Credits: Article and images by Carol Besler @ Quill & Pad. See the original article here - https://quillandpad.com/2024/05/11/carol-beslers-top-10-watches-and-wonders-2024-highlights/
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 strike me as noteworthy.
Rolex 1908 Platinum
Rolex gets more hits than any other word on any platform, so this must seem like an obvious, cliched choice, but it’s just such a great watch: that gorgeous rice-grained guilloché dial, combined with the ice blue Rolex uses for platinum pieces.
The design – including the slim bezel with discreet fluting only on the lower edge, and the long, needle-thin indexes and circle-tipped hour hand – is a welcome departure from the Rolex sport-watch aesthetic.
The case is a gender-neutral 39 mm, and the movement is of course a Superlative Chronometer.
The price is ‘only’ $30,900, an affordable alternative to equivalent platinum dress watches from Vacheron Constantin and Chopard.
For more information, please visit www.rolex.com/watches/1908/m52506-0002
Cartier Tortue Monopoussoir Chronograph
The Tortue has been revisited not just aesthetically but technically. Cartier made a new movement that, for the first time since the Tortue was introduced in 1912 conforms to the shape of the case (including the subsequent 1928 chronograph and the 1998 edition Cartier CPCP).
It’s now slimmer, which is good for smaller wrists. Otherwise, it has the same features as the icon we know and love: blued-steel apple-shaped hands, a hollowed central seconds hand, Roman numerals and a railroad chapter ring.
The chrono is $51,000 in yellow gold (vintage beauty) or $59,000 in platinum.
TAG Heuer Monaco Split Seconds
Given that TAG Heuer is all about sports timing, it’s hard to believe it is just introduced it’s first ever split-seconds chronograph movement in a wristwatch.
I caught up with Carol Forestier-Kasapi, the brand’s movement director, at Watches and Wonders, who said, “In the company archives, we found an advertisement from 135 years ago for a split-seconds chronograph, so it has always been a big part of TAG Heuer’s heritage, but in all the years since then, the maison never recreated a split-seconds movement on a wristwatch – always on a pocket watch – until now.”
The caliber TH81-00 was developed with Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier and is made of in titanium (as is the case). It’s also just a really cool looking watch, if a bit up-market for TAG Heuer, at $138,000.
For more information, please visit www.tagheuer.com/us/en/timepieces/collections/tag-heuer-monaco/41-mm-th81-00/CBW2182.FC8339.html
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Credits: Article and images by Carol Besler @ Quill & Pad. See the original article here - https://quillandpad.com/2024/05/11/carol-beslers-top-10-watches-and-wonders-2024-highlights/