Haute Time’s Wishlist for Baselworld 2017

By Martin Green March 9, 2017

Baselworld is around the corner. While this year’s Baselworld is smaller than previous years, rest assured, it will still be packed with a lot of amazing new watches. What they are exactly, is something that we need to find out but like any watch enthusiast, we have of course a wish list!

Hublot Diver
Hublot is always good for making some waves in the world of Haute Horlogerie. While they already introduced some new additions to the collection in Geneva, at Baselworld, we would love to see the brand with a new diver!

When you name is Hublot (meaning porthole in French) a diver is almost a must have for the collection. When the company was still under the ownership of founder Carlo Crocco, several divers were available like the Super Professional and the Subaquaneus 2000m Diver. Under Biver the company went even deeper with the Oceanographic 4000m. Time for the next chapter we reckon!

An vintage advertisement by Omega, showing the Flightmaster top left. — A vintage advertisement by Omega, showing the Flightmaster top left.

New Omega Flightmaster
This one is very unlikely to happen, as the Speedmaster is celebrating its 60th birthday, but we would love to see that other aviators from Omega’s history books return. When it was introduced in 1969, it was bold and beautiful because of it. A very practical watch with its chronograph, second- time zone, and day/night indicator.

Omega revived the shape of the case of the Flightmaster with the digital Spacemaster Z-33, but we would love a vintage inspired Flightmaster to join the Omega collection once more.

A render of how a possible new full calendar Rolex Oyster could look like.

Rolex Oyster Full Calendar
In the recent years, Rolex has given us an impressive Cellini-line, a new AirKing, and a revised Daytona, but we have something else on our wishlist: the return of the full calendar! There are many great full calendars available today, but having one in the robust Oyster-case is simply something else.

If Rolex does this, and this is once again a big if since the brand is known for being conservative when it comes to creating complicated watches, they will create a technical marvel. Rolex movements are traditionally overengineered, which is one of the reasons why they are so great. With the new movement for the Daytona and perhaps even more so, the YachtMaster II, we already saw that when Rolex takes on a complication, they go all in. So when they return the full calendar in the collection you can expect the moon phase to be at least just as precise as the one in the new Drive de Cartier Moon Phases, the calendar itself annual, or perhaps even perpetual, all the functions to be quick set and of course easy to service.

What else we are curious about….
One other thing that we are curious about is if the smartwatches will finally find their place among the esteemed and high-end Swiss brands. No, we don’t expect Patek or Breguet to introduce one, but so far few brands truly entered this field. TAG-Heuer is the most prominent force when it comes to high-end smartwatches. Breitling created the very interesting Exospace B55, and de Grisogono made a bold move with their partnership with Samsung, resulting into a truly luxurious smart watch. For the rest, it is very quiet. Of course, it is not as easy for each brand to integrate one into their DNA, but for those who can find a way it might actually open the door to new consumers.

Baselworld 2017 opens its doors on March 23th and last until March 30th.

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