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The Best From Watches & Wonders 2023
This year’s Watches & Wonders event played host to some 48 of the industry’s biggest and best luxury brands during a three-day extravaganza, held in Geneva’s cavernous Palexpo center.
Still in its infancy, having been established only last year, W&W hasn’t yet reached quite the scale of the now defunct Baselworld which, at its peak, housed over 150 manufactures. Nevertheless, it is still the largest jewelry and horology exhibition in the world.
We have covered Rolex’s offerings for 2023 in previous articles, with uprated Cosmographs, some quirky dialed stalwarts and even their first titanium model creating a buzz.
This time, we’re going to take a look at some of the other legendary watchmakers who came to display their wares.
The Oris ProPilot X Kermit Edition
It wasn’t just Rolex’s ‘Celebration’ Oyster Perpetual models and their vibrant bubble faces which gave this year’s event a decidedly whimsical air. A host of brands showed up with some cheerfully lighthearted additions to traditionally rather serious collections.
Among the favorites for many was Oris’s first collaboration with Disney; the owner, since 2004, of The Muppets.
The Oris ProPilot X Kermit Edition slips into the ProPilot X Calibre 400 series, a colorful family of four 39mm time-and-date models with an aviation theme.
The ‘Kermit’ is a true standout, however, with a lurid lime green dial and a unique once-a-month treat. The date display at the 6 o’clock has the standard numerals for every day bar the first, when the number is replaced by the grinning face of a certain hyperactive, banjo-playing frog.
Oris has rechristened the first of the month as ‘Kermit Day’ to ‘encourage us not to take life too seriously. To look up, smile and do something we enjoy, something fun.’ And who could argue with that?
Inside the titanium case lies the Calibre 400. Developed in 2020, it is only the second in-house mechanism from Oris in their modern era. An extremely impressive achievement from one of Switzerland’s best value propositions, the 400 boasts twin barrels which give a 120-hour power reserve and, even more incredibly, comes with both a 10-year warranty and 10-year recommended service interval. And you’ll struggle to find anything better than that anywhere.
Hopefully the first of many Muppet-themed matchups, the Kermit will retail at $4,783.
The Panerai Radiomir
Swiss-based Italian giants, Panerai have had another busy year. In 2022, they introduced a hatful of Submersible QuarantaQuattro pieces in a new 44mm size. This time around, it was the turn of the model which really started it all to expand its reach.
The Radiomir was the original watch Panerai built under commission from the Italian Navy, the Regia Marina, in the 1930s using Rolex cases and movements. Instantly recognizable for their wire lugs and cushion-shaped housing, the lack of that iconic crescent moon crown guard has long made the Radiomir a more formal and, arguably, wearable option than the Luminor.
This year the collection has grown by six. Starting with the most complicated (and expensive) we have the PAM01363 ($39,200) and the PAM01432 ($88,100), a pair of annual calendar-equipped, 45mm models in Panerai’s own Goldtech and Platinumtech. Alloys of their respective precious metal bases, Goldtech and Platinumtech have been redeveloped at the brand’s Laboratorio to be harder and more robust than in their scratch-fest purest forms.
Powered by the automatic manufacture caliber P.9010/AC, both watches have day and date on display at the 3 o’clock, a small seconds counter at the 9 o’clock, with the months shown on the dial’s rotating outer edge.
Each piece comes with a grand sunbrushed sandwich dial—blue on the Goldtech and Bordeaux on the Platinumtech—with the traditional Radiomir cutout indices and huge Arabic numerals at the 12 and 6.
The third new addition sees the return of the wonderful California dial, now on a 45mm model for the first time.
The case of the PAM01349 has been cast in the proprietary Brunito eSteel, a recycled metal which reconfirms Panerai’s long held commitment to sustainability and the reduction of their environmental impact. A PVD coating gives it a distressed, weathered appearance, catering to the still-current trend for all things vintage.
The manually-wound Caliber P.5000 runs the show, and the dial, with its 50/50 Roman and Arabic numerals split, comes in a beautifully vignetted forest green. Price for the 45mm Radiomir California is $12,900.
There were two more watches with the artificially aged look released by Panerai this year. The PAM01347 and PAM01348 ‘Otto Giorni’ are identical to the California in all but dial, with 45mm diameters, Brunito eSteel build with a PVD coating and the P.5000 under the hood. The Otto Giorni name comes from the Italian for ‘8 Days’ a reference to the hand wound movement’s monstruous power reserve, courtesy of its twin barrels and 21,600vph balance speed.
The pair come with either blue or brown ‘Degradé’ dials, color matched to their respective straps, with the 9 o’clock small seconds sub dial balanced out by a circular ‘8 Giorni Brevettato’ (‘8 Days Patented’) text at the 3.
However, despite their mechanical similarities to the California, the Otto Giornis are significantly cheaper, coming in at $9,900 apiece.
Finally, good news for the more weedy-armed among us. The PAM01026 Quaranta Goldtech is the latest addition to the 40mm options of the Radiomir. It retains all of the range’s signature features but in a more manageable size if you don’t happen to be built like Stallone.
The Goldtech case is fronted by a sunbrushed white sandwich dial and the drive comes from the automatic P.900 movement, with 72-hour reserve. Sitting on a contrasting chocolate brown strap, the baby Radiomir is priced at $18,500.
The A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus
We make no secret of our love for Lange here at Beckertime, so it was something of a shame that the German master horologists brought just a single new model to Watches & Wonders this year. Nonetheless, it was, as you would expect, a beauty.
The Odysseus is Lange’s luxury sports watch range, integrated bracelet and all, but this limited edition version is packing the brand’s first ever automatic chronograph movement, the L156.1 Datomatic.
However, as we’re now in the realm of haute horlogerie, there is nothing as common or run-of-the-mill as sub counters for the elapsed minutes and hours to muddy up the dial. Keeping it in line with the rest of the collection, the trademark large day and date displays take up those usual positions at the 3 and 9 o’clock.
Instead, a bright red central chrono hand counts off the seconds, while another hand sits below it to point out the minutes on a track around the edge of the dial.
But the ingenuity doesn’t stop there. The Odysseus’s so-called ‘Dynamic Pushers’, at the two and four o’clock, take on dual roles. They can be used to operate the chronograph function or, by unscrewing the crown, can also set the day and date. It means the three-part, 42.5mm steel case is unencumbered by additional buttons and retains its sleek profile.
Sadly only 100 pieces of the Odysseus Chronograph are going to be made, and will only be available at Lange boutiques. Even more sadly, each one will be priced somewhere in the region of $145,000.
Featured Photo: BeckerTime’s Archive.
