It’s that time again when we look back at who launched what, and what actually broke through the white noise. It’s certainly been a year of controversies. Not since Audemars Piguet launched Code 11:59 have so many people’s knickers been twisted. However, there have been reasons to celebrate as well. Independent brands have come to the fore. Japanese watch brands and makers are having a moment and Cartier is rising up the ranks of popularity.
Choosing just 10 timepieces will always be difficult. Still, the models below represent ones that have moved the dial (sorry…) in some way, whether sparking conversation – heated or otherwise – or showing innovation.
Obviously, this list won’t please everyone, and favourites will have been missed. At least now you’ll have something to debate about in the pub during the Twixtmas lull. You’re welcome!
Patek Philippe Cubitus
It was Patek Philippe’s first new collection since 1999, and let’s just say the watch internet had thoughts. It was a pile-on not seen since Audemars Piguet unveiled its Code 11:59 in 2019, and the general furore wasn’t helped by Thierry Stern weighing in on the debate by dismissing those criticising the watch as “people who have never had a Patek and never will”. Ouch.
Of course, at £35,330 for the steel version, he’s not wrong. These people write blogs for a living, not run hedge funds. But is it really such an awful watch? It’s a square Nautilus-adjacent sporty design. It has a slim case, a nice bracelet, the olive-green dial on the time-only version looks good, and at least Patek Philippe is testing the marketplace with a new collection.
What’s more, we know from those in charge at Patek UK that it’s flying out the door. A little controversy is never a bad thing for the bottom line, it seems.
See more at Patek Philippe
Bremont Terra Nova 38 Pink
From one controversy to another. Keyboard warriors have had no end of things to gripe about this year. Before Patek, their bedroom-based ire was directed at Bremont, who turned up at this year’s Watches & Wonders with a new logo, new CEO, and a new line of watches. How very dare they!
This Terra Nova was one of the new timepieces, and it’s recently been introduced with a limited-edition pink dial. Somehow, this design now makes sense. The SuperLuminova block numerals look right on the dial, their dimensionality makes sense, and the powdery pink shade brings out the tonneau curves of the case, which is a wrist-friendly 38mm.
Sit it next to a first-generation Solo, and it feels fun, new and modern rather than a remembrance of Bremont’s past. What’s more, it’s a solid steel timepiece at a (comparatively) wallet-friendly price point. Plus, it proves pink dials are going nowhere.
Buy now at Bremont
Audemars Piguet [Re]-Master02
Given Audemars Piguet’s reputation for continually launching versions on a Royal Oak theme, it’s not an understatement to say “no one was expecting this”. In 2020, AP, under the [RE]Master umbrella, unveiled a lovely vintage-inspired chronograph. And now the collection, if you can call it that, is back with this 1960s-inspired, Brutalist box of delights.
There is so much to love about this watch. First, there’s the lush case made out of a new alloy comprising copper, palladium and solid gold. Its colour shifts from warm grey to blush depending on how the light hits the horizontally or vertically brushed surfaces.
The dial, in the same shade of blue first used for the Royal Oak, is composed of twelve triangles, and each PVD-coated brass piece has been given a linear brush so it resembles wood marquetry.
The logo is cleverly aligned so that the break between the two words hits the line of the crystal before it angles. The radial lines, which also function as hour markers, emphasise the lean shape of the 41mm case.
It’s a bold move that proves sometimes AP does know how to break the rules.
See more at Audemars Piguet
Parmigiani Toric Petite Seconde
Since 2021 Parmigiani has been flying the flag for understated luxury, and its redesign of the Toric has continued this journey of pared-back perfection.
This timepiece appears simple but actually contains multitudes. The knurling on the bezel is done by hand, as is the guilloche on the dial. The finishing on the platinum case plays with brushing and polishing to affect the refraction of light. The colour palette takes its cues from Le Corbusier’s Polychromie Architecturale – a library of 63 shades that all complement each other and can be used to change the aspect of a room by manipulating the way light flows through the space.
It proves you don’t have to reinvent the (balance) wheel to create something surprising. Sometimes the quiet revolutions speak the loudest.
Buy now at Watches of Switzerland
Piaget 79
There is something brilliantly brash about this watch. It is made entirely from 18kt yellow gold – 200 grams of it, to be precise. It was one of the watches that defined the ‘greed is good’, cash-flashing 1980s, so it really shouldn’t sit well with our current era of quiet luxury and discreet wealth. And yet it is a joyous watch to behold.
The craftsmanship is undeniable, with the brushed gold contrasting with the polished gadroons. Then there’s the perfectly hidden deployment clasp, which doesn’t disturb the lines of the bracelet. Finally, the movement: the original was quartz, which now contains Piaget’s ultra-thin calibre 1200P1, with an automatic micro-rotor measuring just 2.35mm.
At its essence, the 79 is a showcase for precisely what Piaget does best – ultra-thin movements and ultra-high-end watchmaking.
See more at Piaget
Struthers Special Edition Centenary Watch
Watches of Switzerland has been teaming up with the likes of Bulgari, TAG Heuer and Cartier to create special editions to celebrate its 100th anniversary. This collaboration, however, was one no one saw coming.
If you are unaware of Struthers, it is a husband-and-wife duo, Craig and Rebecca, who, in their workshop in Staffordshire, make watches in a way that wouldn’t be out of place in 18th-century Switzerland. They handmake parts, use old-school lathes and restore vintage movements. TAG Heuer they most certainly are not. Which is what makes this collaboration so special.
For a mega-brand like Watches of Switzerland to promote small-scale British talent shows a real commitment to supporting home-grown watchmakers, and Struthers have not disappointed.
The watch is beautiful. The lettering on the dial is bespoke, based on the original G&M Lane lettering (G&M Lane being the mail-order watch company that would become Watches of Switzerland). The case is 18kt gold and made using traditional boxwood turning – a technique that used to be common to British watchmakers but has all but died out. All the engraving has been done by hand by a man who was apprenticed at Holland & Holland, and the dial was printed in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire.
Struthers intended the watch to be a celebration of skilled British craftspeople. In doing so, it created a love letter to the village that it takes to build a watch. The bad news, though, is that it’s already been sold!
See more at Watches of Switzerland
Hublot x Arsham Droplet
This has to be the most un-Hublot Hublot ever made. This is the brand that thought rubber could be a luxury item. It is the company that creates enormous watches with hulking profiles that sit on the wrist, hunched like a big cat waiting to pounce. That makes entire cases from sapphire crystal.
This pocket watch-cum-sculptural table clock is a creation of watery, dare we say it, feminine beauty, all smooth curves and polished surfaces. This collaboration is with contemporary New York artist Daniel Arsham, famous for eroding modern objects so they appear to be ancient artefacts. For this creation he was inspired by the icescapes of Iceland and the flux in composition of ice and water, the tension between solidity and fluidity.
Hublot’s three favourite materials – titanium, sapphire crystal and rubber – have all been used to bring this creation into being. It is mesmeric, both as a work of art and a feat of watchmaking. Perhaps it’s very Hublot, after all.
See more at Hublot
Bell & Ross BR-X5 Iridescent
For a brand that made its name making monochrome watches for the design set, this is a colourful curveball.
The vibrant, rainbow-like iridescent dial was made using multiple layers of PVD coating applied using sputtering deposition. This technique involves ejecting material onto a substrate, such as a silicon wafer. Sputtering the atoms gives a wider distribution and better adhesion. When finished, the light hitting the dial interacts with specific microstructures in each layer, creating interference in the rays and producing structural colours. The result is a dial that changes from blue to green, with hints of violet and yellow.
The PVD was sputtered over a sunburst-textured surface to amplify this light show. It’s a small thing, but it transforms the utilitarian lines of the BR-X5 into something softer and more elegantly versatile.
It also comes with a white rubber strap to really bring out those ‘winter in the Caribbean’ vibes it appears to be embracing.
Buy now at Bell & Ross
Frederique Constant Manufacture Slimline Moonphase Date
When Frederique Constant wanted to find a way to emphasise to its customers that its watches were manufactured by hand, it called on Romaric André, the watch vandaliser who goes by the name seconde/seconde.
André has made a name for himself by bringing a sense of humour to watch dials. He put tiny phantoms on Spinnaker’s diving watch riffing on Blancpain’s Fifty Fathoms and turned Christopher Ward’s C65 Aquitaine into a guide to surviving office life with portions of the day assigned, on the bezel and dial, to such tasks as ‘gossip’, ‘meeting’ and ‘backstabbing’.
For Frederique Constant, André took the brand’s classic moonphase and made the dial look like it was made by hand. If said hand belonged to a person three sheets to the wind and working by candlelight. The indices were all skewwhiff, while the brand’s name and the date numerals around the moonphase looked like a child had done them.
On the back was written: “How do we tell the world that manual assembly is at the core of our Manufacture? We asked artist seconde/seconde. He took it too far”. It was as if Frederique Constant had decided to loosen its tie and join the dancefloor at the office Christmas party. Unexpected but definitely enjoyable.
See more at Frederique Constant
Studio Underd0g
Bit of a cheat for the final watch of the year, as we’ve chosen a brand. No independent has defined 2024 quite like Studio Underd0g. There were queues around the block at this year’s inaugural British Watchmakers’ Day in March because these guys were selling watches with pizza dials, which can only be bought in person (hand delivered, get it?).
Dreamt up by Richard Benc during the pandemic as a design-led brand that wouldn’t take itself too seriously. Since then, it has collaborated with luxury indy darling H.Moser & Cie, outsold Rolex for one day only, and, in collaboration with pre-owned online marketplace WristCheck, created a trio of watches powered by Seagull’s famed column-wheel chronograph movement. A calibre prized by watch aficionados for being based on the famed Venus 175 calibre (Venus sold it to Seagull in the 1960s), having a swan-neck regulator and architecture that looks like a Lange & Sohne but at a fraction of the price.
You have to be quick though. The watches are launched in small-run batches, with drops being announced in advance to those on the mailing list, and they sell out fast. That said, if you’re desperate, you can pay a premium on the pre-owned market. Just saying…
See more at Studio Underd0g
