Editor's pick at Qlekta.com.

The Geneva Watch Days exhibition which has welcomed LVMH brands since its launch three years ago was held from August 29 to September 3 this year. It started out as a low-key event but it wasn't long before it started producing rather serious results.

It attracted nearly 40 brands, headlined by Breitling, Bulgari, De Bethune, Girard-Perregaux, H.  Moser & Cie., MB&F, Ulysse Nardin and Urwerk — an impressive achievement.

And there probably is no need for participant in this decentralized event to search for one big place to accommodate everyone interested. Having participants within walking distance of each other at the main pavilion as well as hotels and individual showrooms dotted around Geneva has its own special charm.

Bulgari Secrets and Coins

The biggest sensations in Bulgari's exhibition collection were unique trendy jewelry models: the Monete Catene High Jewellery and Monete Catene Dual Time secret watches. They are essentially fairly imposing pieces, more like cuffs than bracelets in the "Gemme Nummarie" style designed around ancient coins, which can be loosely translated as the practice of setting coins as jewels.

These watches are adorned with Ancient Roman coins. The Monete Catene High Jewellery secret watch (Ref. 103870) features a silver denarius depicting Emperor Caracalla, who ruled from 198 to 217 AD. The Monete Catene Dual Time High Jewellery secret watch (Ref. 103871) model is set with two coins depicting Emperor Septimius Severus (193 to 211 AD) and his wife Empress Julia Domna.

These coins serve as covers for the watch dial capsules integrated into the bracelets. The case for Ref. 103870 is octagonal in shape and inspired by the design of the ceiling of Rome's Basilica of Maxentius. Both capsule dials on the Dual Time model are round in shape.

The bracelet and case for the watch capsules are made of a combination of rose-, yellow-, and white-gold encrusted with diamonds. Both models are equipped with miniature micro manufacture movements: the manually wound caliber BVL 100 with a 30-hour power reserve.

It's worth noting that today's Vice Chairman of the Bulgari Group Nicola Bulgari got the idea for these watches from his grandfather and founder of the family's company, who launched the first Monete in 1966.

There are so many people eager to acquire these pieces, the frenzy has prompted speculation that these models aren't for sale. This is of course unlikely, although the price has yet to be confirmed.

Ultra-Thin Blue

The elite brand De Bethune has prepared a remarkable model for Geneva Watch Days called DB28XP "Kind of Blue" (Ref.  DB28XPB) — a dream come true for fans of this niche independent watchmaker. It incorporates the best of the DB28XP (its movement) and the DB28 Kind of Blue model (its signature titanium deep electric blue hue).

The result is a tremendously beautiful and mold-breakingly elegant tourbillon in a case measuring 43 mm in diameter and just 8.5 mm in height. The case is made of their signature polished blued titanium.

The mechanical manufacture hand-wound caliber DB2115v12 is wonderful. It has a titanium balance wheel with white-gold weights, a frequency of 4 Hz (28,800 vph), silicon balance spring with flat terminal curve designed to keep the watch's center of gravity precise, and a six-day power reserve (at the same time, the clever module adapts to the rhythm of the owner's lifestyle which can increase power reserve efficiency by 20 percent).

De Bethune's fans actually do have a good reason for frequently comparing their watches which are ahead of their time with the original Bugatti cars that today's F1 world champions sit behind the wheel of. Availability of the DB28XP Kind of Blue is limited to 25 pieces, each priced at USD 124 500.

Cooperation? Friendship!

A hot favorite among fans of haute horlogerie is a watch that the young watch brand Czapek has launched together with the independent watchmaker Bernhard Lederer, and currently their most complicated model: Place Vendôme Complicité. The main highlight of this watch is Lederer's movement with two conceptually independent balances that both work to deliver power to a single barrel via a differential.

Caliber 8 is manually wound with a balance wheel that oscillates at a frequency of 3 Hz (21,600 vph) and has a solid power reserve of 72 hours. The power reserve indication can be found at 6 o'clock, right in between the two balance wheels. Their bridges rise up from the flange to give the watch a trendy vintage look.

The center of the dial is openworked, and sapphire bridges reveal a full panoramic view of the complex gear drive. The result is a very beautiful movement! And we were certain that collaboration between brands would be a very promising trend.

By the way, the co-authors themselves actually refer to their joint endeavor as a friendship rather than a collaboration, which is evidenced by the statement "Calibre 8 A Friendship Story" engraved on the back of the movement.

The daughters of Czapek’s CEO Xavier de Roquemaurel and Bernhard Lederer were actually the first to make friends with each other when they attended the same school class in Neuchâtel, and the girls' friendship evolved into a family friendship.

The movement is housed in a case measuring 41.8 mm in diameter in rose- or white-gold. A total of four versions of the model will be released: Complicité Stardust, Complicité Harmony Blue and Complicité Stardust Cobalt, along with a model in full rose gold.

Availability of Complicité versions is limited to 100 pieces. Prices start at CHF 85,000 (about USD 96 200). A deposit of CHF 28,000 (about USD 32 000) is needed to place an order on the website.

Blacker Than Black Tourbillon

A substance called Vantablack can absorb up to 99.965 % of the sunlight that falls on its surface. This is epitome of the color black. It's the closest we can get to a black hole, pure darkness. It can be applied to make apparatus used in aviation and space, but it's astronomically expensive, and still very rare. Orders for this material are backed up years in advance. It's extremely difficult to grow these vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays on aluminum substrates.

This invention has yet to mark its 10th birthday, but the first and only watch manufacturer to use Vantablack in their watches is the Schaffhausen-based Swiss maison, H.  Moser & Cie. At the Geneva Watch Days exhibition, H. Moser & Cie.

CEO Edouard Meylan unveiled even more models with a Vantablack dials: H.  Moser & Cie. Endeavour Tourbillon Concept Vantablack Ref. 1804-0403 and Endeavour Center Seconds Vantablack®.

We are of course interested in the tourbillon. Its flying tourbillon, to be more precise. That's because the light-absorbing material Vantablack emphasizes the construction of the tourbillon. The tourbillon seems to float as if it's just about to be swallowed up by a black hole leading to a parallel universe.

This impression is amplified by the model's extreme minimalism with two rose-gold hands. This makes the Endeavour's tourbillon look more imposing and mysterious when compared to last year's novelty, the Streamliner Tourbillon Vantablack. All that's left to say is that the model is equipped with an in-house automatic caliber HMC 804 movement which features a Straumann double hairspring.

It has finally been reworked, and doesn't go out of sink upon accidental impact, while it significantly increases isochronism and timekeeping accuracy. No official limit has been set, but very few of these tourbillons will be released for an obvious reason: the severe deficit of Vantablack.

Edouard Meylan hasn't decided on a fixed price for the model, but given that the Streamliner Tourbillon Vantablack costs USD 119,000, they probably won't be asking for less for the Endeavour Tourbillon Concept Vantablack.

We are Stardust

That pretty much sums up how URWERK’s Artistic Director and Co-Founder Martin Frei describes Urwerk's UR-100V Stardust watch and all of us. "The entire universe is composed of stellar particles, making their presence inevitable in all the forms of matter that surround us, - he said. "Whether in their raw or transformed state, from carbon to cut diamonds, from iron mineral to steel alloy, this stardust is omnipresent.

It's crazy to think that we, as human beings, are also made of this celestial substance. So, the nickname Stardust, logically associated with the setting of this UR-100V, also extends to the watch itself and to its future owner." What Urwerk's founders Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei are engaged in at this stage is music to collectors' ears.

Seeing as it's impossible to unveil a new concept for measuring and indicating time every second year, the creative duo is experimenting with Urwerk's most coveted models by launching strictly limited series that focus on different themes while perfecting them in the process.

The UR-100V Stardust model presented at Geneva Watch Days is encrusted with 400 brilliant-cut diamonds using the snow-setting technique, which weigh a total of almost 1.9 carats. If you were to run a finger over these diamonds, the hardest material on Earth would feel surprisingly soft and even delicate.

The diamonds are actually only there to complement the original inherent cosmic concept of the UR-100 with the orbital satellite hour indication of its automatic UR 12.02 caliber, indications of the distance traveled on Earth’s equator in 20 minutes, and the distance Earth travels around the Sun in 20 minutes.

The case measuring 49.7 mm × 41 mm and 14 mm in height is made of steel. Availability of the model is limited to 10 pieces per year, each priced at CHF 88,000 (about USD 99,600).

Credits taken from: www.gva-watch-days.com.