Apr 25, 2024 – 11.04am
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Cartier continues to carve a creative swath with treasures exploring the gamut from bracelet watches to baguette-laden jewels that render time-telling almost redundant. These are timepieces you’d look at for the pure joy of it. And who cares if the movements are quartz rather than complicated?
The Reflection de Cartier watch with its bold bangle comes in gold, with or without a carpeting of diamonds or optional jewels. Its trick is the time reflected in reverse in the opposite arm of the bracelet. The more conventional lozenge-shaped Animal Jewellery watch boasts a bezel inspired by an imaginary encounter between a zebra and crocodile. It comes in various versions set with black spinels and brilliant-cut diamonds
(1.6 carats) and, as shown, an onyx dial.
Cartier’s Reflection de Cartier and Animal Jewellery watches.
You know the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak but surely not in this form, a watch so layered you could almost dive into it. The Royal Oak Concept Flying Tourbillon “Tamara Ralph” Limited Edition was created with the haute couture designer and features an 18-carat pink gold case spanning 38.5 millimetres in the brand’s own Frosted Gold. The multilayered dial is highlighted in graded shades of brown, bronze and gold.
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Flying Tourbillon “Tamara Ralph” Limited Edition.
Why wear an expected brand when a revered maker such as Arnold & Son offers watches like its Perpetual Moon 38 Mintnight? Shimmering in shades of mint green, turquoise, teal and blue against mother-of pearl clouds, a ruthenium moon and diamond accents ice this horological cake. Inside, a fine hand-wound calibre with 72 hours’ power reserve.
Arnold & Son’s Perpetual Moon 38 Mintnight.
On message with a dial in the hue of the moment, the Bulgari Lucea arrives in a lush version of green, rendered in hand-assembled Malachite marquetry. Artisans at the Bulgari Manufacture in Switzerland select each fragment for the vibrancy of its hue and the expressiveness of its grain. Each dial, topped with diamonds as hour markers, is unique.
Bulgari Lucea.
The Reine de Naples has long reigned as one of the most desirable women’s watches, and Breguet has given it a mint makeover. (We told you green was a theme.) The ovoid dial in white mother-of-pearl is flanked by 117 snow-set diamonds, with a pear-shaped diamond at six o’clock and a briolette-cut diamond topping the crown. The hand-decorated, self-winding movement can be admired through a porthole on the reverse – if you can bear to take it off.
Breguet Reine de Naples.
The Hermès Cut – in brushed steel with optional gold or diamond bezel – is ideally sized at 36 millimetres and comes with interchangeable straps in shades to match what you’re wearing. Inside is a self-winding movement. Best of all, there’s the “halo” effect of that famed H on your wrist.
The Hermès Cut.