Fashion

The Must-See Creations at Dubai Watch Week 2025

BYKhaoula Ghanem

November 20, 2025

On November 19, watch collectors, industry veterans, and curious newcomers gathered at Burj Park for the seventh edition of Dubai Watch Week, set quite literally at the foot of the Burj Khalifa. The annual event has evolved into one of the region’s most anticipated showcases for haute horlogerie, bringing together pioneering maisons, independent creators, and niche ateliers that push the limits of mechanics, craft, and design. This year’s edition puts innovation and artistry front and center, with brands unveiling experimental movements, unexpected materials, and limited pieces created specifically with regional audiences in mind. From jewelled automata to collaborations with local artists, here are some of the standout highlights from Dubai Watch Week 2025.

Van Cleef & Arpels Automate La Single Brassée de Lavande

During Dubai Watch Week 2025, Van Cleef & Arpels unveiled one of its most technically striking pieces yet: the Automate La Single Brassée de Lavande, an intricate automaton inspired by a lavender bouquet. The centerpiece reveals itself slowly. A butterfly rises from the blooming lavender, its wings crafted in delicate plique-à-jour enamel, creating a stained-glass effect when light hits the surface. Diamond accents add movement and sparkle to the scene.

At the base, the butterfly’s body is carved from tiger’s eye and set with amethyst cabochon eyes, while its antennae are capped with diamonds. All of these elements move in harmony with the hidden mechanical carillon inside. Each lavender bud is individually lacquered and hand-painted, underscoring Van Cleef & Arpels’ focus on traditional métiers d’art.

The work brings together mechanical innovation, intricate craftsmanship, and enamel artistry, evolving the house’s longstanding fascination with nature into a kinetic sculpture. Rather than a watch or a jewelry object alone, the piece acts as a miniature tableau—one that highlights the technical and artistic know-how behind the maison’s most imaginative creations.

Chanel J12 Bleu

Chanel is spotlighting a new chapter of its most recognizable watch: the J12. The maison is unveiling the J12 Bleu for the first time, a model distinguished by a deep, saturated blue created exclusively for Chanel Horlogerie. The color elevates the watch’s signature matte ceramic— a material that has defined the J12 since its launch in 2000 and helped establish Chanel as a serious player in high watchmaking.

The highlight of the presentation is the J12 Bleu Diamond Tourbillon. The piece houses Chanel’s in-house Calibre 5 movement, featuring a flying tourbillon set with a solitaire diamond that rotates with each second. The bezel is lined with baguette-cut blue sapphires, enhancing the monochrome palette and echoing the J12’s emphasis on architectural lines and graphic silhouettes.

Long regarded as a style icon, the J12 has evolved over the years through technological upgrades, new calibres, and experimental ceramics. With this edition, Chanel pushes the concept further by focusing not only on mechanics but on color innovation, treating hue as a complication in itself.

Bvlgari x Mattar Bin Lahej Octo Finissimo

Since its launch a decade ago, the Octo Finissimo has become a benchmark of ultra-thin watchmaking. It has set multiple records for slimness — including the world’s thinnest tourbillon and minute repeater, and earned the industry’s highest honor, the Aiguille d’Or at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. Its sharp, architectural geometry has also made it a global design icon, blurring the line between sculpture and horology.

For Dubai Watch Week, Bvlgari treats the Octo Finissimo’s minimalist titanium surfaces as a canvas for Emirati artist Mattar Bin Lahej’s work. Laser-engraved calligraphy flows across the case, bracelet, and dial, based on a phrase from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum: “The future will be for those who can imagine, design, and implement it.”

Limited to 70 pieces, the watch maintains the ultra-thin 5 mm profile of the Finissimo and houses the in-house automatic BVL 138 calibre with a micro-rotor and a 60-hour power reserve. Matte, sandblasted titanium reinforces the sculptural feel of the engraving, while the transparent caseback reveals both the movement’s finishing and the artist’s signature.

Vanguart Black Hole Arabic Numerals and Rose Gold

Vanguart is presenting two new interpretations of its experimental Black Hole watch — the Black Hole Rose Gold and the Black Hole Arabic Numerals. The independent house continues to challenge traditional dial-based timekeeping, refining its concept of a “faceless” watch defined by light, material, and mechanical illusion rather than markers or hands.

The first of the two releases introduces Arabic numerals to the collection, marking a new cultural dimension for the brand. While maintaining the technical structure of the original Black Hole, this edition uses a titanium case and a redesigned layout featuring Arabic numerals integrated into the movement’s rotating display.

The second release evolves the faceless concept further. Encased entirely in rose gold, the 2025 edition emphasizes material as the central element of the watch. Polished angles and brushed surfaces replace traditional indicators, relying on light and geometry to communicate time

The Black Hole series is known for its kinetic architecture: layered rings, polished surfaces, and deep finishing create a visual vortex that draws the eye inward. The sensation is produced by rotating discs instead of a conventional dial, giving the piece its signature optical effect.

Hermés x Stuart Patience Slim d’Hermès

Hermès is bringing one of its smallest art projects to Dubai Watch Week this year: a Slim d’Hermès with a seahorse made not of paint or enamel, but hand-engraved lines and slivers of leather. The watch is part of a tiny, 24-piece series, and it shows how far the maison is willing to go when it treats a dial like a craft studio rather than a display for time.

The design comes from London illustrator Stuart Patience, whose seahorse is translated into a collage of microscopic leather pieces. An engraver first carves the creature’s outline into the dial, almost like preparing a metal sketch. Then the marquetry specialist cuts colored leather to a half-millimetre thickness— thinner than a fingernail— and inlays it scale by scale, fin by fin. It’s slow, slightly obsessive work, and the final effect feels closer to a miniature sculpture than a printed motif.

Inside, the watch keeps things deliberately simple: an ultra-thin H1950 automatic movement in a 39.5 mm white-gold case. The movement is visible from the back, showing Hermès’ H-pattern decoration, but there’s no attempt to compete with the dial. The mechanics do their job quietly so the craft can take centre stage.

The Must-See Creations at Dubai Watch Week 2025

Van Cleef & Arpels Automate La Single Brassée de Lavande

Chanel J12 Bleu

Bvlgari x Mattar Bin Lahej Octo Finissimo

Vanguart Black Hole Arabic Numerals and Rose Gold

Hermés x Stuart Patience Slim d’Hermès

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The Must-See Creations at Dubai Watch Week 2025

Van Cleef & Arpels Automate La Single Brassée de Lavande

Chanel J12 Bleu

Bvlgari x Mattar Bin Lahej Octo Finissimo

Vanguart Black Hole Arabic Numerals and Rose Gold

Hermés x Stuart Patience Slim d’Hermès

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