New marques Gerald Genta and Daniel Roth, relaunched within La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, joined LVMH stablemates Bulgari, Hublot, TAG Heuer and Zenith in showing their latest novelties in Miami, and the event had an air of buzz and anticipation. That came courtesy of the novelties of course, but also the spate of fresh CEO appointments.
“This is a great moment for all our brands to come together, to show the strength and ambition of the LVMH group – and such an important category in the luxury world,” Frédéric Arnault said at the event’s opening cocktail. In January, Arnault was promoted to CEO of LVMH Watches, overseeing Hublot, TAG Heuer and Zenith. Previously CEO of TAG Heuer, he has been succeeded by Julien Tornare, who since 2017 has spearheaded the runaway success of Zenith, while Benoit de Clerck joins from Richemont Group as Zenith CEO.
As the maison presented their latest novelties (including a few Watches and Wonders sneak peeks), what certainly felt palpable across the group was a kind of global upgrade and desire to reposition LVMH as a high-end watchmaker – channelling the “strength and ambition” that Arnault had alluded to.
Here are three key trends and takeaways from this year’s LVMH Watch Week Miami:
Haute horlogerie
Gerald Genta and Daniel Roth naturally led the event’s wow pieces. With the duality of these brands, La Fabrique du Temps’s legendary co-founding watchmakers, Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini, seem to have really hit a dream moment in their esteemed careers. Navas said that Genta, as a designer, was full of ideas – like juxtaposing playful Mickey Mouse with serious haute horlogerie – while Roth was very easy to understand. “We are watchmakers, so when we went to Mr Roth’s house [to meet him], there was no need to talk so much. We understand what he wants,” recalled Mr Navas. On one end is charm and delight – courtesy of a golf-club swinging Donald Duck animated on a dial combining retrograde minutes, jumping hour and a minute repeater, all set in Genta’s signature eight-sided case. The other end sees history recast, in the Daniel Roth Souscription Tourbillon that revives Roth’s first tourbillon created as a souscription for Asprey in 1988.
Hublot also presented its six-figure haute horlogerie piece, the MP-10. Hublot’s Manufacture Piece collection is always highly anticipated for its boundary-pushing ideas, and this daring design does not disappoint: with no hands, dial or rotor, the automatic movement is powered by two linear weights, complete with an inclined tourbillon.
Gemset watches
Furthering the high-end brief are some noteworthy gem-set watchces, headlined by Zenith. The maison has long shunned such obvious embellishment for more purist watchmaking, which makes the new Chronomaster Sport so eye-catching. A gem-set bezel dazzles with three colours to match the signature tri-colour face: baguette-cut blue sapphires, black and grey spinels are paired with diamonds at the hours. Topping it off is a golden, textured meteorite dial, to play off the rose gold case and bracelet.
An air of sustainability – and disruption - came from TAG Heuer’s latest lab-grown diamond watch, the Carrera Date Plasma Diamant d’Avant-Garde. After coming in white and pink diamonds in recent years, yellow diamond now joins the line up, with a crown fashioned entirely in the stone, and a matching shield-shape yellow diamond on the gem-encrusted dial. Elsewhere, more precious finishes were added to the TAG Heuer Aquaracer collection with Solargraph technology – from a gemset bezel to a grained, Tiffany-blue like dial. And despite a new mother-of-pearl face, there’s no compromise on the full 10-month running of the watch after a 48-hour charge, from either artificial or natural light.
Finally, Bulgari marked 10 years of its feminine and precious Lucea line with an unusual dial crafted in upcycled malachite fragments, which it likely has aplenty as a jeweller. Set mosaic like, the perfect-puzzled workmanship is much harder than it looks, noted head designer Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, who has never shied away from a design challenge.
Play on complications
Complementing the high watchmaking but low-volume designs at Gerald Genta and Daniel Roth is a focus on mechanical watchmaking at Zenith and TAG Heuer. As you’d expect, Zenith’s new Triple Calendar has an authentic dose of horological history, namely its ties to the original 1969 El Primero. After coming as a prototype in 1970 of just 25 pieces for the watchmakers – and later commercialised in an avant-garde, futuristic case – the Chronomaster Original Triple Calendar is now produced as originally intended, coming in the model’s bestselling white dial, alongside grey or the boutique-only green.
TAG Heuer meanwhile expanded upon its “glassbox” Carrera Chronograph that marked the model’s 60th anniversary last year – and which builds upon the graphic good looks and clear legibility that made the original Carrera such a winner. A racing-green inspired teal has been introduced, paired with a new chronograph mono sub-dial configuration that recalls the brand’s pared back Dato layout of 1968. A tourbillon version of the chronograph, set at the six o’clock, also gets the new teal treatment.
