What Watches Are We Getting Ourselves For Christmas

So once again it’s Christmas time. I know a lot of collectors will be getting watches this year either for themselves or from loved ones, but having acquired a lot of watches personally this year… we will not be included in those lucky collectors.

Over the last year, we have added a fair amount of watches to our collection. I added an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Montoya, IWC Big Pilot Top Gun Perpetual Calendar and a Hublot King Power Oceanographic 4000. My wife added a Rolex Yacht-Master 16622 and a Hublot Big Bang All Black 41 mm. I don’t see us doing anything similar in 2024, since many of these watches were in fact grail watches.

Either way, it did get me thinking about what I would buy myself, my wife and our twin girls if we were to be putting any watches under the tree this year. To make it a bit more interesting, I’ll pick two watches each, one that is realistic and one that’s out there price wise.

Let’s kick things off with what watches I’d gift myself this year for Christmas. I am extremely picky when it comes to watches, so this is a pretty hard for me to choose. I feel I have my favorite Offshore and Big Pilot, and with those two being my favorite series of watches I know I wouldn’t wear another as much as the two I have. Having just decided to sell my IWC GST Aquatimer 2000 which was my “travel” watch and replace it with the not so practical King Power Oceanographic, it would probably make the most sense to look for a diver, probably for both the realistic and unrealistic budget watches.

I’ve always been a fan of Ulysse Nardin, but haven’t personally owned one of their watches. I really like their updated Diver range of watches and the Diver Chronometer One More Wave is a great looking watch. The 44 mm case is crafted out of DLC titanium making the watch both lightweight and durable. Inside is an in-house Ulysee Nardin UN-118 automatic movement. I really like the black dial with aqua and white markers and hands as well as the useful power reserve indicator. The retail price is $11,500 but I’ve seen them for much less on the secondhand market, having it fall in the reasonable watch pick for myself.



Now for the over the budget pick for myself and also sticking with a diver, I’d probably have to go with the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms 70th Anniversary Act 2 Tech Gombessa. This was the second of three watches to come out for the Fifty Fathoms 70th anniversary in 2023. To me, even being 47 mm in diameter, this watch is stunning. The Tech Gombessa is also constructed out of titanium, so even with being large it shouldn’t wear heavy. The watch has a Blancpain in-house caliber 13P8 self-winding movement with a nice 120 hour power reserve. I just love the black and orange dial as well as the unique 3 hour saturation diving bezel. The retail price is $28,000 and it’s trading right at that mark right now, making it a bit of a stretch...



Next up we have what watches I’d pick for my wife. She has a pretty good collection with her Yacht-Master and Big Bang, but I know she’s always been a fan of Panerai. Most of the Panerais we have been getting in are a little too large for her. We just got in a Luminor PAM00351 that is stunning and wish she could pull off, but at 44 mm it’s a stretch. I wish they had something similar to the 351 in a smaller size with its titanium case, sandwich dial and tobacco dial, but they do not. Panerai does have their smaller Luminor Due series and in that series they have the Luminor Due Luna PAM01180. My wife loves the moon phase complication and this 1180 has it along with gold hands and a sandwich dial. The case is in stainless steel, but with it not being that large of a watch should be fine weight wise. The 1180 also comes with a Panerai in-house caliber P.900 with three days of power reserve. The retail price is $9,600 and they go for around that on the secondary market as well. A little pricey, but within reason.



For the out of the budget pick there was only one brand I’m go with, which is Audemars Piguet. Many years ago before Royal Oaks were cool, my wife wore a Royal Oak perpetual calendar for a few months. She absolutely loved the watch. Looking at the current catalog, the Royal Oak perpetual calendar that really sticks out to me is the Ultra-Thin reference 26586TI.OO.1240TI.01. This 41 mm Royal Oak is crafted in titanium making it lightweight and durable. The titanium also gives the watch a nice grey appearance and the Deep Blue dial with black subdials is stunning. There is also a very nicely done moon phase at 12 o’clock, which we’ve already said my wife loves. Now for the bad news, the watch is currently averaging around $250,000 on the secondhand market… maybe next year!



Ok so our twin daughters are only just a year old. You would think it’s too early to start thinking about watches for them… and you’d be wrong. Since they’re only just a year old, we really can’t get them anything large, or medium or even small. I was able to find two watches from the Timex Time Machines series of watches that would almost work for them. These tiny watches are made out of tough resin and offer a full replacement plan if the watches get damaged or lost. Kind of like what Audemars Piguet offers on their new watches as well. The watches are fairly large (for them) at 29 mm, but hopefully they can try them on soon. At around $20 they do meet the realistic budget nicely. Also a bit of a lie, I guess somebody in our family is getting a watch this year for Christmas.



Now for the out of budget choice for them… I wouldn't really say that these watches are out of budget, but more like it would be a complete waste of money to buy these for our twins. If I had to pick a great first watch for our girls, it would be a Blancpain x Swatch Fifty Fathoms Scuba. These watches are a little bit on the pricey side at around $400 compared to the much cheaper Moonswatches, but to me offer such a better value and are just more interesting. Although I do love Omega, I’m more of a Seamaster fan than the Speedmasters. Above I have also stated that I would love to have a Fifty Fathoms, so naturally I’d prefer the Fifty Fathoms Scuba to the Moonswatch.



The Fifty Fathoms Scuba is relatively large at 42.3 mm, but coming on a NATO strap should make the watch much more wearable on a child’s wrist. The case being basically plastic, makes the watch weigh virtually nothing as well. The big kicker for me here is that the Fifty Fathoms Scuba is an automatic watch, which puts it in a different league all together than the Moonswatch. Part of me would love to buy the girls one each and have them sit in the safe, but I think I’m jumping the gun. They would probably need to be a good bit older to even try to pull one off. Still a fun thought and I’d just know the watches would totally get destroyed the moment they go on their wrists and they go off into the world.

Well that was fun and I hope everyone has a great Holiday season. Hopefully if you had a watch on your Christmas list it will be under the tree for you Christmas morning.