Geneva Report: The 12 Coolest Watches of Watches and Wonders 2024 and Beyond (2024)

Revolution Founder Wei Koh shortlists his favourites from the Springtime watch fair.

Rolex Day-Date 40 in white gold, with mother-of-pearl dial and baguette diamond indexes

A lot of people have misunderstood the message underlying the 2024 Rolex novelties. But before we talk about that, let’s look at how Rolex has grown in the last 10 years.

It is estimated that Rolex has increased its production in the past decade around 25 percent, which is significantly less than that of many other brands. Yet, at the same time, at CHF 15.1 billion in retail value as of 2023, Rolex does more than double the business compared to every other brand in luxury watchmaking. Further that, for every single Rolex, there is more than one willing buyer.

And Rolex has the greatest luxury brand recognition on earth, which means its brand equity is unassailable. So how has Rolex achieved such staggering revenue growth if it has only grown moderately in terms of volume?

Last year, the average price of a Rolex was CHF 12,218, which is significantly more than most people realize. Rolex has achieved its revenue growth by increasing its average price, and through consistently gaining market share in the high luxury category with more precious metals, gem setting and artisanal dials for its watches.

And it is clear that Rolex is on track to utterly dominate this category. That is the message behind the watches that were launched this year.

The 40mm white gold Day-Date combines all three of these elements, with in-house smelted gold for its case, a ravishing mother-of-pearl dial — only one dial can be produced per shell with this pattern reminiscent of clouds — and gem setting here on the dial is in the form of baguette diamond indexes. But for those of you bemoaning the evolution behind its sports watch roots, check the Rolex catalog; there are steel diving watches, chronographs, GMTs, Explorers, and more, still very much in existence.

What Rolex has decided to showcase is the other part of its story — the high luxury timepieces also wonderfully embodied by the white gold Daytonas with mother-of-pearl dials and brilliant-cut diamond set bezels. I, for one, loved this year’s Rolex watches.

For those complaining that Rolex should never have made a gold Deepsea, you could say the same thing about Lamborghini or Porsche’s creation of SUVs which have gone on to be their top-selling models.

Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra 2024

This is the world’s thinnest watch at 1.7mm in thickness. And it is certified by the Contrôle officiel suisse des Chronomètres (COSC).

In fact, I know it was worn on the wrist by Valérien Jaquet, the man who helped Bulgari achieve this absolutely insane timepiece, throughout the entire season of winter sports, with it performing flawlessly, which I love. As an avid cyclist before I became middle-aged and fat, I was at one point obsessed with bicycles that got lighter and lighter, culminating in my sub-five-kilogram Storck Fascenario 0.6 equipped with Lightweight Obermayer wheels.

But I soon reached a point where trying to go lighter brought with it the constant risk of components breaking, and the bicycle itself was so skittish and fragile that in the end it created constant anxiety every time I got on it. What I respect about Bulgari is it has made an actual watch that you can wear on a daily basis and that is, amazingly enough, COSC-certified as a chronometer.

As you cannot test the movement of this watch alone, because the entire gear train and oscillator are integrated into the back case, that means every complete Octo Finissimo Ultra watch has been sent to COSC to be tested over seven criteria, and every one of these watches is within the -4/+6 seconds mean deviation of a certified chronometer. I mean, come on, that is just utterly badass!

Already I loved the first Ultra watch, which was launched two years ago. Incidentally at 1.8mm in thickness, I still consider this and the Ultra 2024 to be the two realest watches in this hyper thin category, as they are the only two that can be easily wound and set with integrated crowns.

And they are the only watches in their category that come on integrated bracelets.

Jaeger-LeCoultre Duometrè Chronograph Moon

Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Brise d’Eté

Van Cleef & Arpels has carved out its own unique niche in watchmaking with what it called Poetic Complications, which are focused on generating emotion through a wonderful combination of artisan craftsmanship and automatons. Two of these amazing watches include Lovers on the Bridge, where a couple advances on a bridge to kiss at midnight with each step delineating a different hour, and 2022’s amazing Heures Florales with flowers opening their petals in random combinations to tell the time.

This year, Nicolas Bos and his team have created the wonderful Brise d’Eté. Here, one of two butterflies tells the time on a fixed scale using its wing.

But press the pusher on the case and the two butterflies circle around the dial, while the flowers seem to sway as if pushed gently by the “Summer Breeze” that the watch takes its name from.

Jacob & Co. Astronomia Regulator

The Astronomia Regulator has to be the single most visually arresting timepiece of the new watch year. It features a separate indicator for hours, minutes and seconds, and the model’s three-arm rotating carriage features an hour and a minute indicator on two of its arms.

Both benefit from a differential mechanism to stay upright. The third arm features a flying tourbillon with a special constant force mechanism created by Valérien Jaquet, which rearms and impulses the balance with each oscillation.

Underneath it all is what used to be called the “sky layer,” but has now been transformed into a seconds indicator. This disk turns counterclockwise every 60 seconds.

This, coupled with the three-armed carriage’s one-minute rotational speed, creates the visual effect of it rotating at double speed. At 43mm in diameter, you could almost call this insane creation wearable.

Strap it to your wrist and you can be guaranteed that you will be constantly stopped and asked about your watch, which I think was brand founder Jacob Arabo’s intent. Says CEO Benjamin Arabov, “Jacob always wanted the fastest rotating complication watch in the world and visually he created it here.”

Parmigiani Fleurier Toric

Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon

There’s strong momentum behind Piaget and its dynamic CEO Benjamin Colmar. To celebrate his brand’s 150th anniversary, it brought back the long-awaited Polo 79 in a watch that was largely faithful to the integrated bracelet formed art piece introduced by Yves Piaget.

The watch, which I wore for a day, is wonderful if not just a touch on the thick side and rather expensive. At the same time, Colmar also introduced us to the world’s thinnest tourbillon at just 1.9mm in height, which reminds us that the brand is also a real watchmaker with a rather remarkable array of ultra thin movements.

Finally, Piaget is also having a moment with its Andy Warhol watches featuring a triple-stepped shape and hardstone dials. Thanks to Colmar, there is positive energy gathering behind Piaget, so stay tuned.

Raymond Weil Millesime 35mm

The thing about Elie Bernheim is that he is genuinely interested in the next generation of watch customers, so much so that over the last two years, he’s had his eye on exactly the type of watches they collect, and that has motivated the creation of the 2023 GPHG award-winning Millesime, an almost perfect, accessibly priced three-handed round watch. So how has he followed up on this?

By creating the size that the Gen Z market has been asking for — 35mm in diameter. Amusingly, I’m old enough to have seen the entire 20-year cycle of watch sizes going from classic to large, to insanely massive, and back down to our current fascination with smaller case dimensions.

Will the prevailing taste for watch sizes change again? I’m inclined to think not for a while; in the meantime, we will align ourselves in the classic range of 36mm to 38mm for a dress watch and 39mm to 41mm for sports watches.

Unless, of course, you’re François-Paul Journe, in which case you can do whatever you want. Kudos to Raymond Weil for not being content with running a commercially successful but not terribly exciting brand, and instead choosing to generate true cultural relevance with a genuinely nice timepiece family.

Nomos Glashütte Tangente 38 Date Chili

Not only do I love this watch so much that I bought one, but I also love the entire ethical community-based vibe of Nomos. First of all, to celebrate 175 years of watchmaking in Glashütte, Nomos founder Ronald Schwertner decided to launch 31 different Tangente Date 38mm models in an incredibly fun array of color combinations.

Each one of these is made in just 175 pieces and feature some seriously visually arresting color schemes, including my personal favorite, the watch in the hottest shade of red, dubbed “Chili.” Then, he decided to reduce the price of each watch by EUR 175 as a gesture to the Nomos collecting community, which I love.

The point is that brands like Nomos and now Raymond Weil with the Millesime are showing that even the big guys can have the same scrappy energy and super-on-point design acumen we used to associate exclusively with young microbrands. Even better, Nomos adds to that the excellent quality and in-house movement with proprietary escapement that speaks of its watchmaking authenticity.

De Bethune DB28XS Purple Rain

I love the fact that De Bethune saw a shift back to more classic dimensions and responded with the 38.7mm by 7.4mm DB28XS Starry Seas featuring a visually arresting “random guilloché pattern” that reflects light in a thrilling way. Here the DB28’s delta-shaped bridge, triple pare-chute, in-house balance wheel have all been shifted to the back, letting the pattern play across the entirety of the titanium dial’s surface.

By using titanium for both the dial and the case, De Bethune is able to use its proprietary thermal treatment to change the color of both of these anywhere from gold as it did with the watch “Yellow Tones,” to blue as it did with the “Kind of Blue” series, to, as we see here, purple. On the wrist, the Purple Rain literally explodes like a technicolored Brâncuşi sculpture, drawing your eye away from everything else in its vicinity, so hypnotic is its visual appeal.

What I like is that with last year’s all-new monopusher chronograph, the DB Eight, brand founder Denis Flageollet is at the height of his technical and aesthetic inventiveness.

Laurent Ferrier Classic Moon Annual Calendar

My friend Oliver Müller picked this as one of his favorite watches of the fair and I cannot disagree with him. It’s funny that people always think of Laurent Ferrier as a watchmaker, maybe it’s the white beard and the kindly avuncular demeanor. He’s not.

But what he is, is a brilliant watch designer and this new annual calendar with moonphase indicator is stunning, especially in the steel-cased blue dial version. Looking at this watch makes me feel like I’ve entered a Zen garden, such is its calming meditational effect on me. Everything is soft, the curved lines of the Galet case, the typography of the date track, the stretched elongated Roman indexes, everything is graceful and ethereal.

The moon and stars are luminous and travel under two circles of blue enamel that vary in opacity, getting more translucent in the center. The watch is simply phenomenal.

TAG Heuer Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph

I get it, this watch is crazily expensive. But let’s look at the underlying rationale. First, Carole Forestier and Nicholas Biebuyck took out an original Monaco from the archives and 3D-scanned the watch to register every single dimension and radius of each line.

Then, they set about recreating this size and proportion with a totally new and incredibly cool case made from Grade 5 titanium and sapphire crystal. The movement is from Vaucher; it’s the same one found in Richard Mille’s RM 65-01 Split-Seconds Chronograph and was redesigned to be as openworked as possible.

Then, a staggering level of hand finishing was applied to the watch including the super cool handmade “grate” checkerboard pattern. So is there a justification for the price? I believe so.

Is the watch cool? Very. Will it sell? Let’s see. F1 world champion Max Verstappen, in the meantime, is apparently super stoked to be wearing his.