Road To Baselworld 2017 – What To Expect and What We’re Looking Out For
At the end of March of every year, the sleepy town of Basel, Switzerland, becomes the focus for every watch enthusiast, collector, business and manufacturer in the world. In fashion they have the Paris Fashion Week, in cars they have the Geneva Motor Show and the watch industry has Baselworld. The Baselworld event is a chance for all the top luxury watch brand to showcase what they are to officially release in 2017, and contain the likes of Rolex, Patek Philippe and Hublot.
As the Luxe Watches team gear up for the event, we examine the media and social media reaction to Baselworld and what we’re personally looking forward to. We will be posting live updates from the event, therefore make sure you keep an eye out on our social media feeds for the most up-t0-date news coverage on Baselworld.
Looking at the Instagram feed of Hublot, we expect to see Hublot being very busy during Baselworld this year. One thing which we thought looked spectacular was the red and blue sapphire glass casing seen in a very mysterious posts uploaded on Hublot’s Instagram feed. For those that know, Hublot released the Unico Sapphire casing for the Big Bang for time ago, and was met with absolute rave reviews and praise from critics and enthusiasts alike. This will be a continuation of what Hublot knows to be popular, and we are expecting this to once again look spectacular whilst being innovative.
Hublot have also teased its fan base by revealing colour variations of the classic ‘Spirit Of The Big Bang Moonphase’, available now in blue, purple, orange and pink. The move plays homage to the ‘Spirit Of The Big Bang’ collection, with Hublot looking to make the collection more accessible to a younger generation whilst making the collection of watches more appealing to women as well as men. Hublot has also taken time to develop a new strap deployment system, making it easier to switch over straps without using a screwdriver, and we look forward to seeing more on this.
Many people are expecting Rolex to steal the show this year, and the usual level of secrecy and ambiguity has been seen in the build up to the event on social media, teasing the audience and only revealing a shadow of what is to come. Back in January 2017, we wrote an article based on the rumours and speculation from Rolex and Baselworld, with rumours of a new ceramic bezel bi-metal Daytona and a new ‘Coke’ bezel GMT-Master II. Although we don’t like to deal with speculation, this is a very interesting article and well worth a read. Find it here.
Nonetheless, the Swiss manufacture has much to offer despite their tight lipped marketing. For example, 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the Rolex Sea-Dweller and it is widely expected that Rolex will play on this fact – given Rolex’s love of bringing out special releases for anniversary models. Rolex are also a brand that build on success and given the popularity of the new 116500LN Daytona, we would not be surprised to see some sort of development of the new black ceramic bezel on a particular model of Rolex.
Omega are expected to make a huge splash at Baselworld this year and are looking to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the classic Speedmaster series in style. Much like many of the Swiss watch manufactures attending the event, not much information is present at hand. However, Omega have taken to their social media to tease their respective fan base with a x-ray type layer by layer blueprint of the three new watches available to 2017.
Over the last few couple of years, Omega watches have worked on becoming the most reliable timepieces in existence, with more and more emphasis on anti-magnetic cases which are non effective to day-to-day magnetic fields found in electronic devices. At a recent exhibition at Omega headquarters in Bienne, on display was an Omega watch that was exposed to high level of magnetism and was left unscathed. We expect Omega to showcase more of this technology to produce one of the most reliable timepieces ever made.
One Swiss watch manufacture that we are dying to see is of course Patek Philippe. As most of you know, ‘you never actually own a Patek Philippe, you merely look after it for the next generation’. Well the watch you never actually own hasn’t released a watch since the 40th anniversary of the Nautilus back in 2016, and we’re excited to see what is in store for us. Patek Philippe do not do social media – at all – and so there has been virtually zero speculation or rumours of what to expect, which we think is the way it should be. This week Patek Philippe have actually announced a sneak peak of two new watches; a ladies Patek Philippe Ref. 7130 World Time finished with a white gold case and blue guilloche dial and a mens Patek Philippe Ref. 5960/1 self-winding Flyback Chronograph with Annual Calendar in stainless steel and black ebony opaline dial. More details will be followed during the event.
One of our favourite watches of all time has to be the Patek Philippe Nautilus, and so we would love to see a new dial design or variation of the Nautilus at the event. We would also love to see something new from this prestigious watch manufacture, perhaps a new model altogether.
In the end, we look forward to the event and have high hopes for all watch brands attending this years event. Luxe Watches remains positively optimistic for the watch industry in general, as more innovation, ground-breaking designs and technical mastery continue to reward the industry and clients with a rich selection of excellent, exquisite and luxury timepieces. Keep up to date with Baselworld 2017 via the Luxe Watches social media sites.