Three New Watches to Start the Year Off Right
January is a time to take stock, re-examine priorities, and set intentions for the year ahead. After 2024, which was defined by diverse launches ranging from 1970s reboots to bold experiments in case materials and luminousity, 2025 is poised to be a year in which collectors continue to embrace new and unusual designs. Fortunately, if you’ve made a resolution to add something a bit different to your collection in 2025, there are already a few choice examples to choose from. These three recent releases, including a new microbrand from legendary indie watchmaker Peter Speake, are the perfect way to start the new year on an adventurous note.
IWC Pilot’s Watch Mark XX Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team
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IWC has been the official timepiece supplier to the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team for more than a decade, and this partnership has resulted in several covetable timepieces, including one co-designed by Sir Lewis Hamilton himself. Hamilton’s move to Ferrari means there will be some big changes on the track this season, but thanks to a new Pilot’s Watch Mark XX in Petronas green which was quietly added to the IWC lineup for 2025, the Schaffhausen-based watchmaker is starting the year in pole position. There was no official fanfare to mark the launch of this watch, which features a 40mm titanium case with dial markings and a matching rubber strap in the team’s official seafoam hue, but we’re told an official announcement is coming next month. In the meanwhile, the watch is available to purchase online and in stores for anyone lucky enough to find one. ($8,000)
Longines Ultra-Chron Carbon
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Raiding the archives for inspiration has become a standard move in the watch industry, but few brands do it as well as Longines, which seems to have an infinite supply of unusual retro designs to pull from. The latest covetable reboot adapts the brand’s historic 1968 Ultra-Chron (aka the first diver’s watch to feature a high-frequency movement) with a cushion-shaped case made out of carbon fibre, a material that’s as advanced in 2025 as the original Ultra-Chron’s movement was in the ‘60s. In the spirit of its predecessor, the new watch is powered by Longines’ exclusive high-frequency movement, which beats at 36,000 vibrations per hour (VPH). That’s a significant increase over the standard 28,800 VPH of most mechanical watches, a factor that helps the piece achieve full chronometer certification by TIMELAB.($6,700)
PS Horology Tsuba Blue
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It’s not every day that one of the world’s most famed independent watchmakers bestows an entirely new brand on the world, so the reveal of PS Horology, the latest pet project from Peter Speake, is notable in more ways than one. Speake, of course, is the antique watch restorer who founded Speake-Marin, one of the world’s most respected independent watch brands, before exiting to pursue other projects in 2017. The Tsuba timepieces, which have been in development for TK years, were inspired by his travels in Asia, and reflect influences drawn from Japanese and Vietnamese antiquities. As such, the new Tsuba Blue features a case shape inspired by the ornate guards found on samurai swords and a sapphire dial influenced by elements from traditional wristwatches. If that sounds like your jam, don’t delay — he’s only making 100 of them. (19,500 CHF)
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