Golden Hour: How Leading Watch Brands Are Celebrating The UAE’s Golden Jubilee
From limited timepieces to special editions, Bazaar Arabia’s watch columnist Elizabeth Doerr explores them all here…
Having only discovered a passion for high-end watchmaking in the last few decades, the UAE has become a hotbed of horology, with watchmakers producing very limited and rare editions of some of the world’s best timepieces for the region. The federation of seven emirates founded in 1971 turns 50 in 2021, and to celebrate the milestone anniversary, some of the top manufacturers in the world have released special-edition watches. Here is a look at five great ones…
Cartier Panthère UAE Edition
For this limited-edition Panthère, Cartier set the bezel with 44 brilliant-cut rubies (0.35ct). These stones surrounding the distinctive bezel screws that are a hallmark of this model add a generous dash of colour and make the quartz-powered limited edition a true eye-catcher. Its mother-of-pearl dial is a treat, too: what from a distance may look like an ordinary shimmering surface indeed has the familiar panther pattern imprinted on it, making for an almost private treat to delight its owner.
Corum Heritage Artisans Coin Watch
The first Corum Coin watch appeared in 1964: these were the world’s first wristwatches using a coin to house a mechanical movement; previous to Corum’s experimentation, the style had only been used for pocket watches. Such history makes this watch the obvious choice from the Corum catalogue as the one to pay homage to 50 years of the UAE in a limited edition of 13 pieces. Somewhat large at 43 mm in diameter, this watch is also extremely thin at 7.7 mm in height, making it supremely comfortable – and rather surprising since this thinness includes all the gearing needed for an automatic movement. In addition to the 925 silver coin used as the dial, the case engraved with ‘Year of the Fiftieth’ in English and Arabic on the front and ‘United we are’ and ‘1971-2021’ on the back is also silver and contains a faceted cornflower-blue sapphire in the crown.
Chaumet Hortensia Éden UAE Limited Edition
Chaumet presents a celebratory limited edition of 50 pieces of the Hortensia Éden UAE in the colours of the UAE’s federal flag available exclusively in the Middle East. This jewellery timepiece inspired by the hydrangea-motif jewellery Chaumet has crafted for more than two centuries features a dazzling mother-of-pearl dial adorned with diamond, black spinel, emerald and ruby indexes; hues that recall the national flag. The mini watch’s rose-gold bezel is hand-set with diamonds and features asymmetrically positioned flowers. On the rose-gold case back, where the absence of a crown becomes extremely noticeable – a stylus is used to set the quartz watch once the battery has been replaced – the Arabic inscriptions: ‘our union our strength’ and ‘1971’ take pride of place.
De Bethune UAE Hawk
Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, who just last year celebrated its own 70th anniversary in the watch business, is releasing 35 limited editions in collaboration with European luxury brands, one of which is this seven-piece edition in collaboration with Swiss independent, De Bethune. This automatic watch’s deep-green dial colour is directly inspired by one of the UAE’s national colours: green, which represents generosity and agriculture. Offering distinctive, bold Arabic numerals in silver and an obvious gold ‘50’ in place of the usual ‘10,’ the watch is outfitted with De Bethune’s supremely comfortable spring-loaded ‘floating’ lugs, which hug the wrist regardless of size. This timepiece is engraved with the ‘Year of the Fiftieth’ logo on the case back in tribute to the beautiful spirit of the union.
Hublot Classic Fusion Chronograph Concrete Sand
Released in an edition of 100 pieces, Hublot’s tribute to 50 years of the United Arab Emirates honours both the past and the future of the country in a watch that includes both ‘concrete’ and ‘sand’ and comes outfitted with a strap crafted from camel leather. Sand as a symbol of the vast deserts that permeate the region and concrete as a symbol of its future, commemorating in particular Dubai’s tremendous growth. This automatic watch’s beautiful brown dial features actual desert sand from the UAE, making each of these limited-edition watches unique in a way, while the 45 mm case and bezel are made of a composite concrete material punctuated by the polished titanium screws that are a Hublot hallmark.
Images supplied. From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s December 2021 issue