When a Rolex diving watch goes solid gold, you know the tide has turned.
At Watches & Wonders Geneva in April, Rolex unveiled a 44-millimeter Oyster Perpetual Deepsea diver model in solid 18-karat yellow gold. It weighed 320 grams (11.3 ounces) — roughly the equivalent of two billiard balls on the wrist.
While that Godzilla of all divers has yet to become a trendsetter, it has been a bellwether of sorts for the return of gold, as more brands seek to raise prices by offering what are called bimetal watches, a combination of gold and steel.
“All-gold watches can be a difficult proposition,” Carlos Rosillo, the co-founder and chief executive of Bell & Ross, said. “Their prices can be prohibitively high and, even then, not everyone likes to wear a visible, all-gold watch.”
After years of popularity, Swiss exports of stainless steel watches have been declining — down 15 percent year-over-year in the first half of 2024, according to figures from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry.
And even though the price of gold is at an all-time high — $2,501 per ounce in August, up from $1,824 in January 2023 — exports of watches in bimetal (up 2.7 percent in July, compared with July 2023) and precious metals (up 12.6 percent in July, compared with July 2023) have increased. Philippe Pegoraro, the head of the watch federation’s economic and statistical department, said that more than 90 percent of the watches in the precious-metals category were gold.
Bimetal — or two-tone, as it often is called — refers to a watch case, crown and bezel of two metals, typically yellow or rose gold with steel, usually on a steel bracelet with center gold links. The two-metal combination also could be gold and titanium or, in a rare combination, white and yellow gold.
According to the federation, watch sales overall declined 2.4 percent in the first seven months of 2024, compared with the same period in 2023.
“When watch companies are selling fewer watches, they must sell pricier ones to make up for lost volumes,” Mr. Rosillo said. “It is as simple as that.”
At the Watches & Wonders fair, one of the highlights of Bell & Ross’s introductions was an automatic BR 05 Artline Steel & Gold, a bimetal addition to a collection that debuted in 2019.
The Artline, limited to 99 pieces, combined polished steel with striated 18-karat rose gold details on the bezel and the links of its integrated bracelet. It was priced at 12,900 euros, or $12,800 in the United States. (For comparison, the all-steel version introduced in 2022 was €5,500.)
Design and Contrast
The two-tone look was popular in the 1970s and ’80s, but then tastes changed, and it became considered a bit dated. Now, rather than channeling the ostentation of the Gordon Gekko era, the new models evoke the sleek lines of Art Deco or play up the glamour of disco.
So the Artline was designed in a “refined two-tone vintage style,” Mr. Rosillo said, inspired by the 1930s Streamline Moderne style. (Think the sleek architecture of Ocean Drive in Miami, with its horizontal lines, rounded corners and ocean liner-style windows.)
Vacheron Constantin used a bimetal contrast to recreate the look of its 1950s designs in two Patrimony models, also introduced at Watches & Wonders.
“The two-tone style became our link to the 1950s, especially since the design of the Patrimony is rooted in that era,” said Christian Selmoni, the house’s style and heritage director. “In the white gold version, we have added a little twist in rose gold to emphasize the classic, vintage style of the watch.”
The bimetal Patrimony models come in two sizes: a 39-millimeter time-only piece and a 42.5-millimeter retrograde date watch, which uses an arc display to indicate days of the week.
At Bulgari, it was back to the disco age with the two-tone Bulgari Bulgari x Lisa model, made in collaboration with Lalisa Manobal, better known as Lisa from the South Korean girl group Blackpink. It was offered in two models: a 33-millimeter limited to 1,100 pieces and a 23-millimeter limited to 400 pieces. Both combined stainless steel with 18-karat rose gold, accented with a white mother-of-pearl mosaic dial and a two-tone bracelet ($7,900 for the 33-millimeter model).
“Lisa’s inspiration was her life, pop culture, disco balls,” Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, the executive director of product creation for Bulgari, wrote in an email. “The two-tone bracelet is a nod to that inspiration. The mix of steel and gold allows our clients to have a watch with a precious metal which is more discreet.”
Other brands have used the bimetal combination to add flair to sports watches. The Cut, introduced by Hermès at Watches & Wonders, elevated its game with a rose gold bezel and yellow gold links on a steel bracelet ($15,550 for the 36-millimeter model).
Likewise, Louis Vuitton’s overhauled Tambour line, introduced in 2023, has offered a 40-millimeter model with a satin-brushed steel case, a rose gold sandblasted bezel and a gray dial with rose gold hands and indexes (€30,200, or $27,500 in the United States).
Strategic Choices
In some models, a touch of gold has been applied strategically to enhance the metalwork of a steel watch.
For instance, Zenith’s Defy Skyline Boutique Edition, introduced in 2023, featured a gray dial that was engraved and then plated with rose gold — a process that the brand called “rose gold-plated negative relief” — with hands and indexes in rose gold. The brand said a chronograph version with the same dial treatment would arrive in stores this month.
“Most of the time, when developing a two-tone timepiece, designers focus on the case and bracelet,” Sébastien Gobert, the creative director at Zenith, wrote in an email. “But for this Defy Skyline, we opted to experiment with a bicolor approach that remains very rare in the industry: a dial in one color paired with a pattern in another.”
This month, Victoire de Castellane, the creative director of Dior Jewelry, will debut a two-tone La D My Dior watch with a gold cannage, or rattan weave, pattern — the same one used on Lady Dior handbags — on the dial and the steel bracelet. It will be offered in 19-millimeter and 25-millimeter sizes (€7,900 and €9,700).
Still, not all luxury brands have embraced the two-tone trend.
In February, Patek Philippe removed the only two-tone watch — Ref. 5980/1AR, a Nautilus model in a combination of steel and rose gold — from its catalog.
The action presumably was part of the company’s recent refocus on precious metals, or, as Thierry Stern, the president of Patek, said in 2022: “To sell gold is part of the preservation of the brand.”
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