Hublot. Tag. Bulgari. All the big names in time telling came out in full force for the Miami, Florida event.
Hublot
Spirit of Big Bang 32mm Jewellery
Hublot – Spirit of Big Bang 32mm Jewellery.
Hublot has always played by its own rules. As chief executive Ricardo Guadalupe said during LVMH Watch Week of the brand’s particularly mind-blowing MP-10 Tourbillon timepiece, which possesses neither hands nor a dial, it is “an incredible watch that goes out of the box”. However, there’s also much to admire in the way Hublot explores creativity in watchmaking. From the materials it uses – such as its sapphire-like Saxem proprietary blend, skewed this year into the grass green Big Bang Unico Green Saxem – to its spin on precious gem settings. And it’s hard to not be taken with this year’s Hublot’s Spirit of Big Bang 32mm Jewellery watches. For one, they fit with current tastes for smaller sizes, even at a brand known more for its brawny pieces (fret not, these are still there). For another, its tonneau shape works especially well in Hublot’s own warm King Gold alloy, on either rubber or leather straps. This technicolour dreamcoat strap is particularly striking, as is the dial, with 339 gemstones alone, including rubies, pink sapphires, blue topaz and tsavorites. Yet compared with some of the brand’s more outré pieces, it’s almost “pared back”. Hublot has increased its female customer base, but when it comes to bling, Guadalupe says it’s the men who really dig it. “When we talk high jewellery, it’s for men,” he says.
$122,226
Gérald Genta
Mickey Mouse watch
Gerald Genta – Mickey Mouse Watch.
Where to begin with the legacy of the late Gérald Genta, the watch designer who created some of the world’s most important timepieces? Reviving the brand is part of Louis Vuitton’s support of independent watchmaking under its La Fabrique du Temps manufacture. Enrico Barbasini and Michel Navas, the watchmakers tasked with carrying forth the Genta name, see their roles as more calling than job. Their first watch takes in all facets of the brand created in 1969, recalling an original “Mickey” Genta piece from the same year, but with added minute repeater, jumping hour, and retrograde minute in one calibre. “We wanted to gather all the four pillars of the DNA of Mr Genta – the octagon, the retrograde, the minutes, the jumping hour,” says Navas, but take those pillars further. Before they began the work, Barbasini and Navas met with Genta’s widow, Evelyne, who urged a future focus. “Genta was very, very prolific in terms of drawings … he was designing every day. And when he finished some models, he was working on another one. [When] we met his wife in London, she told us, ‘If you want to respect Gerald, you have to improve. You have to go ahead’,” says Navas. “I think in the design, we know what Mr Genta had in mind … and I think it’s important.”
POA
TAG Heuer
Carrera chronograph
Julien Tornare, incoming chief executive of TAG Heuer, is a self-described product guy. Stints at Vacheron Constantin and LVMH stablemate Zenith confirmed his fondness for brands with blue-chip heritage and the ability to talk about it in an authentic way. Having this, Tornare says, lets you push your brand further. For TAG Heuer in 2024 that includes the relaunch of its performance eyewear range, additions to its smart Connected watches (including dials that mimic those of a mechanical watch, which feels quite subversive) and the expansion of its Plasma range, studded with lab-grown diamonds. “Authenticity is key and we have to keep it natural. And I think at TAG Heuer we are lucky because the playground is quite wide and people never seem shocked or resistant to a development,” says the TAG Heuer boss, who was in Sydney last month for the opening of its renovated flagship boutique. “That’s a great advantage.” One such piece to marry heritage and forward thinking is the spiffing new teal-green version of the Carrera “glassbox” Chronograph, launched in 2023 for the timepiece’s 60th birthday. Beyond its bold hue – “I haven’t seen such a colour in my career,” says Tornare – it melds aesthetic appeal with function. “It’s important to sometimes [take] some elements like that from the past that gives even more credibility.”
$9500
Daniel Roth
Tourbillon Souscription
Daniel Roth – Tourbillon Souscription.
There are some names in watchmaking uttered with a certain cadence of respect. One of those is Daniel Roth, who after working for Breguet and Audemars Piguet, branched out on his own. Roth still hand-makes watches under the Jean Daniel Nicolas moniker but his namesake brand has been revived within Louis Vuitton’s La Fabrique du Temps manufacture, and by two master watchmakers – Enrico Barbasini and Michel Navas. The men have worked side by side for decades and take seriously the task of re-establishing the Roth name. Indeed, Barbasini gave up retirement for it. The first timepiece created by the pair is a faithful tribute to a tourbillon watch Roth designed in 1988. It is slimmer, yes, its hand-soldered lugs more ergonomic, the movement new. But it’s still so recognisably a Roth. When Barbasini and Navas showed the watchmaker their creation, emotions were high. “[Roth] was very, very impressed. Almost crying. And he told us, ‘This piece is more beautiful than mine’,” says Navas with a laugh. “But you have other tools … I think it was difficult in 1998, to do this watch 40 years ago,” adds Barbasini. “It wasn’t the same. So the ideas don’t match the tools. I think in Roth you have to respect the shape, the dial, what he does. We don’t change nothing, but we change everything. In the watch we have only the design.”
POA
Bulgari
Bulgari Bulgari
Bulgari – Bulgari Bulgari.What makes an icon? It’s a question Bulgari chief executive Jean-Christophe Babin thinks about often. He also thinks about when it is time to revisit one. To wit, the Bulgari Bulgari, first launched in the 1970s as a gift for favoured clients. The watch was inspired by a Roman coin with the face of an emperor etched on its edges and has been worn by everyone from George Michael and Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw to Zendaya and Tina Turner. As Babin notes, it was a piece Bulgari realised was ready for a comeback. “We fine-tuned the design, we equipped it with the latest mechanical movements, which are crafted by Bulgari, and we decided to relaunch it very true to the initial spirit,” he says. The watch, which comes in a decidedly universal 38mm as well as a petite 26mm version, is one of Bulgari Watches product creation executive director Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani’s favourites. “It’s very discreet with this kind of size. For me it’s almost perfect. Very elegant,” he says. “It’s very Bulgari. It’s absolutely our DNA – simple shapes, simple geometry with a very strong character, very unique design.” As Buonamassa Stigliani points out, often the most simple designs can be the most difficult to reconsider in terms of proportion and the confidence to strip back to what is important. He reflects on modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s philosophy that “less is more”, when talking of Bulgari Bulgari’s approach. “For him the idea is to do less, to do better, more concentration on details, to face his materials from an architectural point of view. But when we talk about watches, you arrive to appreciate the pure products able to talk about DNA of a single brand. When you are cultivated, you have a certain maturity in terms of taste … You know what you are looking for and what is good for you. So maybe that’s why even after 20 years in the company today, the Bulgari Bulgari is the most beautiful Bulgari Bulgari that we can have.”
$21,900.
Zenith
Chronomaster Original Triple Calendar
Zenith – Chronomaster Original Triple Calendar.
Benoit de Clerck, still in the very early days of his new role as chief executive of Zenith, has clocked the heritage brand’s changing demographic. “We know for a fact that with Zenith brand, thanks to what has been done in the past couple of years, is that our customer base is getting younger. We have more women getting into the brand as well because women today are not only looking at diamonds; they want to have something real on their wrist … And today women are after movement as well.” Zenith long ago dispensed with men’s and women’s categories on its website and has also taken note of just how much watch knowledge has developed. Case in point, the reimagining of a rare prototype of its El Primero from 1969 with the release of the Chronomaster Original Triple Calendar. With a calendar calibre, moonphase and chronograph – all so pleasingly laid out on a 38mm dial and in the “it-watch” shade of green – it’s the type of piece sure to appeal to someone in the know. Which is, as de Clerck notes, thanks social media and the growth of watch culture, more people than it used to be. “People who buy Zenith today, they know what they’re buying and it’s based on the El Primero because they know it’s one of the first chronographs that existed. And for them it’s an assurance. They know it’s for real,” he says.
$20,700 (boutique edition)
