Like all watch fairs, the week-long Watches & Wonders 2022 – which ended in Geneva earlier this month – saw exhibiting brands going all out to see who could come up with the most technically superb, good-looking or revolutionary timepieces.
It is a circus, but one which is exciting and heady for watch fans and journalists because of the avalanche of novelties unveiled. Below, we highlight the horological wonders from the event.
Rolex started the ball rolling at the fair with a jaw-dropper that came out of left field: a southpaw or destro (left-handed) version of the GMT Master II.
Word is that the watch, which has the crown on the left and the date window at nine o’clock, is a tribute to Rolex head honcho Jean Frederic Dufour, who is left-handed.
It boasts a striking green-and-black Cerachrom bezel and, like other GMT Master II models, is water-resistant to 100m.
The watch is powered by the in-house 3285 automatic GMT movement, which has 10 patents and boasts, among other features, 70 hours of power reserve, a shock-resistant Parachrom hairspring and Paraflex shock absorbers.
Nicknamed the Sprite GMT, this 40mm beauty is available with either an Oystersteel ($15,240) or Jubilee bracelet ($15,540).
The French maison has been enjoying a hot streak for the last few years, captivating horological fans with a slew of offerings which are both aesthetically pleasing and mechanically solid.
It has descended on Geneva with a treasure trove of novelties, including the aptly named Masse Mysterieuse, an enigmatic timepiece where all components are packed into half the size of a regular movement.
And if that is not befuddling enough, the movement, which looks as though it is floating, is also the winding rotor as well.
It has to be seen to be believed.
Cartier apparently went through five designs and several prototypes over eight years before coming up with the calibre 9801 MC. Its brain-teasing intricacy is highlighted through the watch’s open-worked architecture.
Fashioned from platinum, the 43.5mm watch has a crown set with ruby cabochon to match the 43 jewels used in the movement, which has a power reserve of 42 hours. It is fitted with a dark grey alligator leather strap. High jewellery versions are also available.
Price is upon request and the watch is limited to 30 pieces.
It is hard not to fall in love with a watch so good-looking, well-built and practical.
In the 5326G-001, Patek Philippe has combined two superb complications: the travel time and the annual calendar. Although the watchmaker is famous for its consummate mastery of both, it has never paired them together, until now.
This makes it a fabulous watch to have when you are travelling. Thanks to the specially developed Caliber 31-260 PS QA LU FUS 24H – which boasts eight patents – telling both local and home time, the day, date and month is a cinch, but the user-friendliness actually involved seriously intricate engineering. What is more amazing is the watch needs to be adjusted once a year if kept wound.
The head-turning 41mm watch comes in a new Calatrava-type 18K white-gold case rimmed with a Clous de Paris hobnail guilloched pattern. The vintage-style dial has a mesmerising grainy texture which reminds one of vintage cameras.
This new reference is teamed with two interchangeable straps: one in beige calfskin with a nubuck finish and the other in black calfskin with an embossed fabric motif and beige top-stitching.
It is priced at $101,300.
It is hip to be square, so sings American musician Huey Lewis. For the first time in its history, Hublot is exploring and adding this new shape to its arsenal of round, barrel-shaped and MP (Master Pieces, which boasts unique shapes) timepieces.
Square watches are no walk in the park for several reasons, one of which is that mechanical movements have wheels as basic components. Placing these round parts in a square case can be tricky.
It is also hard to make square watches watertight, although Hublot guarantees water resistance to 100m with this new creation.
A unique iteration of the brand’s iconic Big Bang Unico, the 42mm Square Bang Unico comes in five models fashioned from different materials – titanium, black ceramic, King Gold, and titanium or King Gold blend with a black ceramic bezel.
They are fitted with the Hub1280 Unico Manufacture movement, an automatic flyback column wheel chronograph with more than 350 components. Its intricacy, including the movement suspension, can be admired through the sapphire crystal dial.
Each model comes with a black rubber strap and a folding clasp in the same material as the case. It also boasts the “One Click” fastening system which makes changing the strap easy-peasy.
Prices range from $32,300 to $60,300. The All Black model ($36,700) is limited edition, with only 250 pieces available.
This is a whimsical colourful watch designed to make you smile.
Another iteration of the French maison’s iconic Arceau watch, by artist-designer Henri d’Origny in 1978, it showcases the brand’s superb metiers d’art (art and craft).
The timepiece is inspired by the playful Les folies du ciel scarf created by famous Hermes artist Loic Dubigeon in 1984, and a homage to the early days of aviation when men dreamt of conquering the skies with airships and hot-air balloons.
Combining painting, engraving and animation, the watch has a mother-of-pearl dial with two billowing hot-air balloons rendered in pastel green and pink.
The two balloons are attached to an airship shaped like a bird. Another hand-painted animated balloon at 12 o’clock cleverly spins on its axis in tandem with the wearer’s wrist movements.
The dream-like tableaux is encased in a 38mm white-gold casing.
Priced at $100,100, the watch – driven by a Manufacture Hermes movement – is limited to just 24 pieces.
IWC’s Top Gun line made its debut in 2007 and, since then, one of the most distinctive features about these watches has been the use of advanced materials.
In 2019, the brand launched the Top Gun Edition Mojave Desert – in sand-coloured ceramic. This year sees the addition of two models – Lake Tahoe and Woodland – in white and green ceramic respectively. IWC worked with Pantone to define the colours and come up with the names.
The Lake Tahoe model, with a black dial and black hands coated with luminescent material, is especially eye-catching. Fitted with a white rubber strap with distinctive embossing, it is inspired by crisp white naval uniforms and the wintry landscape of Lake Tahoe, a mountainous area between California and Nevada in the United States, frequently flown over by pilots of Topgun, the US Navy’s Fighter Weapons School.
The crown and pushers of this 44.5mm chronograph are made of steel while the caseback – engraved with the Topgun logo – is made of titanium.
Both the Lake Tahoe and Woodland editions are fitted with the in-house self-winding IWC calibre 69380, which boasts 46 hours of power reserve.
Priced at $15,900.
Jaeger-LeCoultre has released a range of highly complex astronomy timepieces this year.
Among them is the Master Grand Tradition Grand Caliber 948, the first time the watchmaker has married an orbital tourbillon with a world timer.
The exceptional movement is complemented with the skills of artisans from its Metiers Rares atelier.
The striking dial is made up of several parts and has a map of the world which appears to float on a domed skeleton structure formed by the longitudes and latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.
The domed map and the city ring mimic the rotation of the Earth on its axis, moving to make a complete 360-degree revolution in 24 hours.
Boasting intensive hand-painting and enamelling work, each dial is a miniature work of art and requires 70 hours of patient labour.
The 43mm Master Grande Tradition case – comprising more than 80 parts – is fashioned from white gold, with a sapphire caseback that allows you to marvel at the stunning calibre 948 and its rotor.
Limited to just 20 pieces, it is priced at €200,000 (S$296,000).
The Chronomaster Open made its debut in 2003 to offer a tantalising peek into the wizardry of the high-frequency beating heart of Zenith’s El Primero calibre.
With last year’s introduction of an upgraded El Primero, which boasts a 1/10th-of-a-second chronograph function, the watchmaker reckons the Chronomaster Open should get a revisit too.
Available in three options (two in stainless steel, with either a silver or black dial; the other in rose gold, with a silver dial), these new 39.5mm models look like last year’s wildly successful Chronomaster Sport, albeit without the bezel and with a hole in the heart.
It has a fetching tri-colour dial, cut open to reveal the intricate Calibre El Primero 3604 – modified from the Chronomaster Sport’s Calibre 3600 – underneath. The silicon escape-wheel and lever provide a 60-hour power reserve.
Prices start from $14,500 to $30,800.
German watchmaker A. Lange & Sohne has but four offerings at Watches & Wonders.
The one generating the most excitement is the Richard Lange Minute Repeater, its first minute repeater in seven years. Unlike previous efforts like the Grand Complication or the Zeitwerk Minute Repeater, which marry chiming mechanisms with other complications, this model goes it alone.
The result is a beautifully proportioned 39mm Teutonic class act with an arrestingly austere white enamel dial, striking heat-blued steel hands and a discreet red accent at 12 o’clock. Just 9.7mm thick, it is also a lot more slender than other minute repeaters on the market.
When the repeater is activated, the gong hammers strike the two gongs – tuned by hand – coiled around the new hand-wound calibre L122.1.
With the centrifugal governor rotating at more than 2,000 revolutions a minute, the strikes have a uniform cadence, with the acoustics gorgeously amplified by the platinum case.
The piece is priced at €409,000 (S$613,000) and limited to 50 pieces.
Chances are, you will never get to see this watch. Tag Heuer chief executive officer Frederic Arnault reportedly said that “more than one, but less than a dozen, will be made”.
One can understand why. At 350,000 Swiss francs (S$510,000), it is the watchmaker’s most expensive timepiece to date. It is also a showcase of the brand’s mastery of chemical vapour deposition technology, which allows it to experiment with carbon and diamond designs as well as cutting-edge light effects.
The 44mm watch boasts an extremely light case fashioned from sandblasted black anodised aluminium, a black ceramic polished bezel and a beautifully textured “polycrystalline diamond dial” blasted with fine ground diamond powder.
The diamond fest does not end there. Besides the dial, 48 dazzlers have been set into the case totalling a whopping 4.8 carats. Then there is the crown, crafted from a 2.5-carat piece of diamond. Only laboratory-grown diamonds are used because the shape of naturally occurring diamonds cannot be controlled.
The heart ticking inside this beauty is the in-house Heuer 02 chronograph calibre, which comes with an oscillating weight in the shape of the Tag Heuer shield as well as a 65-hour power reserve.
A version of this article first appeared in The Straits Times
