Shopping for a new luxury watch? Wind your way through the world’s ultimate travel destinations for browsing elite timepieces.
We’ve rounded up a guide to the best new and notable hotels in each region for 2024 — along with the chic watches you’ll be inspired to buy while you’re there.
Rome
Bulgari may not be the only luxury watch brand to venture into hospitality, but it’s likely the OG. Last year, the chainlet of Bulgari Hotels & Resorts debuted the brand’s first hotel in Rome, near the circa-1905 flagship on Via dei Condotti.
The 114-room retreat is appropriately opulent, from three-Michelin-star chef Niko Romito’s restaurant to the 16,000-square-foot spa, which takes cues from ancient Roman baths. Set an alarm for 5 p.m. to enjoy bubbles delivered by trolley in the new Champagne Bar.
A stroll away, almost close enough to throw a coin into the Trevi fountain, sits the new Palazzo Talìa. Designed by film director Luca Guadagnino (“Call Me By Your Name”), the 26-room, 16th-century former college is as dramatic and immersive as his Italy-based silver screen gems.
Those ceiling frescoes, leather-bound stair rails and plush custom runners are just begging visitors to see with their hands. Don’t miss the mirror-lined bar, whose lighting makes everyone look like a movie star.
Tokyo
The debut of Aman Resorts’ new brand, Janu, gives travelers another reason to flock to the ever-popular Japanese capital.
Designed by Jean-Michel Gathy, who’s practically Aman’s in-house architect, the hotel’s curvilinear tower in the Azabudai Hills weaves together Eastern and Western sensibilities, starting with the modern interpretation of traditional shimenawa decorations at the entrance, through the Italian, French and Cantonese dining concepts, and up to the 122 expansive rooms, whose bedside lightboxes reveal a French bell shade only when illuminated.
It’s peak Nippon style — addictive to anyone who collects those head-turning Grand Seiko watches.
Paris
Tick, tock, horologophiles! The City of Light is home to some of your favorite watchmakers — Chanel! Cartier! Van Cleef & Arpels! — not to mention some fabulous new haunts.
Top of our list this year is Les Lumières Versailles, a 31-room retreat meticulously created by combining the 17th-century Villacerf and Gramont pavilions, set beside Louis XIV’s glorious gardens and palace.
About an hour from Paris by train, the hotel celebrates enlightenment influencers: in the Salon, named for eminent hostess Madame Marie-Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin; in Le Bar des Philosophes, whose décor is inspired by the Sun King’s court attire; and in La Galerie des Lumières, where pastries are elevated to an art form.
Once you’ve seen the workshops of master watchmakers in town, make haste to this paean to thinkers, writers and explorers of a bygone era. Make time to read in the library lined with first editions — or to reboot with a facial in the only hotel spa to carry Brad Pitt’s Beau Domaine skin-care line.
Geneva
Switzerland is home to so many watchmakers: Blancpain, Breguet, Hublot, Omega, Panerai, Patek Philippe … the list goes on. So it makes sense that one brand would eventually venture into hospitality.
Enter Audemars Piguet’s Hôtel des Horlogers, which shares the Vallée de Joux with the company’s Musée Atelier, just 50 minutes from Geneva.
Beside an icy-blue lake and verdant forest, superstar architecture firm BIG built a structure that zigs and zags among the trees, while architect Pierre Minassian tipped his chapeau to the valley of the Jura Mountains to craft 50 guest rooms that are at once luxe and subdued.
The symmetry and meticulousness could only come from a precision watchmaker, who chose three-Michelin-star chef Emmanuel Renaut to gin up the highly seasonal Brasserie Le Gogant. Before a sumptuous meal beneath geode-like chandeliers, wind over to the workshop and learn about Audemars Piguet’s 200-year history.
London
It’s in this city that Rolex introduced to the world the first self-winding mechanism with a perpetual rotor — aka, the classic Oyster Perpetual.
Nearly a century later, the Maybourne hotel group’s The Emory has turned the London hotel scene on its head, offering 61 suites across six floors, each designed by a different top-tier interior designer and all right on Hyde Park.
Public spaces include the guest-only Emory Rooftop Bar and Surrenne, a private members’ club focusing on longevity, to which hotel guests get temporary membership.
Just past Wellington Arch, the Peninsula London recently opened.
The Hong Kong brand spent 30 years seeking just the right spot for its 12th hotel, then $1.3 billion to construct this 190-room cocoon, with rooms by Peter Marino. Asiaphiles will delight in that quintessential Eastern breakfast of congee and shu mai, as well as dinner at the Canton Blue restaurant.
The 82-feet-long pool, set against walls of sparkling mosaics, is worth a dip. It’s a pleasant stroll to Rolex’s UK head office — or hitch a ride in the hotel’s Bentleys and restored Rolls-Royce. How veddy British.
Shop the watches
Bulgari Bulgari watch in 18-k rose gold, $13,200 watch in 18-k rose gold, $13,200 at London Jewelers
Van Cleef & Arpels Poetic Complications Midnight in Paris watch in 18-k rose gold with aventurine, meteorite and quartz, $83,000 at London Jewelers
Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch Professional watch in 18-k Moonshine gold, $42,600 at London Jewelers
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Mini Frosted Gold Quartz watch in 18-k yellow gold, $34,400 at London Jewelers
Grand Seiko Evolution 9 Spring Drive 5 Days watch in titanium, $10,400 at London Jewelers
Rolex Oyster Perpetual Sky-Dweller watch in 18-k Everose gold, $54,000 at London Jewelers
All at London Jewelers, 1988 Northern Blvd., Manhasset, LI
