The world’s biggest show of timepieces, Watches & Wonders, wrapped earlier this month in Geneva. This year, the fair upped its count of participating brands to 60—counting among its exhibitors illustrious names like Patek Philippe, Rolex, Vacheron Constantin and many, many more.
With so many timepieces on show at Watches & Wonders—and it’s here that brands exhibit and announce its releases for the year—it can be a bounty of riches for appreciators, connoisseurs and collectors. Trends begin to emerge (more on that soon), and one gets a specially placed sense of how style on the wrist—or even on other parts of the body—will evolve.
There are many moments of technical ingenuity and innovation, to be sure, but what is most exciting is to see how luxury watchmakers and brands are deploying their creativity in service of beauty. Makers like Vacheron Constantin and Parmigiani Fleurier, even if not conventionally experimental with gender fluidity in design, craft gorgeous pieces, for example, that are impeccably classical.
On the other hand, there are brands like Hermès and Chanel that bring an irrefutably chic perspective from fashion and couture. From makers like these come timepieces that escape the wrist or the boundaries of traditional form, and are exciting in their novelty and style.
And even if several of these watches are heavily limited in production—chiefly because of how difficult and intensive they are to create—the standouts of design and craftsmanship are worth appreciating nonetheless.
Here, Vogue’s non-exhaustive edit of the most beautiful timepieces from Watches & Wonders 2025.
1 / 10
Van Cleef & Arpels's sensual, iconic padlock on a chain
It’s been 90 years now since Van Cleef & Arpels introduced the Cadenas, a watch styled like a padlock. When it was introduced in 1935, it was a point of marked difference from the dainty women’s timepieces in vogue. Rather miraculously, 90 years on, it still has the same unique appeal.
Van Cleef & Arpels is introducing several new models this year, though at heart they remain more or less unchanged from the original. The most glamorous is this high jewellery version in yellow gold, dotted with snow-set diamonds and rows of blue sapphires. An artful object on the wrist, its most graceful touch is the angled dial that makes it so the time is visible subtly and only to the wearer.
Van Cleef & Arpels Cadenas in yellow gold with diamonds and blue sapphires, $249,000
2 / 10
Chanel's sensual, swinging leonine sautoir
This year, Chanel is dedicating a seven-piece capsule collection of haute horlogerie to the emblematic lion of Gabrielle Chanel. Born under the sign of Leo, the couturier decorated her rue Cambon apartment with decorative lion sculptures by Robert Goossens. A symbol of strength and protection, it’s become one of the maison’s signature motifs.
One of the standout designs from this collection is the Double Lion Buttons necklace watch, a three-row chain sautoir in 18-carat yellow gold dotted with diamonds and onyx. It’s marked with two buttons with carved gold lion’s head motifs, both of which swivel to reveal their secrets. On one, the black lacquered dial of the watch; and on the other, a blank space where a photo can be inserted.
Chanel Haute Horlogerie Double Lion Buttons necklace watch in yellow gold with diamonds and onyx, limited to 20 pieces and price on request
3 / 10
Hermès's category-defying and ferociously chic Maillon
The French house of Hermès is relatively new to the art and craft of watchmaking. Good. That is what gives the maison its distinct, sometimes left-field approach to what’s a very traditional field. Coupled with the house’s obsession with craft, quality and beauty, and you’ve got a recipe for success.
The latest to embody Hermès’s unconventional thinking is the Maillon Libre, a brooch watch that can be worn several ways. At its core, the design is a liberated link motif from the house’s famous Chaine d’ancre bracelet. The gaps of the link are filled in with gold or onyx to form a dial, and diamonds set on the metal to decorate it. It can be worn pinned as a brooch—there’s a detachable gem-set brooch segment—on the sleeve, as a witty facsimile of traditional watch’s positioning. Else, detach the brooch segment and wear it on the provided cloche and cordlet as a necklace. Inventive!
Hermès Maillon Libre brooch watch in rose gold with diamonds and terracotta tourmaline on Swift calfskin clochette and cordlet, price on request
4 / 10
Piaget's biomorphic silhouette
Piaget is dedicating the year to a theme of ‘Play of Shapes’, tapping onto its heyday of creativity in the 1960s and ’70s. This Essentia may not be the brand’s own highlight for the year, but it is nonetheless gorgeous and expresses fully the house’s strengths. A pebble-like case, dotted with diamonds, crafted in gold and shaped as if something nature had fortuitously shaped over centuries. It’s a feat, as it is in haute couture, to make incredible craftsmanship disappear and to evince beauty that seems almost divinely made.
Piaget Essentia in rose gold with diamonds and an opal dial, price on request
5 / 10
Moser's pure, unadulterated colour
Hardstone dials have been shaping up as a major watch design trend, and this year the independent Schaffhausen brand H. Moser & Cie takes it to a new level of chromatic purity. Its new limited edition Concept Pop collection is perhaps the brand’s most vivacious-looking to date, and throws together coloured stone dials in combinations that are unexpected yet work beautifully together.
The Endeavour Small Seconds models feature a minimalist dial with no indexes, so as to let the purity and colour of the hardstones truly shine. Here, pink opal sourced from Peru is paired with a sub dial of Burmese jade.
H. Moser & Cie Endeavour Small Seconds Concept Pop in steel with pink opal and Burmese jade dial, CHF30,500 and limited to 28 pieces
6 / 10
IWC's intelligent proportions
The Ingenieur was one of IWC’s if-you-know-you-know niche classics. Designed by Gérald Genta and originally narrowly marketed to engineers, it’s dubbed the brand’s greatest failure. Rather more smartly now, IWC has seen the beauty of the design and revived the collection as an expression of the Schaffhausen manufacture’s precision in crafting beautiful, functional timepieces.
This year, the brand is introducing a range of 35mm models that suit smaller and bigger wrists alike. The most luxurious of the lot is surely the reference in full gold, with matching tonal dial details that give it an intelligent elegance.
IWC Ingenieur Automatic 35 in 5N gold, $53,600
7 / 10
Cartier's mysterious, seductive Tank
The Cartier Tank is an indisputable icon of watch design. And though it has had countless many variations over the years, none come close to the Tank à Guichets in rarity and collectability. Cartier has, in its 178 years, only ever released this form of the tank a literal handful of times.
Unlike almost every other Tank which tells the time with hands on an open dial, the Guichets features jumping hours and minutes viewed through apertures on a closed up dial. This year, the Cartier Privé collection of limited edition archival re-editions is introducing the modern Tanks à Guichets, sure to be hotly spoken for. The most utterly beautiful of the four new models is this one in platinum, with the minute and hour windows rotated and slanted askew. It’s crafted in platinum, and in place of the house code of a ruby cabochon on the crown, the numerals are instead printed in red, like a nod to the knowing.
Cartier Privé Tank à Guichets in platinum, $88,000 and limited to 200 pieces
8 / 10
Jaeger-LeCoultre's superfine artistry
Though the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso was originally designed with a blank metal side to protect the watch, the brand has evolved that purpose and made it a canvas for creative expression. For years now, it has dedicated a limited edition series of its Reverso Tribute collection to artworks rendered with a panoply of its Métiers Rares handcrafts.
This year’s is a four-piece ode to the Persian epic poem Shahnameh. The details are astounding, realised through miniature painting, enamelling and gold leaf, giving it impressive vivacity and depth. Crafting each of these takes over a hundred hours of loving, painstaking detailed work.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Enamel Shahnameh ‘Rustam pursues Akvan’ in white gold, limited edition and price on request
9 / 10
Vacheron Constantin's classic with a twist
Fans of Vacheron Constantin, this is the year for you. The vaunted Swiss brand is celebrating its 270th anniversary this year with a slate of special edition releases. They all feature new dial and movement decorations that are unique to this year’s models. Dial-side, a geometric design born from the intersections and lines of its signature Maltese cross.
An elegant proposition is the manually-wound Traditionnelle, which features a dial in mother-of-pearl engraved with this new design: a demanding feat of craftsmanship on such a fragile material. Crafted in pink gold, and set on the bezel with diamonds, it is an impeccable example of feminine elegance and Vacheron Constantin’s aesthetics.
Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle Manual-Winding 33mm in pink gold with diamonds, $46,900 and limited to 270 pieces
10 / 10
Parmigiani Fleurier's impeccable minimalism
If beauty borne out of discretion had a form in watchmaking, it would almost certainly be embodied in the design ethos of Parmigiani Fleurier. The brand takes inspiration from classical architecture, and its finely realised details are entirely subtle except to discerning eyes. This year, it introduces an utterly sophisticated take on the Quantième Perpétuel, or perpetual calendar.
Such watches often feature crowded dials in order to tell the day, date, month and year. But here, Parmigiani Fleurier has collapsed all the information onto just two sublimely organised sub dials with finely chosen type. Paired with a hand-grained dial and neat rose gold hands and applied indexes, and finished with its signature knurled bezel, the effect is distinguished and essential.
Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Perpetual Calendar ‘Golden Hour’ in rose gold, CHF85,000 and limited to 50 pieces
