The best watches of 2022
The year saw an avalanche of new timepieces. We spotlight some that stood out among the rest.
AS the world emerged from pandemic lockdowns, 2022 saw watch brands making up for lost time. With an avalanche of new launches, picking out the best of the year has been harder than before. But for watch lovers, what this means is that they were able to pick and choose from even better made and designed watches. Without further ado, here are our picks of the year.
Rolex Oyster Perpetual Deepsea Challenge
In a toss up between the gigantic and the lefty, big wins. And the new Deepsea Challenge takes home the crown. It stands taller than the left-handed GMT Master II, even though the latter caused much excitement early in the year when it first appeared.
The Deepsea Challenge, unveiled only three weeks ago, still looms large before us – literally. The watch is a humongous 50mm, yet light for a watch that big – thanks to RLX titanium. Rolex has never made a watch fully in this ultra-light material. Nor has it produced one this size for sale. The Deepsea Challenge is waterproof to an unbeatable depth of 11,000 m. Truly the ultimate watch of the deep, one that will be remembered for a long time. Price: S$36,040
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar in Blue Ceramic
Royal Oak watches are seen everywhere, with new versions appearing every year. It’s hard to believe this iconic model is 50 years old. This year’s anniversary celebration has brought out even more new variations. And the 41 mm Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar in Blue Ceramic stands above the rest. It isn’t the slender perpetual calendar mechanisms in the striking blue body that make the watch outstanding; the mechanisms are not new.
It’s the colour and material of the new timepiece. While blue is simple, it’s difficult to obtain on ceramic. Otherwise it wouldn’t have taken till now to see a Royal Oak perpetual calendar in full blue ceramic – right down from the case, dial and crown to the bracelet. Price: CHF 129,000 (S$187,050) excluding taxes
Patek Philippe Nautilus Ref 5811/1G
The Royal Oak is the Swiss phoenix that rose from the ashes of the 1970s, when Japanese quartz models almost killed the Swiss mechanical watch industry. The Nautilus was another Swiss child of the ‘70s that soared to great heights. In fact, the look of the two watches came from the same designer. Like the Royal Oak, the Nautilus has attained iconic status and is very much sought-after. Collectors were therefore shocked last year when the plug was suddenly pulled on Ref 5711/1, the most popular of the Nautilus timepieces. The new Ref 5811 is its replacement. It looks the same as Ref 5711, till it’s picked up.
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The new Nautilus is much heavier because it’s made of solid white gold; Ref 5711 was stainless steel. The case is also slightly bigger – 41 mm versus Ref 5711’s 40 mm. Ref 5711 had moved away from the original 1976 Nautilus to a case composed of three parts. The new model returns to the original two-part case. Price: S$92,000
Vacheron Constantin Historiques 222
To collectors of vintage timepieces, 222 are no ordinary numbers but a secret code for a watch Vacheron Constantin produced for its 222nd anniversary, 45 years ago. Supposedly a celebratory timepiece, it’s a watch of its time. A time of “sporty-chic” luxury watches like the Royal Oak and Nautilus. Unveiled in 1977, the all yellow-gold (including dial) 222 had all the trendy features of the ‘70s hot watch – robust with taut lines and sharp angle, yet consistently elegant. The requisite integrated bracelet aside, it displayed a flat base topped by a 37 mm round case with prominent fluted bezel, while keeping a slim 7 mm profile.
The design was bold as well as functional, but the brand’s classic DNA was also evident in the baton-type hand and straight hour-markers that recall earlier Vacheron Constantin models. The new Historiques 222 is faithful to the original but tweaked for greater comfort with a redesigned bracelet, and for enhanced performance with a new generation in-house movement. Price: S$99,000
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TAG Heuer Carrera Plasma Tourbillon
This timepiece aims to win some respectability for what are snootily referred to as synthetic diamonds. Not by carrying a S$500,000 price tag, but by working on TAG Heuer’s time-honoured bent for disruptive technology and avant-garde design. A good start was to describe the man-made diamonds as “lab-grown”; instead of “synthetic” or worse, “fake”.
The TAG Heuer Carrera model, already known for pushing the boundaries in watchmaking, was picked for the venture. It’s topped with a chemical vapour deposition technology, or CVD. Much of TAG Heuer’s success in creating the Plasma watch hinged on CVD, which is given the glamorous name “Diamand d’Advant-Garde”. CVD made possible a greater use of carbon in the form of lab-grown diamonds to produce “a stunning timepiece where diamonds are used in unique shapes and textures”. The new watch, powered by the best of TAG Heuer’s in-house movement, has a polycrystalline diamond dial which is framed in a 44 mm aluminium case set with lab-grown diamonds. Even the crown is crafted entirely from diamonds. Price: S$505,450
Chopard L.U.C Full Strike Sapphire
This cool-looking minute repeater watch in full sapphire case debuted in early 2022 and performed an encore last week. It was in Singapore for a roadshow celebrating the 25th anniversary of Chopard’s luxury mechanical watch division. The Full Strike was first unveiled in 2016, in a rose gold case. Only the minute repeater mechanisms came in sapphire crystal then. Still, they were a novelty and won the watch the industry’s Oscar, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. The innovation is now transplanted into a full sapphire case, making the Full Strike Sapphire the world’s first minute repeater in full sapphire. The minute repeater mechanisms have produced a rich sound in the rose gold case. It does the same in the sapphire case, but with feeling. Price: S$634,500. Limited edition of 5 pieces
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