Sixty of horology’s biggest players came together for the industry’s most prestigious event at the start of this month, proving that despite the flurry of less-than-pleasant news constantly in the air, there’s still plenty to be excited about in the world of watchmaking.
This year’s Watches and Wonders (W&W) logged a record-breaking attendance of over 55,000 throughout the event, marking a 12% jump from 2024. With a similarly highest-ever number of exhibiting maisons — beating last year’s edition by six — the scene in Geneva was no doubt kept buzzing all week long.
Commenting on the event’s growth, Cyrille Vigneron, president of the Watches and Wonders Geneva Foundation, says W&W has “established itself not only as a must-attend inter-professional event, but also as a platform for expression for the watchmaking maisons”.
The hubbub in Geneva may have wound down — pun intended — but the novelties unveiled are still fresh in our minds. With brands continuing their pursuits of technical and aesthetic excellence, there was no shortage of innovation in this year’s releases.
Here, we’ve rounded up six of our favourite launches, from the world’s thinnest tourbillon to the most complicated wristwatch ever made. (Be sure to also keep an eye out for our annual watch-focused supplement, Equation of Time, to be released later this year, for more highlights from W&W 2025 and other novelties coming your way.)
See also: Richard Mille and the business of watchmaking
Rolex Oyster Perpetual Land-Dweller
Watch enthusiasts have been kept on their toes since word of a new line by Rolex, its first since the Sky-Dweller, in 2012, came about. So it should come as no surprise that the new Oyster Perpetual Land-Dweller’s unveiling came to much fanfare. Available in three versions — one in 36mm and two in 40mm — the Land-Dweller was developed over seven years. That all culminated in 32 patents and patent applications, of which 18 are exclusive to the watch.
See also: L’Epée 1839 CEO and creative director Arnaud Nicolas shares what keeps the Swiss maison ticking
Powering the Land-Dweller is the calibre 7135, a high-frequency evolution of the calibre 7140. Running at 5 Hertz, the new self-winding mechanical movement has a power reserve of about 66 hours. Its bridges are decorated with Rolex’s Côtes de Genève motif, and the cut-out oscillating weight is rendered in yellow gold.
Most prominent on the Land-Dweller is the new honeycomb motif on its dial; this structure and the lines between each cell are achieved with a femtosecond laser.
In the 36mm version, the dial is rendered in 18-carat Everose gold, and set with 10 baguette-cut diamond hour markers; surrounding this are 44 trapeze-cut diamonds. The first of the 40mm versions is in white Rolesor, a combination of Oystersteel and 18-carat white gold; here, the dial is a satin-finished intense white, with a fluted bezel. The second 40mm Land-Dweller is crafted from 950 platinum, with a sunray-finished ice-blue dial and fluted bezel.
The Land-Dweller’s integrated five-link Flat Jubilee bracelet, a reinterpretation of the Jubilee bracelet, gives the watch a smooth, streamlined look. A concealed folding Crownclasp secures the bracelet to the wrist, continuing that sleek appearance.
“In terms of appearance, the visual fluidity between the Flat Jubilee bracelet and the Oyster case lends great elegance to the Land-Dweller, which is as robust and reliable as other Rolex watches,” says Davide Airoldi, head of design at Rolex. “Everything comes together to make this new watch an ideal timepiece for all occasions.”
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Patek Philippe Quadruple Complication Reference 5308G-001
Patek Philippe has added the Quadruple Complication — initially released as a limited edition in 2023 — to its main catalogue, with the new reference 5308G-001.
Introduced at the Watch Art Grand Exhibition in Tokyo, the original Quadruple Complication, the reference 5308P-010, had a platinum case and salmon dial. The reference 5308G-001 takes on a cooler colour scheme, with a sunburst ice-blue dial and alligator leather strap in navy.
Complementing these is a 42mm case rendered in polished white gold with skeletonised lugs. Two interchangeable casebacks are delivered with the watch: one in white gold, matching the rest of the case, and the other in clear sapphire.
The latter allows the wearer to admire the movement within. The new calibre R CHR 27 PS QI, featuring a split-seconds mechanism, minute repeater and instantaneous perpetual calendar, powers the reference 5308G-001. Running at a frequency of 3 Hertz, the self-winding 32mm movement has a power reserve of up to 48 hours.
Despite the complications, the watch face remains highly symmetrical. For instance, the day and date are shown in an arc of three apertures between 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock. The day/night and leap-year indicators are positioned in the subdials on either side of the dial.
The instantaneous perpetual calendar behind these displays accounts for 220 of the calibre R CHR 27 PS QI’s 799 components. This complication allows the day, date, month and leap-year indicators to jump in just 30 milliseconds.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Minute Repeater
This year is all about the Reverso for Jaeger-LeCoultre. The maison unveiled nine new versions of the timepiece, which has over the last nine decades become instantly recognisable for its reversible case.
Among the latest models is the Reverso Tribute Minute Repeater. On one side of this pink-gold watch is a dial with an intricate teal-toned dial; the barley-seed pattern is achieved through a hand-guilloché process that takes four hours, followed by another eight hours of enamelling.
Switching over to the reverse dial reveals an open-worked face that shows the watch’s inner workings. Though they have very different looks, both faces carry a shared sense of depth and movement; additional visual motifs, such as the blue-lacquered bridge on the reverse dial, further tie the two sides together.
The Reverso Tribute Minute Repeater is powered by the manually wound calibre 953, a new in-house movement that incorporates seven existing patents. Among these are components that go into perfecting the minute repeater: trébuchet hammers, crystal gongs and silent-interval elimination.
And even with a minute repeater — on top of the reversible form factor — the watch comes in at a perfectly wearable 12.6mm in thickness. To maintain a sleek look across the entire design, the slider that activates the repeater has been set into the side of the case, with a lower profile.
Completing the Reverso Tribute Minute Repeater is a black alligator leather strap. Securing the watch to the wearer’s wrist is a pink-gold adjustable folding clasp weighing nearly 30 grams; this comprises 46 components, with a double-wheel mechanism on the buckle for adjustments to the nearest 0.5mm.
Cartier 2025 Tank à Guichets
Refreshing a cult-classic favourite is never an easy task, not least because one risks losing the je ne sais quoi of the original and failing to match up to the allure that made the forebear so special.
That isn’t a problem for Cartier, however, with the fourth iteration of its iconic Tank à Guichets already making waves. Originally released almost a century ago, in 1928, it has been re-released only twice before: once in 1997, and the other in 2005. In each edition, the Tank à Guichets has been put out in very limited quantities, making it one of the most sought-after models.
Differentiating the Tank à Guichets from other designs is its singular, minimalist look. On the vertically brushed front are just two apertures to tell the time, with one showing the hour and the other showing the minutes. Similar to the original version from 1928, the 2025 edition has its crown positioned at 12 o’clock.
Housed within the 2025 Tank à Guichets is the calibre 9755 MC, a movement created specifically for this edition with jumping hours and dragging minutes.
Four versions of the watch have been created, including a limited 200-piece run of a platinum model, where the apertures have been set diagonally (the other three have them arranged vertically, at 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock). In all four versions, the case measures 37.6mm by 24.8mm, with a thickness of 6mm.
Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication-La Première
Boasting a whopping 1,521 components in its movement, the Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication-La Première by Vacheron Constantin is the world’s most complicated wristwatch. Coming just in time to mark the maison’s 270th anniversary, the watch has 41 complications and 13 patent applications.
Housed in a case measuring 45mm in diameter with a height of just under 15mm, the watch is surprisingly wearable. The maison has also kept the watch impressively legible, even with four sub-dials on the front; this comes thanks to a clever mix of colours with contrasting green, red and yellow. On the back of the watch are a sky map and chronograph functions.
Among the complications in the Solaria Ultra Grand Complication are five rare astronomical functions. Four of these track the movement of the sun in real time, following its position in the sky, height, time of culmination and angle of declination; the fifth allows the wearer to calculate the time for a star or constellation to appear centred in their field of vision.
Another complication of note is the minute repeater, which accounts for seven of the watch’s patent applications. The four-note melody heard at Big Ben is produced via a Westminster carillon function with four gongs and four hammers.
All these — and more — fit into the calibre 3655, which comes in at a diameter of 36mm and thickness just shy of 11mm. The extreme levels of miniaturisation are highlighted by the contrasting textures of nine different finishes seen across the components. The calibre 3655 runs at a frequency of 3 Hertz and has a power reserve of 72 hours.
Bvlgari Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon
Bvlgari sure knows how to make a lasting first impression. Making its debut at W&W, the maison presented two models: the slinky, sculptural Serpenti Aeterna, and the bold, incredibly thin Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon.
At just 1.85mm thick, the Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon is the latest step in Bvlgari’s exploration of the ultra-thin category, a journey that began in 2014 with the Octo Finissimo Tourbillon. The new model has become the world’s thinnest tourbillon watch, breaking the previous 2mm record set by Piaget in 2024, as well as Bvlgari’s own Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Automatic, which held the record before then.
Inside the Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon is the manually wound mechanical calibre BVF 900, which runs at 4 Hertz with a 42-hour power reserve. This is housed in a case in the Octo collection’s signature — and easy to guess — octagonal shape, a form inspired by the coffered ceilings of the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine.
“The idea was to create a watch that encapsulates all our expertise,” says Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, product creation executive director at Bvlgari. “It’s not just about having the finest design but achieving a precise execution that tells the story of the Octo Finissimo series, while respecting the integrity of its distinctive aesthetic codes.”
Microbead-frosted titanium on the bezel, case middle and lugs give the piece a cool, understated look. A materially matched bracelet, at just 1.5mm thick, including the folding clasp, complements the case’s thinness.
In place of a standard crown, the Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon has two planar “crowns” that protrude at 3 o’clock and 8 o’clock. The former allows the wearer to set the time, and the latter allows for the winding of the mechanism.
