New York minute: Tiffany & Co harks back to its horological heyday for a new collection
![Tiffany & Co watches with steel strap and black strap](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/DzkipcjoBuVCAA8kWJWupZ-415-80.jpg)
Continuing a stealthy turnaround in its design vision, this month Tiffany & Co. announces its intention to put watch-making centre stage, with the launch of a new collection of New York-designed timepieces powered by Swiss movements.
Though overshadowed by its standing as a jeweller and producer of ever-popular designs by visionaries such as Jean Schlumberger and Elsa Peretti, Tiffany's understanding of the business of watch-making is impressive, with roots dating back to its 19th century Geneva manufacture. That means that when it comes to horological prowess, it knows more than most luxury houses about how to build a watch from the base-plate up.
Its John Loring-designed timepieces from the 1980s and 1990s include, arguably, some of the most visionary watch designs of the modern era. Loring, Tiffany & Co's current design director emeritus, helmed the design department for 30 years from 1979 to 2009. Key models of his creative tenure include the Atlas watch, notable for its relief-style Roman numerals that start on the dial then stretch out across the bezel.
Decades before fashion cottoned on to the chic watch as a luxury accessory, Loring had sensed a desire for less formal designs, creating a sports-luxe horological offering for women he knew, Paloma Picasso among them.
The new Tiffany CT60 collection taps into a more classic period of the New York house's watch-making past. The key model, directly inspired by a Tiffany watch presented to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, is handsome, if a little too perfectly so. Its silver powder numerals and traditional Swiss finishes - sunray dial, Côtes de Genève, colimaçon and perlage engraving - may be a tad too "vintage" but they serve to remind the wearer of a certain horological authority.
The Tiffany East West is the real star of the new collection. The 1940s feel is there but, with creative input and jewellery thinking from Tiffany's current design director, Francesca Amfitheatrof, it harks back to the visionary Loring days.
Rather than read the time vertically, you are directed to read it across the wrist - as if the watch were an identity bracelet. The fact that it suits anybody bodes well for the new generation of Tiffany & Co. watch design.
The new Tiffany CT60 collection taps into a more classic period of the New York house's watch-making past
Creative input and jewellery thinking from Tiffany's current design director, Francesca Amfitheatrof, pictured, harks back to the visionary Loring days
A handsome watch, available in a number of finishes, the CT60 serves to remind its wearer of a certain horological authority
The real star of the collection, however, is the Tiffany East West
The East West invites you to read time across the wrist, as though it were an identity bracelet
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Caragh McKay is a contributing editor at Wallpaper* and was watches & jewellery director at the magazine between 2011 and 2019. Caragh’s current remit is cross-cultural and her recent stories include the curious tale of how Muhammad Ali met his poetic match in Robert Burns and how a Martin Scorsese Martin film revived a forgotten Osage art.
-
Take off: Mathieu Lehanneur's Olympic Cauldron rises into the Parisian night sky
The Paris 2024 Olympics’ opening ceremony was closed with a soaring cauldron spectacle that will go down in history
By Hugo Macdonald Published
-
Phaidon’s new Graphic Classics is a lavish greatest hits of graphic design
Graphic Classics is a compendium of seven centuries of visual culture, from the everyday and ephemeral to visionary works that reshaped our world
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Birley Chocolate hits the sweet ’n’ chic spot in London’s Chelsea
The new Birley Chocolate shop, a sibling to Birley Bakery, is a confection of colour as delicious as its finely crafted goods
By Melina Keays Published
-
Shinola’s Elijah McCoy pocket watch pays homage to the pioneering locomotive engineer
Shinola continues its Great American series with the Elijah McCoy Mechanic 45mm pocket watch
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Lugano’s versatile high jewellery pieces are too good to save for special occasions
Californian brand Lugano embraces unexpected materials and cool design codes in its informal high jewellery
By Hannah Silver Published
-
‘Given hip-hop’s roots in New York, the chance to tell this story in this city is very special’
The American Museum of Natural History plays a blinder with ‘Ice Cold: An Exhibition of Hip-Hop Jewelry’, a cultural trip through jewellery design
By Caragh McKay Published
-
The American watch brands to know now
From Autodromo to JN Shapiro, American watch brands are having a moment
By Chris Hall Published
-
Tiffany Wonder in Tokyo is ‘intimate, cinematic and refined’
‘Tiffany Wonder’, an exhibition at Tokyo Node Gallery, is a sparkling journey through the history of Tiffany & Co, designed by architects OMA
By Danielle Demetriou Published
-
All smiles: How a grillz jewellery making class in London became an international hit
What started as a passion project quickly exploded in popularity. We get the story behind the grillz-making workshop at Cockpit London
By Elisa Anniss Published
-
First look at Pharrell Williams and Tiffany & Co’s punkish titanium and gold jewellery
Pharrell Williams and Tiffany & Co reveal first jewellery collaboration, ‘Tiffany Titan’, featuring 19 yellow gold and titanium pieces
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Tiffany & Co nods to its theatrical history with a surreal new campaign
Tiffany & Co campaign ‘With Love, Since 1837’ sees Dan Tobin Smith and set designer Rachel Thomas create an offbeat set
By Hannah Silver Published