UK Edition 2025 – The Daily Telegraph

|  WATCH YOUR TIME

FOCUS

51

|  WATCH YOUR TIME

FOCUS

F O C U S

Winning comeback

Tiffany watchmaking is back. Since

LVMH’s 2020 acquisition, the watch side of

America’s pre-eminent jeweller has devel-

oped a new vision that fuses the spirit and

panache of its most iconic jewels with the

finest horological expertise.

Tiffany has horological history. Watches first appeared

in its catalogue in 1847, and the brand became a dominant

US watch and clock retailer, with workshops in Geneva

and New York. John Loring’s Tiffany Timepieces opens

with Mark Twain admiring a for $25,000 Tiffany clock

at the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition.

Initially importing European watches, Tiffany became

the exclusive US agent for Patek Philippe and opened its

own watch manufacture in Geneva in 1874 after Charles

Lewis Tiffany had been impressed by seeing Waltham’s

advanced production and thought the techniques could

be used to improve Swiss production. The result was a

potent mix of fine Swiss movement and Tiffany craft

excellence that saw the brand create growing numbers

of jewelled timepieces from the 1880s onwards.

By the turn of the century, Tiffany & Co. was the

first stop for America’s social elite so when the wives

of three of New York’s wealthiest businessmen; John

Jacob Astor, John B. Thayer and George D. Widener were

looking to reward Captain Arthur H. Rostron of RMS

Carpathia for saving their lives following the sinking of

the RMS Titanic, a Tiffany & Co. pocket watch was the

only possible choice.

From the mid-1930s, Tiffany diversified its suppliers,

working with Waltham, Hamilton, and Swiss makers,

becoming the most significant watch retailer and pro-

ducer in the US. And with Jean Schlumberger’s arrival

in the 1950s Tiffany forged its most distinctive watch

design identity yet.

Tiffany’s Blue book catalogues featured a stream of

innovative designs through the following decades, even

including one of the first digital watches, the Tiffany

Pulsar. The 1980s–2000s saw a stream of successful

designs from names like Elsa Peretti, Paloma Picasso,

John Loring, and Jorg Hysek (of Vacheron Constantin’s

222 fame).

Today, that creativity is returning. Heritage is central

to this revival – a “back to the future” ethos drawing from

archival designs, Tiffany’s star designers, and New York

architecture. It’s a fusion approach to watchmaking that

draws the panache and style from those heritage sources,

so the Schlumberger “Bird on a Rock” brooch inspired

the Bird on a Flying Tourbillon (see p. 67) both in detail

and in spirit. The watch has a champlevé enamel dial,

appliqué flowers and diamond-set sub-dial framing the

flying tourbillon. The bespoke movement, developed

by Artime, is matched with artisanal craft – 80 hours

of enamelling, 40 hours of diamond setting for the bird

– all done with Schlumberger’s hallmark whimsy.

While high jewellery leads the charge, Tiffany have

also looked to bring a new energy to its core ranges using

the same heritage inspiration approach – the Rope is

one of Jean Schlumberger’s most recognisable motifs

and is given new life as a watch design that perfectly

expresses Tiffany’s direction of travel. Concentric cir-

cles of the twisted gold design are interspersed with a

circle of diamonds to form a wide bezel around the dial

(whether mother-of-pearl or black) in which are hidden

the solar cells that charge the watch.

There’s a similar rationale behind the HardWear col-

lection, which takes inspiration from a jewellery collec-

tion launched in 1962 and matches industrial chic to a

jeweller’s sensibility, the result being distinctive cush-

ion shaped watches (the sapphire glass over the dial

and the caseback are faceted in the style of the Tiffany

Diamond) fitted to fourteen link bracelets that have a

fluid, organic feel that belie the design. The star of the

first three models in the collection features a lacquered

Tiffany Blue ‘crush’ dial that is stamped with a pattern

resembling shattered diamonds and is surrounded by a

diamond-set bezel and diamond-set lugs creating a dar-

ing contrast against the steel case and silver HardWear

bracelet.

This, you sense, is just the beginning as that Loring

book is a treasure trove in itself, let alone the rest of the

archive. With such rich resources to draw on and a team

that’s clearly able to supply wit and character to the pro-

cess of updating heritage designs, Tiffany’s future looks

assured. ■ James Gurney

1. TIFFANY & CO. Schlumberger by Tiffany & Co. Bird on a Rock.

Inspired by Jean Schlumberger’s iconic 1965 brooch of the same

name, the Schlumberger by Tiffany & Co. Bird on a Rock watch

collection spans several high jewellery pieces. The white gold

model shown here measures 36 mm in diameter and features

36 coloured stones, including sapphires, topazes and emeralds

along with over 700 diamonds. Thanks to a clever mechanism,

the perched bird rotates around the periphery of the dial as the

wrist moves. Quartz movement.

2. TIFFANY & CO. HardWear. The HardWear collection takes

its cue from a 1962 bracelet. Signature chain links frame a 24 x

24 mm cushion-shaped case. The most precious model pairs a

diamond-set steel case (54 brilliant-cut diamonds) with a 925-sil-

ver bracelet, available in various lengths. The Tiffany Blue® dial

is topped with a faceted sapphire crystal reminiscent of the cut

of the legendary Tiffany Diamond. Quartz movement.