ABOUT TIME

ABOUT TIMEThe first physical Watches and Wonders Geneva took place at the end of March, marking the return of the big, razzle-dazzle watch show – and the largest horologic event ever held in

Geneva. The luxury end of THE CHIEF TALKING POINTS FROM the watch sector enjoyed its WATCHES AND WONDERS GENEVA 2022 best ever year in 2021, with

Switzerland exporting £18.3 Words: Richard Brown billion worth of watches in 2021, trumping the record set in 2014. Indeed, watches priced at more than £2,500 grew by almost 10 per cent, year-on-year.

These were the most noteworthy timepieces from an industry that emerged from the pandemic seemingly unscathed.

HUBLOT SQUARES THE CIRCLE

On the rare occasion that a brand gets ballsy and decides to bring out a right-angled watch, that watch seems to have a disproportionally high chance of developing into something of an icon. Take, for example – and there aren’t that many examples out there – Cartier’s Santos, TAG Heuer’s Monaco, and Bell & Ross’ BR 01. All distinct for their four-sided cases. All having developed into collectors’ favourites and cornerstones of their respective brands. Hoping its foray into four-sided timepieces will garner a similar cult-like status is Hublot, which used Watches and Wonders Geneva to lift the lid on its Square Bang Unico. Based on the brand’s bread-and-butter Big Bang, the boxy new Unico features the same sandwich construction as its circular sibling, the same six screws on its bezel and the same screweddown ‘ears’ at its sides. An icon in the making? Time will tell.

JAEGER-LECOULTRE IS THE MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE

Sure, your watch can tell the time. Maybe even the day of the week and the date of the month. But can it track the movement of the constellations across the night sky? Can it indicate how far, precisely, we are into the zodiac year? Can it do both of these things while chiming the time – to the nearest minute – at the push of a button? Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Master Hybris Artistica Calibre 945 can. It can do all of these things while its hypnotic flying tourbillon completes a lap of its hand-enamelled dial once every sidereal day. That, to you and I, is 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.1 seconds. Now you know.

jaeger-lecoultre.com

PATEK PHILIPPE CRISS-CROSSES THE PLANET WITH EIGHT NEW PATENTS

Having announced its departure from rival watch show Baselworld in 2020, this year marked Patek Philippe’s first appearance at Watches and Wonders. Among 12 new (OK, updated mostly) timepieces was the Ref. 5326G-001 Annual Calendar Travel Time – a show-stealer of a piece that conceals some super-smart mechanics behind its attractive, asphalt-like dial. It’s the first time that Patek has combined an annual calendar with a travel time complication, meaning that the calendar function will remain accurate as you zigzag around the planet – a nifty achievement that took eight patents to pull off.

patek.com

TAG HEUER’S NEW CARRERA IS COMPLETELY CRAZY

Weird one, this. A tourbillon-equipped Carrera festooned with 48 lab-grown diamonds. The sparklers have been set into the case, sprinkled over the dial and used as hour indices. The crown is one massive synthetic gem. What’s so weird about that? Well, let’s not forget that the Carrera was conceived as a hard-as-nails chronograph with which to time motor races. It took its name from the Carrera Panamericana, a car rally so brutal that it claimed 27 lives in its first five editions, before the Mexican government was forced to can it in 1955.

So maybe the tourbillon makes sense, given that the rotating cage might improve the reliability of the Plasma’s stop-watch function. But the diamonds? The timepiece was unveiled on 30 March. Had it dropped two days later, you’d be forgiven for questioning whether TAG’s Frankenstein’s monster was an April Fool’s gag. The brand has said it will make less than 10 examples. Perhaps we should think of the Plasma as a concept watch, then. A springboard for experimentation. You just can’t help wondering whether the brand’s ultramodern Connected smartwatch might have offered a more natural testing ground of such spaceage gem exploration.

tagheuer.com

THE KING IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE KING. PLUS, A NEW PLATINUM PRESIDENT’S WATCH AND A GMT FOR LEFTIES

Given that even the most incremental of dial updates are enough to send the brand’s fanatics into a head spin, news that Rolex had created a GMT-Master II for lefties was positively earth shattering. Not only does the watch feature a crown flipped to the left-hand side and the Cyclops lens switched from 3 o’clock to 9 o’clock, it’s also the first GMT-Master II to feature a green-and-black colour scheme on its

H. MOSER & CIE. HAMMERS IT HOME WITH THE ENDEAVOUR CENTRE SECONDS CONCEPT

No brand name. No date window. No indices. No numerals. Just a highly-polished 40mm stainless steel case, three hands and a green dial so electric and bright and deep and textured that you wonder how exactly Moser pulled it off. With three different types of pigments, a hammer, a very hot furnace, and some industry-leading enamelling wizardry, that’s how. Moser at its most Moser. ceramic bezel. The watch made so much of a clatter that two equally noteworthy updates flew somewhat under the radar. The first was a modernised Air-King with a completely redesigned case (now with a crown guard) and straighter sides. Then came a new President’s watch. This year, for the first time, Rolex introduced a platinum 40mm version of a Day-Date with a fluted bezel. Small things. Big difference.

rolex.com

h-moser.com

CHOPARD’S ALPINE EAGLE SOARS TO NEW HEIGHTS

Chopard re-entered the crowded integrated-bracelet sports-watch sector in 2019, with a revival of its athletic ‘St. Moritz’ timepiece from the 1980s. Rebranded as the Alpine Eagle – presumably in an effort to signal its robust, go-anywhere credentials, but also because a share of proceeds goes to supporting environmental group, the Eagle Wings Foundation – the rebooted collection launched with 10 initial references, none of which featured anything as fancy as a flying tourbillon. Which is exactly what we got this year, showcased at six o’clock within a 41mm case made of a special type of super-bright, extra scratchresistant steel. The wildest Alpine Eagle yet.

chopard.com