In a week that began with Breitling unveiling its new Navitimer collection mid air circling Geneva with CEO Georges Kern dressed in a rather fetching pilot uniform, and ended in the esteemed company of an Oscar winner as Hans Zimmer performed at an intimate IWC concert, it’s fair to say there was a lot happening in the watch world last week.
A couple of big surprises hogged much of the limelight – notably TAG Heuer shocked nearly everyone in the watch fraternity with a Carrera Plasma Tourbillon whose dial is made entirely of lab-grown diamonds, and Patek Philippe’s new Calatrava Ref. 5226G also caused a lot of (extremely positive) gasps.
But there were plenty of other revelations too, some which will have far broader appeal because you might actually be able to get hold of some of them, and others for their sheer audacity in the design and technical stakes. Having fully digested what went down in and around Watches & Wonders so you don’t have to, here are the big moves and new watch releases that are particularly surprising. Here’s why.
Montblanc 1858 Iced Sea Automatic Date
Question for the floor: would you rather have a nickname that you don’t necessarily dig, or not have one at all? I ask because within a day of unveiling its brand new (and pretty dreamy) 1858 Iced Sea Automatic Date, Montblanc fans were already calling it the ‘Iced Tea’. When Laurent Lecamp (who was recently unveiled as Montblanc’s new managing director of watches) heard the nickname, he was initially a bit peeved but soon realised something: only watches that people care enough about to comment on get nicknames. Montblanc’s ‘Iced Tea’ is perhaps the most unexpected drink on the new watch menu alongside Tudor’s ‘Root Beer’ and Rolex’s two-tone destro ‘Heineken’ (work in progress that one) and there’s a strong case for it being the most exciting. Like Zenith did in 2021, it’s fair to say Montblanc is having a bit of a renaissance moment in 2022. Cool stakes and hype around its watches have been on a steady upward trajectory but this 1858 Iced Tea, sorry Sea function-forward tool watch really adds to the momentum. As well as being an affordable option, it’s the novel story behind the glacier dial that everyone is frothing over most. The frosty effect is a nod to Mont Blanc itself, with the blue, green and black colourways by the shades seen in, you guessed, glaciers.
Hublot Square Bang black ceramic
I spy a carefully devised strategy. No one does a square watch quite like Cartier, be it its Tank or Cartier Santos. Jaeger-LeCoutre’s Reverso and the iconic TAG Heuer Monaco are other big-name players in the square game, and it’s a game Hublot are clearly keen to be a part of, with the birth of its Square Bang collection. “If we look at the business of shaped watches in our industry, it's quite limited – maybe 10 or 15 per cent of the watches sold in the world,” Hublot’s top dog Ricardo Guadalupe tells me. Hublot has experience with the Spirit of Big Bang, which is a tonneau shape. When the brand announced that collection, Guadalupe thought it would be maybe five per cent of Hublot’s sales. Today, it represents 15 per cent of Hublot’s sales. Guadalupe puts the increase down to arguably the most exciting development in the watch industry: the young generation of watch lovers don’t have ‘rules’ in their mind. “They want something different with a great look. So for me, my dream was always to create a square watch. And if you look at the history of square watches in our industry, there are not that many. So I said, ‘OK, let's take this challenge. Let's take this route.’ So Hublot adds the Square Bang to its Spirit of Big Bang tonneau movers and shapers, and is Guadalupe done there? “Tomorrow we could have another shape, we'll see.” Either way, Hublot going square is big news.
Gucci Timeless Planetarium
Despite whether it should be or not, there’s always an element of shock attached when a fashion brand has a major watchmaking moment. LV had one last year when it won two prestigious GPHG awards (the Watch Oscars) for its Tambour Street Diver and Tambour Carpe Diem models. Hermès has had several with various iterations of the Cape Cod and Arceau. Updates to the Chanel J12 always arouse interest and then there’s Gucci. The skater-boy commercial success story that is the Gucci Grip immediately carved out a special space in the watch landscape, and continues to. To celebrate 50 years of watchmaking though, there was an expectation there’d be more than a few new high-end Grips and G-Timeless pieces. But new three tourbillons, a series of G-Timeless Planteriums not to mention a host of G-Timeless Dancing Bees tourbillon pieces? Little wonder the buzz around Gucci watches was as organic as the honey those dancing bees make. While the 25H Skeleton Tourbillon will take the plaudits for its mechanical excellence, for whimsical wows the G-Timeless Planterium (particularly the green) is an act of wonderment. Everything from the recycled gold and green tsavorite gemstones to the arrow hands has me slightly in awe of Gucci’s pioneering spirit. It’s exactly the type of wizardry we’ve come to expect from Alessandro Michele’s mind. And yet it’s still totally unexpected, and adds some serious clout to Gucci's watch portfolio.
Chopard L.U.C Full Strike Sapphire
On paper, the L.U.C Full Strike Sapphire is a minute repeater watch that features a translucent sapphire case. In reality, part of Chopard's 'Sound of Eternity' trilogy, it’s a musical masterpiece containing 533 parts that required five patents being filed for; it bears the hallowed Geneva Seal, is COSC certified and can also sound the hours, quarters and minutes on transparent sapphire crystal gongs like no other watch. Some or all of these things might require a quick explanatory Google, but the important takeout is this: the surprise is that all such feats in one watch is even remotely possible. Chopard co-president Karl-Friedrich Scheufele loves his music and has certainly found a sweet tune with this piece. Dating back to 2016, Chopard has won numerous awards for its Full Strike minute repeater but what sets the 2022 sapphire version apart from its predecessors is that not only can you hear it, you can now see how the sound of music comes to fruition, and that is a beautiful thing.
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