15 Rapid-Fire Thoughts on Watches & Wonders
Rolex, Tudor, Cartier, and more quick takes on all the releases from Geneva.
Good afternoon from Geneva, where I just finished my second day of appointments. I’ve seen watches from about 12 brands, and have 15 rapid-fire thoughts on releases from Rolex, Tudor, Cartier, Chopard, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and Vacheron Constantin below. Releases are mostly more low-key than last year, but there’s plenty worth paying atttention to.
Best in Show
Last week, I wrote that some of the watches announced will be “exhibit” pieces, meant to be showed off but ultimately purchased by very few clients. My favorite releases are typically the great watches I can see myself buying, wearing, and enjoying. Unpolished isn’t really the newsletter to wax poetic about a $500k triple-axis gyrotroubillon with mahogany obsidian dial, though we certainly appreciate (some) of those too.
That’s why, if you cornered me at Watches & Wonders and made me buy one modern watch, released this year or any year, it’d be the new Chopard L.U.C 1860 “Areuse Blue” in steel. It’s the one press release I received before the show and forwarded to GQ saying I gotta write this one for you guys (here’s that intro). It’s just a dial update, but it’s gorgeous. I liked the salmon a few years ago, but this feels more contemporary and fresh. The original blue dials from the 1990s are incredibly rare, and a shade or too away from the Areuse Blue, so it’s an easy win.
Hamsterdam on Prices: It’s $29,500, an aggressive ~25% increase compared to the salmon’s intro price (but ultimately reasonable in my opinion), of $23,200 in 2023. To earnestly discuss all of these releases, we almost have to suspend the consideration of price, which in many cases are at best “punchy,” and at worst, crazy. This newsletter edition will mention prices but mostly reserve discussion of whether or not they’re reasonable for another day—kind of like Hamsterdam in The Wire, when the Baltimore mayor designates isolated areas as “free zones” where drug dealing is allowed without police action.
The watches I have been asked about the most by friends, subscribers, and collectors, in no particular order: Lange Saxonia Annual Calendar, Cartier Santos “Ghost,” the all-gold Rolex Oyster Perpetuals, Tudor Monarch, Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Control Chronometre, the H Moser x Reebok Streamliner “Pump.” Capsule thoughts on all below.
I also did a first pass at these takes for YouTube, rushing back to my hotel after my first day of appointments. Here it is:
Thanks for the feedback on video so far—it’s low fi and we have bigger ambitions, but that’s also how all of the YouTubers I respect most started their channels.
If you’re overwhelmed by the deluge of new watches and content, last weekend’s podcast with Screwdown Crown is a palate cleanser:
Find the full Unpolished archive online.
Cartier
It’s the 10-year anniversary of the Privé collection. I wondered earlier this year if there might be an expiration on the heritage-focused collection, especially given the original CPCP lasted 10 years (1998-2008). There are no new Prive shapes this year. Instead Cartier is doing a “greatest hits” with two trios:
Platinum: Skeleton Crash, Tank Normale, and Tortue Monopusher
Yellow gold: Tank Normale, Tank Cintree, and Cloche
Only the Crash is a limited edition. I would’ve liked to see Cartier bring back another shape in a small run. The day before Watches & Wonders, I previewed Sotheby’s upcoming Cartier-heavy sale. That catalog is a reminder that Cartier has dozens of shapes it could bring back. Much of the 1970s Louis Cartier collection hasn’t been revisited—I’d love to see a refreshed Ceinture or Cristallor.
That said, all of the new Privé watches are well executed. The platinum Tank Normale is the most noticeable upgrade—the 2023 version was monochromatic and lacked pop.
The Santos-Dumont bracelet is beautifully made. Very flexible, almost like a Milanese bracelet. That said, I prefer the look of the 80s-90s “grains of rice” bracelets. The links are more rounded and give it a softer, more elegant vibe. Also, it works nicely on the Santos-Dumont, but I’d love to see how a Tank Louis looks on a bracelet like this.
People are excited about the slate Santos “Ghost.” The 80s Ghost and Burgundy Santos have gotten popular, so it’s Cartier obviously paying attention to enthusiasts, which they do as well as any brand. We didn’t get much info, but Cartier said both a Ghost and Burgundy are coming this fall. The Ghost is the medium automatic Santos, while the Burgundy is small and quartz. I wrote down a price of $11k (please don’t quote me). The new Ghost is closer to a true matte dial, compared to the brushed finish of the originals. It doesn’t have quite the same metal-on-metal feel of the 80s Santos, but it’s cool.
Tudor
I’m glad to see Tudor take a swing with the Monarch. And I like the watch. As long as I’ve been doing this, it’s been Black Bays and Pelagos. The angular case is 39mm, but wears relatively compact and thin. It’s angular, and unlike most modern Tudors, isn’t slab-sided, so you don’t perceive all 11.9mm of thickness. The error-proof style dial has a rich golden-copper hue. I’m glad it’s not salmon, which has become a bit passé. I don’t think we need a display-back Tudor.1 Out of habit, the first thing I do when I pick up a watch is wind it. The first thing I noticed when I picked up the Monarch is also my biggest buagaboo:
