Geneva, Switzerland
NCS
—
As the world’s greatest luxurious watch producers collect beneath one sprawling roof at the annual Watches and Wonders commerce present in Geneva this week, anniversaries are being celebrated throughout.
One of Switzerland’s longest-running horologists, Vacheron Constantin, marks its 270th birthday with the most “complicated” wristwatch ever made. Featuring a record-breaking 41 problems (features that transcend fundamental time-telling), the Solaria one way or the other packs a constellation of metallic cogs, levers and springs right into a 45-millimeter circle of white gold.
Elsewhere, LVMH-owned watchmaker Zenith blows out 150 candles on its cake with a chronometry basic revival, whereas Hublot honors the 20-year anniversary of its era-defining Big Bang chronograph by introducing its boldest and brightest tackle the mannequin so far.
As watchmakers mark their longevity, their consideration has additionally turned to showcasing merchandise that, they hope, will final simply as lengthy. This is clear in the boasts of anti-magnetism (which ensures larger precision when uncovered to magnetic fields) and shock-proofing (hard-wearing kinds that resist mechanical shocks), in addition to prolonged warranties. The deal with sturdiness is available in the face of an business downturn — in 2024, Swiss watch exports declined 2.8%, to 26 billion Swiss francs (about $29.4 billion), from the earlier 12 months — following three years of regular development.
Amid a pullback in luxurious spending, there’s heightened competitors in the entry-level and mid-range segments at this 12 months’s fair, which spreads throughout the greater than 800,000 sq. toes of the Palexpo conference heart, and is anticipated to draw tens of hundreds of tourists over the course of the multi-day occasion.
Here are a few of the most eye-catching debuts on show at Watches and Wonders 2025.
Having made its world debut as a limited-edition platinum piece at Patek Philippe’s “Watch Art” mega-expo in Tokyo in 2023, the Reference 5308 has now established itself in the model’s everlasting catalogue. It comes full with a perpetual calendar, a “splitting seconds” chronograph, on-demand chimes and a beautiful pastel dial besides.
Rolex Land-Dweller
The Land-Dweller bears all the aesthetic codes of Rolex’s basic waterproof sports activities watches however with extra longevity than ever. The clear sapphire crystal case again in the meantime acts as a window right into a labyrinth of horological elements representing 32 distinctive patent purposes — 16 of which concern its ultra-thin caliber 7135 motion.
You can all the time depend on Hermès to rise shock and delight with a watch as whimsical as it’s technical. A devastatingly romantic replace of the model’s L’heure “moonphase” vary, its celestial choreography sees each Northern- and Southern-Hemisphere lunar shows pirouetting a couple of meteorite dial, a efficiency orchestrated by an unique 117-component module built-in into the watch’s self-winding motion.
After years of Ferrari dominance in Formula 1, rival McLaren turned the producer to beat in the mid-Eighties — thanks in no small half to the patronage of TAG Group, a Luxembourg-based firm shaped by Saudi businessman Akram Ojjeh, and Heuer, the Swiss watchmaker it acquired in 1985. Now returning to the sport as F1’s “official timekeeper” TAG Heuer is reviving its plastic-fantastic Formula 1 assortment: a enjoyable, colourful “thinking man’s Swatch” that marks not solely the return of an iconic ‘80s watch style but another home for the brand’s Solargraph charging system, which might energy the watch for a complete day on simply two minutes of daylight.
Bell & Ross BR 03 Skeleton
It’s been greater than 25 years since Chanel took a punt on Bell & Ross by buying a minority stake in the Paris-based watchmaker (an funding that later noticed the model’s manufacturing transfer to Chanel’s facility at La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland). For all the sporty watchmaker’s monochrome utility, a sure magnificence has rubbed off in that point: Its square-shaped BR 03 and BR 05 timepieces, which take inspiration from plane cockpits, now serve the wrists of fashionistas as successfully as these of naval aviators. The watchmaker’s new Skeleton vary stands out for its proprietary mechanics in addition to a dynamic, stealth-aircraft angularity — a good flying formation, to say the least.
Pastel-colored dials evoking “The Talented Mr. Ripley” and pared-back timepieces in the 38- to 40-millimeter-diameter (1.49- to 1.57-inch) vary seem like on development, if new watches from the likes of Breitling and Zenith are something to go by. Not to be missed, nonetheless, is the Big Crown Pointer Date by Oris, which has been there all alongside as the model’s poster boy since 1938. While it was initially created for gloved pilots, the practicality of the watch’s massive, legible Arabic numerals and outsized crown has made it a timeless model. The new dial shades of yellow, turquoise and lilac are each heat and calming.
(*11*)
The 2019 predecessor of the Diver (AIR), which is being dubbed the ”lightest-ever mechanical dive watch” by its maker Ulysse Nardin, weighed 120.5 grams. The model’s new skeletonized timepiece, nonetheless, has been trimmed right down to an unimaginable 52 grams, together with the strap (or beneath 46 grams with out). Watch actions are generally crafted from brass however right here titanium, which is significantly much less dense, provides a promising steadiness between lightness and torsional power (although it additionally runs the danger of catching hearth throughout machining). Ulysse Nardin has additionally built-in a light-weight and extremely antimagnetic silicon regulator into its latest creation.
Roger Dubuis Excalibur Grande Complication
Limited to only eight items, this watch is a uncommon sight in the wild. And its sculptural high quality belies the mechanical wizardry ticking steadily beneath — a high quality in line with the ethos of the model’s late founder Roger Dubuis, who emerged as an impartial breakout star in watchmaking in the ‘90s. Although acquired by luxury conglomerate Richemont Group before Dubuis’ dying in 2017, the watchmaker’s self-styled “hyper horology” continues to really feel purist. Grande Complication is the title given to any watch fitted with a minimum of three further features, and the new RD0829 caliber fulfils that stipulation by combining three of the most prestigious problems in watchmaking: a perpetual calendar, a two-tone chiming minute repeater and a single-bridged flying tourbillon cage.
A. Lange & Söhne Minute Repeater Perpetual
The Swiss could dominate luxurious watchmaking, however alongside the Czech-German border lies a city bearing eerie resemblance to Switzerland’s personal horological heartland, each topographically and artisanally. Glashütte is dwelling to revered watchmaker A. Lange & Söhne, additionally owned by Richemont Group, whose Minute Repeater Perpetual stands aside from its opponents because of its subtle chiming operate: As the model notes, there’s a low-pitched tone for each full hour, a double tone for each quarter hour and a high-pitched tone for each additional minute.
Last 12 months, Chanel’s horological focus celebrated its famed high fashion heritage by means of a joyous, witty assortment of positive watches, all made, as you’d count on, from the French luxurious home’s persistently exacting method — at its very personal Swiss atelier. For 2025, the model is riffing on over a century’s value of magnificence and beauty merchandise with a sequence of cocktail watches that are available in all method of pinks and rosy reds.
Twenty years after Vacheron Constantin celebrated its 250th anniversary with the 16-function Tour de l’Ile (named after the Genevoise island the place founder Jean-Marc Vacheron arrange a workshop in 1755), the firm rings it its 270th 12 months with the Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication, a 45-millimeter-diameter wristwatch boasting 41 problems — together with 5 photo voltaic and celestial indications. The break up seconds palms of its rear-side stopwatch operate even double as a method of realizing when your chosen star (chosen from the 13 zodiac constellations on the watch’s dial) might be seen from Earth.