Our Favorite Releases from Watches & Wonders Week

With Watches & Wonders in the books and a few weeks of space from the deluge of new releases, it’s time to look back on the show and figure out what really spoke to us. It was, by most accounts, a somewhat slow year for new releases, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of great watches to choose from for a retrospective article like this. And for this exercise, we’re not limiting ourselves to watches exhibited at Watches & Wonders proper, either. There were literally hundreds of brands with new watches to show throughout the city of Geneva during Watches & Wonders week. We didn’t see them all, but we caught as many as we could, and these are the watches that stand out as favorites. 

Stay tuned tomorrow for favorites from our roster of contributors!

Zach Weiss 

I usually have difficulty picking favorites after events like Watches & Wonders. One sees so much, so quickly, that making judgments is difficult, and what’s left in one’s mind after is sort of an image cloud of memories. No single thing overtakes any other. But this year was different. Since the show, I’ve found myself thinking about two watches, or rather, one watch and one case/movement combo.

The watch is the Jaeger-LeCoultre Duometre Chronograph Moon in platinum. Yes, I’ve gone full fancy pants and chosen a nearly six-figure watch, but hear me out… it was gorgeous. Admittedly, the Duometre line is one that I’ve had a bit of a fascination with over the last year or so, as the originals feel like an undervalued gem, so when I caught wind of the line’s revival, I was immediately excited about it. Though unnecessary, the concept of the dual-wing movement is fascinating, and the resulting split image dials are nothing short of stunning (perhaps the real justification for the movement design).

But seeing them in person was just a blast. Our “meeting” was us hanging out in JLC’s very nicely set up photo studio, talking to their charming PR rep and studio attendant. We learned about the watches while passing them around, and the instant that massive, 42.5mm, platinum case hit my wrist, a smile uncontrollably came across my face. The new “savonette” design, domed crystal, and coppery salmon dial worked so well together. The complex yet balanced dial design, is hypnotic, just beckoning to be stared at all day. Yet, despite being haute horology through and through, with a price to match, there was something pleasantly casual about it, and genuinely stylish. Ah, a boy can dream.

Back down to Earth, my other favorite release was the Grand Seiko SLGW002, or rather its case and the 9SA4 movement within. This is a big deal for Grand Seiko and us humble GS fans. The 9SA4 is an epic movement thanks to its specs, design, and finishing. If a Swiss brand launched an 80-hour, high-beat movement with a proprietary escapement and overcoil, they’d charge no less than 20k for it, but that’s irrelevant. 

This specific movement is so great because it’s combined with probably Grand Seiko’s best case ever. At 38.6mm wide and 10mm tall, and with a 20mm lug width, it’s a GS Goldilocks. It’s part of the Evolution 9 series, so it’s a more modern take on the GS design language, but it features all of their design hallmarks, and it was Briiliant Hard titanium. I love titanium. It felt perfect on the wrist. The birch dial wasn’t my favorite, truth be told, but as this is a new platform I’m sure we’ll see many more versions in the near future. 

Zach Kazan

Watches & Wonders week is more than just Watches & Wonders. It’s a citywide celebration of watchmaking, with watch related events happening throughout Geneva. The main event at Palexpo brings in so many people either directly or tangentially associated with the watch industry, it makes sense that other brands, large and small, would try to capitalize. And so we get other exhibitions happening alongside Watches & Wonders itself, in hotels, design schools, and sometimes just at an otherwise quiet cafe.

The watch that has stayed with me from Watches & Wonders week was a new release seen at the Beau Rivage, and one that I’ve been anticipating eagerly for many months. The SpaceOne Tellurium, the brand’s follow up to last year’s Jump Hour, is a meaningful raising of the stakes for a young independent brand. It draws you in with both mechanical complexity (it accurately tracks the moon’s rotation around the earth and the earth’s rotation around the sun) and design bravado (the case looks like a spaceship). SpaceOne’s stated mission is to make high horology concepts, both in terms of niche complications and avant-garde design, accessible to a wider audience. Frankly, there are lots of brands that claim this as a goal, and many succeed in small ways, but what SpaceOne is doing is different. Through two releases over the span of just a little more than a year, they’ve proven themselves to be true innovators.

At Palexpo, releases as exciting as the SpaceOne Tellurium were few and far between. As many have pointed out, this was an iterative year for many, and not an unexpected development given all the flash we saw last year. But iterative releases are important, and can even be great. They set brands up for long term success, and frequently speak to their core constituencies. That was another theme this year: giving consumers what they want. Along those lines, a low key favorite of mine was the revamped Oris Aquis collection. 

I’ve always liked Aquis quite a bit. It feels perpetually underrated by watch media types and hardcore enthusiasts. It’s silly, if you think about it, that the Aquis didn’t become a full fledged phenomenon during the long season of integrated bracelet sports watch hype, which the Aquis predates by years while offering something genuinely different. But that’s fine, and in fact might even point to my own watch media bias. Oris tells us that the Aquis is their best-selling collection overall, so even if the watch wasn’t in the middle of sports watch hysteria, it’s doing well for the brand. 

An overhaul of the collection has been long overdue, with Oris releasing a seemingly endless number of variants and special editions in a platform that hasn’t had a refresh in quite some time. This is not a dramatic change, but the little tweaks add up to a big difference. The date windows, for example, are now color matched to the dials, making them instantly an order of magnitude more coherent. The cases retain their overall shape, but are just a bit thinner, and have had some of the fat trimmed off the lugs. There’s also a new micro-adjustment option on the clasp, something every hardcore sports watch needs. My favorite thing about this update, though, is that it covers both Sellita and Caliber 400 versions of the watch, so regardless of where you might decide to step into the collection, you’re getting some version of the new thing. Many brands would have strategized that the newer version of the watch should only be made available in the higher priced references, but Oris doesn’t seem interested in anything of the sort. 

Kat Shoulders 

It’s always a whirlwind coming back from Geneva after Watches & Wonders. There’s usually hundreds of gigabytes of photos I’m sorting through when I return home. While that might seem scary to some, it’s actually a joy to look back at some of the shots I took at Watches & Wonders because it’s honestly all such a blur. There’s a lot of “oh yeah, I forgot I shot that” going on at my desk. Looking back through my hard-drive, I’m reminded of some of my favorite watches from the show that really struck a chord with me. 

My first call out will be a surprise to many as not a ton of people recall this watch releasing during the show because Cartier didn’t really make a huge splash with it. And why would they? The new Cartier Santos with a brown dial is just that: a dial change. But that’s what makes me want it so badly. The new brown sunburst dial is incredible in person and I loved the polished numerals on the dial here as they reflect that brown even more in the light. Not a groundbreaking watch release at the fair by any means, but one that has stuck with me and will continue to for a long time I think. 

Another standout for me and yet another more quiet release was the A. Lange & Söhne DATOGRAPH Up/Down Limited Edition in White Gold. Celebrating 25 years of the DATOGRAPH this year, it should be no surprise that we saw a new limited edition. The white gold is the perfect metal for this beautiful chronograph and is wonderfully paired with a deep blue dial. Of course leave it to A. Lange & Söhne to make a complicated chronograph look simple and refined. After several minutes of just staring at this dial in my meeting with them, I flipped it over and of course was just in awe of the movement. The manually wound calibre L951.6, consists of 451 parts that are absolutely unmatched in their finishing. Luckily I was able to wipe my drool off the DATOGRAPH and get back to shooting but this has been one of those watches I constantly just go through my feed and look back at because it, to me, it is one of the most beautifully executed chronographs I’ve come across. 

Ok…I’m starting to sense a trend with my favorite picks this year. Coming in as my third favorite piece is the Grand Seiko Kodo Daybreak. Perhaps I just really like when brands take something that’s perfect, and make it even better? I’m not quite sure why I like this version more than the original “Twilight” Kodo, but I do. The overall lighter dial and lighter strap just do it for me. I’ve never been one for skeletonized dials but hiding any part of this watch would be a crying shame. It’s so damn beautiful what they’ve accomplished with this watch and I respect that Grand Seiko can now be mentioned in the same breath as some of the other high-end complication manufacturers. I’m reminded reading Zach Weiss’s coverage of this piece that there’s just a small team of three watchmakers who are specialized enough to create this marvel that was 10 years in the making. Kudos on the Kodo Grand Seiko, I’m not sure if you can out-do this Daybreak version, but I’m definitely excited to see what’s next.