Decadent organic and textured goldwork has made a comeback, as the watch world stokes its love affair with the 1970s

By Laura McCreddie-Doak

?I think it?s safe to say they don?t make them like they used to, but then we?re in the business of thinking that,? says Daniel Somlo, director of Burlington Arcade?s famous Somlo Antiques, while lining up a selection of timepieces from the 1960s and 1970s featuring some of the most exquisite bracelet work.
To prove his point, he places a square-case Patek Philippe with a yellow-gold bark effect dial and integrated bracelet next to a Calatrava ref. 3802 from 1997 on a Milanese strap. ?Machines and techniques just aren?t the same,? he says. ?There isn?t the smoothness anymore; it?s difficult to get that when you?re using techniques such as laser cutting.? Vintage Patek Philippe watches with an array of finishes on show
Having gone out of fashion for a while, it seems as though metal straps finished in complex and surprising ways are having a renaissance and it isn?t just those who mastered it the first time around like Piaget who are experimenting with finishes. Newer names such as Chanel are also finding new ways to strap a case to your wrist.
To find the first known watch with a metal bracelet you?d have to go back to the 1790 account book of Jaquet Droz and Leschot. In there is an entry concerning a ?watch to be fixed to a bracelet?. Later, in 1810, when the Queen of Naples commissioned Abraham-Louis Breguet to make her a wristwatc...