Stone Age: The Most Alluring Hardstone Dials from Dubai Watch Week
Dubai Watch Week has seen some seriously hard-rocking hits from Biver, Gerald Charles, Gérald Genta, H. Moser, and Frederic Constant.
By Rhonda Riche
Editor-At-Large
As many of you have probably noticed, hardstone dials have been enjoying a resurgence in popularity lately. There are many reasons why rocks are having a moment, including: a renewed interest in vintage exotic dials from the 1970s; advancements in technology that make geological materials easier to work with; and, because of the singular nature of mineral structure, the allure of owning a piece unique.
At Dubai Watch Week, watchmakers took advantage of all three of these factors, with a startling number of brands presenting at least one watch with a stone dial. Here are five of our faves
Biver Automatique Atelier Series
From its initial release in September 2024, the Automatique collection from Biver was intended as a platform for the brand to explore traditional watchmaking crafts such as guilloché, gem-setting, and enameling. However, in a press release for the new Automatiques, James Marks, the Biver CEO, explained that, for Dubai Watch Week, the brand wanted to show the global enthusiast community the creative team’s skills through a mini-collection highlighting “colours and stones for a diverse range of collectors.”
Called the Atelier Series, the new family includes seven references crafted from four different hard stones: mahogany obsidian, oeil de fer, blue quartzite, and lavender jade. Each of these minerals has been selected for its play of light and surface texture.
The colorful oeil de fer (a.k.a. tiger iron or iron tiger’s eye) dial best illustrates Biver’s aesthetic intentions for the Automatique Atelier series. The stone itself is the result of hematite, red jasper, and tiger’s eye being fused together over eons, resulting in a matte grain interspersed with intense flashes of yellow, orange, and red.
The blue quartzite and lavender jade versions also feature models with either baguette-cut diamond or blue sapphire indices – a technically tricky challenge considering the fragility of these thinly sliced natural dials.
Designed in collaboration with the master craftsmen at Dubois Depraz, all Automatique watches are powered by the Calibre JCB-003, a three-hand automatic calibre equipped with a 22k gold micro-rotor and delivering a 65-hour power reserve.
Gerald Charles Maestro Tigers Eye
The latest introduction from Gerald Charles celebrates both the watch brand’s 25th anniversary and the 75th anniversary of Dubai-based jewelers Ahmed Seddiqi. Both are big milestones, so it’s fitting that this new limited-edition timepiece – the Maestro 9.0 Tourbillon Tiger’s Eye – makes a bold visual
The architectural construction of the classic Maestro case already gives off vintage 1970s vibes. Still, the main attraction is the tiger’s eye dial with its rich brown, black, and golden chatoyant effect characterized by one or more well-defined bands of reflected light, making it reminiscent of a cat’s eye (hence the name “tiger’s eye”).
The Gerald Charles team has carried out the essence of this play of light throughout the entire design of the watch. To match the palette of the stone dial, the case of the Maestro Tiger’s Eye has been treated with a metallic bronze-brown Colormix finish. Even the brown rubber strap is cohesive in its colorway.
To complete the horological harmony, this piece is powered by the Calibre 9.0 GCA9000 movement, which includes a tourbillon that sits at six o’clock. Ultra exclusive, the Gerald Charles Maestro 9.0 Tourbillon Tiger’s Eye is a limited edition of only three pieces.
H. Moser & Cie. Streamliner Perpetual Moon Concept Meteorite
Meteorites (a.k.a. space rocks) have long been one of the most fascinating types of hardstone dials – probably because they are rocks that originated in outer space. Their composition is forever altered when they enter Earth’s atmosphere, thanks to chemical interactions that cause them to heat up and cool down.
So, it’s fitting that the new 40mm Streamliner Perpetual Moon Concept Meteorite from H. Moser & Cie. also brings a bit of astronomical history to your wrist, as each dial is a slice of the Gibeon meteorite, which fell to Earth in prehistoric Namibia.
Moreover, each dial has been carefully cut to reveal that meteorite’s rare, crystalline Widmanstätten pattern. This pattern forms only deep within planetary bodies that take millions of years to cool, giving every piece a unique identity.
Moser has further enhanced this lunar watch with a golden tone moonphase and an extremely subtle version of the brand’s signature fumé effect, making it unique amongst meteorite dials.
While the dial retains the Streamliner’s minimalist visual signatures, inside beats the HMC 270 automatic calibre, offering a three-day power reserve and moon phase accuracy with a deviation of just one day in 1,027 years. A discreet push-button on the case flank allows the moonphase indication to be finely adjusted in an elegant and poetic motion. It’s a giant leap for watchmaking-kind.
Frederique Constant Elements Collection
The most intriguing hardstone watches from Dubai Watch Week all have a sense of nostalgia to them. And while Frederique Constant was founded in 1988 – way after the peak of semi-precious watch faces in the 1970s – there’s no reason the brand can’t celebrate its 37th anniversary with a few retro chic pieces.
To mark this birthday, the brand announced a limited-to-37-piece box set comprised of five of its most memorable Manufacture pieces. Called the Elements collection, these timepieces are thematically linked using minerals such as lapis lazuli, turquoise, and heliotrope, and were presented in Dubai (alongside a Perpetual Calendar Tourbillon with a burgundy dial, but we’re mostly talking rocks here).
For this new collection, Frederique Constant wanted to put the technical and the aesthetic on equal footing. Thus, this box set offers a collection of high-level complications, all designed in-house. These include its renowned perpetual calendar, world timer, and tourbillon. We have a particular soft spot for the Classic Perpetual Calendar Manufacture with its heliotrope (a.k.a. bloodstone) dial.
Until very recently, watchmakers didn’t have the technology to work with cryptocrystalline stone. That’s because it contains high traces of aluminum, iron, and potassium, which in turn leaves a multitude of inclusions at the heart of the stone. These flecks of black, pale, or dark green make the look of each surface unique, but inclusions also lead to breakage
Not only has Frederique Constant taken on this challenging mineral, but it has also chosen to do so with its most complicated watch – the Classic Perpetual Calendar Manufacture. Made of steel, a material popular with collectors, the 40mm case frames a tricompax day/month/date display with a leap year indication and a moonphase.
In ancient times, heliotrope was thought to possess magical powers. And here, it has transformed the Classic Perpetual Calendar Manufacture, as if by magic.
Gérald Genta Gentissima Oursin 41
No stranger to hot rocks, Gérald Genta just won the “Ladies” category at the 2025 edition of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève for the Gentissima Oursin Fire Opal, which has a design we think about almost every day.
Days later, at Dubai Watch Week, Gérald Genta introduced two new timepieces – their exotic blue and green meteorite dials – to the Gentissima Oursin family. Joining the existing six 36.5mm references, this duo expands the Gentissima Oursin universe in many ways.
They are the first to use an extraterrestrial material (a meteorite), their titanium case measures 41mm in diameter, and they feature nubbly rubber straps that mirror the collection’s signature spiky (“oursin” means “sea urchin” in French) bezel.
Depending upon the light and viewing angle, each dial is uniquely dynamic and naturally beautiful yet remains highly legible, thanks to Super-LumiNova-filled 5-minute markers and gold hands with a subtle pink hue – a tribute to Mr. Genta's favorite color. A specially designed, curved, facetted sapphire crystal lends the watch an extra jewel-like quality.
And to further connect the sea to the stars, the duo is powered by the automatic Zenith Elite GG-005 movement with an 18K yellow gold winding mass, a 50-hour power reserve, and a frequency of 4 Hz.
“This is a sporty-chic watch,” said La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton Artistic Director Matthieu Hegi in a press release about the new pieces. “The sporty aspect is linked to the rubber and titanium, and the chic aspect is linked to the gold accents. It is for the elegant collector who loves design and beautiful things.”