The mood is expected to be careful this week, because 60 watch brands come together for the fourth annual edition of Watches and Wonders Geneva, the only large fair of the luxury watch industry. Data from the industry shows that makers have difficulty attracting buyers, with 2024 sales just a few brands fell.
But watchmakers have previously driven storms. And brands have talked about ‘delay’, predictive that purchases will simply be delayed and that the evergreen attraction of great design and the power of desire that buyers will bring back. When that moment comes, these latest creations wait.
Let the good times roll
As history tells us, Fortune is often in favor of the brave, while they are less brave. In the Watch World, that brand design means to transcend the fads of the day, because it can take years to market a new watch. Here six watches are planned for release this week that do not show a sign of bending for prevailing winds.
Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon
Bulgari’s first performance at Watches and Wonders Wonders Geneva will be remembered for this watch. On 1.85 millimeters, or 0.07 of an inch, it takes the title of the world’s thinnest Tourbillon (a mechanism that is designed to prevent the effects of Gravity on the accuracy of the time valuation). And by beating the size that Piaget did not debut until last year, Bulgari signed up his 10th world record for Dunness, a milestone for the Italian jeweler became a Swiss watchmaker. As it is, the Skeletalbelbele BVF 900 movement in this 40 millimeter Titanium design is the 14th caliber that Bulgari has created since 2014, the year that it first broke the world record with a Tourbillion of five millimeters. Despite the sylph-like profile of the record holder, the hand-wounded caliber offers a 50-hour power reserve. Only 20 are made.
Price on the application
Cartier Privé Tank à Guichets
The prevalence of Cartier tank watches on catwalks and red carpets in recent years has confirmed that the Paris watchmaker is still on its most desirable best. And while the sale is a flowering, only a happy few will be able to get hold of the small batch cartier private editions of Maison. This Cartier Privé -Tank à Guichets, which translates awkward as a “Windows Watch”, is based on a design from 1928 and only 200 pieces have to be made. The design retains the silhouette of an allied tank from the First World War, but less familiar is the way in which time is displayed by two openings that are cut into a solid platinum cabinet (the result is a bit like cyclops with a bitter smile). The hours of “jump” from one song to the next while the minutes “drag” along a dial. Both are run by a hand-wound mechanical cartier caliber that is made exclusively for the collection.
$ 61,000
Hublot Big Bang 20th Anniversary Titanium Ceramic
Which of the watches that have been released in the last 25 years belong to the Canon of all time? Usually four models are mentioned: Chanel’s J12; Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo; Everything in a tonneau or barrel, form of Richard Mille; And this, Hublot’s Big Bang. Released in 2005, the first big bang was loudly – brash, even – and of course large, on 44 millimeters. Made with a merger of precious and high-tech materials, the Hublot put on the map of the watch industry. And here it is again, re -issued in something that is approaching its original look, only a pinch smaller on 43 millimeters and now Hublot’s Unico 2 Flyback Chronography caliber (a flyback function starts, stops and reset tracking with a single pusher). Only 500 pieces in titanium ceramics are planned, each with a gold rotor and a crown engraved with a 20th birthday logo.
$ 20,800
Tag Heuer Formula 1 Solargraph
One of the designs that the new Heuer brand placed in the spotlight in 1986 was the Formula 1, a colorful, affordable quarter watch that was released that year. Now Tag Heuer is doing that entry -level design new life to mark his return as an official time keeper of Formula 1. The 38 millimeter watch is made in a series of clear colors, rolled out all year round on Grand Prix races. This yellow piece is, for example, bound by the Grand Prix of Mexico City. The daisy-shape biber is made of a renewable material based on ricinus oil, bio-polyamide, and the movement is now on solar energy. And just like the original pieces from the 80s, it is priced to seduce a new generation of Formula 1 fans.
$ 1,800
Piaget Polo 79
The 150th anniversary of Piaget was one of the clear places on the watch-landscape last year, helped by the introduction of a classic TV-shape watch called The Andy Warhol and the long-awaited CPR, the Slimline Sports-Luxe Classic in 1979 of his PAIGETS of his PAIGETEST Society Cohort. The limited number of last year that was made last year were sold in a flash, so this follow-up will undoubtedly go in the same way in white gold. With its brushed horizontal links and polished gadroons, both seamlessly wear through the 38-millimeter cupboard and the dial, the design has a jewel-like quality that corresponds to the high jewelry of the brand.
$ 82,500
Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Bal des Amoureux Automate
As the Van Cleef watch company once felt like the Amuse-Bouche for a main course of fine jewelry, those days are clear in the past. Certainly, the impression was reinforced when it picked up three prizes in the Grand Prix d’Hoogerie de Genève 2024, the annual industry Awards event. And here is another distinctive piece, a automatic watch with two lovers dancing in a guinguette, a kind of open -air café Popular in the suburbs of Paris. They hug in the afternoon and midnight and on the push of a button. Time is indicated by two stars that follow retrograde hours and minute displays, while the dial has been enamelled in monochromatic shades of evening blue with the help of a 16th-century technique known as Grisaille.
$ 171,000
Safe bets, new tricks
When watch brands try to penetrate a crisis period, the usual model to return to what they and their customers know best. Some analysts call this a ‘flight to quality’, a term used to describe investors who turn to gold as a safe haven when markets are volatile. That said, a turn never hurts, as these new pieces prove.
Jaeger-Lecoultre Reverso Tribute Monoface Small seconds Milanese
The story of the Reverso of Jaeger-Lecoultre started in 1931, but this is the first time that the straightforward, reversing form of the Art Deco Watch has been set to a Slinky Milanese bracelet. Available in steel or, such as here, in pink gold, the irresistible shady chain protection bracelet would extend to 16 meters (52.5 feet) if it was laid by Link. A grainy dial and a reverse kase on the left clearly for personalization complete the image.
$ 41,300
Panerai Luminor Eternal calendar GMT Platinumtech
The extra large watch with a crown protection device has become a cornerstone of Panerai design, but this edition of 44 millimeters marks the first time that the Luminor has been linked to large complications that offers eternal calendar and second Zone zone functions in a case of the trademark platform of the brand. Panerai says that his alloy is 95 percent pure platinum (which makes the other 5 percent, is kept secret) and to be 40 percent more difficult than standard platinum.
$ 67,600
Chanel J12 Bleu X-Ray
Chanel said it spent 1600 hours – more than 66 days – the case and bracelet of his new watch from a single block of transparent synthetic sapphire. Then the natural sapphires added: there are 196 in the ring and bracelet, and 12 more as an hour markings on the clear sapphire dial. That dial is actually a movement of the movement that holds the parts in place so that they seem to float. Hand wounded and 38 millimeters wide, it is limited to 12 pieces.
Price on the application
IWC engineer automatically 35
The attachment of the smaller watch trend is IWC, whose Venieur this year is condensed to only 35 millimeters in diameter, a full five millimeter smaller than the model released two years ago. There is a blingy gold version and two in steel, including this black dial model, each intended to give a wider attraction to the stainless steel luxury sports watch of the brand. But the internal calibers of IWC are too large for the smaller case, so it has mounted the 35 with an automatic movement of third parties.
$ 9,950
Oris Big Crown Pointer Date
Do not dissolve what is not broken, but if you can make it a little better, do so. Apart from hastily manufactured aphorisms, the large crown of Oris has returned this year, not far from its 90th birthday and with its characteristic pointer date that is still reliable in position. Reborn with only the smallest tweaks on its basic principles, it now comes to a metal bracelet and with a choice of sunny dial colors, including this Peppy Blue. As always with ORIS, the Cachet / price ratio is disarmingly high.
$ 2,300
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Self -winding chronograph/42 mm
Audemars Piguet does not participate in watches and wonders Geneva, but the brand still deserves attention because in his 150th year it has packed some of his most celebrated watches in a new hue named Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50, a color developed in 1972 for the dial of the First Royal Oak. The dark shadow looks particularly breeding in this head of flyback chronograph version of the Royal Oak Offshore.
$ 86,900
