Published on April 30, 2025
Massena LAB; Blancpain; Breguet
This month was largely dominated by the massive wave of timepieces to drop at Watches & Wonders, the world’s largest watch fair. But there were plenty of other releases of note that followed. Audemars Piguet dropped some striking navy ceramic watches inspired by the “Blue Nuit, Nuage 50” hue of the original Royal Oak dial (it’s a trend we saw elsewhere…also launched this month were a series of blue ceramic Chanel timepieces in a more matte iteration). Breguet stunned with a wristwatch version of one of its earliest souscription timepieces dating back two centuries. William Massena LAB x Raúl Pagès executed a beautifully done minimalist timepiece combining modern and traditional elements (also punctuated by a deep midnight blue). And Richard Mille was back at it with its colorful sapphire crystal game. Let’s dive into what followed the flood of timepieces earlier this month.
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Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatique 42 MM
Image Credit: Blancpain Launched last year in red gold, this new Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatique in 42 mm now comes in polished stainless steel. The model is a tribute to the original Fifty Fathoms dive watch—the company’s most recognizable timekeeper—and houses an automatic caliber 1315 movement with a 5-day power reserve topped off with a sunburst black dial. Offered on a steel bracelet, NATO strap, or tropic rubber strap with a pin buckle or deployant clasp, this is a non-limited model that will now be part of the brand’s permanent collection.
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Masssena LAB x Raúl Pagès Noctograph
Image Credit: Masssena LAB x Raúl Pagès This marks the third collaboration between Massena LAB, founded by horological expert William Massena, and Raúl Pagès, an independent Swiss watchmaker. Its ultra-minimalist, sleek look follows a similar vibe to the RP2 watch released by Pagès in March. Here, however, you have a similar aesthetic but infused with classic and historical influences brought to the timepiece by Massena. A midnight blue mainplate is the striking centerpiece. It is vertically brushed and changes color depending on the light from deep blue to petrol to slate. Surrounding it is a radially-brushed, rhodium-plated chapter ring with a black railroad track to mark the hours and minutes. The seconds are located at 6 o’clock, which sits slightly below the main dial for a touch of added depth.
Behind the well-balanced dial is the Swiss-made, hand-finished manual-winding caliber M660 with a power reserve of 60 hours. The movement is decorated with Côtes de Genève finishing on the broad plate and hand-chamfered plates and bridges. The 38.5 mm stainless steel timepiece, accented with an Italian leather dove gray strap is limited to just 99 pieces and with this much crafstmanship under $10,000 it will be quite a steal.
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Zenith Chronomaster Original Triple Calendar
Image Credit: Zenith Last year, Zenith released the ultra-desirable 38 mm Chronomaster Original Triple Calendar during LVMH watch week in Miami. The steel versions were good look and a great remind of why the El Primero will always be one of watchmaking’s legendary movements. Now it comes in a new rose gold version and we’d argue you could easily be convinced to get one of each. And while you may know that the El Primero later powered Ebel and Rolex models that helped relaunch the renaissance of mechanical watches, you might be surprised to know that this was one of the earliest models that movement was used for at the Zenith manufacture. And because you probably won’t get your hands on one of the 25 prototypes developed as early as 1970 with the El Primero’s A386 movement, you’ll likely be just as happy with the modern version equipped with the updated 3160 caliber which has a true 1/10th of a second timing function and 60 hours of power reserve.
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Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph
Image Credit: Audemars Piguet Inspired by the “Blue Nuit, Nuage 50” hue of the original Royal Oak’s dial from 1972, Audemars Piguet developed a special ceramic using a PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) to mimic the color and obtain its consistency throughout. The brand released three models using the rich hue: a 41 mm Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked, a 43 mm Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph in a two-tone design, and this all-blue 42 mm Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph. We prefer the latter for its high-impact, but comparatively toned-down look. It’s powered by the caliber 4404, which boasts an integrated selfwinding chronograph with a column wheel and flyback function. A bonus: You can see the column wheel in action through the sapphire crystal caseback.
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Richard Mille RM 75-01 Flying Tourbillon Sapphire
Image Credit: Richard Mille Richard Mille is nothing if not colorful and high tech. At the end of last year, the company dropped four new brightly-hued RM-07 sapphire crystal watches in electric lime green variations, fuchsia, and lilac. They’re back at it this year with more “toned down” colors for a trio of RM 75-01 sapphire timepieces with flying tourbillons. There are two combining clear and colored sapphired crystal in baby blue on a white rubber strap and purple on a pink leather strap (limited to 10 in each color) and a clear sapphire crystal version on a mint green leather strap (limited to 15). Aside from its obviously complicated interior mechanics which operate on 65 hours of power reserve, each case requires over 1,000 hours to extract its structure from a block of the material weighing roughly 132 pounds and another 40 days of “grinding around the clock” according to the company. You might not be able to read the time, but one almost doesn’t care with these funky works of art.
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Breguet Classique 2025BH Souscription
Image Credit: Breguet To celebrate its 250th anniversary this year, Breguet is returning to purity with this beautifully executed new 40 mm timepiece. It features a clean white enamel dial with time displayed by a single blued Breguet hand and Arabic numerals. Two centuries ago it was debuted by the godfather of watchmaking, Abraham-Louis Breguet as a pocket watch. Dating to 1797, the pocket watch was one of the earliest Souscription watches from the man who invented the concept now used by modern watchmakers like F.P. Journe and many other independents like him. As much an engineer and an artist as he was a businessman, Breguet created the idea of requiring customers to put a deposit on a watch, which enabled him to buy the supplies needed to make the timepiece without taking on so much risk.
The movement is classic Breguet and directly inspired by the original pocket watch. But the VS00 gilded brass caliber is entirely new. Furthermore, it comes with a newly developed guilloche technique called Quai de l’Horloge after Breguet’s original manufacture in Paris. The caliber, beating at 3Hz, offers four days of power reserve from a single barrel. Monsieur Breguet would, no doubt, be thrilled.
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Girard-Perregaux Laureato Automatic
Image Credit: Girard-Perregaux Girard-Perregaux is coming to the table this month with two new gemset Laureato models—one with a white diamond bezel and another with a gradient of diamonds and blue sapphires. Both are cool in tone-on-tone silver—each 38 mm watch is set in steel with a rhodium-plated Clous de Paris-decorated dial. Our favorite is set with 10 brilliant-cut white diamonds and 46 brilliant-cut sapphires. Beneath, the watches are equipped with a self-winding mechanical movement with 46 hours of power reserve.
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Tiffany & Co. Bird on a Flying Tourbillon Azure Blossom
Image Credit: Tiffany & Co. Elevating its watchmaking game, Tiffany & Co. released its first flying tourbillon last year, but its expertise remains in jewelry. Earlier this year, CEO Anthony Ledru told Robb Report jewels will always be its first order of business. Surrounding the flying tourbillon is a perfect example of the house’s expertise. The multi-layered dial is crafted from champlevé enamel with 3D appliqué lacquered flowers in Tiffany blue. The hour and minutes dial is offset between 1 o’clock and 2 o’clock and decked in diamond. Meanwhile, naturally, the company’s diamond-set avian mascot sits perched atop the tourbillon. More diamonds accent the case, lugs, and crown. Flip it over and even the bridges of the movement have been set with diamonds, while the tourbillon is topped off with a sapphire. Its caliber AFT24T01 is made in Switzerland. The hand-wound movement offers a power reserve of 50 hours. Set in an 18-karat gold case, at 39 mm it’s not necessarily relegated to the ladies.
Authors
Credit: robbreport.com
