More than 300 watches were released at Watches & Wonders Geneva 2022 — a trade show that gathers the biggest names in watchmaking. So, inevitably, some were bound to get lost in the shuffle.
However, discovering the unsung gems is half the fun. Here are our favorites, an eclectic mix of serious tool watches, high-end horology and everything in-between.
This year, Montblanc released a dive watch collection and a mountaineering watch with no oxygen in its case, both of which took attention away from one of the most subtly unique GMTs you'll find on the market.
Rather than use a fourth hand (as most GMT watches do), the Montblanc 1858 GMT displays the second time zone using a disc that fills tiny windows at the dial’s periphery to indicate the second time zone. (A cool touch: it includes smaller apertures to indicate half-hours.)
Brands that are serious about the dive watches often feel the need to have a watch with extreme water resistance. This is TAG’s.
The Superdiver clocks in at a chunky 45mm in titanium, and it's good for a full kilometer underwater. It uses a COSC-certifiied chronometer movement from Kenissi, the same company that makes movements for Tudor.
Trilobe is a young independent watchmaking company that’s caught our eye in recent years.
Its signature is to display time using concentric rings, but the latest model gives that approach a dramatically three-dimensional effect with a bubble-like dome for a crystal and the rings elevated on different planes — underneath which you can glimpse the movement. It's just plain cool.
Though these are simply new models in an existing collection, we can’t help but be stunned by their elegance and creativity.
On the surface (that is, from the dial side), you’ve got a classic but compelling enamel facade. However, turn the watch over and you'll find some of the most visually interesting minimal movement design around.
Even if you can't afford one anytime soon, you can sure as hell appreciate the craftsmanship on display.
Diameter: 44mm Movement: Ferdinand Berthoud FB-RE.FC Availability: Limited to 10 examples Price: ~$226,840
Angelus mostly makes high-end, aggressively styled sport watches with skeletonized dials and movements.
The Chronodate Titanium Blue is all but the latter, and it gives it a more palatable feel for those that are interested in relatively traditional — but still very sporty — chronograph watches.
Diameter: 42.5mm Movement: Angelus Calibre A-500 automatic Availability: Three limited series of 25 examples each Price: On request
Hermès always seems to do something a bit different to the rest of the brands at Watches & Wonders. Case in point: this new world time watch.
Push the button on the case side and the dial itself will jump and a little red arrow will indicate the time at the next city displayed on the outer ring. As it does so, the time displayed will also jump to match the new time zone.
Three new versions of the Cartier Santos Dumont watch use lacquer for their dials, bezels and even cases. The result takes an already popular and elegant model and gives it a look quite unlike almost anything we’ve seen.
Diameter: 43.5mm Movement: Cartier 430 MC manually wound Availability: Limited to 250 examples (for this beige model) Price: ~$13,250
It’s pretty much always worth paying attention to new watches in Ulysse Nardin’s Freak collection; they're visually and technically mind-blowing.
Here, like with other watches from the collection, the entire movement is mounted on the minute hand. Two inclined silicon balance wheels are also featured.
If that weren’t enough, the watch was designed to resemble some sort of spaceship, and it stands against a starry aventurine backdrop of a dial.
