Gift yourself a wearable trophy

To make sure you spend your dollars wisely when making a big purchase of a luxury watch, we’ve rounded up 5 watches that will make great investments for years to come.

IWC Schaffhausen

The Big Pilot’s Watch Annual Calendar Edition “Antoine de Saint Exupéry” is the latest special edition created in honour of the French pilot and author. The Big Pilot’s Watch Heritage is available with a case in either titanium or bronze and takes its inspiration from the historic Big Pilot’s Watch (Calibre 52 T.S.C.).

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This edition is limited to 250 pieces: in 18-carat red gold with a brown dial and gold-plated hands (Ref. IW502706). The tobacco brown dial and the brown calfskin strap with decorative white stitching are reminiscent of the pilot suits from the era of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The IWC-manufactured calibre 52850 which boasts a Pellaton winding system with components in virtually wear-free ceramic and generates a 7-day power reserve in two barrels. It was in this particular model of aircraft that Saint-Exupéry took off on a reconnaissance flight across the Mediterranean from which he never returned.

Corum

Corum created an outstanding flying tourbillon watch that re-imagines the historic haute horlogerie complication in a profound yet quite practical manner. Designed in the nineteenth century as a mechanism to improve timekeeping, the tourbillon is today the embodiment of Swiss micro-mechanical ingenuity. Corum conceived the Admiral’s Cup Legend 42 Flying Tourbillon to turn conventional wisdom on its head.

With the base plate and bridge terminating at four and eight o’clock on both sides of the movement, the tourbillon appears to be suspended in mid-air. But it is actually tethered to the movement by the two slender steel arms that are part of the bridge.

Centered on a snail-shaped cam that controls the retrograde function, the date hand crisply jumps from one day to the next, until it reaches the 31st. Then it jumps straight back to 1, marking the start of a new month. From the rear, the view through the sapphire display back is equally panoramic. Instead of a conventional full rotor that would impede the view of the tourbillon, the caliber CO 016 is equipped with a micro-rotor decorated with the Corum logo in 18k red gold.

TAG Heuer

Thirty years ago, Ayrton Senna won the legendary Monaco Grand Prix for the very first time. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of this victory, TAG Heuer is releasing three new limited edition watches in tribute to the driver.

For the first time, TAG Heuer’s famous Heuer-01 proprietary movement is paired with the Senna design codes. With an imposing 45 mm case, the Carrera Heuer-01 chronograph in black brushed steel with touches of red houses, the skeleton dial and sapphire case back, allowing the precision engineering of the Manufacture movement to be admired. The other pieces in the series are two Formula 1 models, one of which is the chronograph version, TAG Heuer’s archetypal “motor racing” model.

Both watches are 43 mm in diameter and black, highlighted with red, a combination which is a clear nod to the spirit of high-speed racing. The dial features three red lines, hinting at the tracks left by a speeding race car. The chronograph version features a quartz movement accurate to a tenth of a second – an indispensable feature in a motor racing watch – powering the small counter at 6 o’clock, with the minute counter at 9 o’clock and the running seconds counter at 3 o’clock.

The three watches in this limited edition all proudly display the famous stylised red lacquer “S”, the exclusive Senna symbol, on the dial and bezel. The bezel also has a minute track, giving the pieces a racing feel and evoking the exceptional skill of Senna. Of course, they are all available with the iconic bracelet with S-shaped links, as adopted by Ayrton at the height of his achievements. It is both an iconic design and a standard bearer in terms of ergonomics. Three sporty watches, reflect the spirit of the man who featured in the original #DontCrackUnderPressure campaign in 1991.

Ulysse Nardin

A sign of its ever-independent spirit, Ulysse Nardin is one of the only comprehensive manufacturers in Switzerland to master both innovation and watchmakiang tradition. In its purest definition, the Moonstruck World timer recreates the moon’s orbit and the apparent movement of the sun around the globe. Its celestial ballet, just as it is seen from the Earth, is unlike anything an astronomical watch has previously offered.

In the center of the dial, the Northern Hemisphere is depicted as seen from above the North Pole. Six o’clock in London represents the Greenwich meridian, marking Greenwich Mean Time. Three concentric discs turn around this fixed map of the world. The outermost circle features a symbol representing the sun. This solar disc, which completes one revolution in 24 hours, also sweeps over a display of 24 time zones along with displaying 24 cities, is equipped with a day/night indicator.

As for the moon, this appears on a lower orbit. Two discs work together here: on top, the first functions as a circular window showing the position of the Earth’s satellite; below, the second disc, in gold, shows the changing phases of the moon. By separating this unique display into two rotating parts, Ulysse Nardin has accomplished such a high level of precision that the time lag for each lunar month is just 5.7 seconds per day or one day in 40 years.

Equipped with silicium technology, and entirely designed and produced in-house, the self-winding calibre UN-106 housed in the Moonstruck Worldtimer, offers a date function, on a track encircling the world map. Push buttons at 8 and 10 o’clock enable the wearer to quickly move the time forward or backward by one hour – a very handy feature while travelling.

From the January 2018 issue of FHM India.