Singling out one reference from Cartier’s 2024 releases is like picking your lottery numbers: a multitude to choose from and any one of them could be the winner. So, while the maison extended its Baignoire, Panthère de Cartier and Santos de Cartier lines with flair this year – the latter two are already available to shop online – it also invited us to dance with its playful Reflection de Cartier cuff watch. Cartier lovers will recognise the name from the brand’s jewellery collection, but this imposing, sculptured piece is a new take on the form. The delicious conceit is in the positioning of the watch, which is recessed into one end of the cuff opening and read off the highly polished reflective surface of the opposite. Of course, that reverses the read-out – so if telling the time is of utmost importance, the style can also be worn the other way around. Available in 18-karat rose gold, gem-set white gold or, as here, yellow gold, it’s pure Cartier: feminine, playful, shaped to perfection and achingly elegant.

At heart, Tudor’s era-defining Black Bay – one of only a handful of pieces released this century even approaching ‘icon’ status – is a tool watch. It was born in steel, later appeared in industrial bronze, and has always traded on its everyday hardiness and utility. But then Tudor released it in solid 18-karat gold on a leather strap. Arduous outdoor pursuits weren’t the point. It looked fantastic. Now comes the next chapter in the story, a Black Bay 58 with a 39mm 18-karat yellow gold case and bracelet – which, by happy coincidence, comes in Harrods green and gold. As if to underline the design’s tool watch legacy, Tudor has brushed every square millimetre of it, giving it a louche profile that this reviewer found pleasantly intoxicating. Beneath its luxe exterior is Tudor’s hardy in-house automatic, a 70-hour chronometer.

The narrative that this year’s Watches and Wonders Geneva would be a ‘safety first’ affair – in which brands rolled out little more than line extensions and new colourways – was disrupted in grand fashion by IWC Schaffhausen’s announcement of the most ambitious perpetual calendar ever seen in a mechanical wristwatch. The Portugieser Eternal Calendar is programmed to show the correct date in full until the year 3999, even allowing for the not entirely straightforward allocation of leap years. Moreover, it has a moon-phase display accurate to *deep breath* 45 million years. The watch’s mechanical wonders are wrapped in the eternally comely Portugieser case, here in 44.4mm of sumptuous platinum. Unquestionably, one of the stars of the show.

The return of Zenith’s Defy collection a few years ago has proved an unqualified success. People love the model’s edgy 1970s silhouette, which is defined by its dodecagonal bezel and unfussy, tapered bracelet. But until now, Zenith had not yet equipped the Defy Skyline with the complication it is best known for: a chronograph. At last, here it is, a Defy fuelled by the El Primero 3600, Zenith’s legendary high-frequency chronograph calibre. The El Primero has been upgraded numerous times since it was introduced in 1969, so that here it captures elapsed time to the nearest 1/10th of a second. That means the chronograph’s central seconds hand makes a full tour of the dial in a sprightly 10 seconds rather than the usual 60. The suave 42mm stainless steel watch is available with either a black, silver or blue dial and comes with an interchangeable rubber strap.

The most seismic event at Watches and Wonders Geneva this year, certainly for the British visitor, was the evolution of Bremont. Founded in 2002 by the plucky English brothers (both in name and nationality), Bremont is renowned for creating highly durable mechanical timepieces and has, over the past 20 years, become the UK’s largest watch company, complete with a 35,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility just outside Henley-on-Thames. Now, with industry veteran Davide Cerrato as its new CEO, Bremont has refreshed with a new ‘The Wayfinder’ moniker, a new ambassador (Academy Award-winning filmmaker and climber Jimmy Chin) and a new line of field watches inspired by early 20th century military pocket watches, given the name Terra Nova in continuation of one of the company’s past limited-edition models. Among those is this adventure-ready piece in highly resistant 904L stainless steel that features a bi-directional rotating bezel with compass markers, block numerals cut from Super-LumiNova and an automatic movement with a power reserve indicator. A new dawn for Bremont.

What a year Piaget is having. The timing, no mistake, is well ordained. The venerable Swiss watchmaker is marking its 150th anniversary – and, having dazzled earlier this year with the all-18kt-gold Polo 79, it has now leveraged the moment to introduce us to the Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon, the thinnest tourbillon wristwatch ever made. At 2mm it’s roughly the thickness of two credit cards, and yet somehow it still manages to pack in the three-dimensional assembly of parts known as a tourbillon. How? That will have to wait for another day, but essentially, by integrating the case and movement into a single unit as it did with the original Altiplano Ultimate Concept of 2018 – albeit without a tourbillon in that case. Equally incredible is that, while being a technical marvel, the Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon is still very much a watch, as elegant as you’d expect a Piaget to be, and is entirely wearable. Dizzying, spectacular, unforgettable – and a true watchmaking wonder.