The Best Watches of 2025 (So Far)

The Best Watches of 2025 (So Far)

It’s July, the halfway point of 2025, so we thought now would be a good time to take stock of some of our favorite new releases of the year. It’s been a busy new release from large and small brands alike, with a mix of ambitious new projects and iterative releases that take some of our favorite collections to new places. Our contributors, as always, found a lot to like this year at a variety of price points and in a large array of styles. 

What are some of your favorite new watch releases of 2025? Let us know in the comments what we missed, and what you’re looking forward to or hoping for in the months ahead. 

Zach Weiss – Fears Arnos 

It didn’t take long to pick my favorite watch of 2025 so far, even with some stiff competition from Nomos and Grand Seiko. That watch is the Fears Arnos in Pewter Blue, a watch I’ve had the luck of encountering a couple of times in person. Fears is one of, if not the only, contemporary micro-indie working on the more formal side of watch design, something that isn’t surprising to anyone who has met the invariably well-dressed proprietor of the brand, Nicholas Bowman-Scargill. But what makes their approach so intriguing is that they aren’t just making vaguely Patek-esque designs with Fears on the dial and calling it a day; they are coming up with innovative and even odd designs that one would still call dressy. That said, the Arnos takes their approach to a new level.

A thin, rectangular watch measuring 33.5mm x 40mm x 8.4mm with a 20mm lug width, the Arnos breaks with trends from the start by not being circular. Although rectangles are not totally uncommon in dress watches, and this is the second time Fears has used this case, the Arnos stands out with a nearly bezelless design and a curious case-to-strap proportion. The 20mm strap flows from between very narrow lugs, giving the watch the sense of being a band around the wrist. 

While the case adds some novelty, it’s the dial that has won me over. Within a hobnail / clous de Paris expanse in light rhodium-plated metal sits a smaller circular dial in deep blue. A dial within a dial, it features a neo-classical index of Roman numerals arrayed around a textured center. Bold “Fears pipette” hands for the hour and minute tell the time, and they omitted the seconds altogether. It’s provocative, handsome, modern yet traditional, and speaks to the elevated brand that Fears has become.

Alec Dent – Cornell Watch Company Lozier 

Many of my favorite watch releases of 2025 are all updates on existing models, but the Cornell Watch Co.’s new Lozier model has to take the top spot for me simply for how different it is from what else is on the market. 

It’s hard not to appreciate the craftsmanship that went into the watch. That the German silver stepped dial, elegantly thin case, and hands — cut, not stamped — are all made in America only tells part of the Lozier’s story. I was fortunate enough to talk to Cornell CEO John Warren ahead of the Lozier’s release, and hearing about the care that went into every little detail was incredible, from the custom font created for the watch to the new take on leaf hands. How can you not love that level of dedication to creating something new and beautiful?

Zach Kazan – Naoya Hida NH Type 6A 

For me, it was always going to be between Noaya Hida’s NH Type 6A, their new perpetual calendar, and the Lozier, the latest from Cornell Watch Company. The Lozier, as you’ve seen, was spoken for by Alec almost immediately. Far be it for me to keep him from writing about it when I’ve already had multiple cracks at it. Naoya Hida’s watches have always impressed me, and the perpetual is really the uber-Hida, a maximalist version of their aesthetic that flexes all of the things they do so well. It’s also, somewhat strangely, become part of the conversation around the aforementioned Lozier, a watch that shares a certain aesthetic sensibility, and very nearly a release date, but little else. 

Like most watches produced by Naoya Hida, the design DNA of the perpetual calendar can be traced back to the vintage Patek Philippe, particularly key complicated watches the brand has made over the course of many decades. While Noaya Hida takes inspiration from Patek, however, their watches are far from copies. Rather, they are platforms for pure craftsmanship, particularly when it comes to dial engraving, which is something of a lost art. The engraved surfaces of a Naoya Hida dial are a pretty incredible thing to behold on their most minimal time only watches, but they are almost overwhelming on the perpetual calendar. Virtually every line, every bit of text you see on the dial, including those subdials, is carved into the dial’s surface by hand. It’s painstaking and exacting work, and has a quality to it that is wholly different from what you get out of a dial made with a machine or some kind of automated process. Once you grasp that and see it in person, it becomes clear why the brand limits production to the extent that they do. 

Christoph McNeill – Longines Conquest Heritage Year of the Snake

Normally this is where I’d pick a Grand Seiko, but that would be too easy! As such, I’m going to go another direction and pick the Longines Conquest Heritage Year of the Snake, a limited edition of 2025 pieces. I’m a sucker for a good “heritage” edition as I’m partial to vintage watches in general. The original 1950’s Longines Conquest is an absolute icon, and the Heritage versions that Longines has put out do a great job bringing this vintage masterpiece into the modern world. While the original has a 35mm steel case, this version is updated to 40mm, more in keeping with what folks prefer to wear these days, while not going overboard. 

What sets this Year of the Snake edition apart is the dial and the caseback. The dial still has the classic applied and faceted arrow markers and dauphine hands, but instead of silver or black, it’s a deep red that fades to black (or super dark red?) at the edge of the dial. I’m not normally a red dial kinda guy, but this dial is a beauty. The gold markers and hands perfectly set off the rich red, really standing out without being garish. And this appeals to the 49er fan in me too of course!

The caseback varies from the original as well. Instead of the old-school Longines enameled fish logo medallion, the back is nicely etched with a Chinese Year of the Snake design. It also has text denoting its status as the Year of the Snake Limited Edition of 2025 pieces. As cool as the back is, it would have been stunning if Longines had done the snake design in colored enamel. Still, it’s a great looking piece that separates from the crowd. The retail price is just north of $3,000, making it an “affordable” limited edition piece.

Elodie Townsend – Nomos Club Sport Neomatik Worldtimer

It feels like 2025 has been chock-full of cool, crazy, and colorful releases. I was lucky enough to see a good handful of them in person at Windup San Francisco, and the Topper First Look event here in the Bay Area. My favorite of the bunch, though, is informed by a source even closer to me—my watch-loving dad, who managed to get his hands on a Nomos Club Sport Neomatik Worldtimer in the limited edition Canyon colorway. 

According to my dad, the key factor in his enjoyment of the new Club Sport is the shortened lug-to-lug width (now measuring at 48mm to match the 40mm case diameter), making for much more “correct” visual proportions, and a comfortable fit. Of course, the super-thin case—which comes in at an insanely impressive 9.9mm—also makes the Club Sport Worldtimer a light and breezy wear, even on a workplace-appropriate bracelet. Small details like the globe emblem on the rotor, the incredibly practical dual-time zone function, and the haptic response on the time zone pusher give it even more satisfying appeal. 

Personally, I just love the look of the Canyon model’s color scheme. It feels rugged enough to convey a sense of adventure, but clean enough to also funcion as a work or dress watch. Each of the limited edition colorways is cool in their own right, and the two standard versions are also handsome, but the Canyon option just screams “globe-trotting” to me, which calls to mind a sense of romance that I feel is often missing in modern “sport” watches. Here is a watch that makes me want to grab the nearest LC80 Land Cruiser and hit the road!

Tommy DeMaurao – Bulova Snorkel 

When Bulova announced the new Snorkel line with hybrid ceramic cases and flashy colorways, of course the first thing that came to mind was the Swatch collaborations we’ve seen these last few years. The Swatch X Omega collection caught the world by storm and flew off the shelves as soon as they would be restocked. I always thought they were relatively neat, but now that I look at the original Moonswatches in 2025, I get a sense of unexplainable nostalgia for them and the mass amount of hype they received. In a similar but notably different way, what makes the Bulova Snorkels so interesting to me is not their almost-copycatting aesthetics in comparison to their Swatch counterparts, but instead the noticeable shift in Bulova design language and market awareness that they represent. 

​It’s certainly no secret that Bulova has been releasing hit after hit in their recent catalog. Their Archive Series has, at least in my eyes, brought them back into the limelight of modern watch design and excited both new and veteran watch collectors the hobby around. While the new Snorkel line has few similarities to the Snorkels of old, minute details––like the classic Bulova logo font and vintage-inspired skindiver band––help connect these watches with their predecessors in a nod-of-the-head or tip-of-the-hat type way. 

Moving beyond the heritage aspects of the Snorkel line, I’m also a fan of the colorways they released. The teal blue and light brown variant has to be my favorite of the bunch simply because of how strange the pairing is; it’s eye-catching and thought-provoking in a way that a strongly color coordinated watch can’t achieve. All four of the original variants are unique in their own right and worthy of taking a look into. The Snorkel line itself is fun and exciting to me not because of the watches themselves, but because of what they signify for Bulova as a company. As more and more models continue to be released (especially that Archive series, guys––there’s some absolute gems in there), I grow more and more impressed by how well the company has done recently to re-cement themselves in the watch world.

Brett Brayley-Palko – Hermès’ Arceau Rocabar de Rire

Fashion seems to have lost its sense of humor. As we inch towards a sense of uniformity within the fashion industry, there remain only small pockets within it where designers feel comfortable showing a bit of personality. And leave it to a 188-year-old French brand to put a smile on my face after this year’s Watches & Wonders with Hermès’ Arceau Rocabar de Rire. 

What I love about this particular watch is its sheer ridiculousness. With the push of a button, the hand-painted horse’s head sticks out its tongue on command. This clever reinterpretation of the equestrian iconography that runs deep in Hermès’ design language strikes the perfect balance between being nonsensical and–dare we say–chic? While the playful horse detail is the real showstopper for me, the watch itself is a beautiful piece of jewelry in its own right. With the Arceau clocking in at 41 mm, it definitely has presence on the wrist, made all the more eye-catching in its rose or white gold case. Completed with a blue or grey alligator leather strap, and this watch strikes that balance between humor and heritage so faultlessly, it’s become my favorite watch of the year so far.

And with only twelve in production (and a price tag of $162,600), I probably won’t be getting this particular model any time soon. But that doesn’t mean I can’t ponder the existential question: does this make me a “horse girl” now?

Nathan Schultz – Heron Mirabel 

When I first started collecting watches, affordable automatic GMTs were a pipe dream. But when Seiko released the NH34 in 2022 and Miyota upped the ante with a true GMT with the introduction 9075 soon after, I was ecstatic that all of my favorite microbrands suddenly had the chance to put their own spin on the affordable automatic GMT. Yet, despite endless design possibilities, the industry seemed to collectively decide that these new movements were best suited for the go-anywhere-do-anything tool watches that borrowed heavily from the ubiquitous dive watches I was already feeling fatigued by. 

As if they sensed my GMT wonder fading into boredom, Canadian microbrand Heron released the Mirabel, a refreshingly dressy GMT that avoids the tropes of beefy brushed cases and rotating bezels and instead opts for enamel dials and vintage inspired dimensions with a 37.5mm case that is less than 12mm thick. When I first saw the Mirabel my immediate thoughts were, why did it take three years for this watch to exist and why is the default GMT choice to favor specs over elegance? Sure sometimes life calls for a travel watch you can swim with, but as someone who usually skips the hotel pool, I’ll take heat blued hands, a cabochon crown, and a tuxedo dial over 200 meters of water resistance (the Mirabel offers 50 meters- plenty for a dress watch) every day of the week, no matter the time zone.

The Mirabel is a reminder that no matter how much we love obscure complications, funky colorways that don’t match most of the shirts in our closets and unexpected dial materials and textures, there is something special about managing to stand out while keeping it simple. Available in four distinct but equally classy colorways (the white dial is the clear winner for me), I’m genuinely excited to see a brand stray from the tool GMT formula, especially doing so for $690 while managing to offer four digit vibes.

Devin Pennypacker – Tudor Pelagos Ultra

We are halfway through the year, and for the first time I can remember, I had a bit of a hard time compiling a list of top choices to write about for this list. While it seems like there has been a continuous trickle of new releases throughout the year, it was tough conjuring them apart from a few excellent limited edition releases, which I felt were a bit unfair to rave about here, given that they are long gone. Now, a short time ago, I wrote that the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Milanese Pink Gold was my top pick from Watches and Wonders, and it remains my top pick of the year. Though after writing a hands-on review of a different release from that same show, another watch floated up to the top of my list, the Tudor Pelagos Ultra. Based solely on specifications and visual design, the Pelagos Ultra certainly piqued my interest. Then, after spending some meaningful hands-on time with it, I am now convinced that I will eventually end up with one in the collection. 

A ridiculous deep diver with a well-wearing profile, the Pelagos Ultra may seem like an absurd watch on paper, though it will surprise you on the wrist. Tudor has managed to take titanium construction to another level with the Pelagos Ultra, adding in subtle curves, additional facets, and a higher level of finishing than we are typically used to seeing on other grade 5 tool watches. At 43mm in diameter and 14.5mm thick, there is no getting around the fact that this is a big watch. The combination of careful geometry, matte visual design, and lightweight materials makes the wearing experience very pleasant for those with medium to large-sized wrists. The rubber strap is fine and a nice inclusion, but the overengineered bracelet is fantastic and is one of the primary focal points potential buyers should consider. 

Do you need a larger, more technical, 1000-meter deep diving tool watch? Absolutely not. But for Tudor to flex its “most technical dive watch ever made” is impressive and hopefully a sign of things to come. This shows Tudor’s commitment to pushing its designs despite current trends leaning towards refinement. That is not to take away from the Pelagos Ultra and call it out as a simple token. This watch is fantastic, offering a comfortable wearing experience with excellent specifications and a well-balanced design with fun pops of color and lume. As I mentioned, I did a full review of this watch and sat down with Zach Weiss to deliver our thoughts on this release, so if you want to learn more about it, check that out here. 

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