Watches & Wonders: luxury timepieces on display in Hong Kong
Opening Tuesday in Hong Kong, the 2014 Watches & Wonders trade show places luxury watches in the spotlight over the course of three days. Pierre Gisclard of www.thewatchobserver.fr takes us through some highlights.
While two-figure sales growth has become a thing of the past in Europe in recent years, Asian markets are more dynamic than ever. This context provides the backdrop for the second edition of the trade show held in Hong Kong by the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH), which also organizes the SIHH (Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie) in Geneva.
Visitors to the show will find some of the most illustrious names in the sector, including Jaeger-LeCoultre, Cartier, IWC, Vacheron Constantin, Piaget and Richard Mille.
In a sign of the times, increasing interest from an Asian clientele -- and a Chinese one in particular -- has led watchmakers once again this year to create timepieces adapted to local cultures and tastes. A number of the new models unveiled in Hong Kong this week feature animals from Chinese mythology, along with rare metals and precious gemstones -- not to mention the great watch complications that are especially popular with East Asian clients.
Among the new models characteristic of this edition are those in the Cartier Pasha series, which is making a comeback on the watch scene with a skeleton dial, diamonds and a dragon motif.
Vacheron Constantin drew upon the same theme to create an exceptional model, the Traditionnelle Calibre 2253 L'Empreinte du Dragon, the case of which is covered in a hand-engraved dragon scale pattern.
Jaeger-LeCoultre, meanwhile, in its Rendez-Vous collection, presents an extraordinary repeater watch in a case with 548 diamonds. Finally, IWC has revealed a series of new Portofino Midsize watches combining a mother-of-pearl dial, a diamond inlay bezel and complications within a case of a smaller diameter, which is more suited to the preferences of an East Asian clientele.
Sold exclusively in the local markets, some of these new models may also wind up in European boutiques... where they may get snapped up by Asian tourists.
