Vogue 2020 - The Customisation Craze Has Landed In The Luxury Watch World

Personalisation is now de rigueur in fashion. From the high street to the most prestigious couture houses, all manner of items – T-shirts, trainers, It-bags, cashmere jumpers – are fair game for a bit of bespokery. Now the most venerable watchmakers have cottoned on to the fact that customers want unique watches from their favourite brands – and they want to be personally involved in creating them.

Backes & Strauss is another storied house offering bespoke dials, as seen in its new Green African Elephant watch, created especially to support Gemfields’ Walk for Giants Campaign that, together with conservation organisation Space for Giants, protects African wildlife.

With a hand-painted elephant set on an eye-catching green mother-of-pearl dial, the watch is paired with a stunning bejewelled bracelet of 68 diamonds and 34 Gemfields Zambian emeralds. As the world’s oldest diamond company, Backes & Strauss’s forte is gasp-inducing, gem-encrusted watches: cue the Piccadilly Princess Royal Colours, a bling-tastic extravaganza of 276 diamonds in 66 different colours and 10 different cuts; or the vintage-style Empress Rose with a dial of hand-engraved gold and grand feu enamel rose, that’s complemented by 608 diamonds. Both can act as dazzling starting points for a bespoke watch – so don’t hold back.

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