The 10 Best Watches of July 2025

A watch made especially for detailing high-end cars might sound like an ultra-specific use case — but hey, so is wearing a mechanical watch in the age of the smartphone! The new Nodus Sentinel is engineered specifically to avoid scratching your precious roadster: Designed in collaboration with automotive detailing company AMMO NYC, it features a 41mm stainless steel case with a left-hand crown orientation (all the better to keep it out of the way of an expensive, coach-made body), as well as an impact-resistant, soft thermoplastic bezel. An acrylic crystal keeps the watch lightweight, while the automatic, Swiss-made La Joux-Perret G101 provides 68 hours of power reserve. 

Diameter: 41mm
Movement: La Joux-Perret cal. G101 automatic
Water Resistance: 200m

Orange is everywhere in watchmaking these days, from Doxa’s dive watches to Hublot’s high-end wares to the bright dials of new references from the likes of Nomos, Baltic, Shinola and more. But orange can also be used in a subtler manner to excellent effect. Check out Omega’s newest iteration of the beloved Seamaster Diver 300M. Measuring 42mm in stainless steel with a helium escape valve and a unidirectional dive bezel with an anodized aluminum insert, it features orange cardinal indices filled with white Super-LumiNova as well as orange “Seamaster” text, plus an orange central seconds hand for good measure. Paired to a steel Milanese bracelet, it’s an ideal summertime wrist companion.

Diameter: 42mm
Movement: Omega cal. 8806 automatic 
Water Resistance: 300m

While Ming Thein’s eponymous Malaysian brand makes numerous complicated, high-end models whose prices may or may not cause your eyes to water, it likewise produces wildly cool tool watches that are stickered much more affordably. The new 37.02 Monolith is one such watch: DLC-coated in black but paired to a bright-yellow FKM rubber strap, this Kuala Lumpur-designed, Swiss-assembled watch carries a cool sapphire dial with laser-cut channels filled with Ming Polar White lume and a handset filled with Super-LumiNova X1 Blue. Sized at 38mm wide and just 11mm tall, it wears easily and comfortably, and is powered by the Sellita for Ming SW300.M1 with skeletonized anthracite bridges, plates and winding rotor.

Diameter: 38mm
Movement: Sellita for Ming cal. SW300.M1 automatic
Water Resistance: 100m 

In celebration of what would have been author and explorer (and eternal Doxa evangelist) Clive Cussler’s 94th birthday, the brand has released the SUB 750T Clive Cussler dive watch. At 45mm in diameter, it’s not a small piece — but a height of roughly 12mm helps it wear much more comfortably than one might imagine. The orange dial features the logo of Cussler’s NUMA (National Underwater and Marine Agency) organization, an underwater exploration nonprofit founded by the author in 1979. Boasting Doxa’s famous “no-decompression” bezel and beads-of-rice bracelet, the SUB 750T Clive Cussler is produced in a run of just 94 pieces at a price of $2,990 — pretty good for a serious tool watch with a water resistance of 750m. 

Diameter: 45mm
Movement: Sellita SW300 automatic
Water Resistance: 750m

Breitling’s Classic AVI continues to provide an excellent platform upon which to iterate and offer a diverse array of looks and colorways. The new Classic Avi Chronograph 42 Super Bowl LIX Philadelphia Eagles is one such riff. Machined from 18K red gold and paired to a matching red-gold multi-link bracelet — or a brown leather strap, but what fun is that?! — it features a midnight Birds-themed green dial with white chronograph totalizers and the Eagles logo within the 9 o’clock running seconds display. Ringed by a 12-hour bezel useful for tracking a second time zone and powered by the brand’s cal. 23 automatic movement with 48 hours of power reserve, it’s the ideal watch for any diehard Eagles fan. 

Diameter: 42mm 
Movement: Breitling cal. 23 automatic (ETA base)
Water Resistance: 100m

The Zeitwerk, with its “digital” jumping hour and minute apertures, large power-reserve display and running seconds subdial, caused quite a stir upon its debut in 2009. Ten years later, Lange upped the case size and added a useful date indicator ring around the dial periphery, below which a rotating disc would highlight the appropriate date in red. Now, the German brand has issued a second execution of that beautiful watch in pink gold. Still paired with the 2019 Zeitwerk Date’s grey dial, it features a gorgeous, hand-decorated movement with dual barrels, a German silver three-quarter plate, and a whopping 516 components and 70 jewels. Measuring 44.2mm in diameter, it comes paired to a hand-stitched, dark brown alligator leather strap.

Diameter: 44.2mm
Movement: A. Lange & Söhne cal. L043.8 hand-wound
Water Resistance: 30m

Rather than a single watch, the new Unimatic Diving Heritage is actually a full collection. The U1 diver, U1-GMT and U3 chronograph have each been produced in three colorways — blue, brown and black — in runs of 300 pieces each and paired to matching rubber straps. Powered by automatic (diver and GMT) and meca-quartz (chronograph) movements, the watches feature unidirectional bezels with inserts using Unimatic’s still-new typography, plus dials with Old Radium-style luminous indices and handsets. Affordable, handsome and undeniably useful, the Unimatic Heritage Collection models are perfect summertime pieces, though their use should extend all year long.

Diameter: 41.5mm 
Movement: Seiko NH35A (diver); NH34A (GMT); VK64A (chrono)
Water Resistance: 300m

Ulysse Nardin is no stranger to innovative movement designs and avant-garde aesthetics. Having debuted the Freak in 2001, the brand continues to push the envelope in each model it develops. The new Blast Free Wheel Maillechort features a dial machined from maillechort, an alloy of copper, zinc and nickel whose raised texture brings dimension and depth to the watch’s design. At 6 o’clock is the brand’s award-winning flying tourbillon design with Ulysse Anchor Constant Escapement, while at 12 o’clock is a floating double-barrel system that appears suspended in midair. Providing the watch with seven days’ worth of power reserve — which is tracked via a unique power-reserve display at 4 o’clock — the watch’s fascinating movement is housed within a 45mm white-gold case and paired to a waterproof blue velvet-effect rubber strap.

Diameter: 45mm
Movement: Ulysse Nardin cal. UN-176 hand-wound
Water Resistance: 30m

The third and final edition stemming from the partnership between Australian watch authority Time+Tide and LVMH-owned maison Zenith, the new Defy Skyline Skeleton White Surfer Ceramic is yet another handsome, summery timepiece constructed of high-tech materials and fitted with an undeniably cool movement that’s sure to excite serious watch heads. At 41mm in white ceramic, it features an integrated, matching bracelet and an included white rubber strap. The El Primero 3620 SK automatic movement ticking away within, which beats at a frequency of 36,000 vph and is visible via a blue-gradient openworked dial, boasts bridges in the form of Zenith’s famed star logo as well as a star-shaped winding rotor. 

Unlike the Ingenieur luxury sports watch or the Pilot’s Watch line of utilitarian tool watches, the Portugieser is a collection rooted in more classically inspired elegance. (The original Portugieser models from the 1930s actually used pocket-watch movements.) The newest addition to the family is the Tourbillon Rétrograde Chronograph. Housed in a 43.5mm 18K Armor Gold case — machined from a special alloy with better hardness than traditional forms of gold — it features a flying one-minute tourbillon at 6 o’clock as well as a retrograde date display between 8 and 11 o’clock, plus a chronograph with both elapsed minutes and hours combined in a single totalizer below 12 o’clock. 

Diameter: 43.5mm
Movement: IWC cal. 89900 automatic 
Water Resistance: 30m