Watches & Wonders Geneva 2025 has firmly established itself as the premier event in the fine watchmaking calendar, with this year's edition setting unprecedented records. The Salon welcomed over 55,000 visitors—a 12% increase from the previous year—including 6,000 retailer representatives and 1,600 journalists. The public days saw 23,000 tickets sold, reflecting a 21% rise and underscoring the growing enthusiasm for haute horology. The "In The City" program further enriched the experience, bringing watchmaking culture to the heart of Geneva and engaging both aficionados and newcomers alike.
With 60 prestigious brands exhibiting, the fair showcased a diverse array of timepieces, from groundbreaking technical innovations to artistic masterpieces. While it's impossible to cover every debut, this article focuses on select standout creations that best capture the creativity and craftsmanship of the fair.
Chanel’s presentation at Watches & Wonders 2025 was vibrant, cheeky, and deeply rooted in its fashion heritage. Playful dials spelled out Coco Kiss and Chanel Time, secret messages were hidden behind lions and lipstick motifs, and Mademoiselle herself appeared throughout. But while the broader offering leaned into joyful storytelling, it was a single, tonal collection that captured the attention of collectors and purists alike.
For the first time, the J12 appears in matte blue ceramic—a quietly radical evolution of one of Chanel’s most recognisable watches. Developed over five years, this deep, near-black shade required a complete reengineering of the brand’s ceramic expertise. The result is the J12 BLEU, a nine-piece collection that subtly redefines the icon’s identity without altering its silhouette.
The blue is enigmatic—cool, rigorous, almost monochrome under low light, but rich and shifting in daylight. Some models are understated; others sparkle with blue sapphires. The technical highlight, the J12 BLEU Diamond Tourbillon, reveals its movement beneath a sapphire crystal dial, pairing architecture with luminosity in classic Chanel fashion.
While other maisons chased spectacle and showmanship, Chanel’s approach was more controlled—but no less exacting. The J12 BLEU isn’t a reinvention. It’s a reminder: that colour, too, can be innovation. Click here to watch our Instagram reel.
Bvlgari: Making a Bold Entrance
Making its inaugural appearance at Watches & Wonders, Bvlgari wasted no time in asserting its presence. The brand unveiled two headline pieces that encapsulate its fusion of Italian design and Swiss engineering.
The Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon set a new world record as the thinnest tourbillon watch ever made, at just 1.85mm thick. A decade after launching the Octo collection, the brand continues to lead the field in ultra-thin watchmaking, combining technical prowess with modernist architecture.
Watch our Instagram reels: Click here for reel No1 and here for reel No2.
In parallel, the Serpenti Aeterna redefined one of the brand’s most iconic motifs. Stripped of scales, eyes, or figurative detail, this sculptural bangle-watch reduces the serpent to its most essential form: fluid, geometric, and resolutely contemporary.
A stalwart of the Geneva salon, Cartier returned with creations that blur the lines between horology and haute joaillerie.
The Panthère Jewellery Watch brings the house’s most iconic creature to life in a striking double design. One side features a finely sculpted panther caught in mid-motion; the other, a minimalist watch face. The yellow gold version contrasts polished surfaces with black lacquer spots and tsavorite-set eyes, capturing the wild poise of the animal. In white gold, the watch becomes a dazzling statement, entirely set with over 1,100 diamonds and marked by emerald eyes. Both editions house quartz movements and curve dramatically around the wrist like a living form.
Presented alongside it, the Tressage watch expands on a concept first seen in Cartier’s experimental Libre collection in 2023. Initially an exploration of materials and geometry, Tressage returns this year as a fully realised line of timepieces.
Here, twisting forms—some smooth, others pavé-set—encircle a snow-set rectangular dial in a bold, sculptural composition. Elongated sides, faceted gold, sapphire gradients, and lacquered accents all feature across its variations. Not quite a bracelet, not merely a watch, Tressage continues Cartier’s tradition of crafting timepieces that defy classification —sculptures that happen to tell time.
Hermès: Whimsy Meets Craftsmanship
While many brands leaned into technical spectacle, Hermès responded with humour, craft, and quiet sophistication. Among the several new pieces the Maison unveiled this year, two in particular stood out—distinct in concept, but equally grounded in Hermès’ poetic vision of time.
The Maillon Libre reimagines the anchor chain—an Hermès icon—as a watch that’s barely a watch. The time display is discreetly integrated into a swirling architectural form that wraps around the wrist like a piece of wearable sculpture. One version features a terracotta tourmaline at the centre; another is fully set with diamonds. Both are powered by quartz and speak more to rhythm and ornament than precision. A brooch interpretation adds a historical note, nodding to early masculine timepieces, and can be worn as a pendant thanks to a leather cord—an elegant link back to Hermès’ saddle-making roots.
Playfulness continues with the Arceau Rocabar de rire, a whimsical 12-piece limited edition that brings a cheeky horse to life on the dial. Hidden beneath a striped blanket—referencing Hermès’ Rocabar motif from its scarf collections—the animated horse sticks out its tongue when prompted by a pusher at 9 o’clock. Executed in a mix of hand-engraving, miniature painting, and horsehair marquetry, the dial is a showcase of rare crafts. It’s housed in the familiar Arceau case, designed by Henri d’Origny, here in white gold and paired with a rich alligator strap. Click here to watch our Instagram reel.
Van Cleef & Arpels: Reviving a Design Icon
Van Cleef & Arpels came to Geneva with its usual poetic flair, unveiling a rich constellation of high jewellery watches and métiers d’art creations. But amid all the fantasy, it was a piece of design history that quietly stole the spotlight.
The Cadenas Watch, first introduced in 1935, returns this year to mark its 90th anniversary. Conceived at a time when the idea of women wearing wristwatches was still radical, its form—half padlock, half sculpture—was both a style statement and a nod to discretion. Legend has it that it was inspired by the Duchess of Windsor, who favoured reading the time in private, without drawing attention.
The 2025 edition stays true to that original spirit while refining every line. The silhouette is slimmer, the bracelet more fluid, and the angled dial now sits with improved legibility. It remains quartz-powered—an elegant refusal of complication for complication’s sake.
Three variations were presented: one in polished yellow gold evoking the original, another in white gold fully pavé-set with diamonds, and a third in rose gold with alternating satin and mirror finishes. All three maintain the essential Cadenas geometry: a watch that reads like jewellery, and a jewel that hides its purpose.
Piaget: Celebrating Form and Heritage
Piaget looked both forward and back—introducing a brand-new collection while reasserting the enduring power of one of its most iconic designs. The Maison’s presentation was a celebration of form, colour, and fearless jewellery-watchmaking.
The standout launch was Sixtie, an entirely new line that revives the free-spirited glamour of Piaget’s late 1960s creations. Inspired by the bold, trapezoidal shapes pioneered by designer Jean-Claude Gueit in 1969, Sixtie is not a reissue but a reinvention—crafted from scratch with contemporary proportions and fluid architecture. Its interlocking gold bracelet links mimic the trapeze motif, while a gadrooned bezel, satin-finished dial, and elongated Roman numerals recall the elegance of a bygone era. Light on the wrist and rich in detail, Sixtie is designed as a piece of jewellery first, a timepiece second.
Alongside it, Piaget reintroduces the Andy Warhol Watch, officially renamed this year in partnership with the Andy Warhol Foundation. With its broad gadrooned bezel and 45mm case, the design remains as visually arresting as it was when Warhol wore it in the 1970s. Two standout versions debuted: one with a mesmerising opal dial and triple sapphire-set case; the other in tiger’s eye, capturing the earthy glamour of the stone’s golden sheen. Powered by the 501P1 automatic movement, both are part of a growing suite of high-jewellery and bespoke options, allowing collectors to create their own Warhol-inspired identity. Click here to watch our Instagram reel.
Jaeger-LeCoultre: Reverso as Canvas
Jaeger-LeCoultre came to Geneva with both technical might and artistic mastery. Among its 2025 novelties were tourbillons, chronographs, and calendar complications across the Reverso, Duomètre, and Master lines—each a showcase of the brand’s horological depth. But it was two Reversos, devoted entirely to métiers d’art, that stood out in a sea of mechanical spectacle.
The Reverso Tribute Enamel ‘Shahnameh’ is a tribute not only to Persian art, but to the Reverso’s unique duality as both watch and canvas. A set of four limited-edition timepieces, each features a miniature enamel reproduction of a 16th-century folio from the Shahnameh—the Persian “Book of Kings.” The scenes are rich in drama and symbolism: a royal polo match, a king taming dragons, a visionary dream. Opposite each enamelled tableau is a hand-guilloché dial in translucent enamel, colour-matched to the painting. Each piece takes more than 100 hours of engraving and enamelling, and is limited to just ten watches per motif.
Equally striking is the Reverso One ‘Precious Flowers’, returning in two new iterations: Green Arums and Purple Arums. Here, the rectangular case becomes a jewelled surface alive with champlevé enamel, black lacquer, and hundreds of snow-set diamonds. The botanical compositions flow seamlessly across the caseback, while the front remains understated—a refined frame with delicate dauphine hands and a sunray-finished dial. Inside is the manually wound Calibre 846, a slim movement tailored to the case’s proportions. Click here to watch our Instagram reel.
In a year filled with record-breaking numbers and ever-growing complexity, a common thread emerged among the most memorable debuts: clarity of purpose. Whether pushing boundaries in thinness, sculpture, storytelling or design history, these standout watches showed that even in a crowded field, a clear point of view still resonates. Watches & Wonders 2025 didn’t just reveal new timepieces—it revealed what happens when brands express identity with boldness and intent.
