New watches, fresh fascinations
Just-released models continue to strut down the catwalk as the season goes into full swing
FP Journe: Chronometre Furtif
This watch brand is so hot, fans claim they can spot an FP Journe timepiece a mile away. Expect the same thing to happen with the new Chronometre Furtif, which stands out even in a crowd of its maker’s timepieces.
The recent addition to the lineSport collection has the same round case and bracelet of an everyday wristwatch, even if it looks more at home on the wrist of Batman prowling Gotham’s streets in the dead of night.
The 42 mm timepiece is grey-black, like the comic book hero’s outfit. While the Chronometre Furtif doesn’t wear a mask, its furtive nature shows in the minute tracks and numerals on the mirror-polished dial. Crafted from anthracite grey enamel and white gold, they can be seen only by the person wearing it – via tilting the dial at an angle.
The grey-black tone wasn’t deliberate. The hue comes from the material the watch case and bracelet are made of: tungsten carbide.
The Chronometre Furtif made its debut in 2024 in tantalum metal, as the one-off Chronometre Furtif Bleu Only Watch. The new tungsten carbide version, interspersed with tantalum, has only a small production run.
Both tantalum and tungsten carbide are extremely hard materials. Unlike steel, titanium or even tantalum – which itself is highly complex to work with – tungsten carbide requires perfect mastery of the machining process as well as the latest tools to be turned into a timepiece.
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The Chronometre Furtif also boasts a new in-house, hand-wound mechanical movement in 18K rose gold. When fully wound, it can keep ticking for 56 hours.
Price: CHF85,000 before tax (S$134,300)
Franck Muller: Round Triple Mystery
So you thought telling time was as simple as checking the numerals on a watch face? But what if there are no numerals – or even hands? Enter Franck Muller’s Mystery watch, which reimagines how time is read and felt.
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The first Mystery model had a rotating disc, instead of hands, displaying only the hour. The subsequent Double Mystery introduced two rotating discs marking both hours and minutes. The latest iteration features the third rotating seconds disc.
At first glance, the dial of the Round Triple Mystery appears to float. On closer look, there is an intricate ballet of three rotating discs, each tirelessly revealing the passage of hours, minutes and seconds.
The new watch is housed in a 39 mm rose or white gold case, framing a dial sparkling with diamonds set in a hypnotic spiral that draws the eye to three rotating triangular indicators – including a diamond, which is the seconds indicator.
The timepiece also comes in a variation with the bezel flaunting baguette-cut diamonds.
Price: S$134,000
Armin Strom: Dual Time GMT Resonance Manufacture Edition
This travel watch, equipped with a GMT function, showcases a striking monochrome design that seamlessly blends dials and movement, encased in stainless steel and complemented by a glossy taupe alligator strap.
Beating at its heart is the independent watchmaker’s 18th in-house movement, revealing two balance wheels oscillating in resonance. The manual winding movement, which has 42 hours’ power reserve, also has a patented clutch mechanism that is immune to everyday shocks and impacts, ensuring unparalleled accuracy.
Price: S$153,850
Ulysse Nardin: Diver (Air)
A leader in dive watches, Ulysse Nardin has unveiled a model which is stripped to the bone – it is 80 per cent air and only 20 per cent material.
Weighing just 52 g with the strap and 46 g without it, the Diver (Air) is the world’s lightest dive watch. In 2001, the brand launched an earlier world first: a dive watch with a perpetual calendar.
The new 44 mm timepiece, made largely of recycled titanium and carbon fibres, comes in at under half the weight of Ulysse Nardin’s previous skeletonised dive watch, rolled out in 2021. Despite its light weight, the watch can withstand a blow up to 5,000 g.
Like the perpetual calendar dive watch, the Diver (Air) is water-resistant to 200 m. Its automatic titanium movement, hollowed out to just the bare essentials, weighs only 7 g but still boasts a power reserve of 90 hours. The watch is worn with an ultra-light and easily interchangeable elastic strap, in white or orange.
Price: S$55,600
Roger Dubuis: Excalibur Grande Complication
Roger Dubuis’ minute repeaters are known for their musicality and the special attention paid to the melodic arrangement. The minute repeater in this grand complication, which also houses two other high complications – a tourbillon and perpetual calendar – is no different.
It produces a sound with a rather unsettling interval that does not conform to expectations. In the olden days, the sound was known as “the devil’s chord” and banned by the Church.
Limited to just eight pieces, the 45 mm pink gold Excalibur Grande Complication – the brand’s second, with its first presented in 2009 – was launched to toast Roger Dubuis’ 30th anniversary. Paired with an interchangeable 3D brown calfskin strap with different finishes, it boasts a Poincon de Geneve certification – which verifies its accuracy and meticulous decoration by hand.
The perpetual calendar is presented on a patented biretrograde display where the hands move gracefully along semicircle scales before springing back to zero at the end of their cycle.
The display shows the individual scale for the day of the week and another for the day of the month, both fitted with the Excalibur’s skeletonised hands. The month disc is found between 11 and 12 o’clock, alongside the small leap year indicator.
Like with all Roger Dubuis tourbillons, the gravity-defying mechanism located between 5 and 6 o’clock is a flying construction, with a mirror-polished cage crafted from non-magnetic titanium.
Price: Available on request
Czapek & Cie: Antarctique Tourbillon
The Antarctique is described as Czapek & Cie’s “quintessentially modern sporty-chic” watch. Following a split-second chronograph, the latest model houses a hand-polished open-worked flying tourbillon in a titanium cage. It also has a new in-house movement and dial design.
All these are to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Czapek’s revival, which also marks 180 years since the maison was founded in 1845.
What stands out is the dial’s design. Czapek applied classical craftsmanship to give it a new, contemporary look, with a “vortex-style” guilloche pattern that creates an impression of infinite depth. The marque named the pattern “singularite”, after the astronomical term “singularity”, which refers to those places in the universe where space and time are infinite and undifferentiated, such as a black hole.
The 50-piece limited edition, available in glacial blue, a 5N gold hue and grey, may be paired with a steel bracelet or rubber strap.
Price: S$104,380
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