Three weeks since the ribbon was cut on 2024’s edition of ‘Watches & Wonders’ trade show at Geneva’s Palexpo convention centre, we’re still reeling from what ticked and sparkled within…
Rolex and Patek lead the charge
Basel’s two biggest breakaways stole the Watches & Wonders show, in their own backyard.
Within the outwardly brutal grey walls of ‘Palexpo’ convention centre, sprawled alongside Geneva Airport, two blue-eyed wonders from Patek Philippe and Rolex emerged as highlights of the world’s biggest showcase for all things fine and timely. Creative iterations of in-house classics, an airborne worldtimer and a deep-sea diver provided counterpoints to the whirring dervishes showboating over in Palexpo’s southeastern reaches.
More tellingly, they’re from the two former gate guards of ‘Baselworld’: once an even bigger, more historic horological hoedown. Baselworld didn’t survive Covid, leading to the rise of Genevoise tearaway ‘Watches & Wonders’ (née ‘Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie’, spun off by Richemont Group’s Cartier et al in the 1990s). It is now watchmaking’s ground-zero, bellwether and Mecca, all in one.
Patek and Rolex’s multistorey pavilions have navigated their migration impeccably, beckoning other ex-Baselites within the hushed, albeit cavernous champagne-wash of Watches & Wonders, awash with actual, complimentary champagne. ‘Navigated’ feels appropriate, as the globetrotting World Time Ref. 5330G and seafaring Oyster Perpetual DeepSea have both proved their chops over the decades, keeping travellers on time simultaneously home and away, as well as aware of their oxygen reserves as they venture the depths.
As is Patek Philippe and Rolex’s wont, their status as patrician icons dictates evolution over revolution. The former’s near-century-old, 24-time-zone ‘Heures Universelle’ system now comes with a patented added feature: a date display indexed to local time, so when you cross the dateline heading east, it’ll flick back a day (Ref. 5330G-01, £65,600).
Meanwhile, the Rolex Deepsea now provides extra ballast sinking to its whopping depth limit of 3,900 metres, since it’s rendered in 18-carat yellow gold for the first time (its £45,700 price tag is cheap at the price considering the 44mm diameter and chunky bracelet).
The helium-escape valve developed with commercial divers to prevent ‘saturation’ breathing gas getting trapped inside and popping off the dial’s crystal upon resurface is still present and correct.
Bremont gets a rebrand
New brass at British upstart Bremont has pulled the chocks away, out of the blue. Wagging tongues from the get-go, Bremont was the biggest new exhibitor at Watches & Wonders – only, not the Bremont you may already know. The youthful British brand, founded in 2006, took centrestage in the fair’s newly expanded ‘Mezzanine’ space, sporting a facelift that will make you do a double-take.
An all-new sporty logo replaces mid-century Gill Sans, plus a stylised compass rose replaces Bremont’s traditional propeller motif. Further, a fresh brace of collections, the retro egg-shaped Terra Nova and primary-coloured Supermarine bear next-to-no resemblance with Bremont’s nostalgic oeuvre of RAF aviators, Naval helmsmen and Infantry field instruments.
Simplified case shapes and white-label Swiss-made Sellita movements enable better ‘accessibility’ – something long-overdue, wherever your allegiance to the old or new lies. But we await to see how new management will post-rationalise the firm’s recent multi-million-pound investment in 11-axis CNC machines and serious homegrown talent, within the walls of Bremont’s purpose-built ‘Wing’ factory near Henley.
Bill Ackman took a £48.8 million majority stake in January last year, and the hedge fund billionaire is notoriously averse to loss. So ‘watch’ this space…
• Bremont Terra Nova from £2,500, see it here
The Gerald Charles Masterlink
One of this year’s hottest time machines resembles, appropriately enough, a DeLorean in miniature. Sleek, silvery with crisp futuristic lines, the all-new Masterlink is not only one for watchnerds but naysayers too, since its maker, Gerald Charles was the final, faltering act of legendary Swiss watch designer, Gérald Genta (1931–2011).
Genta’s most famous design was 1972’s Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, which in one fell swoop coined not only the geometric ‘integrated’ bracelet format, but the very notion of a luxury sports watch in stainless steel – his next act being Patek Philippe’s Nautilus, no less. Spool forwards to the early Noughties, and a former graffiti artist from Chicago rose the ranks at AP to steer the Royal Oak’s butch ‘Offshore’ offshoot into cult celebrity status. And he now finds himself at the drawing board, chez Gerald Charles.
“Masterlink is a bit of a full-circle moment,” says Octavio Garcia with pride, “since Genta’s integrated geometric codes are undoubtedly in there, but also because I met Genta in preparation for the Royal Oak’s 40th anniversary.
“He shared his original sketches, one of which included a square-shaped crown. It was eventually octagonal, of course, to match the Oak’s bezel, but at Gerald Charles we’ve finally realised his original idea!”
Garcia is being humble – there’s so much of his own cool and contemporary ‘eye’ to Masterlink, which will surely crystallise what Gerald Charles serves as a brand in its own right today.
• Gerald Charles Masterlink from £18,400, see it here
The all-new Vacheron Constantin Berkley Grand Complication
There’s a reason Switzerland’s longest-running marque can count 269 years of uninterrupted service: its discerning clients. These men and women share the same far-sightedness as Geneva’s Vacheron Constantin, and their patronage continues to push things forwards, regardless of quartz in the 1970s or smartwatches now.
To wit: the frankly epic Berkley Grand Complication. Mr Berkley’s precise identity remains a mystery (the unusual spelling of ‘Berkley’ yields a fairly plausible Google result) but the sizable timepiece is proof of his pocket capacity, in monetary terms as well as volume.
VC is happy to reveal that this ‘ageing American industrialist and philanthropist’ has form: he commissioned their last record-breaker, the less-catchily named ‘Reference 57260’, delivered in 2015 to commemorate the watchmaker’s 260th birthday.
The 57260 boasted ‘just’ 57 complications, including a Hebraic calendar. Mr Berkley’s latest challenge was to incorporate a Chinese perpetual calendar, which makes the secular Gregorian and Jewish systems seem positively straightforward. Among 60-something other displays of elapsed time and ‘solar’ time, as well as Big-Ben chimes, the Berkley accounts for China’s 19-year cycle, and is delivered with eight additional discs covering each Chinese New Year date in a new Metonic cycle, which must be physically swapped out.
No wonder it was 11 years in gestation.
“It is unlikely any other maison would have been prepared to undertake such a Herculean challenge,” Mr Berkley has commented, one imagines with a gimlet eye.
• Price undisclosed, see it here