Five Brands That Went to the Dark Side at Geneva Watch Days 2025

Watchmakers certainly weren’t restrained from exploring a moodier side of new watches at this year’s Geneva Watch Days.

Here are five new models that each take their own unique journey on a stormy (yet elegant) voyage.

While the always artful designers at Jacob & Co. also revealed a bombastically colorful version of an Astronomia Solar Dragon in red gold that could have worked nicely in our earlier Neon Revolution roundup, it is the stealthy, black, limited-to-four-editions monochromatic Astronomia Solar Black Dragon in titanium that drew our attention.
 

The celestially inspired “Astromonia” three-armed automaton is still based on the innovative JCAM 42 movement to mimic astral motion with a cantilevered flying tourbillon, skeletonized hour and minute dial, an earthly globe all in constant rotation around a Jacob-cut 228-facet central gem hub, all framed by a coiled dragon sculpture surrounding the dial in both executions.

But for this “Black Dragon” version, only the dragon’s jeweled center (which is a different color for each of the four executions), the fiery eyes, tongue, the dial’s nighttime “star chart,” and some toned jewel screws provide any deviation from this piece’s inky and ominous black colorway.
 

Astronomia executions have previously been crafted in larger case sizes; however, for the new Solar Drago duo, the real estate has been reduced to an easier-to-wear 44mm case size. But neither the smaller size nor the monochromatic approach take a single bit away from the movement’s visual fascination and the timepiece’s sculptural details.
 

Expertly carved and crafted from rose gold in both cases, the dragon receives an exacting black DLC treatment to match the blackened titanium dial plate, components, and DLC-coated titanium case in this execution. Of course, as with any Astronomia, you can expect abundant sapphire crystal side apertures to lend exquisite all-around views into this “dragon’s cave.”
 

Again, the Astronomia Solar Black Dragon is limited to four unique pieces. No pricing was offered at press time, but you can learn more at the Jacob & Co. website.

Rising independent watchmaker Furlan Marri turns to science to adorn this Disco Volante unveiled during the show via its first use of lab-grown diamonds. But it is the impossibly deep-black piece of onyx used for the Disco Volante Onyx Diamonds’ attractive, brand-signature minimalist dial on which these diamonds are set that takes things to the dark side.

Founders Andrea Furlan (a watchmaker) and Hamad Al Marri (a collector and artist) have re-imagined circular designs from the late 1930s into an oh-so slightly larger case canvas of 38mm to help tell the classic-meets-modern tale of this especially concentric-circular-focused design language (“disco volante” means “flying saucer” in Italian, after all). Note, especially, how the recessed crown at 3 o’clock doesn’t break the overall arc of the 38mm steel case, inspired.
 

The four-piece onyx dial presents an exquisitely mysterious canvas for the technical, minimalist (even with diamond markers at 12, 2, 4, 8, and 10 o’clock) layout of the time-gauging for the main hours and minutes, as well as the elegant small seconds sub-dial at 6 o’clock.

A manually wound Peseux 7001 movement drives the whole show, offering both time-tested reliability and accuracy and an unexpected thinness to this Disco Volante (the movement measures out at 2.5mm thick; the watch thickness is just 8.95mm overall).
 

Available on an elegant stainless steel mesh bracelet or on a more classic black textured leather strap, only 100 of these flying saucers will touch the earth this year. But the brand indicates that the sophisticated planetary invasion may well continue in years to come.

Of course, with a price tag of only CHF 3,500, we aren’t surprised to see that the Disco Volante Onyx Diamonds is already sold out. For more information (and to register your interest in the piece), visit the Furlan Marri website.

Inventive independent maker H. Moser & Cie. revealed a beautiful dark aventurine dial option for the Pioneer collection at Geneva Watch Days this year (along with a more expected white fume dial/steel version). However, in this case, the starry nighttime hue presentation is, perhaps, overshadowed a bit by the watchmaker’s very first use of a rare satellite flying hour design in the 10-year-old line.
 

The darker approach serves as an apt backdrop for the flying hour time-telling approach, which only takes up small portions of the dial in three positions, leaving plenty of space to take in the speckled darkness of the aventurine.

The time is displayed via hour windows at 12 o’clock, 5 o’clock, and 8 o’clock, with each new hour quickly and accurately jumping into place from three hidden discs as the adjacent minute counter hits 60, and then proceeds on to the next hour window position. The minute counter takes up a third of its own wheel, but in this noir execution, the rest of the wheel is blackened, so it fades into the dark dial backdrop.
 

Finally, powered by an in-house HMC 240 automatic caliber, this Pioneer presents nighttime wrist drama at its very best.

Limited to 100 pieces, the Pioneer Flying Seconds Aventurine carries an appropriately elegant 42.8mm 5N red gold case with black DLC titanium inserts and is presented on a perforated black rubber strap. Priced at CHF 39,000, you can learn more and reserve your piece via the H. Moser & Cie. website.

The uncanny M.C. Esher-like, 3D, trompe-l’œil effect of the dusky new Fil d’Or from Louis Erard is as much engineering as art.

The accoutrements of the timepiece are relatively straightforward (i.e., two-handed time telling with a gauged but index-less chapter ring). At the same time, the hypnotic dial effect required the efforts of collaborators Sylvie Villa and Mark Miehlbrant (founders of the Wire Art studio in Switzerland). That’s because the dial isn’t printed; it is “wired.”
 

Working with impossibly thin, 25 micron (that’s three times thinner than human hair), 24K gold wire, Wire Art’s artisans have taken what was once reserved for the intricacy of micro-electronic integrated circuits into a new patented form of soldering, meeting woven or embroidered metiers d’art for the watch world. Louis Erard’s signature “cube” design for its dials, previously wrought with guilloche or miniature wood marquetry in the past, never looked so good.
 

Powered by a movement with a Selita SW261-1 automatic ébauche and presented on a beige or black grained calfskin strap, this piece’s clean and simple 39mm polished steel case beautifully frames the exacting work of the lacquered and “wired” dial.

As Villa and Miehlbrant put it: “We’re engineers by training, artisans by choice. Our machines were originally built to bond microchips; now, they embroider gold.”
 

Priced at CHF 4,500, only 99 editions of the Fil d’Or Louis Erard x Wire Art will be offered. You can learn more via the Louis Erard website.

Last but not least, Laurent Ferrier used the occasion of this year’s Geneva Watch Days to celebrate its 15th anniversary and unveil the latest piece in the brand’s signature Série Atelier collection: the Classic Tourbillon Teal.
 

We can practically hear you now: “Teal?! How can teal be moody?” Take a gander. Have you looked at this piece’s grand feu enamel dial? Have you ever seen a deeper shade of teal? Because we haven’t.

In fact, to help “lighten” the dial by amplifying teal’s blue tones, the brand rendered the minute track and logo in the palest shade of sky blue enamel we’ve ever seen, used white enamel for the Roman numeral indices, and crafted the Assegai-shaped hands and the small-seconds sub-dial’s mirror-polished beveled flange from white gold.
 

Paying homage to Laurent Ferrier’s first-ever creation, the new Classic Tourbillon Teal features a 41mm, pocket watch-inspired case made from platinum (a first for the brand) with the most exquisite pebble-smooth finish. Meanwhile, inside, the movement is the same LF619.01 hand-wound calibre that won Laurent Ferrier the “Men’s Watch” prize at the 2010 GPHG awards.
 

To remain true to a brand tradition, the new Classic Tourbillon Teal - Série Atelier VII will be available exclusively online. Finally, priced at CHF 195,000, only five numbered pieces of this ultra-limited edition will be made. For more information, check out the Laurent Ferrier website.