The best new releases from this year’s LVMH Watch Week
The luxury giant declares the horological calendar open with a slew of new references.
The horological calendar is officially declared open with the staging of the sixth annual LVMH Watch Week.
LVMH Watch Week was originally scheduled to happen in the upscale Los Angeles suburb of Bel Air but ended up shifting – with extraordinary haste – in response to the devastating California wildfires. Smaller presentations were instead held in New York City, Paris and Sydney throughout January, with the event featuring a record number of its brands on the line-up. Again joining Bvlgari, Hublot, TAG Heuer and Zenith were the two much-admired independent brands revived under Louis Vuitton’s Fabrique du Temps manufacture, Daniel Roth and Gérald Genta. New to the event for 2025 was Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton and L’Epée 1839, the clockmaker acquired by the group in 2024.
The releases were impressive and, most importantly, true to each brand’s DNA. Collectively it’s a sign of confidence, and intent.
Bvlgari Serpenti Tubogas Automatic
No other brand is better placed than Bvlgari to celebrate the Year of the Snake. The serpent, eternal symbol of renewal, is deeply entwined with the history of the Roman jeweller, making its first sinewy appearance on a Bvlgari watch in 1948, complete with flexible Tubogas bracelet. Since then it’s been worn by everybody from Elizabeth Taylor to modern day It-girls such as Zendaya. Now, a new chapter for the Serpenti with the much-anticipated launch of an in-house self-winding movement – the Lady Solotempo BVS100 automatic movement. It was designed and assembled in Bvlgari’s recently expanded – and vertically integrated – manufacture, itself a show of its serious intentions for women’s watches. Interestingly, the calibre will also be used in other watches across the LVMH portfolio. This new Serpenti Tubogas is appropriately daringly elegant, crafted in rose gold with a white opaline dial featuring a guilloche sunray motif.
$86,100
Daniel Roth Extra Plat Souscription
It has been two years since Jean Arnault, director of Louis Vuitton Watchmaking, dramatically shook up the horology division of the world’s largest luxury brand. His revival of independent watch brand Daniel Roth under LV’s La Fabrique du Temps manufacture was met with the precise level of enthusiasm you’d expect, given the revered watchmaker once worked for Breguet and Audemars Piguet. The first watch from Daniel Roth 2.0 was last year’s elegant Tourbillon Souscription, which picked up the Tourbillon prize in the 2024 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. It now comes in a time-only model with the new Extra Plat, whose guilloché details and Clou de Paris dial are done by hand. Like its predecessor, the release is initially limited to just 20. It’s equipped with a manual movement, created by the master watchmakers at La Fabrique du Temps, Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini.
Approximately $79,573 (excluding taxes)
Tiffany & Co. Carat 128 Aquamarine
Tiffany & Co. raised the stakes in its watchmaking offerings with timepieces that play on some of the storied jeweller’s most famous creations. This includes revered designer Jean Schlumberger’s Bird on a Rock. Another highlight was a timepiece inspired by the Tiffany glass Wisteria lamp, a celebrated piece of early 20th century design. That Tiffany & Co. is mining its august heritage makes sense, particularly as it focuses on the high jewellery and haute horology market. The Tiffany & Co. Carat 128 Aquamarine pays tribute to its showstopping 128.54-carat cushion-shaped fancy yellow Tiffany Diamond and also fits with how Tiffany & Co.’s chief gemmologist Victoria Reynolds “auditions” each gemstone for its jewellery collections. The diamond-cut aquamarine of 34.52 carats on its dial is snow set with 382 brilliant diamonds while the bracelet adds further sparkle with 251 brilliant diamonds set in white gold.
POA
TAG Heuer Formula 1 Chronograph
The return of TAG Heuer as official timekeeper of the F1 – a role it held from 1992 until 2003 – marks a homecoming for the brand. Jack Heuer, great-grandson of founder Edouard Heuer, named watch families after races and famously gifted champion Ferrari drivers gold Carreras. In 1986 TAG Heuer released its fun, quartz-powered Formula 1 watches and last year it collaborated with the Kith lifestyle brand on a new 35mm collection. And now, another new slew of Formula 1 watches of a higher calibre (via its new mechanical movement and chronograph) than the original. The five new timepieces include a collaboration with TAG Heuer’s F1 partner, Oracle Red Bull Racing. The 44mm case is crafted from titanium and this rubber strap version feels appropriately racy, whether you’re a true thrillseeker or just along for the ride.
$7300
Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Chronograph
It’s shaping up to be a big year for Hublot, quite literally, as it celebrates the 20th anniversary of its Big Bang timepiece. New chief executive Julien Tornare (most recently briefly, at TAG Heuer and with a long and respected career in horology before that) has big plans for the brand, too. What is sure to remain is Hublot’s “art of fusion”. After all, it was the first brand to pair precious metals with a rubber strap in 1980 and continues to play mixologist with materiality. The Spirit of Big Bang, with its distinctive barrel shape, was first launched in 2014. These new references include coloured ceramics – Hublot was also the first to create vividly coloured ceramic watches – that haven’t previously been seen in the collection. The HUB4700 is limited to 200 pieces, its movement visible through the open work sapphire crystal dial.
$40,800
Zenith Chronomaster Sport Rainbow
Zenith’s El Primero movement is arguably the diva of the watch world. It was the first automatic chronograph movement and is definitely one of horology’s best-known. Throughout history it has powered watches from Rolex to TAG Heuer, and played a role in allaying the “quartz crisis” of the ’70s and ’80s. The El Primero 3600 chronograph movement (which can measure and display 1/10th of a second resolution) is the heartbeat of this new reference for Zenith’s popular Chronomaster Sport. But beyond its inner beauty, it’s impossible to miss the alluring full bling of the gem-set rainbow bezel featuring a pick-and-mix assortment of 50 lolly-hued baguette-cut sapphires and 10 diamonds, as well as a rainbow sapphire indices. It comes in the standard Chronomaster Sport size of 41mm, has a date indication at 4.30 on the dial and is crafted in white gold.
$173,200
Louis Vuitton Tambour Convergence
Jean Arnault, director of Louis Vuitton Watchmaking, is himself a watch aficionado with a true understanding – and love – of product. Since stepping into the role, he has streamlined LV’s offerings, taking its watches up-market and, in his most buzzed-about move, dramatically changing the look and feel of its best-known watch, the Tambour. And it turns out the Tambour can be reimagined in other ways, too, including the new 37mm Convergence references. These play on the idea of the guichet (French for ticket office) watches of the 1920s. The hours and minutes are on rotating discs, indicated by a lozenge marker and feature a “dragging” display – meaning slowly but constantly in motion. It runs on the new in-house automatic Louis Vuitton Calibre LFT MA01.01. There are two versions, the more classic in solid pink gold and this platinum version, snow-set with 795 diamonds.
$101,000
Gérald Genta Gentissima Oursin Fire Opal
Gérald Genta was the genius watch designer behind some of the world’s most famous watches – from the Patek Philippe Nautilus to the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. His creativity was boundless and broad, from the ultimate stainless-steel watch to the beguiling Oursin (from the French word for sea urchin). The design came to be in 1994 after Genta was inspired by the spiky sea creature while holidaying in Corsica. Its revival – alongside the rebirth of the Genta brand last year by Louis Vuitton Watchmaking – fits with horology’s fancy for jewellery timepieces, stone dials and unusual shapes. The striking fire opals, 137 of them set spikily facing off the edges of the case, surround an octagon-faceted sapphire crystal. The Oursin has been important to the brand’s relaunch, with a bejewelled trio launched in 2024. This 36mm version is equipped with an automatic-winding calibre.
POA
This story is from the March issue of WISH.
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