Five watch trends for late 2025 and beyond

In response to the ‘quartz crisis’ of the 1980s, the following decade witnessed the resurgence of the mechanical watch. Companies such as Blancpain, IWC and Patek Philippe competed to introduce increasingly elaborate complications, including lunar calendars and minute repeaters. In a bid to show off these technical achievements, manufacturers also embraced skeletonised cases.

The 1990s also saw the release of big, bold, experimental watches. One of the most iconic was Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak Offshore, which was introduced in 1993 and nicknamed ‘The Beast’ on account of its 42mm size.

Similarly, the large Panerai Luminor became popular after Sylvester Stallone wore one in the 1996 film Daylight, and colourful, gem-covered watches made by Audemars Piguet, Franck Muller and Jacob & Co. were popularised by actors, musicians and athletes. In 1997, Patek Philippe also caused a sensation when it released its first watch on a rubber strap — the Aquanaut.

‘As the 1990s continue to infiltrate current tastes, playful watches from that era have become very popular — especially with Gen X, who have a real nostalgia for the decade,’ says says Mathieu Ruffat, a senior specialist in Watches and Wristwatches at Christie’s in Geneva.

In April 2025, at the Watches & Wonders trade fair, Cartier unveiled a new version of its historic Tank à Guichets model, which was first released in 1928 and a favourite of jazz maestro Duke Ellington.

The watch’s most striking feature is its all-metal case, which reveals the time through two tiny windows. It was one of the earliest examples of a watch that told the time with rotating dials, not hands — and, ingeniously, while the minutes dragged, the hour numerals jumped.

The re-release was perfectly timed to ride the wave of demand for this rare model: in May 2024, a platinum example from 1931 fetched $448,346, becoming the second most expensive variant of the Tank model ever sold at auction, only beaten to the top spot (when inflation is taken into account) by one that belonged to Jackie Kennedy.

‘The trend has also seen a demand for other vintage watches with dial apertures, like Audemars Piguet’s covered John Schaeffer model,’ says Ruffat. ‘Similarly, watches with dials that can be flipped over so they are entirely covered, like Cartier’s Basculante and Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Reverso, are also attracting a lot of interest.’

When wristwatches first became commonplace during the early 20th century, it seemed logical that, as objects of function and precision, they would be symmetrical. From the late 1950s, however, as they began to be seen as pieces of statement jewellery, designers let their imaginations run wild.

Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe released eye-catching, asymmetrical cases made from precious metals, inspired by the works of Constantin Brancusi and Piet Mondrian.

Rolex, working with the legendary watch designer Gérald Genta — the man behind Patek Philippe’s Nautilus and Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak — released the geometric King Midas model. Inspired by the shape of the Parthenon, it was the company’s most expensive watch at the time, worn by the likes of Elvis Presley, John Wayne and the Bond villain Scaramanga, played by Christopher Lee in the 1974 film The Man with the Golden Gun.

Arguably the most recognisable asymmetrical designs, however, came from Cartier. The watchmaker had been experimenting with unusual shapes such as the Asymétrique and Cloche models since the 1920s, capturing the Art Deco spirit. Then, in 1967, it released the iconic Crash.

Over the following decades, Cartier occasionally mined its archive, re-releasing these models in limited editions. But in recent years, demand for its irregularly shaped watches has soared. In 2022, a Crash from 1967 made $1.65 million at auction, setting the record price for any Cartier watch.

‘As collectors seek out more uncommon watches, the desire for asymmetrical timepieces is strong,’ says Ruffat. ‘Oldest doesn’t always mean best, however. Collectors should also consider rarity and condition.’

In 1933, Ingersoll released a watch with Mickey Mouse on the dial, his gloved hands serving as the hour and minute indicators. It became an instant classic, and some 30 years later the astronaut Buzz Aldrin famously wore one with his military uniform for an official portrait photograph.

In 1984, Gérald Genta, who also manufactured his own line of watches, struck a licensing deal with Disney to place their characters on his dials, including Donald Duck, Scrooge McDuck and Minnie Mouse.

Across the following decades, other manufacturers followed suit: Romain Jerome unveiled dials adorned with Pac-Man and Space Invaders; Omega put Snoopy on the dial of its Speedmaster model; Audemars Piguet teamed up with Marvel Entertainment for a Royal Oak Black Panther edition; and Konstantin Chaykin released 99 handcrafted mechanical watches with dials depicting a Minion, whose revolving eyes told the time.

‘Brand collaborations have been big business for a while now,’ the specialist explains, ‘and character dials give owners the opportunity to let a part of their personality shine through.’

In 1963, Piaget unveiled a range of watches with dials made from semi-precious stones, including onyx, lapis lazuli and malachite.

Their simple appearance belied a complicated manufacturing process, which involved an ultra-thin 9P calibre movement, and the use of diamond powder and ultrasonic drills to cut and polish the precious materials into slices less than a millimetre thick. Because of the stones’ brittle nature, these dials were usually small in size and produced without indices or date windows, which required extra machining.

By the following decade, demand for stone dials had exploded, and other manufacturers began to introduce them. Rolex released its Day-Date and Datejust models with coral, obsidian, and eventually even fossil and meteorite dials; Cartier added stone dials to its Tank and Santos ranges; Audemars Piguet used turquoise and bloodstone dials in its range of dress watches; and Patek Philippe adopted tiger’s eye and jasper.

The introduction of quartz movements in the 1980s saw a drop in the popularity of expensive stone dials, but in the 1990s and 2000s they reappeared on large tool watches like the Rolex Daytona.

‘In recent years, the demand for stone dials has increased, as people search for something unique,’ says Ruffat. ‘Established manufacturers and smaller independent watchmakers have started working with them again — although for many collectors, the grail is an original stone dial from the 1970s.

‘Some choose stones based on their rarity, or because they hold a personal or cultural significance,’ he continues. ‘The beauty of the dial’s entirely natural pattern, which is unique to each watch, can also add to its desirability.’