Fair Venice, not Verona, set the stage this week as George Clooney arrived for the film festival wearing his long-favoured watch, an Omega De Ville Hour Vision, proving taste is timeless. Further north in Le Locle, Zenith looked beyond Earth with the Chronomaster Sport Meteorite, its dial cut from cosmic rock. And in La Côte-aux-Fées, Piaget doubled down on its reputation for thinness with the Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon in cobalt and the Altiplano 910P in yellow gold.

From lagoon to mountains, watchmaking found fresh ways to keep time in focus.

Image: Zenith

Chronomaster Sport Meteorite

Zenith has added a new dial to its Chronomaster Sport, one that comes from well beyond Le Locle. The latest Chronomaster Sport Meteorite takes the familiar 41mm stainless steel case and black ceramic bezel and sets it against a slice of genuine meteorite, cut and hand-finished to reveal the naturally occurring Widmanstätten pattern. Each dial is different, the texture formed millions of years ago as molten iron cooled in space.

The watch design remains recognisably Chronomaster Sport: the tri-colour counters in silver, grey and anthracite, baton hour markers and rhodium-plated hands treated with C1 Super-LumiNova, and a discreet date at 4:30. On the reverse, the El Primero 3600 calibre is visible through a sapphire back. Beating at 5Hz, it allows the central chronograph hand to complete a rotation every 10 seconds, measuring to a tenth of a second, with a 60-hour power reserve and blue column wheel.

The Chronomaster Sport Meteorite is offered on an integrated steel bracelet with an additional black rubber strap included. Previously a Japan-only edition, it is now available worldwide exclusively through Zenith boutiques and authorised retailers.

Ultimate Concept Tourbillon

Altiplano 910P

Piaget Altiplano

For Piaget, thinness has always been more of an aesthetic choice than a technical challenge. A way of letting mechanics disappear into design, you could say. The new Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon and Altiplano 910P continue that tradition, this time in a khaki green and yellow gold palette that threads watchmaking with jewellery savoir-faire.

The AUC Tourbillon, still a feat at just 2.0mm, now comes with a sapphire caseback for the first time, revealing calibre 970P-UC with its satin-brushed and polished finishes. The caseback also bears Piaget’s motto – “Always do better than necessary” – and the name of La Côte-aux-Fées, where the Maison was founded. A cross-shaped motif, a subtle reference to Altiplano heritage, appears across the movement’s components.

Alongside it is the Altiplano 910P, an automatic measuring only 4.3mm thick. Here, yellow gold frames a khaki green dial with matching alligator strap, while the ultra-thin calibre 910P shows bridges in the same green, complemented by a slate-grey peripheral rotor. Both watches share recognisable design cues, creating an easy dialogue between tourbillon and time-only complication.

george clooney venice film festival

A man and his Omega

Celebrity and big ticket watches go hand-in-hand these days as much as, well, a watch on the wrist. But our favourite flex of the week goes to George Clooney.

Like clockwork, Clooney’s arrival at the Venice Film Festival is as reliable as his taste in watches. For this season, Clooney proved the definition of “timeless”, wearing an understated Omega De Ville Hour Vision. A watch that, much like the man himself, has never gone out of style.

Clooney’s minty of choice for the day was a 41mm chronometre, one that has become something of a signature piece for the Ocean’s actor. He was even wearing throughout his 2009 rom-com Up In the Air – perhaps one of the few times we can get behind someone “method acting”.

First released in 2007, the Hour Vision marked a turning point for Omega. It was the debut of the Calibre 8500, the brand’s first fully in-house Co-Axial movement, designed for precision and reliability. The watch itself is straightforward: hours, minutes, seconds and a discreet date function, housed in a 41mm case with the distinctive sapphire side panels that reveal the movement within. It is certified as a chronometer and carries a 60-hour power reserve, proof that practicality is as much a part of its design as polish.

Clooney’s choice makes sense. His style has always leaned toward clothes and accessories that work across settings, from the casual to the formal, without needing explanation. The De Ville Hour Vision fits this approach. It is elegant, but not loud; functional, but not utilitarian. In Venice, surrounded by the flash of premieres and red carpets, it stood out precisely because it didn’t try to.

Related:

The best-dressed men at Venice Film Festival so far

Vacheron Constantin’s new Overseas Duo are smarter than all of us