The luxury watch market has matured significantly over the past decade. The driving force behind this has been the huge boom in luxury sports watches that began around 2015. Following this qualitative expansion, discerning watch enthusiasts are now shifting their interest from fashion to timepieces that will stand the test of time. So what kind of watches could become the horological heritage of the future? Special contributions by renowned journalists and interviews with experts shed light on the qualities of masterpieces that connect the past and the future.
Photographs by Masanori Yoshie, Yu Mitamura
Text by Su Jiaxiang
Text by Su Jiaxian
Edited by Yuto Hosoda (Chronos-Japan), Hiroyuki Suzuki
[Article published in the July 2024 issue of Kronos Japan]
From Breguet's Sympathique Clock to FP Journe's Watches... SJX's "Watches of the Future"
More of a clock containing a pair of watches than a watch in itself, the Breguet Pandure Sympatique, owned by the Duke of Orléans, sold at Sotheby's in 2012 for $6,802,500 (approximately ¥560 million at the time), a record price for a clock at auction.
Founder of the watch website "watchesbysjx.com." Born in Singapore in 1985. Became interested in watches at the age of 12 and began contributing to websites. Launched his own website in 2011, it has since gained support from watch enthusiasts around the world in just a few years. Though still in his 30s, he is one of the most influential watch journalists today.
With its ormolu decoration and red tortoiseshell panels, the Pandure Sympatique is perhaps the most elaborately decorated of Breguet's famous clocks. More importantly, it is the only known example of a sympatique, the most sophisticated type of pocket watch that can be wound, set, and adjusted. This means that the wearer can simply place their watch in the clock before going to bed and remove it the next morning, eliminating the need for winding, setting, or adjusting.
The Pandure Sympatique (Sympathique Clock), invented by Abraham-Louis Breguet around 1795, predates electronic devices by nearly two centuries, yet its basic concept reflects some of the most sophisticated modern techniques for synchronization and information transmission. Approximately 56 Pandure Sympatiques were made, but only 12 remain known, with the "Duc d'Orléans" being the most complicated.
The Pandure Sympatique (Sympathique Clock) automatically sets the time by synchronizing a portable pocket watch with a high-precision table clock as the mother clock. It is one of the most complicated clocks made by Abraham-Louis Breguet. The photo shows No. 666, owned by Beyer, a long-established jewelry and watch store in Zurich, Switzerland, and the mother clock is equipped with a remontoire.
However, even the "simpler" versions were highly complex, each taking decades to make. This remarkable watch was sold to the Duke of Orléans in 1836 after Breguet's death, but its production is thought to have begun in the mid-1790s, while Breguet was still alive and overseeing the workshop.
This particular Pandure Sympatique is remarkable not only for its mechanical ingenuity, but also for the fact that it was extensively restored and restored by George Daniels after being discovered in a Parisian antiques shop in the 1970s with many of its movement parts missing.
In his book The Art of Breguet, Daniels writes about the Pandure Sympathique:
"A jewel of creative genius in the forest of scientific horological endeavor, its very existence a source of wonder and mystery, and a reason enough to have been produced."
Furthermore, in conversations with me, both François-Paul Journe and Michel Parmigiani declared that the Pandure Sympatique is "the most original horological invention in the history of mankind." With three of the most respected figures in the modern watch industry agreeing on the Pandure Sympatique's status, it's clear that this watch deserves to be preserved.
The last 40 years or so have been the post-quartz revolution era, when mechanical watchmaking has been reborn not as a means of producing instruments, but as an expression of art, craft, design, or simply commercial motivation.
As a result, while it may seem like many watches have been invented, there are arguably only a handful that are important – and by important watches, I mean watches that influenced subsequent watchmakers and were considered important by those influential watchmakers themselves.
There, independent watchmakers account for many of the important timepieces, demonstrating the ingenuity and creativity that can be unleashed when watchmakers are freed from the confines of corporate structures.
George Daniels' "The Space Traveler" pocket watch is clearly a favorite among many watch enthusiasts and watchmakers. This watch, entirely handcrafted by Daniels, incorporates his unique double-wheel escapement, which allows the watch to display true solar time and mean solar time independently. Daniels also added a chronograph mechanism to further enhance the watch's usefulness.
This pocket watch features a double-wheel escapement that displays mean solar time and true solar time separately, and also tells the equation of time. It also features a chronograph, moon phase display, and annual calendar. It was particularly highly acclaimed for having all of its components handcrafted by George Daniels, and was sold at Sotheby's auction in 2017 for £3,196,250 (approximately 460 million yen at the time).
When it comes to wristwatches, the one that immediately comes to mind is FP Journe's Chronomètre à Résonance. Like many great creations before and after it, the Chronomètre à Résonance was inspired by the work of two historical greats: Breguet and Antide Janvier. Both of them created timepieces that operated on the principle of resonance, creating resonance clocks, but only Breguet constructed a resonance pocket watch.
This is the fifth generation of the Chronometer Resonance, which improves isochronism by resonating two balance wheels. The basic mechanism remains the same as its predecessor, including the inclusion of a one-second remontoire, but the barrel has been changed to a single barrel. The watch also features two crowns at the 2 and 4 o'clock positions, emphasizing a more symmetrical design.
However, François-Paul Journe was the first to bring resonance to wristwatches in modern times. Executed in his unrivaled style, with a slim, compact case and symmetrical movement and dial, the Chronomètre Ésonance is inspired by Breguet's Resonance, yet boasts a distinctive beauty that makes it instantly recognizable as an original.
In addition to the Chronomètre à Résonance, Journe also made another great invention: the FFC, conceived at the suggestion of American film director Francis Ford Coppola. Perhaps the only timepiece in history to display the time using five fingers on a human hand, the FFC demonstrates Journe's genius for innovation and technical mastery in taking on Coppola's unprecedented idea and making it a reality. Arguably, Journe achieved a rare feat in his lifetime as a watchmaker, as evidenced by watches like the Chronomètre à Résonance and the FFC.
This mass-produced model of the "FFC Blue" was exhibited at Only Watch 2021. It is an automaton that embodies the idea of film director Francis Ford Coppola, "displaying the time using five fingers." The engraved arm motif is inspired by the prosthetic arm invented by 16th-century surgeon Ambroise Paré.
Recep Rexhepi is a watchmaker who has yet to achieve greatness, but I hope he will. That's why the Rexhep Rexhepi Chronometr Contempolan II will one day emerge as a significant watch. While it's a three-hand watch, it features a deadbeat seconds dial and is a groundbreaking piece that fully expresses Rexhepi's classic aesthetic in its movement, dial, and case.
So what about the mainstream brands? Patek Philippe's Caliber 89 is worth mentioning. Introduced in 1989 to celebrate the company's 150th anniversary, the Caliber 89 was the most complicated watch in the world at the time, a record it held for a quarter of a century until 2015, when Vacheron Constantin introduced the reference 57260.
But what makes the Caliber 89 even more significant is its timing. It was a time when mechanical luxury watches were just starting to become popular, but had yet to become truly well-known. It also came at a time when computers, while present, were far from mainstream. As such, it both demonstrates the brand's belief in the future of luxury mechanical watchmaking, and represents a time in watchmaking history when much of the work was done by hand, without the aid of digital devices.
Another candidate is the A. Lange & Söhne Datograph. Released in 1999, this model quickly became the most beautiful modern chronograph, and was hailed as such. Some still consider it so, 25 years after its debut.
Although A. Lange & Söhne has not achieved the same status as FP Journe or George Daniels, the Datograph, for example, remains a widely admired watch among watchmakers, with some independent watchmakers even praising it as a catalyst for creativity when designing chronographs.
