The recent collaboration between watchmakers Audemars Piguet (AP) and Swatch was always going to cause a stir, although the levels to which people went to get their hands on one was still surprising. (Swatch had to close stores in cities across the UK, after huge queues formed outside them, 'in light of safety considerations for both our customers and our staff'.)

And what were they after? A Royal Pop pocket watch, priced from £335. The cleverly-designed and colourful, eight-piece collection, inspired by the legendary AP Royal Oak, taps into a burgeoning market. In recent years, heritage and contemporary brands have rushed to release pocket watches — perhaps inspired by Peaky Blinders? — that range from the affordable to one-off masterpieces.

Some watchmakers utilise the style to mark significant anniversaries, honouring their history with a timepiece that was integral to it. For others it is a tool with which to showcase their design prowess and technical expertise, a recent example being the Hermès Pocket Roaaaaar! which features a lion’s head crafted from wood marquetry (about £160,000). It is one of several pocket models that Hermès has introduced since 2012.

Many have collectors in mind, but signs of demand are clear at the accessible end of the market. When British watchmakers Christopher Ward and Studio Underd0g collaborated on a pocket watch last year, the 100-piece collection sold out in 15 minutes (£2,995), and The Camden Watch Company cites years of customer requests behind its new launch (£170).

Historical appeal and modern sensibilities underpin the pocket watch's revival. A myriad designs are transformable and can be taken from pocket to pendant via a chain (The Camden Watch Company includes one for free when you pre-order). Some come with a stand so that you can use it as a sort of desk or bedside table clock at home. AP and Swatch's Royal Pop has a calfskin lanyard so that you can wear it around your neck or wrist, or as a bag charm.

Where convenience is concerned, reaching for a pocket watch is no more strenuous than reaching for a mobile phone — but it's far more dignified.

The world of watches has a complicated relationship with modesty. In Geneva, the watch world’s spiritual home, the biggest brands pride themselves on their rooftop-mounted neon signs that cast illuminations across the lake. At its biggest annual gathering, an exposition called Watches & Wonders held in the same city, from which I have just returned, they create four-storey monuments to their craft and compete over the most extravagant decorations.

If one suspends two racing cars in mid-air on their stand, another will import a real-life stunt plane to decorate theirs; a four-metre-tall diving tank faces off against an immersive space station makeover for your attention. And yet watchmaking remains a fundamentally quiet discipline with most workshops and factories tucked away in the Swiss hills. When you visit one, the white-coated watchmakers are so quiet you could hear the proverbial pin drop (which would also trigger an inquiry; those parts aren’t cheap).

It’s the same story with the watches themselves. Some are all outright extravagance, but most traditional brands try to walk a line between the age-old values of discretion and taste, and the sense that in this socially-saturated era, customers expect to see wares flaunted with the restraint of a Kardashian-led campaign.

All of this makes it relatively rare to find a watch that doesn’t feel the need to shout. But we haven’t given up. In fact, we have put together a selection of the latest releases that represent outstanding design and engineering, but won’t make people think you’re wearing it as a substitute for a personality (or attract unwanted attention of the very worst kind — on which point we can only add that anything valuable should be worn with care).

First up is Vacheron Constantin who is looking remarkably fresh-faced, despite the fact that it celebrated its 270th year in business last year — with so many superlative creations the brand had to hire out the Louvre.

They’ve given us a much more subtle star for 2026 — in the form of a new Overseas Ultra-Thin. It’s not a total shrinking violet, courtesy of its finely-faceted bracelet, but it enjoys the camouflage of platinum which could be mistaken for stainless steel from a distance, but on the wrist, feels emphatically anything but.

The 39.5 millimetre watch is only 7.35 millimetres thick, and therein lies the appeal for devotees of the brand. Vacheron Constantin discontinued its previous Ultra-Thin some years ago, and has brought the model back with a new in-house movement, the Calibre 2550. From one of the most prestigious watchmakers in the world, that goes a long way towards justifying the £103,000 price tag.

Platinum is also the trick of choice at Cartier, whose off-catalogue Tank Louis Cartier is to all intents and purposes as low-key and ubiquitous as you’d expect from the 129-year old design masterpiece.

The tell-tale signs are there for faithful fans of the brand, but the blue sapphire cabochon in the watch’s crown has been replaced with a red ruby — which indicates that it’s been made out of platinum. Lately, Cartier has taken to offering these rare models with a burgundy leather strap to match.

In general, opting for a slim dress watch on a leather strap is a sure-fire way to fly under the radar — a style rule that Patek Philippe has also embraced. The brand doesn’t have a single celebrity ambassador or sports partnership to its name, though you’d never describe it as entirely discreet. Its Nautilus range, which celebrated 50 years this year with a pair of limited editions and an eight-day desk clock (all in white gold or platinum, naturally), is the status symbol par excellence.

Among its important 2026 launches is an enormous 47 millimetre Celestial Sunrise and Sunset grand complication dedicated to tracking numerous astronomical functions (none so astronomical as the price, however, which is an equally arresting £353,210) and the Golden Ellipse, a delicate, Modernist creation originally introduced in 1968 and barely touched since. The very gently updated iteration is smaller, suitably restrained, but not quite as dainty. Inside, an automatic ultra-thin movement beats happily along, but you wouldn’t know it. The Ellipse has a solid back, perhaps the ultimate statement of watchmaking discretion these days.

The most emphatic watch on our list is the one that industry insiders almost universally agreed emerged as Watches & Wonders’ star of the show. Parmigiani Fleurier, which likely won’t be on the casual collector’s radar, has built a reputation for mechanical quality since it first started watchmaking 30 years ago. Among watch-spotters (yes, they exist), Parmigiani is also best-known for being the brand most often sported by The King. In recent years, it has undergone something of a design revolution under the current CEO, Guido Terreni.

The new Chronograph Mysterieux is as clever as it is understated: unlike most chronographs, which pack the watch dial with more information than the fine print of your mobile phone contract, it has a single button and no numbered scales whatsoever. Instead, at the press of the button, the main hands snap to 12 o’clock and start measuring the time, while a previously concealed hour and minute hand carry on keeping the time of day.

It’s frighteningly complicated underneath, and makes for quite a good party trick — if your own sense of modesty deserts you. Like the Vacheron Constantin and Cartier, it is cased in platinum (and stainless steel), and costs CHF36,900 (about £34,997).

Also doing much more than it appears — like your smartest friend, who never appears to be paying much attention before delivering the most appropriate and incisive remark — is the H. Moser & Cie Endeavour Perpetual Calendar. A mainstay of the company’s range, it is released this year in tantalum, a heavy metal that’s not quite precious, but prized by watch geeks for its blue-grey sheen and the fact that it’s so hard to machine, only the most contrarian manufacturers can be bothered.

The rest of the watch has had a monotone grey makeover, which is a lot more alluring than it sounds thanks to the delicate mix of textured finishes. Its genius lies in the fact that unlike every other perpetual calendar on the market, it feels no need to display data like the day of the week, phase of the moon or leap year on its dial. Instead, there is just a date window, and a very small arrowhead hand at the centre beneath the hours and minutes. This uses the 12 regular points of the watch dial to indicate the month, rather than the hours — although H. Moser, in its constant quest for minimalism, has done away with the markers as well.

In fact, it hasn’t stopped there: there isn’t even a maker’s logo anywhere to be seen. Now that’s modest.

55 cars. 110 drivers. Two arch rivals. One iconic film. Keeping pace with it all, a Heuer Monaco watch like no other, on the wrist of the coolest actor to grace Hollywood. In the 1971 film Le Mans, Steve McQueen sports a piece of wrist candy that is just as cool as his on-screen race car driver, Michael Delaney. On June 15, at Sotheby's in New York, the watch will make its auction debut as part of their Important Watches sale.

The watch comes with more than 200 archival photographs, as well as correspondence between the film set and Heuer. It is estimated to sell for $500,000 – $1 million (about £370,000 – £740,000).

The piece of film history comes from the personal archive of Don Nunley, the property master of Le Mans. There were seven Heuer Monaco watches supplied while filming, but this one was kept by Don afterwards for himself. Another watch from the film is at the TAG Heuer Museum (the brand was renamed when Techniques d'Avant Garde — TAG — purchased a majority stake in the company in 1985). A further watch, thought to have been used in pre-production for the film, sold at Sotheby's New York in 2024 for $1.4 million.

The Heuer Monaco was the first square water-resistant automatic chronograph, and was introduced in 1969. Don says this particular watch was ‘worn by Steve McQueen most often throughout the film and on set’.

For more information, visit the Sotheby's website

The most memorable jewellery watches unveiled at Watches & Wonders 2026 were the coming together of two heritage skills: haute horlogerie and jewellery-making. The hallmarks included rarely seen raw materials — in the case of Piaget: a hardstone nicknamed Storm Stone because of its swirling, stormy sky like pattern — diamonds and new shapes that celebrate both design and artisanal prowess.

What? Ludo Secret watch

Who? Van Cleef & Arpels

At its ateliers and design studios on Paris’ Place Vendôme, Van Cleef & Arpels dreams up timepieces that capture ‘the poetry of time’. What does this mean, you ask? Creative themes that span topics from love and midnight rendezvous to florals and the night sky, and animated dials. Then, there are the maison’s contemporary takes on its archival models. Among them is a new Ludo Secret watch — a high jewellery marvel in yellow gold and dusky sky-blue sapphires, set in a rounded moon shape. The heritage model was first unveiled in 1949; it is also a timepiece take on the 1934 Ludo bracelet. Its design interpretation is quintessentially Parisian: the Ludo nods to haute couture ateliers with gold links assembled to form a supple, mesh-like ribbon. A white guilloché mother-of-pearl dial with a baguette-cut sapphire to mark 12 o’clock is revealed when both sides of the buckle are pressed.

What? Myst de Cartier

Who? Cartier

The Myst de Cartier pays tribute to one of the Paris maisons most revered collaborators. ‘The watch is all about volume and movement,’ says Pierre Rainero, Cartier’s director of image, style and heritage. ‘Its design follows in the footsteps of the jewellery watches created under the direction of Jeanne Toussaint in the early 1930s, pieces that were both sculptural and flamboyant.’ Toussaint, a Belgian-born French designer, joined Cartier Paris in 1913. In 1933, she was appointed creative director of high jewellery. It was during Toussaint’s highly successful tenure that Cartier further embraced the panther as a house mascot. Sculpturally striking jewellery was another of Toussaint’s fortes. And so this year’s Myst de Cartier watch doubles as a bracelet with winding, alternating curves, expressed in yellow gold, white diamonds and black lacquer. Each iteration requires 112 hours of gem-setting — a task that is carried out in the Cartier Maison des Métiers d'Art in Switzerland. Ingeniously, the watch’s strap does not require a clasp, as all components have been strung on a piece of elastic.

What? Baignoire Clou de Paris

Who? Cartier

Also from Cartier comes a new version of the Baignoire watch. This is a model that was first devised in 1912 by Louis Cartier, and then revisited in 1958. Romy Schneider sported a Cartier Baignoire, as has Catherine Deneuve and, more recently, Lana del Rey. Diana, Princess of Wales also owned a version of the oval case watch. Gently updated versions include monochrome yellow gold models detailed with the Clou de Paris, a motif that Cartier first embraced in the 1920s and which is made up of many pyramid-shaped hobnail studs.

What? Noeud de Camélia Embroidered Cuff

Who? Chanel

At this year’s Watches and Wonders, Chanel and its Watchmaking Creation Studio led by Arnaud Chastaingt presented new takes on its totemic J12 wristwatch. Elsewhere, there were monochrome timepieces that embraced a joyful gaming theme, from chess-inspired creations, to pixelated portrait dials (of Coco Chanel).

The Noeud de Camélia line of watches sits somewhere between haute horologerie, high jewellery and haute couture. A quintet of precious watches inspired by Coco Chanel's favourite bloom, Noeud de Camélia follows the shape of a bow which in itself is a house insignia. The Cuff version is limited to just 20 pieces and features a white gold case and a grosgrain-effect, black leather bracelet, artfully finessed in the workshop of Maison d’art Lesage, a legendary haute couture embroidery atelier.

Sixty baguette-cut diamonds and one central, brilliant-cut diamond adorn the camellia flower — which keeps a lacquer dial hidden from view.

What? Swinging Pebbles Pietersite

Who? Piaget

Piaget has long worked with ornamental hard stones, and to great effect. This year, the Swiss brand presented several timepieces studded with vibrant gems, such as blue quartz and reddish-brown bull’s eye (both make up dials of 2026 iterations of the Piaget Warhol watch), and, in the case of an iridescent diamond cuff watch, turquoise.

Piaget’s expertise is best demonstrated by Swinging Pebbles, a line of precious sautoire-style watches. One of these uses pietersite, a rare stone from Namibia.

What? Tubogas Studs Capsule 104301 / 104347

Who? Bvlgari

One is a precious metal; the other, less so. A newly-launched capsule collection by Roman maison Bvlgari has been crafted from gold… and steel. The latter is more readily found in industrial design; at Bvlgari, supple bands of steel now clash with five yellow gold studs and shape the house’s famous Tubogas. The metals frame a white mother-of-pearl dial.

What? Spirit of Big Bang Impact

Who? Hublot

And so for something a little different: the Spirit of Big Bang Impact, by disruptor brand Hublot. The 42mm, tonneau-shaped watch comes in three iterations, including a limited-edition design crafted out of clear white sapphire and white diamonds. Technically, this presents a world first, as the diamonds have been set directly into the sapphire, a daunting task considering that sapphire ranks among the world’s hardest materials.

What? Cape Cod mini

Who? Hermès

How best to describe the famous geometric case of Hermès’s Cape Cod watch? Well, a square within a rectangle is perhaps the easiest, and most apt, answer.

The Cape Cod was first released in 1991, follows the design of Henri d'Origny — his track record includes the brand’s seminal silk scarves and ties — and reinterprets the brand’s signature, maritime Chain d’Ancre motif.

It was in 1998 that Belgian fashion designer Martin Margiela, then the house’s creative director of womenswear, added a long strap to the Cape Cod’s industrial design inspired case, creating the much referenced double tour.

This year, new bejewelled versions of the Cape Cod include a lilliputian mini version in yellow gold, set with diamonds and worn with a golden leather strap. Double tour, of course.

‘Christmas time, mistletoe and wine; children singing Christian rhyme’, sings Sir Cliff Richard. All very well, Cliff, but what is the actual time? The children in my house are more likely to be singing K-pop Demon Hunters, but that’s by the by. We need authoritative sources of timekeeping this Christmas, not vague sentiment.

The oven timer that you’re planning on using for the turkey doesn’t count either because I bet you haven’t adjusted it since the clocks went back? There’s only one thing for it — a new watch, and just to be on the safe side, I’ve pulled together recommendations for the whole family, from teenagers to fashionistas.

For him

I suggest gifting the man in your life, be it your husband, father, brother or lonely neighbour upon whom you take pity (and are, presumably, extremely fond of), a solid and capable watch that will serve him well year-round.

First up, there’s Omega’s Seamaster 300M — newly released with bright orange details across the dial and a slightly dressy Milanese mesh strap. It’s a redoubtable tool watch but also prestigious enough to cut it in more professional settings.

For the frequent flyer, I recommend the Nomos Glashutte Club Sport World Timer. It’s available in a variety of colourful limited editions, or in a more straightforward silver or blue. I like the Glacier version. It’s rare to find such a well-made world time watch (one that displays the world’s time zones) at this price.

Lastly, if sporty and adventurous isn’t quite the thing, how about the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Control Calendar? It’s beautifully finished, with a multi-textured dial, but not too fancy for daily use.

For her

A Joni Mitchell CD. Just kidding. Instead, guarantee a genuinely cheerful reaction with one of 2025’s most glamorous new watches — a category in which you are monumentally spoilt for choice.

Top of the list is the Bulgari Serpenti Aeterna, a scaling-back of the wrist-wrapping icon of the late 1940s. It has shed the typically bulbous snake’s head for a clean point and looks more like a bangle because of it. Thankfully, it hasn’t lost any of its viper-sharp personality in the process.

For something more decidedly 21st-century — and a little bit more multi-purpose — try Hermès’s Cut model in azure, a 36mm slice of stainless steel that’s equal parts contemporary, sporty (especially on the pale blue rubber strap) and, with its diamond-set bezel, dressy.

Last, but in no way least, what could be better than peeling back the Christmas wrapping to find one of Cartier’s red boxes? Or watching someone do so. You could opt for the Panthère — earlier this year, Cartier released gem-set varieties — or the real people-pleaser, the Baignore, which comes in a multitude of sizes and styles, on satin and leather straps or a solid gold bracelet. The latter — which was in fact new last year — gets my vote.

For the teenage son

Who can keep up with teenage trends? (Apparently they’re into water bottles, Jellycat cuddly toys and paper notebooks — which makes me think they’re also deeply into trolling older generations).

One watch that’s custom-made for rapidly-changing tastes is the Bamford London Mayfair 2.0 which comes with a swappable bioceramic case and a myriad different straps so that your teenager can mix up their look from one day to the next.

The chronographs from Split watches are equally as playful. They use ceramic-hybrid cases for durability and for each one sold, the company donates an hour’s worth of therapy to mental health charity Anna Freud.

For teens who might respond better to something a bit more traditional, try the Tudor Ranger. It has gap-year-proof build quality and boasts the kind of horological quality that’ll still be respected once they’ve made their final withdrawal from the Bank of Mum and Dad.

For the hardcore horology lover

Picking out the right watch for a super-geek is harder than making it through one of their diatribes about hand-finishing with your faculties intact. Try the A. Lange & Sohne Saxonia Thin (above) — 40 millimetres of unbeatable German handicraft with a black onyx dial that they’re guaranteed to gaze at, slack-jawed (giving you precious seconds to make your escape before they launch into an enthusiastic explanation of the engraved balance cock).

Alternatively, look to Parisian brand Trilobe who recently launched the Trente-Deux, the first watch in its collection to feature its own movement, the Trente-Deux. You’ll get endless brownie points simply for knowing it exists.

If you’re really pushing the boat out, try and get your hands on Vacheron Constantin’s Traditionelle Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin. Its arrival, a few weeks ago, had horolophiles hastily updating their letters to Father Christmas. Underneath the 1990s-style 36mm case, there’s a calendar that won’t need adjusting for the next 400 years. So no excuse to miss an anniversary ever again.

If the budget won’t stretch to a five-figure masterpiece, get them a heavyweight watch book instead — they’ll happily sink into something like The Rolex Legacy by James Dowling for hours on end.

For the fashionista

Fashion and watches are more closely entwined than ever, with collaborations across the divide now commonplace and some very serious watchmaking emerging from the likes of Gucci, Dior and Louis Vuitton. In that respect, it’s hard to look past something like the latter’s Art Deco-inspired Tambour Convergence.

However, perhaps fashion’s greatest influence on watchmaking has been to instill much greater levels of whimsy and stylistic experimentation. It’s given us new brands like Anoma, whose futuristic A1 Optical would have been unimaginable 10 years ago. It’s also the perfect watch for anyone who believes — correctly — that the green triangle is the best Quality Street chocolate.

If you’d rather give someone something a bit more conventional, but something that still informs those around you that you know your Amiri from your Aimé Leon Dore, what about the Noah x Timex Oval Moon Phase? The quartz watch costs a mere £220, but is still in more demand than timepieces fifty times the price.

If the prior paragraph means nothing to you it probably means you’re just not hipster enough for such things — but I bet I can move you with the Ralph Lauren Cowboy Polo Bear watch? (Surely everyone’s heard of Ralph Lauren — especially after the stellar year it’s had?) The watch is cuter than a mini mince pie and there are versions for men and for women.

“As fast and reliable as express trains, and the greatest fun in the world to drive”.

That’s how the famed author, soldier, Arabist, spy and bike nut T. E. Lawrence described his beloved Brough Superiors, the ‘Rolls-Royce of motorcycles’ (in the opinion of contemporary journalist H. D. Teague) that cost as much to buy as a terraced house back in the 1920s.

Fast forward a century, and I’m sitting on a modern-day ‘Brough’ that, at £210,000 plus VAT, actually costs more than many of today's terraced houses and has indeed proved to be ‘the greatest fun in the world to drive’ .

It’s called the RMB01 and, with its aggressive stance, low profile lines and hollowed-out framework, it could easily be a prop from a sci-fi movie. After a dozen ever more rapid laps of Spain’s Calafat race circuit, however, I can confirm that it is indeed a fully working machine.

The 150 mph, track-only beast is the product of a collaboration between the modern-day Brough Superior and ultra high-end watch maker Richard Mille, which is known for producing timepieces that make the motorcycle seem inexpensive — two years ago, an example of its RM 53-02 Sapphire Tourbillon fetched $4.5 million at Sotheby’s.

And it won’t take Richard Mille fans long to spot elements of the RMB01 that were inspired by the watch maker’s distinctive horological style.

The multi-piece wheels have been designed to resemble a tourbillon cage; the hollowed-out shapes of the forks and swingarm refer directly to the lightweight cases of the watches, and the bike’s chassis takes the form of a carbon fibre exo-skeleton from which the 997cc, v-twin engine is suspended — much like how the skeletonised movements are suspended in the watches.

Other similarities include a clutch cover resembling Richard Mille’s distinctive winding crowns and instruments that mimic the view into an RM watch movement — complete with oscillating gears that activate the rev counter and speedo needles when the ignition is switched on.

The graphics are based on those found on a typical Richard Mille dial, while the binnacle is bordered by a carbon fibre and titanium bezel featuring top-loading screws similar to those of the watches.

It’s a far cry from the machines George Brough started building after leaving his father’s car and motorcycle business on account of daddy’s standards simply not meeting those of his perfectionist son.

George kindly emphasised the fact by adding the ‘Superior’ suffix to his freshly-minted marque before wheeling-out the first new machines from his Nottingham workshop in 1919.

Within three years he was building his tuned SS80 model (guaranteed good for 80mph), taking one to the Brooklands track in Surrey where fellow competitors chortled at Brough’s incessant pampering of the bike he nicknamed ‘Spit and Polish.’

Their laughter subsided, however, when he won the experts scratch race and racked-up a new, 100mph lap record.

Brough won 51 of his next 52 races, too, only being denied victory in the last after he fell off (although his bike dutifully kept going and wobbled across the finish line first).

By the time Brough had introduced his SS100 model in 1924 (each personally tested by the proprietor to the magic ‘ton’) and the Alpine Grand Sports for hard-riding tourists, the Brough Superior legend was well and truly established and Lawrence had become its most famous patron.

He bought his first in 1922 and called it ‘Boanerges’, following with six others named George II, III, IV, V, VI and VII.

He died on the latter in May 1935 while attempting to avoid a collision with two boys on bicycles in a lane near his Dorset home, Clouds Hill Cottage.

Lawrence and George Bernard Shaw were among several big names drawn to Broughs for their exceptional fit and finish, exclusivity and reassuringly high price tags, but quality and celebrity patronage weren’t enough to prevent the marque from folding in 1940 when war stalled orders.

That left the Brough Superior name in mothballs until 2008, when it was bought by British entrepreneur Mark Upham, who revived it with a modern twist, building bikes using contemporary materials, computer-aided design and state-of-the-art construction.

Upham achieved his dream with the help of Toulouse-based engineering firm Boxer Design whose owner, Thierry Henriette, took over the re-born marque in 2013 and has since expanded the line-up by adding one new model per year (among which is one called the ‘Lawrence’ ).

In 2019, meanwhile, a collaboration with Aston Martin led to two limited edition bikes — the AMB100, a €100,000 turbocharged roadster built of 100 examples, and the track-only AMB100 Pro, an even more expensive effort based on Aston’s Valkyrie hypercar.

It was cars, too, that brought Richard Mille into contact with Brough in 2019. At the giant Retromobile classic show in Paris, Mille (the man) visited the maker’s display stand and, according to its executive director Albert Castaigne, began examining the bikes in ‘incredible detail’.

Mille subsequently visited the Toulouse factory, but it wasn’t until 2023 that he and Henriette finalised a deal to produce 150 RMB01 machines, more than 50 of which are said to have already been spoken for.

Would George Brough have approved? Almost certainly — although he might have considered the asking price to be a little on the low side.

One is expected to gasp with awe watching a SpaceX rocket take off and land back on its launchpad. Yet consider this: in 1795, without electricity, Abraham-Louis Breguet created a mechanism by candlelight to reduce the effects of gravity on a watch’s working parts — mitigating the number of slip-ups, delays and lost seconds that naturally occur on the dial.

Back then, a pocket watch sat vertically inside one’s jacket, which exerted pressure on its various components and risked sending the whole thing south. Breguet’s instrument, known as the tourbillon (French for ‘whirlwind’), tackled this vertical conundrum in the interest of accurate timekeeping. In the late 18th century, such precision — or lack thereof — could be the difference between setting sail for New York and ending up in Newfoundland.

The late 19th century, however, saw the arrival of the wristwatch, an innovation that appeared to render the tourbillon obsolete. Even today, people may say that a modern watch’s sophisticated metals and advanced configurations have replaced the need for an internal mechanism designed to ensure accuracy. Yet the tourbillon is still considered a vital tool of the watchmaker’s arsenal, its inclusion pushing a price well into six figures. It is one of the most miraculous and important horological innovations in history.

The tourbillon dates back to John Arnold, inventor of the overcoil balance spring, and was honed by Breguet in the years after the French Revolution. The Paris-based Swiss watchmaker had long made watches for the aristocracy, as well as members of the French royal family, including Marie Antoinette. This was despite his revolutionary penchants; in the late 18th century, he was earmarked for the guillotine before fleeing back to Switzerland and then to England, where he worked for George III. It wasn’t until he went back to Paris that he invented the instrument that would cement his legacy: a masterpiece of order born out of tumult and disarray.

Looking at the tourbillon in more technical terms is no less labyrinthine. The device is a gyroscope, containing both the escapement and the balance wheel. The latter is the watch’s equivalent of a pendulum, whereas the former regulates the release of energy from the balance wheel to the mainspring — that is, the spiral torsion of metal ribbon that serves as the watch’s lifesource. The tourbillon usually occupies pride of place on the watch, with its own display space on the dial, and turns as the spring pounces back and forth — although the designers of Patek Philippe, high priests of complex watch-making, have chosen to conceal theirs.

It may be complicated, but, importantly, it is not a ‘complication’. In watch parlance, something qualifies as a complication if it adds a supplementary function to the host watch. The chronograph, for instance, serves as an independent stopwatch that tracks minutes at a time; a power reserve tells you when you need to wind the watch; a moon phase reveals, predictably, what phase the moon is in.

Between 1801 — the year the tourbillon was patented — and 1945, only 1,000 such watches were made. That scarcity, a result of the complexity and difficulty involved in building such a mechanism, lent it more legend. However, as gentlemen moved from pocket to wristwatches — smaller and thinner than their pouchy predecessors — a challenge arose for tourbillon watchmakers. How could they shrink such a complex apparatus into such a minuscule structure? How could the tourbillon wristwatch get the right feng shui to be both beautiful and practical?

It would need to fly. Proverbially, that is. In 1920, watchmaker Alfred Helwig of the Glashütte’s School in Germany made the first ‘flying’ tourbillon: a version of the instrument in which the rotating cage is supported only from below, creating an open, ‘floating’ appearance. Most tourbillons these days are of this kind.

The tourbillon is watchmaking at its most dextrous and skillful. Since the 1980s, luxury brands have used the device for bragging rights, increasing their complexity and unlocking new ground. In 1986, Audemars Piguet released the Calibre 2870 ultra-thin tourbillon, a paean to the applied arts writ large. By tucking the tourbillon into a tighter space than it had ever sat in before, it was then the thinnest of its kind, as well as the first ever automatic tourbillon wristwatch. The brand has since continued to push boundaries, notably with the recently announced RD #5, a tourbillon chronograph designed to fit into its renowned Royal Oak ‘Jumbo’ Extra Thin.

Another groundbreaking moment came in 2005, when Greubel Forsey made a quadruple tourbillon, featuring four individual tourbillon cages, each containing a balance wheel and hairspring, all within the same watch. Also of note is Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Reverso Tribute Duoface Tourbillon from 2023, where the device is visible from both the front and back of the watch. Girard Perregaux is significant, having created a double-axis tour-billon; Jaeger-LeCoultre has made a triple-axis edit. Breguet, too, is still doing its founder proud, releasing the Classique Tourbillon Sidéral 7255 this year. This is only the fifth time a Breguet tourbillon has been available to buy, joining ranks with legends such as the Marine Tourbillon Équation Marchante 5887.

Today’s innovations are solving new tricks, as well as older ones. Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of flying to Los Angeles, US, to witness the unveiling of the resurrected Urban Jürgensen, an old Danish brand helmed by Alex Rosenfield and the highly respected Kari Voutilainen — 10 of whose watches have won the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. Inside the UJ-1, the first of three watches presented at this event, was hidden a wonderful tourbillon with a remarkable extra component: a spring remontoir d’égalité, which provides constant force to the escapement and optimises the watch’s energy consumption. One often forgets how much energy a watch consumes, with power stored in the barrels and released into the various components upon operation. The tourbillon is among the highest-consuming elements of a watch, yet the addition of a remontoir tempers its expenditure and gives the UJ-1 more time between winds — 47 hours, to be precise. Imagine an iPhone lasting that long.

If necessity is the mother of invention, nostalgia might be what keeps the flame alive. ‘My first tourbillon was a Breguet,’ says Ahmed Rahman, one of the most discerning watch aficionados in the world, whose personal collection includes several tourbillons. His love of the instrument comes down to ‘the history and innovation’. ‘If I could only keep one of them,’ he says, ‘it would be the Breguet.’

There will always be an appetite for the tour-billon, British watchmaker Roger S. Smith told Hodinkee Magazine; one that transcends any actual need for it as a timekeeping tool. It adds no more accuracy than a smartphone; its value lies in romance of history and craftsmanship. The tourbillon may no longer determine a ship’s safe landfall, yet it still turns with a noble purpose: a small, whirring testament to man’s mastery over Nature’s pull.

An early Rolex Oyster — arguably the most famous watch in Rolex history — is to be auctioned off by Sotherby’s in Geneva, Switzerland, this November. The timepiece, which was worn by pioneering cross-Channel swimmer Mercedes Gleitze, in 1927, is estimated to fetch more than CHF1 million (about £940,000).

The watch, encased in nine-carat yellow gold on a matching bracelet, holds a significant place in watchmaking history. Not only did it popularise the idea of water-resistant watches, it paved the way for celebrity marketing.

Mercedes Gleitze (1900-1981) was a British endurance swimmer, and in October 1927 became the first British woman to swim across the English Channel. Her affiliation with Rolex began following media pressure forced her to attempt a second crossing — after another woman claimed to have completed the feat in quicker time (the claim was later discovered to be a hoax). Unfortunately, cold temperatures meant that Gleitze did not complete the second crossing, but it cemented her reputation and that of the watch on her wrist.

In 1926, Rolex patented the Oyster case, purporting that it was the first truly water-resistant model (other brands had managed to do exactly the same, via different methods). And in the same year, founder Hans Wilsdorf jumped at the opportunity to market its hardiness by associating it with Gleitze’s ‘Vindication Swim’.

Gleitze’s relationship with Rolex continued after the event and she became the brand’s first ‘sporting ambassador’ — an almost ubiquitous title in the horological world today. The partnership is an outstanding example of Wilsdorf’s knack for marketing. As expert collector and author James Dowling notes in his new book The Rolex Legacy: ‘Like Rolex, Gleitze was an outsider, but she was also an individualist who created her own publicity and nurtured her fame carefully… [She] was a natural fit for Rolex. Not only were her many swims great publicity for the Oyster, but there was the undoubted additional advantage of the fact that she was both attractive and happy to pose in her swimsuit. This perhaps explains why there were more front page images of Mercedes in US newspapers than of Babe Ruth, when both were at the height of their careers. Whenever she was mentioned, Rolex would try to have an advertisement nearby.’

In a letter to Rolex the week after her ‘Vindication Swim’, Gleitze wrote: ‘You will like to hear that the Rolex Oyster watch I carried on my Channel swim proved itself a reliable and accurate timekeeping companion even though it was subjected to complete immersion for 10h24 hours in sea water at a temp of not more than 58 and often as low as 51. This is to say nothing about the sustained buffeting it must have received. Not even the quick change to the high temp of the boat cabin when I was lifted from the water seemed to affect the even tenour of its movement. The newspaper man was astonished and I, of course, am delighted with it.’

Sam Hines, Sotheby’s global chairman for watches, describes the moment as ‘a turning point for Rolex. From that moment forward, Rolex aligned itself with the pursuits of adventurers, athletes and professionals operating in the most demanding environments on Earth.’

The Oyster, which has been cosmetically altered since Gleitze’s swim, most likely during servicing by Rolex, last sold at Christie’s in 2000. It sold for £17,037, meaning that if it meets its estimate in November it will have increased in value by a factor of 55 times. For more information, visit the Sotheby's website.

Let’s set the scene: You want to buy a rare and beautiful vintage watch in great condition, but, with a myriad sites and sellers out there, you’re worried that what you’re about to purchase isn’t the real deal, or that you’re overpaying. Wouldn’t it be great if your second-hand timepiece came with some kind of guarantee, or a warranty like a brand new watch?

Over the last few years, major watch brands and independent artisans alike have realised that the booming vintage watch market and their reputation for quality means buyers will come to them for scarce models that have been properly serviced and authenticated. Plus, there’s something special about the fact that these repairs are being done by the people with direct access to the brand’s archives — sometimes even working from the same machines and at the same benches that turned out the watch the first time round.

IWC is the latest major brand to announce this kind of offering —joining sister companies Vacheron Constantin and Jaeger-LeCoutre, Longines and Nomos Glashutte — and it’s called ‘IWC Curated’. The carefully curated collection of vintage watches is available at selected boutiques around the world, in London, Tokyo, Dubai and IWC’s home town of Schaffhausen.

The appeal is simple: you get the very best examples of cult classics or forgotten gems, and someone else has done the hard work of finding and fixing it. The flip side is that you will pay significantly more than the going market price for the same watch. IWC’s argument will be that no-one else can sell you the same peace of mind or sympathetic restoration. There is a limit, as well, on how many watches will ever be available — unlike the hundreds you can find online — because the programme is restricted by the manpower in IWC’s servicing department.

‘It's not big scale, but the most important thing is that the customer can trust us,’ says IWC’s museum curator David Seyffer. ‘We have a lot of spare parts, but on the other hand we have three watchmakers. They are trained in restoration, so if we don’t have a part they make a new one.’

The watches themselves speak to IWC’s rich, 157-year-old history. David’s job is, in part, to take a sort of ‘greatest hits’ approach, so while he’s adamant the collection could in theory contain 19th century pocket watches at some stage, for now it focuses on what’s hot. That means original Ingenieur SLs from the late 1970s, and the ever-popular Mk 11 pilot’s watch, used extensively by the RAF from the 1940s right up until the 1980s. It will include beautiful Aquatimer dive watches — dainty by today’s standards — and forgotten rarities from the recent past, such as the limited edition Big Pilot’s. Perhaps most on-trend are the ceramic Da Vinci perpetual calendars from 1985 — groundbreaking watches from a time when the industry was emerging from a decade of strife and struggle — and the watches IWC made for Porsche Design in the 1970s and 1980s, whose titanium bracelets still have a sci-fi, futuristic feel.

David, though, prefers the classics. ‘For elegance, I would have to say the 1950s and 1960s. There are some very pure, three-hand dress watches, and you have the Caliber 89, which some journalists say is one of the best hand-wound movements ever made.’ Fortunately, for us, he’s not allowed to reserve the best finds for himself (so if you’ve always wanted a mint-condition original Portugieser you might just be in luck). However, he is duty-bound to submit anything truly unique to the brand’s museum. There are still something things that are just too precious to wear.

Watchmakers realised a long time ago that they could embellish their creations with pretty much any part of Nature’s bounteous creation. Don’t believe me? I’ve seen watches crafted out of every workable metal and precious stone — and decorated with straw, wood, feathers, flower petals and even butterfly wings. However, what happens if Nature’s earthly resources are insufficient? To where do you turn next?

NASA estimates that around 44 tonnes of space rock hurtles in the direction of Earth every year, but the vast majority burns up in the atmosphere. If we see it falling — and burning — it’s a meteor; if it survives and crashes to the ground, it’s a meteorite. And nearly all of them are mercifully small. The handful of iron-based meteorites that are both large and interesting enough to do anything with fell to Earth thousands, if not millions, of years ago.

When you hear about a watch that incorporates fragments of meteorite — usually, but not always, in its dial — the maker will have sourced it from one of two space rocks: the 26 tonne Gibeon meteorite, discovered in Namibia in 1838, or the Muonionalusta, unearthed on the border of Sweden and Finland, in 1906.

Usable meteorites are understandably rare and there is a thriving and competitive industry dedicated to their trade, as well as hunting for new fragments. In July, a meteorite sold for $5 million (about £3.65 million) at auction in New York, but has since become the subject of some controversy — after the Nigerian government alleged that it had been illegally smuggled out of the country.

The saying ‘diamond in the rough’ applies. To make a meteorite look appealing and otherworldly, you have to slice it open and acid-treat it to reveal its signature jagged patterns (known as Widmanstatten patterns, after an Austrian Count who observed them in the 1800s). The angular criss-cross motif is a result of nickel-iron crystals forming in the rock.

Meteorites have been used in countless watch dials since their popularity first boomed about a decade ago (this was due to both changing tastes and advances in dial-making techniques), but many brands reserve their use for strictly limited and even off-catalogue products. See: Rolex, which stealthily added two new meteorite-dial Daytona models to its collection earlier this year. They retail — if you’re lucky enough to get the chance to buy one — at around £40,000, and change hands on the second-hand market for almost double that.

Some brands are little less secretive and both Omega and Zenith have released meteorite-dial versions of their flagship chronographs (the aptly-named Speedmaster Moonphase and the punchy Chromomaster Sport, respectively). There seems to be something that collectors find particularly appealing about the juxtaposition of colourful chronograph subdials and a silvery meteorite background.

However, as is so often the case, it is the smaller, independent brands that have really embraced the meteorite’s creative potential. Earlier this month, Toledano & Chan — founded between Hong Kong and New York City during the pandemic — announced a version of its cult favourite B/1.2 watch (above). As well as the dial, the case and buckle are both made from meteorite. The combination of Widmanstatten patterns with the watch’s already-angular design (it was inspired by New York’s Brutalist architecture) has a striking effect.

Toledano & Chanis is not the first to encase an entire watch in the material. In 2016, De Bethune did the same thing to its Dream Watch 5 model, using metallic meteorite in shades of blue and purple. It wouldn’t look out of place in a science fiction film. More recently, Massena Lab and Unimatic made an even more literal reference to outer space. The white ceramic version of the latter’s Modello Quattro featuring, of course, a meteorite dial, is the third in a trilogy of limited edition pieces, produced in official partnership with NASA.

Meteorite’s greatest strength — its singular appearance — is also its weakness because, rare exceptions such as De Bethune aside, there aren’t a myriad ways you can use it. Furthermore, the rock’s signature texture risks becoming a ubiquitous feature, rather than an unexpected treat, as more brands get their hands on it.

Bremont recently found a way to subvert expectations with its recently launched Altitude MB Meteor Stealth Grey. At first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the dial is made from meteorite, but, during testing, the brand concluded that the space rock was too brittle to use (disclaimer: the MB series is designed to withstand ejection from a fighter jet). Instead, they decided to recreate the texture using good old earthly titanium embossed with a meteorite-like pattern. Ironically, brass is better equipped to take to the skies than the very material that fell out of it.

Who? The surfing financier

What? A Breitling Top Time Triumph chronograph

You will have seen him on the terrace of George, where he holds his afternoon meetings. During the week, he is a model modern Mayfair hedgie, whose working uniform is dictated by the social-media feeds of half a dozen modern-classic menswear influencers: Gaziano & Girling made-to-order slip-ons (not bespoke, yet), flannel trousers from Brunello Cucinelli (slimline, of course) and a close-fitting, soft-shouldered cashmere blazer (when formality requires).

Peeking out from underneath the cuff of his white shirt (open neck), amid a tangle of man bangles and beach bracelets testifying to the diving holiday in Thailand to which he treated himself last bonus time, you will see the ice-blue dial of his Breitling Top Time Triumph chronograph. It is a watch that reveals the man he becomes as soon as the markets close on a Friday, when, in his leathers and on his Triumph Thruxton RS 1200, he is to be found heading west on the A303 to pursue his passion for surfing and commune with his inner he-man.

But, his is a personality in tension between his high-powered motorbikes and his concern about the environment (don’t get him started on the state of our rivers). To assuage his guilt, he has devised his own personal offset programme and, come sunrise on Saturday, he conducts a beach clean before heading out into the bay: Breitling’s Surfrider partnership on his mind and an orange-dial Breitling Superocean, with environmentally correct orange Econyl strap made from recycled fishing nets, on his wrist. Back in town, he indulges in his guilty secret—watching Point Break for the 107th time, and promising himself that this is the year he will chuck in the job and follow waves around the world… but reality prevails and, by Monday, he is back safe and sound on the terrace at George.

Who? The art-loving tech billionaire

What? Vacheron Constantin, Unique Creations, Les Cabinotiers

He was previously little known outside Palo Alto, until news broke that he was divorcing his wife of 35 years. They had been high-school sweethearts, a fixture on the organic farmers’ market circuit and thought to have the most stable marriage in Northern California.

The high point of their year was an annual hiking holiday in Oregon in matching cargo pants the colour of Gangetic mud and zip-fronted recycled polar fleeces executed in a daring shade somewhere between porridge and concrete. But that was before he commenced the affair with his art advisor (whatever you do, don’t call her an art dealer): a French countess who wrote a doctoral thesis on Mannerist Art, once worked at the French ministry of culture, speaks six languages (including fluent billionaire) and has one of the largest collections of Birkin bags outside the People’s Republic of China. She has opened tech billionaire’s eyes — and his bank account — to the beauty of art. Out went the cargo pants and polar fleeces and in came the Loro Piana in tasteful shades of slate and cereal. He is looking noticeably younger and leaner since he engaged the services of a longevity advisor, a dietician, two personal trainers (one for cardio, the other for functional strength training), a goat-yoga specialist and a spirituality consultant.

When he is not busy extending his lifespan, he roams Europe in his Gulfstream making offers on artworks, the bigger the better. He was very frustrated when the Louvre turned down his offer for Veronese’s Wedding Feast at Cana —all 724 square feet of it. In order to soften the blow, a helpful curator suggested that he get in touch with Les Cabinotiers, the bespoke department of Vacheron Constantin, which has the rights to reproduce in miniature enamel painting any work of art in the museum (except the Mona Lisa).

The trouble is that, such is the size of the original, that it will need to be painted, in ‘instalments’ on five or six watches. The project could take more than a decade as each dial takes between one and two years to complete and, for obvious reasons, the same miniature enamel painter has to be used for all the watches.

Just as well that tech billionaire has a spirituality consultant to help him remain patient and a longevity advisor to ensure that he lives long enough to take delivery of the entire series of watches.

Who? The young aesthete

What? A Cartier Tank Normale

The young aesthete looks like a fashion model, tousled Neronic curls tumbling over an alabaster-smooth forehead and features so well defined that they beggar the terms chiselled and sculpted. He could have walked straight out of a Dolce & Gabbana advertisement.

But his is not the world of walking the runway or featuring in big-budget fragrance advertisements; instead, he describes himself as an old soul in a (beautiful) young body. He was born into a celebrated northern-Italian industrial dynasty and, after studying (and partying) at Le Rosey (the jet-set Eton), where he learned how to ski gracefully and order Champagne with aplomb at the GreenGo nightclub in the Gstaad Palace, he dutifully followed his family’s wishes and read International Economics and Management at the prestigious Bocconi university in Milan, where his father and grandfather had studied.

At least, he tried, but he found himself profoundly unmoved by the dynamics of globalisation and the role of cultural differences at central banks in determining monetary policy. His life changed when he read the memoirs of Baron de Redé, the Parisian dandy who lived a life of beauty, comfort and supreme elegance in the Hôtel Lambert, where he threw the famous Bal Oriental in 1969.

The young aesthete dropped out of Bocconi and fled to Paris where, with only the income from his trust fund to maintain him, he spent his time being instructed in the 400 different varieties of white shirts available to bespoke customers of Charvet, being fitted for suits at Cifonelli, curating his Instagram feed (@flaneuretdandyparisien), and buying Cartier watches. His current favourite is this year’s Tank Normale on a platinum bracelet — he finds yellow or pink gold a little vulgar and steel far too practical, but this icon of understatement suits him perfectly and can be worn under the close-fitting cuffs of his dazzling white Charvet shirts.

A man of simple tastes, he is perfectly satisfied with the very best.

Who? The veteran film director

What? A Rolex Submariner

The veteran film director is the grand old man of British cinema, his unimpaired memory recalling with crystal clarity a career that began almost 60 years ago, working on David Lean’s film adaptation of Doctor Zhivago, not that you see his name on the credits. He was an assistant to the second assistant director on the second unit, but it was an experience that confirmed his love of cinema and furnished him with the first of a store of anecdotes with which he regales starstruck audiences at film festivals and conventions and has filled two volumes of memoirs.

When working on Zhivago, he became friends with screenwriter Robert Bolt and later worked on the film adaptation of Bolt’s play A Man For All Seasons, where he met his wife. They are still married more than 50 years later, living happily in Buckinghamshire, surrounded by mementos of a rich, diverse and distinguished career in film and television. Everywhere one looks, there are pictures of the veteran director with all the greats of late-20th-century cinema — actors, directors, and producers alike — as well as trophies from film festivals and awards ceremonies around the world.

These days, his rambling farmhouse is a place of pilgrimage for film historians and biographers, whom he greets with old-world courtesy and a lively wit. He’s heard all the questions before and when he is asked to name his favourite trophy he looks around the room, his eyes lighting on the Emmy, the CBE and the BAFTA before returning to the well-used Rolex Submariner on his wrist.

He unfastens it and hands it to his interlocutors, inviting them to read the dedication from Roger Moore, the cue for another anecdote about how he won it from the 007 star in an all-night backgammon session on a film set during the 1970s. ‘Lovely man, Roger. His word was his bond,’ he says with well-practised timing, adding, with a chuckle, ‘and he had great taste in watches.’

Who? The architect

What? A Patek Philippe Nautilus

Approaching 60 and garlanded with the laurels of a successful career (knighthood, order of merit and honorary degrees from universities on every continent), the architect is at the peak of his powers.

Whether it is a new museum in one of the Gulf States, a library for an Ivy League University, a performing-arts centre in one or other of the ‘-stans’, a memorial of reconciliation in a former war-torn state, an airport in one of those smaller cities in China with a mere 20,000,000 inhabitants or a seven-star wellness and longevity resort in Saudi Arabia, he is the default choice for prestige projects around the world.

He came to fame during the Cool Britannia 1990s in London, when he spent time hanging out with the YBAs. His models (including one for a bridge over the English Channel) and drawings were the subject of a small exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery when it was still at Boundary Road. At that time, he had only two completed projects to his name: the house of a noted art dealer and the interior of a fashionable London restaurant in the then daring location of Hoxton.

His breakthrough was an Arts and education building in a former industrial town in the North of England that has since been likened to the Guggenheim Bilbao in its transformative power. It was the moment his career took off and, to mark it, he purchased himself a steel time-only Patek Philippe Nautilus. It has remained his signature ever since, together with the tailored blue workwear suit and collarless shirt he is always seen wearing. Having grown up during the 1970s, he was attracted by the watch’s unique design and has bought himself a new one every year, but, ever since production of the fabled Reference 571/1A ceased, he has been left in a quandary. Does he buy the white-gold Ref 5811 and hope no one notices? Or does he make a move to the Patek Philippe Grand complications?

Who? The vintage car enthusiast

What? A Chopard Mille Miglia

Ever since he was taken to his first Grand Prix by his industrialist father during the 1960s, he has been enraptured by the internal-combustion engine. He is old enough to have met the greats and he still talks of his encounter with Fangio as one of the defining moments of his life. Amherst Villiers was another of his automotive heroes and he still has his first vintage car, a Tim Birkin spec 4½-litre Blower Bentley (fitted with the famous Amherst Villiers supercharger). He bought it as a wreck back in the 1970s and he will never part from it.

You might see him parked up at the Goodwood Revival, clad in his tattered flying jacket, tweed cap and cravat. He still has the youthful grin and tumbling mop of Nero-like curls that made him so irresistible for the wives of his friends on the amateur motor-racing circuit of the late 1970s and 1980s, but it is testimony to his legendary charm that, although he has caused the breakup of at least three marriages (that he knows about), he maintains excellent relationships with all involved.

He, however, never married; the internal-combustion engine is his first, true and only love. He is always ready to talk cars — just one thing, never ever mention the Ferrari 250 GTO in his hearing. He once owned one, but, in the mid 1980s, he sold it to an American collector for close to $1 million. At first, he congratulated himself on his sagacity and shrewdness, but now that they can fetch $70 million (if you can find one), it is one of his greatest regrets in a life that has otherwise been full of fun and fast cars.

He has competed as a gentleman driver at Le Mans, but, these days, he favours the vintage rally circuit, especially the Mille Miglia Storica, the celebrated Italian event for pre-1957 cars. It was there that, during the early 1990s, he met Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, co-president of Geneva watchmaker Chopard, which sponsors the race.

As a regular entrant, he has collected almost every watch by Chopard to mark the Mille Miglia and has learned to enjoy watches almost as much as he enjoys cars. He jokes that he took up watch collecting because he needs an interest for his old age, but he shows little sign of slowing up just yet.

Once-upon-a-time, hunting for vintage watches was seen as a stuffy pursuit. Nowadays, collecting and wearing them is cool, as confirmed by some multi-million pound auction results, the patronage of A-list celebrities and absolute saturation on social media. Combined, it has also made it a lot harder to find a real bargain, but don’t let that put you off — there’s still some gems out there to discover.

In some ways, it has never been easier to jump into the world of vintage watches — and you don’t even have to leave the house. You’ll find auction details, dealers, forums and enthusiast experts to chat with, online. The downside? It can all feel a bit intimidating, especially because the vintage watch world has a language all of its own, and there are large sums of money in play, which equals greater risk. Furthermore, the quality and proliferation of fakes has never been higher.

‘The amount of information and knowledge out there can feel overwhelming,’ agrees Christy Davis, founder of pre-owned and vintage specialist retailer Subdial. ‘But the fact that someone's always going to know more than you means the pressure's off! You don't need to be the most knowledgeable, just bring an earnest interest and get on down the rabbit hole.’

Down the rabbit hole is right. Most, if not all vintage enthusiasts would agree that — even more than watch collecting in general — it’s a never-ending habit. ‘Social media is a great jumping off point,’ says Kate Lacey, vintage-watch dealer and Roseberys consultant. ‘Quite a few dealers have carved out their own very unique and accessible style — if you find one that aligns with your own, it can make the process of finding a watch quite a bit more straightforward.’

‘One of the biggest mistakes you can make,’ continues Kate, ‘is to impulse buy. It’s easy to feel that you will never see the same watch again, but unless it really is a specific design or rare reference, you may still find another.’

At some point, you will just have to take the plunge and make your first purchase. ‘The best way to actually learn is to have some skin in the game,’ says Christy. ‘You can follow all the blogs in the world, but until you actually decide to buy your first watch you won't really be forced to learn. Set yourself a budget and take your time, you'll really start to learn once you've made the decision to actually buy.’

So you know your own mind, you’ve followed a dozen vintage dealers on Instagram, signed up for Chrono24 and set up a suite of eBay searches. The question that remains for most is: How do you trust what you’re buying, and who you’re buying it from?

‘If a dealer has been in the industry a long time, it would usually imply they know what they’re doing,’ says Kate. ‘But it doesn’t hurt to ask around; get to know them; look at their stock. Check their returns policy, if there is a guarantee, service history and so on. Sometimes vintage watches can go wrong, but a good dealer will guide you through what to expect from your watch.’

‘Check reviews as a starting point,’ agrees Christy. ‘If they seem good, then test their transparency — ask something like "I'm new here, can you tell me a bit about how you've priced this watch and how it compares to the market". They should be able to give concrete examples of other pieces in the market; they'll be making a margin, that's their business, but they should be able to explain how they're priced, and you'll get a sense of just how transparent they're being when you speak to them.’

It’s important to understand how sales platforms operate. Sites such as Watchfinder and The 1916 Company hold their own stock, which they authenticate and service in-house; Chrono24 act solely as a middleman, connecting buyers and sellers without ever touching the watch, or taking responsibility for its condition. eBay, once the wild west of watch buying, has cleaned up its act, and now boasts an authentication service for watches that sell for more than £1,500. Sadly, its reputation as a hunting ground for bargains is a thing of the past. ‘It’s a great place to find lower value brands and odd references,’ says Christy, ‘but gone are the days when you could easily pick up mispriced listings. There are just too many people following watches these days.’

And so to the watch itself which, if you’ve done your required research, you will know won’t turn up in pristine condition (unless you’re very lucky and/or very rich). Originality is extremely desirable, but what is even more important is full disclosure of any work that’s been done to the timepiece. It’s rare to find one that’s completely untouched, but that’s sort of the point. To buy vintage is to buy something with history, that’s lived a life.

‘I think it helps to be slightly more open minded when it comes to buying vintage,’ says Kate. ‘It’s a very different buying experience to buying at retail — many vintage buyers don’t expect or want to buy something that’s brand new looking, but they want [it to be] as original as possible. It’s like buying a car — it might have a few little quirks that you might have to learn to live with.’

The good news is you can still find interesting vintage watches for relatively affordable sums — £1,000 should give you plenty of wiggle room. Plus, if you’ve shopped carefully, your purchases shouldn’t depreciate too much, but don’t go in thinking you’re about to turn a quick profit.

‘Some people can reliably invest well and make solid returns, but it's less easy to do and kind of isn't the point,’ says Christy. ‘The collectors that I see who make the best financial decisions tend to be buying with their heart and looking for areas of collectability that have been forgotten about. A few years later the wider community will catch up.’

‘Don’t buy into trends,’ says Kate. ‘If you really want to “invest”, start with the blue chip brands and the classic models: Rolex, Patek, Cartier… Buy the best condition you can afford. However, it’s better to just buy what you love.’

Her parting words: ‘Don’t bother with birth year watches.’

Click here to read more of Chris Hall's watch columns for Country Life

We used to joke about the British ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ summer, but these days it’s less damp squib and more of violent oscillation between heatwaves and flash flooding — for which, I think, we can thank the inexorable onset of climate change. Although its conditions may have changed, the Great British summertime remains unpredictable. Thankfully, in an equally unexpected turn of events, the nation’s watchmakers have taken it upon themselves to provide a reliable source of radiant cheer.

Leading the charge is Bamford Watch Department, which has already produced one of the cult hits of 2025 — the Deep Diver, a collaboration with storied Swiss manufacturer Girard-Perregaux. A 350-piece limited edition revival of a 1969 design, the Deep Diver’s bold combination of blocky, geometric fonts and liferaft orange, navy and white colour scheme is tricky not to like. Retro, without ever feeling dated. It’s pool-safe and comes in a presentation box shaped like a little swimming pool. Adorable.

The Deep Diver requires deep pockets (it’s £12,900), but Bamford wasn’t content with just causing a splash at the serious end of the pool — see another new collection under its Bamford London diffusion line.

The candy-coloured Bamford GMT range is best described as the horological equivalent of a tiki bar. We’re talking bezels that fade from pink to orange, like grenadine in pineapple juice, and vibrant Smartie shades of blue and green. The five-piece, textile strap range is deliberately simple and holiday-ready — and priced at £1,450.

Sticking with our foodie analogies, we move to Studio Underd0g and their recently released ‘Av0cado’ and ‘Guacam0le’ models (their words, not ours). The pairing was inspired by cheap, Chinese-made knock-off designs which, once nearly identical to Underd0g’s own designs, started to appear in colourways that had never existed under the brand beforehand. Rather than suing the imitators, Underd0g founder, Richard Bence, decided to turn their work into legitimate designs. As is usually the case with this young brand’s zeitgeisty work, ‘Avocado’ and ‘Guacamole’ sold out almost immediately.

Don’t worry if you didn’t bag one in time — perhaps Farer’s Lissom is the answer? It’s a dress watch with a difference — the difference being that it comes in a deep and rich raspberry pink (both the textured dial and suede strap). The Swiss hand-wound movement and detailed thoughtful design comes in at £1,150. And there are alternative, less full-on colourways — none of them plain though, in any way.

Another contender for Summer 2025’s poolside crown comes courtesy of Christopher Ward, whose Trident Reef collection comprises four, startlingly bright dive watches (and one sensible black one) with contrasting dials and straps. There’s something a little bit 2000s Ralph Lauren about it all — in a good way of course. The collection is available in 41mm or 44mm case sizes and they’re water-resistant to 200m. What-is-more, 2% of all sales go to coral reef conservation.

Last, but not least, comes Bremont, whose contribution is its Henley Royal Regatta limited-edition Supermarine. All they’ve done is change the textured black dial for a flat white one, but it’s made a world of difference — as has dropping the case diameter from 43mm to 40mm. The 50-piece limited edition result is more restrained than others, but no less seasonally appropriate.

I’m in a tricky spot. As a full-time watch journalist, I’m duty bound to emphasise the life-long quality of a good timepiece (I’m also allowed to say ‘timepiece’ without sounding like an idiot, although it’s a close call). But I also know that there are thousands of really great watches out there, enough for every possible environment or social situation, and I get all twitchy when I see people wearing something that really doesn’t belong. Thick dive watches with suits, for example. Now, I am aware that a lot of strict style rules are really tedious and not everyone can afford dozens of luxury watches, so think of this more as an exercise in picking the right tool for the job. A best-case scenario for all your summer occasions.

This is the Country Life guide to summer dressing for all the complete and utter watch addicts out there. Everyone else, take heed — even if you aren’t going to buy a fistful of new watches to go with your next linen shirt and deck shoes, there will be something here for you too.

The Festival

A summer staple whether you’re a mud-loving Glastonbury veteran, taking the family to Bestival, or losing yourself at Creamfields. A fancy, delicate watch is just one more thing to worry about, but your phone battery will die at some point, and you’ll need to know those set times. So make it something sturdy, waterproof, and not a family heirloom. Bulova’s bright and breezy Snorkel, a quartz dive watch on a rubber strap with a bioceramic case, is a reasonable start, as is Swatch’s Scuba Fifty — a watch produced in partnership with its more luxurious sister brand, Blancpain.

Both are available in sensible or sensational colour ways — which brings me to the other festival-going option: something that brings the party spirit. This summer, I’ll be looking at one of the many watches that does interesting things with luminous material, like Oris’s ProPilot Holstein Edition, whose dial reveals the brand’s bear mascot by night, or the Bell & Ross Diver Lum Outline, with its Tron-like luminous stencils. Perfect by day, and even better by night.

The Wedding

By now I think we’ve all had it drummed into us that the summer wedding outfit can be a bit more interesting than a blue suit (thanks Percival!). Obviously, this is one area where dress codes should still mean something, but whether you’re toughing it out in morning dress or mixing it up with separates and losing the tie, my watch advice would be the same: something small and simple on a leather strap. If it can be gold, so much the better: Omega’s under-the-radar Seamaster Cortina is a great option. Ignore the fact it’s been made to stir up anticipation for next year’s Winter Olympics, it looks cracking with formalwear thanks to its 37mm diameter and vintage-inspired lugs. It’s also worth noting that Omega just released a set of 30mm Seamaster Aqua Terra models with a new automatic movement; something it says brings the same level of quality in a smaller-than-ever diameter.

Alternatively, you could always go for a vintage watch — the width and height are guaranteed to work well with formal outfits and will be a potential conversation starter too. Just don’t spill too much Champagne on them when you take the dancefloor by storm.

The Major Sporting Event

To many of us, summer means sport. It means test matches, Wimbledon, and Grand Prix — maybe a spot of golf or sailing, not to mention Ascot, the Henley Regatta, the boat race… The list goes on and on. These days, most of these events have a luxury watch sponsor (as we discussed here), but thinking that you have to wear a Rolex Day-Date to the tennis or TAG Heuer’s new Monaco ‘Stopwatch’ edition to Formula 1 is a bit on-the-nose. (Although do take a look at Rowing Blazers collaboration with Seiko — it cuts against the grain of expensive luxury brands and brings a little fun to proceedings.)

These events have become arenas of self-promotion, as well as athletic prowess, which means that the summer sporting calendar has become the place to show off a newly acquired watch. And why should the A-list stars have all the fun? Pick something brand new, hard to get, or both, and reap the social media rewards. Right now I would plump for Tudor’s Black Bay 54 Lagoon Blue edition, Breguet’s 250th anniversary Type 20 chronograph or Piaget’s Polo 79 in white gold.

The Holiday

I advise taking a minimum of two watches on holiday, but also a maximum of two. So really, just two. Taking your whole collection so that you can take endless Instagram shots by the pool is not only trying too hard, it’s likely to prompt tricky conversations with the customs officers and potentially with your insurers. The two categories of watch you need are: something practical yet fun that can survive a beach trip/island hike/jetski adventure, and something a bit fancier for dinner.

First up, I’d suggest the newest edition of Longines’ Legend Diver, with its clean white dial. Any version of Doxa’s polished steel Sub 200, and Nomos’s Club Sport World Timer, which might be the best all-round utility watch launched this year, would also work well.

The ‘something a bit fancier for dinner’ category is one I’d also describe as ‘trying out a look that you might not get away with at home’. In that spirit, you could pack a Bulgari Aluminium Chronograph, also in white, a Zenith Chronomaster Original Lapis Lazuli, which will go well with some Mediterranean sea views, or if you’re feeling really brave, H. Moser & Cie’s Pioneer Spiced Aqua in shades of blue and orange with a white rubber strap.

There is something called Betteridge’s rule of headlines, coined by technology journalist Ian Betteridge in 2009 (but recognised for much longer), that states that any journalistic headline posed as a question can be answered ‘no’. The thinking goes that if men were definitely, undoubtedly wearing smaller watches, we as journalists would confidently assert that they were, rather than asking. It’s such a sweeping generalisation, too: if there’s one thing I know about watch fans, it’s that no two are exactly alike. At worst, it sounds like the kind of fashion-forward magazine headline that will make the mainstream majority run a mile: ‘Should you be wearing more kaftans?’ ‘Are bucket hats the new baseball caps?’ and of course, the hardy perennials, ‘Is the suit dead?’ and, ‘Is the suit back?’ The truth, of course, being that for nearly everyone, the suit never went away in the first place.

The other off-putting thing that happens when style writers start talking about men wearing smaller watches is that exhibit ‘A’ for the hypothesis is usually a cast of men whose dress sense as a whole is far from typical. If Timothée Chalamet wears tiny little Cartiers or Audemars Piguet Royal Oaks, it is entirely in keeping with his elfin, whimsical persona and does not necessarily mean that your pal Steve who works in recruitment is going to follow his lead. However, the reality is that we’ve got a generation of masculine role models that’s more diverse than ever, and that’s to be celebrated. There was a time when hip-hop stars had to conform to a rigidly defined look, and a big watch — probably iced-out — was part of it; now Tyler, The Creator, or Bad Bunny wear obscure vintage dress watches, often of the kind last seen on European dowagers.

Still, it’s fair to say that these kinds of trendsetters haven’t shifted a generation of average blokes away from their Rolex Submariners and into dinky little cocktail-hour party pieces overnight. But what they have helped to do is relax some of the insecurity around watch size. So if the question were to become ‘are men, generally, becoming more comfortable with the idea that a watch does not have to be an overcompensating act of size-based status signalling?’ then the answer would be ‘yes’. Not quite such a snappy headline, is it? We must also acknowledge that the big watch still exists, and it’s not always a sign that the wearer feels inadequate in other areas. What we’ve really got today is more choice, and more acceptance of a plurality of styles.

Nevertheless, we have seen the brands that once served us little other than big watches feel the need to offer smaller options. At Watches & Wonders this year, A. Lange & Sohne released a 34mm version of its 1815 three-hand classic; Rolex gave us a 34mm Oyster Perpetual (as well as versions in 28mm, 31mm, 36mm and 41mm) that plenty of journalists came away enthusing over as the ‘sweet spot’ size. Montblanc downsized its Iced Sea diver, Bell & Ross introduced a 36mm BR-05, Oris had a 34mm Big Crown and IWC a 35mm Ingenieur. These would all have been unthinkable as men’s watches a decade ago.

We are seeing the same phenomenon among the high-end independent watchmakers as well: avant-garde specialist MB&F just released its smallest-ever watch, the SP1, an elegant, airy dome of skeletonised, open-worked mechanics measuring 38mm across. Collector favourite Berneron, whose debut design was right at the heart of 2024’s short-lived, but passionate fondness for stone dials and dress watches, is prepping its second release: a 37mm annual calendar designed to feel similar to mid-century Patek Philippe watches — because that’s what his target market is used to wearing.

Among hardcore watch geeks it’s no surprise that smaller diameters are in favour, because this is the crowd that loves vintage (always smaller) and is most reactive to trends, such as the shift away from dive watches and chronographs to dress watches. But what about mainstream buyers? Happily, we have some data here too. Pre-owned watch seller WatchFinder reported recently that sales of watches between 20mm and 30mm were up 35% over the last year, while watches sized between 40mm and 50mm were only up 11% in the same period. The company doesn’t distinguish between (stereotypically) men’s and women’s watches in its data, so the uptick in smaller sizes could have a gender bias. However, the company also told us that over the last three years, customers part-exchanging one watch for another consistently opted to go smaller more often than any other choice. Roughly 44% of part-exchange purchases saw customers trade in a bigger watch for a smaller one, compared with around 38% sizing up to something bigger and 17% staying at the same size. So maybe we’ve managed to contradict Betterdge’s law after all.

It can be easy to oversell the idea that a certain era is ‘back’; a more clear-headed perspective might be that we find ourselves living in an age where everyone, regardless of age, is on the receiving end of relentless nostalgia marketing. But look: teenagers are wearing baggy jeans again, my primary-school age daughter comes home from parties with slap bands and yo-yos, and Pulp just announced a new album, so forgive me for finding a certain 1990s flavour in the air.

In watchmaking, the return of the 1990s — not, it must be said, horology’s most glittering decade — has been heralded a few times already in the last five years. First, vintage connoisseurs started telling anyone who’ll listen that it was all about 1990s dress watches from the likes of Breguet, Blancpain and Audemars Piguet. Then, brands that like to dabble in pop culture references — like TAG Heuer — leaned into the idea of the 30-year nostalgia cycle. If you’re a wealthy, successful Millennial, there’s a chance a Mario Kart watch does more for you than one with Popeye on it, or a melancholy watercolour painting of Lake Geneva.

This summer, however, the 90s wristwatch revival is hitting more mainstream notes. On May 8, Swatch launched the ScubAqua collection (left), a successor to its 1990 dive watch, the Scuba 200. Despite the mouthful of a name — ‘Skoo-backwa’ just doesn’t roll off the tongue — it’s a five-piece collection that’s achingly 90s, all see-through plastics and E-number colour palettes; a Woolworths pick-and-mix counter for your wrist. It’s brought up to date by the bioceramic case (as seen on the now-ubiquitous MoonSwatch), but the chunky bezel, two-tone rubber strap and visible movement are pleasingly retro.

For slightly more grown-up budgets — but equally youthful and poppy in style — there’s the TAG Heuer Formula 1 collection. The original did make its debut in 1986, but it was enduringly popular right through the 1990s, when TAG Heuer last served as F1’s timekeeper of choice. Rather than plastic, the cases are now a proprietary composite material the brand calls ‘Polylight’, and they’ve all got brand new solar-powered quartz movements inside, but look at them: they’re so 90s they should come with a tub of wet-look, firm-hold hair gel.

Last but not least, it would be rude to have an affordable 90s watch revival without Timex. The American brand has been on a bit of a tear lately, turning out pitch–perfect heritage-inspired redesigns while also getting quietly creative in the present-day. It’s no surprise that its creative director Giorgio Galli ran Swatch’s studio in the 1990s. This year, Timex has released a 30-year commemorative edition of the 1995 Intrepid ‘Indiglo’, a 46mm quartz-powered tool watch that screams ‘family-blockbuster-movie-dad’. Of course, it retains the push-button illuminated screen that, back then, was big news. Now, all I need are some shoulder pads and a briefcase…

Few complications have achieved the enduring relevance and utilitarian elegance of the chronograph. Conceptually, it is like having a stopwatch on the wrist, one that can measure elapsed time for anything up to 12½ hours. You can use it to time a rally stage, a furlong, a boat race, a lap of a Grand Prix or, for that matter, an egg.

This versatility explains why almost every brand offers a chronograph. Some, including TAG Heuer and Breitling, are built on foundations of expertise and count their production in hundreds of thousands, but the chronograph is equally important to an ultra-low volume maker, such as Rexhep Rexhepi, often spoken of as the greatest (and most exigent) watchmaker in a generation. His long-awaited chronograph, yet to make its debut, is one of the most talked-about timepieces in collector circles.

The chronograph is a rabbit hole down which one could disappear for a lifetime and has its own language. You have to know a ‘panda’ from a ‘reverse panda’ or ‘a snail scale’. It can be elegant, as with the chronographe monopoussoir, which starts, stops and resets with a single pusher, often set within the winding crown, or a Brutalist masterpiece, such as an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph. There are high-frequency versions, most famously Zenith’s El Primero, which operates at five hertz or more, precise to at least the nearest 1/10th of a second.

Calibration alone is a discrete area of academic study — the pulsometer is, as the name suggests, for medical use. A telemeter uses the speeds of light and sound to judge distance, whereas the tachymeter is the most widely used today, its primary purpose to measure the speed of the car over a set distance. Along the way, there are charming detours to be taken in Chronographland, such as the split-seconds chronograph that permits the timing of two relatively close events, say, the first and second in a horse race. There is even a Triple Split made by A Lange & Söhne: a mechanical virtuoso that dances on the precipice of timekeeping’s outer limit, which, thanks to the triple rattrapante mechanism, enables the capture of three different timings, which could be hours apart.

Things were simpler back in 1816, when Frenchman Louis Moinet created what we now recognise as the first chronograph timepiece, with the prosaic name compteur de tierces (thirds counter). This remarkable pocket instrument, capable of measuring to 1/60th of a second, was designed for timing astronomical movements, tracing the ancient paths of stars and planets. The etymology of the name — from the Greek words chronos (time) and graph (writer) — can be traced to 1821. That year, Nicolas Mathieu Rieussec, one of Louis XVIII’s watchmakers, created a device dedicated to timing horse races. Depositing ink on a rotating dial, it measured how long it took each horse to cross the finish line and, to modern eyes, might look like a scale model of the twin-turntable system of the type used by DJs. Literally, it was writing time.

Rieussec’s legacy is celebrated with an eponymous chronograph made by Montblanc, the Hamburg-based pen brand. (I can’t help thinking that they missed a trick. What better than a pen company to revive the idea of using real ink in chronographs?) If I were pedantic, I would point out that modern chronographs no longer ‘write’ the time, they show it, so perhaps chronoscope would be a better choice of word. The name stuck, however, and the chronograph was off to the races, where it has remained ever since, at home tottering through Champagne-drenched enclosures, under the sunlight-dappled canvas of marquees or otherwise enjoying that uniquely British phenomenon, the Season.

Given the sporting nature of so many of the Season’s events, there is plenty of (chrono) scope for using your chronograph. This is not lost on watch brands. Take, for instance, Chanel, which this year allied itself to the Boat Race, now the Chanel J12 Boat Race. Prima facie, it is a strange combination, until you learn that, during the 1920s, Gabrielle Chanel was often in Britain. Her lover was the Duke of Westminster, whose family name, coat of arms and motto are used by the Grosvenor Rowing Club, which was founded in Chester in 1869 to serve what were then known as ‘the clerks and assistants’ of the city.

Venture a little further up the Thames to Henley and you enter Bremont territory, with the company’s impressive manufacturing headquarters on the outskirts of town. When Henley Royal Regatta decided to take on an official timing partner, it would have been churlish not to turn to the local firm. Until this year, Bremont’s horological contribution has been in the form of special-edition watches for members, competitors and winners, but, at last, the offering is being broadened to include a Regatta watch for the spectators lining the Thames. Alas, it is a dive-watch, not a chrono, so if you want to time the Eights as they skim dragonfly-like along the river, choose the new Bremont Terra Nova full bronze (enriched with aluminium for greater scratch resistance).

At Royal Ascot, where hooves have thundered for royal amusement since 1711, Longines has established itself as the definitive timekeeper of equestrian excellence. The relationship between Longines and racing, however, extends further, reading like a livre d’or of the Turf: the Prix de Diane Longines and Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in France, the Dubai World Cup and the Kentucky Derby, US. If it has got four legs, a tail and whinnies, Longines is all over it.

For the racing, Longines uses technology capable of tracking times to within 1/1000th of a second, but I am more concerned about my watch matching my morning coat. You can imagine my delight, therefore, when I learnt that the brand’s celebrated Conquest Chronograph comes with a dial option called Sunray Brown with black counters and a polished ceramic bezel. Sunray Brown is more of a rich and lustrous fawn, a perfect match with the classic buff waistcoat. The black counters allude to the black morning coat and the gleam of sunlight on the ceramic bezel recalls the glossiness of a well-brushed top hat. It is, in all but name, a special Royal Enclosure edition.

For automotive racing, the Season highlight is the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, sponsored by Louis Vuitton, Moët & Chandon and TAG Heuer. Formula 1 (F1) was TAG’s entry-level line in the 1980s and, this year, the watchmaker has made a triumphant return with a capsule collection of five chronographs, their characters imparted by bright colours (my tip is the one with the lurid lime) and combinations of avant-garde materials: sand-blasted titanium, DLC, forged carbon and so on.

Otherwise, automotive action is concentrated at Goodwood, the West Sussex seat of the Duke of Richmond. Horses have raced here for centuries — Glorious Goodwood traditionally ends the Season — but the 9th Duke founded the circuit that saw motor-racing between 1948 and 1966 and his grandson, Charles, the 11th Duke, has turned that heritage into a cavalcade of motoring events, including the world-famous Festival of Speed.

Chronograph etiquette here is complex: watch brands are like mechanical moths lured to the estate’s myriad lights. To start the season in April, IWC Schaffhausen is the Official Timing Partner of the Members’ Meeting. In 2018, it developed the limited-edition ‘IWC Ingenieur Chronograph Sport Edition “76th Members” Meeting at Goodwood’. If you weren’t one of the fortunate few who secured one, IWC has chronographs galore, such as the Chronograph for Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One in the Pilot line. (There is — of course — a Goodwood aerodrome, if you feel the urge to wear your pilot’s watch in its locus classicus.)

Timing partner for the Festival of Speed in July is Roger Dubuis, ‘hyper horology’ maker of over-the-top timepieces and official watchmaker for Lamborghini. The Excalibur Spider Flyback Chronograph is a monster, with a case diameter of 45mm and a Darth Vader meets Terminator aesthetic that reflects the more invigorating side of motoring. By contrast, tucked away in a large private garden approaching the house, is the Cartier Style et Luxe concours d’elegance, for which the ideal chronograph would be the elegant, two subdial, chrono monopoussoir Tortue.

No survey of chronographs is complete without a mention of Rolex; its Cosmograph Daytona must be the world’s most famous. The sanctum of sanctums, the Rolex Driver’s Club, is about as close as the Festival of Speed gets to having a Royal Enclosure, frequented by Rolex testimonee and motor-racing legend Sir Jackie Stewart, a partner since 1968. At the far end of the Season is vintage-clothing extravaganza Goodwood Revival, where Rolex is official timekeeper. The perfect accompaniment would be a pre-Daytona chronograph, say the Ref 3525, produced from the late 1930s to the mid 1940s.

Don’t get me started on vintage chronographs. If you thought contemporary versions were plentiful and varied, they are but drops in an ocean of historic chronography.

For the ladies by Ginnie Chadwyck-Healey

It was Cheltenham Gold Cup day 2025 that proved we are heading in the right direction. As much as we saw many racegoers sporting the classic head-to-toe tweed, top-handle bag, suede boots and trilby hat, one lady — interviewed on television — stood out for me. Her entire outfit had been upcycled, reworked and re-accessorised, all from her own wardrobe. On a day of fast racing, slow fashion was the winner. She was colourful, confident and quite different — her style entirely her own.

It’s possible some of you have a drawer brimming with heirlooms, Granny’s brooches, silk scarves, evening gloves, pocket watches — an odd assortment of things we aren’t quite sure how to bring back to life in 2025. Times move on, but fashion is forever cyclical (I must have written that thousands of times over the years) and, as we approach the Season, with all its whimsical touches, dress codes and formalities, it’s the accessories to which we need to pay close attention.

Comfort is queen

I maintain that the art of accessorising — indeed, the art of style — has a lot to do with comfort. You can wear the greatest dress, slip on the prettiest heels and don an eye-catching hat, but if any part of that outfit is remotely uncomfortable, you’re in for a long day of pain. Too cold in a long, wafty dress at Henley? Even if you can borrow a Leander blazer from a friend, that’s an entire day’s outfit lost to poor planning. Shoes pinching as you enter the Royal Enclosure at 10am… by 10.28am, you’re on the hunt for a Compeed plaster. Rain stops play at Lord’s (it’s England, after all) and you’ve only got that free (unsightly) umbrella emblazoned with some big corporation’s name? Not the done thing. Half-time divot-stomping at the polo, yet you’re in stilettos and sinking into the lawn? Rookie error.

Simply the best

The etiquette of accessories is easy; keep it simple. Don’t carry an umbrella or bag that’s too large or impractical. If you use a fan to cool you down (elegant and demure if it’s a traditional hand-held one, a whirring, battery-powered example is far too ‘Christmas cracker’), avoid overusing it to the point where you’re swatting away your own elegance. For seeking shade from the sun, a baseball cap is definitely too casual and a wide-brim sunhat is fairly likely to annoy your neighbour. Instead, try a chic rattan visor for the ladies and a Panama for the gents (unless it’s Royal Ascot, but you know this).

For keeping warm, always have a layer that isn’t obviously an afterthought, should you get too cold. A big dollop of a navy blazer will ruin the delicacy of a pretty dress. Try a shawl (Hera Cashmere is a lovely option) if you can’t find the right formal jacket. Always road test whether the layer fits, rolled up, in your bag.

Match made in heaven

You might choose to invest in a new bag from names such as Strathberry, Mashu, DeMellier or Aspinal of London, but don’t attempt to match it to the colour of an outfit. You’ll never use it again if you do, I assure you. Instead, consider metallics (avoid glitter; too ‘party’) as a neutral, because such bags are smart and easy to find when you don’t always want to have cream, nude or peachy accessories. Metallics will have staying power in your wardrobe long after the summer.

As for ‘matchy matchy’, it doesn’t have to be a precise match between the colour of your outfit and accessories. Case in point: The Princess of Wales at the Commonwealth Day Service last month. Her outfit had two different reds at play (tomato and crimson), but she married them into a neat synergy by ensuring that her hat exactly matched her shoes (and, indeed, the red chairs of Westminster Abbey). She didn’t do matching coat, bag, hat, shoes as she might have done in the past, displaying the confidence of matching just enough, but not every single aspect.

What, this old thing?

Sometimes, it’s simply not feasible to splurge on an expensive accessory you might wear only once. The good news is that hiring or renting accessories (or even the whole outfit) is the norm in 2025. (A study by Westfield shopping centre found the UK clothing rental market has a potential value of £923 million).

One of my favourite British milliners is Camilla Rose, who reports about 60% of her business is now rental. ‘It gives people flexibility to explore more hats without the commitment. Those who do purchase often have more than one outfit in mind and we are happy to tweak previously purchased hats.’ Generally, with the focus on circularity in fashion (reuse, rewear, recycle), ever more brands are happy to offer tweakments to designs and that’s where you, the customer, can engage your own ideas. Haberdashery heaven V V Rouleaux has a treasure trove of trimmings to revive previously worn accessories. Ribbons, buttons, butterflies, feathers, flowers on wires — for the experimentalists among us, these are often the most attractive part of the Season.

It’s all about balance — find the sweet spot between functionality and style and, remember, accessories should enhance, not overwhelm, your outfit. Follow the etiquette, embrace the formalities (know the terrain!), but, importantly, have fun with it. Accessories are your chance to add personality and a touch of flair; for men, tie pins, neckerchiefs and pocket watches are up there. Hats are my favourite and I still have a James Smith & Sons ladies umbrella on my wishlist. Then there’s the velvet opera coat longing to go out, currently destined for my children’s dressing-up box…

My final and most practical tip?

Take a handbag with handles long enough to hang from a wrist or shoulder so you can go hands free. How many times have you wanted to hold a glass of fizz in one hand when studying a race card, but had awkwardly to clutch a bag? How many times have you not had hands free to clap the speeches at a wedding? How many times have you wanted to shake hands only to realise you’re proffering… an elbow. No more! Is that me trying to help you justify a new handbag from Mashu? Perhaps…

For the gentlemen by Tom Chamberlin

For years now, a rather dashing German gentleman has trotted into the Royal Enclosure at Ascot in immaculate morning dress, complete with a stiff collar, cane and spats. He looks very fine and is a grand reminder of the Edwardian era, when everyone dressed like that. Standards of dress have certainly slipped since then and his valiant resistance is to be commended, but when it comes to accessorising, he does need an update.

Accessorising offers the true wheat-chaff-sorting exercise, sartorially speaking. A bespoke suit is a wonderful thing, but there are great ready-to-wear options that will send you out into the world a new man. What distinguishes the best dressed is how they accentuate a dress code with flourishes that set them apart.

On your own head be it

There was a time when hats were ubiquitous for men. The sad decline is an impediment to any truly stylish society, but the summer will still probably require any of three hats — the top hat, the bowler hat and the Panama hat. A top hat is the most formal option and should only be worn with morning dress or white tie. Although it is de rigueur in the Royal Enclosure at Ascot and at Buckingham Palace garden parties, it is not something I would recommend for a wedding. You will regret carrying it around all day between the service and reception and trip home. Renting a top hat is, to some extent, fine, but if you are regularly going to events in the summer, it will become a false economy when you could buy one that will last you the rest of your life.

If you want to be really smart, try to find one made in vintage silk. The silk plush you see on these hats cannot be made any more after a brotherly brouhaha that resulted in the factory burning down and the last of the machines that made this fabric being lost.

The bowler hat is largely for cavalry and guards officers, who have various marches in May. Owing to royal attendance and vast numbers of dashing officers keen on a convivial luncheon, these tend to become something of an occasion.

The Panama hat is for any occasion that requires some level of dressing up and being outdoors. From Wimbledon to Glorious Goodwood, Henley to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, you should have something that shields you from the elements and a hat appropriate for a jacket and tie. Fedoras are fine, but the beaver felt you’d most commonly find with it can make things quite warm, so the breathability of the Panama, not to mention the smart ribbon that can correspond with your old regiment or club, is much more fun.

Come rain or shine

From a historical point of view, some say, the umbrella offers a great distinction between us and the French. Our friends across the Channel eschewed the umbrella years ago because, according to a French 18th-century magazine, to have one meant you could not afford a carriage. In Britain, since the days of Sir Walter Raleigh, we have taken sodden clothing with great cultural pride, so being out in the elements when it rains is par for the course and an umbrella is not even meant to be used if the rain comes. Have a look at old images of people such as Anthony Eden and the tightly furled umbrellas they carry with them. A guards brigadier once told me that, to get the umbrella looking like a scabbard, they would remove the metalwork inside, rendering the umbrella useless as a means of shelter.

My recommendation is to have an umbrella on your person at all times. It helps with posture and is a great opportunity for chivalry, as long as it works.

Jacket ephemera

The jacket is where most good accessorising can take place. There are some rules to adhere to, but these aren’t defined by a dress code, so you can use artistic licence. A pocket square and tie should be bedfellows, but never match — this is naff (and a bit Pete Hegseth). Instead, they should have some colour co-ordination and support the jacket, rather than stand out from it. Lapel pins, chains and boutonnières are smart, but, again, wear in a cautionary manner. They should be relevant to you, as people will ask about them. I sport a 1950s Dunhill lighter as a lapel chain: it was my grandfather’s and people derive great joy from seeing it work.

Follow, for example, the sturdiest of the Royal Family, Mike Tindall. Although his physique creates a bit of heavy lifting for clothing to flatter and cope with the scale, he emerges with a lot of plus marks through his accessorising. His tie often matches the outfit of his wife, Zara, a sweet detail, and he turns to tie bars and lapel pins to fill the vast expanse of his chest and shoulders. Indeed, at Ascot, he is often the very best dressed.

Wristy business

The watch is Head Boy of men’s accessorising. It is a complicated topic and there is no way of simplifying it without upsetting an industry that has poured billions of Swiss francs into development, engineers and tiny components all designed to track the passing of time accurately.

However, I think there are two types of watch you can consider for any social occasion: the sports watch and the dress watch. The former should be worn with anything that is lounge suit or less formal and the dress watch is for a lounge suit and more formal. The distinction is the dimensions and strap. A dress watch usually comes with a leather strap and slimmer watch (although this is not always the case, metal straps for formal occasions can be very smart indeed). There are those who say you shouldn’t wear a watch with black tie as you should be enjoying yourself without any need to know the time. This is rubbish, as dress watches for eveningwear have been made as long as there have been wrist watches.

Sports watches usually come with a linked metal strap, often steel, but, if you have gold, then good for you. Some sports watches are inherently very smart. Mark Birley wore an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak with his formal attire and, if a sports watch was good enough for him, then it is good enough for you.

Well trodden

Socks are simple. They should be navy blue, which works for everything except black tie, when black should be worn. Alternatively, they can coordinate with another part of your outfit. I like to wear sky-blue socks to match my morning-dress waistcoat. Patterns are a no no and try to get knee-high socks, as you should never show hairy skin when you cross your legs.

Shoes are the most important element of a look. They should be black for formal attire, such as morning dress or black tie. With a suit, black is appropriate for a navy one, but not much else. When wearing grey, you should go brown (not tan, ever) or burgundy. These two colours of shoe work for anything lighter than navy, so make sure they are in your roster and, of course, they should all be well polished, too.

As for spats, the Buckingham Palace garden party apparently witnessed their demise when George V once emerged not wearing them; guests quickly removed theirs and disposed of them in the bushes.

It’s an odd question, when you think about it. Can a luxury watch be Brutalist? Some have a basic practicality in their ancestry — watches that originated in times of warfare, for example, were engineered for keeping time in the most hostile conditions. You could call them utilitarian, perhaps.

But Brutalist? Not only do many of them pre-date the term itself, but they struggle to evoke the very specific style that we associate with the movement, either in their original form or their present-day, more luxurious guise. Then you have the more opulent end of the spectrum, closer in aesthetic to a rococo state ballroom than a concrete car park. There’s nothing brutal about a Bovet or a Breguet, except perhaps occasionally the price.

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) defines Brutalism as ‘a style with an emphasis on materials, textures and construction, producing highly expressive forms’. That sounds a bit closer to home, horologically speaking — but it’s also quite broad.

The material in question is usually concrete (beton brut being the French term), as beloved of architects like Le Corbusier who in a curious coincidence — for our purposes at least — was born in La Chaux de Fonds, the Jura town best known as the cradle of traditional Swiss watchmaking. And the ‘emphasis on construction’ tended to mean exposed air vents and chimney stacks. Watchmakers like showing off their movements, but again, it’s not quite the same thing.

So why are we even asking the question in the first place? If there’s so little common ground between the massive, slab-sided form of the National Theatre and the polished flanks of a Rolex Day-Date, why connect the two? Because despite the potential chasm between them, several influential watchmakers have in recent times paid direct tribute to Brutalist styles, creating watches — and in one case, an entire brand — that they say are inspired by Brutalist architecture.

At the same time, we have also seen a spike in demand for blocky, angular, asymmetrical designs in the vintage world, such as the Rolex King Midas, a five-sided irregular dress watch with a tapered bracelet, first introduced in 1964.

The most high-profile modern example has come from Audemars Piguet, with its [Re]Master 02, which it labelled ‘a tribute to Brutalism. The watch is based on a design from 1960 known as reference 5159BA, and features a lop-sided, sharp-edged case shape with a multi-faceted crystal display (so unusual in its dimensions that AP had to carve out a slice from the inner left hand side to allow the minute hand to rotate properly).

It’s definitely a ‘highly expressive form’, to return to RIBA’s words, and anyone who has worn one will confirm that it is surprisingly massive — another Brutalist trait, and not an easy one to execute in wristwatch form. Texture is represented too, in its brushed ‘sand gold’ case, but pulling at this thread slightly undoes the 02’s Brutalist leanings, because like all fine watchmakers, Audemars Piguet takes particular care over the delicate surface finishing of its cases (and movements) and that’s rather at odds with brutalist notions of rough, crude exteriors.

Another brand making a direct connection to Brutalist architecture is Toledano & Chan, the New York and Hong Kong indie start-up whose debut design, the B/1, is a direct homage to the Met Breuer building in New York, and specifically its asymmetric extruded windows. Founders Phil Toledano and Alfred Chan bonded over a love of Brutalism, among other things, and make perhaps the most credible link between a watch and the aesthetic.

In doing so, however, they aren’t taking an overly literal approach: the B/1 is still luxurious in familiar ways, from its bracelet polishing to its lapis lazuli or mother-of-pearl dials. ‘Architecture is highly adjacent to watch nerdery,’ says Toledano, and it’s clear that the watch design blends the two passions. The B/1 has also attracted its fair share of comparisons to the King Midas.

What about less retro-focussed brands? Richard Mille, whose watches typically use unconventional materials, exposed mechanisms and idiosyncratic shapes in the service of an aesthetic that’s more future-industrial than Brutalist, recently released an updated version of its RM 16-02 Extra Flat that it says ‘reinterprets the brand's well-established aesthetic codes, showcasing a resolutely Brutalist style with its straight lines and monolithic structure.’

From the front at least, the watch appears not to have a curved line to its name, although of course the requisite wheels and gears are still present. It has redesigned the movement’s dial-side plates, come up with a new typeface, and even re-routed the traditional minute track along a zig-zag path: the end result does rather look like an aerial view of a Brutalist city plan.

Other Swiss brands, or watches, possess elements that nod to Brutalism without going the whole way. Patek Philippe’s Cubitus is sufficiently rectangular and emphatic, but far too conventionally decorated; some small independent brands like Kollokium, Ochs & Junior, Lebond and Alto all flirt with various Brutalist-lite notions like rough textures, geometric cases, asymmetric shapes and minimalist blank surfaces, but none could truly be said to channel a Brutalist spirit.

Perhaps the conclusion is that luxury watchmaking can never quite overcome the ideological gap between its devotion to precision and adornment and real Brutalism’s rigid, undecorated principles. But the fact that watchmakers are even trying has given us some fascinating results.

Of all the elements associated with a watch, the ‘big hand, little hand’ concept is about the most basic. We are so primed to understand the relative angle of these two lines that some independent watchmakers — like Ressence or H. Moser & Cie — do away with practically everything else. But with all orthodoxies there is inevitably a counterpoint, and this year has seen a real resurgence of watches designed with no hands whatsoever. At the Geneva watch fair Watches and Wonders, the horological world’s annual get-together where every significant brand shows its wares, watches with miniature window displays were the hot thing everywhere you looked, from Cartier to Bremont.

I say resurgence, because the idea is not a new one. It made its original appearance on pocket-watches of the 19th century, particularly those produced by IWC and known as ‘Pallweber’ models after their original inventor; the style then enjoyed a renaissance during the Art Deco era, when watchmakers combined their new and exciting wristwatches (in all manner of shapes) with window-led displays, the geometric form of case and porthole combining neatly. Cartier was among them, which will be no surprise to anyone familiar with its pioneering approach to design, and this year its flagship launch was a revival of the Tank à Guichets, a version of the classic Tank Louis Cartier with its dial completely enclosed in either gold or platinum, save for two small apertures through which one can read the hour and minutes.

A note on terminology: ‘guichet’ is usually translated as ‘window’, which might jar with anyone whose schoolday French included phrases such as ‘la fenetre de ma tante est ouverte’ — but the translation is less in the sense of a window in a building and more that of a ticket office or cashier’s counter window. Such watches are also usually referred to as ‘jumping hour’ models, because while the minute display rotates consistently in the same way as a hand would, the single numeral displaying the hour remains static for almost 60 minutes and then (depending on the engineering below) either switches over gradually in the space of a few minutes, or more commonly ‘jumps’ abruptly at the top of the hour. There’s a level of visual theatre that appeals to watch geeks.

Earlier in the year, Louis Vuitton kicked off the trend with its Tambour Convergence (left), an unashamedly Deco style that stacked the hours and minutes together, leaving the rest of the case free — in the platinum model, it seized the opportunity to set it with diamonds. At Watches and Wonders some brands followed Cartier’s approach of a solid case with ‘guichets’, like Bremont’s surprising Terra Nova Jumping Hour in bronze, while others took a more conventional tack, incorporating a jump hour display into a dial, underneath a sapphire crystal as usual. Among these, Chopard stood out with its magnificent L.U.C Spirit 25, whose dial was created using straw marquetry in a hexagonal pattern, while Gerald Charles marked 25 years of its brand with a limited edition whose dazzling dial almost outshone the discreet hour display at 12 o’clock.

Perhaps the most charming of all was Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Reverso Tribute Nonantieme ‘Enamel’, which combined an ornate jumping hour display with a 120-degree ‘smile’ for the minutes and housed them both in a deep blue and gold enamelled display of the night sky, giving the overall effect of a wonderfully anachronistic astronomical device. Which, in a way, it is.

March has been a busy month for Breitling: Last week it confirmed the long-rumoured acquisition of dormant brand Gallet, a storied watchmaker that it intends to revive and reposition as an entry-level luxury sibling. Now, the brand has announced the arrival of actor Austin Butler as its latest brand ambassador. Although for watch fans, that’s not the most exciting part.

The star of Elvis, Dune 2 and Masters Of The Air was photographed two weeks ago at Paris Fashion week — where dedicated watch geeks were able to look past his smouldering gaze and loose Saint Laurent tailoring to spot a Breitling on his wrist that didn’t seem to exist anywhere else in the world.

The stealth red carpet tease has become a bit of a staple trope in recent years, perfected by Omega and Daniel Craig, who in his post-Bond era has affected a ‘who, me?’ air of innocence while carefully showing just enough of an unreleased watch to set the internet alight. Now Breitling is in on the act, and we can reveal that Butler’s watch is in fact the first of a brand new collection, the Top Time B31.

Breitling introduced the Top Time chronograph in 1964 as an alternative to its established lines of pilot’s watches and marketed it at the nascent muscle car generation. It remained in the range until the company ceased operations in 1979; when it was revived in 1982 the Top Time was deemed surplus to requirements. In 2020, the name was revived, once again on a line of chronographs aimed at petrolheads.

This new model marks the addition of a simple time-only design to the Top Time line. Available in three dial colours — green, blue and white, each available on a stainless steel bracelet or leather strap — they will cost £4,550 for leather and £4,850 for the bracelet. Measuring 38mm across and water-resistant to 100m, the range also marks the introduction of a brand new automatic movement, Calibre B31.

Perhaps surprisingly, this is the first simple, non-chronograph movement Breitling has designed and built in-house in its 140-year history. Recently, it has relied on movements sourced from rival brand Tudor under a deal struck in 2017, whereby in return for Tudor’s time-only calibres, it would sell Tudor its B01 in-house chronograph for use in its Black Bay models. Now, with an automatic movement all of its own and a growth strategy that will soon involve multiple brands, that deal may be about to run its course.

Breitling, under the leadership of CEO Georges Kern and with the energetic backing of private equity investors Partners Group, is on an ambitious path that will eventually see it sit at the heart of a watch brand conglomerate to rival Richemont or Swatch Group. In 2023 it announced that it had bought up Universal Genève, another highly respected Swiss watch brand that had drifted into irrelevance. Last year, it showed the first hints of a product line-up that will see Universal revive references popular with vintage collectors, and confirmed that it will sit above Breitling’s core price point as a more exclusive and refined brand.

Gallet, which like Universal is best known for its chronograph watches of the 1950s and 60s, will be positioned slightly beneath Breitling in price, offering a more entry-level option. Kern has confirmed that it will be stocked alongside Breitling in its boutiques, while Universal Genève will have its own separate retail operation. Expect revivals of models like the Flying Officer and Multichron Clamshell chronograph, tool watches that Gallet introduced during the Second World War.

What do film director Quentin Tarantino, basketball legend Kobe Bryant and, um, Queen Victoria have in common? All of them have, at one point or other, owned a coveted Girard-Perregaux timepiece.

The haute horologists have been a byword for Swiss excellence since they were founded in the remote Jura mountains in the late 18th century, with Monsieur Constant Girard going on to produce the first ever commercial order for wristwatches. Even within the rarefied world of Swiss watch-making, theirs is a backstory built on true artisanry, keeping production in-house and passing down closely-guarded craftsman skills through the generations.

As such, Girard-Perregaux (the latter name for Constant’s horologist wife, Marie Perregaux, who hailed from a noted watch-making lineage) are not the types for brash marketing or clout-chasing collaborations. So the new Laureato Chronograph Aston Martin Edition is notable in its arrival; two heritage heavyweights devoted to precision engineering and elegant aesthetics coming together to create something worthy of both names.

The Laureato itself debuted in 1975 as a luxury sports watch conceived by Milanese architect Adolfo Natalini, and the first Swiss model to feature a quartz-powered movement. Its name derived from the latin laureātus to mean ‘crowned with laurels’ (also the Italian translation for The Graduate, a box office hit a few years earlier). The Aston Martin partnership began in 2021 and previously delivered a ceramic racing green version, but this latest edition is more subtle in its greenish finish, featuring an iridescent dial coloured, in groundbreaking fashion with 15 ultra-fine layers of automotive paint.

Beneath the hood are ergonomic touches worthy of a supercar — light and strong titanium construction, brushed and polished surfaces, engraved gilded text. Driving things is the Swiss-made GP03300 calibre, the self-winding workings of which you can spy through a sapphire caseback etched with the iconic Aston Martin winged logo.

It’s horology with horsepower, and car-lovers and watch-lovers alike should head to a Bucherer store to see how it handles. We find it pairs particularly well with some driving gloves…

The Girard-Perregaux Laureato Chronograph Aston Martin Edition is available exclusively at Bucherer from £19,300 (including VAT).

LVMH Watch Week is still a relative newcomer to the global watch industry calendar, but it’s quickly becoming a shortcut to knowing what’s in and what’s out. There were some initial scheduling setbacks — the LA fires led to the cancellation of the Californian showcase, so things kicked off in New York (January 21-22), before moving to London (until January 24) and finally, Paris (January 30-31) — but that didn’t stop a record-breaking nine brands from taking part.

TAG Heuer, Zenith, Hublot, Bulgari, Daniel Roth and Gérald Genta have all appeared before, but, this time round, they’ve been joined by three icons: Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co. and L’Epée 1839.

Here, we take a look at three of the most notable timepieces to launch this week.

Something extra 

Daniel Roth was a pioneer in independent watchmaking when he launched his eponymous brand in 1988 — initially focusing on his favourite tourbillon movement (which increases accuracy). 

Roth isn’t a huge name for the Arnault-owned juggernaut, but it would be remiss not to mention this Extra Plat Souscription, an updated version of the Tourbillon Souscription, which originally debuted in 1990. It is wonderfully elegant and thin (extra plat translates to extra thin) with a restrained two hand (there’s no second-counting hand) — surely what watch-lovers yearn for in a dress watch. Roth himself has said that ‘there is nothing nicer than an extra thin watch on the wrist’.

As with the Tourbillon Souscription, the Extra Plat Souscription was developed and produced by La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, and features the same Clou de Paris dial base pattern. It launches with 20 pieces in yellow gold, priced at 45,000 CHF.

Year of the snake

2025 is the Chinese Year of the Snake so it is fitting that Bvlgari are launching their newest iterations of their Serpenti Collection now and with an in-house first — a brand-new, self-winding mechanical movement — hidden inside. The movement has been named the 'Lady Solotempo BVS100 Automatic'. 

Bvlgari were already known for having some of the thinnest movements on the market, but now they can add some of the smallest to the list of accolades. The Lady Solotempo technology powers the Bvlgari Serpenti Tubogas and the Bvlgari Serpenti Seduttori (above). The Serpenti’s curvilinear design demands that the movement be as dainty as possible. The result? A feathery weight of just five grams. 

Pole position 

The year is off to a speedy start for TAG Heuer thanks to the revival of the brand’s historic partnership with Formula 1: they are the Championship’s new Official Timekeeper. Congratulations are in order all round because it also happens to be the sport’s 75th anniversary. 

In celebration, the watchmaker has unveiled the Formula 1 Chronograph collection (£4,300), featuring super lightweight and hard-wearing titanium cases and striking bursts of colour that bring to mind the energy of race day. The 44mm timepiece also features a micro-perforated aluminium tachymeter bezel inspired by racing brake discs. 

Then there is the special Oracle Red Bull Racing collaboration piece to commemorate the fact that TAG has been the official partner and timekeeper of the F1 team since 2016. Keep an eye out for the caseback, engraved with the brands’ respective logos.

And we shouldn’t neglect to mention the new Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche Rallye — a tribute to the Porsche 911’s first-ever rally debut at the 1965 Rallye Monte-Carlo. The Porsche in question (above) was given all of the necessary adaptations a road car needs to take part in rallying: a rollover bar, a pair of extra front headlines and... a Heuer Rally Master timekeeping device.

The first Carrera chronograph came about around the same time when Jack Heuer — grandson of founder Edouard Heuer — designed a watch inspired by Porsche and the Carrera Panamericana race of 1954, that enabled a driver tell the time with just a glance in the heat of the action.

The updated, limited edition Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche Rallye pieces come in stainless steel (911 pieces) and 18K 3N yellow gold (11 pieces). 

The D-Day anniversary celebrations of 2024 have been many and varied, but one of the more unusual has to be ‘The Few’ collection from The Great British Watch Company, made from the wreckage of Mk 9 Spitfire ML295, which was shot down over Normandy on July 30, 1944 — 80 years ago almost to the day. As far as we know, this is the first time any Spitfire has been reincarnated in wristwatch form.

Royal Canadian Air Force 411 ‘Grizzly Bears’ Squadron pilot Harold Kramer survived the crash — hidden by the French Resistance in the loft of a cottage for a month until the Allies liberated the area — but his aeroplane did not and the wreckage was used as target practice by the Germans. After the war, it was all but forgotten until the 1980s, when it was excavated and displayed in museums around Normandy.

In 2017, vintage-aircraft enthusiast Graham Oliver transported the ML295’s remains back to England and began a £3 million restoration; it finally flew again two years ago. ‘The tail-section was completely missing and many bits were unusable,’ he says, ‘but we managed to use some of the original airworthy parts, including the cockpit surround, inboard flaps, gear selector, some of the gauges and parts of the undercarriage.’

‘I was looking for an interesting project, so I was thrilled to be given some bits of the wing — one piece has a shell-hole in it,’ explains Colin Andrews, founder of The Great British Watch Company, which specialises in bespoke, handcrafted watches. ‘I’ve managed to find enough good parts to make the dials and hands for nearly 100 watches — it’s the first time parts from a Spitfire have been used as an integral part of a watch.’

Based on the Omega CK2129, the original watch Battle of Britain pilots wore into battle, ‘The Few’ is an edition of 60. Each watch costs £19,950 and comes in a box made from a type of wood specially created for Spitfire propellors called hydulignum (‘beech laminated in thin strips and impregnated with resin’), with a leather strap, handmade silver buckle, a silk ‘escape map’ (a replica of those issued to pilots) and handmade silver cufflinks, brooch and earrings, each containing a Spitfire fragment.

‘There’s a choice of movement with the watch, either British or Swiss-made, and everything is made not only in Britain, but local to my workshop (near Chester), with the case, which has been made from steel from a British mill, having travelled the furthest at 15 miles away,’ continues Mr Andrews. ‘I hope this proves the point that the talent, skill and equipment to make watches in Britain is not only still here, but it is also possible using local businesses and resources.’

The crown, hands and dial are constructed entirely from Spitfire parts — the latter from ‘the original skin of the Spitfire… [each with] its own unique patina and scars’ — and a portion of sales will go towards the aeroplane’s upkeep. ‘Harold Kramer and the names of the other 11 pilots who flew the Spitfire are engraved on the back of each one,’ adds Mr Andrews. ‘It’s taken me five years to make this collection and the first watches will be ready in the next couple of months.’ At the time of writing, 58 of 60 had already sold and, depending on demand, there may be a further edition making the total almost 100 — ‘after that, I’ll have run out of material’; visit www.great-british-watch.co.uk. Anyone wishing to fly in the restored Mk 9 Spitfire ML295, now based at Leeds East Airport (formerly RAF Church Fenton) near Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, should visit www.spitfires.com

On my bedside table is a small, bronze statuette of a begging dog holding a stick with a hook at one end from which, every night before retiring, I hang my pocket watch. The ancient Greeks had two words for time: chronos, being linear, predictable time — as provided by my watch — and kairos, being opportune, chaotic time (immeasurable, but strangely desirable).

Anyway, my watch’s accuracy gives me immense satisfaction, as I have an interest in the jewellery firm (Streeter & Co) that manufactured it 146 years ago. The watch itself is heavy, being made of silver, and must be wound every day using a tiny key. I carry it, suspended on a silver albert, either in the breast pocket of my coat or in the change pocket of my trousers. Getting it out is quite a palaver, but, even so, I probably refer to it a dozen times a day.

Perhaps more to the point, there are very few moments, day or night, when I can’t hear it ticking. I find the steady tick, tick, tick comforting. Intellectually, I know it is an inanimate object, but emotionally I cannot help but think of it as being alive.

In the West, the idea that the non-human world has agency has rather fallen out of fashion. Fewer and fewer people seem to be aware that everything in the universe — rocks, plants, molecules, viruses — has the potential to initiate action.

"I’ve skimmed the paper, half listened to the radio, toyed with my food and slept more than usual. Mostly, however, I have been sitting in my favourite armchair"

What sort of action could my watch possibly initiate? Well, it is the antithesis of those smartwatches that control (and pass comment on) your whole life, from what you eat to when you sleep. On the other hand, it, as opposed to the tilt of the sun, normally orders my day.

I say ‘normally’, because, for the past fortnight, some (hopefully temporary) health issues have resulted in a change of schedule. Being in no condition to work, walk or read (my three main occupations), I have, essentially, been doing nothing. Oh, I’ve skimmed the paper, half listened to the radio, toyed with my food and slept more than usual.

Mostly, however, I have been sitting in my favourite armchair, staring out of the window and ruminating. One result of this has been the realisation that my watch was made in the same year, 1877, that R. L. Stevenson published An Apology for Idlers, his manifesto for voluntary unemployment.

Idleness, so far as Stevenson was concerned, ‘does not consist of doing nothing, but in doing a great deal not recognised in the dogmatic formularies of the ruling classes’. Interestingly, Stevenson, like so many people who promote the idea of a less materialistic, more contemplative life, was indescribably productive. He died at 44, yet still managed to write a dozen novels, several dozen short stories and innumerable essays, articles and poems.

It’s a similar story with Henry David Thoreau (Walden: or, Life in the Woods), Jenny Odell (How to Do Nothing), Tom Hodgkinson (The Idler), et al. That is to say, they espouse a philosophy they do not practise.

There are, of course, exceptions, my favourite being Shoji Morimoto, who decided he no longer wanted to be a writer or, for that matter, anything else. He became ‘Rental Person Who Does Nothing’, offering his company — but no more — to anyone willing to pay his expenses.

He, too, has produced a book, but, in keeping with his principles, he didn’t write a word, only answering interview questions. In the short introduction, he boasts: ‘I have, as usual, done nothing.’

Clearly, a man with no need for a watch.

A few months back, I met a retired Austrian gentleman who was in the UK visiting his sister-in-law, a friend of mine. I’m sure she introduced him and told me his name, but, honestly, I wasn’t listening. Rather than respond with my name or even the simple courtesy of a hello, I asked him whether on his wrist that was indeed an original Omega Speedmaster MkII, a watch I happen to be partial to, but had never seen in the wild.

It was. He’d bought it in the early 1970s, not because he was working for NASA (we’ll get to that), but because, as he said with familiar watch-buyer economy, he liked it. He kindly removed it and allowed me to admire its almost seamless barrel-shaped case, its punchy reddy-orange dial detailing and the now smooth and slightly loose links of its metal bracelet.

This, as I reminded him, was the watch Omega that designed for Apollo astronauts to wear on the moon, unlike the Speedmaster Professional, affectionately known as the Moonwatch on account of the fact it actually went to the moon — unlike the Speedmaster MkII, which never did. Something to do with astronaut superstition, a retired NASA engineer once told me.

He knew this, of course, but seemed pleased to have someone to talk to about it, even if I’d clattered through our formal introduction only moments before, eyes squarely on his wrist. What I didn’t know, this being his watch, was that in five decades of ownership, he’d only had it serviced once, yet there it was, still ticking away accurately enough. Omega’s mechanical watches of the 1970s were that good.

I have no tangible connection to the MkII. My parents hadn’t even met when it was made. Yet, having discovered the story behind it in 2014 when Omega re-released it (sadly, without meteoric success), it has become a watch I’d gladly own some day. Why? I’m not entirely sure. I suppose I like the look of it and I do rather enjoy the strained irony hidden in its story (its case shape was designed so it wouldn’t catch on and tear a spacesuit. Useful, you’d think). I like the fact that few people know about it and that it has enormous icebreaker power, as this insouciant little anecdote suggests. As yet, I don’t own one, but the truth is, I’d as happily own the revival piece as the original, no matter how serviceable those retro pieces have proved. To my mind, the story and the aesthetic are wrapped up in both the old and the new.

I suspect as much is true of almost any revival luxury watch introduced over the past few decades — which is most watches. Since the 1990s, Swiss watch brands have been tearing through their archives in search of great designs, many finding rich pickings in their basements. TAG Heuer was among the first, asserting its new-found desirability that decade by reinstating the Carrera and the Monaco, both 1960s designs and now collection linchpins and industry archetypes.

Many others have played the same hand. You could pick Blancpain and its Fifty Fathoms; Cartier and its Santos; Tudor and its Black Bay; Oris and its Divers Sixty-Five; Vacheron Constantin and its newly minted Historiques 222; and many more besides. All watches with a vintage aesthetic plucked from the past and refeathered for contemporary audiences, who lap up the promise of design longevity and modern mechanics.

The biggest of the Swiss watch brands have made this regenerative approach an art form, basing almost their entire businesses on what they did before. Breitling’s growing popularity is hugely reliant on its ‘retro styles’, as it calls them, headlined by pieces such as the Navitimer (in constant production since the 1950s) and the Chronomat, an icon of the 1980s and 1990s (worn by Jerry Seinfeld) now doing good numbers for the company. Arguably, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet paved the way here, the latter by recycling its lodestar Royal Oak again and again, constantly proved right in its hunch that the original luxury steel sports watch, penned by the great Gerald Genta in 1972, was a perennial winner.

Patek continues to rely on its back catalogue, too, most recently introducing the Ref 5172G chronograph, a watch that, with its syringe hands, bicompax dial and opaline rose-gilded dial, looks at first glance as if it should be the subject of bids in an Old-Masters-themed auction.

Rolex? Rolex is the nonpareil here. Wags quip that the green and gold superbrand only has one watch, reference to the fact its models are all basically the same shape, one it’s been peddling for generations. After all, despite the general list of Western contemporary mores, it’s perfectly possible that, if something was good once, it might still be good now. As Pierre Cardin reflected in later life: ‘My old vintage designs are so popular now. I must have been on to something.’ This year’s new Rolex Air-King, for example, is a borderline facsimile of the model it replaced. And the one before that, and so on. I hear no complaints.

Commercially, it seems, the persistent return to designs of yesteryear makes sense, but it’s tricky to determine what it is that keeps us coming back for more of the same, again and again. Novelty and innovation, we’re told, are the lifeblood of any business and watchmaking wouldn’t be afraid to say the same. There are countless brands, many of them small-scale independents, reinventing the horological wheel with convention-busting forms and bewildering mechanical movements, yet the large-scale luxury watch companies prefer to employ visual signposts to the past. Signs of innovation are likely to be tucked away in the small print explaining the materials and manufacturing techniques employed to ensure your new watch is up to the scrutiny of daily wear, not exposed in the designs.

Why? It’s only a theory, but my take is that the real lifeblood of the luxury-watch industry, the fuel that turbocharges it, isn’t game-changing evolution, but nostalgia. Nostalgia is the currency that keeps watchmakers solvent — and there’s nothing wrong with that. We only need open our newspapers to understand why a little Kodachrome-flavoured aspiration might be welcome. As John Steinbeck said with searing pathos: ‘In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.’ If I might forgive myself, I imagine a nostalgic bent is also what led me to dispose of the pleasantries during that brief encounter back in the summer. What must life have been like when the fellow made his purchase? The intrigue will never be satisfied and so it remains. For such reasons, the vintage aesthetic isn’t going anywhere. Expect more of the same. This year. Next year. Always.

Five new watches inspired by the original classics

Rolex Air-King

Rolex created its Air-King in 1945 for the British RAF. At 34mm, it was large for the time, hence ‘King’. In the eight decades since, it’s become one of Rolex’s most-loved designs, which might explain why the silhouette of this year’s new model is so strikingly similar to the original. The typography on the dial is lifted straight from a model released in the 1950s with a new specification of 40mm, Oystersteel, £6,150 — rolex.com

Vacheron Constantin 222

Released in 1977 and designed by a young Jorg Hysek, the 222 was named for the years since Vacheron Constantin had been founded. It joined a growing roster of stainless-steel luxury sports watches led by Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak, but was discontinued in 1985 as the infamous Quartz crisis took hold. It only reappeared this year, this time in 37mm of gold. Historiques 222 in yellow gold, £60,500 (020–7578 9500; www.vacheron-constantin.com)

Patek Philippe Ref 5172G

Flick through the pages of any auction catalogue worth its salt and you’ll find Patek wristwatch chronographs dating back to the 1920s. The pure, frankly joyful aesthetic of those standard bearers continues to saturate the brand’s current chronograph collection, witnessed by this year’s white-gold Ref 5172G. £64,760 (01892 534018; www.gcollinsandsons.com)

Breitling Navitimer

Back in the early 1950s, before computerisation, wristwatches still had the power to be hugely effective tools. Breitling’s original Navitimer had a built-in slide rule for making all sorts of navigational calculations from the cockpit, assuming you knew how to use it. This year’s 70th-anniversary collection celebrated the design’s remarkable longevity. Navitimer B01 Chronograph 41 in steel on gold, with brown-alligator leather strap, £7,000 (020–3988 2224; www.breitling.com)

Piaget Polo

Yves G. Piaget knew how to work high society. His 1979 Polo luxury sports watch design was unashamedly aimed at those we now refer to as high-net-worth individuals and was frequently spotted on the wrists of luminaries of the time, including Andy Warhol and Björn Borg. The 2016 revival piece isn’t the spit of the original, but it’s become the brand’s bestseller. Piaget Polo Green Date, £25,300 (020–3364 0800; www.piaget.com)

Patek Philippe and G. Collins & Sons make the perfect match. Patek Philippe craft exquisite timepieces, to be treasured and worn everyday, then passed down the generations, and G. Collins & Sons is like-minded — a family run jewellers in Royal Tunbridge Wells, with the business itself handed down from father to son.

They are renowned for class and discretion, whilst the jewellery and watches grace the most discerning of clientele, both locally and beyond. A chosen retail partner of Patek Philippe, G. Collins see this as a true honour, being one of only a handful in the United Kingdom — their proper old-fashioned service sets them apart from the rest.

Here clients are special, and leave feeling part of an extended family. Patek Philippe watches are a cut above, and in this video we delve deeper into their beautiful World Time watch, and tell you more about how it feels to wear and own one of these one-off masterpieces.

Find out more at www.gcollinsandsons.com/patek-philippe

Tag Heuer Connected

Known as one of the leading luxury Swiss watch brands, Tag Heuer are proving that they can also master the smartwatch, with the 'Connected' range. Made in the same classic style as their other watches, the Connected features a touch screen, monitoring sensors and scratch-resistant sapphire crystal. £1,650 from goldsmiths.co.uk

Withings Scan Watch

Almost like having a doctor on your wrist — the Withings Scan Watch not only tracks your workout, but also monitors your heart health, sleep and respiratory functions. Long gone are the days when watches would only tell the time, this option from Withings features a medical grade ECG and an oximeter for SPO2 recordings. It also had a battery life of 30 days, but that seems pretty irrelevant compared to the rest. £208.29 from www.withings.com

Mobvoi TicWatch C2+

Made with leather straps and available in three chic colours, the TicWatch c2+ from Mobvoi has won several design awards thanks to its classy yet simple style. With features like Google Pay, built in GPS and fitness tracking, you really can leave home without your phone and wallet. £142.49 from www.mobvoi.com

Garmin Lily Classic Smartwatch

A big name in the GPS world, Garmin also offers a range of smart watches. With a touchscreen design and a simple style, the Lily Classic allows you to send messages, track your steps, sleep and energy levels. £179.99 from www.buy.garmin.com

Hybrid Smartwatch HR Monroe Black Leather

A beautiful, classic watch from Fossil that not only looks elegant and timeless, but also lets you control your music and tracks your activity during a workout. £189 from www.fossil.com

Mondaine Watch Helvetica No.1 Regular Smartwatch

This unassuming watch from Mondaine is delightfully simple, yet can be connected to your smartphone to display emails and messages, monitor your sleep patterns and track activity. With a simple steel case on a leather strap and a clean white face, this is a great go-to option for any outfit or lifestyle. £450 from www.jurawatches.co.uk

Hybrid Smartwatch HR- Jorn 42mm Brown Leather

Simple, elegant and wholly Scandinavian in its aesthetic, the Hybrid Smartwatch from Skagen is composed of a leather strap (with other options available) and a minimalist face design. The watch allows you to track all your vitals, as well as link as an alarm clock, and display messages, social media notifications and emails.

£189 from www.skagen.com

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gentleThey may be very different in scale, but watches and cars both rely on precision engineering — and thus it’s not too surprising to discover that Edouard Heuer and Ferdinand Porsche have a fair amount in common. Heuer was a pioneer of designing and manufacturing chronographs — that is to say, watches with built-in stopwatch functions — while Porsche’s eponymous car company has been a force in motorsport for decades.

Now, the two firms which still bear their founders’ names have come together in a partnership, launching a new timepiece as their first joint venture: the £4,850 TAG Heuer Carrera Porsche Chronograph.

Heuer has been involved in motorsport for many years, and had been making dashboard chronographs for cars, boats and planes since the early years of the 20^th century. Edouard Heuer’s great grandson, Jack, led his family‘s company for decades, with the first Heuer Carrera (meaning ‘race’) chronograph being created in 1963 — designed to let drivers tell the time at a glance in the heat of the action.

Porsche have also used the ‘Carrera’ name for decades. One of the company’s racing cars claimed victory in the 1954 Carrera Panamericana — a hair-raising race held at the time on public roads in Mexico — leading the manufacturer to produce a commemorative ‘Carrera’ edition of its 356 model. Ever since then, Porsche’s most powerful cars have always worn the ‘Carrera’ badge.

Given that a Carrera has been associated with TAG Heuer and Porsche for so many decades, it must have been the obvious choice for the first product the teams have created together. This company describe the new chronograph watch as one that ‘fuses both the Porsche and TAG Heuer aesthetic’, with Porsche’s engraved inscription on the bezel and instantly recognisable font for the indexes.

The red black and grey of the design are Porsche colours, which also hark back to vintage Heuer models, while it’s available with a leather strap or a bracelet. There’s a cool, sporty look to the watch which lends itself perfectly to professional and amateur driving, as well as day-to-day life. And there’s even a special little touch at the back: the TAG Heur transparent back through which you can see the mechanism has been re-designed to incorporate a Porsche steering wheel.

‘TAG Heuer and Porsche have common history and values, of course, but more importantly, we share an attitude,’ says TAG Heuer CEO Frédéric Arnault.

‘Like Porsche, we are disruptors at heart, always in pursuit of high performance. With this alliance, TAG Heuer and Porsche finally come together officially after decades of close encounters and will create unmatched experiences and products for customers and fans that are passionate about both our brands and what we stand for.’

The TAG Heuer Carrera Porsche Chronograph starts at £4,850 for a leather strap model, and £5,000 with a metal bracelet — see more at tagheuer.com

Cashmere that cares

You might think that our Utterly Inessential blog isn't entirely blameless in the whole 'disposable fashion' culture thing. Possibly you'd have a point, but we do at least try to point people in the direction of quality items that last for years — and today, we're going one better by pointing you in the direction of things that have already lasted some time, and can go on to do even greater service. A Yorkshire start-up called the Nearly New Cashmere Co sources used cashmere goodies, repairs and refurbishes them, and moves them on to new owners.

It's eco-friendly, has lots of lovely choice — we found the brilliantly retro Argyll sweater above — and they do a beautiful job of packaging things in cotton bags which makes the whole thing feel very special indeed. What's not to love? TK Prices vary, tops start from around £34

Grab your chance

I apparently have terrible taste in perfume. I'm kidding, I obviously smell delightful, but every time I find a new perfume that I love, it is almost guaranteed to be discontinued within the year. I therefore suggest that you get your hands on a bottle of Cobalt Amber — all natural, with a sophisticated oriental, peppery twist, all very grown up — as soon as you can. VM From £58 from Abel

The 4.9 billion-year-old car key-cum-watch

Okay - there's no getting away from the fact that this one is slightly crazy. A British firm called Senturion has begun making watches out of material from the Gibeon metorits, a rock that was an estimated 4.9 billion years old when it fell to earth — that's about 400 million years older than anything on this planet. And the watch, as well as telling the time (at least we assume it does) doubles as a key for a supercar.

The watch has a big red button 'designed to synchronise with high-performance cars, such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Aston Martin, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Porsche and Mercedes AMG', the company writes. We suspect that if the watch can be programmed to work with all those cars, it could probably also start up a Ford Fiesta, but let's not go there. Instead, let's just enjoy the bonkers idea of a watch older than planet earth, the shamelessly unreconstructed PR pics, the six-figure price tag and the ability to open your Aston Martin with a big red button on your watch. If that isn't Utterly Inessential in all the best ways, nothing is. TK Senturion watches from around £14,000; SW-M1 model made from the Gibeon meteorite from around £138,000.

Wood you believe it?

If, like mine, your dog has a habit of chasing its food bowl around the room, decorating the kitchen floor (and sometimes even the walls, impressively) en route, then this may well be the answer — a huge chunk of solid oak. Billed as 'a special treat for your special friend', it will, apparently, 'look great in your dog's room'.

Hang on — dogs are meant to have their own rooms? VM Priced from £150 from The Oak & Rope Company

Giddee up while you chow down

My mother is incredibly difficult to buy presents for. Seriously — my sister once bought her a new handbag and her response was: 'But I already have a handbag.' However, being of the horsey persuasion, anything with a nag on it is more or less guaranteed to go down well. I therefore have high hopes for this pair of serving mats by Susan Crawford, one showing the mighty Frankel, the other the holy trinity of Arkle, Red Rum and Desert Orchid. Wish me luck… VM £45 from Clubmatters

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After a few weeks of sipping cocktails beside a hotel bar in Cap d'Antibes, albeit sadly only in their dreams,

The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: The ultimate face mask, salvation for bored dogs and saving the world, one coffee capsule at a time

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Welcome back to our friendly neighbourhood round-up of the best wine, furnishings and completely, utterly inessential products available now.

This page is proof of their effort. Some things will make you nod appreciatively. Some will make you raise an eyebrow and shrug. Others will make you narrow your eyes and wonder... why? Welcome, as always, to Utterly Inessential.

Watch this space

Named official watch maker of the Ministry of Defence, it's safe to say that Bremont don't mess around when it comes to equipping the wrists of the nation. Their new range is the boy scouts of watches: prepared for absolutely anything, from cocktails to the cockpit. With chronograph functionality, this watch is specifically aimed at the airman, or anyone for whom perfect timing is a way of life and an absolute necessity. 

The back of this particular watch is engraved with Her Majesty’s Armed Forces Heraldic Badges – something so cool that it's probably best it's not for show to the rest of the world (we all need our own little secrets). Described as 'accurate, durable and legible', I'm beginning to wonder why I keep checking my phone for the time.

The Bremont Arrow (RAF) for £3,595 from www.bremont.com.

My kingdom for a beach...or even a sandpit

I like beachwear an inordinate amount for someone who lives in a) London and b) the UK in general. Whale Of A Time Clothing always keep me lusting after warmer climes full of sun, sand and sailboats and their new California-inspired range truly spikes the volleyball over the net. Eco-friendly and adorably pastel, I would 100% buy one of their deck shirts, despite the fact that I own no deck.

Padstow Deck Shirt in White and Pink, £59.95 from Whale Of A Time Clothing. www.whaleofatimeclothing.com.

Eye eye

I don't personally have a need of binoculars. If perchance you do, you know which ones to purchase.

Ultravid 8x32 HD-Plus Customised Binoculars by Leica, £1,850, www.leicastore-uk.co.uk.

A little sunshine for your little sunshine

I am a firm believer that no one deserves more love and affection than an adorable new puppy. If you even need another reason to purchase this weaved wonder (which contains a blanket, a dog bowl, a toy, dog shampoo and some delicious peanut butter treats) then the name of the toy giraffe is Genevieve. Give Genevieve the Giraffe a home.

Little Sunshine Puppy Gift Basket by Mungo and Maud for £229, mungoandmaud.com.

A grape choice this week

Our resident wine expert Harry Eyres has tipped Portuguese table reds in this week’s issue of Country Life, calling them 'powerful and age-worthy... some of the world's great wine bargains.'

Harry suggests a very reasonable red Somontes Casa da Passarella Colheita 2015/6 at £11 a bottle, but The Spirit of the Inessential demands that you go for the big-hitter, nay the Big Daddy of Portuguese reds, Quinta do Vesuvio 2015. Harry promises that it's fragrant, floral and 'thoroughly seductive.' And if you finish the whole thing I promise you won't even remember the price.

Quinta do Vesuvio 2015 £62.10, www.hedonism.co.uk

If you purchased our entire shopping list this week you will have spent £5,796.05 and all pictures of your new puppy should be immediately sent to the Country Life Facebook page. 

“When one thinks of an heirloom, one of the first objects people think about is a watch,’” says John Reardon, Christie’s International Head of Watches.

“Nothing better represents the passing of time or value from one generation to the next more than a timepiece ,” adds Mr Reardon.

We asked representatives from ten of the world’s finest watchmakers to nominate one piece from their collection that they believe will be worthy to pass down the generations. Here's what they came up with.

Patek Philippe Calatrava

Officers’ watches have been a tradition at Patek Philippe since the early 20th century. The outbreak of the First World War meant that gentlemen needed a more accessible place to keep a watch than in a pocket. The iconic design, heritage and exceptionally skilled manufacture of the Calatrava ensure its status as a wear-forever heirloom. Mark Hearn, managing director

£23,460 – www.patek.com/Calatrava

Rolex Day-Date

In 1956, the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Day-Date made its debut. Available only in precious metal, it was the first wristwatch to display the date and day of the week—a technical feat at the time. Rolex’s signature President bracelet was created especially for the Day-Date and is still reserved solely for that particular model. Faye Soteri

£42,300 - www.rolex.com/DayDate

Parmigiani Toric Chronomètre

The Toric Chronomètre pays homage to the design that founded the brand; it’s the result of the wealth of my observations of Nature, math-ematics and architectural geometry. Michel Parmigiani

£15,600 – www.parmigiani.com

Hublot Big Bang

The term ‘Big Bang’ is based on the ‘art of fusion’ concept, where we combine materials that never traditionally appear together, such as gold and rubber, ceramic and steel, denim and diamonds. These surpri-sing combinations required a case that was different to classic three-part models – the Big Bang case has 70 components. Ricardo Guadalupe, CEO

£11,200 – www.hublot.com/en/collection/big-bang

Chopard Happy Sport

The moving diamonds are very much part of Chopard’s DNA. Since launch, we have created many reinterpret-ations, including models with floating fish, stars, animals and more. Caroline Scheufele, artistic director and co-president

£16,800 – www.chopard.com/uk/happy-sport

Breguet Classique Tourbillon Extra-Plat Automatique 5367

Abraham-Louis Breguet is acknowledged as one of the greatest horologists of all time. In 1801, after a long list of inventions, he patented the tourbillon, the device that would cement his fame. Emmanuel Breguet, historian and archivist, general manager

£110,600 – www.breguet.com

OMEGA Speedmaster

The Speedmaster was the first watch worn on the moon in 1969. If you want a watch that will remain special and relevant for generations, I would say that the ‘Moonwatch’ is definitely it. Raynald Aeschlimann, president and CEO

£4,160 – www.omegawatches.com/watches/speedmaster

Bremont MBII

In 2009, we were approached by British ejector-seat manufacturer Martin Baker to produce a watch to celebrate the lives that they had saved. With a special red barrel, the MBI is only available to those who have been ejected. It was subject to two years of testing to ensure it could survive the ejector seat. Nick English, co-founder

£3,795 – www.bremont.com

Cartier Tank

The shape embodies the watch’s pioneering personality—to be a square watch in a time of round watches was revolutionary. I bel-ieve it’s the most important design in the history of watches; its innovation lies within its simplicity. Pierre Rainero, style director

£12,100 – www.cartier.co.uk

Jaeger LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Duo

There’s a natural synergy between Casa Fagliano, the polo-boot manufacturer and the Reverso, which was originally created in 1931 for British Army officers in India to protect their watches when playing polo. The combination of the hand-stitched leather strap and the geometric simplicity of the dial is understated and timeless. Geoffroy Lefebvre, deputy CEO

£19,200 – www.jaeger-lecoultre.com/UK/Reverso

Credit: Getty

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When I was 14, I enrolled in the Combined Cadet Force at school. I have a distinct memory of going to the stores to sign my two-year contract and pick up my kit, issued by a sandpaper-tongued Geordie sergeant major. On the pile were a green beret, two uniforms and a pair of heavily worn black boots. I had size 13 feet and it appeared the British Army had just one pair in that size, handed down from one village idiot to the next.

To my chagrin, I wasn’t issued with a watch. I’d developed an early liking for wristwatches and had about 20 by the time I learnt to stand to attention in the school quad, shouted at by a fifth-former with a stripe on his arm. Casios, Swatches, stuff I’d saved cereal-box tokens for – that kind of thing.

Perhaps because of this, no one ever invited us to ‘synchronise watches’, which I’d expected to be a central element of the military experience. However, as we were never called upon to advance under artillery barrage, perhaps that shouldn’t have been a surprise.

Still, to a pubescent boy, military watches carried a certain allure and masculinity. Made for the archetypal ‘real’ man, they were designed to keep a chap safe.

Historians point out that wristwatches were military timepieces before they were anything at all – at least for men. Although early timekeepers were developed for aviators and racecar drivers, what propelled them from pocket to wrist was the First World War.

Officers soldered wire loop lugs to their pocket watches and mounted them on their wrists, a much more convenient place for coordinating going over the top.

The look stuck, but it wasn’t until the Second World War that they became universal. Heroic pilots returning with their bomber jackets and standard-issue wristwatches did wonders for what were once seen as little more than bracelets.

Towards the end of that war, the British Army, recognising the need for robust pieces that could cope with mid-20th-century warfare, commissioned 12 companies, including Omega, IWC and Jaeger-LeCoultre, to produce the first military-spec watches.

These had to be waterproof, luminous, highly accurate and built around sturdy steel cases. They were delivered in 1945 and became known as the Dirty Dozen, a series that has become increasingly collectible as the trend for smaller watches (the largest of the dozen is the Longines at 37.5mm) has returned. Each carried a case-back engraving of W.W.W. (Wrist. Watch. Waterproof.) and the broad arrow symbol on the dial, showing they were property of the Crown.

Some 145,000 of these were made, although not in equal numbers. Omega made 25,000 and little-known Grana is thought to have made fewer than 1,500. According to Toby Sutton of auction house Watches of Knightsbridge, a Grana today will fetch as much as £6,000, the Omega less than £2,000 and the Vertex, Cyma and Timor models about £500–£700. Collectors with all 12 are few and far between.

“You can bash them about a bit and, bar the odd scuff, they won’t betray you”

In the decades since, military watches have mirrored advances in military technology. In 1953, Rolex introduced the Submariner, the world’s first water-resistant watch to 100m. The civilian versions were hardy enough, more so those modified military-spec ‘MilSub’ pieces, such as those issued to the Royal Navy in the 1970s.

These had luminescent tritium dials, indicated by a circled ‘T’ on the dial, and are very collectible – Bonhams sold one for more than £120,000 a couple of years ago.

Tudor, sister brand to Rolex, had its own Submariner line and supplied standard-spec watches to the US Navy and the Marine nationale française. The 1954 original was recently revived as the Heritage Black Bay, helping to revitalise the brand’s fortunes.

In 1952, Breitling announced the Navitimer, with a circular slide rule that could deliver useful insights to flight crews, such as distance travelled, average speed and fuel economy. Many military pilots still wear a Navitimer and 65 years after its debut, it has been in constant production longer than any other Swiss Made mechanical chronograph.

Today’s military pieces make superb everyday wristwatches. They often have hardened cases (such as those by Bremont), water-resistance of at least 100m, shock-resistant movements set in rubberised mounts or scratch-resistant sapphire crystals ‘secured against displacement by sudden drops in pressure’, to quote IWC’s description of its latest Pilot’s Watch, the MkXVIII, a 1940s revival. In other words, you can bash them about a bit and, bar the odd scuff, they won’t betray you.

A simple, legible watch with a steel case, a black dial and a textile strap has rarely been more fashionable than it is now. Prices of the original Dirty Dozen have, according to Mr Sutton, doubled in the past couple of years. Forty years after its closure, Vertex – one of the original 12 brands – was even re-launched in 2016 by the great-grandson of the company founder.

My good fortune is to be of a generation permitted to enjoy a military watch without needing to partner it with a beaten-up pair of army boots. I’ve no doubt my sergeant major would disapprove, but I can live with that.

Credit: Alamy

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As a teenager, Mark Hearn was taken to Jersey by his father to buy his first grown-up watch, an Omega with a light-blue shaded dial and rectangular case. He recalls becoming transfixed by the rotor, which moved when he moved, living because he was living.

Sadly, the prized possession was stolen during a night out at university; Mr Hearn has been looking for it ever since, scouring auctions and second-hand in the hope of finding the treasured timepiece. That search continues despite the fact that he is now the managing director of Patek Philippe – such is the emotional tie to a watch.

How fitting then that Patek Philippe’s mantra is that you never truly own one of its watches, but merely look after it for the next generation. Indeed, it’s the company’s enduring quality, tradition, heritage and consistency – ‘the fact that we never chop and change,’ assures Mr Hearn – that’s made it a watch brand that is yearned for by enthusiasts the world over.

The only Geneva-based watch firm to remain family owned and independent – quite something when umbrella companies run the rest – every component of a Patek Philippe watch, right down to the strap, is of the highest quality. Many hours of craftsmanship are invested in each creation produced in the firm’s workshop, where 220 watchmakers beaver away on the finest of timepieces.

The watch market constantly changes and now women are buying men’s watches – as their appreciation of technical pieces has grown, they’re increasingly purchasing their own timepieces, rather than waiting to be given them as presents.

It’s no surprise that Patek Philippe’s customers are discerning and knowledgeable watch buyers, for whom only the very best will do, but it’s good to know that, having made such an investment, their great-grandchildren will be able to take their treasured timepieces back to the company’s New Bond Street store in London W1 for a service, safe in the knowledge they’re preserving a piece of history and a true heirloom for the future.

Mark Hearn’s tips for watch keeping

‘A watch holds huge emotional value, it’s with you every day,’ says Mr Hearn. ‘It experiences your life in its entirety.’

Here are his tips for looking after your cherished timepiece.

• In the same way that you wouldn’t run a car without servicing it, as it would seize up and stop working, you should ensure your watch is serviced every 3–5 years

• If you wear your watch under water, get a water-resistance test done every year
• When you take your watch off, place it crown side down to limit the scratches on the case. If you have your timepiece serviced by Patek, we replace the crown during each service anyway
• If it’s been a particularly hot day, wipe away any moisture with a soft cloth to keep your watch in tip-top condition.

Hublot and Ferrari's designers got their heads together to produce a big boy's toy that ticks all sorts of boxes: a new Ferrari-themed watch to celebrate the marque's 70th anniversary.

Even the name of the Ferrari watch is the sort of mouthful you'd expect of an F1 car: the Techframe Ferrari Tourbillon Chronograph

The companies report that designers from the Italian car manufacturer's Ferrari Design Centre sat down with Hublot's experts to come up with the new watch.

It's not the first time that the two brands have worked together: Hublot has been one of Ferrari's sponsors for just over five years, and they've made several Ferrari watches already.

But the product of their latest joint venture is the most exclusive so far. They are making just 70 apiece of each of the three versions of the Ferrari watch: the King Gold, the PEEK Carbon and the Titanium.

It's not that there's anything wrong with an Apple Watch per se. Or a Samsung Gear watch, or a Fitbit, or any of those other clever things. They can be tremendously useful, particularly for work and fitness purposes.

But there's no denying that they fall down in other areas. It's simply that their lineage isn't so much the Swiss watchmakers of yore, but rather the Japanese watchmakers of the 1980s.

Now, however, a new breed of watches claims to offer the best of both worlds. Here are some of our favourites.

Frederique Constant Horological Smartwatch

The Geneva-based firm has just brought out this beautiful watch, which looks particularly handsome with a dark blue face. It looks every inch the archetypal Swiss timepiece – with real hands and a real face – but inside it is full of all sorts of modern trickery.

As well as automatically setting the time and date depending on the timezone that you're in, it records your activity – in classic smartwatch fashion, with daily steps taken and calories burned etc – while also monitoring your sleep. All the output comes via the associated smartphone app.

£1,010 from watchshop.com

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Tag Heuer Connected Modular 45

Though Tag have dabbled in smartwaches before, this is the company's first Swiss-made effort – and it's a rather extraordinary piece of gear. There are literally dozens of different design configurations possible (56 in all, and that's before you've even thought about the straps) and the company has worked with both Intel and Google to make sure that the smart features are cutting edge.

But to our mind the cleverest bit by far is that the watch's entire mechanism can be swapped over at will between a smartwatch screen and a traditional mechanical movement. You can wear the digital screen while at the office or out for a run, and turn it into a 'real' Swiss watch for the evening.

Prices start at £1,400 

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Breitling Exospace B55

Somewhere between smartwatch and real watch, this piece was apparently designed specifically with professional pilots in mind. Features include a flyback function and electronic tachymeter, for example.

The watch has a traditional face and is entirely controllable by the buttons on the side – though the B55 and all its smart functions can also be used with the associated app. It's a bold and chunky timepiece whose timing is controlled by 'SuperQuartz' – a system which takes account of temperature variations which can marginally alter the vibration of the quartz crystals.

Prices around £6,970

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Montblanc Summit

The French watchmaker came up with an interesting take on smartwatches last year when they built a Fitbit-style smartwatch readout into the strap. This second pass is a little more conventional: they've installed a high-quality screen in hopes that it's good enough to convince people that the carefully designed digital watch faces are the real thing

Whether it convinces you or not is up to you: the thin, light titanium case feels decidedly different to a traditional Montblanc watch. Smart features include a microphone for voice control, a barometer and Android watch software.

Prices start at £899

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Mondaine Helvetica Smart 1

For a completely different look and feel to other smartwatches on this page, Mondaine's smartwatch has a beautiful clean design that was inspired by the clean Swiss font of the same name.

The end result is a watch that's almost reminiscent of the original 1980s Swatch – behind the traditional face is a series of motion and sleep-tracking gizmos, all of which can be monitored via the associated phone app.

Prices from £650

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Every year it is with great anticipation that I wait for the invitation to the smartest and sleekest watch fair on the circuit, kindly hosted by Richemont. The umbrella company owns venerable brands such as Cartier, Vacheron Constantin and IWC, amongst others. Each year their watch brands take stands at the fair and showcase their latest offerings to a select number of international media and distribution industries. It is an honour to be invited and I enjoy being in Geneva, soaking up knowledge from some of the finest watch brains in the business.

Each brand presents their latest collections to the different markets from around the globe in the hope that we will love them and either buy them, or in my case, write about them.

I saw so many fine pieces, but wanted to share a few with you that particularly caught my eye - some are very limited editions so you may need to move fast.

Rubis Secret watch bracelet from Van Cleef & Arpels

Harking back to the art deco era of the 1930s, this mind-blowing piece is less watch, more bracelet. Set in white gold, diamonds and pink gold, it is host to 115 oval-cut and flawless rubies. These disguide is a small quartz watch with a ‘pull-out’ drawer like mechanism, which can only be accessed when a specific selection of rubies is pressed. It is a magical piece, although we expect no less from the brand.

The Panthère et Colibri from Cartier

Cartier has yet again crafted a series of masterpieces: the Panthères et Colibri features a panther and its cub, which pops out as the crown is pressed to chase a hummingbird, which in turn moves to indicate the power reserve – I found this piece totally charming.

Endeavour Centre Seconds Concept Funky Blue from H Moser & Cie

H Moser & Cie have paired everything down with this piece with a sky-blue fumé dial. I love its simplicity in a world where things can look so complicated. Less is more, and I particularly liked it with the braided crocodile leather strap.

Overseas Ultra Thin automatic from Vacheron Constantin

Vacheron Constantin has created an elegant sports watch which is slim enough to wear with a suit, but high enough spec to wear when things turn active. It comes with three interchangeable straps: steel (or gold), leather and rubber, as well as a new strap changing device, making it easy to change straps yourself, without any tools – so this is really three watches in one.

Big Pilot’s Heritage Watch 55 from IWC

Harking back to the original Special Pilot’s watch of 1936, this Heritage Watch is the largest IWC have produced, at 55mm, which makes a statement, and is a very masculine piece.

Limelight Stella from Piaget

The first ever complication made for women is an elegant piece, with the oval shape they are known for. The moonphase and diamond dial keep it feminine and wearable.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph 41mm

The Audemars Piquet Royal Oak has always been the most popular from the brand. This year sees no change and I suspect these new pieces in yellow gold will be high flyers yet again. The yellow gold has such vibrancy and looks particularly good in the 41mm size with a navy dial.

*** Read more from our High Life section

The allure of a fine timepiece is such that it can absorb even a hopelessly ill-disciplined man in silent reverie for some considerable period.

In my youth, I would draw pictures of watches with TV screens, built-in walkie-talkies and pop-up aerials (if only I’d been an entrepreneur)—now, I can easily plot the path of my future watch purchases. If I avoid fecklessness, or an early demise, my wristwear wardrobe might, one day, reflect my horological heritage.

What is harder to accept, however, is that that wardrobe will be filled with ‘smart’ wristworn devices. The Apple Watch has been diverting, although—together with its kin—it has yet to convince me it’s more than a tricksy Tamagotchi-style trinket with the longterm value of an X-Factor winner’s debut single. But we are in the genesis phase, here.

Still, I would venture that, in 40 years’ time, when my grandchildren are of an age to care about such things, they won’t hover over an Apple Watch with the same sense of wonder as they will over my great-grandfather’s 19th-century pocket watch or my grandfather’s Rolex, which was passed to me shortly after his death, when I was in my late teens.

My father must have thought that an appropriate point, presumably because it had been given to my grandfather when he was a similar age, we believe for his 21st birthday, by which time he’d already been awarded a Distinguished Service Cross after escaping from a prisoner-of-war camp in Greece. It’s an early Rolex Air-King, with a tiny case measuring just over an inch (33mm) in diameter and a heavily patinated dial. By modern standards, it’s too small for me and yet I wear it with enormous pride, particularly on family occasions.

That it still works almost 75 years since it was first spirited into life is a source of constant amazement to me—bless the Apple Watch, but I dare say it will struggle for breath in 2090. The Rolex, by contrast, has every chance of survival into the next century.

As a person who spends much time in the further reaches of the watch industry, I’m frequently asked for wisdom on the right timepiece for a particular gentleman at a particular stage in his life. Such wisdom as it is is invariably defined by questions of budget and taste, but my advice usually leads to watches with the highest reputations, the finest designs and the best stories.

Which is why, if you’re considering a watch for your son, as he enters the first stage of manhood—whether at 18 or 21, as you determine—you should do exactly as my greatgrandparents did for my grandfather and opt for a Rolex. Today’s models are infinitely superior in build quality to the delicate object I keep tucked away and, if looked after properly (regular servicing will do it), should provide many generations of pleasure. The grey-dialled 39mm Oyster Perpetual launched this year would suffice for many a long year.

However, come his 30th, he may wish to add another of the great dial names—that of Omega—to his collection. The Seamaster 300 Master Co-Axial is a revival of a 1957 diving watch and it is a thing of great masculinity. It’s also a technical marvel, powered as it is by a movement that can allay the damaging attentions of magnetic fields—up to the value of 15,000 gauss, in fact—far more than that emitted by any of his electronic devices.

At some point thereafter, and if Nature is kind, our gentleman will become a father himself, an occasion that merits investment in an object of parallel longevity. For that, I’d perhaps go for a Panerai Radiomir, the cushion-shaped icon first prototyped for the Royal Italian Navy in 1936. The latest of these includes the Black Seal PAM00610, a 45mm twohander that houses Panerai’s eight-day hand-wound P.5000 calibre.

By 40, a man should have matured sufficiently to appreciate some of the finer things in life, at which time, he may choose to indulge in a Jaeger-LeCoultre. Few watches reek of sophistication with the insouciant elegance of the company’s Reverso, the watch with the reversible case first produced at the behest of disgruntled polo-playing British army officers fed up with smashing their watches on the field of play. It has also withstood the test of time and, if you opt for a piece such as the Grande Reverso 1931 Seconde Centrale (available only through Jaeger-LeCoultre’s vast Old Bond Street emporium), you’ll be able to have your initials engraved on its blank reverse. By such tokens will future generations remember us.

As a man’s temples grey and his position in life becomes more secure, there is a chance he will want to let down what hair he has left. Thank goodness then for Bremont, the charismatic British brand, whose collection now includes the unashamedly patriotic Jaguar MKII. This is a chronograph with a dial plucked from the dashboard of the famous marque’s 1961 E-Type—a watch for the Mr Toad inside us all.

If our man is fortunate enough, time will have allowed him to gather the resources necessary to invest in some of fine watchmaking’s treasures. As he passes 50, then 60 and moves into the golden age of retirement, his wrist might be spoiled by the presence of a Vacheron Constantin Harmony chronograph in pink gold or perhaps Patek Philippe’s white-gold 5270G perpetual calendar chronograph. He should also find room in his collection for A. Lange & Söhne’s platinumcased Lange 1—as sure a sign of man’s full maturity as there is.

Each of these is more than a watch: it’s an heirloom and a trophy that testifies to a man’s good taste and prosperity.

If, when my time comes, I have even half of these in my collection, I will feel I’ve passed through the ages of man with no little splendour and good fortune. I suppose only time will tell.

£100 Swatch Sistem51 Navy

If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys, they say, except that, with Swatch’s inventive automatic, you don’t. Made entirely by robots, it has a 90-hour power reserve and will never need maintaining.

£108 (020–7499 8211; www.swatch.com)

£500 Autodromo Prototipo

Designed by a young New York product designer besotted with the golden era of motorsport, the Prototipo has a meca-quartz movement. That means it’s battery powered, but has a sweeping chronograph second hand like a mechanical.

£505, Autodromo at Page & Cooper (020–8387 4060; www.pageandcooper.com)

£1,000 Oris Divers Sixty-Five

A retro diver’s watch remade for a contemporary market still lusting after vintage styles and, as always with Oris, great value for a Swiss-made mechanical.

£1,150 (01784 730865; www.oris.ch)

£5,000 Zenith Elite 6150

The Elite automatic is one of the great mechanical movements of the past 20 years. Zenith’s version has a 100-hour power reserve and sits in an ageless round steel case.

£5,600 (01204 424051; www.zenith-watches.com)

£7,500 IWC Portugieser Yacht Club Worldtimer

IWC’s signature family has a sportier sub-line called Yacht Club that includes this steel worldtimer, complete with 13 time zones and an hour hand that can be adjusted forwards or backwards in one-hour jumps.

£7,500 (0845 337 1868; www.iwc.com)

£15,000 Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Extra-Thin

Argued by some to be the most iconic design of the 1970s, if not the past 40 years, the self-winding Royal Oak should be in any self-respecting watch aficionado’s collection.

From £16,600 (020–7659 7300; www.audemarspiguet.com)

£30,000 Jaeger-LeCoultre Duomètre Chronographe

Elegant and ingenious, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Duomètre Chronographe has two barrels or power sources—one to run timekeeping and the other the chronograph function.

£33,400 (020–3107 1833; www.jaeger-lecoultre.com)

Patek Philippe 5170G

Easily the most cultured chronograph in all Christendom is this whitegold- cased beauty made by the world’s most collectable watch brand— a calling card nonpareil. £53,320 (020–7493 8866; www.patek.com)

** Read more on Luxury Watches on our dedicated page

Horological terminology can be mindboggling, but you don't want to sound like you don't know what you're talking about if you want to buy a good one. Those in the know here at Country Life have compiled a basic list of the watch jargon that you need to know if you're interested in making a purchase, so gen up and then get out there.

Watches come in all shapes and sizes, and all different kinds of materials, but most of the essential components are the same. Some have more bells and whistles than others -every watch has a bezel for instance, but not every piece will come with a Tourbillon, as you obviously know..

WATCH JARGON BUSTED

Annual calendar

Tells the day, month and year; only needs to be adjusted each leap year

Automatic

A watch that only very rarely needs to be wound manually

Bezel

The ring around the dial of a watch

Calibre

Describes the size and configuration of a watch’s movement

Chronograph

A watch that is also a stopwatch

Chronometer

A specific type of timepiece tested and certified to meet certain precision standards

Complication

An additional feature on a watch, such as a calendar

Crown

A button on the side of a watch that sets the time and date and is wound up to power manual watches

Dial

The watch face

Index

Marks on the dial that indicate hours and sometimes minutes

Manual

A watch that relies on a hand-wound mechanism to keep it powered up

Mechanical

Driven by a spring. Must be wound periodically

Minute repeater

Chimes the time in hours, quarters or minutes depending on the press of a button on the side

Movement

The watch’s engine—either quartz or mechanical

Perpetual calendar

Tells the day, month and year; doesn’t need to be adjusted each leap year

Quartz

A watch powered by an oscillating crystal, which runs on a battery

Tourbillon

An additional, complex component that works against forces such as gravity that can affect the accuracy of a watch

** Read more on the best luxury watches to buy, watches for different times in your life and all the latest news and best luxury watches launched to the market

The watch world is buzzing in anticipation of the 7th SalonQP, London’s renowned public exhibition of luxury timepieces. Having launched its first three-day event in 2009, the exhibition returns to The Saatchi Gallery for the fifth consecutive year to showcase over 80 watch brands to collectors, enthusiasts and key industry players.

Not only can you ogle some jaw dropping watches, you can also develop your horological knowledge of how movements are crafted. This year you can learn about the history of the chronograph movement with Inside a Second - a curated exhibition on the second floor of the Saatchi gallery, produced in association with Switzerland’s Foundation de la Haute Horlogerie.

Put together by founder of QP James Gurney, it will feature mechanical creations including the 1820's inking timer invented by Nicholas Rieussec for timing race horses, plus some modern wristwatches like the newly unveiled Montblanc 1858 Chronograph Tachymeter Limited Edition, Zenith's El Primero and the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona.

Following last year’s success the ground floor of the gallery will host another showcase of the finest jewellery watch pieces in Gems of Time. These are set to include eye-popping bling from Bugari, Harry Winston and Piaget.

The sponsors this year are an intelligent mix and tend to share a love for fine craftsmanship. For instance, Bros & Rudd will be showcasing their first English sparkling wine at their bar at SalonQP. This is a Chardonnay Blanc de Blanc from the Gusbourne’s Appledore vineyards in Kent.

Harrods, the official retail sponsor will host a specially curated collection of watches available in their Fine Watch Room: look out for Vacheron Constantin’s Harmony collection - for which they designed their own in-house chronograph movement - which launched this year at SIHH in Janurary.

James Gurney, SalonQP’s founder and director, said: “2015 is shaping up to be the best and most comprehensive SalonQP yet. Our intention has always been to entertain and inform and I feel the mix of brands, exhibitions and partners we have brought together will create a truly memorable and enjoyable event.”

SalonQP runs from November 12-14. Tickets from £20.

Watches fit for a Duchess

Kiki McDonough, The Duchess of Cambridge’s jeweller of choice, is celebrating her 30th year in the business with the launch of a pretty collection of watches. Limited to just 50 pieces, they are made with a Swiss-quartz movement and are available in either 18-carat yellow or rose gold. There is also one exclusive diamond piece, which will not be reproduced. Designed for everyday wear, they are available with a rainbow of coloured alligator straps. Plain yellow- and rose-gold watches, £2,900, gold-and-diamond watch, £3,500 (020–7730 3323; www.kiki.co.uk)

Shoeaholic?

If you have yet to see the V&A’s ‘Shoes: Pleasure & Pain’ exhibition, showcasing extreme footwear from around the globe, head to local restaurant Daphne’s, where, for £39 per person, including exhibition entry, you can enjoy a two-course lunch or early supper with a Stiletto cocktail a mix of Prosecco, wild-hibiscus tea, strawberry and vanilla bitters. Follow up with a spot of shopping: a girl can never have too many shoes! Tickets valid Monday to Friday, 2pm–6pm (020–7589 4257; www.daphnes-restaurant.co.uk/booking)

Booted like Bond Fifth-generation Northampton shoemaker Crockett & Jones has provided footwear for the eternally well-shod feet of 007 in the 24th Bond film, Spectre, out on October 26. Daniel Craig wears the Alex, Norwich (below left), Camberley, Northcote, Swansea and Radnor styles the perfect shoes for a stealthy spy. From £345 (020–7976 2684; www.crockettandjones.com)

 Winter wardrobe sorted

With nights drawing in and mantelpieces stacking up with invitations, it’s time to think about your winter party wardrobe.

Eponine, founded by designer Jet Shenkman, is based in south-west London, where everything is designed and made by an in-house team. Inspired by Jet’s love of 1950s and 1960s looks, each piece is designed for women who have individual style, but want a contemporary edge. The new collection will cover winter weddings, drinks parties and black-tie events. Skirt and jacket, £785 (07709 432715; www.eponinelondon.com)

Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons

When Raymond Blanc opened Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons at Great Milton, near Oxford in 1977, it became an overnight success. It’s one of the country’s greatest places to stay and the food, created from the house’s wonderful kitchen garden, is among the finest in the world. Raymond has the restless energy of all truly great men and is constantly improving the hotel and grounds. Now, an amazing orchard of heritage apples and pears has been added and there is a new canapé class at the Raymond Blanc Cookery School, running on November 25 and December 9. Get prepped for the festive season ahead. Classes are £185 per person for a half-day’s tuition. Rooms from £555 (01844 278881; www.belmond.com/lemanoir). MH

For sporting enthusiasts

Fortnum & Mason has teamed up with gun-maker and shooting expert E. J. Churchill to create two sporting companions for the season ahead. The Gamekeeper hamper, £250, includes E. J. Churchill shooting socks, a hunter flask and some Fortnum’s sustenance for the day ahead. The Shooting Party hamper below, £500, contains extra goodies such as a brass cartridge position finder, terrines, pies, salamis and cheeses, not forgetting Sipsmith sloe gin and Highland single-malt whiskey (020–7734 8040; www.fortnumandmason.com)

 New smellies

The White Company launched in 1994 as a simple, 12-page mail-order catalogue celebrating all things white and luxurious. Since then, it has grown into one of the most desirable and trusted British lifestyle brands. To celebrate its reaching the ripe age of 21, Chrissie Rucker, the founder, has launched the Twenty One scent collection. Described as ‘fresh, bright and happy’, it sounds ideal for perking up an autumn day. Candle, £35, eau de toilette, £30 (020–3758 9222; www.thewhitecompany.com)

The Fat Duck Yesterday, The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, reopened its doors after a total refurbish- ment. Its chef, Heston Blumenthal, is renowned for creating tastebud-tingling experiences. Gone, but not forgotten, are the famous snail porridge and bacon-and-egg ice cream these have been replaced by a new and intriguing menu in the form of a map. It centres around a nostalgic day from Heston’s childhood expect theatrical moments, with all aspects of the front-of-house service playing key roles in the four-hour meal. Menu (food only) £255 per person to be purchased as a ticket at time of reservation online (www.thefatduck.co.uk)

Doesn't every man dream at least at one point in his life of being a pilot? The latest piece of kit from Breitling builds on this brand's reputation for working with the aviation industry towards producing instruments which offer maximum prescision.

It's also a bit of an action man statement - it's certainly not one for the office - and also potentially a collector's piece.

The History

130 years ago Earnest Schneider decided to create an aviation chronograph designed specifically with pilots in mind. In the end, the instrument was developed alongside the Italian air force team so that he was sure that all the pilot's needs would be catered for in the design.

This acutal design eventually became a reference in the field of pilot's instruments and back in 1984 Breitling chose to celebrate the 100th anniversary with the mainstream Chonomat collection.

The latest model is an update on these watched. In the last three decades there have been subtle changes to the over all aesthetic of the watch, but it still retains the style and presence of the originals.

Breitling are constantly improving the functionality of their watches and the Chronomat Airborne special series is distinguished by its satin-brushed rotating bezel equipped with four raised rider tabs (used to count off flight times) - even gloved hands can use the rotation.

It's an extremely sturdy piece with a weighty feel and appearance. Available in two colours: black dial with silver counters and silver with black counters, we think the black face has the edge for extra James Bond kudos.

Chronomat Airborne, £6,760, Breitling (020-7518 7010; www.breitling.com)

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From left to right

Gatsby Panama, £54.50, Pachacuti (01335 300003; www.panamas.co.uk); Sunglasses, £109, Hackett (0800 783 1372; www.hackett.com); Tradition extra-thin rose-gold watch with square face and brown crocodile-leather strap, £24,000, Audemars Piguet (020-7659 7300; www.audemarspiguet.com); Vintage tennis racket, from £40, and ball, £5, Henry Gregory (020-7792 9221; www.henrygregoryantiques.com); Quai de l'Ile day-date and power-reserve watch, £36,400, Vacheron Constantin (020-7312 6830; www.vacheron-constantin.com); Linear purple-silk knitted tie, £59, Augustus Hare (07786 266685; www.augustushare.com); 1930s trophy, £195, Henry Gregory (as above); Villeret watch, £30,860, Blancpain (0845 273 2500; www.blancpain.com); Silver tennis-ball cufflinks, £259, Deakin & Francis (www.deakinandfrancis.co.uk; 01212 367751); Jules Audemars self-winding 39mm watch in rose gold with brown crocodile-leather strap, £15,690, Audemars Piguet (as above)

Photographed by John Lawrence Jones. Styled by Hetty Chidwick

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