SIHH preview: Eight new watches coming in 2017

The new year won't truly begin until, well, midnight on Sunday, January 1. But for the people who make and market the most impeccable timepieces that tell you it's midnight, the year won't begin until January 16, when the 27th annual Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie will open in Geneva.

The coming edition of SIHH will usher 30 exhibitors – a mix of Richemont-owned houses and independent artisan brands-into a convention centre to show their latest wares, thereby setting the tone for 2017.

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What trends should we expect to detect? Which will emerge, among exclusive watchmakers, as the leader of the pack? Only time will tell. Time-and the tip sheet below, wherein we preview eight noteworthy new pieces.

Girard-Perregaux 1966 WW.TC

The sober style of the dressy dial; the mirror-image second crown for adjusting the city disc; and the typographic play of lightness and heft: This worldtimer exhibits a great sense of balance.

Montblanc 1858 Chronometer Tachymeter Limited Edition in Bronze

The warm gleam of the 44-millimeter case harmonises with a Champagne dial and a cognac alligator strap. Working with bronze for the first time, Montblanc goes for the gold.

Piaget Altiplano

The 60th anniversary Altiplano arrives in two styles, a self-winding 43 millimetres and a manual 38mm. Each is sumptuously lean, with a clean dial of a blue richer than cobalt and a strong claim to be the ultimate in ultra-thin design.

Bulgari Lady Finissimo Tourbillon

Though the brand doesn't show at SIHH, it will unveil new collections in Geneva around the same time. This year, Bulgari will boast that its new complicated watch for women is, at 1.95 millimetres, the thinnest currently in production.

IWC Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar Chronograph

This is a reinvention of a beloved classic line for IWC, the Da Vinci watches. Configured with a four-digit display of the year, this watch will need a new, two-digit century slide after 2299, so be sure to set a Google Calendar reminder for that.

Ulysse Nardin Classico Rooster

Rare is the timepiece that tells the year, so the Classico Rooster, celebrating the incoming sign of the Chinese Zodiac, really is something to crow about. In an enamelling technique called champlevé, artisans took chisels to the dial to carve cells later filled with enamel to render un coq sportif.

Breguet Tradition Dame 7038

As they say in South Pacific, there is nothing like a dame. The inaugural ladies' watch in Breguet's Tradition features 68 brilliant-cut diamonds in its bezel and the brand's distinctive fluting on the band of its 18-carat white gold case.

Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda Métrographe

Cultists will note that the latest version of this contemporary classic driving watch adds a tachymeter scale and tweaks the subdials in the direction of tech-chic sporty elegance.

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