Ceramic Watches
Durable, lightweight, soft-to-the-touch, highly scratch-resistant and ever popular, high-tech ceramic is alluring to watchmakers, yet a challenge to work with. Adding colors only raises the bar. And this year, the palette is blue.
For its 160th anniversary, Zenith unveiled a trio of chronographs in a new shade of blue ceramic that required months of R&D to achieve. Brand lore has it that founder Georges Favre-Jacot chose the name Zenith after taking in a starry night sky. In turn, blue became its signature shade.
In addition to blue versions of its Defy Skyline Chronograph and Pilot Chronograph, Zenith also gave the ceramic treatment to its iconic 41-mm Chronomaster Sport ($22,700, shown) with its signature 3-6-9 tricolor overlapping counters and the brand’s legendary El Primero 3600 high-frequency chronograph movement. Each anniversary model is fittingly limited to 160 pieces and available for individual purchase or as a special boxed set.
Audemars Piguet celebrates its 150th anniversary with a new ceramic shade inspired by the iconic “Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50” developed in 1972 for the dial of the first Royal Oak (Model 5402).
Also taking inspiration from the night sky above the brand’s home in Switzerland’s Vallée de Joux, the midnight blue ceramic outfits three new Audemars models in the Royal Oak and Royal Oak Offshore collections.
The 43-mm Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph ($86,900) goes fully monochromatic with ceramic components echoing the Bleu Nuit hue of the inner bezel, Méga Tapisserie dial and chronograph counters. A supple new ceramic bracelet is seamlessly integrated into the case. Its sapphire crystal case back shows off the self-winding Calibre 4404 chronograph movement with a column wheel and flyback function.
At Panerai, the focus zeroed in on its core Luminor collection. Launches, include the Luminor GMT Power Reserve Ceramica ($16,500), housed in a 44-mm black, sandblasted ceramic case. The blue sun-brushed sandwich dial is accented with indices and hands coated in white Super-LumiNova X2, for heightened legibility in low light. Inside, the P.9012 calibre offers a GMT function for tracking a second time zone, a power reserve indicator at 5 o’clock, and a date window at 3 o’clock.
Hublot, a pioneer in colored ceramic watches, added two new hues to mark the 20th anniversary of its flagship Big Bang model: petrol blue and, just to keep us on our toes, mint green.
