The first few days of Watches and Wonders are always a flurry of activity as the large Palexpo center becomes the focus of mechanical timekeeping. This year, more than sixty brands displayed their plans for the next year.
Though Swiss watch exports dropped 2.8 % in 2024, and the market was difficult, this year’s display showed an industry eager to fascinate fans. This happened through technical innovation, artistic expression, and daring nerve. Following movement through the complex exhibition hall besides examination of many timepieces, fifteen watches truly shifted perspectives.
H. Moser & Cie. Endeavour Centre Seconds Concept Purple Enamel
H. Moser would dominate if minimalism became a competition. The brand’s recent success shows a gloriously empty dial. It has no logo indices or even hour markers. The “Purple Haze” enamel reaches an almost hypnotic depth. This results from a careful Grand Feu process. It uses six different pigments put on a textured white gold base.
The impressive feature of this $29,700 item isn’t technical difficulty but striking simplicity. Because the watch industry has become more intricate, Moser reminds us that sometimes, less is everything.
Zenith G.F.J.
Anniversary watches usually use a standard design. They add a special rotor to an old model and then sell it. But Zenith celebrated its 160th birthday differently. The company made only 160 examples of the G.F.J. watch, which got its name from founder Georges Favre-Jacot. It combines a wonderful dial with several materials. The center uses lapis lazuli, the outer ring has guilloché, and the seconds register uses mother-of-pearl. The watch also has genuine horological value.
For $49,900, the platinum timepiece includes the famous Calibre 135. This movement won many observatory chronometry contests during the 1950s. This rare anniversary watch earns its celebration.
Patek Philippe Calatrava 8 Days Reference 5328G-001
The new Patek Philippe Calatrava 8 Days seems simple at first glance. Much goes on under its patterned blue face. The manual wind caliber 31-505 came from five years of work. It supplies eight days of power and integrates immediate day-plus date changes at midnight. This engineering achievement demanded new energy-handling systems.
The white gold body presents the Clous de Paris hobnail design in its middle section. But the dial’s vertical layout, with the power reserve at the top plus a calendar at the bottom, makes a unique look. This design differs from others in the Calatrava line. This watch embodies Patek: advanced technology exists within a traditional appearance.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Geographic
The Reverso has changed considerably from its beginning as a polo watch and is now a flexible rectangular design in watchmaking. JLC’s new model presents the world’s time complication with its known sophistication. It shows local time on the blue enamel front dial, and a global time function is on the back.
This $34,900 design stands out from other world timers because it works with the Reverso’s turning system. Because it divides home and travel functions between two faces, instead of packing a single dial with city rings and 24-hour scales, readability is improved. On the stainless steel back, the city ring is etched directly, which adds a clever detail and also makes the watch feel good to the touch.
Cartier Privé Tank à Guichet
The Tank à Guichet, which appeared in 1928, provided an extreme change to how time appeared. It swapped standard hands for windows, and these windows showed hours, which jumped, and minutes, which dragged. Almost a century later, its modern idea seems significant.
Cartier’s Privé collection now brings back this watch and features a beautiful platinum model. The displays on this model have turned 90 degrees from their original arrangement. Because it is only available in 200 pieces, the special edition joins history, as Duke Ellington once owned one, with new thoughts about design. Its red numbers, plus a crown that sits at 12 o’clock, develop a different look. It is obviously Cartier, yet it also finds unusual innovation.
A. Lange & Söhne Minute Repeater Perpetual
Superior German watchmaking happens with Lange’s fresh Minute Repeater Perpetual. This model was created in a limited edition of 50 platinum units, is 40.5mm, and unites two prominent horological complexities plus the subtle grace that marks the Saxon facility.
A black enamel dial shows white Roman numbers, presenting a traditional appearance. If you slide the device on the case’s left side, the watch’s core comes into view, as tuneful rings communicate hours, quarters as well as minutes upon request. In addition, the hand-completed L122.2 caliber, which you can view through the rear casing, features Lange’s typical methods: a balance cock carved by hand, gold settings that secure with blued screws plus perfect German silver plates and spans.
Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle Perpetual Calendar Retrograde Date Open-face
Vacheron Constantin marks 270 years, a notable achievement. The company persists in its innovation and values history. The new Traditionnelle Perpetual Calendar blends visual design with great technology using its semi-skeletonized style.
Inside the 41mm platinum case rests the new Calibre 2460 QPR31/270. Its peripheral rotor enables a remarkably thin 10.94mm form, even with the perpetual calendar. Day, month, and moon phases next to retrograde date displays create a nice balance with the bridges. The arrangement demonstrates the link between the hollow areas and mechanical functions.
Laurent Ferrier Classic Auto Horizon
Some watches do not boast but rather speak quietly. Laurent Ferrier’s pieces remain understated. The new Classic Auto Horizon has a fascinating blue dial, which is horizon-blue and results from translucent lacquer over silver. The real appeal exists in details. These include the well-balanced 40mm case, the unique “assegai” hands, and the teardrop lugs, which form an elegant shape on the wrist.
Underneath the obvious simplicity sits the remarkable micro-rotor Calibre LF270.01. Its hand-finishing shows the top level of Swiss artisanship. At $45,000, the watch serves as a demonstration that real extravagance often lives in features not easily seen.
Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante Verzasca
Most GMT watches use a familiar structure, but Parmigiani chose a truly different way. The GMT Rattrapante uses principles from chronographs to monitor time zones. It stacks two-hour hands—these hands split when a button is pressed—so that it displays both home and local time at once.
The new Verzasca edition, priced at $31,100, matches this mechanism with a dial colored emerald green. This color takes inspiration from the clear waters in Switzerland’s Valle Verzasca. Its hand-guilloché “Grain d’Orge” pattern gives a delicate feel and makes it seem deep. With this, the 40mm steel case plus an attached bracelet permits adaptable use. This watch reveals a considered redesign of the traveller’s watch from a watchmaker who regularly acts independently.
Grand Seiko Spring Drive U.F.A.
Grand Seiko achieves even greater accuracy with the Spring Drive Calibre 9RB2. It reaches ±20 seconds per year, an impressive result establishing it as the most accurate mainspring-powered watch globally.
Offered in 37mm titanium ($10,900) or platinum ($39,000) cases, the watches illustrate the unique perspective of the Japanese manufacturer on watchmaking. But the Spring Drive mechanism provides a hybrid response, merging a usual mainspring with an electronic regulator. It uses the energy a spring produces as it unwinds. It is not wholly mechanical, nor is it quartz; however, it is its own thing. This quality mirrors Grand Seiko itself.
Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon
Bulgari extended its run of ultra-thin, record-breaking timepieces with the Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon. The watch measures only 1.85mm in thickness, making it the thinnest tourbillon-equipped watch worldwide. This technical wonder contains a skeletonized movement. A tungsten carbide main plate sits inside a titanium case with a microbead-frosted finish.
Prior Ultra models differ because this version possesses a useful time display—it displays both hours and minutes in a lone subdial. Because of this tenth global record in ultra-thin watchmaking, Bulgari evolved from a jewelry business that produced watches to a real horological powerhouse that received admiration from even the most established collectors.
IWC Ingenieur Perpetual Calendar 41
The Ingenieur’s return proceeds as IWC used the perpetual calendar mechanism, a design by watchmaker Kurt Klaus. The 41mm stainless steel case and attached bracelet retain the Gérald Genta aesthetic, first seen in 1976. The blue “grid” dial gives the calendar displays a modern surface.
For this $36,900 timepiece, what stands out is how it found a balance between complex design plus comfort. Because the perpetual calendar indicators, such as day and leap year at 9 o’clock, month and moon phase at 6 o’clock, and date at 3 o’clock, receive enough space, they keep clarity and proper scale. It is a brilliant example of how to make complex watches easy to understand.
Piaget Andy Warhol Opal Dial
Andy Warhol possessed seven Piaget watches. Because of the brand’s formal collaboration with his foundation, some remarkable clocks were created. The latest watch includes a white gold container decorated with organized lines of slender and circular blue sapphires. The real charm comes from the natural opal face, which forms a unique base of changing blue and green colors.
This lavish product definitely does not suit shy people. It proves how fancy jewelry and skillful clock production can improve. Since Warhol himself felt drawn to fame and riches, it appears a fitting respect for the pop art star.
Rolex Land-Dweller
Rolex’s unveiled collection, the Land-Dweller, is likely the biggest news from Watches & Wonders. The name trademarked in 2023, foreshadowed this watch. It comes in 36mm and 40mm sizes with white gold, and rose gold next to platinum cases.
But the Dynapulse escapement makes this launch special. It is Rolex’s initial major revision to the standard Swiss lever system that they used in past mechanical watches. Because of this novel mechanism, the brand expects increased precision. The whole industry notices when a typically cautious firm such as Rolex reveals a key technical upgrade.
Oris Big Crown Pointer Date Calibre 4
A large sum isn’t always needed for a noteworthy watch. Oris still provides great value with its Big Crown Pointer Date Calibre 403 watches, and it also introduced new dials in green and terracotta. These 40mm timepieces cost $4,100 with a leather strap or $4,300 with steel, and they have specifications that would cost many times more from high-end groups.
The Calibre 403, produced internally, has a good five-day power reserve and a ten-year warranty. These concrete benefits improve the ownership experience instead of just prestige. In a business that pays increasing attention to possible investments and long waiting periods, Oris shows us that mechanical watches must first be fun to use.
Watches & Wonders 2025 showed that, in spite of economic issues, the mechanical watch world continues to thrive because of innovation. Even though these fifteen watches represent a small part of what was shown in Geneva, they all push forward the craft of making watches in important ways. This happens through new technology, good design, or just by making people who get to use them happy.
