AW24 Favourites
The Best Gold Watches to Invest in Now
The lexicon of modern luxury watch materials can be overwhelming. Off-putting, even. As interested parties, we’re expected to be familiar with a periodic table of watchmaking elements that includes words – are they even words? – such as Carbonium, Quartz TPT, Ceratanium and Liquid Metal. Note the caps: these are typically registered trademarks, fathomed either by brands hungry for difference or by high-technology partners that first intended their space-age confections for uses far more demanding than those presented by a wristwatch.
But no matter these inventions. Because before them was the original luxury material: gold. After fashions for novel, space-age materials have come and gone, gold will remain. That said, even when compiling a list of flaxen watches, there’s no escaping invention. Today’s golds can be harder, more brilliant and more resistant to the ravages of time and use than the gold found in watches of old, adding longevity to their appeal. Here’s a selection currently available at Harrods.
No question, the gold’s gold is still the out-of-the-ground yellow stuff. For a time, yellow’s popularity was cast into shadows by warmer, rosier tints – but recently our collective enthusiasm for the original and surely most enduring expression of gold has returned. Exhibit A: Cartier’s Panthère de Cartier 27mm. It’s a current model, of course, but there’s no denying that its yellow gold case and articulated bracelet could just as easily have been created a century ago. Gorgeous.
Pink gold (as with rose or red gold) is an alloy that blends gold with a sprinkling of copper to the tune of around 20%. That’s what gives it its milder glow – a popular look for those who love the weight and glamour of gold, only packaged with the volume turned down a notch. In a man’s watch, that can result in a joyously rakish feel, particularly if the bracelet is in the duskier shade as well as the case. On cue is Girard-Perregaux’s full pink gold Laureato, a devilishly good-looking version of the venerable brand’s 1970s sports watch that’s made more arch still by its mix of satin and polished surface finishes.
As a rule, the mystery of white gold is its owner’s to keep. From only a short distance, its silvery hue can appear steely and less precious than it actually is, while to the wearer it still carries all the heft and magnetism of any other shade. If there are exceptions, most of them appear in this one watch by Audemars Piguet. Here, the gold is frosted – meaning it’s decorated with a diamond-hammered finish, perfected by the celebrated London-based jeweller Carolina Bucci and seen in only a handful of the Swiss maker’s gold models. Any final traces of subterfuge are erased once and for all by this model’s eye-catching rainbow-set bezel and spectacular open-worked dial.
Find Audemars Piguet in Fine Watches on the Ground Floor.
As in jewellery, fine watchmakers are au fait with the appeal of gold enhanced by precious stones. IWC Schaffhausen’s iced Portofino Automatic Moon Phase is, all things being equal, a relatively understated take on the marriage of rose gold and diamonds, setting 66 stones into its bezel and a further dozen to its silver-plated dial. As if to remind us it’s a watchmaker before jeweller, the brand has put a moon phase front and centre in this model – an unassuming watch complication that, in the event, manages to draw the eye before those dazzling diamonds.
None will need reminding that gold is an investment – and priced accordingly. Bi-metal options, where gold is mixed with another material like steel, can be an economical alternative. Tudor’s ageless diver’s watch, the Black Bay, pushes the idea by integrating gold into the bracelet’s central link as well as the watch’s chronograph crown and pushers, covering them all in a thin layer of 18-karat yellow gold. In this get-up, a watch that’s water-resistant to 200 metres becomes a little more showy – and no worse for it.
So to the experimentalists amplifying gold’s everyday performance with the sort of technical flourishes you might otherwise find in planes, trains and automobiles. Although, everyday? Perhaps that should be long-term performance. Gold’s strength has always been its weakness: it is soft and malleable so it can be shaped and polished easily, but that also makes it easy to scratch. Over time it loses its glow, becoming dull. Ever the innovator, Hublot’s solution to this problem is Magic Gold, a solid-state gold and ceramic mix it says can only be scratched by diamond.
Another elevating the gold standard is Panerai, whose hardy Submersible dive watch now comes in a material the Italianate firm has trademarked Goldtech. This is a mix of gold, copper and platinum – a recipe Panerai says not only gives the gold a richer, brighter lustre, but also prevents oxidation, making that lustre last longer. To be clear, this watch is not a timekeeper designed for strenuous underwater activity. It’s water-resistant to just 100 metres (watchmaking’s snorkel rating). Stunning, but not really for swimming.
Find Panerai in Fine Watches on the Lower Ground Floor.
Lange, as the German maker is known, is not prone to excess. So, when it says that Honeygold is reserved for “only our most exclusive timepieces”, we can be sure the watch in question is special. Very special. The alchemy behind Honeygold is closely guarded by the brand’s boffins, but what they will tell us is that whatever’s in the mix makes it very hard and coloured in a way that’s “reminiscent of the sweet liquid produced by bees”. Here, it creates a deliciously lucid shell for the Langematik, a perpetual calendar that will show the date in full without need for adjustment until 2100. Only 100 will ever be made.
HARRODS STORIES
Bringing you a weekly dose of everything from expert styling tips to dinner party solutions – at Harrods, it’s all about living your best life.
Read & Shop