By Jovan Krstevski & Harlan Chapman-Green
Words by Harlan Chapman-Green
Another year means another jaunt to Switzerland where I took an endless amount of photos and then came home to spend two weeks editing them and writing about the watches in between sleeping. But, it was a great experience; I got to meet up with Jovan, which was even better, and we got to check out (most of) the latest watches!
The overarching theme to me seemed to be that lots of brands had something new that meant we couldn’t say they were “playing it safe”. There were also a fair number of jumping hour or jumping hour+minute watches and a lot of perpetual calendars it seems. With all of the craziness behind us and our Watches & Wonders Geneva 2025 coverage concluding, there’s just time to go through our favourites from this year’s show.
The honourable mentions:
Bremont Altitude Perpetual Calendar GMT
An unexpected addition to Bremont’s collection, this watch stepped Bremont further up the chain of watchmaking. While chronographs are more complicated, and Bremont’s made loads of them, the perpetual calendar has a certain prestige about it.
Cartier Tank Louis Cartier Large
Cartier’s Tank Louis Cartier Large model builds on the legacy of Cartier’s Tank model with an automatic movement and classic good looks. It doesn’t need more than that, to be honest with you, it’s a classic and discreet dress watch in all the best ways.
The Top Ten:
10 – Chanel J12 Bleu Calibre 12.1
We were both pleasantly surprised when we saw Chanel’s new J12 Bleu in the stand, but when we saw it in the photo booth, we really liked how it looked. Chanel’s been moving further and further into the luxury watchmaking scene, as so many high-end fashion companies are doing, and they take it seriously. Case in point: the blue ceramic J12.
9 – Grand Seiko Tentagraph SLGC009
With a name that sounds a little too close to the limbs of an octopus, Grand Seiko’s Tentagraph SLGC009 watch is a chunky beast inspired by the ‘Tokyo Lion’. It’s not a new design theme, but it worked surprisingly well and resulted in a great watch, not for the faint of heart.
8 – IWC Ingenieur Perpetual Calendar 41
This was the most surprising entry into the Ingenieur lineup for me. IWC re-invented the Ingenieur (again) in 2023 and went for entirely clean looks compared to some previous models. I honestly expected a chronograph or a GMT complication to be slid into the range first, but we got the perpetual calendar instead. It’s a great watch all the same.
7 – Rolex GMT-Master II 126715CHNR “Root Beer” with Tiger Iron Dial
Jovan would not stop talking about this one throughout the show. No, really, everyone he met heard about the dial on this watch. That’s got to be some high praise, right? The new “Root Beer” GMT-Master II is a classy watch in solid Everose gold, and the dial is gorgeous, but it is the GMT-Master II which we get new iterations of annually.
6 – Czapek Antarctique Flying Tourbillon
It’s not unsurprising that Czapek’s new Antarctique Flying Tourbillon got a mention here. Their Promenade watches are very attractive, but the Flying Tourbillon steals the show for them. Perhaps my favourite detail was that the designer wanted a smooth wrist feel and so made the caseback of this watch out of one domed piece of sapphire crystal, instead of a ring of metal surrounding the crystal. Ingenious and very comfortable, it’s a worthy piece on our list.
5 – A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus Honeygold
This one’s a bit of a no brainier, we’ve been waiting for them to make us a solid gold Odysseus on a solid gold bracelet and they didn’t disappoint. It’s so good looking in person, however, it’s limited to just 100 examples in part due to the difficulty A. Lange & Söhne has in making watches from Honeygold. We think that the Odysseus in solid gold on the bracelet will come out in 6-12 months, cementing this one as a special collector’s piece. We just hope the collectors will wear it.
4 – TAG Heuer Carrera Day-Date
As you probably know, TAG Heuer has been sharpening up its collection over the past few years. While everyone’s talking about the Formula 1 Solargraph (a great watch), I liked the classy looks of the Carrera Day-Date. If you’re new to mechanical watches and are unsure you want to jump down the rabbit hole, this would be my starting place.
3 – Piaget Polo Perpetual Calendar Obsidian
Piaget truly surprised us with this one. The Polo watches need more love in our view and this perpetual calendar is a good place to start. It’s funny, I’m listening to Toots & The Maytals as I write this, and the lively colours of the Caribbean spring to my mind, meanwhile the obsidian dial of this watch matches it with its unique smattering of blues and other hues. It’s fantastic on the wrist, too.
2 – Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Quantième Perpétuel
I warned you that 2025 was the year of the perpetual calendar, and Parmigiani Fleurier’s Toric entry was the pick of the bunch. I loved the platinum version with the blue dial, but I can see why people like the gold model. Either way, the amount of information displayed in just two subdials, omitting everything unnecessary, made the Toric Quantième Perpétuel one of our favourites.
1 – Rolex Land-Dweller
I stand by the comments I made in my write-up where I said that, apart from subjective things like design, there isn’t much to complain about with the Land-Dweller. It’s comfortable, very classy and heralds the next generation of mass-production watchmaking. Shame about the awkward name, but it got nearly everything else right.
Well, folks, that ends our coverage of Watches & Wonders Geneva 2025 on the website for now. Our Instagram page will probably take a few days to catch up as we’ve got things that we didn’t cover here on the site left to post. We hope you’ve enjoyed our work; we know we didn’t get to see everything, but going on your own journey of discovery is part of the fun of these events. These have been our choices, and we can’t wait to see what you pick. Right, I’m going for a lie down after all of that.
