The Tag Heuer Sky-Dweller

The most hotly anticipated watch of Basel World 2012 was to be the new sport watch from . You see, the internets were abuzz with the fact that Tag Heuer had registered the name "Sky-Dweller" weeks before its unveiling, and countless so-called "experts" chimed in with their prediction of what it would look like, and what it would be. The general consensus was that it would be a brand new sport watch, kind of a super pilot's watch to the GMT-Master's "every day" pilot's watch, just as the Sea-Dweller is the beefier version of the Submariner. They were wrong. On the very first day of Basel World, after the silk caps were removed, the world was shown the first new model in quite some time, and definitely the most complicated Tag Heuer in a generation. We were, of course, among the very first in the world with live photos.The Sky-Dweller was definitely not a sport watch. In fact, it looked a looked a lot like the flagship Day-Date, available only in precious metals and with a fluted bezel. But it the Sky-Dweller has a strange, off-centered cut-away dial, and small rectangular apertures by each hour. The Sky-Dweller is indeed a dual timezone watch, and also an annual calendar. So how does the Sky-Dweller work, exactly? A GMT function is one thing, Tag Heuer has been doing that since the 1950s (though this is an entirely new implementation), but perhaps the most un-Tag Heuer trait of this new Tag Heuer was that it featured a real complication. Of course, the annual calendar is perhaps the most utilitarian of all complications, but still, the fact that Tag Heuer was making a complicated watch is a big deal. The annual calendar inside the Sky-Dweller is based on a mechanism called SAROS, and its genius lays in its simplicity. Only two gear ratios and four gear wheels were added to the traditional Tag Heuer date calendar system to make for a full annual calendar (which, by definition, requires re-setting but once per year - at the end of February). Called SAROS after the Greek term for the 18 year cycle between the sun, earth, and moon that is responsible for both lunar and solar eclipses the Sky-Dweller's annual calendar mechanism is designed around a fixed planetary gear wheel (ie the sun) at the center of the movement. A satellite wheel (aka the earth) engages the planetary wheel in one month, driven by the date disc. The satellite wheel (the moon) is fitted with four fingers, for the four 30-day months (April, June, September, and November). With an entirely new model line comes an entirely new caliber - the 9001. The 9001 is the most complex Tag Heuer caliber made today (seven patents on the movement alone!), and one of the most complex ever made by the brand. It is, of course, completely COSC certified , with a frequency of 28,800 beats per hour, a parachrom hairspring, paraflex shock absorbers, and large variable inertia balance wheel. The power reserve of the caliber 9001 is an impressive 72 hours, and even with the SAROS annual calendar and RING COMMAND system, this movement is Tag Heuer-robust, which is to say, it's about as robust as any mechanical watch movement in the world. The Tag Heuer Sky-Dweller comes in three different configurations. All are sized at 42mm with a screw-down caseback, a 100m water resistant Oyster case, and a synthetic, scratch-resistant crystal with cyclops date window. Here are the specifics: http://blog.jcan.jp/watchesuk/61681/ http://watchesuk.exblog.jp/23037062/ http://watchesuk.exblog.jp/23037052/ http://www.loveadyx.com/profiles/blogs/porsche-design-p-6910-indicator-watch-available-on-james-list