SIHH 2018: The best new luxury watch releases from Geneva

Kicking off the annual horological calendar, the stakes are always high at Geneva’s Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH). Full of innovations, new trends, exciting collaborations, anniversary collections and six new exhibitors including Hermès and Romain Gauthier, this year’s show was no different.

Making a strong debut at SIHH, Hermès introduced its playful new models to its Carré H collection. Experimenting with form and geometry this addition to the already established Carré H line juxtaposes angles and lined guilloche work with soft circles for a surprisingly minimalist yet balanced aesthetic.

This year also marks the 150th anniversary of IWC. Set to be a landmark year for the brand it celebrates with a comprehensive Jubilee collection, comprising of 27 new limited edition pieces across the brand’s Portugieser, Portofino, Pilot’s Watches and Da Vinci lines. Standout models include the IWC Tribute to Pallweber Edition “150 Years” that borrows its aesthetic from the House’s historic Pallwaber pocket watch. 

With several other brands marking important anniversaries this year commemorative pieces are in vogue. Audemars Piguet celebrates 25 years of its Royal Oak offshore collection with a tourbillon chronograph featuring an entirely new dial and skeletonised models, while Jaeger-LeCoultre releases a limited edition of its Polaris Memovox for the occasion of the model’s 50th birthday. A. Lange & Sohne has released the 1815 “Tribute to Walter Lange” honouring the man that brought back precision watchmaking to Saxony in 1990 following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Marking the death of Walter Lange (shortly before last year’s SIHH), the watch pays tribute to his legacy with a new one-of-a-kind jumping seconds compilation.

In a similar vein, timeless yet practical watches are going from strength to strength. Parmigaini Fleurier revives its Kalpa collection fitting it with a purpose-built tonneaux-shaped movement, while Cartier updates its Santos collection with automatic movements and a natty collection of easy-to-fit straps. 

There is a trend for pink gold this year including watches such as Vacheron Constantin’s handsome new FiftySix on a brown alligator strap, Cartier’s sensual reinterpretation of the classic panthere watch with a triple-wrap strap and Audemars Piguet’s delicate Millenary watch reinvented in rose gold and iridescent opal on a woven Polish gold bracelet.

Also hot in horology this year is aventurine glass. Speckled with tiny inclusions of copper this dark blue material appears to glitter like the night’s sky. Unsurprisingly, Van Cleef & Arpels used the material on the dial for its enchanting 2018 novelty the Lady Arpels Planétarium that displays the positions of the Sun, Mercury, Venus, the Earth and the Moon in real-time. And the material takes centre stage on A. Lange & Sohne’s Saxonia Thin model and Parmigiani Fleurier’s women’s Kalparisma Nova Galaxy novelties.

Rounding off the show in style, Richard Mille has collaborated with celebrated polo player Pablo Mac Donough in order to create the RM 53-01 a hyper resistant watch able to withstand the brute force of the sport. Crafted from Carbon TPT and fitted with extremely robust laminated sapphire glass, the watch also features an eye-catching cable-suspended movement that has been designed to sustain the impact of shock on the tourbillon.