What’s Gone In 2025? The Year’s Most Significant Watch Discontinuations
7 min read
While I believe in the fact that a properly serviced mechanical watch is everlasting in essence of its functional and sentimental perpetuity, yet its lifespan is restricted in regards to catalog curation. Many timepieces reach a phase where they are deemed surplus to requirement and categorically fall into the realm of ‘remember when.’ Whether you term them discontinued, phased-out or runouts, these support the functioning of a one-in and one-out policy, keeping inventory fresh while serving a brand’s long-term approach towards strategic catalog evolution.
In many ways, discontinuations create a natural market scarcity that is sometimes linked to value appreciation owing to a fixed supply. The models that index a brief production run attract the best value appreciation, and in many ways, lead the build-up to a future in-demand product. In this management of a product’s lifecycle, many factors, some pre-determined and some abrupt, define clear catalog differentiation, technical progression of products and their market repositioning for fit relevance.
A specific model’s performance isn’t necessarily an attribute leading to its retirement, but when it is, it’s usually coupled with factors beyond declining sales. There’s usually the factor amalgam with shifting market trends, brand strategies and introduction of new models or even new collections. In many a few examples, for every new release, an old favorite usually departs. And again, consistent with the application of scarcity principle, when a model gets too difficult to get hold of, we find ourselves wanting it even more than before. Hence the hike in secondary space.
Now, having set the impulse and the impact, here are the watches that got de-catalogued in 2025. We’ll start with the obvious just for the sake of its gravitas.
Rolex Watches Discontinued In 2025
Amidst new releases at the Watches and Wonders 2025, the Crown made cuts to update its catalog for the year. That came at the cost of a few favorites, some expected and some not, but what’s to be expected from Rolex is an expectation of a bit unexpected. The brand is shifting, although with a gradual pace but eventual impact. Supporting its novel aside to inception and execution of the unexpected, there’s a multitude of references that face the cut. Here’s everything Rolex discontinued in 2025 (so far).
- Oyster Perpetual
Celebration Dial: All versions of the “Celebration” dial across the Oyster Perpetual range have been discontinued.
Specific Dial Colors (Sunray finish replaced by Lacquered): Several dial colors with a sunray finish have been discontinued and replaced by lacquered versions in all sizes (41mm, 36mm, 34mm, 31mm, 28mm). These include: Bright Black (Sunray), Bright Blue (Sunray), Sunray Pink and all dial variants of the Oyster Perpetual 41 (Ref. 124300). The entire Ref. 124300 gets replaced with the updated Oyster Perpetual 41 Ref. 134300, featuring a redesigned case, slimmer clasp and a larger crown.
- Datejust 31
Floral Motif Dials: All Datejust 31 models featuring the artistically ambitious “floral motif” dials introduced in 2022 have been discontinued.
- Day-Date 36
Diamond-Set Bracelets with Fluted Bezels: Rolex has discontinued all Day-Date 36 models in white gold, yellow gold, and Everose gold that featured a combination of a fluted bezel and a diamond-set President bracelet.
White Gold Day-Date 36 Turquoise Dial: The fluted white gold Day-Date 36 Ref. 128239-0044 featuring a turquoise stone dial, has also disappeared from the 2025 catalog.
- Deepsea Challenge
Ref. 126067-0001: The original Deepsea Challenge Ref. 126067-0001 has been discontinued and replaced by the updated Ref. 126067-0002. It now features a repositioned “Deepsea Challenge” text on the dial now at 6 o’clock, replacing the Sea-Dweller text.
- Yacht-Master 42
Falcon’s Eye Dial (Ref. 226659-0004): The nautical Yacht-Master 42 model with the “Falcon's Eye” blue-grey stone dial has been discontinued after a relatively short production run of three years.
- Daytona Le Mans in Yellow Gold
Ref. 126528LN: The yellow gold Daytona Le Mans, introduced in 2024 as a replacement of its white gold iteration, has now been discontinued by Rolex. This watch featuring vintage Paul Newman Daytona-inspired sub-dials, a red “100” on the tachymeter scale, and a 24-hour totalizer instead of the traditional 12-hour one faces a cut, possibly signaling the arrival of a Daytona Le Mans in Everose gold or even platinum.
Patek Philippe Watches Discontinued In 2025
Although I fiercely contest the attribution of over-hype to watch models, the stainless-steel Nautilus Ref. 5711/1A was a legitimate icon in modern watch collecting circles. When it was phased out in 2021 for the white gold 5811/1G, it was a hard pill to swallow for many who had grown a passionate affinity with the former. Time forward, the 2025 runout day for Patek Philippe held a somewhat similarly hurting sentiment with the discontinuation of probably the most-favored complicated Nautilus iteration, the stainless-steel moonphase-date Nautilus 5712/1A. This particular model was a consistent feature in Patek’s catalog for almost 20 years without any major evolutions over its lifespan. Now, this elegantly unbalanced Nautilus is survived by the Ref. 5712/1R-001 in rose gold.
The Nautilus 5712/1A isn’t the only Patek Philippe to be de-catalogued for 2025. Here’s a running list of all Patek Philippe watches discontinued in 2025.
- Nautilus Moonphase 5712/1A-001 (steel with blue dial)
- Aquanaut 5167/1A-001 (steel on steel bracelet, rubber strap available)
- Calatrava Pilot Travel Time 5524G (white gold model, rose 5524R available)
- Split-Seconds Chronograph 5370P-011 (blue dial)
- Grand Complications 5208R (minute repeater, perpetual calendar, chronograph)
- Grand Complications 5370P-011 (split-seconds chronograph)
- Nautilus 5719/10G-010 (40mm full diamond white gold Nautilus)
- Nautilus 7118/1A-010 (mid-size 35mm steel Nautilus with white dial)
- Ladies Annual Calendar 4947G-010
- High Jewelry Twenty-4 7300/1450R-001
Audemars Piguet Watches Discontinued In 2025
Audemars Piguet’s 150th-anniversary celebrations didn’t necessarily mark the discontinuation of any significant number of references, but rather the ditching of an age-old anomaly troubling perpetual calendar watches. Earlier this year, AP introduced their caliber 7138 Collection across the Royal Oak and Code 11.59 line-ups. With this new generation caliber, which replaces the caliber 5134 (based on the legendary caliber 2120/2800), the brand introduces the ease of full crown adjustment for the perpetual calendar mechanism, effectively ditching the pushers as well as the stylus.
What suffices for the introduction of new references is the discontinuation of the stainless-steel and pink gold editions of the Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked, Ref. 15407ST and 15407OR with slate grey dials. With the brand’s novel focus on material innovation, it remains highly prospective that Audemars Piguet will replace these runouts with new material iterations.
Also possible is a special limited edition anniversary piece. So, fingers crossed!
Tudor Watches Discontinued In 2025
Tudor is going through a bit of a ‘boring’ phase where their releases more or less feel like a game of spot the difference. Agreed, there are updates, but most are restricted, in pure Rolex tradition, to minor iterative revisions. Still, the brand is a favored choice in its price segment, operating a strong dive watch portfolio.
While there are many raving about the new releases, Tudor purists seem somewhat distraught over the discontinuation of a rather unorthodox but historically significant bulbous watch from the Black Bay line-up - the Black Bay P01, which has disappeared from Tudor’s official website. While the model’s production ceased a couple of years ago, 2025 is when the stocks have finally depleted and thus it’s no longer listed on the catalog.
There’s great division in the significance and impact that varying watch models render when discontinued. But, regardless of our omnipresent urge to resist change, it’s in favor of a strategic impetus to maintain a largely sellable catalog. For some however, it’s also a way to restrict a certain model from becoming the brand itself. What remains a fact is that brands have a practical constraint against production capacity and when the market demands necessitate a consistent revision of offerings, a one-in and one-out policy fits the requisite theme. In some regards, it’s the brand’s reward for existing owners which surely benefit from the factor of natural market scarcity post discontinuation.
Collectively, discontinuation represents a long-term strategy and enables sustainable evolution for a brand and its portfolio.
