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Geneva, Switzerland—What can watch collectors look forward to this year? High-tech, high-touch, or just luxury all around?

The SIHH (Salon International de la Haute Horologerie) exhibition was held January 20-24 in Geneva. Sponsored by the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FH) and the Richemont brands, its exhibitors are among the world’s top prestige watch brands, and luxury jewelers from around the world come to see the new introductions. Brands include A. Lange & Sohne, Baume & Mercier, Cartier, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Montblanc, Officine Panerai, Piaget, Ralph Lauren, Roger Dubuis, Vacheron Constantin, Van Cleef &Arpels, Parmigiani Fleurier, Greubel Forsey, Richard Mille, and Audemars Piguet.

Roberta Naas, editor of ATimelyPerspective.com, reviewed some of the top introductions from SIHH 2014 on her website. Here’s an excerpt; for more detailed information on each watch, click here.

From Cartier, a new stainless steel Dive watch; 42mm with self-winding Manufacture Calibre 1904 MC, offering small seconds and calendar. Water resistant to 300 meters and is crafted in steel with an ADLC unidirectional bezel and sword-shaped hands and markers coated with SuperLuminova for easy underwater reading. 

The Cartier Dive watch with SuperLuminova dial (right) for underwater reading.

From Piaget, the Limelight Blooming Rose blends high jewelry and advanced technology in a women’s watch. At first glance, the watch has just four diamond-adorned petals, but they unfurl from a barely open rosebud to eight petals in full bloom. The upper case of the watch swivels 45 degrees on demand, thanks to an invisible mechanism. The petals are 18k white gold with approximately 260 brilliant-cut grain-set diamonds weighing 2.5 cts.; watch is powered by a Piaget 56P movement.

Piaget's blooming rose jewelry watch.

The new Jaeger-LeCoultre Hybris Mechanical Eleven (top of page) is deemed to be the thinnest minute repeating watch on the market. The minute repeater is no longer activated by the conventional slide, but instead by a patent-pending retractable single push piece at 8:00. The watch also has an all-new patented tourbillon that is fitted with a balance wheel and hairspring on it with no visual blackage; a peripheral automatic winding system with an oscillating peripheral weight crafted in platinum. The 471-part Caliber 362 was completely developed in-house by the brand’s team of engineers and watchmakers. It bears six new patents in the world of watchmaking, and uses two already-existing Jaeger-LeCoultre patents. It measures 7.9mm in thinness and 41 mm in diameter. Only 75 will be made.

Vacheron Constantin introduced the new platinum Malte Tourbillon Collection Excellence Platine. It joins the 18k rose gold Malte Tourbillon, introduced two years ago. With a curved 950 platinum Malte case, the piece features a 950 platinum dial with sandblasted finish, a tourbillon carriage at 6:00, and the 169-part mechanical hand-wound caliber 2785 with 45 hours of power reserve. Each watch—a numbered, limited-edition of 50—meets the Poincon de Genève, and precision and is accompanied by the official Geneva Seal certificate. The brand also unveiled the Malte Tourbillon High Jewelry watch, featuring 418 invisibly set baguette diamonds weighing approximately 19.6 carats. More than 100 hours of goldsmith work went into creating this piece.

Vacheron Constantin's Malte Tourbillon in platinum, left, or with 19.6 cts. of baguette diamonds, right.

In honor of its 90^th anniversary, Montblanc introduced its Star Twin Moonphase watch, with twin moonphase displays for both northern and southern hemispheres. The waxing and waning moons, as seen from the hemispheres, are mirror images of each other. The 42mm stainless steel watch also features a pointer at 6:00 showing the moon’s age in days.  The dial is guilloche’d décor, and an outer minute and seconds scale on the periphery have red accents and a date indicator. The watch, a year in the making, houses the mechanical self-winding Calibre MB4810/913, all for a relatively modest $5,100.