Even though overall the most recent collections (especially since the big 2008 crisis) are definitely less ostentatious, any jewelry version of every other masterpiece will always sell - especially in Asia. All major high-end manufacturers are venturing more and more into the jewelry market and seizing the opportunity, some of them even grabbing important market shares usually pertaining to niche brands quite popular among flashy sports celebrities and bling-thirsty artists.
 

11.00 WHERE'S THE LIMIT?
Amidst economic convulsions in old Europe and the consolidation of new markets in the Far East and South America, Swiss watch exports mantained an overall sustained growth and new heights should be expected in 2014 - especially after the signing of free-trade agreements with China last year, even though the general trend leans towards a natural slowdown. But over a decade and in spite of a hiccup in 2009, the value of Swiss exports doubled and the average price of exported timepieces showed a similar increase. Still regarding record-breaking numbers, it will be interesting too see whether some absurd figures will keep popping up in the auction business.

12.00 A FINAL TIP
As we are all aware, the unemployment rate in Europe is alarming, especially in the southern countries. With well over a million mechanical watches being poured into the market each year, it's easy to realise that being a watchmaker is a profession for the future - from the lower levels servicing pedestrian movements to the upper echelons dealing with the most complex timepieces. Just find the next watchmaking school… and invest in time.