Everyone knows Gérald Genta for his iconic designs: the Royal Oak, the Nautilus and the Ingenieur. However, fewer people know what he made when the name on the dial was his own. Monaco Legend Group’s upcoming Exclusive Timepieces auction offers a rare chance to discover some of the rarest designs from Gérald Genta himself. Four watches cross the block in Monaco, and together they show a designer who treated complications like a sculptor treats marble. For collectors chasing the next undervalued chapter of independent watchmaking, this is required viewing.

A Skeletonized Perpetual Calendar From the Golay Era

Lot 9 is the technical heavyweight. Reference G1993/8 dates to around 1980 and is cased in 18-carat white gold, with a diamond-set bezel framing a fully openworked automatic perpetual calendar. Day, date, month, leap year and moon phase all float above exposed bridges and wheels. And a striking blue moon disc cuts through the metalwork like a gemstone.

The backstory matters here. This movement belongs to Genta’s collaboration with Pierre-Michel Golay, the watchmaker who joined the maison in 1973 and shaped its complicated calibres before later working with Franck Muller. That lineage gives the piece real weight.

Estimate: €10,000 to €20,000.

The Maxi Time: A Traveller’s Watch With Swagger

Lot 29, reference G2981.4, is pure Genta theatre. The “Maxi Time” sits in a chunky, multi-faceted 18-carat yellow gold case and tracks five time zones. Four gold sub-registers each carry a 24-hour scale, with sun motifs and deep blue sectors separating day from night.

It sounds busy. It isn’t. Luminous dot indexes, a railway track and slim central hands keep the ivory dial surprisingly calm. The case shows an honest patina, the caseback reads “MAX TIME”, and the original setting stylus is included.

Estimate: €7,000 to €14,000.

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A Sculpted Gold Perpetual Calendar From the 1990s

Lot 83, reference G2072.7, shows Genta’s gift for shape. The designer, best known for his octagonal cases, tried something different here: a rounded trapezoidal case in 18k yellow gold, a form that rarely surfaces even among his own work. That case flows straight into an integrated bracelet, the design move he made famous two decades earlier. The ivory dial carries four sub-dials for day, date, month and leap year, a moon phase at 12 o’clock and fine blue accents. Inside sits an automatic movement.

Estimate: €9,000 to €18,000.

Coral and Turquoise: The Most Daring Dial in the Sale

Then there’s Lot 84. Reference G3053.8, listed as a Gefica perpetual calendar, is a 33mm yellow gold watch with a dial cut from natural coral. A turquoise moon-phase disc at 12 o’clock glows against that warm orange base. Four counters handle the perpetual calendar without spoiling the decorative effect, and a quartz movement drives it all. An integrated yellow gold bracelet completes the look.

Stone dials are a gamble. Only a designer with Genta’s confidence could pair coral, turquoise and gold and make it feel inevitable. Estimate: €12,000 to €24,000, the highest of the four.

Why Gérald Genta’s Own Watches Are Gaining Momentum

Look at those estimates again. Every one of these pieces combines precious metal with a perpetual calendar or multi-zone complication, yet none is estimated above €24,000. For a designer this influential, that gap feels temporary.

The independent watch boom has pushed collectors to look backwards for the pioneers. Genta founded his maison in 1969, long before “independent” was a selling point. As more buyers discover his signed work, these eccentric, joyful designs look less like curiosities and more like the missing chapter of his legacy.

The watches are on view at the Hôtel Méridien Beach Plaza in Monaco from 29 October. Live bidding opens at 2:30 PM CET on both sale days.

For several years, IWC’s Chinese New Year editions have shared one color: burgundy. The Year of the Rabbit Portugieser wore it. So did the Dragon, and most recently the Horse. For 2027, Schaffhausen changes course. The new IWC Pilot’s Watch Performance Chronograph 41 Year of the Goat is the first in the series with a gold-colored dial. It pairs that warm face with a titanium case and a black ceramic bezel. Only 500 will be made, ahead of the Year of the Goat beginning on 6 February 2027.

A Gold Dial with Real Meaning

The color choice isn’t just a seasonal refresh. In Chinese culture, gold stands for fortune, prosperity and prestige, and it appears everywhere during New Year celebrations alongside red. IWC’s Creative Director Christian Knoop says the gold gives this performance chronograph a softer, warmer character, fitting for a zodiac sign associated with kindness and elegance.

On the wrist, the contrast does the heavy lifting. Three black subdials break up the gold surface. Gold-plated hands and applied Arabic numerals keep everything legible. Around it all, the black ceramic bezel carries the fixed tachymeter scale that has defined the Performance Chronograph since its 2023 debut. The result still reads as a sports chronograph, just a dressier one.

Three Goats on the Caseback

The best detail is the one only the owner sees. Turn the watch over and the gold-plated oscillating weight, visible through the sapphire caseback, is sculpted as three goats. In China, this trio has symbolized bliss for thousands of years, a motif that traces back to the I Ching. It’s the first time IWC has worked it into one of its watches.

There’s one more hidden nod. The day-date window sits at 3 o’clock, but on the 8th of every month, the numeral is replaced by the Chinese character for “goat.” It’s a small surprise built into the calendar, and the kind of detail collectors love to show off.

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Inside the IWC Caliber 69385

Beneath the goats beats IWC’s in-house 69385 caliber. It’s an automatic column-wheel chronograph running at 4 Hz, with 33 jewels and a 46-hour power reserve. The counters follow IWC’s familiar vertical layout, with elapsed minutes at 12 o’clock for quick reading.

The brushed titanium case with polished edges measures 41mm across and 14.8mm thick. It’s water-resistant to 10 bar and has a screw-in crown. The convex sapphire crystal is secured against sudden drops in air pressure, a classic Pilot’s Watch trait. A black calfskin strap with IWC’s EasX-CHANGE system completes the package, so you can swap straps without tools.

Price and Availability

The IWC Pilot’s Watch Performance Chronograph 41 Year of the Goat is priced at EUR 13,100 (CHF 10,400). It’s limited to 500 pieces worldwide.

A Tradition That Learned a New Trick

Annual zodiac editions can easily slip into routine. IWC sidesteps that here by changing both the color and the canvas. Moving the series onto its motorsport-inspired Performance Chronograph broadens its appeal beyond dress-watch buyers. Putting the symbolism on the rotor and in the date window makes the story personal rather than decorative. If this is the new template, next year’s edition just got far more interesting to predict.

The independent takeover isn’t slowing down. It’s speeding up. At the Phillips New York Sessions Fall 2026, held online with Bacs & Russo from 1 to 9 October, F.P. Journe set the pace, Kari Voutilainen grabbed the headline and A. Lange & Söhne reminded everyone that German watchmaking can still ambush a bidding war.

None of this came out of nowhere. Phillips has spent 2026 rewriting its own record book. Geneva Watch Auction XXIII became the highest-grossing watch sale ever at CHF 74.8 million. In June, a Journe Chronomètre à Résonance “Souscription No. 007” fetched $13.9 million in New York, a record for any independent maker. This online sale was the most valuable the New York team has ever staged. It played like one.

Prices include buyer’s premium. Percentages show how far each result landed above the midpoint of its estimate.

Voutilainen 28Sport: Steel Goes Seven Figures

The star lot was number 5 of just 8 stainless steel 28Sports, delivered around 2021 and offered by its original owner with the full set. The 39mm case wears Voutilainen’s teardrop lugs. The dial pairs an onyx centre with a blue guilloché chapter ring and lume, while the in-house, hand-wound calibre 28 ticks behind it. Estimated at $120,000–$240,000, it sold for $1,016,000, a staggering 464% beat. Steel is the humblest metal in Voutilainen’s catalogue. In a series this small, it’s also the rarest flex.

F.P. Journe Centigraphe Souverain CT2: Platinum, Unworn

A 2025 Centigraphe in a 44mm platinum case on a matching platinum bracelet, with a blue dial and the hand-wound calibre 1506 timing events to a hundredth of a second. Unworn and fully boxed, it carried a $60,000–$120,000 estimate and closed at $304,800, up 239%. Barely a year old and already worth multiples of its estimate: that’s the Journe waiting list, priced in public.

F.P. Journe Octa Lune: The Salmon Effect

This 2022 Octa Lune pairs a 40mm 18K pink gold case with a salmon dial, one of the most coveted combinations in contemporary independent watchmaking. Its automatic calibre 1300.3, built in solid pink gold, runs a big date, power reserve and moonphase. Fresh from its original owner, it also hammered at $304,800 against a $60,000–$120,000 estimate, a 239% beat.

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A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 “Soirée”: Mother-of-Pearl Fireworks

Introduced in 2001, the Soirée is the Lange 1 in evening dress. This circa-2002 ref. 110.030 combines a 38.5mm white gold case with a guilloché mother-of-pearl dial and the manual-wind calibre L901.4, complete with outsize date and power reserve. Estimated at $20,000–$40,000, it reached $107,950, a 260% beat. The same reference made $127,000 at Phillips in June. That’s not a fluke anymore. That’s a market.

Franck Muller 7000 QPE: The Nineties Strike Back

This 1996 platinum 7000 QPE stacks a perpetual calendar, chronograph, moonphase, leap-year cycle, 24-hour display and retrograde equation of time into a 39mm case, powered by the automatic calibre FM 7000. From an $8,000–$16,000 estimate, it soared to $44,450, up 270%. Collectors are finally re-reading Franck Muller’s early grand complications for what they are.

Rarity Is the New Blue Chip

The pattern is hard to miss. Bidders aren’t chasing logos; they’re chasing scarcity, provenance and genuine craft. Journe remains the market’s gravitational centre, Voutilainen has crossed into seven-figure territory, and even overlooked 1990s complications are getting their moment. Next up: Phillips Geneva on 7–8 November, where an ultra-early Journe Résonance takes the stage.

Some watches age. The best ones evolve. The new MB&F LM1 EVO brings back the watch that launched the entire Legacy Machine collection, and this time it’s built to leave the safe. It is smaller, tougher and longer-running. Crucially, it keeps everything that made the 2011 original an instant modern classic.

How the Legacy Machine Changed MB&F

Max Büsser founded MB&F in 2005. Its early years belonged to the Horological Machines, wild sci-fi creations that looked more like spacecraft than wristwatches. Then, in 2011, came a curveball: a round watch.

Legacy Machine N°1 started as a thought experiment. What would Büsser have built had he been born a century earlier, inspired by pocket watches and Jules Verne instead of fighter jets? The answer was classical in spirit, yet unmistakably MB&F. A giant 14mm balance wheel hovered above two independently set time displays, while a vertical power reserve indicator rose from the movement. The calibre was developed with Jean-François Mojon, with finishing specified by Kari Voutilainen. In 2012, it took home both the Public Prize and the Best Men’s Watch Prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève.

The LM1 bowed out in 2017, but its DNA spread fast. The LM2, LM101, LM Perpetual, LM Split Escapement, LM Thunderdome, LM FlyingT and LM Sequential all followed. From 2020, MB&F began giving its Legacy Machines the EVO treatment: sportier cases, more water resistance and serious shock protection. The LM1 is the last of the big names to get it.

A Smaller, Tougher Case

The headline change is size. The original LM1 measured 44mm. The LM1 EVO comes in at 42mm across and 52mm lug-to-lug, a far better fit for today’s tastes. At 16.8mm thick, it’s marginally taller than before, though much of that height is the dramatically domed sapphire crystal.

That case now packs the full EVO toolkit. Two screw-down crowns help secure 80m of water resistance. MB&F’s patented FlexRing, a dampener between case and movement, absorbs shocks. And for the first time on an EVO, the integrated rubber straps are quick-release at both the case and the clasp. No tools, no fuss.

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Inside the Movement

The manually wound calibre has been thoroughly revised. Power reserve jumps from 45 to 60 hours, displayed on a new inclined gauge at 6 o’clock instead of the original vertical indicator. The slow-beating 2.5Hz balance now uses a Straumann double hairspring for improved accuracy and isochronism.

Finishing remains superb. Expect gold chatons with polished countersinks, Geneva waves, polished bevels and hand-crafted internal angles. Dark-treated bridges give the movement a sportier, more contemporary look.

Titanium or Rose Gold

The LM1 EVO launches in two versions. The grade 5 titanium model pairs a rhodium-plated dial plate with black sub-dials and blue luminous hands. It is not limited and costs CHF 82,000 (EUR 89,000). The 18k rose gold edition features a rich green dial plate and is limited to 33 pieces, priced at CHF 102,000 (EUR 111,000). Both prices exclude VAT.

Our Take: A Legend Finally Made for the Wrist

Shrinking the LM1 was the right call. At 42mm, this icon finally feels wearable every day, and the titanium version is the one we’d reach for. It’s light, crisp and sporty, with a cool silver-and-blue palette that looks fantastic on the wrist. The rose gold edition plays a different role. It’s the more luxurious choice, and that deep green dial plate against warm gold is a seriously handsome combination. Either way, MB&F has proven that its most poetic design doesn’t need to stay behind glass.

Konstantin Chaykin has never been one for convention. The Moscow-based independent watchmaker is best known for his Joker and Wristmons watches, with their quirky faces. He has also built some of the most technically ambitious clocks of the past two decades. Now, he has taken a completely different route. His latest creation isn't a watch at all — No, It's a pair of titanium cufflinks with a working mechanical system inside. The first complication for your shirt!

Each cufflink measures 18mm and houses Chaykin’s A.01-1 mechanical system. On the face, a miniature display shows the day of the week. As a calendar function, that’s about as simple as it gets. What makes it interesting is how the indication advances.

There’s no crown, pusher or recessed corrector. Instead, the day moves forward by one each time the cufflink is closed. Getting dressed in the morning becomes the act that sets the display. The wearer operates the mechanism without thinking about it.

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Horology beyond the wrist

The complication is not technically demanding. The thinking behind it is. Watchmaking has always revolved around turning human input into mechanical output, whether that’s winding a crown or pressing a chronograph pusher. Chaykin applies that same logic to one of the most routine gestures in menswear, and the result is both playful and quietly clever. It also fits a broader pattern among independent watchmakers, who increasingly bring horological know-how to objects beyond the wrist. Chaykin’s cufflinks may be the most wearable example yet. Titanium is a logical choice here: it is light enough not to drag on a shirt cuff, durable enough for daily wear, and its muted grey suits Chaykin’s technical aesthetic. The cufflinks are priced at CHF 4,500, excluding taxes.

Our take

Are these essential? No. Are they exactly what independent watchmaking should be doing? Arguably, yes. Konstantin Chaykin has always been a brand that experiments, pushing both mechanics and design in directions others wouldn’t dare. That makes these cufflinks feel entirely in character rather than a gimmick. It’s a very cool concept, and it proves once again that horology doesn’t have to live only on the wrist.

Ask me which brand a new collector should start with, and Girard-Perregaux probably won’t be my first answer. Not because it doesn’t deserve to be. It just isn’t the name that comes to mind first. And honestly, I think that says more about us than about the brand.

The history is all there. More than two centuries of watchmaking in La Chaux-de-Fonds. The Laureato, which stood its ground among the great steel sports watches of the seventies. The three bridges, a design you recognize as GP before you even see the logo.

Still, almost nobody talks about the Girard-Perregaux 9034. On paper it’s simple. A plain steel case, a manual movement, nothing that would make you stop scrolling. But that isn’t the point of this watch. The point is the dial. Or rather the dials, because hardly any two of them are the same.

A Moon Watch, two years before the Moon

Girard-Perregaux introduced reference 9034 in 1967 and kept it in production until 1976. The foundation is modest: a 34.5 mm case in stainless steel, with gold-plated versions offered alongside, and the hand-wound calibre GP 12.3. That movement is built on the AS 1640 ébauche, a sturdy and widely used base. This was a watch made to be worn every day, not locked away. Collector and blogger Blomman puts total output at around 13,800 pieces, a number that covers every dial variant rather than only the painted ones.

The marketing is where it gets interesting. In its 1969/70 catalogue, GP presented the 9034 as its “Moon Watch,” mentioned that Playboy magazine had selected it, and sold it on a Corfam sport strap with a choice of dials. That catalogue name is also the strongest evidence in a debate collectors still have: were the painted dots meant as moon phases? The factory’s own wording says yes. A frozen lunar cycle on the dial, two years before Apollo 11.

9034 The famous “Moon Watch”, chosen by the magazine “Playboy”.
Waterproof model. Different kinds of dials. Sport bracelet “Corfam”. Steel or gold plated.

Four dials worth knowing

Every painted dial was done by hand, so each one carries small differences in shading and finish.

The Circle Dial. The best-known version, and the one that turns up for sale most often. A grey base carries round indexes that grow from smallest at one o’clock to largest at twelve, each with a white crescent of shadow that gives it depth. Hands come fully white or with only white tips. There is no seconds hand; GP chose not to use the small seconds the movement could offer.

The Flags Dial. Same idea, but rectangles replace the circles, with each marker split between two colors. It’s the rarest of the painted versions. The GP Chronicles collector who owns one suspects a Bauhaus influence, which is plausible given La Chaux-de-Fonds’ design heritage, but remains his theory rather than documented history.

The Casino Dial. The one that breaks the pattern. A dark greyish-blue dial, close to black, with white hour markers, red-tipped hands, and a small seconds subdial, the only one among the painted dials to have it. The name isn’t from the factory: collectors put it to a vote, and the roulette-wheel look won.

Funky Numerals. A separate family under the same reference, built around applied circular numerals on a brushed dial, with broad hands in matching colors. Known combinations include a gold dial with brown circles, green circles on gold, and blue circles on a silver-toned dial. How many versions exist in total, nobody seems to know.

What a 9034 costs today

Entry prices sat at around €2,000 in early 2025, climbing for the more distinctive dials. For reference, a new-old-stock gold-plated example from 1973, with blue crescents on a gold dial, has been listed by a Dutch dealer at €3,500.

For me, it’s the Circle Dial. Every circle a different size, every shadow just a little off from the next, and together they almost read as a moon phase. The one that really got me is a neon green and yellow version. Just stunning.

That’s why the 9034 goes in my catalog. It’s unique in the most literal sense, since no two dials are exactly alike. And at the $3,000 to $5,000 I’d budget for a good one, I think it’s great value for money.

So tell me: which dial would you pick?

One of the biggest watch industry stories of the year broke on October 8, 2026: F.P. Journe and Chanel are acquiring Ebel. In a binding agreement announced by Movado Group, a buyer group led by Montres Journe SA will take a 95% stake in the Swiss watchmaker for $66.5 million.

The Deal

The buyer group is led by Montres Journe SA, the Geneva company founded in 1999 by independent master watchmaker François-Paul Journe. Chanel and Pierre Jacques also take part in the transaction. Movado Group keeps a 5% minority stake, and the deal is expected to close in the coming months, subject to customary closing conditions.

Pierre Jacques will become CEO of Ebel. He is well known in fine watchmaking, not least for his previous role leading De Bethune. He will steer the brand alongside François-Paul Journe and Chanel.

For Movado, which bought Ebel from LVMH in 2004, the sale closes a chapter of more than 20 years.

Who Is Ebel?

Ebel was founded in 1911 in La Chaux-de-Fonds by watchmaker Eugène Blum and Alice Lévy. The name comes from their initials: Eugène Blum Et Lévy.

The brand built its identity on a blend of design, elegance and craftsmanship. Its Sport Classic, with fluid case lines and the signature wavy-link bracelet, became an icon, followed by the 1911 collection. In the 1980s and 1990s, Ebel was one of the most visible names in Swiss luxury watchmaking.

The future of Ebel is looking bright

This is not a typical corporate takeover. François-Paul Journe has built his name on creative independence, mechanical innovation and design consistency. Chanel has steadily increased its presence in fine watchmaking through stakes in respected Swiss companies. Pierre Jacques brings hands-on experience running a high-end independent brand.

Together, they represent three complementary strengths: watchmaking, strategic vision and luxury brand management. No changes to Ebel’s collections or positioning have been announced yet. But with a heritage this rich and backers of this caliber, expectations are high.

For a brand founded in 1911, 2026 could mark the start of a new golden era.

Gérald Genta was never just a watch designer. He was a true watch artist, and his legacy lives on through the brand that carries his name: Gerald Charles. Now that legacy meets another visionary. The new Gerald Charles x Igor Mitoraj Maestro GC39 Mitoraj brings together two art worlds, watchmaking and sculpture, in a single one-of-a-kind piece. It is a dialogue between two creative minds who both saw form as art, and that is what makes it so special.

Presented by TimeForArt, this pièce unique will be offered at a dedicated live TimeForArt session during The Phillips New York Watch Auction: XV, on Saturday, December 5th, 2026 at 3pm EST.

Two Masters, One Language

Gérald Genta needs little introduction. His designs, including the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and the Patek Philippe Nautilus, shaped what we now call the luxury sports watch. Gerald Charles, the brand he founded in 2000, carries his design philosophy forward, and the Maestro is its signature collection.

Igor Mitoraj (1944–2014) was a Polish sculptor known for monumental figures inspired by classical antiquity. His work, often fragmented, bandaged or deliberately incomplete, can be found in public spaces and museums around the world. Like Genta, he worked with strong forms and a clear visual identity that is instantly recognizable.

That shared approach is what makes this pairing compelling. Both men treated form as something to be shaped, not simply decorated.

A True Pièce Unique

The Maestro GC39 Mitoraj is a single piece, not a limited edition. That makes it a rare crossover between fine watchmaking and fine art, and a natural fit for an auction setting where collectors of both worlds meet.

Where to Bid

The watch will be sold during the live TimeForArt session at Phillips New York on December 5th, 2026 at 3pm EST. More information about the piece is available on TimeForArt.ch.

For collectors of Genta’s legacy, or admirers of Mitoraj’s sculpture, this is one auction lot worth watching.

Some weeks are quiet for us watch geeks. Last week was not one of them. While brands kept releasing new pieces around the globe, Milan became the gravitational centre of it all. Milano Watch Week 2026 moved into Palazzo Mezzanotte on Piazza Affari from October 2 to 4. For the first time joined by After Time and bringing 55 brands together, from Greubel Forsey and MB&F to Dennison and Oris. That’s a big step up for an event that only debuted in 2024 on the Terrazza Martini. Across town, Patek Philippe opened its Watch Art Grand Exhibition at the CityOval, with more than 500 pieces on show until October 18 and seven limited editions made for the Italian market. Our favourite release of the week came straight out of that exhibition: a steel Patek Philippe Aquanaut in gradient blue. But plenty more landed that you might have missed, so keep reading.

Patek Philippe Aquanaut 5167A Milano 2026

Let's start with our pick of the week. The Aquanaut is already a collector's favourite, and this one only adds to the appeal. The reference 5167A has been the core men’s Aquanaut ever since it arrived for the collection’s tenth anniversary back in 2007. That’s why, for many collectors, the release of a new limited colourway is a genuine event. The sunburst blue dial keeps the signature embossed Aquanaut pattern but darkens to black at the rim, like deep water at dusk. A red minute track and red seconds hand add the energy, while white gold applied numerals carry luminescent coating.

The 40.8mm steel case stays a slim 8.1mm, water-resistant to 30m. Through the sapphire caseback, printed with “Patek Philippe Milano 2026”, you’ll find the self-winding calibre 26-330 S C with a 21K gold rotor, Gyromax balance, Spiromax spring and stop-seconds. It runs at 4Hz with 35 to 45 hours of reserve. Only 250 pieces exist, all for Italy. Patek’s site lists the price at $43,761.

Patek Philippe World Time Minute Repeater 5531 Milano 2026

At the other end of the scale sit two white gold 5531s, a reference that first appeared in 2017 for Patek’s New York Grand Exhibition. Each dial features a grand feu cloisonné enamel map of Milan, by day on the 5531G-012 and by night on the 5531G-013. Milan appears in red on the city disk, and the other 23 cities are written in Italian.

The clever part is the patented self-winding R 27 HU. Most world-time repeaters chime home time, but this one strikes the local time of whichever city sits at 12 o’clock. The 40.2mm by 11.49mm case has a hand-guilloché Clous de Paris caseband and comes with interchangeable gold or sapphire casebacks. Five pieces of each are being made, at €794,600.

Gerald Charles Maestro GC Sport Tennis Light Turquoise

Gerald Charles, exhibiting at Milano Watch Week, added a summery new colour to its tennis line. The concept began during the pandemic, when professional players tested the watch mid-match, and it still shows in the engineering. The Darkblast Grade 5 titanium case weighs just 64 grams. The screw-down crown sits on the left so it never digs into the wrist during a backhand, and the watch is water-resistant to 100m.

The grainy turquoise gradient dial hides the ultra-thin automatic Swiss Manufacture 2.0 Calibre, with 50 hours of reserve and shock resistance rated to 5G. A matching Velcro strap completes the sporty look. Price: €24,400.

Porsche Design Chronograph 1 Utility for Hodinkee

Porsche Design and Hodinkee’s second collaboration swaps the racing theme of their 2024 chronograph for military style. The headline is the movement. Porsche Design and Hodinkee revived the legendary Lemania 5100 after two decades of absence. Now reworked and COSC-certified, it's called the WERK 01.340. It runs at 4Hz with 60 hours of reserve, and its central minute counter has a red tip shaped like a fighter jet.

The 40.8mm case is bead-blasted titanium, 15.41mm thick and water-resistant to 100m. A 24-hour register replaces the original AM/PM indicator, and the day-date display is bilingual German and English. It comes on a quick-release titanium bracelet and an Agave Green leather bund strap made from Porsche car leather. The run is 350 pieces, 100 sold through Hodinkee, at US$9,650.

Dennison ALD Checker

Dennison, one of the After Time exhibitors, turns its lugless ALD into a literal checkerboard. Pavé diamonds totalling 1.17ct of VS2 stones alternate with black onyx in three compositions, each named after a chess idea: Balance, Draw and Gambit. A Ronda quartz movement keeps the case razor-thin, and the black alligator strap closes with a diamond-set buckle. Price: £6,300.

NOMOS Club Sport Neomatik Worldtimer Dark

NOMOS switched its acclaimed worldtimer to dark mode. The glossy black dial gets heavy Super-LumiNova on the hands, city ring and home-time display. A central local-time display and small seconds sit beside a 24-hour home-time subdial with day/night colours. The 40mm steel case is just 9.9mm thick with a screw-down crown, 100m water resistance and a three-link steel bracelet. The in-house DUW 3202 delivers 42 hours of reserve. Price: €4,400.

Hamilton American Classic Cushion Collection

Hamilton revived its 1919 Cushion design, drawing on the 1926 Cushion Plain and Cushion Engraved references that Cillian Murphy wore in Oppenheimer. It comes in 30mm or 34mm, both just 8.1mm thick, in steel or yellow gold PVD, with small seconds at 6 o’clock. The new hand-wound H-42 calibre, based on the ETA 7001, gains a Nivachron balance spring and 57 hours of reserve. From £935, it’s the best-value release of the week and also one of my personal favorites.

Konstantin Chaykin x Atomic Heart Twins

Chaykin, also at Milano Watch Week, brought the ballerina robots from the video game Atomic Heart to his Wristmon series under an official licence. Each robot’s chest shows the hours and minutes and its face doubles as a moonphase. The 40mm titanium case is 12.9mm thick. Inside, the automatic K.18-25 pairs a heavily modified La Joux-Perret G200 base with a 68-component in-house display module and 68 hours of reserve. Price: CHF 20,000.

From £935 to €794,600: Why This Week Mattered

The takeaway is range. In seven days, collectors saw an enamel minute repeater approaching €800,000 and a Hamilton under £1,000. Heritage revivals sat next to video game licences. With Milano Watch Week growing fast and Patek choosing the city for its Grand Exhibition, Milan is no longer a side stop on the watch calendar. It’s a destination for every watch enthusiast.

Ye has never been one for quiet entrances. At ComplexCon, though, the loudest thing about him was the watch. On his wrist was the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked he picked up in June to mark his 49th birthday. Reps value it at roughly $1.8 million.

A birthday present to himself

Ye turned 49 on June 8. That month he added the watch to his collection, and his wife, Bianca Censori, gave the internet its first look in a photo she shared online. It wasn’t the only birthday release. The same week, Ye dropped the track and music video “GEMINI SEASON”, directed by Censori.

Four months later, the watch made its public debut at ComplexCon. He wore it the way only Ye could: completely unbothered.

What’s on the wrist

This is the Royal Oak ref. 15469BC.ZZ.1260BC.01 dressed for the red carpet:

• Case and bracelet: the 37mm case and its integrated bracelet are both 18-carat white gold, fully paved with baguette-cut diamonds.

• Dimensions: the case is 10mm thick.

• Dial: a rhodium-toned openworked dial with pink gold applied hour markers and luminescent Royal Oak hands.

More Than Just Ice

The diamonds grab attention first, but the real story is the movement. Most mechanical watches regulate time with a single balance wheel. AP’s double balance wheel puts two on the same axis for more stable, accurate timekeeping, and the openworked dial lets you watch it run inside a case made entirely of diamonds. The Royal Oak has long been hip-hop’s default grail, and this reference shows how far that relationship has come: from steel status symbols to diamond-paved pieces priced like real estate. For Ye, an artist built on contradiction, it’s a fitting choice: one of the loudest watches in the world, worn without saying a word about it.

Steel Patek. Limited run. Blue dial. Few phrases make collectors sit up faster, and the new Patek Philippe Aquanaut 5167A Milano 2026 delivers all of them at once. The Aquanaut is already a collector’s favourite, and one of my personal favourites too. This one had my attention before the press images even finished loading. Unveiled as one of seven limited editions for the Watch Art Grand Exhibition in Milan, the reference 5167A-014 takes the brand’s most approachable sports watch and gives it a midnight-to-black gradient, a red minute track and a red seconds hand. The allocation is reserved for the Italian market, which means this is a watch most people will admire through glass, and a few will chase very hard.

A Milan Exclusive Born at the Watch Art Grand Exhibition

The exhibition runs from October 2 to 18, 2026, inside the CityOval, the historic building formerly known as the Palazzo delle Scintille. More than 500 pieces are on display, and Milan is the seventh stop for the Grand Exhibition since its debut in Dubai in 2012. Alongside platinum chronographs and enamelled minute repeaters, the Aquanaut is the most wearable of the seven new pieces, and arguably the one with the most cultural pull.

The Dial: Sunburst Blue, Black Gradient, Red Accents

The magic happens on the dial. Patek keeps the Aquanaut’s signature embossed pattern, the motif lifted from its tyre-tread-inspired strap, but washes it in sunburst blue that darkens to black at the edges. It gives the dial depth, almost like looking into deep water at dusk. Applied white gold numerals and baton hands carry white luminescent coating, while the red transfer-printed minute scale and red varnished sweep seconds hand add a jolt of energy. Italian sporty-chic, in other words, without a single tricolore cliché.

Case, Strap and Wearability

The 40.8mm steel case, measured from 10 to 4 o’clock, stays at a slim 8.1mm. Its rounded octagonal bezel alternates polished and satin-brushed surfaces, and the screw-down crown secures 30 metres of water resistance. Flip it over and the sapphire caseback carries a transfer-printed “Patek Philippe Milano 2026” inscription, a quiet but permanent reminder of where this watch was born. A matching midnight blue composite strap with the Aquanaut pattern closes with Patek’s patented steel fold-over clasp, secured by four independent catches.

The Movement: Calibre 26-330 S C

Inside sits the self-winding calibre 26-330 S C, Patek’s modern workhorse for time, date and centre seconds. It measures 27mm across and 3.32mm thick, uses 207 parts and 30 jewels, and runs at 28,800 vph (4Hz) with a power reserve of 35 to 45 hours. The Gyromax balance pairs with a Spiromax balance spring, the central rotor is cut from 21K gold, and stop-seconds allow precise time setting. The whole package carries the Patek Philippe Seal and is on full display through the caseback.

Price, Availability and What Comes Next for the Aquanaut

The 5167A has been the core men’s Aquanaut since 2007, when it arrived for the collection’s tenth anniversary. That makes every new colourway a genuine event. Patek’s product page lists the price at $43,761, though the brand’s tightly controlled Italian allocation will shape who actually gets one.

The bigger signal is strategic. Patek continues to use its Grand Exhibitions to release city-specific pieces with real substance, and steel sports models remain its most powerful currency with collectors. A gradient blue Aquanaut in 250 pieces will not cool that demand. If anything, it suggests the Aquanaut is ready to step further out of the Nautilus’s shadow and into the spotlight on its own terms.

Rolex rarely confirms that a watch is unique. However, Monday night it sold four of them at its first-ever charity auction, hosted by Phillips in London. The Four Seasons collection consists of four one-of-one Cosmograph Daytonas, each inspired by a season, created under Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Initiative. Phillips offered them as four separate lots with no official estimates. Together they fetched £37.3 million, or about $49.5 million. That makes it the largest single consignment ever sold at a charity watch auction.

The results

• Summer (ref. 126595 SARO): 18 ct Everose gold, turquoise dial, heart-of-ruby counters, bezel with 36 pink sapphires. £10.3M (~$13.6M)

• Autumn (ref. 126598 TML): 18 ct yellow gold, mookaite dial, chrysoprase counters, bezel with 36 green tourmalines. £10.2M (~$13.5M)

• Winter (ref. 126596 SABV): 950 platinum, blue opal dial, lapis lazuli counters, diamond hour markers, bezel with 36 sapphires in a blue-to-fuchsia gradient. £10M (~$13.2M)

• Spring (ref. 126599 SAVL): 18 ct white gold, chrysoprase dial, lepidolite counters, bezel with 36 purple sapphires. £6.8M (~$9M)

All four are powered by the calibre 4131, with a power reserve of around 72 hours, and are Superlative Chronometer certified. Each has lugs and crown guards set with 54 diamonds.

From CHF 4 million to $49.5 million

The Four Seasons debuted at Watches and Wonders 2026. According to reports, Rolex initially planned to sell the four watches as a single set for roughly CHF 4 million. More than 1,000 prospective buyers reportedly came forward. Rather than choose among them, Rolex handed the watches to Phillips and let the market decide. The result came in at more than ten times the reported set price.

Phillips waived the buyer’s premium, and every penny goes to the Federer Foundation, which helps children in Southern Africa and Switzerland learn and thrive, and to Re:wild, the conservation organization co-founded by Leonardo DiCaprio.

There’s a particular kind of whiplash that comes from seeing the words “H. Moser & Cie.” and “under CHF 4,000” in the same sentence. This is, after all, a manufacturer whose motto is literally “Very Rare,” whose entry point traditionally sits deep in five-figure territory. So when the brand unveiled the Off-Grid this week, the watch world was in shock — not because it’s radical in concept, but because it’s radical in accessibility.

The Off-Grid is Moser’s second foray into digital timekeeping, following last year’s Streamliner Alpine Mechanics Edition built for real-time Formula 1 pit communications. Where that watch was a connected tool for the track, the Off-Grid strips away the racing telemetry and repositions the same split-level architecture for everyday life — a skeletonised dial revealing a digital display beneath a small, domed analog face above it.

A Familiar Shape, A New Purpose

Housed in the 42.6mm Streamliner case, the Off-Grid arrives in two colorways: a black composite-and-steel version with a red fumé dial and black rubber strap, and a blue edition paired with a black fumé dial and white strap. Both are rated to 12 ATM and built with Moser’s signature fully integrated bracelet-and-case silhouette, so despite the tech underneath, nothing about the wrist presence reads as a gadget.

That’s very much the point. Moser calls the concept “Off-Grid mode” — quick country selection, a GMT function covering every time zone, a split-seconds chronograph accurate to 1/100th of a second, a perpetual calendar, and a perpetual moon phase. There’s also a small, charmingly analog touch for a digital watch: a built-in dictionary of ten essential words across 21 languages, tied to whichever city you’ve selected. No apps, no notifications — just functions a traveling watch enthusiast might actually reach for.

Inside: The Calibre D10

The engineering story is arguably the bigger news. The Off-Grid runs on the Calibre D10, co-developed with Swiss smartwatch specialist SEQUENT — an unusual but logical partnership for a brand that has spent two decades insisting on doing things in-house. The payoff is power reserve numbers that read more like an e-ink display than a watch movement: up to 12 months in time-only mode, or roughly six months with regular use of the alarm and chronograph functions. It’s a rare case of a “smart” complication actually reducing the owner’s maintenance anxiety rather than adding to it.

Getting One

Availability follows Moser’s usual scarcity playbook, just at a different price tier. Each colorway is limited to 1,000 pieces, for 2,000 total. Existing clients get first access from September 21 to 23, 2026, before the Off-Grid opens to the wider Moser community on September 24 — with the entire run closing out by October 5. Pricing starts at CHF 3,900 excluding VAT, sold exclusively through Moser boutiques and its own website.

The Bigger Bet Behind a Small Watch

The Off-Grid forces an interesting question onto a brand built around exclusivity: can “Very Rare” survive contact with a genuinely attainable price point? Judging by the reception so far, the answer looks like yes — because the rarity Moser sells was never really about the number on the price tag. It’s about the attitude, the fumé dials, the refusal to make anything ordinary. If the Off-Grid succeeds, don’t be surprised if digital-mechanical hybrids stop being a novelty for independent watchmaking and start being a genuine new category.

I wasn’t planning to write about the Cartier Cheich this week, but then Sotheby’s auction happened, so that left me with no choice. Last week the Cartier Cheich became the most expensive Cartier ever sold, crushing the record breaking $1.99 Million sale of the Cartier London Crash earlier this year at the Sotheby’s “Shapes of Cartier” auction. This time it fell to a lesser-known watch with arguably an even bolder design. So you can imagine, I found myself back down the same rabbit hole I fall into every time I discover a new oddball vintage Cartier shape.

Everyone who knows Cartier is familiar with the Crash. But I don’t think that’s the case with the Cheich. And that’s exactly the point: only five were ever made. I’ve spent the past few days reading everything I could find on it, and the more I learn, the more it feels like the strangest, most quietly important watch Cartier has ever produced. So a perfect entry for this week’s Collector’s Catalog.

A Trophy Born From the Desert

The story of the Cartier Cheich begins in 1983, when Thierry Sabine (the man behind the Paris-Dakar rally) teamed up with Cartier’s then-president Alain-Dominique Perrin to create the “Cartier Challenge”. This was a prize for any driver who could win the same category of the desert rally for two consecutive years. The Dakar Rally began in 1978 as a brutal off-road race from Paris to Dakar. Competitors crossed dunes, rocks, and open desert, sometimes covering 800 kilometres in a single day. Exhaustion, navigation errors, and mechanical failure were part of the challenge and this was the world Cartier built a trophy for. The challenge almost sounds like a dare.

Sculpted From the Tagelmust

Cartier’s then-creative director Jacques Diltoer took a rather different approach for this piece. His design took inspiration from the Paris-Dakar logo itself: a stylised Tuareg figure wearing the tagelmust, the long cotton headscarf desert nomads wrap around the face for protection from sun and sand. The result is an asymmetrical case with no straight edges — a layered blend of yellow, pink, and white gold whose curves echo both the folds of the cloth and the shape of a dune. The dial keeps things comparatively restrained: a rectangular chemin de fer minute track and Cartier’s signature blue cabochon crown. Under the case sits a manual-wind Frédéric Piguet caliber FE 664. Every example ran on this manual caliber, except for one — a piece made decades later that swapped in a quartz movement, and the one that sold last week.

Gaston Rahier, the Only Winner

Only one person ever completed the Cartier Challenge: Belgian motocross racer Gaston Rahier, who won the motorcycle category of the Paris-Dakar in both 1984 and 1985 aboard a BMW. The watch was handed over to him personally by Alain-Dominique Perrin. Rahier kept it out of public view for the rest of his life, and it stayed with his family for over thirty years after his death. It wasn’t until Sotheby’s brought it to auction in September 2022 — where it sold for a record $1.1 million. It was the first and, for a long time, only Cartier Cheich ever to reach the open market.

The Fifth Cheich: Giorgio Seragnoli’s White Gold Unicum

Well the story didn’t end there. No, because Cartier decided to quietly produced a fifth Cheich in 2010. This time entirely in white gold, with a quartz movement instead of the original manual caliber. It was made for an Italian collector Giorgio Seragnoli, co-author of the celebrated Cartier Bianco book and, at the time, one of the most serious collectors of white-metal Cartier in the world. The caseback reads “No. 1” — and Cartier has never made a No. 2. That watch came to Sotheby’s Hong Kong last week for its first-ever public sale, hammering at HK$26.51 Million ($3.41 million).

I don’t own a Cartier, and for most collectors the Cheich is a piece that will never be in reach. But if I’m honest, this is the kind of watch that belongs in this catalog: bold design with real history behind it. A watch that was never designed to be bought, only earned. Or in this one particular case, specially commissioned decades after the fact. Though I’ll admit — that last part is something worth discussing. The piece that just sold is the 2010 one, not an original. Does a replica carry the same weight as the four that actually crossed the desert, or is some of that record price just good storytelling? I’ll let you decide. Either way, the Cheich isn’t the most beautiful Cartier ever made, but it might be the one with the most to say. If you ever find yourself with one on your wrist, you’re not just wearing a watch, you’re holding onto a fragment of racing history.

From gem-set cocktail watches to grail-tier Patek Philippe, Peggy Gou’s collection reads like a masterclass in taste. The DJ and designer doesn’t dress to match — she wears pieces that tell you exactly where her interests lie, from vintage bracelet watches to daily-wear sports models. Here’s a closer look at what’s actually on her wrist.

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Rolex Oyster Perpetual 36 “Pink”

Spotted courtside in a crisp white fit, Gou’s pink-dial Oyster Perpetual is the definition of an easy grail. Rolex’s candy-colored OP line has become one of the most in-demand references of the past few years, and on Gou it reads more playful than flashy — proof that a steel Rolex still does plenty of talking.

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Rolex Airking 34 “Bahrain Crest”

A rarer find: an Airking 34 fitted with the Bahrain crest dial, a regional edition rarely seen outside the Gulf market. Paired here with a Louis Vuitton cherry-blossom trunk bag, it’s a reminder that Gou’s collecting instincts go beyond the obvious references — she’s after pieces with a story.

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Patek Philippe Nautilus Ref. 7118/1200A-011

The Nautilus needs no introduction, and this diamond-bezel 7118 is one of the most coveted women’s references on the market. At roughly $90,000, it’s the clear grail piece in the collection — and Gou wears it like an everyday watch rather than a trophy.

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Audemars Piguet Cobra, Diamond Hour Markers

A vintage AP Cobra in white gold with a deep blue dial and diamond hour markers. The Cobra bracelet is one of AP’s most recognizable vintage silhouettes, and this piece leans elegant and understated compared to the sportier icons elsewhere in her rotation.

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Patek Philippe Ref. 4282/4, 18k Yellow Gold

A striking bracelet watch in 18k yellow gold, set with malachite, onyx, and diamond accents. Priced around $50,000, this is peak ‘70s-’80s Patek jewelry-watch design — bold, sculptural, and clearly built for a collector who isn’t afraid of color.

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Patek Philippe Aquanaut

The workhorse of the collection. Where the Nautilus and vintage bracelet pieces are statement watches, the black-dial rubber-strap Aquanaut (around $70,000) is what Gou reaches for on the move — proof that even a five-figure watch can be a daily driver.

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Hublot MDM Genève “Fish”

One of the more unexpected pieces in the lineup: a gold and diamond Hublot MDM Genève with a green malachite dial featuring an engraved fish motif. This is a deep-cut vintage reference, not a hype piece — the kind of watch that signals real collector knowledge rather than just brand recognition. Price not publicly available.

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Cartier Tank Louis, Green Croc Strap

A Cartier Tank Louis in yellow gold on a green alligator strap, priced around $10,600. Classic, quiet, and endlessly wearable — it’s the kind of reference that anchors a collection between the bigger, flashier grails.

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Patek Philippe Ref. 4151/1g

A silver bracelet-style Patek with a blue dial, seen here on the go with an iced coffee in hand. Another example of Gou treating serious vintage Patek as everyday wear rather than special-occasion pieces.

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This isn’t a collection built to look good on Instagram. Gou switches between grail sports watches, serious vintage Patek, and fun high-jewelry pieces without missing a beat. That range is what makes it worth watching. And it says something bigger too: buy what you actually like, not what you think you’re supposed to wear. Gou’s watches work because they match her — the vintage bags, the hand-poked tattoos, the whole look. The watches aren’t the outfit. They’re just one more piece of it.

Rolex has done something it rarely does. It has taken a collector’s nickname and turned it into an official model name. Meet the Perpetual Padellone.

Unveiled in Milan on 15 September 2026, the Padellone is a 39mm complete calendar with a moonphase. It’s the second model in the Perpetual collection, which launched with the time-only 1908 in 2023. It’s also the most complicated watch Rolex has released since the Sky-Dweller in 2012.

Where Does the Name Come From?

“Padellone” means big frying pan in Italian. Dealers coined the nickname decades ago for ref. 8171, a 38mm triple calendar with moonphase built from 1949 to 1953. Its broad, flat case reminded collectors of kitchenware. Good examples now sell for well into six figures.

The new watch borrows the 8171’s layout. Day and month sit in twin apertures at 12 o’clock. A blue date hand with a crescent moon at its tip reads against a track at the dial’s edge. The one real departure from the original: applied numerals at 3 and 9.

Not a Perpetual Calendar — On Purpose

Despite the name, this isn’t a perpetual calendar. “Perpetual” refers to the collection, and to Rolex’s self-winding rotor from 1931. The Padellone is a complete calendar with an annual mechanism behind it.

That’s a deliberate choice. A true perpetual calendar tracks every month’s length, leap years included. But it only stays accurate while running — leave it in a drawer, and you’re stuck resetting a fiddly sequence of recessed pushers. Rolex clearly decided that complexity wasn’t worth the trade-off.

Meet the Haplos System

Instead, Rolex built calibre 7190 around a new patented mechanism called Haplos. It teaches the movement the difference between 30- and 31-day months, using just two extra components. The pattern is cut directly into the back of the month disc.

The result: the watch needs just one correction a year, at the end of February. And at midnight, day, date and month all jump together, instantly.

Design and Specs

The moonphase breaks convention. Instead of a small aperture, a fully visible blue enamel disc rotates once every lunar month. Both the full moon and new moon are cut from meteorite, each with a pad-printed face — a nod to the original 8171’s starry dial. Powering it all is calibre 7190, an evolution of the 7135 found in last year’s Land-Dweller. It runs at a rare 5Hz, using Rolex’s Dynapulse silicon escapement and a Syloxi hairspring, with a 66-hour power reserve and 30 patent applications behind it. The 39mm case follows the 1908’s design language: a domed, fluted bezel and a grained dial. At 12.2mm thick with 50m water resistance, this is a dress watch through and through — no screw-down crown, no Oyster case.

It comes in two metals:

• 18ct Everose gold, alligator strap — CHF 52,500

• 18ct Everose gold, Settimo bracelet — CHF 64,800

• 950 platinum, alligator strap — CHF 59,000

It’s a regular production model, not limited — though waiting lists are expected.

Fewer complications, smarter engineering. Sometimes that’s the bigger flex.

At the MobLand premiere, Pierce Brosnan stepped onto the red carpet wearing a piece that speaks in a much quieter register than the franchise he’s known for: Blancpain’s Villeret Ultraplate in red gold. No bezel-mounted complications, no oversized case — just a compact 39.7mm dial, a slim 7.45mm profile, and an understated opaline face lined with applied gold Roman numerals.

It’s a fitting choice for an actor whose off-screen style has always leaned toward restraint over spectacle, and it puts a spotlight on one of the most quietly significant collections in modern watchmaking.

A Name Rooted in Origin

The Villeret line takes its name from the small Swiss village where Blancpain was founded in 1735, a heritage that lets the brand claim the title of the world’s oldest watchmaker. While Blancpain’s history has passed through several ownership changes over the centuries, the Villeret collection was built specifically to distill everything the maison stands for: refined proportions, traditional finishing, and complications made in the old-world style rather than the sport-luxury language many of its peers chased during the 2000s.

Villeret made its formal debut in 2010. But its design values go back further, rooted in Blancpain’s earlier Classique line: round cases, double-stepped bezels, and dials built around legibility and calm. Over the years, the collection has also become the brand’s technical proving ground. It’s home to some of its most ambitious complications, including ultra-thin movements, perpetual calendars, and flying tourbillons.

The Ultraplate: Villeret at Its Purest

Against that backdrop, the Ultraplate represents the collection at its most essential. There’s no calendar, no moonphase, no tourbillon. Just time-telling, executed with the kind of proportion and finishing that takes decades of manufacture experience to get right. It’s less a display of complexity and more a display of restraint. That’s arguably the harder thing to pull off.

Worn on a red carpet next to a franchise built on gadgets, the Ultraplate made its own quiet case. Sometimes the most confident move is doing less. What do you think — is understated the new flex?

Brad Pitt has long been known as a watch enthusiast and collector, so anytime he shows up to an event, everyone in the watch community pays close attention to what he’s wearing on his wrist. Courtside during this year’s US Open women’s final, he did it again. Cameras caught him mid-match with a glint of yellow gold on his wrist that anyone paying attention immediately clocked. It turned out to be a rare vintage Patek Philippe Calatrava ref. 2526. Not a hype piece, not a modern flex, but a genuine slice of Patek history.

During the Grand Slam Final

The US Open final is prime real estate for celebrity watch-spotting. Great lighting, close-up broadcast cameras, and the perfect crowd of people. Brad pitt, wearing a low-key outfit as always, let his 2526 do all the talking. He’s worn this exact reference to the Wolfs premiere in Venice, on the F1 press tour, and now at Flushing Meadows — proof that when he actually likes a watch, he wears it into the ground rather than rotating it out for the next big thing.

The Watch Itself

The ref. 2526 is not just a vintage watch — it’s one of Patek’s most important ones. Launched in 1953, it was Patek Philippe’s first self-winding wristwatch, built around the in-house 12-600 AT movement. At this time automatic winding was still a genuine engineering flex rather than a given. The 2526 is cased at a restrained 35mm in yellow gold, which was not really common at the time as watches were finally shrinking back down from the oversized styles of the 1940s. That shift helped define the clean, elegant Calatrava silhouette that Patek still leans on today. Depending on the example, dials ran from simple lacquer to rare enamel and many examples, just like the one Brad Pitt was wearing, sit on a Gay Frères bracelet rather than a strap. Which in my opinion gives the whole watch a slightly sportier, dressed-down presence on the wrist.

Collector Perspective

Among collectors, the 2526 occupies a strange, wonderful spot: historically massive, but still comparatively attainable next to Patek’s more hyped references. Clean yellow gold examples on bracelet trade in the high five to low six figures, with enamel dials pushing well beyond that. And every time Pitt is seen wearing one, dealers report renewed interest in clean 2526s. With smaller vintage watches and vintage Patek both already on the rise, that trend probably isn’t slowing down. Brad Pitt didn’t need a flashy watch to win the week. He needed the most classy and historically significant one — and the 2526 remains one of Patek’s most quietly important pieces, on or off a celebrity wrist.

Most watch brands start with a case designer and a spreadsheet. NO IDENTITY started with paint, glue, and a stack of cardboard. There was no factory on day one, no investor deck, no five-year roadmap — just an artist named LABEG, treating luxury watch design as raw material for something looser and funnier than anything sitting behind a boutique counter. What began as a personal creative outlet has since turned into a brand collectors are actually wearing, and the path between those two points says something about where watch culture is headed.

Paint Before Steel

LABEG’s earliest pieces weren’t watches in any functional sense. They were cardboard, cut and painted into whimsical, oversized takes on the kind of luxury timepieces most people only see in glass cases — reimagined with a cartoonish, almost mischievous energy that had nothing to do with precision engineering and everything to do with how a watch feels when you strip away the seriousness. There was no plan to sell anything. It was art, made because making it was fun.

When the Art World Started Watching

The pieces didn’t stay in a sketchbook for long. Coverage rolled in from the New York Times, Hypebeast, Hodinkee, and Revolution — publications that built their reputations writing about six-figure manufacture movements, suddenly writing about art built from a box. That attention eventually led somewhere no one could have scripted: a collaboration with H. Moser & Cie, the independent Swiss manufacture known for its own irreverent streak, which handed LABEG its Hong Kong boutique for a cardboard-watch exhibition. It was an odd pairing on paper — a heritage watchmaker platforming an artist working in packaging material — and that oddness is precisely why it worked. The watch world wasn’t just noticing LABEG anymore. It was vouching for him.

From Painted Case to Real Case

That kind of validation raises an obvious question, and eventually LABEG and NO IDENTITY’s founders asked it out loud: what happens if this style isn’t just painted onto a watch, but built into one? The brand is the answer. LABEG’s visual language — playful, geometric, unmistakably his — got translated out of flattened cardboard and into stainless steel cases with working movements and real dials. The art didn’t get diluted in the process. It got a wrist to live on.

Four Collections, and Why NO IDENTITY Matters

NO IDENTITY’s current lineup spans four families — Octonoid, Noidilus, Aquanoid, and Cuboid — each carrying LABEG’s signature dial artwork onto cases finished in stainless steel and gold tones, with prices starting at $620. That number matters more than it might first appear: it puts a genuinely art-driven watch within reach of collectors who’d otherwise need a five- or six-figure budget for something this expressive — a quiet rebuttal to a category built on gatekeeping, heritage codes, waitlists, and price tags that function as entry fees as much as valuations. A brand can start with cardboard and paint, end up in the same headlines as manufactures with centuries of history behind them, and still price its watches for under a thousand dollars. The material was never the point. The point was whether a watch could still surprise a collector who assumed they’d seen everything the category had to offer — and on that count, NO IDENTITY is just getting started.

For this week’s “Collector’s Catalog”, which will also be the first Collector’s Catalog that I publish, I think I may have found the best piece to start it off with. And as you can see by the title it’s a very special dive watch. The first watch I bought for myself when I was 12 was actually a dive watch. It was a solar-powered Casio dive watch with a rubber strap, and a striking ocean blue dial and bezel, which I thought looked really cool at that time.

Now this particular dive watch I actually wasn’t really looking for. I was just scrolling my Chrono24 suggested feed, which contains mostly neo-vintage watches from the ‘90s and early 2000s — when the IWC Porsche Design Ocean 2000 popped up and stopped me mid-swipe. Of course I’d come across the watch occasionally before and knew it existed, but it had never really registered properly. It was one of those pieces that lives at the back of your mind until something puts it back in front of you. Its design is unmistakably Porsche Design: a titanium dive watch with an integrated bracelet, minimalist to the point of austerity, but sophisticated with it. And what makes it really special is that it’s water resistant up to 200 bar, 2,000 meters. No that’s not a typo, you’re reading that correctly. 2,000 meters! That’s actually insane. I’ve been an IWC admirer for a while, mostly through the Gerald Genta-designed Ingenieur, but this was a different side of the brand I hadn’t really looked into before. So with the launch of “Collector’s Catalog” now was the perfect time to start digging. Or diving in, rather — seemed fitting.

A Collaboration Born Out of Necessity, Not Luxury

The Ocean 2000 came out of the IWC and Porsche Design partnership that ran from 1978 into the late 1990s. A collaboration that, by some accounts, accounted for roughly a fifth of IWC’s total sales at its peak. Those are impressive numbers for a brand better known today for grand complications, and it says a lot about the position IWC was in at that time: recovering from the quartz crisis, with a strong Swiss franc squeezing exports, and looking for a design partner who could make something genuinely new rather than genuinely luxurious. That partner turned out to be Ferdinand Alexander Porsche who was the grandson of the car designer, and the man behind Porsche Design itself.

The Ocean 2000 was developed with military use in mind, reportedly for West German Navy divers, which is also where the collectible BUND variants (orange minute hand, black anodized bezel, nylon strap) come from. The civil version arrived in 1983.

Titanium Wasn’t a Style Choice, It Was the Whole Point

At a time when titanium cases were still a novelty in watchmaking, the Ocean 2000 used it out of necessity. Titanium was light enough for a compact 42mm case to disappear on the wrist, hard-wearing enough to function as a proper tool-watch and use for actual diving. The design language is the same restrained, function-first vocabulary Porsche Design applied across their whole collection. Titanium-grey cases, black dials, and a single accent color, what else do you really need right? The bezel is held by four small screws and shipped with its own miniature screwdriver, so it could be removed and cleaned. A rather odd, but charming at the same time, piece of over-engineering for a tool watch.

The Depth Rating That Embarrassed the Competition

The number that got me is also the number that got collectors at the time: 2,000 meters, achieved through a titanium case and bracelet, layered gaskets, and a triple-sealed crown. For comparison, that’s well beyond what Rolex’s Sea-Dweller or Seiko’s professional divers were rated for in the same era. Reportedly, the case was pressure-tested even further, to around 3,200 meters. A smaller, simpler sibling, the Ocean 500, followed in 1987 with a 34mm case, which would actually be a better fit for me given my own small wrists. So the Ocean 500 might honestly be the smarter buy for me, and it’s also the cheaper option.

Which is exactly the reason why this one’s going in my catalog. It’s a watch that did something genuinely new — not for a marketing headline, but because a navy diver actually needed it to work at depth. A watch influencer/personality that I follow (and probably most of you know as well), Justin Hast, recently pointed out how much it resembles the H. Moser & Cie. Streamliner, and once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Both the Ocean 2000 and the Ocean 500 are rare enough now that they’re gone from Chrono24 before I can even click through. However I will keep an eye out for the Ocean 500 specifically, wrist size and all. If any of you has one sitting in a drawer or on your wrist, I’d love to hear how it wears.