The salon was also where Vacheron Constantin’s latest addition to its Patrimony line, the Patrimony Traditionnelle Automatic, made its first appearance. Released just weeks before, the watch has all the makings of a classic, with the refined lines and craftsmanship the brand is known for. The watch is an obvious display of Vacheron Constantin’s expertise in proportions, as everything seems to be just right, from the size of the opaline silver-toned dial, the length of the dauphine hands and applied indexes, and the thickness of the bezel; housed in a slender (7.26mm) gold case.
And over on the opposite end of the design spectrum, futuristic watchmaker Urwerk released the UR-210, a watch with the world’s first winding efficiency indicator. Designed like the UR-110, the first of the series with its satellite system of spinning hour indicators and retrograde minutes display, the UR-210 boasts an ingenious function that measures the difference between the energy consumed and generated by the mainspring over a two-hour period. To achieve this, an indicator on the upper left corner of the dial will move from red, if the watch isn’t getting enough winding power (say if the watch isn’t being used or the wearer isn’t moving much), to green if it is. At the back is an adjuster with three options: full, which charges the reserve with any movement, reduced, which engages an air turbine compressor to slow the rotors’ movement, and stop, which turns the watch into a manual winder. This ensures a good ratio of energy in and energy out, allowing for less strain on the mechanism and avoiding over-winding.
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