In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Grand Seiko’s 9R Spring Drive movement — a unique caliber that marries the best of mechanical and battery-powered technology — the Japanese watchmaker is releasing the Sport Collection Caliber 9R 20th Anniversary Limited Edition SBGC275. An edition of 700 pieces, the 44.5mm titanium watch combines GMT functionality with an equally useful chronograph in a sporty but beautifully finished package. Paired to a matching H-link bracelet with a three-fold clasp, it makes for an excellent traveler’s or everyday watch, though its larger dimensions are certainly better suited for bigger wrists.

The wide variety of styles available within the Grand Seiko catalog make it an ideal place to shop for an everyday watch — something robust enough to stand up to the rigors of life’s bangs and scratches, but elegant enough to make it through a business lunch or an important event. The new SLGH021 is just such a timepiece: With its 40mm case in Ever-Brilliant Stainless Steel — a highly corrosion-resistant alloy — it’s well poised to survive day-to-day wear. But set within its smooth bezel is a mesmerizingly beautiful dial in a vivid blue-green. Inspired by the Genbi Valley in Iwate Prefecture, it uses an incredible “molded” pattern that deserves to be studied up close.

If you like your watch to really knock peoples’ socks off but you also value a horologically impressive movement, then the SBDG215 is the watch for you. (As long as you have $300K to burn on a watch — if you don’t, this is actually not the watch for you. Feel free to window-shop, however.) Housed in a 950 platinum case with sweepingly wide facets, it features an array of baguette-cut sapphires and diamonds set into the case, bezel, and dial. Meant to evoke the most noble of beats sitting atop a snowy mountain, it certainly has the capacity to completely knock your socks off.

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, Grand Seiko was already developing and releasing manually-wound, hi-beat calibers that promised increased precision via higher frequencies. During Watches & Wonders, the brand is releasing two new references housing the first new Grand Seiko hand-wound, hi-beat movement in over 50 years. Part of the Caliber 9S family that launched in 2020, the 9SA4 beats 10 times per second while offering a power reserve of 80 hours via a Dual Impulse Escapement and twin barrels. Tested in six positions at three temperatures over 17 days, this is a true modern expression of a classic movement type beloved by collectors for the satisfying interaction between watch and wearer.

Inspired by the Chorus Stellarum silk scarf designed by the Japanese illustrator Daiske Nomura, the new artistic edition of the round-cased Arceau is a cosmic equestrian scene come to life—literally. A pusher at 9 o’clock activates an animation in which the skeleton horse and rider—embodied in mobile yellow gold appliques, engraved and painted by hand—prance around the champlevé enamel dial whose colorful lacquer-coated motifs are adorned with applied rhodium-plated stars. Reminiscent of the automata that captivated royality of the European Enlightenment, the Chorus Stellarum is sure to captivate all who see it in action.

Hermès’s new hand-wound grand complication is a world first that combines a central triple-axis tourbillon and “tuning-fork” minute repeater with a high-frequency Manufacture Hermès H1926 movement. Arguably even more impressive is the unique design of the timepiece, which takes its name, Duc Attelé, from the maison’s defining image: a canopy-top four-wheeled carriage drawn by two horses, itself inspired by a drawing by 19th century French animal painter and master of equestrian art Alfred Dreux.

With a case made up of “a circle within a round shape” and a crown positioned at 1 o’clock, the new Hermès Cut collection offers a playful commentary on silhouettes. Featuring concentric, and slightly irregular, shapes as a nod to sculpture and hewn marble, the model boasts subtle details, such as a bevel-cut bezel framing an opaline, silver-toned dial. These details punctuate the Cut’s minimalist design.

In 2022, Hublot introduced the first square Big Bang. The collection marked the first new case design we had seen within the Big Bang family of watches since the tonneau-shaped model released more than a decade prior. The inaugural square collection consisted of five models in an array of materials from ceramic to titanium and King Gold. Now, two years later, we get two new versions of the Square Bang Unico in Magic Gold. The new models retain much of the original design with a square case, a bezel punctuated with the six signature Big Bang screws, and a skeletonized dial. Of course, the major update comes in the form of a new material prominently featured on the bezel of both models: Hublot’s patented Magic Gold, the first and only 18-karat gold alloy in the world to claim complete scratch resistance.

Though there’s some debate about which firm created the first ceramic watch, the material didn’t begin growing in popularity in watchmaking until the new millennium. Hublot has long been at the forefront of experimentation with cutting-edge materials, so it comes as no surprise that ceramic quickly became a part of the brand’s repertoire in collections like its beloved Big Bang. In early iterations, we saw classic black and white color schemes, but over the years Hublot has grown bold with its use of color. We’ve seen blue, gray, red, yellow, and now orange and green.

Hublot was the first watch brand to team up with the sport of football (soccer for those in the US) back in 2006. Since then, its work has taken many forms as the official timekeeper of major competitions and the official watch of prestigious clubs. Then, in 2018, the brand notched another first by developing a special connected edition of its Big Bang E optimized specifically for referees to use on the field. As an extension, Hublot also created a version of the Big Bang E for fans that provides play by play updates on the action, and it can be customized with their team’s colors. This summer, the final phase of the UEFA European Football Championship will take place in Germany. In celebration, Hublot has unveiled a new generation of its Big Bang E Gen 3. The brand first debuted the model in 2022 in conjunction with the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. This updated version will allow its wearer to follow the final phase of the next UEFA 2024 European Championship in real time as 24 teams battle for the win, including France led by Hublot ambassador Kylian Mbappé.

The new additions to the Portugieser Automatic 42 and 40 lines – which have a re-engineered case construction and a more slender side profile – are, IWC CEO Grainger-Herr says, a perfect example of designers nailing the “evolution not revolution” approach: a philosophy whereby the horological world ensures a steady, consistent trickle of surprise factor.

The Duometre Chronograph Moon combines two contrasting complications – a speed-tracking chronograph with 1/6-of-a-second readings, plus the slow march of a 29.53-day moon cycle. Jaeger developed a new movement for the piece, caliber 391, and you can see some of it through the partially openworked dial at 5 and 7 o’clock. Jaeger-LeCoultre claims these openings are not just for aesthetic effect, but also make it easier for the watchmakers to assemble the movement. Dual barrels are wound by a single crown: forwards for the mainspring that provides power for the timekeeping function and backwards for the second mainspring that powers the complications. This timepiece is offered in platinum with a copper-colored dial and in pink gold with a silver dial.

The Duometre Quantieme Lunaire was introduced in 2007 when the Duometre system debuted. But this is the first time it, or any other Duometre complication, has been offered in stainless steel. Combined with a monotone blue dial that is not, like its predecessor, openworked at 5 and 7 o’clock, this watch casts very different vibe than the original 18k gold model. The steel/blue Quantieme Lunaire sportier, but remains clean and classic, despite conveying a lot of information: two power reserve indicators for each barrel, a fast-moving foudroyante seconds subdial that tracks 1/6 of a second, as well as the hours, minutes, seconds, date and moon phase. A complication like this cased in steel is a collector’s dream, and although it is not a limited edition, demand will be high and quantities likely scarce.

The Duometre Heliotourbillon Perpetual unites Jaeger-LeCoultre’s groundbreaking work in multi-axis tourbillons with the Duometre concept. A triple-axis tourbillon consumes a lot of power, so pairing it with the Duometre’s double power source concept makes perfect horological sense. The tourbillon in the new caliber 388 sets three concentric rotating cages into a dazzling display of watchmaking’s oldest attempt to defy gravity. The first cage is set at a 90-degree angle to the balance wheel, the second at 90 degrees to the first cage, and the third is at 90 degrees to the second cage. The first two cages rotate together every 30 seconds, and the third every 60 seconds. The tourbillon is built with 163 components and weighs 0.7 grams, which tells you three things: the components are very small, tolerances are incredibly tight, and, because the cages are titanium, it’s especially resistant to gravitational forces. For good measure, the caliber 388 also incorporates a perpetual calendar with a large date display, and it still maintains a 50-hour power reserve for both barrels. The caseback puts on a show of its own with sunrayed Geneva stripes (a.k.a. Côtes de Genève soleillées) radiating seamlessly across the entire expanse of the adjacent bridges.

There are brands — Bvlgari comes to mind — that are wildly adept at taking a classical complication and reimagining it for a modern audience by totally revamping its architecture and aesthetic. Then there are brands that simply reissue vintage references in a nearly one-for-one manner. Laurent Ferrier arguably takes the most difficult route: The ex-technical director for Patek Philippe, sometimes-race car driver (he finished 3rd in Le Mans in 1979, just behind Paul Newman) and first-rate watchmaker designs watches that would be intimately familiar to someone time traveling to 2024 from 1954, but that include just enough modern spin to render them utterly fresh. This is not easy to do.

Montblanc’s watchmaking artistry is on full display in the new 1858 Unveiled Minerva Monopusher Chronograph, but rather than featuring a skeletonized movement, the watch’s new monopusher chronograph Calibre MB M17.26 has been flipped so the display appears on the dial side. That’s not the only detail designed to appeal to devotees of mechanical watchmaking. Five apertures appear in the case band of the new limited edition, allowing light to flood into the hand-finished manually wound movement’s 291 components.

How deep can the new Iced Sea 0 Oxygen Deep go? The watch is guaranteed to be water-resistant to approximately 481 bar (about 4,810 meters, or 15,781 feet, the inverse of the height of Mont-Blanc, the mountain for which the brand is named). That’s another way of saying the model is designed for serious explorers of the deep. This overbuilt diver belongs to the maison’s “Zero Oxygen” series, referring to timepieces whose cases have been engineered to ensure the absence of oxygen, thereby eliminating fogging and oxidization under extreme pressure and at extreme temperatures.

In 2022, Montblanc introduced a range of watches called Iced Sea, featuring dials created by a special technique designed to mimic the glacial ice on the Mont-Blanc massif. The collection expands this year with the introduction of a new bronze-toned edition encased in cupro aluminum, a special alloy of aluminum and copper that’s highly resistant to corrosion and rust yet will still obtain a patina over time.

If Abraham-Louis Breguet, inventor of the tourbillon, were to get a load of this watch, the poor guy would probably have a heart attack. The Submersible Tourbillon GMT Luna Rossa Experience Edition is a tourbillon-equipped diver, constructed from black Carbotech, water resistant to 300m, and the purchase includes a trip to Barcelona to hang behind-the-scenes at the America’s Cup. (To be fair, at $176,500, the thing should pretty much do my taxes for me, too.) This is not exactly the intended use case for Breguet’s original tourbillon, but that’s what makes this watch so darn cool.

If you like the idea of proudly sporting Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli colors but want something more complicated than a standard diver and less involved than a tourbillon-equipped watch, then the Submersible GMT Luna Rossa Titanio is just the ticket. Made from titanium and measuring 42mm, this model is smaller and more wearable than its cousins, but it still offers a useful GMT function — perfect for the traveler on the go or parked at a seaside resort.

In accordance with the norms of today’s watch industry, the new Panerai Submersible QuarantaQuattro Luna Rossa Ti-Ceramitech will likely cause you to forget which watch you walked into the boutique to purchase because its name is so darn long. Let’s break this one down: It’s part of the Submersible line, meaning it’s a hard-wearing dive watch water-resistant to, in this case, 500m. “Quarranta-Quattro” is for 44, its width in mm. (Panerai is an Italian-founded marque, after all.) “Luna Rossa” is for the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli sailing team, which is set to compete in the America’s Cup in Barcelona later this year. And “Ti-Ceramitech” is for a brand new, high-tech ceramicized titanium that took Panerai seven years to develop and patent.

The skeletons are out of the closet this year at Watches & Wonders, and Parmigiani’s Tonda PF Skeleton Platinum Blue is among the most expensive and impressive of them all. Made from high-grade platinum 950 and sporting a deep “Milano” blue skeletonized dial, this watch exudes a commanding presence, but without overstating itself. The caliber PF777 is an in-house works with self-winding rotor made from 187 parts and offering 60 hours of power on tap. Add in the 100 meters of water resistance and a sleek 8.3 mm case height, and it’s easy to see how this watch could serve as an ideal high-end, go-everywhere, do-anything timepiece.

Minimalists, this one’s for you. The 2024 edition of the Tonda PF Micro-Rotor, introduced in 2021, lacks a date feature, or any superfluous aesthetic details. “Every element of this timepiece reflects our vision of discreet and timeless refinement,” says CEO Guido Terreni. “From the deliberate absence of visual complications to the meticulous selection of ‘Golden Siena’ dial nuances, each choice is guided by an unwavering commitment to aesthetic purity.”

A tourbillon is a suspended balance-wheel system that rotates in order to distribute the effects of gravity and improve isochronism. So how did Piaget get a tourbillon into a watch that measures exactly 2 mm thick? Once again pushing the boundaries of thinness, Piaget uses a peripheral tourbillon, meaning that a wheel meshes with the edge of the cage in order to rotate it. Requiring 25% more power than a movement without a tourbillon, Piaget has developed a skeletonized ultra-thin mainspring that stores 40 hours of power while still beating at a modern 28,800 vibrations per hour. As if that weren’t enough to pack into this miniscule case, the Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon also offers up 20 meters of water resistance. Not exactly a dive watch, but incredibly robust for a 2mm tall watch. A deep blue cobalt alloy contrasts with gold accents for a sophisticated yet sporty visage.

Piaget is celebrating not only its 150th anniversary but also the 45th anniversary of the flagship Polo collection. Festivities began earlier this year with the launch of the weighty, all-gold Polo 79 – with an equally weighty price tag ($73,000). Now Piaget is following up with a duo of Polo Date watches that are more accessible in terms of price, though limited to only 300 pieces each. One is a 42 mm model with a brown strap, and the other is a 36 mm version on a beige rubber strap with a bezel containing 91 brilliant-cut diamonds. Piaget doesn’t specify the gender of the 36 mm piece and is in fact careful to imply its gender-neutrality: “The most precious model can be worn by both women and men, with this versatility being standard practice in the world today.” But the brand also notes that the duo of Polos pays homage to the idea of “his and her” watches, popular in the early ’80s. Yves Piaget, great-grandson of the founder, was fond of the his-&-hers concept and applied it to the Piaget Polo. On both models, rose gold-colored hands brighten the steel case, with the second hand’s counter weight bearing the inscription “150.” This is the first time the 36mm model wears a rubber strap. These watches are available only at Piaget boutiques.

The legacy of TAG Heuer’s split-seconds chrono dates back over a century. Since the early 1900s, the brand has proven itself as a premier developer of stopwatches and dashboard timers for prestigious institutions like the Olympic Games and Ferrari. Alongside these technical developments, Heuer was responsible for creating one of the most instantly recognizable square watch designs: the Monaco. The year 2024 marks the monumental 55th anniversary of the Monaco, and in celebration TAG has unveiled a watch that’s emblematic of its technical prowess and aesthetic codes. Here, we have the iconic square design rendered in lightweight grade 5 titanium weighing just 85 grams in red and blue colorways. In addition, the new Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph houses a brand new movement: the TH81-00 mechanical split-seconds chronograph caliber.

One of the most exciting releases of 2023 was the return of the legendary Skipper to TAG Heuer’s catalog. The original debuted in 1968, drawing inspiration from chronographs provided by Heuer for a team competing in the 1967 America’s Cup. The Reference 7754 notably combined a sea-blue dial with two sharply contrasting sub-dials—a 12-hour counter in ‘Intrepid Teal’ and a 15-minute regatta counter divided into three, five–minute segments of different colors: Lagoon Green (inspired by Intrepid’s rigging); Intrepid Teal (the color of her deck) and, for the final five-minute ‘get ready’ sector, Regatta Orange—orange originally being adopted by the sailors because it contrasts with the sea. The Skipper disappeared from Heuer’s lineup in 1983 just ahead of Heuer’s acquisition by Techniques d’Avant Garde (TAG). In 2017, Hodinkee issued a limited edition interpretation to great acclaim. Noting that success, in 2023 TAG Heuer reprised the Skipper in the new Carrera Glassbox design. A year later, we get the Glassbox version in rose gold. Ahoy!

In 2023, the beloved Carrera notched its 60th anniversary, perpetuating decades of TAG Heuer’s noted expertise in chronograph development. The Carrera was the brainchild of the legendary Jack Heuer. Inspired by the famous border-to-border race called the Carrera Panamericana and first launched in 1963, the Carrera has seen many significant iterations over the years. The 7754 SN from the late 1960s served as the inspiration for this new Carrera Chronograph. The 7753 SN—standing for silver and noir—notably featured a panda design with a silver dial and black registers. In addition, the reference was marked by improvements in legibility, from the design of the hour markers and hands to the addition of double stops at 12 so it was clear when the chronograph was zeroed. For the modern interpretation, TAG has adapted these principles into its innovative Glassbox construction, which imitates a vintage crystal but feels entirely modern, too. Notably, this watch includes a stainless steel bracelet for the first time.

We know the Carrera as a sport watch. Yet, more and more, the lines are blurring within the category, and new Carreras are towing the line between retaining their sporty roots and upping the ante on elegance with gems and precious metals. TAG Heuer shows us its approach to this more modernized sport watch with three iterations of the Carrera that bring a sophisticated edge to the collection. The new 36 mm Carrera Date offers highly accessible sizing, reprising the proportions of the original model from 1963. It’s available in both two-tone and stainless steel versions. For the two-tone versions, we get a combination of stainless steel and rose gold with the option of a mother of pearl dial and diamond-set bezel and indices or a salmon-adjacent copper dial that echoes the warm hue of the rose gold. The classic steel variant also gets a mother of pearl dial as well as a diamond-set flange and rose gold hands and indices.

Platinum Excellence is a capsule collection, produced occasionally and only in limited editions, always in platinum, including the dial, crown, pushers and buckle. Even the stitches of the leather strap are a mix of silk and platinum. The platinum version of the Chrono Tourbillon, which was first unveiled in 2020 with a movement launched in 2015, is limited to 50 pieces. Vacheron often locates its traditional complications in untraditional positions, and on this model the tourbillon is at 12 o’clock, rather than the usual 6 o’clock position. It’s also a monopoussoir chronograph, with a subtle 45-minute totalizer at 3 o’clock. As you would expect with a premium platinum complication limited edition, the movement is meticulously hand finished, with circular graining, Vacheron’s exceptional plate and bridge chamfering, lush Geneva stripes, hand-beveling of both interior and exterior angles, and mirror polish on the upper tourbillon bridge. Each movement requires 11 hours of hand decoration.

Vacheron, being a classic watchmaker, has made very few titanium-cased watches. The first titanium cases appeared on two limited-edition Overseas Everest watches in 2021 in honor of ambassador Cory Richards, a photographer and mountaineer (he wore a titanium prototype on a 2019 expedition). In 2022, Vacheron applied titanium to the Overseas Tourbillon in a skeletonized version. This year’s offering cases a new Overseas Tourbillon with a closed dial. The watch is made entirely of titanium, including case, bracelet, bezel and crown, which makes the watch lightweight despite the size (42.5 mm x 10.39 mm). The dial is lacquered in the collection’s signature brilliant blue, and it comes with two extra straps – calfskin or rubber – also in blue. The ingenious quick-release system makes swapping bracelets a breeze. For good measure, the white gold hands and hour makers are highlighted in blue Super-LumiNova. The movement, automatic caliber 2160, has an 80-hour power reserve, using a peripheral rotor made of 22k gold, which can be seen through the sapphire caseback. This is a boutique-only piece.

Vacheron Constantin is latching onto the green this year, not just with new olive green straps on its Patrimony collection, but also on the dials of four new models in the Overseas collection. All have lacquered green dials with solid pink gold cases and bracelets. The color combination is a knockout, and a nice change from seeing green dials on only steel or white gold watches. As Vacheron’s style & heritage director Christian Selmoni said in a presentation about the new all-green look, “It could well be that this new color will become as iconic as blue within the collection.” There are three models, one of them in two different sizes: the Chronograph is 42mm; the Dual Time is 41 mm; and the Self-winding with Date comes in a 41 mm men’s model and a 35 mm ladies’ model with a diamond bezel. For added drama, the solid gold bracelet can be removed and replaced with matching green calfskin or rubber straps.

The Patrimony, Vacheron’s flagship dress watch, is shrinking down slightly this year, and collectors with smaller wrists (women) are celebrating. The Patrimony, introduced in 2004, was inspired by Vacheron’s minimalist dress watches of the 1940s and 1950s, and it has always been slim and embellishment-free. The new one is 39 mm, just a millimeter smaller than the next size up, and it is only 7.7 mm thick. It also sports a new dial in sunburst antique silver, and, best of all, two bold new strap colors – azure blue paired with a pink gold case and olive green for the white gold case. These subtle changes transform the Patrimony into one of the best gender neutral watches out there. It’s the perfect size with just the right infusion of color, and the straps are fashion-forward without being strictly feminine. The caseback is closed, as a vintage watch’s would be, and Vacheron leaves it unmarked to make way for personalized engraving.

Last year, this combination of complications was delivered with a salmon dial, and sold out quickly. Now it bears a more neutral shade, the same new sunburst antique silver that appears on the new time-only Patrimony. It comes on an olive green alligator strap as well, paired with an 18k white gold case. The dial is subtle and minimalist, in the Patrimony tradition, with 18k gold pearl minute markers (48 altogether), slim hands and stretched out hash marks on the lower half of the dial.

This concept watch falls into that rare, whimsical watchmaking genre known as “just because.” It combines haute horlogerie with haute couture and haute parfumerie … yes, perfume. In what has to be a “first” in watchmaking, the Egerie Pleats of Time features a strap fitted with specially developed nano-capsules that release a scent, randomly, as the wearer moves. It’s a collaboration between Vacheron, Paris couture fashion designer Yiqing Yin and French perfumer Dominique Ropion. The dial is lilac-colored mother-of-pearl, carved in a pleated shape like a dress skirt. Shards of mother-of-pearl are woven into the strap alongside the perfume capsules. The bezel and subdial ring for the moon phase are set with diamonds. The watch is concept-only, and not for sale.

The Egerie Moon Phase was also designed in collaboration with Yiqing Yin, but this one will actually go into production. It comes with three interchangeable straps in shades developed by the designer: Lilac alligator; night-blue satin-effect calfskin; and powder-pink calfskin. The dial is designed according to a distinctive symmetry: the crown and moon phase align at the one o’clock position, forming a subtle diagonal line that ends with the subdued Vacheron Constantin logo between 7 and 9 o’clock. The index is composed of individually hand-applied fine gold pearls just inside the edge of the pleated mother-of-pearl. The Egerie Moonphase is set with a total of 1.10 carats of diamonds, and limited to 100 pieces.

It’s been argued that Zenith’s octagonal Defy sport watches of 1969 were the real genesis of the celebrated integrated bracelet watch. Indeed, the also-octagonal Audemars Piguet Royal Oak didn’t appear until 1972. Origin stories aside, today’s Defy Extreme Diver is an ultra tough titanium diver with an integrated bracelet, or, if you prefer rubber or fabric straps, you can use the quick-change system to swap them out.

Realistically, it was only a matter of time before Zenith outfitted its newer Defy Skyline collection with a chronograph — and, more importantly, its storied high-beat, automatic chronograph movement, the El Primero. Available in three dial colors, the new Defy Skyline Chronograph will debut in a 42 mm stainless steel case with the collection’s well-known octagonal bezel, a matching integrated stainless steel bracelet (with an additional rubber strap included), and 100m of water resistance. A blue, silver, or black sunray dial houses a triple-register chronograph offering elapsed seconds, minutes, and running seconds, while the central seconds hand zooms around the dial every six seconds ready to stop and mark time withing 1/10th of a second. This feat of precision is possible due to the maison’s El Primero Calibre 36000 movement beating at 5 Hz.

This fun and funky 37 mm octagonal watch from Zenith harkens straight back to the late 1960s, when Zenith introduced the youthful Defy series. Zenith has been treating us with various iterations of this watch over the past few years, but this may be the most fun the Swiss brand has had yet with the format. Key features here are a rotating timing bezel, boldly legible hands with funky-yet-functional shapes, Zenith’s signature date window at 4:30 and – obviously – the bright orange colorway. Add in the impressive 600 meters of water resistance, the stainless steel bracelet, as well as the in-house Elite caliber 670 auto-winding movement, and this mid-sized retro watch turns out to be a monster of a modern diver in disguise.