Wristbound Haunts: A Halloween Collection of Eerie Watches

When I started this article it was meant to highlight all the watches superheroes have worn, whether it be the actors who played them or what adorned their wrist while they fought off the evil-doers and villains of our intrepid fantasy worlds. But it felt forced, unoriginal. Then I hoped to take a different approach and look at the villains, the antagonists who make up and push the storylines of the stories we love. After all, what is a story without a villain creating conflict? I wanted to tell you what Norman Bates or Michael Myers would wear if they were the horological weirdos I dreamt them to be. I even went so far as to include 90’s villains like Snyder from 3 Ninjas, and Juntao from Rush Hour.

But again it didn’t come together. — Despite technically being in the entertainment business and to a degree a fashion journalist, I feel every article, every subject matter for which I touch on should have some literary merit to it. That said, I kept trying to figure out how to write a Halloween-themed article about watches without sounding banal. This even spurned into a very odd short story where I turned a broken watch into the beating heart of Edgar Allen Poe’s — The Tell Tale Heart. (Maybe one day I will publish it).

I set out to find the scariest watches—not just designs with skulls, orange dials, or playful frights. After wading through countless iterations, I landed on a collection that elicits genuine heebie-jeebies of amazement. (That said, I couldn’t resist throwing in some skull-centic designs). These high horology watches both terrify and intrigue me, telling horror stories of how far creative design can stretch into the eerie and uncanny. With the utmost respect (and love for alliteration), these are my Halloween Horological Horrors—a spookfest of design that dares to redefine watchmaking.

HYT Soonow

Alright, I know I said no skull watches but this one has to make the list of Halloween watches. Time is silent on this watch. It does not tick, it does not beat — it flows. HYT was founded in 2012 and it took a few years to find their place in the watch hierarchy — but in 2019 they released the Soonow forever changing the direction and reputation of the company. Skulls have long been a central motif for the company but the Soonow took it to a new level with its liquid time telling.

Drawing inspiration from ancient Aztec carvings, the skull motif is central to HYT’s watch design, a fitting symbol for the relentless march of time. Skulls and watchmaking share a timeless partnership, illustrating humanity’s futility against time — a theme that never seems to lose its appeal. Beneath a transparent dome, the dial brings this symbol to life with a perforated titanium plate punctuated by over 300 gold pins, creating a contemporary take on the face of death. The left eye features a rotating display of “soon” and “now,” alternating every 30 seconds to mark passing time. In the right eye, a “dead or alive” power reserve display adds an ominous touch, giving this macabre face a vibrant, almost maniacal expression.

The watch forgoes traditional minute markers, focusing instead on an innovative display of time. Colored liquids flow through a newly contoured, skull-shaped capillary, offering an approximate time indication. Around the skull’s outer edge, the numerals are cleverly inscribed as words, creating a distinctive and eerie touch.

The HYT Soonow was made in two limited editions of 25 pieces each, one featuring a green liquid backed by a black Super-LumiNova rail, and the other, a blue liquid with a white Super-LumiNova rail. Both versions showcase 313 gold pins (either yellow or white) and 937 tiny perforations on the titanium dial. The skull, crown, and stainless steel base plate on the green variant receive a DLC coating for added depth.

De Bethune Cempasúchil II: Dia de Muertos

Released last October at the prestigious SIAR watch show in Mexico — this watch is the definition of spooky with its split personality and dancing skeletons celebrating The Day of the Dead.

This unique timepiece emerged from a creative collaboration between De Bethune’s Denis Flageollet and celebrated Swiss engraver Michèle Rothen and builds on the momentum of their 2020 “Kind-of-Two” model, which we have seen multiple variations of over the years.

Dubbed the “Cempasúchil II,” this watch tells a spooky story through its two dials. On one side, two Calavera skulls mark the hours and minutes, dancing on a miniature stage. Flip the watch, and a hidden scene with animated Calavera figures springs to life at the press of a button at 12 o’clock.

But why is it called Cempasúchil? Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a vibrant Mexican celebration that has brought Mexico global recognition for its cultural richness, vivid colors, and deep-rooted traditions. Among its many symbolic elements is the striking cempasúchil flower.

With its bright yellow and orange tones and a distinct earthy fragrance, the cempasúchil carries centuries of history, symbolism, and legend. Even in pre-Columbian times, this flower held significant spiritual and ceremonial importance. For the Mexica people, it symbolized the link between life and death, a belief that endures today as the flower adorns ofrendas and decorations during Día de Muertos, embodying the spirit of this cherished tradition.

The piece also pays tribute to famed Mexican engraver José Guadalupe Posada, with Rothen’s detailed engravings and micro-sculptures echoing his 19th-century art. These characters, inspired by Posada’s joyful depictions of the dead, revel in a scene full of life and playfulness. Crafted with a titanium case, flame-blued and delicately adorned with gold inlays, the watch is both a technical marvel and a cultural homage.

Dancing skeletons in honor of the Dia de Muertos is the epitome of a Halloween watch with the horological merit to boot.

IWC Ceralume Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Concept Watch

Nothing says Halloween like some creative lume. The ominous glow from a wrist sending out spooky signals from across the street as you trudge in your spacesuit costume to the next house begging for candy and treats.

IWC’s new Ceralume was developed by its innovative engineering arm, XPL, through a unique process combining ceramic powder with Super-LumiNova pigments, traditionally used for dial illumination. In testing, the case maintained a bright blue glow for a full 24 hours in a dark chamber—though details on the “charging” time remain undisclosed.

Creating Ceralume involved modifying the standard ceramic-making process, typically a blend of zirconium oxide and metallic oxides, by adding Super-LumiNova pigments to the mix. One of the primary challenges was achieving a uniform distribution of these materials, given their different particle sizes, which could lead to clumping. To address this, IWC used a ball milling technique—essentially grinding the powders together with a ball before sintering, the mix to solidify the ceramic case.

IWC touts Ceralume as the first “fully luminous” ceramic watch, setting it apart from models like Bell & Ross’s BR-X5 Green Lum, which features a multi-layer case where only the top layer, made of luminescent fiberglass composite, glows, while the core is non-luminescent titanium.

This watch is the science experiment we all wanted to do as a kid. Lume on watches adds the perfect eerie touch for a Halloween-themed timepiece, and when you lume the entire watch it’s even more spooky. In the dark, those glowing hands and markers give off an otherworldly, ghostly light that can feel like the watch itself is keeping secrets. It’s as if the dial comes alive, casting a glow reminiscent of flickering candlelight in a haunted mansion. Just like a shadowy figure moving through the night, the lume adds a sinister charm that’s ideal for celebrating the spooky season. Whether it’s a soft, ghastly blue or an ominous green, the lume is like the watch’s own Halloween costume, ready to shine in the dark and send chills down your spine.

Louis Vuitton Tambour Carpe Diem

All right, I know I said not just skulls but come on — skulls are so perfectly Halloween, how can I resist? Especially when you are mixing skulls and snakes within high horology it is the perfect Halloween mashup up. It is the monster mash of watches.

At this point we are well acquainted with the high-end watch manufacturing arm of Louis Vuitton with La Fabrique du Temps, but when this watch was released in 2022 many were just becoming aware of this massive shift in the luxury house. And it was this watch that made people take notice.

The Louis Vuitton Tambour Carpe Diem, housed in a bold 46.8mm pink-gold Tambour case, is a showcase of the brand’s artistic take on “memento mori,” a classic theme reminding wearers to embrace life with the knowledge of its finite nature. Featuring a skull on the dial and within the movement’s structural bridge, it’s an intricate expression of life’s fleetingness, symbolized by a golden hourglass that tracks the 100-hour power reserve. When fully wound, the hourglass appears “full,” a haunting reminder that time is always slipping away.

No shortage of skulls on this watch.

The watch’s visual theatrics are centered around a snake, which “comes alive” for around 16 seconds when activated by pressing a snake-shaped pusher on the side. During this activation, the snake’s head reveals a jumping hour display on the skull’s forehead, while its tail serves as a retrograde minute hand, moving along a 0-60 scale on the dial. This snake motif, patterned with Louis Vuitton logos, adds a touch of brand identity to the symbolic imagery.

Altogether, the Tambour Carpe Diem is more than just a luxury watch; it’s an intricately crafted piece with haunting depth, a reminder of life’s impermanence that feels especially fitting for the spooky season. With its skulls, serpents, and ticking hourglass, it captures the eerie allure of Halloween, inviting the wearer to contemplate both style and the passage of time — a macabre dance that’s as stylish as it is chilling.

Mr. Jones The Accurate

Before you say it, yes, I’m fully aware that this watch diverges from the “high horology” I typically discuss. But to elevate the creep factor, it simply couldn’t be ignored. Back when I taught, one of my biggest pet peeves was when a student used “literally” in their presentation—usually incorrectly, as a lazy way to link unrelated thoughts. However, for this watch, that overused word feels appropriate; it quite literally serves as a reminder of the inevitability of death.

Founded in 2007 by Crispin Jones, Mr. Jones Watches made an early splash with creations like the “Perfectly Useless Afternoon” watch, which features a figure lazily floating in a swimming pool as the hour hand, while a duck drifts by to mark the minutes. It’s clear that Mr. Jones wanted to convey a certain lighthearted perspective on time.

However, “The Accurate” takes a much darker approach. On this watch, the hour hand spells out “remember,” and the minute hand ominously reads “you will die.” With little else on the dial, it’s hard not to focus entirely on this chilling message, rather than the actual time. The company’s website perhaps explains it best: “The Accurate is a link to the tradition of the memento mori—an object designed to remind us that life is brief and that we should seize the moment while we are here. The design is also a play on the notion of accuracy in timekeeping—this watch is accurate in a rather more fundamental sense than traditional horological measures.”

There’s a fine line between reminding ourselves that life is fleeting and being uncomfortably aware of our own mortality. If the sight of this watch on your wrist doesn’t stir a few stomach-churning butterflies, then I’m not sure what will.

My Take On Horror Themed Horology

From skull motifs and glowing lume to animated snakes and Day of the Dead celebrations, each of these timepieces brings a different kind of eerie, atmospheric charm to the wrist. These watches aren’t just about skeletons and shadows; they’re marvels of craftsmanship that challenge the boundaries of traditional watch design, daring us to consider the darker side of time itself.

In a way, these pieces serve as a reminder that time isn’t just a ticking measure of hours but a constant, spectral presence. Whether you’re drawn to the quiet flow of the HYT Soonow’s liquid hours, the haunted glow of IWC’s Ceralume, or the playful dancing macabre of De Bethune’s Cempasúchil, each watch offers a unique twist on the Halloween spirit. These are not mere accessories but rather a tribute to the passage of time—and, perhaps, a nod to the idea that we’re all haunted by it in our own way.