BASELWORLD 2014: Day 2 – Colour and Movement

Felix Scholz

The vast majority of watches are painted from a conservative palette. And really, this makes a lot of sense. A watch has to go with many outfits, and many styles. It makes commercial sense for brands to create watches that are as flexible and versatile as possible.

But some brands at Baselworld buck this trend. These are their stories.

Jaquet Droz are a brand not as well known as they should be (in Australia at least), but they do absolutely amazing dial work including hand painting and enamelling. These two watches from their Les Ateliers D’Art Collection showcase their Paillonné Enamel technique.

The watch above is really pushing the boundaries of what a watch is, again a Jaquet Droz – this time the Bird Repeater. The dial is amazingly rich and textured – but wait, there’s more  – it’s a minute repeater with automata.

But now for something completely different, but no less (in fact even more) bright

This brand new Jean Richard Terrascope is certainly eye catching. It’s made of brightly anodised aluminium (the high grade aircraft kind, not the al-foil type). Aside from making the watch stand out it highlights their complex case construction.

And this Hublot takes colour, turns the dial up to 11 and coats it in diamonds. It is (of course) the Hublot Big Bang Pop Art Fusion.

And finally, we’re toning it down a notch, with the WWII inspired Nose Cone DNA from Romain Jerome.

This big bad beauty takes it’s inspiration from the military aircraft of the second world war, but turns the often conventional pilots style watch into a riot of colour and gold.

And that’s it for day two of Baselworld.