Selection 2011: the 12 watches of the year

Worldtempus chooses 12 watches of 2011 that piqued our curiosity, whet our appetite, and made us want to look for more of the same in 2012.



Elizabeth  Doerr 

Another year and hundreds of watches richer…the watch industry is alive and awake, and the connoisseur was able to enjoy beautiful timepieces from every category this year: from thick to thin, old to new, post-modern to classic. It was all here.

In choosing a top 12 of personally moving timepieces for this year, Louis Nardin and I (the editors of Worldtempus) faced a difficult task. However, in my opinion, each of the following 12 masterpieces adds to the long history of horology in its own way. To see the choices of my French-language colleague Louis Nardin, please click here. 

You, the reader, should be aware that these choices are subjective and therefore subject to discussion. My choices are fully individual, personal, and emotional – and you may not agree with me at all.

This year, the 12 watches that impressed me most are unique works of art and therefore priced in the highest category – with one exception. This final watch, which will be unveiled to you on December 20, is as wonderful as they come, but priced magnificently reasonably, which is one of the reasons I chose it. Each of my choices is outfitted with innovative mechanics, ten of which are purebred manufacture movements and two of which are based on existing hand-wound bases. 

One thing all 12 of these timepieces have in common is that they will all hold the connoisseur in thrall – which is important because emotion is a crucial element of a mechanical luxury watch.