The Beauty Of Gold

Forget the days when a gold watch meant gangster.  This precious metal is having a moment, we predict a resurgence of the gold era.

Tastes are now changing, as tastes always will.  The gold watch is not so much making a comeback, because, like colour, it never actually went away.  Instead, the gold watch is being adopted by new customers, the sort who would not in normal circumstances wear turquoise alligator shoes.

Gold watches are becoming more obvious in the catalogues of all the great Swiss makers.

Gold emphasises the robust design language of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, with its tough-looking strongbox case, highly semanticised hexagonal screws and visible gaskets.  Absurd to use soft gold on such a hard design?  Of course, but that’s the point.  Absurdity is a powerful language.

Gold will always be argumentative and aspirational.  The German-Jewish poet Heinrich Heine beautifully caught the aspiration, saying that for a Jew to be accepted as silver, he must be gold.  Whoever you are, that’s what you get with a gold watch: social promotion.

The above article is an excerpt fromAustralia magazine issue 8.

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