1. Silicon Components in the Escapement – Ulysse Nardin
Year: 2001
Using high tech, low inertia anti-magnetic silicon components that need no lubrication was pioneered by Ulysse Nardin, soon to be followed by Patek Philippe, Breguet and others.
2. Double Tourbillon 30° – Greubel Forsey
Year: 2004
This tourbillon is a milestone in tourbillon chronometry with innovative architecture, finishing, and performance. The efficiency of a tourbillon positioned at 30° was proved when the brand won the Chronometry Competition.
3. Triple-axis tourbillon – Thomas Prescher.
Year: 2004
In 2004, the same year the Swiss watch industry reported a record 11 billion Swiss Francs in exports, this first of many triple axis tourbillons to come brought the mesmerising escapement to new dizzying heights.
4. Floating Lugs – De Bethune
Year: 2006
The floating lugs from innovative brand De Bethune shows that ergonomic design concepts can co-exist with technical provess and material exploration.
5. Moon phase module – Ochs and Junior
Year: 2006
With an additional five parts Ochs and Junior showed that you can transform a standard movement into also showing a correct moon phase for 3,478.27 years before it is off by one day.
6. Forged Carbon cases – Audemars Piguet
Year: 2007
A Le Brassus-based family owned brand was first out of the blocks using this ultra-light, ultra-resistant composite materials for cases and components.
7. Dynamometric crown Torque-limiting crown – Richard Mille
Year: 2008
For the manual pocket watch RM 020 Richard Mille introduced the crown with an in-built additional security system prevents accidental overwinding, which can cause a lot of damage or excessive wear and tear.
8. Peripheral Rotor - Carl F Bucherer
Year: 2008
The Caliber CFB A1000 featured the ingenious peripheral rotor system with DLC glides and ceramic ball bearings on spring-retained rockers, which gives an undisturbed view of the movement.
9. 1/1’000th of a second chronograph – TAG Heuer
Year: 2011
The Mikrotimer flying 1’000 took mechanical high-frequency solutions for fragmental time measuring to extreme heights.
10. Le Temps Suspendu – Hermès
Year: 2011
On demand this movement by Agenhor put the hands on an impossible v-position thus “suspending time,” letting you live your life in your own pace. In the meantime, the watch keeps recording the time, and whenever you want, you can return to correct time.
11. Hora Mundi – Breguet
Year: 2011
Enables the display of two pre-selected time zones, with instant transitioning from one to the other by a single push.
12. Fluidic Time Display by HYT.
Year: 2012
Inspired by clepsydras, HYT introduced fluidic time display in 2012.
13. Oilfilled display – Ressence
Year: 2013
With type 3 B, winner of the Horological Revelation prize at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève in 2013, Ressence created a new visual experience by filling the top case with oil.
14. Magnetic Regulator – Breguet
Year: 2013
Magnets was considered an enemy of chronometry – until 2013, when Breguet introduced the Classique Chronométrie 7727. This featured a balance stabilized by magnetic pivots, which dramatically reduced friction and improved chronometry.
15. Anti-Magnetic Mechanical Watches – OMEGA
Year: 2013
The same year that one million fake Swiss watches were seized and destroyed in order to combat counterfeiters, OMEGA introduced the Master Chronometer. Thanks to silicon and non-ferrous materials, it has a resistance above 15’000 gauss, the equivalent of industrial strength magnets or MRI scanners.
16. Crown operated perpetual calendar – Greubel Forsey
Year: 2015
The Quantieme Perpétuel à Équation from Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey showed that a QP can be operated in a user-friendly way by the crown.
17. Minute repeater crystal gongs – Chopard
Year: 2016
Chopard co-CEO Karl-Friedrich Scheufele said the idea for sapphire crystal gongs was born when he tapped the wine glass in a meeting telling his team, “this is the kind of sound we want in our repeater.”
18. Resonance Clutch spring – Armin Strom
Year: 2016
With the Mirrored Force Resonance Armin Strom created a wristwatch which harnesses the phenomenon resonance for improved chronometry.
19. Monobloc Silicon Oscillator – Zenith
Year: 2017
The Zenith Defy with a new movement without a traditional hairspring had a very high frequency of 15 Hz and an excellent accuracy with a daily rate of ± 0.3 seconds. This kind of technology was soon to be explored further by, for instance, TAG Heuer and Frederique Constant.
20. Krayon Everywhere
Year: 2017
Set longitude, latitude, day, and date, and this watch will show you the correct time year around for sunrise and sunset – an ingenious feat which awarded Krayon the Innovation Prize at Grand Prix Horlogerie de Genève.
21. Agengraphe Resonance Clutch Chronograph – Agenhor
Year: 2017)
First used by Fabergé, the independent watchmaker Agenhor developed the chronograph movement with all hands on a central axis. The movement gained more fame when used by Singer Reimagined and H Moser & Cie.
22. GMT Rattrapante Parmigiani
Year: 2022
With two time zones operated in a rattrapante manner Parmigiani revolutionized the life of world travellers.
23. The Ultra-Thin Revolution – Bvlgari
Year: 2024
Mechanical watches under 2 mm thick thanks to innovative solutions has been a race between Piaget, Richard Mille and Bvlgari, whose Octo Finissimo Ultra COSC Mark II is the current record holder with a case thickness of 1.7 millimeter.
24. Time Zone accuracy – Bovet
Year: 2024
With the Recital 28 "Prowess 1", Bovet proved that a mechanical world timer can take both daylight saving and 30-minute timezones into consideration, thus showing the proper time year around, whereever you are.
25. Carbon Hairspring – TAG Heuer
Year: 2025
The new kid on the block when it comes to alternative materials for hairsprings: lab-grown extremely stable and reliable carbon hairsprings, which are being utilized more and more by TAG Heuer.
