2025 was not an easy year for the watch industry. Market uncertainty, shifting consumer behavior, and a growing sense of caution shaped how brands released new work. Still, the industry showed its strength through the novelties that mattered.
Not every release felt necessary. But the ones that mattered felt deliberate.
We found ourselves returning to watches that showed confidence without noise, ambition without excess, and progress without urgency. These are the pieces that stayed with us.
Rolex: Land-Dweller
My personal favorite novelty of the year. Rolex rarely rushes into anything, and this watch feels designed to grow into its role over time. With a new movement and multiple patents, this will become an icon for decades to come.
The Land-Dweller does not announce itself. At first glance, it feels familiar, intentionally so. But beneath that familiarity is a new foundation: a new calibre, a new integrated bracelet architecture, and a willingness to rethink core components rather than surface details.
This is Rolex operating on a long horizon. A watch designed to feel normal now and inevitable later.
Read our full review here.
Louis Vuitton: Monterey
The Monterey feels like a thoughtful pause rather than a statement piece.
Originally designed in 1988 by Gae Aulenti, the LV I and LV II were always more design objects than conventional watches. Revisiting that idea today makes sense. The new Monterey keeps the essence intact, reworked into a minimalist, time-only watch that feels deliberate rather than nostalgic.
The 39 mm yellow-gold, pebble-shaped case and glossy Grand Feu enamel dial give it a softness that’s rare in modern watchmaking. The railway-track minutes and subtle red and blue accents add just enough structure without disrupting the calm. It’s a watch that feels composed, almost architectural, and confident in its restraint.
Limited to 188 pieces and developed under Matthieu Hegi at La Fabrique du Temps, the Monterey also reflects a broader shift at Louis Vuitton. Under Jean Arnault, the brand has quietly become one of the most interesting names to follow in watchmaking, not through volume or logos, but through a clear commitment to real horology and design-led thinking.
It is a quiet reminder that Louis Vuitton’s relationship with watchmaking runs deeper than many assume.
Audemars Piguet: Royal Oak Jumbo Extra-Thin Flying Tourbillon Chronograph RD#5
Created for Audemars Piguet’s 150th anniversary, the RD#5 feels like a thoughtful evolution rather than a celebration piece. It keeps the familiar 39 mm Jumbo proportions but introduces a flying tourbillon and a flyback chronograph within an ultra-thin 8.1 mm titanium case.
The new Calibre 8100, just 4 mm thick, was developed specifically for this watch. Its rack-and-pinion chronograph reset replaces traditional architecture, making the action feel smoother and more intuitive in use. It’s a meaningful technical shift, not a decorative one.
Visually, the watch stays grounded. The “Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50” Petite Tapisserie dial, balanced layout, and disciplined finishing keep the complexity in check.
Rather than pushing the Royal Oak into unfamiliar territory, the RD#5 shows how far the design can go while still feeling completely itself.
Read our full review here.
A. Lange & Söhne: Odysseus Honeygold
There’s something slightly unexpected about a full-gold Lange. It runs counter to the brand’s traditionally restrained German design language, which has always favored understatement over expression.
But in person, it makes sense. Spending time with the Odysseus Honeygold during Watches & Wonders, the choice of material feels deliberate rather than extraverted. The warmth of Honeygold and the solid gold bracelet give the watch a grounded, almost utilitarian presence that aligns with the Odysseus’ original purpose.
Limited to 100 pieces, this is the first time the Odysseus has been offered on a full Honeygold bracelet. It remains unmistakably Lange in execution, with precise finishing and clear functionality, but carries a confidence that feels intentional rather than showy.
Chopard: L.U.C Grand Strike
It doesn’t rely on spectacle. Its impact comes from something far more lasting: sound.
Built around a true grande sonnerie with a minute repeater, it showcases Chopard’s mastery of chiming watchmaking. The use of sapphire crystal gongs and a monobloc watch glass gives the chime an unusual clarity and depth, turning a technical complication into a sensory experience.
Despite its complexity, the watch feels composed. The dial-less architecture reveals the calibre L.U.C 08.03-L with quiet confidence, while COSC certification and the Poinçon de Genève underline its seriousness.
It feels like the moment Chopard’s sonnerie work fully comes into its own.
Read our full review here.
Bulgari: Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon
By now, Bulgari’s pursuit of ultra-thin watchmaking feels fully intentional rather than provocative. The Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon pushes that philosophy further, setting a new benchmark with a total thickness of just 1.85 mm.
What makes it compelling isn’t the record itself, but how it’s achieved. By integrating a skeletonised tourbillon directly into the architecture of the watch, Bulgari rethinks movement design as structure rather than assembly. Light, space, and mechanics are treated as one system.
The result feels less like a technical stunt and more like a clear expression of identity. Bulgari isn’t chasing thinness anymore. It’s refining a language it has already made its own.
Vacheron Constantin: Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication
Solaria exists outside the usual rhythm of the industry.
A unique white-gold watch combining 41 complications in a single in-house calibre, including five rare astronomical functions and an innovative Westminster minute repeater, it is the most complicated wristwatch ever made. What makes Solaria remarkable is not only its complexity, but its restraint. Housing such a movement within a 45 mm case measuring just 14.99 mm in height is a feat of miniaturisation
This is Vacheron Constantin working at full depth, drawing on centuries of accumulated knowledge rather than reacting to a single year’s narrative.
NOMOS Glashütte: Club Sport neomatik Worldtimer
Some watches earn their place quietly, and this is one of them. It’s thin, light on the wrist, and immediately comfortable, which makes it easy to forget you’re wearing a worldtimer at all.
The function itself is straightforward and genuinely useful, especially if you move between time zones regularly. Nothing feels overthought or ornamental. It just works the way you expect it to, which is probably why it ended up getting so much wrist time this year.
The blue dial is calm and versatile, but what makes the watch more interesting is that it comes in several color variations, each with its own personality. Keeping them limited feels like the right call. It avoids turning the design into something generic.
Glashütte Original: PanoMaticLunar Anniversary Edition
Glashütte Original understands the value of continuity.
This anniversary edition preserves the asymmetry and warmth that define the PanoMaticLunar, while refining what sits beneath the dial. The automatic movement, panoramic date, and moon phase remain familiar, but more resolved.
A watch that does not need reinvention to remain relevant.
Jaeger-LeCoultre: Reverso Tribute Monoface Small Seconds Pink Gold
Few designs are as enduring as the Reverso.
This version succeeds by doing very little. Manual winding, balanced proportions, and the softness of pink gold feel perfectly aligned with the case. There is nothing to decode and nothing to justify.
It simply works.
Looking back, 2025 still felt reassuring. Not because everything was perfect, but because the watches that mattered showed clarity, confidence, and a long view. When the industry leans into those values, it feels very much on the right path.
