It’s been percolating in the zeitgeist for some time now, but this year has sealed the deal: deserts are the fantastical locations du jour. You could certainly call it the Dune effect— kicking into place this year with the release of the Denis Villeneuve-directed film, based on the Frank Herbert novels. Villeneuve’s Dune can be said to be this generation’s must watch sci-fi epic, and with its place in pop culture, the visual imagination of an otherworldly place is not so much a black expanse of space. Rather, it is the overwhelmingly brown colours of the dunes of Arrakis.
The Dune effect has taken hold of fashion for a while now. The leader of the pack is Saint Laurent, which has staged epic catwalk shows in two deserts: Sahara and Agafay. The current season’s collection is based around the Saharienne safari jacket, which Yves Saint Laurent designed in 1967 taking inspiration from his North African upbringing.
But fashion trends move quickly and it would have been easy to dismiss the idea of Dune having that broad a design influence. Except that even luxury watch brands—which have a far longer runway when it comes to design and development—are now getting in on the sandy action.
Gold star: Audemars Piguet’s new sand gold
Watchmakers tinker away at micromechanics and the results— even if groundbreaking—are more often than not invisible to the eyes of most. Which is why it’s so exciting when new ground is broken when it comes to something as immediately apparent as case materials. For Audemars Piguet, that comes in the form of sand gold, a brand new 18-carat gold alloy, that makes its debut on a 41mm Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked.
This sand gold is a development that taps the Swiss watchmaker’s heritage in working creatively with different gold alloys. Of the 567 complicated watches created by the brand between its founding in 1882 and the onset of the quartz era in 1969, 432 were made in gold. In fact, there used to even be alloys of green gold. “With sand gold, Audemars Piguet is reviving the creative approach to gold alloys and colours,” comments Sébastian Vivas, the brand’s heritage and museum director.
The sandy shade is achieved by combining gold with copper and palladium to achieve its warm effect. More earthy and less red than pink gold, its colours shift entrancingly in the light to reveal dimension. On this debut Royal Oak model, the sand gold case and bracelet is finished with fittingly matte satin-brushed surfaces and polished chamfered edges. The colour story continues on the openworked insides, with the mainplate and bridges of the movement galvanised with a matching sand gold-toned shade. A material marvel that evokes the desert, even as far away as Le Brassus, Switzerland.
A sci-fi gadget: Hamilton’s actual Dune tickers
How about a watch that has an actual link to Dune, the film? The watch brand Hamilton has been a collaborator with Hollywood since 1932. Its latest coup is a partnership with Villeneuve to create watch props for characters in Dune: Part Two. Where other projects saw the brand offer existing models or delve into its archives, the extraterrestrial nature of Dune instead demanded a different approach. The brand worked with Doug Harlocker, the prop master on the film, to design a piece that defies any conceptions of watch norms. The result is a rugged, utilitarian piece that you might recognise in form as a wristwatch, but not understand how it functions. Its key detail is a distinct blue motif—a thin line extended from a circle—that resembles a seconds hand.
For our real world, Hamilton created two limited-edition models of its triangular Ventura in black PVD-coated steel. They both feature the blue motif on their dials as a callback, but unlike the cinematic Dune watch props these tell the time. There’s the Ventura XXL Bright Dune, a three-hander with a push button that lights up the pattern, and the Ventura Edge Dune with a light-up digital display.
Elegant futurism: H. Moser & Cie’s smoky, sexy perpetual calendar
Ever heard of a salmon dial? Somewhere between pink and gold—far less saccharine than the former and less jaundiced than the latter—this is a shade that’s been popular among watch connoisseurs for decades. The independent watch brand H. Moser & Cie announced a special model: an elegant Streamliner Perpetual Calendar with a smoked salmon dial that is only available this year.
The Streamliner design is a retrofuturistic master work. The design takes inspiration from high-speed trains from the ’20s and ’30s, expressed as a rounded cushion-shaped case combined with fluid, organic curves on the articulated integrated bracelet. But the dial design and how the perpetual calendar complication is implemented is what’s really inspiring. Press notes describe the minimalist design approach as such: “This is a supremely pared down model, devoid of boring subdials, indexes or logos. Simple in appearance yet utterly ingenious, it focuses exclusively on the essentials.”
A boast, to be sure, but not inaccurate. The matter of telling the date is kept to a date window, and a small central hand in red and white that indicates the month—a leap year indicator is hidden in the movement under the watch. This sleek reduction is in the service of letting the dial shine. H. Moser & Cie has made a signature of its fumé dials, a dramatic gradient finish with aesthetic echoes in the chiaroscuro shadows of Caravaggio. Here, the smoked effect and salmon colour are enhanced with a griffé finish for a vertical brushed look that’s exclusive to the brand’s special-edition models.
The May ‘Escape’ issue of Vogue Singapore is now available online.
