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 Hard-stone Dial watches
The hard-stone dial is having a moment. Stones such as lapis lazuli, onyx, malachite, and even meteorite have re-emerged due to the rising appeal of vintage pieces and the fact that no two stones are exactly alike.
Piaget, a pioneer of the category since the 1970s, is at the centre of this revival. Its boldly elegant Black Tie model—once favoured by Andy Warhol and now renamed in his honour—returns with four new watches featuring opal, tiger’s eye, green meteorite, and white meteorite dials.
A fully customisable option is also now available, allowing collectors to select a dial from 10 stone options, and tinker with the case, hands, and strap to create their own piece of Piaget-era glamour.
H. Moser & Cie. opts for a more irreverent approach with its Pop collection—stripping away logos and indexes to let brightly coloured stones like turquoise, lapis lazuli, and coral speak for themselves.
With limited editions ranging from 28 pieces per colour in the Endeavour Small Seconds Concept to a single Minute Repeater Tourbillon Concept, each is a riot of pure, unfiltered colour that subverts traditional watchmaking codes.
Chopard, on the other hand, goes all out with The Precious Hours: a set of 12 one-of-a-kind watches each with a unique hard-stone dial—from turquoise to malachite—rimmed in diamonds and crafted from ethical gold. They can be purchased individually or as a set housed in a lacquered case, ready to dazzle in unison.
As a nod to founder Georges Favre-Jacot, Zenith’s G.F.J. rounds out this ornamental flair with a re-engineered version of the legendary calibre 135. Now COSC-certified and regulated to within ±2 seconds per day, the manual movement beats at 2.5Hz with a 72-hour power reserve and a Breguet hairspring. The physical features are just as refined—a platinum case with stepped bezel and sculpted lugs, framing a dial with a blue brick guilloche outer ring, lapis lazuli centre, and a mother-of-pearl seconds subdial.
