Watch fairs arrive like eclipses — they’re few and far between, but in the moment of totality, you’re engulfed in its magic. According to Geneva’s calendars, these occur twice a year: April’s annual Watches & Wonders and August’s Geneva Watch Days. While Watches & Wonders is the industry’s premier watch fair, Geneva Watch Days is predominantly an Indie watch-fest, focusing on whimsical artistic expression and embracing lesser-seen alter-egos of maisons worldwide.
For those witnessing the magic of Geneva Watch Days for the first time, here’s a quick brief: Baselworld, one of the watch industry’s most revered trade shows, faced dissolution during the pandemic. As in-person trade exhibitions weren’t suitable, the watch industry took its magic to digital avenues. Bvlgari, Breitling, De Bethune, Gerald Genta, Girard-Perregaux, and many names united to found Geneva Watch Days in 2020, which later transitioned into a ‘phy-digital’ format, followed by officially opening its doors to the world in 2022.
We’ve kept a close eye on what’s hot, quirky, and sparkling at the Geneva Watch Days 2024. Here are the top nine watches you can’t miss.
H. Moser and Studio Underd0g Endeavour Perpetual Calendar “Passion Fruit”
One passion (fruit), two playful ‘Endeavors’. Collaborations truly unite worlds — H. Moser, who takes pride in their mighty, Swiss-made tourbillons, perpetual calendars, and use of Vantablack paint, meets Studio Underd0g — a horological culinary-inspired micro-brand that sells $600 pumpkin and pizza-inspired timepieces.
GWD24, H. Moser and Studio Underd0g unveil a duo titled ‘Project Passion’, comprising a tropical fruity-fresh Endeavor Perpetual Calendar and an 03SERIES Passi0n Fruit, sold as a pair and limited to 100 sets. The colours evoke a freshly sliced open passion fruit — amber and green for fruit and seeds, purple for skin. The Endeavor Perpetual Calendar Concept Passion Fruit is cased in 42-millimetre stainless steel, featuring a purple lacquer dial with hammer-textured, amber grand feu enamel and fumé finish. The hand-wound HMC800 powers a big date at three o’clock, small seconds at six, and a 168-hour power reserve indicator at nine. The tiny green hand indicates the month.
Konstantin Chaykin ThinKing Prototype 2
Russian independent maison, Konstantin Chaykin, could steal Bvlgari’s ultra-thin title in the coming years with their new ThinKing prototype, measuring at a razor-thin 1.65 millimetres. At this stage, the ThinKing is more of a design and engineering concept, cast out ‘special steel’ and measuring 40 millimetres. The dial takes after Konstantin Chaykin’s Wristmon designs featuring face-like watch function cutouts. For the ThinKing, the two ‘eyes’ are hour and minute sub-dials, while the ‘smile’ is a title engraving. The micro-engineering marvel at work is the K.23-0 movement, which is manually wound, offers a 32-hour power reserve, and is integrated directly into the case. It also features a Swiss lever escapement, a special single ultra-thin winding barrel, and a double balance system with a geared clutch – all miniaturized to meet the razor-thin dimensions. The ThinKing is wound using a ‘Case-PalanKing’ puck tucked on the lower end of the caseback.
Breitling Super Chronomat B19 44 Perpetual Calendar 140th Anniversary
Under the spotlight at Geneva Watch Days 2024 is Breitling’s new calibre B19 — their first-ever perpetual calendar chronograph movement. Celebrating their 140th anniversary, this fancy new movement graced three of Breitling’s marque models: the Premier, Navitimer, and Super Chronomat — the latter having our attention today.
The Super Chronomat B19 boasts the line’s most quintessential feat: its buffy bezel featuring 15-minute incremented markings. Measuring 44 millimetres and 15.35 millimetres thick, its 18-carat red gold case is 100-metre water resistant. With the caseback and crown nearly identical to the Premier and Navitimer, its bezel stands out with a black ceramic make and indexes coated in Super-LumiNova®. The skeletonized dial features sub-dials at three, six, and nine o’clock that multitask the B19’s perpetual calendar and chronographic functions. The B19’s perpetual calendar is accurate for nearly another century without major adjustment — accounting for leap years and 28, 30, and 31-day months. It also offers a stunningly impressive 96-hour power reserve while also being COSC-certified. The model flexes a sporty Rouleaux-inspired rubber strap with an 18-carat red gold folding clasp. Limited to 140 pieces.
Read more about Breitling’s triology of new releases at Geneva Watch Days 2024.
Girard-Perregaux Tourbillon with Three Flying Bridges
History lesson: In the 18th century, Chaux-de-Fonds, a historic landmark in horlogerie faced the misfortune of a devastating fire. As the city was meticulously rebuilt, light played an integral role in its architectural plans, with wider streets and larger building windows embracing natural illumination. This became a hallmark of the region’s watchmaking, influencing many brands, including Rue Numa Droz’s Girard-Perreguax. This legacy of lightplay is the inspiration behind their Geneva Watch Days 2024 Tourbillon with Three Flying Bridges. At Geneva Watch Days 2024, various refinements are introduced while certain elements stay true to their origin. The upper and lower surfaces of the gold bridges are coated in Black PVD, while the chamfered edges feature a delicate blend of pink gold. The hour and minute hands are satin finished and dipped in Super-LumiNova.
Daniel Roth Tourbillon Souscription in Rose Gold
Daniel Roth’s resurrection run is led by the Tourbillon Souscription, which takes inspiration from the original Tourbillon C187. This Geneva Watch Days 2024 edition is a rose gold variant of last year’s Tourbillon Souscription with a few nifty cosmetic tweaks and no mechanical alteration. What’s also new is the guilloché en ligne on the rose gold dial, which replaces last year’s Clous de Paris treatment. The large bridges boast vertical Côtes de Genève stripes, while the curved bridge driving the tourbillon is cast out of black-polished stainless steel. The calibre DR0001’s mechanical elegance is on full display on the caseback, which was shut-close last year. Cased in 18-carat 5N rose gold and strapped in brown leather. Limited to 50 pieces per production year.
Bvlgari Aluminium GMT x Fender Limited Edition
Modern-day globetrotter meets eternal music legend. Riffing the right chords, this Bvlgari Aluminium GMT is inspired by the 1954 Fender Stratocaster and dons its legendary livery.
Flexing the original hues of the Stratocaster, the Aluminium GMT adorns a brown rubber bezel with signature dual ‘BVLGARI’ engraving and matching rubber strap. The Stratocaster’s iconic lacquered gradient/sunburst finish is carried onto the dial of this Bvlgari Aluminium GMT, created by coupling creamy white and dark brown hues. This is surrounded by the 24-hour scale, whose dark brown half indicates nighttime while the creamy white indicates daytime. The inner dial features Arabic numerals only at twelve and six o’clock, while the rest of the indexes are designed to emulate the frets of a Stratocaster. Cased in 40-millimetre aluminium, its caseback and crown are cast in DLC-coated titanium. Inside, the BVL calibre 192 is self-wound, offering a GMT function, a date window, and a power reserve of 50 hours. In addition to the 1,200 pieces, Bvlgari and Fender celebrate the Stratocaster’s 70th anniversary by delivering 140 Aluminium GMT watches in Fender-inspired special cases and 70 handmade Stratocasters.
Read more about Bvlgari’s new releases at Geneva Watch Days 2024.
Armin Strom Dual Time GMT Resonance – First Edition
In 1665, Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens observed that two oscillating bodies in close proximity tend to synchronize, eventually moving in unison — this phenomenon is known as ‘resonance’. Armin Strom applied this theory to their 2016 Mirrored Force Resonance, synchronizing two balance wheels via a ‘clutch spring’. Celebrating the 15th anniversary of Armin Strom’s first in-house movement, the Resonance concept reincarnates itself with a fancy new dual-time GMT. Cased in 39 millimetres of 18-carat white gold, the timepiece is powered by a manual wound Calibre ARF22, which delivers a 42-hour power reserve. It employs two fully independent barrels and gear trains, allowing the movement to indicate two time zones. It also features two crowns at four and eight o’clock. The timepiece’s main plate is cast in PVD-coated anthracite, and its dials stunningly boast a sky-blue grenage hue and a black outer ring.
Ressence Type 3 BB2
Ressence’s oil-filled TYPE 3 receives a monochromatic overhaul for Geneva Watch Days 2024. With an updated watch face, Ressence has eliminated nearly all colours except tiny red, blue, and green accents, creating a minimalist look. This perfectly compliments the timepiece’s distinct ability to minimize optical distortion (a common occurrence for timepieces caused by refraction of light). Adding to its legibility are engraved indicators filled with Grade A Super-LumiNova®. Inside, the patented ROCS 3.5 movement blasts Ressence’s Orbital Convex System, delivering a 36-hour power reserve. All this is cased in a 44-millimetre DLC-coated titanium case shaped like a pebble.
CORUM Golden Bridge “Serpent”
CORUM turns its dial into a terrarium for the Golden Bridge ‘Serpent’ – housing a slithery serpent coiled around the maison’s iconic vartical baguette movement. The tonneau-shaped case is crafted from 5N rose gold with sapphire windows on all four sides.
The 18-carat golden jungle comprises hand-painted leaves and vines, upon which a snake slithers around the Golden Bridge movement. This artisanal work requires nearly a hundred hours of meticulous work, from design to micro-sculpture to painting, to bring this unique creation to life. Powering this, is the Claire CO 113, which is manual wound and delivers a 40-hour power reserve. This jungle-on-your-wrist is strapped on with brown leather.
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