What Will the Year 2020 Be Remembered For? Part II

Top watches from 2020: continuing the list

Ferdinand Berthoud – Chronomètre FB 2RE

This watch brand bears the name of the French watchmaker of Swiss origin, Ferdinand Berthoud, who rose to fame back in his day for the marine chronometers he created. His watches are a source of inspiration for the creators of the modern brand's collection models. In 2020, the new Chronomètre FB 2RE watch was unveiled with a highly complicated movement, which has a fusée-and-chain transmission built into it along with a constant-force mechanism and dead-beat seconds.

Ferdinand Berthoud's early marine chronometers served as the historic prototypes for this watch, which is why the novelty's black and white enamel dials have been fashioned in a way that captures the essence of the dials Berthoud used in his marine chronometers. The watch was awarded the Chronometry Watch Prize at the GPHG 2020 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève.

Girard-Perregaux – Laureato 42mm Infinity Edition

Naturally enough, Girard-Perregaux has turned to the category of sports watches with integrated bracelets. The reason is simple — Girard-Perregaux was one of the companies that invented this category, and these watches have made a comeback and are now as popular as they were in the 1970s. The Laureato watch created by Girard-Perregaux in 1975 offers a worthy alternative to the legends of this category — the Royal Oak watches by Audemars Piguet and the Nautilus watches by Patek Philippe.

It's not easy to come up with something unusual in this category, but Girard-Perregaux have pulled it off. The Laureato 42mm Infinity Edition watch introduced in 2020 was a pleasant surprise. Its sporty design with an integrated bracelet has been complemented by another popular theme from the 1970's — dials made from decorative and semiprecious stones. The applied rose-gold hour markers stand out against the polished black onyx backdrop — simple yet striking!

Grand Seiko – 60th Anniversary Hi-Beat 80 Hours SLGH003

It's been 60 years since the first watch was released under the Grand Seiko brand name. The anniversary was given the celebration it deserves — the new automatic Caliber 9SA5 has been developed by the Japanese brand. Its technical specifications have factored in current design trends for modern wristwatch movements. This includes an increased 80-hour power reserve, which is roughly double that of the previous standard.

The balance frequency has also been increased to 36,000 vph, which has made it possible to improve stability and timekeeping precision. Lastly, the movement has been slimmed down, which has made it possible to produce thinner and more elegant watches: Caliber 9SA5 is 5.18 mm thick, whereas its predecessor Caliber 9S85 is 5.99 mm thick.

Inside Caliber 9SA5, the new Dual Impulse Escapement developed at Grand Seiko has been set in motion, which is a modified version of how energy is transmitted in the direct-impulse escapement invented in the 18th century by French watchmaker Robert Robin. The stainless-steel 60th Anniversary Hi-Beat 80 Hours SLGH003 watch is one of two collection models from 2020 which house the new movement.

Hamilton – PSR

The PSR is one of the most interesting novelties unveiled by Hamilton last year. The digital display on the watch dial isn't the most exciting, which consists of an elaborate technological sandwich combining reflective LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) and emissive OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) to create a hybrid display.

The most interesting thing about this watch is that it's a reissue of the world's first digital electronic watch, the Hamilton Pulsar, which was unveiled to the public in 1970. Half a century has since passed, and the Pulsar brand has been owned by the Japanese Seiko Holdings Corporation for a long time now. That’s why the new watch is called Hamilton PSR and not Hamilton Pulsar.

Another interesting thing about the Hamilton Pulsar for people who are interested in the history of watchmaking is that this is the watch which started the race to create technological and cheaper digital watches with LED displays after it was released, leading to the collapse of the mighty American watch industry in the 1970s.

Coincidentally, this was a rather similar situation to the one that’s unfolding before our very eyes today in light of the successful launch of the Apple Watch by Apple Inc., which has triggered the mass production of a plethora of different smartwatch types...

The lesson of Hamilton Pulsar has taught us that there's no going back once the race to the bottom on cost has begun, and the smartwatch success story could be unraveled at any moment. For this reason, there's a good chance that the cautious approach taken by the vast majority of Swiss watch brands (and some brands in other countries) is a winning strategy, who are refusing to move into unchartered territory and fight on foreign soil.

H. Moser & Cie. – Streamliner Flyback Chronograph & Streamliner Centre Seconds

Inventing your own unique design for an elegant sports watch with an integrated bracelet is like winning the lottery. Everyone wants to do it, but only a tiny handful succeed. It looks like H. Moser & Cie. have hit the jackpot by creating the Streamliner Flyback Chronograph Automatic. The stainless-steel bracelet with its wavy links is seamlessly integrated with the brand's unusual cushion-shaped steel case, which looks like the outline of a turtle shell.

In light of the very warm reception the Streamliner Flyback Chronograph Automatic was given by the public when it was released in January 2020 as a trial, there is now talk of a new collection. A second Streamliner Centre Seconds model without a chronograph function has already been created by the brand. The Streamliner Flyback Chronograph was chosen by the jury at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG 2020) for the Chronograph Watch Prize.

Jaeger-LeCoultre – Master Ultra Thin Kingsman Knife

Jaeger-LeCoultre is recognized as a master of thin movements and watchmaking. We need to be reminded of this sometimes. The Master Ultra Thin Kingsman Knife is a throwback to times when the Swiss watch factory was still called LeCoultre & Cie., when it began making thin watches.

At the very beginning of the 20th century, thin and ultra-thin movements were created to be housed in aesthetically thin pocket watches. What made these 'Couteau' (Fr. 'knife') pocket watches special was the unusual shape of their cases with a sharp edge, which is where they get their name from. The Master Ultra Thin Kingsman Knife has been made according to the same design but as a wristwatch.

Longines – Spirit Collection

Longines has stuck with its strategy even though 2020 was the year that the company's long-time charismatic CEO Walter von Känel retired from his post. The strategy is that Longines never focuses exclusively on its most successful collection, and always offers customers a selection to choose from.

One thing may have been popular in the past, but nowadays something else is, and the brand will never be able to find out what that is unless it tries to bring something new to its range. That new assortment for 2020 was the Longines Spirit collection — both vintage and sporty at the same time.

MB&F – HM10 “Bulldog”

This was probably the coolest watch of the year, which is shaped to look like a bulldog. No further explanation needed.

Oris – Aquis Date Calibre 400

The manufacturing program Oris launched a few years ago focused on watches in the collector's category. This year Oris has broadened its manufacturing program to include basic models designed for mass production with the development of the new automatic Caliber 400.

It has a five-day power reserve, a unidirectional-winding automatic winding system, and anti-magnetic properties. The Aquis Date Calibre 400 dive watch is the first model in the brand's collection to be powered by the new Caliber 400.

Patek Philippe – Grand Complications 6301P 

In the 19th century and early 20th century, models with a grande sonnerie striking mechanism were one of the standard types of pocket watches, although they were far from cheap. With the transition to wristwatch production, watchmakers adapted almost all of the complications created for pocket watches to fit them into the smaller wristwatch cases and movements. However, the grande sonnerie striking mechanism is one of the most complicated in the traditional art of watchmaking, and watchmakers' efforts to shrink it down were frustrated right up until the end of the 20th century when the first examples appeared.

Patek Philippe is one of the few companies which you could say simply has to have a grande sonnerie wristwatch in its portfolio... And this kind of watch was finally added to it in 2020 — the Grand Complications Grande Sonnerie Ref. 6301P. Actually, the grande sonnerie striking mechanism itself had already been introduced in the super-complicated Grandmaster Chime 5175 anniversary model, but just as one of many other complications.

The Grand Complications 6301P isn't a simplified version of the last model, it's quite a contrast. The movement has also been equipped with dead-beat seconds — a complication which the Grandmaster Chime didn't have.

Piaget – Altiplano Ultimate Concept

The long-awaited commercial launch of the conceptual and record-thin Altiplano Ultimate Concept wristwatch finally took place in 2020,  two years after it had first been unveiled. Moreover, Piaget presented three variations of this model all in one go. The brand's watchmakers rose to an incredibly complicated challenge: they had to take the conceptual design and tweak it so that the watches could be serially produced, yet they weren't allowed to expand the 2 mm case of the concept watch by even a fraction of a millimeter.

The Altiplano Ultimate Concept is an exceptional work of watchmaking art, which was acknowledged at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG), where the watch and brand were awarded its top prize — the Aiguille d'Or.