Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve officially kicked off this year’s watch calendar with the LVMH Watch Week 2024 (January 28th – February 2nd). Setting our watches to Miami time, the four horsemen of Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton – Bulgari, Hublot, TAG Heuer, and Zenith, welcome Daniel Roth and Gérald Genta, two iconic luxury Maisons relaunched within La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton. In its fifth edition at South Beach, Miami, LVMH watch brands bring forth their latest novelties and special editions for the year ahead.
Right from shiny Octos to masterful Hublot wonders, and bedazzling Carrera dials to Zenith retro-revivals, here are seven of the best watches from LVMH Watch Week 2024.
Zenith Chronomaster Original Triple Calendar
Kicking off this list with an absolute vintage wonder. This triple calendar, moonphase, chronograph, is a perfect trifecta of 70s El Primero brilliance, rock ‘n’ roll Swiss watchmaking, and sheer handsome horlogerie ergonomics.
Back in 1969, a mere 25 pieces of an El Primero model were produced as proof of concept. Designed to accommodate a triple calendar, moonphase, and chronograph, this special prototype was abandoned considering the growing popularity of Zenith’s stock chronographs. Shelved and turned into a relic lost in time, it finds a second life in 2024 after a short glory run in the 70s. Zenith even confirms they’ve based this model’s case on the blueprint of the original A368 from 1969.
With a steel case slating in at a modest 38 millimetres, you get to choose between three dial colours – monochrome panda, slate grey with white sub-dials or a boutique-exclusive green. The indexes are Rose Gold dipped in SuperLumiNova. The workhorse here is a Zenith El Primero Calibre 3610 which offers day, date, month, column-wheel chronograph, and moonphase indication. It runs automatically with a 60-hour power reserve.
Hubot Big Bang Unico Green SAXEM
Hublot’s preferred weapon of choice in watchmaking has always been material innovation. For 2024, they’ve added a new colour to their SAXEM catalogue – their in-house mutation of sapphire crystal or ‘Sapphire Aluminum oXide and rare Earth Mineral’. With last year’s headlining Yellow Neon Saxem, Hublot mastered the art of infusing minerals into a sapphire crystal-like ingredient, allowing it to exude a fluorescent neon hue.
Going bottle green for 2024, the SAXEM Green edition’s dial is blackened and open-worked, creating a stunning contrast against the emerald glow. In signature Unico fashion, we see a skeletonised seconds sub-dial at nine o’clock and a 60-minute counter for the chronograph at three. Also peeking through the counter is a date window. Resting inside the 42-millimetre case is Hublot’s HUB1280 UNICO 2 flyback chronograph movement which runs automatically. Consisting of 354 parts, it offers a frequency of 28,800vph (4 Hz) with a power reserve of approximately 72 hours. Strapped on in green rubber, it incorporates the brand’s proprietary One Click system. Limited to 100 pieces.
TAG Heuer Plasma Diamant
TAG Heuer’s Diamant d’Avant-Garde is here to prove that lab-grown diamonds can shine too. Adding another Plasma Diamant to their diamond-studded catalogue, this Carrera Date 39-millimetre stunner comes enriched with yellow diamonds against a sea of polycrystalline diamonds.
Cased in white gold, the yellow lab-grown diamond case is masterfully cut from a single 1.3-carat piece. Complimenting this, is another yellow diamond on the dial, shaped as TAG’s shield logo. The dial’s lustre was created by growing a large chunk of diamonds as a singular piece, allowing it to appear as a myriad of iridescence. In addition to all this ice, 12 baguette-cut lab-grown diamonds are serving as hour indexes. Powering TAG’s new Plasma stunner is the Calibre 7, which runs automatically and delivers a 56-hour power reserve.
Hublot MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System Titanium
Hublot’s no slouch when it comes to showing off mechanical mastery with their crafts, and for 2024, this penchant is made prominent with the MP-10. Counterculture in every essence of the world, Hublot’s MP-10 bares a new calibre of 592 components, two linear weights, and a 60-second inclined tourbillon.
While there isn’t a dial per se, you read time directly off its calibre. Four rotors, consistently in motion, display hours, minutes, a power reserve, and seconds (rotating along with the tourbillon). For the lack of a winding crown, there are two white gold weights on either side of the calibre, which can be wound bi-directionally. The Automatic HUB9013 offers a minimum of 48 hours of power reserve. All this micro-engineering glory is cased in micro-blasted titanium slating at 54 x 41 x 22 millimetres.
Bulgari Lucea
Celebrating 10 years of Lucea, Bulgari proves this love affair is set in stone. The new ultra-special anniversary edition is sustainably crafted using malachite remains/scraps of other models at Bulgari’s manufacture. Instead of discarding these malachite fragments, they breathe new life in the form of an elegant marquetry display. Upon this, the indexes boast brilliant-cut diamonds while bedazzling a string of 56 diamonds on its bezel. The cherry on top is the ruby crystal crown protector.
TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon
Here’s the more complex of the two, teal green Carreras spotted at this year’s LVMH WW. The ever-so-gorgeous Carrera Chronograph exhibited with a complication that gets Geneva’s most masterful watch-smiths nervous – the tourbillon. Invented by Abraham-Louis Brguet’ in the early 19th century, tourbillons aided in eliminating the effects of gravity on the movement. Today, tourbillons simply show off a maison’s technical prowess.
The team green dial boasts two chronograph sub-dials at three and nine o’clock, with the former being a 30-minute marker and the latter for hours. South, you see the masterful chronograph put on display beneath a curving “glass box” sapphire crystal. The Calibre TH20-09 is cased in a 42-mm stainless steel Carerra case and paired with a black leather strap.
Bulgari Octo Finissimo Tuscan Copper
If 2023 had a Pantone ‘watch dial’ colour of the year, it’d be salmon. Looks like this trend is spilling into another horlogerie calendar year but with a twist. Bulgari presents a brand-new Octo boasting a ‘Tuscan Copper’ dial, inspired by the lighting of 16th-century Italian paintings. The delicate metallic hue is quite an interesting take on last year’s trendy salmon dials. Apart from the cosmetics, the Octo still struts a 6.4-millimeter thin body stretching 40 millimetres. On the ‘Tuscan Copper’ sunray finished dial, the indexes are rhodium plated. Inside, rests the BVL 138, which is self-wound and offers a 60-hour power reserve. Limited to a stiff 50 pieces.
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