HOROLOGY

The Swiss watchmaker is extending its most recognisable design language beyond the timepiece with Royal Oak Joaillerie, a 19-piece collection inspired by the geometry of the iconic watch and the landscapes of the Vallée de Joux. For more than five decades, the Royal Oak has existed at the intersection of watchmaking, design and jewellery. Now, Audemars Piguet is taking that relationship one step further. © 2026 Audemars Piguet On October 2, 2026, the Le Brassus manufacture un

There are watches that are designed to tell time, and there are watches that seem to carry an entire era inside their case. The Cartier Cheich belongs to the second category. On September 18, 2026, at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, a unique white-gold Cartier Cheich sold for HK$26.52 million, including fees approximately US$3.4 million. The result established a new auction record for a Cartier wristwatch, according to Sotheby’s and multiple specialist watch publications. The bidding l

Six artists, six extraordinary crafts and six miniature worlds of wildlife redefine the possibilities of Métiers d’Art watchmaking There are moments when a watch becomes more than a timepiece. In Vacheron Constantin’s Métiers d’Art Tribute to the Animal Kingdom, the dial becomes precisely that: a miniature stage on which craftsmanship, nature and Haute Horlogerie converge. The Maison presents six concept watches created within its “One of Not Many Crafts Programme,” an initia

Simone Crestani Glassoctopus A transparent creature suspended between glass and time In Glassoctopus, Simone Crestani transforms transparent glass into a miniature underwater vision. Rising just 3.5 millimetres above a hand-guilloché gold dial coated in deep blue, the octopus appears to float within an imaginary nocturnal ocean. The sculpture required an entirely new technique. Tiny glass rods were melted and shaped piece by piece with tungsten tools, while every tentacle and

Laura Baverstock Tigerbroidery Gold embroidery captures the movement of a tiger A tiger in honey and tangerine hues prowls through a richly embroidered jungle in Tigerbroidery, Laura Baverstock’s interpretation of gold embroidery at miniature scale. The animal is created from 9-karat yellow and white gold embroidery wires, while specially developed ceramic-coated black wires form its stripes. The surrounding landscape is embroidered onto bespoke green silk, with grasses rende

Marianne Guély Papercroc Paper becomes sculpture in a monochromatic vision In Papercroc, Marianne Guély transforms white cotton paper into a miniature sculptural landscape. An all-white crocodile moves through apparently snow-covered vegetation, its three-dimensional form created from sheets of 250- and 300-gram paper through embossing, laser cutting and hand assembly. The composition measures only three millimetres in height. Specially developed brass matrices, heated to bet

Anya Midori Oraygami When origami learns to move like a manta ray For Oraygami, Anya Midori brings a school of miniature manta rays into an imagined underwater universe. Each creature measures between five and ten millimetres and is folded from hand-coloured Japanese paper before being mounted on fine brass stems. The deep-blue hand-guilloché dial and a moiré effect on the crystal reinforce the sensation of shifting light beneath the ocean. The project required a completely n

Julien Vermeulen Feathersnake Featherwork reduced to the rhythm of a heartbeat The serpent at the centre of Feathersnake is constructed from more than 200 tiny pieces derived from seven rare Lophophore feathers. Rising only three millimetres from the dial, its blue-green plumage creates the illusion of living scales, while goose feathers form the surrounding vegetation. The extreme scale required the development of a custom micro-scalpel and a modified sewing needle for apply