There’s no denial that smart watches and high-tech pieces remain insanely popular, in large due to Apple’s race for ruling the niche and the amazing dedication of their fans. However, original luxury watches are still there, with an unprecedented magnitude to stay and grow, and isn’t that a sign of the time, since they are timeless artworks of craftsmanship. 2019 has already welcomed some of the most well known brands for unveiling luxury watch novelties in the annual watchmakers’ meetup in Geneva, Switzerland. While the largest exhibition of the timepiece industry’, Baselworld, isn’t going to take place just yet, several newbies in the luxury watch market have set a bar of high expectations and predictions for the year that still has to unveil itself and bring in more of change. While it’s still early on for summarizing trends, here are some predictions and interpretations of the major styles associated with traditional watchmaking industry for 2019.
Love it the Retro way
What do you do when you want to bring some unmatched vintage touch onto the game? The answer is- dig into the archives. That’s exactly the approach of many watchmakers- mixing and matching some well-established styles and models with a touch of modern vibes. Feeling modern, yet timeless. New, yet carrying the dust and charisma of times.
Indeed, while these newbies with retro-inspired looks certainly pay tribute to the past in terms of the touch and feel, they are definitely adapted to the latest demands in the horological technology. Some of the already known instances of calling back to the roots are the Zenith Heritage 146 which is a revamp of the brand’s famous 1960s chronographs. Another instance is the new Montblanc 1858 which though modern, have an easy resemblance to military timepieces of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Panthère de Cartier ladies watch collection has also been brought back into large-scale production.
Restrain the Size
One trend that’s made itself obvious in 2018 is a heartfelt restrain in sizes and thickness of cases, diameters and resolutions, marking a trend of minimalism and rigorous attention to finer detail majorly in men’s timepieces. This change is a fresh breath of air after almost a decade of oversized watches running the game and smaller models increasingly losing in popularity. Today, the market has welcomed some ultra-thin minimalistic pieces like Piaget Altiplano, the Bulgari Octo Roma, the Drive de Cartier Extra-Flat, and many more.Jaeger-LeCoultre, a vivid trendsetter in the industry has sported Master Control Date with a pretty low-dimension 39mm case. Another surprising transformation to hit the market is the Panerai Luminor Submersible 1950 3 Days Automatic the size of which was cut down to 42mm—5 mm down from its initial size.
Impeccability in material choice
Sterling silver, gold, stainless steel. We’ve long known these materials to be attached to the luxury watchmaking business. Yet, 2019 is going to be all about experimenting not only with shapes and sizes, colors and designs, but also the materials themselves, giving room for trying out new, innovative materials. Take, for instance, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar in black ceramic or the sporty TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer-01 Black Matt Ceramic chronograph, coming, again in black ceramic. The Hublot Big Bang MECA-10 Magic Gold has also been linked to the use of a mixture of ceramic and gold to make it even more resistant.
These are some of the trends we singled out, but there are sure to be some more major changes in this transitional phase for the market in general, and luxury market ready for experiments and innovation.
