Watches & Wonders 2022: Bravery of conquering the time

As the "keepers of time", mechanical watches have an experienced elegance that stands peacefully beyond the flamboyant race of smart watches. Elegant and humble. Not turbulent, yet nevertheless persisting throughout time to triumph over time.

That is why the luxury watch exhibition Watches & Wonders 2022, which will take place at Palexpo Exhibition Center from March 30 to April 5, has piqued the interest of collectors all over the world. The event is a tour back in time from the past to the future, revealing an eye-catching, emotional feast of the mechanical and craftsmanship miracles of approximately 40 notable watch brands.

 

Geneva - The inception of mechanical watch drive your spiritual journey

 

Lake Geneva, the crystal sky, and the bustling city, with an overhead perspective of the Rhone River port and the snow-capped Alps. All images are from the Watches & Wonders 2022 teaser, a charming high-end watch industry expo in Geneva: Mechanical wristwatches have a tremendous appeal and are filled with pride for enthusiasts.

This year, Watches & Wonders is organized in two formats: in gallery and online, to exhibit extraordinary timepieces from 38 companies such as Patek Philippe, Rolex, Chopard, Hublot, TAG Heuer, Tudor and Chanel, Sinn, Louis Erard…

Not only with the presence of famous brands, Watches & Wonders 2022 is an opportunity to validate the skill of enthusiastic emerging businesses.

 

No limit for perfect handiwork to unleash creativity

 

Patek Philippe is stirring up worldwide collectors as the heart of the show. For the first time, two seemingly incompatible functionalities coexist on the same timepiece: Annual Calendar and Second Time Zone in Annual Calendar Travel Time. With up to 8 patents, this timepiece is a great demonstration of the art of craftsmanship. Another significant distinction is that Travel Time readily mimics complicated moves to show the precise time in local time rather than "home time."

An iPhone with the latest version might excite you, but that sensation will pass and be replaced by something else.  With Patek Philippe watches,you possess the passion and love that remains constant and accurate despite life's ups and downs. This is exactly how the tourbillon works smoothly, virtually totally eliminating faults caused by gravity's impact.

 

Similarly, it is unusual to find a brand that deviates from the standard to manufacture watches as timeless as Hermès watchmaking artisans. The Hermès Arceau Le Temps Voyageur dial watch, inspired by the desire to see the world, is a fantasy voyage with the convenience of getting anywhere in a few steps. The beauty of time shows itself in hypnotic clarity when viewed through the orbit of the watch.

 

The Immortality of an opulent wristwatches

A masterpiece of art never goes out of vogue. That is why the Vacheron Constantin Historiques 222 watch was chosen as the winner of this year's Watches & Wonders by foreign journalists.

The Vacheron Constantin Historiques 222 is regarded as the masterwork of spirits seeking new experiences. The case, dial, and strap are all constructed of pure gold, and the bezel with engraved grooves is all delicate and careful, deserving of the title "wonder of marvels."

Historiques 222 was inspired by the original 222, which debuted in the 1970s. This year is also regarded as the "end of the era" of mechanical watches due to the quartz crisis and the debut of the low-cost battery-powered quartz movement. In just 13 years (from 1970 to 1983), approximately 1000 watch brands disappeared, including several well-known names. Nonetheless, Vacheron Constantin, the world's oldest watchmaker (more than 280 years), survived the crisis and has been revived in splendor till this day.

If the Historiques 222 was born in a time of crisis, the Chopard Alpine Eagle was born during the "recovery period" of mechanical watches. St. Moritz was founded in the 1980s, when Sir Karl-Friedrich Scheufele was only 22 years old.

The Alpine Eagle is a sports watch with a highly polished body and bezel that epitomizes Chopard's distinct style. The hour hands and indexes inside the dial are all constructed of rose gold plated with Rhodium and coated with Super-Luminova material for easy viewing in low light circumstances. The second hand is particularly created to be aesthetic while emulating the majestic "snow eagle" plume.

 

As the time goes on people become more impatient. However the ticking sounds like regular breathing, reminding us of our interests, aspirations, and ideals.

Is it for this reason that, despite all of the hard laws of elimination, mechanical watches continue to be revered by collectors?

Light and shadow have been “materialized” into Hermès latest high jewelry collection

Hermès has launched recently the high jewelry collection Les Jeux de l’Ombre, designed by Pierre Hardy, creative director of Hermès jewelry, featuring the movement of shadow and its relationship with light, and the contrasts that connect them.

The luxury house Hermès has exploited the human perspective about the dichotomy between light and dark to create its latest high jewelry collection Les Jeux de l’Ombre – or “The Game of Shadow”. Mysterious and graceful, this collection celebrates the relationship between light and shadow through the beauty of material – germs in different variations of shade.

The collection of 53 pieces, each more illuminating than the other, showcases the deep relationship between steadfast darkness and gentle light through the art of craftsmanship. When exposing under the light, the jewels seem to be released from the darkness to shine in multicolored radiance. The abstract relationship between light and darkness is clearly depicted.

Featuring the craftsmanship of excellence, these designs by Hermès capture an abstract concept with eye-catching pieces.

 

Me, Myself and My Happy Hearts!

Jewels like caresses, expressing the love we feel for one another. Chopard presents a brand-new collection with My Happy Hearts: jewellery nestling against the skin like intimate and subtle lingerie. A constellation of dainty hearts to be worn alone or stacked as stylish accessories. They are discreet emblems of an emancipated generation, and the hallmark of a reinvented relationship with oneself. My Happy Hearts is a gift that we give ourselves, kind and nurturing, like a gentle bubble. The collection borrows its most famous design codes – the heart and the dancing diamonds – from the Maison’s legendary creations, played out in new proportions.

A jewel for yourself

My Happy Hearts is a sign of a love of self, embodied in dainty jewellery that you can acquire on a whim. To congratulate, thank, encourage yourself or simply to feel alive: treating yourself to a piece of jewellery is a testimony of the respect and love that you have for yourself. And a declaration of independence: giving oneself the means to blossom. Such is the vocation of My Happy Hearts, a collection in which jewellery is cultivated on the body like a fashion accessory. Hearts like points of light punctuating a look with their versatile magnetism.

Tailor-made style

Worn alone, in a minimalist version on strategic points, each piece of jewellery in the My Happy Hearts collection becomes the embodiment of less is more. The space around each one creates density and magnifies its own aura. It thus accentuates a radical stylistic direction, that of chic minimalism; while its small size enables it to play the game of mix and match in different models and colours, opening up an infinite range of combinations to suit our moods, outfits, emotions or the whims of the seasons. The discretion and delicacy of My Happy Hearts leaves scope for infinite combinations. To accumulate them is to build the thread of an intimate narrative, each jewel becoming the object of a symbolic investment to which we treat ourselves: a link from self to self.

Precious skin lingerie

Jewellery used as a fashion accessory to enhance the figure, like a designer handbag or a pair of luxury pumps? That is exactly how women can use their My Happy Hearts jewellery. An element that gives density to even the simplest outfit. Slender, discreet, "kawaii" jewellery that you can barely feel, and which becomes like skin lingerie, a sensual link between you and yourself. Faithful companions that accompany women from Pilates sessions to flamboyant parties.

A sheltering heart

Picking up the symbolism of the heart, an undisputed Chopard icon present in all its collections – from Haute Joaillerie to watches and accessories – My Happy Hearts is a manifesto dedicated to tenderness, to gentleness captured and nurtured amid a sometimes rough world.

Tender, playful, generous, mischievous, and so very happy, the heart is the symbol of vitality and peace. This popular emblem in tune with the zeitgeist has been adopted by the fashion, design and beauty worlds as a must-have element in contemporary graphic language. The street loves its electricity, its humour, its congenial tenderness and the way it immediately arouses collective support, uniting minds and communities - including digital ones.

My Happy Hearts is a collection that embodies a way of loving oneself in a sunny, generous and benevolent manner, in order to radiate the light cultivated within.

Cute collectibles

My Happy Hearts is available as necklaces, chain bracelets, rings and earrings based on the principle of a single heart. Whether in ethical 18-carat rose or white gold, the heart of each piece of jewellery come in carnelian, mother-of-pearl or diamond-set versions. The collection’s rings and earrings are also available with a dancing diamond.

The heart, a free-spinning diamond and ornamental stone are all iconic Chopard codes, staging a vibrant and powerful show. Carnelian conjures up a passionate and incandescent symbolic field, while pure, silky, iridescent mother-of-pearl wraps the spirit in a comforting presence. The heart, an essential symbol of the Maison that has reinvented it by capturing its peerless formal quintessence, has been redesigned in miniature format as My Happy Hearts, while retaining the formal perfection of its curves. A symbol that is both soothing and sends a peaceful message, filled with tenderness, providing scope for unlimited creativity in the way the various jewels in the collection can be worn. Solo, or stacked? This is all about a mood, an attitude or a witty thought encapsulated in jewellery.

The earrings can be acquired individually for greater flexibility and creativity: to be worn alone, in groups on one ear or asymmetrically. Whether a woman is in sneakers or stilettos, at the office or on the beach, My Happy Hearts lends itself to every transformation. In each and every situation they accompany bursts of life, allowing each individual to invent free-spirited moves in arranging and wearing them. These are hearts in every state and in all directions, stacked head to tail or majestically solo, with the tip of the heart pointing inward... like an endless reminder of the power emanating from our own gentle sweetness.

Find out more about Chopard  here 

Saint Laurent
Spring Summer 23
by Anthony Vaccarello

From the moment Yves Saint Laurent discovered Marrakech in 1966, the city became the designer’s intimate refuge, where he enjoyed a calmer, easier rhythm of life in contrast to his busy Parisian work schedule.

The eminent personal significance of Marrakech for the house founder is the evocative backdrop for Anthony Vaccarello’s thoroughly forward-looking Men’s Spring Summer 2023 collection for Saint Laurent. If there ever was a line between what constitutes a ‘masculine’ wardrobe and what makes clothes ‘feminine,’ it elegantly dissolves here.

The tuxedo, perhaps the most seminal element of the Saint Laurent vocabulary, once again gets reinterpreted, refined and imbued with possibility, a continuation of the variations Vaccarello explored in the brand’s Autumn Winter 2022 collection for women. Exciting choices encompass new collar and shoulder solutions, single and double-breasted options, as well as a debonair yet modern cream iteration of the tuxedo in lightweight silk faille.

A predominant high waist and wide leg create an elongated shape occasionally interrupted with narrow or boxy accents. The silhouettes are globally more relaxed, reflecting an ease of life typical of Marrakech. Outer pieces are looser, fluid, less constructed: gathered satin coats envelop the body almost to the ground while tailored jackets have a graphic sharpness. Grain de poudre, a finely tactile wool fabric with a long association at the house – Yves Saint Laurent loved using it – makes a strong showing, recurring in multiple looks.

The show’s setting honors the majestic beauty of Morocco : inspired by Paul Bowles’ 1949 novel The Sheltering Sky, Vaccarello, in collaboration with the London-based artist and stage designer Es Devlin, conceived an awe-inspiring set in the middle of Agafay desert – a ring-shaped luminous oasis amid the vast, arid unknown. Hope and mystery juxtaposed as a metaphor for life’s fascinating complexity.

In Bowles’ timeless words :

“We think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that’s so deeply a part of your being that you can’t even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.”

Find more information about Saint Laurent at here