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New Luxury Watches: Our Predictions for 2025

By Thomas Hendricks
30 de dezembro de 2024
8 minutes
24:01

If you read our recent article about the watch trends in 2024, you’ll know we called out titanium as the case material that will likely spill over into 2025. Many brands, including Rolex, could take advantage of this. Purple has been the unexpected dial color of 2024, and we can reasonably assume that it will morph into a more wearable shade of burgundy in the new year—or even a full-on red wave.

One thing you must hope to see is an end to the arms race for the thinnest watch in the world. It feels like the brands are doing this only for themselves, solely for the sake of bragging rights, given that the average watch lover isn’t particularly interested in this kind of science project.

Now, what we we expect to see in general—for better or for worse—is not just some new luxury watches, but more brands paying attention to what’s happening on social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube. The old Swiss brands are notoriously slow-moving, but they could use these platforms as tools for measuring the public response to new releases and for identifying popular vintage watches for potential revivals.

New Luxury Watches: What we expect from brands in 2025

We have some anniversaries coming up in 2025, and we’ll cover each of them as we go brand by brand. These are important because new releases are often years in the making, so anniversaries provide concrete milestones to plan for in advance—and make the prediction business a little easier.

Tudor

With that point in mind, let’s talk Tudor. They have the potential to do something really cool, and the timing is right, but first, let’s discuss the most likely scenario: The Black Bay line has become a major focus for the brand, with various variations popping up in the last few years. Now, I wouldn’t be too surprised to see an entirely new Black Bay spinoff emerge in 2025, but it’s all but guaranteed that we’ll see new dials and cases for their existing models. There’s only one Black Bay in ceramic, and if they already have the cases in production, why not throw in a different dial color or two? It would feel exciting and surprising but would be easy to achieve from a manufacturing perspective. Tudor has a habit of pulling inspiration from Rolex’s back catalog when it comes to colors. We certainly see this with their GMT lineup, so from a betting perspective, any new color combos we see out of Tudor might not be entirely new when you zoom out.

How about a new dial color to create a color contrast with the black case of the Black Bay Ceramic?
How about a new dial color to create a color contrast with the black case of the Black Bay Ceramic?

Likewise, there’s a Black Bay Chrono in pink, so surely the brand could include more mainstream colors like black or green for an easy win. One newish chronograph that we could see—in addition to new dial colors for the Black Bay Chrono—would be a new Pelagos chronograph in titanium. Tudor already has two Pelagos chronos but in carbon cases. They could make a titanium version without much trouble, and because titanium has been the material of choice for the Pelagos, a titanium chronograph would fit right in.

Now for the most daring possibility—and remember—Tudor is “Born to Dare.” 2025 would be the 10-year anniversary of the Tudor North Flag. It was not a particularly popular watch 10 years ago, but there’s potential for Tudor to not only re-release but perhaps reinvent its integrated bracelet sports watch.

Rolex

On the subject of titanium watches, one brand that could use this trend to their advantage would be Rolex. Fans have long asked for a titanium Submariner, but that seems unlikely since the debut of the titanium Yacht-Master. There’s one surprise watch that would be a great fit for titanium, but first, here’s what makes more practical sense. The yellow gold brick known as the Deepsea created a lot of conversation in 2024. It’s 44mm wide by 17.7mm thick and weighs 320 grams, which is more than 11 ounces. It’s almost entirely constructed of solid yellow gold except for a case back in titanium. Of all the watches Rolex could release in lightweight titanium, this one seems to be the most desperate case.

Lighter, more discreet - a titanium case would look good on the Rolex Sea-Dweller Deepsea.
Lighter, more discreet – a titanium case would look good on the Rolex Sea-Dweller Deepsea.

That’s what should happen, but the more fun scenario is what could happen. We’re talking about a newly reimagined Rolex Milgauss in grade 5 titanium. The Milgauss was only discontinued in 2023, so this is definitely a reach. However, while it’s rare for Rolex to release a new watch, it’s also rare for them to permanently delete a model—at least in the modern era of the company. Will it happen in 2025? There’s maybe a 2% chance of that happening, but it is something to look forward to in the future, whether it comes back in a vintage styling or a modern treatment.

Omega

While Rolex has favored a slow and steady evolution of their model lineup, Omega has been more willing to launch new models, discontinue old models, and morph existing watches into new territory. Just look to the evolution of the Seamaster for evidence. They have so much to pull from in their archives, and while it would be cool to see the Flightmaster return, for example, it’s more likely that they’ll make surface-level adjustments to existing watches.

After all, what did 2024 bring us? We got a white dial Speedmaster and new versions of the Seamaster 300M in silver and black. It’s a way to get a lot of attention for doing relatively little. Both releases were teased beforehand by brand ambassador Daniel Craig. So, we can expect to see more of this in 2025—both the color adjustments and the marketing strategy.

Will there be a new version of the Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean to mark its anniversary?
Will there be a new version of the Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean to mark its anniversary?

It is worth noting that 2025 is the 20th anniversary of the Planet Ocean, and there’s a cool direction they could take this in. There are already a lot of variations of the Planet Ocean, with 58 in total currently on the Omega site. We could expect to see more dial variations at the minimum, but what I’d love to see is a new proprietary alloy for the case material. They’ve already developed Moonshine gold, Sedna gold, and O-MEGASTEEL. Where I think there’s potential is to challenge IWC with Omega’s own version of Ceratanium. Omega has Planet Oceans in ceramic and titanium already, and the 20th anniversary could be a suitable occasion to show off their powers of alchemy in a way that feels—not entirely new—but progressive in terms of trends and technology.

Cartier

Speaking of anniversaries, let’s talk about Cartier. Cartier seems to operate the same way that Oreo cookies do, which is to say, they get experimental for the sake of being experimental. We saw this most vividly with the Cartier Santos Rewind, which displays time in reverse.

2026 will be the 25th anniversary of the Cartier Roadster, but before that, we have the 40th anniversary of the Cartier Pasha coming in 2025. The Pasha is a hit-or-miss watch depending on the person, and it’s safe to say it’s more miss than hit for the general public. Still, this would be a prime time to release a special anniversary edition. I know I’m not the only one hoping for the return of the Pasha with the protective grill. Realistically, the brand has found success by miniaturizing various models like the Panthère, the Baignoire, and the classic Tank. We could certainly see them squeeze this lemon a little more in the new year, much to the delight of the Cartier fangirls on social media.

What would an anniversary edition of the Cartier Pasha look like? And would it be as popular as the classic Cartier icons?
What would an anniversary edition of the Cartier Pasha look like? And would it be as popular as the classic Cartier icons? Image: Cartier

Speaking of which, Cartier has benefited from social media more than any other brand over the last few years, as people clamor to unearth niche shapes from the brand’s archives and watch them blow up online and in price on the secondary market. Whether you love him or hate him, Mike Nouveau has been a driving force behind this, and the brand could easily relaunch watches that have already proven to be hits online. We’re talking about watches like the Cristallor, the Centuire, or the Coussin. If the enthusiasm and the financial interest is already there for the vintage models, it only makes sense that the brand would want to strike while the iron is hot and transfer that attention to their current lineup.

Audemars Piguet

The other brand that could benefit from this same strategy is Audemars Piguet. We absolutely know that we’ll be seeing more Royal Oak variations in 2025; that watch isn’t going anywhere. Just to throw it out there, AP could totally make a standard production Royal Oak in titanium. Chances are they won’t, but it would be a hit. Period.

Now for the Cartier connection. By that, I mean AP has a lot of funky vintage watches in their archives that they could use to expand their [Re]Master project. They first did this with a chronograph version in 2020. Fast forward to 2024, and we see the [Re]Master02 make its debut. Who knows what form it will take, but it’s logical to assume they’ll continue with this program in 2025 or soon after. They could do it for the sake of diversification. They could do it to convince customers that buying a [Re]Master will help them get off the Royal Oak waitlist a little quicker. They haven’t had the greatest success launching new models like the CODE 11.59, although that model is getting better. So maybe they do what so many other brands do and dig through the archives for some non-Genta alternatives.

A tribute to a model from the 60s: The Audemars Piguet [Re]Master02. What will be the next act in this game?
A tribute to a model from the 60s: The Audemars Piguet [Re]Master02. What will be the next act in this game?

Patek Philippe

I want to end on a positive note, but we’re talking about Patek. Criticizing Patek’s recent releases has, in less than a year, already become a bit cliché. Some of their decisions, like the Cubitus and those “denim” watches, have been so off-putting that we went from punching up to punching down on a brand that seems to have lost its way. Given this recent trajectory, we can expect to see more unpleasant surprises in 2025. This will likely not take the form of entirely new watches. After all, the Cubitus was the first new collection in the last 25 years.

The Patek Philippe Cubitus has triggered a huge discussion this year. How will the brand fare in 2025?
The Patek Philippe Cubitus has triggered a huge discussion this year. How will the brand fare in 2025?

To be fair, they do still make good watches, especially good complicated watches that don’t generate as much discussion or sensational opinion pieces. Realistically, Patek will have somewhat of a quiet year and reinterpret their existing watches in new dial colors and case materials. Either that, or they throw a hail Mary for the 40th anniversary of the 3940 and do a special edition perpetual calendar. But beggars can’t be choosers, and God knows not even begging will get me a Patek Philippe.

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About the Author

Thomas Hendricks

Thomas Hendricks

I didn’t grow up a watch guy, but a few years after graduating from university, I landed a job at the online publication Watchonista as a writer and marketer. “Welcome to the watch world,” my colleagues told me half-jokingly, “no one ever leaves!” Now at Chrono24, I work as a private client advisor, helping people find the perfect watch for major life moments.

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