Before I launch into my recap of that one week of madness and exultation that comprised Watches and Wonders 2022, I want to thank everyone who watched the content Revolution Watch created. We entered the fracas with one simple goal and that was to be the single hardest working media entity out there. Meaning that we wanted to cover everything of significance during this period. And I mean everything. A lot of this was at Watches and Wonders itself. But it also took place at the AHCI setup at L’ice Bergues as well as Time to Watches at Le Cube in Geneva’s University of Art and Design (HEAD), in various hotels and boutiques in watchmaking’s capital city, and even in my apartment in the Old Town. Our intention was to show you any watch that was of interest, whether it was created by a horological giant, medium-sized, upstart micro-brand or independent watchmaker, so that you had a full, complete and quality vision of everything that was happening in watchmaking. We wanted to show you what we loved the best and explain why, with real salient, factual information. We wanted you to meet the people behind these incredible ticking masterpieces and get to know them as if they were your friends. No disrespect to the many influencers and generalist media titles posing and making reels set to music, but Revolution has always represented real education and authentic knowledge and we really appreciate all the positive feedback for the close to 100 videos we created during this time.
Three days into Geneva’s Watches and Wonders, I once again found myself at the cynosure between exhilaration and total exhaustion. And I admit I had really missed this. I was immensely grateful that we human beings could once again gather en masse to experience the heady, electrifying and transcendent world where science, art, design and magic come together known as luxury watchmaking. Because this entire industry is profoundly human, and built on long established and valued relationships. And because watches have to be seen, touched and worn in order for us to truly understand their capacity to generate emotion in us.
BVLGARI
My luxury watch fair had actually started the week before in Rome where Bvlgari unveiled the astounding Octo Finissimo Ultra, the world’s thinnest mechanical watch at just 1.8mm in height. I was privileged enough to get an early viewing of the watch in Bvlgari’s Neuchâtel headquarters a few weeks before, thanks to my friends Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, Antoine Pin and Catherine Eberle-Devaux. But that was just the watch head and without the addition of the mind-blowingly cool gossamer thin integrated bracelet with a totally redesigned deployant clasp.
What I loved about the finished watch is its incredible wearability. I cannot overstate how important an element the bracelet is to this.
