In the third and final part of our Baselworld 2013 coverage, Maria Doulton visits Harry Winston, MB&F and Zenlth to discover some rather unusual offerings that show the weird and wonderful side of watchmaking.
Among the highly unusual creations Maria encountered during the Swiss watch and jewellery show this April was MB&F's futuristic music machine - not a timepiece at all but a highly sophisticated table-top music box in the shape of a spaceship that plays a variety of tunes picked by founder Maximilian Büsser, including the theme to Star Wars and "The Wall" by Pink Floyd.
Alongside many stunning diamond jewellery watches, Harry Winston unveiled the Opus 13, which has an astonishing 59 hands. To tell the time you have to view the rippling hands through a sliding trapdoor - a complex feat in both time-telling and watchmaking.
At Zenith, the El Primero chronograph took centre stage as the watch that was strapped to the wrist of daredevil Felix Baumgartner as he who jumped out of a helium balloon 39km above the Earth last October, setting the world record for skydiving - perhaps the wackiest of all the watch stories encountered at Baselworld this year.
