A time to wow

IF THE NOVELTIES PREMIERED AT the just ended Watches & Wonders are anything to go by, 2023 will continue to be a positive year for Swiss luxury watchmaking. Sensitive to the world’s socio-economic affairs, the industry generally responds by calibrating its novelties to suit the mood of the times. When it is a strong year economically, watch companies often release more adventurous products. When the going gets tough, they switch to a more conservative product strategy. For 2023, trends point towards the former, as everyone gears up for the gradual but certain reopening of China and Hong Kong.

While brands generally stayed true to their core values, many also stepped out of their respective comfort zones. Buzzwords like Extraleganza, Italianity, and Less’ential have been tossed around by brands like Piaget, Panerai, and Vacheron Constantin, expressing an updated watchmaking philosophy that is at once familiar and refreshing. 

Others have taken a more experimental route with product development. While that is par for the course for progressive maisons like Hublot, Chanel, or Roger Dubuis, this strategy was also seen with established brands such as Rolex and Cartier, who brought a touch of irreverence and joie de vivre to their creations. In the Day-Date Jigsaw, emojis officially enter fine watchmaking parlance, while the Santos-Dumont Skeleton had a micro-rotor crafted with a miniature replica of a historical aircraft. 

Earlier in mid-2022, Richard Mille had released the RM 088 Tourbillon Smiley – an haut de gamme timepiece that fuses pop cultural references with traditional métiers d’arts – so the surprise this time was less about the use of emojis in luxury watch design per se, and more about who it was that made the watch. Rolex has always been the industry’s voice of reason and logic, what with its fastidiously over-engineered timepieces and perpetual obsession with quality. But with the release of watches like the Oyster Perpetual Day-Date 36 with a jigsaw puzzle-inspired motif and Oyster Perpetual dotted with many-coloured bubbles, it is clear that even the crown is ready for a bit of fun this year.

Another sign of the times is the steady return of high complications by the industry’s top watchmakers. This time, however, they have mostly exercised restraint in crafting their offerings, astutely creating technical products that are not too complicated and easily understood by the core audiences. Novelties in this space such as the Patek Philippe Calatrava 24-Hour Display Travel Time and Vacheron Constantin’s Traditionnelle Tourbillon Retrograde Date Openface express a clear focus on purity of concept and ease of use, placing these values well above excess and gimmickry. 

Parmigiani Fleurier continues its ascent with thoughtfully innovative complications; how the manufacture turned an existing idea on its head with the Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante was truly inspiring. Meanwhile, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Piaget fine-tuned their tourbillon classics with elegant new aesthetics using Clous de Paris guilloché and ornamental gemstones. Chronographs were also a major highlight for the year, with key novelties coming mainly from A. Lange & Sohne, Hermès, TAG Heuer, Grand Seiko, Chopard, and Montblanc.

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Indeed, aesthetics played a significant part in cultivating some of the strongest trends in recent years and this continues well into 2023. By introducing a wider range of colour variations across each collection, brands are enticing their customers to purchase more than one reference per model rather than to stop at one timeless, classic piece and then moving on to other brands. 

Leading the way are the crowd-pleasing hues such as blue, green, and salmon pink, but the real headliners are watches in specific tones of each colour. Light blue, mint green, pastel pink, and even violet-coloured dials dominate the arena now, with multiple brands going for broke with striking pink dials. 

TAG Heuer released a hot pink Carrera Date that all but screams Barbie. IWC in particular has been collaborating with the Pantone Color Institute to create high-tech ceramic cases for its Top Gun range of aviation watches. This year’s new colour is a deep blue hue called Oceana delivered on a strap crafted using Japanese denim fabric. With such heavy-hitting novelties across all fronts and by nearly all brands, there is little doubt that more will begin to desire a Swiss luxury timepiece – even those who swear by their Apple watches.