Whether you like them subtle or showy, this year’s best jewellery watches will set you up to shine into the new year and beyond.
They are designed to elicit squeals of delight from the ladies, and provoke (perhaps unchartered) rumination among men. Either way, jewellery watches have the uncanny ability to draw us into their infinitely sparkly universe.
Some like them discreet, others prefer to flaunt what they have. And there are several among us who’d like to have their cake and eat it—demanding both high-wattage glitter and top-drawer mechanical prowess in a single watch. Whichever camp you are in, here are the year’s best jewellery watches for your consideration.
Bvlgari Tadao Ando x Serpenti
Famed Japanese architect, Tadao Ando, imbues his nature-inspired architectural philosophy into one of Bvlgari’s iconic ladies’ watch collections. Centered on the theme of seasonal changes (“As the serpent sheds its skin and emerges anew”), Ando created four iterations, featuring green aventurine, tiger’s eye, and white and pink mother-of-pearl dials to symbolise summer, autumn, winter and spring, respectively.
Cartier Animal Jewellery watches
Cartier has been toying with animal motifs on its jewellery and watches since its emblematic made an appeance on a timepiece in 1914. For its fantastical Animal Jewellery collection, the luxury house channels the likes of zebras, tigers, and crocodiles in ways that are by turns abstract and playful, while flaunting its high-jewellery artistry.
Franck Muller Grand Central Tourbillon Skeleton
A brand that is synonymous with the tourbillon, Franck Muller places the theatrical complication on a pedestal in the Grand Central Tourbillon Skeleton. While the rotating tourbillon mechanism rightfully takes centre stage, the visual drama is accentuated by its artfully skeletonised movement and fully diamond-paved white gold case.
Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Jewellery
The trend—and demand—for rainbow-hued jewellery watches shows no signs of abating. Not when we see the likes of Hublot joining the fun with this pair of Spirit of Big Bang Jewellery watches. Festooned with rubies, amethysts, blue topazes, tsavorites, and a variety of coloured sapphires, the watches may make you blink with their blinding colour and ostentation. But make no mistake: Hublot displays a high level of creativity and know-how with its gem-setting work, evinced by the coloured stones’ meticulous selection and setting to achieve the dramatic gradient effect.
Patek Philippe Aquanaut Luce 5268/461G-001
Luce, meaning “light” in Italian, perfectly captures the essence of Patek Philippe’s latest addition to the Aquanaut Luce collection. Although celebrated for its “casual chic” appeal, this high jewellery model is unmistakably designed for glamorous soirées. Its white gold bezel dazzles with baguette-cut sapphires arranged in a gradient of light to deep blue, while the dial mesmerises with a checkerboard pattern of baguette-cut diamonds and blue sapphires.
