There is nothing new about brands using titanium for lightweight, scratch-resistant watches. But the metal seemed to be everywhere this year including at Rolex for its new Yacht-Master 42, only the second time the brand has used it (the first being the preposterously large 50mm Deep Sea Special launched last year). Grand Seiko was also drawn to the material benefits of titanium for its sporty Tentagraph chronograph, and IWC unveiled a redesign of its Ingeneur, mostly in steel, but with a notable reference that caught the light with contrasting facets in different finishes using the greyer metal.

No collection seemed complete this year without a reference using the classic salmon dial colour. Rolex, Patek Philippe and Longines were among many brands using the hue back in the early 20th century.In 2023, we saw it used by Vulcain for a reissue of its Cricket and Monopusher Chronograph. Breitling adopted it for one of its recent Premier Chronographs. Tudor couldn’t resist elevating its Royal watch and MB&F experimented with the style for the first time in a Legacy Machine Perpetual in stainless steel.

When it comes to stone dials, you can always rely on Piaget to come to set the trend. This year is no exception, and the Richemont brand demonstrated its usual finesse with a ladies Limelight Gala golden dress watch with green malachite face. More unexpected was giving a stone dial to a sportier watch in the form of the Piaget Polo Perpetual Calendar Ultra Thin with a blue Obsidian dial.Finally, we saw Gucci update its popular Grip collection with 18ct gold versions featuring brick red jasper and green chrysoprase faces.

Nobody seemed to want to call it brown , so we have chosen to describe this trend for 2023 as earth . Bell & Ross got down and dirty with a new skeletonised BR05 in gold with a brown crystal plate. It is worn on a brown rubber strap. Patek Philippe mastered the richness of the hue in a rose gold Aquanaut chronograph with a graduated sunburst brown dial watch worn on a matching composite strap.

There were certainly a lot of pink and orange watches on display, including a fabulous Carrera from TAG Heuer, but the stand out trend was for playful watches, a trend led by Rolex with its mood lifting Oyster Perpetual Bubble and Day-Date, which swapped days of the week for emotions and dates for emoji-style symbols. Jacob & Co. likes to bring a bit of fun to its timepieces, and this year returned to one of its favourite pastimes, roulette, with a new Casino watch. Chanel also likes to lift the mood with timekeepers featuring Gabrielle Chanel’s silhouette in a black-and-white evening gown on a J12 Cosmic Watch.