The record-breaking 66 brands exhibiting at Watches and Wonders this year gave us plenty of exotic complications, materials and designs, but as market share between top, middle and smaller scale brands continues to shift wildly amid universal price increases, this year’s biggest releases seem geared to making watches more universally wearable, durable and modernised.

Brands experimented with familiar materials like platinum or titanium, but began to expand possibilities for ceramic, forged quartz and even tantalum. Engineering remains high level, but increasing attention is being paid to bracelet features, the modernisation of complications and more.

“Some of the themes I saw this year were how brands used materials,” says Johnathan Chan, co-founder of The Horology Club. “H. Moser & Cie gave us a forged quartz piece and a full tantalum perpetual calendar, Tudor went full ceramic with the Black Bay, and IWC gave us a fully lumed [the application of a luminous phosphorescent glowing solution on watches] ceramic piece as well.”

Known for its durability, ceramic was the material of choice for brands across the board. In addition to adding METAS (Master Chronometer) certification for the Black Bay 58, Tudor released an all-black ceramic Black Bay. Hublot gave us the Big Bang Reloaded, updating a collection first released in 2005. All five Big Bang Reloaded references use ceramic for their caseback and bezel, while the Big Bang Reloaded All Black, Blue Ceramic and Green Ceramic feature a full ceramic construction. IWC Schaffhausen’s Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Ceralume involved blending ceramic powders with Super-LumiNova – made possible with a dedicated ball-milling process, which turns materials to fine powder – to build an entire case that can glow in the dark. The effect is amplified by a fully luminous watch strap.

Of course, ceramic isn’t the only new way to make a watch durable or interesting in terms of materials. H. Moser & Cie, long known for its radical watch designs, hosted its first solo exhibition at Watches and Wonders this year, and its main release was a collaboration with Reebok, which is in turn reviving its Pump sneaker this year.

With this in mind, the Streamliner Pump – limited to 250 pieces each for white and black versions – takes the Streamliner sports watch line to another level, with a 40mm case made from forged quartz fibres and powered with the hand-wound HMC 103 movement. To wind the watch, press the aluminium pusher at eight o’clock to fill the power reserve.