The 7 Best Timepieces That Dropped at Geneva Watch Days

Urwerk has, since its inception in 1997 by Martin Frei and Felix Baumgartner, existed in a separate niche within the watch world. With a relentless pursuit of reframing timekeeping through a clean-cut futurism, spacecraft-like creations are a specialty of their Swiss atelier. The new UR-150 is another kinetic sculpture from the brand, and on the wrist, it still felt more like an instrument liberated from an alien craft than a wristwatch. However, it doesn’t take long to realise that this is the way to capture a younger audience, and the deep blue dial, with its mechanical theatre, is both legible and intuitive in its interpretation of time. The matte, blasted steel and titanium case is comfortable on its textured rubber strap, and the satellite hours and a 240° retrograde minutes hand that snaps back like a scorpion’s sting at the turn of each hour will spark dozens of conversations. CHF 90,000 (~ US$113,140) will secure this piece of wrist-futurism. Locally, in Malaysia, The Hour Glass announced that the limited edition of 50 pieces will retail at RM472,500.

Talking to Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, product creation director of Bvlgari, about the latest member of the increasingly artful side of the Bvlgari Finissimo family was eye-opening, as was the work of Lee Ufan, its latest collaborator. On the wrist, the Lee Ufan version felt as slim and architectural as any Octo Finissimo, with a subversive difference. Each watch’s bracelet and case are hand-serrated by files, giving the sleek sports watch a post-apocalyptic twist in stark contrast to its mirror-effect gradient dial. On working with the Korean artist, Buonamassa Stigliani underlines the parallel role of the Finissimo as a canvas for artists and architects, and its chameleonic nature. The rough and textured feel of one of the thinnest, wide-braceleted sports watches around felt almost disturbing in the hand, while the effect against the vertiginous dial was strong enough to make this €22,000 (~ US$25,800) Finissimo one of the standout pieces in Geneva.

After exploring the more extroverted side of Gérald Genta’s designs last week, La Fabrique du Temps, Vuitton’s Genevan Manufacture, offered purity. With a yellow gold case framing the timeless depth of a polished Onyx dial, the Geneva Minute Repeater was one of the absolute best drops in Geneva last week. On the wrist, the rounded shape is softly comfortable with a small centre link in gold pivoting a soft leather strap, while a slider on the left side of the case opens up a new dimension of audible time-telling. While the watch itself is monochrome and quintessentially Genta, Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini, the watchmakers who run La Fabrique du Temps LV, have reinterpreted his legacy, as the last two watchmakers to work directly under Genta’s guidance. Priced at CHF 320,000 (~ US$402,260) and limited to one hundred pieces a year, flicking the left-hand side slider reveals a crystalline chime, a rare audible reminder of the maestro, and remarkable for such a thin 9.6 mm case.

H. Moser & Cie is a brand that has pivoted from fun and unusual irony to intense dial art, all the while keeping the flame of traditional craftsmanship alive in the Agenhor movements at the heart of each creation. This year at GWD, we saw a futurist vision of the traditional-cased Endeavour collection in a ‘flying hours’ complication, but one that stood out on the wrist was the deep fume of the exquisitely minimal Perpetual Calendar Smoked Salmon. Yes, CEO Edouard Meylan still has a sense of humour, as the nomenclature stems from the dial offering up a darker, smokier version of the traditional salmon pink dial tone. In fact, it appears more copper-like, and with its deep vertical griffè, or brushed pattern, changes like a chameleon in the light. At 42 mm, the Endeavour is not small, but the white gold case frames a spectacular dial that deserves an expansive stage, at US$68,000.

The Freak has the enviable image of being a watch which appears as if beamed down from a Martian ship, while actually being 24 years old this year. Few watches have managed to preserve their shock value for nearly a quarter century, but Ulysse Nardin’s Freak still feels like it just landed from another planet. At 24 years old, the movement-as-minute hand remains a design gesture no one has truly replicated. The new Crystalium edition cloaks that signature architecture in a black DLC case while layering in high craft. At its centre, a ruthenium disc—formed over days through controlled vapour crystallisation before being treated with rose gold PVD to accentuate its sparkle—with a crystalline texture as rare as its process. Limited to just 50 pieces, it fuses engineering theatre with artisanal allure and manages the rare balance of stealth and glamour.