23 Things I Saw at Watches & Wonders 2024 That Made Me Super Excited

De Bethune hit a pair of full-court shots with its new releases. I was bummed I couldn’t make it out of the Palexpo to see De Bethune’s offerings, especially its new Purple Rain. Guess which color it is. De Bethune painted generously but cleverly with its purple brush. What I really appreciate is that one set of lugs is left black, while the other comes in a dazzling purple to match the case, giving the watch the appearance of a spaceship. The maker’s other big release is the “Kind of Grande Complication,” a funny play on the “Grand Complication” description many brands use to refer to their super technical pieces.

Ryan Gosling didn’t want to give his gold TAG Heuer Carrera watch back. Before W&W, I visited TAG Heuer’s manufacture. The brand’s heritage director Nicholas Bieybuck took us to the archives room, which is lined with treasure-filled filing cabinets. Bieybuck reached inside one drawer and held up the vintage gold Carrera that Gosling wore in Barbie. He put that gold Carrera down and plucked out another vintage piece with a gold bracelet. It was the watch Gosling wore at a Gucci show last September, which the actor loved so much he asked if he really had to send it back. (He did. But the brand made a new bracelet for him to put on the re-edition that came out last fall as a consolation.)

Cartier made a watch that operates in reverse for no good reason. During my appointment, I pestered the Cartier reps because I assumed, like most things in watches, that the Rewind was related to some kind of historical event. I expected to be told some sort of myth-making tale, like that one year Louis Cartier only walked backwards. Instead: nada! I really appreciate the fact that there’s no origin story. Watches should be silly just for the sake of silliness.

Hermès bags. The biggest flex in the Palexpo was the parting gift from an Hermès appointment: a massive shopping bag in the house’s signature orange. You couldn’t walk from one appointment to the next without banging into one of these things. What’s inside was hardly the point. (It’s a beach towel.)

I was very glad to bump into Michael Friedman, the former head of complications at Audemars Piguet, who once got a (positive!) shoutout on a Kendrick Lamar song. Friedman is inching closer to launching his own watch brand Pattern Recognition. Someone I really respect who’s seen the watches told me they have the potential to bring something totally new to the industry. Only downer is we’re still about a year out from seeing it. I can’t wait.

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