Luxury watches are the perfect combination of style and functionality. Aside from exuding status, an expensive timepiece also reflects a person’s taste for impeccable craftsmanship. Clearly, high-end watches go way beyond the aesthetics as they are made with intricate techniques, precision, quality, and innovation.
If you’re looking for both quality and design, here are fifteen luxury watch brands that can give you exactly that.
1. Rolex
Rolex is a Swiss luxury watch brand that was founded in 1905. All of their watches are made with high quality materials to ensure lasting appearance, functionality, and accuracy.
Rolex gained a huge following because of its achievements and innovations in watchmaking such as the first waterproof watch, first chronometer certification, and the first wristwatch that show two time zones at once.
2. Patek Philippe
Antoni Patek and Adrien Philippe founded Patek Philippe in 1851. It is known for expensive watches owned by the wealthy, famous, and members of royalty. Pope Pius IX, Queen Victoria, Victor III of Italy, and Christian IX of Denmark are some of the prominent individuals who owned a Patek Philippe timepiece.
Patek Philippe is known for the introduction of silicon escapement wheel in 2005 and their creation of the Calibre 89 watch for their 150th anniversary, which is a timepiece that’s packed with 39 complications, 1,728 unique parts, and other features.
3. Audemars Piguet
Audemars Piguet has 140 years of rich history. Unlike its competitors in the luxury watch market, the brand boasts of a strong heritage, because to date, it is still run by its founding family. Because of that, this watch manufacturer was able to keep its vision and remain true to its DNA—which is to innovate their timepieces without losing sight of rare and ancestral watchmaking techniques.
4. Ulysse Nardin
Ulysse Nardin was founded in 1846 in Le Locle. The brand experienced challenges, but their culture of innovation and commitment to excellence remained all through the years. Thanks to that, Ulysee Nardin garnered more than 4,300 watchmaking awards.
Ulysse has four pillars or categories when it comes to their timepieces—the Marine, Functional, Exceptional, and Classico—which can suit the taste and meet the standard of every watch aficionado.
5. Blancpain
Jehan-Jacques Blancpain founded Blancpain in 1735. It is one of the world’s oldest watchmaking brands. What makes Blancpain remarkable is their commitment to pure and traditional style of watchmaking without losing sight of the opportunity to create something new.
6. Girard Perregaux
Girard Perregaux is a high-end Swiss watch manufacturer with early roots dating back to 1791. It holds more than 80 patents in the watchmaking industry and is known for a lot of breakthroughs when it comes to creating timepieces.
7. Jaeger LeCoultre
Jaeger LeCoultre is a manufacturer of Swiss watches and clocks that dates back to the early 1900s. The brand has 1,242 different calibres including the world’s smallest calibre, registered about 400 patents, and created hundreds of remarkable pieces such as the Millionomètre, Keyless watch, and LeCoultre Calibre 145.
8. A. Lange & Söhne
A. Lange & Söhne is a brand known for crafting pocket and wrist watches that was founded by Ferdinand Adolph Lange in Saxony in 1845. All of their timepieces contain mechanical movements except for a few limited edition watches. Also, they create movements using German Silver instead of plated brass that are common among Swiss movements.
A. Lange & Söhne has a very distinct watch collection. Their timepieces have unique appearances and are built with rare features such as split-second chronographs and perpetual calendars.
9. Breguet
Breguet is a Swiss manufacturer of luxury watches that was founded in 1775 by Abraham-Louis Breguet. It pioneered numerous watch technologies such as the tourbillion, and is famous for blue pomme hands or what is now referred to as Breguet hands.
10. Vacheron Constantin
Marc Vacheron and François Constantin founded Vacheron Constantin in 1755. This famous watch brand along with Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet are sometimes considered as the holy trinity of watchmakers.
Vacheron Constantin is a favorite among the famous and wealthy. Some of the prominent individuals who owned watches from the brand are Pope Pius XI, Napoleon Bonaparte, Duke of Windsor, and Harry Truman.
Later in 2015, Vacheron Constatin claimed that they made the world’s complicated mechanical watch, the 57260, which took three watchmakers and eight years to build. It is packed with 57 different functions and was created at the request of a client.
11. Breitling
Léon Breitling founded Breitling in 1884. The brand is known for using certified chronometers in all their watches and developing their own chronograph movement. Breitling watches are popular in the field of diving and aviation.
12. Franck Muller
Franck Muller is a well-loved watch manufacturer because it infuses modern design with traditional Swiss watch craftsmanship. Some celebrities who were spotted wearing creations from the brand are Demi Moore, 50 Cent, and Elton John.
One of the major distinctions and trademarks of Franck Muller is its World Premiers, which are events that launch the brand’s new lines of timepieces and showcase their latest innovations.
13. Louis Moinet
Louis Moinet is a watch brand that creates high-end timepieces from groundbreaking technology and exotic materials such as tropical fossilized palm wood and dinosaur bones.
The brand’s DNA is developed around the techniques and expertise of Louis Monet, the inventor of the chronograph.
14. Mont Blanc
Mont Blanc watches are known for their watchmaking expertise that take place in the mountains of Jura, Switzerland, allowing their watchmakers to just embark on their art without being distracted by the noise and clutter of city life.
Mont Blanc’s watch collection may cater to various tastes, but the anatomy of each piece is innately the same because they are all made with traditional Swiss craftsmanship, utmost precision, and durability.
15. Omega
Omega is a famous Swiss luxury watch brand because of its excellent techniques that paved way for its many achievements such as being chosen by NASA as the first watch on the moon in 1969 and for providing the timekeeping device for Olympic games since 1932. The brand further gained its popularity because it was seen being worn by James Bond in movies since 1995.
