Beauty & the Beats: A Roundup of Dubai Watch Week’s Most Intriguing Dials

You are forgiven if you are feeling overwhelmed by Dubai Watch Week coverage. It feels like there were ten thousand pieces launched at the fair, which means 1,000 thought pieces summing up various design trends.

Moreover, as the event also marked the 75th anniversary of retailer Ahmed Seddiqi, many brands celebrated with limited-edition tributes that featured unique dials that paid homage to Dubai and its history. We’ve covered these releases.

We’ve also done roundups of trends (particularly models with a hardstone dial). But there are still a few fresh faces we feel are worth mentioning.

These beauties from Renaud Tixier, Roger Dubuis, Frederique Constant x Bamford, and Parmigiani Fleurier not only serve as the face of the watch but also as the face of their respective brands. And for all their emphasis on aesthetics, they still maintain functionality and legibility. Let’s take a look.

At DWW, Renaud Tixier – an independent Swiss brand – introduced not one but two new dials for its flagship Monday watch.

The Monday collection was originally inspired by addressing the heartaches of traditional watchmaking (specifically, the winding inefficiencies in a micro-rotor-powered movement). This innovative movement, patented by Dominique Renaud, added an inertia wheel at the heart of the self-winding mechanism to capture this lost energy.
 

The brand is equally committed to the métiers d’art, with its 250 components of this movement comprised of no fewer than 187 inner beveled angles, thanks to Julien Tixier’s expertise in traditional crafts. So, while we already knew the Renaud Tixier Monday was pretty on the inside, the Monday collection now has dials to match its inner beauty.

The new dials feature sector layouts artfully framed by a bigger flange that echoes the geometry of the minute track. A small second’s ring at 4 o’clock echoes the outer minute track, to connect the perimeter to the center. But this dial is no mere two-dimensional display, as applied indices provide a sculptural effect that immediately anchors the viewer’s orientation.
 

Meanwhile, at the heart of the dial, the Maison’s signature grainé texture is now decorated with a circular satin finish. And the brand logotype has been repositioned. There are two colorways – British Racing Green and Petrol Blue – which tap into the visual and visceral aspects of auto racing.

What makes these executions so intriguing? In both versions, these changes have really affected not just the look of the Monday, but they also bring real emotion to the wrist.

As previously mentioned, DWW 2025 was the occasion of a lot of anniversaries. The La Placide Hommage “Sukoon Al-Layl” from Roger Dubuis commemorates the brand’s 30-year journey and the landscapes of the Middle East.

Even the original Hommage – launched in 1996 – was a tribute to the talented watchmakers, teachers, and friends who influenced the brand’s founder, Roger Dubuis. Fun Fact: “Placide” (French for “placid”) was Dubuis’ childhood nickname.
 

For this new creation, the brand drew a connection between its founder’s calm temperament and gentle wisdom with the otherworldly peacefulness of the desert at night (“Sukoon” means “serenity” and “Al-Layl” equals “night”). You must admire a watch with visual intention, and the La Placide Hommage “Sukoon Al-Layl” succeeds in large part due to the layered dial.

The flange is made of mother-of-pearl and features a minute track and polished angles for extra interest. Mother-of-pearl is also used as the base for the calendar segments and counters.

Meanwhile, the “Astral Blue” mainplate suggests the night sky and is decorated with guilloché ripples that recall the patterns of sand shaped by desert winds. Then, there is the moonphase layer, which has a blue aventurine glass base with two slightly domed Moons in 18K yellow gold.
 

It’s not just that the dial tells the tale of the infinite riches that rest between earth and sky. The case, bezel, crown, and caseback of this 38mm watch are all crafted in platinum – a material chosen to convey the silvery glow of the moonlight.

Finally, to stitch the celestial story together, La Placide Hommage “Sukoon Al-Layl” is presented on an Astral Blue calfskin leather strap with a rarely seen platinum thread.

We’ve talked about anniversaries and homages, but one of the most refreshing displays at DWW came from a brand-new collaboration between Bamford Watch Department and Frederique Constant.

More than past partnerships, the 100-piece limited edition Frederique Constant x Bamford Highlife Chronograph Automatic challenges conventions with a crystal-titanium case and a low-viz yet high-contrast matte-black finish. Its appeal is best summed up by the fact that the design is both cheeky and horologically ambitious, which is also an apt way to describe both brands.
 

According to Frederique Constant’s CEO Niels Eggerding, “George [Bamford] and his team are recognized as being bold and free-spirited creatives. We wanted to get out of our comfort zone, and Bamford Watch Department have proved to be the perfect ally to shake us up, delivering a Highlife variant that will defy our customers’ expectations.”

In this pairing, Frederique Constant provided its iconic FC-391 calibre, while Bamford Watch Department was given carte blanche for everything else. “This isn’t a facelift. It’s a liberation,” explained George Bamford in a press release for the new collaboration. “A Highlife that’s broken free from tradition to become darker, sharper, and completely reprogrammed.”
 

Now the results are in, and they come in the form of a 41mm watch case crafted in grade 2 titanium that has undergone a crystallization heat treatment at 1,200 °C before receiving a black DLC finish. There is a tachymeter scale on the outer periphery of the dial; however, to enhance legibility, the tri-compax display is housed under a convex sapphire crystal treated with anti-reflective coating.

The hour markers are applied and finished in a silver tone, and the hour and minute hands are silver and filled with white luminous material. Meanwhile, Bamford blue highlights the sub-dials, the central chronograph seconds hand, and the tachymeter scale. Lastly, as a bonus for all who abhor date windows, this Bamford Special omits the date function.

When we talk about display in the non-watch world, we tend to think of the peacock-like preening meant to attract attention. But sometimes the most engaging dials are the most discreet.

In 2023, Parmigiani Fleurier blew our collective minds with the Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante, a world-first complication that measures elapsed minutes on demand. At DWW, the brand launched the latest iteration of this sport-chic charmer, presented in a 40mm stainless steel case paired with an “Arctic Rose” dial.
 

Yes, while everyone else in Dubai went to the desert for inspiration, Parmigiani went to the Arctic. And just as its signature complication values simplicity over complexity, this dial is magnificent for its minimalism.

Decorated with the brand’s signature hand-guilloché grain d’orge (or barleycorn) motif, the dial captivates in a pale rose color. The only other embellishments on display are three skeletonized, gold, delta-shaped hands, the hand-applied gold indices, and a gold oval PF cartouche at noon.
 

The clarity of this dial is made more enchanting by the fact that one of the two superimposed minute hands lies hidden until the function is activated. Three pushers orchestrate the function: one at 10 o’clock to add a minute, another at 8 o’clock to add five, and the crown to reset. The rhodium-plated hand indicates the real time. The rose gold hand marks the chosen interval.

The Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante was in many ways the sleeper hit of Dubai, but it’s a true contemplation on time.