RAPAPORT… Women’s watches are an all-important category in the timepiece arena, as savvy women become ever more discerning about what they put on their wrists. No longer are they content to wear a run-of-the-mill watch around the clock, morning to night, nor are they satisfied with a reinterpreted men’s watch in a woman’s size for their stylistic tastes. No, today’s woman wants a watch built specifically for her, with a precise and excellent engine on the inside and a scintillating shimmer on the outside. In response to that demand, watchmakers are determined to deliver.
New Works
The works of art unveiled at the top 2011 exhibitions — from the SIHH Geneva watchmaking show in January to BaselWorld in March and JCK and Couture in June — run the gamut from quartz timepieces to mechanically powered beauties, many bedecked with varying amounts of gemstones and diamonds to capture hearts and minds. In fact, it seems that in 2011, many brands have turned to the watch as a canvas, offering diamonds not just on the dial as markers or on the bezel or case as accents, but also as decorative motifs in the form of florals, whimsical delights and more.
Boucheron, Van Cleef & Arpels, Chopard and Cartier have well-deserved reputations as masters in creating the most luxe diamond watches, but a host of other top-echelon brands are unveiling diamond-bedecked watches that include white and colored diamonds set side by side, along with diamonds and gemstones juxtaposed in stunning works of art.
While white diamonds in pavé, baguette and even some brilliant and square shapes remain a powerful attention-grabber on timepieces, colored diamonds have come on strong this year. Black diamonds and cognac, champagne and chocolate diamonds are particularly enticing when mixed with white diamonds. Additionally, some brands are juxtaposing diamonds with gemstones in truly unusual manners — often with flowing ribbons of gemstones across the dials, or even across the cases for a truly feminine appeal.
The most popular gemstones of choice are the rainbow colors of sapphire, amethyst and peridot, but some of the more adventurous watch brands are reaching into their watch drawers and pulling out such unusual gems as spessartite and aventurine.
Gemstones
While some brands offer dials with pavé designs, others offer dials, bezels and cases with elaborately set stones. More brands are turning to fully set watches, in which gemstones cover the entire watch, with baguette gems being the stones of choice. What’s more, the high-end brands are not content to just adorn the case with diamonds; many are bedecking the case sides and even the crown and lugs with diamonds for overall sparkle.
“Diamonds have always been in our history, they surround our jewelry and our timepieces, and we could not move forward without an elaborate and unique new collection that focuses on their beauty and on our abilities as watchmakers,” says Caroline Dura, marketing director at Dior. This year, Dior stole the spotlight with its newest Dior VIII collection, named for the brand’s Place Vendôme street address. The collection is adorned with diamonds floating in the dial in a myriad of architecturally and Art-Deco-inspired, stunning designs. Other unusual designs come from brands such as Ulysse Nardin, which bedecks the dial of its new Queen of Hearts watch with pavé diamond hearts, and from Bertolucci, which creates elegant ribbons of diamonds and gemstones across the crystal of its newest collection for truly feminine appeal.
Nature plays a very important role in timepiece design in 2011, with many brands recalling our oneness with the world by featuring flower, bird and animal design motifs adorned with diamonds and gemstones. Bedat, for instance, releases its No. 8 with a stunning diamond-adorned case that resembles a flower with open-worked settings surrounding a mother-of-pearl dial (see watch at right).
Over the Top
Taking diamonds to the ultimate level, brands Hublot and Girard-Perregaux offer women complicated masterpieces in diamonds. They achieve some of the highest feats in watchmaking — such as tourbillons and perpetual calendars — and adorn them with diamonds to such a degree that it becomes almost a competition for perfection and price.
In fact, the new Girard-Perregaux Cat’s Eye Tourbillon is entirely set with 287 baguette-cut diamonds weighing nearly 20 carats. It took the brand’s master stonesetters more than 700 hours of painstaking, meticulous work to set these stunners into place. Even the crown is set with 12 baguette-cut diamonds and adorned with an exceptional 24-faceted, rose-cut diamond. The inside of the watch is just as exquisite, with a movement that is a modern interpretation of the movement that won Constant Girard-Perregaux a gold medal at the 1889 Paris World Fair and that has become a standard of reference in the watchmaking industry. The Tourbillon escapement is composed of 72 parts, all contained within a diameter of one centimeter and weighing just 0.3 grams. It is entirely decorated and assembled by hand and retails for $490,000.
Another innovator is the House of Boucheron, which teamed with Girard-Perregaux to bring timepieces of haute horology and haute joaillerie to light. The brand’s newest one-of-a-kind Hera Tourbillon is an example of beauty and technical perfection that demonstrates the French brand’s savoir-faire. Beating at the heart of this peacock timepiece is the instantly recognizable three gold Bridges Tourbillon from Girard-Perregaux. The mechanism itself is set with two different shades of green tourmalines, along with diamonds, to create the body of the peacock. A ring of 52 round-cut diamonds encircles the watchcase to form the body of the sculpted peacock, whose feathers are set en tremblant, to move with the wearer’s movements. The peacock consists of more than 35 carats of diamonds, Paraiba tourmalines and sapphires. In fact, the entire bracelet is set with 271 diamonds, 868 blue sapphires, 426 purple sapphires, 310 Paraiba tourmalines and one blue cabochon sapphire. The watch retails for just under $1 million.
Topping that price tag is the new Hublot Big Bang Tourbillon that nets out at just about $3 million. The one-of-a-kind tourbillon is a masterpiece of 637 baguette diamonds weighing more than 140 carats. Its creation required 45 gem cutters working approximately 2,000 hours.
It was clear from the artistic expression and innovative technology exhibited at the show that whether one wants a diamond watch with just a few stones on the dial or a full-blown piece of unique jewelry, the watch industry is here to deliver!
