If Watches & Wonders 2024 was all about America’s Cup boats, 2025 was the year of the F1 car. On the IWC stand it appeared smashed and smoking – an actual crashed car from Brad Pitt’s summer blockbuster, F1. TAG Heuer went for a more traditional approach, giving it some stand space, while Tudor opted for suspending it, so passers-by could admire its chassis. If this had a message, it was that, for some brands at least, quiet luxury is out, and excess is in.
Simone Ashley, co-star in the F1 movie, and IWC Schaffhausen CEO, Chris Grainger-Herrat, at Watches & Wonders Geneva 2025.
Some context – in December 2024, Sean Monahan, founder of trend-forecasting group K-HOLE and the man who gave the world the terms “normcore” and “vibe shift”, decreed, in his Substack newsletter wittily titled “8Ball”, that for 2025, logo-less Brunello Cucinelli baseball caps were out, now it’s all about the “boom, boom”. Monahan described this as an “aesthetic [that] plays with the muscular patriotism of Americana”. It summons the animal spirits: performance and profit.” In reality, that meant real fur back on the catwalks; smoking (real cigarettes) on the sidewalks, and sharp suiting with even sharper shoulder pads. The world is turning into a bonfire, so let’s turn to The Bonfire of the Vanities instead, it appeared to say.
The anniversary Vacheron Constantin Traditionelle Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar in platinum with the celebratory pattern on the dial.
For the watch world, if we take Watches & Wonders as a bellwether of sorts, that manifested itself in unusual complications, big birthday launches, and platinum; lots of it. Vacheron Constantin is going all out with its 270th anniversary celebrations. In Geneva, it unveiled among other “anniversary-only” editions, a new Traditionelle Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar with a platinum case. The Traditionelle collection is the place where Vacheron Constantin puts its horological pyrotechnics, and this new addition is no exception. If packing all these complications into a relatively slim case wasn’t incredible enough, for its “anniversary year”, the Maison developed a series of new movement decorations such as the ‘côte unique’ finish on the movement’s bridges, which can be admired thanks to a peripheral rotor, as well as some beautiful Maltese Cross inspired dial patterns, all showcased on this timepiece. A. Lange & Söhne also received the “complications in a platinum case” memo. However, the German powerhouse combined its perpetual calendar with a minute repeater and an austere, rather imposing, black enamel dial that enhanced the subtle sheen of the precious metal.
The new A.Lange & Söhne Minute Repeater Perpetual with its black enamel dial, platinum case, and complex German silver finished movement.
Things were less obviously complicated at Rolex where it unveiled its first new sports watch collection in 13 years: the Land-Dweller. With its glacier-blue dial the platinum version was the audacious stand-out. It was both sport and haute, signalling Rolex making a move into higher-priced waters. Underneath those glacial hues, was something even more impressive – a brand-new escapement made of silicon. For a brand that deals in small steps, not revolutions, this is big news. That it has found a way to make a high-beat escapement more accurate and with better anti-magnetism than the Maison’s standard, which can be produced at scale, is a major win for the Crown.
Left to right: Rolex Land-Dweller in platinum on a flat Jubilee bracelet; the new movement, calibre 7135, entirely developed in-house; and the new Dynapulse mechanism that controls the timekeeping.
Perpetual calendars and minute repeaters – also seen at Jaeger-LeCoultre in an astounding Reverso with a skeleton movement – weren’t the only complications having a moment. Aside from skeletonization (see Parmigiani and its fabulously serpentine Tonda PF Skeleton), jump hours were seen in various guises. These designs, usually featuring a completely closed dial with only two small apertures for the hours and minutes, briefly had a surge in popularity in the Art Deco period of the ‘20s and ‘30s and now it seems watch designers are again exploring this quirky way of representing the time.
Left, the new Parmigiani Tonda PF Skeleton. Right, the Bremont Terra Nova Jumping Hour.
By far the most idiosyncratic was Bremont. CEO Davide Cerrato has long had a fascination with this way of time telling. On this occasion, he chose to place it in the rugged tonneau Terra Nova case, make the dial an inky black, and flip the time indication on its side, with the hours and minutes at 9 o’clock read from left to right. The result is a watch with a split personality. On the bracelet, it feels sporty and a bit ‘70s. On the accompanying black gradient leather strap, it is muscular yet elegant, with a more after-dark vibe. To compare it to Bonds, the former is Roger Moore and the latter definitely Daniel Craig.
Reverse side and front dial of the new Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Nonantième Enamel
The Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Nonantième Enamel, with its celestial blue enamel dial sprinkled with gold stars, is probably more Bond girl territory. It has the traditional “figure of eight” formation, with the hours in a small circle at 12 and the minutes revealed below it, at the six. As with all Reversos, flip the case and this wonderfully extravagant dial is replaced with a more sedate one, albeit one with rose gold indices and a moonphase.
There is nothing extravagant about Cartier’s addition to this canon. It is plain almost to the point of perversion and all the more desirable for it. Practically a straight reproduction of the Tank à Guichets from 1928, there is only hour and minute openings on the dial – their monochrome indicators alone in a plate of brushed gold or platinum that allows you to appreciate the geometrical form of the Tank’s instantly recognisable case.
Cartier Prive Tank à Guichets in (from left) platinum, yellow gold and rose gold, with the platinum “Oblique” (far right) limited to 200 pieces.
Restraint was definitely not the buzzword du jour at Hublot, which decided to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Big Bang with five models of the watch in each one of the brand’s innovative materials, such as King Gold and red ceramic. However, it also came to the party with its “Materials and High Complications” set featuring tourbillons, minute repeaters, skeletons, and more red ceramic, presented in a back-lit box and yours for over $1 M.
Roger Dubuis Excalibur Biretrograde Calendar (left) and Excalibur Grande Complication (right).
Also celebrating an anniversary was Roger Dubuis, though not of a watch but of the brand itself. Founded in 1995 by a watchmaker himself in partnership with designer Carlos Dias, the brand commemorated 30 years in business by playing its greatest hits. In this case, that meant the Excalibur Biretrograde Calendar – the first watch designed by the duo –– and the Excalibur Grande Complication from 2009, both of which feature the pair of asymmetrical retrograde scales that are a signature of Dubuis.
Right, new Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Monoface Small Seconds with a Milanese bracelet. Left, Rolex 1908 in yellow gold on the new Settimo bracelet.
In keeping with the general “opulence” vibe shift, full gold was everywhere with yellow and rose taking that “boom boom” aesthetic and running with it. Jaeger-LeCoultre deployed 16 metres of the precious metal to make the first-ever Milanese bracelet for its Reverso, while Rolex introduced an entirely new seven-link gold construction, appropriately named the Settimo, for the 1908. IWC and Patek Philippe brought out two designs that could almost work as a “his and hers” pairing – the fabulous Ingenieur 40 Gold and the round Twenty~4 Automatic, which has also been given a its first-ever complication upgrade and is now a fully-fledged perpetual calendar.
Like the proliferation of haute joaillerie watches at the likes of Chanel, Cartier and Bulgari, these watches signal that when it comes to watchmaking we appear to have moved on from the subtle – the vintage reissues, the timepieces that conceal their price tags in simplicity and those that exude an “if you know, you know” quality. Now it’s all about wearing your wealth on your wrist. After all it’s less flashy, more ethical and definitely more practical than a private jet. Though the buyers of these watches can probably afford at least one of those too.
Author: Laura McCreddie-Doak
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