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Salon QP, something for everyone
Exhibitions

Salon QP, something for everyone

Tuesday, 24 November 2015
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Christophe Roulet
Editor-in-chief, HH Journal

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4 min read

In the now lengthy list of watch fairs, Salon QP in London runs the gamut from established names to rising stars. Also on show: new brands, new watches and plenty more to feast the eyes.

Like an English trifle, Salon QP has many different and equally delicious layers. More than 8,500 people – 23% more than last year – made their way to the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea for the seventh edition of this London watch fair. But not only watches. Hi-fi systems, sports cars, pianos, even fragrances were all part of the mix. However, for the horophiles who descended on the Duke of York’s Headquarters, perpetual calendars prevailed over perfume. With 86 brands on show, the biggest line-up to date, they certainly weren’t disappointed. Particularly as the science of time came to QP in every mechanical shape and size.

On the Tudor stand, a giant chunk of ice held captive the brand’s latest offering, the North Flag which is driven by Tudor’s very first in-house movement, the MT5621. Just along from there, and proving the above point, was Shinola, a brand launched in 2011 in Detroit, a welcome counterpoint to the tribulations of a city declared bankrupt two years ago. The company has set up, from scratch, a watch factory in the erstwhile nerve centre of the American automotive industry. Here it assembles the quartz movements that it sources from Swiss manufacturer Ronda, which also trains the staff of the Detroit firm. Shinola, whose 450 employees manufacture not only watches but also high-end bicycles and leather goods, is part of the industrial renaissance that is helping restore the prestige of “Made in America” goods in a city many had given up for lost.

Britain's greatest living watchmaker.
Showstoppers

It is precisely this dovetailing of different approaches that sets QP apart. Just a few steps away from Shinola’s retro-chic quartz, watch lovers could ooh and ah over the latest pieces from Roger Smith, the spiritual son of the late George Daniels who is widely hailed as Britain’s greatest living watchmaker. Given that Mr Smith has made only 80 watches since 2001, the very fact that four of his timepieces should be gathered in the same place was an event in itself. And if this wasn’t enough, they included Series 4, an instantaneous triple calendar that is the watchmaker’s first release in ten years.

Other showstopping watches that made their public debut in London were Harry Winston’s Opus 14, Legacy Machine Perpetual by MB&F, and the Montblanc 1858. Several new names also chose QP for their first public outing. They included Zurich-based Brüggler, with its infinitely customisable watches, the revival of Britain’s Dennison, the more high-profile launch of Czapek & Cie with Jean-François Mojon making the movements, and Ferdinand Berthoud, named after the venerable eighteenth-century watchmaker whom Chopard’s co-president Karl-Friedrich Scheufele has resurrected with such impressive timepieces as the first Chronomètre FB1.

Like a watch, Salon QP is far more than the sum of its parts.
Exhibitions

Without its exhibitions, Salon QP wouldn’t quite be that grand horological gathering where established figures, the likes of Vacheron Constantin, A. Lange & Söhne, Montblanc and F.P. Journe, rub shoulders with such “young guns” as H. Moser & Cie, de Bethune, Laurent Ferrier or Manufacture Royale. Here too, the London fair made some eclectic choices. Visitors could lust after the exquisite fine jewellery watches in the Gems of Time exhibition, with pieces by Backes & Strauss, Bulgari, Gemfields, Harry Winston, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Piaget. Or admire the winning timepieces from the recent Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. Inside a Second, meanwhile, presented the history of the chronograph in collaboration with the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie. The most dedicated attendees could also sign up for any of a dozen seminars. Like a watch, Salon QP is far more than the sum of its parts.

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