Blue Monday: The New Rolex Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona

Rolex Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona reference 126506

When we first saw the new Rolex Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona at Watches and Wonders Geneva earlier this year, we thought it was the standout from the assortment at Rolex. That effectively means it would be one of the world’s most talked about watches this year. If you scan just the pages of our summer issue for World of Watches, you might begin to think that this may be true. To make a long story short, it is not — while the 60^th anniversary of the world’s most important chronograph sees the watch on the podium, the comments sections on the Internet are very keen on two colourful stablemates.

The world has been here before, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Cosmograph Daytona. The special platinum version of the 2013 chronograph eventually proved to be very influential. Bear that in mind when looking at the 2023 version with its remarkable exhibition caseback (a first for the collection). The platinum model, reference 126506, is primarily a reference to the 2013 model, also because the aforementioned exhibition caseback allows us to talk directly about the new calibre 4131. This new calibre features the Rolex Chronergy escapement and other small improvements (reportedly to the self-winding system) but the official specifications remain unchanged.

To begin with, the watch retains all its signature features and does not see the introduction of a date mechanism or anything drastic like that. There is still enough that is different about this new reference, some of which are surprising. Space is certainly one area we can get into, because although the published specifications remain 40mm, the watch feels larger. The new collection does play with spaces everywhere, including the subdials whose tracks are now noticeably slimmer. The case itself is slimmer than the outgoing model, but the specifications say nothing about this.

caseback of Rolex Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona reference 126506

It should be noted that the visual and tactile changes will only be obvious to people who have worn and handled the latest reference and the outgoing one. If you have experience with more versions of this storied chronograph, you will have a deeper appreciation for the evolutionary journey of the Daytona even if you do have a favourite set of features. If you are totally new to the Daytona, then this will not matter at all. In fact, things will be clearer in some ways because Rolex is moving towards standardising elements of the Daytona, including the shape of the lugs (now symmetrical in all versions).

The bezel ring, an immediately recognisable change for 2023, is also consistent throughout the range of five current model references. This ring is in the same material as the case, although models with precious metal bezels will obviously not have this feature. Where it is deployed, the bezel remains completely in Cerachrom, not as an insert — it has just gotten a frame now, possibly for protective reasons but this is merely speculation on our part.

This article was first published on Issue #69 of World of Watches.

All photos courtesy of Rolex.

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IWC’s Perpetual Legacy: Celebrating Kurt Klaus and the Evolution of a Watchmaking Icon

As you read this issue, a titan of watchmaking will have just celebrated his 90th birthday. Plenty of watches make it well past this mark but this reminds us that mere mortals often do not, even an august personage such as Kurt Klaus. In a leap year that sees the WOW team pay special attention to perpetual calendars, we were nevertheless surprised to learn of this momentous occasion while doing research on the aforementioned complication. Klaus is, of course, most famous for his seminal work on the perpetual calendar for IWC, where he made a mark that is still felt today. If you have an IWC perpetual calendar from the Klaus era onwards, you bear testament to this legacy.

The perpetual calendar at IWC has two distinct phases – before Kurt Klaus and after Kurt Klaus. As noted in our special in the Autumn issue of WOW, the perpetual calendar has not had many significant developments in the last 100 years. One of the few developments worth taking note of was Klaus’ work in 1980s. According to IWC and plenty of published reports, Klaus was IWC’s head watchmaker in the early 1980s, and he had it in mind to do the unthinkable – improve on the mechanical perpetual calendar. To cut the suspense, this would go on to become the criminally underrated Da Vinci Chronograph Perpetual Calendar in 1985. Them’s fighting words, as they say, but it all makes sense when you consider that the all-indications-adjusted-by-one-crown system emerged from this multi-complication.

Of course, that means all the contemporary IWC perpetual calendars, including the four that debuted at Watches and Wonders Geneva in April, share this characteristic. The brand once again notes what a boon this system is for users. To explain a little here, before Klaus’ innovation in the 1980s, each calendar indication – including the moon phase – had its own adjustment mechanism. This was usually a recessed pusher on the case flanks, and plenty of perpetual calendars maintain the same system even now. So, if your perpetual calendar winds down and you leave it alone while wearing other watches, you will then have to adjust each calendar indication forward to the right ones. If you have left the watch alone for a long while, this can get quite tedious.

Quick-Setting

Portugieser Perpetual Calendar movement calibre 52616

Kurt Klaus figured out the logical solution here, using the very grand lever that kept all indications synched up in the course of normal running. He proposed synchronising all the calendar information such that adjusting one element automatically adjusts all the others. So, if the 24-hour wheel is advanced by the user to the tune of one full revolution, the day, date, moon phase and year also advance accordingly. As a quick note, this is not the same as setting the date by advancing the minute hand 24 times…calendar adjustments are done at position one of the crown while time-setting is at position 2. That is precisely what you will find in the four Portugieser Perpetual Calendar 44 watches, all new for 2024 — but this is also true of every other kind of perpetual calendar in the current IWC families. These four watches will serve to illustrate the qualities of IWC perpetual calendars, and they happen to be in the same collection so they share other characteristics besides.

All are approximately 44.4mm and 14.9mm thick, with the signature barely-there Portugieser bezel. This means there is a lot of dial real estate for the many indications of the IWC perpetual calendar, including the signature double moon phase at noon. Arguably, the Portugieser aesthetic is the best of all for the information-heavy perpetual calendar so you might be surprised to learn that this classic complication only debuted in the collection in 2003. The Big Pilot is a good fit too but that family looks its best with just the basics on the dial.

On that note, what do we have on the dial of these perpetual calendars then? Starting with the moon phase display is actually of the state of the moon’s phases as seen in the northern and southern hemispheres. At 3 o’clock, we find the date and power reserve within the same subdial, while at 9 o’clock, the day of the week shares another subdial with the running seconds. At 6 o’clock, the month indication is on its own. As usual, these displays create a subtle harmony on the dial, overall. Somewhat off by itself is the digital year display, at 10 o’clock.

Establishing a Legacy

Hard at work beneath the dial (the Horizon blue variant is a joy to behold in person) is the calibre 52616, which consists of a base movement with a long power reserve (7 days) and the perpetual calendar module dial-side alongside the motionworks. It is this calendar system that marks the genius of Kurt Klaus and establishes his legacy, as noted earlier. To return to that story then, Klaus figured out that the calendar system could be simplified and that it would be a great boon. As a result, calibre 52616 has something like 385 components but only 81 of those are related to the perpetual calendar module. According to IWC, Klaus had the idea of making the calendar module separate from the base movement. He also knew that by synchronising the calendar indications, including the moon phase display, he could do away with the standard correctors that afflicted most perpetual calendars. This would reduce the number of parts, allow for more robust cases and improve the user experience. For IWC, this represents something ideal, or close to it, because the brand has built up a reputation as a maker of tool watches.

Looking at the current crop of four watches, you might not immediately think ‘tool watch’ when you look at one. Like the other Horizon Blue and Dune dial variants, these Portugieser watches are cased in white gold. As for the Obsidian and Silver Moon dial variants, they are cased in Armor Gold. All four dials are not galvanised or PVD treated and the like. They are actually executed with 15 layers of transparent lacquer, further elevating the watches past the point of tool watches. Hammering home this point are the gold applique numerals, which are applied by hand. All told, IWC says there are up to 60 steps in the making of the dials.

Other details about the watches also belie notions of pure functionality. These include the Santoni alligator straps, which are in four matching shades, and the double box-glass sapphire crystals. Unusually, the hands of each model are gold-plated (rhodium for the Horizon Blue watch) rather than being solid as one might expect. This might get revisited later so look for changes in the specifications of these models if they make you do a double-take but have not yet made you pull the trigger. Pricewise, all the gold models here are north of SGD 60,000, which is good relative value.

This article will appear on WOW’s upcoming Legacy Issue

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The Alchemy of Gold: Watchmaking’s Most Innovative Alloys

Everose Gold

These are all complicated points and we will be covering them briefly. We bring this point to the fore because fine watchmaking has been in the public eye itself recently for the investment angle. Specifically, some types of watches might qualify as alternative investment assets. To be clear, we have always argued (or at least cautioned) against this but we acknowledge reality and there are many of you, dear readers, who are intrigued by the potential of watches to not only retain value but also to grow it.

Some years ago, before we dared to comment on the phenomenon of investing in watches, we hinted at what a dark world this might herald. It was an Editor’s Note with the catchy title Watches as Currency and watches cased in precious metal are the personification of this idea. If gold, in particular, is a kind of currency, then wearing watches cased in this material will really be like having cash strapped to one’s wrist. Well perhaps just a digital display that indicates how much the watch in question is valued at. A good way to grab the attention of thieves you say? Welcome to the world of those who rock all-gold watches, and Singapore might just be the safest place on earth to do this.

As a counterpoint, the watch-buying community knows all too well that the best deals available on the secondary market are timepieces cased in precious metals. That means any precious metal, not just gold. To be blunt, these are the types of watches that shed the most value, including examples from the biggest names in Swiss watchmaking. Generally speaking, the why of this is hard to explain, especially versus amped-up valuations on steel watches, but the hypothesis (from specialists, including us) is that the precious metal recommended retail prices have always been too high. This is especially true when any given brand also offers a model in a non-precious metal variant too.

Magic Gold

Hublot flexed its materials science muscle in 2012 with its demonstration of the properties of Magic Gold. While the manufacture was known for its forward-thinking ways prior to this, its fame was tied closely to synthetic materials. Hublot also has a proprietary gold alloy called King Gold, which owes its superior reddish hue to a higher-than-normal mix of copper, but this achievement was dwarfed by the arrival of Magic Gold, a type of metal matrix composite (MMC), which we covered briefly in Summer. Hublot is certainly not the only watch brand experimenting with MMCs but we focus here because Magic Gold is probably the most familiar material for watch cases, and remains a part of the core collection – Cerachrom and Ceragold are a different matter.

When it debuted, Magic Gold promised a golden revolution of sorts because it was meant to be a scratch-resistant gold alloy. It does not take expert knowledge to realise that gold is a relatively soft and dense metal that is prone to scratching – steel is significantly harder but no less of a scratch magnet, as they say in watch collecting circles. Hublot’s mission was to create and deliver a material that would qualify as 18k gold (as most gold watch cases are) that also exhibited a degree of scratch resistance that was all but impossible for a metal alloy. The manufacture decided to add ceramic (either as continuous strands or particulates) to a gold matrix to achieve this end. Nothing like this had been tried before in watchmaking so Hublot turned to the materials science experts at the EPFL in Lausanne. The manufacture has its own research and development facility, but fundamental research is impossible to do in a silo.

The materials specialists began with selecting their raw materials. This included 24k gold, aluminium, and boron carbide – boron carbide is a ceramic and is the third hardest substance known to humans. The proportions used were as follows: 75 percent (gold), three percent (aluminium) and 22 percent (boron carbide). Boron carbide powder is first compacted into a desired shape before being sintered to form a porous solid. Pure molten 24k gold is then forced into these pores under 200 bars of pressure – Hublot once described this as forcing water into a room full of footballs (EuropaStar, 2011). This revealing metaphor indicates that rather than the ceramic being the matrix that holds gold, it is the other way around. This is perfectly in line with Magic Gold being an MMC of course. Needless to say, Magic Gold is harder and more resistant to scratches than traditional gold alloys, while still maintaining the luxurious appearance and properties of gold. How tough is it, exactly? Well, apparently only diamond tools can make a dent in Magic Gold.

To machine Magic Gold, CNC machines equipped with ultrasonic cutters and diamond-tipped tools had to be specially ordered from Germany. Our last update on Magic Gold noted that 28 bezels in Magic Gold took three weeks to machine and that only between 30-40 complete cases could be produced monthly. This is unlikely to have changed as Magic Gold remains truly rare in the Hublot assortment. It is no small thing that this innovation remains in play, and it has had more than 10 years now of testing Magic Gold in the wild. No solution is perfect, and Magic Gold may yet receive an update in the years to come.

Sedna Gold

Qualified honesty has everything to do with why watch brands with big industrial bases tend to flex materials science credentials with creations that advertise their expertise boldly. While Sedna gold was once associated exclusively with Omega, which introduced it in 2013, it is now a staple part of Blancpain offerings too. Needless to say, both brands are a part of the Swatch Group universe and the presence of Sedna gold at both brands is only one marker of the synergies at play. With this fact in mind, we will acknowledge the material developments with precious metals at Omega but would be remiss in our duties as a specialist commentator if we did not note the great work done at Rado, Tissot and Swatch itself in the area of ceramics, composites and polymers (various plastics).

Hublot Big Bang Integrated Time Only King Gold

All of the above is just proof positive that Swatch Group knows how to do fundamental research into new materials and how to industrialise the same. While in 2016 we wrote that Omega was making waves with its anti-magnetic movements, today we could report that many Swatch Group brands have followed suit. LiquidMetal, a zirconium-based amorphous alloy that gets inlaid into ceramic bezels using a combination of high heat and high pressure, was also deployed by Omega first, but has since been adopted by Blancpain. When it comes to case materials proper, Omega was also first out of the gate with Ceragold in 2012, which was a combination of ceramic and gold, although not quite rising to the level of Magic Gold.

While Ceragold is indeed a niche material for Omega, Sedna gold is anything but. Named after the red planetoid which was once the furthest observed object of that mass in our solar system, the 18k alloy is a proprietary blend of gold, copper and palladium. Like other rose gold alloys, Sedna owes its distinctive colour to its copper content. The palladium content functions to give the colour long-term stability, much as platinum does in other alloys. While Omega has used Sedna gold aggressively, with the material mostly supplanting traditional rose gold in all collections, Blancpain is currently limiting it to just the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe collection.

It would be remiss of us to neglect Omega’s other precious metal alloy efforts in recent years, which range from Canopus gold to perhaps the best-known of all proprietary blends, Moonshine gold. Of course, there the key messaging was handled by Swatch, which actually used it in a version of the MoonSwatch. We say this is the most widely recognised brand-owned gold alloy because Swatch has a huge reach – the Mission to Moonshine watch is probably one of the most popular Swatch models of 2023 – and it never fails to mention that Moonshine is an Omega trademark.

Honey Gold

Also returning in this updated list is the alloy introduced by A. Lange & Söhne in 2010. It originally appeared in the Homage to F.A. Lange trio of limited edition watches and is known officially as Honeygold; we typically list it as honey gold as a matter of house style. The Glashütte manufacture has been remarkably consistent in keeping the use of honey gold as limited as possible. It was only five years after its auspicious and audacious debut that A. Lange & Söhne decided to roll it out again, this time at Watches and Wonders 2015.

At this Hong Kong precursor to the grand Geneva show, the 1815 200th Anniversary F.A. Lange debuted as a 200-piece limited edition. Subsequently, honey gold has featured in a handful of releases, not all of which are related at all to F. A. Lange. This year, it is the Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon Honeygold Lumen, which features prominently elsewhere this issue. Other key models in this proprietary gold alloy are the Zeitwerk Minute Repeater (last year) and standard Zeitwerk (2021) watches; a second trio of Homage to F.A. Lange watches (2020); and Langematik Perpetual (2019).

Aesthetically, honey gold’s hue falls between its pink and yellow siblings, with a noticeably lower saturation – it is paler, yet redder than yellow gold, and has a marked resemblance to honey (no duh). This alloy’s colour stems from its higher proportions of copper vis-à-vis regular yellow gold, and the addition of zinc; obviously, this is still an 18k alloy so the proportions are in the remaining 25 percent of the alloy that are not gold.

Honey gold was not developed by A. Lange & Sohne with only aesthetics in mind; this was not even the primary reason. Instead, the manufacture was keen on creating a gold alloy that was more scratch-resistant for its cases. With a hardness of 320 Vickers, honey gold has around twice the hardness of standard 18k yellow gold, which lives in the 150 to 160 Vickers range. The result, by all accounts, is a hardier watch case that is less prone to dings and scratches.

Despite its greater hardness, honey gold is not necessarily more difficult to work. Any equipment that is primed to machine steel cases, which are even harder, is more than capable of handling honey gold; A. Lange & Söhne does not make cases anyway. When used in movement components, however, the material does present challenges to the finisseurs. The Homage to F.A. Lange watches have balance cocks executed in honey gold rather than German silver, as is typically the case. Hand-engraving these pieces with the manufacture’s signature floral motif is thus more difficult and time-consuming, while also requiring a special set of burins with harder blades.

IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar; Opposite: IWC Portugieser Hand- Wound Tourbillon Day & Night

Armour Gold

A recent addition to the parade of proprietary gold alloys, Armour Gold is IWC’s first ride into the realm of precious metals but certainly not its first rodeo in the material innovation circuit. Like many of the watch brands featured here, IWC is known for playing with materials, including being the first top-tier brand to use ceramic for its cases. This became an IWC specialty in some ways, with observers always looking forward to hardy yet aesthetically pleasing materials from the brand’s new releases. In this way, Armour Gold is very much playing to established strengths in IWC’s watches-for-professionals game.

In our chat with the professionals at IWC in Geneva, we got into the substance of Armour Gold, in passing. The gist of it had to do with functional relevance, even when the matter of aesthetics was weightier. So, yes, Armour Gold does purport to live up to its name; in fact, every alloy on this list has some degree of functional distinctiveness, though we did not perform any tests ourselves. IWC introduced its proprietary gold rather quietly, back in 2019; a number of journalists were surprised that Armour Gold was not new for this year.

For IWC, the pertinent qualities of Armour Gold are its resistance to wear and we know the manufacture would not have bothered if it was just to have a different colour. When the material was introduced with the Big Pilot’s Watch Constant-Force Tourbillon Edition Le Petit Prince, the brand noted that it was its first experiment with so-called hard gold. This kind of gold is approximately five to 10 times more wear-resistant than standard red gold. By wear-resistant, we understand this to mean that the material resists scratches better than regular gold alloys. In another press release for a watch that used Armour Gold, the brand noted that it achieves these levels of resistance and hardness thanks to “improved microstructure,” though it is not evident what exactly this means.

At present, IWC only offers nine models in Armour Gold, which includes three novelties this year (Portugieser Perpetual Calendar 44 with black or white dial; and Portugieser Hand-Wound Tourbillon Day & Night).

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Patek Philippe Cubitus Proves It's Hip to be Square

Patek Philippe has launched its first new collection of watches in 25 years with the Cubitus, which is also the Geneva watchmaker’s first square watch to enter the permanent collection. There are three new Patek Philippe Cubitus references for now, two time-only with date models (Ref. 5821/1A-001 and 5821/1AR-001) and one very impressive grand date watch with day of the week and moon phase indications (Ref. 5822P-001).

To dig into this a bit for those for whom the naming terms are arcane, Ref. 5821/1A is cased in steel, with a matching bracelet while Ref. 5821/1AR combines steel and rose gold, again with a bracelet that matches. In terms of movements, which is at the heart of any conversation about Patek Philippe watches, the simple models use existing calibres (26-330 S C) while the complicated model introduces a new one (240 PS CI J LU).

Real news is harder to find in watchmaking than evidence of water on Mars but this reveal by Patek Philippe certainly qualifies. Yes, it is that significant. We will have much more to say about Ref. 5822P but first, we must discuss the character of the collection, which means the look and feel. You will not be alone in thinking that the Cubitus looks like some kind of long lost Nautilus relative and Patek Philippe does reference the sports elegance concept, which is closely related to that legendary collection. Patek Philippe President Thierry Stern notes that what we see as Nautilus references are really key elements of the brand his family has led for three generations. He also noted that a true square watch was always in his mind.

"(Two reasons why the square shape is important), first because I never had it in (the brand’s permanent) collection, and I always enjoy seeing some of the square watches (from other brands),” said Stern. "And secondly, because I thought it would be good to surprise people with it. It's a personal challenge for me also to say, well, nobody expected me to go there!"

As for the name, apparently, Cubitus just popped into Stern’s mind before anything else. At the press briefing for the launch, it was clear that many options were considered in the four years or so that the collection was in development. The use of the existing calibres, including the base 240 calibre, does indicate that the brand was flexible in its approach.

Those familiar with the Nautilus will note that the Cubitus looks to be a sort of second coming in particular for the now-discontinued Ref. 5711A. If this occurred to you, consider that there are no significant models in sports elegance from any brand that are square. Not to make comparisons but since Stern brought it up, even icons such as the Cartier Santos or Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso are either not square or not sports elegance.

In short, this is new territory for Patek Philippe, even if it appears to be finding water in the Sahara rather than off-world. On that note, we do not expect the heat of Ref. 5711 transferring to Ref. 5821, although Stern anticipates that new collection will be oversubscribed, just as the Nautilus and Aquanaut references are. On that somewhat gnarly subject of scarcity, Stern confirms that production will not be scaling up; for reference, current production levels are approximately 72,000 pieces annually and we had it last at 70,000 last year.

Finally, we will leave off with the feel of the watches, which we were privileged to experience at the launch in Munich. The brand promised that the feel of the piece would drive off any doubts we might have. The proof is in the wearing, especially since all three watches are 45mm. Of course, this is a proper square and the integrated lugs mean that the size is actually comfortable. For the versions with bracelets, the Nautilus impression will be unmistakeable, right down to the pins and the alternating finishings (which are also mirrored on the case, just like the Nautilus).

In this example, the images do tell the story, although we are curious to try a Nautilus on for comparison. Sadly, while such comparisons are useful, they will be difficult to arrange, given the availability issues. For now though, those of you who recall the Ref. 5711 fondly and missed it will find plenty to like about the Cubitus. Only time will tell if the Ref. 5821 will merit the same desirability. As for the technically compelling Ref. 5822, we will save that for another more detailed post because it deserves its own space.

And, to really finish, prices have been updated on the Patek Philippe website and the new watches shape up as follows: Ref. 5822P-001 – SGD 128,000; Ref. 5821/1A-001 – SGD 59,700; Ref. 5821/1AR-001 – SDG 88,700.

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Franck Muller’s Triple-Jumping Marvel

What you are looking at is the Franck Muller Long Island Evolution Master Jumper, which features three jumping counters – one for the hours, one for the minutes and one for the date, all arranged in-line on the vertical axis. Oftentimes, you can tell everything about a watch from its name, which is completely untrue here. Indeed, even looking at the watch does not immediately reveal what is happening. The triple-jumping indicators are the stars of the show, making Franck Muller the only watchmaker with such a timepiece. This extraordinary achievement has been recognized by the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve (GPHG) with a nomination for Best Men’s Complication.

While the watch is new for 2024, it was revealed earlier this year in Geneva during the Watchland premiere of Franck Muller’s novelties (we saw the watches at that time and include our impressions here). The Master Jumper seemed destined for greatness even then because, Franck Muller advertises in its press materials, the watch is the first to show the hours, minutes and dates via jumping mechanical digital indicators. The style of the presentation leaves the observer in no doubt that only Franck Muller could have made the movement that powers this watch, the manual-winding FM 3100-L. This is despite the fact that the Long Island case is perhaps less famous than the Cintrée Curvex and the Vanguard.

A watch like the Master Jumper speaks truly to the character of Franck Muller, which calls itself the Master of Complications – it does not get much more masterful than the creation of a new movement that interprets time in an unprecedented way. As usual with such watches, we must expend some energy on the technical details. You will no doubt wonder if the jumping action here is instantaneous and Franck Muller says it is.

Nine Naphat wearing the Franck Muller Long Island Evolution Master Jumper

This is no small feat as there are five discs that need to turn – the minute and date displays use double discs while the hour indicator is a single disc. This explains why the power reserve here is just 30 hours, despite the two-barrel construction. One of these barrels powers the raw timekeeping function (the seconds, which are not displayed) and the date display, while the other powers the hour and minute discs.

Of course, a wristwatch is meant to be worn and here the peculiarities of the 35.3 x 48.1mm case will come into play. The short lugs make a difference and the relatively slim 12.5mm height helps in terms of wearability. Franck Muller is making the most of this case with its decision to go with brushed titanium paired with a green anodized aluminium bezel. The bezel is microblasted prior to treatment and the case is PVD-treated after brushing; Franck Muller points out that the brushing is done by hand, which might surprise until one considers that only 100 of these watches will be made. The movement too boasts a wealth of finishing touches, which is very welcome given that this is a manual-winder.

One final note about the Franck Muller Long Island Evolution Master Jumper and its 100-piece run. This is exclusive to the Asia Pacific region.

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Art Meets Precision: The Slim d’Hermès Pocket Mysterious Rider

Few brands in traditional watchmaking are as committed to playfulness as Hermès, or more properly Hermès Horloger as the watchmaking aspect is called. This spirit permeates the entire brand identity though, as the Slim d’Hermès Pocket Mysterious Rider ably demonstrates. First off, this is a pocket watch that debuted after Watches and Wonders Geneva, as part of the brand’s regular Exceptional pieces series. As an aside, this is not just a limited edition – Hermès Horloger is making just three of these, and you will understand why when you learn a little bit about the handcraftsmanship that goes into the 45mm white gold watch. But we are getting ahead of ourselves...

What will strike you first of all here is the colourful cover, which you would be correct to guess is a motif transposed from an Hermès scarf. A finalist in the Grand Prix du Carré Hermès, the Dutch artist Viktor Hachmang creates pop art, essentially, with a dash of manga and Japanese city pop. His bright colours and geometric patterns bring the mysterious rider to life, portrayed on a stylised alternate universe Tronesque motorbike against the backdrop of a shopfront reminiscent of the historic Hermès boutique at 24 Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris. And yes, this is not the horse you might have expected from Hermès, and that we surmise is very much the point.

The cover of the pocket watch, featuring the leader of the pack, is crafted using the intricate champlevé enamel technique. This process involves pitting the metal and then filling the grooves with coloured glass powders mixed with natural oils. The material is then fired multiple times in a kiln at more than 800°C to set the pigments. Hidden behind the resulting brilliant cover is a stately white enamel dial, created via a similar if less exacting technique. The dial is created through a meticulous process of layering enamel, with each layer dried and fired before being adorned with hand-painted red numerals and hour markers. Needless to say, dial or cover, if the material cracks in the kiln, there is no fixing it. The craftsperson has to start over.

At the heart of the Slim d'Hermès Pocket Mysterious Rider beats the ultra-thin Hermès H1950 mechanical self-winding movement, made by long-term partners Vaucher. The timepiece is completed with a matt Rouge H alligator leather strap and pouch, crafted in keeping with Hermès' renowned saddlery and leather expertise, enhancing the deep crimson tones of this remarkable creation.

Movement: AutomaticH1950;42-hour power reserve
Case: 45mm in white gold; water-resistant to 30m
Strap: Matt rouge H alligator cordlet and pouch
Price: On application

This article was first seen on WOW's #74 Autumn 2024 Issue

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Gold and Platinum Redefine Fine Watchmaking

Patek Philippe Ref.5236P with the diamond indicating that the case is platinum

After almost a decade of deep dives into material innovation in traditional watchmaking, we have finally come full circle. Way back in 2016, we published a longish treatise on gold in watchmaking, which is unsurprising given the popularity of the metal over the centuries. We write centuries here but really we mean the entirety of human history, written and otherwise, because contemporary timepieces are also pieces of jewellery. And so it should surprise absolutely no one that in this second take on gold, we will be outdoing ourselves. In fact, we already have because we published a preamble to this story in the Spring this year.

The watchmaking business has always been about both style and substance. Timekeeping is, even today, primarily a utility that drives productivity, efficiency and accuracy – it can literally tell us our place in the universe, depending on how the question is phrased. As with anything this important, there is a symbolic value to be had. It is a value with both power and prestige, which the ruling classes have always understood. Thus, we have arrived at the simplest connection between time and gold.

Now, we will have to address the matter of price quite prominently in this story (and its constituent parts) but it is worth bearing in mind, from the outset, that price is just one of many facets. More than any other precious metal, gold has a certain reputation as a proven store of value, a hedge against both inflation and deflation, and a stable investment class. Gold and silver are the only precious metals to be widely used as both jewellery and currency, distinguishing them from other precious metals. Gold is especially relevant for this examination because there is only one wristwatch in silver today that is widely recognised.

Growing and Retaining Value

Some years ago, before we dared to comment on the phenomenon of investing in watches, we hinted at what a dark world this might herald. It was an Editor’s Note with the catchy title Watches as Currency, and watches cased in precious metal are the personification of this idea. If gold, in particular, is a kind of currency, then wearing watches cased in this material will really be like having cash strapped to one’s wrist. Well, perhaps just a digital display that indicates how much the watch in question is valued at. A good way to grab the attention of thieves you say? Welcome to the world of those who rock all-gold watches, and Singapore might just be the safest place on earth to do this.

Reversal of Fortune

The current environment, which has seen prices falling on the secondary market across the board while also registering record prices for gold (US$2,431.55 in April), is an interesting one. If brands are really forcing an ascent of the price-to-value peak right now, then we expect that a number will not make it to base camp. Pay close attention to the new precious metal models when they settle in at your retailer – or whenever you get the call with regards to something particularly desirable. If it is desirable, that is.

This is the moment that this introduction gets a little contentious because there is no inherent novelty in steel or gold cases. The great innovation of Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe in proposing steel watches that were as expensive as the same in gold was mainly about price. As my peer Ruckdee Chotjinda once joked, the innovation there was the price. Enter Richard Mille with ultra-contemporary materials at a price far beyond what the same watch would be in precious metals – it helped that no such watches existed, of course but the innovation here still hangs on the matter of price. As far as even the most exotic of gold options out there go, price innovation is difficult to achieve.

Now, this is not to say that something with a functional benefit, such as honey gold or armor gold and almost certainly magic gold, does not add value; it does. The limiting factor is the 18k standard, which is a regulatory matter. Steel does not have this issue, and of course the clever composites and alloys deployed by Hublot, Richard Mille and Panerai have no limits. So, in a way, this story argues at key moments that gold and other precious metals have to be brutally honest because they are being held to account. Pricing innovation can only go so far here, but it is certainly not absent.

Qualified Honesty

This (qualified) honesty has everything to do with why we buy watches. Watch lovers have always purchased mechanical watches for watchmaking content. Before you protest about marketing talk, we simply mean everything that makes any given watch literally tick. In the 500 years or so that mechanical clockwork has been with us, creating the housing for the mechanical bits and bobs has been trivial by comparison. Recall, for example, that it took until physicists Robert Hooke and Christiaan Huygens before springs could be used as regulators.

Remember also that Hooke and Huygens were working separately on different projects (Huygens was following up on his own invention of the pendulum regulator), and effectively building on Galileo’s foundational work with timekeeping. These scientists were all pioneering forces of their day, and their contributions – and those like them – represented the true value of time, as far as humans could measure it. In many ways, it still is; the precious metal cases and parts are just signifiers of this value. A well-made case in a precious metal is an indicator of the precisely engineered contemporary horological engine housed within. Indeed, such a case or bracelet might not be completely solid, just to keep the watch comfortably wearable. At this point, if you compare steel watch with a gold one, for example, you might wonder why then is the price jump so high...

Before we move on to these matters of value (in the section on the uses of gold in watchmaking), we do have to mention the issue of sustainability. Gold production has been in the crosshairs of activists for some years, especially the so-called artisanal mines. These are the non-industrialised mining activities of smallholders, which are somewhat obscured by statistics and figures concerned mainly with the largest producers. These, as any quick Internet search will tell you, are China, Russia and Australia as far as gold is concerned (and we will come back to this shortly).

Pricing Issues

Now, watchmaking is not the biggest user of gold in the consumer segment – that would be jewellery. But given that brands such as Cartier, Chopard and Bvlgari are all major players in the watch world too, the ethical issues regarding dirty gold cannot be easily set aside. We give the issue a brief mention in the section on the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) and the Dodd- Frank Act (2010) but we concede that the issue requires more in-depth work.

This brings us back to the value proposition and the lack of clarity in the matter of gold and precious metals in watchmaking. How much more should one pay for a watch in gold over the same in steel? Why is a watch cased in platinum endowed with a higher retail price when the raw material has been cheaper than gold since the Great Recession? As we noted in our special on platinum, this metal represents an opportunity for watchmakers to do interesting things but brands have work to do in making the case (no pun intended) for it. Intriguingly, this might include technical innovation because platinum remains tough to work with and that partly accounts for why the material remains underused in jewellery and watches.

Continuing on this admittedly dangerous path, there is also the matter of persistently high prices on the secondary market for the biggest and most desirable brands. Mostly, this has to do with steel models and said models often eclipse the RRP of their gold counterparts (or get perilously close to doing so). Thus, switching focus to more precious metal options is only logical, especially when one considers that the top two percent of the world’s high rollers account for a massive 40 percent of all luxury purchases (according to Bain & Co).

A Bvlgari Serpenti Misteriosi Chimera in the process of being assembled

Pure Capital

As for power players, central banks are gobbling up gold like pandemic-spooked shoppers making a run on toilet paper. There is plenty of evidence for this, thanks to transparency laws and the like (therefore, see the news). Not for nothing, the Swiss consider gold a currency so the material is not subject to VAT and other seemingly relevant taxes. On the matter of consumer markets, anecdotal evidence suggests that some of the most important ones do not shy away from the precious stuff. This refers to Asian countries of all sorts, for those who might be confused; unhappily, there is not much separation between demand for investment purposes and for aesthetics. It is worth noting though that if you have bullion or coins, that is an investment. If your gold is in watches then that is something else.

This all adds up to a scenario where things are looking on the up for gold and its kin, whatever the price of the raw stuff does. Arguably, if you look at prices of precious metals and how it relates to watches, it has never been straightforward and has never needed to be – no one ever asked that watches cased in steel follow the price trends of the raw material. We do agree that this should be understood in the context of watchmaking content, as mentioned earlier, as long as that also includes branding.

This collection of stories about precious metals in watchmaking does try to stick to what is factual, for practical reasons, because we cannot add brand value into the picture in any meaningful way. That does not mean it does not exist and is not impactful. This one is entirely up to you, the would-be buyer. Some models look promising but only because you have already justified the premium to yourself.

Palladium

Used very sparingly in watchmaking, palladium is - like some other metals in these sidebars - a platinum group metal. In the periodic table, it is known by the symbol Pd, and its atomic number is 46. Palladium shares many of the same properties of platinum, including density and malleability. In fact, it is the least dense of the metals in its group and its melting point is the least extreme, although still high. It also shares the same catalytic properties that make it as appealing as platinum to industry, and it was the most cost- effective. In the recent past, palladium

ore prices have outpaced platinum, in turn putting pressure on platinum ore prices. Besides the problematic issue of most supply coming from Russia, important mines there had already been hit by environmental issues. As a result, palladium is estimated by some sources (Statista) to be 15 times as rare as platinum, which itself is just about as rare as gold. Since 2016, the price of palladium (per gramme) has increased fourfold; obviously, the effects of COVID-19 and the current conflict in Ukraine have not been factored in yet.

On the other hand, there is no good reason to use palladium for watches, since it is very similar to platinum but does not have the cachet of that precious metal. At the same time, it might also be a good deal more dear than platinum, because of industrial demand and various supply constraints. Among Swiss watchmakers, Ulysse Nardin, Audemars Piguet and H. Moser & Cie have used palladium in recent years. Interestingly, the bulk metallic glass (BMG) of the Royal Oak Jumbo Extra-Thin 15202XT for a recent (though not the most recent) edition of OnlyWatch featured palladium in the mix.

For more on the latest in luxury watch news and releases, click here.

WOW Autumn 2024 Issue Arrives on Newsstands Now

The most complex issue of WOW Singapore 2024 lives up to its own billing, giving the team the chance to take up a vigorous technical challenge: breaking down the perpetual calendar. This high complication anchors the Autumn issue as we try to do a proper explainer on it. We are certainly not the first, as the credits for that section clearly demonstrate. Nevertheless, this is important work for specialist magazines: you will not find in-depth explainers anywhere else. Without tooting our own horn, or horns as it happens since I am speaking for all specialists, we really do go all the way. This is as far removed from fire-and-forget opinionated reviews as space-time is from the aether. Basically, if you make some point or other about a feature of nature, you can get it right or wrong – and it does not do to err.

This is why we dedicated so much time and effort to our maximalist 20-plus page perpetual calendar special. Speaking of which, the gorilla of a main feature of this issue reminded me of a point I missed out on in last year’s chronograph special. It is a general thing that works for all mechanical systems. In every case that some mechanical function sparks your curiosity, try to focus on the hows rather than the whats – meaning understanding how a watch works is much more rewarding than working out what every component is or does. The advantage is this: once you know how something works, you can figure out the details. This is not advice from me, but from the watchmakers who teach watchmaking to those who will take up the craft. It is also the advice we received from the bosses at Panerai, Parmigiani Fleurier, Rado, TAG Heuer and Tissot.

On that note, we did the bulk of these interviews earlier in the year, and events happened to overtake our interview with Julien Tornare, who was the CEO of TAG Heuer when we spoke; he is now the CEO of Hublot. Nevertheless, Tornare’s nature should speak to how he will approach his role at Hublot, and we think we did a reasonable job at painting a portrait of him.

This digression aside, it allows us to segue into the cover watch, which is the first forged carbon PRX, and the first Tissot with such a dial and case. The story itself concerns a number of new PRX models, including the popular Grendizer model. Just before the issue was sent off to print, news broke of the first new forged carbon case from the pioneer itself, Audemars Piguet. The relevance has to do with the Nivachron hairspring that features in the PRX collection (not the forged carbon one though). This was a joint development between Swatch Group and none other than Audemars Piguet. This makes us wonder if the re-emergence of forged carbon has its roots in broader industrial cooperation.

We add this bit of purely fact-free conjecture, which is not in the issue, because it allowed us to have some fun with connecting the dots. While this one is not serious at all, it could only have been done by a specialist. We make our own sort of fun, which we hope you will find to be true across the Autumn issue, especially in the Conversation, which is back, as usual. The discussion between the editors of Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand is also a bit more technical than usual, although still slightly silly. This time, the subject is watchmaking complications and how to do them right. Fitting.

For more on the latest in luxury watch reads from WOW, click here.