The Future is Now! A Roundup of Geneva Watch Days 2025’s Most Avant-Garde Novelties

There are several ways that Geneva Watch Days differs from a trade fair like Watches and Wonders: It is totally open to the public; it’s held across the city of Geneva, not confined to a single venue; and, perhaps most significantly, it also provides equal visibility to independent watchmakers.

Put another way: Geneva Watch Days not only provides access to all collectors and enthusiasts, it’s also a place where smaller brands can come out to play without having to compete for coverage with goliaths like Rolex or Patek Philippe.

This year, some of the most talked-about timepieces exhibited distinctly avant-garde tendencies – both in looks and in technical innovation. Here are four of the most daring timepieces from the fair

One of the most inventive perpetual calendars launched at this year’s GWD, the 12 functions and indications of the new QP Balancier from Greubel Forsey are controlled by a single crown. That’s right, there are no additional pushers or complicated crown positions to memorize. Most importantly, if you need to reset the watch, there will be no risk of damage to the movement… ever.
 

Powered by Greubel Forsey’s patented Mechanical Computer as well as multiple security systems, this means you can adjust it instantly in either direction without causing extra stress to the mechanism (fewer external parts means less chance of things breaking). It even locks safely during the vulnerable midnight changeover, with a visible red zone for extra security.
 

Here are some other fun features: The Greubel Forsey QP Balancier will start up immediately after months of being unwound. And this perpetual calendar is programmed until February 28, 2100 (and if science progresses in the direction we hope for, it will only require a simple atelier adjustment to remain accurate for another hundred years after that).

Another advantage of cutting out superfluous buttons and crowns is that the watch is aesthetically pure. Its multi-level gold dial presents day, large date, and month in a single, rational line that is surrounded by leap year and day/night indicators. Every element is reduced to the essentials for instant legibility and visual harmony. Meanwhile, the 45.1mm white gold case sits at just 14.75 mm high for extra elegance.
 

Inside sits a 12.6mm balance wheel (which is inclined at 30°), a high-mass, variable-inertia balance with gold mean-time screws for superior chronometric performance, and twin fast-rotating barrels that deliver a 72-hour power reserve. Lastly, every one of the calibre’s 612 components is hand-finished, beveled, black-polished, frosted, or straight-grained.
 

The Greubel Forsey QP Balancier is limited to 22 timepieces in white gold and just might be the most user-friendly perpetual calendar ever created.

We love it when watchmakers get philosophical. Since Czapek & Cie. released the first Antarctique in 2020 (followed closely by the first Antarctique Rattrapante at Geneva Watch Days 2021), the impact of artificial intelligence has gone from a theoretical question to a very real thing affecting our very real livelihoods. The new Antarctique Rattrapante R.U.R. – Tribute to Karel Čapek presents a way to discuss this digital future in a very analogue way.
 

The name of the timepiece comes from a play written by the early 20th-century Czech intellectual, Karel Čapek. His 1921 play, R.U.R. – Rossum’s Universal Robots – was a critique of the dehumanizing potential of science and technology.

Fun Fact: The play introduced the word “robot” into the English lexicon and introduced the idea of human-made life forms (think the Replicants in Blade Runner or the humanoid Cylons from Battlestar Galactica) into the culture. And although he despised the play, calling it “a terribly bad one,” Isaac Asimov would later specifically and explicitly write the “Laws of Robotics” (a foundational principle in science fiction) to prevent the central conflict of the play.
 

In a way, the watch is the opposite of this grim robotic future. It’s about marrying aesthetics and mechanics. On the peripheral chronograph seconds register and the two sub-dials are “XX” symbols representing the robot’s language – a lexicon invented for the R.U.R. watch that takes its inspiration from the Predator movies’ Yautja alphabet.

If you’re not a follower of science fiction, you will still be able to appreciate its futuristic details. The dial is grey metallized sapphire, and against this floating skyscape is the animated face of a robot.
 

When the chronograph function is activated, the robot’s eyes change color: neon yellow for start, red for stop, and blue when reset. This otherworldly visage is made of titanium, and is cut, hand-polished, and laser-engraved, and its eyes are micro-painted by hand.

Limited to 77 pieces (with 31 still available, as of this writing), the new Czapek & Cie. Antarctique Rattrapante R.U.R. – Tribute to Karel Čapek is priced at CHF 58,000.

We don’t have to tell you that MB&F has been ahead of the curve in just about every watchmaking innovation of the last two decades, and we’re not just talking about fearless designs and cool use of materials, but collaborations, marketing, and distribution too. This is why MB&F is so highly prized by collectors: It has a strong point of view that informs every aspect of its art and its business.
 

To celebrate the Maison’s 20th anniversary in 2025, MB&F has introduced two new LM101 EVO editions produced in titanium and available with either a salmon or peacock green dial plate. However, these watches are more than just new colorways.

These dial plate colors are created using CVD, short for chemical vapor deposition – a technique chosen for its technical advantages because the dial plate of the LM101 EVO forms an integral part of the movement.
 

The peacock green version is particularly pretty because shifting hues of green, blue, and purple light refract across its surface. The salmon version is also noteworthy as it is a relatively rare color for MB&F.

Other aesthetic evolutions in these EVO editions include two black sub-dials, hovering just about the dial plate, that are framed by finely circled borders. Hours and minutes are now indicated with newly designed white gold hands.
 

LM101 EVO calibre has been increased from the previous 45 hours to 60 hours. And wearers can choose between a sleek white or grey rubber strap. The overall result is a sportier feeling than previous iterations of the EVO.

Here’s what we mean when we say “sportier.” While it is still an avant-garde watch at heart, the evolution of aesthetics and other innovations make these new EVO models much easier to wear.
 

Now back to the originality we have come to expect from MB&F.

Again, it’s impossible to separate the form of the LM101 EVO from the function. The elegant twin arches suspending the flying balance wheel are like miniature structures. And the brand’s proprietary monobloc (milled from a single block of metal), shock-absorbing flex ring has been hand-polished to a mirror-like luster.
 

In this EVO version, the base has been refined and the escapement wheel redesigned to reflect the signature battle-axe motif found in MB&F timepieces.

Although not formally limited editions, these new MB&F LM101 EVO models are crafted in a limited quantity of a few dozen pieces per year, based on capacity.