One of the best watch introductions of the year was, in fact, launched a century ago. The Cloche (bell) first appeared in 1920 and its unique shape was identified with the dandies and the racing set of the era. This year, it returns as part of Cartier’s Privé Collection, a series which revisits historic styles in numbered, limited-edition pieces, like this rose gold model. Bulgari
Bulgari produced another record-breaking timepiece: the world’s slimmest perpetual calendar model. Don’t be fooled by its ultra-thin profile the Octo Finissimo packs power. Four years in the making, it houses a 408-part movement in a graphic wafer-thin 5.8 mm platinum case. It s also available in a titanium case and bracelet watch.
Antoine Pividori
If there is a downside to being a brand with a genuine design icon on its books then it’s surely the challenge of keeping that product exciting and fresh, without messing up the things that made it iconic in the first place.
Cartier introduced its Tank in 1917, said to be fashioned after the shape of tank treads. It was at the forefront of a craze for rectangular watches at the time, but its position as a unisex classic has endured way past that – for over 100 years. (Celebrity fans are legion but they include both Clark Gable and Fred Astaire and Princess Diana and Michelle Obama. Andy Warhol was a fan too, offering the waspisly Warholian quote: “I don’t wear a Tank to tell the time. In fact, I never wind it. I wear a Tank because it’s the watch to wear.”)