Concept watches blur the line between dream and reality

de Grisogono; Harry Winston At Baselworld 2008, de Grisogono test marketed its Meccanico dG, above, without a working prototype. If it works, it will be the first all- mechanical watch with an integrated digital display.

When the Opus 3 by Vianney Halter and Harry Winston was unveiled at Baselworld in 2003, it was hailed as a design revolution, described by the international watch industry magazine Europa Star as the "most astonishing watch of the year."

The mechanical watch had a jumping digital display - in which the numbers jump, rather than slide, into view - with the date, hour, and minute numerals appearing in six small display windows arranged in two rows - the hour and minute digits showing horizontally in the four corner windows with the date read vertically down the central column. Vianney had also made a totally new and unique crown with four adjustment positions - for winding, for adjusting the minutes, for the hours and for the date.

Collectors rushed to put their names down for one of the 55 limited-edition pieces and the watch went on to win the Geneva Grand Prix for technical achievement.

There was only one problem: the watch did not work.

"Vianney Halter, who was in charge of the project, underestimated the complexity of the development," said Maximilian Büsser, the founder of MB&F, who was managing director of the timepieces unit of Harry Winston between 1998 and 2005. "He clearly thought it was going to work and therefore so did we. Up to the last minute before unveiling it in Basel, we would never have imagined the watch would not be delivered over the following twelve months."

Next March, at long last, after nearly $1 million of additional development spending and after going though another two watchmaking teams, a working Opus 3 will finally be presented at Baselworld 2009.

"We have something working now that we developed with the Cellule des Spécialités Horlogères of AP-Renaud et Papi," said David Gouten, vice president in charge of international watch and jewelry sales at Harry Winston, referring to Renaud et Papi, the advanced movement design and fabrication unit of Audemars Piguet. "We've been fighting to bring this watch out for the last five years."

Despite the extra development cost, Harry Winston has decided not to increase the watch's original price. "I guess that's the price you have to pay for what, for all that, Opus 3 gave us in terms of credibility and innovation," Gouten said. The Opus 3 will retail between 85,000 Swiss francs, or about $70,000, and 135,000 francs.

Surprising collectors year after year has become a must in the watchmaking world and watch manufacturers have been increasingly hyping their products, competing to be first to unveil the next big idea. In a recent article in the specialist magazine Revolution, the journalist Declan Quinn complained that brands were trying to generate a tidal wave of publicity and press coverage for watches that, in reality, do not exist - or exist only as three-dimensional computer images and mock-up prototypes.

"The reason why brands are usually willing to present concept watches is because they get an enormous amount of publicity in the press," Büsser agreed.

The downside of the presentation of fantasy concepts is that they can get in the way of real development, said Jérôme Lambert, chief executive of Jaeger-LeCoultre. "This has had a very bad effect on the market," he said. "We have had to abandon at least three or four projects over the last two years because people presented ideas without realization.

"They were 3-D presentations and I didn't see the real watch, but we couldn't pursue what we were working on because we felt we wouldn't have been original anymore."

Most so-called concept watches eventually see the light of day. But, as in the case of Opus 3, it can take years before they are delivered.

Some collectors appear relaxed about having to wait. Bernard Cheong, a Singaporean watch collector who was one of the first to order the Opus 3, said that he did not mind the delay.

"I've also been waiting for another very complex watch, by Volker, since 2004," he said, referring to the independent watchmaker Volker Vyskocil.

Still, others are frustrated by what they see as an increasingly hyped market.

"They tell you how it's going to work, they show you a video, but they won't let you touch or feel the watch," said Ng Tjeng Jaw, another Singaporean collector. "It's very frustrating. You should have a working prototype when you're launching and you should be able to deliver the watch to the customers within two years."

In recent years, several other concept watches have been unveiled that have yet to materialize. These include the Monaco V4 by TAG Heuer, introduced in 2004, and the Mémoire 1 by Maurice Lacroix, first presented in 2007.

The Monaco V4 abandoned classic watchmaking technology, replacing the conventional gear wheels and pinions with drive belts and ball bearings; but transmission problems have taken time to fix.

Mémoire 1 - with only two hands, one for minutes and one for seconds, and a disk to indicate the hours - will be the first mechanical watch with a memory function, a completely new "grande complication."

At the press of a button integrated into the crown, the watch will change from time-telling to chronometer mode. When the button is pressed again, the hands will return to time-telling mode, showing the correct time thanks to a mechanical memory.

"It is a monumental process which will take years to fulfill," Sandro Reginelli, product director at Maurice Lacroix, said. "At the moment, we have proven functionality for the complications taken separately. Now we are focusing on making it work as a whole."

"Though we've been working very fast, we're not able to tell at this time when the watch will finally be delivered," Reginelli said. "We need some more time to ensure the final adjustments and respect the quality standards we have set ourselves. With this mechanical movement the claim 'grande complication' is maybe an understatement regarding the technical and mechanical complexity."

At the Basel fair this year, de Grisogono presented its Meccanico dG without a working prototype and Zenith did the same with its Zero-G Tourbillon.

The Meccanico dG is the first all-mechanical watch with an integrated digital display, while the Zero-G has a gyroscope cage tourbillon with an escapement mounted on cardan joints - a type of flexible driveshaft coupling - rather like marine chronometers.

The escapement, which is sensitive to changes of position, is thus kept constantly horizontal, ensuring optimal functioning of the spiral balance-wheel, critical to maintaining accuracy.

Watch manufacturers give several different reasons for presenting their future offerings to the collecting public before having a working prototype.

In the case of the Zero-G, "the only working prototype we had was at the manufacture to be improved," said Raphaël Bertschy, head of product development at Zenith: "So we decided to present a non-working sample instead of presenting an imperfect watch."

The first Zero-G will be delivered by the end of this year, he said.

At de Grisogono, other considerations applied. "In our case, it's purely for production reasons," said Fawaz Gruosi, the president and founder of the company. "We like to see the response in order to determine how to proceed in production."

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