The Geneva Watch Days event, which opened Wednesday in the Swiss lakeside town, has become a sort of back-to-school moment for watchmakers, putting the spotlight on conversations and business as much as novelties.
The seventh edition of the five-day showcase features 68 brands, including a host of independent names and niche workshops.
Wrapping up Sunday, it comes as the watchmaking industry finds itself with reasons to be optimistic. Indicators point toward improvement as watch sales appear to have passed their lowest ebb after a two-year pile-on of adverse circumstances, from U.S. tariffs and record gold prices to foreign exchange rates and ongoing geopolitical instability.
“This year, Geneva Watch Days enters a new cycle of development, while remaining true to the spirit that has driven it since its creation: openness, innovation, decentralization and proximity,” said Jean-Christophe Babin, president of Geneva Watch Days and chief executive officer of LVMH Watches, as well as chairman of the Bulgari board, CEO of the Bulgari Hotel business unit, and president of the Bulgari Foundation.
“[The event] has become an unmissable event, carried forward by an ever-more-engaged community of brands, collectors, partners and enthusiasts.…We remain convinced that nothing replaces real encounters, real conversations and the emotions shared around our creations,” he said.
From dial craftsmanship and material experimentation to the enduring fascination for the astronomic world, the novelties are sure to attract attention.
Here, WWD selected nine key new timepieces.
Bulgari
Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo Dual Time x Vianney Halter watch.
In a first for the Italian high-end watchmaker and jeweler, Bulgari teamed with Vianney Halter for a retro-futuristic rendition of its Octo Finissimo timepiece — one that would look at home in a Jules Verne novel. Best known for his steampunk-inspired perpetual-calendar Antiqua, Halter teamed with Bulgari’s product creation executive director Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani to envision the 50-component watch — some so miniaturized that they required the creation of dedicated manufacturing tools, Bulgari said. The dual time, 9.7-mm-thin watch is defined by four opaline white dials, blue hands and a rotor engraved with Halter’s signature. It incorporates GMT, date and day and night functions and boasts a 60-hour power reserve. It is offered in a titanium iteration — Bulgari’s material of choice for its Geneva Watch Days releases — and in polished pink gold on an alligator strap. They are both limited editions, to 30 and 15 pieces, respectively.
“I enjoy partnerships like this one, as they force my mind to adapt to another party’s imperatives. The watch, with its specific aesthetic and technical mastery, made the challenge even more compelling. Adapting to the [Octo Finissimo] essence while integrating my own style and mechanical ideas was a stimulating exercise,” Halter said.
Maurice Lacroix
Maurice Lacroix’s Aikon-IC Frozen Carbon watch.
Courtesy of Maurice Lacroix
Material experimentation seems to be high on watchmakers’ agenda. Maurice Lacroix updated its signature Aikon timepiece, launched in 2016, with “frozen carbon” dials, the result of a special technique combining carbon fibers with bronze and titanium powders or colored pigments that lend a marblelike pattern. Available in six variants for the Aikon-IC model, the new timepiece is encased in bronze, Damascus steel, titanium or carbon cases and mounts the ML1000 caliber boasting a 60-hour power reserve. Three of the watch’s references are offered in a limited run of 500 pieces each.
Bell & Ross
Bell & Ross’ BRX5 Météorite watch.
Courtesy of Bell & Ross
The French-Swiss house Bell & Ross also embraced the material game, unveiling an update on its BR-X5 watch. The new reference, called Météorite, features a dial crafted from fragments of the iron meteorite Muonionalusta discovered in Sweden’s Norrbotten region in 1906, which lends the face an organic texture of interlacing lines. Offered in a limited run of 250 pieces, each slightly different, the 41-millimeter watch encased in stainless steel features Super Luminova glowing indexes and luminescent skeletonized hands to enhance readability.
Daniel Roth
The gilt dial of the Daniel Roth Extra Plat Rose Gold Gilt watch.
Gabriel De La Chapelle/Courtesy of Daniel Roth
A focus on cutting-edge dial techniques was also front and center in Daniel Roth’s Extra Plat Rose Gold Gilt, which revives the old gilt craft: the black dial is selectively removed to reveal the solid-gold base plate beneath in the form of the indexes and other markings. The technique’s 3D effect is enhanced by the guilloché pattern that animates the dial. Offered in a rose gold case with a black leather strap, the timepiece mounts a manual winding movement comprised of 143 components and visible through the open caseback.
Beda’a
Beda’a’s Angles 37 watch.
Courtesy of Beda’a
The Qatari watchmaker Beda’a reworked what’s perhaps its most distinctive design, the octagonal-case Angles watch, which is offered in two renditions exclusive to the brand’s first flagship that just bowed inside the Mandarin Oriental in Doha. A second boutique is slated to open later this year in London. The special timepiece is defined by a vertically brushed silver dial — a nod to the color preeminent in the store’s decor — with Breguet-style numerals and golden hands. The more accessible quartz Angles 37 version is flanked by the Angles Mecaline reference, powered by a manually wound mechanical movement and the addition of a small seconds display at 6 o’clock.
Gérald Genta
Gérald Genta’s Geneva Minute Repeater Golden Obsidian watch.
Courtesy of Gérald Genta
Zeroing in on its founder’s most cherished complication, the new Gérald Genta Geneva Minute Repeater Golden Obsidian timepiece in yellow gold retains the characteristic 9.6-mm-thick, cushion-shaped case of the brand’s Geneva Collection without compromising the signature acoustics of the complication. The case was designed by Matthieu Hegi, artistic director of La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, and carefully engineered to minimize weight and resistance and favor the sound propagation, powered by the GG-002 caliber developed by master watchmakers Enrico Barbasini and Michel Navas. The watch owes part of its name to the brown obsidian dial, obtained by the rapid cooling of volcanic lava, which matches the calfskin leather strap.
Louis Moinet
Louis Moinet’s Moon Meteor watch.
Courtesy of Louis Moinet
The summer’s eclipses, including the partial lunar one on Aug. 28, renewed interest in celestial phenomena. In Louis Moinet’s new Moon Meteor timepiece, the celestial nebula is rendered through miniature painting, built up in layers of lacquer and varnish, as a backdrop for a moon disc with engraved and hand-painted craters and reliefs, topped by a miniature astronaut. The moon lights up at night thanks to its luminescent material. Lunar-meteorite fragments represent the full and new moons — the marblelike Gadamis 005, which comes from a region explored by the Apollo 16 crew, marking the former. Three meteors streaking across the dial are also formed from genuine meteorite fragments, including the Martian NWA 13925, the amino acid-bearing Jbilet Winselwan, and Sahara 97093, an enstatite meteorite containing microdiamonds of interstellar origin. Housed in lightweight titanium and limited to 12 pieces, the watch’s astronomical moon complication is accurate to one day in 122 years.
L’Epée 1839
L’Epée 1839’s The Football clock in gold.
Courtesy of L’Epée 1839
On the heels of World Cup fever, L’Epée 1839 has introduced “The Football,” a timekeeping sculpture in the shape of a full-scale soccer ball made of 882 components, mostly visible through its openwork structure, including the eight-day power reserve, manual winding movement standing at the center of the sphere. Nodding to the 32-panel soccer ball, composed of 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons, the clock — mounted on a wooden base like a trophy — is engineered as an exoskeleton that combines the two geometric shapes. Hours and minutes are displayed on two rotating discs.
“We believe that football [soccer] has always measured time differently whether in seasons, in finals played, or in the 90 minutes that can define a career. We wanted to build an object worthy of that weight. Something a collector keeps not for a season, but for a lifetime,” said Arnaud Nicolas, L’Epée 1839’s chief executive officer. Available in four configurations, including full gold and full palladium, the clock is limited to 99 pieces per version.
Maison Alcée x MB&F
Maison Alcée x MB&F’s Nostromo clock.
Courtesy of Maison Alcée and MB&F
The Chanel-backed high-end Swiss timepiece maker MB&F, founded in 2005 on the premise of offering kinetic sculptures for the wrist — or desk — that can tell time, has linked up with husband-and-wife duo Alcée and Benoît Montfort of clockmaker Maison Alcée to create Nostromo, a desk clock. Hinged on the couple’s specialty of offering ready-to-assemble clocks that turn customers into watchmakers themselves, Nostromo was designed by MB&F’s creative designer Maximilian Maertens and reminds one of an alien creature or spaceship. It is crafted from stainless steel, brass and German-sourced silver. The new timepiece can be rotated on its feet and marks hours, minutes and seconds, in addition to featuring an hour chime and boasting a 14-day power reserve. The two brands estimate that it takes about 10 hours to assemble the clock, including by watchmaking novices, following the 250-page instruction manual provided to customers. Limited to 51 pieces, the clock is only on display through Sunday at the MB&F’s boutique in Geneva called M.A.D. Gallery.