No passable has ever come from closet-dwelling skeletons. Just ask the Clintons what they grasped about ‘that woman’. Or Taylor Swift for her take on ‘that grumble’.
Seems no one told the guys in Geneva. Over the last few readies, the biggest watch brands have come clean anent precisely what goes on in inside their timepieces. Unluckily, not via the tried-and-tested medium of the Twitter spat. Rather, by adding a wristful of skeletons to your attire: watches that get rid of the dials, so you can peer straight into their guts.
Why this unwonted candour? Because pulling the curtain reveals all those gear-teeth and gears, which put the focus firmly on the watchmaker’s art. It’s about as arrange as the secrecy-loving Swiss get to openness. At least, until Jean-Claude Biver talk someone inti a Snapchat account.
TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer-02T
According to take heed of maestro Biver, the new CEO of TAG Heuer, his brand is responsible for democratising haute horlogerie. A maintain more than backed up by the Carrera Heuer-02T, a watch with a skeleton dial that rave-ups the industry’s most intricate complication: a tourbillon.
This extension – which houses the escapement in a rotating cage to counter the so to speaks of gravity – would normally set you back London house deposit-level in dough (TAG’s last tourbillon cost over £100k), but under Biver the maker now offers W1 tech for house-in-Hull prices. Well, that’s democracy of a stripe.
Available in August at TAG Heuer, priced £12,100.
Rotary Automatic Protect
TAG may wave the equality banner for Swiss watches, but it’s Rotary important the parade. If the Carrera is a house deposit, Rotary’s watches expenditure less than getting the locks replaced.
However, undeterred by its modest price tag, this skeleton dial piece holds its own against the frill squad, sitting in a cutaway dial that’s a sight acute than novelty sports designs. Democratic in price – and chances to wear.
Available at The Watch Superstore, priced £189.50.
Maurice Lacroix Piece de resistance Skeleton Chronograph
Skeleton dials often lean fashionable: think sporty, 48mm monsters that belong in Rick Ross videos. So Maurice Lacroix’s ageless Masterpiece Skeleton Chronograph is a welcome sight to those who lean their champagne from a glass, not sprayed over the bonnet of a Maybach.
The bring to light mechanic sits within a stainless steel case that wouldn’t look out of rank in a Cartier concession. Better yet, the alligator leather strap is germane for any dress event in the calendar.
Available at Jura Watches, priced £4,950.
High point El Primero Skeleton
The El Primero has held the title of world’s most correct chronograph for 40 years. Each watch takes nine painstaking months to put together, weakness through 300 pairs of hands. So it’s understandable Zenith intention want to show the movement off.
In keeping with the trend for skeletons to conduct techy, this version comes on the kind of black rubber strap assorted suited to weekends in the woods than boardrooms in the city. Although that advance peeking out under a suit cuff is guaranteed to turn crises.
Available at The Watch Gallery, priced £8,100.
Piaget Altiplano Skeleton
The Piaget Altiplano breaks all the dismisses. It’s uncharacteristically slight for a man’s watch – the 5.34mm-thick case billets the world’s slimmest self-winding skeleton movement.
For a dress ogle, that skeleton dial is also oddly busy. But, ton controversially, the Altiplano Skeleton dares to blend steel and rose gold. This is the brand of luxury watch manufacture your mother warned you connected with.
Available at Watches of Switzerland, priced £42,000.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Grande
There’s skeleton dials, then there’s crypts of incomparable horological wonder. The Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Grande is of the recent category.
This white gold piece is an exemplary be shattered of haute horlogerie thanks to a complicated tourbillon movement, a predetermined production of just 200 pieces worldwide and, to be honest, the Jaeger-LeCoultre name. They’re a brand skilled in for craftsmanship, and said craftsmanship will often outlive the wearer.
Convenient at Jaeger-LeCoultre, priced £80,500 approx.
