Top 10 Luxury Watches

No. 1 of Top 10 Watches

The Rolex Sea Dweller is an iconic watch; it is highly regarded within the watch trade and with watch enthusiasts as the watch never to let you down. It is a must have in the watch collection.

Throw it against a wall, climb a mountain or actually use it to dive to 4000 feet and it will still keep on going, an outstanding watch.

It has changed so little throughout its life, with simple subtle changes to the case and bracelet. Over the years there has been a few dials made for the Sea Dweller, with the most famous and desirable being the “Double-Red Sea-Dweller Submariner Mark II” version, it has two lines of red text SEA DWELLER, SUBMARINER 2000 on the dial, escalating the price into the tens of thousands.

Other very famous and very rare versions of the Sea Dweller are those given to the COMEX divers, all divers’ working for COMEX since 1974 have worn one of these amazing timepieces.

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No. 2 of Top 10 Watches

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph is truly a beautiful watch if not a little ostentatious. It is manufactured in a variety of precious metals and is also made in high grade stainless steel and occasionally in Titanium.

Audemars Piguet have worked hand in hand with many famous racing drivers and their piece made in unison with Pablo Montoya is a work of art, the detailing in the unique dial, the chronograph pushers and carbon fibre bezel are just a few of this watches striking features. They were made in very small limited numbers and they are now widely sort after. The most popular piece within the Montoya collection is made in 18ct Rose Gold.

They are a great watch visually and mechanically have an outstanding Swiss mechanical movement.

From the Stainless steel piece with the classic rubber bezel to the limited edition pieces in Platinum they are a real head turner.

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No. 3 of Top 10 Watches

The Breitling Emergency watch was launched into the world of watches in the late 1990’s. It was and still is the only watch to feature a distress beacon built within the casing of the watch. The first version ever made was manufactured in Titanium and the movement within the watch was the high spec Breitling Quartz movement that was used within the Breitling Aerospace watch.

It has many features, alarm, timer, calendar, 2nd time zone as well as an anti glare sapphire glass and robust Titanium case and bracelet.

Its target audience was Pilots, Explorers, Yachtsman and other high risk takers who might actually need the watches capabilities but as always it found itself being purchased by the watch enthusiast who had to get the “Yellow dial Emergency” for no other reason than it looked great sat on the wrist, whilst wearing a business suit.

Various brightly coloured dials were made for this watch, Orange and Yellow as well as the classic Silvers and Blue.

Limited editions of this watch were also made, world famously the ORBITER 3, the Air Balloon that flew non stop around the world, piloted by the late Brian Jones and Bertrand Piccard.

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No. 4 of Top 10 Watches

A legend for enthusiasts of Panerai is back, after 70 years away, the model originally created in 1936 for the 1st Submersible Group has become one of the most fascinating and historically influential of the current Panerai collection.

It is a watch which celebrates the birth of wristwatch manufacture under the Panerai name, recapturing the aesthetic lines of the prototype developed in response to the request made by the Royal Italian Navy in 1935 for a luminous underwater watch for its divers.

The Panerai Radiomir 1936 Special Edition is a very striking looking watch. With its distinctive cushion shaped case, in keeping with the style in vogue in the 1930’s it is a large 47mm wide, highly polished stainless steel with an unusual black “Californian” style dial, which has the top half of the dial using Roman numerals and the lower half using Arabic numerals it really is a collectors “one to tuck away”.

The dial carries no Panerai logo or any other inscription, being anonymous as was the custom with products being worn by the special services. This avoided the risk of the manufacturer being identified and thus becoming vulnerable to possible actions of sabotage if a watch should fall into enemy hands during wartime.

This re-edition has been made in a Limited Edition of 1936 pieces.

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No. 5 of Top 10 Watches

The all time classic watch with simple elegance and sophistication has to be the Patek Philippe Calatrava. It really is timeless piece.

The Calatrava 5119 is the new version of the Calatrava “Clous de Paris”, Patek Philippe's best known watches of all time.

The timeless design of the case with the unique hand guilloché hobnail pattern and the original dial of the famous Calatrava 3919 was first introduced in the 1980's has been kept and adapted in a larger more contemporary size with a diameter of 36mm.

Patek Philippe has a long list of customers that include Queen Victoria, Tchaikovsky and Albert Einstein.

The Patek Philippe is for people who pursue perfection in watch making, where there are absolutely no compromises. Only the finest materials are used for their cases and bracelets and the craftsmanship is of the highest standards, some pieces taking a year to make.

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No. 6 of Top 10 Watches

The Rolex Cosmograph was introduced in the late1960’s and was not good a seller in its time.

It was re-modelled in the late 1970’s and was the first model of chronograph to have waterproofed screw down pushers. This meant that if the pushers were inadvertently pushed whilst the watch was in water, water would not enter the watch movement causing damage. It was then alleged that Paul Newman wore one in the movie “Le Mans”, released in 1971. This sparked huge demand for the Cosmograph, which by now already had the Daytona wording in red lettering above the lower sub dial.

In the 70’s and 80’s the wristwatch craze grew momentum, in America and the UK these watches started to change hands for over the retail price.

It was made by Rolex in a few dial options and was also made in 18ct Gold and Steel and Yellow metal as well as the most popular model all Stainless Steel.

It remains today to be in very short supply and has waiting lists of 6 or more years with official Rolex dealers.

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No. 7 of Top 10 Watches

The Omega Seamaster "James Bond" is one of the best value sports watches ever made. With its now very much classic look and easily recognisable, two tone solid steel bracelet with Blue rotating bezel and Blue wave dial it has sold in its thousands around the world.

The 007 Bond Limited edition versions of this piece were launched in 2003 and 2007, Omega made very subtle changes, in 2003 the 007 textured dial and “Bonds” gun on the sweep second hand were very sought after, only 10,007 pieces were made for the worlds market. The 2007 re-launch was also a massive success due again to the build quality of this great sports watch and the “James Bond” fan base around the world which again meant that the watches sold out very quickly.

The Automatic movement is chronometer rated and performs to a very accurate timekeeping standard. The watch is even fitted with an helium escape valve, crown at the 10’o’clock, so if you actually wanted to use it as “Divers” watch then this was probably the best one on the market at the price.

The 007 Limited edition pieces are now becoming collectable on the second hand market but only buy one with the correct blue 007 Omega box and limited edition certificate as well as the watch being in a really good condition.

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No. 8 of Top 10 Watches

The Rolex Submariner non-date model, reference 5513, is becoming a watch to have in your collection and keep. The difficulty is finding one to buy.

It is rarely found today in its original condition.

The Submariner started life with a black matt finished dial with round luminous hour markers, no surrounds, solid luminous sword hands and the trip lock crown, without the crown protecting shoulders.

It was made even more famous when James Bond wore it in the film Dr. No, although he wore it on a military style material strap.

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No. 9 of Top 10 Watches

The understated IWC Big Pilot has become the Flagship watch for IWC and it is exactly as its name, BIG and definitely not understated.

Originally made in 2002 with the in-house movement, Calibre 51111, which is one of the largest automatic movements in the world.

After only wearing this stunning watch for a short time its power reserve is up to eight and half days in no time at all, but the clever IWC designers have engineered the watch to only run for seven days. Why? As the mainspring winds down, torque is reduced, this could result in inaccuracy, not acceptable, a very clever movement.

Now Style as we know is everything and this watch really has this in abundance, it looks the part, with a 46.2mm diameter case, in white gold or steel, this watch will dwarf so many other watches. A large “onion” shaped winding crown makes this watch so unique. The crispness of its clean dial having simple minute markers and large Arabic numerals have made this a really head turner in the watch world.

It is only ever worn with a buffalo leather strap, with folding clasp.

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No. 10 of Top 10 Watches

The Audemars Piguet T3 (The Terminator), where do we start with this watch? It was originally launched by Audemars Piguet in 2003 to run concurrently with the film Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

Now a Senator, Arnold Schwarzenegger worked with Audemars to design and develop this watch.

As with any unusual and daring design, it can be both obscene and irresistibly appealing, I am not sure which one of these this one is.

It was only ever manufactured in Titanium and they only made 1000 pieces, so these are now very rare and sought after. Luckily it was not made in stainless steel, as you would drag your knuckles.

But who can wear them?

The case size, wait for it, 57.2mm case edge to case edge!

The dial is a staggering 36.2mm in diameter, so whoever is wearing one of these magnificent T3 watches does not mind getting noticed.

AP made this watch with two dial options, Silver or Charcoal Grey, both are equally fabulous.

The main crown and chronograph pushers are protected by really larger crown guards, this just made the watch even bigger, but everybody who sees this wants to know, what is it you are wearing?

If you are ever the proud owner of one of these truly mad watches then you will also have its very special collectors box with the Terminator Movies on DVD, reason alone to track one of these watches down.

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