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Big ticket watch fairs like Watches & Wonders might still be a few months away but watch aficionados usually set their wristwatches to the end of January, when LVMH kicks off the horological year with its latest set of novelties. This year’s got some biggies lined up from the house of Hublot, Tag Heuer, Zenith, and of course, Bulgari.
New colours, new tech, new movements alongside some updated classics, 2024 is starting to look like a good year for watches.
This sounds and looks more like a laboratory prototype rather than a limited-edition timepiece. But the MP-10 will go on to occupy a select few wrists. It’s noteworthy for the fact that it features no dial, no hands and no rotor, making it the most radical-looking watch to come out of the 2024 LVMH Watch Week. Hublot’s MP series has always been about challenging the conventions of horological design, and the MP-10 continues that trend. Using rollers to tell you the time via two drums, it features a movement comprising 592 parts which took over 5 years to conceptualise and create. Crafted from micro-blasted titanium, this watch gets a power reserve of 48 hours and is limited to 50 pieces only.
As part of its ever-widening collection of green timepieces this year, Tag Heuer released the Connected Calibre E4 – a connected watch that finally has the aesthetics to match those of a mechanical one. Offering three rich green shades — Mirage, Prism, and Chromatic — the watch’s pixel-heavy dial now mirrors the look offered by sunray dials.
The best part is that you can switch dials, given that you have another 20 of them to choose from. A matching green rubber strap and a sturdy steel frame work particularly well when combined with the Castelton green dial. The Connected Calibre E4 is easily one of the most visually striking pieces of wearable tech out there.
Paying homage to a rare El Primero prototype from 1970, the new Zenith Chronomaster Original Triple Calendar features an all-new complete calendar calibre that also features a moonphase and a chronograph function. Marrying retro watch aesthetics with bleeding-edge functionality, the Chronomaster Original ends up being a stand-out piece from this year’s collection.
Using the exact blueprint and proportions from the original prototype – of which only 25 models were ever produced – it’s the most talked-about vintage re-editions from the show. There are, of course, two very noticeable changes – the first is the addition of a boutique green dial. The second is the addition of a calendar module to the existing chronograph function. The best vintage reissues are the ones that add to the watch’s mechanical ability and the Triple Calendar does just that.
Ten years since the first Octo Finissimo was introduced and the world of haute horology stands both transformed and transfixed. The series set six world records for thinness in six years, going on to win multiple awards and establishing itself as one of the most significant watch designs of the 21st century. The new Tuscan Copper edition doesn’t break any new ground but instead commemorates what is easily one of the most recognizable shapes in haute horology today. Bringing the all-too-popular salmon dial trend back into the mainstream, this ultra-thin timepiece (with a 2.3mm thin movement) is water resistant up to 100 metres.
It’s not an overstatement to say that the Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon in Teal Green is easily one of the most beautiful chronograph watches in modern history. Something about this new shade of teal lends such richness, enhancing the classicism of the original design. Having clocked its 60th anniversary in 2023, the evolution of the Carrera continues; this time with a tourbillon movement affixed to that famous glassbox design. The trio of timekeeping, tourbillon, and chronograph functions served up by a COSC-certified movement makes this noteworthy for its mechanical sophistication alone. But most of us are sold on that rich, luscious shade of teal, which is, by itself, enough to seal the deal.
The brightest specimen of this year’s ensemble of green watches is the Big Bang Unico Saxem green. Saxem is a sapphire-adjacent material pioneered by Hublot and used in the Big Bang line-up because it allows for greater luminosity. Basically, Saxem glows a bit more, owing to its distinct chemical composition. Contrasted with a matt black open-work dial, this Big Bang Unico is equally at home on the wrists of the Hulk or Green Lantern.
