This watch has hands, but it also has legs

Those who grew up on a steady diet of The Transformers and other robot-centric TV shows and movies from the 1980s will love this piece. For, just like Optimus Prime and his metamorphosing allies, this watch adroitly transforms into a steel grey, tick-tocking robot. 

Made by independent Swiss watchmaker Hautlence, the Retrovision ’85 is one of those hyper nostalgic, perfectly Instagrammable and very covetable pieces on display at Watches & Wonders 2025, the fashion week of the watch world, which is on right now in Geneva. The model is based on a watch developed by a Japanese toymaker and is meant to take us back to an era where kids spent the weekend watching machines defend the world from certain annihilation.

In general, Hautlence is known for producing fantastical timepieces with several bells and whistles. Its more well-known Linear series is available at Ethos watch boutiques for upwards of Rs 68 lakh.

Coming back to the ’85, watch fans will love the specs. This timepiece (because it’s not a mere watch) is 3D printed in titanium and is a gigantic 64mm when worn on the wrist. When on its feet like a mini robot figure, it stands at 96mm.

But it’s on the dial that things get interesting. The brand describes it as “featuring wandering hands, rotating minutes and a 60-second tourbillon (pronounced TOOR-BEE-YAWN, meaning whirlwind)”. This translates to a base dial made of brushed titanium overlaid with an intermediary dial featuring three rhodium-plated brass circles in blue and purple PVC. Cutouts let us see under the hood. A sapphire glass disc sits atop this counting the minutes, while at 6 o’clock we get a peek at the flying tourbillon counting down the seconds.

This is the second watch in the Retrovision series. Hautlence introduced the ’47 last year, inspired by a late-1940s radio built by General Television & Radio Corp. from Chicago. But the ’85 is definitely more fiddly and more fun. If you can get your hands on it. Only eight pieces have been produced.