In praise of complexity
Complications are, for watchmakers, a means of expressing their mechanical ingenuity and sense of innovation. Despite an economic climate that inspires prudence, a good many Maisons have chosen to shun simplicity. A round-up of what’s on show at SIHH.
With nothing to enliven them but a three-hand watch, our wrists would be dull indeed. Even as last year brands weathered one of the biggest storms of this early twenty-first century, the ambient doom and gloom has done nothing to cool their ardour nor rein in their creativity. Watchmakers are showing their inventive side in all domains, whether the tourbillon rotating on ever more axes, striking watches that are music to our ears, or dizzying three-dimensional displays. More than an “exercise in style”, these grand complications take us back to the historic depths of a world within a world, in touch with the Universe. Granted, such tours de force are within reach of only a very small circle of collectors, but they are, for us all, the stuff of dreams.