Cartier, Gucci, Bulgari and Hublot among 48 brands to reveal their latest timepieces
Watch culture is changing, and this year’s designs are all the better for it. Industry experts weigh in on the most telling evolutions.
There is, of course, much to unpack when reflecting on new watch launches from more than 48 brands at once. Watches and Wonders, held annually in Geneva, is the world’s largest celebration of horology and this year marked its biggest turnout yet – in part because the doors to the Palexpo, where the trade event is mostly held, were opened to the public for two days over the event. It’s a move that speaks to an evolution in watch culture, and how a watch may not be truly necessary anymore but is more desired than ever.
Michael Tay, managing director of leading luxury watch retailer The Hour Glass, says he has observed a great shift in watch culture during the past few years. Tay also attended the public days of the fair because he was curious to see what kind of audience it would attract (all kinds, he says, including families with young children). He sees Watches and Wonders becoming something akin to Art Basel, an ingrained cultural event open to all, and agrees that watch culture is changing – including how timepieces are perceived and valued.
“I think social media definitely has had a huge impact … I’ve always been opposed to the idea of the watch industry being lumped under the subset of the luxury sector, because much like art, watches are collectables. I think what the pandemic has done [is] shine a spotlight on the watch industry as an industry of collectables and not as an industry of consumables. If you look at it from that perspective, that’s what the art industry is; it is an industry of collectors,” he says.
“Because of the status association [with watches], it’s always going to be locked into this idea of luxury but at the same time, it is a collectable because of the culture and tradition and heritage that is embedded into the watch and timekeeping. Timekeeping can date itself all the way back several millennia … so there is this depth of culture and tradition that exists, that extends even beyond, let’s say, the automobile.”
Tay says there is also increased appetite for the appreciation of independent watchmaking, beyond the well-known brands, especially in Australia. Meanwhile another interesting development, according to a recent report in Vogue Business, is the trend of amateur and honest YouTube reviews driving watch sales. The evolving appreciation for the culture around watches, and also how they, well, tick, is something Christian Knoop, creative director for IWC Schaffhausen, has also noticed. He agrees social media has broadened the watch community, which then has an impact on what brands are offering (this year IWC debuted a much-asked-for by its fans, and buzzed-about reissue of its Ingenier watch, a 1950s piece redesigned by the legendary Gerald Genta in the 1970s).
“Most of the customers have an incredible level of know-how when it comes to watches, when it comes to brands. I think that all communication channels, also social media and so on, help to build up this knowledge. So we have to keep up with that with a product that is very serious in every detail. And it’s not just a beautiful, nice watch, but customers want substance from us,” Knoop says.
GENDER LINES
There have been a number of other recent shifts in the watch industry, many of them reflected in the novelties shown at Watches and Wonders this year. This includes the continued blurring of lines around gender when it comes to watches – something reflected in the trend toward smaller watch sizes for men, evident at Tudor with the buzzy scale down of its classic dive watch, the Black Bay 54, to its original 37mm size, as well as at TAG Heuer and Hublot. The 39mm watch also seems to be a sweet spot for all. Yet as evidenced by musician Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye wearing a “women’s” bejewelled Piaget timepiece to the premiere of his controversial series The Idol at Cannes Film Festival in May, really anything goes when it comes to who a watch is “for”. And brands are taking note. Christian Knoop says IWC, once known for being more “macho”, has noticed more women buying the brand’s more “masculine” pieces because they appreciate the design.“Lots of women are also buying Pilot watches … they appreciate that purity and want to have this bold watch with a no-frills design,” he says.
HIGH-END FOCUS
This year there was a focus also on the high end of the market with new complications and craftsmanship at the fore. As noted in the most recent The Business of Fashion and McKinsey watches and jewellery report, an opportunity for growth in the watch sector in the next few years is in the luxury market. Tay says we’re at the beginning of the opportunities within this space.
“I think it is only natural for brands to move in that direction, and they will push further in that direction, less volume, higher value … I think we are seeing just the beginnings,” he says, noting, too, that the smartwatch has profoundly changed and challenged the entry point of the market.
The extraordinary was reflected in many ways, including technological feats such as tourbillon and retrograde display in the Hublot MP-13 Tourbillon Bi-Axis Retrograde, the Patek Philippe Calatrava 24-hour Display Time Travel, the whizzbang feats at Roger Dubuis and at Ulysse Nardin, which this year launched a new edition of its Freak watch, Freak ONE.Ulysse Nardin chief executive Patrick Pruniaux says the growing appetite for the Freak, first launched in 2001 and with no crown, dial or hands, is an example of how appreciation for haute horology has evolved. People get the why of it all.
“What I see is now this interest for the brand itself, but also for the Freak comes from the education process. If you know about watches, you understand better the revolution behind the Freak. If you only look at the watch, you’re impressed, but you don’t really know why,” Pruniaux says.
It was also a year for brands pushing already beloved timepieces along, such as Panerai, known for its hefty and distinctively shaped watches (and for being the official supplier of watches to the Royal Italian Navy), introducing a new annual calendar complication with the Panerai Radiomir Annual Calendar. Jaeger-LeCoultre, meanwhile, focused on its clean-lined Art Deco-born Reverso watch, but as with the Reverso Tribute Chronograph, reimagined its movements to create a watch with a synchronised time display running on both sides of the reversible dials, one dial with an open-work face.Jaeger-LeCoultre product design director Lionel Favre says the piece he thought the most exciting this year was the Reverso Hybris Artistica Calibre 179, which combined the wizardry of the maison’s multi-axis tourbillon with the craftsmanship of its Métiers Rares (Rare Handcrafts).
“It’s a fantastic achievement in terms of mechanism, but it’s not only a piece of mechanical art, it’s also a piece of art because there is a beautiful dial inspired by Art Deco, but also geometry … and it’s really thin, with small pieces turning in all the senses. It’s crazy in terms of mechanism,” Favre says of the Reverso, which despite evolutions has retained its essential shape and “purity” for more than 90 years.
LESS IS MORE
Another major trend in the watch industry is a move toward decreased volumes of watches sold, but at higher values. Bulgari showcased striking new additions to its lozenge-shaped Octo-Roma with a Clous de Paris motif. And chief executive Jean-Christophe Babin says the Roman jeweller focused on paring back its offerings and thus strengthening its DNA. “Everything we do has a connection with our Roman roots, our Roman lifestyle. When it comes to design, when it comes to craftsmanship. And this has made the Bulgari brand much more understandable, readable and also much sharper. We have fewer styles than before, but stronger ones,” he says. Creating an icon, he says, comes down to “consistency over time, consistency with DNA and history”.
On the topic of paring back, German watch brand A. Lange & Söhne showed just one watch, adding a self-winding chronograph to its sporty Odysseus watch; Parmigiani Fleurier was typically elegant; and Cartier showcased its original and essential Tank watch, the Tank Normale, as part of its collector-focused Privé collection. All proving that restraint can also make plenty of impact.
JEWELLERY THAT TELLS TIME
We hardly need a watch to tell the time, that’s what our phones are for. So why not have something that doubles as jewellery? At Watches and Wonders this year the most glamorous trend was sautoir necklaces, spied everywhere from Piaget, which revisited its golden era of the 1960s with its goldsmithing and coloured stone necklace watches, to Chanel, Van Cleef & Arpels and Jaeger-LeCoultre, with its necklace version of the classic Reverso watch. But there were beautiful gem-set pieces such as the new Day-Date 36 pieces at Rolex, with striking carnelian, turquoise and green aventurine dials to match; Hublot with the Big Bang Unico High Jewellery King Gold Rainbow; and Patek Philippe adding stunning baguette-cut emeralds to its most complicated watch, the Grand Complications.
Gucci also dazzled with its latest High Watchmaking collection. Pieces included the G-Timeless Planetarium, with a swirling assortment of colourful gems; the charming G-Timeless Dancing Bees, complete with a tourbillon featuring a bee motif; and a super slim iteration of its Gucci 25H, featuring a skeleton tourbillon set with baguette diamonds, as well as diamonds on the dial and bezel. Meanwhile, another big hit from the fair, Cartier’s reimagined gold Baignoire bangle, also blurred the line between timepiece and jewel, while the high jewellery pieces from the maison played beautifully with striking colour combinations and sense of volume.
Nicolas Bos, chief executive and creative director of French jeweller Van Cleef & Arpels, says the maison’s approach to time-telling will always be something different. This year it offered a slew of beguiling necklace watches, as well as a reimagining of its Ludo “secret” watch – a signature for Van Cleef & Arpels since the 1920s.
“This year I wanted to highlight the way jewellers look at watches. Which is not so much about the movement and complications but really about the jewellery component and how you can integrate a watch functionality into a jewel that can be a bracelet, a brooch, a necklace or an object … and we’ve had a very, very good response,” Bos says.
The Ludo watch, a piece reimagined from the maison’s patrimony, particularly spoke to Bos in terms of Van Cleef & Arpels’s savoir faire and storytelling. “I think it’s really typical of that vision of a secret watch that really looks like a very structured and architectural bracelet. To me it’s one of the very, very beautiful designs in the patrimony. And I like that period of the 1940s, that was somehow inspired by Art Deco but actually working more with warm colours and yellow gold, where Art Deco was very much platinum and white. And there is this idea of the playfulness of the opening mechanism that we revisited. I think it’s a piece that bridges the two categories of jewellery and watches and different periods, and also looks very relevant today.”
DIALLED RIGHT UP
Coloured dials remain a key trend, and green continues its reign. It was spied everywhere from the Oris ProPilot X Kermit to the Montblanc 1858 Iced Sea dive watch (with its beautiful “iced” dial pattern) and the Panerai Radiomir California. No watches were cheerier than the much-talked-about Rolex Puzzle and Oyster Perpetual Celebration pieces. After all, what is more day-brightening than colourful bubbles and emojis? Textured dials were another key trend, from the checkerboard on the Patek Philippe, to the hand-engraved white birch detail on the Grand Seiko manual-winding Spring Drive timepiece and the Baume & Mercier Riviera, this year celebrating its 50th anniversary with its radiant wavy dial. Baume & Mercier also introduced two new references to the range, the Riviera Azur in both black and blue.
