For When You’re Out Of Ideas, Here’s The Watch Enthusiast’s Last Minute Gift Guide
We do the thinking so you don’t have to.
The end of the year and especially the holidays always seem to come at us with alarming speed as the year rushes to a close, and before you know it you’re behind the eight ball when it comes to finding the perfect, or at least, a not-to-imperfect give for the watch lover, or watch-curious, or even just watch-adjacent, on your holiday shopping list. Depending on your disposition these are also (I think) watches which have a better than even chance of providing a sense of satisfaction to you yourself, if you’re looking for a way to reward yourself after an arduous year. For your convenience we’ve divided our list into under $10k and over $10k, a somewhat arbitrary division which nonetheless offers a rough and ready way of classifying the options by price.
Pre-Owned Watches Under $10,000
For the gadget lover:A Breitling Navitimer
There are those among watch lovers who like nothing better than a watch that exemplifies minimalist simplicity, ease of use, and instant legibility under all conditions. This is not that watch. Instead, the Breitling Navitimer is a watch for those who love finding out just how hard you had to work to get the most out of a watch, back in the days when general aviation pilots didn’t have things like GPS to fall back on. The Navitimer’s signature slide rule bezel may not be the easiest thing in the world to read, and you’ll need some regular practice to remember how to use it, but for the technically inclined enthusiast who loves to fiddle, the Navitimer is a holiday miracle waiting to happen.
For the big watch fan: An IWC Big Pilot’s Watch
The general trend today is towards smaller and more traditionally sized watches, but why follow trends? Chances are if there is someone on your holiday list who likes watches, there’s a part of them that still wants something big and bold to mix things up – as long as the watch is big for a reason. The Big Pilot’s Watch is classic IWC – it came out in the early 2000s and is a faithful re-creation of IWC’s B-Uhren navigator’s watch from the 1940s, but updated with a seven day automatic movement which is, like the original, shielded against against magnetism by a soft iron inner case and dial.
For the individualist: A Grand Seiko Spring Drive With Blue “Kirazuri” Dial
Grand Seiko is justly famed for the beauty of its dials and the quality of its movements, and they tend to appeal to folks who want something a little off the beaten (Swiss) path anyway. The Blue Kirazuri Dial Grand Seiko is a US limited addition with a hypnotically beautiful textured dial named for a Japanese painting technique (“Kirazuri” means “sparkling painting”) and it’s equipped with one of Grand Seiko’s Spring Drive movements – a technology unique to Grand Seiko, in which a mainspring drives a magnetic coil drive wheel that simultaneously powers, and regulates, the movement.
For the dive watch fanatic: An Omega Seamaster Ploprof 1200M
To dive is to be seduced by the wonders of the deep, although most divers can only dream of exploring regions of the oceans deeper than the 40 meter limit set by the technical aspects of recreational SCUBA diving. However, man can dream, and if you, or a dive watch fan you know, is looking for something that could at least in theory go deeper than a modern nuclear attack submarine (true story) why not consider the Ploprof? Based on a watch originally created by Omega in the 1970s, this is a watch designed for use by saturation divers and it wears its massive case and bluntly functional design, with all the pride due one of the few so-called tool watches worthy of the name.
Pre-Owned Watches Over $10,000
For the classicist: A Cartier Tank Collection Privée Monopoussoir Chronograph
The Cartier Tank in almost any of its forms is about as classic as classic gets, and it’s one of those designs I think every watch enthusiast owes it to themselves to experience at least once (and probably more than once). Complicated tanks are less commonly seen than time only models and this is one of the most exquisite: a monopusher, two register chronograph from the Cartier Privée Collection, which is as elegant as elegant gets. This is a watch so gorgeous that if it could talk, it would say, “Drop dead.”
For the vintage obsessed: A Vintage Vacheron Constantin 222
The 222 was for many years, a watch somewhat overshadowed by its contemporaries in the integrated bracelet luxury sports watch world (you don’t need me to know which ones). However, in recent years the 222 has been enjoying a resurgence of interest, which was jet-propelled by the launch in 2022 of a modern version of the watch. Vintage 222s remain one of the most interesting and beautiful examples of watch design in the vintage watch world – a classic design, underappreciated for decades, which is finally getting its long deserved moment in the Sun.
For the complications – loving traveler: A Patek Philippe World Time Chronograph
A world time complication combined with any other complication is a rarity, thanks to the basic architecture of a world timer. A true world time watch has two rotating rings on the dial – a ring with 24 reference cities (one for each of the time zones offset from GMT by a full hour) and the 24 hour ring, which rotates once per day. There is therefore not a whole lot of room for a chronograph mechanism, and this Patek Philippe World Time Chronograph watch when it was launched in 2016, was the first world time chronograph ever made.
For the lover of revolutions in watchmaking: A Ulysse Nardin Freak
The Ulysse Nardin Freak is today an accepted part of the modern watchmaking landscape, but when it was first launched more than 20 years ago, in 2001, it marked the beginning of a whole new era in watchmaking. Its unique design, in which the entire movement acts as the hour hand and rotates once per hour in the case, was unprecedented and the Freak was the founding father of the whole first generation of hyperwatches.
