2024 Was A Mixed Bag For Watches

Twenty-twenty-four went by in a flash, didn’t it? In a year where we heard plenty about some tough times for the industry in terms of sales, I want to look more at how the world of watches fared when it comes to less quantitative metrics. We have to start with this year’s editions of Watches & Wonders and Geneva Watch Days, which are two events that speak for a large chunk of the Swiss watch market. The one word that kept coming up after the show and through the months that followed was “conservative.”

Of course, to understand 2024 we need to understand the context of the post-pandemic watch industry. Twenty-twenty-two felt almost exuberant, as there had not been a trade show since 2019 and, on top of that, the year hosted the first edition of Watches & Wonders (with Baselworld and SIHH dissolving). The industry was bolstered by the strong market and there were a lot of releases that had been pent up. Watches like the Vacheron Constantin 222, Grand Seiko Todo, Rolex’s left-handed GMT, and the Parmigiani Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante were indicative of a cautious but optimistic watch industry. The following year was actually somewhat more subdued, but Rolex's release of the Day-Date Emoji and the bubble-dial Oyster Perpetuals teased the idea that we would see the dawn of a more creative and less buttoned-up era for watch design.

While 2024 didn’t really have those kind of “big splash” releases, there were certainly some memorable highs that deserve recognition. Cartier’s Santos-Dumont Rewind is one of the most subtly creative watches I’ve seen in recent years and Parmigiani’s Toric Petite Seconde reminded us of how even a simple time-only dress watch can be a revelation. And there were certainly some real watchmaking highlights, like IWC’s Portugieser Eternal Calendar and TAG Heuer’s Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph. High jewelry has been getting better and better thanks to the wonderfully uninhibited minds at brands like Cartier (the animal jewelry pieces being a highlight) and, of course, Chanel, who wowed me with the J12 White Star Couture watch and the J12 X-Ray Pink Edition done in a pink sapphire case.

Another antidote for the conservative blues came by way of the wild crop of newer small brands that have embraced atypical case designs and brought them to a creativity-starved marketplace. Of course, there was Berneron, but more accessibly priced entries like Toledano & Chan’s B/1 watch, the SpaceOne Tellurium, Anoma A1, and the Maghnam Mohareb all stood out for their out-of-the-box thinking. And while we aren’t seeing as much on the collaboration front these days, I have to give a shout out to Louis Erard for its latest collab with Vianney Halter.

I suppose it’s not right to only talk about the good and leave out the releases that didn’t really land. I think it’s fair to say that the Patek Philippe Cubitus left quite a bit to be desired, though that doesn’t rule out future iterations perhaps reducing case size and fixing some of the design flaws. The same can be said for Bremont’s rebrand which might have been received a little too harshly at first but, again, the new designs under industry veteran Davide Cerrato seem to be seeing some improvements that I hope will pay off in 2025.

As our recent Editors’ Picks articles have shown, the team here at Teddy has found plenty to like from this last year. Even while industry forecasts loom large, there seems to be a lot of hope and optimism for 2025. The few yet-to-be-released watches for 2025 I have had the opportunity to see are promising but it won’t be until we are solidly into the new year that some theme or pattern begins to coalesce. So as we close the chapter on 2024, it’s important to remember that while the year was a “conservative” one, the industry has never had so much activity and ingenuity as it does right now. In fact, our own Mark Bernardo has an upcoming story tomorrow that goes into all the standouts from the year in horology.

We’ll keep publishing a few more stories wrapping up the year but make sure to leave your thoughts on what you thought of the watches we saw in 2024.