Our Watches and Wonders journey has been full of novelties and surprises! We’ve seen a plethora of unique timepieces from renowned brands.
ARNOLD & SON – Ultrathin Tourbillon Gold
The Ultrathin Tourbillon collection offers a new execution in 5N red gold with a subtle silver opaline dial and a refined mother-of-pearl subdial.
To give Ultrathin Tourbillon Gold a unique and refined design, Arnold & Son has focused on materials and techniques that highlight the precious appearance of this finely honed tourbillon.
CHARLES ZUBER- Perfos Karl
Charles Zuber presents a very high-quality aerial and contrasting creation: the PERFOS KARL. A skeletonised watch realised in collaboration with the Genevan guardian of traditional material work, Cédric Johner. True to the brand’s spirit, this exclusively limited edition offers 8 pieces of 39mm in 18-carat pink gold – all unique. Each watch is full of emotion and characterised by the uniqueness of its finishes.
Set with 84 saffron orange baguette-cut sapphires, totalling 2.42 carats, each movement has been entirely transformed by hand. The PERFOS KARL, with its meticulously chosen openwork, is pierced by emptiness and bathed in sunlight thanks to the warm-coloured precious stones. Sandwiched between two sapphire crystals, like two wide-open windows on the transformation of the 01 calibre, one can glimpse the mechanical anatomy that has been revealed under the bold and expert hands of Cédric Johner: the gear train is visible.
One can make out a ballet of chamfered, satin-finished and polished-angled components. Mechanical, with automatic winding by means of a bidirectional oscillating micromass in platinum set with 39 brilliant-cut orange sapphires totalling 0.1 carats, this three-hand calibre, initially made with 164 components and 33 jewels, naturally lent itself to future developments, such as skeletonisation. Several components have been modified and opened up, notably the plate, bridges and wheels of the gear train.
PIAGET Polo Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin – Obsidian
Ornamental stones have always been Piaget’s signature, celebrating their natural sense of mystery, strength, and vivid, intense hues. The dial emanates an emotion and intrigue. The new Piaget Polo Perpetual Calendar Obsidian has an iridescence due to the inclusions forming when the drops of mineral-rich sulfide liquid get trapped in the rock as it solidifies. Mother Nature makes these irregularities rare and every stone becomes unique. Piaget has paired this exceptional obsidian gemstone with a white gold case and a perpetual calendar, one of watchmaking’s most historic and emblematic complications. Thus giving the design an androgynous and sensuousness that is unparalleled.
The bezel carries forward Piaget’s love affair with coloured stones and is set with deep blue sapphires in mysteriously dark claws that enhance the allure of the dial. Limited to 18 collectable editions, this rare timepiece is a luxury of very few. It has an interchangeable rubber bracelet if you want to flaunt it daily.
ROGER DUBUIS – Excalibur Blacklight Spin-Stone™ Monobalancier
The fully integrated Manufacture is the birthplace of ground-breaking innovations, among them the uniquely shaped spinels named Spin-Stones™. Grading from red to blue and coated with SuperLumiNova, the stunning gems always shine in colour – by day, night, or under UV light-and give birth to the Excalibur Blacklight Spin-stone™ MB edition while taking colourful luminescence to new heights.
U-BOAT ITALO FONTANA CAPSULE 50MM T5 BK BE
REF. 8805
Seven years after the first launch, Italo Fontana brushes up this astonishing design with a new Capsule watch still drawing inspiration from the 30s bathyspheres. With a thick and domed sapphire crystal amplifying the view on the dark dial with a magnifying glass effect and sealed to the case through an external and independent bezel, the watch allows a long see-through slit with a view on the dial and running all around the watch circumference.
Limited edition to 90 pieces only, the Capsule watch features a grade 5 titanium case in 50mm size. Black dial with indexes and numbers treated in beige superluminova and the 24h indicator. Inside the watch, the precision of the Swiss movement with a Sellita SW200 automatic calibre is modified to the U-BOAT specifications, which beats at 28,800 vibrations per hour with a 41h power reserve.
ULYSSE NARDIN – Freak 2001
A FREAK IS BORN
Launched in 2001, the first Freak is recognised as the single most iconoclastic act of horological audacity in the history of modern watchmaking. As the first “hyperwatch” that heralded a new era, it smashed every convention known to watchmaking in its own inexorably freaky way. Featuring an ultramodern and disruptive design of the 12-hour tourbillon carrousel, it was the first timepiece ever with no crown, no dial and no hands. Movement is king. The rotation is given by the movement of the watch itself: a gear train and escapement revolve once every hour and indicate the minutes. The time is adjusted by rotating the bezel and the watch is regulated by a new miniaturised Dual Direct Escapement with the introduction for the first time ever of silicon escapement wheels. Silicon is light and elastic and has low-friction properties and high resistance. In 2001, adopting it in watchmaking was radical – and expensive. Fast-forward two decades and it is now mainstream.
The technical virtuosity of Ulysse Nardin, with a movement deconstructed to express time on its own, led a counterrevolution that has changed the face of watchmaking forever by rewriting its codes and fomenting a revolution on three fronts — design, mechanical and material. Being the first wristwatch wherein mechanics and aesthetics are virtually indistinguishable, the name Freak also pays tribute to Rolf W. Schnyder and Ludwig Oechslin, who were true geniuses and “freaks” in their own way, by revisiting the concept of a watch as if it had never existed before.
VAN CLEEF & ARPELS – Ludo Secret watch, diamonds
Van Cleef & Arpels reinterprets a Ludo watch from its patrimonial collection with new timepieces. In keeping with the Maison’s long-standing taste for mystery, the Ludo Secret watches preciously hide a dial-in guilloché white mother-of-pearl.
ZENITH- Pilot Big Date Flyback Ceramic
The new PILOT Big Date Flyback honours the aviation pioneers who dared to dream beyond the horizon. It reminds us that we can all pursue our dreams and rise to any challenge. This watch’s timeless design captures the spirit of these brave individuals who pushed boundaries and achieved greatness. It calls us all to take risks and reach our goals with passion and determination. In addition, many new functions are designed specifically for this PILOT collection.
The prominent oversized date display in the PILOT Big Date Flyback features a next-gen patented compliant mechanism that advances and stabilises both of the big date’s wheels in less than 0.03 seconds. Also, the flyback function allows the chronograph function to be reset to zero, making it easier for the PILOT’s operations and offering the possibility of recording consecutive times without stopping.
