A vibrant year for watches: 2025's most captivating timepieces

Looking back on a long year of trips to Switzerland, tours of manufacturers and museums and trade shows, and interviews with watchmakers around the world, I think it’s fair to say 2025 was an excellent year for watches.

There were major debuts, including the Vacheron Constantin clock and automaton that was installed at the Louvre, as well as the totally new Rolex Land-Dweller line that premiered in March. There were innovations such as Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak RD#5, with its thin case, tourbillon and ultra-easy chronograph pushers, plus Breguet’s magnetic escapement in its avant-garde Expérimentale 1.

Cartier, Bremont, Maen, Fears and others kick-started a trend of funky jumping-hour watches I expect we’ll see continue for some time. Urban Jürgensen debuted and immediately inflamed the passion of high-net-worth collectors with its movements by Kari Voutilainen and its prices in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But my favorite thing was that brands at every price point began to embrace bold color and shapes. The rapidly expanding trend of stone dials is a big part of this, as is a desire among collectors to find design-forward watches inspired by the cool case forms of the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. It’s one thing to wear a complicated watch that only enthusiasts will know is significant. It’s another to wear something rad that’s so plainly beautiful, anyone will stop you to ask about it.

As such, here are my favorite graphic watches from 2025, in order of price.

Studi0 Underd0g Av0cado

I loved this watch so much, I bought it for myself! If you missed your chance to scoop up this particular fruit-themed timepiece from the quirky, UK-based brand Studi0 Underd0g, never fear. There will be others to come. The color combo on the front is of course delightful, and was actually inspired by a copycat avocado watch spotted by brand founder Richard Benc. But as always with SU’s watches, the excellent finishing on the chronograph movement is just as fun to admire through the transparent caseback. Price: $675 (R11 130).

Baltic Pink Prismic

Baltic is a great entry-level brand that always has fun with styling. If you can’t manage to chase down a candy-pink Rolex Oyster Perpetual (spoiler: you can’t), this is a fun alternative you don’t have to be too precious about. Part of Baltic’s new “prismic stone” line, this manual stunner has a bright dial of the mineral albite. What you can’t really see from the picture is the domed crystal, which has a nice retro feel - as does the tidy 36-millimeter size. Price: $1,590.

Nomos Glashütte Club Sport Neomatic Worldtimer

These watches were on tons of “best of” lists (including mine), and for good reason: The 40mm worldtimer comes in six bright color combos that are eye-catching and well designed. The countries around the edge of the dial move with a press of a pusher, and there’s a central 24-hour subdial you can use to always track your home time. Plus, the price tag can’t be beat. Price: $5,190.

MB&F M.A.D. 2 Green

You can’t get this anymore, because it was distributed by lottery, but I just love this collaboration between the wizards at MB&F and the watch designer Eric Giroud. It has a bidirectional jumping-hour module developed by the MB&F team and is powered by a Swiss-made La Joux-Perret movement, with 64 hours of power reserve. The rotor spins behind the dial, creating a cool visual effect through the dots around the rim. Look for it on the secondary market ($6,000 more or less), or get ready for the next M.A.D. Editions raffle.

Chanel J12 Bleu

When my colleague Felix read my feature on the Chanel J12 Bleu for Bloomberg Businessweek’s The One column back in September, he said to me, “Let me get this straight. This new watch is so exciting because … it’s blue?” And I said, “YES, FELIX. Don’t you get it? GOD.” The new matte color for Chanel’s classic ceramic watch from 2000 is elegant and understated but also bold. Just read Jack Forster’s paean to the original in Hodinkee from 2022 - people are sleeping on this watch, and I hope the blue tone opens it up to a whole new crew of wearers. Price: $11,050.

Cartier Tressage

OK, so this is a quartz watch, and yeah, it’s aimed at women, and fine, it’s too expensive for me. But daddy, I love it so much! The 18-carat gold gadroons are so striking and outrageous, it looks like something Cate Blanchett would have worn as part of her impeccably chic jewelry collection in the 1950s-set movie Carol. Sometimes class doesn’t bother with whispering. Price: $44,000

H. Moser & Cie. Endeavour Small Seconds Concept Pop

At Watches and Wonders in April, Moser launched a whole series of stone dials that were a step away from the striated malachite and tiger’s eye we were seeing with other brands. These were so clean, and the borders between stones so impeccable, they almost looked painted. As with many watches from this brand, a layperson wouldn’t know there’s extremely high-level horology within the case - but with this color combo, it would turn their head anyway. Price: 39,000 Swiss francs ($49,500).

Piaget Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol used to wear a chunky, distinctive Piaget called the Black Tie - which was among seven Piaget watches he owned. In 2024 the brand began an official collaboration with the late artist’s foundation to rename the watch the Andy Warhol. This one, which is limited to 50 pieces, has an 18-carat yellow-gold case and an onyx dial that bears slivers of yellow serpentine, pink opal and green chrysoprase. At a hefty 45mm by 43mm, it’s a big ol’ thing, but on the wrist it’s impossibly chic. Price: $78,000

Gérald Genta Gentissima Oursin Fire Opal

The LVMH-owned Gérald Genta brand won the Ladies’ Watch Prize at the 2025 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, the Oscars of watchmaking, for this fiesty “sea urchin” timepiece set with 137 fire opals and an orange carnelian dial. I particularly liked the octagonally faceted crystal - and when my 5-year-old daughter saw it over my shoulder on my laptop screen among all the other GPHG winners, she said, “That’s the one I want.” Price: Upon request.