Given its gift for gung-ho relationships – James Bond, the Olympic Games and even space itself – it’s easy to forget Omega’s history of creating supremely elegant dress watches. The launch of the 2026 Constellation Observatory is a timely reminder of this legacy. And it is certainly the dressiest timepiece Omega has produced for some time.

The Constellation was launched in 1952, inspired by the Centenary model created in 1948 to celebrate the company’s 100th anniversary. This limited-edition timepiece was so successful that it was chosen to form the basis of an entirely new collection. The result was an immediate hit and even young Elvis Presley was a fan.

The name was inspired by the engraved image on its caseback of an astronomical observatory surrounded by eight stars. The dome itself is based on the Observatoire de Besançon in France, site of a number of historically significant chronometry competitions. The stars represented the two chronometer records and six further awards Omega had received since 1933.

While paying homage to its heritage, the new 2026 model is no slouch when it comes to innovation. Boasting the latest Co-Axial Master Chronometer movement, it has a 15,000 gauss magnetic resistance, offering improved accuracy and reliability. Omega’s commitment to sustainability is apparent in the use of ethically sourced materials such as recycled gold and responsibly produced stainless steel.

The 39.4mm case comes in steel, gold or a platinum-gold alloy and the shape is a nod to the original with its distinctive dog-leg lugs. The Constellation also introduced the emblematic convex ‘pie-pan’ 12-facet dial, while the new dials come in an array of colours, from deep blues to vibrant golds, with kite-shaped indexes matched with dauphine hands. The sapphire crystal caseback reveals the new in-house movement and the original Observatory medallion integrated onto the rotor.

Milanese luxury maison Buccellati was founded in 1919, the year that goldsmith Mario Buccellati opened his first boutique. The business has since spread across the northern Italian city, from the neoclassical Palazzo Gavazzi on via Napoleone, home to a sprawling Buccellati boutique, to its temporary exhibitions during Milan Design Week. In 2020, the year that the family firm joined the Richemont Group, another Buccellati address was added on via Brisa, near Milan’s Duomo. A 1919 building designed by important local architect Piero Portaluppi is home to the Buccellati offices and workshop.

Buccellati currently operates six workshops; four are dedicated to jewellery, one to silverware and one creates watches. These are spread across Italy and beyond; a site near Como masters a particular twisted metal thread technique, silversmithing takes place near Bologna, while a Swiss workshop is charged with making jewellery watches – a category that was first presented in 2000. In Milan, Buccellati’s team of artisans focus on overall design and the making of unique high jewellery. Grouped on benches, there are specialists in stone setting, polishing and engraving, among others.

‘The workshop has always been our essential base, throughout the history of Buccellati. There is a very important connection between creativity and production,’ says Andrea Buccellati, the maison’s creative director. ‘When I create new pieces, it does not end with the initial design. There are many collaborations with the artisans, to explain a piece, to work out how we do it.’ Part of the founding family’s third generation, he first joined his father, Gianmaria Buccellati, as an apprentice aged 16. ‘When I was a kid, I loved to spend time in the workshop and work with the artisans. It was like a recreation for me! I learnt how to make the jewellery, I saw how they made it, and to understand this business.’

Much of what happens today inside the Buccellati Milan atelier is a type of material sorcery, or perhaps mimicry. Since Mario Buccellati first opened his boutique, his name has been linked to innovative techniques of working metal to echo the structure and surface of other materials. The intricate patterns of delicate Italian lace or airy tulle fabrics have inspired Buccellati creations cast and carved from precious golds and silver. Elsewhere, contemporary Buccellati designs nod to the Italian art of jewellery-making practised during the Renaissance. This includes the telato (cross-hatched lines that intersect at a right angle) and segrinato finishes, which give metals the look of linen and velvet respectively. Yet another technique, the lavishly textured ornato, is inspired by the damasks, laces and brocades of the Renaissance. ‘The connection between workshop and artist is most important,’ says Buccellati. ‘It’s a collaboration that has continued through generations. Without the artisans, there can’t be a Buccellati.’

At Buccellati, precious alloys are shaped to take on myriad forms and textures. The Eternelle line of pieces, for example, makes gold appear as spun lace. Seen left, a Rombi collection Eternelle ring in white and yellow gold, finessed with a total of 60 brilliant-cut diamonds.

In watchmaking, precision and craftsmanship reign supreme. So it is perhaps no surprise that the skeleton watch is one of the biggest visible trends for 2026, showcasing the intricate mechanics of a timepiece as a symbol of innovation and artistry.

At the heart of the skeleton watch is transparency. It invites the wearer to witness the very essence of functionality. The movement – gears, springs, escapements and all – are stripped bare and displayed, allowing you to admire the marvels of engineering that lie within. You literally wear its heart on your sleeve.

The style itself can be traced back to the late 18th century. But it was not until the 20th century that the skeleton watch truly gained prominence and, today, brands such as Richard Mille, Zenith and TAG Heuer are producing handsome new pieces that blur the lines between watchmaking and art.

This new wave speaks in a quieter, more architectural language, too. Brands are increasingly stripping back their designs to emphasise structure rather than encourage embellishment. The result is less filigree, more framing device.

Equally important is wearability. Earlier skeleton watches might have been guilty of prioritising spectacle over practicality, resulting in pieces that were visually impressive but difficult to read, or rendered fragile by the reductive nature of the approach. The current trend balances openness with clarity; applied indices, floating hands and carefully considered contrasts ensure that time remains central.

Creating these pieces is no mean feat, requiring true technical skill to carve away material from the movement, ensuring that decoration doesn’t compromise functionality and reliability. These intricate processes can take weeks – even months – to complete and the result has to be striking while capturing the essence of timekeeping. To ensure that they deserve their ‘close-up’, each component, from the smallest gear to the grandest bridge, must be meticulously crafted and polished. The interplay of light and shadow across the exposed movement is a modern celebration of centuries-old mechanical ingenuity.

Collaborations between watchmakers and designers further fuel the trend. Creative voices from outside the industry bring architectural and industrial perspectives. Brands are encouraged to reconsider proportions and structural logic, a canvas for experimentation, bridging disciplines and expanding the usual visual vocabulary.

The result is an opportunity for makers to showcase creativity beyond the mere mechanical, while designers are experimenting with materials, shapes and colours to create unique pieces. Carbon fibre, ceramic and titanium, together with bold colour palettes, avant-garde designs and engravings, help make each watch a statement piece.

For collectors, skeleton watches offer the appreciation of mechanical artistry alongside investment potential. As interest in unique and limited-edition pieces grows, brands are responding by producing exclusive models. The rise of social media has also played a role, enabling collectors to share their prized possessions – each ‘like’ a tribute to the intricate dance of gears and springs, the delicate balance of engineering and art.

In a world where time is fleeting, skeleton watches invite us to pause and appreciate the marvel of a mechanism that keeps us on schedule. They are a reminder that timekeeping is not merely a measurement, but a craft that should be celebrated.

As the trend continues to evolve, one thing remains certain: the skeleton watch will always hold a special place in the hearts of enthusiasts and collectors alike. B

Photo assistant: Nick Clarke

Dior introduced its Grand Bal in 2011, as an ode to the French maison’s haute couture heritage, and the life and work of its founder.

Christian Dior, who established his eponymous business in December 1946 and made history just two months later with his New Look collection, had a penchant for fancy dress balls and served as couturier to guests of the 1951 Ball of the Century in Venice. Hosted by Charles de Beistegui, a wealthy art collector and interior decorator, at his then recently restored 18th-century Palazzo Labia, the Ball of the Century drew a high-society crowd that included Leonor Fini, Salvador and Gala Dalí, and Cecil Beaton.

Occasions such as these called for one of the many gowns that Christian Dior dreamt up during his career. Standout designs included Junon, a 1949 silk tulle confection in pale grey finished with blue-green sequin embroideries by master workshop Rébé, or Mozart, a 1950s dress with glass beads and knotted passementerie fringing that follows the wearer’s every move.

Occasions such as the Ball of the Century, and designs such as Junon and Mozart, inspired the creation of the Grand Bal. The watch is fitted with the Dior Inversé calibre, a movement co-developed by Les Ateliers Horlogers Dior, a specialist manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, with the oscillating weight placed on top of the dial. Driving the timepiece, this innovation creates a movement that recalls the swish and swirl of a ball gown mid-dance.

Over the past 15 years, the Dior Grand Bal has come in many guises. There have been timepieces finessed with cut gems, feathers, cuts of silk or delicate gold threads. Even scarab beetle wings have made the cut. Hardstone marquetry, realised in pieces-of-a-puzzle shapes of lapis lazuli and opal, in addition to pearlescent mother-of-pearl, feature in Grand Bal Jardin Parisien, a collection that made its debut earlier this year. With flowers – clematis, dahlias and peonies – imagined with brilliant-cut sapphires and growing from yellow gold branches, the collection is an ode to the winter garden Christian Dior planted at his Paris flat on boulevard Jules-Sandeau.

As with most things, provenance in watches is everything – see Paul Newman’s Rolex Daytona or Jackie O’s Cartier Tank. Now Steve McQueen’s Heuer Monaco, as worn in the legendary driving film Le Mans (1971), is up for auction at Sotheby’s New York on 15 June. In a heady mix of horological history, Hollywood glamour and the thrill of endurance racing, it’s an object that far transcends the sum of all its parts.

Heuer (today known as TAG Heuer) launched the Monaco in 1969 to much fanfare. Billed as the world’s first square, water-resistant, automatic chronograph, it landed just as the Swiss-watch industry was struggling against the rapid rise of quartz watches. This was a moment to fight back and to also celebrate a freshly inked association with Formula 1, with a watch named after the circuit that offered one of the most challenging and technical drives of the season.

A year later, six Heuer Monacos would be sent to the Le Mans movie set to be worn by McQueen as he filmed the cult classic during the 1970 running of the race. The model under the hammer this summer is considered to be the piece that spent the most amount of time on his wrist during filming. Offered with a trove of archival documents from the set and more than 200 photographs, the estimate is $500,000 – $1 million, but it will likely climb higher.

After relaunching in the late 90s, the Monaco has become a key pillar in the TAG Heuer lexicon, given the respect that a design icon deserves, while acting as a vehicle for the latest technical advancements and partnerships. Last year it announced, in addition to the brand’s role as Official Timekeeper of Formula 1, that it is now the Title Partner of the Grand Prix de Monaco, for the first time in the nearly 100-year history of the race. A Split-Seconds Chronograph was presented in a form of titanium that took four years to develop, and a Monaco Chronograph Stopwatch, in an overt nod to its motor-racing roots. This year, the offering includes the TAG Heuer Monaco Evergraph, with a new highly precise movement containing groundbreaking flexible parts. It promises the convergence of performance, durability and design – a winning combination that McQueen would have surely approved of.

POLO 79 BY PIAGET

Piaget has long been known as a master of ornamental hardstone dials and this new iteration of the emblematic Polo 79 matches a white-gold case and bracelet with a textured, midnight blue sodalite dial.

POA, piaget.com

PREMIÈRE GALON BY CHANEL

Chanel first introduced its Première watch – with a geometric case shape inspired by Paris’ Place Vendome – in 1987. Last year, the maison added the Première Galon to its offering, fitted with a rigid bangle, and this year comes the launch of a limited-edition black-and-white version, set in white gold.

POA, chanel.com

MIDNIGHT JOUR NUIT PHASE DE LUNE BY VAN CLEEF & ARPELS

‘Poetry of the heavens’ is Van Cleef & Arpels’ creative theme for 2026 – cue cosmos timepieces such as the Midnight Jour Nuit Phase de Lune watch: a white-gold case houses two overlapping complications, one animating a day/ night-time display, the other showing the current moonphase.

POA, vancleefarpels.com

ALPINE EAGLE 41 XPS BY CHOPARD

Chopard’s line of Alpine Eagle sports watches is named for the eponymous raptor, for which the Swiss brand established the Alpine Eagle Foundation to protect. A new model features a gold base dial, which has undergone a galvanic treatment to obtain a finish inspired by the bird’s iris.

POA, chopard.com

CARTIER BAIGNOIRE CLOU DE PARIS BY CARTIER

A jewellery watch that has been worn by Catherine Deneuve and Romy Schneider, the Baignoire continues to inspire: a new model has been engraved with a Clou de Paris design, which results in a tactile, repeated pattern of small pyramid-shaped squares.

POA, cartier.com

LANGE 1 TOURBILLON PERPETUAL CALENDAR ‘LUMEN’ BY A. LANGE & SÖHNE

With a dial made from smoked sapphire, details of the timepiece’s movement can be glimpsed. The display includes power reserve, month, date, time, moonphase and leap-year cycle, finished with the glow-in-the-dark compound lumen.

POA, alange-soehne.com

OYSTER PERPETUAL 28 BY ROLEX

The Oyster Perpetual is best known as a stainless steel Rolex. However, new iterations this year include one model with a satin-finish, yellow-gold bracelet and matching 28mm case.

POA, rolex.com

OCTO FINISSIMO ULTRA TOURBILLON PLATINUM BY BVLGARI

Fitted with a satin-brushed and polished platinum bracelet, the 40mm platinum case of Bvlgari’s Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon Platinum frames a blue-tone skeletonised dial. The geometric timepiece measures a mere 1.85 mm in total thickness.

POA, bulgari.com

HISTORIQUES AMERICAN 1921 BY VACHERON CONSTANTIN

Cast in pink gold, the cushion case of the American 1921 references the design codes of the deco era. New this year is a grained silver-toned dial with blue markings.

POA, vacheron-constantin.com

Krishna Choudhary established Santi Jewels in 2019. Today, he unveils his pieces – which are unique, produced in small numbers and often set with heirloom gems of museum quality – in a townhouse showroom near London’s Green Park. And since last year, Choudhary has also been presenting his work at the Maastricht iteration of the important art, antiques and design fair, TEFAF. Among this year’s Santi Jewels offering is a pair of earrings, shaped from rose gold and titanium in a rich brown colour. One old-mine rosette-cut white diamond per earring is matched with a total of 550 pavé-set diamonds.

The earrings’ shape is an inverted lotus, a motif symbolising purity, rebirth and transcendence, and one that came to prominence in Mughal architecture. ‘It’s a style of designing buildings of which there are many surviving examples across Jaipur, the city in which Choudhary’s family has been a household name in jewellery, art and artefacts for 10 generations. ‘Lotuses have been a major form of ornamentation in the Indian subcontinent. Whether it’s architecture, textiles or thrones, they have been incorporated to amplify beauty,’ he says. ‘These earrings have been derived from the stylistic version of Mughal lotuses from objects like a silver rosewater sprinkler and domes of Mughal mosques in Delhi called Jama Masjid.’

Elsewhere at TEFAF Maastricht, other jewellery high points this year included a 1970 yellow and pink gold cuff bracelet topped with three midnight blue amethysts by Gianmaria Buccellati, and a new necklace by Fernando Jorge called Tambour, made of yellow gold, carved ebony, onyx and many baguette-cut diamonds. While Munich-headquartered master jeweller Hemmerle debuted a new take on its Harmony bangle, a design first made in 1991. This latest interpretation is crafted in Mokume-gane, a 400-year-old Japanese technique that sees layers of silver, copper and gold fused together, then carved to reveal a pattern that resembles woodgrain.

Sixty years and counting. That is how long Elizabeth Gage has been creating jewellery and, in that time, she has become one of Britain’s most enduringly successful goldsmiths and designers.

Bold in form, scale and colour, her aesthetic has always been unmistakable. With a passion for the past, she blends historical references – everything from ancient Greek coins to medieval pageantry – with a love of vibrant gemstones. Cornflower-blue sapphires, fiery orange-mandarin garnets and lime-green peridots are just a handful of the gems that she sets in sculptural designs of rich yellow gold, which more likely than not are embellished with engraving, enamel and her signature wire-twist-wire edges.

The result is bold but harmonious and, over the years, she has attracted a legion of dedicated fans, including Jackie Kennedy and Lauren Bacall. She reinvents historic forms and techniques with a modern sensibility, and a newly published book, Elizabeth Gage: A Life in Jewellery, demonstrates just how much she was ahead of her time on multiple fronts.

Born in 1937 in London to a wealthy upper-class family, childhood illness restricted her freedom. Confined to bed, her creation of clothes and houses for her dolls was an early demonstration of artistic dexterity and unfettered imagination, qualities she shared with her mother and grandmother, both painters.

She later rejected finishing school, the standard route for young women of her class and generation, in favour of studying at the-then Chelsea School of Art. It was a chance experience, however, at the British Museum in the early 1960s that set her on an entirely different creative path.

Coming across a display of ancient Roman rings, she was immediately drawn to their beauty and buttery golden patina, and they led her to enrol at London’s Sir John Cass College. Six years of mastering the art of goldsmithing at the bench followed and it was not long afterwards, in 1968, that she received her first major commission, from Cartier New York.

Despite being a woman very much in a man’s world at that time, she possessed the single-minded creative vision and determination to succeed, and her original designs and exceptional craftsmanship attracted a following among newly liberated women who were seeking to express their own individuality and inner strength.

Gage’s output has been remarkably consistent over the decades. A set of jewellery in the permanent collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where she has long been a patron, is testament to that. A 1967 brooch, which features a diagonal cross of grey baroque pearls at its centre, is set with five carved black seals of steatite, or soapstone, which Gage discovered in Crete while working there early on in her career. Over the years, she created earrings (1970) and a necklace (1988) to match and they became treasured pieces in her own personal collection.

Elizabeth Gage: A Life in Jewellery by William Grant (£50, ACC Art Books)

In 2021 a team of archaeologists reported that they’d discovered the world’s oldest jewellery. During a dig in a cave in western Morocco, they unearthed 33 sea snail shells, each one containing a hole where it had been intentionally drilled. Dated to 142,000-150,000 years ago (more than twice as old as the oldest known cave paintings), the beads would have been threaded on string, making them the earliest form of decorative adornment ever found.

It’s this simple construction that has made the bead the first and most enduring form of jewellery. With no melting of metal required, no setting or faceting, it meant the earliest civilisations could string and wear natural materials, such as animal teeth, bones, ivory and coral to display status, identity and wealth.

Later, between 400 and 800 AD, sapphire beads mined in Sri Lanka were drilled and strung and then traded west along the Silk Road. During medieval times, beads became decorative and devotional with the advent of the rosary. While from the 15th to the 19th centuries, glass beads would become an easily portable and divisible trading commodity; the Victorians using elaborate beadwork to display wealth and jet beads to signify mourning.

Today, beads continue to appear in fine and high-jewellery collections – from the biggest houses to smaller independents. Playful and informal, they’ve been an integral part of Carolina Bucci’s business since she launched her Forte Beads in 2018, after three years of development. ‘I had been making plastic beaded bracelets with my sons as a summer activity for years, and decided it was time to create something more precious,’ she says. Comprising carved hard stones, such as turquoise, tiger’s eye and lapis lazuli, customers can choose their configuration before stringing them on gold cord. ‘The reaction from the jewellery world and retailers was that they didn’t get it… clients, on the other hand, understood at once and it went on to become one of our biggest hits,’ she says. ‘There is a playful spirit to it and clients often find the process of choosing adjacent colours and playing with them like a form of meditation. It’s very therapeutic.’

Beads as talismanic amulets are the mainstay of Ananya’s proposition. The jeweller’s beaded Chakra bracelets, in a variety of stones, such as moonstone and amethyst, tap into the idea that crystals convey a healing and invigorating energy. Cartier has not been immune to the trend either – in 2024, the luxury jeweller brand created a special-order rosary for Wes Anderson’s 2025 film The Phoenician Scheme, made of rose-cut diamonds and emerald beads.

Redolent of childhood games (as noted by Bucci) beads as adult decoration offer a relaxed style. At Tiffany & Co., perfectly matched turquoise beads have been used in a lariat from the new Bird on a Rock by Tiffany collection, which sees the bird positioned in mid-flight on the necklace. Here, the turquoise beads signify the blue of the sky and also the house’s signature Tiffany Blue colour, which is thought to have taken its original inspiration from the gemstone in 1845. The beads add movement and a relaxed structure to the piece. ‘It’s high jewellery,’ says Victoria Reynolds, Tiffany & Co.’s chief gemmologist, ‘but it’s fun, whimsical and playful – and that’s a very hard thing to accomplish within this category.’

In a similar use of beads at this level, Jessica McCormack’s new Orbit collection offers the Planetary necklace as its hero piece. Here, beads of emerald, golden South Sea pearl, lilac jade, Melo pearl, sapphire and pink coral are strung between gold elements. The rare beads took McCormack two years to source and perfectly express her irreverent take on luxury that has become synonymous with her brand.

For independent jeweller Cora Sheibani, the appeal of beads started at a young age; after a business trip to Paris, her parents brought her back a bracelet from an art dealer. Constructed of African trading beads strung together with elastic and safety pins, they ignited an obsession with jewellery and beads specifically. ‘I thought it was so great and went off to a bead store in Zurich and made two more myself,’ she says. Now beads appear often in her work, particularly in Colour & Contradiction, a collection that sees Sheibani constructing beads from two halves of contrasting coloured gemstones joined in the middle by a band of faceted stone. It’s a complex and labour-intensive process. ‘You have to have seen a lot of jewellery to realise that, although the materials are simple, it’s an expensive way to construct a piece,’ she says.

For Munich-based family jewellers Hemmerle the sentiment is similar, often taking humble materials that they find beautiful and elevating them through craftsmanship and context. In what has become a signature for the house, husband-and-wife team Christian and Yasmin Hemmerle revived a historic Austrian technique that sees tiny hand-shaped and hand-drilled beads knitted in the round with silk to form a bangle. ‘It transforms a individual bead into a flexible, textile-like structure,’ they say. ‘We also enjoy searching around the world for remarkable historic materials, like coral beads recovered from shipwrecks, Tibetan dzi beads or ancient carved Chinese jade. What attracts us in these discoveries is not only rarity but also character: colour, texture and cultural history.’ In a recent piece, a fossilised mammoth tusk forms a statement necklace; confirming that the materials and beads that beguiled early man are just as treasured and sought-after today. A neat, full-circle moment.

At Van Cleef & Arpels, dance has long been a leitmotif. For one, there are the precious ballerina clips that the French heritage maison has been creating since the early 1940s. First presented in New York City, each clip captures a dancer’s movement in golds; tutus, headdresses and sometimes a post-performance bouquet of flowers imagined in coloured gems and diamonds. Collected widely, ballerina clips have made auction records and broken high estimates. Indeed, in New York last December, a 1955 yellow gold iteration set with white diamonds of various cuts more than doubled its Christie’s high estimate of $150,000.

And at Van Cleef & Arpels, dance is a leitmotif that extends beyond jewellery creation. From classical ballets that first premiered many decades ago, to fresh commissions, the art form features throughout the maison’s past and present.

In 1912, French jeweller Louis Arpels joined the company that Alfred Van Cleef, the son of a Dutch diamond cutter, and his older brother Charles, had founded in 1906, working alongside Charles and their brother Julien, who had joined the maison in 1908. Opening a first boutique at 22 Place Vendôme, the address placed it opposite the Ritz and within walking distance from the Palais Garnier, where Louis soon became a regular, following a programme of dance performances.

An interest in dance was passed down the family tree and most notably to Claude Arpels. In charge of the family firm’s stateside expansion, in 1966 Claude Arpels met important Georgian-American choreographer George Balanchine, the co-founder of the New York City Ballet, at the Van Cleef & Arpels Fifth Avenue showroom. The encounter eventually gave shape to Jewels, a ballet in three acts: Emeralds, Rubies and Diamonds, set to scores by Fauré, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky respectively. Jewels is put on stages to this day, including at the Royal Ballet in London, a venue partnered with Van Cleef & Arpels.

Today, Serge Laurent is the director of dance and cultural programmes at Van Cleef & Arpels. In his role, Laurent guides Dance Reflections, an initiative ambitious in its programming and that offers a global reach. Founded in 2020, Dance Reflections partners with dance companies and major institutions; its support underpins the staging of both new productions and repertoire pieces. ‘We now have 60 different partners from 17 different countries,’ says Laurent.

At The Watermill Center, a sprawling site on Long Island’s East End, billed as an interdisciplinary laboratory for the arts and humanities and founded by director and playwright Robert Wilson in 1992, Dance Reflections supports a residency and partners an annual gala; elsewhere it is involved with the Berliner Festspiele in Berlin and London’s Sadler’s Wells. Its reach extends as far as Senegal – working with the École des Sables, centre for traditional and contemporary African dance, and the Dance Biennial in Africa, as well as Singapore’s national performing arts centre, Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay.

The initiative’s major event or, as Laurent refers to it, ‘the showcase’ is the Dance Reflections Festival. Held annually, it made its debut in 2022 in London, and has since touched down in Kyoto and Saitama, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Seoul. New York first hosted the Dance Reflections festival in 2023; the city was also the location of this year’s event, which saw a programme of 20 performances across various venues. Among them were the Guggenheim New York – the Early Works series by seminal postmodern American dancer and choreographer Lucinda Childs was danced in the museum’s famous rotunda – and the Park Avenue Armory. Merce Cunningham’s piece Biped, which first premiered in 1999 and places dance alongside technology in the form of motion-capture digital projections, was on stage at the New York City Center. ‘What I want to show is the diversity of dance, of creation,’ says Laurent.

(La)Horde, a French dance collective made up of co-directors Marine Brutti, Jonathan Debrouwer and Arthur Harel, has garnered widespread acclaim for its blend of styles and references, and staged its 2023 work Age of Content, which incorporates movements inspired by video games and social media, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. It had been a long-held dream for the trio, who in 2019 were named the artistic directors of the National Ballet of Marseille, to perform at the storied 19th-century venue. ‘We are very proud to be a part of that legacy,’ says Brutti, referencing Pina Bausch and Philip Glass, who have previously performed on the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s stage. ‘It’s like being books on a shelf with all the heroes that have been on these stages before.’

Thanks to the 1980s, the luxury watch industry is learning how to have fun again.

Watch brands are facing some major headwinds at the moment: the cost-of-living crisis, geopolitical uncertainty and a corresponding price hike in precious metals to name just three. Still, as the industry prepares to gather in Geneva in April for its annual Watches & Wonders jamboree, CEOs have reason to feel cautiously optimistic. There will always be individuals such as Anant Ambani, son of India’s richest man, who boasts a collection of Richard Mille watches said to be worth around $25m (not including the million-dollar timepiece he reportedly presented to Lionel Messi on a recent visit to the sub-continent). But look elsewhere and you can feel a growing sense of democratisation across the industry as it looks back to the 1980s and rediscover the sense of fun that this once-maligned decade represents.

One of the most important dates in the modern Swiss watch business came on March 1, 1983, when the first Swatch watch was launched. The Swatch comeback in 2026 feels less like a revival and more like a well-timed reminder. In an era when mechanical watchmaking has drifted toward ever-higher prices and ever-smaller audiences, Swatch, credited with saving an entire industry, returns to the centre ground with the same disarming confidence that defined its original 1980s ascent: colour, clarity and an almost stubborn belief that joy belongs on the wrist.

Quartz is no longer an apology; plastic is no longer a compromise. Younger buyers raised on collaboration culture and limited drops understand Swatch instinctively. The brand speaks their language: playful but precise, democratic yet design-led.

Another welcome reinvention is TAG Heuer’s Formula 1 range, originally launched in 1986, and for many, their first introduction to luxury watches. What makes the revival compelling today, however, is not nostalgia alone. The original watches of that era were products of the quartz era, corporate modernism, and the gleam of new materials. Today’s reinterpretations emerge from a different climate – one defined by tactility, longevity and a suspicion of excess.

A sector of the industry that has stood up well in recent years is that for jewellery pieces. Manon Hagie, a sales director of watch auctions at Sotheby’s Geneva, says: “It’s still a niche area, but we can see that there’s more interest for jewellery watches,” she said. “They’re still underrated, I think, but the fact that the main brands are coming up with new models this year reflects the beginning of a trend.”

The blurring of gender-specific design has spurred the trend. “The market is changing, because men used to see watches as a very engineered thing because of the mechanism. It’s very nice to see that they are now also appreciating [jewellery] watches for just the beauty of them, including gem setting.

Unsurprisingly Cartier is one brand that will benefit from this trend. The original Panthère was launched in 1983 as one of the world’s first unabashedly unisex watches and its design distilled Cartier’s feline emblem into something wearable, sensual and unmistakably modern. The style played with combining contrasting metals and diamond-studded bezels, but its enduring elegance has always rested on a delicate balance: watchmaking precision softened by the languid grace of jewellery.

And let’s not forget digital. The return of the Seiko Rotocall, with its octagonal rotating bezel – first introduced in 1982 – is less a deliberately retro exercise in nostalgia than a celebration of the imagination inspired by space missions.

The story of how Mikimoto came to be a global byword for pearl jewellery is widely known. The Japanese business was founded in 1893, when Kokichi Mikimoto – a man later nicknamed the Pearl King – crafted the world’s first cultured pearl. His first successful attempt resulted in a creamy-hued, semi-spherical pearl; Mikimoto later experimented with other specimens, including black pearls. In the meantime, his team of makers was dispatched across Europe to pick up innovative ways of making jewellery and delve deeper into new stylistic themes forged abroad, such as Art Deco.

It was during one of these excursions that the team gathered the tools and skills to make what would later become another calling card for Mikimoto: jewellery set with diamonds. ‘In 1911, he sent his most skilled artisans to Antwerp, Belgium, to study advanced gemstone processing techniques,’ says a spokesperson for the brand. ‘They returned with closely guarded innovations, diamond-polishing machinery and platinum craftsmanship that had never reached Japan before.’ Their trip proved pivotal. ‘By embracing European technology ahead of its time, Mikimoto helped shape the future of diamond jewellery in Japan.’

Launched recently, two designs combine diamonds with pearls as part of Mikimoto’s Les Pétales collection of nature-inspired fine jewellery. A pair of white gold earrings is set with 7.73 carats of white diamonds and white South Sea cultured pearls; a matching white gold brooch frames a white South Sea pearl with white gold and diamond-set petals arranged in a wreath-like circle.

Victoire de Castellane joined Dior in 1998. Tasked with turning out the French maison’s line of fine jewellery, de Castellane set about researching Christian Dior’s life, passions and many works. Since then, the couturier’s love of plants, gardens and horticulture has given shape to creations such as the Bois de Rose rings - bands cast from precious gold in the shape of rosebush stems, replete with spiky thorns - while his superstitions inspired the Rose des Vents collection. Here, a windrose with an eight-pointed star at its centre is a nod to the lucky star Christian Dior carried with him as a token of good luck.

With a new group of designs, unveiled today, de Castellane pays tribute to the house of Dior and its haute couture dressmaking ateliers.

Part of the Couture Dior jewellery collection, and another take on the ribbon motifs that de Castellane first explored with her Diorama designs, these new designs interpret Christian Dior’s spring / summer 1951 collection. That collection first introduced the Naturelle line, a new silhouette that was more flexible, fluid and light compared to the famous 1947 New Look. With that in mind, de Castellane designed a necklace, a bracelet, a double-ring and a hair ornament, among other pieces.

Of all the horological complications, the worldtimer is surely the most glamorous and cosmopolitan. A worldtimer enables travelling without moving, the magical feeling of being in several places at the same time: whether you’re travelling between Midway and La Paz or Anchorage and New Caledonia, suddenly you know when it’s cocktail hour in the Azores or breakfast time in Karachi.

A tribute to contemporary expedition, Richard Mille’s RM 63-02 takes an elegant approach to the worldtimer classification; its complication and in-house-developed CRMA4 automatic calibre ‘transcending time and place’. Indeed, both its design and materials speak a fluent, jet-setting internationalism.

Now the RM 63-02 reinterprets the traditional worldtimer movement where crown or pushers are used for adjustment, positioning this function directly on a rotating bezel instead. Deploying the micro-blasted 5N red gold bezel mounted on ball bearings, a traveller instantly lands in a new city and time zone with a simple twist. A wheel integrated into the bezel and connected to the hour-wheel simultaneously adjusts the local time to that of the city at 12 o’clock and updates the time for the 23 other cities.

The RM 63-02’s case is satin-finished in 5N red gold with polished bevels, and a grade 5 titanium case provides a handsome mise en scène for graphics in rose pink and burgundy. The dial’s two tones distinguish day from night.

A large scarlet crown, made of polished titanium and surrounded by a collar coated with Alcryn (a material offering the feel of vulcanised rubber), strikes a pleasing, constructivist note, while a push-button located at 4 o’clock selects the watch’s different functions, similar to a car’s gearbox: N - Neutral, W - Winding, H - Hand Setting.

Things are even prettier on the luxe industrial case back. A skeletonised open-work bridge offers a fine view of technical and aesthetic harmony. Polished angles, drawn edges, micro-blasted bridges coated with PVD (physical vapour deposition) and electro-plasma treatments, the circular-brushed wheels, the function selector’s distinctive titanium disc—all conspiring to reschedule the new travel essentials agenda; passport, wallet, boarding pass… Richard Mille RM 63-02 Worldtimer.

In his Athens studio, Greek jewellery designer Nikos Koulis and his team regularly work with aluminium. ‘Light, sculptural and endlessly versatile, I find aluminium a fascinating material,’ he says. It was while trialling different ways to colour the silvery-white metal that Koulis, who recently presented new work at Sotheby’s Paris, landed on a matte varnish the colour of freshly ground coffee. ‘During our workshop experiments with coatings, I was intrigued by the idea of a silky-brown tone: warm, earthy and understated, yet undeniably distinctive,’ he remembers. The result is a pair of diamond-set aluminium earrings that are sculptural in shape and volume.

Brown, in a shade likened to ‘river-polished stones’, also inspired Lily Gabriella Elia when dreaming up a new Nexus bracelet, its links shaped by hand from ceramic, which are then enamelled. ‘It’s a modern reinterpretation of a classic link design, with the brown enamel softening the boldness of the links while still keeping it striking,’ Elia says of the design, which can be found at her Burlington Arcade showroom in London. ‘Brown is an incredibly sophisticated yet underrated colour in fine jewellery. It brings warmth and depth, acting as a neutral while still feeling unexpected and contemporary.’

Expressed in varnished metals, gems or woods, tones of brown feature in new creations by both independent designers and marquee brands. In a pair of signature Talisman hoop earrings by De Beers, white gold and white diamonds clash with brown rough diamonds. A Bvlgari high jewellery Serpenti ring is set with a chrysoberyl cabochon. At Boghossian, a brown button pearl sits atop a ring in white gold with diamonds. A brown Tahitian pearl stars in a ring by Melanie Georgacopoulos. Meanwhile, ‘I’ve always had an obsession with earthy tones,’ says Cora Sheibani. Her Facets & Forms Rebirth earrings match yellow gold, polished to a high shine, with light brown tourmalines. ‘I like how brown gemstones carry a natural understated elegance across all skin complexions.’

Krishna Choudhary, a fourth-generation Indian jeweller and the founder of Santi Jewels, shaped his Ruby Cartouche earrings from titanium, collaborating with a workshop based in Italy. To make the lacquered hardwood bangles she first designed for the American maison Tiffany & Co., Elsa Peretti partnered with a cottage industry of experienced workers based across Wajima in Japan, a city that has long been known for its lacquerware. A brown iteration of the design classic has a waiting list.

Elsewhere, a 2.05-carat champagne diamond – its particular hues perhaps closer to a light bourbon – sits at the centre of a new Origin ring by Rachel Boston. ‘Champagne diamonds have a natural sophistication and understated appeal that pairs beautifully with yellow gold,’ says Boston. ‘They offer a softer, more nuanced alternative to white diamonds, and the appeal lies in the fact that champagne diamonds feel less traditional, but no less precious. They speak to individuality rather than convention.’

On 2 June 2025, in Plan-les-Ouates, on the outskirts of Geneva, I was having lunch with Piaget CEO Benjamin Comar when he told me that he had something special to show me. Curious, I followed him to a remote part of the factory where I encountered Laurent Perves, CEO of Vacheron Constantin, to whom I was handed over.

Mr Perves explained that such was the secrecy surrounding what he was about to show me, he had taken the precaution of using the premises of another brand to display it. He asked me not to mention what I was about to see to anyone – happily he believes that a handshake is as effective as a fistful of NDAs. I agreed, and with that he held back a black curtain and ushered me in to the presence of a hugely complex mechanical object over a metre in height. It took a moment for me to understand what I was looking at: part-automaton, part-astronomical clock and totally left field, this was something I hadn’t seen coming.

This was La Quête du Temps, Vacheron’s 270th birthday present to itself, and I can only liken my first glimpse as being bit by an aesthetic express train.

I simply did not know what to make of, as Vacheron puts it, ‘an unprecedented work of mechanical artistry that blends horological expertise, decorative craftsmanship and the ingenuity of automatons’. At its top stood a gilded automaton under a crystal dome depicting the celestial vault as it would have looked on 17 September 1755, the day the maison was founded. Beneath were two clocks, one tracking sidereal time, the other featuring a perpetual calendar. Below these, the mechanism responsible for the automaton’s movement (and accompanying music) could be appreciated through panels of rock crystal.

The statistics are undoubtedly impressive: 6,293 mechanical components, 23 watchmaking complications, 1,020 components for the habillage (casing) and 15 patent applications, including eight for the automaton. It is unarguably an horological tour de force; the salons of the age of Enlightenment would have been delighted by its complexity, rarity and ingenuity. But I left that room wondering what place it had in the 21st century.

As it happened, it was just context that was missing, context that could only be provided by what is arguably the world’s greatest museum. And so, shortly before 9am on 16 September, I found myself in the Richelieu Wing of the Louvre where La Quête du Temps starred in the Mécaniques d’art exhibition conceived by the brilliant curator Olivier Gabet.

This masterpiece had not changed one iota since I first saw it, and yet its transformation was almost alchemical. In the Louvre, surrounded by mankind’s most exquisite and inventive attempts to capture time – from a precious fragment of Egyptian clepsydra of the Ptolemaic period to the sublime Louis XV ‘Pendule de la Création du Monde’ – Vacheron Constantin’s creation was in its locus classicus.

What struck me most profoundly was how effortlessly it assumed its place among the great horological achievements of the past, not as a relic or a replica, but as an object sui generis as to be truly timeless. In our jaded and cynical age, the Quête du Temps is a source of wonder. When the automaton began making the gestures to indicate the time and moonphase, and the only noise of the accompanying music filled the hallowed air of the Richelieu Wing, the attendant crowd of journalists stood silent and rapt, dumbstruck and awed.

This is timekeeping as cultural statement, the meeting place of horology and philosophy. In the surroundings of the Louvre, La Quête du Temps transcends its mechanical origins. It becomes something altogether more significant: a fusion of scientific precision and artistic vision that speaks not just to our desire to measure time, but to our need to find meaning within its passage.

Considering his love of consumer goods, it’s perhaps no surprise that Andy Warhol was a watch guy. When Sotheby’s auctioned off his estate in 1988, a year after his death, there were over 300 timepieces up for grabs – a collection that included examples by Patek Philippe, Rolex and Cartier. But horologically speaking, Warhol became synonymous with one marque, and one watch in particular: Piaget’s ‘Black Tie’. With an art deco-style 45mm cushion case, it was hefty, and yet still incredibly chic. Warhol bought his in 1973 and, over the years, collectors came to forget the watch’s name, referring to it as simply Piaget’s ‘Warhol Watch’.

Last year, as part of its 150th anniversary, and in partnership with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Piaget officially relaunched the Black Tie as the Andy Warhol Watch, rubber-stamping a five-decade-long affiliation. Warhol and Piaget were always connected, says Stéphanie Sivrière, director of the Piaget design studio for jewellery, high jewellery and watchmaking. ‘[Warhol] was working with daily objects and making art of it,’ she explains, ‘when the maison was turning a watch into a piece of jewellery.’

The collaboration continues apace, with the latest piece – the Andy Warhol Watch ‘Collage’ Limited Edition – featuring an abstract marquetry dial inspired by the artist’s Polaroid collage self-portraits. ‘I had a crush on this Polaroid series from the start,’ says Sivrière. The difficulty, she reveals, was interpreting the work in a way that felt authentic: ‘You want to attract the gaze of the Warhol fans while not disappointing and staying true to the Piaget spirit. Here, the patchwork of ornamental stones was a true challenge as each plate is cut in a specific way and patiently assembled all together.’

The Warhol Watch ‘Collage’ is limited to 50 pieces, so getting your hands on one may be tricky, but Piaget is planning on adding to the Warhol collection again soon. ‘You’ll have to stay tuned to see what we can do in the near future,’ teases Sivrière, ‘but the Andy Warhol watch is here to stay.’

Andy Warhol Watch ‘Collage’ Limited Edition, £67,500, piaget.com

What is the first thing you see in the morning?

My apartment in London is across the road from a park. My day starts with a view of the tree canopy.

Describe the view from where you are right now.

I’m in my office and a window looks down onto Grafton Street and all the way to Piccadilly.

Is there a view you can’t quite forget?

The landscape of Chapada Diamantina National Park, my favourite place in Brazil.

Is there a particular artwork you always return to?

The paintings of the Brazilian rainforest by Johann Moritz Rugendas never fail to stun me. Their realism borders on the dreamlike.

What was the last movie you watched and loved?

I loved watching Maria. I am fascinated by Maria Callas and Angelina Jolie... I wasn’t disappointed.

What sound do you wake up to?

I wake up to the sound of birds and dogs in the park, alongside the passing cars on the road between my apartment and the park.

What sound would you like to wake up to?

I would keep the birds and dogs, without the cars.

What gets you dancing?

I love dancing and some favourites are Metronomy, Jamie xx and Jorge Ben Jor.

Which singer or song do you never tire of hearing?

Caetano Veloso’s^® music has been a constant in my life. His songs reveal new layers each time I listen. It’s the kind of music that grows with you.

Which smell takes you back to childhood?

Lemongrass. I used to collect it in my parents’ garden and pretend to make perfumes.

What do you smell of today?

A combination of Frederic Malle Dans Tes Bras and sunscreen – it’s almost summer solstice and the hottest day of the year so far!

What smell makes you feel at home?

The smell of the scented terracotta pomegranate by Santa Maria Novella.

What is your earliest scent memory?

The smell of sandy beaches in Brazil.

Describe a dish that’s stayed with you.

My paternal grandmother was a remarkable cook and host. From the many amazing dishes she used to make, she cooked smoked haddock with capers and lime especially for me.

What did you have for breakfast today?

Black coffee, boiled egg, avocado and toast.

What is the taste of summer?

Pistachio gelato.

Olive or a twist?

Mostly olive, sometimes a twist, always vodka.

What is a dish you love to cook for yourself?

Grilled vegetables and fish in the oven.

What is your go-to dinner party dish?

My go-to is moqueca, a Brazilian fish stew typical from Bahia, usually served with rice and flour. I also have Lebanese heritage and my alternative go-to is tabbouleh and kibbeh.

What three ingredients would you find in your fridge?

My fridge is always ready for a healthy snack: cherry tomatoes, cucumber and hummus.

Silk or cashmere?

Cashmere.

Diamonds or rubies?

Diamonds! I’ve just launched a collection called Vertex^®. It focuses on the baguette-cut diamond and its architectural quality, balancing heritage and innovation, structure and fluidity.

Favourite piece of furniture at home?

My Tino Seubert Anodised Wicker stool^®.

Following smartly on the heels of the first authorised account of the Submariner, the second volume in a series of officially sanctioned books documenting the development of Rolex watches celebrates one of its most popular and populous models. Oyster Perpetual Datejust: A Watch that Made History by author, historian and contributing editor to The Blend Nicholas Foulkes, doesn’t shy from its auspicious subtitle: positioning the first automatic waterproof chronometer fitted with an under-dial date function – a neat substitution for the hitherto popular peripheral date indicator – as instrumental in securing the company’s success.

Launched in 1945 to celebrate the company’s 40th anniversary, the gold Datejust (complete with new ‘Jubilee’ bracelet), artfully repositioned Rolex as not simply an innovator in the industrialisation of wristwatch production – starting with the impermeable ‘Oyster’ case in 1927 – but as a company that fully conceived of the central function of the personal timepiece as a symbol of worldly success – as Foulkes’ full immersion in the Rolex archive attests. Revealed in Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf’s own thoughts and the memos of marketing director René-Paul Jeanneret are the means by which the company cemented its position, which was both energetic and inspired: ensuring world leaders of the post-war era wore the Datejust, while supporting its widespread acceptance by these ‘men of destiny who guide the world’ with advertising designed to attract those who aspired to join their ranks. In so doing, Rolex once more ‘future-proofed’ the wristwatch, not simply in technical terms, at which it had long established ‘first mover’ status, but in recognising how a beautifully designed (and remarkably robust) timepiece could serve as a useful talisman in telegraphing our own chosen journey through life.

Oyster Perpetual Datejust – A Watch that Made History is now available to purchase online exclusively at WallpaperSTORE*, £100

London has been the backdrop for the rise and demise of far too many great talents in the fashion industry over the past 40 years, but Irish sculptor and jewellery designer Slim Barrett is a notable survivor. He's always operated on his own terms. After studying Fine Art at GMIT in his home county of Galway, Barrett moved to London in 1982 where chance encounters with Bruce Oldfield and Antony Price put him in the middle of a burgeoning new wave of design in the British capital. 'Jewellery was a total accident,' he tells The Blend, sitting at the welding bench in his studio near London’s Mount Pleasant. 'I had created a minimal collection of blown glass and leather pieces, and through Jan van Helden, who was making clothes for Princess Diana, and Bruce, I started selling through Harvey Nichols and Harrods.'

Sharing a studio with shoemaker Jimmy Choo, and working with couturiers to the Royal Family, was an incongruous start for Barrett, who became known for edgy work that mixed folkloric and pagan imagery with the recycled junk aesthetic he shared with his friend, the stylist Judy Blame and his peers. Soon Barrett’s name was a regular credit in D-i-D. He went on to design prototypes for Vivienne Westwood’s orb logo, pieces for John Galliano’s shows, and Chanel. His work has been a part of fashion through so many eras that it has become an incidental document of changes in the industry. 'There wasn’t much art-based jewellery in the realm of fashion before I started,' he says. 'And today it’s become a corporate conglomerate thing. I started working at a time when people were able to be creative with limited finances. I’m not interested in fashion from a creative point of view at all right now. My work comes from an early fascination with Paul Klee, and the romantic connection of the Irish to our landscape.'

There’s a talismanic quality to a lot of Barrett’s jewellery – like the pagan connotations of the hag stone garlands in Derek Jarman’s garden in Dungeness. It is rich in myth and magic, whether rendered in copper or platinum, depicting cherubs, eyes or trees. Recently he has been making shamrock pendants for Dublin-based band Fontaines D.C., one of the most feted groups to come out of the city since U2, and brooches for John Alexander Skelton, the menswear designer known for his limited-run artisanal tailoring with handwritten, individually numbered labels and a refusal to sell online.

When The Blend visits Barrett, he is working on pieces for Skelton incorporating antique coins, while the designer is away shooting the lookbook for a new collection near Barrett’s hometown in the hills of Galway. They have been collaborating for several seasons, Skelton’s fascination for handmade objects and folklore chiming loudly with Barrett’s history and canon: ‘When we worked together on pieces for his January 2023 show, about neolithic imagery from the Orkney Islands, he brought drawings as references. I explained they would have been used as maps, to travel with, so instead of just using those images in a literal way, I told John to go away and map out a few different spots in London that are important to him, and then we would create something totally new between us.’

Barrett remains an outsider in many ways. Any story about his work inevitably references the East of Paris Diamond Fairy Crown that he made for Victoria Beckham to wear when she married David Beckham in 1999, and there was a period where he created merchandise for the boy band Bros in the 1980s, but he remains an esoteric craftsman, hand-making everything laboriously at his studio. ‘My work has always been sculpture,’ he says. ‘I stopped all the wholesale jewellery stuff in the 1990s. I didn’t want to do it any more.’

Asked how the business sustains itself, he explains, ‘It’s just word of mouth, with me working here with my wife Jules, who was my reason for moving to London in the first place.’ Those in the know have always made appointments for a piece of Barrett. ‘I remember Katharine Hamnett coming to me once in the 1980s when I was in the same building as her studio and asking if I could do headdresses for her show that day. Which I did. This morning, we had a partner of one of Fontaines D.C. come in for a chain. My son is in a band signed to their label, and we’ve known them since they started. I used to offer them a place to stay when they had no money and needed a place to crash. I’ve always liked to work with people I have a relationship with. I should have a retrospective or put a book together at some point, but that’s what really matters.’

Omega’s new 30mm Aqua Terra may be on the smaller side, but it has serious intent: technically, aesthetically and culturally. At a time when the conversation around women’s watches is finally shifting, Omega’s decision to develop an entirely new mechanical movement for this case size feels like a considered step towards keeping pace with the modern woman consumer. It’s a confident commercial move that places the brand squarely within the small watch zeitgeist.

For more than two decades, the Aqua Terra has served as Omega’s go-anywhere, do-anything sports watch. It has always hovered in a kind of middle zone, not fully a tool watch, not quite a dress watch. It’s more of a works-with-anything-in-your-wardrobe watch, like your oldest pair of blue jeans or beloved broken-in leather jacket. This new 30mm version continues the legacy of a modern Omega catalogue staple but with a sharper focus on its target audience.

Visually, we’re in safe, neutral-sport-watch territory. It doesn’t pretend to be a niche enthusiast’s watch. It’s a luxury product made for people who want a daily, wearable automatic. At £5,900 and up, it’s priced for broad appeal. Sun-brushed dials come in shades like lavender, peacock blue and a chocolate brown. Case materials include stainless steel, Omega’s proprietary Sedna Gold and Moonshine Gold, with the option for diamonds. There is a date window positioned at 6 o’clock, applied hour markers for clarity and an integrated bracelet that keeps the profile sleek and wearable. The Aqua Terra 30mm offers a transparent caseback and a METAS-certified Master Chronometer movement powered by the Omega Co-Axial escapement, offering a 48-hour power reserve.

In fashion, boundaries between men’s and women’s design have largely dissolved. Designers borrow, reinterpret and blur lines without much fanfare. Gendered distinctions still exist at the retail level, but creatively, there’s a shared language. In watchmaking, that flexibility is still lagging. Most brands continue to treat women’s watches as a separate category, often defined by reductive assumptions rather than design ambition. The Aqua Terra 30mm feels like a step in the right direction. Not because it’s groundbreaking, but because it treats a small watch with the same seriousness as its larger counterparts.

This release joins a growing field of small sport watches powered by proper automatic movements. Omega has clearly calculated that the appetite for compact, capable watches isn’t going away any time soon.

‘It’s not possible to define a style in my work,’ architect and designer Gaetana ‘Gae’ Aulenti (1927-2012) told The New York Times in 1987. Yet the recurring themes are undeniable: a refusal to bow to trends, a play between history and modernity, and a curiosity about materials. These qualities carried her from buildings to furniture, interiors and, in 1988, to watchmaking.

That year, fresh from her transformation of Paris’ Gare d’Orsay into the Musée d’Orsay, Aulenti was tapped by Louis Vuitton to design its first-ever watches. The LV I and LV II, quickly nicknamed the Monterey, were unlike anything else: a pebble-shaped, lugless case with an unusual crown position at 12 o’clock, echoing a pocket watch. The LV I came in gold, packed with complications that included a world timer, alarm and moonphase. The LV II pared things back but pushed materials forward with scratch-resistant ceramic cases in black and green.

What began as an eccentric debut for Louis Vuitton’s watchmaking has since become a cult object among collectors. The Monterey’s oddball form, straddling futurism and nostalgia, feels perfectly in sync with today’s appetite for rediscovering vintage design-driven watches. Increasingly visible on TikTok tastemakers’ wrists and even on the brand’s runway, where Nicolas Ghesquière paired them with his Autumn/Winter 2025 womenswear collection, its resurgence has also coincided with a wider recognition of pioneering women in design and watchmaking, putting Aulenti’s name firmly back in the spotlight.

The new Louis Vuitton Monterey, produced in just 188 pieces, honours the 1988 original while upgrading specs. Its 39mm yellow-gold case retains the rounded silhouette and pocket-watch crown, but the quartz movement has been replaced with the automatic calibre LFT MA01.02, developed in-house at La Fabrique du Temps. With its rose-gold rotor, 45-hour power reserve and refined finishing, the movement underscores Vuitton’s horological credibility.

The dial, crafted in white Grand Feu enamel, recalls the graphic, minimalist layout of the original, while demonstrating the level of know-how now possible at LFT’s La Fabrique des Arts. Each dial requires 20 hours of layering and multiple firings at up to 900°C, with white enamel being notoriously difficult to perfect. Red and blue accents on the scales and syringe-style hands inject a jolt of graphic energy, a nod to the 80s DNA. The crown is now winding and is decorated with Clous-de-Paris texture.

For Aulenti, designing a watch was no small challenge. According to her granddaughter, Nina Artioli, she struggled with its proportions and functions, producing far more sketches than usual. But the complexity was part of the appeal: the idea of time itself was what drew her in. That complexity is present in the Monterey – at once historic and futuristic, eccentric and elegant.

Nearly 40 years on, by reviving the Monterey, Louis Vuitton isn’t simply trading on nostalgia. It’s recreating Aulenti’s playful, unconventional watch with the in-house watchmaking resources available to the brand today. The new Monterey respects her codes while reinterpreting them with contemporary savoir-faire – proof that Aulenti’s refusal to define her style is precisely what made her designs timeless.

The founder and creative director of Taffin, James de Givenchy, remembers the moment he realised he wanted to be a jeweller. "I was working at Christie's in New York, showing my uncle [legendary fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy] various lots from a jewellery sale. I'd picked out a simple diamond piece, 'but, look at this' my uncle said, picking up a leaf brooch by Verdura with a mixed pavé of zircon, amethyst and citrine. It's not solely about the stones, but what you do with it – the design," the older Givenchy said.

Those words proved pivotal in shaping James de Givenchy's vision for Taffin, the jewellery house he founded shortly afterwards in 1996. Today, a jewel by him is defined by its singular, unapologetic style, designed without consideration for the rules that shape conventional jewellery. Large, saturated stones are a signature, as are unusual materials such as leather, steel, wood and pebbles. But it's the use of ceramic that's become his overriding USP.

Having dabbled in its use as early as 2010, on a trip to the watch and jewellery fair Baselworld in 2013 he bought a machine that created hybrid ceramic – and transformed his business. A cursory look at Taffin's Instagram account (the website is tantalisingly sparse) and the full impact of this humble material is evident.

Faceted lapis lazuli is set into candy-cane stripes of red and white ceramic in a cuff; a rainbow of ceramic forms a twisted bracelet with the stripes encasing two diamonds; a 'target' ring sees a marquise diamond encircled by green, blue, cream, red, brown and grey rings of ceramic; ear clips feature shards of wood set against the palest pink material.

It's a jarring yet complementary vision – a tension that Givenchy is all too aware of. "Sometimes I put colours together that people think are wrong, or an accident. It has to be shocking," he insists, citing the striped jumpers his mother bought for him in the 1970s as one of his inspirations.

The jewellery-loving cognoscenti of New York, where Givenchy has a by-appointment showroom, have embraced this new modernism. Many obsessively collect his jewels; as a result, only 30 per cent of production makes it to the showroom, while his workshop devotes the remaining time to one-off projects for the lucky few. Patience, for them, is key – it can take months for Givenchy to decide how to set a stone.

"I'll put it on my desk," he says, "and surround it with blocks of ceramic. I'll move them around, playing with the colours – it's not a science and there are a lot of tweaks." He will scrap a piece and start again if something doesn't sit right with him on completion. "But nothing is more fun than going to a party and seeing a friend or client wearing a piece you made 10 years ago. I can always spot them from across the room," he adds.

A newly opened showroom in Miami will take up much of his time in 2024. "I think Miami will be a huge influence, because the vistas and pace are different. We're in a tropical zone, with gigantic trees. The light will affect the colours I choose," he says. Expect a new palette to show in his work soon – just done, of course, in the most unexpected way.

taffin.com

Last October, Patek Philippe, perhaps the world's most important high-end watchmaker, unveiled its first new collection in 25 years, swiftly making news for its bold, squared-off design.

The Cubitus collection, as it will be known, debuts with three distinct models. Reference 5821/1A-001 is crafted from stainless steel and features an olive-green sunburst dial (the same shade as the ultra-rare green-dial Nautilus 5711), housing the self-winding calibre 26-330 S C with hacking seconds. At 45mm in diameter and just 8.3mm thick, it is the model poised to attract the most attention, thanks to its more minimal aesthetic. By contrast, ref. 5821/1AR-001 is a two-tone steel and rose gold variant that shares the same movement and features a striking deep-blue sunburst dial. Ref. 5822P-001 – the most intricate model in the initial line-up – is crafted from platinum and features a grand date, day indicator and moon phases. Powered by the advanced calibre 240 PS CI J LU, it is paired with a navy-blue composite strap.

The Cubitus collection represents a natural evolution of Patek Philippe's exploration of sporty, shaped timepieces. Much like the Aquanaut, it is a direct descendant of the Nautilus – arguably one of Patek's most coveted models in its modern catalogue. The Cubitus, with its newly designed geometric shape, offers a square form softened by rounded corners, infusing a bit more 1970s flair into a 21st-century reimagining of a watch first introduced in 1976. Indeed, one could easily mistake the Cubitus ref. 5821 for a model born alongside the original Nautilus, rather than half a century later.

That said, the retro-shaped Cubitus sticks out as a larger case size watch in the midst of a rally for smaller sizes amongst vintage enthusiasts. (Is this writer alone in hoping the ref. 5821 could be shrunk down to a Nautilus ref. 3800, sized 37.5mm?) Still, bigger seems to continue to work well at retail for most modern watches, and that’s what Cubitus definitely is.

Good to know

A diamond is placed at six o'clock to denote a platinum case in all Patek Philippe watches, distinguishing them from white gold or other white metals. Previously, a small princess-cut diamond was inlaid into the case. Now for the first time, the platinum Cubitus ref. 5822P features a baguette-cut diamond, a fun nod to the geometric design of the new collection.

Since Abraham-Louis Breguet first opened his business on the Île de la Cité in Paris in 1775, Breguet has been one of the most respected and storied watch brands in the world. Indeed, the list of its achievements is remarkable – the first self-winding watch; the gong spring that made the minute repeater possible; the tourbillon; and the world's first wristwatch. Many of its early patents are still used in watchmaking today.

Early in his career, Breguet was introduced to the royal court at Versailles, where he met Queen Marie-Antoinette, who was fascinated by his unique self-winding watch and persuaded her husband, Louis XIV, to buy several of the timepieces. In 1783, one of the Queen's Guards commissioned Breguet to create a timepiece that contained every known complication, as a present for Marie-Antoinette.

Known as the Marie- Antoinette pocket watch, it is considered to be Breguet's masterpiece. Sadly, it was only ready in 1827, 34 years after the queen went to the guillotine and four years after the death of Breguet himself, so was completed by his son.

Today, the brand is part of the giant Swatch Group and is respected as much as ever. Alongside its high complications, Breguet has produced pilot watches from the earliest days of aviation – American pilots stationed in France in 1918 were amongst their original fans.

The brand's latest launch is inspired by another famous Breguet, this time the Type XX. The term actually refers to the Type 20 specifications issued by the French Naval Air Force – though these are now lost. The difference between the use of Arabic and Roman numerals is deliberate. The former describes military timepieces, the latter civilian. Several companies actually produced timepieces to these specifications, but today Breguet is the most famous.

Since those early days, the watch has undergone several changes and was relaunched in the 1990s, though production ceased in 2018. Last year, drawing on the brand's vast archive for inspiration, the iconic pilot's chronograph got another update in both a Type XX version and a Type 20 model, each with a different in-house manufacture calibre and a 60-hour power reserve.

Now, Breguet has launched the latest member and the fourth generation of this distinguished family – a new 42mm-diameter civilian version in rose gold and blue ceramic, the first time it has used the latter. It is undoubtedly a successful balance between respecting the watch's forefathers whilst appearing contemporary. This is the sort of timepiece you could easily lose your head over – if that isn’t too disrespectful to Breguet's original enthusiast.

Breguet Type XX Chronographe 2067, £35,500, breguet.com

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Notable Breguet fans have included Rachmaninov, Rossini, Napoleon, Churchill and Tolstoy. The poet Alexander Pushkin even penned in his verse novel Eugene Onegin: "A dandy on the boulevards… strolling at leisure until his Breguet, ever vigilant, reminds him it is midday."

Unveiled annually, Van Cleef & Arpels' high jewellery collections have in the past paid tribute to important works of literature. Fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm or Charles Perrault, plays by William Shakespeare, and Jules Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires series have all shaped jewellery made in the heritage brand's Paris workshop near Place Vendôme.

Treasure Island draws from Robert Louis Stevenson's novel of the same name, which was published in 1883. The high jewellery collection is grouped into a trio of chapters, following an imagined journey from land to island, crossing seas in between, to finally unearth a treasure hoard of jewellery.

"The collection follows a narrative," explains Catherine Rénier, the brand's CEO since September this year. "These three chapters are the three main moments of Stevenson's book, of his characters and their journey," she adds.

Creatively, nature, adventure and seafaring are all themes that resonate with Van Cleef & Arpels and its heritage. In the company's archives, rare holdings include a 1906 scale model of the Varuna yacht, a private order finished in yellow gold with white, red and green enamel and placed atop a cut of jasper carved to resemble waves; fish-shaped jewels; and a cigarette case with anchor and boat motifs.

"I love that as a jeweller, we are also able to create these fantastic objects, which is part of our history," says Rénier, describing Onde Mystérieuse, a round box with a base made from blue quartz and with a hammered white gold rim. Onde Mystérieuse forms part of The Boat Journey, the collection's opening chapter.

The box's relief lid depicts a shoal of fish sculpted in white and rose gold, placed against a seascape drawn in paillonné enamel, named after a technique famed for its many translucent layers, and near a diamond pavé-set watch dial. A duo of detachable clips – one dotted with sapphires and diamonds, the other with blue tourmalines, diamonds and sapphires – complete the creation. "It's a beautiful object," says Rénier.

Imagining an ocean crossing, the first chapter also comprises designs that nod to sailor's knots, crushing waves and navigational instruments. There are billowing sails expressed in white diamonds, and a trio of pirates.

With an emerald-cut sapphire of 55.34 carats for a centre stone, the En Haute Mer necklace is made up of yellow and white gold ropes, worked to a heritage technique first perfected in the 1940s. "Goldsmithing is one of the key techniques that we revisited with this year's collection," Rénier analyses.

Next up: The Exploration of the Island. The collection's second chapter imagines what one might come across on an unexplored tropical island. Rarely spotted flora and fauna might include a small turtle – imagined by the jeweller's design team with a white gold shell cloaked in blue oval sapphires – palm trees and seashells.

A white and yellow gold Coquilles Mystérieuses bracelet is assembled from seashell shapes, placed in one neat line and coloured with white diamonds and blue sapphires.

"Why this book? Well, first of all because there is closeness between its story and the very magical world of Van Cleef & Arpels," Rénier explains. "Then, there are its themes of discovery, adventure and nature, from the sea to the island. And of course there is the treasure of jewels that the pirates are hiding."

That treasure, the brand's designer, makers and specialists created for the collection's third chapter. Here, the unearthed trunk reveals pieces inspired by different cultures and ancestral techniques. Two yellow

and white gold clips, Dieu Du Vent and Dieu Du Ciel, pay homage to Mayan mythology; the yellow gold Figuras bracelet is composed of medallions. Each coin-like shape is set with white diamonds to make up faces, a reference to the figurines that the Olmecs, the earliest known Mesoamerican civilisation, offered to the gods.

Lavender-hued jadeite beads – 31 in total – are matched with rubies and rose gold, with elements shaped to resemble lanterns, in Lanternes Mystérieuses, a transformable necklace. "This is where we allow ourselves to go further, to delve deeper into our universe and enrich it," Rénier says of Van Cleef & Arpels' high jewellery collections. "It's the haute couture of the maison, the essence of who we are, how we were born, and the heart of our know-how."

vancleefarpels.com

Good to know

Van Cleef & Arpels patented its Mystery Setting in 1933. Labour-intensive, the technique is a near-invisible means of inserting custom-cut precious stones into gold rails. Mystery Setting features across the Treasure Island collection, notably in the Écume Mystérieuse necklace, a take on marine genre painting with many Mystery Set sapphires.

The Vacheron Constantin Patrimony is a watch that slips under the radar – very much in keeping with the brand itself, which represents (and, in some ways, has always maintained) the idea of understated luxury.

Today, French designer Ora ïto has lent a hand in redesigning the Patrimony for the 20th anniversary of the collection. The designer is known for his idea of "simplexity", a neologism combining two contradictory notions, simplicity and complexity, and his ethos makes perfect sense for a traditional self-winding dress watch that is simple in its outward-facing case and dial design, yet complex in its mechanical movement engineering.

Available in a limited run of 100 pieces, this monochrome dress watch radiates gold. Displaying a discreet tonal date window at six o'clock, the concentric patterned gold dial is decorated with stick-thin hand-applied gold indices and a gold "pearl" minutes track. Inspired by classic mid-century Vacheron Constantin dress watches, the Patrimony also comes equipped with vintage-inspired baton hands and a burgundy calfskin leather strap.

At 40mm in diameter and 8.55mm thick, this new VC Patrimony is a satisfyingly thin slice of yellow gold that slips oh-so elegantly under the cuff of your suit jacket. It would also work with a T-shirt and jeans (and a heavy dose of nonchalance).

Although it debuted in 2004, the Patrimony is also, in a certain way, a very 2024 watch. There is something refreshing about a supremely traditional dress watch with modern dimensions. With the watchmaker riding high on the success of its vintage gold 222 reissue, it's clear that, for Vacheron Constantin, yellow gold has made a comeback.

vacheron-constantin.com

Good to know

In 2013, Ora ïto opened his very own gallery atop Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse in Marseille. MAMO (Marseille Modulor) now sees a different artist take over the rooftop every summer, with the gallery acting as both a showcase for established artists and a springboard for emerging talent. The Corbusier rooftop turned contemporary art space has hosted artists Neïl Beloufa, Sterling Ruby and Alex Israel. In 2022, MAMO presented Le Modulor du Basketball by the New York artist Daniel Arsham.

Milky white or in pastel hues, pearls have been rediscovered by fashion and jewellery designers. The gem is used in the London atelier of Simone Rocha – who has dotted hair ornaments, minaudières and footwear with real and faux pearls – at Miu Miu in Milan and in the Paris studios of Chanel, Dior menswear and Louis Vuitton jewellery.

It's a revival that has been fuelled by specialist brands such as Tasaki, a heritage jeweller that has put its decades-strong experience at the service of design innovation, and this year Tasaki celebrates its 70th anniversary.

Shunsaku Tasaki established his business in 1954, when he set up as a pearl farmer in Kobe, on Japan's Osaka Bay. He specialised in Akoya pearls, which are revered for their satin finish and delicate colouring. The business has since grown into a global luxury brand, its designs sold throughout Japan and across the world. There are Tasaki boutiques inside the Ritz Paris, on London's New Bond Street, and at the Eden Rock on the island of St Barth's.

Although Tasaki has also become recognised for its work with diamonds, pearls have remained its calling card. Today, the brand operates three pearl farms: one in the archipelago of Kujukushima, in Nagasaki's Saikai National (marine) Park, one in the Ise-Shima National Park, and another in the Andaman Sea, near the coastlines of Thailand and Myanmar.

The business marks its milestone anniversary by releasing a line of products made in partnership with brands and creatives. Among them, a pair of trainers finessed with pearls, made in conjunction with Japanese sportswear specialist Asics, and pearl-accented frames by Japanese eyewear maker Eyevan. Melanie Georgacopoulos, a Greece-born fine jewellery designer, devised a pearl sculpture in the shape of a T-shirt, crafted from roughly 20,000 pearls.

Perhaps more wearable are additions to Tasaki's line of Balance fine jewellery. The Balance collection was created by Thakoon Panichgul in 2010. A central motif is a quintet of pearls placed in a row, along a straight metal bar in yellow or white gold, some set with diamonds. Modern in design, the collection is also a tribute to Shunsaku Tasaki. As legend has it, the founder discovered five pearls as a child, which he carried with him throughout his life.

Good to know

Natural pearls are delicate gemstones with special care guidelines. Ideally, pearls are cleaned regularly using a microfibre cloth and stored wrapped in soft materials. Put pearls on last – after, for example, fragrance – and wear them close to the skin, as the body's natural oils help to maintain their warm lustre.

www.tasaki-global.com

Ana Khouri's jewellery sells fast. Such is the demand for the Brazilian artist-jeweller's designs (output rarely exceeds 45 pieces a year) that securing examples of her work for a photo shoot can become a game of cat and mouse. In the case of The Blend, a Justine high jewellery bracelet in yellow gold with a 26ct blue tourmaline set on clear, carved rock crystal is no longer available, so is swapped out for a pair of Baroque pearl earrings fitted with wings dotted with black diamonds.

Displayed on a dining table at her central London apartment are the few remaining jewels that Khouri unveiled last summer, at a solo show mounted with auction house Christie's. She has previously partnered with Phillips, Sotheby's and the TEFAF art fair in New York. Edition pieces – Ana Khouri gems of which multiples exist, as opposed to one-off high jewellery – are also available from The Row's small network of boutiques.

Since Khouri officially launched her business with the opening of her atelier in 2013, she has become known for jewellery that sits somewhere between sculpture and bijou. It's an approach that is rooted in Khouri's background. The daughter of an engineer father and a pianist mother, she was born in Brazil and grew up between there and the US. "It was a very sensorial upbringing, in a way," Khouri recalls. "There was a lot of feeling with your hands, and something very connected to the arts."

Khouri moved back to Brazil to enrol at art school, where she discovered her talent for sculpture. "There was something about the shapes and forms that I needed to create." For her graduation show, Khouri choreographed a group of naked women carrying her steel sculptures. "It was this idea of the warmth of the skin and the coldness of the steel and how the material adapts to the body." She received requests for scaled-down pieces that could be worn easily soon after. "I was like, 'No, that's not what I do,' because in art, you don't think about functionality."

Her sculpture practice morphed into a jewellery business over time, nevertheless. "For me, to get the idea of the shape and form I want to work with, I don't sketch, I don't draw. I sculpt," says Khouri, who starts each piece at her studio in Brooklyn. "Then I put everything on. I need to feel it." Jewellery is then made in workshops in New York, Paris and Zurich. Comfort of wear is key to Khouri's success.

A case in point are her much-loved ear cuffs, which encircle earlobes neatly. Khouri uses Fairmined gold only, in addition to platinum and other ethically and responsibly sourced raw materials. "I want to show you something," she says. "Rosewood. This is something that I was very passionate about." She first discovered the material because it was used in the Brazilian furniture she collects. "I was like, 'This feels like butter. I want this in my jewellery.'"

Realising that rosewood is protected, Khouri decided to carve designs from an antique rosewood trunk, producing a minaudière handbag and one-off jewels. "I did a necklace, I did some other things." Naturally, they are all gone.

anakhouri.com

Of the millions of words written about Rolex watches, few, if any, have been authorised by the brand. That all changes with the publication of "Oyster Perpetual Submariner: The Watch that Unlocked the Deep".

The emblematic diver's timepiece, which celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2023, is the first subject in a series of books commissioned by Rolex and published by Wallpaper*, for which The Blend contributor, watch expert and historian Nicholas Foulkes has been given exclusive access to its archives.

Plotting its development, Foulkes recalls the work of Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf in developing the waterproof Rolex Oyster case and the self-winding "perpetual" movement, technical achievements later harnessed to create a robust, reliable watch capable of surviving prolonged immersion at ever greater depths – a journey, quite literally, to the bottom of the sea, to which successive generations of underwater explorers have contributed.

From the earliest tests undertaken by Royal Navy divers in the frigid waters of Loch Fyne shortly after WWII, to Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh's record-breaking descent of the Mariana Trench in 1960, the author's absorbing narrative pays tribute to the indomitable Submariner, but also its even hardier siblings, the Sea-Dweller and the Deepsea.

We also encounter the broader cultural sphere in which these watches have excelled: not least as the original watch of choice of 007, and in a host of other film outings besides, culminating in director James Cameron's epic descent to the Challenger Deep in 2012.

Indeed, it's hard to argue with Rolex CEO Jean-Frédéric Dufour's own conclusion on a Rolex model whose legacy is as impervious as the watch itself: "Every single brand has a divers' watch. But nobody has a connection with the sea like we have."

A silk-bound edition of the book is available to order now at WallpaperSTORE*. For hardcover editions in English and French, visit ACC Art Books online.