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24 October 2025Back to the Golden Age
It’s fair to say the jury is no longer out. When it comes to watches, old is in
A t the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie earlier this year, and again at Baselworld in April, the world’s leading watch manufacturers showed us more ladies’ watches than we are used to, more impossibly thin watches than seems altogether decent, watches with fanatical complications, as well as tourbillons, more tourbillons and, amazingly, yet more tourbillons. But what stood out more than any of these innovations was the stubborn reluctance of an old trend to go away.
Retro has been a driving force in the world of watch design for a few years now and it is showing no sign of going away. That’s why those old Rolex Submariners, as worn by Sean Connery’s James Bond, are currently fetching such a high price.
Ever since a 1550 Submariner – as nuts and bolts as they come – sold for $98,500 at Christie’s in 2010, we seem to have been in the grip of a lust for vintage, classic, call it what you will. Daniel Craig even wears a Submariner off duty (on duty as 007 he has to wear an Omega Seamaster – that’s product placement dollars for you).
That Christie’s sale forced into the open what dealers had known for some time. Nor was it just Submariners. For quite a while all vintage watches have been selling at a premium and more and more new watches have been arriving in fetching retro styling – whether it’s 1920s-style engraved cases, the square-case look of the 1930s, the fancy decoration of the 1950s, or the ‘any shape as long as it’s round’ of the 1960s.
In bad times women’s heels get lower, their skirts get longer. Men retrench too – look at the re-emergence of tweed. It’s probably only a matter of time before Old Spice becomes fashionable again. But there’s retro and there’s retro. And this is where it gets interesting. Because when it comes to going old school, the various watch houses are all at it, but they’re all taking a subtly different line.
Take Parmigiani Fleurier. Its latest take on the retro thing is incredibly unusual. The Tonda Woodstock manages to look back to the famous festival in New York state in 1969, yet at the same time it is amazingly innovative.
Yes, that’s a Gibson motif on the face, the guitar tricked out in the Stars and Stripes, all against what looks like a wooden background. The tourbillon (of course it’s got one) cleverly becomes the guitar’s soundbox. Actually, what’s truly strange about this watch is that the ‘wooden’ background is actually made of wood, the 50 individual pieces being meticulously crafted over 10 days to produce what looks like a single flat surface – it’s marquetry at an almost insane level.
Yes, that’s a Gibson motif on the face, the guitar tricked out in the Stars and Stripes, all against what looks like a wooden background
There’s a British version too, the Woodrock, which has a darker background, a platinum case instead of rose gold and a Union flag motif. Inside the 42mm case of both versions is the PF 510 hand-wound (see, old school) movement and the watch’s functionality is as you’d expect – hours, minutes, seconds, a power reserve indicator and that’s it. It’s a cool bit of wrist candy for the man who knows all the words to Blowin’ in the Wind.
Jaeger-LeCoultre has spent close to two centuries cultivating a reputation for quality and consequently it’s one of the go-to brands for anyone keen on starting a watch collection or making an almost bomb-proof investment.
With its Master range J-LC has also managed to corner a fair bit of what you might call the ‘trad’ market, for people who like watches that tell the time rather than order room service or walk the dog. 2013’s new Master Calendar manages to weld the simple lines of a classic-looking watch with a couple of refinements – the date reads off around the periphery of the dial, for instance.
There’s also a moon-phase complication, plus a power reserve. The cunning thing about the Master Calendar is that it has simple retro looks – the 40mm stainless steel case housing a Calibre 924 automatic movement, the clear layout of the face, the alligator strap – yet it’s anything but.
Going one step further in this direction is the Master Ultra Thin. Timeless understatement is what it delivers, in either 18-carat pink gold or stainless steel. And it offers you an hour hand, a minute hand and absolutely nothing else. It really doesn’t come much more retro than that.
Vacheron Constantin’s new 1972 Prestige has exactly the same dimensions as the original 1972. And if you divide the longest side by the side opposite, you get 1.618 – the golden ratio found in the Parthenon and so much classical architecture
Coming at retro from an entirely different angle is Roger Dubuis, who probably win some sort of award for thinking outside the box, audacity being the sort of thing you expect from a company that’s only been around since 1995. ‘Right,’ the techies in Geneva perhaps thought, ‘the public wants retro, let’s give it to them in spades.’
And this is what they came up with, the Excalibur Knights of the Round Table, a 45mm rose gold case containing an automatic mechanical RD822 movement and a watch face that – get this – features 12 knights and their swords.
The face is a miniature replica of the Winchester Round Table. Its decorative paintjob alone dates from 1522. The table itself is thought to be 300 years older.
On the back of this limited edition is engraved a royal crest and the Knights’ pledge: ‘Around this table the bravest knights will gather as equals. They will set forth in search of adventure, righting wrongs, protecting the weak and humbling the proud.’
And if that doesn’t set the blood coursing a bit quicker around the veins, look again at those knights – they’re all different, all solid gold, all exquisitely detailed. And no, this is probably not the moment to bring up the fact that Lancelot was having an affair with King Arthur’s wife.
Vacheron Constantin is another of the reliable investment brands. You pretty much can’t go wrong with a VC. For their retro contribution they’ve taken yet another tack, revisiting their asymmetrical 1972 model with a new 1972 Prestige.
If you divide the longest side by the side opposite, you get 1.618 – the golden ratio found in the Parthenon
It has exactly the same dimensions as the original 1972, the same curved asymmetrical case. And if you divide the longest side by the side opposite, you get 1.618 – the golden ratio found in the Parthenon and so much classical architecture, a proportion that is said to speak to some hardwired notion of beauty and harmony deep in the human brain.
Meanwhile, inside the case, is the sensational calibre 1003. Not only is it made entirely of gold, it’s also the world’s thinnest mechanical movement, at 1.64mm thick. Wind it up and it will run for 30 hours. Pretty good for something so slender.
Time for one more? OK, how about the 42mm Panerai Radiomir 1940, a watch which goes almost back to the origins of the Panerai company in 1930s Florence, when it made big chunky watches for Italian divers. Panerai revived this classic last year and what a gorgeous big beast it is, all 47mm of rose gold (a touch of copper to give it that reddish colour, a hint of platinum to stop it tarnishing).
It’s got an hour and minute hand, a small seconds at 9pm and all the lettering, logos and numerals are in authentic period style. One other nice authentic touch which only the wearer will know – the curved crystal isn’t sapphire, as it is in modern watches, it’s 3mm plexiglass.
The retro fashion generally may be born out of a sense of anxiety, a comfort blanket in straitened financial times. But at least it’s producing watches that are beautiful, functional and timeless. We’re living in a retro golden age.