As the first official day of Baselworld 2014 Watch Fair (in Basel, Switzerland) comes to its end I would like to share some of the most interesting novelties I’ve seen so far. Unlike many bloggers and publications I’ve decided to start off with the independent brands, making my way to ‘The Palace’ – a house of independent watch makers, which I personally prefer to the bigger halls because of the space, lighting and an ability to breathe ? Of course I would not talk about each brand and each watch in detail as it would be too much reading for you, but I will however mention the best and most eye-catching watches I’ve seen so far. Starting with the top of my personal list is the LindeWerdelin’s new Spidospeed.

Baselworld 2014 First Day – Linde Werdelin

For the ones of you who don’t know what Linde Werdelin is about – it’s a Swiss made, London based brand created in Denmark by two friends who shared creative ideas and passion for horology, design and extreme sports like skiing and diving. Due to their common interests 2 collections were born – the Oktopus (for the divers) and the Spido (for the skiers). Many of you who know the brand have most probably already seen the older version of the Spidospeed, the original made of steel, titanium or gold. This year though they are taking it to a whole new level. With the Spidospeed being completely skeletonized and complemented with a new movement ‘LW06’ it looks like a completely new line of watches, and only the spider-looking case gives it away.

Speaking of the case, it is made either of 18K rose gold or forged carbon and skeletonized just like the dial and the movement of the timepieces. Next to the titanium DLC pushers for the chronograph you can see text saying ‘Start’ and ‘Reset’ as well as a very nice engraving of a spider on the crown. And on the see-through case back of the Spidospeed we can also see a new rotor that was developed just for this model with the brand’s logo engraved in it and an indication of the right winding direction. LindeWerdelin basically managed to create a very serious and competitive piece and at the same time keep it casual and fun for the wearer.

Each model will be limited to 99 numbered pieces with retail prices of CHF 21,000 (ex-VAT) for the forged carbon version and CHF 32’000 (EX-vat) for the rose gold one. In my opinion this watch definitely deserved the recognition it got in the first day of Basel and it will most probably be the next best seller for the brand.

Baselworld 2014 First Day – Arnold & Son

Another novelty from Basel among the independent watch brands is my personal favorite classic watch from the fair so far – the new Arnold & Son DSTB. The ‘Dial Side True Beat’ timepiece focuses on one of the most underrated and misunderstood complications in the industry – the true beat (or the jumping) seconds. As many people confuse these watches with quartz they do not realize how much time and effort it takes to create such an unusual for a mechanical watch ‘modification’. Instead of a flowing seconds counter the hand jumps from one second to the next.

So the idea here was to show the ‘DSTB’ in a way so that people outside of the industry would see the complication, and not just the seconds hand on the dial – hence the first part of the name – ‘Dial Side’. You can see the large indicator of the jumping seconds at the left upper part of the big dial, while the smaller subdial on the right indicates the hours and minutes.

The anchor next to the seconds is also a very nice finishing touch by the brand – it acts as a lever for the seconds, and as it is always moving it creates a very dynamic but not a busy dial. As other novelties by Arnold and Son this year the model was made especially to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the brand, and it will be a limited edition of only 50 pieces with a retail price of just below 50’000$. It might not be a cheap watch, but it is definitely worth every cent of this tag.

This was only the first one in the series of the upcoming Baselworld 2014 articles, and next time make sure to tune in for more of this year’s just released novelties!

Credits @ Photos by Adam Priscak and James Cole for DreamChrono Watch Blog.