Time for some more beauties

Like a child waiting for Christmas morning, watch lovers have always had to wait till January to find out what goodies that luxury brands would unveil at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) in Geneva, and in March at Baselworld in Basel.

But going for an entire year without any buzz has spurred the Richemont and Swatch groups to generate interest in the interim. So instead of cramming an entire line up over the two week-long mega watch fairs like they did for the longest time, the two Swiss giants - which produce four out of five of the luxury timepieces in the global market - spread out their launches over the 12 months.

The main rationale for this is that by showing everything all at once in SIHH or Baselworld for a limited time, only the few "star" pieces got all the at…