Our top picks from Bulgari, Zenith, Hublot and TAG Heuer showcased at LVMH Watch Week 2024
Another year, another LVMH Watch Week to kickstart a fresh cycle of horological obsessions. Since 2020, the luxury conglomerate has been the first to lift the veil on new watches with this showcase.
Held in January, LVMH Watch Week 2024 is a precursor to the Watches And Wonders exposition that will be staged in Geneva this April. This year is no different as LVMH’s four watchmaking houses—Bulgari, Hublot, TAG Heuer and Zenith—fire their first salvos. While LVMH Watch Week serves as a teaser of sorts, each marque has hit the ground at full steam premiering watches that brim with identity and caprice. Here are four noteworthy drops to check out.
Bulgari Octo Finissimo
The Italian luxury house draws inspiration from a perennially reliable source—gold—for LVMH Watch Week 2024. The precious metal, rendered in its full spectrum of colours, clothes Bulgari’s most iconic lines, from the bejewelled Lucea collection, to the Bulgari Bulgari and Octo Finissimo dress watches.
It is hard to pick a favourite from the resplendent cast. However, if we must, the yellow gold-clad Octo Finissimo edges it just a little. Complemented by a lovely blue sunray dial, the full-on regality of the watch will dominate the wrist with boss-like allure. That said, the Octo Finissimo’s characteristic slimness negates the ostentation with a touch of elegance. The watch is just 6.4mm in height, courtesy of its extra-slim in-house automatic movement. Fitted with a micro-rotor, the in-house calibre BVL138, while svelte, is a robust and reliable engine that stores up to 60 hours of power reserve.
Hublot MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System
One can count on Hublot to throw a curveball in any horological exposition. Here, the brand, which prides itself on being on the cutting-edge of material experimentation and watchmaking innovations, adds a stunning new creation to its cast of disruptive timepieces in the MP (Manufacture Piece) collection.
Limited to 50 pieces, the MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System challenges conventions of a regular watch by doing away with the hands and dials. Instead, the time is displayed on the movement itself with a variety of rotating components: a gear shaft-like tube for the hours and minutes, and a disc for the seconds. Additionally, the watch houses an inclined tourbillon—featuring a patent-pending suspended monobloc aluminum construction—and a unique energy transmission system that relies on linear weights to power the movement. Of course, Hublot had to deconstruct the conventional movement for this avant-garde horological expression, an endeavour that took five years of research and development.
TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph
Affectionally nicknamed the ‘Cyclop’ by collectors, the Heuer Carrera Dato, introduced in 1968 proved to be an anomaly in the Carrera line-up. Unlike its forebears—or indeed, many of its brethren in the collection—the Dato featured a pared-down and asymmetrical dial layout. Instead of the Carrera’s familiar tri-compax dial, the Dato flaunts a date window on the left and a chronograph totaliser on the right.
Following the introduction of the retro-inspired ‘Glassbox’ series of Carrera watches in 2023, distinguished by vintage-style domed crystal glasses and inner dial flanges, TAG Heuer takes us back again this year with a Dato-style Carrera Chronograph. Enhanced by the distinctive silhouette, the watch’s unique look is sheathed in captivating teal, while the chronograph sub-dial is updated with a 30-minute counter, replacing the original’s 45-minute display. Powered by the same automatic movement that drives last year’s glassbox models, this version comes in a 39mm steel case—an ideal size for both gents and ladies.
Zenith Chronomaster Original Triple Calendar
Consider this the second coming of the Zenith Triple Calendar. The dual-complication, which comprises chronograph and triple calendar features, has been straining at the leash since the 1970s, when a limited series of 25 prototypes were produced. A deep-cut Zenith collectible, the watch was produced intermittently over the decades, with the most recent example being the hotly coveted El Primero 410 from 2014.
The new Chronomaster Original Triple Calendar accords the complication its overdue spotlight. Housed in a 38mm steel case, it sports the same dimensions and design as the A386 model from 1969, for which the mechanism was designed. Flaunting a choice of panda-style, grey or green dials with the distinctive day, date and moonphase windows, alongside retro-inspired accents like the bezel-less construction and domed sapphire crustal, the latest variants are aesthetically a blast from the past. Performance-wise, the watches are turbo-charged with Zenith’s new in-house El Primero 3610 automatic movement, a muscular, high-frequency engine that pairs the triple calendar mechanism with a chronograph that measures time to 1/10th of a second.
