“We always start with the story,” explains Rainer Bernard, director for research and development at Van Cleef & Arpels. “Take our Brise d’Été. We wanted to create a garden in summer morning light with butterflies and delicate flowers moving in the breeze. It’s about poetry. We have to show how the most precious thing we have is time.”
If there was one overriding theme at this year’s Watches and Wonders, it was stories. Not just fantastical ones, like those of fairies and flower gardens at Van Cleef & Arpels, there were ones of origins; brands who were rewriting their histories creating new stories for the future, and those wanting to seek their fortunes in the stars.
“It is about poetry. We have to show how the most precious thing we have is time.”
– Rainer Bernard, Van Cleef & Arpels
Inspiration taken from the heavens and the boundless nature of time was everywhere at the fair. IWC with a little help from Professor Brian Cox, unveiled its jaw-dropping Portugieser Eternal Calendar, a watch that has been programmed to the end of time. No need to reprogramme every 400 years. Thanks to a new gear train, this watch will only deviate in accuracy by one day every 45 million years. Of course, none of us will be around to bear witness so we’ll just have to take their word for it.
The new IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar takes into account the Gregorian calendar’s complex leap year exceptions by skipping three leap years over a 400-year period.
Trilobe kept things a little more within this lifetime with a beautiful version of its Les Matinaux – L’Heure Exquise Secret. This still has Trilobe’s signature concentric circle dial construct, however, this version is customisable. You can choose a celestial map that commemorates a particular time, day and location. When put under UV light the stars on the dial illuminate, bringing that moment to life.
Left: Trilobe L’Heure Exquise Secret. Right: Jaeger-LeCoultre Duometre Quantième Lunaire
Elsewhere, moonphases dominated, as we saw on the Jaeger-LeCoultre Duometre Quantième Lunaire, equipped with a traditional expression of this function placed in the less traditional position of 10 o’clock. It wasn’t just the story of the new Duometre that Jaeger-LeCoultre was telling but also that of its founder Antoine LeCoultre, son of a blacksmith, who invented a machine to measure a micron, the millionmetre; something reflected in the emphasis on precision in the new Duometre collection.
Mademoiselle Chanel’s passions and superstitions have long provided inspiration for the Maison’s watches, but this year it was her profession that took centre stage in the Chanel novelties. Sautoirs were hung on dressmakers’ mannequins, pin cushions featured, watches were hidden in precious-metal thimbles…
The Chanel J12 Automate Couture Calibre 6 features a cartoon version of Coco Chanel making alterations to a garment.
Origins and anniversaries were also on many brands’ minds. Piaget is celebrating its 150th anniversary with a rather wonderful rummage through its archives. It resurrected sautoirs from the 1970s, brought back its Polo in all its gold glory, and took its iconic Altiplano to even more complicated realms by adding a flying tourbillon to its diminutive 3.95mm frame.
From the left: New Piaget Altiplano, featuring a flying tourbillon with a seconds indicator engraved on its ring, and Bulgari Octo Finissimo limited edition 140th anniversary.
Bulgari celebrated its 140th birthday by turning its Octo Finissimo into a sketch pad with a charming dial hand drawn by its product creation executive director Fabrizio Buonamassa.
Patek Philippe honoured 25 years of its women’s watch, the Twenty~4, with a version featuring a purple lacquered dial. Dozens of layers are applied, how many depends on the needs of each individual watch making each piece unique.
Patek Philippe Twenty~4 showing a refined dial embossed with a concentric wave pattern, coated with successive layers of translucent purple lacquer.
It has been 20 years since Chopard, along with Bovet, Parmigiani, and Vaucher, set up the Qualité Fleurier Rare Certification, which aimed to unite several tests under one horological certification of excellence. To acknowledge this milestone, it has created a version of its L.U. Chopard Chronometer for the first time in Lucent Steel, which is made from 80 percent recycled materials. There was also a comeback at Hublot, with the brand resurrecting its MP-11 first launched in 2018, now with a blue sapphire case.
Left to right: L.U. Chopard Chronometer in Lucent Steel, Hublot MP-11 in blue sapphire and Nomos Tangent 38 SportBunt.
Hublot wasn’t the only brand to get out its colouring-in books. Nomos turned its Tangente 38mm also sorts of shades. There are now 31 versions of the new Tangente, all in different colourways from the orange, blue and yellow of the SportBunt to the more muted mauve and grey of the aptly named Mauvegrün. Mauve was also the colour of choice for Vacheron Constatin’s Égérie The Pleats of Time. However, the actual talking point here was that, in collaboration with haute couture designer Yiqing Yin and master French perfumer Dominque Ropion, the Maison created a watch that is perfumed. Embedded in its strap are nanoparticles of fragrance that burst randomly when brushed against the skin.
Left to right: Vacheron Constantin Égérie The Pleats of Time, Hermès The Cut and Parmigiani Toric.
The Hèrmes Cut – which is billing as a sports watch for women – tripped the light kaleidoscopic with eight different coloured strap options as well as integrated bracelets. It was Le Corbusier’s Polychromie Architecturale – a harmonious palette of colours the Swiss-French architect and designer used to transform interiors – that served as inspiration for the redesigned Parmigani Toric. The serenely sophisticated pastels chosen for the dials and straps were taken from the 1931 selection and complemented the quiet luxury of this beautifully pared back watch to perfection. It feels as though Parmigiani can do no wrong since it has rewritten its rulebook, turning its focus away from the more flamboyant watches of its past and instead focussing on what it has termed “sartorial informality and non-ostentatious luxury”.
Bremont Terra Nova 42.5mm Chronograph, with a two counter chronograph and a polished ceramic bi-directional compass bezel.
Another brand rewriting its history is Bremont. There has been a lot of speculation about what new CEO Davide Cerrato would bring to the brand’s first-ever showing at Watches and Wonders. And the answer was “everything”. New logo, new ambassador in the form of US professional mountain athlete, filmmaker, and photographer Jimmy Chin, and a whole new focus on diving the collection into three pillars – land, air, and sea. Watches and Wonders was dedicated to land. Named the Terra Nova, the design was inspired by early 20th century military field pocket watches, with a new cushion-shaped case, new bracelet design, and new movements supplied by Sellita. It’s a bold statement of intent, one that not everyone agrees with, but it shows Cerrato isn’t afraid to embrace change.
Three of the new Rolex Oyster Perpetual models. From the left: Day-Date 40, 1908 in platinum with guilloché grain de riz motif and Deepsea in yellow gold.
Not everyone was doing an about turn. Those expecting more fireworks of the Emoji Watch kind at Rolex weren’t to be satisfied. The Crown took 2024 to go back to its more sedate style, with Day-Dates whose silicon updates were all complete, the addition of ombre dials and the new 1908 getting a platinum makeover. Though whether you can call an all-gold Rolex Perpetual Deepsea sedate depends on your personal opinion. Things were similarly “business as usual” at Tudor. Black Bays galore including monochrome versions certified by METAS – the extreme certification system of tests Tudor now carries out on the top floor of its whizzy new manufacture in Le Locle – and a fabulously outre version in 18ct yellow gold with the most sumptuous olive-green dial and bezel.
Among the new Tudor Black Bay 58 models, this version in yellow gold with olive-green dial and bezel was the star of the show.
Even Roger Dubuis was back to its old – if slightly more pyrotechnic tricks – with the new Excalibur Sunrise Double Tourbillon.
Roger Dubuis Excalibur Sunrise Double Tourbillon 45mm, featuring 108 baguette-cut colour gemstones framed by a pink gold case and bezel. Limited to 8 pieces.
First launched in 2005, its dial architecture is like nothing else and this year the brand has decided to up the ante and add a double tourbillon, as well as setting the bezel in colours meant to evoke a sunrise using 108 gems, while the watch itself is created using 17 different hand-finishing techniques. As a physical reminder of the preciousness of time, it’s certainly a rather powerful and beautiful one. We think Rainer Bernard would approve.
Words: Laura McCreddie-Doak
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