Watches & Wonders 2024: Luxury Timepieces with a Surprising Twist

Amongst the sparkling and complex novelties on display at this year’s Watches & Wonders were a few stand-out timepieces with unexpected design concepts, style codes and functions. Let’s delve deeper into these eye-catching creations from the likes of Cartier, Chanel, and Montblanc to understand their quirks.

One of the best things about attending the Watches & Wonders trade show in Geneva, Switzerland,  is seeing the new and impressive ways horological brands stretch the watchmaking genre, taking on the difficult task of pleasing clients that demand both mechanical innovations and design elegance. Among the new models released this year were a few exceptional pieces, five to be specific, that were completely unexpected, with never-before-seen features that challenged the very concept of a wristwatch. In no particular order, these were our top five finds of Watches & Wonders 2024.

Bulgari Octo Finissimo Sketch

Amongst all the new watch releases that filled the Bulgari gallery at the Hotel President Wilson on the banks of Lake Geneva, it was one of the more technical models that caught our eye. The Octo Finissimo watch has long been a feather in the Bulgari horological cap, famed for its ‘as thin as paper’ aesthetic and lightweight feel. First developed in 2014, the watch gained global attention as the world’s slimmest tourbillion watch, featuring a pioneering miniaturised mechanism. This ground-breaking development gained the watch nine world records, including the world’s slimmest three-hand timepiece and the world’s slimmest automatic chronograph.

Fast forward a decade later, to celebrate Bulgari’s 140th anniversary, the latest version released highlights the model’s blend of complex mechanics with an elegant aesthetic by featuring hand-drawn sketches of the interior workings by none other than Bulgari’s Product Creation Executive Director Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani. Taking pencil to paper, Stigliani takes inspiration from the Italian Renaissance art of Schizzo, a free-hand charcoal drawing technique used by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci. Available in two limited editions –280 pieces in steel and 70 in rose gold, each of these dials mimics a piece of white paper covered in pencil drawings, creating the illusion that each dial is a frame for a historic work of art.

Cartier Santos-Dumont Rewind

The Santos Dumont timepiece tells the story of a long-lasting friendship between Brazilian pilot aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont and Louis Cartier, the grandson of the founder of Cartier. A pioneer who contributed greatly to the advancement of aviation technology in the early 20th century, he approached his friend to help him design a watch that would allow him to check the time more easily whilst he was in the air rather than having to manipulate a pocket watch. This led to the invention of the first pilot’s wristwatch – the Cartier Santos. Several years later, the Maison still honours its past by continuing to innovate and renew this staple Cartier timepiece, as they have with the Rewind model.

At first glance, Cartier’s Santos Dumont Rewind watch has all the classically recognisable features of its predecessors – large Roman numerals, a square dial with rounded edges and a cabochon stone crown. However, upon closer inspection you’ll struggle to wrap your brain around the inverted dial numbers, reading from 11 to 1 o’clock as the carnelian dial reads clockwise. Instead of playing with colourways and dial shapes, Cartier decided to have fun with the actual mechanism of this limited-edition watch, making it so that the manual-winding 230MC mechanism winds backwards. Statement, dressy and whimsical, this timepiece stays true to Mr. Santos-Dumont’s life motto that anything is possible.

Chanel Safety Pin Long Necklace Couture

The Chanel booth at Watches & Wonders always honours the codes and emblems of its founder Coco Chanel – a woman who believed that less is more and that there are no two better colours in clothing than black and white. As in the past, the novelties on display were inspired by Chanel Couture high fashion, however this year, the Director of Chanel’s Watchmaking Creation Studio Arnaud Chastaingt took inspiration not from the gowns themselves but from the sewing instruments that allowed their creation. Scissors, pin cushions and thimbles abound, with watches taking the shape of these seemingly inexpensive and mundane objects. 

However, one of the most surprising timepieces in the collection came in the form of a solid gold and snow-set diamond safety pin that works! With the watch dial positioned in the cavity of the safety pin, the item can be snapped and unsnapped onto a piece of fabric as does a real safety pin that you would find fastening pieces of fabric in the Chanel Atelier. Taking something simple and making it a work of art is a true pillar of the Chanel brand, which is why this simple and surprising timepiece took our breath away.

Montblanc 1858 Geosphere 0 Oxygen CARBO2

The next watch on our list isn’t one for diamonds and glamour but for the adventurer in us all. Designed as tool watches for mountain exploration, Montblanc’s 1858 Geosphere is an all-black glow-in-the-dark timepiece that takes inspiration from the Minerva pocket watches from the 1920s and 30s that were originally made for military use. Precise and robust, Montblanc reinvents this model in 2024 by hiding within its dark case and dial a secret ingredient that brings an entirely new twist to the design. Pushing the theme of ‘oxygen’, a key motif for Montblanc, the watch case of this timepiece is created using a pioneering process that captures carbon dioxide from biogas productions and mineral waste produced by recycling factories. Using a process of calcium dissolution and carbonation, the carbon dioxide is formed into a tangible material to create a solid case structure literally from thin air. This environmentally friendly twist, along with the beautifully engraved details and stylised outline of the Montblanc mountains that can be seen etched into the back of the case, is why this boundary-pushing watch made our list.

Vacheron Constantin Égérie – The Pleats of Time Moonphase x Yiqing Yin

Finally, we might have saved the most epic creation for last – Vacheron Constantin’s Égérie Moonphase limited edition Égérie – The Pleats of Time watch is the resulting work of art from a collaboration between three of the art world’s most prestigious Metiers: Haute Horlogerie, Haute Couture and Haute Parfumerie. Thanks to the unique expertise of Chinese-French fashion designer Yiqing Yin and master perfumer Dominique Ropion, Vacheron Constantin presented the world’s first-ever prototype perfume watch that keeps time but also stimulates visual and olfactory senses. The handcrafted strap is infused with a scent that Ropion says encapsulates all four seasons in one delightful smell.

The lilac mother-of-pearl dial and its diamond-set pink gold case sit at the centre of a hand-woven Haute Couture strap, interlaced with mother-of-pearl shards embroidered directly into the bracelet. The strap itself is laced with an almost everlasting scent, that slowly releases as the strap rubs against the wearer’s skin in a completely unpredictable manner. Made from notes of lavender, orange blossom, the immortelle accord flower, ylang-ylang, orange, lemon and oud, to name just a few ingredients, capsules of the perfume were made in which the threads of the strap were preserved in, ensuring a smell that will withstand the test of time. 

As you can see, the watches above all pushed boundaries of fashion, science and Metier d’Art in one way or another. Each watch brand took inspiration from other domains outside of the horological world to broaden their horizons and bring to fruition a timepiece that yes, keeps time, but also allows the wearer to dream and feel that they are wearing something truly special, beyond a simple wristwatch. Which one would you invest in?