Tick Talk: Louis Vuitton’s operatic wonder, Hublot teams up with Depeche Mode, Tudor’s pop-up store

Hublot partners with Depeche Mode on new world tour

In conjunction with the launch of their 15th studio album, Memento Mori, on Friday (March 24), Depeche Mode will once again be going on a world tour. Formed in 1980, the English electronic band are famous for hits such as Enjoy The Silence, People Are People and Strangelove.

The Memento Mori World Tour – the band’s first in five years – starts in Sacramento, California, on the day of the album’s release. They will perform in North America and Europe. In an interview with Italian blog Pierluigi Piccini, frontman Dave Gahan also revealed that the band are eyeing “a series of as-yet-unannounced dates in Asia and Australia”.

Hublot will be the band’s official charity partner for the tour. It is not the first time the Swiss luxury watchmaker and Depeche Mode – which have sold more than 100 million records worldwide – have worked together. They started collaborating in 2010 and have since supported causes including childhood-cancer research and clean water initiatives.

Their latest partnership will involve raising funds for The Conservation Collective, a global network of 20 local foundations which fund grassroots initiatives to protect the environment and act against climate change.

Hublot and Depeche Mode will also be championing sustainability initiatives – such as limiting the use of single-use plastic and reducing food and other waste – on tour and at venues.

Tudor sets up special pop-up at Watches and Wonders 2023

In a move that will make many watch fans happy, Tudor has announced that it will be making its latest releases available at international watch fair Watches and Wonders 2023, which opens in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday (March 27) and ends on April 2.

Usually, new models unveiled at the fair take some time to hit stores, but Tudor will be selling their newest timepieces in a special pop-up store in downtown Geneva from noon on the first day of the fair. The store will also sell current models, including the Black Bay 58 Bronze, a model found only in Tudor boutiques.

The pop-up, which will run for a month, is located at Place de Longemalle, not far from where Tudor started about 100 years ago. Operating hours are 10am to 6.30pm daily from Mondays to Fridays, and 10am to 6pm on Saturdays.

Louis Vuitton releases the Tambour Opera Automata

Earlier in March, Louis Vuitton’s watchmaking division, La Fabrique du Temps, unveiled three stunning high horology watches in Courchevel, one of France’s most famous ski resorts.

One of them, the Tambour Opera Automata, is inspired by Bian Lian, a dramatic art form in Sichuan opera where performers can change multiple masks, representing different emotions, at lightning speed.

In the same vein, the timepiece – which took two years to develop – boasts a face featuring a gorgeous Sichuan opera mask rendered in vibrant red, white and black; a magnificent golden dragon; and other lucky Chinese symbols, such as a fan and a bottle gourd.

The automaton mechanism has five automations. When activated via a pusher on the right side of the case, the mask comes to life for 16 seconds, expressing different emotions through the eyes and mouth. The dragon’s head rises to reveal the jumping hours, while its tail shows the retrograde minutes on the fan.

Mr Michel Navas and Mr Enrico Barbasini, the watchmaking brains at La Fabrique du Temps, created the brilliant movement, and roped in enameller Anita Porchet and engraver Dick Steenman to decorate this stunner of a watch.

Price: $695,000

Swatch drops art journey collection

Swatch is dropping yet another series of watches in its Art Journey Collection, this time featuring celebrated works from the collections of famous art museums and institutions, including New York’s Moma (Museum of Modern Art) and Brussels’ Fondation Magritte.

Between March and May, five capsule collections will be unveiled. The first lot of “wearable art” comprises seven masterpieces in the brand’s iconic Gent and New Gent watch models, celebrating famous artists Roy Lichtenstein, Rene Magritte, Sandro Botticelli and Katsushika Hokusai.

The Swatch x Moma pair of watches, for instance, commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of Lichtenstein, the American pop artist famed for his colourful comic-book style art. He was also synonymous with the use of small dots – known as Ben-Day dots – to add colour to his works.

The pair of watches reproduce two of his most famous works: Girl (1963), housed in a 41mm electric blue New Gent model; and Reverie (1965) in a 34mm canary-yellow Gent model.

Meanwhile, the Swatch x Magritte models celebrate the late Belgian artist’s La Trahison Des Images (The Treachery Of Images, 1929), which features a pipe on the dial and the phrase “This Is Not A Pipe” (the watchmaker also cheekily added This Is A Swatch) on the strap; and Le Fils De L’homme (The Son Of Man, 1964), the iconic work featuring a man in a bowler hat whose face is obscured by a green apple.

Prices: $135 to $150

Longines Spirit Flyback Chronograph

The Longines Spirit collection’s newest model is a heavyweight likely to beef up its already solid reputation.

Leveraging on its storied history, the Spirit Flyback Chronograph is fitted with a new calibre – the Longines L791.4 – which comes with a flyback, a function that allows the interruption of an ongoing time measurement and a new one to be started immediately with the press of a button.

The 191-year-old watchmaker imbued its first models with a flyback function way back in 1925, and scored a world first when its application for a patent was registered a decade later in 1936.

The 42mm model boasts a blue or black sunray dial, and comes with a bidirectional rotating bezel with a ceramic insert. The hands and numerals on both the dial and bezel are coated with Super-Luminova.

Its intricacy visible through the transparent caseback, the L791.4 not only offers a power reserve of 68 hours, but is also chronometer-certified by the COSC, the Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute.

The watch comes with several strap options: brown leather, blue fabric, beige Nato or a stainless steel bracelet.

Prices: $6,710 to $6,870