We are back from Watches & Wonders, the annual convention in which the watch industry’s leading makers exhibit their wares to a suitably astonished crowd of timepiece-obsessives and journalists on assignment. In a wider context, it is not a big deal at all – ask a random person in Pret what they thought of this year’s various novelties, and they’ll gawp open-mouthed, perhaps ask if you need a lie down. But for the initiated few, it is Glastonbury. It is Comic-Con, the Oscars and Woodstock rolled into one. And it’s hard not to be swept up in the fuss.
The craftsmanship, engineering, artistry and ‘patrimony’ on show is undeniably impressive. But the coolest thing by far was the array of integrated steel ‘sports’ watches.
Steel watches with an ‘integrated’ bracelet – meaning, a bracelet attached directly onto the case that (traditionally) you can’t easily swap out – are nothing new. Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak and Patek Philippe’s Nautilus, both designed by Gerald Genta, are the prototypical examples of the form, and still reign to this day. And though near enough every watchmaker of note has offered its own take on the form over the past five or so decades, this year’s W&W seemed to affirm that integrated steel watch design pretty much ended in the early Eighties, and perhaps with Genta himself.
Exhibit A: IWC’s latest addition to its Ingenieur range, the Ingenieur 40 Automatic (main image), which is almost a carbon copy of the marque’s Ingenieur SL “Jumbo” Reference 1832 from 1976, designed by Genta. (Although, his was a redesign of a 1955 original.) IWC fans have been crying out for a re-up since production was discontinued 40 years ago, so this is something of a crowd pleaser, but its timely arrival doesn’t detract from its good looks. That screw-down bezel; the subtle interplay of brushed and polishes steel… the gridded dial. Gawjus stuff.
“It is not every day that a designer gets the chance to work on an icon like the Ingenieur SL,” says Christian Knoop, chief design officer of IWC. “We were aware of the enormous responsibility this task entailed and proceeded very cautiously.”
Exhibit B: Chopard’s Alpine Eagle XPS. This is an ultra-slim take on the existing Alpine Eagles, which in turn are based on watches from the St Moritz collection of the early Eighties. Previous hits have included a blue dial version (evocative of an eagle’s iris, allegedly) and last year’s green dial model, but this 2023 AE is something special.
Not only is it now ultra-thin (just 8mm), and missing the usual date window at 4:30pm, but the ‘Monte Rose Pink’ (read: salmon) coloured dial gives it a whole new, retro vibe (in the best possible sense). The Alpine Eagle’s coolness is firmly rooted in its late-mid-century styling.
Exhibit C, suitably, is Cartier, and the Pasha de Cartier, a sports watch designed in the Eighties by you know who. The story goes that the Louis Cartier made a waterproof gold watch for the Pasha of Marrakech in the 1930s, and Genta’s rounded, lugged design was named in its honour. That first Pasha was gold with a leather strap, and the first steel model didn’t arrive until 1990, but 33 years later, a steel Pasha is still amongst Cartier’s latest novelties. (And so too is the Santos, the brand’s foremost integrated steel, luxury sports watch.)
Elsewhere, Tudor introduced a new chocolate-dialled, steel and gold edition of its Royal, which, in truth, isn’t from the late Seventies, but certainly looks like it could be. And Tudor presented a new take on the Black Bay, now available in 31mm, 36mm, 39mm and 41mm, all with COSC-certified, in-house movements. The bracelet isn’t integrated, but they deserve a nod for sheer charm alone. And it would be remiss to talk about 80s steel sports watches without mentioning Breitling’s Chronomat, which was first created for pilots in Italy’s national aerobatics team, and was relaunched in 2020.
Man City footballer Erling Haaland is the new face of the Chronomat, and Breitling recently launched a collection of special editions to mark its partnership with the Six Nations rugby tournament, so the brand is keen to place the watch in a more contemporary space. But its 80s teen idol looks pervade, especially in the compact, 36mm edition.
These steel watches, when first launched, were the industry’s attempt to fend off the onrushing power of inexpensive quartz watches and keep the luxury market afloat, and many credit Genta as something of a saviour. He died in 2011, but his stock is rising once again, because half a Century after his heyday, LVMH has just announced that it will relaunch his eponymous brand, under the youthful stewardship of Jean Arnault, the youngest child of the Arnault dynasty. It would seem that even when his work is echoing at its loudest, yet more is set to emerge.
