WATCHES, WONDERS & KERMIT THE FROG

FROM EMOJIS TO CHRONOGRAPHS, LUXURY WATCHMAKERS DELIGHTED WITH PLAYFUL DESIGNS AND INNOVATIVE FUNCTIONS AT WATCHES AND WONDERS 2023

WORDS DEBBIE HATHWAY

THE WATCHES AND WONDERS 2023 programme flies by in a flurry of activity and blurred memories, followed by weeks of analysing trends and talking points. One comment that sticks in my mind relates to Montblanc and its Manufacture in Le Locle, Switzerland. Sharing his top picks during a panel discussion about trending product novelties, Jean-Christophe Teigner, the secretary general of The Fine Watch Club, stated: “Minerva – the Manufacture of Montblanc… go and check it out. Even the Patek collectors are going there to sneak around.” High praise indeed.

One of the fair favourites is a world-first. The Montblanc 1858 The Unveiled Timekeeper Minerva Limited Edition enables manipulation of the chronograph via an 18kt white gold fluted bezel instead of traditional pushers. One click starts the timer, a second click stops it and a third click resets it. The chronograph is powered by the hand-finished manually wound Calibre MB M13.21. It is limited to 100 pieces in reference to the 100th anniversary of the Calibre 13.20, which was the predecessor to this movement.

Jean-Christophe also singled out the Montblanc Unveiled Secret Minerva Monopusher Chronograph Limited Edition. At first glance, you might think it has a skeletonised movement, but the historic hand-wound Minerva MB M16.29 has been flipped to be visible on the dial side. The meticulously hand-finished movement is one of the few in Montblanc’s archive of chronographs that could achieve this complicated feat. Turning the movement over means reversing the direction of the hands which requires adding 21 components, making this more than an aesthetic feature – it’s a genuinely technical one. It’s definitely all in the detail.

Commenting on the Maison’s transformation of its watchmaking operation over just under a decade, Franck Juhel, president – Middle East, India, Africa, Greece and Turkey at Montblanc, said, “We have found our path and it is being recognised internally, by our partners, journalists and collectors. We have two references that we are presenting now [at Watches and Wonders]. Everything was sold out on the first day of the salon, which shows that the team at Le Locle and Villeret has been doing an amazing job.”

Explosion Of Colour

Everybody loved the Oris collaboration with Kermit the Frog for a special edition of their ProPilot X. The privately owned Swiss watchmaker selected the instantly recognisable green dial for the ProPilot X Kermit Edition Calibre 400, positioning the quirky amphibian to appear on the first day of the month in the window at six o’clock. The watch is set in a 39mm titanium case and fastened with a titanium bracelet.

Oris is known for its particularly upbeat approach to watch design, incorporating a little joy and happiness into its storytelling. Their watches must make wearers happy, whether from the colour of the dial, the size or the movement. “The watch must make you smile,” says Co-CEO Rolf Studer. The brand’s watches are available over a broad price range, appealing to those who see watches as a hobby and collectors who value the complexity of a mechanical watch. Rolf says that buying a watch should not be about affordability but rather the emotion and the story. “You need to give people joy because that is the only reason they would spend money on something they don’t really need,” he says.

While Rolex has been more adventurous in its presentation of coloured dials lately, the brand surprised us with an Oyster Perpetual dial dotted with multicoloured bubbles and an even more colourful Oyster Perpetual Day-Date 36 dial design featuring a puzzle motif created using champlevé enamelling. But not everybody loved them, with some purists questioning why they would go off-brand with the new release. Some preferred the bubble decoration with Celebration motif with the colours of the dials launched last year.

The Day-Date “affirmation emoji” watch, as one expert called it, displays neither the day nor the date, instead allowing the wearer to reflect his or her mood with the words “happy”, “eternity”, “gratitude”, “peace”, “faith”, “love” and “hope” on a disc housed in an arc-shaped aperture at 12 o’clock. At three o’clock, the day is replaced by one of 31 emojis throughout the month. Ten baguette-cut sapphire indices mark the hours. The watch is available in 18kt yellow or white gold with a turquoise base colour for the dial or 18kt Everose gold with orange as the base colour, fitted on a President bracelet.

On a side note, Rolex is not the first to feature an emoji on a watch’s dial. The Russian independent watchmaker Konstantin Chaykin included one on his Joker Selfie Only Watch unique piece in 2019 – the world’s first mechanical watch with a selfie dial. The watch’s day-of-theweek indicator is set in a special window in the upper section of the dial, with joker-style emojis devised by Konstantin representing the days of the week. ■

OPPOSITE: Rolex Oyster Perpetual with Celebration motif

TOP: Oris ProPilot X Kermit Edition Calibre 400

ABOVE: Montblanc 1858 The Unveiled Timekeeper Minerva Limited Edition

RIGHT: Montblanc 1858 Unveiled Secret Minerva Monopusher Chronograph Limited Edition