TREND: What was hot at Watches & Wonders

Felix Scholz

As our jet lag begins to subside, we’ve whittled down the key emerging trends from Watches & Wonders. Step right this way to find out what’s likely to be making waves in 2016.

Pocket watches

Don’t worry folks, you haven’t mysteriously woken up in 1915, to find yourself surrounded by dapper gents wearing gold half-hunters. And rest assured the wrist watch is still king. But Watches & Wonders demonstrated that there’s definitely room in the timekeeping landscape for pocket watches. We saw a minute repeater from Baume & Mercier, an epic and expensive skeletonised steampunk creation from Roger Dubuis and of course the Vacheron Constantin Ref. 57260, the one-of-a-kind supercomplication that’s earned the nickname ‘The Big Guy’.

Grey and gold

No, not a faded update of Sam Sparro’s 2008 breakout (or was that only?) dance hit – but a dial/case double-act that was everywhere at Watches & Wonders. The greys ranged from slate to starburst, but the gold was far less fickle, remaining firmly in red camp. IWC’s Portofino Day & Date and Baume & Mercier’s Clifton updates were good examples, but best in show was the tonneau shaped elegance of the new Vacheron Constantin Malte.

Wonderful women’s watches

Hong Kong saw an extremely strong clutch of women’s watches. We’ve already shown you the best, but it seems we may be witnessing a boom in creative design and clever complications when it comes to female-focused collections. It’s good to see it’s possible to move beyond diamonds. Though, to be fair, there were plenty of those too.

Original images by Marcus Flack.