DeWitt chose to withdraw from Baselworld and to host its partners from April 25th to May 2nd 2013 “at home” in its watchmaking Manufacture. “The Basel Fair with the massive means now deployed by the big groups does not enable us to make our subtler messages properly heard, and we would be lost in the crowd there,” explains Viviane Jutheau de Witt, CEO. “We want to share our hand-crafted expertise and our values of exclusivity, nobility and authenticity. When people have seen for themselves the complexity of the operations required to create the movements and the range of artisan-type professions that unite in crafting the dials; when they have admired the museum of 18th and 19th century watchmaking tools and appreciated the architectural beauty of the Manufacture, the entire perception of the DeWitt adventure and of its watches will be profoundly different. A personalised welcome can only strengthen the ties we cultivate with our partners.”
A tribute to the new emperors
DeWitt’s tenth anniversary is also marked by the launch of a new advertising campaign addressed to the “new emperors”. Among the illustrious forebears of brand founder Jérôme de Witt, including several crowned heads of Europe, is the Emperor Napoleon the First. DeWitt is “drawing on its rich origins and to projecting towards the present and the future by focusing on the new emperors of today and tomorrow, men and women all over the world who have achieved success.” In a nod to its history, the brand offers a reinterpretation of its ancestor’s famous hand-in-waistcoat gesture through understated and elegant visuals appearing in both masculine and feminine versions. The “Revolutionary by Tradition” signature accentuates the message of a watchmaker with a bold vision, that of “building a different type of Haute Horlogerie that is noble and authentic, combining age-old expertise and exceptional technical excellence.”
New Twenty-8-Eight models
The new visuals feature watches from the Twenty-8-Eight collection. In another nod to Napoleon, this collection was conceived on August 28th, as a tribute to the man who was proclaimed “Emperor of the French” on the 28th of Floréal in the Republican Calendar. In 2013, it welcomes two new tourbillon models, issued in 99-piece limited series, as well as two new retrograde seconds models. The Twenty-8-Eight Tourbillons play on contrasts with daring combinations of white gold and glacier-toned PVD-coated titanium, or pink gold and bronze-toned PVD-coated titanium. The dials associate Art Deco inspired vertical appliques with a beaded circle surrounding the tourbillon carriage. The Twenty-8-Eight Retrograde Seconds models introduce a grade 5 neotitanium case. Their highly graphic dials available in two colour variations are distinguished by a raised sunburst motif.
Anniversary limited series
Glacier- or bronze-toned titanium also features in the cases of the Academia Mirabilis watches released in 2013: watches that are openworked like the fascinating “Mirabilis” or “Belles de nuit” (four o’clock or marvel of Peru) nocturnal flowers that open only at dusk. Meanwhile the New Academia Grande Date and Hora Mundi are the first to appear in steel-clad versions. Graced with revisited dials and fitted with steel bracelets or rubber straps, they radiate a lifestyle aura that is intended for a youthful and dynamic clientele, these special anniversary watches are issued in 200-piece limited editions.
