The 15 Watches and Wonders Releases You Cannot Miss

Jul 22, 2023

If you care about the world of watches, this is essential reading.

Geneva's Watches and Wonders has established itself as the preeminent expo of all things high end when it comes to watchmaking. Not every great brand shows here, but every one that does is a market leader. So, it's the perfect bellwether of where things are going for collectors and first-time buyers alike. With literally hundreds, if not thousands, of watches on display, it takes a while to process the novelties from the best of the best. But here, in a season where we are very spoiled for choice, we highlight 15 pieces from the 2023 edition of Watches and Wonders. Most are costly, some are wildly expensive, some surprisingly not so much. But all of them offer polish, innovation, tremendous knowhow and—one way or another—great value for money.

In a week where it unveiled some surprisingly playful watches—including the charming and colorful Oyster Perpetual "Celebration Dial" (more on this later)—Rolex also drilled down on its luxury tool watch canon with the Yachtmaster II in titanium. Surprisingly, it's only the second time Rolex has issued a watch in titanium. The last was the Deep Sea just last December. The Yachtmaster, however, marks titanium's debut in a more everyday execution, if you can call anything Rolex does everyday. What's great about this watch is that it combines the familiar look of this classic timepiece with an entirely unfamiliar weight and the sort of dark glamor only titanium can offer. With titanium on average 30-40 percent lighter than steel, even on its matching bracelet, this watch feels just the ticket for ease of wear in a very functional package.

Yachtmaster II in titanium, $14,050, by Rolex

There's nothing remotely normal about it. To be fair, Cartier's Tank Normale only got its name after the second tank—the possibly more familiar "Louis Cartier"—was unveiled in 1922. "Normale," then, read "original." It was this slightly squarer watch that first earned the name "tank" when it was designed in 1917, (though not available to the public until 1919). Said to be inspired by the view from above of the new Renault tank that dramatically turned the tide of war for the allies that same year, it was a precursor of the Art Deco style that overtook design in multiple disciplines from the mid-1920s. At Watches and Wonders, Cartier unveiled a slew of riffs on the illustrious shapes in its elegant back catalog, including the Tank Americaine, The Tank Louis Cartier, the Santos, and the Pasha. But the Tank Normale from the house's Prive limited-edition series, in yellow gold on a matching bracelet, was a show standout.

Tank Normale in yellow gold with bracelet, $46,400 , by Cartier

How do you identify a classic chronograph? Well of course the sub-dials help, and the two pushers of course. Not always as it transpires. Minerva is the manufacture arm of luxury brand Montblanc that has a long history in developing innovative chronograph movements including some early groundbreaking monopusher chronographs. This time around, Montblanc's Global MD Laurent Lecamp revealed a rather mind-bending Minerva-developed chronograph with no chrono buttons at all. Instead, its chrono function is operated by twisting the 42.5mm fluted white gold bezel, once for on, once for off and once more to reset the counter, a feat of microengineering never, to our minds, attempted before in a chronograph complication. While much of Montblanc's focus this year is on broadening the offer in its surprisingly affordable (and popular) mountaineering-inspired Ice Sea and GeoSphere lines, its push to develop unexpected innovation at this rarefied end of complications is a long-term game that will doubtless pay dividends for the brand.

Unveiled Timekeeper Minerva LE100 Chronograph (edition of 100), $36,500, by Montblanc

Watches have been shrinking over the past few years, and hovering around the popular sweet-spot diameter of 39mm, making them eminently more wearable for smaller wrists. But some have gone further. Tudor unveiled the Black Bay 1954 at a diameter of 37mm, a COSC certified chronometer at a killer price that for our money is most engaging on the black rubber strap. It has much the robust look of larger models in this very popular series, especially on the steel bracelet, but way less of the heft.

Black Bay 1954, $3,625 (on rubber strap) and $3,850 (on steel bracelet), by Tudor

For Parmigiani Fleurier, the complications it creates are always a matter of telling time in the most elegant way possible. Last year the house unveiled the Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante, a GMT watch that allowed you to track the time in a second time zone, but—here's the clever bit —make the second hour hand disappear entirely when it's not needed. This year, PF applied that technical wizardry to the minutes hand in the stainless steel Minute Rattrapante. Two ergonomic push buttons on the left side of the case allow you to move the minute hand in five minute and one minute increments to your desired position. When not in use, a push button in the crown hides the rose gold hand completely under the main minute hand, leaving a classic and elegant two hand display. It's a great way to keep track of an imminent deadline. Or think of it as a silent—and supremely elegant—way of working out when someone's time is up.

Tonda PF Rattrapante Minute, $30,600, by Parmigiani Fleurier

Celebrating the 60th anniversary of arguably its most famous watch line—the Carrera—might have tempted TAG Heuer to a slew of nut and bolt replicas for the fans. Well, there was one, back in January to kick off a year of Carrera celebrations, the very clean (and retro) 39mm silvered-dial panda was based on a 2447SN reference from deep in its priceless back catalog. Moving on, TAG Heuer chose Watches and Wonders to launch a handful of anniversary editions that look resolutely to the future. The most noticeable innovation to the redesigned Carrera Chonograph—which comes with all blue or black panda dial treatments—is the sapphire crystal, which envelops the tachymeter scale around the outside of the dial. The tachymeter, normally a flat ring just inside the sapphire, now slopes down to the case parallel with the sides of the glass. It's a move that opens up the display in a very modern way while being reminiscent of the domed hesalite crystals that were a mainstay of 1960s watchmaking. At 39mm, the watch could wear on the small side for a chronograph, were it not for the striking wide open dial, which is all thanks to what is being called its "glassbox" sapphire crystal.

Carrera Chronograph, $6,450, by TAG Heuer

Hot on the heels of one of last year's most mesmerizing and slavered-over watch launches, the glamorously retro 222 revived from the 1970s, Vacheron Constantin unveiled additions to its sporty Overseas collection that have something of the flavor - and the reduced scale - of that epic watch. The Overseas Self Winding comes in a variety of metals from steel to 18k pink gold, as well as a couple with diamond settings, in 34.5 and 35mm. To suit the reduced diameter, the thickness of the watch has been reduced too, and each watch comes with quick change straps in matching metal, rubber and calfskin. The majority come with a deep blue sunray satin-brushed lacquer dial which jumps off the steel or gold with equal panache.

Overseas Self-Winding in 18k pink gold, price on request, by Vacheron Constantin

Zenith registered the name Pilot at the dawn of the aviation era, when planes were barely a thing, way back in 1904. The Pilot range remains Zenith's longest lived line of watches, and it has taken on varied forms over the past century. In the past decade or so, the collection had a definite whiff of those early decades of flight with deliberately retro styled (albeit jumbo sized) pieces. But the latest reboot of the Pilot is a far more contemporary affair that pitches it into the hotly contested contemporary aviation-inspired segment. Made in a 42.5 mm steel or black ceramic case, the look and the lines of the new flyback chronograph watches (a 40mm simpler three hand version debuts at the same time) definitely feel like something more out of the jet age than its predecessors, with high contrast black and white displays. All this works best of all in the stealthy matt black ceramic version. Inside, Zenith draws on decades of pioneering work in automatic chronograph movements that began in 1969 with the debut of the El Primero.

Pilot ceramic flyback chronograph, $13,500, by Zenith

The Hermès H08 watch, when it launched to an enthusiastic welcome in 2021, was a perfect combination of minimalist restraint and timeless elegance in a discreet 39mm case. It was just the sort of thing the venerable Parisian maison is good at. It was both sporty in the modern sense and elegant in a way only Hermès knows how. This time round, Hermès upped the lux factor with a rose gold case but sandwiched it between a DLC-coated titanium case back and a black radial brushed ceramic bezel. The textured black rubber strap only adds to the sporty vibe. Central to the retro-modern appeal is the clean powder-grained dial with its 21st century take on Art Deco numerals developed exclusively in house.

H08 watch, $15,600, by Hermès

For travelers, GMT watches are one of the most useful complications available, with one hour hand to denote home time and another for local time. Usually, one hand runs on a 24 hour cycle, meaning that it goes once around the dial in a day with the time read off a 24 hour display, while the other circles the dial every twelve hours. The difference can take some getting used to and to make it easier a day/night indicator is usually added for the secondary zone somewhere to help you work out if its 9 in the morning or 9 at night. This ingenious new 42mm rose gold Calatrava (Reference 5224R-001) is a very classy riff on the GMT – though at Patek Philippe it's given the more evocative name of Travel Time. Unusually, it has both hour hands running on a 24 hour cycle, obviating the need for a day/night indicator. The 24-hour dial has midday positioned at 12 O’clock, instead of the more usual 6 O’clock, making the upper half of the dial cover the span of the normal active day. Cleverly, Patek Philippe's Caliber 31-260 PS FUS 24H movement also does away with the attendant buttons required to adjust the hands, configuring everything instead through the crown, making this a surprisingly elegant and pared down way to benefit from a very useful function.

Calatrava 24-Hour Display Travel Time in rose gold, $57,366, by Patek Philippe

Frederique Constant celebrates 35 years in the business in 2023, which is a New York minute in watchmaking. Yet despite its tender years, the brand garners much interest from watch lovers for the surprising value for money many of its watches offer. Case in point, a new anniversary colorway in its Highlife Worldtimer series. Made in steel with a chocolate dial and 41mm in diameter, this is arguably the best sub $5k example of this fascinating old-school complication. While not cheap, this kind of complication—and its refined display—is something you’d more often see amongst the loftiest (and priciest) names in watchmaking. And using it is a doddle too. Set your local city or time zone at the top of the dial using the crown, then set the time and you can read off the current time in any of the 24 marked time zones, with a handy circular display dial pegged to the hour hand will also tell you if its day or night. If that doesn't sell you on it, the watch also comes with three straps in nubuck finish alligator, brushed steel or chocolate rubber.

Highlife Worldtimer Manufacture, $4,495, by Frederique Constant

You can never go wrong with a GMT watch in your collection. Bell & Ross, which derives much of its design language from the cockpit instruments of fighter jets, gives theirs a suitably tooly, beefy presence with a super legible display that's now enhanced by a new blue colorway launched last week. The 42mm square steel case houses the brands own automatic BR03-93 GMT movement. The sun-ray blue dial offers a clean background to the crisp four-hand display, which includes a bold red triangle-tipped 24-hour local hand. For ease of timekeeping the ceramic rotating bezel has daytime hours 0600-1800 picked out in grey and night hours 1800-0600 in blue.

BR03-93 GMT Blue, $4,200, by Bell & Ross

The origins of Panerai's striking California dial goes back to World War 2. Comprised of roman numerals up top, Arabic numerals below and batons and a triangle in-between, the idiosyncratic display was developed for easy legibility in the dark and underwater. Panerai dive watches were made for the company by Rolex from the 1930s to the 1990s and only for military divers and other ranks in the Italian navy; they were effectively a military secret for their first sixty odd years. The Rolex-patented dial concept was first used in a true dive watch—in a Panerai Radiomir—issued in 1944 (or 1940 depending who you believe). Only in 2006 did Panerai, now available to the public, revive the display in a limited edition known as the PAM249, that sold like hot cakes. Three other editions followed. The latest edition launched last week after a nine year gap adds a gradated green dial to the California canon and - in another first for Panerai - a distressed finish e-steel case which the brand calls Brunito (or burnished). This is the first Radiomir to appear in the slightly reduced size of 45mm (Radiomir watches have until now only existed in a macho 47mm size).

Radiomir California, $12,300, by Panerai

While IWC's main game is pilots watches bristling with knobs and dials, one pillar of the brand stems from a simple innovation that it was first, in 1955, to make antimagnetism available to the public. The Ingenieur was built with what the science boffins call a Faraday Cage, a soft iron shell that protected the delicate movement from the effects of magnetic fields. In an era of heavy machinery, magnetism was a big deal. The watch got a major update in 1976 when the OG of watch design Gerald Genta gave it a more macho demeanor than its predecessors. It is his design the informs a new family of Ingenieurs this spring. These are available in 40mm in stainless steel with a black, silver plate or aqua blue dial as well as a special version made in titanium with a grey dial, the watch updates Genta's original with a refined proportions and a modern in house movement.

Ingenieur 40, $11,700 (steel) and $14,600 (titanium), by IWC

When it was created for private customers in 1931, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso had one job to do, namely protect a fragile timepiece from flying polo balls and swinging mallets in the mêlée of the polo field. To do that, the maison created an ingenious rectangular case with a patented mechanism that allowed the watch to be flipped over and clicked in place to conceal the sapphire crystal and dial. For the storied brand, the Reverso is the gift that keeps on giving, and the challenge these days is not so much polo balls as finding ever more ingenious ways to play with that signature flip. One of the highlights of Geneva, is this pink gold version (it also comes in steel) with black sun-ray brushed dial, a two hand display which flips to reveal a chronograph display in the rear. In watch making, you might say, it's the definition of business in the front, party in the back.

Reverso Tribute Chronograph in 18k rose gold, $37,400, by Jaeger LeCoultre

Nick Sullivan is Creative Director at Equire, where he served as Fashion Director from 2004 until 2019. Prior to that, he relocated from London with his young family to Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. He has styled and art directed countless fashion and cover stories for both Esquire and Big Black Book (which he helped found in 2006) in exotic,uncomfortable, and occasionally unfeasibly cold locations. He also writes extensively about men's style, accessories, and watches. He describes his style as elegantly disheveled.

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