Will the Swiss watchmaking industry remain dominant, as it has, arguably, for the last 40 or so years? Jean-Christophe Babin, appointed last year as the CEO of LVMH Watches - after stints as CEO of Tag Heuer and then Bulgari, both brands in the LVMH stable - suggests that it should not assume as much.

For one, he says, there is the rise of Chinese watchmaking, once focused around cheap knock-offs, now increasingly developing its own watch brands with distinctive designs and imported Japanese movements. And then there is the constant need to offer something more than function, which perhaps giant Japanese makers the likes of Casio and Seiko are, he suggests, too focused on.

So what will keep Swiss watches ahead? Story-telling, he suggests. 'Yes, a luxury watch today needs to be founded on a strong brand reputation, or have iconic models - Rolex and Cartier are, for example, the only brands that have the Ballon Bleu or the Daytona,' says Babin. 'Yet even icons have to evolve. The latest Finisssmo from Bulgari, for instance, is a more balanced watch, a different kind of Finissimo, with proportioning that means it can be worn every day, which it wasn’t perhaps before.

'But the Swiss watch ideally tells a story too - and not one necessarily that comes as a result of just being on the market a long time,' stresses Babin, who is also president of Geneva Watch Days, the event he co-founded during Covid, when watch fairs looked to be all but dead. It brings dozens of brands together across Geneva to show their wares and, critically, do so to the public, for free. 'Bulgari’s Serpenti watch, for example, has only been on the market since 2010 but looks to the kind of bracelets worn in Rome 2000 years ago. Creating that kind of narrative that puts a watch company in a much stronger position than a one that’s just been launched, without yet either resources or history.'

Nor is finding such an arresting story the only challenge. Babin concedes that for the big brands the volume market - which he suggests is for watches priced around €2000 to €8000 - is going to get increasingly tough, both because it’s only economical if it sells a lot of watches, and because new start-up brands are now offering consumers more affordable rival options often made with the same components. 'Keep in mind too that even big brands have small market shares,' he warns.

He would also like to see these brands take a bolder, more radical stance when it comes to design, both because that’s way to carve out a strong market position - it was Babin who drove Tag Heuer’s move towards developing luxury connected watches, a segment it now commands - but also because the industry tends to underplay the notion that most watch customers fall in love with a look, not a movement.

'The engine,' he says, 'has to be mobilised for the design. The aesthetic comes first. We have to invest more in desirability so purchasing a watch in that price bracket isn’t a once in the lifetime event but perhaps one that happens every few years, so those people who didn’t plan to buy a watch at all will do so. If that sector wants to survive long term there are few other options. For me the job is about encouraging brands to be more ambitious.'

Not that Babin thinks that the Swiss watch industry is on some kind of precipice. He has, after all, been here before: 'My career has gone through five or six financial crises, the pandemic, wars, and I think as an industry will see more and more of those kinds of challenges,' he says. 'But if I was reasonably successful it was because I never accepted that events meant the brands I managed wouldn’t remain strong and profitable, even if they didn’t [always] grow.'

The seventh edition of Geneva Watch Days will be September 2nd to 6th. See gva-watch-days.com

Innovative Japanese craftsmanship lies at the heart of Seiko, which celebrates its designers’ creativity with an annual event in London. The Power Design Project – this year titled Passionately and Obsessively Crafted Watches – returns to Japan House, inviting Seiko’s in-house designers to play with the conventions of the traditionally uniform watch design.

The components of the watch itself are considered by the designers here, from the dial textures to the hands and watch surfaces, elements which are often overlooked but require intrinsic artistry and great care.

‘I told the designers, ‘We welcome ideas that go all out!’’ says Grand Seiko design director Shinichiro Kubo on the first Power Design Project relaunch in 2022. ‘Usually, when working on regular products, we design with clear goals and boundaries in mind and, for better or worse, we become accustomed to that way of thinking. So I reassured them that even ideas that might make them wonder – ‘Is it really OK to release something like this?’ – were acceptable. But I also emphasised that it had to be a full-swing effort – no holding back.’

This year’s watches are both playful and surprising, replacing traditional hands with cats, creating a textured maze instead of the usual bar indices and replacing the day indicator with positive text-based messages.

‘People have long asked, ‘Why do we still need watches in this digital age?’’ says Hisashi Fujieda, manager of the Seiko R&D Department. ‘In some countries, more and more people are unable to read analogue timepieces. That’s why I hope, through exhibitions like these, we can continue to showcase the beauty of analogue technology and help people rediscover the unique appeal of watches.’

Kubo adds: ‘Before we began these projects, watch exhibitions mostly appealed only to watch enthusiasts. But this time, we managed to engage people who had never shown much interest in watches before. That, for us, was the most rewarding part.’

Seiko’s ‘Passionately and Obsessively Crafted Watches’ exhibition from 27th August – 15th September 2026 at Japan House London. Free admission

japanhouselondon.uk

Jewellery designer Nikos Koulis specialises in the offbeat and the precious. His jewellery is distinctive for its subversion of classic design, a philosophy expressed in unconventional cuts, clever engineering and surprising materials.

When he announced the opening of his first boutique outside his native Greece, we expected a lot. Koulis has gamely risen to the challenge, opening his Paris flagship to reveal a haven of good jewellery and good design.

Greek-born, London-based architects Bureau de Change worked closely with Koulis on the boutique, located on rue Boissy d'Anglas, with an understated design that respects the clean lines of the original building, erected in the 1700s.

Inside, the jewellery sits among classics of design, from a midcentury Kalmar glass chandelier, mirrors by Gio Ponti , and art from Koulis’ personal collection and objects from his own line, including a series of candlesticks. ‘I wanted to create a gentle and inviting space, to reflect not only my work but also my world,’ Koulis says.

‘The jewellery speaks for itself, but I wanted to propose my way of creating, my way of living, my way of looking at things,’ he adds. ‘The overall aesthetic with my personal choices in the design pieces, the artworks and even the flowers we change every week brings my own sensibility to the space. [There are] layers of intimacy, flair and depth as I wanted to subvert the jewellery boutique rules and codes.'

Out of all the objets d’art in the new space, what are his favourites? ‘I keep changing my [mind about] favourites, it's in my Gemini nature! From jewellery, I would currently choose the ‘77’ necklace. From [my] ‘moNO’ [series of objects and furniture], two candlesticks: the feminine and the masculine, a nod to a very human journey with different traits, free imagination, and constant flux.’

nikoskoulis.com

Alec Doherty’s work flits between mediums. Known best for his work in sculpting, painting and drawing, the English artist is also drawn to the more personal, a cornerstone of his contemporary jewellery design.

Like in his studio-based practice, Doherty’s jewellery is born from a careful consideration of form and material, an essential nature which runs throughout his new fine jewellery collection, Ceremony. The six diamond rings which make up the collection are born from a simple concept – why save something special for one day only?

My dad wore a silver snake chain that had been soldered permanently around his neck by an old friend,’ says Doherty on where the idea came from. ‘I remember wondering why anyone would want to wear something forever. Looking back, I think it marked something important to him. It was a kind of ceremony. We memorialise moments with the things we wear. When I thought about making a celebration ring I naturally ended up at diamonds. Ceremony is my take on something really traditional, but I’m not a traditional designer.’

Doherty rethinks the traditional diamond ring by choosing a lab-grown diamond to sit in the 9ct gold band. ‘Natural diamonds have an incredible history. Lab diamonds start with none, and that really appealed to me. Their story begins with the person who wears them,’ he adds.

The rings are ripe for interpretation, eschewing fussy ornamentation for clean and simple silhouettes which put the focus on the diamond. For Doherty, they are a continuation of his artistic practice, rather than separate to it. ‘Drawing, sculpture and jewellery are all ways of working with material to understand or describe an idea,’ he says. ‘Usually the material feels as though it chooses itself. What I love about jewellery is that it doesn't stop with the maker. Once it's worn, it becomes part of someone else's life and takes on meanings I could never predict. That feels like a very special thing.’

alecdoherty.com

Maurice Lacroix has a deserved reputation as a maker of mechanical watches. And yet one of its latest models, the Pontos S chronograph, takes an unexpected tack: its quartz movement is Swiss but it’s also solar-powered, a first for the collection. Solar means a battery change only every 10 years, and five months autonomous running at full solar charge. The solar power also illuminates the two colour Superluminova display.

'A lot of companies choose to stay focused on where their know how is strongest - in mechanical watches, with quartz seen as an entry level product before you progress to a mechanical watch,' says Samuel Guelat, Maurice Lacroix’s international marketing manager. 'But the fact is solar is so efficient now there’s no worries in presenting it as a reliable timepiece. Undoubtedly there’s appeal to a timepiece you don’t have to worry about for a decade, and especially to younger people who appreciate the ecological angle in that too. It’s not a new tech [for watches], but there’s definitely a trend for solar again now.'

Frederique Constant, for example, has recently released its Classics Moneta Solarmetre, the first reference from the maker to be equipped with a solar movement, specifically the FC-120 solar-powered calibre from La Joux-Perret. That this specialist company was acquired by LVMH Watches last year perhaps hints at further investment in solar-powered watches to come. Like Maurice Lacroix’s watch, the Moneta addresses the two obstacles that have, for some decades, been off-putting to some consumers considering solar-powered watches: insufficient slimness in form and darkness of dial.

Solar-powered watches, though much slimmer than there were a decade ago, tend to be on the chunkier side - the Seiko Astron GPS is, as 12.4mm, the slimmest to date, with Seiko launching a limited edition in crystal green earlier this year. And, as Seiko’s head of marketing Faye Lovenbury says, 'making the tech even more ‘invisible’ is an important area of development too.' Patterned, smoked - as with the Pontos - and engraved or grained translucent dials - as with the Moneta - are now more commonplace. They appear solid but allow the light to pass through.

If solar-powered watches wore their technology a little too much on their sleeve, increasingly it’s hidden away. This year Tag Heuer expanded its solar line-up with solar versions of its Aquaracer and Formula 1 pastel models, though you wouldn’t know it to look at them.

'For a long time it’s been the case that the dial needed holes, or couldn’t be too dark, but the watch industry has worked around this - look at the latest solar-powered watches and there’s no way you can tell,' says Guelat. 'In the future you can imagine that it will develop other ways of taking in the sunlight that perhaps doesn’t involve the dial at all. Certainly I expect to see fewer purely quartz watches and more solar-powered ones.'

Tissot is one such company already exploring others means - last year its PR100 Solar unveiled a ground-breaking ‘Lightmaster’ tech that fits the light-harvesting photovoltaic panel not below the dial, as is standard, but packs it into the sapphire crystal itself, allowing light to be more easily collected. Even artificial light will do - an idea pioneered by Citizen with its proprietary Eco-Drive solar tech, 50 years ago this year.

'As solar energy becomes increasingly recognised as reliable and sustainable, it’s naturally strengthening the appeal of solar watches. But this new tech represents a significant step forward because it opens up a much wider range of finishing possibilities and greatly expands our design potential,' argues Tissot’s CEO Sylvain Dolla. 'We’re now actively working on a number of developments in this space. I think recent innovations improving both performance and design is giving a momentum that’s positioning solar watches as modern, relevant and increasingly desirable.'

The next challenge may be to up the power, to make solar suitable for watches with several complications, suggests Lovenbury. 'It’s about balancing efficiency and integration - continually improving the energy harvested from light to power increasingly complex watch functions, while maintaining attractive design,' she says.

As light rain and a gentle mist rolls over the Arrochar Alps towards the small village of Tarbert on Loch Lomond, writer and now curator Kate Matthams is huddled in a café preparing for an epic trip around Oban, Mull, the Western Highlands, Glasgow and finally Edinburgh, where her first exhibition, ‘Terrane’, will be opening at Ætla gallery during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Exploring the relationship between landscape, identity and jewellery with 11 artists assembled for their innovative use of materials, craftsmanship and narrative, this is her first curation and the gallery's first use of an external curator.

'The idea for the exhibition started with materiality from the landscape, like a kind of topography of memory,' says Matthams of how the events and physical materials we encounter in life, connect us to places we inhabit as a central theme for the show.

Alice Cicolini’s hand-carved ebony cuffs with landscape agate set into jasper illustrate this nicely with the combined and equal value of maker’s skill, unconventional materials and landscape. Inspired by India with its spicy milieu of 'cow-dung fires, red dust coming off the heritage buildings, kites circling gardens and the mist…', her pieces are rich with the transformative energy of her experiences there since she began visiting in 1999.

Lola Fehirst's ‘Celestia’ cocktail ring in indigo aluminium with Afghan Lapis and cognac diamonds refers to the Kofar Mata dye pits of Kano in northern Nigeria, where indigo twigs, potassium and ash were used to dye fabric sold to the Tuaregs, also known as the blue men of the desert. Now based in Paris, Fehirst draws a parallel between both places, saying 'there is something exquisite about the reverence around the craft of jewellery making in Paris that is echoed in Kano, and which has an element of the sacred about it’.

Castro Smith employs a hammer-and-chisel technique he devised while studying in Japan under Hiroshi Suzuki, Kenji Io and National Living Treasure Mamoru Nakagawa, combined with hand-pushed engraving to create his solid silver signet ring. The ring is a palette cleanser to his usually brightly coloured ceramic pictorial engravings and is one of the few pieces in the exhibition with no gemstones. Ruth Tomlinson’s pieces, in contrast, all feature sapphire clusters from Sri Lanka, where she visited mines and connected with artisanal cutters and miners.

From the textured beauty of Ellis Mhairi Cameron’s Scottish kilt pins in yellow gold studded with baguette diamonds to the Scottish agates and French sapphires used by Sarah Madeleine Bru, the abstract mother of pearl employed by Melanie Georgacopoulos and the NHS X-ray silver combined with SMO gold by Emefa Cole – material culture profoundly connects each artist to an individual time and place in this exhibition. Nada Ghazal’s enamel dome-shaped blossom rings are inspired by her eternal muse, the city of Beirut, which has weathered so much but continues to be, in Mattham’s words, ‘her absolute beacon and guiding light’.

Inesa Kovalova’s white gold, Akoya pearl and diamond ‘Link’ earrings and ‘Carré’ ring celebrate her upbringing in the Donbas region of the Ukraine, which is now near the front line, and the idea that in jewellery, your roots, home and identity can be carried with you in hard times. True value is in the message, and the materials, however valuable, are simply tools.

'They really got under my skin,' Matthams says of the artists, gathered for the first time as a group for the exhibition. 'I wanted to use something other than words to tell their stories in a different way.'

'Terrane' runs from 7-31 August 2026, at 17 St Stephen St, Stockbridge, Edinburgh EH3 5AN

edfringe.com

For its second collaboration with Team Ikuzawa and Bamford Watch Department, TAG Heuer has tapped into the graphic clarity and analogue romance of Japanese motorsport of the 1970s and 1980s.

The Carrera Chronograph x Team Ikuzawa takes its cues from a vintage Roadmaster stopwatch, discovered while Team Ikuzawa’s principal and creative director Mai Ikuzawa and Bamford Watch Department founder George Bamford were looking through Bamford’s collection of timers and chronographs from the period. ‘It was a eureka moment,’ says Ikuzawa. ‘The simplicity and restraint of the design was just full on.’

The base for the project is TAG Heuer’s 39mm Carrera Glassbox, which was chosen because the bezel-free construction preserves the immediacy of a handheld stopwatch. That was also the rationale behind the white Clous de Paris dial with black printed numerals and sparingly deployed red accents; details that recall Team Ikuzawa’s famously stark racing liveries. Powered by TAG Heuer’s automatic TH20-10 calibre, the watch dispenses with running seconds, leaving room at six o’clock for the Team Ikuzawa signature, in the same manner with which the team and sponsor logos were once applied to racing chronographs. In addition to its seven-row steel bracelet, the watch has a perforated white leather strap with red stitching and a red-and-white textile alternative.

Ikuzawa, a Central Saint Martins-trained graphic designer who grew up between the racetracks of Japan and Britain, describes restraint as central to both her Japanese heritage and the team’s visual identity. ‘You’re stripping away a lot of the noise, but what makes something really beautiful is the attention to detail,’ she says. Achieving that apparent simplicity was less serene: Ikuzawa recalls a lively WhatsApp group and a design process in which ‘there was no compromise’.

It’s not all stark simplicity, though; there’s a playfulness that comes with the presentation. The watch and straps come in a toolbox alongside a travel pouch and Team Ikuzawa charms, details that reflect Ikuzawa’s ability to connect with her audience (also seen in her 2024 collaboration on clothing with Daniel Arsham).

The first TAG Heuer x Team Ikuzawa watch appeared exclusively in Japan in 2023. This globally available sequel is limited to 150 numbered pieces and priced at £8,850. More than another motorsport-themed collaboration, it demonstrates why Ikuzawa’s family heritage can speak credibly to a younger audience whose introduction to motorsport is more through Netflix and TikTok than the sports pages. ‘We want to bring a little bit of sexiness back,’ she says.

tagheuer.com

Since 1950, the Dallas Museum of Art has quietly been building a collection of contemporary jewellery. Many of the pieces, spanning various mediums, have rarely been seen, something that has now been addressed with a major exhibition presenting more than 350 wearable artworks.

‘Constellations: Contemporary Jewelry from the Dallas Museum of Art’, on show at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Virginia, is now displaying what amounts to one of the USA’s most significant jewellery collections. Encompassing hundreds of pieces from over 230 artists, from 41 countries, the collection speaks to the breadth of creativity among artists focusing exclusively on a wearable medium.

‘More than a survey of contemporary jewelry, “Constellations” celebrates artists’ ability to expand the boundaries of wearable art through innovation and creativity,’ says Mark A Castro, director of curatorial affairs at the Chrysler Museum.

Works here are occasionally playful, from crowns of gold that appear to be cardboard, to an embrace of unusual materials such as photographs, wire and plastic. There are brooches shaped like toast, rings of nylon and a composting collar, created from egg box cartons. The jewellery artwork, divided into four themes – Zones of the Body, Archetypes, Signals and Play – invites visitors to trace the history of jewellery as an eclectic form of artistic expression.

Adds Castro: ‘The exhibition invites audiences to embrace the full range of the medium’s potential – to engage serious issues while also fostering playfulness and delight.’

‘Constellations: Contemporary Jewelry from the Dallas Museum of Art’ is on view at the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia, until 3 January 2027

chrysler.org

The independent watchmaker Konstantin Chaykin had mulled over all the options. He could make all of his proposed watch’s components thinner, but then some would not work as well as needed. He could make the case very strong to compensate – that was an idea worth pursuing. Gold wouldn’t be durable enough. A tungsten nickel alloy would work, although it alone would take two months of machining – and he would need to use the rare, non-magnetic variety typically used in the development of space technology.

He could also rearrange the movement’s architecture, effectively splitting the mainspring barrel – a mechanical watch’s power source – into two parts, and integrate parts of the movement directly into the caseback. The winding of what would remain a very delicate instrument would need to be outsourced to a separate, dedicated device. But it could be done.

And, in fact, it has been. Chaykin recently unveiled the result: the production version of his ThinKing mechanical watch, the world’s thinnest, at just 1.65mm deep. 'Making a watch that thin was a real challenge, but life would be very ordinary without it,' says Chaykin. 'Why do it? Because it’s like a magic trick: you know it’s there on your wrist, but you can’t feel it. Now we’re just waiting for the next guys to try to beat our record.'

Chaykin’s watch beat the record previously held by Bulgari, which in 2025 also released the world’s thinnest tourbillon movement, the Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon (among our pick of the year's statement watches), at 1.85mm thick – again achieved by using the caseback as the movement’s manipulation. This, in turn, unseated Piaget’s Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon, at a positively chunky 2mm.

But why this arms race for an ever-more barely-there mechanical model? After all, it’s one which, arguably, has been in play since the master watchmaker Jean-Antoine Lepine reimagined the pocket watch way back in 1765, doing away with the movement’s traditional sandwich of plates and pillars for a greatly thinned-down timepiece, with Jacques-David LeCoultre, in 1907, and Audemars Piguet, in 1938, both further revolutionising movement architecture to produce, respectively, a 1.38mm-thick pocket-watch movement and a 1.64mm-thick wristwatch movement (not including the case). Since the 1950s, Vacheron Constantin, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Piaget, Audemars Piguet and, latterly, Bulgari and Richard Mille have led the competition for ever more thinness.

'For watchmakers, thinness is something of an obsession, because to achieve it you have to reimagine the components and produce them in different ways, using different materials. And for the collector who understands the technical aspects, a very thin watch is a point of difference,' explains Bulgari’s product creation executive director Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani. 'For me, honestly, thinness alone adds nothing to the functionality of a watch – if it’s not automatic and robust enough for everyday life then it’s more a prototype. And we’re at a place where we could make an even thinner prototype watch, but you wouldn’t be able to touch it.'

Indeed, Stigliani adds that pursuing thinness in a watch is always a matter of compromise: you take something away here, you lose something – like a useful level of power reserve, reliability or enough rigidity – there. Further problems of functionality include, he suggests, how to attach a strap or bracelet to a very thin watch, and, invariably, its aesthetic. 'Sometimes an ultra-thin watch just looks too flat, too fragile,' he says.

These various complications are why, Stigliani suggests, makers of ultra-thin watches belong to 'a club with only a few brands for members' who like to be able to 'show the market something completely new and [for whom an ultra-thin watch] is a bit of a technical show-off too. It’s a wow moment. And the record [achieved] is another form of advertising campaign.'

Perhaps, then, we’re close to peak thin – at least until some new wonder material comes along. Chaykin says he’s working on various ideas that would allow for an even thinner mechanical watch, but concedes that 'like breaking a record in sport, each new record gets harder to beat, and tends to take much longer'. And he agrees with Stigliani that breaking records is one thing, 'but making a watch that’s wearable is something else'.

But that’s not to say that more thinness – if not of the ultra kind – doesn’t have its uses. Thomas Van Straaten, founder of VPC Watch Co, for example, has recently launched its Type 39VM, recognised as the thinnest 200m automatic dive watch on the market, at 9.34mm total thickness. He argues that, beyond the cliché of a thin watch sitting nicely under a shirt cuff ('though actually that’s quite nice’, he says), thinness does make for a more comfortable watch to wear.

'The interest in thinness now isn’t a fad,' he adds, 'but fits with a growing appreciation for the ergonomics of watch design, which is also behind the greater number of smaller watches too. And thinness has to be in balance with the rest of the design. I’m not a fan of thinness for its own sake. We could have made the Type 39 thinner [albeit at some cost to water resistance] by using a printed dial instead of one with raised indices, but it just didn’t look as good. And that matters.'

konstantinchaykin.com

Breitling has announced three limited-edition timepieces that celebrate its partnership with Aston Martin, the first watches since the two companies announced their collaboration back in February 2026.

Available in three finishes, the watch has a sufficiently epic name, the Top Time B01 Chronograph 41 Tribute to Aston Martin DB5. It does, of course, reference the bellwether of all things Aston Martin, the 1963 DB5 grand tourer that has become one of the most iconic and recognisable car designs of all time. It would almost be unnatural if Breitling were to kick off such a partnership without acknowledging this car.

According to Georges Kern, CEO of House of Brands, the umbrella company that oversees Breitling along with the brands Universal Genève and Gallet, ‘the Aston Martin DB5 is one of those rare designs that never fades. It still feels as relevant today as it did in the 1960s. With this Top Time, we capture that sense of timeless style.’

The trio of watches make direct reference to the forms and materials introduced in the DB5, a rich palette of leather, wood and metal that continues to the benchmark for luxury sporting automotive interiors. The watch itself is also period correct, described by Breitling as its own ‘unconventional chronograph, created for a new, youthful, speed-driven audience’.

Happily, there’s another direct Aston connect, one that drives straight through the most prominent cultural waypoint of all, James Bond. In 1965’s Thunderball, a Breitling Top Time ref 2002 was worn by Sean Connery. This was the second on-screen appearance of Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 (first seen the year before in Goldfinger) and the first time that a watch took a starring role as a MacGuffin in the series (Q had equipped it with a Geiger counter).

In the hands of Breitling’s team, this special edition of the Top Time B01 Chronograph 41 might not be able to detect radiation, but it has been given a level of detail and elegance that befits the Smiths dials and leather-clad ambience of a DB5.

Elements like the cushion-shaped case, grooved corners, and mushroom pushers are all deliberate evocations of the 1960s chronograph; automotive gauges were also the direct reference for the form of the two ‘squircle’ subdials.

The leather strap pairs especially well with the wooden inner ring, adding a level of grain and detail that’s rarely found on a watch face. ‘This chronograph blends form with true function,’ says Pablo Widmer, Breitling’s head of product design. ‘As with the Aston Martin DB5, its beauty lies in its lines, materials, and finishings.’

Three distinct editions are available. The stainless steel finish, with silver dial, is limited to 1,022 pieces and represents the closest match to the original 1960s Top Time ref. 2002. There is also a 315-piece edition of a steel and platinum finished watch, with black lacquered dial.

Finally, Breitling is making just 250 individually numbered examples of an 18ct red gold edition, complete with dial cut from natural onyx stone (a first for Breitling).

The new editions use the Breitling Manufacture Caliber 01 chronograph movement with 70-hour power reserve that supports extended wear. The movement is clearly visible through the open sapphire-crystal caseback, finished with a dedicated Aston Martin–engraved rotor in rhodium-plated or 18ct red gold (depending on the edition).

‘These editions represent something truly distinct from anything we’ve created before,’ says Aston Martin’s CCO Marek Reichman. ‘The collaboration with Breitling brought together two brands with a shared appreciation for timeless design, craftsmanship, and innovation, allowing us to exchange ideas in a way that felt both natural and ambitious. The result is a watch that feels contemporary today, yet timeless for generations to come.’

Breitling Top Time B01 Chronograph 41 Tribute to Aston Martin DB5 is available with a sunray silver dial (£8,650), sunray brushed black lacquered dial (£14,400) and an 18ct rose gold and onyx dial (£35,100)
Breitling.com, @Breitling, AstonMartin.com, @AstonMartin

Swedish jewellery house Englebert, founded in Stockholm in 1920, is defined by a clean, minimalist style honed over four generations. Collections, including Legacy Knot, Loop and Drop Link, eschew ornamentation to cut clean, fuss-free silhouettes drawn in reassuringly heavy 18-carat gold.

Many of the brand’s classical pieces have now taken their place in the wider conversation of Swedish design, placed alongside Swedish ceramics in a photo series by Sophie Kirk in collaboration with Paul Jackson of Jackson Design.

A vast number of the Swedish and Scandinavian studio ceramics and bronze belong to Englebert’s private collection. Pieces – including a sculptural Argenta vase from the 1930s, a Tapio Wirkkala bronze and a Friberg vase – embody a rich materiality when paired alongside the jewellery.

For Oscar and Giovanna Engelbert, the series is a celebration of beautiful form across both mediums. ‘What drew us was the silhouette. The neck of a vase, the line of a link, the curve of a stone; place them together and they stop being ceramic and jewellery and become one language of form. That is what this series captures.’

It is the latest step for Engelbert in a long-standing championing of Swedish design. The brand, which began in Stockholm in the same decade Swedish designer Wilhelm Kåge joined porcelain specialist Gustavsberg, has alluded to this parallel before, including vintage Kåge ceramics in their Beverly Hills showroom.

‘There is a clear language shared between the objects and the jewellery,’ agrees Paul Jackson. ‘Both also belong to the broader continuum of Swedish ceramics and Swedish grace, where elegance was achieved through proportion and material quality rather than excess.’

Adds photographer Sophie Kirk: ‘Across the four palettes – moss green, beige, black and white – the gold and the objects read differently against each one. Their individuality made every frame a world of its own.’

engelbert1920.com

Hermès originally opened its doors in 1837 as a harness workshop in Paris, rapidly establishing itself as an authority in the crafting of leather saddles and bridles. Founder Thierry Hermès created pieces for the nobles of the era, demonstrating a commitment to craftsmanship that expanded and developed over the decades.

These equestrian roots have always been central to Hermès, and are reinterpreted now in the new high jewellery collection from the creative director of Hermès Jewellery, Pierre Hardy. ‘Into the Horsescape’ encompasses a collection of pieces where the horse is suggested, rather than represented.

‘I implicitly tell Hermès’ story, its relationship with time and materials, before drawing on the imagination to transform them into an adornment,’ says Hardy, of why he felt it necessary to eschew a literal representation of the horse. ‘We take mundane items and turn them into something sublime, whether by creating pieces inspired by boots and lassoes, or by finishing a blacksmith’s nail in gold and diamond; transforming it into a sun that illuminates one’s face. This collection journeys between the abstract and the narrative, where the ordinary becomes extraordinary.’ (The new Hermès ‘Clou de Forge’ bag takes a similar approach.)

Throughout, equestrian symbols are given a high-jewellery spin. The curves of a lasso are spelt out in baguette diamonds that twist their way around the neck, while an 18th-century miniature saddle is worked into a satin-like black titanium bracelet that sits delicately on the wrist. The arch of a horse’s hoof is finished in gleaming black jade on a minimalist necklace and ring, while the iron nails used to attach horseshoes to a horse’s hooves become raw spikes of a diamond necklace.

‘It’s the broader view that moves me: one’s silhouette, one’s movement, the way one exists within a space, one’s style,’ Hardy adds. ‘Style comes from taking ownership of a garment or a piece of jewellery; from a way of being, rather than through an effect.’

hermes.com

Handcrafted in her studio in Taos, New Mexico, Anna Sheffield's newest works are difficult to categorise. They feel both ancient and contemporary: pieces whose function is not immediately obvious, but whose presence is difficult to ignore.

Sheffield calls them simply ‘objects'. The word gives them space to exist between categories. They are sculptures that participate in daily life. A vessel might hold a feather collected during a walk. A bell might mark the transition between one moment and another. A carved form might rest in the palm of a hand, inviting a few seconds of reflection. ‘The greatest luxury is to have anything in your life that makes you feel like you're slowing down and actually being present,' Sheffield says.

She jokingly describes the pieces as ‘witchy Carl Auböck', referencing the 20thcentury Austrian designer whose objects transformed everyday tools into moments of pleasure and attention. A bowl, bell or letter opener remained useful, but function was only the beginning. Auböck understood that objects could carry qualities more difficult to measure: humour, personality, memory and the small rituals created through use.

This relationship between material, meaning and daily life has shaped Sheffield's work for more than two decades. Before becoming one of the defining voices in contemporary fine jewellery, she studied sculpture in San Francisco. Jewellery unexpectedly became the place where her sculptural training, material knowledge, and personal sensibility became a livelihood. After moving to New York in 2002, she launched her ‘Bing Bang' line, translating those instincts into accessible pieces: tiny sculptural symbols, charms and declarations designed to be collected and layered. The response was meteoric, becoming what Sheffield describes as a ‘Barneys fashion moment', with the line finding audiences from New York to Tokyo and leading to collaborations with Marc Jacobs and Target.

In 2009, Sheffield started a collection under her own name, embracing the traditions of fine jewellery while bringing her own sensibility. Her rings honoured classic forms, but introduced unexpected stones, unusual colours and combinations that reflected a sculptor's attention to material, composition and emotional resonance. Jewellery offered a powerful education in the emotional life of objects. »

A ring arrives with centuries of human behaviour already attached: promises, commitments, inheritance and memory. Eventually, Sheffield began questioning whether that same emotional power could exist within the quieter rituals of daily life.

However, after years of building a brand and a recognisable language within jewellery, Sheffield began to question where she fitted in creatively. ‘I'm not an artist anymore,' she remembers saying. ‘I'm a designer. I'm a brand. I'm a marketer. I'm an entrepreneur.'

During the pandemic, an artist residency at Pocoapoco in Oaxaca allowed Sheffield to confront these issues, returning her to sculpting and the physical process of making. Around the same time, her centre of gravity shifted from New York City to Taos, bringing her back to New Mexico, where she grew up, and to the landscape that had long shaped her understanding of materials. ‘New Mexico has always been my true north,' she says. Taos offered her a different kind of knowledge. The region has long attracted artists, creative types and experimental thinkers drawn by the possibility of living outside conventional systems of value. Its vast landscape and distance from traditional centres of culture created space for different ways of making, thinking and being. For Sheffield, it nurtured another part of the same imagination: the slower, stranger, more intuitive relationship with materials that had been the foundation of her creative life. The surrounding desert contains many elements that have appeared throughout her career: quartz, turquoise, copper and volcanic stone. The move was not a rejection of one life for another. It was a place where different parts of herself could finally exist together.

The works that emerged could only have been made after everything that came before. They carry the precision of jewellery but follow a different logic: one shaped by earth, intuition and the slow accumulation of meaning. Stones no longer wait to be set into rings. Metals no longer need to announce their value. Materials that once marked life's largest ceremonies are invited into quieter, daily exchanges. Sheffield speaks about the works with a mixture of seriousness and play. After years creating objects for the ceremonies we inherit, she is now exploring the rituals we create for ourselves.

The artist that Sheffield thought she had left behind was never separate from the designer, marketer and entrepreneur she became. They were different expressions of the same imagination, shaped by different landscapes. New York taught her how to build worlds around objects. Taos returned her attention to the mysteries that made those objects matter in the first place. The diamond and the obsidian were never opposites. They were different forms of the same alchemy: earth transformed by the human desire to give it meaning.

annasheffield.com

This article appears in the August 2026, Creative America issue of Wallpaper*, available from 2 July in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Karel Bachand, mechanical engineer-turned-Nasa-systems-designer-turned-watchmaker, doesn’t get it either: why has the watch industry not yet produced a mechanical wristwatch designed from the ground up for use in space? It’s been over 60 years…

For one, it’s a matter of industry dynamics. 'Space is such a wild west right now and while it’s a huge trillion-dollar industry that’s unfolding, there’s no way for companies to address every bit of hardware,' he says. 'Who’s designing shovels for use in space, for instance? Instead, the focus is on the big challenges – food, water, shelter – and smaller tools are underserved right now.'

But, he adds, it’s also a matter of politics: the more established space industry – of government agencies – is one of 'bureaucracy and deep relationships that go back many years', he says. That makes it hard to break into what is a tiny market – for now – dominated by a handful of brands, these in turn dominated by Omega. Descendants of its ‘flight qualified’ Speedmaster – selected for, rather than designed for, early Nasa space missions – remain an astronaut’s go-to models.

Bachand, however, didn’t want to wait for an established watchmaker to wake up the potential of designing a watch for life in space, let alone the mission-critical need to provide a mechanical fail-safe, given solar radiation’s unfriendliness to electronics. Indeed, his California-based company Barrelhand might well claim to have created the first such watch, with its recently launched Monolith.

Six years in development, the model, the case of which is 3D-printed in a modified aluminium alloy, not only meets ISO aerospace standards, Nasa materials guidance and EVA/spacewalk testing protocols, but directly addresses each of the extreme environmental challenges of space (much, he notes, as established brands used to do in supporting deep-sea and polar exploration).

Most stark is the need to insulate the movement against temperature variations of -246ºC through to +120ºC – achieved by hollowing out the case to create air pockets all around it, while fine-tuning tolerances and using compatible materials to allow parts to expand and contract. This also drastically reduces the Monolith’s weight, to just 31g. In spaceflight, it can cost $5,000 to get 1kg just into low Earth orbit, so every gram saved counts.

The movement is mounted on a shock-absorption system, theoretically capable of withstanding a force of 3,000 Gs. Since much over 10 Gs will kill its wearer, that seems sufficiently covered. The watch is also assembled without glues – the internal structure of brass plates is welded with Torx screws, chosen because they’re accessible using International Space Station (ISS) tool sets, should servicing the watch while in space be required.

The Monolith has already been worn in space, on a Blue Origin mission, with Barrelhand now working on getting one onto the ISS for third-party testing, while also seeking contracts. 'When we talk to people responsible for tool acquisition or astronaut training [within space agencies or private space companies], the response is very positive – they get what the Monolith offers,' Bachard enthuses. 'The people who matter just want the best shit for the job.' Since the Monolith is an open-source design, they’re welcome to chip in with ideas too.

They no doubt also appreciate the name. Monolith may sound inappropriate for a tool watch that wears its presence very lightly but it is, of course, a nod to 2001: A Space Odyssey. That in part derives from Bachand’s romantic vision that 'someone or something discovers this tool on the surface of the moon or Mars one day as signal to the cosmos that we were here' – and since each watch’s case-back is embedded with a holographic disc containing samples from 1,000 years of human culture, they’ll get more than a curious object. But it’s also more literal. Each of the Monolith’s indices is proportionately the same as the big black slab from Kubrick’s film.

Although it may be the first true space watch – the Gagarin of space watches, if you will – the Monolith will likely not be the last, with Bachand expecting established brands eventually to see the value of designing for this burgeoning market too. Providing, he suggests, that they can see space as a market, rather than as just a storytelling opportunity.

'The identity of so many brands is built around luxury and heritage now, such that to build an actual tool watch again would be almost counter-cultural, even if they have the money, people and ability to do so,' he suggests. 'But there’s clearly a need here.'

barrelhand.com/monolith

In October 1950, a new weekly comic strip, Peanuts, debuted in seven newspapers across the United States. Created by American cartoonist and writer Charles M Schulz, it followed the exploits of Patty, Shermy, Charlie Brown and his dog, Snoopy.

Born in Minneapolis in 1922, Schluz grew up during the Great Depression, serving in the United States Army during the Second World War, before embarking on a career as a cartoonist. Once remarking that the army ‘taught me all I need to know about loneliness’, Schulz infused this melancholy into the character of Charlie Brown.

His dog, Snoopy, was the result of Schulz’s observation of the relationship between children and dogs, noting the particularly high levels of tolerance a dog has for children’s games, a patience that became the foundation of Charlie Brown and Snoopy’s alliance. Schulz, who had wanted to name the series Li'l Folks, based Snoopy on his childhood dog, Spike, originally drawing the animal as a very ordinary-looking black-and-white beagle who walked on all fours.

Over the years, Snoopy transformed, beginning to walk on two legs, and conducting a sly and playful inner monologue that readers accessed through his thought bubbles. Schulz simplified his drawing style, with Snoopy developing long ears and expressive dots for eyes. By Schulz’s final comic strip, in 2000, Snoopy’s form had been reduced to the essential, a distinctive mix of clean lines and abstract shapes.

Snoopy’s idiosyncrasies – sleeping on top of his kennel, experimenting with endless identities – meant both adults and children found him relatable. Snoopy imagined himself as everything from a First World War flying ace to a lawyer and a scout leader, and was usually preoccupied with themes of friendship, hope and disappointment.

The simplicity of his design made Snoopy both instantly recognisable – even at very small sizes – and adaptable. Snoopy moved easily from newspaper strips to toys, products, advertising campaigns and fashion collaborations.

Snoopy’s appeal transcended comics, extending into fashion and popular culture around the world. At its most popular, Peanuts was translated into 21 languages and syndicated in more than 2,600 newspapers across 75 countries. Notably, Nasa was particularly taken with Snoopy, using him as a safety mascot during the 1960s and introducing the Silver Snoopy Award, which was presented to those who make significant contributions to mission safety. The lunar module for the Apollo 10 mission, meanwhile, was dubbed ‘Snoopy,’ and the command module was called Charlie Brown.

The fashion industry, too, has embraced Snoopy, and he has appeared in collections by brands including Gucci and Lacoste, and on everything from sneakers to watches. Timex, which adopted Snoopy’s form in 1965, was one of the first brands to obtain licences for the use of the Peanuts characters, resulting in watches including the Peanuts x Timex Marlin Automatic Soccer.

Throughout its 50-year run, Schulz kept sole and complete creative control, personally penning every strip himself. It was a habit he maintained until his final strip, which appeared on 13 February 2000 – one day after his death.

This article appears in the August 2026, Creative America issue of Wallpaper*, available from 2 July in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

As its first watch, the original 1988 Monterey watch marked the beginning of a new path for Louis Vuitton. The only watch designed by Italian architect Gae Aulenti, it made for a striking choice for Louis Vuitton's watch debut. We saw it resurface in 2025 as a collector's heirloom, limited, pebble-smooth and making eighties Monterey values soar. Today it is back in techy ceramic as a runway charm.

The lugless gold pebble that Gae Aulenti sketched for the house set the tone for Louis Vuitton's watch language and proves that architectural watch design ages the way a good building does. The 2025 re-edition set the tone, but upscaled in spec from its eighties namesake, in 18-karat yellow gold. The Monterey was sized to 39mm and finished with a white grand feu enamel dial framed by red and blue railroad tracks, faithful to the original down to the crown perched at twelve o'clock rather than three. Aulenti positioned it there deliberately, borrowing the grammar of a pocket watch, and the result has always looked slightly foreign among conventional watches, setting the tone for Louis Vuitton and making it a cult favourite.

Now the Monterey has crossed into fashion. At Pharrell Williams's S/S 2027 men's show in Paris, Louis Vuitton unveiled two ceramic versions of the watch, one in glossy black, one in a bold green. They were presented not on wrists but as charms tied to the runway looks themselves, the latest sign that pocket and fob watches are making a return. The watch can be worn as an accessory, or as seen here, insouciantly dangle from a belt hoop.

The lugless case and the crown-at-twelve silhouette carry over unchanged, so the ceramic Monterey inhabits a quirky pocket watch silhouette, but that pocket-watch inheritance is not incidental. From Daniel Arsham’s teardrop Hublot to plastic Swatch Audemars Piguet collaborations, we see mechanical watches drifting further from the wrist and into the territory of decorative objects worn on chains and clipped to bags. Louis Vuitton, a house built on trunks and travel rather than horology, is unusually well positioned to make that case.

The ceramic editions arrive in stores from 26 September

louisvuitton.com

Jess Hannah Révész, founder and designer of fine jewellery brand J Hannah, creates jewellery in antithesis to the mass market. Her pieces, made in Los Angeles, encompass a slower, more ethical way of creating, a mindful philosophy brought to life in the new JH Editions collection.

The ongoing series of hand-created pieces marks the designer’s return to the bench – after having seen her time taken up with running the business – a move triggered by her desire to again experience the physicality of the process. ‘I don’t know that there was a singular moment so much as a gradual realisation that I missed making things,’ Hannah says. ‘Over time, my role shifted from fabricating jewellery myself to designing collections, managing production, marketing, and running a business. I genuinely enjoy those parts of the work (most of the time!), but they’re very different from sitting at a bench and the meditative experience of making something.’

The new pieces are created using the wax process – lost wax casting – where the jewellery form is first carved into wax before taking its final metal shape, here in 14ct and 18ct gold, studded with antique diamonds and reclaimed sapphires.

Hannah tells us how the new collection came to life.

W*: Can you tell us what you enjoy about the wax process?

JHR: What I love about wax is that it resists perfection. I originally learned through hand fabrication, where precision is often the goal – wax carving feels different. It's slower, more intuitive, a little less predictable. I usually begin with a loose idea, but the material has a way of steering the process. A slip of the tool or an unexpected contour often becomes the most interesting part of the piece.

The medium lends itself to open-ended outcomes partly because the material itself isn't precious... not yet, at least. With hand fabrication, there's an implicit pressure not to waste gold, which shapes the way you work. Wax removes that. The intention can just be to spend time in the process, without the outcome needing to justify it.

W*: What was key for you to consider in the design of these pieces?

JHR: In a way, the point was to consider design less. In my day-to-day work, design, collections, and market appeal are always part of the equation. With these pieces, I wanted to step away from that mindset and allow the process itself to lead. It was more personal, for me. I just happen to have a studio practice where the output is gold jewellery, so it makes sense to share and sell it too.

Rather than focusing on how a piece might fit into a collection or be received commercially, I tried to follow instinct and just make. Many of the forms draw from jewellery history, which is a constant source of fascination for me – signets, seal fobs, talismans, antique stones – but I wasn’t interested in developing them into a cohesive collection.

Instead, I wanted to explore them freely, fragmenting, simplifying, or reinterpreting them without worrying too much about the outcome.

The challenge was resisting the urge to control everything or evaluate the work too quickly. I wanted the process to remain intuitive and exploratory, and to leave room for surprise and imperfection. There are pieces in the series that I utterly adore and others that I don't. Part of this practice has been learning to make the work, put it into the world, and worry less about whether I think it’s ‘good enough’. The process itself is the purpose.

Oddly, this feels far more vulnerable than releasing a collection. For the past decade, I’ve been presenting work that has been refined, edited, and developed through a larger design process. These pieces feel closer to the source. They’re less filtered, which makes sharing them feel more personal.

W*: What did you find most challenging in the process?

JHR: Probably learning to let the process lead. When you’re designing for a collection, you’re often thinking about cohesion, production, pricing, customer response, and a hundred other considerations at once. This required a different mindset.

Some of my favourite pieces came from abandoning an original plan and following a small accident or unexpected idea instead. That can be uncomfortable because it means giving up a certain amount of control, which is hard for me. The challenge was trusting that not every piece needed a clear vision in order to be worth making.

jhannahjewelry.com

'What I didn’t want to do was one of those collaborations where it’s just a matter of putting another name on the dial,' says Thibaut Guittard. 'For me a collaboration with an artist really has to make sense. If it’s going to be a piece of art in its own right, it has to be meaningful.'

Guittard, one time marketing manager for Audemars Pigeut in France, is the founder of Alto, launched three years ago and the only brand established to create watches specifically in collaboration with artists. Its first collaborative watch, just launched, is with the French contemporary sculptor Bernar Venet, known for his monumental, mathematically-precise pieces in Cor-Ten steel.

Its point of difference? The one-piece dial of the Art 01 - of which only 10 pieces will be made - comprises a micro-sculpture by Venet. The watches don’t make use of Cor-Ten steel - since the resulting magnetic effect would be detrimental to the performance of the movement - but of bronze, patinated in the same way using a process developed in-house by Alto.

The dial is also just 0.8mm deep, enough to register the shifts in light and darkness that Venet’s design requires - 'it’s also the volume aspect of the dial that makes it interesting,' Guittard argues - while keeping the watch’s weight to a minimum, and leaving enough room for movement and hands without the finished watch being too thick.

'It was technically very challenging, but the appeal to Venet was that work at such a small scale was in many ways a different proposition for him, while we look on art as perhaps the second biggest means of collaborative communication after sport,' says Guittard. 'These watches are likely for art lovers first. But since the art world tends to be about excluding people, a project like this is also a way for watch fans to be brought into the art world, to discover the artist.'

Alto is now lining up his next artist collaboration, but will first launch a smaller, thinner skeletonised watch - its second, in-house, 3D dial design - in September. By then it will also have been joined by other watchmakers launching artist collaborations: in August Ressence, for example, releases a watch designed in collaboration with Belgian artist Jules Wittock, who free-hand draws intricate mazes; follow a line from start to finish and it reveals a word.

The dial of Ressence’s Type 9 watch - in an edition of around 80 - will carry one of Wittock’s drawings, across the brand’s signature orbiting discs time display. Only at midnight will the display align to allow the word, written in Super-luminova, to be read in the dark.

'The fact is that a watch collaboration with an artist is always a more interesting thing than a collaboration with a retailer,' Ressence’s found Benoit Mintiens suggests. 'Working with an artist you invariably get something you wouldn’t think to do as a watchmaker, while the artist gets to work on something they wouldn’t normally do either, to work on a much smaller, moving canvas. The result is something different. Many watch collaborations are commercially-driven now. What you still get with an artist is a philosophical dimension to a new design.'

The meeting of these two minds is not always easy to pull off though, Mintiens stresses, not least when 'super-cool artists' fail to understand how their ideas may not be translatable into the parameters of watchmaking. 'It can’t be made at scale, or it would be way to expensive or, you know, they insist that it’s made out of translucent titanium,' Mintiens laughs. 'It can get a bit weird.'

Working with an artist can be a leap of faith, agrees Lewis Heath, founder of British sister brands Anordain and Paulin - 'you’re often not quite sure if an artist’s ideas will really be any good on a watch until you’re at the sampling stage,' he notes. And yet the results do typically stand out, which, in an increasingly crowded market of new watch releases, can be critical.

Paulin recently released watches in collaboration with the multi-disciplinary Glasgow artist John Nicol on a series of dials each hand-painted by him in a vibrant abstract style. Anordain has even worked with the artist Rachel Duckhouse - best known for her etching - on the look not a new dial, but of a new movement, seen through an exhibition caseback. Its next artist collaboration is already underway.

'The best thing about artist collaborations is that the artists tend not to know untying about watches,' says Heath, 'so their ideas don’t come coloured by what’s already out there.'

The annual Cartier Prize for Watchmaking Talents of Tomorrow, spotlighting the best up-and-coming talent in the watchmaking industry, is a savvy indicator of who will be disrupting the industry in a decade.

For the prize’s 2026 iteration, the watchmaking apprentices and technicians were asked to create a watch inspired by the movements of a pendulum as it swings backwards and forwards, for the theme ‘Shifting the balance: Reading and understanding time differently’.

The students, from Switzerland, France and Belgium, took a non-traditional approach to the topic, with the 12 finalists developing their concepts over three months, supported throughout by their mentors.

The final designs were considered by a jury comprising Roy Davidoff, a specialist in vintage watches and co-founder of Roy & Sacha Davidoff SA; Pascale Lepeu, director of the Cartier Collection; Nathalie Marielloni, curator at the Musée international d'horlogerie; Pascal Ravessoud, vice-president of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie, watchmaking specialist and collector; and Kari Voutilainen, independent watchmaker. They selected six winners – three watchmaking apprentices and three technicians – who will receive a Cartier watch, with the first prize winner in each category also offered an internship with Cartier.

Aymeric Peters from Belgium won first prize in the Apprentice Watchmakers category, with the winning design meditating on suspended time. Joint second prize was awarded to Layla Sluysmans and Edouard Nicod, who considered ideas on slowing down and opposites, respectively.

Arthur Choquet won the first technician’s prize, with a creation that intertwined the importance of architecture throughout. Adam Deroche scooped second place, asking what would happen if time stood still, while Adrien Stefenelli took third prize for unpicking the echo.

For Cartier, the award is an essential part of supporting and mentoring young people in their passions. ‘This award is very significant to Cartier, as the maison has always felt it had a responsibility to inspire vocations and nurture talent in order to pass on its vision of watchmaking and its dedication to craftsmanship,’ says Karim Drici, Cartier chief operating officer. ‘It is exciting to see the passion of these young watchmakers: the competition provides a space for free expression and emotional exchange, where technical expertise, creativity, and innovation meet. ‘

Drici adds: ‘The prize, first launched in 1995 by the Cartier Watchmaking Institute and dedicated to young watchmaking students, is a direct expression of that commitment. It allows us to stand alongside those who want to pursue this career and will shape the watchmaking of tomorrow.

‘Through this prize, we want to give young watchmakers the opportunity to express themselves fully, from design all the way through to creating a timepiece. The goal is not only to showcase their technical skills but also their creativity, because both will define the future of watchmaking. Above all, the prize is about enriching their professional training. Observing these young talents makes us particularly confident for the future. Most are around 18-20 years old – and yet they demonstrate remarkable concentration, commitment, and maturity.’

cartier.com

Among the hundreds of dazzling treasures on show at NGV’s ‘Cartier’ exhibition, Pascale Lepeu would, in an emergency, save the Model A mystery clock first. It’s an horological marvel in which diamond-encrusted hands appear to float inside a crystal block with no visible mechanism. For Lepeu, Cartier Collection director, the 1914 timepiece is of ‘perfect proportions, representing all three dimensions of Cartier: the precious object maker, watchmaker and jeweller combined’.

The clock is restrained by the maison’s usual opulent standards, displayed in the most sober of the themed galleries housing the largest Cartier exhibition ever held in Australia. Designed by Rotterdam-based Sabine Marcelis, principal of her eponymous studio, and Paul Cournet of Cloud, the carpeted spaces lead visitors on a colour-coded arc through the evolution of the nearly 180-year-old maison.

Co-curated with the V&A’s Helen Molesworth, the exhibition builds on the original 2025 London show, with a much larger presentation of nearly 400 jewels and timepieces, deepened by a trove of archival material and an original soundtrack by Ai Yamamoto and Erkki Veltheim. Notably, the brutalist-era NGV allows the exhibits more room to breathe, compared to the 19th-century V&A.

A 27m-long glass mirror, progressing in an ombre from yellow to pink and deep red, greets visitors at the entrance. 'It reflects light and introduces you to the colour palette of what’s to come, embodying how my world and Cartier’s collide,' says Marcelis. It leads to the Manchester tiara, an early example of Cartier’s signature Garland style. Made in 1903 for the Dowager Duchess of Manchester, its 1,500-plus diamonds sparkle as it sits solo under the spotlight.

From there, the exhibition sweeps across decades and continents, charting its innovations through the stories of its patrons and heiresses to fortunes – Daisy Fellowes, Barbara Hutton, Doris Duke – as much as the objects themselves. New for Australian audiences is a collection of early-20th-century pieces commissioned by opera legend Dame Nellie Melba, featuring her beloved turquoise and diamonds alongside Cartier’s pioneering use of platinum.

In a bold yellow room, displays trace the Cartier brothers’ world of inspiration, spanning Egypt, India, China, Japan and Iran. Among many highlights is a necklace commissioned by the Maharaja of Patiala, its 2,930 diamonds anchored by a 234.65ct De Beers yellow diamond – lost after Indian independence and rediscovered in 1998, stripped of its finest stones, which Cartier replaced with replicas.

Next, an emerald cut-like volume distils the Cartier style that came to prominence at the 1925 Paris International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts (its centenary recently honoured). It was when the celebrated Tutti Frutti creations emerged, luscious clusters of carved rubies, sapphires and emeralds made possible by Indian coloured gemstones and artisans. 'It was neither Indian nor Parisian. It simply did not exist before and we made something entirely new,' says Lepeu.

The mood shifts in the Obsession with Stones room. Its glass central volume glows at the edges, making visitors 'feel like you’re inside a gemstone', says Marcelis. Among vintage and modern pieces, like a 2015 bracelet with a 189.345ct Australian black opal, space is dedicated to Jeanne Toussaint, creative director from 1933 to 1970, who elevated the panther motif into an icon. A highlight: a clip brooch owned by the Duchess of Windsor, its platinum and diamond cat resting on a 152.35ct cabochon sapphire. 'To create a jewel with an animal that represents power and independence, that was really new and shocking,' says Lepeu, of an era when women were finding greater freedoms.

A metallic-grey Watches and Clocks room acts as a palate cleanser before the shock of green in the Film and Celebrity room, where Elizabeth Taylor’s Burmese ruby and diamond necklace from third husband Mike Todd sits near outré pieces commissioned by Mexican film star Maria Felix, including articulated snake and crocodile necklaces in diamonds and emeralds that show off Cartier’s technical prowess.

The show culminates in a rotunda housing 24 tiaras, including a pair of turquoise and diamond headpieces worn by sisters Lady Nancy Astor and Lady Phyllis Brand, shown together for the first time in decades, and the 1902 Scroll tiara, worn most recently by Rihanna on the cover of W magazine.

Newer pieces sit beside older ones throughout, and a continuous narrative rooted in culture and innovation emerges. Lepeu calls it Cartier’s vocabulary: ‘a new jewel is a new sentence using our words’, a language that remains spellbinding more than a century on.

‘Cartier’ is on display 12 June to 4 October 2026, at NGV International, Melbourne

ngv.vic.gov.au

In 2001, Richard Mille unveiled the RM 001 Tourbillon prototype at Baselworld, raising the bar in the watch industry. The first RM case was tonneau-shaped, in grade 5 titanium, with an open-worked movement visible on both sides, with a tourbillon. Featuring the world’s first torque indicator in a wristwatch, it introduced a shape we today recognise as the brand’s own. In fact, within an industry obsessed with reviving past glories, it has also inspired today’s rise of independent watchmakers eschewing retro for avant-garde, futurist designs.

With Mille, ergonomics and light wearability goes hand in hand with technology, and is always at the forefront of Mille’s output. The architecture of the RM 001 bridges and baseplate appeared to be drawn explicitly from Formula One suspension geometry. Nothing else on any stand that year looked remotely like it, and Mille followed with the 2002 RM 002 Tourbillon, the serial production model of the RM 001 as a 25-piece limited release featuring the world’s first nanofibre baseplate.

Twenty-five years is long enough to establish a brand, and long enough to see whether the founding premise can keep collectors’ attention. For Richard Mille, it did - in the face of changing tastes and tastemakers, Richard Mille seems to inhabit a separate sphere of collectability. With extremely high prices, demand is still outstripping supply. The RM 001 treated the wristwatch as an engineering project first, and with every subsequent reference, Richard Mille’s team has pushed that logic into new territory, with a materials list that reads like an aerospace procurement order: Carbon TPT, Quartz TPT, grade 5 titanium and lithium-aluminium alloy. The brand was also one of the first to endeavour to machine a clear sapphire crystal into a structural watch case.

The brand sensibility is consistent whether the brief originates in a tennis court, a dive bell or a couture atelier, but sport gave the brand its most recognisable chapter, with the RM 006 Tourbillon Felipe Massa opening the doors. This was the first RM model to bear the name of a brand partner, and capable of resisting the G-forces of F1 racetrack conditions. Brand ambassadors, partners in RM speak, is not a new concept, but for Richard Mille the wrists of F1 drivers and top athletes became de facto product test benches. The RM 027, developed for Nadal became a definitive statement of that collaboration: a tourbillon that withstood the centrifugal loading of a world-class serve, with an otherworldy case featuring a Carbon TPT unibody baseplate and watch case. This supported grade 5 titanium bridgework, framed by a bezel and case back machined from organic layers of Quartz TPT® and Carbon TPT®, entirely outside the vocabulary of traditional haute horlogerie. The engineering required to achieve it was akin to motorsport component development, but in miniature.

The RM 025 series was the first big lateral move of the brand, adopting a new, DNA-proofed visual language that offers a more circular take on Mille’s vision. Tough dive watches, still sometimes featuring precious metal, and extending Mille’s design philosophy into a deep blue-green world where pressure and darkness replace the heat and vibration of a tennis rally. We all know that most collectors will not take a supercar-priced wristwatch with them cave diving in Mexico, but with a case built to withstand operational conditions at hundreds of meters below the surface, it might still inspire you.

Richard Mille is to many defined by its connection to sport and motor racing, but the surprising chic of the Bonbon collection was a deliberately bright, unashamedly decorative counterpoint. Appealing to both a female and male audience, it offered something fresh, eschewing the idea that technical seriousness required an industrial, often monochrome vibe. In addition to the Bonbon collection, Richard Mille has a strong history of gem-set complexities like the RM 19-02 Tourbillon Fleur, a creation that underlines a solid following within the world of high jewellery and fashion. In this environ, Richard Mille doesn’t compete with other watches, but with couture and gemstones, the creations like the RM 19-02 and the fresh Bonbon pieces function as both product and manifesto for the brand, the latter also unashamedly fun.

At twenty-five, the brand has no 20th-century historical archive to mine or heritage complication to reissue, as Richard Mille and his team look ever forward.

Which makes the latest lithe, manual wind RM 55-01 a fitting place to close. Worn by athletes, including the multi-hyphenate cyclist Mathieu van der Poel, the latest of a long line of partners that’ll put Richard Mille’s wristwear to the toughest of tests. The superlight watch is monochrome and skeletal, the grey version featuring pops of pink, and sits at the intersection of sport, material innovation and open-worked spectacle that has always characterised Richard Mille’s ethos. It is technical, specific, it is recognisable from fifty metres, and takes itself only as seriously as the moment demands. Twenty-five years in, that remains the sharpest summary of the proposition of a watch brand set apart.

richardmille.com

For Sarabande Foundation alumni Martina Kocianova, jewellery is an extension of her passions, and luckily mushroom foraging lends itself well to offbeat and eclectic jewellery pieces.

Kocianova, who grew up in Slovakia, spent her childhood mushroom foraging with her mother. Upon moving to London, she studied at Central Saint Martins before getting into the Sarabande artists programme, which offered her a studio and a raft of new opportunities. ‘I could properly focus on developing my skills and craft and I got much better at stone setting and carving,’ Kocianova says. ‘I built my first commercially successful collection - the peak, though, was Sarah Burton buying a bunch of my jewellery pieces.’

Considering her new collection, it felt natural for Kocianova to draw on her culture and background, epitomised by the mushroom. ‘When I was at Central Saint Martins, I was really trying to find my voice as a designer, and I realised mushrooms are very specific to my experience. They also really connect to being Eastern European, because it’s something so many families do there – it’s part of how you grow up.

‘Once I started researching mushrooms more, I got quite obsessed with how mycelium connects nature together. I started experimenting with mycelium and thinking about mushrooms not just visually, but also conceptually.’

Kocianova’s mushrooms are crafted in gold and set with materials including emerald, jade, red jasper and rainbow moonstone. Each piece corresponds to a star sign, another of her interests. Each is customisable based on Sun, Moon, and Rising, with each mushroom shaped and set using the corresponding stones.

‘As my jewellery resonated with people, I realised mushrooms are actually perfect talismans,’ she adds. ‘They naturally carry ideas of luck, magic and transformation. It just became the symbol of my work. Now people come to me specifically for mushrooms, sometimes even asking me to carve them from their own crystals, which makes it really personal. My aim is quite simple - I just want to be the one people think of when they want a mushroom heirloom. And I’m always trying to find more of those mushroom people.’

martinakocianova.com

Zenith’s new Chronomaster Revival A384 Tropical is aptly named: it comes with an El Primero 400 calibre true to the watch design’s 1969 origins. But the most striking thing about the A384 is its dial: a distinctive, washed-out shade of brown, a PVD coating having been applied to make it look aged, or ‘tropical’.

That’s an effect more typically found on a vintage watch whose dial has been subject to intense heat and humidity over many years. It’s just one of the many fading effects – along with the likes of a ‘ghost' bezel, in which the numbers have disappeared over time – beloved by many vintage watch collectors and for which they will pay handsomely, if they can find it.

'And it’s very hard to find a tropical dial with a homogeneously even fade,' says Romain Marietta, chief product officer of Zenith, which has a second tropical dial model in the pipeline. 'Of all the tropical dials we’ve had in to sell through our vintage programme, we’ve only seen one like that. Is it pretending that the watch is aged? Sure. But it’s not cheating. It’s the flavour of a watch 50 years old without having to wait for it.'

Indeed, if the idea of treating a new dial to make it look old is not a new one º many watch brands have used a yellow/ivory lume paint, for example, this fading from the original white being another indicator of ageing – Zenith too is not the only brand to push this more distinctive tropical effect. Panerai and Tudor, for example, the latter with the new Monarch, have opted for patinated-effect, sepia-tinged dials, while Movado has tropicalised the dial of its latest Field Watch. Nivada Grenchen, which first explored the idea with its Chronomaster, has applied it to its Super Antarctic model.

A tropical effect only works with a model that has a vintage aesthetic – it looks wrong on models that are too modern, argues Guillaume Laidet, chief brand officer for Nivada Grenchen, which introduced its tropical dials precisely to make the look more affordable relative to ‘the real thing’. 'It’s perhaps akin to the jeans market - some people want to buy new and wear them in over time, and others want to have the character that comes with fading and distressing from the start.'

Since even Nivada’s artificially aged dials have to go through a complex and secretive though imprecise method of chemical washes - 'in a machine something like a dishwasher,' says Laidet - even these offer what the naturally-aged ones do: uniqueness. 'You need a repeatable process to develop these dials but it’s one with a lot of wastage - which makes the resulting watches more expensive - and you still end up with each one being slightly different,' he says.

Indeed, while watches in the vintage market increasingly see faked tropical dials - such is the difference in price, around two to three times, that a tropical dial commands - some might balk at the idea of a new watch similarly being given a vintage effect in this way. Isn’t it a challenge to notions of authenticity?

But David Silver, owner of specialist Rolex dealer The Vintage Watch Company, argues that not only is the effect broadly appealing for its warmth and character, but that it will only further enhance the appeal of genuinely tropical pieces. 'There are many people who are into the effect on vintage watches and less into the price,' he says. 'It’s a certain customer that wants to pay for [an authentic] tropical dial - for its distinction, rarity and colour.'

There’s another reason why brands might be tempted to artificially ‘distress’ a dial for this aged effect. Genuine tropical dials are, Silver reckons, set to become increasingly rare over the longer term. Rolex, for example, will recommend a tropical dial be replaced if a watch is sent to it for servicing: it is, after all, a repairable ‘fault’ that has come about through wear and tear.

'And it’s only a matter of time before such signs of aging in a watch are probably lost,' Silver explains. 'You can be sure that in time a company the likes of Rolex - which hates the faded world, and for which it’s all about preserving or enhancing the functionality of the watch - will engineer out the patination process, by using materials that will better fix the colour. That will take the charm out of the aging process.'

For Venezuelan-born, Texas-based Susana Vega, jewellery design is a continuation of the craft she witnessed in childhood. Growing up, her family’s goldsmith workshop shaped a sensual approach to design, resulting in an appreciation of materials and imperfect forms.

Moving to Houston cemented this feeling, Vega says. ‘After leaving Venezuela, design took on a much deeper meaning for me. It’s not the same to be inspired by the nature and women of your country when you’re no longer there, and when you don’t know when you’ll return. There’s a profound sense of nostalgia behind my collections, an amplified love for the places I knew, and a longing for the ones I didn’t get to experience. Even if my collections don’t explicitly reference Venezuela by name, the feeling is always there.’

It is a philosophy encapsulated in the new collection, Soto, composed of hand-crafted wooden jewellery. ‘I wanted to respect the material by keeping the forms simple, timeless, yet sculptural; creating the feeling of a small, wearable work of art,’ adds Vega. ‘This collection was a huge learning experience. I loved discovering how noble wood is; how it allows itself to be shaped, sanded, and polished, how something so raw can be transformed by hand into something refined and beautiful.’

Handcrafted in Guatemala by artisans, the jewellery celebrates the natural character of the wood, keeping the small variations in grain and form, which ensures no two pieces are alike. Its distinct character encouraged Vega to design in a new way, removing, carving and sculpting the material rather than adding to it, and embracing simpler, more organic forms. ‘Understanding that shift, and designing within the virtues and limitations of the material, was both the challenge and the beauty of the process.’

Throughout, Vega pays special attention to a sense of proportion and the golden ratio, which dictates a harmony in design. She adds: ‘Nothing is accidental; everything you see has been carefully thought through to feel balanced, beautiful, and intriguing.’

susanavegajewelry.com

‘While my jewellery is often considered minimalist in style, this is not my intention when designing,’ says Yuta Ishihara, founder of Tokyo-based jewellery brand, Shihara. ‘My work is guided by an interest in reconstructing and refining essential functions. I find that beautiful designs are not always easy to use, and conversely, designs that are easy to use or familiar are not necessarily beautiful.’

Ishihara is seeking that harmonious balance between form and function which defines his clean and conceptual jewellery design. Encompassing long, fluid lines in 18k gold, platinum and diamonds, Shihara’s jewellery is fuss-free, eschewing fastenings and locks and focusing instead on pure silhouettes.

In the new Node series, Ishihara translates the fastening into a decorative element in its own right, with the wearer invited to choose their own ball chains and fastenings, crafted in gold or with mini Akoya pearls, separately. ‘These elements can be combined in various ways, such as attaching a necklace-length or bracelet-length chain to earring fastenings, or combining multiple fastenings with a single chain,’ Ishihara explains. ‘This approach gives the wearer the freedom to customise how they wear each piece, making the jewellery uniquely their own.’

The jewellery may look precise and sharply-cut, but is all made by hand using specialised tools and machinery, and maintaining identical dimensions is challenging. ‘At the same time, discovering new and inventive ways to reimagine function is something I truly enjoy,’ Ishihara adds. ‘It is especially rewarding to see customers interact with the jewellery and appreciate how Shihara introduces new ways of wearing it.’

Shihara is available at Dover Street Market, London

doverstreetmarket.com

TAG Heuer’s Monaco is one of those instantly recognisable profiles that means even quite bold variations sit behind the basic shape – a glance at distance is enough to identify it even in moody black DLC or white ceramic. And with that ID, TAG Heuer’s motorsport heritage jumps to mind – that movie still of Steve McQueen in striped racing overall in particular. What colour the dial is, or whether it is a chronograph, or what side the crown sits, almost always comes a distant second to that shape.

I’m not sure if the new Monaco Speed 12 (launched to coincide with the Monaco Grand Prix) will quite break that rule, but it’s undoubtedly the most striking variation yet. While the titanium case is standard, it’s what is within that catches the eye. The result of collaboration with one of the most creative forces in contemporary watchmaking, La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, the Speed 12 is automotive emotion in miniature, its Spin Time based TH84-00 movement taking on the guise of a 12-cylinder rotary engine - if you can imagine such a thing.

TAG Heuer has quite a history with out-there movement designs. The only other Monaco to look like something else is the belt-driven V4 concept from the early 2000s, and the Speed 12 sits well with that history, though as a 50 watch limited edition this definitely not a concept watch.

The movement is a motorsport take on Louis Vuitton’s signature movement, with each hour ‘piston’ (finished contrasting sand-blasted and polished treatments) spinning in turn to reveal the hour number as the minute hand hits the 12 o’clock position. The centre of the dial is dominated by the grooved engine block that carries the Monaco and TAG Heuer badges, while the red-tipped minute hand and track recall classic dashboard dials, all very Grand Prix appropriate.

tagheuer.com

London jeweller Lucy Delius is bringing a gothic edge to pearls with a new collection which strings oversized black baroque pearls onto knotted silk. Available at Dover Street Market (DSM), the collection marks a step into the theatrical for Delius, who launched her brand four years ago. ‘I wanted to create a bigger, bolder silhouette than I've typically been able to do in gold,’ she says. ‘Something that felt a bit more playful. The idea of these misshapen, inky molten pearls just really spoke to me. It's been amazing to work with a different material. These still carry the wearability that has become synonymous with my brand.’

The offbeat style is a natural fit for DSM. ‘Lucy’s jewellery works so well because it feels considered but never overcomplicated,’ says the store’s director of jewellery, Mimi Hoppen. ‘There is a balance between instinct and intention that sits very comfortably within the way we approach curation.’

Ultimately, this is jewellery made to be worn. Adds Hoppen: There is a real sensitivity and consideration around how the jewellery sits on the body and works with other pieces, but is still strong enough in its designs to be worn on its own.'

lucydelius.co, doverstreetmarket.com

This article appears in the July 2026 Issue of Wallpaper*, available from 4 June in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Claude Monet, as the father of Impressionism, was obsessed with light, believing that it transformed the essence of colour as day progressed into night. He painted the same scenes in the French countryside multiple times a day, capturing their transformation and a century on from his study of how ‘envelopes’ of light and air changed our view of the world, an exhibition touching on his legacy will begin in Paris at L’ École School of Jewelry Arts dedicated to American artist Daniel Brush entitled The Art of Light and Line.

Seventy-five of Brush’s paintings, standalone and wearable sculptures will be presented, some of which have never left his New York studio in a body of work that both contemplates and celebrates the freedom of light and movement that Monet articulated in his own work. The exhibition is curated by Olivia Brush, Daniel’s lifelong muse, partner and collaborator and the writer and historian Vivienne Becker, inviting visitors to experience Brush’s vision in a symphony of materials including pure gold, steel, plastic, resin, ink, diamonds and canvas.

Daniel passed away in 2022 and during his career, he rejected the idea that art should be segmented to make it more understandable, denouncing the hierarchy that polarises fine and decorative art. 'This is not easy work,' says Olivia Brush. 'It is important for people to see and understand that an artist does not need to be bound, branded or categorised.' Key works in the exhibition are Maze, a handheld object paying homage to the Byzantine Mosaics of antiquity, Ménagerie Magnétique a selection of animals realised in Bakelite plastic created to be worn via magnets on clothing and Thinking about Monet, a compilation of hand-engraved steel sculptures created between 2015-2020 where light reflects in a dawn to dust cacophony of pinks, oranges and purples.

'Brush’s work is deeply rooted in the past and traditions yet helps us understand our contemporary world through the prism of perfection and contemplation,' notes Lise Macdonald, President of L’ École. An impressive book accompanies the show written by Olivia Brush and Becker with photographs by Carly Leigh Lapidus of his studio in different seasons, different lights and at different times of the day – as Monet might have appreciated it. Intimate portrayals of the work itself are photographed by Benjamin Chelly.

Established in 2012, L’ École with the support of Van Cleef & Arpels, to expand education around the jewellery arts, yet the relationship between Brush and the brand goes back further to the 1980’s when Philippe Arpels began collecting his paintings. In 2012 before an exhibition Brush had at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, President and CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels, Nicolas Bos, visited Brush’s studio and from there, exhibitions in Paris, New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo followed. A synergy emerged which celebrated Brush’s singular boundary-pushing talent and which amplifies his voice today. Olivia Brush is philosophical. 'Daniel always felt he was writing visual poems – his mind, his voice, his breathing, his heartbeat. There were never any designs or pre-thinking. Never limitations.'

Daniel Brush – The Art of Light and Line runs from June 8^th – October 4^th, 2026, at L’ École School of Jewelry Arts

Bertrand Meylan, co-CEO of H Moser & Cie, concedes that initially the idea seemed like a crazy one. ‘We were contacted back in 2023 by a guy who had been in contact with Authentic Brands Group [which acquired Reebok in 2022], one of whose owners was into watches and wanted to do a collaboration,’ he recalls. ‘We just ignored that at first. I mean, what were they thinking of? But then we started to think about it…’

More specifically, Meylan started to think back 30 years or so to when one of his favourite pairs of trainers were his Reebok Pumps. And, as much as a collaboration between a high-end Swiss maker of avant-garde watches and a British-cum-American sneaker company – and not even one of the big two at that – seemed counter-intuitive, Meylan laughs that he 'started to feel nostalgic, and so started to think about some kind of angle that made any sense'.

The Pump, as Meylan stresses, was 'an iconic product'. Indeed, it was likely Reebok’s most groundbreaking design, allowing wearers to use a toy-like, half-basketball-shaped button on the tongue to hand-pump air into chambers inside the shoe, thus providing each foot (since no two are alike) with a more snug, custom fit. There was a button on the heel that worked as a release valve.

The idea was borrowed from a mechanism designed for a Raichle ski boot and then developed by Ellesse, which Reebok acquired in 1988. Several concepts were advanced, including a self-inflating model (later rejected for being too complicated, requiring the use of pressurised air canisters) and the successful hand-inflated one – based around a system co-designed with a medical device manufacturer that was expert in the making of inflatable blood pressure cuffs.

After some tweaks to the aesthetic (the first version was pretty ugly) and to manufacturing (thanks to a sewing error, half of the first production batch wouldn’t inflate), the Pump would launch to great fanfare, the most expensive sneaker yet commercially produced. By the end of 1990, it was calculated that, if the Reebok Pump alone was an athletic shoe brand, it would be the world’s fourth largest.

But how to translate the idea of an inflatable trainer to a watch? H. Moser & Cie initially considered something akin to an inflatable strap, but this struck the company as gimmicky. Instead, it took 18 months of R&D to adapt its automatic HMC 500 small seconds movement to come up with a way of using an anodised aluminium pusher – in orange, as was the inflator on Reebok Pumps – to ‘pump’ the watch’s winding mechanism. Each press of the pusher on the Streamliner Pump – as the watch has been named – transmits the energy to the barrel spring and activates a power reserve indicator.

'I’ve been wearing one for a while now and have to say that pumping it become habitual,' says Meylan – he compares it to a fidget toy. 'That’s important for a manual wind watch anyway, but we were also careful to design a movement that couldn’t be overwound. You can keep pushing the pusher even when the mechanism is fully wound. And you get used to pressing it when you’re a bit bored. That said, it is a more natural gesture to power a watch in the way that a conventional winding crown isn’t. Funnily enough, I remember playing with the pump button on my shoes all the time too.'

Meylan can revisit that feeling too: each of the Streamliner Pump watches – available in an edition 250 in matte black and 250 in white forged quartz fibre casing – comes with a matching, special edition, low-top pair of Reebok Pumps (Reebok has over-produced so customers should be able to get their right size, with any remaining pairs going to Moser staff and friends – and maybe ultimately into the hands of sneaker collectors).

The pump-action winding mechanism is both a curiosity and a delight. 'But I think that without the Reebok collaboration it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as cool as it is,' Meylan enthuses. 'The fact is that luxury [as much of the Swiss watch industry defines itself] doesn’t have to mean pretentious. And it’s important to remind ourselves of that.'

h-moser.com

For the director of Cartier high jewellery creation, Jacqueline Karache-Langane, the story of a piece begins with the stone. It is a philosophy that guides the new high jewellery collection, ‘Le Chœur des Pierres’, which unites gems, from intensely coloured Colombian emeralds, to uniquely shaped diamonds and weighty topazes.

The series is named after a play on words – chœur can mean a chorus of voices or, without the ‘h’, as cœur, refer to the heart – which reflects the multi-faceted nature of the jewellery itself. Necklaces and rings showcase the singular nature of the stones while also incorporating sculptural swirls of precious metals and vividly coloured materials.

The collection encompasses more than 125 pieces, requiring more than 85,000 hours of work. Familiar Cartier motifs are interspersed throughout, from the geometric structure of a row of diamond-studded pendants in the Olorra necklace to the Tutti Kanya necklace, an interpretation of the classic Tutti Frutti style, with an exceptional 30.33ct engraved Zambian emerald at its heart. In the Haryma necklace, a jewelled tiger skulks over five imperial topazes.

Classical motifs and stones, too, are given an avant-garde spin, demonstrated in the fluid lines of the Tellura necklace, where the unique shapes of 30 diamonds lead a design that appears to tremble on the neck of the wearer. In the Specula ring, triangular diamonds are paired with onyx for a modern take on the Toi & Moi style, while elsewhere, rare cognac-coloured diamonds sink into rings lined with brown diamond cabochons.

‘Each gemstone is an encounter, an alchemy that resonates with our vision and our quest for the Cartier ideal,’ says Karache-Langane. ‘The creation serves the stone, revealing its nuances, its brilliance, its sparkle and its inner vibration.’

cartier.com

Italian jewellery designer Francesca Villa brings a playful eclecticism to fine jewellery, drawing from vintage design elements and offbeat materials for a distinctive style. While in the past, Villa has reinterpreted heritage pieces, putting a spin on traditional cameos and emblazoning bespoke pet portraits onto gold rings. Now, she is setting her sights on the open road.

The On the Road capsule collection, inspired by the discovery of a vintage set of truck-shaped pins, translates the truck into brooches and pendants, cast in yellow gold and studded with precious stones. ‘The theme of travel has always been at the heart of my work,’ says Villa.

‘Here, travel is closely tied to the miles travelled, the encounters along the way, and the ever-changing landscapes experienced throughout the journey. When pop culture and jewellery meet, something unexpected happens. The former brings a sense of nostalgia and cultural memory, while high jewellery techniques transform them into lasting objects, giving new meaning and permanence to images that are often fleeting.’

francescavilla.it

This article appears in the June 2026 Travel Issue of Wallpaper*, available from 7 May in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Following 2024's AP x KAWS Royal Oak Concept watch release, Audemars Piguet has announced a new collaboration with the founders of Tokyo-based streetwear and jewellery brand Ambush, Yoon Ahn and Verbal. The sublime engineering of this 38.55 mm version features the 72-hour Calibre 2982 and a flying tourbillon framed in red, limited to 150 pieces.

Born in 2002 as Audemars Piguet's experimental laboratory, the Royal Oak Concept has always existed outside convention. The Concept, with its angular case form, is a forward-leaning counterpoint to Gerald Genta's original, classical geometry. For its latest chapter, Audemars Piguet has collaborated with Yoon Ahn and Verbal on a technically accomplished watch, with a semi-skeletonised, architecturally layered dial and tourbillon at six o’clock.

A pop of red in the tourbillon cage is the only point of colour in the monochrome design, a signature hue of the Tokyo duo. 'Red has always been a powerful colour for us,' says Verbal, adding, 'while the tourbillon cage represents the heart of the watch, the force that keeps everything in motion. Red evokes the Earth’s core: the origin point, the source of energy and, ultimately, the beginning of how we measure time itself.'

The dial, revealing the inner workings of the Calibre 2892, sparkles in a polished black aventurine, a rare colour in this type of glass, with its metal fragments creating a delicate glitter from the smallest sliver of light.

Compared to previous incarnations of the Concept collection, this smaller size made its debut in 2024. With its fiercely faceted titanium case, it is strong despite its everyday, wearable size. Fans of the brand will recognise the crown and bolted-down bezel as timeless family traits, this time embellished on a slim 11.4mm matte titanium main case, which is fitted with an interchangeable black rubber strap.

The Royal Oak Flying Tourbillon is a key part of Audemars Piguet CEO Ilaria Resta's refresh at the company, since she took on the role at the start of 2024. Like the standard-bearing Genta creation that is its forebear, it sets the standard for continuing collaborations in art, fashion and design.

audemarspiguet.com

In the watch industry the more typical collaboration is with the worlds of Formula One, yachting, tennis or golf, highly regarded for their technical accomplishment or, as is often the case, for their monied, elitist image. So perhaps it’s no wonder that one of Tissot’s latest models stands out for being tied to cycling: its Pinarello Special Edition has been developed in conjunction with the Italian racing bicycle-maker of the same name.

There are crossovers between the two brands: the watch is made from the same forged carbon used by Pinarello for its frames, for example. There are more poetic nods too: the unusual and distinctive 10 o’clock crown position echoes Pinarello’s signature aerodynamic Fork Flap fin design, the seconds hand uses the same blue paint as Pinarello bikes, while the grainy grey dial is a reminder of the tarmac with which riders normally don’t wish to get too well acquainted.

But, regardless, Sylvain Dolla, Tissot’s CEO, argues that the cycling world is one that has been largely overlooked by watchmakers. 'There are two billion people who cycle, so if you [connect with] just a fraction of that, that’s a good target group to be in,' he laughs. 'Cycling is clearly a sport that’s been developing very well over recent years and has a broad reach. But it’s also a sport in which [as with some watchmaking] engineering performance is extreme and technical accomplishment is impressive.'

Authenticity helps too, of course. Tissot, which has been rewarding winning cyclists with a celebratory watch since the 1960s, is the official timekeeper of the timekeeping nightmare that is the Tour de France - it will release a special edition watch to mark this relationship in June. T must provide and manage the equipment that, as happened in a 2017 photo finish, can separate two riders by just 3/10,000th of a second.

Tissot has also been official timekeeper of the Giro D’Italia, these duties passing to Tudor in 2023 – last year the brand, which sponsors a pro cycling team, launched a limited edition chronograph with pink detailing, in homage to the winner of the Italian road race earning the distinction of wearing the maglia rosa, or the pink jersey. Breitling also sponsors a cycling team, as does Richard Mille, with both brands supplying riders with one of their off-the-shelf models.

Indeed, that the association between watches and cycling remains tentative may be down to the fact that, unlike chronometers and Formula One, or regatta watches and race sailing, there’s no clear functional use for a watch in cycling, for all that it would prove a tough testing ground for lightness, durability and so on. Not all riders wear a high-end watch, and those that do tend to be due to sponsorship deals. As Dolla jokes, 'I’m into boxing and I’m not sure we can come up with watch for that either.'

But perhaps the tide is slowly turning, though with the emphasis on cycling’s second string as a conduit for lifestyle rather than its competition or technical achievements - as Bremont identified through its MBIII watch collaboration with cycling-meets-style brand Rapha in 2022. “A lot of the appeal of cycling is in the aesthetics,” argues Giovanni Moro, co-founder of Unimatic, which has a special edition tool watch - with its proprietary shock resistant quartz movement in its first titanium case - designed in collaboration with ‘cool’ Australian cycling apparel company MAPP. It’s MAPP’s first watch.

'There are synergies between watches and cycling - they both face the technical challenge of making what is essentially a very simple object, and to that end there’s the exploration of manufacturing techniques, exploring new materials and so on,' he adds. 'But as a brand MAPP is also very fashion and lifestyle-oriented with its products. Stylistically it’s important that someone could like the watch and the MAPP aesthetic regardless of their appreciation for the brand or for cycling. I’m not particularly into cycling but appreciate the prestige around [elements of that world].'

Indeed, Unimatic is now in discussions regarding a collaboration watch with an Italian bicycle brand. While Moro can’t name it at this stage, he notes how racing bicycles, like watches, can be luxury objects too. He wouldn’t want to ride one of this brand’s bikes, he says, but he’d love one to hang on his office wall.

‘I always knew one day I wanted to create a collection inspired by games, connecting Chanel and the watch world,’ says Arnaud Chastaingt, director of Chanel’s watch creation studio. ‘Chess is a traditional game, and there is a connection with the graphic world of Chanel – in the duality of the black and white, and also the fact that the objects are very essential. There’s no ornamentation. It’s like when you have a domino on the table, you quickly understand how to use it. There’s a minimalist simplification and functionality.’

The French house’s one-of-a-kind chess set draws on its high jewellery and watchmaking acumen, crafting a ceramic chessboard, in deep black and pearly white, that was two years in the making. It is populated with a cast of sculpted 18k white gold figures studded with diamonds, all familiar characters in Chanel’s universe. And how does it tell the time? In the base of the figure of the queen – represented, naturally, by Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel – is concealed a clock. A loop on the top means that she can also be hung on a white gold chain set with diamonds and onyx, which is secreted away in the chessboard drawer. In a neatly playful twist, the winner can, quite literally, wear time.

‘This chessboard is a metaphor for Chanel time,’ Chastaingt adds. ‘I played chess when I was young, and I think it helped to develop my imagination. For me, chess is like a little theatre. You play and you understand the power of the different elements. It offers you the opportunity to reflect. There are different actors, and they all have a different power.’

We recognise the actors here – Gabrielle Chanel’s favourite motifs, which often pop up across watches and jewellery. The king is a lion, the knight is Chanel’s distinctive quilted motif, the bishop a couture bust and the rook the Vendôme column, which stands outside Chanel’s Paris boutique. Each piece epitomises a sharp goldsmithing ability, and is shaped using the traditional lost-wax casting technique from bespoke moulds before being sandblasted, polished, rhodium-plated and set with diamonds

‘It is interesting for me that the spirit of Gabrielle Chanel is a guardian of time here,’ says Chastaingt. ‘You play chess, discover a watch under the queen, and the winner can wear her. The story doesn’t finish at the end of the game. In all nice stories, you have a secret.'

chanel.com

This article appears in the June 2026 Issue of Wallpaper*, available from 7 May in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Watch out, Carnaby Street! In March 2022, Swatch’s first collaboration with Omega, the MoonSwatch, saw police called to restore order after Swatch’s Carnaby Street, London store was mobbed on opening. The ‘Bioceramic’ Swatch version of Omega’s Speedmaster, powered by a robot-built Sistem51 automatic movement, was an instant sell-out globally.

Some two million examples have been sold since, and the collaboration was followed up by a partnership with Blancpain. The Scuba Fifty Fathoms, released the following year, was a slower-burning success. Both watches have proved fun to wear – Swatch exudes horological credibility without being too serious.

So when Swatch started to tease a new collaboration on Instagram and TikTok just over a week ago, and the typography was unmistakably Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, interest was more than piqued. The word ‘Pop’ (the oversized Swatch from the 1980s that you could pop into different straps) in the teaser had most people assuming some version of the Royal Oak Overseas, and possibly a pocket watch element. They were half right.

Going on sale on 16 May 2026, the Royal Pop is a sideways advance on the previous collaborations – this is not a plastic Royal Oak. It’s inspired by Genta’s design language for the Royal Oak but is not a copy, bringing it to younger generations in a surprising format, the world of charms and wearable accessories, 'a complete new way to wear time' as Swatch put it.

Royal Pop is a transformable pocket watch that can be worn around the neck, clipped onto bags, displayed as a desk clock (Swatch will offer desk stands) or carried in your pocket. Notably there are no wrist straps on sale as yet, though anyone with access to a 3D printer can create their own instantly.

The design cues are unmistakably Royal Oak, from the octagonal bezel and screws to the geometric Petite Tapisserie pattern on the dial and the typography. The execution, however, is all Swatch, in terms of bright colours and cutesy multilingual names for the eight variations. Six are time-only, and two have a small-seconds subdial. They also vary by crown (the time-only designs are Lépine-style, with the crown at 12, and the small-seconds are Savonette, with the crown at 3).

The format means that automatic winding is less useful, so Swatch has gone for a hand-wound version of Sistem51, with the state of wind being visible through openings in the spring barrel on the reverse – if you can see the grey spring coils, it’s time to wind.

The clever thing is that the watches work as designs in themselves. They are a way of bringing new audiences to watchmaking (always the point of Swatch), all without detracting from the Royal Oak’s status as a grail watch.

Royal Pop prices are £335 for the time-only models and £350 for the small seconds versions. Launching from selected swatch stores on 16 May and available to pre-order at swatch.com

Guy Blaskey concedes that not everyone thought the name he gave his watch brand – Detrash, which launched in 2024 in Dorset, UK – was a good idea. 'I’d get a lot of hate online: Why do you put ‘trash’ on the dial?”’ he recalls. 'But I wanted to wear the brand’s commitment to sustainability on its sleeve, and to spark conversations about it.'

Indeed, Gotham’s Vigilante 2, the new model from Detrash, comes with a case made of 80 per cent recycled steel (as high a percentage as is possible for surgical-grade steel at present) and a strap made from recycled ocean plastics, swappable with another made from beer waste. A percentage of each sale goes to environmental charities. Detrash is now planning a dial made from Surfite, an upcycled material made from hardened layers of resin by-product from surfboard manufacturing.

'The demography of the watch customer is, broadly, getting older, and if the industry is to attract younger people, it has to care about sustainability,' says Blaskey, previously an entrepreneur in the FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) market. 'That’s more interesting to a lot of consumers than, say, its power reserve. In fact, I think it’s offensive that so many watches are so expensive and not more sustainable.'

Certainly, while some brands at the higher end of the market have dabbled with sustainable materials – Panerai, Oris, Chopard, Ulysee Nardin, among others – Blaskey argues that in watches, the sustainability drive tends to be at the more affordable end: Detrash watches retail for under £400. Yet Gotham’s Vigilante 2 also comes with a Japanese automatic movement, sapphire crystal glass, a ceramic bezel and 200m of water-resistance.

Likewise, the spec of California-based watch brand The Sacred Crafts’ Adam Greener diver – with a bronze case made from reclaimed boat propellers and a dial in a proprietary ‘Seaglass’ material made using recycled fishing nets – also has a 300ATM water-resistance (equivalent to the pressure at a depth of 3,000m), an ETA automatic movement and a 42-hour power reserve. The challenge, says The Sacred Crafts’ founder Matt Harkins, is ‘what can be done in this [sustainable] way without losing the aesthetics that collectors are looking for in a watch’.

The spec is critical, explains Zacharias Dahl, CEO of Swedish sustainable watch brand Triwa (a contraction of ‘Transforming the Industry of Watches’), which has recently launched its £215 Koster GMT model with a dial handmade from recycled plastic composite, but also with an automatic movement, 20ATM water-resistance, and so on. Sustainable watches have to offer a much higher spec [for the price], in part, says Dahl, because of assumptions about sustainable materials.

'The more luxury end of watchmaking still tends to be driven by brand status, and status doesn’t yet align with sustainable materials,' Dahl suggests. 'Possibly, that business model is too ingrained [to depart from traditional materials]. But new brands have to find a clear angle to drive growth – and increasingly that’s sustainability. Our customers are turning to sustainable watches as a form of rebellion [against watch industry norms].'

According to Stephane Waser, CEO of prestige brand Maurice Lacroix – which caused a stir by launching its Aikon Tide watch, made from plastic bottles recovered from the seas – the broader industry is moving towards sustainable materials, if maybe not being sufficiently vocal about it. 'There’s a certain image to plastic, yet carbon fibre is seen as a technical performance material, so often [it’s] a question of how materials are packaged,' he says. He cites a shift from animal-derived straps to rubber ones, from mined diamonds to lab-grown ones.

'The industry is already doing a lot towards sustainability, but doesn’t speak much about it, perhaps because it doesn’t seem to support sales,' Waser adds. 'In the end, the industry has to satisfy customer needs. And the question is, who do you want to speak to? It’s younger generations who are paying attention to [ecological impact].’

Perhaps that’s why it’s not only more affordable brands, but also younger brands that are building a track record in foregrounding sustainability, including in the more prestige market. Late in 2025, ID Genève, for example – which was founded in 2020 and put on firmer financial footing in 2023, thanks to a CHF2m (£1.9m) buy-in from investors including Leonardo DiCaprio – launched its Circular S Eclipse. Its case is made from 100 per cent reprocessed, low-carbon stainless steel – made using a solar furnace to melt down surplus steel scraps. The strap is made from recycled grape residue from a Châteauneuf-du-Pape estate. It’s also a £4,000-plus watch, with others in the brand’s collection priced at £8000-plus.

'Many of the more established luxury watch brands were born into another context, but we were launched just a few years ago and had to deal with the reality of that time – which is much more mindful of sustainability,' says ID Genève’s CEO Nicolas Freudiger. 'People still often assume there’s some trade-off on quality in sustainable materials, [so] right now it’s a question of speaking to a more avant-garde customer. But in time, the sustainability narrative will become [the most important one] for the luxury industry.'

detrash.com

'The connection I have with pearls keeps changing,' Melanie Georgacopoulos shares as she prepares to launch Eclipse, her first high jewellery collection. Georgacopoulos’ name has become synonymous with the renaissance of pearl jewellery, reimagining a gemstone that had previously been viewed as a dated proposition, usually inherited as a family heirloom, into modern creations that upend notions of what is not only possible with pearls, but also enduringly appealing.

Georgacopoulos was born and raised in Greece to a Greek father and French mother, where frequent trips to ancient archaeological sites and monuments were balanced by holidays in France where she first encountered the works of Les Lalanne and Lalique. 'In hindsight I would say the best thing about my childhood was that I was exposed to many things.'

This eclectic visual diet, coupled with teenage experimentation in making her own jewellery, led her to hone her creativity. Firstly, at the Mokume School of Jewellery in Athens, followed by a degree in sculpture from the Edinburgh College of Art, pursued because she felt 'frustrated by just making small things all the time [so] I broadened my horizons with knowledge', and onwards to a masters in jewellery design at the Royal College of Art, where her graduate show birthed her first of many iconic designs using pearls, the Sliced Necklace.

'I think at the beginning I was very intrigued [by pearls]. It was an opaque material, and you don’t know what is in it. And the first response to that, with my sculpture background, was to just take one and cut it and see what is inside…the moment I cut one up, I thought how much can I push this idea of cutting them and turning them into something wearable.' The Sliced collection was the beginning of her lauded collaboration with Japanese heritage house Tasaki.

In the interim years since founding her own maison in 2010, Georgacopoulos has drawn upon her vast knowledge of pearls, coupled with a desire to not only surprise herself but also her clients. 'I try to work as intuitively as possible… my focus is not on the value of the materials. I don’t start by saying this is ‘x amounts of carats of pearls or diamonds’, I go more for the aesthetic of the pearl and the size I need for the design.'

In creating Eclipse, Georgacopoulos commenced with a thesis based on both social and cultural observations and a desire to design a collection that gave her the opportunity to incorporate hard stones in her creations; principally Onyx and Chalcedony as well as diamonds. As the collection’s name implies, Eclipse is both monochromatic in hue and also informed by movement and transformation, much like the celestial phenomenon itself.

'I feel like we are either black or white and the grey zone is diminishing politically and socially,' Georgacopoulos notes. This observation finds itself in necklaces and bracelets where pearls are held in custom-carved loops of onyx, resulting in a ‘chain’ effect and offering an invitation to experience both a chain-link jewellery piece like no other and to ponder on the strength and beauty found in unity rather than division. A single cast silver cuff, plated with black ruthenium with pearls applied between the metal, is another piece with meta-meanings. A substantive statement, possessing a gentle echo to antiquity, where jewellery worn as armour was readily embraced. Georgacopoulos remarks the cuff 'is something a warrior would wear' or in a modern setting, someone wanting to imbue their adornment with a readying of their inner strength for the day ahead.

Eclipse marks an evolution, that while still centring pearls seeks to present different expressions of their possibilities in a jewellery setting. 'Somehow over the years, my work has become more autobiographical,' Georgacopoulos reflects. Yet in her candor she has attracted a cadre of admirers and collectors drawn to collections that embrace multiple themes, expand conversations on materiality and are a harmonious balance of the conceptual and covetable.

melaniegeorgacopoulos.com

‘Dance, as an art form, is very diverse, with a lot of different influences,’ says Serge Laurent, Van Cleef & Arpels’ director of dance and culture programmes. ‘The main issue is managing the relations with the audience. When you are a curator, you are making a mediation between artists and audiences.’

This relationship is key to the rich programme of the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels festival, which is held across the world, from New York to London, Hong Kong, Seoul and Kyoto. It is a natural initiative for Van Cleef & Arpels, which continues to build on strong foundations in dance that were first established in the 1920s. They were later reinforced in the 1940s, after Claude Arpels friendship with choreographer George Balanchine led to Balanchine's ballet Jewels, first performed in New York in 1967.

It is a history which continues to be relevant. This year, the Second Edition of the Dance Reflections Festival in New York encompassed 16 shows across nine venues across the city, presenting a considered blend of contemporary works. ‘It's very important to be eclectic, because as a curator, I don't want to tell you who or what is the art of today,’ Laurent adds. ‘An artwork exists with the eyes of the audience. People may feel uncomfortable because they think it’s not for them, but this festival is an invitation to live an experience, and discover new ways of creating.’

The New York Dance Reflections festival intertwined these influences into a blend of classic and contemporary works. One particular highlight, Mycelium, performed by the Lyon Opera Ballet, encompasses this pioneering spirit. ‘Mycelium has been a very special piece for the company,’ says Cedric Andrieux of Ballet de Lyon. ‘When it was created in 2023, it was the first time that [Greek choreographer] Christos Papadopoulos was working with dancers outside of his company. It has become one of our signatures over the past three years. It's something that we've been able to tour all over the world, and we’ve been very happy about how the audience responds. It's a radical piece, but also very powerful and accessible. It doesn’t keep the audience away, it draws them in.’

For Benjamin Millepied, who presented two pieces with LA Dance Project, Reflections: a triptych, and Romeo & Juliet suite, the festival is a chance to introduce classic works to a new audience. ‘My work is so related to music, and the idea to have access to this level of composers, conductors, musicians and acoustics is something that I absolutely love,’ he says. ‘Without the support of Van Cleef & Arpels, nothing like this would have been possible over the last 12 years. It's incredibly fortunate that we have this vision by Nicolas [Bos, CEO of Richemont] and the vision of Serge, that is incredibly sincere and passionate and real, to the extent that we're all here today. It always takes one person to make a difference, and that's the beauty of it.’

The next festival performance – Colossus by Stephanie Lake – will take place in June at London’s Southbank Centre, dancereflections-vancleefarpels.com

This article appears in the June 2026 Issue of Wallpaper*, available from 7 May in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

The J12 was the star of Chanel’s show at Watches & Wonders earlier this month, appearing in a range of guises, from dinky 28mm white or black ceramic through to a welcome reprise of the Superlegerra. The design, by Chanel’s artistic director at the time, Jacques Helleu, caused a sensation when it debuted in 2000 as a glamorous, feminine-leaning watch. Technically advanced, it was just as sporty as all but the more extreme offerings from the likes of Omega, Rolex and TAG Heuer.

Rather than being dismissed as just another ‘fashion watch’, the J12 was a game-changer within the industry, reminding makers that sports watches didn’t have to ooze testosterone. It laid the ground for the revival of the Gérald Genta sports-luxe designs from the Seventies, which followed. Out in the real world, it sold particularly well to the women who were not content with the mother-of-pearl dialled dress watch designs that were most brands’ idea of a ‘ladies' watch.'

A quarter of a century later, and Chanel has its own manufacture, a share in the movement maker Kenissi (where Tudor is its partner) and close ties with high-end movement suppliers such as Romain Gauthier – yet the real proof of the J12’s design quality is in how little it’s changed. Even when the director of the Chanel Watchmaking Creation Studio, Arnaud Chastaingt, did redesign the watch in 2019, primarily to accommodate a new movement, he ended up changing almost nothing – the crown was changed, the bezel is flatter and the dial typography is a little sharper – even though 70% of the components were new.

While the J12 easily accommodates changes in size and format – from the new 28mm to the 42mm Golden Black and Superleggera to the fully set treatment given to the Tourbillon model – the most attention at Watches & Wonders rightly went to the Midnight Blue 33mm and 38mm designs. A little less shiny than the white and black designs, the new colour seems to fit the J12 perfectly.

chanel.com

Long-lasting watch design strikes a harmonious balance between form and function, a delicate harmony epitomised in a recent cohort of watch releases.

From Vacheron Constantin’s Historiques American 1921 watch, which offsets a clean dial with a richly coloured strap, to Omega’s discreet platinum Constellation Observatory watch, tone is muted throughout.

For TAG Heuer, texture reigns on a Carrera chronograph with a purple sunray brushed dial. Texture, too, is interpreted in icy blue in Montblanc’s Iced Sea Automatic Date 0 Oxygen watch in stainless steel.

Elsewhere, the Richard Mille RM 72-01 Automatic Lifestyle flyback chronograph sits at the intersection of technicality and legibility, while the tiger iron dial on the Rolex GMT-Master II watch makes for a desirable contrast.

For the Tank Louis Cartier and Tudor Black Bay 54, minimalism reigns, updated in contemporary colour.

Meanwhile, subtle interplays on the dial, seen on the IWC Ingenieur Automatic 42 and the Patek Philippe Calatrava 6007G-011 watches, will appeal to those looking for a more subtle embellishment.

This article appears in the May 2026 Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

In 1845, New York jeweller Tiffany & Co. published The Blue Book, a stylish catalogue featuring some of the world’s most precious stones. Over the decades – and through the acquiring of incredible gems, translated into jewels by acclaimed designers – the concept has become a modern showcase of today’s high jewellery collections.

A celebration of Tiffany & Co. design motifs has stayed consistent throughout, intertwined through the new Hidden Garden collection. Bold and bright pieces nod to designer Jean Schlumberger, in flora and fauna drawn in rainbows of colourful stones.

In The Bee piece, Schlumberger’s Two Bees ring inspires oval diamonds which sink into yellow gold honeycombs. A necklace is the reference for The Monarch, which sees a butterfly hiding in platinum foliage, while The Parrot’s blue and purple sapphires and feather motifs pay eclectic tribute to parrot brooches from the sixties.

Elsewhere, buds in unenhanced Zambian emeralds and diamonds nod to Schlumberger’s historical floral motif, while Palm’s sensual twists of leaves, from which peek unenhanced oval rubies from Mozambique, underline the gemology authority at the heart of the jewellery house.

‘Blue Book 2026: Hidden Garden reflects our continued commitment to creativity, craft and the highest standards of gemology,’ says Anthony Ledru, chief executive officer, Tiffany & Co. ‘This collection - one of Tiffany & Co.’s most important traditions for over a century - honours the legacy of Jean Schlumberger while demonstrating how we continue to evolve it for today’s high jewellery client. Under Nathalie Verdeille’s creative leadership, and in close collaboration with our gemologists and artisans, we are pushing the boundaries of design and technical excellence.’

tiffany.co.uk

‘For me, this book shows how wide Eddie’s influence has spread and the culture of grills at large,’ says film director Lyle Lindgren, speaking on the publication of Mouth Full of Golds Re(Edition). ‘This is an accessory that has transcended cities, musical genres and art forms.’

The book is an illustrated history of Eddie Plein, who spearheaded a golden era of dentistry. The music, fashion and photography industries were seduced by Plein’s grills, loved by many, including Michèle Lamy, Goldie, Mike Tyson and Dolly Cohen.

Quickly, Plein’s grills transcended dentistry, coming to define a significant cultural moment in the history of hip-hop. ‘It was hard to see the significance,’ Plein says now. ‘You’re living it, it was just business. We had a ball out there in all of these different cities, but it was still a hustle; we were trying to make ends meet. Of course, we knew we were making a mark, we were at the top in NYC and then we did it again in Atlanta; guys like Luda, Big Boi all sneaking in through the back at the shop. We were right there when it was popping. But the bigger mark on culture, that didn’t become apparent till much later – much much later – when you could see all these guys making teeth across the world on things like Instagram. It really dawned on me, like wow! This thing of ours really spread around the world.’

The book, an updated version of the original, which was self-published in 2021, is accompanied by a feature-length documentary that will be viewable at soon-to-be-announced screenings around the world. Both bring together the voices that helped define the movement, from A$AP Ferg and A$AP Rocky to Marc Jacobs and Janette Beckman.

‘I think the customisable element has always made this an interesting medium for people to express themselves, both the customers and the grillmakers,’ says Lindgren on the mass appeal. ‘It gives people the chance to make something unique to their smile, to their style and taste. And for the grillmakers, it’s a miniature form of sculpture that comes with its own set of challenges and keeps evolving. And so with all of this mind, it was only natural to end up with such a wide range of contributors and perspectives.’

Plein adds: ‘You have to remember I have waxed thousands of teeth, from New York, Alabama, Connecticut, Memphis to Atlanta. My brother Lando was doing the same in Miami and still is; we were just two of many. Now you have people in London, Tokyo, Paris, all creating, for many many different people. In my day, I had everyone from the hustlers to the kids from the historical Black colleges like Morehouse, to Allen Iverson and MF DOOM (but I didn’t know it was him). You just never knew who was gonna come through the door.’

ideanow.online

In the mid-19th century, Cartier dipped its toe into horology, establishing a technically accomplished and creative mastery of the medium, honed throughout the subsequent decades. It is a commitment to craft that the maison is now keen to mark, announcing a new education-programme partnership with The King’s Foundation that looks to nurture and preserve these skills.

The King's Foundation and Cartier: Decorative Métiers d'Art in Watchmaking shifts the focus to the next generation in an acknowledgement of the importance of collaboration. The bursary-funded partnership, encompassing five months of formal training and two months of project work, will zone in on fields integral to Cartier’s savoir-faire, including specialist techniques like champlevé, grisaille and marquetry.

‘At The King’s Foundation, we are passionate about protecting traditional crafts and we are delighted to be partnering with Cartier – who share this passion – on this exciting new education programme,’ says Jacqueline Farrell, executive director of education at The King’s Foundation. ‘This course will give students a rare opportunity to learn the highly specialised skills involved in the decorative arts for watchmaking. By nurturing the next generation of makers in two extraordinary settings, in Scotland and Switzerland, we hope to ensure that these remarkable skills are preserved and developed for years to come.’

The fellowship is open to UK-based watchmaking and jewellery graduates, as well as designers who are in the first three years of launching their business. While studying at The King’s Foundation in Scotland, students will be based on site at Dumfries House, while residentials will be held at Cartier’s Maison des Métiers d’Art in Switzerland.

For Cartier, holding the warrant of Jewellers and Watchmakers to His Majesty The King, the partnership is a natural one, and a fitting accompaniment to the annual competition, launched almost three decades ago, the Cartier Prize for Watchmaking Talents of Tomorrow.

‘We are delighted to partner with The King’s Foundation on this important new fellowship programme,’ says Louis Ferla, president and CEO of Cartier. ‘Support for creative talents in watchmaking and the métiers d’art is crucial to ensure these ancestral skills are transmitted to the next generation, where they can continue to share their singular beauty. This commitment reaffirms the maison’s longstanding dedication to the shared human adventure of preserving, developing and, of course, celebrating these rare and traditional crafts.’

Applications will open in spring 2026, with the first cohort presenting their projects in a final exhibition in spring 2027. Applicants can apply for the course from 27 April via The King’s Foundation website

Jewellery brand Messika enters a new chapter with the recently released ‘Moderniste’ collection. Since founding the brand 20 years ago, Valérie Messika has pioneered the concept of ‘diamonds in motion’ – whereby the stones actually move within a piece of jewellery. Now, ‘Moderniste’ signals a shift towards a language of contrasts. Powerful yet precise, luminous yet irreverent, opposites meet in deliberate balance. Wallpaper* joined the maison in London to celebrate a new design direction – one that places architectural thinking and gold at the forefront of Messika’s creative identity.

At the heart of the collection is a decisive move away from diamonds as the sole focal point. Instead, gold – rendered in yellow, white, and rose – becomes a sculptural medium. Pieces are conceived as wearable forms rather than traditional jewellery, with volume, structure, and the play of light taking precedence over ornament. Polished, brushed, and pavé surfaces interact dynamically, allowing each design to shift in tone and intensity depending on how it is worn.

Drawing on the principles of modernist architecture, the collection references the clarity and restraint of figures such as Le Corbusier and Eileen Gray. Clean lines, geometric precision, and balanced proportions define the silhouettes, while a recurring dialogue between circle and square introduces a sense of tension. This ‘paradox’ extends beyond form, suggesting a union of masculine and feminine energies – strength and fluidity held within a single gesture. Subtle asymmetrical pyramids appear throughout, echoing the maison’s emblematic ‘diamonds in motion’, now translated into a more structural vocabulary.

The range spans rings, earrings, sculptural necklaces – including torque and tie styles – and a defining bangle that anchors the collection. Each piece functions as both adornment and object, designed to be experienced in three dimensions.

The event with Wallpaper*, held in an intimate setting overlooking Kensington Gardens, mirrored this sensibility. Guests were invited into a space where light, reflection, and materiality took precedence, with a dedicated styling area for guests to try on key pieces from the collection. Wallpaper* watches & jewellery editor Hannah Silver shared the floor with Valérie Messika to discuss the nuances of the collection, with a sneak peek at what potential future collaborations could look like.

Developed with creative director Sybille de Saint Louvent, the accompanying campaign explores the intersection of artificial intelligence, material innovation and form. Photographed by Ezra Petronio and starring former Wallpaper* cover star Julianne Moore, the imagery positions each piece as an architectural artefact – ‘beyond adornment’, and intentionally inclusive in its appeal.

The ‘Moderniste’ collection is available now, with prices ranging from £1,680 to £42,300.

messika.com/uk_en

Van Cleef & Arpels looks to poetic inspirations at Watches and Wonders 2026, blurring the lines between watches and jewellery in a host of new releases. Watches, in aventurine glass and embossed enamel, in moonlight and retrograde minutes, bring a romantic spin to traditional time-telling.

Midnight Jour Nuit Phase de Lune

The moon has been a reference point for Van Cleef & Arpels since 1929, when the maison first fitted a pocket watch with a moonphase complication. Nearly a century on, the Midnight Jour Nuit Phase de Lune brings that fascination to a 42mm white gold case, where two complications operate in layered concert. There is an evocative 24-hour Jour/Nuit, with a disc animating the passage of sun and moon, and a second disc completing one rotation every 29 hours, 16 minutes and 27 seconds. For the non-astronomers out there, this tracks the moon’s actual 29.5-day cycle with the precision of a true astronomical complication.

The sky itself is rendered in black Murano aventurine glass, a departure from its usual navy blue lustre. It has been developed by Van Cleef & Arpels’ Innovation Department to achieve a depth of colour and a bronze-toned shimmer that captures the quality of a clear night. A guilloché golden sun and a white mother-of-pearl moon take turns emerging from, and retreating behind, a guilloché mother-of-pearl horizon, painted in a gradient from black to white. When the moon is hidden below that horizon, a button on the case rim triggers an on-demand animation: the dial rotates 360 degrees over approximately ten seconds, revealing the lunar phase in its current state against a field of acrylic-traced stars.

The movement took four years of development at Van Cleef & Arpels’ Watchmaking Workshops in Geneva, and required a particular engineering solution, as Rainer Bernard, watchmaking research and development director, explains: ‘The key challenge lay in developing the on-demand animation. To avoid any inaccuracy in the moon phase, we had to take account of the changes that must occur during the course of the animation, since the discs are performing an additional full rotation.’ The caseback continues the narrative: an engraving evokes the moon’s topography in white gold, while the sapphire crystal over the oscillating weight features a miniature enamel rendering of the Earth, surrounded by miniature painted planets on a guilloché ground.

Midnight Heure d’ici & Heure d’ailleurs

Where the Jour Nuit Phase de Lune looks upward, the Midnight Heure d’ici & Heure d’ailleurs turns its attention to the horizontal plane of the globe. The 38mm rose gold Midnight case houses a fully redeveloped automatic movement with a 65-hour power reserve, displaying jumping hours alongside retrograde minutes for two simultaneous time zones. The Heure d’ici appears in the upper window; the Heure d’ailleurs in the lower. Two sector gears synchronise both discs and the retrograde minute hand, so that at the moment the hand sweeps back from 60 to zero, both hour displays jump forward together in deceptive simplicity.

The dial was created by Van Cleef & Arpels’ enamel workshop in Geneva, after artisans spent months arriving at a colour that captures a particular optical phenomenon: the dichroism of precious stones such as rubies, which appear warm or cool depending on the light that falls on them. The result is an amber-brown enamel whose nuances shift between warm and cold accents across the day, applied over a mirror-polished gold ground that amplifies reflections within the material. Stunning, evocative and setting a high bar for VC&A watchmaking in 2026 and beyond.

vancleefarpels.com

TAG Heuer’s Watches and Wonders 2026 offering is all about Monaco, with two distinct takes on the most recognisable square chronograph. While the Monaco Chronograph is ‘rearchitected’ in titanium for wider reach, the Monaco Evergraph is built around TAG Heuer’s thirst for innovation and features a chronograph mechanism with a long list of innovative tech to unpack.

Talking to TAG Heuer’s heritage director Nicolas Biebuyck, the brand's goals are made clear, as is the importance of these two parallel Monaco ranges. 'They're both in titanium,' Biebuyck says of the new Monacos, 'but when you look further at the details, the movement is the standout factor.' He presents both watches as a major development for the brand, especially the skeletonised Evergraph version. 'This joint development with [Swiss manufacture] Vaucher is, for me, the most important chronograph movement in the history of watchmaking. It's the first time that anyone has completely rethought what the chronograph mechanism should be, much like Rolex achieved with Dinapulse last year for an industrial escapement.'

Monaco Chronograph

The mainstay Monaco gets its most thorough redesign since the 1997 relaunch, returning to the geometry of the original 1969 ‘reference 1133’ for proportions and detail language. But its vintage-infused looks, complete with motorsport connotations, are housed in a new 39mm grade-five titanium case. It has reinforced the model’s angular edges, featuring a more genuinely square sapphire crystal, and a caseback with a smaller domed centre section that echoes the ergonomic logic of the original.

The new in-house Calibre TH20-11 is a bi-compax layout with counters at 3 and 9, a date at 6, and takes its name directly from the Calibre 11 it descends from. The new calibre delivers an 80-hour power reserve with a five-year warranty, coming in three versions: McQueen blue, British Racing Green, and a black dial in a titanium and 18ct rose gold two-tone case.

Monaco Evergraph

The Evergraph is TAG Heuer’s most technically ambitious watch in years. At its core is the Calibre TH80-00, developed with Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier and built around a chronograph mechanism that meets the requirements. Echoing Biebuyck’s words on its importance, it took five years to develop at the TAG Heuer LAB. The main talking point is replacing the traditional levers and springs of start, stop, and reset with two flexible bistable components produced via LIGA technology.

The result is a chronograph with a distinct skeletonised visage, whose actuation degrades neither in feel nor accuracy over time: the ten-thousandth press delivers the same response as the first. An inverted movement construction puts the barrel, gear train, and TH-Carbonspring escapement on show through the transparent dial, with subsidiary dials at 3 and 9 creating a strict bilateral symmetry within the 40mm titanium square case. There are two versions: natural grade-five titanium with blue accents referencing the 1133B, and black DLC-coated titanium with red accents drawn from TAG Heuer’s motorsport palette.

tagheuer.com

Since announcing a partnership with the Louvre in 2019, Vacheron Constantin has released a limited-edition series of exquisitely produced watches inspired by the museum’s treasures. Now, the maison has unveiled the second of the Great Civilisations series, created in conjunction with the Louvre, with four models limited to 15 pieces each translating cultural symbols into horological form.

Vacheron Constantin looked to the Louvre’s Ancient Egypt, Assyrian Empire, Ancient Greece, and Imperial Rome collections to create these new watches. Explains Sandrine Donguy, product and innovation director at Vacheron Constantin: ‘These periods experienced extraordinary territorial expansion and significant cultural and artistic influence, aligning with the maison's spirit of exploration, innovation and creativity. The collaboration with the Louvre also reflects a shared commitment to conserving, preserving, and transmitting arts and traditional craftsmanship, celebrating the splendours of the past.’

The watches, three years in the making, pay tribute to four ancient sculptures – the Buste d’Akhénaton, the Lamassu de Sargon II, Athéna de Velletri, and Le Tibre from the Iseum Campense temple. The watches are miniature works of art, intertwining traditional techniques with precious materials and accomplished artistry. Throughout, the complexity of the dials unites nine decorative crafts.

‘A significant artistic challenge was the glyptic work on natural stone, using limestone, sandstone and marble of the same types and origins as the original works, a first for the maison,’ Donguy adds. ‘Additionally, combining various decorative crafts and juxtaposing components produced with distinct techniques on the dial demanded micron-level precision to avoid errors and ensure perfect calibration on a single complex dial composed of three to four layers.’

For Olivier Gabet, general curator of heritage and director of the Département des Objets d'art at the Louvre, the ongoing collaboration speaks to the cultural status of both the museum and the maison. ‘As a reflection of the quest for beauty which echoes humanity, the Louvre is the best place to celebrate invention and creativity, art, design and craft. The Louvre and Vacheron Constantin have nurtured a very special relationship of mutual respect, with the Louvre showing once again that the museum is not a mere repository of splendid artefacts but a place for contemporary inspiration. Inspiration is vibrant at the Louvre.’

vacheron-constantin.com

Shrinking an horological icon isn’t as simple as it sounds, but Bulgari makes it look easy with the new Octo Finissimo 37mm, a smaller take on the Octo that rethinks the model from the inside out.

At Watches and Wonders 2026, Bulgari marks its second outing to the Geneva trade fair, arriving with a confident line-up of grail-worthy timepieces – the new Octo Finissimo 37mm among them.

'This has been something the market has long been asking for,' says Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, the Roman maison’s product creation executive director, of the new model. 'I remember we first started talking about it three or four years ago. Today, the Octo Finissimo is very well known among watch collectors, but we quite often receive comments like, “I love the watch, but it’s too big for my wrist.”’

Reducing the case size was anything but straightforward, however. 'If we want to make a smaller one, we are obliged to develop a brand-new movement, because there is no chance to use the existing Octo movement in a smaller size,' Stigliani explains. The result is the new calibre BVF 100, an ultra-thin automatic movement measuring just 2.35mm in height and delivering a hefty 72-hour power reserve. 'Today, we understand that it is more difficult to make a small watch than a big one. It is more difficult to make a smaller movement, and even more difficult to make one with greater power reserve.'

Only two components of the original movement – the platinum rotor and balance wheel – have been carried over, while the rest have been entirely re-engineered. 'If the original Octo Finissimo was the best watch we could imagine 15 years ago, the 37mm is the best watch we can produce today in our facilities,' says Stigliani.

Visually, the design remains largely unchanged. 'The watch must remain immediately recognisable,' says Stigliani. Instead, the focus falls on reworked proportions and wearability, with the new 37mm case featuring a slightly thicker profile and a reworked bracelet, now composed of two components with a new push-button clasp.

The 37mm is not positioned as a women’s-only timepiece. 'It was important to avoid positioning it as a “smaller” or “female” version. That would have been a mistake,' says Stigliani. Instead, it’s intended to run as a parallel line alongside the 40mm range, one that opens the door to new materials and configurations.

'The goal was not simply to make another version of the Octo Finissimo,' adds Stigliani, 'but to create a completely new watch.'

bulgari.com

In 1969, Piaget rethought the parameters of watch-wearing, introducing the ‘21st Century Collection’, where watches swung gracefully from long gold chains. Worn looped around the neck, the watches, with their ornamental stone dials, were first and foremost vivid pieces of jewellery, encapsulating Yves Piaget’s philosophy that blended both disciplines.

Now, at Watches and Wonders 2026, these swinging sautoirs are making a comeback as the Swinging Pebbles collection, with three pieces crafted in three stones, tiger’s eye, verdite and pietersite.

For Piaget, now feels like the right time to revisit the bold and fluid spirit of the original. ‘At Piaget, ornamental stones are at the heart of what we do, sometimes literally, with creations such as the Swinging Pebble, made entirely from tiger’s eye, verdite or pietersite,’ says Piaget creative director Stéphanie Sivrière. ‘I actually found the inspiration while going through our archives; in the early 1970s, our artisans made a so-called kimono pocket watch, especially designed for the Japanese market. It was sculpted from malachite; it was bold, flamboyant and singular – very Piaget.’

Each of these new pendant watches is sculpted from a single stone, before being hollowed out for the insertion of the movement, and then smoothed over with the portion of stone that is left. ‘This year, it is all about the art of colour for us; this is why I chose three ornamental stones with distinct colour,’ Sivrière adds. ‘The main challenge was to find a way to make it look seamless.’

piaget.com

The Manufacture brings its most ambitious lineup in years to Watches and Wonders 2026: 20 new creations, four limited-edition Nautilus anniversary pieces, and a debut automaton wristwatch that marks a first in Patek’s modern history. Here's a breakdown of every new model.

Celestial Sunrise/Sunset (ref. 6105G-001)

Patek’s headliner of 2026 is a technical first: a wristwatch that displays the times of sunrise and sunset, housed in a 47mm white-gold case with a dial charting the Geneva night sky. The movement features a patented system that simultaneously corrects the time and sunrise/sunset indications whenever the clocks change.

‘The Crow and the Fox’ Automaton (ref. 5249R-001)

This wristwatch automaton is inspired by a pocket watch from 1958, currently held in the Patek Philippe Museum. Drawing on La Fontaine's fable ‘The Crow and the Fox’, it displays hours and minutes on demand, animating the scene beneath a rich brown opaline dial set in a rose-gold case. It is the first automaton wristwatch in Patek’s modern history.

Cubitus Perpetual Calendar (ref. 5840P-001)

The Cubitus collection gets its first grand complication: a perpetual calendar in a large platinum case. The open-worked blue dial, with its characteristic horizontal pierced strips, reveals the skeletonised movement beneath – making the mechanics themselves part of the design.

24-Hour Alarm with Date (ref. 5322G-001)

Patek Philippe brings the alarm complication back to the forefront with a 41mm white-gold piece combining a hobnail-guilloché caseband with a textured lacquer dial. The movement allows users to set an alarm for any time in a 24-hour cycle, sounding via a hammer on a classic gong.

Minute Repeater Calatrava (ref. 7047G-001)

This is a minute repeater in a modern Calatrava guise, pairing a white-gold case with a navy-blue dial and an embossed carbon motif. The self-winding movement keeps the profile remarkably slim – making it one of Patek's thinnest-ever minute repeaters.

Gem-set Perpetual Calendar Minute Repeater (ref. 5374/400P-001)

This is the most rarefied piece in Patek’s 2026 collection, limited to just eight examples. Its platinum case frames a Balinese mother-of-pearl dial set with Paraiba tourmalines – among the rarest gems on earth, and the very reason production cannot exceed eight pieces.

Flyback Chronograph with Perpetual Calendar (ref. 5204G-010)

A new version of an iconic reference, the Flyback Chronograph Perpetual Calendar gets a navy-blue sunburst dial, white-gold case and a navy composite strap with red contrast stitching – a deliberately sporty finish for a complex watch.

In-Line Perpetual Calendar (ref. 5236P-011)

This is a platinum grand complication built around Patek’s patented in-line perpetual calendar: day, date and month united in a single aperture at 12 o'clock. The ultra-thin movement keeps the profile elegantly slim, while the vertically satin-finished dial gives the watch a refined, modern character.

Perpetual Calendar Chronograph Trilogy (refs. 5270P-015, 5270P-016 and 5270P-017)

Three new platinum versions of one of Patek’s most celebrated references arrive simultaneously: a charcoal-grey lacquer dial, a blue lacquer dial and a striking red lacquer dial, each with a dark gradient rim. Same architecture, three very different personalities.

Annual Calendar (refs. 5396R-016 and 4946G-001)

The Manufacture presents two new takes on its Annual Calendar complication. The rose-gold version pairs warm tones with a sand-beige sunburst dial, while the white-gold version takes a more contemporary approach, with a textured blue-grey dial and a denim-motif strap.

World Time (ref. 7129J-001)

One of Patek Philippe's most practical complications, the World Time allows simultaneous reading of all time zones at a glance. This version makes a bold statement with a yellow-gold case and carmine-red lacquer dial, while a single push of a button updates every city display at once.

Calatrava (refs. 5227G-015, 7200/50G-001 and 7200/50G-012)

Three new Calatravas affirm the collection's values of pure design, proportion and refinement. The men's model features an opaline dial and the signature Officer-style case, while two women's models offer a choice of sand-beige or ice-blue sunburst dials, each powered by an ultra-thin movement that keeps the case super slender.

Golden Ellipse (refs. 5738G-001 and 3738G/100G-014)

The Golden Ellipse – whose distinctive oval case is proportioned according to the golden ratio – returns in two versions: the large Jumbo size and a medium size. Both feature olive-green sunburst dials with shimmering depth, and ultra-thin movements that make them among the thinnest watches in the current collection.

Nautilus 50th Anniversary (refs. 5810/1G-001, 5810G-001, 5610/1P-001 and 958G-001)

Four limited-edition pieces celebrate the Nautilus – Patek’s iconic luxury sports watch, launched in 1976 – turning 50. Two large-format models in white gold – one on a metal bracelet, one on a fabric-style strap – are joined by a slightly smaller platinum version on a platinum bracelet. All three use an ultra-thin movement that itself dates back to 1977. Rounding out the quartet is a Nautilus desk clock in white gold – a playful, unexpected nod to the collection's origins.