Gucci
At Italian fashion house Gucci, the Grip - a streamlined, unisex quartz watch that debuted in 2019 - continues to captivate collectors. But this watch takes its name from its comfortable fit and skateboarding-related movements. Yet its rounded square case has three windows. Each of them with a white rotating disc. That is, one showing the time, one the minutes and one the date.
More recent versions add a retro-futuristic slant to his design. With a red jasper and gold and white trim in rose gold, and matching red or mint trays with alligator straps.
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Belgium-based independent watch company Ressence - founded in 2010 - uses a series of rotating discs to tell the time. Indeed, its dials don't have separate hands at all. Instead, the two-dimensional dials are joined together by laser-engraved markers on discs that not only rotate, but also rotate. But they also move around the watch dial like planets.
The company has named this readout mechanism Ressence Orbital Convex System or ROCS.
It appears on all its watches, including the Type 1° Round Multicolour. With the additional red, blue, yellow and green shades. The Type 2, meanwhile, is the first mechanical watch with a smart crown. That is, it can change time zones with a touch of its sapphire crystal.
Ulysse Nardin
So how does one show the time without any dials! The Freak is an avant-garde watch presented by Swiss watchmaker Ulysse Nardin in 2001. It is the first model in which the movement itself rotates to show the time instead of the hands.
With internal silicone components - the brand's signature material - to mitigate any friction of moving parts. The Freak has no crown and still relies on a visible mechanism. The one-hour tourbillon carousel relays the minutes and also a hand on a rotating disc replaces the hour hand.
For Dubai Watch Week last November, the brand released the khaki and black Freak One Ops. But replacing the usual rose gold bezel with a Carbonium bezel. A composite material containing carbon fibres from the production of aircraft wings and fuselages.
Louis Vuitton
Fashion house Louis Vuitton debuted the Tambour Opera Automata in March last year. This watch uses animations on the dial to reveal the time with the push of a button on the case.
It is based on the mechanical marvel that was the Tambour Carpe Diem of 2021. Opera Automata pays homage to the traditional Chinese dramatic art of Bian Lian, or “face changing” because it holds a prominent place in Sichuan opera. In this watch, the head of a dragon emerges from a Chinese mask to highlight the hours leaping across the latter's forehead. While the dragon's tail shows the minutes in reverse.
Bulgari
The Diva's Dream jewellery watch series is undoubtedly Bulgari's most technically impressive. The Peacock Dischi edition takes - as its name suggests - the peacock as its inspiration. The limited edition of 50 watches features 24 natural peacock feathers hand-cut, glued and assembled on a marquetry dial.
With the BVL 308 Dischi in-house automatic movement, the Diva's Dream abandons traditional hands in favour of two diamonds. One round and one pear-shaped, set on two rotating discs to indicate the time and minutes, respectively. The sapphires mark the hands inside rings of diamonds that surround the edges of the discs.
Source: rapaport.com
