21 October

The day in brief

SIAR opened its 20th edition in Mexico City on 20 October, with 50 brands, six of them newcomers. The fair hosts the world premiere of the Hautlence Sphere Series 5, reserved for the Mexican market for its first 30 days.

Phillips unveiled the independent watchmaking pieces in its Hong Kong sale on 21 and 22 November, led by four F.P. Journe watches, among them a Chronomètre à Résonance made in five examples for Mark Cho of The Armoury. In the industry, Swiss watch exports rose 11.7% in September.

Among the launches, Renaud Tixier skeletonises the Monday and its flywheel micro-rotor, Jaeger-LeCoultre brings the 36 mm Master Ultra Thin Moon to pink gold and Oris dedicates an Aquis Date to kelp forests.

SIAR celebrates its 20th edition in Mexico City with 50 brands

The Salón Internacional Alta Relojería (SIAR) runs from 20 to 22 October at The St. Regis Mexico City. It is the 20th edition of a fair created in 2007, which has become the reference event for fine watchmaking in Mexico and this year brings together 50 brands, from major houses to independent watchmakers and small brands.

The line-up includes Hublot, Tudor, Breitling, Panerai, Piaget, Zenith, Longines and Grand Seiko, alongside independents such as De Bethune, Laurent Ferrier, H. Moser & Cie., Armin Strom, Louis Moinet and Bianchet. Six brands are taking part for the first time: Christiaan van der Klaauw, Kudoke, NOMOS Glashütte, Neprosolar, Pragma and Unimatic.

In 2025, SIAR brought together 51 brands and 4,164 visitors, according to the organisers. This year's programme includes an analysis of the Mexican market presented by Karine Szegedi of Deloitte.

For Hautlence, the fair is the stage for the world premiere of the Sphere Series 5, limited to 28 pieces. The hours are not shown by a hand: they appear on a titanium sphere that rotates on three axes and presents the numeral of the current hour. The rotation is driven by four conical gears arranged around two crossed axes inclined at 21 degrees. The minutes are shown by a retrograde hand that sweeps a 180-degree sector and returns to zero at the end of each hour.

In this version, the sphere receives a white coating and engraved numerals filled with grey Super-LumiNova. The hand-wound A82 calibre beats at 21,600 vibrations per hour (3 Hz), has 160 components and a minimum power reserve of 72 hours. The rectangular grade 5 titanium case measures 37 × 45 × 17.4 mm (11.5 mm without the sapphire crystal) and is water-resistant to 10 ATM.

For the first 30 days, the watch is sold only in Mexico, through Attila Distribution, in a case with three suede straps: green, white and red, the colours of the Mexican flag. After that, international deliveries come with the white strap only. The Sphere earned Hautlence the Innovation Prize at the 2023 GPHG.

Find out more on the organiser's website.

Phillips brings four F.P. Journe watches and rare independent pieces to Hong Kong

Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo announced on 20 October the independent watchmaking pieces to be offered at The Hong Kong Watch Auction: XXIII, on 21 and 22 November at the WKCDA Tower in West Kowloon. The selection joins the Patek Philippe watches already announced for the same sale.

The leading lot is an F.P. Journe Chronomètre à Résonance made in five examples for Mark Cho, co-founder of The Armoury, and offered directly from his collection. The series was the last to use the 38 mm platinum case known as the "Parking Meter". It has a navy blue dial with warm tones and serial number 168, the same as the street number of The Armoury's New York shop. The estimate is HK$6 to 12 million.

In the Chronomètre à Résonance, two independent balances oscillate side by side. When they are close enough and regulated to the same frequency, the oscillations of one influence those of the other until they synchronise in opposite directions. According to François-Paul Journe, this resonance reduces the effect of shocks and makes the rate more stable.

Another highlight is Tourbillon Souverain No. 069, from 2001, in platinum with a shiny yellow gold dial, of which only nine examples are known. It belongs to the third series with a brass movement and combines the tourbillon with a remontoir d'égalité: a small spring, rewound at regular intervals by the mainspring, that delivers constant force to the escapement. It was the first time the two solutions were combined in a wristwatch. The estimate ranges from HK$3.9 to 11.6 million.

F.P. Journe also appears with a Centigraphe Souverain made in 20 examples for the tenth anniversary of the Hong Kong boutique and with the first Octa Calendrier of the Ruthenium Collection, No. 01 of 99. From the other independents, Phillips offers a Kari Voutilainen Vingt-8 in titanium, one of two special commissions in this metal, with a blue enamel dial hand-guilloché by Comblémine; a Beat Haldimann H1 Flying Central Tourbillon from the PuristS series; Théo Auffret's Tourbillon à Paris No. 18, the first of this model to go to auction; and an HK 2000 by Kiu Tai Yu, the first Asian watchmaker to join the AHCI, in 1992.

Before the sale, the watches travel to Hong Kong (20 to 22 October), Taipei (24 and 25 October), Geneva (4 to 8 November) and Singapore (13 and 14 November, during IAMWATCH). The public preview in Hong Kong runs from 16 to 22 November.

Find out more on the auction house's website.

Renaud Tixier skeletonises the Monday and its flywheel micro-rotor

Renaud Tixier, the house founded by Dominique Renaud and Julien Tixier, presented on 20 October the Monday Skeleton, a skeletonised version of the brand's first watch, launched in 2024. There are two series of 15 pieces, one in green and one in blue, with a 40.8 mm white gold case. The price is CHF 129,000, excluding taxes.

The calibre is now called RVI2025 and reveals all 262 parts of the movement, each finished by hand in the workshops in Tolochenaz, between Geneva and Lausanne: black polishing, rounded bridges, bevelling, côtes de Genève, sunray finishing and perlage. The brand counts 238 inward angles, the internal corners of the bevels, which can only be made by hand. On the back, a decorative bridge over the barrel ratchet is engraved and chased by hand and receives grand feu enamel.

The Monday's technical novelty lies in its automatic winding. A micro-rotor is set into the movement and, because its radius is smaller than that of a central rotor, it transfers less energy to the barrel with each movement of the wrist. Dominique Renaud used the empty space at the centre of the platinum micro-rotor to fit a flywheel linked to a propulsion spring, which the brand calls "the dancer". Even slight wrist movements load the spring, which accelerates the rotor and increases the energy recovered. The idea comes from energy-recovery systems in cars.

The same system includes a declutching mechanism that protects the movement in the event of a shock. According to SJX, the calibre beats at 18,000 vibrations per hour (2.5 Hz) and has a 72-hour power reserve.

Find out more on the brand's website.

Jaeger-LeCoultre brings the 36 mm Master Ultra Thin Moon to pink gold

Jaeger-LeCoultre has presented reference Q1242521 of the Master Ultra Thin Moon. The 36 mm size, which the collection already offered in steel, is now available in 18-carat pink gold, in a case 9.34 mm thick with a sapphire caseback.

The silver dial has a sunray finish, faceted applied indices and gilded dauphine hands. The pointer date and the moon phase are grouped at 6 o'clock.

The automatic calibre 925 is 4.9 mm thick, with 245 components and 30 jewels; it beats at 28,800 vibrations per hour (4 Hz) and offers a 70-hour power reserve from a single barrel. The openworked rotor, in 22-carat pink gold, is visible through the caseback. The strap is black alligator, with a pink gold pin buckle. The price is €23,900 and the watch joins the permanent collection.

At 9.34 mm thick, the case keeps the dress-watch profile of the collection, despite combining automatic winding, the date and the moon phase.

Find out more on the brand's website.

Oris dedicates an Aquis Date to kelp forests

Oris has launched the Aquis Date Kelp Forest Limited Edition, a series of 1,000 pieces created with underwater photographer Francis Pérez, a brand ambassador who has photographed the ocean for 30 years and witnessed the decline of kelp forests. The brand points out that kelp captures carbon and produces around 2% of the planet's oxygen.

The green dial has a 3D-printed relief that imitates kelp swaying in the water, and the unidirectional bezel has a green ceramic scale. The steel case measures 41.5 mm, is water-resistant to 300 m and has a caseback engraved with kelp motifs. The automatic Oris 733-1 calibre, based on the Sellita SW200-1, beats at 4 Hz and has a 41-hour power reserve. In the United States, the price is $2,950.

Find out more on the brand's website.

What deserves attention

Industry figures put the trade-fair calendar in context. According to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH), Swiss watch exports rose 11.7% in September to CHF 2.23 billion, the fifth consecutive month of growth. The United States rose 86%, mainly in comparison with September 2025, which was hit by customs tariffs, while China fell 14.2%. Japan rose 12.3% and Hong Kong 3%. From January to September, exports grew 2.7% to CHF 19.5 billion.

The strongest growth is in low-priced watches: those under CHF 200 grew 30% and those between CHF 200 and 500 rose 52%, while watches above CHF 3,000 rose 9.9%. These brackets refer to export value, not retail price.

SIAR shows how important Mexico has become for Swiss brands, which premiere watches there and give the market temporary exclusivity, as Hautlence does. In Hong Kong, Phillips is relying on documented rarity, with series of five pieces, first serial numbers and first appearances at auction, to sustain demand for independents. The results on 21 and 22 November will show whether F.P. Journe watches hold the values of recent sales.

Among the launches, the Monday Skeleton deserves technical follow-up: independent data are still lacking on the real winding gain the flywheel brings compared with a conventional micro-rotor.