Year in Review: the “Sleeper” Watches of 2025

Year in Review: the “Sleeper” Watches of 2025

How does one define a “sleeper” watch? We put together a guide a few years ago and basically came to the conclusion that a sleeper watch is one that is great but not obvious about it. A better framing might be that these are “if you know, you know” watches. They all have some attribute that makes them incredibly special but it’s not always readily apparent or widely understood. 

Honestly, I love a sleeper and always have. I think it’s a natural focus for a collector, and as you see more and more watches, it paradoxically becomes more difficult to identify the sleepers, because nothing really “sleeps” when you’re highly engaged in a hobby like this. 

Zenith G.F.J. 

The Zenith G.F.J. is a sleeper because it’s so specific and so hard to see, it’s just not really out there all that much in the broader watch media landscape. But man, it’s great. It’s a tribute of sorts to Zenith’s history as true pioneers in chronometry, but the appeal for this watch to me is purely aesthetic. It’s a study in blue, with multiple tones in multiple materials and finishes. From a distance, it’s nice looking enough, but you really have to examine it close up, with a loupe, to get a sense of the contrasts and how special the use of lapis lazuli is in particular. 

And then there’s the bracelet. The G.F.J. is rendered in platinum, and the case is fantastic, but on the full platinum bracelet (which effectively doubles the price of the watch) it really makes an impression. How could it not? It’s really, really heavy. This felt like the highest end, most ambitious watch from a big brand that didn’t quite get the shine it deserved this year, so it’s a natural sleeper.

Naoya Hida NH Type 6A

Naoya Hida’s perpetual calendar is a remarkable accomplishment. This is a brand that is very hard to fully wrap your arms around until you actually get hands on with them, largely a factor of the importance of the tactile feedback when operating the watches from the crown, and the very intricate engraved dials. With their perpetual calendar, Naoya Hida makes the absolute most of their expertise in dial engraving, with impossibly intricate hand engraved details in a very old school perpetual calendar layout. The degree of difficulty here is truly off the charts, and the execution is top notch. 

Cornell Lozier 

The Cornell Lozier and the Naoya Hida mentioned above always feel paired to me. I saw them in the spring in rapid succession on back to back days, and there’s a certain aesthetic similarity (they both draw on classic Patek references in key ways).  

The Lozier inspired a lot of thought and dialogue on the current status of watchmaking in America, and that perhaps will be this watch’s legacy when the dust eventually settles. But we shouldn’t ignore that it’s actually a really impressive watch in its own right, with a beautiful multi-level dial in German silver and an extremely satisfying and well machined case. Lots of enthusiasts who look at the specs and see the unusually wide lug width for the case’s small diameter question that decision, but on the wrist it gives a relatively small watch a bit more presence and stature, and it works for me.   

Citizen Promaster Navihawk 40

The Citizen Navihawk is an icon, and one of those watches that it seems almost every enthusiast has a run-in with at some point in their collecting life. Often it’s early on in one’s life in the hobby, as it’s a fairly ubiquitous and often recommended watch. And there’s good reason for that – as a modern pilot’s watch, it feels like a pure and authentic creation, a clear evolution in the genre that has been developing since the 1930s. 

But it was always huge. It’s hard to get around that. One of the ways people experience the Navihawk is as a warning to pay attention to the spec sheet – not all watches (very few in fact) are one size fits all. So the introduction of a smaller, 40mm Navihawk this year felt like a big moment. All that Navihawk aviator style in a far more wearable 40mm package is an appealing recipe for sure. 

Citizen had a very good year, but most of the fanfare was built around their 40th anniversary Aqualand limited edition (which we highlighted earlier in our year end coverage here). I can remember during the press preview for Citizen’s big upcoming launches, I immediately focused on the smaller Navihawk. This is the one I remember thinking to myself, sure that it would be a fan favorite. I don’t really have any insight into Citizen’s sales numbers, but culturally speaking the smaller Navihawk didn’t catch fire. That’s OK – most watches don’t. It does make it a compelling sleeper, though, until more people know that it exists at all. 

Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Quantieme Perpetual

This minimal, beautiful perpetual calendar absolutely wowed me at Watches & Wonders this year. It might be reductive to claim that such a spare watch is a sleeper, but it really does define the term in a lot of ways. It’s incredibly well finished but not in your face about it (run your finger over the fluted bezel or look at the printing on the dial under magnification and you get the idea), and it’s from a brand that excels at understatement. 

Truth be told, I have not always been the biggest fan of the most recent output from Parmigiani. The watches are of an incredibly high quality but I’m one of the very few who is just not very into the latest iteration of the Tonda and far prefers the more traditional and ornate designs from the earliest days of the brand. The  Toric Quantieme Perpetual strikes just the right balance, in my opinion. It feels like a natural extension of those early watches, filtered through the brand’s contemporary lens and focus on design purity. 

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