Since Cartier reinvigorated its fine watchmaking department eight years ago, it has surprised us each year with one great complicated watch after another. This year, Cartier had a different kind of surprise: a resurrection of the Panthère de Cartier, which had been discontinued in the early aughts.
Chopard is as famous for its glamorous red carpet jewelry collections and over-the-top jewelry watches as it is for its men’s complications and in-house movements. The company’s new tradition of creating a special jeweled watch within its Imperiale collection welcomes the Chopard Imperiale Joaillerie watch.
At Baselworld 2016, Chopard released this new haute joaillerie rainbow version of its 40mm-wide Imperiale watch. Strictly speaking, most people at Chopard would categorize this Chopard Imperiale Joaillerie Rainbow as a women’s watch – and perhaps, for the most part, it is.
To this day, Rolex still makes some extremely rare watches. And when you encounter one, things start as unassumingly as a green box, different from the one most of their watches come in, with a Rolex crown at “6 o’clock.” You might agree that this is the typical presentation of a watch built “The Rolex Way.” What we are looking at today, however, is not your well-known Rolex.
While the allure of a timepiece produced with a precious metal case is very real, most consumers agree that using gold or platinum as a material in a wrist watch is just a means of jacking up prices and creating a loss in value. Let’s talk about why, and some important findings from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry that should help you understand current market trends and consumer behavior.
Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Reverso One High Jewelry takes us back to the days when wristwatches were originally invented for women, for adornment purposes. It draws inspiration from the first ladies’ Reverso models of the 1930s, a time when wristwatches were worn mainly by women. Since then, it is not just movements that have improved.
Finer details of watchmaking, including different finishing techniques and proprietary movement construction solutions are very much common knowledge among watch enthusiasts. Haute joaillerie, or “high jewelry,” on the other hand, is a more rarely discussed element in these circles, even though it is very much an integral part of some of the finest timepieces in the world.
Depending on your personal tastes and feelings on the crossover of jewelry and horology, a watch like this Richard Mille RM 51-02 tourbillon Diamond Twister is either amazing or represents all that is wrong in the world of watches.