By Cynthia Unninayar

The private and prestigious Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) ended its 21st edition in January on a very optimistic note in Geneva, with trends in watches that favoured mostly a return to minimalism and classicism. Some brands,however, also offered amazing bejewelled timepieces.

The 2011 edition of the SIHH definitely saw a change in mood from last year. After all the uncertainties of the previous couple of years, optimism was the word of the day as the 19 exhibiting brands showcased their wares to retailers from around the world. In fact, the show’s organizer and owner of many of the exhibiting brands, Geneva-based Richemont, reported that its retail sales increased 23 percent at constant exchange rates, excluding acquisitions, for the last quarter of 2010, and that its growth was broad-based, with the highest rate reported in the Asia-Pacific region.

Yet, retailers came not only from Asia (20 percent) but mainly from Europe (60 percent), with fewer numbers from North and South America (12 percent) and the Middle East (8 percent) to see the latest products of the participating brands (A.Lange & Söhne, Alfred Dunhill, Audemars Piguet, Baume & Mercier, Cartier, JeanRichard, Girard Perregaux, Greubel Forsey, IWC, Jaeger LeCoultre, Montblanc, Officine Panerai, Parmigiani Fleurier, Piaget, Ralph Lauren, Richard Mille, Roger Dubuis, Vacheron Constantin, Van Cleef & Arpels).

While “optimism” was the key word in terms of mood, the major trends in terms of product were “minimalism” and “classicism” with many brands thinking “thin” this year. For a detailed explanation of these current trends in fine timekeeping at the SIHH, please see our sister publication, Europa Star, issue 1.11, which details many of the brands and their latest models. For this article, however, we take a look at those brands that (while they also offered important neoclassic models of prestige watchmaking) included examples of wonderfully creative high jewellery timepieces, studded with diamonds and coloured gems or masterfully decorated with enamel and other artistic crafts.

While certainly a champion of the thin movement, Piaget also produces extraordinary bejewelled timepieces as well as beautiful jewellery. Continuing its Limelight Garden Party theme, the Geneva brand evokes a luxuriant garden where cherry blossoms have emerald stems, a diamond rose savours a quiet moment, a bird pauses to inspect a pearl, emeralds and diamonds form the cases of elegant watches, and where rubellites are visited by diamond-set birds. Piaget is indeed a master in both haute horlogerie and haute joaillerie.

Van Cleef & Arpels also excels in the realm of fine watchmaking with pieces that combine intricate mechanical complications with highly decorated dials and cases. Famous for its jewellery, the French brand’s bejewelled timepieces are equally as impressive. Among the collections this year, it features Les Voyages Extraordinaires, where remarkable watches, inspired by books by Jules Verne, are presented in white gold cases with translucent paillonné enamel. Equipped with an 800P automatic movement, groups of four of these watches are sold in a limited series of 22, and presented in an elegant wooden cabinet whose lid is decorated with various wood inlays. Van Cleef & Arpels has also expanded the travel theme to include “extraordinary” dials evoking a variety of places that Jules Verne described in Five Weeks in a Balloon, including animals found in Africa and Antarctica, as well as a number of underwater motifs. The brand ends its colourful and extraordinary journey with a sumptuous high jewellery piece, where flowers and leaves are made of emeralds and sapphires, creepers are composed of diamonds, and two small monkeys with tails of black onyx and diamonds are entwined in the branches.

Cartier has also taken a journey through time with a spectacular collection of jewellery watches, entitled Mille Et Une Heures (1001 hours), comprising 30 timepieces. Recalling the times of ancient India and the architecture of its sculptured palaces, these high jewellery watches feature arabesque motifs.

Another exotic collection is its Great Tradition of Artistic Crafts. For more than 160 years, Cartier has placed artistic crafts at the core of its pieces, and this year, the brand has created six new timepieces that reinterpret the dignity of these artistic crafts in stone mosaics, gold cloisonné enamel, intaglio engravings, and wood marquetry. This exceptional menagerie includes a tortoise, polar bear, leopard, hummingbird, monkey, and brown bear, all brought to life by the hands of the brand’s highly skilled craftsmen. On a different note, Cartier combines its high jewellery predilection and its taste for technical complications in its Tourbillon and Crocodile watch, thus adding a new dimension to haute horlogerie and haute joaillerie.

The overall ambiance at the SIHH was one of luxury, of course, but one brand created its own enchanting environment at the show— Baume & Mercier. The leitmotif of the brand’s communication is lifestyle, more specifically seaside living—“a way of life, which perfectly corresponds to the genuine values of conviviality, sharing, and durability” that are promoted by the watchmaker. Expressing this vision through family and friends, the brand’s booth convincingly reproduced a delightful and relaxing seaside resort in the Hamptons on Long Island in New York. In keeping with this theme, the brand presented a contemporary interpretation of two of its most celebrated collections, the Capeland and Linea, along with new and more stylish examples of Classima, all evoking Baume & Mercier’s new dictum: Life is about moments. Among these moments are lovely contemporary jewellery pieces in the Linea line.

Richard Mille continues the use of coloured gemstones in certain models, but this year, he does so in a rather provocative fashion. The Richard Mille Tourbillon RM 026, in a limited series of 15, features a diamond-set white gold case that harbours two snakes writhing in and around the tourbillon movement while holding it in place. The serpents are made of rubies, emeralds, and diamonds set in white gold, with a red coral tongue. Why snakes? “Serpents in mythology have complex roles that can be either good or evil. In connection with the positive properties of the black onyx base plate, they however take on a protective role,” says the brand. Richard Mille also makes different versions of the coupled snakes, including other coloured gems, engraved stones, or enamelled bodies. Undoubtedly, this piece is an elegant way to unite the powers of Nature and the ingenuity of prestige timekeeping.

Other brands at the SIHH also showcased beautiful jewellery versions of their main collections, such as Audemars Piguet with its elegant diamond-set Jules Audemars Selfwinding models, Girard-Perregaux with its lovely Vintage 1945 Lady crafted in pink gold set with diamonds and its graceful Cat’s Eye pieces with their sensual curves, the sparkling all-diamond-pavé case of Ralph Lauren’s Stirrup Diamond Link watch, set with more than 1,500 diamonds, with a total of 12 different sized stones, and the bejewelled COSC-certified Excalibur Lady Jewellery by Roger Dubuis.

As these exquisite examples demonstrate, fine jewellery and fine watchmaking can come together to create fine jewellery watches.