RAPAPORT... Looking at your wrist to check the time? If you’re wearing the newest timepiece trend, make sure you’ve got your sunglasses. As evidenced by the most recent unveilings from the world’s top watchmakers at international exhibitions, 2008 certainly could be dubbed the year of the diamond watch — for both men and women. Indeed, watchmakers are pulling out all the stops and adorning timepieces in all price points with diamonds, diamonds everywhere.
Key diamond trends start on the dial and move quickly beyond that. Diamond markers and dials simply just don’t cut it anymore. Now, diamonds spill over onto the bezel, case, case sides and bracelet. Sometimes, they’re even randomly spattered onto the strap in studlike settings. In complicated watches such as tourbillons and repeaters, some of the top brands have even taken to setting diamonds inside the movement, on chapter rings and on parts visible to the eye. This dramatic new touch has collectors clamoring for these pieces.
MORE ELABORATE
Move over pavé and make room for baguettes, squares and a few other cuts, as watchmakers embellish timepieces for evening with some of the most stunning and elaborate designs on the market.
“Everywhere you look, the diamond watches are getting more and more elaborate” says Denise Scala, marketing director of Jacob & Co. “Even if they’re not high-jeweled pieces, their settings or colors are exquisite.”
While white diamonds remain the stars, colored diamonds are coming on strong. The most popular colors in timepieces are black diamonds, followed closely by brown and cognac diamonds. Most often, these are color coordinated with rich hues of gold. It’s not unusual to find brown diamonds set in rose gold cases, for instance, and black diamonds set in steel or white gold for a striking black-and-white appeal. Often, watchmakers are setting black and white diamonds together on a case for an elegant evening look.
Color also is straying far beyond the hues of gold and diamonds this year, with many of the luxury brands combining gems of the earth with their timepieces. Hublot offers stunning orange sapphires on its Big Bang watch, while de Grisogono, long the king of black diamond creations, continues to offer black diamonds, but now pairs them with rubies. Similarly, Dior and Chanel offer rubies and diamonds in combination, and both have ventured into sapphire and diamond combos, as well. Brands such as Tiret New York and Van Cleef & Arpels are offering aventurine on their diamond watches, and a host of luxury firms are turning to amethyst this year, as the regal color purple takes on new luster when set next to the sparkle of diamonds.
Watchmakers are even using diamonds to create special designs on the timepieces. Such is the case with Piaget’s Limelight New York to Paris collection, in which the brand depicts the skyline of these two cities on the dial in diamonds and engraving. The company also offers a watch whose dial uses diamonds to depict the seven rays of the diadem of the Statue of Liberty.
“We began developing this collection more than three years ago,” says Philippe Léopold-Metzger, chief executive officer (CEO) of Piaget Worldwide. “It is a series that will reunite cities, that celebrates couture and demonstrates Piaget’s craftsmanship.”
Other elaborate diamond watches come from brands such as Cartier, Chanel and Vacheron Constantin. In its Perles de Cartier watches, the company set diamonds and free-spinning pearls into the watch for stunning beauty. The design features several circles within the dial, set with diamonds encircling the pearls. The result, on a mother-of-pearl dial, is exquisite and truly alluring. In its 1972 series, Vacheron Constantin spills the diamonds from the dial over onto the case in a creative pattern for elegant appeal and, in the J12, Chanel offers a totally baguette cut diamond watch from dial to case to bracelet.
So, whether for man or woman, day or night… the only thing one can be sure of is that there are endless possibilities for diamond timing.
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - June 2008. To subscribe click here.