The Stuff Of Dreams

From airplanes and planets to neon lights and computer pixels, the season’s most whimsical watches took every shred of creative licence they could and ran with it.

- CELINE YAP

It’s often been said that a good watch tells the time but a great watch tells a story. There are many ways in which a timepiece could do that, and if you looked hard enough you’d be able to see that many luxury watches do elicit a fair amount of emotion, whether it is through intricate craftsmanship or symbolic tributes.

It has, however, been quite a while since today’s finest watchmaking maisons had taken a more adventurous route to incorporating a part of their brand story into a watch’s physical attributes—and there is a valid reason for that.

The period between the US credit crunch in 2012 and the post-pandemic years until 2022 had seen a unanimous return to sobriety and understated elegance in watchmaking culture, along with a focus on strong brand values and true craftsmanship. This is a stark contrast to the almost hedonistic approach of the precrisis era, when excess and gimmickry were not only accepted but encouraged.

Yet cyclical as fashion trends tend to be, after about a decade of quiet minimalism and classic elegant values, brands have begun to dream again. And the good news is, they have not forsaken their commitment to brand values and craftsmanship. Take Cartier, for example. Among this year’s bumper crop of beautifully skeletonised watches is a whimsical tribute to the man who inspired one of the maison’s most important icons, Santos, and subsequently as well the Santos-Dumont. Alberto Santos-Dumont, the Brazilian aviation pioneer, was an incredibly talented and committed, not to mention exceedingly stylish, individual who had designed and built no fewer than 22 flying machines including hot air-driven dirigibles and short-distance aircraft.