What’s ticking at LVMH Watch Week?

This year, Miami hosts LVMH Watch Week, the event that gives us the first hint of what to expect from the horological year ahead. To judge from the conversations I had with the bosses of the brands (Hublot, Bulgari, TAG Heuer, Zenith, Genta and Roth), 2024 looks like being a time of “consolidation” – which I take as executive speak for caution in the face of what is set to be a challenging year ahead.

All change at the top table

Indeed, the biggest announcement comes not from the watchmaker’s bench but the boardroom table. Frédéric Arnault, LVMH scion and quondam CEO of TAG Heuer, has been upgraded to a new role: CEO of the LVMH watch division. This has initiated a game of executive musical chairs that has seen the energetic and dynamic Julien Tornare move across to head up TAG, creating a vacancy at Zenith, which has been filled by Benoit de Clerck, formerly of Panerai. Add the fact that LVMHWW 2024 welcomes Jean Arnault (Frédéric’s younger brother) from Louis Vuitton’s La Fabrique du Temps, who will be presenting watches from prestige reboots Gérald Genta and Daniel Roth, and there is plenty to mull before looking at a single watch.

Hublot continues to break the mould

Hublot, of course, continues to be led by Ricardo Guadalupe, who believes that he has the highlight of the event with the MP-10. Short for Masterpiece, the MP series has included some of the wildest watchmaking of recent years – and the MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System Titanium is certainly that.

Hublot titanium MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System, £227,000

Hublot ceramic Classic Fusion Orlinski, £82,000

The watch owes an aesthetic debt to the MP-05; the time is read vertically on constantly rotating drums in the centre, while the vertical self-winding system relies on a pair of sliding white-gold weights that flank the movement and time display. The case design defies concise description and needs to be seen. It is entirely coherent with Hublot’s rebellious streak and its focus on contemporary art and design: there is a new Orlinski watch, a Daniel Arsham collab is coming up this year, and Samuel Ross is designing the public spaces of the new Hublot Manufacture building.

Any colour, as long as it’s green

The extension of the colour palette for Saxem (Hublot’s sapphire crystal-like material) to include a lime-coloured Big Bang is on trend, with green watches also being presented by TAG, Bulgari and Zenith, which offers a pine-green dial on its popular Zenith Chronomaster sport.

Hublot Saxem Big Bang Unico, £100,000

Zenith steel Chronomaster Original Triple Calendar, £12,100

A similar shade is also an option on a returning Zenith classic, the Triple calendar chronograph with moonphase, which is a most welcome, long overdue reintroduction to the main collection and packs a lot of watch into a sensible 38mm case based on the shape and proportions of the 1969 original.

The Bulgari Bulgari is back

Bulgari is also taking a stroll down memory lane with the reappearance of what for many people is the emblematic timepiece by the Roman jeweller: the Bulgari Bulgari, which appears in a dinky 26mm case and a soi-disant “gender-neutral” 38mm. Launched in 1975, its bezel was originally engraved Bulgari Roma with a liquid crystal display and hemp cord strap, which I wouldn’t mind seeing revived (the hemp cord strap, not the LCD).

The ubiquitous Serpenti is being given a bit of a well-deserved rest this LVMH Watch Week, allowing attention to fall on the ladies’ collection Lucea which celebrates its 10th anniversary with – yes, you guessed it – a touch of green; in this instance the introduction of a malachite mosaic dial, made from the shards of the decorative stone that are usually discarded.

TAG Heuer connects with its past

At TAG Heuer they’re turning the dial on the time machine two years further back to 1968 and the Carrera Dato, which shifted the date window from three o’clock to nine o’clock.

TAG Heuer steel Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon, £20,940

TAG Heuer white gold Carrera Date Plasma Diamant d’Avant-Garde, POA

The return of the Dato, using the box glass that was such a hit on last year’s designs for the 60th anniversary of Carrera, will be something for vintage enthusiasts to pore over – and the use of what the brand calls teal green is certainly eye-catching. There is also a teal dial option on the range-topping Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon. And if you have a TAG Heuer Connected watch, you will be able to download the teal and other dials. There are also additions to the Aquaracer and Carrera Plasma lines.

Roth and Genta roll back the clock 

The elite watchmaking brands Roth and Genta play to their strengths as well. The former is showing an exquisite homage to the revived brand’s 1988 masterpiece, the Tourbillon Souscription in the double ellipse case.

The latter presents the Mickey Mouse minute repeater that unites a hattrick of the master’s horological signatures: octagonal case, minute repeater and Disney dial. It was to have been auctioned at Only Watch – now postponed sine die – but Only Watch’s loss is very much LVMH Watch Week’s gain. So, if you are a Genta fan you have the perfect reason to make a trip to Miami… well, that and the sun.