Watches and Wonders Geneva 2022 Was All About Innovation From Lab-grown Diamonds to 3D Printing to Vantablack!!

Watches and Wonders Geneva 2022 Was All About Innovation From Lab-grown Diamonds to 3D Printing to Vantablack!!

Featuring 38 of the world's greatest watch companies showing their latest items to approximately 22,000 visitors and a worldwide digital reach of more than 300 million, Watches and Wonders Geneva concluded on a high note, surpassing all expectations. Geneva's greatest watchmaker summit was certainly a'salon of many marvels.' A creative and innovative atmosphere pervaded the event, with multiple worldwide launches and a massive physical and digital offering that included panel discussions and keynotes that sparked beneficial debates and hundreds of millions of views on social media.

Lab-grown diamonds, recyclable plastic, and 3D printing: this year's Geneva watch market was brimming with watches constructed of novel materials, all aimed at wooing a new generation of luxury watch enthusiasts.

H. Moser, a small luxury watches manufacturer that produces 2,000 watches each year for affluent collectors, debuted a Vantablack-coated watch this year. Vantablack is a super-black coating that absorbs almost all light.

Perched on a black backdrop, the concept watch provides the effect of a black hole, with just the coloured hands visible to the human eye.

The substance, which is composed of carbon nanotubes and manufactured by NanoSystems, is regarded the world's darkest pigment.

While the premium company has previously utilised Vantablack on clock faces, this show model is entirely coated in the material.

For the time being, it cannot be handled due to the risk of the material losing its qualities. Additional repair is required before it may be worn.

New Technology Using Old School Methods

According to Vincent Gregoire, head of men's clothes and accessories at Parisian fashion consultant NellyRodi, black is in great demand this year among young luxury virtuosos.

"This is a clientele that values beauty, hyper-luxury, futuristic materials, cutting-edge technology, and exquisite handcrafting,"

Their palate is reminiscent of the "Anish Kapoor universe,"

Gregoire described the emergence of a new generation of luxury enthusiasts, including a type of "agitators" who are followers of street culture and salvage and want to utilise their buying power for "activist action."

Oris is demonstrating how company recycles plastic garbage at an innovation booth, shredding it to create a material that mimics multi-colored marble for its clock faces.

Diamonds grown in laboratories

Tag Heuer, which is owned by French luxury conglomerate LVMH, has also broken an industry taboo by employing laboratory-created diamonds in one of its flagship models for the first time.

These chemically created diamonds have not been employed to replace their gleaming mine-derived counterparts.

Rather than that, they have been selected to demonstrate how a new technique capable of producing irregularly shaped stones may be used to give the clock a new light-catching texture.

The company believes that this new technology would enable it to pursue new avenues while staying firmly rooted in high-end luxury.

"Lab diamonds have a place in the market,"

"People purchase lab diamonds for a variety of reasons; some are financial, while others are environmental,"

He emphasised, however, that

"natural diamonds are the ones that will stay scarce and investable in the long run."

Cartier's booth is positively glistening with real diamonds. However, the jeweller, which is owned by Richemont, has experimented with new technologies this year.

It has designed a new collection called "Coussin" using 3D printing, with a casing that yields slightly to pressure before plumping back to its original form, similar to the cushion after which the collection is named.