Now That’s Entertainment: The Top 5 Watch Books of 2025

In terms of rewarding commitment and engagement, you can’t beat a good book to help you explore your interests more thoughtfully. This is especially true at this low-key time of year, when participating in a “good read” is, ahem, time well spent. This is even more true if a book veers from the expected, sometimes dry, scholarly approach we often see in watch books.

So, while there is obvious value in a more traditional timepiece tome, here are some recommendations for watch-related publications from 2025 that carry an element of the unexpected and delightful.

In an industry where even the edgiest design innovation tends to focus on creating depth and dimension on the wrist, Ressence watches – with their handless, rotating-plate approach – go for a kind of extreme, unapologetic, right-up-against-the-top-crystal flatness.

You could even go so far as to say that Ressence’s watches are something akin to a 2D computer screen (fitting, given that the Type 2 has an electronic crown).
 

It’s refreshing, to say the least, but a decade and a half in, and the watchmaker still stands relatively alone in its unusual yet undeniably appealing time-telling oeuvre.

For its 15^th anniversary, Ressence made another unexpected move by publishing Ahead of Time ($35, Luster), a superb book that, instead of directly celebrating the brand’s timepieces and history, celebrates the entire idea of what’s to come, not just in the watch industry but across many fields.
 

In 240 pages, former Monocle journalist Nolan Giles lays out a compelling vision of what influences will shape our future through interviews with leading voices from the technology sector, design world, politics, watch industry, and even the culinary field. Of course, as a “flat” printed product, Ressence’s particular design aplomb comes eye-pleasing through on every page.

As one of the “Holy Trinity” of fine watchmaking, the Le Brassus-based Audemars Piguet certainly has an estimable history of watchmaking moments to review. However, interestingly, the book the brand released in 2025 taps the maison’s heritage and particular expertise to tell a much broader tale.

The nearly 600-, yes, 600-page tome, The Watch: Stories and Savoir Faire ($82.51, Flammarion), was published to commemorate the watchmaker’s 150th anniversary. But the hefty read is made more accessible and fun by its colorful design (including foldouts) and whimsical illustrations.
 

The Watch conducts a thorough yet entertaining exploration into key watch components like dials, cases, bracelets/straps, movements, and complications, through storytelling focused on the watchmaker’s own works. Of course, exceptional photography and archival documents highlight this impressive book.

In the digital age, how can you ensure that future generations will continue to have a fascination and understanding of the profound analog of cosmic motion that is time-telling, and, further, of wristwatches themselves? Or, even, how can you get your kids jazzed up about something you happen to be particularly passionate about?

Well, a collaboration between watchmaker Rebecca Struthers and science teacher and children’s book author Alom Shah, About Time: A Children’s Guide to the History and Science of Time ($19.99, Penguin Random House) is the children’s book watch-collecting parents have been asking for and then some.
 

Aimed at kids from ages 7 to 9, About Time introduces some pretty lofty concepts in a highly accessible, kid-friendly, and (thanks to 80 pages of festive illustrations by Lucy Rose) fun way, including that holy grail of parental desires: recommended interactive activities like how to make sundials, water clocks, and sandglasses.

As a watch-loving parent actively trying to pass her passion on to her children, Contributor Barbara Palumbo’s excellent in-depth article on the book will tell you much more of the story.

Here at Watchonista, we are particularly pleased that not one, but two, of 2025’s best watch books happened to have been penned by someone very near and dear to our hearts: Editor-at-Large Rhonda Riche.

Her The Wonderful World of Women’s Watches: Beauty Beyond Time ($110, TeNeues) constitutes the first serious exploration of the overlooked impact of women’s watches on the evolution of the industry. Moreover, across its 256 gorgeous pages, Rhonda also discusses the ongoing importance of the role women play, both as icons and innovators, in the watch world.

For more information about this fascinating book, our interview with Rhonda will give you even more behind-the-scenes details.

For her second book of 2025, Watch Spotting: The Collectors ($29.10, ACC Art Books), Rhonda switches into a more pop-culture mode, asking: What watches attract celebrities, and, more importantly, why?

In a more intimate coverage style that goes beyond the bling, its 160 pages examine 30 diverse celebrity collectors (from artist Andy Warhol to tennis legend Serena Williams), their deep passion for watches, and the very nature of watch collecting.

Again, our interview with the author will give you a better view of the red carpet.
 

Happy 2026!