The New Watches of Wonder
Words by
Lisa Barnard
11th July 2024
Watches & Wonders salon in Geneva is the top global gathering where new and concept watches are presented to the world by the leading luxury watch brands. SPHERE’s Lisa Barnard was in attendance and selects her highlights for 2024 from a dazzling array. See Part One of her guide to latest watch novelties set to make waves this year
IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar
If you are a leap year baby, you hope to live to 2100 or you’re concerned about the moon’s orbit in 45 million years’ time, you will want to know more about this watch. IWC has gone to the ends of the earth and beyond with this first secular perpetual calendar. It recognises the varying lengths of the months and adds a leap day every four years. The new 400-years gear completes one revolution over four centuries – which will occur for the first time in the year 2100. Take note of the precise Double Moon™ phase display, which means it will only deviate from the moon’s orbit by one day after 45 million years. To boot, it comes in a platinum case, with a complex glass dial and an alligator leather strap from Santoni. Mathematically genius.
ROLEX PERPETUAL DEEPSEA
The Oyster Perpetual Rolex Deepsea in 18ct yellow gold and blue ceramic
The big launch from Rolex is the Perpetual Deepsea dive watch, now in 18-carat yellow gold, with a titanium caseback. Given how substantial this 44mm watch is, some may be forgiven for wondering if it might weigh divers down, but its oceanic blue lacquer dial and bezel are dazzling. Underwater tech includes a 60-minute Cerachrom bezel, allowing divers to monitor their time underwater, and a compression ring within the Ringlock system, enabling ultra water-proofing. The Deepsea was originally launched in 2008, and the 2024 model introduces some gem-set day dates. This is a high-performance watch for extreme divers. Granted, many are unlikely to descend to the 3,900 metres the Deepsea is capable of, but I do love the way it glows in the dark.
CARTIER PRIVÉ TORTUE MONOPOUSSOIR CHRONOGRAPH
Cartier Privé Tortue
If you’re after something supremely elegant and quintessentially Cartier, let’s go straight to Cartier’s Privé collection and the Tortue, a dress watch and now a chronograph. First created in 1912, the Tortue tonneau is so named as it resembles the curved shell of the tortoise. In 2024, the Tortue has been refined, with a lithe profile and a gorgeous strap. Or do you want a watch that goes backwards? It sounds perverse, but I loved this clever ‘Rewind’ edition. If you are stuck for a dinner party conversation, start looking at your watch. The new Santos de Cartier models come with peacock blue and emerald green dials and matching straps. Cartier has dipped into its archives yet again and come up with something extraordinary.
CHANEL PREMIÈRE RIBBON COUTURE
Chanel Première Ribbon Couture Watch
The Chanel launches brought wit to Watches & Wonders, combining dressmaking utility with couturier timepieces. I covet the double wrap Première Ribbon Couture bracelet styled as a tape measure, in black calfskin with gold leather trim and a gold ardillon buckle. This limited edition features a titanium and 18-carat yellow gold case and is adorned with a playful charm attached to the dial, featuring the image of Coco Chanel herself in yellow gold and black lacquer, set with a brilliant-cut diamond. This is not just for fashionistas: the watch features a high precision quartz movement and is water resistant up to 30 metres.
Chanel.com
Jaeger-LeCoultre Duomètre Chronograph Moon
Jaeger-LeCoultre Duomètre Chronograph Moon Watch in Pink Gold
You can go back to 2007 to appreciate Jaeger-LeCoultre’s ground-breaking Duometre mechanism – the complication that epitomises precision. This year the brand launched an entirely new timepiece, powered by the new Calibre 391, combining the ultra-precision of a chronograph with the appeal of a celestial complication. When it’s described as lightning fast, they mean it. The Duometre Chronograph Moon combines time intervals as tiny as 1/6th second with the slow rhythm of the moon as it passes through its cycle in 29.53 days. It has a beautiful design with three chronographs on the dial, one with a celestial moon decoration, with night and day display and the movement hidden between 5, 6 and 7 o’clock. Two variations were shown: a platinum case with a copper-coloured dial, and a pink gold case with a silver dial, both models presented in a hand-stitched alligator strap with elaborate alligator lining.
PATEK PHILIPPE 5330G-001
Patek Philippe World Time Reference 5330
For the jetsetters, Patek Philippe’s new 5330G-001, from The World Time with Date collection, is a patented global first, with a new ultra-thin self-winding 240 HU C calibre movement. It offers a differential system to manage local times and dates, made up of 70 components, allowing the date display to synchronise with local time. So when the wearer crosses the International Date Line, there is no need for correction. Genius! Phileas Fogg in Around the World in Eighty Days would not have mistakenly thought he had lost his bet by a day, if the 5330G-001 had been invented. The beautiful blue-grey dial features city names from around the world, 24-hour markers and a sun/moon image, and the International Date Line.
HERMÈS CUT COLLECTION
Hermès Cut Collection, available in three shades
The Hermès Cut Collection, designed by New York artist Erin O’Keefe, is a stylish debut of sports watches for women, with a sleek, rounded aesthetic. More conventional in the steel bracelet and a lot more showy with 56-bezel-cut diamonds, I was much more drawn to the understated colourful shades of the flexible and tactile rubber straps – white, orange, gris perle, gris étain, glycine, vert criquet, bleu jean and cappucine. If I had to choose one hue, it would be orange, true to Hermès style, but fortunately the straps are interchangeable. It’s easy on the eye: a bevel-cut bezel surrounds the curved silver-toned dial with sculptural edging. The mechanical self-winding calibre is displayed in the sapphire crystal caseback. There are some Hermès twists: the crown is at the 1.30 mark with a lacquered or engraved H. The seconds hand on the steel model features a luminous orange Hermès dot, with grey and orange minutes track.
MONTBLANC 1858 GEOSPHERE CARBO₂ 0 OXYGEN
Montblanc 1858 Geosphere Carbo₂ 0 Oxygen watch, front and back
Montblanc’s hero piece in 2024 is the Montblanc Iced Sea 0 Oxygen Deep 4810 dive watch. Why 4810? This inverts the exact height of Mont Blanc mountain to minus 4810, connecting the ocean to the famous peak. But the timepiece that demonstrates the brand’s commitment to sustainability and innovation is the 1858 Geosphere 0 Oxygen, featuring a CARBO2 middle case. This collection has been designed for mountain exploration and takes inspiration from its iconic Minerva pocket watches and chronographs from the 1920s and 30s. The new watch case nano-fibre material uses a pioneering process capturing CO2 from biogas production and mineral waste from recycling factories, combined with carbon fibre. The case has an engraved luminous blue outline Mont Blanc on the side that only the wearer can see and the mountain also features on the titanium caseback.
PIAGET ALTIPLANO ULTIMATE CONCEPT TOURBILLON
Multi-angle view of the 150th Anniversary Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon
Piaget is famous for its ultra-slim watches, and now has made the thinnest tourbillon in history – no mean feat as the tourbillon is one of the most intricate complications a watchmaker can create. The Altiplano Ultimate Concept is mesmerising, as you cannot believe what is packed inside its 2mm depth. With water resistance to 20 metres and its blue PVD-treated blue cobalt alloy case, the Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon appears to possess all the features of an everyday watch. However, its thinness and 41.5mm diameter combined with its flying tourbillon take Altiplano to a different plane. It is powered by a manual calibre with a one-minute peripheral tourbillon and 40-hour power reserve. To achieve this Piaget had to redesign 90% of the components of the original 2018 Altiplano. In its 150th year, the brand continues to push the boundaries.
VACHERON CONSTANTIN LES CABINOTIERS THE BERKLEY GRAND COMPLICATION
Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers The Berkley Grand Complication
Possibly the most wondrous watch at Watches & Wonders is Vacheron Constantin's Berkley Grand Complication, with 63 horological complications and the first ever Chinese perpetual calendar. It’s almost unbelievable that 2,877 components are packed neatly into this extraordinary timepiece. Eleven years in research and development by three watchmakers, it surpasses the record already held by the Maison for Reference 57260. The movement assembly alone was spread over a year, including a trial assembly, to ensure it runs smoothly. Wonders will never cease.
TAG HEUER CARRERA CHRONOGRAPH SKIPPER
TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Skipper
Tag Heuer is famed for its technical prowess, its love of speed, married with its sailing and maritime heritage. A sailing edition launch that epitomises this blend is the Carrera Chronograph Skipper, a column-wheel chronograph with 80-hour power reserve. The Skipper, or ‘Aye Aye Skipper’, as it was nicknamed when it launched in 1968, makes its debut in rose gold and reinterprets the dual counter of Jack Heuer’s original with vibrant colourways of the dial in teal, orange, blue and green. It features the new TH20-06 movement, the brand’s latest upgrade. To celebrate 60 years of Carrera, Tag Heuer is producing ‘Glass box’ editions consisting of domed sapphire crystal encasing the dial and bezel. It also features its famous regatta timer, making this a must for boat racers.
TUDOR BLACK BAY 58 GMT
TUDOR Master Chronometer certified Black Bay 58 GMT
The most exciting launch from Tudor has to be the Black Bay 58 18K Master Chronometer, a solid gold dive watch. It comes in full yellow gold, with a three-link gold bracelet and bidirectional bezel. The 39mm case sports solid gold hands and hour markers, and at 193g this is a mighty watch. Reminiscent of the golden age of travel, it is a watch for nostaglics. Black Bay 58 is named after the year in which the first Tudor divers’ watch, the “Big Crown”, waterproof to 200 metres, was introduced. The watch is the perfect match for a GMT function, the must-have for globetrotters. The bezel is burgundy and black with a gilt 24-hour scale, in keeping with the aesthetic of the Black Bay line. The winding crown bears the Tudor rose logo.
VAN CLEEF & ARPELS LADY JOUR NUIT
Van Cleef Lady Jour Nuit watch
I can never resist an opportunity to discover the whimsical novelties of Van Cleef & Arpels, who in their devotion to haute horologie and extraordinary craftsmanship, never fail to bring a sense of magic and storytelling. This year the Maison lived up to expectations by adding to its Poetic Complications collection with a reinvention of the Lady Arpels Jour Nuit (introduced in 2008). A journey to the sun and moon, the dark blue dial features a diamond-paved moon and a diminutive constellation of stars cluster. A snow-set yellow sapphire sun shines like a beacon, or you can choose a guilloché yellow gold sun instead. It is finished with Murano aventurine glass to add depth to the design. The result is exquisite poetry on the wrist.
