Watches & Wonders 2020 highlights: Cartier, Panerai, Hermès and more launch daring luxury timepieces at Geneva’s first digital-only fair

Jun 17 , 2020

New releases from Watches & Wonders 2020. From left to right: Panerai, Vacheron Constantin, Cartier, Hermès.

Tourbillons are trending, Cartier delighted with skeletonised timepieces and Hermès used a meteorite from Mars

While Vacheron Constantin premiered this year’s most complex minute repeater and Roger Dubuis unveiled a gong sounding an ugly dissonant tritone known as the ‘devil’s interval’ and beloved by Jimi Hendrix

The world of watches has certainly seen plenty of disruption this year. Not only did Covid-19 cause manufacturers and shops to close, it also meant that the biggest horology events of the year – namely the Watches & Wonders Geneva (formerly SIHH) and Baselworld fairs, which were expected to happen simultaneously for the first time in April and May – were cancelled. But as the saying goes, the show must go on. Just, in this case, in a different format.

The Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie, organiser of Watches & Wonders Geneva, acted quickly to move the fair into the digital realm to allow its 30 participating brands to broadcast information about their new releases for the year. Not all brands chose to make use of the platform, but the ones that did certainly did not hold back.

“We asked ourselves if it was appropriate to launch watches during such difficult times,” said Wilhelm Schmid, the CEO of A. Lange & Söhne, “but we believe that right now it is important not to give up on everything, and also to enjoy all the beautiful things life has to offer”.

Resounding success

The ‘La Musique du Temps’ Les Cabinotiers Grand Complication Split-Seconds chronograph – Tempo. Photo: Vacheron Constantin

The first half of 2020 saw the launch of some truly complex timepieces, including a number of minute repeaters, often considered one of the most difficult complications to design and construct. Born of the need to tell the time in the dark in an age when people had to rely on candlelight, today’s watch lovers and collectors covet what is considered a masterpiece of precision mechanical engineering.

The most complex minute repeater watch to debut this year is almost certainly from Vacheron Constantin. Its La Musique du Temps Les Cabinotiers Grand Complication Split-Seconds Chronograph – Tempo is a double-sided watch that houses a whopping 24 horological complications, including a minute repeater that chimes the hours, quarters, and minutes on demand. Created in Vacheron Constantin’s Les Cabinotiers department, the watch has a total of 1,163 parts and is a one-off piece destined for a single collector.

Master Grande Tradition Grande Complication. Photo: Jaeger-LeCoultre