Who are you calling limited?

Limited edition watches are not in short supply. So how can collectors avoid the hype and pick a winner? Simon de Burton points them in the right direction

When it comes to watches, "limited edition" can mean many things. Buy an Omega Seamaster James Bond limited edition and you'll become part of a club with 10,006 other members and pay a joining fee of £1,850. But, hand Patek Philippe £500,000 and you will be one of just two or three people a year to buy a Sky Moon Tourbillon.

Historically, limited edition wristwatches have proved to be excellent investments—but only the right ones. In the days of traditional watchmaking, before computer-aided design and manufacturing, many of the best quality watches were made in tiny numbers because they were complicated, highly-finished and few people could afford them. Roger Dubuis still only makes 28 of any of its watches.

Rarities by Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin and Audemars Piguet from the "golden era"—the 1920s to the 1950s—now top the charts at auction, sometimes selling for seven-figure sums.

Anyone buying a modern limited edition wristwatch for investment (which is a risky thing to do) should, therefore, only consider those of exceptional quality, made in very small numbers by top brands. All the big houses now produce "limited edition" pieces. Although most are made from parts designed and produced with the aid of computers, they will invariably be hand-finished to a high level.

If the budget doesn't stretch to "haute horlogerie", and you still want to be a bit different, watches such as TAG Heuer's Monaco Vintage Gulf, of which 4,000 are available at £2,500, will fit the bill—but probably won't rise in value.

Of the expensive limited editions available, a good investment should be the Malte chronograph from Vacheron Constantin's Excellence Platine collection. Just 75 will be made, the quality is outstanding and the price, around £27,000, is surprisingly reasonable.

This year's two major watch fairs in Switzerland produced myriad limited editions, ranging from the conventional to the wildly wacky. Among the latter was the Titanic—DNA from Romain Jerome, which has a case made from trace elements of a piece of metal salvaged from the wreck of the Titanic, which went down in 1912. Naturally, 1,912 will be made. Girard Perregaux, meanwhile, offered its Vintage 1945 Jackpot Tourbillon—a watch combined with a miniature slot machine. Pull the lever at the side and watch the three reels spin. It costs a jackpot £317,000 and three or so will be made each year.

Also at the high end, Vacheron Constantin unveiled a bizarre collection of four watches it calls Les Masques, each with a dial decorated with a miniature replica of a tribal mask representing Asia, Africa, North America or the Congo. A series of 25 boxed sets of four watches will be produced during the next three years, each set costing £165,000.

Other, less unusual looking but still covetable pieces include Panerai's Radiomir 10 days GMT, one of the first models powered by the brand's own, in-house movement (250 will be made) and the IWC Da Vinci Edition Kurt Klaus, which is named after the inventor of the automatic calendar chronograph movement contained within a tonneau-shaped case. There will be 50 in platinum and 500 in rose gold—go for the former if you can afford it.