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Hello, and welcome back to About Time, We’re coming to the end of another year!
Specifically, for this newsletter, we’re coming to the end of another year in watches.
In 2024, microbrands continued to flourish, auction records were smashed, old labels got reanimated and Studio Underd0g released more watches with food on their dials. But what did we learn? In time-honoured review of the year style, About Time brought together three of its favourite, most clued-up watch biz people to chew over some of the year’s key themes, ideas and releases, and see if we could come up with anything between us.
George Bamford is the founder and CEO of Bamford Watch Department. Chris Hall is a watch writer for titles including the New York Times as well as the publisher of The Fourth Wheel. Scarlett Baker is the editor of Wonderland and Man About Town and specialises in fashion and culture.
All three count themselves as first and foremost watch fans. (Me too!) |
Hive mind: (from 12 o'clock) Chris Hall, About Time, George Bamford and Scarlett Baker |
Thanks to George and his team for hosting us at his Mayfair offices, AKA The Hive, the other week. We’ll put the video of our meeting on Esquire’s channels soon.
For About Time, our chat is split into two parts. See you for next week for the second bit. |
Tag Heuer teamed up with the streetwear brand Kith. |
The Tag Heuer Formula 1 | Kith collection |
In May Tag Heuer announced a series of 10 watches produced in collaboration with US streetwear label Kith, available in limited runs from outlets for both companies. The set was based on the watchmaker’s Formula 1 Series 1 watch, a fun, affordable and Swatch-like plastic model that had been a hit in the 1980s. That watch, which cost about £100 back then, had been growing in popularity, fuelled by nostalgia and a spike in trading on secondary sites. The runaway success of Swatch/Omega’s cheap and cheerful plastic MoonSwatches suggested it could be sitting on goldmine. (‘Could Tag Heuer hold the next MoonSwatch in its Archives?’, Esquire asked, back in January.) The relaunched Formula 1 generated a tonne of media coverage, but also attracted grumbling. Detractors bemoaned its scarcity, its price (£1,500), and the fact it had been released not just as a Tag Heuer model, but as a “true collab”. The “Kith Heuer” was the first time the watchmaker had shared its logo with another brand, something some collectors found hard to square.
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The cover of the 1986 Formula 1 catalogue |
Chris Hall: It’s easy to forget now that this was one of the worst kept secrets of the year. What shocked a lot of people was the Kith collaboration. That was a really polarising element of it. But it was also the thing that got everybody talking. I still don’t know if I think it was genius, or cynical. About Time: Had you heard of Kith before this collaboration?
CH: I have to admit I hadn’t. It hasn’t got much reach over here in the UK. Also, I’m maybe not target demographic.
George Bamford: For me, it was epic. The original Formula 1 watch was always something I thought was really cool. I wanted to get my hands on one. I loved the fact that when it originally came out, it was so affordable. Which this was… not so much. That’s the major difference. I was actually looking this morning at the price of them. The Kith ones are on eBay for around £2,000. The originals are around £500. Apparently, the archive team at Tag Heuer have been inundated with [original] Formula 1s for servicing. So, people have gone and found their old ones in their drawers.
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Sign of the times: the Kith Heuer logo |
AT: I’m guessing you did know about Kith, George?
GB: I’m a big buyer of Kith stuff. My kids live in Kith. Now, this is a personal take, but I did think: ‘Why didn’t Tag do it on their own?’ They’re quite a big brand. Now I’d go back to the original ones – not these Kith ones.
CH: We’re still waiting, aren't we? We’re still waiting for a straight-up Tag Heuer branded run on that original Formula 1 design. Who knows, maybe we’ll see that soon. AT: This was about the brand targeting a younger, hipper demographic. Hence the collab logo.
GB: I think you have to be controversial. You have to push a bit more at the boundary. Look at Jaguar’s rebrand. Everyone is going, “Oh my God! This is shock-horror!” They’ve said that they only want to keep 18 per cent of their existing customers [Following the polarising relaunch Jaguar’s MD Rawdon Glover said: “We assume that 10 to 15 per cent of our current Jaguar customers will follow us, so relatively few”]. They’re going: “We need to be revolutionary, to change”. This is one of those things. Was it revolutionary enough? Did it put the Formula 1 back on the map? Did it make everyone talk about it? Because for me, that would be success.
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One of the first Formula 1 ads: "Guaranteed not to break down during high speed knocks and scrapes" |
CH: It did those things, you’re right. It’s not unique in this regard, but Tag must cater to a really broad church of people, from collectors of 2447s [sought-after 1960s Carrera chronograph] to the people who would be hopping up and down with excitement at the Mario Kart stuff [Tag Heuer has made two smartwatches with Nintendo]. It has to encompass all of that within its brand and try to maintain an identity that’s sort-of coherent. I think it does a better job than most, given that challenge. I think what's unique is that for a brand with their type of heritage to do so much of that, as you say, sort of “envelope-pushing pop culture”. A lot of brands with Tag's footprint don't go there. And that’s perhaps why they get criticism as well as praise. So, I think it was on-brand for them to do that. From a purist perspective I would have liked to have seen the straight-up versions on their own. But I do get the value of what they did with Kith.
Scarlett Baker: I think it was smart. I personally think Tag is very good at harnessing younger audiences to get them into the brand. Coming back to that huge window of price points that they have… we talk about the price of the watch and compare it to the original. But [the new price] does reflect the prices at Kith. That’s how collabs work.
CH: The category error people made was that this came hot on the heels of MoonSwatch and Scuba Fifty [ie: Blancpain x Swatch Scuba Fifty Fathoms Bioceramic watch]. And people thought, “Okay, this is another example of a legacy brand doing a more affordable, plastic-ier, cheaper, funner version of one of its watches”. And it wasn’t the same kind of watch as those two. People looked at it and thought, “What are you doing?”
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People got excited about Piaget’s back catalogue. |
Piaget's sparkly ref. 12773 A18, circa 1975, on display at April's Rough Diamonds exhibition in Geneva |
In recent years, Piaget had become known for its engineering of ultra-thin movements, resulting is avant-garde watches like 2018’s Altiplano Ultimate Concept, a scarcely possible 2mm thick. Yet back in the 1970s and 1980s, it made wristwear for jetsetters – bold, gold statement watches, with intricate dials and gem settings. This notion was exemplified by its 18ct Piaget Polo, from 1979. Actually marketed as “the world’s most expensive watch” it was designed not for playing polo, but for standing about watching it – preferably from the members’ enclosure, sipping champagne. Reissued in February, the nostalgia-drenched Polo 79 seemed to kickstart a vogue for outré “jewellery watches” with oddball cases, stone dials and geometric designs, as epitomised by April’s Rough Diamonds, a one-off Sotheby’s auction (held in a cave!) that featured deep cuts from the achieves of Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin and, again, Piaget. But was this trend confined to the pages of style magazines? Or did it crossover?
SB: I’m going to say it did crossover. The amount of people that I’ve spoken to that have since bought their first watch from the 1970s or 1980s and have really dug deep into that area of the secondary market. I think it’s had an impact. Bringing out the Polo 79 really opened a lot of doors into the archives of Piaget. That’s one of the reasons that stone dials have had the boom they’ve had this year. We can come back to stone dials later. CH: I mean, the Polo 79 was up there with the Kith-Heuer as the worst kept secret coming into this year... |
Piaget Protocle ref. 90154 |
AT: What models have your friends been buying, Scarlett?
SB: Piaget Protocoles. The archives at Piaget are insane. The stuff that they have in there that keeps coming out, that they didn’t ever realise they had, is mental.
GB: Case wise, design wise… Honestly, Piaget is back. And they’re back to the point where my wife is, like, “Oh, my God, I’d love to get a Polo”. I bought the Andy Warhol. The marketing team, the design team, and the CEO of Piaget [Benjamin Comar, respected former boss of Cartier, Dunhill and Chanel, who took over in 2021] – literally, tick, tick, tick. I feel like they can do no wrong there.
CH: This is interesting for me, because are you saying that's the difference? Because I go over my time in the industry, which is 13 or 14 years, and you could not have imagined saying that about Piaget for most of that time. Everyone knew there were certain cool things going on there, but for the most part, you didn’t lust after the Polo. The Warhol has been on the books for ages. Sort of forgotten, overlooked. So, is it the personnel that has made the change? Or did they need other things – in a wider, cultural sense – to slot into place for this to be the right time for this?
SB: They’re a brand that embraces their archives and pushes that forward in front of people. Whereas a lot of brands go, “Yeah, this is what we did in the past. But our point today is to sell our modern inventory.” |
Three views of the 2mm Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon |
CH: It’s been a complete U-turn. Because up until two years ago, the Altiplano was the only story they had any interest in telling. All they wanted to do was get out a Swiss coin [to compares thickness] and go “They’re really thin”. It’s very impressive. But that was the only story. And you heard it again and again and again. And they’ve finally gone, “Oh, wait!” As you say: “We’ve got loads of jewellery!” I think it comes back to your point about “How real is this?” Because the Polo 79 is not exactly the most accessible or easy thing to get hold of. They’ve had that amazing moment, that halo effect, and now they need to bring something into their retail channels that capitalises on that.
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This year's relaunched Polo 79 |
GB: Yes, it may have been the "right time" for them – you look online, all the shoots they've done in magazines, absolutely – vintage Piaget is cool. It's true if you go to retail, it falls down slightly. But they will correct it. I'm sure they'll be bringing out a new Polo. They'll be bringing out other iterations, with their stone manufacturing. Their team is jumping ahead. SB: Really, how many people do any of us know that have bought the Polo 79? It’s £69,000. And yet: how many people have the word “Piaget” in their mouth because of it? |
Daniel Craig kept teasing unreleased Omega watches. |
Eye spy: Craig at the 2024 Paris Olympics, wearing an unreleased Omega Seamaster 300M |
Omega has a long association with James Bond, a deal that’s seen it dress the wrists of 007s from Pierce Brosnan to Daniel Craig. The latter left the franchise (spoiler alert) conclusively at the end of 2021’s No Time To Die, but his role as an Omega ambassador continues. In the absence of any more on-screen 007 opportunities, Omega has pivoted to slipping new, yet-to-be-released watches onto Craig’s wrist, before he steps out at the brand’s events/ appears as their guest at the Olympics, etc. Then he gets photographed. The resulting hype surrounding an unseen Speedmaster, Seamaster and another Seamaster months before they went into shops, suggested a new, low-effort/ high-reward approach to celebrity endorsements.
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SB: I think it's genius. The best way to launch a watch is to do it incognito, and just let the masses do the work for you. I think it was so cool. GB: It’s very smart. Omega has found a clever way to use Daniel Craig, post-Bond. It’s not going to hurt them that he’s going through quite an exciting era, with his long hair, and everything. CH: I do know for certain that that is perceived in some quarters as not particularly helpful. Because people go into shops and say, “I want the watch that Daniel Craig wore, the one I saw on Instagram”. They go, “Oh, yeah – sorry but it’s not out yet”.
GB: Don’t you think more brands should have these [sorts of ambassadors]? You think about [formidable Breitling boss] Georges Kern, who is the ultimate marketeer, right? You know, the celebrities that he’s got. Or Richard Mille, another great businessman. They are gods in this industry. Why are they not doing this as well?
CH: It’s totally what they should be doing. GB: You think about the amazing women ambassadors there are. Look at Bulgari. Some of those watches… there are some amazing women that could be wearing them. And any of us would pick those watches up in a beat. |
SB: It’s far more exciting for me to see it on Instagram, and not have a press release [from a watch company] coming into my inbox saying, ‘So-and-so is wearing this watch at an awards ceremony’. I love the frenzy of [the watch media] going “What is it? Who’s going to find out first?”
GB: But you’re good at watch-spotting. I love it when you guys become the detectives on it, and then I see it [identified] on social media. I’m going: “How freaking cool is that?”
SB: This part of watch culture is just getting bigger and bigger. Celebrities and watch-spotting. It’s bringing in new customers, and younger consumers. You may not necessarily be able to walk into a boutique and see the watch. But when you see your favourite celebrity wearing it, you idolise it, and you think about that product. It’s like, “I want the watch that the person I love wears”.
GB: Look at Kanye West and the Cartier Crash. The reason that really pulled through, and all the tech bros started wearing the Crash was because someone saw a photograph [of West wearing the watch] and went “God, that’s a cool watch”. Or Jay Z – sometimes you’ll see him wearing something and you’ll think “That’s cool”. Because you know that he actually likes watches.
AT: Does that authenticity, or perceived authenticity, make a difference? |
Central Cee for G-Shock: "Realistic" |
GB: With someone like [latest G-Shock ambassador] Central Cee, yeah. He is so G-Shock, and so Casio, it feels right. He was wearing them before, so he is the right ambassador, you know? You go, “Okay, that’s realistic”. There’s some actors, some singers, where you go, “That is so not the watch you would be wearing”. AT: The media has always covered celebrity outfits on the red carpet. Now they also cover the watches. Like the clothes, they tend to be sorted out by stylists. Has that peaked? |
Craig teasing another unreleased Seamaster at last month's Governors Awards in Los Angeles |
CH: Omega and Cartier have swamped that as a marketing strategy. The red carpet thing is played between them and no one else can really get a look in. Yeah, I think that might have limited mileage – how much more can they make from that? But going back to what you said earlier, I think the idea of celebrities “leaking” watches is so interesting to us, because it wasn't so long ago that the industry absolutely detested the idea of a watch being seen anywhere at all, prior to its official release. It was a very formal, very structured. Now they’re embracing “the tease”. I think it’s good. There’s an openness that we didn’t see, two or three years ago.
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The first British Watchmakers’ Day happened. |
Lindley Hall, London, Saturday 9 March |
In March, the recently-established Alliance of British Watch and Clock Makers hosted an event at Lindley Hall in Westminster, showcasing more than 30 new and established homegrown brands, including Christopher Ward, Vertex, Fears, Farer and Duckworth Prestex, with a view to promoting the British industry, once a world-leader. Many companies created limited edition watches specifically to buy at the event. It was also one of few opportunities to purchase “pizza-party” watches by Studio Underd0g, the hugely successful three-year old Brighton brand, whose stand generated the biggest queues. In contrast to slick trade fairs in Switzerland, the inaugural British Watchmakers’ Day had more of a homely vibe, featuring Union Jacks draped over trestle tables, and held in a draughty town hall. This was either charmingly on-brand for the UK, or smacked of British underachieving, depending on your point of view.
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Clock around the block: queues before the doors opened at British Watchmakers' Day |
SB: The footfall was amazing. When I arrived, there were queues going all the way around the corner of the building and onto the next street. The impression was that there’s a great sense of community between the brands. I agree with you on the [event] branding. I was talking to someone recently about this, and they had the opinion that we hold Swiss brands in such high regard, because we put them on this pedestal, that we don’t want to reflect that in ourselves. Why are we having things like trestle tables, if we're trying to make such a point that British watchmaking is an incredible thing?
CH: I don't think it has to mimic Swiss ideas of luxury. George may be too polite to say this, but I think you might attest to the fact, with your years of experience in the British watch industry, it hasn't always been so harmonious. |
Richard Benc of Studio Underd0g, signing a pizza box at the event |
GB: I’m over here with my Zimmer frame. My biggest problem with it is that I had FOMO, having said that I wasn’t going to do it. I thought it was going to be the Studio Underd0g show. There were amazing brands there, like Fears, but the only brand I heard people talking about was Studio Underd0g. AT: You could hardly get near their stand for the crowds.
CH: But isn’t that to their credit? That they came up and did that? Why didn’t anyone else come up with some really cool, snappy, viral marketing idea that they were going to use to the event? You’ve sort of got to, right?
GB: Listen, I think they did an absolute cracker at the event. And also all the articles that came out around it, about how they’d sold X amount in a period of time [‘Stampede For Pizza Watch Helps Studio Underd0g Outsell Rolex For One Day Only’]. All the big articles that came out before and around that were really promoting Studio Underd0g. CH: Why does that matter? You want to throw your hat into the ring!
GB: I am throwing my hat in the ring! [Bamford Watch Department will be exhibiting at the next British Watchmakers' Day, in March]. That’s why I said: I had FOMO. Also, what I would say to you is: the other brands that were there, did they have great sales? As you’ve said, the other brands couldn't get a look-in. The other thing is: is the clientele going to be buying a [more expensive] Fears or a Vertex? What price points are we looking at? I’ve said no to a few of these meets and these watch fairs [because I’m not sure I’d sell enough watches to make it worthwhile].
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Studio Underd0g broke with norms by sharing its own sales figures |
AT: It was promoted with the idea it showed a real spectrum of prices, from an Accurist for a couple of hundred pounds, up to a one-off Roger Smith watch, that was auctioned for over £600,000.
GB: But look at what actually sold! This is me being controversial. I think it’s bloody amazing for the British watchmakers. I think that this flag for Great Britain is absolutely amazing. Even if the majority of those watches are not made in Great Britain. Quite a few are Swiss-made, but some are made in some other places. We still don’t have a great case maker here. We have Garrick [based in Norfolk], who are good for movements. And we have an amazing one-off person, Roger Smith [based on the Isle of Man, the celebrated watchmaker makes almost everything by hand, and is said to have produced just 100 watches in 20 years]. I think if we could say, across the board, “This is the movement maker we’re all using. And here’s the dial maker. And this is great British watch making”, I would go “Hallelujah”. But it’s not going to happen. I thought it was going to, when Bremont were doing their movements. I went to them and asked them to do stuff for me when it was [former owners] Giles and Nick [English] – and then Davide [Cerrato, appointed as CEO last year] – and we spoke about it. Because they had the capacity to supply to the industry. I thought, “I can see this catalyst working that could really sail us away, and make great British watchmaking”.
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Time+Tide Watch Discovery Studio opened for business in October |
AT: Watch events in general had a good year. There was another WatchPro Salon, and the Time+Tide Watch Discovery Studio opened in London, a place for people see microbrands that otherwise don’t have a retail presence.
CH: To say nothing of regional watch fairs. There’s been one in Manchester. There was one in Bristol the other week. There are lots and lots of events for watch brands in this country. I worry that it might not be able to sustain its momentum. Because it’s largely the same companies exhibiting at these events, over and over again. The brands WatchPro Salon were attracting this year were overwhelmingly microbrands, and direct-to-consumer brands. I do think they run the risk of that becoming the identity of the show. Without those bigger high-street names there to anchor it a little bit. And that will also guide the clientele that turns up.
SB: But how many people have held a Furlan Marri, or a Studio Underd0g? Because we work in the industry, we’re really exposed to [being able to look at watches from smaller brands]. These brands have miles to go for their market penetration. The customer base could be massive. And they only need to sell a few dozen watches each time. Their volumes aren't huge. I think it does make sense for them.
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Rolex got into publishing. |
The collected Submariner: "The ultimate pedantry"? |
Oyster Perpetual Submariner: The Watch That Unlocked The Deep was not noteworthy for being the first book to be written about the Submariner, and certainly not the first book to be written about Rolex, but it was the first book to be written with Rolex’s permission. Submariner was authored by the respected watch authority Nicholas Foulkes, the first of ten editions that will explore the brand’s various families – Explorer, GMT-Master, etc. As we wrote about here, Foulkes was given unprecedent access to its archives. It also potentially marked a new era – the famously secretive Rolex opening up like never before.
GB: Do you think they had to open up, in some ways? They had already started doing authorised pre-owned [Faced with the sheer amount of Rolexes being resold on the secondary market, the brand began its own “certified preowned” (CPO) scheme – buying back, and servicing pre-owned models and reselling them from its own authorised outlets]. There have been so many unauthorized things that you see, and you see in books. You go “I know that’s a Frankenstein” [ie: a watch comprised of parts from multiple other watches, passed off as genuine]. And what they've done is said, “Actually, these are from the archive. This is what is true”.
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A handsome spread from Submariner |
Inevitability, and as Foulkes himself predicted even before it was published, hardcore Rolex aficionados were quick to take issue with some of the finer details in the book – not least this 5,000-word story by self-styled horological whistleblower Perezcope, pointing out alleged inaccuracies in the text.
CH: It’s incredibly difficult to write anything of that length and not have a single thing wrong. But of course, if you are taking the opportunity to set the record straight, you should really try and get it actually straight. The presence of inconsistencies was spotted by eagle-eyed vintage Rolex people far more tuned into this than ourselves. Yes, it’s the ultimate pedantry. But also: that is what Rolex collecting is. The industry is based on pedantry. When you take a value of one dial versus another, and it quadruples because it has an “underline” or a “red” or whatever [tiny, seemingly insignificant marks on dial text that differentiates them from others]. You can’t throw out pedantry as an idea, because that’s what the whole thing is about.
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1965 ad for Rolex's Submariner, with heavy James Bond overtones |
AT: Playing devil’s advocate, if it’s in the book, does that make it gospel from now on?
GB: I think it will become that. Because in the world of collectors and dealers, when they want to prove that something they’re selling is right – they go “Look, it’s in the book!” It happens with vintage watches and unauthorised books. They would go “Turn to page whatever…”, even if that book is not accurate.
CH: I think that’s dangerous. They can’t have it both ways. They can't say “this is our truth”. It was an opportunity, in my view, to take the high ground and admit that perhaps there were some details that had been omitted from the history. But that’s not characteristic for a big Swiss body, let alone Rolex. Swiss brands have always sought to control the narrative. There are long-established, well-documented examples of brands and their own histories that have been conveniently rewritten. For Rolex, the benefit of being utterly, utterly closed off and not doing this kind of thing [before] is that you can set your own story out. The minute you start to engage with this, you are forced to confront the issues like “We invented the waterproof watch”. And there’s people out there going, “Actually, you kind of didn’t”. And now you have that conversation. Or, if you’re going to close the hands over your ears, it undermines the credibility of the book.
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Universal Genève came back from the dead. |
Artwork for the relaunched "UG", which appeared in October |
The hypest watch label of the year was Universal Genève, a languishing Swiss brand from the mid-20th Century bought by Breitling’s CEO Georges Kern. It won’t release its first watches until 2026, but it is already generating great intertest thanks to assembling a steering committee comprised of insider watch experts and auctioneers, debuting a smart social media campaign, and launching a trio of teaser watches.
SB: It’s got us talking about something that isn’t out yet.
GB: It’s building! The vintage prices have gone through the roof. You know, there are some amazing things [in the archive]. He’d be embarrassed if he knew I said this, but there’s someone I know who’s a massive collector of vintage watches – he would only buy Patek Nautilus, and all the derivatives [ie: the approved canon of “cool” watches]. And he goes – “I’ve found a new brand”. “What’s your new brand?” “Well, it’s Universal Genève”. “Oh, wonderful”. “You know, me and my friends call it ‘UG’” [laughs]. I just thought: “Georges has done the coolest thing ever, because he’s got tech bros interested”.
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A vintage Universal Genève Aero-Compax |
AT: Why is it such a big deal?
GB: Of the classic chronograph manufacturers of the 1950s and 1960s, the golden era of sports watchmaking, they’re the biggest brand that doesn’t exist anymore.
CH: It never actually shut down. A Chinese-owned business conglomerate was running Universal Genève – you could have bought one, I don’t know, three, four years ago. But they were quite soulless, uninteresting reimaginings of the old collections. It didn’t have any love. It didn't have any presence. It wasn’t marketed very interestingly. It wasn’t promoted or pushed or seen as cool. It was actually a bit embarrassing to collect the vintage stuff because everyone thought [the owners] were doing a terrible job.
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One of a trio of unique Universal Genève Polerouter SAS Tribute watches, released in November |
GB: The Polerouter [from the 1950s] is an unsung hero. You can find one for £600. [At the time of writing prices for preowned models run from £485 to £9,764 on Chrono24]. And this is the Silver Shadow of Gérald Genta designs. If you’re reading this, and if you really want to get into the brand, go for that – because it’s not a high price point. And you’re getting an UG that is coming through [the Polerouter is likely to be reissued when the company relaunches].
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Thousands of new watches were released in 2024, as they are every year. But which ones did we rate? |
About Time's choice: Zenith's Defy Revival A3648, on the wrist in April |
AT: Zenith’s Defy Revival A3648. I like everything about it – the colour, the size, the fact it’s reproduced in its period-correct 37mm. My favourite watch last year was also a Zenith, just FYI.
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George's pick: the award-winning Portugieser Eternal Calendar, from IWC Schaffhausen |
GB: The Piaget Polo 79. That, for me, is a 2024 hero. Also, the IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar, which is a record-breaking watch. It won the GPHG [it took home the top prize at this year’s Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève awards]. This really does need to be one of the watches of the year. It’s truly epic. |
One of Chris's (many) favourites: the Ming 37.09 Bluefin |
CH: Shall I rattle through a few? The colourful Nomos Tangente 38 collection, but it’s impossible to pick which one. Berneron’s Mirage. The First Omega In Space [ie: the Omega Speedmaster Anniversary Series]. Fears Brunswick 38 Topper Edition 'Silver Sector'. Ming’s Bluefin. I like the Parmigiani Toric, even though it got a mixed reaction from people. The Czapek Antarctique, but that's a new dial on an old watch. I like Kari Voutilainen's 20th Anniversary Tourbillon, but then who wouldn't? It's just terrific [Continues naming watches for quite some time...]
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Scarlett's selection: the mini Royal Oak, worn as a throuple |
SB: The three mini APs [ie: Audemars Piguet’s 23mm Mini Royal Oak, which came in yellow gold, rose gold and white gold]. But only if they’re worn all at once. Also, just because of how it reflects my taste, I would put Berneron in there. Also, the Furlan Marri Disco Volante. CH: Donald Trump’s Victory Tourbillon, obviously...
Next Sunday… Have watches become too expensive?; Hermés and the unisex watch that isn’t; the “mall brands” that found their cool; shaped watches; and our choices for watchmakers to watch in 2025. |
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Blame Brat Summer. On Thursday "Mocha Mousse", AKA Pantone 17-1230, was named as Pantone's colour of the year, for 2025. The "warming, brown hue imbued with richness" was about as far from Charli XCX vomit green as it's possible to get on the taste scale. Combine that with next spring's menswear colours, which include “papaya”, “ginger” and “bark”, and everything's starting to feel well classy. On Wednesday I got the opportunity to try on Girard-Perregaux's latest Laureato. The company rep told us the dial colour had been created at the request of fans. And, while it looked battleship grey in some lights, he assured us that the colour was, in fact, sage green. We're here for it.
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WHY DO ARTISTS LOVE MAKING WATCHES? |
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STUDIO UNDERD0G SERVES UP THE PERFECT EGG TIMER |
The English breakfast collection.
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