8 Favorite Timepieces From Watches and Wonders – WWD

GENEVA — As the saying goes, be yourself, as everyone else is already taken.

Gem-encrusted designs, complication-packed pieces and colorful creations await collectors and consumers ready to spend a pretty penny, but they will also have their pick of watches distilling their maker’s DNA down to its essence.

That’s exactly what watchmakers offered at Watches and Wonders, using iconic models, classic shapes and the fundamentals of their brands as springboards for a raft of new designs.

Here are eight watches that epitomized a week where identity was the best currency to have.

Cartier Privé Tank Normale, $41,800

Joining the Cartier Privé edition this year is the Tank Normale, a reissue that pays homage to the 1917 original designed by Louis Cartier that started it all.

Many of the original design features were kept, including the lightly beveled sapphire. Granted, there were rumblings among purists about the proportions, but sizing the Privé shape up slightly to a 32.6 by 25.7 millimeter format felt right. Details like a tiny “1917” tucked into the Roman numeral at 7 o’clock and the railroad-style markings added to the charm. Gold and platinum versions were substantial without being overpowering on the wrist and lent credence to the idea that smaller watches were of the moment.

There were five variations, including a 24-hour skeletonized version. But the one that had everyone gawking was the gold bracelet version, with its vertical brushing satin finish on the case that played with the shape of the links. Available in a limited and numbered edition of 100 pieces, this felt like the ultimate collector’s watch.

Van Cleef & Arpels Ludo Secret, $143,000

Now you see it…now you don’t. With the Ludo Secret watch, Van Cleef & Arpels returned to its original “jeweler’s vision” of watchmaking by hiding its mother-of-pearl dial under a pair of moving panels that reprise the brick pattern of the meshwork bracelet that seems looped through two circular motifs studded with pink sapphires.  

“The idea of a wristwatch started from traditional functions of jewelry — necklaces, rings, brooches and bracelets — and progressively, the idea that [the latter] would be the right function to hide or incorporate the watch developed,” said chief executive officer Nicolas Bos.

Beyond the jeweler’s own history, jewels that tell the time emerged as one of the trends at this edition of Watches and Wonders, the ultimate form of the women’s watch category that has been steadily rising in prominence in the past year.

Piaget Limelight high jewelry cuff watch, part of the Hidden Treasures collection, $224,000

Jewels that tell the time were front and center at watchmaker-turned-jeweler Piaget, from its Andy Warhol-approved Black Tie watches that were commissioned by a collector to the Swinging Sautoir necklaces that harkened back the heydays of the Swinging ’60s.

But it was the trio of high jewelry cuff watches, with metal spilling over their hard stone dials, that captured attendees’ imagination. Part of the Hidden Treasures collection, they embodied that moment when fourth-generation watchmaker Yves Piaget (who visited the booth) hovered at the boundary between jewels with or without a timekeeping functionality.

If the distinctive guilloché-inspired Palace Décor was everywhere at Piaget, from the booth wall to the watches, it’s only one of some 100 engraving techniques that the watchmaker-turned-jeweler has in its repertoire. When pressed to make a choice, it’s the wavy, gem-encrusted Limelight version of the asymmetric cuff watch that won out.

Rolex Perpetual 1908, $22,000

Rolex just gave one more reason for collectors to buy one of its watches: the newly introduced Perpetual 1908 collection, named after the year founder Hans Wilsdorf registered the brand’s moniker.

The slimline watch stands out in the brand’s lineup with its finely fluted bezel, 9.5-millimeter case and transparent back that showcases its caliber 7140 movement, which gives it a dress-watch feel.

Touted as a successor to the Cellini range discontinued in the past 12 months, its 39-mm size also gives it a rather unisex feel that made it a hit during touch-and-feel sessions. With four variations in 18-karat white or yellow gold, matte white or black dials, the Rolex Perpetual 1908 was proof that a classic has appeal today. 

Chanel Première X-Ray, $323,500

Chanel’s director of the watchmaking creation studio Arnaud Chastaingt was inspired by “the landscapes of time” for the Chanel Interstellar capsule collection that saw him revisit its landmark models with cosmic or cybernetic touches meant to evoke a future among the stars.

Yet as much as these black-and-white incarnations of the J12, Boy.Friend, Code Coco, Monsieur and Premiere watches stood out, there’s one spin that was “a real nightmare to make,” said president of watches and jewelry Frédéric Grangié. “None of our competitors would be crazy enough try to do this.”

The feature he referred to is the Chanel Premiere X-Ray’s bracelet with its alternating 18-karat gold links featuring 1,318 snow-set diamonds and transparent sapphire crystal ones that needed to be visually delicate like glass and sturdy enough for real use. Perhaps for the sake of Chanel’s ateliers, it is offered in a limited edition of 10.

Chopard Alpine Eagle 41 XPS, $22,500

On the surface, the Chopard Alpine Eagle’s latest incarnation is a handsome 41-mm steel watch that is a great classic, with an of-the-moment interesting textured salmon-hued “Monte Rosa Pink” dial nodding to the second-highest mountain range in the Alps.

Inside the round case beats a 3.3-mm-thick L.U.C 96.40-L movement that offers small seconds indication, a double chronometer and a Poinçon de Genève hallmark, one of the oldest standards of watchmaking excellence in workmanship, reliability, finishing and decoration.

And if house ambassador Julia Roberts is right and “consumers are asking smart questions and make their purchasing decisions on more than just what catches the eye,” the Alpine Eagle 41 XPS has that covered too. It is a direct descendant of the 2019 timepiece that introduced the trademarked Lucent Steel alloy, including an 80-and-growing percentage of recycled material that will be used in all Chopard watches going forward. 

Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso One Precious Colors, $129,000

More than celebrating its famous Reverso model, Jaeger-LeCoultre celebrated one of the traits that make this watch so appealing: its proportions.

Defined by the Golden Ratio, a number purported to be the common denominator of all things beautiful both in nature and man-made, this rectangular timepiece that was originally designed as a polo player’s sports watch showed its versatility at the show.

There were takes that played on its calibers and ultra-thin movements with a tourbillon but the one that stood out was the precious and feminine side with its Reverso One Precious Colors incarnation, with geometric Art Deco motifs executed in grand feu enamel and grain-set rows of diamonds.

Tag Heuer Carrera Chronograph, $6,450

“The aim is that when people think ‘Carrera,’ they think of this piece,” said Tag Heuer chief executive officer Frédéric Arnault, highlighting the “racing touch” of the black Tag Heuer Carrera Chronograph launched at the fair and meant to embody the brand’s throughline of “staying true to the codes of the past while projecting them in modernity.”

Dubbed the “reverse panda,” in contrast to the original Carrera’s black subdials on a white dial and its recent anniversary reinterpretation, this black 39-mm version comes with the new curving “glassbox” profile that “basically extends exactly what Jack [Heuer] had hoped to achieve in 1963,” according to heritage director Nicholas Biebuyck.

It checks other boxes too: the recognizable sporty-elegant codes of its ancestor; an innovative curve that increases legibility, and a vintage flair that’s catnip for collectors.