What goes around comes around
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Christophe Roulet
Editor-in-chief, HH Journal
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Tank Louis Cartier XL slimline watch - Photo: Daniel Lindh, Vincent Wulveryck © Cartier 2011
“Vintage” has become common parlance when describing horological production today. According to some sources, the word originates in the Old French vendange (grape harvest) which came to refer to an exceptional year for wine. Others claim its etymology lies in the locution vingt ans d’âge which watchmakers use to refer to any timepiece older than two decades (twenty years of age). Given most Manufactures’ venerable age, many of their iconic timepieces fall within this category of vintage, and bringing the past up-to-speed with the present has emerged as a major trend in watchmaking.
This year’s crop – dare we say vintage – is no exception to the rule. Audemars Piguet presents no fewer than eight anniversary models to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its Royal Oak, the first luxury sport watch to be made from steel. The anniversary theme continues at Vacheron Constantin which marks the centenary of the tonneau form by revisiting its Malte line. Van Cleef & Arpels proposes a new interpretation of the Pierre Arpels watch, originally from 1947. Cartier has made its Tank watch, launched in 1919, Anglaise. Panerai remains true to its Radiomir 1940 and Luminor 1950, while the Deep Sea Vintage Chronograph from Jaeger-LeCoultre is a new tribute to its Memovox Deep Sea, born in 1959.
This remembrance of things past was equally evident at Baselworld, not least with Zenith. The brand has rescued from oblivion its pilot’s watches, the earliest of which date back to the beginning of the last century. Chanel has added a flying tourbillon to its Première watch, launched in 1987. Corum is extending its 1960 Admiral’s Cup with a Legend line. The first Omega Speedmaster, which the astronaut Wally Schirra wore in space on the Mercury Atlas 8 mission in 1962, has spawned the First Omega in Space. Meanwhile, TAG Heuer has made the Carrera Calibre 17 Chronograph Jack Heuer to mark the 80th birthday of the founder’s great-grandson, the man who designed the Carrera in 1963. Glashütte is reissuing its Original Senator Observer. Observation watches were a speciality of Julius Assmann who helped shape the development of watchmaking in Glashütte, and whose timepieces equipped Roald Amundsen on his legendary expedition to the South Pole in 1911. Need we go on? Such reminiscences are clearly intended to catch the eye of those for whom watchmaking is an eternal evocation of the past.
