Editor’s note: Aaaah, the ’90s. That era of Hypercolour and fleece that seems, somehow, to be en vogue once more. It’s also an era that embodies a strange juxtaposition in watchmaking. On the one hand, it’s seen as a time that style forgot, while simultaneously playing host to some very significant horological innovations … Sitting between the now nostalgia-laden ’80s and the innovation explosion of the 2000s, the 1990s is seen as something of a watchmaking wasteland; a bold (and brash) period that’s currently out of fashion, but not far enough away to be viewed through the rose-tinted glasses of history. But were the ’90s really a write-off? Here are nine groundbreaking ’90s watches that redeem watchmaking’s forgotten decade. 1991 – Audemars Piguet Star Wheel What is it? Watchmakers are, by and large, bound by tradition and stick to tried and true methods, like telling the time with hands. In 1991, Audemars Piguet proposed something new, using a series of spinning sapphire discs, all mounted on rotating star-shaped wheels. An oddity, but a technically impressive one. Why is it important? Audemars Piguet were well and truly ahead of the trend on this one. Now we’re used to brands like Urwerk messing…
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