Zach reports back from LVMH Watch Week in Miami, and how Jamie survived cliff diving with Mido in NZ
Jamie WeissIt’s been a pretty big few weeks for the Time+Tide team. We’ve barely been able to take a breather since our 10th anniversary watch week celebrations: not only have we been hard at work creating content with the whole team in Melbourne, but we’ve also had Andrew living it up at the Australian Open, Zach’s been off to Miami for LVMH Watch Week, and I spent a weekend in Auckland with Mido for the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series final.
Welcome to Miami
Let’s start with LVMH Watch Week. 2024 marked the fifth edition of the show, which saw last year’s four exhibiting Maisons – Bulgari, Hublot, TAG Heuer and Zenith – joined by Daniel Roth and Gérald Genta, who have both been recently relaunched within La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton. Zach was our man on the ground, keeping our finger on the pulse, and here’s what he had to say:
“Watches and Wonders is only a few months away, so LVMH Watch Week really sets the stage for watch releases for the year. You kind of get the tone for how far the brands will go – at least, the LVMH watch brands. Are they going to hold back their best releases for Watches & Wonders? Or are they going to go hell for leather?”
“So, apparently the land on which the villa LVMH Watch Week was held was where Scarface was shot. That definitely sets some sort of tone. As for the fair, it did not disappoint, with strong releases from all the brands. My favourite releases included the yellow gold Bulgari Octo Finissimo, and perhaps to some of your surprise, the TAG Heuer Carrera Date Plasma Diamant d’Avant-Garde, the Hublot Big Bang Integral in sky blue, and the meteorite dial Zenith Chronomaster Sport.”
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“It was also a first chance to see the CEO shuffle in action, and got our first impressions on how these brands will go,” Zach relates. For those not in the loop, there’s been some C-suite movement at LVMH: Frédéric Arnault, who was CEO of TAG Heuer, has been named CEO of LVMH Watches, with former Zenith CEO Julien Tornare taking his place at TAG and former Panerai CCO Benoit de Clerck taking Tornare’s place at Zenith.
“Of course, these sorts of plans are years in the making and it’s early days yet, but we got a good first impression – it’s clear that each of these CEOs will put their stamps on each of their brands,” Zach concludes.
Making a splash with Mido
While Zach was off to Miami, Sean and I flew across the ditch to Auckland, New Zealand for the final tour stop of the Red Bull Cliff Diving 2023 World Series, of which Mido is a global partner. Cliff diving, if you didn’t know, is the world’s oldest extreme sport – and it’s also the ultimate test for a dive watch.
I’m not going to pretend as if I knew a lot about the world of cliff diving before flying to NZ, but after watching it in Auckland, I’m totally hooked. For some perspective, an Olympic diving platform is 10 metres tall, while divers in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series dive from 22 metres (women) and 27 metres (men). We had the chance to go up to the top of the tower… And it’s pretty bloody scary. For the Auckland competition, divers dove from a purpose-built tower, but at other stops on the tour, they’re literally diving from cliffs. It’s pretty mental.
Even though they used a tower in Auckland, the divers were still diving into the ocean – and with high wind conditions, a smattering of rain and a need to do some seriously tricky tricks in order to score the required points, it was hardly an easy feat. Australia’s Rhiannan Iffland secured her record seventh title in the women’s competition, while Romania’s Constantin Popovici cinched the win in the men’s. Thanks so much to Adam and the Mido team for having us.
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Jamie
Watch meme of the week: grin and bear it
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I feel personally victimised by this meme. It feels like every party I’ve been to in the last six months, I’ve ended up giving mini-seminars about watches. People ask what I do for a living and then next thing you know, I’ve spent half an hour talking some beautiful girl’s ear off about Rolex waiting lists and tourbillons…
Wrist shot of the week: a cliff diver’s dive watch
Whilst I was up the diving tower in Auckland, I had the chance to chat with British cliff diver Aidan Heslop, who at the age of 16, became the youngest diver ever to compete in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series when he dove at the 2018 season finale in Polignano a Mare, Italy. An absolutely lovely dude, he was also wearing an absolutely lovely watch: a Mido Ocean Star 200C, which he was happy to show off for us.
Time+Tide Shop pick of the week: Mido Ocean Star 200C
As it happens, we actually sell Aidan’s watch, although we offer it on a stainless steel bracelet with a diver’s extension clasp – less useful for a cliff diver who needs to save weight, but more practical for day-to-day usage. Boasting a ceramic unidirectional diving bezel, 200m of water resistance, a day-date window and an 80-hour power reserve, the Mido Ocean Star 200C is an extremely competent, practical and versatile daily wearer.
Order now from the Time+Tide Shop or at the Melbourne Discovery Studio. Price: A$1,750.
Our favourite Time+Tide coverage of the week
TAG Heuer continues the Carrera story with the new Dato Glassbox
The world of vintage Heuer is a wonderful and varied one – there’s a good reason the brand can lay claim to numerous truly iconic watches, after all. For this year’s LVMH Watch Week, TAG Heuer is paying tribute to yet another beloved model from the past, rendered in the fabulous Glassbox shape introduced last year. The TAG Heuer Carrera Dato and its dial layout will be immediately recognisable to lovers of all things Heuer, originating in the 1968 Dato 45 “Cyclops”, with this modern teal reinterpretation making it seem like a natural evolution of the original. Read Borna’s full review here.
Hublot slides into the future with the MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System Titanium
Also released at LVMH Watch Week was the tenth chapter in the ongoing MP story, the MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System Titanium: perhaps Hublot’s most avant-garde MP yet. Not only does it do away with the typical method of telling time, but it also does away with a typical automatic winding system, instead utilising a new mechanism that’s deceptively simple and arresting to watch. Here’s my full take on this crazy Hublot.
What is a hype watch? Dissecting the horological phenom
“Hype” is one of the most ubiquitous terms in watch collecting. It’s right up there with words like “iconic” and “Ouch! I just pricked my hand with this watch tool!”. On the surface, the definition of a hype watch may seem obvious. However, ask three different collectors, and you may get just as many different answers on what constitutes hype. Therefore, our contributor Adam has taken on the burden of answering the (not so) age-old question of “what is a hype watch?” once and for all, which you can read here.