We saw a lot of watches last week – A LOT of watches. So after a much needed weekend off from writing and taking pictures, we have pulled together a list of our favorite watches from six different categories: Best Value, Most Unexpected Watch, Best Everyday Watch, Dream Watch, Guilty Pleasure Watch, and Most WTF Watch. Some are more surprising that others but all in all this is a comprehensive list of our favorites from SIHH 2016.
Best Value
Benjamin Clymer – The IWC Mark XVIII
It’s as if someone was listening to us (and every other real IWC fan) when we asked for something smaller, less expensive, and better designed. IWC, at its core, and frankly, at its best, is the maker of tool watches that are elegant in their masculinity and excellent in their simplicity. They are at their best when they don’t try too hard to be something they’re not, and this Mark XVIII – with a 40 mm case, an anti-magnetic movement, a calf instead of alligator strap, and a price of $3,950 – just nails it. IWC should be competing with Omega, Tudor, and Rolex, not Jaeger-LeCoultre, Vacheron, and AP – and here, they are now offering the most handsome, and most legitimate heir to a real pilots watch at a great price. You can’t go wrong with the Mark XVIII.
Jack Forster – The Audemars Piguet Supersonnerie
Value doesn’t necessarily mean “least expensive,” and with that in mind, let’s take a look at the half-million-dollar Audemars Piguet Supersonnerie. This is probably one of the best, if not the best, minute repeaters in the world right now, if judged purely on the basis of sound quality; a lot of cutting-edge repeaters go for volume, but it’s often at the expense of richness of sound, with many sounding too bright and brittle for their own good. I was floored when I finally got to hear it. The Supersonnerie is the result of an eight-year effort by AP and APRP to go for both volume and sound quality and this thing has both in spades, and it’s a tourbillon chronograph, and it’s about half the price of an RM 50-02. Is it cheap? Nope. Is it a great value? That depends – what’s it worth to you to own the best of anything?
Louis Westphalen – The A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia Moon Phase
I don't mean to pre-empt anyone else (there is a lot of love for Lange coming up) but price-wise the Saxonia Moon Phase was one of the great surprises of SIHH. You get an additional stunning complication for a minor price increase over the "regular" Saxonia with automatic movement. Price aside, I will let the others tell you why they love this piece so much – I am there as well.
Cara Barrett – The Montblanc Twincounter Date
For me, the watch with the best value this year was the Montblanc Heritage Chronometrie Twincounter Date at $2,845. In my opinion, this watch is extremely well-designed and is reminiscent of the simpler watches of years past. It has an automatic winding MB 24.23 movement with the time, date, and subsidiary seconds, all of which are the most necessary basics you can ask for from a watch. Done here with a lot of quiet but definite style, and overall this is a bread-and-butter watch that would be happy in any collection (big or small).
Most Unexpected Watch
Benjamin Clymer – The Vacheron Constantin Overseas Ultra-Slim
So Vacheron essentially revived the 222, or chose to make their own version of a Royal Oak Jumbo 15202, using the very same movement as AP. There isn’t anything wrong with this, it was just a decision I didn’t anticipate when they'd also just announced their own brand-new, in-house, self-winding movement for the Overseas with date. I prefer this ultra-thin watch to the standard Overseas with date, just as I prefer AP’s 15202 to the 15400, but I’m curious why VC would want to take the attention away from their new caliber and watch with a collector-oriented piece that uses a movement from someone else. I happen to like this watch a lot, but it's just not something I expected to see.
Jack Forster – The Piaget Emperador Coussin XL 700P
I think it’s probably fair to say that a very high-end version of a quartz-mechanical hybrid, using technology more or less developed in parallel (but not in partnership) with Seiko, of all people, over a period of some 40 years, is the very last thing anyone expected any brand from Switzerland to drop, much less Piaget, but here it is. As we’ve mentioned in some of our other coverage of this watch, while the conversation about who really invented this tech is one of modern watchmaking’s deeper rabbit holes (and there’s zero debate about the fact that Spring Drive came first) it’s still a pretty daring, and very provocative, move to make. The front and center microrotor, dial design, and case shape aren't for everyone, but they're definitely very much Piaget.
Louis Westphalen – The Laurent Ferrier Galet Square Sector Dial
Out of all the brands that could have played the retro-vintage card, Laurent Ferrier was the one I was expecting the least from in that area. Yet, they introduced a great sector dial – showing how esthetically pleasing this great classic from the 1930s can be. Laurent Ferrier even did it in a playful way, combining luminous capacities in the design. To me, this was one of the most solid offerings of this SIHH, with the impeccable micro-rotor movement on the back side matching the successful dial side.
Cara Barrett – The Cartier Drive
The watch I found most surprising was the Cartier Drive. Men’s watches are not exactly Cartier’s strong suit, but the Drive seems to be the answer to Cartier's prayers. The overall design of the watch is both functional and elegant. The in-house caliber 1904MC-PS movement – and the watch overall – is a fantastic new addition to the Cartier collection. They announced a lot of interesting watches this year, so be sure to check back for more on their releases.
Best Everyday Watch
Benjamin Clymer – The Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Perpetual Calendar
An everyday watch has to be functional, easy to use, and a breeze to wear. This JLC perpetual is all that, and more. It’s steel, featuring a thin self-winding caliber with in-house perpetual calendar, and a cool black dial. A great calf or suede strap would really dress it down, while the supplied black crocodile really dresses it up. On top of that you have all the real watch-nerd street cred you could want, with the movement coming from JLC. This could be one and done, for sure.
Jack Forster – The A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia Moon Phase
Sure, when we think “everyday watch” we all think of different things. Sometimes it’s a watch you would actually wear every day in your own life, and sometimes it’s a watch that’s more a better fit for how you’d wish you could live. For me the Saxonia Moon Phase is squarely in the latter camp. I’m not actually an ultra-erudite scholar of ancient languages who moonlights (get it?) as an expert in the occult, who may or may not have connections to an ancient coven of sorcerers whose spells require an intuitive understanding of transfinite numbers to perform, and who favors overpriced, inexplicably ill-fitting Savile Row suits – but if I were, this would be the watch for me.
Louis Westphalen – The Vacheron Constantin Overseas Self-Winding
This Vacheron Overseas offers everything that you would like for your everyday watch: an automatic movement with date, pretty decent water resistance, and a dial that is neither too eccentric nor too plain. You actually get three watches at once with the interchangeable straps and bracelet provided – a convenience I often long for. I would of course take it in stainless steel, with the blue dial, and I bet I would look at its in-house movement more than once.
Cara Barrett – The Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Duo
I have never been much of a Reverso fan – until this year, which coincidentally happens to be the 85th anniversary of this most iconic of Jaeger-LeCoultre's designs. For my everyday watch I would choose the Reverso Tribute Duo with day/night indication on the reverse. For me this watch is elegant, understated, and practical. Seeing as I like shiny things, it is no surprise that I love the texture of the silvered dial, which has a subtle textured finish, as opposed to the standard polished silvered dial. The stainless-steel rectangular wristwatch measures 42.8 mm by 25.5 mm, which sits comfortably on the wrist and wears nicely.
Dream Watch
Benjamin Clymer – The A. Lange & Söhne Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon
It’s huge in every way, from the 16 mm thickness to the €295,000 price tag. It has a tourbillon, which nobody needs, a perpetual calendar, and a flyback chronograph with a platinum case. It is completely blacked out and beyond badass, and I absolutely love it. This new Lange has one of the most sensational looks, both front and back, that i’ve seen in years. I’ll never own it, but damn, in my dreams, it looks great on my wrist.
Jack Forster – The A. Lange & Söhne Richard Lange Jumping Seconds
Okay, at €78,000 it’s kind of expensive, so what else is new. I don’t really care; this is an instant-classic addition to Lange’s lineup. It’s beautifully designed: a variant on a conventional regulator, with the jumping seconds display given center stage, and unlike most jumping seconds watches, here the complication is driven directly off a one-second fourth wheel remontoire d’egalite – every serious watch nerd’s favorite horological flourish. It also has a return-to-zero function that is meant to be an aid to precise setting of the watch and which is tons of fun to see in action, with the vertical clutch return-to-zero mechanism visible through the case back. Both front and back, it’s got exactly the kind of monomaniacal precision-plus-quality vibe that makes Lange what it is – price be damned.
Louis Westphalen – The Cartier Crash Skeleton In Pink Gold
While there were plenty of skeleton watches unveiled at SIHH, the Cartier Crash was the one that caught my eye the most. To witness the deconstructed movement embracing the shape of the case is something truly spectacular. I especially enjoy the work on the main-plate, cut-out to create the famous Cartier indexes. In my view, this rose-gold edition is the absolute dress watch, something I would dream to wear at any black tie event.
Cara Barrett – The A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia Moon Phase
If I could have any watch from SIHH it would be the Lange Saxonia Moon Phase in white gold. I realize that technically this is not one of the most exciting watches that we saw, but when I first saw this watch it was true love. There is something so appealing about a white-gold case, clean dial, date and moon-phase with an automatic movement. It reminds me a lot of the Patek Philippe reference 3448, which happens to be another dream watch of mine. The new Saxonia Moon Phase is 40 mm in diameter, which is slightly bigger than I would like, but I am willing to overlook that. The price is $29,000, which is “reasonable” for a Lange, so who knows, maybe one day my dreams will come true.
Guilty Pleasure Watch
Benjamin Clymer – The Richard Mille RM67
Me as a Richard Mille guy? Yeah, somewhere deep down I want to rock an RM on the beaches of St. Tropez (where, incidentally, I have never been). In all truth, I do have a lot of respect for some of what RM does, and I’ve always liked their thinner pieces. The RM67 is their new entry-level guy, and it’s their first tonneau-shaped watch with a thin caliber, this one not coming from Renaud et Papi. So, it’s in-house, it’s thin, and it’s a Richard Mille, so Pharrell and Jay would approve – which is worth something, I guess?
For real though, I do dig this watch.
Jack Forster – The Cartier Diver In Gold With Blue Bezel
This is a watch that by rights, knowing my own tastes, I just plain shouldn’t like. First of all, there could hardly be a more atypical dive watch than the Calibre de Cartier diver; and secondly, doing the watch in gold should just make matters worse. The fact that I find this particular one irresistible is pretty powerfully demonstrated by the fact that I almost immediately start trying to find reasons, or maybe rationalizations would be a better word, for liking it (“gold is actually a much better material for a dive watch than stainless steel, because stainless steel relies on passivation for resistance to corrosion!”). Oh well, sometimes it’s love at first sight. A reminder that the heart has its reasons, whereof reason knows nothing.
Louis Westphalen – The Kari Voutilainen Vingt-8 With Brown Dial
To me, this brown-dial Voutilainen strikes the perfect balance between classical looks and modern twists (though I have to admit I'm torn between this one and the equally lovely blue dial version). The incredible finishing of the dial and hands really underlines what makes independent watchmakers so desirable: their ability to translate their dreams without limit. And it is not simply a good-looking watch to admire in pictures – it also wears really great on the wrist thanks to the short, curved lugs.
Cara Barrett – The Audemars Piguet Diamond Fury
Of course for my guilty pleasure I have chosen a diamond-set watch – the Audemars Piguet Diamond Fury. This cuff-watch was incredible to see in person and try on. While the overall diamond-setting was impressive, it was the the infrastructure of the interior of the cuff that impressed me most. The cage-like structure was just as intricate, if not more so, as the exterior. The dial is concealed by a hinged cover that is activated by a hidden button. The price of this watch is a mere $568,300 for the diamond and onyx version and $637,800 for the full-diamond version.
Most WTF Watch
Benjamin Clymer – The Piaget Emperador Coussin XL 700P
Whenever I talk about Piaget I always make a point to tell people that they are a seriously high-end watch manufacture doing things the right way. It’s an uphill battle for this jeweler turned watchmaker, and when I heard they were doing what is basically akin to a Swiss-made Spring Drive system, I literally said “WTF.” This watch is so outside the norm, and so beyond what serious watch guys are after, I’m not sure they are doing themselves any favors here. It’s cool, and I know Jack loves it, but considering the reaction of most watch nerds when you mention the world “quartz,” they might be in for a tough one here. Still, I give them major props for making this watch.
Jack Forster – The Richard Mille RM 50-02
For sure, my selection here has to be the Richard Mille RM 50-02 ACJ, which is, for some reason that escapes me, a watch produced in partnership with Airbus Corporate Jets – which would seem to make little to no sense as corporate jets aren’t exactly the most emotionally compelling possible tie-in, to put it mildly. Yet, here’s Richard Mille doing it. And then, as always, with Richard Mille, there is the price, which is just over one million dollars; this for a watch that is admittedly complex and unique aesthetically, but still. To this day I can’t decide if Richard Mille is serious or not, but either way, he seems to be having a blast being Richard Mille, and as much as I would like to completely dismiss the watch, it’s actually very, very attractive in person. I'll be honest, while I struggle to justify the price on any level, this also came very close to being my "Guilty Pleasure" watch. Guess I might have to join Ben in St. Tropez (where I have also never been).
Louis Westphalen – The De Bethune Dream Watch 5 With Meteorite Case
The title pretty much sums it up: with De Bethune Dream Watches you were expecting something a bit extravagant, and this meteorite case brings it to another level. This might be the ultimate Star Trek watch. Not to forget that this watch comes with a tourbillon – why not, right? It was announced as a unique piece, which would be a shame for this highly unconventional beauty.
Cara Barrett – The Jaeger-LeCoultre x Christian Louboutin Reverso Duetto With Clear Acrylic Strap
Okay, so hear me out, at first I did not like this watch (and actually remember thinking “WTF?” when I saw it). A clear acrylic strap is, in my humble opinion, generally tacky (for lack of a better word). Pair it with the mirrored Reverso Duetto dial and you have a seriously questionable watch design on your hands. BUT when I tried on this limited edition Jaeger-LeCoultre x Christian Louboutin watch, I had a change of heart, as it looked surprisingly elegant on the wrist. For me, this watch is so wacky that it becomes cool in that “this thing is so ugly that it is beautiful” kind of way. As I mentioned earlier, JLC is celebrating the 85th anniversary of the Reverso, so they partnered with Christian Louboutin to create a series of watches available for the next year. Clients are able to mix and match straps designed by Louboutin with different variations of the Duetto case and dial of their choice. However, the piece you see here was paired together by the shoe-master himself. Although the mix-and-match is not a novel idea (people have been mixing and matching their straps for a while now), it is a creative way to entice new female buyers to personalize their watch. It will be interesting to see how this concept and limited edition collection fare.
See HODINKEE's live SIHH 2016 updates here and in our mobile app, and you can read all SIHH stories here.
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