Dani's Opinion: A Ruined Party

Watches & Wonders 2025 promised to be another celebration of fine watchmaking, but between champagne hangovers, questionable design decisions, and unexpected tariffs, the party ended with more frowns than applause.

As I write this, the most important watch week in the industry is coming to an end: Watches & Wonders 2025. It began, as always, with the morbid curiosity, surprise, and subsequent fascination that Rolex launches entail on Monday. So far, so good, with tasty successes and failures, as every year. But on Tuesday, when the hangover from the previous night's party had still worn off and the French champagne was still cold, the worst came. And the worst wasn't a poorly designed watch, nor a price hike at Rolex, nor the bankruptcy of a beloved brand. It was a cold shower in the form of 31% tariffs on products arriving in the United States from Switzerland, courtesy of Donald Trump. Any new launches or events during the fair were overshadowed by this news. The implications are uncertain, and there are hundreds of economic cogs in motion that will ultimately determine how this tariff situation ends and how it will affect us as collectors and the industry in general.

The truth is, we came here for the watches, and when it comes to watches, we can't help but start with the now infamous Land-Dweller. This launch, in my opinion, showed the best and worst sides of Rolex. On the one hand, a truly revolutionary new mechanism that could change watchmaking in the 21st century, proving that Rolex remains the king when it comes to industrializing complex processes with a level of perfection unattainable by the rest. The flip side of the coin was the design chosen to launch this mechanical marvel: a watch that attempts to pay tribute to the Oysterquartz of yesteryear, but which fails to convince, as it is overloaded with details and displays a very unusual Rolex attitude of looking backward rather than forward. It seemed more like a move straight out of Tudor's book.

Rolex Land-Dweller Patek Philippe Cubitus 40mm Patek Philippe Calatrava 6196P Patek Philippe Quadruple Complication

At the head of the aisle, we have Patek, which without much fanfare dropped a small bombshell in the form of the 40mm Cubitus. An improved version, in my opinion, of the original, arriving just five months after that first launch and sure to raise hackles among collectors who overpriced the first version and now see how the brand, without even waiting a year, launches a new one. In any case, the house of Stern atoned for its sins with several triumphs this year, starting with the new Calatrava with a salmon dial, continuing with the Crono Rattrapante with a chocolate dial, and ending with the new Quadruple Grand Complication, a true watchmaking masterpiece that costs close to a million dollars and manages to look modern yet elegant, something Patek hasn't shown us in a while.

In the mortal (or rather, wealthy mortal) price range, we have IWC, with new versions of the Ingenieur, most notably the perpetual calendar and the 40mm rose gold edition. These are two of the best integrated bracelet sports watches you can buy today, and they shouldn't be ashamed to stand up to a Royal Oak or a Nautilus. Cartier, being Cartier, was inspired by Cartier to launch a new Cartier that mimics a Cartier of the past. The "new" Tank à Guichets is certainly not for everyone, but given how difficult it is to find an original, I'm sure true collectors and lovers of the brand appreciate it, want it, and will be willing to pay exorbitant prices on the secondary market to obtain one of these curious designer objects.

IWC Ingenieur Perpetual Calendar 41 IWC Ingenieur Automatic 40 In Rose Gold Cartier Tank à Guichets

We also saw low points, especially at the TAG Heuer stand. Here, amidst $2,000 plastic watches, we were able to observe a supposed redesign of its Carrera Day-Date, which is clearly exactly the same as the previous version, but with a price tag now approaching $4,000 and directly competing with Tudor and Omega. I'd say the brand's best new product was the launch of a rice-grain bracelet for its Carrera line. That phrase goes a long way to explaining my feelings about the brand's current situation. General trends? Rolex is embarking on a strategy to increase its average ticket price, trying—through gold and gemstone watches—to approach the prices of haute horlogerie brands and thus increase its revenue without having to manufacture more units. Today, with approximately 1,200,000 pieces produced annually, it is at the limit of what it can do.

Dress watches confirm their triumphant return, with many of the best new releases focused on this category, both in round watches and original architectural shapes, the best representative for me being the new JLC Reverso in rose gold with a matching Milanese bracelet. Finally, we're seeing this fair increasingly focus on bloggers and journalists, leaving behind its past as a trade event. That's why we must be careful before swallowing everything we read on blogs like this one or on the Instagram accounts of celebrity watchmakers. Many of them are there as guests of the brands, staying for free in the best hotels, eating tagliatelle with truffles, and drinking expensive sparkling wine every night. This means that a small handful of brands get a disproportionate percentage of coverage, leaving behind smaller brands that sometimes have much more interesting things to showcase, given that they spend their budget on design, innovation, and quality, rather than on entertaining influencers.

TAG Heuer Carrera Day-Date Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Monoface Small Seconds

So the call is to do your research, form your own opinion, and—most importantly—learn to enjoy without the anxiety of having to buy, since every year the number of releases increases, prices rise, and our fascination with these small works of art continues to grow.

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