Editors' Picks: Our Favorite Watches & Wonders 2025 Releases

Watches & Wonders 2025 has come and gone and there was no shortage of unexpected releases and divided opinions. The editorial team here at Teddy was on the ground covering all the new launches, and afterward we asked them to name their favorite release from the show. It’s not an easy task, but we are going to have a few more of these post-show Editors’ Picks articles in the coming days that will expound a bit more on what we thought. For now, let’s get to our overall favorite picks from Watches & Wonders 2025.

Danny Milton: Rolex Land-Dweller

I won't belabor the point here, considering I penned about 2,000 words on this watch at launch, and helped produce our hands-on coverage at embargo. The Land-Dweller is seriously big news, and in all candor, is the watch of the show, full stop. It plays on nostalgia via its callback to the design language of integrated sports watches from Rolex in the 1970s. It introduces an entirely new design template in the modern Rolex context via a new case; a new, flat Jubilee bracelet; patented stick markers; new open applied numerals; new hands; a new counterweight on the seconds hand; and a new honeycomb dial, not to mention a new fluted bezel design. But the real star of the show is a silicon escapement made from the ground up. Dynapulse is perhaps Rolex's greatest innovation and results in a new 5Hz beat rate while maintaining accuracy, shock resistance and antimagnetic properties. But above all else, the watch honestly looks and wears beautifully. I am a sucker for the 36mm steel version, and even though I got ample hands-on time with it, I look forward to seeing it and handling it again soon.

Mark Bernardo: A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus Honeygold

Germany’s most prestigious luxury watchmaker, A. Lange & Söhne, has a long, proud history of debuting some of the most show-stealing timepieces at Geneva’s annual watch-industry exhibition, previously known as the Salon International de Haute Horlogerie and now called Watches & Wonders. In most years, it has done so by playing to its high-complication strengths, with standouts like 2015’s Zeitwerk Minute Repeater, 2018’s Triple Split, and 2023’s Odysseus Chronograph. The brand did, in fact, release another such technically ambitious piece this year — the limited-edition Minute Repeater Perpetual, which is, make no mistake, a triumph in its own right and due for a more in-depth examination on this channel soon. But the watch that Lange really blew most of us away with was the product of a more straightforward formula: namely, taking its sportiest model and executing it for the first time in its proprietary precious metal, bringing forth the brand’s first gold bracelet in the process.

That timepiece is the stunning Odysseus Honeygold edition (explored in detail here), limited to 100 pieces and sporting a perfectly chosen chocolate brown dial. Again, there is nothing essential about this watch that is truly “new.” Lange launched the Odysseus, and its in-house Caliber L155.1, in 2019, which, thanks to Covid, feels like an eternity ago. Honeygold, the company’s extra-hard, glossy-warm alloy made of 75 percent pure gold, made its first appearance way back in 2010 and has been used in 15 special editions since then. And yet, somehow, merging these two together has yielded a timepiece that is frankly way beyond the sum of these parts. Maybe it’s the presence of the bracelet, used here for the first time, that brings Lange’s gold alloy to center stage of the presentation more prominently than ever before. Or maybe it’s how the brand takes elements that the jaded cynics among us might dismiss as new-watch shortcuts — “just a new dial color, just a new case material” — and makes them look positively revolutionary.

Blake Buettner: Parmigiani Toric QP

This year’s Watches & Wonders featured solid releases across the board. Nearly all of the exhibiting brands had something interesting or compelling to show, even if there were no real single standouts. When it comes to watches I’d actually want to wear and own, the Tudor Pelagos Ultra and Nomos Club Worldtimer are at the top of the list, but my favorite watch of the show as a whole goes to another release from Parmigiani, the Toric Quantième Perpetuel. 

I was a big fan of the new Toric when it was released last year, serving as a masterclass of subtle beauty. This year, Parmigiani has added a perpetual calendar complication to the mix, and has done so without disturbing that simple design language I loved so much in the time-only affair. Two subdials present only the pertinent information within a pair of intoxicating dial colors with a fine hand-grained texture that really push these watches over the top. The results feel next-level. 

All of the Parmigiani releases this year were fantastic in the metal, but there’s something about the Toric that sets it apart from every other watch I saw at the show. This is a collection (and a brand) that you should really be paying attention to if you’re looking for something off the well beaten path. 

Erin Wilborn: IWC Ingenieur 35mm

The challenge of narrowing it down to just one favorite piece from Watches & Wonders this year is an offense I consider almost criminal, but here I will make my case for the 35mm update to IWC’s Ingenieur (you can read about the entire slew of new Ingenieurs here). The Ingenieur has always been a piece that I’ve sort of admired from afar (and on the wrists of others), but I never felt any strong emotional pull towards the Genta-designed watch for engineers – until I saw the new trio of 35mm Ingenieurs, that is. 

The standout model among the three models is most certainly (at least in my opinion) the pink-gold model with matching pinky-golden-hued, textural dial, though I was surprisingly drawn to the steel-and-silver-dial model, too. The basic principles of the Ingenieur are all accounted for in this new sizing option, and I have to say that the proportions worked really well on my small wrist but looked just as at home on other members of the Teddy team when they put it on. It had a kind of a “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” effect in that it magically looked good on everyone. If the small diameter is putting you off, I would encourage you to go and try it on for yourself before you make any final judgments. 

D.C. Hannay: Alpina Heritage Tropic-Proof Handwinding

Whenever the watch press throws up their postgame picks for Watches & Wonders, the temptation is always to single out the most complicated, most expensive, most outrageous, or just plain most outside-the-box contenders, and I’m guilty of it, too. A new high-beat Rolex movement is obviously newsworthy, as is Vacheron Constantin’s Most Complicated Watch in the World, the Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication. And trust me, there are a slew of candidates on my list that tick a few of these boxes: Hublot’s devil-may-care return to the early 2000s, the ‘footballer-in-a-Ferrari’ vibes of the titanium Big Bang 20th Anniversary is one such piece. The Hermès Cut Le Temps Suspendu offers a taste of a larger version of my pick from last year, but I tuned out due to the debatably frivolous complication and lack of a steel version. And I really like the jump-hour Monsieur de Chanel Superleggera Bleu Edition, but honestly, it’s a new (though admittedly, very attractive) colorway of an existing model. So I pivoted to one of the most basic, humble releases from this year’s fair: Alpina’s Heritage Tropic-Proof Handwinding. 

The Tropic-Proof is a classic, 34mm, manually-wound reissue of a ‘60s Alpina, resurrected from my favorite period of watch design. There are very few concessions to modernity: a boxed sapphire crystal, a slightly bolder yet still vintage-looking logo, and an Alcantara strap are about it. And I love that. Trust me when I say that 34mm, when done right, offers plenty of wrist presence: witness the blockbuster box office of the 2017 Timex Marlin handwinder, to name one example. The Alpina’s dial elements are just right in their proportions: from the faceted trapezoidal indices to the Dauphine handset, they’re nearly perfect, especially when paired with the gloss-black dial variant. Hand-winding a manual movement is one of my favorite morning rituals, usually carried out while the coffee brews, as I pregame for the day ahead. With this pick, I’m deliberately tuning out the hype-driven static, along with the frenzy of complicated frippery that surrounds this season, and I’m cool with that. The Tropic-Proof speaks to me. This is a watch your grandfather would have worn, and this new release is akin to finding a time capsule from that Mad Men era, one that remains as stylish as when it was brand new, 60 years ago.

Jonathan McWhorter: Nomos Club Sport Neomatik Worldtimer

The Nomos Club Sport Neomatik Worldtimer stole my heart the second I put it on my wrist for the first time. Shortly thereafter, I finished learning its long name. It’s an easy watch to love. To start, there’s a wonderful array of colors to choose from. Before you even get into the details or even read the name on the dial, you’re greeted with a rainbow of colors including reds, greens, yellows, pink, and of course a smattering of blues. Just an initial glance over the entire collection is eye candy in and of itself. It’s once you get into the details that the heartstrings really begin to be pulled upon.

Starting with the case and bracelet, the fit and finish is everything you would expect from a German watchmaker: erstklassig (that means “first class”). The Club Sport case carries fantastic proportions at 40mm x 9.9mm thick, making the watch extremely comfortable. You’ve got good size for everyday wear and visibility paired with a svelte wrist presence that keeps out of the way. A screw-down crown keeps water out to 100 meters, and there’s even a red ring on the crown tube to alert the wearer that the crown is not fastened all the way down. However, you shouldn’t have to worry about pulling the crown out for frequent adjustments thanks to the pusher-activated world-time function.

The headline of this show is of course the world-time complication, one of the thinnest in the world, with the movement clocking in (ahem) at 4.8mm thick. Home time, displayed at 3 o’clock is set via a corrector on the side of the case. A city ring featuring 24 time zones runs the perimeter of the dial, with discreet time-differentials featured at the hour markers (for quick time difference calculations). When you have reached your far-flung destination, simply use the pusher at 2 o’clock to adjust the local hour hand while the time keeps running, no accuracy lost. All of this in-house goodness in a 100-meter WR package, less than 10mm thick, featuring automatic winding, and in your choice of fun colors makes for my Best in Show this year at Watches & Wonders. Not to mention it can all be yours for less than $5k. Everything from the elegant layout of the dial, the red ring on the crown tube, to the haptic feel of the local-hour pusher give this watch an incredibly elevated feel at a very approachable price point. It’s hard for me to find a better value. If you want to learn even more about the watch, you can read our release story here.

Bilal Khan: Zenith G.F.J

I've gotta be honest, if you asked me on Day One of Watches & Wonders what would be my favorite watch release of the show, I would not have guessed it would be this one. But the surprises (not to mention the people and relationships) are the best part of an old-school in-person gathering like Watches & Wonders. Zenith’s G.F.J. is a breathtaking display of craftsmanship and watchmaking on the leather strap but it is an elegantly elephantine experience on the platinum bracelet. The G.F.J. (the initials are those of Zenith founder Georges Favre-Jacot) celebrates the 160th anniversary of Zenith with the modern Caliber 135 (you’ll recall the Kari Voutilainen-restored vintage Caliber 135-0 from 2022) housed in a 39mm platinum case with a lapis lazuli dial with brick-pattern guilloché outer ring and a mother-of-pearl seconds subdial.

Every detail is thought out, from the white-gold hour markers to the four hand-applied white-gold beads set between each hour marker. The Zenith G.F.J. is limited to 160 pieces, priced at $49,900 on the strap and just over double that on the platinum bracelet.