6 Show-Stopping New Watches All Serious Watch Guys Will Be Talking About

Cam Wolf, Mike Christensen
·5 min read

Collage: Gabe Conte

Today marks the unofficial start of the watch year. While brands haven’t been silent to start the year, releases typically come in clusters at big fairs like Watches & Wonders and LVMH Watch Week. The latter kicks off today and brings with it a fun new assortment of watches to sink our teeth into. Even though this is just an amuse-bouche for what these brands have lined up the rest of the year, there’s something here for every possible taste: revivals, classics updated with eye-popping gem settings, and Hublot continuing to have more fun than anyone else in the industry. These are GQ’s favorite pieces from LVMH Watch Week.

Zenith Chronomaster Sport

This is how you get a party—er, watch fair started. The first-ever bejeweled Chronomaster Sport is my favorite of the bunch at the moment. As watch brands continue to dissolve the barrier between their sport and luxury timepieces, this version of the Chronomaster feels like a necessary and welcome addition to Zenith’s catalog in 2024. What really gets me going is the particular colors of the stones on this piece. The Chronomaster is the successor to Zenith’s famed El Primero, which is known for the unique blue-gray-silver palette across its subdials. Zenith’s new release takes those signature tones and mirrors it with the gems. A really fun and on-brand way to turn the workhorse Chronomaster into a show pony. —Cam Wolf

Hublot Big Bang Saxem

Hublot decided that sapphire—which the brand has used to turn out watches in purple, orange, and blue—wasn’t quite radiant enough for its tastes. Enter Saxem, a Hublot-developed sapphire alloy that it claims has a brighter shine than the gemstone alone. “It took almost two years of R&D to successfully create the uniform, homogenous color of this chemical compound,” Hublot CEO Ricardo Guadalupe said in a press release. You can’t argue with the results so far: a Big Bang crafted from radioactive yellow Saxem was one of my favorites of last year’s LVMH Watch Week. Given how much I like this emerald version, it seems I just can’t get enough Saxem. —CW

Tag Heuer Plasma Diamant d’Avant-Garde

This year’s LVMH Watch Week is full of jaw-dropping firsts. If you think Hublot’s Saxem is cool, just wait until you see Tag Heuer’s new Plasma watch, which comes riddled with 4.8 carats of lab-grown diamonds. The brand grows these diamonds itself and invented a new technology to introduce uniform color across the entire stone. (A previous Plasma featured all-pink diamonds.) What’s most exciting about Tag’s use of diamonds is the way it laser cuts them: The crown on this watch, for instance, is actually an intricately carved 1.3 carat stone. While Tag Heuer has been on the comeback trail thanks to its vintage-looking Carrera pieces, this is a far cry from the brand’s raceway origins. Everything about this piece screams luxury, down to its white-gold case and alligator strap. —CW

TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon

Last year, to mark the 60th anniversary of its racy Carrera model, Tag Heuer carried off an action-packed celebration. A pre-Barbie, Drive-referencing Ryan Gosling short film grabbed the headlines, but the brand also introduced a new Carrera that more than warranted all the hype. Considered the best Tag Heuer in years, the 39mm glassbox design presents the icon in a much more modern context. For 2024, the revamped Carrera is back in a grip of speedy teal green versions. While we dig the fresh take of the Dato-inspired chrono—nice to see a 9 o’clock date window—it’s the tourbillion take that has us oooooh-ing the loudest. No one really needs the level of accuracy a tourby spins up inside that rotating cage, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still a wondrously impressive feat. Having it at 6 o’clock gives this watch a nice balance and the rhodium-plated indices provide that extra twinkle. —Mike Christensen

Bulgari Octo Finissimo Tuscan Copper

<h1 class="title">103431</h1><cite class="credit">Anita Schlaefli</cite>

103431

Anita Schlaefli

Over the last decade, Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo—dreamt up by the house’s legendary industrial designer Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani—has broken multiple world records as the world’s thinnest watch. Brands like Richard Mille and Piaget make their own incredible lean timepieces, to be sure, but as far as we’re concerned the Octo Finissimo is the real Slim Shady. Bulgari is releasing two new spins on the model, both of which boast a 2.3mm thin in-house BVL 138 caliber. I’m a sucker for a salmon main course, so the Tuscan Copper colored dial in a steel case (a rarity for this model) gets my vote. It’s also water resistant to 100m, which frankly seems excessive on a watch this beautiful—but we're not complaining. —MC

Zenith Chronomaster Original Triple Calendar

Zenith’s new Triple Cal Chrono is a serious triple threat. For starters, it boasts arguably the most important watch movement of all time in the El Primero, which basically saved the Rolex Daytona from a fatal demise in the late ’80s. In 1991, Zenith unveiled this fully-loaded version of its flagship timepiece, featuring both a triple calendar and moon phase function. Now, the brand has blessed us with a new iteration of what I reckon might be the most versatile—and certainly the most functional—watch on the market. You get the time, day, date, and month as well as the quaint sight of a moon phase, all within this retro-looking stunner. There is so much going on, I haven’t yet mentioned the size (38mm) or the material (steel). And breathe. –MC

Originally Appeared on GQ

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