Watchonista Staff Picks: Our Favorite Watches of 2025

I bought two watches in 2025. The first was the Nivada Grenchen 35mm Antarctic Spider, featuring a black sector dial, cyclops date, manual-wind movement, and a black leather strap with white stitching. I love this watch. And I’ve been in love with it since I first saw the original 38mm model a few years ago, which means the Antarctic Spider is not my favorite timepiece of the year.

That honor goes to the second watch I purchased: the Dennison Dual Time – Capsule Collection Turquoise Lacquer model, announced in October. But it isn’t my favorite by some technicality. No, my fascination with the Dennison ALD Dual Time began when the permanent collection was unveiled during Geneva Watch Days.
 

With Watchonista’s main office in Switzerland and me in Connecticut, I have been dreaming of getting a watch with a dual-time function for several years, but I could never find one that both interested me and was within my price range.

So, when Dennison dropped its 37mm x 35.6mm ALD Dual Time collection in September, I was especially intrigued by its two dials and two recessed crowns. It felt like the stars were finally coming into alignment, but still, I hesitated
 

Then, when the Dennison released the Dual Time - Capsule Collection II, featuring an onyx hardstone dial (you all know, I love me some black-dialed watches) with a lacquered “Kandinsky Accent” second dial and a price tag of only $950, I ordered the Turquoise Lacquer model without delay.

Sadly, I am still waiting for my watch to ship, but rest assured that when I finally have it in my hands, it will become my new daily wear.

Just as I predicted at the start of the year, 2025 was indeed a year of stone dials, yet no timepiece elevates this trend quite like the Louis Vuitton Escale in malachite and turquoise.

Drawing on the Maison’s trunk-making DNA, these 40mm platinum beauties seamlessly integrate stone not just on the dial but into the monolithic case ring, marrying the natural beauty of these stones with haute horlogerie bravura – a feat that demanded fresh milling techniques from La Fabrique du Temps.

Between the malachite model’s hypnotic banding and the turquoise version’s vivid webbing, I cannot choose a favorite. That is because this duo is nothing less than a collector’s manifesto.
 

If there are two things I crave in the winter months, it’s color and travel. And the NOMOS Glashütte Club Sport Worldtimer – the first Club Sport with a world time complication – satisfies both desires.

Of course, NOMOS knows how to do hues (in fact, I almost chose the brand’s 31 variations of the Tangente 38 Date – 175 Years Watchmaking Glashütte series for last year’s end-of-year Staff Picks); moreover, the vibe Club Sport collection is historically unfussy and fun.

Even better, the aesthetic of this timepiece brings cheer throughout the year. Case in point: I fell in love with this 40mm, stainless steel travel watch when it launched at Watches and Wonders in April, and I have been thinking about it ever since, especially as the brand released more throughout the year.

The Glashütte-based brand just released two more variants with sparkling champagne dials and pops of color in the outer ring and GMT sub-dial (my favourite, the Roam, features hints of sky blue, orange, and green). Its $5,000 price tag is also very attractive.
 

As a watch collector as well as an avid scuba diver, the Ulysse Nardin Diver [AIR] immediately caught my eye the moment I held it, or more accurately, felt it.

Weighing in at just 52 grams (including the strap), it is astonishingly light for any watch, let alone a 200m-rated mechanical dive watch. Yet, despite its featherweight nature, the Diver [AIR] exudes craftsmanship and technical know-how.

The UN‑374, which incorporates a modern silicon escapement beating at 3 Hz, is a beautiful example of a modern, openworked movement that keeps ticking on those dive trips due to its 90-hour power reserve. Moreover, its recycled titanium and CarbonFoil case gives the [AIR] a contemporary and futuristic aesthetic while keeping weight to a minimum.

While, as Mike so accurately predicted, my heart gravitates towards the original orange version released in April at Watches and Wonders, to me, pairing the vibrantly blue Seddiqi 75^th anniversary edition, which matches the crystal-clear turquoise waters the Diver AIR is meant to help you explore, with the lightweight orange elastic strap of the original makes this the perfect combination in my eyes.
 

I’ve long been a fangirl of MB&F (how can you not be mesmerized by the brand’s horological machines?). But as a petite gal with a 5.75-inch wrist, I wrote off MB&F as a brand that I could admire from afar as they sat on the wrists of my male counterparts.

Then, in February, I attended a product preview hosted by MB&F in NYC and got my first look at the SP One – the first edition of the brand’s new Special Projects series that launched later that summer. This is the slimmest and smallest watch in MB&F’s history, and the 38mm size is perfect for my wrist (or any wrist, really).

The only thing that would make it better is if I had an amazing tattoo sleeve to serve as the backdrop for the holy trinity – the barrel, balance wheel, and dial – which appear to float thanks to the sapphire glass on both the front and back of the case.

While the SP One isn’t as wild and architectural as a typical horological machine, it still feels distinctly MB&F, just a bit more pared down, polished off, and buttoned up all in a package versatile enough for all wrists.