We once again attended ‘Basel World‘ which is the largest watch and jewelery fair in the world. Our impression are as follows.
This year was special for two reasons.
Firstly what we thought was a piece of decoration or illusion- turned out to be real. There were baby sharks at Basel. Real ones (can you spot two baby sharks above?) – we will elaborate more at the end of the post. Secondly we noticed a continuation of brands paying tribute to the past in order to launch their new models. Blancpain and Tag Heuer did so in a big big way.
Especially Tag Heuer deserves to celebrate their past achievements, after all this year is the 50th Anniversary of the legendary Heuer Carrera watch. What submariner is to Rolex and Speedmaster is to Omega, Carrera is to Heuer. Tag Heuer used the opportunity to showcase some of the earliest chronographs made from the early 1960s.
Other brands also highlighted their glorious past including Blancpain which this year celebrates 60 years of the first diving watch they introduced in the early 1950s- the legendary Fifthy Fathoms.
You might not know this – but Blancpain along with Rolex created the diving watch category.
So it was nice to see that despite modern watches dominating Basel, that brands are placing a high value on their past. Here is a quick and narrow tour of what was important at BaselWorld 2013:
We will start with the first brand that paid tribute to their past: Tag Heuer with the Heuer Carrera.
A quick history on the legendary Carrera.
Introduced by Jack Heuer (founder of Heuer Carrera) in 1963, the name Carrera was inspired by Pedro Rodriguez, a Mexican race driver who was explaining the famous ‘Carrera Pan-Americana‘, a brutal race 5 day race in Mexico where it is not uncommon for drivers to lose their lives falling down 500m drops along the way.
Inspired by the Bauhaus period with its ‘pure’ design the Carrera Heuer quickly became an Iconic chronograph helping to accurately time motorsport events.
Below one of the first Heuer Chronographs with a single ‘subdial’ and date.
While the design was pure, Heuer introduced in 1964 the first generation ‘Carrera‘ chronograph with two sub-dials to measure time.
This piece is very collectible today and has become an Icon for the Heuer brand.
Another close up picture of a first generation Heuer Carrera below:
Another set of beautiful chronographs from Heuer, this time from the 1970s.
The next brand to illustrate its rich history especially in Diving watches was Blancpain.
This year celebrates 60 years of diving watches and Blancpain helped found this category along with Rolex- submariner. To help pay tribute to their rich history in diving watches like Fifty Fathoms, Blancpain created a mini-exposition in the main hall one. ‘
Notre Avenir est sous l’eau’ – translated ‘our future is in under water- this an article from 1955 by Jean Jacques Fiechter (the long time CEO of Blancpain from 1970-1990s).
Below various models of the Iconic Fifty Fathoms including a Tournek Rayville made for the US market.
An instruction guide below on how to use the watch before diving. Might be easier to do Step 2 before step 1 ! Notice JFK in the picture below.
We spotted some famous names to do with Blancpain. Starting with the current CEO of Blancpain Mr. Marc Hayek.
And guess who joined him below? Mr Fiechter -the legendary CEO of Blancpain from 1970s to the 1990s.
Looking forward to Baselworld 2014.
