The Ingenieur Automatic 40 is a sympathetic update of the original design, newly engineered and equipped with a modern automatic movement but reflecting the same aesthetic codes of the Genta original with the five exposed bezel screws and integrated metal bracelet.

There are three references in stainless steel and one in titanium. As Christian Knoop, chief design officer at IWC says, “It’s not every day that a designer gets the chance to work on an icon like the Ingenieur SL. We were aware of the enormous responsibility this task entailed and proceeded very cautiously.”

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While keeping faithful to the original design signature, he believes they “have succeeded in creating a new and contemporary interpretation, perfected down to the smallest detail”.

The IWC Ingenieur is one of a host of revivals and refreshes of heritage designs that have been launched this year. Except for a limited-edition titanium model in 2021, Breguet had not touched its Type XX since 2010, the 50th anniversary of the first chronograph model being delivered to French military pilots. Longines too has updated its classics Spirit Zulu Time and Flagship Heritage, the latter of which originates from 1957. Elsewhere, Zenith returns to the aviation sector with a reboot of its long-standing line of Pilot watches, and of course the 60th anniversary of Tag Heuer’s Carrera continues apace with two new chronograph pieces.

After being relaunched in 1996 following a long hiatus, the Carrera accounts for over 30 per cent of Tag Heuer’s business. The new 42mm stainless steel model is directly inspired by the original 1963 racing chronograph that Jack Heuer designed to appeal to professional drivers and sports-car lovers with its dashboard style dial. The name is drawn from the infamous Carrera Panamericana, a cross-Mexico race of the 1950s, and both the two new pieces capture the essence of the original but are powered by the in-house automatic chronograph Heuer 02 movement.

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This year’s star is surely the 39mm panda dial chronograph in satin gold, nicknamed the “glassbox” because of its bezel-free domed sapphire crystal. The original was made in Perspex as the technology did not exist to polish the curved flange of the sapphire glass. Now, modern technology is used to elevate the original in a way that was not possible back in the 1960s. This 18k gold version is inspired by the model that Jack Heuer gave to heroic racing drivers as a gift, their blood type etched on the case back – one detail not offered on this updated model.

Breguet’s Type XX emblematic 1950s pilot’s chronograph meanwhile has received a complete facelift and comes with a new calibre. It was the French Air Ministry that named the watch in the 1950s, and the original brief was for a black dial with luminescent numbers and hands, rotating bezel and flyback function. These features naturally are retained with the new model, but the dial has been modernised with the 30-minute totaliser at 3 o’clock now larger than the 60-second totaliser to its left, and a date window added between 4 and 5 o’clock. Particularly appealing is the desert khaki-coloured strap version with ivory-coloured luminescent treatment that seems destined for adventure.

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Also originally designed for aviators was Zenith’s Pilot watch, a name cannily trademarked by Zenith’s founder Georges Favre-Jacot in 1888, first as Pilote (in French) and in 1904 (as the English) Pilot. Like Breguet’s Type XX, Zenith’s Pilot has been completely redesigned from scratch with Zenith foregoing the vintage aesthetic for something new. It draws inspiration from the history of aviation but with its four new models – a pair of 42.5mm flyback chronographs with the new El Primero 3652 calibre movement, and two 40mm automatics in steel or black ceramic – it balances heritage with modernism.

Longines equipped its first Longines Spirit collection with a pioneering flyback function in 1925, patenting it a decade later. It also launched dual-time zone wristwatches in 1925 featuring the Zulu flag on the dial – “Zulu time” is universal time for aviators and the military. Spirit Zulu Time is the latest chapter in its history, launched in 2022 as a 42mm GMT watch, with a new stainless steel 39mm case added this year.

Also getting an update is Longines’ Flagship Heritage, a vintage-style classic that is one of its bestsellers. The design was edited in 2017 and the 2023 model is the first to feature a moonphase function. It is also the first time the watch has been equipped with a silicon balance spring, offering resistance to magnetic fields and superior precision.

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Revivals and updates of heritage designs are clearly not exclusive to men’s watches. Cartier is regularly updating vintage designs like the Tank, Santos, Crash and this year, the ladies’ Baignoire from 1912. Van Cleef & Arpels has similarly pulled from its archives the Ludo, a design that evokes the shape of a belt with its flexible mesh bracelet and jewelled buckle.

The first Ludo bracelets were designed in 1934 and the maison drew inspiration from them to design watches in the 1940s. In those days the watches were powered by a mechanical movement; now they are quartz.

Almost 80 years later – in 2020 – the maison unveiled three transformable versions of these emblematic creations that include two with the brand’s signature mystery-set gemstones, and the 2023 versions feature the same codes, according to a brand spokesperson. This includes two secret watches, using a mechanism that opens the shutters hiding the dial that dates to the 1940s.

All of which goes to prove that once a classic is always a classic.