One of A Kind

Featuring 62 unique timepieces this year, the 10th edition of Only Watch will take place in Geneva on November 5. For this year's theme, the biennial charity auction - benefitting research on Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and genetic diseases - brings together all the colours of previous editions in its visual identity with the addition of green, which symbolises hope. Here's our list of 13 watches to keep tabs on.

- ALLYSON KLASS

BULGARI

OCTO FINISSIMO TOURBILLON MARBLE

This year, the Italian house casts its Only Watch edition in stone, literally. The green beauty flaunts the 1.95mm thin manual tourbillon in-house calibre BVL 268 at 6 o'clock, while its 40mm DLC-treated titanium case and bracelet are clad in Verde di Alpi marble from the Aosta Valley, the natural passage linking Switzerland and Italy through the Alps. The watch also draws from ancient times when marble featured heavily in Roman architecture. In 1934, the material was used by renowned Italian architect Florestano di Fausto when the Bulgari store was extended and refurbished. He decided to unify the two separate buildings on the ground floor with travertine marble and designed four large openings for display windows and a central doorway, all framed by green African marble cornices.

LOUIS VUITTON

TAMBOUR EINSTEIN AUTOMATA 

The French maison celebrates the push towards a better future with its whimsical edition for Only Watch's 10th anniversary. Designed, developed, and manufactured at Louis Vuitton's Genevan watchmaking workshop, the 46.8mm showpiece is the result of some of the most acclaimed horological and artisanal talents in the world today. Depicting Albert Einstein in one of his most mischievous photographic portraits, the dial is a work of art with detailed white gold hand-engraving by Dick Steenman and grisaille enamel by Nicolas Doublel. Equally impressive is the engraved steel case, also by Steenman, that stands out with the scientist's hair strands extending from the dial. Within the iconic Tambour case is the LV 525 calibre, a mechanical movement boasting four animations, jumping hours, retrograde minutes and a power reserve indicator. The exceptional watch's story continues on a hand-painted Louis Vuitton trunk, in which the watch is presented.

JAQUET DROZ