Watches and Wonders 2026: The Collector's Canvas

Watchmaking and art have always shared a common language: craftsmanship, detail, storytelling and the pursuit of beauty in miniature form. This year at Watches and Wonders, that connection felt stronger than ever. From the Parisian runways of the 1960s and the classic Swinging Sautoirs to the great Egyptian pharaohs and the renowned works of Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai, many of the novelties unveiled this year transformed the watch dial into a canvas. Presenting some of the artistic highlights from Geneva.

Twice Unique, NOMOS Glashütte’s new format of watch design, presents one-of-a-kind timepieces in pairs, in both 18-carat gold and stainless steel. The idea transforms the dials of five iconic NOMOS models into canvases for artistic experimentation. The question posed here is simple: what if a dial could become anything?

Seen here is the Ludwig in 18-carat gold, part of the Rive Gauche collection. The dial features details from a design by German textile and object artist Anna Diederichs, who created drawings for the Parisian fashion world in the 1960s. The shades of red and white, once seen on the runway, now make their way to the wrist. Diederichs’ work also finds a home in the NOMOS Tetra watch, where dial-sized excerpts extend the series.

Back in 1969, Piaget introduced its ‘21st Century Collection’. These cuff watches and sautoirs changed the way a wearer looked at watches. They were not just timepieces, but wearable works of art. Valentin Piaget, the grandson of Piaget founder Georges-Edouard Piaget, worked closely with designers in the 1970s to create these unique timepieces that celebrated colour, texture and shapes. Piaget revived its ‘1969 Swinging Sautoirs’ collection in Geneva this year with the ‘Swinging Pebbles’. This time, carved from a trio of ornamental stones: tiger’s eye, verdite and pietersite. Each pendant watch houses a quartz movement. Colourful and asymmetrical, the two components combine together seamlessly to form a piece of modernist sculpture.

Continuing with its partnership with the Louvre Museum, first launched in 2022 to celebrate great civilisations and preserve art and culture in a unique way, these new timepieces are inspired by selected major works from the museum’s Department of Antiquities, honouring Pharaonic Egypt (bottom), the Assyrian Empire (top), Ancient Greece and Imperial Rome. The creation of the watch dials took into account certain crafts and materials used in the original works—particularly stones of the same quality or even the same origin— and incorporates a host of delicate techniques that bring each watch to life, from engraving and micro-mosaic art to enamelling and marquetry. Colossal statues, monumental figures and pieces of history find a place on your wrist with these timepieces. The four models in the series are limited to 15 pieces each.

Building on its tribute to the work of Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, four new JaegerLeCoultre Reverso watches depict the final four images in A Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces, the famed woodblock print series created around 1827: Rōben Waterfall at Ōyama in Sagami Province; Kiyotaki Kannon Waterfall at Sakanoshita on the Tōkaidō; Yōrō Waterfall in Mino Province; and The Falls at Aoigaoka in the Eastern Capital. Each of the four 10-piece limited editions has been hand-decorated by the artisans of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Métiers Rares atelier, with guilloché and enamel on the dial, and miniature enamel paintings of Hokusai’s artworks on the casebacks. The level of intricacy is extraordinary. The miniature enamel paintings on the reverse sides, for instance, involve a minimum of 14 layers of enamel. Details don’t get any better than this.