LVMH Watch Week 2025: Tiffany & Co. gets serious, and spectacular, about horology

Did you know that Tiffany & Co.’s horological legacy spans over a century and a half? In its early founding years as a stationery and fancy goods store in New York City, the house became the official retailer for Patek Philippe in the mid-1800s, and went on to establish its own Geneva watchmaking facility in 1874, which it sold to the above-mentioned Swiss brand four years later.

Following Tiffany’s success in winning numerous awards for its timepieces at international exhibitions through the 19th and early 20th centuries, it began to offer highly covetable co-branded models with not just Patek Philippe, but other top names like Rolex, Breguet, IWC, Audemars Piguet, and Omega.

While the maison began developing in-house fine watch collections since 1974 and has continued to manufacture trendy design-led pieces until today, factors including market saturation, economic recessions, and increased competition over the past few decades presented significant hurdles to expansion.

Tiffany’s jewellery business has remained the cornerstone of its identity, with younger customers mainly associating the brand with a dazzling repertoire of jewels. That, however, is about to change as the house embraces its True North — high jewellery — in its latest and very impressive foray back into the watchmaking fold.

Among the new bejewelled timepieces unveiled at the recent LVMH Watch Week were showpieces drawing on the legacy of its illustrious former creative head, the late Jean Schlumberger, who was one of the most important jewellery designers of the 20th century. 

Jean Schlumberger by Tiffany Bird on a Flying Tourbillon

This exquisite timepiece embodies the house’s four defining pillars — design, artistic craftsmanship, jewellery expertise, and fine watchmaking — while paying homage to Jean Schlumberger’s iconic Bird on a Rock brooch created in 1965. 

Marking Tiffany’s magnificent entry into high horology, it features the brand’s first-ever flying tourbillon movement. Conceived over two years by Tiffany’s designers, artisans, and technical partners, the watch is a harmonious blend of metiers d’art, haute horlogerie, and jewellery artistry. 

The 39mm white gold case houses a pure-blue dial of natural turquoise, sourced from the renowned Sleeping Beauty mine and cut into 16 cloud-like shapes through intricate gemstone marquetry. Adorning it are two gold-sculpted, diamond-studded birds in flight, evoking the whimsy and freedom central to Schlumberger’s vision, as well as a diamond-set sub-dial displaying hours and minutes.

Beneath the hand-faceted sapphire crystal dome — a horological first — lies the flying tourbillon, weighing just 0.309g. It is powered by the bespoke Caliber AFT24T01 movement developed with Swiss manufacture Artime. Limited to 25 pieces, the watch features a total of 848 diamonds weighing 3.9 carats requiring over 100 hours of setting work.

Jean Schlumberger by Tiffany Bird on a Rock

Can anyone get enough of the maison’s characterful cockatoo, each individually interpreted and hand-crafted by an assigned craftsman, and so symbolic of joy and optimism? We certainly cannot.

On two watch models created with the same stupendous artistry as the brooches is the titular diamond-encrusted fowl, perched atop a freely spinning outer ring that rotates with the wearer’s movements, bringing it to life with every flick of the wrist.

The 39mm Bird on a Rock Tsavorite version showcases 36 baguette tsavorites on its rotating ring, complemented by a dark green alligator strap and a diamond-set T buckle. The Bird on a Rock Full Pave Diamond model features a 36mm white gold case and bracelet embellished with over 8 carats of round brilliant diamonds, while the rotating ring is invisibly set with 30 baguette aquamarines. 

Limited in production, both highlight Tiffany’s mastery of snow-setting, which is a meticulous technique that creates a seamless expanse of glittering diamonds with no visible metal. The tsavorite model is powered by the Swiss-made self-winding mechanical Caliber LTM 2100 movement, while the pave diamond piece by a Swiss quartz movement.

Jean Schlumberger by Tiffany Twenty Four Stone

Schlumberger’s tenure at Tiffany had stretched over two decades, resulting in plenty of emblematic motifs ranging from evocative marine creatures to exotic florals. One of the most recognisable and celebrated is his Sixteen Stone collection, which features a cross-stitch design, inspired by his Alsatian family’s textile-manufacturing heritage, as a style signature.

The latest expression of the collection, which evokes love’s nurturing force, is this scintillating white gold watch. It flaunts a freely rotating outer ring embellished with 24 round brilliant diamonds set within yellow gold cross-stitches, a nod to Schlumberger’s original 1959 design. 

The 39mm case and fixed central disc are snow-set with 413 and 220 diamonds respectively, showcasing Tiffany’s mastery of intricate gem-setting techniques. The work for the completely covered case needed a whopping 50 hours. The yellow gold hands harmonise with the rotating ring’s complex stitch-and-diamond decoration, which took 25 hours of labour to mold, polish, mount, and set.

Also limited in production, this creation is powered by the automatic Calibre LTM 2100 movement with a 38-hour power reserve, and brandishes a total of 707 diamonds weighing over 6.5 carats.