5 biggest timepiece moments in June 2023: from Audemars Piguet’s ‘Spider-Man’ watch with Marvel and Rihanna’s Jacob & Co. ‘choker’ at a Louis Vuitton show to new releases from Rolex and Patek Philippe

1. Conventions to watch

Celebrations of high horology continue around the world as this month, Dubai Watch Week and Watches and Wonders made announcements for fairs in the foreseeable future.

Founded in 2015, Dubai Watch Week is slated to take place between November 16 and 20 at the Dubai International Financial Centre. The fair recently announced that it expects to feature upwards of 55 brands in this year’s edition, including Audemars Piguet, Biver, F.P. Journe, Greubel Forsey and more.

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Geneva-based Watches and Wonders had a nice few months to breathe after its annual Geneva edition in early April, but is now keen to keep the ball rolling in Shanghai as it announced this month that the fair will return to the city for the third time between September 13 and 17.

The fair plans to host 14 brands at the Pavilion of the West Bund Art Center. What’s more, the event will be opening to the public for the first time on the last two days of the run, for which tickets will go in August for US$20 (150 RMB) per head via a WeChat mini-programme.

2. Choking on their aspirations

Speaking of Watches and Wonders, one of the biggest trends to come from the Geneva edition of the fair was the resurgence of the sautoir or secret necklace/wristwatch. The trend itself stems from a somewhat problematic history when women were not expected to be checking the time during social functions, so they opted for timepieces that appeared to be nothing more than dazzling jewels.

Nowadays, wearing a watch anywhere other than the wrist is a fashion and jewellery statement as much as it is a horological one. Brands from both sides (like Van Cleef & Arpels, and Jaeger-LeCoultre) design pieces specifically to be worn on the neck rather than on the wrist.

We’re not sure whether Rihanna was intentionally channelling this trend with her latest horological choice, but she definitely made a splash regardless. The long-time friend of Jacob & Co. wore a 47mm Brilliant Flying Tourbillon set with 338 baguette-cut white diamonds on her neck to complement her all-denim outfit at the Louis Vuitton show at Paris Fashion Week on June 20; incidentally, Pharrell’s first as creative director and head of menswear at the brand.

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Fans quickly praised Rihanna’s move and are now wondering one thing only – is the “watch choker” here to stay?

3. Patek Philippe’s grand exhibition

Back on this side of the globe, Swiss high horology maison Patek Philippe pulled out all the stops for the sixth edition of its Grand Exhibition “Watch Art”, which was held in Tokyo between June 10 to 25.

The maison took over the Sumitomo Sankaku Hiroba glass skyscraper to host the free-of-charge exhibition, which was separated into 10 themed areas and brought together 500 timepieces and objects, including all of Patek Philippe’s current collection and 190 pieces from the brand’s museum in Geneva.

For those of us who weren’t there, the next best piece of news was the release of six limited-edition pieces to commemorate the event. In addition to two pastel colourways for the sub-seconds Calatrava, the maison released the salmon-dialled 42mm Tokyo 2023 Quadruple Complication. Cased in platinum, the 5308P-010 combines a minute repeater, split second chronograph and perpetual calendar with moonphase.

To fully represent Tokyo, the house also released a luscious purple World Time 5330G-010 with a date complication synchronised to Tokyo, necessitating the new 240 HU C calibre, and a World Time Minute Repeater 5531R-014 that features a cloisonné enamel depiction of the Chuo ward in Tokyo. Rounding out the six releases is the refined ladies’ moonphase model ref. 7121/200G-010.

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4. Time to be better together

Patek Philippe wasn’t the only brand that was busy this month, as major names throughout the industry released stunning pieces, most in cross-industry collaborations. Girard-Perregaux worked with Saint Laurent to update the Casquette, an uber-sci-fi watch design now in scratch-resistant ceramic and titanium.

Audemars Piguet released its second Royal Oak Concept Tourbillon in collaboration with Marvel featuring Spider-Man after its Black Panther release in 2021. Hublot took a left and commemorated the return of the Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic at Liberty State Park in New York with a Spirit of Big Bang Tourbillon with a five-day power reserve.

Meanwhile, Bremont, Richard Mille and Rolex opted to deepen their ties with racing rather than fashion or comics. UK-based Bremont released a new WR-45 limited edition piece and a new C-type tribute for the brand’s Jaguar collection. The former launch is to commemorate the upcoming 77th Formula One Aramco British Grand Prix and Silverstone in collaboration with Williams Racing, while the latter sports an embossed classic Jaguar logo in celebration of the 70th anniversary of Jaguar’s 1953 victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Rolex and Richard Mille celebrated Le Mans in their own way, releasing a discreet red-accented Cosmograph Daytona, and a limited-edition white-and-green RM72-01 Le Mans Classic flyback chronograph also with red accents both in commemoration of the endurance race’s centenary.

5. Roger Smith No 2 sets an auction record

It feels like every auction these days adds record-breaking pieces to the all-time list, but few are as exceptional and momentous as Roger Smith’s Pocket Watch No 2 fetching US$4.9 million (£3.8 million) at Phillips’ New York Watch Auction: Eight this month.

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Hailing from Manchester, horologist Roger W. Smith first rose to prominence as an apprentice of the legendary George Daniels. His most notable achievements include the Daniels Method of mastering over 30 different skills so that a single watchmaker can hand-make a watch from start to finish; and the invention of the coaxial escapement, which is used most widely in Omega’s collections including the Speedmaster.

Smith dubbed Pocket Watch No 2 “the most important watch I’ve made, without a doubt”, per Phillips. His first attempt and submission to Daniels in 1990 was entirely handmade, with a tourbillon and spring detent escapement and twin barrels, but Daniels dubbed it “not up to scratch”, telling the then-22-year-old Smith that “watches should appear ‘created’ rather than ‘handmade’.”

Smith spent five years on this second attempt, and when No 2 was finished, Daniels told Smith, “You are now a watchmaker.”

Daniels himself has several pieces among the most expensive at auction, most notably his Yellow Gold Space Traveller’s I and II pocket watches both entirely handmade in 1982 with chronograph and moonphase complications. The two pieces were both sold by Sotheby’s in London for US$4.5 million (£3.6 million) in 2019 and US$3.9 million (£3.1 million) in 2017, respectively.