Rainbow gem setting, the hopeful new watch and high jewellery trend: how Chanel, Dior and Rolex brought acid bright colour to their 2020 collections
- Chanel was inspired by 1990s rave music by Daft Punk and The Chemical Brothers when creating its watch collections
- Bulgari’s Serpenti Misteriosi Cleopatra, a tribute to Elizabeth Taylor’s role in the 1963 film, almost hides the timepiece completely in jewels
Rainbow gem setting has become a bit of a thing in watch circles over the past year, and with perfect timing these mood-boosting dials have marked the long hours and days that saw us confined to our homes by the coronavirus pandemic. Rainbows became a universal symbol of hope, and yet their appearance in the 2020 collections was serendipitous – watches can spend two years and longer in development and no one could have predicted the surreal experience that was about to be unleashed on us the world.
Hublot, Audemars Piguet, Parmigiani, Breguet and Rolex all released watches with rainbow gem-set bezels that were an immediate hit. Hublot pavé-set the colour spectrum across the case and dial of its Big Bang watch, while Rolex colour-coded the bezel and hours in baguette-cut sapphires on its Oyster Perpetual Chronometer Cosmograph Daytona. It is a detail that they have used in the past for the Daytona, but its timely reappearance has caught the zeitgeist in both men’s and women’s timepieces.
Sourcing progressively sized, coloured gemstones of this calibre is extremely challenging
Watches this year continue to bring colour to our wrists with ever-increasing flamboyance. Piaget’s automatic Limelight Gala timepiece originated in the 70s with its integrated gold case and bracelet, and is celebrated this year with six new limited editions, three of which mark the Sunrise, Zenith and Sunset of the sun’s journey in gradient colours of blue, yellow and pink sapphires and snow-set diamond dials. However, it is the Precious Rainbow that really captivates.
“It represents the perfect fusion between the arts of watchmaking and jewellery,” says Piaget CEO Chabi Nouri, who points out that this is the first time that they’ve created a rainbow setting for a timepiece. “Sourcing progressively sized, coloured gemstones of this calibre is extremely challenging.”
Creative energy flows through Richard Mille’s zingy homage to the 70s and its disco queens with the glamorous new RM 71-02 Automatic Tourbillon Talisman. There is a thrilling theatricality to this 10-piece collection, which makes much of the art deco detailing of 2018 RM 71-01 by smothering the signature tonneau-shaped case with sparkling rainbow-coloured sapphires, tsavorites, rubies and amethysts.
“I was in a Studio 54 state of mind – listening to disco, funk and R&B,” says Cécile Guenat, director of creation and development at Richard Mille. Hence each design is named after fashionable nightclub favourites, like Donna Summer and Grace Jones, and express their raw energy.