Watches and Wonders has closed and L'Orologio is about to hit the newsstands (you can find it from Monday) with this week's most fascinating watch on the cover.
It took us a while to decide that this was our favourite, because it is difficult to answer the classic end-of-show question: 'What is the most beautiful watch you have seen? With so many images cluttering up one's head, one finds it difficult to select. So the mind tries to organise the information by themes.
This year, for example, saw much experimentation with precious metals. New gold alloys, in search of particular colours and reflections, and even silver, used by Tudor for one of the most aesthetically successful watches in its range, overshadowed other experiments.
Sustainability is another prominent topic in 2021. Many are riding it, some with continuity, others with headline-making exploits. Like Panerai, which has created a one-off piece in materials that at 98.6% (by weight) come from recycled elements. A talking piece introducing three Luminor Marina models in a recycled steel alloy christened eSteel.
From strap materials to case materials, eco-sustainability thus extends to high-end watchmaking, a sector in which, while it is true that the volume of material used does not have an excessive impact on the environment, it is also true that the products must transmit positive sensations that enhance our feeling good about ourselves. A state of mind that is put to the test these days.
It has been a Watches and Wonders of important anniversaries and the watch celebrated with most fanfare is certainly the Reverso. Which, without waiting to make the 100 mark, celebrates its 90th birthday with a multifaceted piece designed to astonish (and it succeeds). Moreover, with several new patented mechanisms, which brings us to my favourite subject: technical innovation. There has been little of this, truth be told, but there has been some. On future analysis, I will probably discover that it was actually more than what it seemed to me to date.
Dody Giussani
