With the new year, several new books on watches are scheduled for publication, and exhibitions are opening — and continuing — in locations around the world.  “Drive Time: Watches Inspired by Automobiles, Motorcycles and Racing” by Aaron Sigmond, with a forward by Jay Leno, is to be published by Rizzoli in March ($85). The book will feature more than 90 automobile-inspired watches of the early and mid-20th century, such as the Carrera and Monaco from TAG Heuer, and current collections such as the Chopard Mille Miglia and Breitling by Bentley.  A comprehensive survey of Bovet and its watches since 1822 is the focus of “The History of Bovet and China,” written by David Chang and scheduled to be published by Bovet later this year. (The Chinese version was published in 2015.)  “Patek Philippe, the Authorized Biography” tells the story of the brand founded in 1839. The 570-page book by Nicholas Foulkes, a contributing editor to Patek Philippe Magazine, is scheduled for publication during the summer by Penguin Random House. (Price to be announced.)  The Basel Historical Museum in Switzerland is gathering 70 of its most important timepieces made in Geneva in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries for “Watch This! Geneva Timepieces in Basel.” The exhibition is scheduled for March 11 to Aug. 28.  “Renaissance Clocks: Between Power and Prestige” is on display at the Diocesan Museum in Vicenza, Italy, until Feb. 14. The exhibition explores the first examples of mechanical watches made in the 15th and 16th centuries that feature only the hour hand.  Espace Horlogerie, a watch museum in Le Sentier, Switzerland, is planning a 10-month exhibition, “A James Bond’s Time.” It will debut May 27 and focus on the watches in the Bond movies.  “The Luxury of Time: European Clocks and Watches,” an examination of the interior technology and exterior artistry of timepieces from the 16th through 19th centuries, continues at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York until March 28.  “Gilded New York,” at the Museum of the City of New York, includes more than 100 exhibits — among them, timepieces such as a lady’s platinum, gold and diamond pendant watch, a man’s gold and sapphire pocket watch and fob, and a gilt bronze mantel clock — owned by the city’s wealthiest residents during the late 1800s.  The Museum of Arts and Design in New York will offer an unusual perspective with “In Time (The Rhythm of the Workshop)” from Feb. 23 to May 22. Three filmmakers are to explore the process of manufacturing through what the museum calls “time-based labor portraits” For example: Varvara & Mar’s Speed of Markets is an installation of seven metronomes set to follow and translate into rhythm the real-time trading volume of stock markets.  More than 1,000 timepieces are on display at The Clockmakers’ Museum, which recently relocated to the Science Museum in London. They tell the story of the city’s clockmakers from the 1400s to the current day.  The Musée International d’Horlogerie in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, features timepieces and wristwatches, including one that announces the time every 10 seconds in French, German and English. During 2016, the museum will highlight 12 people who had roles in timekeeping history and, each month, a different timepiece will be featured during its scheduled gallery talks. Nearby, the Musee d’Horlogerie du Locle displays hundreds of other historic timepieces in a chateau setting.
A volume on auto-inspired watches, a history of Philippe Patek and a display of James Bond timepieces are all scheduled this year.