James Gurney, Wallpaper* Magazine Journalist Profile

Articles

Are 'Jump Hour' watches the best trend to emerge from Watches & Wonders?

2 weeks ago | wallpaper.com | James Gurney

The most enjoyable development at the recent Watches and Wonders 2025 in Geneva, to my eyes at least, has been the mini-boom in ‘jump hour’ watches (where the hours and, sometimes, minutes, are shown as numbers that ‘jump’ into place). Presaged, as it turns out, by Louis Vuitton’s Tambour Convergence shown in January 2025, there are watches from Bremont, Cartier, Gerald Charles, Hautlence, Sven Andersen and others that feature what is a curious watch sub-species.
Louis Vuitton's Tambour Convergence: a sports-luxe watch turned on its head

2 months ago | wallpaper.com | James Gurney

Louis Vuitton updated the Tambour watch case in 2023, creating a slimmer, more refined version of the capstan head shape that was the signature of the brand’s watchmaking during its first twenty years.
LVMH watch week 2025: everything we know so far

Jan 18, 2025 | wallpaper.com | James Gurney

LVMH's Watch Week has become something of an institution, with the group’s stable of brands combining to own the airwaves, ahead of shows such as Geneva’s Watches and Wonders (where most of the brands still take part). It’s also an opportunity to get a first sight of the watch trends that will dominate the year ahead (check back to LVMH Watch Week 2024).
The future of British watchmaking is looking brighter than ever, and it's about time

Nov 28, 2024 | wallpaper.com | James Gurney

The renewal of British watchmaking is one of those evergreen stories that keeps promising without ever quite delivering. Until now, that is. What looked to be a curious event earlier in the year, a British Watch Show, had queues around the block for entrance, enticed by a line up that covered everything from kickstarter brands up to Roger Smith’s ultra-purist creations.
Discover the new Patek Philippe Cubitus watch collection

Oct 23, 2024 | wallpaper.com | James Gurney

Watchers of Patek Philippe have been waiting to see what would replace the blue-dialled stainless-steel Nautilus 571 that the Genevan watchmaker so summarily cut from the catalogue, making it the watch with the single widest gap between demand and supply ever known (save, of course, the Tiffany dial version). Three years later, we have the answer - the Cubitus, arriving in three forms: the 5821A in steel, the 5821AR in steel and gold and the 5822P Grand Date platinum.
Negative Painting

Sep 27, 2024 | internationalartist.com | James Gurney

Features and Columns Station Points Tips and Insights James Gurney shares a basic painting technique that will make your artwork sparkle To Continue to Read this Edition, Please Choose the Following: Register Here Donâ€™t have an account or subscription? Not Yet Ready to Subscribe? We Invite You to Click Here and Register to read up to 3 online articles each edition. You are limited to view up to 3 online articles across all devices.
Inside Bulgari and Fender's watch and guitar collaboration

Sep 17, 2024 | wallpaper.com | James Gurney

Bulgari’s partnership with guitar maker Fender, marking the 70th anniversary of the Stratocaster, sticks out for being a little outside the usual – Fender’s rock and roll glamour being in a very different key than the architectural allure of, say, Tadao Ando, whose limited-edition Serpenti Tubogas watch for Bulgari was revealed earlier in 2024. Look a little closer, though, and the partnership with Fender has more to it than sharing a little stardust.
Off to the races: H Moser & C's partnership with Formula One

Aug 15, 2024 | wallpaper.com | James Gurney

H Moser & Cie is the latest and most interesting brand to line up on the F1 grid. The watch brand joins the likes of IWC, Richard Mille, Girard-Perregaux and TAG Heuer, having been asked by Alpine Racing to be its partner, confirming H Moser & C's rapid ascent from plucky upstart (admittedly grafted onto older roots) to serious contender. Led by Edouard Meylan since his family acquired the business in 2012, H Moser & C has been transformed into one of the watch world's hottest properties.
The British watch brands to know now: from intriguing innovators to heritage revivals

Jul 17, 2024 | wallpaper.com | James Gurney

British watchmaking has been firmly on the rise over the last two decades – after a long period of decline – as emphatically displayed at the 2024 British Watch Fair earlier this year, which saw some 80 brands on show. And the industry is metamorphosising yet again as brands and makers look to balance a surplus of design and heritage strengths with the need to rely on manufacturing capabilities from abroad.
Why are watch designers so drawn to brutalism?

Jun 11, 2024 | wallpaper.com | James Gurney

Watch design is necessarily conservative – apart from the obvious restrictions of form and function, there are brand codes and commercial realities in play. So, when a new idea does break out of the less constrained independent sector, commercial brands go all in (as with the last decade’s obsession with all things Gerald Genta).