44 DEPARTURES STYLE MATERIAL MATTERS Strapping Style Interchangeable, high-concept bands are giving a new dimension to women’s timepieces. by Ming Liu From top: Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak Concept Flying Tourbillon, shown here with a blue alligator strap, audemarspiguet.com; Patek Philippe’s Aquanaut Chronograph, with a black composite bracelet, patek.com; Vacheron Constantin’s Egérie Self-winding, here with a stainless-steel band, vacheronconstantin.com DIE-HARD HOROLOPHILES who subscribe to the belief that fashion – flippant, fleeting, transient – has no place in the timeless, perpetual world of watchmaking should probably stop reading now. A number of watchmakers, including some of the most storied firms, are putting fashion right smack into an integral watchmaking part: the humble strap. This new-age interchangeability is part of a wider movement in design, and it pushes timepieces into a more modern, and dare we say it, fashionable space. Swappable straps are hardly new. Back in 2012, Patek Philippe was in tune with its female clients’ fashion sensibilities, launching the Ref 7140 Ladies First Perpetual Calendar with an understated grey alligator strap and an uber-jazzy one in royal purple. By 2018, its ultra-coveted black-strapped Aquanaut chronograph came with an extra zingy orange strap to match the dial’s sporty display. Meanwhile, Tudor’s Pelagos diving watch can be worn with either its hardwearing titanium or robust rubber strap – but, until recently, changing them usually required a visit to the service centre. But no more: enter the contemporary strap, where power is placed in the, erm, wrist of the wearers – allowing for quick, easy flexibility to match any mood or dress code. Leading the charge is Vacheron Constantin, which has long understood the power of versatility in watchmaking. For several years, its popular, travel-minded Overseas collection has come with additional straps – steel, precious metal, leather and rubber – that can breezily take its wearer from skiing the piste to pounding the pavement with a flip of its patented strap-change mechanism. “Bracelets and straps are becoming accessories in their own right, and each one, depending on its colour or material, tells a story,” says Laurent Perves, the house’s chief marketing officer.
ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF THE WATCHMAKERS Clockwise from centre: Zenith’s Defy Midnight, here with a mother-of-pearl dial, comes with a trio of interchangeable straps, zenith-watches.com; TAG Heuer’s Connected smartwatch, adorned with a lime-yellow rubber band, tagheuer.com; Tudor’s Pelagos in matte blue with a blue rubber bracelet, tudorwatch.com This year, the house’s strapswapping expertise moves to Egérie, a new dedicated women’s collection that, with its pleated-motif and tapestry-effect dial – both firsts for the brand – notably nods to fashion and haute couture. Several models come with additional coloured straps – grey, raspberry pink, midnight blue among them – that can be changed via a next-generation mechanism that took two years to develop, says Perves. “It’s a simple trigger and very intuitive,” he says, with comfort (and women) at its heart. “The soft-touch trigger will prevent damage to fingers and nails,” he promises. A 100 per cent women’s watch – ie, not the shrunken, diamondset men’s version of yore – was also Zenith’s calling card this year. Its new steel Defy Midnight collection is the house’s first-ever purely women’s design, channelling the current mood for sport-luxe watches. Sized at 36mm with a starry night motif on the dial, each watch comes with three additional straps, for a portfolio of rubber, velvet, satin and leather, in various hues, depending on the model, along with a DIY strap-swapping mechanism that, like Vacheron, has been built from the ground up. And while interchangeability is not groundbreaking, says Zenith’s CEO Julien Tornare, “We are delivering a watch that’s quite innovative because we push people to use that interchangeability … you basically have four watches in one with this launch.” Audemars Piguet too has cottoned on to the fact that women covet optionality: its latest Royal Oak Concept Flying Tourbillon is strictly designed for women in mind, encased in jeweller Carolina Bucci’s signature frosted-gold finish, a first for a Royal Oak Concept, and featuring a mesmerising, multilayered dial and flying tourbillon. Fabulously stratospheric in style – as a concept watch should be – the two practical strap options almost bring the piece down to earth: either via a contrasting, contemporary blue alligator strap with large scales, or the sporty-chic shiny blue textured rubber strap. Elsewhere, the new Pasha de Cartier is the venerable maison’s biggest launch this year: a stylish, unisex reissue of a 1985 icon whose modern overhauls include a new crown, transparent case back and, yes, a newly engineered QuickSwitch strap system. With a single push of a button that’s tucked discreetly below the case, an invisible mechanism enables 45 DEPARTURES
