Audemars Piguet
Royal Oak Jumbo watch, 39mm, extra-thin automatic movement, yellow gold case and bracelet, Audemars Piguet, price on request.
Information on Audemarspiguet.com
Audemars Piguet / Photo press
It was the most anticipated launch of the year.
And on the planning side, Audemars Piguet made no mistake choosing a rare moment of relative calm (between LVMH Watch Week and the pre-announcements of the Watches & Wonders show) to unfold the first part of the celebrations of its icon, the Royal Oak.
This edition of the 50 years, many have dreamed, imagined, desired.
So how do you satisfy an informed public that is as impatient as it is demanding?
By returning to the very essence of the charm of this legendary watch designed by Gérald Genta.
While all bear an oscillating weight engraved in the colors of the event on their back, the Royal Oak premier crus are then available in a multitude of color variations, complications or delicate skeleton work.
But the centerpiece certainly remains this extra-thin all-yellow gold Jumbo.
A noticeable return to this shade of gold, which has recently been neglected in favor of pink gold, which delicately frames a magnetic fumé dial that you never tire of admiring.
Nice nod to the passage to the reputation that the Royal Oak carved out when it was launched in 1972, a steel watch sold at the price of gold.
Unless it's now the other way around...
Tag Heuer
Aquaracer Professional 200 watch, 30mm, quartz movement, steel case and bracelet, diamonds, Tag Heuer, €2,500.
Available on Tagheuer.com
Tag Heuer / Photo press
A few months away from the long-awaited meeting of Watches & Wonders, Frédéric Arnault, CEO of Tag Heuer, continues to impel a sustained rhythm to his collections which he continues to mix with the times (nothing less than a new Autavia, a Formula 1 Red Bull Racing and a connected watch for the first two months of the year).
After the Carrera at the end of 2021, now available in three hands, the house is turning the spotlight on another of its figureheads, the Aquaracer.
After tackling the diver's version of the Aquaracer Professional 300 last year, Tag Heuer has added a subtle but well-thought-out twist to the 200 model. A new, more versatile sport-chic variation, as well calibrated for depths as for a more outdoor and everyday approach.
If the 40mm lends itself to all desires and genres, the brand has taken the diameter of its Aquaracers down a notch to offer a feminine alternative in 30mm.
Also to be chosen without diamonds of course.
Bulgari
Serpenti Misteriosi watches, 40mm, Piccolissimo mechanical movement, case and bracelet in yellow and white gold, emeralds and diamonds, Bulgari, price on request.
Information on Bulgari.com
Bulgari / Photo press
Do not be fooled by the feeling of déjà vu that emanates at first sight from this Serpenti secret watch.
If the latter have been introduced and frequently reinterpreted since the 1950s, this 2022 variation is in no way a heritage piece.
You have to touch its scales of gold and precious stones to feel all the timeless beauty of this know-how so specific to the Italian house.
But it is by leaning over the venomous head of their totem animal that the surprise is created.
At the heart of all desires, a high-flying mechanism combining two very high jewelry techniques: the miniaturization and transformability of parts.
One jewel can hide another and that is precisely what happens here when you remove this scale model of the Serpenti.
Omega
Seamaster Aqua Terra Beijing 2022 watch, 42mm, co-Axial Master Chronometer 8800 automatic movement, steel case and bracelet, Omega, €6100.
Available at Omegawatches.com
Omega / Photo press
Official timekeeper of the Olympic Games for the thirtieth time in its history, the Omega Manufacture is following this season in the traditional exercise of the collector's watch that accompanies each summer or winter event.
In the line of sight here, a Beijing 2022 special edition of its iconic Seamaster Aqua Terra, which has certainly not experienced the same adventures as those of the Tokyo 2020 edition (postponed due to the global pandemic and which has since been famed as a “false start” by collectors), but which will go down in history just as much.
On the back, we admire a 41mm dial with a frosted look in a nod to winter events, while the front is adorned with the Olympic rings and the symbol of these games, necessarily atypical given the health situation and geopolitics.
Ulysse Nardin
Blast Moonstruck watch, 45mm, UN-106 manufacture movement, ceramic and titanium case, leather strap, Ulysse Nardin, price on request.
Available on Ulysse-nardin.com
Ulysse Nardin / Photo press
Undoubtedly the surprise and the nice media synchronization of this beginning of the year.
It was precisely when all watchmaking eyes were on the manufacture and its cousin Girard-Perregaux, in the process of passing from the Kering fold to that of its CEO Patrick Pruniaux, that the latter chose to put the new time into orbit. strength of the brand.
Enough to set the tone for the new tempo that he wishes to give impetus to this beautiful mechanism.
In its viewfinder therefore, a sizeable celestial complication, which subtly combines on the same dial the course of the sun, the moon, the tides and the different times of the world.
All in a color chart of space black and solar bronze.
Panerai
A glimpse of the Panerai watch seen on the wrist of cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov.
Panerai / Photo press
The cliché remains vague, of course, but for all that there is no room for doubt: a Panerai watch has indeed offered itself a trip into space.
Ultimate detail, it was the brand's lovers who first, before the brand, noticed that it was indeed the rounded curves of a 45mm Radiomir PAM210 that could be seen on the wrist of Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov when this last pass under sunlight.
A masterful feat for the brand, more accustomed to deep waters than to space, unlike other brands that have built their legend on the conquest of space.
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