Just last year, watch brand Hublot launched its Black Caviar, a white gold piece smothered in 550 diamonds, totalling 34.5 carats. It won the 2009 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève for Jewellery Watch of the Year. Twelve months later, everything about it – with the exception of the craft that went into it – feels dated.

Times change, and so it seems do watch trends. Indiscreet is out; understated is in. “The key trend in prestige pieces is now running towards classical looks,” says Dieter Pachner, vice president for sales at the German brand Glashütte Original. “There’s a renewed demand for understatement in men’s and women’s watches alike. This year we’re going to see that the strong demand for ‘flashy’ watches is now over, with consumers looking for investment pieces again, for simplicity.”

The recession, which brought lay-offs, scaled-back production and stock liquidations to the Swiss watch industry, has been an obvious influence, both in terms of sensibility and finance. Even wealthy consumers are less comfortable wearing brash pieces in a climate of redundancy and repossession. And if gold (be it white, rose or yellow) was an essential element of a prestige watch a year ago, now ceramics and even steel are being repositioned as luxury alternatives.

“Sometimes this shift from the extremes of design back to classics is just a general cycle,” says Marc Hayek, CEO of Blancpain, “but this this time it’s about consumer needs. Until recently it was the demand for difference that shaped the market – retailers were pressured to offer what nobody else offered. But customers are pickier now; extremes are less appealing.” He notes that this change has also been driven by the lowering of prices to create value for the consumer, and that the price of gold remained relatively high during the downturn.

Consequently, broad trends are likely to see a number of aspects: more understated materials, tidier jewel embellishments on women’s models, plainer faces and smaller cases (around the 39mm–42mm mark, rather than the 46mm-plus giants of recent years). According to Alastair Laidlaw, owner/ buyer for London’s Jura Watches, understated black-cased watches have become big sellers – from the likes of Corum and Perrelet in particular. “I think we can expect to see more black cases released over 2010, with a huge uplift in a subtle use of orange on dials, hands and trim too,” he says.

A return to simplicity is also likely through reduced functionality. “Consumers no longer want watch design overload and they don’t want features they never use either,” says Pachner. “There is a renewed emphasis on handcraft and history; that’s as true in the women’s market as the men’s.”

The move to cleaner lines alone is likely to cause a shake-up within the industry: established brand Zenith has made a rapid and smooth transition from its heavy-duty Defy collection to more understated design, with a new classics line launching at this month’s industry expo, Baselworld, to underline the fact; relatively new brands to prestige watches, such as Hermès and last year’s Ralph Lauren launch, have lent heavily towards classicism, with the Clipper and Stirrup models respectively; while others, including Longines, Omega, Blancpain and IWC, have suggested it through recent reissues of archive models, with IWC also overhauling its elegant Portuguese line, even bringing back a hand-wound model. Brands, however, with a reputation for the more outlandish – the likes of footballers’ favourite Franck Muller, for example – may find the transition much harder.

“The fact is that just a couple of years ago we would be buying such big statement pieces,” says Paul Sheeran, a leading Dublin-based watch retailer, who notes that most consumers are also retrenching with the major brands, reluctant to try those without extensive media support. “We’d be very cautious about buying that kind of watch for the foreseeable future.”

Indeed, many posit that in the longer term, with simplicity the watchword for exterior design, the focus will turn to the interior. As consumers come to see watches as expressions of craft rather than brand status, so watchmakers are keen to demonstrate their skills through developing their own calibres.

“When the whole industry produces classics, it’s that much harder to be differentiated,” says Antoine Pin, managing director of LVMH Watch and Jewellery. “You need strong designers and to be very creative in your selling.”

That does, of course, impact the way watches look too, if only from the rear. Once a novelty, now a crystal back has become almost essential for most prestige, dress time-pieces, with as much emphasis now being placed on the rotor’s finishing as its functionality. This may be what, years hence, moves big brands out of their renaissance of classicism and back to bolder designs, providing, as Pin stresses, the designs are an expression of new movements.

“Watches won’t be able to just look innovative anymore, they will have to be innovative,” he says, citing TAG Heuer’s V4 concept watch by way of example. Concept watches – outrageous not for their size, colour or embellishment but their technical originality – from boutique brands are building a strong niche market.

“The new macro trend in watches is towards the consumer seeking value through originality,” says IWC director Florence Noël. “This is about being avant garde not through styling, which has been the trend of recent years, but through technology. That is making watches relevant again by not looking so much to the past but the future.”

Names to watch include Concord, with its C1 QuantumGravity, which fits the tourbillon cage outside of the movement and case; Cabestan, with its Winch Tourbillon, powered by a tiny chain and winch inspired by those used to hail sails on yachts, and whose founder-designer Jean-Francois Ruchonnet created TAG Heuer’s V4; Maximillian Büsser’s MB&F, with its Horological Machines series; and Urwerk, whose UR-CC1 shows time in a linear rather than cyclical fashion.

“It’s important to me that a watch should still tell the time, or show an aspect of time, but not necessarily in the traditional way,” says Martin Frei, Urwerk’s chief engineer, who trained not as a watchmaker but an artist and counts Duchamp, Mies van der Rohe and Star Wars among his influences. “Who really wants a watch inspired by those first made a couple of centuries ago? Create something new and the demand follows.”

TECH SPEC
GLASHÜTTE ORIGINAL

Strasser & Rohde Regulator
Price: €19,500
Verdict: A simple, classic look defines the face, but behind a sapphire window reveals the timepiece’s beautiful movement.

MB&F HOROLOGICAL MACHINE HM3 30.RTL.B STARCRUISER
This handcrafted watch has separate faces for hours and minutes.
Price: Around €60,000

URWERK UR-CC1
This linear watch is the result of three years of research and development.
Price: €192,000

CABESTAN WINCH TOURBILLON VERTICAL
Designer Jean-Francois Ruchonnet took inspiration from a boat’s capstan.
Price: €245,000