Ones to watch

The choices available in the luxury watch market are myriad. Simon de Burton picks his favourites this season. Photography by John Reynolds

For watch enthusiasts the world over, the only place to be in April is Switzerland, where the Baselworld watch and jewellery fair in Basel and the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva, offer the first glimpses of the designs, complications, materials and mechanisms that will set the wristwear fashions this coming season.

It is about now that the best new products from these shows are making their way onto the market. The range of luxury watches available is greater than ever, whether your budget is less than £1,000 or extends well into six figures.

One of the best value sports watches of the moment must be Rado’s scratch-proof Original, which starts at £695 for an automatic model and rises to £795 for the functional Diver.

TAG Heuer, too, has launched an affordable chronograph, a new version of its hugely successful Carrera Tachymetre, which now comes with a chocolate-coloured dial at £1,550.

More radical is the absurdly butch-looking Zenith Defy Extreme Chrono, a £9,195 monster made from honeycomb aluminium, Hesalite, carbon fibre, steel and Kevlar.

If elegant dress watches are more your thing, Chopard’s new Extra Plate is likely to appeal. This super-thin, large diameter watch contains one of Chopard’s excellent in-house movements and costs £4,430 in yellow gold. Even more devastatingly minimalist is Vacheron Constantin’s Patrimony Contemporaine—but, because of its platinum case and dial, this weighs in at a hefty £16,450.

Seasoned travellers, meanwhile, are likely to applaud the arrival of Vogard’s new Timezoner, the first mechanical wristwatch to offer instant timezone adjustments with a simple twist of the bezel. It starts at £3,550. Globetrotters on slightly tighter budgets could opt for the famous Rolex GMT Master II at just £2,600—if you don’t mind joining the waiting list, or Montblanc’s Star Chrono GMT (£1,715).

Square and rectangular cases have made a comeback, too. Breitling’s successful “for Bentley” range is joined by the Flying B, a jump-hour watch (with minute and second hands and a number to show the hour), priced from £8,335 in steel to £20,000 in rose gold. Bell and Ross is enjoying success with its imposing BR-01 Instrument, which has been released with orange dial markings (£2,300). Jaeger-LeCoultre’s legendary Reverso range has been enhanced with a square-cased version called the Squadra, which rises from £3,200 to an astonishing £280,000.

New faces

Diamond life

Fair and square

Time travellers