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Ceramic watches are notable for opening up a<br />
whole new world of possibilities.<br />
match. Meanwhile, its companion at the very top<br />
of the tree, Audemars Piguet (audemarspiguet.<br />
com), wisely kept the classic blue dial for its<br />
stainless steel 39mm Jumbo 50th anniversary<br />
reissue of the Royal Oak but—according to<br />
collectors watching the 50th anniversary<br />
collection as it launched—the piece that set<br />
tongues wagging was the smaller, more unisex,<br />
37mm in ice blue. More than any other blue, this<br />
particular shade stood out in <strong>2022</strong>: it was hard<br />
to miss at A. Lange & Söhne (alange-soehne.<br />
com), , on the new Odysseus, and equally catching on Czapek’s Antarctique (czapek.com).<br />
Some would surely argue that the combination<br />
of a frosty pale blue is a perfect match for the<br />
brushed and polished titanium of the Odysseus,<br />
or the steel of the Antarctique, but I think the<br />
truth is these sleek, integrated-bracelet designs<br />
work well with almost any blue (or almost any<br />
color at all, come to that). Certainly Chopard’s<br />
Alpine Eagle (chopard.com), which is hewn<br />
from the same strata as the Royal Oak, Nautilus<br />
et al, is no worse for having a brighter, bolder<br />
blue dial on its new Flying Tourbillon reference.<br />
The dial pattern is crafted to resemble the<br />
fl ecked iris of an eagle’s eye, and here has been<br />
redrawn to emanate from the beating tourbillon<br />
at six o’clock. Not to take away from the handfi<br />
nished watchmaking on show, but sometimes<br />
it’s all about having a dial the owner wants to<br />
stare at for far longer than it takes to tell the time.<br />
You could say the same—at a very different<br />
price point, with very different techniques on<br />
offer—of a watch as unassuming as Oris’s Big<br />
Crown Pointer Date (oris.ch). Pictures only begin<br />
to hint at how glossy, how rich and how all-round<br />
smart is the navy blue dial. Alongside the more<br />
illustrious horology we’ve just rattled through,<br />
eye-<br />
it might recede into the background, but when<br />
all is said and done it’s a perfect embodiment of<br />
our opening point: A blue watch that works as a<br />
mainstream choice, with infi nitely more character<br />
and life than if it were sombre black. Indeed,<br />
when it comes to watchmaking, there has really<br />
never been a better time to have the blues.<br />
NetJets<br />
63
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