Our favourite luxury watches of 2023
As another year draws to an end, we take a look back at some of our favourite offerings of 2023.
Watches and Wonders 2023 saw a jigsaw-inspired Rolex Emoji Day Date, super smart yellow-gold Rolex GMT-Master II with black and grey Cerachrom bezel and a stunning Cartier Privé Normale. But this year also brought two new Grandmaster Chime Haute Joaillerie offerings from Patek Philippe.
We’ve narrowed down our favourites of the year here.
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Tourbillon Spiderman
Presented in a 42 mm titanium case contrasted with a black ceramic bezel and crown, the openworked movement of the Royal Oak Concept Tourbillon SpiderMan appears as the hero of this timepiece.
Audemars Piguet put 50 hours of work into the superhero alone, pushing the limits of the craftsmanship. Based on the calibre 2948, the new hand-wound calibre 2974 required all the openworking expertise of Audemars Piguet’s experts. And this piece is quite incredible as Spiderman appears in 3D form as if suspended through the sapphire crystal.
Finished with a black and grey rubber strap and titanium AP buckle, this watch comes with an alternative black and red rubber strap, which matches the superhero’s suit.
Hublot Big Bang Integrated Tourbillion Full Texalium Carbon
Hublot released its second timepiece featuring a tourbillon — the Big Bang Integrated Tourbillon Texalium Carbon with a 72-hour power reserve.
This full carbon fiber and Texalium timepiece features an integrated bracelet made of the same composite. The skeleton dial and openwork back proudly showcases the dial side micro-rotor at 12 o’clock and the tourbillon at 6 o’clock.
We are keeping all the faith for getting our hands on one but the timepiece is limited to just 50 pieces.
Rolex Daytona Le Mans
For Rolex, this was out of the box as it was an unexpected release paying tribute to the original Daytonas on the 100th anniversary of Le Mans.
This one was announced at Watches & Wonders 2023 and had fans excited with its offering of a new symmetrical case, metal-edged bezel, new movement and more.
This 2023 model takes a little bit from the original Le Mans and Paul Newman’s watch to create a new look, with the use of red accents including on the bezel. You also see a black ceramic bezel, which looks like black acrylic bezels of the older models.
If you do get your hands on one, you’d expect to pay more than $200,000 on the secondary market.
Patek Philippe Calatrava
We were quite amazed with the vivid offering for the new ladies’ Calatrava – a rose gold version decked out in purple.
The bezel set with 76 round internally flawless diamonds highlights the dial with an embossed radiating pattern and polished case. The presence of ultra-thin self-winding 240 caliber with an off-centre 22K gold mini-rotor means it can offer a very slim case.
Richard Mille 07-04 Automatic Sport
Weighing in at just nine teaspoons of sugar, we loved Richard Mille’s new summer release of the RM 07-04 Automatic Sport. While the brand has made watches for many sports stars like Rafa Nadal and Bubba Smith, there hadn’t been a female offering before.
The new watch was developed by a host of high-achieving ladies including two heroes of motorsport, a golfer, a Winter Olympian, and two stars of the athletic track getting close with the designer team. Best of all, they each got to choose their own colour variations.
Suitable for everyday wear at 30.5mm size, taking streetwear as an influence, these were among our favourite sporty offerings of the year.
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