1. Cartier Santos
The innovative Cartier Santos is the first pilot watch. At the turn of the 20th century, watches were women's jewelry, but men didn't like them. All this changed with the appearance of the first airplane and watches made for fearless pilots.
Alberto Santos-Santos Dumont, a Brazilian inventor, is a good friend of Louis Cartier. He complained to his friends that he couldn't take his pocket watch out of his pocket to tell the time during the experimental flight. Cartier received the demand and developed the first pilot watch for it in 1904: Cartier called it "Santos", and its original functions included the famous convex crown, Roman numerals and rail pattern marks. The unique exposed screws on the baffle (decades earlier than Audemars Piguet Royal Oak) can be regarded as aircraft rivets. When it is pushed out, its square shape helps to emphasize its wrist-wearing purpose and distinguish it from the circular pocket watch.
The most distinctive function of Cartier Santos is that it is a men's watch and also leads the future trend.
2. Rolex Date Adjustment Log Type
The common 3 o'clock date window comes from Rolex Datejust journal introduced by 1945.
Just before the date appears, calendar watches usually display the date on the periphery of the dial and indicate the date with the middle pointer.
Rolex's contribution is simple and pragmatic. Compared with the relatively complicated and expensive calendar watches, Rolex's target market is more ordinary consumers (although the first Datejust watch is a gold watch). The Rolex Datejust Ref.4467 of 1945 has a diameter of 36 mm, and its unique date window is arranged at three o'clock-below it is the date dial of 3 1 day, which jumps around midnight and the date is adjusted by the crown.
Since then, the 3 o'clock date window has become a standard. Now you can ask the sales of any watch company: watches with simple and really useful date display function sell best.
3. Hamilton Ventura
When Hamilton Ventura became the first battery-powered watch in 1957, he was ahead of the times in technology and aesthetics.
Before this, the watch was completely mechanical and slowly loosened by the energy of the clockwork. After World War II, with the continuous development of electronic technology, the battery has finally become small enough to be put into clocks and watches to replace clockwork as power, but a new type of movement needs to be developed. Hamilton was the first company to sell this kind of watch.
Ventura is driven by a Cal.500 movement, which looks like a traditional mechanical movement in some respects: it uses a gear train and a balance wheel, and its vibration mode is similar to that of a traditional mechanical movement. This is obviously a transitional technology. Hamilton didn't have the last laugh in the trend of electronic watches. In the end, the timely movement invented by Seiko changed the rules of the game of the whole industry.
4. Radar disaster
DiaStar is the first ceramic watch.
1962 DiaStar came out, which represented a milestone in the clock industry and became "the first scratch-resistant watch in the world", although the material was tungsten carbide, not zirconia, the most common form in clock ceramics.
It was not until the 1980 s that the ceramics in watchmaking industry really began to rise, and this technology actually began in recent years. Now almost every big brand has launched a watch with an all-ceramic shell. (Even the Apple Watch comes with an advanced version of the ceramic case option. DiaStar in 1962 also uses sapphire crystal watches, which have become the standard of luxury watch crystals until today. We can't help but admire the foresight of radar in the field of materials.
5. Omega Motorized Altman Chronograph
1On July 6th, 969, Apollo 1 1 was launched into orbit from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Four days later,1July 20, 969, it landed on the surface of the moon. It was equipped with commander neil armstrong, command module pilot michaeljohn collins, lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin and Omega Ultraman motorized Altman chronograph to accompany Armstrong to the surface of the moon.
The mobile Altman worn by astronauts is the result of rigorous testing and screening by NASA: Omega, Longines-Wittnauer, Rolex and Hamilton all took part in the test, and only Omega chronograph performed satisfactorily. This should be the highest glory of the chronograph.
6. Seiko Astron quartz watch
The Seiko Astron introduced by 1969 is the first quartz watch in the world.
Seiko won the championship in the market competition of automatic chronograph, and also launched the world's first quartz watch!
Seiko Shi Ying Astron represents a technological breakthrough. The tuning fork oscillator of this watch provides Astron movement with amazing accuracy of only +/- 5 seconds per month for 3 months, far exceeding any mechanical movement. The small and slender stepping motor only moves the second hand once per second, which saves energy and is a new development of watches. Practice has proved that the oscillator has high impact resistance and can work at very low voltage, thus ensuring the battery life for one year. Interestingly, quartz watches are famous for their cheap watches. The first quartz watch is definitely the price of a luxury car, 18k gold case.
Needless to say, Seiko triggered a timely crisis in the whole industry, and more than half of Swiss brands died!
7. Citizen X-8
1970 The innovative Citizen X-8 is the first titanium alloy watch in the world.
Most watches are made of stainless steel. This is a good watchmaking material, but lighter and stronger metal is definitely better. Titanium alloy used in aviation field is the best, light in weight, not easy to be allergic and magnetized. But before the 1970s, no watchmaking brand could have thought of this. Because the welding process of titanium alloy was still a strange high-tech at that time.
This honor belongs to the Japanese watchmaker Citizen, which produced only about 2000 titanium X-8 timepieces in 1970. The case, bezel and crown of X-8 are said to be made of 99.6% pure titanium. At a price of 45,000 yen (the exchange rate at that time was about 42 1 USD), it was one of the most expensive watches when the brand went public (about 2788 USD in 2020). Today, the titanium alloy experts in the watch industry are still Citizen, and the Swiss counterparts may have launched one titanium alloy watch after another-but in fact, none of them have the processing ability of titanium alloy cases.
8. Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Watch
1970, Genta received a phone call from George Gray, managing director of Audemars Piguet. Audemars piguet is close to bankruptcy and needs some miracles to survive. Golay asked Genta to design a waterproof steel sports watch for French and Italian dealers, and he hoped to finish it the next day. Genta designed the Royal Oak overnight with pencil and paper.
This watch goes against everything that Audemars Piguet knows.
This steel sports watch has an integrated bracelet with eight large screws visible on the octagonal bezel. Associated Press executives don't think so, but they have no choice but to bet on this unproven design. A few years later, Martin Wehrli, curator of Audemars Piguet Museum, recalled, "At the Basel Watch Exhibition in 1972, the royal oak watch was displayed in a small exhibition hall beside the avenue. Everyone saw that it was really big, and then walked out of 10 meter and said,' You can buy Audemars piguet in six months. AP will definitely go bankrupt. "
The revolutionary genius of design lies in the integration of case and bracelet: the watch and bracelet are designed as a whole, not a strap and a bracelet. Steel has been brushed, polished and faceted, just like a jeweler treats gold. The protruding screws on the bezel once again refute the orthodox view that humble parts should be disguised and hidden.
Royal Oak has created a brand-new market segment-luxury sports watches! Although the sales of the first 1000 was slow at that time, this trend has intensified for decades, and the premium of the new Royal Oak 15500ST has doubled, which is really embarrassing.
Deformed Athens
Silicon is the future of the mechanical watch industry, originally used by Ulysse Nardin for avant-garde and revolutionary deformed watches.
Freak is the iconic work of 200 1. This is the ellipsis on the watch. It has neither hands, dial nor crown. The movement itself shows the time, and the front and back of the case contain sapphires. The main board rotates every twelve hours, which can be used as both a dial and a hand. The minute hand is replaced by an arrow-shaped bridge, which rotates once an hour and points to the number on the ring. The main case engaged with the movement is reused as a crown.
Freak's long-term reliability and less service frequency. It all started with the double escapement of silicon. Ulysse Nardin was the first watchmaker to take advantage of the extraordinary performance of silicon and apply it to watch movements.
10. Apple Watch
In 20 15, Apple introduced the first generation of Apple Watch. By Q4 of 20 17, the shipments of Apple Watch have exceeded the total shipments of mainstream Swiss watch brands. It can be said that the sales of Apple watches have defeated the Swiss watch industry. In 20 19, the global sales volume of Apple Watch was 3 1 10,000, while the total sales volume of all Swiss watch brands was 2 1 10,000. It shows that this trend is still expanding.
Apple's emphasis on health and fitness makes the positioning of Apple Watch different from that of Swiss watches, which are positioned as jewelry and fashion accessories. But compared with fashion and charm, Apple's health and fitness are more attractive to users, and these two value propositions are exactly what we are pursuing today. In the wearable device market, no one can find a better solution than Apple.
The popularity of Apple Watch also benefits from the stronger ecosystem created by iPhone, iPad and other Apple brand products. Although Swiss watch companies also sell smart watches, they run on the Android ecosystem.