Innovative Stop Watch

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IF you have met the man behind LUC, Chopard's haute horlogerie arm for men's watches, you will understand why his technical pieces can sometimes take longer than usual to get to your retailer. He wants to get it right.

First introduced by Karl-Friedrich Scheufele in 2006, the Chrono 1 Flyback masterpiece featured here with in-house LUC 11 FC chrono movement is now available in 42.5mm white or rose gold - celebrated with hands reminiscent of its tourbillon classics. Three significant innovations stand out: A no-shudder chrono hand reset mechanism, stop-seconds for precision time setting, and an all-new auto-winding system.

If you are not Patek Philippe fans you might not be fully aware of this: It is eminently possible that this will be your last chance to pick up their 5070 chrono classic, introduced this year for the first (and perhaps) last time in platinum with a stunning blue dial. Gold versions have already been discontinued, and the buzz is that Patek Philippe will soon discontinue serial production of two classics with base Lemania movements: the 5070 highlighted here, and the Grande Complication 5970

Jaeger-LeCoultre's larger Squadra Reverso case gives them the dimensions to offer us an automatic watch with a chrono on one side, and world time functions on the other. It's christened the Polo Fields in tribute to the original in this signature line. This year's case is presented in a high-tech black zirconium oxide alloy fired by 2,000 celsius of heat, sitting on a base of titanium. A 500-piece edition in rose gold is also available.

We have to confess that enamel dials do something for us, especially when they are made even more complicated with chronograph sub-dials, as in the column-wheel example on this page by Breguet. And that snail-like shape in red - which complements the red stop-watch hand - has a purpose too. It's actually a tachometer scale, which enables you to time speeds in kmh.

Omega is pulling out all the stops to make this year's Beijing Olympics their mega marketing platform. On the technical side, they celebrate the event with an unusual five-counter certified chronometer chronograph to depict the five Olympic rings. The handsome brushed red gold Speedmaster we show off here has a black dial that reports from left to right (nine to three): the passing seconds, up to seven elapsed chrono days, the day of the week in the centre, then the hours and minutes elapsed counters for the chrono.

From Panerai, we have a Luminor 1950 monopulsante or single-button chrono in tough and light grade-five titanium this year, the PAM 311. Using the in-house P.2004 chrono calibre developed by Panerai, this watch boasts one-pusher operation (at 7 o'clock) for start, stop and reset of the chrono function and a linear eight-day power reserve indicator. To make it even more irresistible, the watch has an always-useful GMT hand plus day-night indicator, and is supplied with two easy-change straps.

About two years ago, the small but exquisite hand-made movements of Minerva became part of the Richemont Group, more specifically the Montblanc brand. This year, the brand celebrates its 150th anniversary with two very special editions of Collection Villaret single-button chronographs. Each of them comes in numbers of one in platinum, eight in white gold (shown here) and 58 in rose gold - to represent the brand's year of birth: 1858.

By most accounts, those in Singapore who have had the chance to see these watches when they came through here were left breathless, and we were no exception. They are expensive, no doubt about that, but when you consider that only about 350 painstakingly hand-made watches pass through their doors each year, you have some idea just how obsessed with perfection these guys are.

The very rare Champleve enamel technique is employed for the 47mm dial and its sub-dials, presented in a rare combination of red and black here. Inside, we're told, each of the calibre 16.29 monopusher chrono movements is assembled from start to finish by a single watchmaker, and then the inner side of the cuvette (or back cover) is signed by their master watchmaker as a final seal of approval. Readers may be interested to know that Sincere, their exclusive retailer here, reserved the single blue-dial platinum pieces for both the 47mm Minerva calibre 16-29 shown here as well as the 41mm Minerva calibre 13-21 - but they may have already been spoken for.

Speaking of monopusher chronos, all our buddies were dazzled by the new baby from De Bethune - the DB21 Maxichrono.

Visually, it was love at first sight for all present - and when you begin to study the logic of the dial layout, you will be even more impressed.

The principal idea for the five coaxial hands here is legibility - you read the stop-watch time without the hour or minute hands blocking your line of sight. Sitting snug in an unusual flamed blue titanium cradle, the 45mm case reports time in the centre with the two white polished hands.

The long blue chrono second hand reports the passing seconds on the outermost track - making two, instead of one, revolution per minute so the read-out can be bigger and thus more accurate. The red minute hand reads off in the track below that, with half-minute divisions to complement the 30-second dial above it. Finally, the arrow-shaped blue hand reads off the chrono time in passing hours. Great stuff, don't you think?

In Basel this year, Tag Heuer introduced yet another concept chrono that breaks new ground: the Calibre 36 RS Caliper concept chronograph. It's a column wheel auto chrono which will be the first one of its kind that measures stop-watch time down to one-tenth of a second.

Look closely at this titanium carbide-clad example and you will see linear watch seconds measured at 9 o'clock, linear chrono minutes elapsed at 3 o'clock and a circular chrono hours-elapsed sub-dial at 6 o'clock. Nice, but so far nothing new, you might say. Here's the new, fun part: The crown at 10 o'clock allows you to rotate an inner scale which - with the help of a 10-times magnifier - will read the stopwatch time elapsed down to one-tenth of a second.

And if St Moritz is where you spend your winters - and we do know some lucky Singaporeans who do exactly that - Omega's St Moritz DeVille Chronos might just strike your fancy. Smaller than the 44mm Speedmaster case, this 41mm certified chronometer watch will sit snugly under your ski jacket. And it has an unusual way of recording the elapsed chrono hours at 6 o'clock too.

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