In April, watchmakers convened in Geneva to unveil their new creations at Watches and Wonders, the horological world’s biggest event of the year. The big story in 2025: a renaissance of classic traditions from the golden age of watchmaking. Historical complications like chiming repeaters and perpetual calendars are back with a vengeance, modernised and sleeker than ever in design and outlook.
One highlight from 2025: the Tank à Guichets by Cartier. It’s almost a century since the French maison first introduced this watch, a ferociously chic design where time telling is distilled to a pair of apertures on an enclosed case. In all its history, the brand has only ever reissued the design a handful of times—making this year’s Privé offerings, faithful in all the right ways to the original, one of the most hotly desired prizes for collectors.
Prized creations like these are appealing to a growing class of collectors and connoisseurs. As are former anachronisms like desk clocks, conceived in contemporary forms as über collectible objets d’art.
Vogue Man reports from the heart of the action on the latest and the greatest.
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Looking Glass
One design trend that has emerged this year is a game of peekaboo. You’re probably familiar with openworked or skeletonised watches, but take a gander now at some intriguing transparencies courtesy of coloured sapphire glass. On Patek Philippe’s ref. 6159G—a grand complications model with a perpetual calendar and retrograde date indicator—its indications are sleekly organised thanks to an ingenious play of contrasts.
The dial is metallised sapphire crystal with a black-to-grey gradient from the outside in. The frames of the day, retrograde date, month, leap year and moonphase windows are electroplated in grey, resulting in their outlines being softened slightly. All of it so that the whites of the numerals and words pop exceedingly well.
Patek Philippe ref. 6159G-001 Retrograde Perpetual Calendar in white gold
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It’s similar to the execution of Panerai’s new Luminor Perpetual Calendar GMT Platinumtech, which features a deep blue sapphire crystal dial that plays up depth and visibility. Add to that lumed hands and markers filled with Super-LumiNova X2 that glow in the dark and you have a timepiece that’s as legible as it is pleasing to look at.
Panerai PAM01575 Luminor Perpetual Calendar GMT Platinumtech
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An example of transparency for artistry’s sake, though, can be seen on the updated Arceau Le Temps Suspendu by Hermès. Since introducing this whimsical complication 14 years ago—a push of a button sends all hands to 12 to ‘pause’ time, though the watch continues to beat and tick away, and a second push returns all hands to its correct time—it has become representative of Hermès’s sidelong perspective on horology.
The new designs have beautiful stepped dials, which suggest a kind of non-linear dreaminess about time, and sapphire centres tinted to match the sunburst blue, brun désert or rouge sellier colourways.
Hermès Arcea Le Temps Suspendu in rose gold
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In Perpetuity
The perpetual calendar, or quantième perpétuel (QP), is one of horology’s most elevated complications. The increasing levels of complexity is thus: a watch with a date or day-date function must be reset every month, an annual calendar every year, and a perpetual calendar—if it’s kept properly wound—upwards of about once a century.
It’s a complication that represents watchmaking’s precision at its best: teeny tiny wheels and parts so exactingly designed and crafted that they turn with the accuracy of a computer. The typical presentation of a perpetual calendar on a dial can be cluttered, with information like the year, leap year, month, date, day and often a moonphase thrown in for kicks.
This year, though, brands made a wonderful decision with their newest models to lay all this information out beautifully and with character. Parmigiani Fleurier’s Toric Quantième Perpétuel, for example, is a masterclass in spare, almost platonic elegance.
Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Quantième Perpétuel Golden Hour in rose gold
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Mirror that with the sharp, smart look by IWC with its Ingenieur Perpetual Calendar 41. The brand is expanding on and making its Ingenieur collection a modern essential, and this model is the first in the collection to feature this complication.
IWC Ingenieur Perpetual Calendar 41 in stainless steel
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Then contrast it, perhaps, with Piaget imbuing its cushion-shaped Polo Perpetual Calendar with stormy blue obsidian, a nod to its signature stone dials.
Piaget Polo Perpetual Calendar Obsidian in white gold
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Classicism, though, proves enduring too. Take Vacheron Constantin, which dressed its collectible 127-piece limited-edition Traditionnelle Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar with a special set of haute horlogerie decorative finishes for the brand’s 270th anniversary.
Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar in platinum, limited to 127 pieces
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Or consider Frederique Constant’s refreshed Classic Perpetual Calendar Manufacture, which sports a neo-vintage style with a sunray finished salmon dial—and that’s perhaps one of the most accessible, attractive QPs out now.
Classic Perpetual Calendar Manufacture in stainless steel
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Blue Skies
Blue has emerged—or returned, rather, since it is a perpetual favourite—as the colour du jour on watches. What’s fresh about the blues this time is a wider range of possibilities. In case materials for one. Chanel dedicated five years to create matte, midnight blue ceramic to enrich its J12 collection. Hublot, meanwhile, introduced a new Big Bang Unico in a very specific, uncommon tint of petrol blue ceramic.
Chanel J12 Bleu Calibre 12.1 38mm in matte blue highly resistant ceramic and steel with blue sapphires
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At Montblanc, a new watch inspired by Mount Vinson has an aptly glacial effect thanks to a composite case made of quartz fibres, aluminised basalt fibres and light blue resin.
Montblanc 1858 Geosphere 0 Oxygen Mount Vinson in titanium composite
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And the Swiss brand Norqain has tapped into the chromatic possibilities of its Norteq cases—a shock-resistant carbon fibre-based material that’s over three times lighter than titanium—for its new Wild One Skeleton models. The most attractive of the lot is an ice blue with beguiling tinges of purple.
Norqain Wild One Skeleton Purple Ice Blue 39mm in Norteq and titanium
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The blues have also cropped up as precious details. Piaget, for example, introduced the most dressed-up rendition of its Andy Warhol design yet with a blue-green opal dial and a triple row of baguette-cut sapphires. As for Zenith’s GFJ, a special model named after the initials of the brand’s founder and launched to celebrate its 160th anniversary, its eye-catching blue dial is composed of a brick guilloché on the outer ring, lapis lazuli on the main dial and blue mother-of-pearl on the seconds subdial.
Zenith GFJ Calibre 135 in platinum with lapis lazuli and mother-of-pearl
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Musical Minutes
A watch with a chiming complication—that dings and dongs the hours and minutes on demand—is one of the most challenging to craft. It’s also one of the most mysterious and wonderfully old-world features, originating from a time and purpose of telling time in the dark before electricity. This year, this rare know-how has emerged as trending pinnacle pieces in watchmaker’s new collections.
Parmigiani Fleurier takes the cake for the most unique design: the Armoriale Répétition Mystérieuse is entirely decorative on the front. Adorned with a guilloché pattern inspired by the spirals of a pinecone, it encourages almost exclusive use of its cathedral gong. On the reverse of the watch, a secret dial in polished jade so you can set the time.
Parmigiani Fleurier L’armoriale Répétition Mystérieuse in white gold, pièce unique
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At Jaeger-LeCoultre, a watchmaker that has been crafting chiming timepieces since 1870, and to the tune of nearly 200 such calibres, the Reverso Tribute Minute Repeater is its new symphonic star. It features an openworked verso dial that shows the workings of the repeater mechanism in the newly developed Calibre 953, which has patented techniques like trébuchet hammers, crystal gongs and quicker chimes that promise a more beautiful sound.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Minute Repeater in rose gold, limited to 30 pieces
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Creating a clear, striking chime in precious metal cases is a material challenge, as gold and platinum tend to absorb and muffle sound rather than reverberate and amplify it. To overcome this, Chopard designed its L.U.C Full Strike Revelation— introduced in yellow gold this year—so that the sapphire crystal that protects the watch on the front and the sapphire gongs inside are one and the same, acting as a resonator that quite literally brings the aural experience to the forefront.
Chopard L.U.C Full Strike Revelation in ethical yellow gold, limited to 20 pieces
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But perhaps the most ambitious and technically accomplished minute repeater watches are ones where a chime is just one of several complications. Take A. Lange & Söhne, whose Minute Repeater Perpetual almost nonchalantly pairs its hand-tuned gongs with a perpetual calendar complication. It wears its complexity with utter elegance, with a chromatically austere dial in glossy black enamel and white gold accents.
A. Lange & Söhne Minute Repeater Perpetual in platinum, limited to 50 pieces
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At Patek Philippe, a new apogee model, the Quadruple Complication ref. 5308, comes with a minute repeater, split-seconds chronograph and an instantaneous perpetual calendar baked in. There’s little question that this deserves the grand complications moniker Patek Philippe reserves for its fanciest watches—though its styling, with a sunburst ice blue dial and blue metallised white gold accents, gives this horological heavyweight an attractive modern outlook.
Patek Philippe Grand Complications ref. 5308G-001 Minute Repeater, Split-Seconds Chronograph, Instantaneous Perpetual Calendar in white gold
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Deskbound, And All The Better For It
For the most ardent of connoisseurs and collectors, a love of horology can and often does extend beyond the wrist. One category that’s seeing a renaissance in creativity and interest of late is the humble desk clock. Or, as you’ll quickly notice, not so humble after all: these objets d’art are often some of the most lavish and opulent horological collectibles around.
Van Cleef & Arpels is one such proponent of balls-to-the-wall beauty, so charming it almost beggars disbelief. This year, the maison has introduced a new version of its Planétarium automata clock, which represents our solar system with jewelled planets. The ‘dial’ is made of concentric lapis lazuli discs inlaid with rose and white gold stars and closed-set diamonds. When it is activated with a button press, a bell chimes music as a shooting star rises out of a hidden hatch to fly a circle and tell the time.
Van Cleef & Arpels Planétarium automaton
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This sort of extreme beauty was also undertaken by Chanel, which introduced a gem-set Diamonds Astroclock with a white gold lion set all over with 5,037 diamonds. It references Gabrielle Chanel’s star sign of Leo, with a diamond-set comet that circles a planet to tell the hours and a recreation of the constellation (with diamonds, bien sûr) to tell the minutes.
Chanel Lion Diamonds Astroclock
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One other watchmaker that paid homage to the stars is Panerai, with its new Jupiterium clock. It looks deceptively simple: a mahogany wood base, a square aluminium frame and a clear orb. The magic reveals itself, suitably for Panerai, when the lights are off and the Super-LumiNova coated planets and constellations glow. Panerai chose specifically to craft this clock with just the Earth, sun and moon, and Jupiter with four of its moons. It is a homage to Galileo Galilei, whose revolutionary proof that Earth was not the centre of the universe came about from observing Jupiter and its four moons.
Panerai Jupiterium clock
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While these three clocks have so far been unique pieces, Patek Philippe is breaking the mould by introducing a new desk clock to its catalogue. The ref. 27000M-001 Complicated Desk Clock takes inspiration from a slightly hilarious story of oneupmanship. In the 1920s, a pair of American collectors, auto magnate James Ward Packard and banker Henry Graves Jr, commissioned increasingly complicated pocket watches and clocks from Patek Philippe. It culminated in a set of desk clock designs from 1923 and 1927, now housed in the watchmaker’s museum in Geneva.
The modern imagining of these 1920s clocks reserves the loveliest antique styling touches: a sterling silver cabinet with green flinqué grand feu enamel guilloché, engraved rope motifs, and gilt winged lion appliqués on the corner. A hinged cover, finished with American walnut veneer on the underside, opens to reveal the instrument controls for the perpetual and weekly calendar functions.
Patek Philippe Grand Complications ref. 27000M-001 Complicated Desk Clock
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Trilobe’s Le Temps Retrouvé, however, takes the objet d’art quality of a clock to a new level. Named after the final chapter of Marcel Proust’s novel In Search of Lost Time, the multisensory design gives the act of reading the time a philosophical twist. A customisable sculpted marble ceramic bust covers the clockwork, which can be opened up to reveal the workings inside. A pair of six-sided rosettes on the sides of the head indicate the hours, while moving eyes yield the minutes. Trilobe has also designed a ‘breathing’ mechanism, in which a customised fragrance formulated in collaboration with a French perfumer is occasionally spritzed through the clock as though it were breaths. With an experience like this, who needs a madeleine?
Trilobe Le Temps Retrouvé mechanical sculpture clock
The Vogue Man 2025 ‘Gold’ issue is available online and at newsstands.
