An Unsentimental Assessment Of Everything Watches In 2025
9 min read
While we might be a bit late to the ever so clichéd year-end wrap-up frenzy, I promise that the following won’t be any redundant writeup on the topic. This very specific subject is ideal SEO fodder, reeling in clicks quicker than Trump’s oversaturated rants about “buying Greenland - again!” Such is the repetitive nature dominant here, that at the end, it’s just a personal mandate to make the world heed one’s opinion.
That’s not only an unfortunate reality but an impetus yielding hesitation from yours truly as an effect. But in a good way. So, here I’ll try to serve an ideal antithesis against the very generic year-end wrap-ups and instead substitute clichés and familiar forecasts with the actual meat of the matter via a deeper reflection of what actually transpired behind the noise.
In doing so, you’ll learn about what mattered most, what’ll endure and what’s destined for oblivion.
2025 Was Anything But Boring
The watch industry is one rooted in tradition and notorious for keeping up with a snail’s pace. There’s no sense of urgency about it at all, quite notably in its mainstream space. Still, a slow forward progress is better than being static. Contrasting this attribute, 2025 has been a year of many thrills. It can best be summed up in one word: relentless. The year delivered more than its usual share of surprises and sorrows, the latter marked by the passing away of Jean-Pierre Hagmann, Angelo Bonati, and René Beyer. RIP.
The poignance however wasn’t restricted to the departed, as the industry was shaken by what could be termed as the “financial panic of 2025,” courtesy of the tariffs. This standout disruption in the watch industry, with implicated percentages fluctuating from 31 to 10, to an absurd 39, and lately reduced to an acceptable 15, lent the Swiss watchmakers in particular a very unexpected and undesired blunt of economic diplomacy.
This persistent debacle spawned deep concerns about the long-term impact of the tariffs and how the said situation would ultimately shape the prospects for what’s essentially the single most important market for the Swiss watch industry.
As a key takeaway, the tariff roller coaster highlighted the vulnerability of brands that operate at an entry-level to mid-tier luxury segment, particularly the ones heavily reliant on the American market. Such brands were faced with the risks of complete business model collapse, and unlike the headline Maisons with a global customer base, there is no such leverage to spread the consequent price hike owing to limited market exposure.
With the frequent fickleness of you-know-who raining chaos like confetti, is the ink finally dry on 15% duty or will need a little extra time, and table clock bling, to set - only time will tell!
Shifting Epicenter Of Swiss Watchmaking
The luxury watch industry’s globalization never felt more pronounced, or precarious, than in 2025. For once, it didn’t feel like an industry whose center of gravity was localized over Switzerland. The United States became a hazard market, China endured its sharpest downturn in years, while bubble hotspots like the UK, Japan, and India flared unexpectedly. It almost felt like, at least from an economic and business standpoint, that the epicenter shifted away from Switzerland, despite that being the point of origin for most watches.
While the Swiss watch industry tends to inherently overfocus on certain markets, the recent vulnerabilities sustained from the U.S. posits a possible rebound in the Chinese market and also India’s emergence as the next big growth opportunity for the luxury watch industry, where exports from January to August of 2025 rose by nearly 7% compared to the same period in 2024 and over 30% versus 2023, as reported in the Deloitte Swiss Watch Industry Study 2025. With strong domestic demand, rising affluence, and growing exposure credited to events like the India Watch Weekend, India continues to be the fastest-growing major market for Swiss watches.
Diversification isn’t just smart - it’s survival!
A Good Year For Indies
What has been an interesting shift in the industry is the continued persistence of independent watchmaking as a primary point-of-entry into watch collecting. Also, the rate at which the indie and niche entities of the industry have become part of the mainstream discourse is an impressive transition and broadens the scope of the net available yield to suffice the perpetual growth in demand for watches. So, the niche segment of independent watchmaking and also the microbrand entities which together yield products with quirky and distinct identities are experiencing what could be termed as a “boom phase.”
In doing so, the watch buying public is bypassing the traditional mainstream entry-level and even high-end stuff in favor of something with a niche identity or a strong cultural relevance, and as a result, shunning the legacy manufacturers that have long been the established go-to entry points into the hobby of watch collecting.
But, the extent to which this gravitation towards indies persists relies on the available volumes of business in this space for what’s essentially a rapidly growing number of participants. Also critical is the factor of affordability here, and if the said tends to follow the premiumization trend of the mainstream sector, the affinity towards the obscure could subvert at some point.
Right now, the prospect of microbrands and independents expanding the pool of choice in what’s an entry-level Omega or Grand Seiko segment is buoyancy to this boat.
Breguet’s Brilliance
The year 2025 delivered more watch releases that caught my eye than I can state and appreciate here in a single article. A proper coverage demands something akin to a text round-up of “The Simpsons” - a never-ending enterprise. I won’t reinvent the wheel for this, but instead serve a quick rundown of the best watches that came out last year. For the reason of attention it attracted, I’ll start with a brand that had in BIG in 2025 - Breguet.
In regards to sheer innovation and meaningful technical disruption on offer from what’s Swatch Group’s most prestigious entity, Breguet had serious momentum in its 250th anniversary year. So much so, in fact, that I’m confused about what the follow-up to this literal excellence at scale could possibly be. Still, the suite of complicated high horology on offer, which methodically spanned the entire year with a dozen of releases, gratifyingly signals the techno-creative revival of a brand long sustained by its founder's storied hallmarks.
From the technical force majeure of Expérimentale 1 (accurate to +/- 1 second per day) and Classique 7225 to the artisanal superlatives of Classique Tourbillon Sidéral 7255 and Classique Souscription 2025, the year for Breguet delivered the exceptional in abundance. In doing so, they’ve also birthed an expectation for at least one hero launch per year for the public to sustain such a level of interest in the brand.
The Year’s Notable Releases
The year 2025 was eventful in regards to notable releases. Vacheron Constantin, Breguet, Audemars Piguet, and Rolex marked the year’s biggest, but not the only, anniversaries. As already highlighted in the case for Breguet and as expected for Vacheron Constantin, the year’s theme revolved around their respective 250th and 270th year anniversary editions. Rolex, in its signature style, played oblivious to its 120th anniversary and Audemars Piguet, despite not having any anniversary-specific release, unleashed a suite of remarkable technical innovations, with the premium side of attention engendered by its all-set-by-crown QP caliber 7138.
Among the releases that mattered, the Land-Dweller was undeniably a big debut from a big brand. Despite the said example reviving an integrated bracelet construction - a long-departed Rolex aesthetic, the Land-Dweller’s chief landmark remains its ground-up inventiveness. With the caliber 7135, Rolex introduced the Dynapulse escapement - a double-wheel, detached and indirect-tangential impulse escapement, making it one of the most advanced escapements available today. And the fact that such a complex escapement mechanism, usually restricted to artisanal level low-volume works, is being produced at scale, makes it even more impressive.
Vacheron Constantin’s Solaria Ultra Grand Complication - the world’s most complicated wristwatch, set the tone for what followed for the brand. Still, the Maison’s crowning landmark for 2025 has to be the La Quête Du Temps astronomical clock which sort of simplifies the exercise of expressing horology’s impressiveness to those immune to its wonders.
Beyond the high headliners, the year was marked by an abundant quota of impressive releases, notable being the 38mm Fifty Fathoms, Nomos Glashütte Club Sport Neomatik Worldtimer, Zenith G.F.J., Bvlgari Bvlgari x MB&F Serpenti (finally a Serpenti for the long-envious men!), Parmigiani Fleurier Toric QP, IWC Ingenieur Perpetual Calendar, Blancpain Grande Double Sonnerie, F.P.Journe Chronomètre Furtif, and the MING Polymesh.
So, 2025 offered no shortage of impressive horological material.
The Year’s Technical Exceptions
The ever so incremental pursuit of mechanical innovation in horology is reasonable when we consider the expansive legacy of the craft. Even after making wristwatches for literally 100 years, it’s impressive that there’s a legitimate yield that still tests the technical limits. Obviously, for reasons already discussed, the Expérimentale 1 takes the high accolades in this department but there were others too that stretched to maxima what’s possible with today’s timekeeping tech.
What impressed me to a higher degree in 2025 has to be the Greubel Forsey Nano Foudroyante. That a flyback chronograph, flying tourbillon, and foudroyante seconds form portions of a regular recipe at Grebuel Forsey speaks to the caliber of its ingenuity. That’s the kind of tech that gets packed in a 37.9 mm Grebuel Forsey, a.k.a. the Nano Foudroyante. Like any product from the brand, it’s another audacious over-engineered wristwatch.
Now, it’s Japan’s turn in the year-end roundup and we expectedly turn to Grand Seiko. The realization that we can now measure timekeeping accuracy of mechanically driven wristwatches in factors of seconds per year stands to the eternal credit of the caliber 9RB2 - Grand Seiko’s Spring Drive U.F.A. movement. Introduced in the references SLGB001 and SLGB003, the 9RB2 is simply the ultimate iteration of the uniquely advanced spring drive caliber.
2025 definitely proved that watchmaking never ceases to amaze!
The Fam Al Hut Mark 1 Möbius
There won’t be any orthodox conclusion to this article but rather a thought about my wishful watch of the year 2025 - the Fam Al Hut Mark 1 Möbius. As a personal sentiment, the Möbius is true watchmaking disruption in every possible sense. Here’s why:
In the now populated space of independents, every newcomer chases some sort of a standardized design that’s a byproduct of inherited craft knowledge. It’s always a simple time-only wristwatch finished to exquisite extremes but lacking legitimate technical ambition.
If that’s the segment’s unfortunate state, then the Fam Al Hut Mark 1 Möbius deserves infinite praise. This notably original design came into being without any heritage reference. It’s quite easily one of the most aesthetically and mechanically nuanced timepieces to debut in the modern generation. It comes from a place too that’s nuanced to the tradition of artisanal hand-made watchmaking: China.
In its pricing, place or origin, aesthetic novelty, and mechanical complexity, the Möbius not only revolts against almost every convention of traditional watchmaking, but represents a generational transition that could redefine the industry at large and that’s the rise of Chinese fine watchmaking!
Anyway, I’ll let you sit with that.
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