Sapphire cases in red, blue, orange, and yellow with one of the latest additions to the Challenge collection – the Challenge Purity Ti Comp, Cvstos shows proof of ongoing evolution. I took a walk over to the Cvstos showroom flagship boutique downtown Geneva to take closer look at the orange and yellow bridges versions. Limited to just 10 pieces per color, the collection whose tonneau cases measure 41x53.70 millimeters are a purist dream: hand-wound, it shows only the fundamentals: hours and minutes, and they are manually wound. And to me, they are hitting several trend notes of 2026: Strong colors, unusual shapes, ultra-light, and non-traditional materials.
Strong colors
Eye-catching hues with yellow and red components are still going very strong in both fashion and interiors. To wear it on the wrist makes perfect sense, and these examples will add an exhilarating high horology color rush to any look.
Unusual shapes
Most collectors – especially once a few watches are amassed, wants to have something different. Enter the shaped watch. Square tends to be the first choice for those days when round watches feel too common, but some days square is just too square. Well, hello there, the tonneau shape! This go-to shape for Cvstos was pioneered by Cartier back in 1906, and during its 120 years it has come and gone. In the last decades – thanks to several factors like Cvstos, Richard Mille, and the recent throwback to Art Deco, the shape is arguably more in vogue than ever. To me this Cvstos version of tonneau is just perfect, and seemingly it aligns with any wrist.
Ultra-light
Cvstos is one of the pioneering brands in ultra-light watches. In seconds, you will forget this watch is on your wrist. The low weight also has several functions apart from comfort. For instance: lower weight gives lower inertia which makes a watch less sensitive to shocks.
Non-traditional materials
Of course the low weight is very much thanks to an avantgarde use of non-traditional materials. Cvstos, a long-time advocate of sapphire cases is among the first to also use strong colors in the lab-grown material which is second to diamond in hardness. So, if budget was no issue, and you could find diamonds large enough – would it be better to use diamond as a case material. I would say no, even though diamonds are lighters and said to be four times harder than sapphire crystal. Because sapphire crystal is less brittle than diamond, and at the end of the day it is only diamonds that will scratch sapphire crystals. This durability is why sapphire crystal is also used to cover smartphone camera lenses, fingerprint scanners, and scratchproof optical medical appliances. Another weight-shedder on these Challenge Purity watches is of course the use of titanium watch component. Titanium’s match weight is close to half of brass, which is traditionally used for watch components.
Perhaps needless to say, but I will still add what is a fact to me: while flirting shamelessly with trends these timepieces remain firmly rooted in a timeless haute horlogerie universe which will feel on point for generations to come.
