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Whether or not you agree with fashion brands getting in on fine Swiss watchmaking, this piece was one of the big stories of Basel. Not only is the Monsieur the first men's watch from Chanel (the J12 was, technically, unisex), it is the first to be driven by an entirely in-house-manufactured movement - created from scratch and five years in the making - and what a beauty it is. There is no rotor to obscure the sleek black anthracite mechanics, which means you can see all the wheels, some of which were supplied by indie CNC-machinist-turned-watchmaker Romain Gauthier.
To top it all, dial-side, the design is pure, monochromatic Chanel chic, with a jumping hour and retrograde minutes, depicted in a specially commissioned typeface. £23,500
Little did we know, but Breitling has been furtively establishing its own skunkworks at its "Chronométrie" factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds, tasked with stripping down, fine tuning and honing its in-house movements - improving every element by even marginal gains, and turning things up to 11.
This launch - a prototype Blackbird spy plane in wrist form, if you like - soups-up the brand's B01 chronograph calibre by introducing a ceramic baseplate and geartrain (self-lubricating, doing away with the need for 11 bearing jewels), a silicon escapement, plus an ingenious way of introducing elasticity to the chronograph wheels' meshing, meaning the hands sweep immediately. £30,410
The smartwatch as a product category has been legitimised in the past two years - but in style terms few would dispute that they're considerably more Birkenstock than Berluti. Well, no longer.
Samsung has crossed paths with none-more-flamboyant jeweller and watchmaker de GRISOGONO to create this diamond-studded hybrid. It's a smartwatch you could wear to a film premiere, with 127 diamonds, a galuchat strap and a rose-gold rotating bezel to control the watch. It packs heart rate and light sensors, a barometer and NFC. $15,000
There are glaciers capable of moving faster than Rolex's famed product development team. But when they do make their move, it's always the right one, executed perfectly - and it sticks. So when it came to updating the crowning glory of "The Crown" - its legendary chronograph - they weren't going to revolutionise; just improve and future-proof its icon for another decade or so.
Given that the Daytona was already a bulletproof watch, from the automatic movement to the design and functionality, what has changed is the previously steel bezel, whose logarithmic "tachymetre" calibration became easily scratched. It's now rendered in Rolex's tough Cerachrom ceramic. An incremental yet masterful move. £8,250
A rather heavy aesthetic belies the virtuosity and lightness of touch that's gone into this remarkable timepiece, simplifying a function that - unlike so much frippery in the world of watchmaking - is genuinely handy, but off-putting in the doing. Even its name, "Timezoner" does few favours, as this is a pedigree worldtimer, not just a second-time-zone "GMT" watch.
Whereas you usually need the instruction book to adjust your worldtimer watch to wherever you've landed, all you need do here is push the spring-mounted bezel down, turn to the relevant city, and release: the hour hand, 24-hour day/night display and date rearrange themselves to sync with your present location. £10,250
A watch whose mechanism is inspired by Meccano - why hasn't anyone thought of this before? The relationship between the construction toy's struts, bolts and panels, and mechanical watchmaking's tiny bridges, screws and mainplates is a no-brainer, not to mention tremendous fun. Most brands' reverence for their own heritage would forbid them from something so whimsical, but Hublot has ploughed its furrow as a future-forward experimentalist, and its high-tech aesthetic lends the perfect playground.
The result is actually one of the brand's most coherent blends of "chassis" and "engine", with its iconic "porthole" case providing a titanium frame for an architectural, ten-day-power-reserve movement. £15,000
Read more: The best watches for less than £1,000
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
