If we (collectors, journalists, lovers of luxury) agree that the best brands combine heritage, an intense dedication to craft, and the execution of a modern marketing plan designed to reach a new generation of watch aficionados, then the new Urban Jürgensen has got it nailed.
After replacing her heating system, Carol Besler has been considering all the other thingsshe could have had for $8,000, which naturally led to thoughts about all the nice watches she could have had for around that price. Here are a few that stand out.
Since then, I’ve been watching for them, and although it’s a challenging price point for a luxury watch, I’ve come up with a few contenders that offer real value for the money.
Like most journalists who swarmed the booths at Watches and Wonders earlier this month,Carol Besler saw about a thousand watches in five days. Most were amazing and surprising, some were forgettable, and others stand out as faves.
Open to the general public for 5 days, Geneva Watch Days welcomed 13,800 visitors, an increase of more than 70% over last year. Carol Besler is a new fan of the summer fair.
Breguet was an engineer, an astronomer and also a designer. He adapted certain techniques to horology, such as guilloché, for example. The art of Breguet is in the details, in the finishing, and the artworks at Frieze are also all about the details … an artwork is something you have to look at multiple times, and each time, you’re going to discover different things.
Since taking over as CEO of Parmigiani Fleurier in 2021, Guido Terreni has leaned into the brand’s legacy as a maker of classic dress watches at the level of high watchmaking. Not by making a dramatic statement piece but by doubling down on refinement. Having reintroduced the Tonda, and picking up a GPHG award for it in 2022, Terreni turned his attention to the Toric, the golden-ratio proportioned flagship dress watch that was Michel Parmigiani’s first design.
The Geneva Watch Auction: XIX held over the weekend by Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo, totaled 39,667,167, just a tad over its high estimate, and set five world records.
So many watches, so little time and space. It’s almost impossible to pick only 10 standouts from among the hundreds of introductions at Watches and Wonders, but here are 10 that struck Carol Besler as noteworthy.