BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
2025 has been one heck of a year, hasn’t it? It’s difficult to sum it all up, and last year I made a bit of a hash of it, so I’m not even going to try. I just hope that every one of our readers was able to take some joy from this year, and I hope you have enjoyed our work.
I know I’m going to sound like a broken record here, but I genuinely believe that now is one of the best times to get into mechanical horology. We’ve seen all sorts of watches this year, from the most humble to the most mind-blowing, which means that summing it all up into a list that satisfies everyone is an impossible task. We‘ve therefore decided once again to focus on the watches we liked the most this year, rather than trying to choose the crowdpleasers. With that said, we think there’s something for nearly everyone in our list.
We look forward to hearing your thoughts on our list in the comments section. Last year’s list became our most commented-on article of the year, and you all managed that in just one day.
Honourable mentions
As always, we have a selection of honourable mentions. These are the watches we thought you should know about, but which didn’t quite pip the choices we ended up with in the main list.
TAG Heuer Carrera Day-Date
TAG Heuer’s reworked Carrera watches have become very stylish and modern, and doing away with the idiosyncrasies from the past 20 years has made these watches shine. The Carrera Day-Date is a smart-looking watch with a reasonable price tag and a five-year warranty.
Grand Seiko Tentagraph SLGC006
The SLGC006 is quite a big piece, measuring just over 43mm in diameter, but it wears it well proportionally and appears as a mature-looking watch with a classy dial. A very high level of build quality inside and out works in its favour, but the asking price is a little high.
Laurent Ferrier Classic Auto Horizon with blue dial
A visit to Watches & Wonders Geneva, for me, just isn’t complete without checking out the offerings from Laurent Ferrier. Their watches arguably come the closest to perfection, especially where the movement is concerned. The Classic Auto Horizon with a blue dial is a classy affair, and easily one of the best dress watches from 2025.
Chopard L.U.C. Heritage EHG Moon
You might’ve expected us to go with Chopard’s new Grand Strike piece or their Watches & Wonders Geneva headline act: the new Alpine Eagle. However, this special watch, dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Geneva’s School of Watchmaking, ensnared us with its beautiful aventurine dial and classical movement design.
Rolex GMT-Master II 126715CHNR “Root Beer” with Tiger Iron dial
This was the piece that kept Jovan talking all through Watches & Wonders Geneva, if you happened to meet him there it’s likely he told you about it. The “Tiger Iron” dial uses said metamorphic rock as its decoration, with unique golden ripples spreading across it and showing Rolex’s skill with stone all wrapped in an Everose gold case. Can we have the Jubilee bracelet in Everose now? Please?
The Vacheron Constantin Class
Before we get to the list we need to address one elephant in the room and that is Vacheron Constantin. The company celebrated 270 uninterrupted years of operation in 2025, and in doing that it let its high-end “Les Cabinotiers” division run wild, developing some of the most mind-blowing watches we’ve seen. Such watches include the Les Cabinotiers Cosmica Duo – Grand Complication (Ref. 9780C/000G-087C). It wouldn’t be right not to mention the roaring success of a year they’ve had, but, they’ve done so many things in 2025 that this list could be taken over entirely by them, so we gave them their own category this year. Our top pick? It could only be the Solaria Ultra Grande Complication La Premières, featuring 41 complications, which is the most complex wristwatch ever made.
And now, for the main event.
The Top 10:
10. A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus Honeygold
The Honeygold Odysseus is a watch made almost exclusively to be worn by flexers for flexing if I’m honest, but it does look good doing it and unlike so many other watches built to grace the wrists of the chronically flexible it does have the horological chops to back up its appearance claims. It’s also a lovely watch to behold on the wrist, even if it is extremely heavy.
9. Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Quantième Perpétuel
One of the best-looking watches to come out of Watches & Wonders Geneva this year, the Toric Quantiéme Perpétuel follows on from 2024’s Toric which received a complete redesign. The new perpetual calendar Toric gives you only the information you need to know from a perpetual calendar, and leaves plenty of breathing room thanks to its uncluttered appearance.
8. Audemars Piguet Royal Oak “Jumbo” Extra-thin Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Chronograph RD#5
The watch with the longest name on our list is Audemars Piguet’s RD#5 Royal Oak, which set hearts blazing when it arrived back in October. Dashing good looks and a feeling of being something really quite different from the Royal Oak lineup mean this one was the pick of the bunch from this brand, and perhaps a sign that it’s ready to break the mold once more.
7. Rolex Land-Dweller
One of the best watches from Watches & Wonders Geneva this year, with arguably the worst name ever given to a wristwatch, the Land-Dweller features a cutting-edge movement featuring their new “Dynapulse” escapement, which drastically reduces all friction from the escapement assembly. We chose the stainless steel version in 40mm as the pick of the bunch, but there is a variety of combinations to choose from.
6. Hublot Big Bang Unico Mint Green Ceramic
Jovan really enjoyed his time with Hublot’s Big Bang Unico Mint Green Ceramic this year, the watch stood out in Hublot’s range even if the “Red Magic” watch is the one getting the most limelight and would’ve been the more obvious choice. Mint green isn’t a colour we see on watches very often, so to see one with a mint green case and strap, and a matching dial? It’s a lot, but it worked surprisingly well.
5. Glashütte Original PanoMaticLunar Aventurine
This anniversary piece marking 180 years of Glashütte Original is on this list simply because it’s drop-dead gorgeous. Packaged in a reasonably-sized platinum case, this version of the PanoMaticLunar offers a sparkling view thanks to the aventurine dial plate, which also works nicely with the moonphase display. Even Glashütte Original’s Panorama Date window looks perfectly placed here. This watch shows that the Pano collection can be much, much more.
4. Czapek Time Jumper
The Time Jumper was quite the revelation when it was released, it was something totally unexpected from Czapek, which has a playful side but still takes its watchmaking very seriously. In fact, the Time Jumper is a perfect allegory of this, as it is a wildly different concept from them, displaying its time through two numbers with jumping wheels, while having the mechanics able to manage it all. Impressive stuff.
3. Patek Philippe 5308G-001: Quadruple Complication
Patek Philippe is one of the most respected names in the watch industry, and it’s watches like the 5308G-001 that earned it that reputation. To be truthful, most of us would see this as a triple complication, as it features a minute repeater, an instantaneous jumping perpetual calendar and a split-seconds chronograph. Patek Philippe views the split seconds, the extra part on top of the regular chronograph, as the fourth complication. It’s a horological beast, but not one without trade-offs, one of these costs well north of $1m and makes it the priciest piece here today.
2. Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Grande Hybris Artistica Calibre 945
Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Master Grande Hybris Artistica Calibre 945 impressed us deeply this year. So much so, in fact, that we discussed whether this was the watch of the year for us or not. Ultimately, it lost, but we still love the amount of detail that’s gone into it, from the technical side, such as the “Cosmotourbillon” which rotates the central dial structure precisely one sidereal day (23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds) and the minute repeater to the design of the watch, especially the sculptural nature of the dial itself. Is it practical? No. Is it good value? God no. Do we want one? We want more than one, believe me.
1. Breguet Expérimentale 1
Of all the brands out there that really needed to hit a home run this year, it was Breguet – and they knocked it out of the park. There’s something special about all of their 250th anniversary watches, but the Expérimentale 1 wins it for us with its technical focus, new design, and the strong signalling that Breguet is back. We’re very excited to see where the brand heads next and to, someday, get hands-on with one of these for a review. Until then, we’ll just have to settle for the stock photos.
So, what do you think would be your top watch for the year? Or, to ask a slightly different but still important question: which pick do you think we got wrong in this list? It’s quite hard to think about everything that’s happened over a year. Tell us your thoughts in the comments, and from all of us here at WristReview, we wish you a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.
