SEPTEMBER has been a particularly busy month with brands and retailers holding events to showcase their latest marvels made for the wrist.
Geneva Watch Days was held early last month, and various fairs would be upcoming in New York this month.
In Malaysia, the calendar was quite filled up too. Here are two of the highlights.
Art of time
Swiss Watch’s Art of Time 2026 is especially significant as the retailer celebrates its silver jubilee.
The exhibition, held from Sept 9 to 20, was the 12th edition of the series.
The launch soirée at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur highlighted craftsmanship and creativity in watchmaking, with individual showcases by Bell & Ross, Breitling, Bvlgari, TAG Heuer, Tudor and Zenith alongside curated timepieces from other brands in Swiss Watch’s stable, such as IWC Schaffhausen, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Montblanc, Panerai and Piaget.
A special feature that drew many guests was the interactive demonstration by Zenith, where they got a hands-on insight into the precision required in watchmaking.
On display too was the fruit of the Swiss Watch x Cloakwork collaboration that incorporated contemporary art in horology.
It was a one-of-a-kind Tesla Model Y L, transformed into an automotive canvas by Malaysian graffiti artist Cloakwork.
Poetry of time
Bovet showed how high complications could be imbued with practicality.
Taking Malaysian media members through it at a luncheon as refined as the timepieces was the Maison’s owner Pascal Raffy, who made a pit stop in Kuala Lumpur on his whirlwind Asian tour.
The three watches in focus were Récital 30 Ceramic, Récital 31 and Récital 32, the latter two powered by Bovet’s newest in-house movements and featuring the new hand-engraved étoiles carrées (square stars) motif.
Récital 30 Ceramic’s pioneering roller-based world-time system displays
25 independent time zones − including New Delhi’s distinctive 30-minute offset − across four seasonal periods (think Daylight Saving Time).
What this means is that the wearer can easily read the time in almost anywhere in the world.
There is even a bespoke option where city names, dial colours and time-zone configurations can be customised.
Récital 31, which combines perpetual calendar with retrograde date and three-dimensional moon phase, has pushers indicated with their corresponding functions.
Among the practical requisite met was readability without a need for spectacles!
Récital 32 is Bovet’s first true GMT, uniting an independent GMT function with an expanded flying tourbillon within a 42mm case.
Local time is displayed at noon, with a blue guilloché day/night indication and a 24-hour track for the independent GMT hand.
For Récital 31 and for Récital 32, each dial colour variation is limited to 60 numbered pieces.
Swiss Watch’s Art of Time exhibition, in its 12th edition, held at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur. — Photos: Swiss Watch
The Swiss Watch x Cloakwork collaboration uses a Tesla as a canvas for graffiti art. (Below) Zenith’s interactive demonstration during the exhibition.
Zenith's interactive demonstration at Swiss Watch's Art of Time launch in Pavilion Kuala Lumpur over 12 days in September.
Raffy presenting Récital 30 Ceramic world timer at the media luncheon in Kuala Lumpur. — Photos: VICKY OOI/The Star
Components of Récital 30 Ceramic and tools of the trade. At the top right corner of the wooden plate are a roller bearing a city’s name and two screws resembling tiny dots.
The Recital 30, 31 and 32 from Bovet showcased at the presentation in Kuala Lumpur. --- Photo: Bovet / EC TONG
