A new Rolex store opens in London and Patek unveils a GMT
From a sumptuous new Patek to a new London home for Rolex, we bring you the latest from the world of watches.
Patek Philippe Calatrava Pilot Travel Time
A gorgeous ivory-lacquered dial, seamlessly blending a ‘GMT’ travel feature, driven by a sumptuously hand-finished movement you can admire through the back. So far so Patek Philippe.
But that’s where the similarities between the Calatrava Pilot Travel Time and your standard gold, circular Patek Philippe watch end. Where are the slim yellow-gold case, the alligator-leather strap, the Roman numerals?
Instead, Patek has reinterpreted the modern globetrotter’s trusty timepiece with a boldness that feels borderline contrary. Its blocky, raised numerals are inspired by vintage cockpit instruments, as are the retro ‘mushroom’ pushbuttons on the left. The ‘dagger’ hands glow fiercely at night in fluoro-green, complementing a contemporary acrylic-composite strap finished with a new khaki-green fabric motif.
The pushers operate – in more typically ‘Patek’ fashion – a clever cocktail of micro-mechanical engineering. They nudge, forward or back, a second stencilled-out hours hand, which keeps track of the time back home.
Most cleverly, whether you’re hopping the international date line eastwards or westwards, the hand of the local date display jumps forward or back to meet you there.
• Patek Philippe Ref. 5524G-010, £52,180, patek.com
New Rolex flagship boutique on Bond Street
Watches of Switzerland, already the biggest outlet for Rolex, has compounded the partnership by cutting the ribbon on a spectacular four-storey flagship boutique on Bond Street. It’s the latest episode in a relationship that began back in 1919 with Group’s Northern Goldsmiths showroom in Newcastle.
Visitors to the store – up there with next-door neighbours Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Dior for sheer showmanship – can immerse themselves in the entire Rolex oeuvre, met by an imposing mosaic-floored lobby and accented with signature green marble.
From the lower-ground floor dedicated to Rolex’s pioneering ‘Certified Pre-Owned’ programme – guaranteeing authentic, fully serviced vintage watches – your ascendant tour takes in as many lounge and bar areas as retail opportunities, culminating on the second storey where daylight floods a fully equipped service centre. Here, glass walls offer a glimpse of five watchmakers qualified to go tweezers and tongs on models as complex as Rolex’s flagship Daytona chronograph.
“The boutique is not only a place to purchase a timepiece,” says Richard de Leyser, managing director of Rolex UK. “It’s also a celebration of the brand’s legacy: the Rolex Watch Company was, after all, founded here in London by Hans Wilsdorf in the early 1900s.”
The Fears Arnos Pewter Blue
With a boldly geometric design, it’s quite the departure from the Bristolian company’s recent ‘Redcliff’ and ‘Brunswick’ conceits. But it remains in the spirit of the brand’s redux, with nomenclature inspired by historic and newfound premises in the West-Country capital.
The Fears Arnos Pewter Blue is inspired by the tall, slim rectangular watches that Bowman-Scargill has unearthed from the family archives, dating back to the 1920s. Not limited, it’s named after Arnos Vale, the area of Bristol where the company’s headquarters are located today, and also home to the cemetery where both Edwin and his son Amos Daniel Fear are buried. Inside a beautifully art-deco steel case, ticking beneath a hobnail-textured, rhodium-plated dial is a top-grade Swiss-made Sellita SW1000 self-winding movement with a Fears Blue decorated rotor featuring the ‘flower of Bristol’ motif.
• Arnos Pewter Blue, £4,350, fearswatches.com
Christopher Ward C12 Loco
Christopher Ward’s dazzling new exercise in techno horology the C12 Loco blends contemporary, post-modern design language with affordable in-house-conceived mechanics.
It’s driven by the CW-003, Christopher Ward’s second in-house movement, delivering a six-day (144-hour) power reserve. What sets CW-003 apart is the meticulous polish of its architectural bridges, in combination with the ticking balance wheel seemingly floating in space. It’s a joyous antidote to those cold, rectangular black mirrors adorning most wrists today.
CEO Mike France wan’t backwards in coming forwards, saying “This is a truly audacious piece. Loco’s mesmerising mechanics take us as high-up the watch ladder as we’ve ever dared to climb.”
• C12 Loco, from £3,795, christopherward.com