23 Things I Saw at Watches & Wonders 2024 That Made Me Super Excited

The general consensus inside the Palexpo—the vast, windowless venue for Watches & Wonders—was that this was a much less thrilling fair than usual. In conversations with others on the ground in Geneva, what I heard most consistently was that the releases weren’t all that exciting, and were at times even disappointing. The takeaway was that this was a slow and relatively down week for an industry that’s been on a heater for a few years now.

I’ll admit that the vibes felt better last year. Conversation came easy: Everyone had a passionate take on Rolex’s “Puzzle Dial” Day-Date, while the smart crowd praised watches like A. Lange & Söhne’s Odysseus Chronograph and Chopard’s salmon-dial L.U.C 1860.

And yet, looking back on the 2024 fair a few days after the releases were announced, I feel like a few of the people expressing disappointment—myself included—were acting a little spoiled. Rolex gave us two mother-of-pearl dial Daytonas and it was taken as a given! Those watches are insane. Meanwhile, folks were bummed not to get a Coke GMT from the Crown; then the one we did get from Tudor used too much gilt (a term used for accents and text livened up with a thin layer of gold). Maybe I just like my gilt freak style, but I thought the watch was good. In fact, there was much to love from this week. Here are some exciting watches—along with a bunch of miscellaneous goofy stuff—that have me leaving Geneva with a smile on my face.

Watches in miniature. This is mostly a shoutout to Cartier’s pint-sized Tank Louis and Americaines, but I would gladly stack them together with Hublot’s new mini Classic Fusions.

The Hotel N’vy, where many of the journalists stay, is one of the strangest places I’ve been. The rooms include a therapeutic light feature that can be changed to whatever color you like to match your mood. But what’s really strange are the murals over the beds that are painted with nonsensical phrases like “All Humans Beings Are Also Dream Beings Dreaming Ties All Mankind Together” or “Happiness Consists In Realizing It Is All A Great Strange Dream.”

The less-massive brands were on a heater this year.

Nomos launched a series of its Tangente in 31 different colors. Get bent, Baskin Robbins.

Parmigiani Fleurier released two crowd pleasers. One thing most people were in agreement on was that PF’s Tonda PF Micro-Rotor No Date, doused in a pleasing sandy hue, and Toric Petite Seconde, rendered in a green reminiscent of creamy pistachio gelato, are two of the fair’s best watches.

De Bethune hit a pair of full-court shots with its new releases. I was bummed I couldn’t make it out of the Palexpo to see De Bethune’s offerings, especially its new Purple Rain. Guess which color it is. De Bethune painted generously but cleverly with its purple brush. What I really appreciate is that one set of lugs is left black, while the other comes in a dazzling purple to match the case, giving the watch the appearance of a spaceship. The maker’s other big release is the “Kind of Grande Complication,” a funny play on the “Grand Complication” description many brands use to refer to their super technical pieces.

Ryan Gosling didn’t want to give his gold TAG Heuer Carrera watch back. Before W&W, I visited TAG Heuer’s manufacture. The brand’s heritage director Nicholas Bieybuck took us to the archives room, which is lined with treasure-filled filing cabinets. Bieybuck reached inside one drawer and held up the vintage gold Carrera that Gosling wore in Barbie. He put that gold Carrera down and plucked out another vintage piece with a gold bracelet. It was the watch Gosling wore at a Gucci show last September, which the actor loved so much he asked if he really had to send it back. (He did. But the brand made a new bracelet for him to put on the re-edition that came out last fall as a consolation.)

Cartier made a watch that operates in reverse for no good reason. During my appointment, I pestered the Cartier reps because I assumed, like most things in watches, that the Rewind was related to some kind of historical event. I expected to be told some sort of myth-making tale, like that one year Louis Cartier only walked backwards. Instead: nada! I really appreciate the fact that there’s no origin story. Watches should be silly just for the sake of silliness.

Hermès bags. The biggest flex in the Palexpo was the parting gift from an Hermès appointment: a massive shopping bag in the house’s signature orange. You couldn’t walk from one appointment to the next without banging into one of these things. What’s inside was hardly the point. (It’s a beach towel.)

I was very glad to bump into Michael Friedman, the former head of complications at Audemars Piguet, who once got a (positive!) shoutout on a Kendrick Lamar song. Friedman is inching closer to launching his own watch brand Pattern Recognition. Someone I really respect who’s seen the watches told me they have the potential to bring something totally new to the industry. Only downer is we’re still about a year out from seeing it. I can’t wait.

I’m obsessed with Patek Philippe’s Reference 5089G-129 “Morning on a Beach.” The watch uses a combination of tiny veneer pieces and wood slivers from 23 different tree species to create the image of a surfer wading into the waves. I love when Patek uses its artisan might to create something so fun. (The other Patek that came up a lot was the Nautilus on a denim strap, a.k.a. the Canadian Tuxedo Nautilus.)

The Rolex Daytona Le Mans is officially dead, but this might be a The Prestige situation. Ben Clymer said on the Hodinkee podcast that in the wake of the news he texted a Rolex representative who responded with this dazzlingly vague sentence: “Ben, the version of the Le Mans you own in white gold is discontinued.” If you’re interested in decoding this clue, it’s not hard to find the new off-catalog, yellow-gold version of this special-edition Le Mans on Watch Instagram…

Yoni Ben-Yehuda, head of watches at Material Good, wore a bunch of great Cartiers. Aside from the Crash he had on his wrist, Ben-Yehuda was also wearing a festive necktie with little Santos and Tanks on it. Ben-Yehuda explained that it came from @seigoneckwear_ny, who makes ties in very limited numbers. “Best tie maker in the game!” Ben-Yehuda told me over Instagram. “Been my secret go-to for years.” Thanks for not gatekeeping, Yoni.

One Tudor employee was running around the brand’s booth with the new pink Black Bay made for Inter Miami, the soccer team owned by David Beckham. The watch was announced just before W&W, so it was cool to see it out in the wild already. I loved it in person.

Hublot once again put a claw machine in its booth where attendees could play for the chance for a keychain or sweatband. Just like last year, I walked away a loser on Wednesday. This year, they were offering failures like me second chances. I honorably turned it down. Claw machine 2, Cam 0.

Records! Riddle me this: How can a show be boring if three record-breaking watches debuted there? Ozempic isn’t just plaguing Hollywood—watches from Piaget and Bulgari are also thinner than ever.

I had dinner with legendary racer Jacky Ickx Wednesday night. (It was in a barn crowded with over a hundred other people and I was sat nowhere near him, but I think we might be best friends now?) The six-time Le Mans winner debuted a new collaborative watch with Chopard, which he wore over his sleeve as a tribute to Gianni Agnelli.

To the man wearing the “I Miss Gérald Genta” shirt, I salute you.

A potential collab? After too much dessert wine and Kaiserschmarren (a type of crumbled Austrian pancake mixed with rum-soaked raisins) at the Chopard event, a Hodinkee staffer and I discovered there’s no way to combine their site’s name with Gentlemen’s Quarterly without coming up with something totally juvenile. Try it yourself.

Extravagant necklaces that turned into watches was the microtrend of the fair. Shoutout to frequent GQ contributor Jeremy Freed for pointing out that Van Cleef & Arpels, Vacheron Constantin, and Piaget all debuted swooping necklaces with watches that could be plucked out from their setting and onto a band for the wrist.

I made a way-too-quick stop at auction house Antiquorum, but still had time to see so many vintage Rolex Daytonas at once. I felt like Caligula.

Legendary watch writer Nick Foulkes's charming #wristshots. They take me back to the early days of Instagram in the best way possible.

Originally Appeared on GQ