The case, dial, movement and strap (or bracelet). These are the fundamental elements that make a watch what it is: a timepiece, of course, but also an ever-evolving world of miniatures, capable of continually offering different interpretations of its theme. As told in the new issue of 24 Hours. The cover story features Richard Mille, the brand that has created an avant-garde vision in watchmaking and which with the RM 33-03 Automatico model has interpreted the rounded case design: for a brand that has almost always favored the use of the tonneau shape, this almost seems like an exception. However, this confirms the rule, considering that the brand’s DNA has always been present with the use of high-tech materials and new state-of-the-art ultra-thin mechanical movements.
The magazine continues with three watches that are artistic in the truest sense. The first is the Octo Finissimo Lee Ufan x Bulgari, created by the Italian fashion house together with the famous Korean artist whose works are present in all the most important museums in the world. In the second, however, the name already says it all: it is an Andy Warhol Collage by Piaget, inspired by Warhol’s famous self-portrait from 1986. The third is a new project developed by Hublot with the New York artist Daniel Arsham, MP-17 MECA-10 Arsham Splash Titanium Sapphire, whose lines interpret no less than one of the many shapes of water. Then there is the Complication Poétique collection by Van Cleef & Arpels which returns to Paris with Arpels Bal des Amoureux Automate which features two romantic robots dancing and kissing. Again, ideally, in the French capital first with Chanel and its watches in particular being different from each other, but having the lion as a characteristic that unites them: one of the symbols of the maison. Then with Cartier and four watches/precious jewelry from the evocative Tressage line. And with Vacheron Constantin who, once again in Paris, presented a stunning and monumental astronomical clock with an automaton astronomer (also on display at the Louvre Museum for about two months) as a follow-up act to the maison’s 270th anniversary celebrations.
Returning to watches, here is Tag Heuer who has launched an all-black Monaco and Carrera in which a movement equipped with a futuristic TH-Carbonspring hairspring has been inserted which improves its performance. Ulysse Nardin uses a new material derived from ruthenium for its Freak (X Crystalium).
A variation on a theme for Rolex that introduces three variations with colored dials that reinterpret icons such as the Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona, Oyster Perpetual GMT-Master II and Oyster Perpetual Sky-Dweller. But also to Gerald Charles who launched a special Maestro (his signature collection) with jumping hours and lapis lazuli in the center of the dial, on the occasion of its 25th anniversary, and to Oris who presented a version of the ProPilot Altimeter customized by Bamford Watch Department (BWD). In our Gallery there are models from Patek Philippe, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Breguet, MB&F, Panerai and Grand Seiko. Finally, the interviews in this edition were conducted with two great protagonists, former captain of the Italian national football team and Juventus, Giorgio Chiellini, currently manager of the Turin team and friend of the Breitling brand, and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, driver of Mercedes AMG-Petronas Formula 1, a team that has been associated with the Swiss brand Iwc for many years.
