Why these are the two standout brands in women’s watches
Amid worrying signs for the industry, the pressure is on brands to be distinctive. Some players are going to extraordinary lengths. From the upcoming May issue – plus watch special – out on April 26.
With the market adjusting to the end of the pandemic-era boom, it’s women’s watches that are leading the charge when it comes to genuinely imaginative timepieces.
Swiss watch exports, regarded as the barometer of the industry’s health, declined in February for the first time in two years. This was mostly attributed to falls in demand in China and Hong Kong, down 25 per cent and 19 per cent respectively. Australia is still up marginally (6 per cent) on last year, but the signs are there. Customers satisfied their urge to splurge during COVID-19 and are now facing cost pressures.
Brands have responded by trimming multi-brand retail outlets, editing back the number of models on offer and raising prices, all to protect profitability, but those measures can have a downside. Then there are the brands that have opted to make the product unashamedly more desirable, and here it’s not necessarily the iconic staples you’ll find at the forefront. Rather, the charge is being led by brands recent and revered, who have consistently understood the allure of the exceptional, particularly when it comes to design.
From far left: Worlds in miniature in the Lady Arpels Jour Nuit 38mm; Lady Arpels Nuit Enchantée; Lady Arpels Brise d’Été; Lady Arpels Jour Enchanté.
In this group, although you might find a Cartier, you’ll also find names that have come to watchmaking from more fashion-oriented fields, such as a Hermès or a Louis Vuitton. If these interlopers have been making their presence felt, especially with their women’s watches, in 2024 their horological march is going from strength to strength. And just as we know who the stand-outs are in men’s watches – Audemars Piguet, Rolex, Patek, Vacheron Constantin, Richard Mille – we can look at a fabulous five in jewellery pieces: Chanel, Van Cleef & Arpels, Bulgari, Cartier and Chopard.
All are producing timepieces the likes of which you haven’t seen before, the just-announced offerings from the first two alone providing ample evidence of the creativity currently igniting the watch world. Not that they’re alike: if Chanel is serious fun, Van Cleef is all seductive fantasy.
Chanel, in a word, has gone loco over Coco, with a flurry of timepieces inspired by the graphic aesthetic of Mademoiselle Gabrielle’s atelier and everyday items used by her seamstresses.
The 2024 capsule collection, appropriately badged Couture O’Clock, features whimsically rendered and referenced thimbles, scissors and pins, tiny tools transformed into timepieces. Chanel heralds the results as “blending watchmaking, jewellery and the finest craftsmanship”, the creations “combining creative boldness, technical sophistication, excellence of materials and refinement of details”.
Well, they would say that, but it’s hard to disagree because what could be gimmicky memes in the hands of lesser artisans somehow works given Chanel’s touch. There’s the white ceramic J12 Couture 33-millimetre watch with scissor hands and tape measure bezel or optional rim of 46 baguette-cut diamonds. There are the long necklace timepieces in the shape of a thimble, safety pin and dressmaker’s bust, snow-set limited editions in gold carrying from 463 to 1743 brilliant-cut diamonds, dangling delights secreting quartz movements.
There’s a Première Édition Originale charms watch adorned with a tiny spool of thread, thimble and figurine of Mademoiselle, coated for the occasion in yellow gold and black lacquer and attached to a woven leather bracelet echoing the classic chain of a Chanel bag.
There’s the Boy-Friend Couture watch with a pattern of Chanel’s iconic tweed jacket enlivening the dial. And returning to the tape measure – for good measure – there’s the Première Ruban watch cased in titanium and gold, its unmistakable motif printed on a double-wrapped black and gold leather strap, with a bonus charm figurine of Mademoiselle set with a diamond reminding you of its provenance.
Top to bottom: Chanel Code Coco Couture watch; Chanel Mademoiselle J12 Couture watch; Chanel Boy-Friend Couture watch;Chanel J12 Couture 33mm; Chanel J12 Couture 38mm; Chanel Première Charms Couture watch; Chanel Première Ruban Couture watch.
Not that much of a reminder is needed, Chanel might have mastered the real challenge of time – turning tokens of the past into talismans of the future.
While Chanel plays with shapes, fellow Parisian maison Van Cleef & Arpels embraces animation to conjure up watches that are breathtaking in their ingenuity and visual impact. The collections originate in workshops in Paris and Geneva and are assembled under the banners “Poetic Complications” and “Extraordinary Dials”, descriptions more than appropriate given the timepieces on offer.
As an indication of the level of craftsmanship involved, the company last year provided support to the French Centre d’Excellence de la Mécanique d’Art, underlining the importance of automaton makers in crafting their complicated mechanisms. In Geneva, “a legion of craftsmen” employ enamel, precious stones, miniature painting, marquetry, sculpture and engraving to add the final flourish. The results can only be described as exotic.
The Lady Arpels Jour Enchanté represents two years of development and 180 hours of work, and brings to life a tableau of picking flowers under the early-morning sun. As the brand describes it, “light passes through leaves of white gold, plique-à-jour enamel and diamonds against a field of flowers.
Set with yellow sapphires, these blossoms are rendered in relief while a hand-sculpted feminine figure in white gold spreads her wings – made from pearly-white plique-à-jour enamel for a luminous transparency effect. In the background, affixed to a sky exhibiting three nuances of turquoise, the sun gleams with the radiance of its precious stones: spessartites grenats [garnets], coloured sapphires, or diamonds.”
Chanel references the tools of Mademoiselle Gabrielle with a dressmaker’s mannequin, thimble, safety pin and pin cushion.
The story continues on the back of the case, with an engraving of a fairy taking flight. This scene is framed in a 41-millimetre white gold case that houses a manual wind movement – a reminder that this is, after all, a watch.
The Lady Arpels Nuit Enchantée watch likewise has a story to tell, bringing to life a white gold fairy resting her silhouette inside a cave of dazzling crystals, in this case sapphires with pink and purple nuances as if cut from the cave walls. The moon and stars illuminate the sky thanks to a grisaille enamel technique, and to round out the scene a rock crystal dial is set with rose gold hour markers. Spanning 41 millimetres, the piece is ringed in diamonds and has a manual wind movement.
And if you want something simpler? The Lady Arpels Jour Nuit watch is a striking proposition with open worked Murano aventurine glass capturing “the magic of a starry night”. Framed in 33-millimetre and 38-millimetre cases, the revolving dial features a diamond-paved moon and stars and a sun embellished with snow-set yellow sapphires while mother-of-pearl shrouds symbolise the horizon. The decoration continues on the reverse where a sapphire crystal reveals an oscillating weight adorned with a polished star-studded sky, overlooked by “a protective fairy admiring the planets”.
Finally, and possibly the most delicate execution of all, the Lady Arpels Brise d’Été watch “celebrates the freshness of a summer morning”. Gold butterflies rendered in plique-à-jour enamel not only tell the time, but flutter off thanks to an on-demand animation module. The mechanism also animates the flowers – created in vallonné enamel with azure nuances complemented by spessartite garnet pistils – and their stems.
Completing the bucolic picture are blades of grass in tsavorite garnets and plique-à-jour enamel supported by hand-painted stems. Spanning 38 millimetres with a self-winding movement, here’s a watch that’s whimsical, wondrous and surely, like its siblings, perfect for the jaded wrist. It’s possible you’ve seldom seen anything like it.
The May issue of AFR Magazine is out on Friday, April 26 inside The Australian Financial Review. Follow AFR Mag on Instagram.
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