We continue to highlight a few of our favorite watches from among the more than fifty watchmakers that have created timepieces for the Only Watch charity auction, which commences Saturday, November 6, in Geneva. Christie’s will auction these incredible watches to raise funds that benefit research in the battle against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
While you may have seen a few of the watches set for auction earlier this year when Only Watch announced them, we thought you’d enjoy seeing many of these inspired designed again just ahead of the event.
The watches will tour the globe starting September 22 in Monaco, and can then be seen in exhibitions in Dubai (September 30 to October 3), Tokyo (October 8 to 10), Singapore (October 15 to 20), Hong Kong (October 25 to 27), Macau (October 28) and finally back in Geneva on November 4-6. Click here for details about the Only Watch world tour.
Today, we highlight the offering from Maurice Lacroix, which has teamed with Mahindra Racing to create a special edition of its Aikon Master Grand Date. The one-off model for Only Watch 2021 features a 47mm case formed using the same carbon fiber actually used by on a Mahindra Racing car.
This is the first time Maurice Lacroix Aikon made using a carbon fiber case. The bright-dialed watch, sports its embossed off-center hour and minutes display in the official Only Watch orange color, framed with a yellow circlet. The hands and indexes are executed in black and lined with yellow SuperLuminova, just above an open-worked small seconds dial. The main area of the dial is actually the reverse of the mainplate and here is vertically brushed and capped with orange PVD. The curved balance bridge is presented in black DLC and features an open-worked, twin-beam design that clears a direct view of the escapement.
Maurice Lacroix will invite the successful bidder for this watch to attend a 2022 round of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship as a guest of Mahindra Racing, where they can look forward to a full VIP hospitality package.
Only Watch auction estimate: CHF 12,000 to CHF 18,000.
Maurice Lacroix expands its Aikon series with a model sporting the collection’s first-ever matte-black DLC case. The case, in combination with a new light blue strap (made of wear-resistant rubber) and a truly eye-catching sunray brushed gunmetal dial with embossed square pattern, creates one of this popular collection’s freshest looks since its debut in 2016.
The new Maurice Lacroix Aikon Chronograph Sprint.
Despite the new livery, the new 44mm Aikon Automatic Chronograph Sprint retains the collection’s distinctive six ‘arms’ across its bezel and an M-logo on its strap. But here Maurice Lacroix has delivered those arms in a polished gunmetal finish, adding dimension to the bezel while also matching the dial.
The watchmaker combines snailing and a slight opaline finish to the darkened subdials at 6 and 12 o’clock and then colors the small seconds indicator in a shade of blue matching the strap. That same blue hue also livens the central chronograph seconds hand.
Parmigiani Fleurier updates its Tonda collection with a cleaner, pared-down sub-collection dubbed Tonda PF. The new line exhibits a less ornamented Tonda dial design, which the watchmaker attributes to a carefully considered ‘sartorial’ approach to the update.
The new Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF collection includes a chronograph, a split-seconds chronograph, an annual calendar and a two-hand, time and date model. With the exception of the split-seconds edition, the three new Tonda PF debuts are all available in steel with a platinum hand-knurled bezel or in a rose gold case.
It’s not just the wide-open dials that characterize the new Tonda PF. The newly designed, extra-long openwork hands are now made of solid gold. The new bezel echoes many of the brand’s original Tonda designs, but adds a subtle knurling that, surprise, is made by hand in luxurious platinum.
The bezel on each steel Tonda PF is hand-cut in platinum.
This rare combination speaks volumes about the details Parmigiani Fleurier has built into this handsome new collection. Ever modest, the watchmaker claims the platinum flourish is “Not for the sake of exclusivity, but because it provides a better, shinier play with light and a more artisanal feeling once polished by hand.”
In my mind the platinum bezel is a hidden treasure – not unlike Parmigiani Fleurier itself.
And finally, Parmigiani Fleurier has updated the bracelet for the new collection. Now wider near the bezel and narrower along the length, the bracelet exudes a tailored approach to watchmaking and likely feels slimmer when worn. The horizontal-satin-finished surface here perfectly echoes the upper surface of the lugs.
The new Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Micro-Rotor.
Tonda Automatic with PF Micro-Rotor
This slim 40mm by 7.8mm two-hander underscores its name with a luxurious platinum micro-rotor to echo the bezel (on the steel model).
The precious oscillating weight (pictured above) powers the latest iteration of Parmigiani Fleurier’s caliber PF703. The dressy date/time display offers a date disc colored to exactly matches the minute track, all placed within a matte guilloché dial, and cut to a turn. Prices: $22,900 (steel) and $53,900 (rose gold).
The new Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Micro-Rotor, in rose gold case and bracelet.
The Tonda PF Chronograph
With its integrated high-frequency (5 Hz, or 36,000 vph) Caliber PF070 movement, this 42mm model retains a clean two-register chronograph layout alongside a small seconds subdial. The new lightly guillochéd dial design extends to its bezel with a sandblasted minute track and counter edges.
The Tonda PF Chronograph
The case is dressy, with subtle teardrop pushers, and when turned over reveals a beautifully finished openwork rose gold rotor with a PF logo (pictured below). Prices: $31,000 (steel) and $69,700 (rose gold).
The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Chronograph, in rose gold.
Tonda PF Annual Calendar
In its 42mm case, Parmigiani Fleurier’s Caliber PF339 powers the Annual Calendar, which displays a retrograde date, day, month and a moon phase aperture, showing both hemispheres.
The new Tonda PF Annual Calendar.
New here is Parmigiani Fleurier’s placement of the date onto the minute track and a careful addition of subtle subdial outlines to a grey guilloché dial. The dial font is ultra clean and the moon phase indicators seem to glow against the dial. Prices: $38,700 (steel) and $77,500 (rose gold).
The new Tonda PF Annual Calendar, rose gold edition.
The Tonda PF Split Seconds Chronograph
At the top of the collection’s price range, this complicated model is offered as a limited series of twenty-five, meant to celebrate the brand’s twenty-fifth birthday.
The watch offers a dial, case and bracelet made of platinum and a stunningly beautiful high frequency, open-worked movement built from gold. The watch’s integrated split-seconds chronograph allows the user to time two events starting at the same time, down to the tenth of a second.
The Tonda PF Split Seconds Chronograph.
If a gold movement and platinum case aren’t luxurious enough, add on the platinum bracelet to match the case and you have a genuine high-end offering in every sense of the word.
The Caliber PF361 inside the watch is a new version of Parmigiani Fleurier’s most high-end caliber, namely the inspired and GPHG-award winning ChronOr. In addition to a solid rose gold mainplate we see extensively open-worked, satin-finished and beveled bridges. Exquisite. $171,600.
TAG Heuer today expands its Aquaracer Professional 300 collection with three new watches. Two models with blue and black dials, first seen in April as steel bracelet models when TAG Heuer upgraded the deep-diving collection, are now offered with matching rubber strap options.
A third debut echoes a favorite bright-dialed TAG Heuer dive watch from the past.
TAG Heuer re-introduces an old favorite with Aquaracer Professional 300 Night Diver.
Return of the Night Diver
TAG Heuer’s highlight fall 2021 Aquaracer Professional 300 debut is the all-black, lume-dialed Aquaracer Professional 300 Night Diver. The watch recalls the TAG Heuer “Night Diver” first seen in the mid-1980s and re-introduced in numerous guises in the years since, most recently in 2018.
The Night Diver’s standout feature, then and today, is its fully luminescent dial, which TAG Heuer coats in green SuperLuminova. This is truly non-subtle lume, which may be too bright for some desk divers, but for others hits home.
TAG Heuer seemingly overfills the watch’s minute and central seconds with blue lume to clearly contrast with the green dial. That bright green color also appears on the hour hand and four primary hour markers. And critically, TAG Heuer fills the triangle at the top of the unidirectional rotating bezel with blue lume to match the blue of the minute and central seconds hands.
To emphasize the ‘night’ in the watch’s nickname, TAG Heuer coats the watch’s 43mm stainless steel case, bezel, crown, caseback and clasp with matte black diamond-like carbon. The bezel insert is black ceramic.
TAG Heuer’s ETA-based (or Sellita-based) Caliber 5 automatic movement powers all references in the new Aquaracer Professional 300 collection.
TAG Heuer fits the Night Diver with a black rubber strap with a black DLC steel folding clasp with double safety push buttons with fine adjustment system.
Full collection
You might recall that earlier this year TAG Heuer revamped its Aquaracer collection, displaying models with a more refined twelve-sided bezel, shorter lugs, slightly wider hour hands and more prominent horizontal engraved dial lines. The three new models debuting today expand the new Aquaracer collection to eleven references.
All three new Aquaracer models feature a unidirectional rotating bezel, a screw-down crown, are water resistance to 300 meters, feature a sapphire crystal and a double safety clasp. And they all have solid casebacks stamped with a diving suit sporting a twelve-sided faceplate.
Prices: $3,350 (Night Diver) and $2,700 (Aquaracer with blue or black dial with new rubber strap).
The new Aquaracer Professional 300 collection now includes blue or black-dialed models with matching straps. These models debuted in April with steel bracelets only.
I would like to share with you a recent conversation I had with John Demsey, executive group president at the Estée Lauder Companies.
Demsey is well-versed in beauty, luxury, and creativity, so it may not come as a surprise that John is a watch guy too, with a love of timepieces that stretches back to his childhood.
At six years old, Demsey got his first watch, which was a Timex, and as he recalls it, a big deal. He came into possession of his second watch as a teenager during a trip to Japan when he picked up a special edition Seiko watch made for the Osaka Expo 1970 world fair.
As LED became the fashionable watch technology of the decade, John’s father then gave him a futuristic Pulsar timepiece.
However, what came next was Demsey’s “first real watch,” and it’s what most of us will agree is an absolute grail-worthy piece.
On his sixteenth birthday, Demsey’s father gifted him a Royal Oak, the very one that Gerald Genta designed for Audemars Piguet. Not only did John get a first-generation Royal Oak, but his dad bought himself a matching one too.
On his sixteenth birthday, Demsey’s father gifted him a Royal Oak.
Hearing John tell the story, you can feel the emotion that surrounds this special occasion. It’s a memory that is as vivid and clear as if it happened yesterday. I love hearing about fathers and sons owning identical watches; I find it to be a beautiful and symbolic expression of tight familial bonds and being connected by time. For John, watches represent a continuation of life when special pieces are handed down from generation to generation.
Design appreciation
Watches are, of course, a combination of beautiful art and industrial techniques, which parallels Demsey’s upbringing with a mother who was a painter and a father who ran a steel processing plant. His appreciation for design and beauty goes far beyond timepieces, as John is also an avid collector of art, photography and furniture.
For Demsey, watches are one of the few objects that men can wear to signify personal style. He learned from an early age about the subtle cues a watch could tell another person. It can speak volumes about who the wearer is, what he finds stylish, how he regards time, and what his passions are. On a recent trip to Japan for example, Demsey observed the frequent pairing of designer jeans and Rolex Sea-Dweller watches.
Demsey also associates watches with certain periods of life, especially with milestone events like graduation, career achievements, and so on. Buying a special watch is a way to give added significance to an event and it can also be a meaningful way to memorialize certain places, experiences and people.
Similar to other collectors, John Demsey’s collecting journey has ebbed and flowed according to changing personal tastes and preferences. His focus has always been on the design of the watch, whether the color, bracelet, or style, rather than movements or timekeeping.
For example, he went through a period of collecting every single rendition of Andy Warhol Piaget watches—in seven colors. He found the design so special that he even custom-ordered dials, which is telling of John’s appreciation for timepieces with unique style.
Demsey’s Andy Warhol Piaget watches, plus a Patek Philippe Ellipse.
The Classics
But that’s not to say he doesn’t appreciate the classic icons either. He’s a big fan of Rolex, especially Daytona “Paul Newman” chronographs, and given his early discovery of Audemars Piguet’s famed sports watch, he’s also a fan of Gerald Genta hits like the Royal Oak and the Nautilus.
Up close on an ‘Andy Warhol’ Piaget.
He enjoys the hunt of finding a special watch that few have. His decisions are not random but purposeful, as he takes the time to stay up-to-date with the watch market. He follows auction houses, reads Hodinkee and IW Magazine, and his social media feed includes watch brands and watch influencers. A good watch purchase for John is a mix of an emotional connection, a striking aesthetic, and topnotch quality.
While he used to stick to the “one in, one out” rule when collecting watches to ensure that they all got good wrist time. While the guideline has changed slightly to “three in, one out,” Demsey still believes that watches should be worn and not locked away in a safe. He doesn’t buy them for a future return on investment but simply because he loves them. He purchases watches using a variety of sources, including auctions, dealers, boutiques, online platforms, and can sometimes get an insider’s tip on an available piece via a phone call too. However, he says that his best watches were found during trips to Milan and Rome.
Three very special Rolexes.
When I asked Demsey how he feels about luxury watch brands selling their timepieces online, he doesn’t think anything can replace the experience of an in-boutique purchase. Trying on watches in a store or discovering a hidden timepiece in the back of the shop is all part of the excitement of in-person watch shopping. Yes, you can certainly find and buy watches easier online and the Internet can help you locate a seldom-seen reference, but the sense of discovery and anticipation can also be lost.
However, the online watch world is a great place to get educated about watches. For example, if Demsey finds something he likes, he does his research online first to make sure prices and other details are in order before pulling the trigger.
It’s no secret that watch buying and collecting has flourished over the last fifteen years or so. Demsey believes that this phenomenon is fueled in part by people seeking objects that are timeless in design and built to last. We’re bombarded with so many disposable items today that grounding ourselves with beautiful and long-lasting pieces like art, furniture or watches can give immense pleasure.
Independents
The watch market is certainly not immune to fleeting trends; we’ve witnessed so many watch styles over the decades, from the understated and restrained to the opulent and oversized. Gold metals moved aside for white metals, only to come back again in full force. Demsey believes that there will be a rebirth of the aerodynamic designs that were prevalent in the 1970s joined by the smaller Art Deco-inspired pieces that gained prominence in the 1930s.
Demsey also admires exclusive independent watchmakers like F.P. Journe that find their voice and produce small batches of high-quality timepieces for an enthusiastic following. In fact, during these past eighteen months, Demsey became even more interested in watches. This is despite being tethered to his at-home computer screen where the time is always on display and he has fewer occasions to wear his watches out in the world. Yet, he discovered new watch brands and models, just like the H. Moser & Cie piece strapped around his wrist during our interview. He clicked with the brand, just like he did with Urban Jürgensen and Ressence.
Demsey’s H. Moser & Cie Streamliner.
After hearing John speak during our interview, I have a sense that his appreciation of art, love of collecting, and emotional connection to beautiful objects were rooted at a young age and have become an integral part of his life. His enthusiasm for watches is one way in which he expresses his passion for great style and it was a pleasure to learn about his story.
Laurent Martinez is the proprietor of Laurent Fine Watches in Greenwich, Connecticut. Read more by him at blog.laurentfinewatches.com or visit his store’s site at www.laurentfinewatches.com
The precious oscillating weight (pictured above) powers the latest iteration of Parmigiani Fleurier’s caliber PF703. The dressy date/time display offers a date disc colored to exactly matches the minute track, all placed within a matte guilloché dial, and cut to a turn. Prices: $22,900 (steel) and $53,900 (rose gold).
