Jewellery watches shine: bling meets innovation in 2024, from Cartier to Van Cleef & Arpels

But this raises a question around whether a watch has to be loaded with gems to be considered a jewellery watch.

The piece features an openwork metal bracelet with a subtly minuscule watch dial at one end and a mirrored surface at the other – wearers tell time off the reflection so that it almost appears to be running backwards. Moreover from a jeweller’s perspective, the piece offers an innovative way to display the time, using techniques like gold polishing.

While there are bejewelled versions of the Reflection, Baignoire and Tigre available, Cartier proves that women’s watches can be as functionally innovative as they are beautiful, with or without the addition of eye-grabbing gems.

Taking a different, yet complementary, approach to women’s watches, Van Cleef & Arpels’ Poetic Complications collection is an example of how a jeweller can deftly convey its own identity without compromising on mechanical innovation. The jeweller’s famously whimsical designs are a hallmark of the collection’s timepieces – though in this case, the house used retrograde complications to bring motion to its dials, creating exquisite watches that do much more than just tell time.

This signals a dynamic new expression of the Poetic Complications line, which also features two versions of the Pont des Amoureux model that use retrograde mechanisms to depict a pair of lovers meeting and separating across a bridge under the moonlight.

Still, diamonds and other jewels can add much more to a watch than just sparkle. Gem settings, and the colour combinations made by pairing different precious stones, provide a way for jewellers and watchmakers to express their own aesthetic ethos.

This year, Chopard decided to turn up the glam factor with a new addition: the Alpine Eagle Frozen Lake. Drawing on the house’s jewellery-making expertise, the latest iteration of this renowned timepiece is encrusted in diamonds of different cuts that give a depth to the design. From the dial to the bezel and bracelet, the watch sparkles from every angle and resembles a high jewellery bracelet as much as a timepiece.

On the 35th anniversary of the design, the brand unveiled two unique pieces of the Aura, set with rubies, pink sapphires and diamonds.

This year, the maison presented a unique piece that could easily have been created through a jeweller’s lens: the Grand Lady Kalla, which can be worn on the wrist or around the neck as a pendant. The piece’s diamond pavé bracelet can be detached from the dial and connected to an Akoya pearl and onyx bead necklace.

As the distinction between watches and jewellery becomes increasingly blurred, one enduring truth remains: skilfully crafted timepieces effortlessly blend functionality and fashion, ensuring they are not only precise timekeeping machines, but also exquisite accessories.