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The Aston Martin of the watchmaking world

2011-02-12 17:10

Top Marques Watches, the sister-show to Top Marques, has expanded far beyond the confines of the spectacular glass-ceilinged atrium of the Grimadli Forum.

The recent surge of interest in luxury timepieces and chronographs means that this year there's no longer room in the atrium alone, so the Salon Guelf has been commandeered as a showcase for 20 top-quality brands, featuring items from six of the best jewellery houses.  Top Marques Watches have also cemented a key partnership with the Fondation de Haute Horlogerie, the most prestigious organization for conoisseurs of the watchmaking art.

Here at CityOut we'll be taking a close look at some of the best on display, starting with this Aston Martin-inspired AMVOX5 World Chronograph in a beautiful high-tech ceramic-and-rose gold or titanium case.




The watch is one of a prestige series manufactured by Swiss maker Jaeger-LeCoultre, who have been creating high-quality timepieces for more than a century.  The Aston Martin series was established in 2004, and shares the same aspirations in design and engineering precision as the cars themselves.

The most distinctive aspect of this watch is the outer ring, containing the names of cities representing the world's 24 time zones. A nice touch is that GMT, which would normally be shown on the bezel as 'London' is here represented instead by the name 'Gaydon', the Warwickshire village which since 2007 has been home to the Aston Martin.  Other design references to the car include the layout and lettering of the dial, which reflect the classic 270-degree speedometer layout, and a caseback is engraved with the logo of the V12 Vantage.

Launched in April 2010 at the Paul Ricard race track in Le Castellet, this watch has all the hallmarks of a motoring and watchmaking classic, and will be on display at Top Marques Monaco as one of the flagships of the Le Sentier-based company.