Retro revival continues apace in the world of watches amid pandemic pain

Photo by Jonathan Francisca on Unsplash

The Swiss watch industry would, like all of us, want to expunge 2020 from memory. Forlorn factories and travel bans have led to steep drops in exports — as much as 81 percent in April, says the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry.

But as watchmakers brace for what could be the largest decline in sales in 50 years, most of them are not letting up on new launches. Like with everything else these days, they have moved online along with watch fairs.

Here, we take a look at three interesting new releases that are among many to take inspiration from the past.

Hamilton PSR

Who made the world’s first LED digital watch? If you think it is a Japanese company, you are off by over 6,000 kilometres. The world’s first digital wristwatch, the Pulsar, was made by Pennsylvania-based Hamilton, which is now owned by the Swatch Group.

When it was launched in 1970, the Pulsar, named after the then recently discovered neutron stars, offered a glance at the future — it had no moving parts, no ticking sound and was incredibly accurate.

For its looks, Hamilton drew inspiration from the set of watches it had created for director Stanley Kubrick in the 1968 classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. The first Pulsar, in 18 carat yellow gold, cost about $2,000 and early adopters of the wristwatch included Elvis Presley.

Later, stainless steel models of the “wrist computer” found favour with the likes of guitarist Keith Richards, boxer Joe Frazier and the stylish Italian industrialist Giovanni Agnelli, whose family owned Fiat.

The new Hamilton PSR takes after the original in shape and form and is available in stainless steel as well as PVD yellow gold. But, it features a hybrid display that uses reflective LCD and OLED technology. The neo-vintage timepiece is water-resistant to 100 metres and prices start at $745.

Audemars Piguet

Based in Le Brassus, Switzerland, Audemars Piguet is, along with Vacheron Constantin and Patek Philippe, part of the holy trinity of watch making and it is very aware of it. Back in the early 2000s, the fiercely independent watchmaker declined an offer from American media company MGM Studios to be part of the James Bond franchise.

In an interview to QP Magazine, AP’s CEO, François-Henry Bennahmias, said: “To be in a movie – sure. To do something special – yes. But to run a campaign to say it is James Bond’s watch – no. Not us.”

In 2020, after refreshing its signature Royal Oak line-up, Audemars launched the (Re)Master 01, inspired by one of its early chronographs. Its blue tachymetric scale and yellow-toned gold dial evoke the 1940s, the decade in which the chronograph was first made, but unlike its predecessor, the watch, at 40mm, features a much larger case. It is also an integrated automatic flyback chronograph as opposed to the 1940s manual wind, and is water-resistant up to 20 metres.

Cartier Pasha

Cartier has always been a favourite of kings (erstwhile) and tycoons. In her book, The Cartiers: The Untold Story of the Family, Francesca Cartier Brickell writes about how the then family-owned firm would not have survived the Great Depression if it were not for commissions from a variety of Indian maharajas.

Around the same time, Louis Cartier, it is said, created a watch for Thami El Glaoui, the French-backed king of Morocco. The eccentric El Glaoui was a man of extravagant tastes and wanted a watch that he could wear both at court and while swimming in his, presumably, royal pool.

Louis Cartier’s solution was the Pasha, a waterproof gold wristwatch. The Pasha was revived in the 1980s by the famous watch designer Gerald Genta and quickly became the timepiece du jour in that flashy decade.

The Pasha might be missing the diving bezel in 2020. But, with its ‘square in a circle’ design, it still looks immensely distinctive. The unisex model, which is powered by a self-winding caliber, comes in two sizes — 35mm and 41mm — and on steel, leather, and gold straps that can be interchanged quickly, thanks to Cartier’s single-push, QuickSwitch system.

Murali K Menon works on content strategy at HaymarketSAC. Views expressed here are personal.