That the tourbillon remains one of the most popular, high-end complications was once again confirmed this edition of SIHH. Many brands expanded their line-up with one, sometimes as a completely new model, or as a new variety of existing watches. Its popularity can still easily be explained, as the 'dance' that the tourbillon performs in its efforts to fight the effects of gravity remains mesmerising. For brands, this still serves as an inspiration to take this complication to the next level, technically, visually, or both!

With the introduction of the new Santos de Cartier, in 2018, it was to be expected that the collection would soon be expanded beyond the time-only and skeleton versions it was launched in. It is not surprising that Cartier picked for this extension a chronograph, as this is still one of the most popular complications. However, the way that they went about to integrate this in Santos is surprising!

Not all years are equal, and that also goes for the SIHH. The 2019 edition proved to be an excellent one, with a lot of top-notch watches, very few disappointments and even a few sweet surprises. These extend beyond the new Bonbon-collection from Richard Mille, who set the pace with his unparalleled creativity, as also the following watches made a big impression as they were presented to us!

With the fourth day, the SIHH is slowly winding down, but goes out with a bang! This is the only day that the fair is open to the public and a lot of people joined journalists and retailers from around the world to admire all the great watches. For us, it is the time to have our last appointments and do the final photoshoots, and once again we were delighted by what we got to see!

From every aspect, the mechanical watch is an obsolete instrument, yet we continue to have a love affair with it. It is, therefore, a passion that drives the industry and that is also clear when you look at the creations of many of the exhibitors at de SIHH. Because of that passion, they went above and beyond to create movements, complications, finishes and decorations that were not possible before, or continue a tradition that is often almost forgotten.

At any watch fair, there is always the risk that you start at a high and then it is all downwards from there. With the balanced additions to the Pilot-collection of IWC, the super sweet Richard Mille's and Jaeger-LeCoultre who showed once again their prowess when it comes to highly complicated watches with a fine finish, that danger is very real. However, this edition of SIHH that fear is misplaced as on the second day, things continued at a very high level.

We already suspected it from the quality of the pre-releases this year, but all our doubts where further taken away at the first day of the 2019 edition of SIHH: the watch industry is thriving! It showed this not only by many new creations but also by the beautiful different interpretation of familiar models.

With SIHH only a short week away some trends can already be established from the pre-releases of the brands participating. One of them is the continuation of a phenomenon that we have seen develop over the last few years; the rise of watches with a blue dial. In fact, we are getting to the point that we can hardly call it a trend anymore, but more the new normal as blue seems to be here to stay in full force. These blue dial beauties will hit the boutiques in 2019!

They keep on coming! Cartier just announced four amazing limited editions that will join their collection in 2019. They not only highlight La Maison's exceptional finesse when it comes to the shape of watch cases but also their heritage as one of the world's leading jewelers is perfectly showcased.

While many people are gearing up for the holidays, the watchworld is already preparing for the first big event of 2019; the SIHH. While only insiders of the participating brands know exactly what new products will be launched, by now, we can already tell what kind of year it is going to be. We can base this on two things: the pre-released watches, and the ones we already have all the details of, but cannot share yet due to an embargo.

When 2019 has barely started, SIHH is scheduled to open its doors. From January 14th to 18th the exhibiting brands will delight us with the most mesmerizing new creations. Traditionally many of those brands also launch a few new watches before the show. While impressive, they usually keep the real fireworks until the fair itself. Given the very high level of the watches that they have already introduced, 2019 is bound to going to be an amazing year in watches!