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12 | TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2009 INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

Style
The Chairman
smart phone, at
left, created by
Ulysse Nardin,
combines cellphone
and luxury watch
technologies, while
the SolarImpulse
project, sponsored
by Omega, has
been working to de-
velop a new cockpit
device, at right. The
project’s aim is to
create an airplane
(prototype pictured
below) that can cir-
cumnavigate the
ULYSSE NARDIN
globe powered by
the sun.

Collaborations
between watch
companies and
their partners can
be born from prac-
ticality, like the Jae-
ger-LeCoultre’s
Rapide Transpon-
der Watch, above, JAEGER-LECOULTRE

which includes a
‘‘Find Me’’ function
to help Aston Mar-
tin owners locate
their cars. Safety is
another big moti-
vator. A few years
ago Breitling intro-
duced the Breitling
Emergency watch,
at right, with air-
plane crews in
mind. It has been
credited with help-
ing to save the lives
of more than 20
people.

PHOTOGRAPHS FROM OMEGA BREITLING

A symbiotic friendship
of mechanical precision
PARIS
Luxury watch brands
look both to aid and to
learn from their partners
BY JESSICA MICHAULT
The luxury watch industry has been
picking favorites for years. Watch
brands have long linked themselves so
closely to the same sporting events and
institutions that it is hard to imagine one
without the other.
Think of Omega, and the Olympics or
NASA comes to mind. Mention Breitling
and talk turns to airplanes or Bentleys.
The TAG Heuer brand will forever be
tied to automobile races. The company
Ulysse Nardin has tethered itself to the
nautical world and sea sports.
Over time these relationships, which
might have started out as straight-up
sponsorship deals or marketing gim-
micks used to tap in to a fan base, have
slowly grown into something more.
Today it is no longer enough for watch
brands to create commemorative
timepieces to act as souvenirs for a
sporting event or a milestone an-
niversary. Now the brands are using
their craftsmanship and technological
advancements to benefit the many in-
dustries they have been affiliated with
over the years.
‘‘The watchmaking world has always
been very connected to innovations in
technology, especially since — by defini-
tion — a watch is supposed to be the most
accurate instrument to measure time,’’
says John Simonian, the chairman and
founder of Westime, a Los Angeles-
based luxury timepiece retailer. ‘‘Now,
new technologies are becoming a part of
our daily lives, including mobile phones,
GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth and MP3 players.
Slowly but surely those new technologies
will be integrated into the watch world.’’
Some of these innovations are
already starting to show up at the major
watch fairs.
They can be born from practicality,
like the Jaeger-LeCoultre’s AMVOX2
Rapide Transponder Watch created in
collaboration with Aston Martin. The al-
liance resulted in a watch that has a
built-in transmitter that can lock or un-
lock the owner’s Aston Martin from a
distance. The mechanical watch also in-
cludes a ‘‘Find Me’’ function that when
activated will send a signal to the car to
turn on the headlights for several
seconds, without unlocking the car.
Safety is another big motivator for
watch brands to come up with new con-
cepts. A few years ago Breitling intro-
duced the Breitling Emergency watch
with pilots and airplane crews in mind.
It has a built-in transmitter that can
broadcast a signal on a distress fre-
quency and is credited with helping to
save the lives of more than 20 people
since it went into production. Then
there is the independent watch brand
Linde Werdelin, which has created at-
tachments called ‘‘The Rock’’ and ‘‘The
Reef,’’ among many others, that can be
clipped on to the company’s watches to
give the wearer an external tempera-
ture sensor or pressure sensor.
Other technological advancements in
the watch world can be more intuitive in
nature. TAG Heuer tapped into its
watchmaking heritage and the brand’s
expertise in micromechanics when it
decided to introduce Meridiist, its lux-
ury mobile phone line, earlier this year.
But it was Ulysse Nardin that was fi-
nally able to combine cellphones and
luxury watches with its new Chairman
smart phone. The first hybrid cellphone,
it has a battery that can be charged by
electricity but also by the kinetic energy
created from a built-in rotor, which is
exactly how mechanical watches like
Ulysse Nardin’s are powered.
Meanwhile, Omega has taken the
company’s advancements to a new level
with its latest collaboration.
The SolarImpulse project has been
sponsored by Omega since its inception
six years ago. The project is a prototype
airplane that has been designed to
travel nonstop around the globe
powered solely by the sun’s rays. Last
month the airplane tested its engines
for the first time, with a flight test sched-
uled to begin by spring of next year.
Omega’s commitment to the project
did not stop with funding. The company’s
engineers were enlisted to create key
components of the airplane. Since it has a
long wingspan in proportion to its fuse-
lage, stability was a major concern. The
astronaut Claude Nicollier, who is on the
board of directors of the Swatch Group,
which owns Omega, worked with the
watch brand to come up with something
called the Omega Instrument. It is a cock-
Linde Werdelin has
created watch at-
tachments like
‘‘The Rock,’’ above,
which includes a
temperature sensor
useful for skiers.
pit device that indicates the flight path on
a horizontal scale of light bars and the
angle of the wing on vertical scales.
The endurance required of a round-
the-world trip also brought up the issue
of pilot safety. Omega created a vibrat-
ing jacket that acts as a physical alarm
system for the pilot to inform him if the
inclination of the airplane wings has
changed dramatically. Vibrations in one
or the other sleeve of the jacket indicate
which wing of the plane needs to be re-
aligned.
‘‘It’s not the watch technology as
much as the peripheral expertise we’ve
gathered over the years, along with cer-
tain core production values: It’s all
guided by our attention to detail,’’ said
Stephen Urquhart, the president of
Omega, about the underlying appeal of
the collaboration. ‘‘Watchmakers are
perfectionists.’’
The Omega partnership with Solar-
Impulse has yet to show how working
on a solar-powered airplane will make a
better luxury watch. But harnessing the
micromechanics and microelectronics
expertise of watchmakers, for assign-
ments that fall outside of their field of
expertise, challenges watch brands and
their employees in creative and innova-
tive ways. The insights gained from
these new kinds of collaborations are
sure to continue to keep the traditional
world of watchmaking on its toes.
Omega created a vibrating
jacket to alert airplane pilots if
the inclination of the airplane
wings changed dramatically.
LINDE WERDELIN