This year, LVMH Watch Week chose Milan to host its seventh edition. From January 19 to 21, the city became the centre of watch enthusiasts keen to seen the first clutch of new releases for 2026.
Speaking at the event’s opening, Jean-Christophe Babin, CEO of the LVMH watch division, explained that the early-year event was designed to kick things off with energy and creativity. Nine brands are presenting: Bulgari, Hublot, Louis Vuitton, TAG Heuer, Tiffany & Co., ZENITH, L’Epée 1839, along with Daniel Roth and Gérald Genta.
Each brand brought something different to the table, from gold jewellery watches to high-tech ceramics and travel instruments. Here’s our rundown of what you need to know…
Bvlgari
If Milan is a fashion capital, then Bvlgari understood the assignment – choosing ‘The Art of Gold’ as the focus for it updating of two of its icons: Monete and Tubogas.
Maglia Milanese Monete Secret Watch
This pink gold watch features a real ancient Roman coin (Emperor Caracalla, 198–297 AD) as a cover. It uses a flexible “mesh” bracelet that feels very modern. Inside, it is powered by the Piccolissimo BVL100, an incredibly small manual movement.
Tubogas Manchette
Designed for women, this is a yellow gold cuff bracelet with a square dial. It is set with a mix of colorful gems (like topazes and amethysts) and nearly 12 carats of diamonds.
Hublot
If the past 10 months has seen Hublot celebrating the 20th anniversary of it’s industry-altering Big Bang timepiece, then LVMH Watch Week was the last big party of the year-long parade – and it didn’t disappoint as watchmaker gave its Big Bang range the most meaningful refresh in years.
This update isn’t about changing that look. It’s about making the Big Bang feel like a more complete watch, rather than a famous design with endless variations.
Big Bang Original Unico Titanium
Think of it like a car. The Big Bang is the body everyone knows. The big change is the engine. Hublot has taken its best in-house chronograph movement – called Unico – and put it into this classic Big Bang case shape. That said, it has also slightly refined the case. It now comes in at 43mm, which is meant to be a sweet spot between older sizes. The edges and lugs are also smoother, the proportions cleaner and it should sit more comfortably on the wrist, too.
Inside, the Unico movement brings the “serious watchmaking” side: a high-end chronograph system, a 72-hour power reserve (so it will keep running for about three days), and a flyback function, which lets you reset and restart the stopwatch instantly.
It launches as a four-strong core collection spanning Hublot’s favourite material flexes: Titanium, Black Magic black ceramic, Titanium Ceramic and King Gold Ceramic.
Big Bang Tourbillon Novak Djokovic GOAT Edition
The watchmaker also released a rather spectacular tribute edition of the Big Bang Tourbillon to tennis great Novak Djokovic
Louis Vuitton
When speaking of watches, Louis Vuitton continues to speak of its mother obsession: travel. Only here, travel becomes a high complication, and the Escale collection—which already in its name promises stopovers, ports, and departures—expands with four new calibers and five new creations.
Escale Worldtime
LV’s big news is undoubtedly the return of the Escale Worldtime: 24 time zones, two models in platinum, and a dial with 24 flags painted by hand one by one, with thirty-five colours and successive firings—a week of work for a single dial. In the Tourbillon version, the flags become enamel (grand feu) and the center of the dial comes alive with a flying tourbillon: it is not just a complication, it is an idea of movement made visible.
Escale Twin Zone
Then there it is the turn of the “true traveller”: the Escale Twin Zone, which addresses a problem snubbed by many GMTs—time zones with offsets of 30 or 45 minutes—thanks to a more refined solution than usual, with minute adjustment and a logic entirely “instrument-like,” but dressed as an object of high watchmaking.
Escale Minute Repeater
And finally, the most emotional part: the Escale Minute Repeater, where tradition (minute repeater) intertwines with a contemporary reading made of jumping hours and retrograde minutes, and a chime slider integrated into the lugs—an almost private gesture, as the Maison says: you hear the complication, not the audience.
TAG Heuer
The House of La Chaux-de-Fonds is built on a word that the city of Milan understands immediately: racing. At LVMH Watch Week it did so with a return to the “glassbox” of the Carrera, but with a new presence: the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph arrives in 41 mm, expanding the family relaunched in 2023 for the Carrera’s 60th anniversary.
TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph
Thanks to the construction of the domed sapphire crystal of the Glassbox the timepiece plays entirely on legibility and depth, embracing a three-dimensional flange, clean dial (no date), and monochromatic counters. Three “inaugural” references: blue, teal green, and black with red accents (what we would call “track energy” if we were being cliché, but here it really works).
Underneath is the manufacture TH20-01 caliber with 80 hours of power reserve, column wheel, vertical clutch, and visible case back: a chronograph that wants to be technical without becoming didactic. The most “romantic” detail is the Victory Wreath, a discreet engraving on the case as a talisman for personal victory.
Tiffany & Co.
Following up last year’s LVMH debut, Tiffany & Co. arrived at LVMH Watch Week with an ace up its sleeve: a dive into its impressive historical archive. In Milan, the American brand brought a narrative that intertwined watchmaking legacy, gem-setting, and design, with historical documents and timepieces from the Tiffany Archives, making the point that at the Maison history is not scenery but a foundation.
Tiffany Timer Chronograph
This signature piece celebrates 160 years of the Tiffany Timing Watch: at the top, the limited edition of 60 pieces in platinum with baguette diamonds and a detail for connoisseurs, the Bird on a Rock in miniature on the rotor above a customized El Primero chronograph movement. Completely different in character is the Eternity Baguette, which introduces an automatic into the line for the first time, even outside of special runs; while the Sixteen Stone pays homage to Jean Schlumberger with mother-of-pearl and that gold motif which, for decades, has been a Tiffany alphabet.
Zenith
Zenith’s offering was to pad out its ever-popular Defy collection with more intriguing additions, that are best described the same way someone descrives a city: lights, shadows, geometries, materials, a parallelism between architect and watchmaker.
The New Defy Models
The novelties push on strong contrasts: the Defy Skyline Skeleton in black ceramic with a golden movement (El Primero 3620 SK) and 1/10th of a second indication; the Defy Skyline Chronograph, also in black ceramic with El Primero 3600 and a chronograph hand that rotates in 10 seconds; and above all, the Defy Skyline Tourbillon Skeleton in rose gold, completely open, limited to 50 pieces.
Defy Skyline
There is also a move of more “daily” elegance with the Defy Skyline 36 with a silver dial (with or without diamonds), and a return to origins with the Revival A3643, a homage to a reference from 1969: here the Swiss House plays the most powerful card of all, that of memory done well, without nostalgia, with precision.