Every spring, Geneva plays host to horology’s most anticipated event: Watches and Wonders, a gathering of the industry’s power players and its rising stars under one enormous roof. The fair’s clout shows no signs of waning. In 2024, it pulled in 49,000 visitors. This year? Over 55,000. Retailers, collectors, and journalists flew in from all around the world.
Sixty brands showed up, including newcomers Bvlgari and six independents, upping the ante and the noise. The headliners were hard to miss. Vacheron Constantin marked its 270th anniversary with the world’s most complicated wristwatch, while Zenith celebrated 160 years, Roger Dubuis turned 30, and Hublot commemorated 20 years of the Big Bang. Swiss brands sure love round numbers.
Rolex made waves with its bold Oyster Perpetual Land-Dweller, featuring the Dynapulse escapement, while Cartier garnered attention by reissuing the Tank a Guichet—not exactly unexpected, but it received enthusiastic applause nonetheless.
Elsewhere, trends emerged. Blue dials, never out of style, returned with renewed purpose. Several houses debuted signature house shades as if to say: our blue is bluer than yours. Gold watches, from cases to bracelets, shone brightly. Ornamental stone dials made a strong showing—each one unique, thanks to nature’s insistence on not repeating itself.
New records were also set, and statements were made. If the fair proved anything, it was that watchmaking may be steeped in tradition, but it is never stuck in time.
spotlight on blue watches
After black and white, blue is the most enduring dial colour—not exactly trendy, but consistently desirable. A few brands, however, are pushing the envelope, pushing the conversation towards whose blue reigns supreme.
Rolex, for instance, has long laid claim to Ice Blue, a crisp, frosty hue reserved exclusively for its platinum-cased watches. The new Oyster Perpetual Land-Dweller continues this tradition, pairing the icy dial with a full platinum case.
Chanel’s J12 turns 25 with a mysterious makeover. The new J12 Bleu features matte blue ceramic, a shade the maison spent five years perfecting. The result is subtle but striking—an almost inky tone that changes with the light.
For its 160th anniversary, Zenith introduces three chronographs in blue ceramic. White and black ceramics are relatively standard fare, but creating a distinctive blue shade took months. These watches combine the feel of archival watches with the freshness of today all at once.
Chopard’s Alpine Eagle collection expands its chromatic palette beyond Aletsch Blue and Rhone Blue with a new colour for the Alpine Eagle 41 XP CS Platinum. The gradient “Shades of Ice” dial shifts from pale to deeper at the rim, mimicking reflective shifts found in glacial lakes and alpine skies.
Montblanc, too, embraces the elemental theme with the new 1858 Geosphere 0 Oxygen Mount Vinson. The 43.5-mm titanium star features a glacier-inspired dial in shifting tones of blue-green and grey, achieved through the gratte-boise or wood scraper technique to give it depth and luminosity.
The case—made from a composite of quartz fibres, aluminised basalt, calcium carbonate, and blue resin—evokes the crystalline structure of ancient Antarctic glaciers.
