Primetime - February 2023

PRIMETIME

Feb 9

Watchmaking in the News.

Hello and welcome to the PRIMETIME, Watchmaking in the News. In this episode we came back to our “normal” length of 20+ minutes, so don’t hesitate to check its podcast version on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Links below.

The first big news of this edition of our beloved show is that the HOROPEDIA Foundation was officially established, six months after we started this ambitious, but exciting project. If you still don’t know what we’re talking about, check the link to the Horopedia website below.

By the way, the website is already available in French, English and German, and HOROPEDIA Foundation as of now will be in charge of its smooth and steady work. To know more about other responsibilities and plans of the Foundation, subscribe to HOROPEDIA Newsletter and its LinkedIn account. In other news, an update on the Swiss watch exports in 2022 and our ideas on what to expect in 2023.

Spoiler: don’t be too optimistic. We shared key figures from the Swatch Group, Richemont and LVMH, with some record numbers. There's useful information about Hublot and their new production site, the majority shares acquisition in Breitling by the British brand Bremont, and in Reuge by De Bethune, a couple of words about The Collectibles by Jaeger Le-Coultre and a tragic loss of one of the most interesting men in the watch retail industry Mr. Hellmut Wempe.

In terms of watches we talk about Hermes, Omega Speedmaster Super Racing, all the novelties from AP, and there are plenty of great pieces, and of course, the unique timepiece by Louis Vuitton, dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Mr Vuitton himself.

Not to be missed are models from Grand Seiko, Vulcain, and Meraud. As well as two emerging, and very promising independent brands: Hooke and Huygens and Junge Uhrmacher. And if you watch the whole video till the end, you will know how you can get a video on-demand from us from Watches & Wonders ;)

Finally, just to remind you that we’ve recently published a very cool report from the race track where we explained the pitboard function of the Twin Turbo Furious by Jacob & Co. This is a highly complex timepiece and in a certain way this rather smart feature of this watch gets a bit unnoticed but it’s nonetheless really clever.