The Best Watches of the Past Month

Typically, excellent water resistance, a bit of aesthetic versatility and touch of levity make for the perfect vacation watch. The new Breitling Super Chronomat B091 44 Caribbean Edition, however, takes things a bit more literally: With its bright blue dial and map of the Caribbean inscribed on the caseback, this Caribbean-market, limited-edition waterproof tool is precisely the timepiece you’ll want to strap on when you take a load off this winter. Kitted out with a rotating dive bezel plus a triple-register chronograph, it’s sporty enough to withstand an adventurous vacation and elegant enough to look great while doing it.

• Diameter: 44mm

• Movement: Breitling Manufacture Calibre B01 automatic
• Water Resistance: 200m

The final iteration of Omega’s famed Seamaster Diver 300M — for 2024, at least! — features a smorgasbord of different materials and metals: You get the lightweight Grade 2 titanium case of the No Time To Die watch, plus a green aluminum (not ceramic) bezel insert and a bezel, crown, HEV crown and hands in Bronze Gold. The combo is unconventional, to be sure, but there are plenty of more fastball-up-the-middle takes on the 300M out there — this one is clearly for the collector who wants something a bit left of center. Thankfully, the excellent Co-Axial movement, mesh titanium bracelet and 42mm sizing are all present and accounted for.

• Diameter: 32mm

• Movement: Omega Co-Axial Master Chronometer Calibre 8806 automatic

• Water Resistance: 300m

Unfortunately you’re gonna have to snag this one on the secondary market, as the original allocation of just 100 individually numbered pieces is long gone. However, this special take on DOXA’s famed SUB300 dive watch platform is simply too cool not to mention: Housed in a 42.5mm steel case with a helium escape valve, the brand’s famed “no-deco” bezel and a matching steel beads-of-rice bracelet, it takes on a special white-and-blue livery in honor of the Great White sharks that inhabit the Farallones in the Pacific Ocean. A special edition for Topper Jewelers in Burlingame, CA, it’s proof that the SUB300 looks killer in any conceivable colorway.

Diameter: 42.5mm

Movement: Sellita SW200 automatic

Water Resistance: 300m

It’s tough to emphasize just how outstanding the value is in a watch from American microbrand Nodus: For $800, the Duality II — the sequel to the company’s dual-crown, compressor-style diver — gives you a 40mm steel case measuring just 11.5 mm thick; a sapphire crystal; a matching three-link bracelet featuring a micro-adjust clasp; two knurled, screw-down crowns; 300m of water resistance; a black or white dial with super sharp, applied indices and plenty of lume; a date window at 6 o’clock; and your choice of inner dive or 12-hour bezel. We’re telling you — Nodus is giving the big brands a run for their money!

• Diameter: 40mm

• Movement: Miyota 9015 automatic 

• Water Resistance: 300m

Massena LAB strikes again with this awesome collab: Joining forces with Vulcain, the two brands imagined what the Nautical Cricket — the SCUBA-capable version of the famous Vulcain Cricket alarm watch (of Presidential fame) — might have looked like if it came out in the 1950s, not the ‘60s. The result has a brown “tropical” dial, a special handset with a red-tipped alarm hand and a large arrow for the minute hand, beige-colored lume and a black rubber strap with a stainless steel buckle and Vulcain logo. Water-resistant to 300m, it features a second crown that operates a rotating decompression-stop table visible via a cutout in the dial.

Diameter: 42mm

Movement: Vulcain Cricket Alarm Calibre V10 automatic

Water Resistance: 300mPrice: $4,950

While Japanese watchmaker Grand Seiko incorporates plenty of vintage design cues into its modern catalog, it also knows when to give one of its offerings a modern spin. The new Hi-Beat 36000 SBGH349, for example, features a contemporary-feeling 40mm case in high-intensity titanium and a matching multi-link bracelet. Of course, all surfaces feature the brand’s typically excellent finishing, and the 9S85 automatic movement ticking away within beats at 36,000 vph. The icy blue dial, meanwhile, evokes a frozen waterfall as seen on Mount Iwate in Japan’s Tohoku region. 

• Diameter: 40mm

• Movement: Grand Seiko 9S85 automatic 

• Water Resistance: 100m

Another watch brand venturing into ceramics is Bremont, one of Britain’s foremost watchmakers. Its new Supermarine Ceramic Jungle Green and Tactical Black watches are produced in a painstaking process in which ceramic powder is molded, sintered, and finished until it takes the form of a 43mm timepiece with a whopping 500m of water resistance. Powered by an automatic Swiss movement with a 50-hour power reserve, the Supermarine Ceramic comes in either dark green or black, each of which features a matching ceramic bezel insert as well as a matching dial. (Each is also available with either a rubber or a NATO-style strap.) 

• Diameter: 43mm

• Movement: Bremont Calibre 11 ½”’ BE-92AV automatic

• Water Resistance: 500m

Looking to lean into the whole “stone dial” thing but don’t want to drop a down payment-sized wad of cash on something hewn from a meteorite and cased in solid gold? Then Bulova’s new collab with Complecto should have you sorted: A modern take on a vintage cushion-shaped model from the 1970s, the Super Seville Stone Dial Collection features a 37.5mm stainless steel or gold-tone steel case with snowflake obsidian, turquoise or tiger’s eye stone dials. In addition to the eye-catching dials, the Super Seville also boasts the 262kHz high-precision quartz movement with date function.

• Diameter: 37.5mm

• Movement: Bulova NM10 Precisionist quartz

• Water Resistance: 30m

Some people just aren’t in the market for a subtle watch — and that’s perfectly OK! For that type of collector, allow us to introduce the Zenith Defy Extreme Jungle, the sort of timepiece that will get you noticed from the other side of the room. Housed in a huge 45mm titanium case with a bezel and chronograph pushers produced from tiger’s eye, it’s quite the looker, and even has chronograph subdials with tiger’s eye-colored tracks. Inside, the El Primero Calibre 293 beats at 5 Hz and includes a head-spinning 1/100th-second second function — the activation of which, incidentally, makes for a cool party trick. 

• Diameter: 45mm

• Movement: Zenith El Primero Calibre 293 automatic

• Water Resistance: 200m

When many collectors consider Louis Vuitton’s modern watch output, the Tambour immediately comes to mind. However, there’s another silhouette that well encapsulates the maison’s elegant philosophy — namely, the recently refreshed Escale. A new 50-piece limited edition ups the ante on this already sophisticated model by introducing a dial in grand feu and guilloché enamel. Fashioned by four master artisans, each dial uses the champlevé and flinque techniques to create a mesmerizing scene of radiating light and dark blue. Powered by a chronometer-certified movement, each is individually numbered on the caseback.   

• Diameter: 39mm

• Movement: Calibre LFT023 automatic

• Water Resistance: 50m

In honor of master watchmaker Michel Parmigiani’s recent birthday, his eponymous manufacture devised an incredible new watch limited to just five pieces, each of which is customizable by the client, and thus unique. Dubbed L’Amoriale Répétition Mysterieuse, it doesn’t feature a conventional dial — rather, its face is a sage green cover in grand feu enamel with hand-guilloché and engraved decoration. A minute repeater, it can indicate the time acoustically using two gongs that strike the inside of the 42mm white gold case on the hours, quarter-hours and minutes. (On its flip side is a more conventional dial with orbital hour and minute indications.)

Diameter: 41.6mm

Movement: Parmigiani Fleurier Calibre PF355 hand-wound

Water Resistance: 10m