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Nick Foulkes

PublishedJanuary 19 2026

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Bvlgari rose-gold, diamond, ancient-silver-coin and mother-of-pearl Maglia Milanese Monete Secret Watch

Although a Roman brand, Bvlgari has really got in the spirit of the host city of this year’s LVMH Watch Week. It is showing one of its fabled Monete watches on a silk‑smooth “woven” gold bracelet in the style known as… Milanese. It is so synchronistic you almost think they have planned the whole thing.

Bvlgari gold, diamond and gemstone Tubogas Manchette watch

Monete is one of the best jewellery ideas of modern times: ancient coins, transmuted by their setting, are given a second life as a jewel. The antique coin recalls Rome’s imperial past – in this case, the early third century, depicting the Emperor Caracalla. However, mirabile dictu I think I prefer Bvlgari’s Tubogas, which riffs off a ’70s original, engraved with a sunburst and with differently coloured gems scattered across the spiral of coiled sprung gold that wraps itself about a woman’s arm. In a world where the prices of signed jewellery and gold are rocketing ever higher, it feels especially topical.

TAG Heuer steel Carrera Chronograph

The best news of this seventh edition of Watch Week is that TAG Heuer has reinstated the time of tide indicator in a pleasingly retro chronograph, giving the brand the chance to revive the Seafarer. But then the Seafarer is something of an outlier among the retro watches being shown. There is an old saying at TAG Heuer, and it goes something like this: “If in doubt, just choose the Carrera.” It certainly applies to Watch Week, which is focusing on the Carrera Chronograph in 41mm (filling what was apparently too much of a gap between 39mm and 42mm cases). Of course, it has the glass box design that really opens up the dial and is fast becoming a visual brand signature.

An old saying at TAG Heuer goes something like “if in doubt, just choose the Carrera”

It’s available in three colours – black with red racing accents (if you must), a handsome blue, and an even more handsome teal (swiftly becoming another 2020s TAG signifier). But this is more than a cosmetic upgrade. They have also tucked the Calibre TH20-01 under the bonnet: vertical clutch, column wheel, 80‑hour power reserve. As they used to say of the E‑Type, you couldn’t go faster for the money. (Elsewhere, if you want to drop some real cash on a chronograph, there is the hi‑tech‑looking Carrera Split‑Seconds Chronograph in grade‑5 titanium, apparently the first rattrapante in a Carrera case.)

Zenith gold Defy Skyline Tourbillon Skeleton

Over at LVMH’s other chronograph brand, Zenith, it is all about the Defy Skyline collection – the closest thing Zenith has to a Royal Oak. The first Defy appeared in 1969. Just think: in three years it will be 60 years old. There is a very nice new one dropping at Watch Week, the Defy Skyline Chronograph in a Tom Ford-black ceramic. But the standout is a rose‑gold time‑only, the first skeletonised Defy Skyline with a tourbillon. There has also been some partial skeletonisation, giving it an urgent, contemporary, architectural feel.

Daniel Roth rose-gold and steel Extra Plat

Price: SFr85,000 (about £79,100)

The apotheosis of skeletonisation is, however, chez Daniel Roth which, in my humble opinion, is one of the best things LVMH is doing with watches, thanks to its “ellipsocurvex” cases, guilloché, complications and meticulously crafted movements. It was a deserved GPHG winner last year. This Watch Week, the brand departs from Roth’s classics and brings out a skeletonised time‑only. The flexuous bridges are amazingly polished and the view of the gear train could not be better. My only cavil is that guilloché dials are such a brand signature, it seems criminal to lose them. Then again, this skeletonising is so graceful that it would also be criminal to cover it with anything – even dials as beautiful as those made by Roth.

Gérald Genta white- and rose-gold and brass Geneva Time Only Grafite

Price: about £23,250

We are living in an age where the two‑ or three‑hand watch is king. Designers have to work without the distractions of subdials or retrograde hands, and cannot afford to make a mistake in terms of proportion and detailing. On those criteria, Louis Vuitton’s artistic director of La Fabrique du Temps Matthieu Hegi has pulled it off at Gérald Genta. The latest Genta is a subtly rounded cushion‑case watch with Vendôme lugs – so discreet that it almost isn’t there. Go for the white‑gold one with grey fumé dial and gold stick hands.

Louis Vuitton platinum, white-gold and miniature painted Escale Worldtime

Both Genta and Roth are made at La Fabrique du Temps in Meyrin, along with Louis Vuitton’s core collection, which has been transformed in the last three years by Jean Arnault. Important collectors have started to take LV’s watches seriously, and the horological elevation continues with five pieces that build on the success of the Escale model. “Evolving from our classic three‑hand designs to the reintroduction of sophisticated complications” is the message this week – an edict elegantly fulfilled by a five‑piece capsule of travel watches: two world‑timers, two GMTs and one minute repeater.

The repeater is gorgeous and has the jumping‑hour movement with retrograde minutes, but out of the travel pieces the one I’d recommend is the platinum world‑timer with miniature enamel painting. And of course, by focusing on travel watches, LV is respectfully acknowledging the bags and trunks upon which the brand’s reputation was founded.

Tiffany & Co platinum, diamond and enamel Tiffany Timer

The new Tiffany & Co Tiffany Timer chronograph, limited to sixty pieces, celebrates the 160th anniversary of the house’s first stopwatch, dating from 1866. This 21st‑century platinum creation carries all sorts of Tiffany touches: the use of white metal and the baguette hour markers suggest what the Tiffany Blue lacquer dial confirms. Turn the watch over to examine the modified Zenith El Primero movement, and you will see Jean Schlumberger’s famous “Bird on a Rock” motif reproduced in miniature on the oscillating weight.