foversta's Baselworld 2014 selection provides a critical yet insightful overview of the year's watch releases, highlighting both perceived disappointments from major brands and standout innovations from independents. This article serves as a valuable historical record, offering a collector's perspective on the industry's direction during a challenging economic period.
During the Fair we had a lot of discussion about our feelings and we were many of us rather disappointed by the 2014 collections. To be more precise, we are in the same trend than during the SIHH: very controlled offers from the large brands which want to limit the risks in a very difficult economic context. Let's take an example: Patek. I didn't find the 2014 collection special. The same in a lot of other big brands except with Girard-Perregaux or Blancpain.
Having said that, there were several nuggests hidden in Baselworld corridors so please find below my selection limited to 10 watches without any particular order.
The masterpieces of the Fair were the 2 chronographs from De Bethune and the Augustus from Lang & Heyne.
The first ones cause they redesign the complication, the last one becomes... it creates one!
The purpose of the De Bethune chronographs is to improve the legibility due to the use of central hands and in a mechanical point of view, to smoothen the impact of the use of the chronograph function and to make it more accurate:
The Lang & Heyne Augustus is pure ingenuity...
It is a watch dedicated to foolish people like me who always forget the key dates! The watch also calculates the ages of these dates but if we are talking about the birthdate of a lady, please forget this function!
Ban Ki-Moon is in its 70th year:
Let's have a look at two Tourbillon now...
Kari Voutilainen offered us a spectacular timepiece with different types of guillochage on the blue dial:
... while the Grönefeld brothers unveiled a very important piece for them, the Parallax Tourbillon. Why Parallax? Because it features two second hands (a central one and on the Tourbillon) which are always parallel.
And more importantly, the watch embodies the Grönefeld style. It shares a lot of common details with the One Herz. The Grönefeld brothers are building their identity.
An excellent surprise from Longines! This re-edition of the Conquest Heritage comes in a 35mm case (yes!!!) and without any date display (yes, yes!!!). At the end, a very charming and elegant watch at an affordable price. Well done!
Fiona Krüger didn't have a booth at Baselworld. So I called her and we organized an appointment. For me: the most surprising watch of the Fair... with an unsurprising topic (skull again) but this time with a real atmosphere, a real passion...
The Neo-Tourbillon is much more than a contemporary interpretation of the 3 bridges Tourbillon. It embodies a new aesthetic ambition as you can feel it with the hands and the very curved style. I love Girard-Perregaux when they manage to combine the skills of the Manufacture with an original design.
The AHCI booth always offers wonderful surprise and the Tourbillon by Hajime Asaoka charmed me by its achievement and its design:
Last watch of the selection... the Broken Glass by Artya, my fav Spirit of Sound! The line was presented last year but it is available now with new dials. And this dial seduced me!
This selection gathers 10 watches and I could maybe add some. The fact that there was no clear "watch of the fair" symbolizes an average year but which also manages to preserve some points of interest.
Fx
This message has been edited by foversta on 2014-04-01 14:08:32 
