The Best New Watches of Watches & Wonders 2024

In taking over the reigns as CEO of British watchmaker Bremont, Davide Cerrato — the man who reintroduced Tudor to the U.S. market via the Black Bay and who revamped Montblanc’s watch collection — had a tall order on his hands: How to craft the brand’s strategy post-investment, in its new manufacturing facilities, for a wider audience? The Supermarine 300 Date, a newly revamped version of Bremont’s dive watch collection, gives us some insight into Cerrato’s thought process: No longer housed in the chunky Trip-Tick case, it merges dive watch design cues from brands such as Rolex, Tudor, and even Montblanc in an approachable platform paired to an excellent-looking steel bracelet with “infinity” links. Though the redesign is sure to be divisive, its newly slimmed-down looks certainly help differentiate the collection from Bremont’s numerous other pilot’s and other tool watches.

Diameter: 40 mm

Movement: Swiss-made automatic

Water Resistance: 300m

The GUCCI 25H Minute Repeater is like the ultimate flex in Gucci’s watch portfolio. Every year they drop something crazier, from their first exclusive caliber to a skeleton flying tourbillon. Now, in 2024, they launch a minute repeater, a complication usually reserved for the highest brands in watch making. This piece features three hammers that play different tunes for hours, quarters, and minutes, making each one unique. Instead of a regular button, you activate it with a spinning bezel, adding some unexpected flair. Despite including 340 components, it’s still sleek and thin, with a cool openwork dial inspired by sound waves. You can purchase this piece in white or pink gold with a sleek black alligator strap, sizing in at 40mm. This addition to their portfolio begs the question; what will they come up with for next year?

Diameter: 40mm

Remember in 2022 when Bulgari produced the thinnest mechanical watch in the world, only to be bested a few months later when Richard Mille clinched the record by 0.05mm? Well, the Roman-founded marque is back on top: Its new Octo Finissimo Ultra COSC has edged out RM’s UP-01 by — you guess it — 0.05mm, clocking in at just 1.7mm thick. Using the tungsten carbide caseback as the BVL180 manufacture calibre’s mainplate allows Bulgari to achieve these stunning results. (What’s more, the new Ultra is Chronometer-certified, making it also the thinnest hand-wound chronometer in the world.)

Diameter: 40mm

Movement: Bulgari BVL180 hand-wound 

Water Resistance: Just don’t

Price: By request

The Cartier Santos — based upon a watch provided by Cartier to Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont in the early 20th century — was one of the earliest pilot’s watches in the world. These days, the collection is incredibly versatile, seeming decidedly dressy on leather and surprisingly sporty on a metal bracelet. The new Santos-Dumont reference WSGA0098 belongs to the former category: Housed in a 31.5mm rose gold case coated in beautiful peacock blue lacquer, it features a satin-finish blue sunray dial with Arabic indices, a rose gold-coasted sword handset, and a matte blue alligator leather strap with a rose gold ardillon buckle.

Diameter: 31.5mm

Movement: Cartier Calibre 430 MC hand-wound

Water Resistance: 30m

An update to a watch introduced in 2021, Chanel’s Monsieur Superleggera Intense Black Edition provides sleek, monochromatic livery for the maison’s Calibre 1, a movement designed with watchmaker Romain Gauthier that includes jump hours and retrograde minutes with interesting running seconds placement smack dab in the dial’s center. Housed in a matte ceramic case — for which the brand’s watches are famous— its dial features a guilloché-like pattern that also extends, in a display of thoughtful design, to the calfskin-nylon strap. Water resistant to 30m and hand-wound, it’s not quite a sports watch, but at 42mm wide in ceramic, it’s certainly appropriate for everyday wear.

Diameter: 42mm

Movement: Chanel Calibre 1 hand-wound

Water Resistance: 30m

In just a few short years, the (still relatively new) Alpine Eagle collection has grown from a germ of a luxury sports watch idea into a full-fledged collection boasting all manner of compelling models. The newest take on the line’s XL Chrono sees Chopard pairing its chronometer-certified flyback-equipped Calibre 03.05-C automatic movement with 60 hours of power reserve to a 44mm case in Grade 5 titanium. With its “Rhone-blue” dial, black outer tachymeter scale, and black triple-register display with white accents, it’s a clever take on the “panda” dial that collectors are sure to love. A boutique exclusive, part of its sales will be donated to the Alpine Eagle Foundation.

Diameter: 44mm

Movement: Chopard Calibre 03.05-C automatic

Water Resistance: 100m

Those for whom both pure horology and aesthetics are of interest are often Grand Seiko devotees. Why? The Japanese brand, founded in 1960 as the high-end arm of huge conglomerate Seiko, is an innovator in movement technology, but also, in polishing methods (Zaratsu) and in creating stunning dials. The new SLGH021, a 40mm model in Ever-Brilliant Stainless Steel, is powered by the brand’s impressive Calibre 9SA5, an automatic movement boasting dual barrels for 80 hours of power reserve. But its dial is even more impressive: Inspired by the scenery Genbi Valley in Iwate Prefecture, its molded-pattern, blue-green color is sure to catch your eye and not let go.

Diameter: 40mm

Movement: Grand Seiko Caliber 9RA5 automatic

Water Resistance: 100m

If you think of Hermès as strictly a fashion house and not as a purveyor of haute horlogerie, then you may be late to the party. Try to catch up by checking the time on the new Arceau Duc Attelé, a wild, high-end piece complete with not only a triple-axis tourbillon, but also a minute repeater to boot. Crafted from polished titanium, it features intricate guilloché decorations drawn in the shape of sound waves, plus an Arabic typeface whose curves evoke galloping horses. Able to chime the hours, quarters, and minutes via a discrete case slide, it’s powered by the Manufacture Hermès H1926 movement, whose beautiful cut-out wheels are visible via a sapphire caseback.

Diameter: 30mm

Movement: Hermès H1926 hand-wound

Water Resistance: TBD

If you’re worried about the short power reserve on your watch, Hublot’s MP-11 might be for you: Its mind-boggling seven-barrel movement will keep faithful time for two weeks straight. And this year, its sapphire case may just have donned its coolest color yet, translucent glacier blue. Measuring 45mm, you might expect it to be ludicrously tall given its power reserve — but this isn’t the case. A special 90-degree transmission allows the barrels to be arranged in a co-axial, vertical design in front of the rest of the manually-wound HUB9011. Next to the barrels — which are visible via the watch’s sapphire crystal — a slowly revolving disc indicates the amount of power remaining in the watch.

Diameter: 45mm

Movement: Hublot HUB9011 hand-wound

Water Resistance: 30m

A typical perpetual calendar — which accounts not only for months of differing lengths, but also, in many cases, leap years — is impressive enough. But IWC’s new Eternal Calendar, part of the Portugieser collection, keeps track of leap year exceptions, which will occur three times over the next four centuries. Additionally, however, it also features a Double Moon Phase display that will deviate from the moon’s orbit just once over the next 45 million years. Measuring 44.5mm in platinum, it houses the manufacture’s new Calibre 52640 movement with seven days of power reserve and comes paired to a black alligator leather strap.

Diameter: 44.5 mm

Movement: IWC Calibre 52640 automatic

Water Resistance: 50m

Price: Upon Request

If both the main timekeeping functions and complications on a watch use a single barrel (or dual barrels feeding a single gear train), said timepiece can suffer from an irregularity of energy flowing to the escapement, thereby reducing accuracy. The Jaeger-LeCoultre Duomètre Quantième Lunaire employs the maison’s Duomètre technology, which fixes this problem by using separate barrels and gear trains feeding a single escapement. This gorgeous watch offers a moon phase display, a date counter, and a 1/6th-seconds display (in addition to its main timekeeping display) arrayed within a stunning blue opaline dial in a 42.5mm steel case.

Diameter: 42.5 mm

Movement: Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 381 hand-wound

Water Resistance: 50m

The classical elegance of Saxon watchmaker A. Lange & Söhne combines with the childish glee inherent in, well, stuff that glows in the dark in the German marque’s Lumen collection, now in its sixth special edition. The new Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon Honeygold “Lumen” is of course — in typical Lange fashion — wildly complicated, boasting a tourbillon; a flyback chronograph with jumping minutes; a perpetual calendar with outsize date, day, month, and leap year indicators; a day/night indicator; and a moon phase display. Housed in a 41.5mm 18K Honeygold case and powered by the hand-wound Calibre L952.4 — which has no fewer than 684 parts — it is, in typical Lange fashion, as much a work of art as it is a timepiece.

Diameter: 41.5 mm

Movement: A. Lange & Söhne Calibre L952.4 hand-wound

Water Resistance: Don’t even think about it

Price: Upon Request

Few timepieces ride the line between classical inspiration and contemporary design quite like those of Laurent Ferrier, previously technical director at Patek Philippe. (And an accomplished race car driver in his own right — look it up.) His new Classic Moon, available in stainless steel or 18K 5N red gold, is all the proof you need. Contained within his eponymous brand’s beautiful, 40mm “Classic” case with a ball-shaped crown, flush calendar correctors, and a polished bezel, it’s a revelation in elegance made for a 21st-century wrist. With day and month apertures situated beneath the 12 o’clock position, an outer pointer date track, and a whimsical dual-moon phase/small seconds indicator located above 6 o’clock — the maison’s first — the Classic Moon is poised to be one of the best debuts at Watches & Wonders 2024.

Diameter: 40 mm

Movement: Laurent Ferrier Caliber LF126.02 hand-wound

Water Resistance: 30m

The Richemont’s Group’s acquisition of Minerva — and its care beneath the Montblanc brand — means that each year, we’re presented with a smattering of truly striking haute horlogerie amongst Montblanc’s more utilitarian (though certainly compelling) fare. This year, the 1858 “The Unveiled” Minerva Monopusher Chronograph has gotten a serious upgrade in the form of sapphire apertures added to its 43mm stainless steel housing. This, when combined with the sapphire crystal dial, allows for a view of the magnificent, hand-wound Montblanc Manufacture Calibre MB M17.26 ticking away within. This movement, though similar to the previous edition’s Calibre MB M16.26, has been flipped upside down in order to display the chronograph action via the dial.

Diameter: 43 mm

Movement: Montblanc Manufacture Calibre MB M17.26 hand-wound

Water Resistance: 30m

H. Moser & Cie, one of the most imaginative — and often, one of the most snarky — independent watchmakers on the scene, is adapting its recent foray into skeletonization into its beloved Streamliner collection of luxury sports watches. The new Streamliner Tourbillon Skeleton has been openworked to a degree not often seen even amongst these high-end, hollowed-out creations: Look carefully through the dial and you’ll realize the even the barrel is transparent, revealing a look at the mainspring within — flip it over, and you’ll notice that the gold oscillating weight is also skeletonized. And, seeming to float within the midst of the skeletonized dial is a one-minute flying tourbillon with a double hairspring.

Diameter: 40 mm

Movement: H. Moser & Cie HMC 814 automatic

Water Resistance: 120m

Ever wish you could configure your own luxury watch? (Maybe you’re tired of being the 8th guy on the trading floor with a Submariner?) Then Norqain’s Wild One of 1 project is sure to grab your attention. Using the young, family-owned Swiss upstart company’s online configurator, you can completely customize your own Wild One — to the tune of 3.5 million possibilities. While your case options are limited to 18K red or white gold, you can choose the movement (Kenissi or Sellita); the shock absorber (one of 12 colors); 18 different dials; seven different sets of hands; four back plates; six side plates; and much more. At a starting price of $17,600 for a time-only watch, the Wild One of 1 is certainly no impulse buy — but the opportunity to own a one-of-(probably)-one is too good to pass up at this (or any) price.

Diameter: 42mm

Movement: Kenissi automatic or Sellita SW200-1 Sc automatic 

Water Resistance: 200m

Oris is taking a page out of Rolex’s book by redesigning one of its flagship products so subtly that hardly anyone — except perhaps hardcore fans — will notice. However, even casual brand observers are sure to take note of the fact that there’s now a 36.5mm edition of the marque’s beloved dive watch: Called, intuitively enough, the Aquis Date 36.5MM, it features a narrower, unidirectional dive bezel with elegant baton hour markers, plus a polished case finish and a new H-link bracelet with brushed inner links and polished outer links. Powered by the Swiss-made Calibre 733 automatic movement, it’ll be available initially with a black dial; a mother-of-pearl dial; or a special Upcycle dial made of recycled PET plastic.

Diameter: 36.5 mm

Movement: Oris Calibre 733 automatic 

Water Resistance: 300m

Want a cool experience at the America’s Cup race this summer/fall in Barcelona, complete with a behind-the-scenes peak? Want a tourbillon-equipped dive watch, fashioned from black Carbotech, that’s water resistant to 300m? Want to swipe your credit card just once and receive both of these things together? Then boy, do we have a watch for you: The Panerai Submersible Tourbillon GMT Luna Rossa Experience Edition is a 45mm watch with not only a 30-minute tourbillon, but also a second time zone indicator, a day/night indicator, and a crazy, hand-wound movement visible via an openworked display. Looking like a piece of equipment from the foot locker of some 22nd-century special forces commando, this is truly Panerai at its most innovative.

Diameter: 45 mm

Movement: Panerai Caliber P.2015/T hand-wound

Water Resistance: 300m

Few maisons can make a 40mm watch disappear into one’s wrist, but Parmigiani Fleurier is certainly one of them. The original PF Micro Rotor, launched in 2021, was a revelation in thin, modern watchmaking that still maintains significant water resistance (100m). Now, that timepiece is getting a sibling in the form of the new Tonda PF Micro Rotor No Date, which jettisons the former’s 6 o’clock date display in favor of a completely clean dial. This allows the hand-guilloché to truly stand out, as it does best on the Golden Sienna model. (The watch’s skeletonized handset reveals even more of this mesmerizing pattern.) Powered by Parmigiani’s automatic PF703 movement measuring just 3.07mm thick, the entire watch comes in at 7.8mm.

Diameter: 40 mm

Movement: Parmigiani Fleurier PF703 automatic 

Water Resistance: 100m

In celebration of Piaget’s 150th anniversary, the maison is releasing two new Polo Date watches — one in a diameter of 36mm with a diamond-set bezel, the second in a diameter of 42mm. Both feature sand-colored dials in a pattern inspired by the gadroons of the original 1979 Piaget Polo, plus a special, rose gold-colored handset with “150” inscribed in the second hand’s counterweight. Outfitted with rubber straps — sand-colored on the gem-set model and brown on the larger — they’re powered by Piaget manufacture calibers, the automatic 500P1 and the automatic 1110P, respectively. Each featured a date window that appears on the dial at 6 o’clock, with the former boasting 40 hours of power reserve, and the latter, 50 hours.

Diameter: 36/42 mm

Movement: Piaget Manufacture Calibre 500P1/Piaget Manufacture Calibre 1110P

Water Resistance: 50m/100m

Some brands are content to produce carbon copies of their star vintage watches until the proverbial cows come home. Thankfully, TAG Heuer is more inventive and daring than that: Its new Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph is recognizably a Monaco — the marque’s groundbreaking rectangular, automatic chronograph from 1969 — but beyond its quadrilateral housing and dual-register display, little else is familiar territory: Given split-seconds functionality via the new TH81-00 — the lightest automatic chronograph movement ever created by TAG Heuer — it features a sapphire crystal (and display caseback) dial to show off the magic going on within. Available with either blue or red accents and housed in a 41mm, black DLC titanium case, it looks like a watch transported to 2024 from both 1969 and 2069. 

Diameter: 41 mm

Movement: TAG Heuer Calibre TH81-00 automatic 

Water Resistance: 30m

Spend enough late-night hours perusing the greater horological landscape on the internet, and at some point, you’re bound to encounter the Freak, Ulysse Nardin’s wildly innovative creation that turned the watch world on its head back in 2001. (For the uninitiated: It’s got no conventional dial, hands, or crown. Instead, it uses an orbiting, hand-like carousel that contains parts of the movement, which is controlled and set via the watch’s bezel. Pretty wild!) This year, the Freak S Nomad reimagines the Freak line in a cool, sand-colored guise. Its diamond-shaped guilloché decoration is done by hand over the course of several hours on an 18th-century rose engine, making each example of this stunning 99-piece — technically — a one-off.

Diameter: 45mm

Movement: Ulysse Nardin Caliber UN-251 Manufacture

Water Resistance: 30m

Introduce Darth Vader to Martin Frei and Felix Baumgartner — horological Jedi, to be sure — and the Urwerk SpaceTime Blade would surely be the result. Shaped like a lightsaber, this 1.7m, 20kg hand-made glass sculpture utilizes a series of flame-shaped Nixie tubes made from 88 parts. Beyond just the time in increments as precise as 1/100ths of a second, this incredible horological sculpture can display an indication of the Earth’s daily rotation expressed in km; the day, month, and year; and more. With its patinated bronze crown formed using the ancient lost-wax technique, the SpaceTime Blade looks distinctly like something used a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Height: 170cm

Display Modes: 8

Weight: 20kg

Considered a member of the horological “Holy Trinity” along with Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin has been crafting superlative timepieces since before the establishment of the United States. The newest iteration of the maison’s Patrimony Manual-Winding Moon Phase Retrograde Date, inspired by vintage Vacheron models from the 1950s, embodies the class and elegance of that decade via a slim-wearing white gold case; a sunburst, silver-toned dial; and pink gold hands and hour markers. The automatic, in-house Calibre 2460 R31L powers both a retrograde date and a moon phase display that only requires manual adjusting once every 122 years.

Diameter: 42.5mm

Movement: Vacheron Constantin Calibre 2460 R31L automatic

Water Resistance: 30m

For dedicated Zenith fans, it was only a matter of time before the maison would release a chronograph version of its still-new(ish) Defy Skyline platform. Inspired by vintage, octagonal Skyline models of the 1970s, the new Defy Skyline Chronograph is a luxury sports watch for the 21st century, powered by a contemporary evolution of the automatic El Primero movement that shook the industry upon its debut in 1969. Available in metallic black, blue, or silver, it comes housed in a 42mm stainless steel case with a matching bracelet and an additional rubber strap. Able to measure events down to a 1/10th of a second, it’s an impressive feat of horology packed into a package that you can wear day-to-day and not worry about babying.

Diameter: 42mm

Movement: Zenith El Primero Calibre 3600 automatic

Water Resistance: 100m