Rainbow setting – that is, adorning a timepiece with a bevy of colourful gems – has emerged as one of the most collectible tropes in quality watchmaking. Rolex has a rainbow-tinted history that traces back to the ’80s when it embellished the elegant Cellini models, though it was the bezel of the 2012 Cosmograph Daytona – comprising 36 trapezium-cut sapphires of different colours – that really ignited the multicoloured passion of collectors. Since then, rainbow hues have decorated a range of Rolexes replica watches, right up to this year’s Yacht-Master, set with cool blue and violet stones, and the new rainbow-set Daytona, a trophy of 2020s watch collecting.
“For any serious modern Daytona collector, a rainbow is a must-have,” says Christie’s watch specialist Remy Julia. “The ideal is to have the trilogy of the yellow, white, and rose. Six years back when I was constantly doing private sales on these, the price was £200,000, and that was already the moon. Now it’s doubled and still on the up.”
What was once a novel way for the most affluent watch enthusiasts to flex their opulent taste (and budgets) has become a mainstay in the industry. Makers including Hublot and Audemars Piguet have harnessed the visual power of the rainbow to reference the creativity of art and cultural movements beyond the watch world.
Hublot was in early on the trend, with the launch of the Big Bang Unico Sapphire Rainbow in 2017. The watch turned heads at the Met Gala last year on the wrist of noted stylist Law Roach, whose clients include Zendaya and Lewis Hamilton. “Part of the inspiration [for the Big Bang Unico] comes from Hublot’s tribute to Pop art and the use of flashy, bold colours to reinterpret haute horlogerie,” says Hublot CEO Ricardo Guadalupe. “It was a great success, so we decided to extend rainbow setting to the rest of our collections.”
When I first saw Audemars Piguet’s new Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Music Edition, the pioneering artwork of Wassily Kandinsky immediately sprang to mind. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Kandinsky may have experienced synesthesia – a neurological condition that reroutes the five senses; in his case, it allowed him to see sound in colour.
Kandinsky never had the chance to see the tunes of pop hitmaker Mark Ronson. But Ronson was a loyal wearer of a Royal Oak long before he signed up to be an ambassador for Audemars Piguet earlier this year. The DJ-producer joined the AP squad in time for the launch of these new Offshores, which take inspiration from the hardware and fixtures found inside a recording studio. The signature Tapisserie structure of the dial has been printed to resemble the polychromatic pixelation of a VU meter – the audio-engineering equivalent of a volume knob. Knurled-textured studs evoke jack plugs, and the crown guards riff on the fader of a mixing console. In order to experience the reverse Kandinsky (hearing music by looking at a colourful watch), you will need to upgrade to the gem-set version, which features equalizer-appropriate coloured stones on the dial and a colour-graded bezel featuring rubies, tsavorites, and sapphires of yellow, orange, green and blue.
Last summer, Chanel showed synesthetic symptoms with its J12 Electro collection – which featured matte black steel and white gold ceramic watches busted down with rainbow sapphire bezels – apparently inspired by the brand’s watchmaking creative director Arnaud Chastaingt’s love for a certain ’90s music scene in Paris.
Whether it’s Chanel finding inspiration in the flashing lights of electro culture, or AP citing the 10 colours of the equalizer, these exuberant creations are rainbow-set watchmaking at its most inspired.
Moreover, rainbow setting is a style that favours jeweller-watchmakers who can merge the power of their craftsmanship with their expertise in stone sourcing. I gained insight into what that looks like when I saw a rainbow-set tourbillon at Chopard. It was not so much rainbow set as smothered, a bravura display of colour and technique with every surface of the watch – case, dial, winding crown, lugs, and clasp – adorned by gems shimmering in a symphony of colours. If only Kandinsky could have seen it.https://www.replicaswatches-uk.com/tag/11-replica-watches/
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