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New York--HD3 has introduced a new watch intended to mimic the feel of using a smartphone while Hublot continues to grow its boutique business worldwide.

“Slyde” by HD3 (below) is the brainchild of Swiss watch designer Jorg Hysek. The watch fuses the classic elements of time-keeping with the underlying principle of the smartphone--the ability to change applications or screens by swiping, or “sliding,” your finger over a tactile screen.

The battery-operated electronic watch, which charges by plugging into the wall or a computer, includes five basic digitized complications, or modules: two different basic watch faces, a moonphase, a calendar and a chronograph. Each year, HD3 plans to introduce new virtual mechanical movements that can be downloaded in limited series.

A wearer wanting to switch from the basic watch to look at the calendar or view the moonphase simply swipes their finger across the curved touchscreen. The phone also gives wearers the ability to upload up to 60 photos.

Slyde doesn’t have any telephone applications, games or other accessories among its customized modules. It is meant for time-keeping purposes only. The 48 mm, square-case watches are available in black or gray titanium or pink gold with straps in leather, printed alligator or rubber. Prices range from $6,895 to $48,000.

In June, Hublot opened its first flagship boutique in Japan on Namiki Street in Tokyo’s Ginza district. It is the brand’s 35th boutique. New York architect Peter Marino designed the space using the same concept as the new Hublot stores in Place Vendôme, Paris, which opened in December, and on Madison Avenue in New York, which opened in February.

In celebration of the store’s opening, Hublot donated 10,000 sets of Swiss Caran d’Ache colored pencils to the Japanese nonprofit Kids Earth Fund (KEF), which currently is helping children impacted by the March 11 tsunami and earthquake rebuild their lives.

Present for the store’s opening ceremony (pictured above) were sumo wrestler Sho Hakuho, football goalkeeper Seigo Narazaki, KEF founder Harumi Torii, Hublot Chief Executive Officer Jean-Claude Biver, Hublot Managing Director Ricardo Guadalupe and Emmanuel Prat, president of Hublot Japan and LVMH Japan.

Girard-Perregaux has introduced a limited-edition series within its “ww.tc” (worldwide time control) collection dedicated to legendary British watchmaker John Harrison, who lived in the late 17th to mid-18th century.

Harrison, a carpenter-cum-watchmaker, developed a watch that could keep accurate time on the high seas and won part of the prize offered by the British government when it created the Longitude Act in 1714. The act offered a cash reward to anyone who could find a method of calculating a ship’s longitude to within half a degree.

In honor of this watch pioneer, Girard-Perregaux created the “ww.tc John Harrison” (below), which is available in a limited series of only 50. The 41 mm self-winding automatic features the brand’s own GP033G0 movement, a display of world times with day/night indicator and a sapphire crystal exhibition case back.

The watch’s dial is champlevé enamel and depicts the journey Harrison’s son William made from Portsmouth, England to Port Royal, Jamaica between November 1761 to March 1762 to test the reliability of Harrison’s H-4 timepiece.

Fortis recently extended its one its classic collections with the introduction of two “Big Date” versions of its B-42 Flieger Day/Date.

The 42 mm Big Date watches are available in either a brushed steel or PVD black-coated case (below) and feature the calibre F2014 movement, exhibition case back and the ability to display the day in either German or English. The watch is water resistant to 200 meters and has luminous numbers, indices and hands.

The Big Date (below) is available beginning this month and is limited to 500 pieces of each model.