Our Highlights From Watches And Wonders 2025

Trump’s tariffs hit in the middle of Watches and Wonders in Geneva, the biggest annual venue for the trade and collectors to suss out the best new models. The ‘keep calm and carry on’ reaction would have done wartime Britain proud. There was no other way, since all watches had been made and priced in advance, though apprehension was natural as the USA consumes almost half of Swiss luxury watches. The consensus is that prices will rise everywhere, despite tariffs moderating, and will affect the medium price bracket and smaller firms more than the wealthy collector market. However, there are striking innovations and revivals, with brands finding venerable movements to modernise as well as updating designs, perhaps the safest routes to success in already uncertain times. These are all the trends we spotted at Watches and Wonders 2025.

Watches And Wonders 2025: Highlights & Trends

Into The Blue

Rolex’s fetching ice blue dial shade denotes its platinum watches; now the shade sets a tone for dials far and wide, and Rolex scores a hit with the Oyster Perpetual Land-Dweller containing the high-frequency calibre 7135 movement. This has a new, very lightweight and energy-efficient escapement design, mainly in silicon, and the dial has a light-catching hexagonal pattern, best in that ice blue. Parmigiani’s Toric Quantième Perpétuel is quietly stunning, all its functions on two discreet sub-dials, the dial in glowing mid blue on platinum, while Bell & Ross’s neat, 36mm BR-05 in ice blue on steel is a universal, entry-price take on their signature rounded-square case. Chanel’s Bleu de Chanel deepens the tone to a rich French navy in matt ceramic, steel and black coating for several iterations of the J12, some with sapphire baguettes on bezel and indexes, while a new Chanel Monsieur is in even deeper blue.

(L to R) Rolex, Parmagiani, Bell & Ross, Chanel

Bullseye

Last year’s muted, Farrow & Ball shades now jostle for attention with vibrant mixes hitting the target. H.Moser’s Endeavour Pop collection takes chromatically paired hardstones – jade with pink opal, turquoise with coral, lapis lazuli with lemon chrysoprase – and faultlessly works them with an outer ring or subdial in the contrast shade. They are high horology models – small seconds, tourbillon and minute repeater tourbillon and, to quote Moser’s slogan, ‘very rare’. More accessibly priced, Nomos’s Club Sport Neomatik World Timer has equal horological intent, one of the thinnest-ever automatic world timers in six richly coloured limited editions reflecting different landscapes and with city ring and day-night subdial in toning bright shades. TAG Heuer’s reimagined, sporty Formula 1 celebrates TAG’s renewed F1 involvement with solar-powered limited editions in bright colours inspired by F1 livery and made in tough TH-Polylight.

(L to R) H. Moser, Nomos, TAG Heuer

Jump To It

Jumping hours and digital displays are rooted in tradition yet surprisingly avant-garde. The guichet or trench watch – its protective case was popular with soldiers – has always been rare and Cartier’s new Tank à Guichet is in very limited supply, especially the platinum version with its lop-sided look. Bremont’s Terra Nova Jumping Hour comes in good value bronze and has a compass-shaped small seconds dial in addition to the hour and minutes. The heavy metal version is Urwerk’s revamped UR-105 T-Rex, its bronze case in deeply graduated guillochage, coated to a rich brown patina. Open styles include Gerald Charles’s dressy GC39 25th anniversary edition, its chemically-engraved dial with a lapis lazuli centre, while Chopard’s LUC Quattro Spirit 25 has a jumping hour window and slender minute hand on a delicate dial of straw marquetry.

(L to R) Cartier, Bremont, Urwerk, Gerald Charles

Do The Twist

Who’d have thought that the twisted braid edging your granny’s sofa would inspire watch design? It appeared in 1970s goldwork, and now it’s back for round two. Cartier go big with the Tressage, its two fat twists of gold braiding enclosing a strap and a slender rectangular dial. Sleekest in yellow gold and black patent leather, frostiest in pavé snow-set diamonds and sapphires. Chanel’s twist on its small Première model replaces the usual leather-braided chain with a braided gold bangle bracketing the small, octagonal watch with a black lacquer dial, or diamond trims. Piaget has a long tradition of goldsmithing and revives its iconic late-1960s trapeze shape in a lavish necklace watch of twisted ropes punctuated with white opals. Bulgari goes for modernism with an unusual, 1980s-inspired Serpenti watch, elegantly minimalist and twisted round the wrist.

(L to R) Cartier, Chanel, Piaget, Bulgari

Nostalgia Time

Historic watch brands have justified reputations, so it’s no wonder they search their archives for sleeping beauties to kiss – from antiques to mere decades old pieces. Zenith’s G.F.J. (named for the founder’s initials) is spectacular – blue again, but in three intense shades and materials. The outer ring is deep, guillochéd metal patterned like the bricks of the brand’s historic manufacture, the centre is vivid lapis lazuli and the seconds dial a lighter mother-of-pearl. Inside is a high-tech version of the calibre 135, which won numerous chronometry awards in the 1950s and could soon join the revered El Primero as a workhorse Zenith movement. The restrained, enamelled dial of Arnold & Son’s Constant Force Tourbillon is based on a tourbillon regulator given by its inventor Abraham-Louis Breguet to the son of his friend John Arnold. More recent models inspire IWC, whose 1980s-style Pilot’s Watch Chronograph APXGP in rose gold and black launches in partnership with the upcoming F1 film, and Hublot who celebrate twenty years of their iconic Big Bang with several coloured sapphire crystal-cased models, including the 44mm Big Bang Unico Water Blue Sapphire chronograph.

(L to R) Zenith, Arnold & Son, IWC, Hublot

Life Is Complex

Times may be straitened, but grand brands still create grand complications for grand collectors. Patek Philippe’s Quadruple Complication includes a minute repeater, split-seconds chronograph and perpetual calendar, elegant in white gold and pale blue, while Lange & Söhne’s Minute Repeater Perpetual has been fitted into a neat 40.5mm platinum case with a fine black enamel dial, and Bovet’s Recital 30 is a remarkable world timer that adjusts for daylight saving worldwide and certain half-hour changes. Modern styles include Vacheron Constantin’s stunning Perpetual Calendar Retrograde Date Openface, its date, month, leap year and moonphase discs in sapphire crystal revealing the movement, unexpected for a range named Traditionelle. Panerai’s Luminor Perpetual Calendar GMT has the date and day popping from mysterious, half seen discs behind deep blue sapphire crystal, with further indicators on the reverse. Finally, Ulysse Nardin’s Diver [Air] is “just” a diving watch but the lightest ever, skeletonised to extremes and made entirely in recycled and sustainable materials. Hopefully other brands will be following suit.

(L to R) Patek Philippe, Lange and Söhne, Vacheron Constantin, Panerai, Ulysse

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