The Top 10 Timepieces of 2012

Each year, the watch industry looks forward to two major events in Switzerland: the Salon Internationale de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH), held in Geneva in January, and the BaselWorld Watch and Jewellery Fair in March. The former is a closed-door, invite-only exhibition of 16 mechanical watchmaking brands, presenting a variety of watches, jewellery, high jewellery and high watchmaking items demonstrating the savoir faire and skill of the industry. The BaselWorld fair is a much broader experience of the industry, with hundreds of watch brands involved and hundreds of thousands of visitors who storm Switzerland in order to catch a glimpse of the latest timepieces that will be introduced in the year to come. After much consideration, we’ve selected 10 timepieces that we find particularly notable from the two watch fairs of the year. See what we find appealing this year (in no order of preference). By Darren Ho.

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1. Rolex Sky-Dweller It’s rare that Rolex introduces a brand new timepiece and line, and even rarer still that it introduces a new movement. Over the last few years, while Rolex has refreshed its portfolio, renovating its products, it has not really created a new look until this year, when it introduced the Sky-Dweller. The GMT watch indicates home time (on the smaller display and in 24-hour format) and a second time zone, while a unique calendar... more
1. Rolex Sky-Dweller It’s rare that Rolex introduces a brand new timepiece and line, and even rarer still that it introduces a new movement. Over the last few years, while Rolex has refreshed its portfolio, renovating its products, it has not really created a new look until this year, when it introduced the Sky-Dweller. The GMT watch indicates home time (on the smaller display and in 24-hour format) and a second time zone, while a unique calendar design provides the date on the typical Rolex Cyclops display with the month indicated just above the hour markers. Clever. Rolex has several patents on this watch alone; it’s not just the work of clever design but also serious research and development. less