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When people put top luxury watch brands in discussions, many often compare prices and investment values, or being picky on defining haute horlogerie in the watchmaking industry, and yet, neglect the essence of what makes a top luxury watch brand special. If you are interested in luxury watches and expensive watch brands and at the beginning of your watch collecting journey, this guide about 12 luxury watch brands ranking can be useful for you to have some holistic ideas about the watches that fit your lifestyle and tastes, cultures and values, and hopefully it could shed new insights for your wants and wishes.
Luxury Watch Brand Ranking
Here are 2023’s top 12 luxury watch brands, in no particular order:
Rolex
Source from Rolex Official Website
Rolex is one of today’s most sought-after luxury watch brands. Created since 1905, Rolex has been a prestige and desirable luxury timepiece for watch collectors. The brand expresses remarkable functionality and breakthroughs in its timepieces, yet keeping a touch of iconography, shapes and class. From Daytona to Datejust, watch lovers can always find Rolex to speak their personality and collector style.
Rolex has also shown great ambition by perpetuating tradition while combining elegance with precision. Rolex watch is required to undergo a series of tests conducted by Rolex in the laboratories. In a result, Rolex is confident to achieve the specified accuracy to +/-2 seconds per day and become the accuracy benchmark for excellence in mechanical watches.
ROLEX DAYTONA ‘BIG RED’ STAINLESS STEEL CIRCA 1980
Sold Price: €78,120
Estimated Price: €60,000 – €100,000
Patek Philippe
Source from Patek Phillippe Official Website
Patek Philippe is a notable maison in the watchmaking industry, well-known for high complication and reputated skills of hand-finishing.
Patek Philippe is founded in 1839 by two watchmakers, Antoni Patek and Adrien Philippe. Every single detail of Patek Philippe watchmaking remains a highest demonstration of how the Genevan watchmaking artistry meets exquisite rare handcrafts – from the inside and outside of the case, to the movement, dial and push pieces.
Nonetheless, as heir to the aesthetic finesse, Patek Philippe continues the legacy of highly complication pocket watches in limited quantities besides the modern wristwatches. Patek Philippe’s pocket watches collection is always the ultimate watch-collecting journey for vintage watch collectors.
PATEK PHILIPPE POCKET WATCH CIRCA 1913
Sold Price: €11,970
Estimated Price: €4,000 – €8,000
Vacheron Constantin
Source from Vacheron Constantin Official Website
The brand of Vacheron Constantin is loved by many public figures, such as Tom Cruise, Donald Trump, Klay Thompson, among others.
Loyal to the age-old traditions, each tiny component of Vacheron Constantin is shaped and handled by the expert hands of a small few craftsmen which no machine could ever replace, gifting the timepieces an authentic, artisanal added value.
With a wide yet unique array of collections, Vacheron Constantin features designs that are both technically impressive and aesthetically stunning. The Overseas Collection, for example, inserts the classic mechanical movements within a sporty case, together with a perfect water resistance of up to 15 bar and soft iron carriage in pursuit of functionality, which sets a perfect stage for Vacheron Constantin to illustrate its supreme watchmaking standards as well as unmatched skills.
VACHERON CONSTANTIN OVERSEAS STAINLESS STEEL
Sold Price: €15,120
Estimated Price: €6,000 – €9,000
Piaget
Source from Piaget
If you spot Hollywood’s best and brightest wearing a bold wristwatch, lavishly set with glittering gold and dazzling diamonds and gemstones, probably it is from one top-notch watch brand that has a long history of luxury timepieces – Piaget.
With creativity, daring, and freedom, each Piaget watch carries a rich heritage and aesthetic purity to tell its own story. Date back to 1959 when Piaget first coined its luxury jewelry creations alongside refined timepieces, the continuing dialogue between high watchmaking and fine jewelry has begun.
Piaget has always been ultimately elegant with creative and bold design. As one of the few brands that are built around a dual focus on both watches and jewelry, Piaget goes beyond extravagant dreams and desires with a refined design and feminine lines, allowing every watch to transcend personal style by adding the extra touch of class.
Cartier
Source from Cartier Official Website
Cartier watchmaking breeds the excellence of its creations’ precision and unique wild designs. Every Cartier watch has to pass through hundreds of laboratory tests before it is delivered to a client’s hands.
Being not content with only preserving the longstanding heritage, Cartier also surprises and delights watch aficionados with a slew of updates. Over the years, Cartier has pushed out a platoon of variations in terms of shapes, colors, sizes, and more. Add to the fact that Cartier is dedicated to epitomizing creativity and pursuing the future, you can hardly find a brand with such rich designs, making each Cartier’s watch piece as singular as those who wear them.
CARTIER TORTUE WITH ENAMEL CLOISONNE DIAL
Sold Price: €26,460
Estimated Price: €20,000 – €40,000
Van Cleef & Arpels
Source from Van Cleef & Arpels Official Website
Famously known as a symbol of luck and prosperity, the iconic four-leaf clovers have played crucial roles in numerous centuries-old legends, Van Cleef & Arpels, is one that is worth mentioning.
Inspired by the four-leaf clover, Van Cleef & Arpels has subsequently made this a signature that embodies its excellence since its foundation in the early 1900s. Still, regardless this symbolic design has achieved myriad success, Van Cleef & Arpels doesn’t rely on luck but the Maison’s savoir-faire and inventiveness.
Reflecting its taste in the art of watchmaking, the passage of time is marked with sparkling refinement in the virtuoso hands of craftsmen. Van Cleef & Arpels has consistently reinvented itself to today’s watches creations, starting with pure lines and distinctive beaded contour, complemented with a broad palette of natural materials.
Highly complex, technical prowess also goes hand in hand with a quest for enchantment within each watch. Engineered in its Swiss watchmaking workshops, Van Cleef & Arpels has invented the exclusive self-winding mechanical movement featuring a 24-hour module, breathing life into daylong narratives.
VAN CLEEF & ARPELS STEEL BRACELET WATCH CIRCA 2015
Sold Price: €1,764
Estimated Price: €1,500 – €3,000
Bugatti
Source from Bugatti Official Website
Bugatti has endured several hardships, nonetheless, the brand has produced one after another absolute masterpiece that resonated with elegance, power, and exclusivity.
Bugatti has always been at the forefront of performance, from automotive to watch pieces, the legacy continues to inspire and awe, and with each new model, Bugatti solidifies its position with the unrivaled craftsmanship as well as exquisite precision.
Bugatti’s radiator grille was both astonishing and revolutionary back then, and in turn, signified the beginning of a new era. Building its dial in the shape of a radiator grille, the Bugatti’s watches represent a critical stepping milestone for the brand in its early years and become highly sought-after by today’s collectors.
BUGATTI YELLOW GOLD RADIATOR GRILL WRISTWATCH CIRCA 1990
Sold Price: €10,080
Estimated Price: €5,000 – €10,000
Chopard
Source from Chopard Official Website
Hailed as the Artisan of Emotions, Chopard takes special care to make ideal selections that pay tribute to its rich heritage of craftsmanship.
From engraving to enameling and marquetry, the renowned maker of timepieces has married the German passion and Swiss precision to create a league of its own. Subtly combining sleek aesthetics and technical excellence, a series of watches are powered by the Chopard 01.08-C movement endowed with chronometer-certified accuracy.
Aside from creativity and functionality, driven by a sense of profound humility, Chopard also began its journey to sustainability luxury by shifting to renewable sources where possible. For instance, Chopard is committed to use 80% recycled steel in all Chopard steel watches, including cases and bracelets, by the end of 2023.
Jaeger LeCoultre
Source from Jaeger LeCoultre Official Website
With over 430 patents and 1,300 calibers, Jaeger LeCoultre has dedicated itself to creating timepieces of the highest quality.
The precision of movement and technique have been always the keys to Jaeger LeCoultre. Having spent days and nights experimenting with solutions in a laboratory, a full range of techniques and technologies have been developed to give birth to countless exceedingly complicated watches.
Not only does Jaeger LeCoultre demonstrate its ultimate watchmaking mechanisms, it also blends intense beauty and luxury to offer a multi-sensory experience when measuring the passing of time. With designs that feature-rich, clean lines and finely-grained finishes, Jaeger LeCoultre’s collections showcase exceptional watchmaking savoir-faire which serves as the perfect accessory for day or evening wear.
JAEGER LECOULTRE REVERSO PINK GOLD LIMITED EDITION WRISTWATCH CIRCA 1991
Sold Price: €17,010
Estimated Price: €12,000 – €20,000
Girard-Perregaux
Source from Girard-Perregaux Official Website
Girard-Perregaux remains one of the leading luxury watchmakers despite many attempts to establish a presence in the competitive watchmaking industry for boldness and innovation of timepieces.
Pursuing infinite passion, commitment, and craftsmanship with its timeless classics, Girard-Perregaux perpetuates the design philosophy with the most elegant and fascinating twists – from basic material selection to final aesthetic touch, so as to ensure both visual perfection and wearing comfort. Moved by the avant-garde watchmaking spirit, celebrities such as Kobe Bryant, Gerard Pique, Alex Morgan have all once spotted with their Girard-Perregaux.
Girard-Perregaux has undeniably secured its place as one legendary watchmaker in history, and become benchmarks in the watchmaking industry that would endure for more years to come.
Corum
Source from Corum Official Website
Every Corum watch, whether newly purchased or pre-owned, has stood the test of time with its meticulous craftsmanship and distinctive designs. Following the guiding principles of creativity and boldness, the balance of design, artistry, and craftsmanship in a Corum is peerless.
Corum is devoted to pushing the boundaries of watch design and their timepieces have rarely adopted similar case shapes or styles. Many of the brand’s most famous watches feature non-traditional materials, for example, the Corum Heritage Coin Watch which slices a thin layer of the coin to form the case back while leaving a thicker layer for the dial face and including a watch movement.
In the past 20 years, Corum watches successfully earned several important patents for its unique innovation – an ingenious mechanism on the watch case and a self-winding movement system. Corum is definitely an underrated one of the best luxury watch brands. Corum watches collectors such as Cristiano Rolando, Johnny Deep, Elvis Presley, and Richard Nixon, to name a few.
Antoine Preziuso Geneve
Source from Antoine Preziuso Geneve Official Website
Antoine Preziuso Geneve is founded by an independent master watchmaker – Antoine Prezius in 1996. Antoine Preziuso has developed a strong passion for the art of time, striving to be the mastery of major complications in technique and design. He went to the Ecole d’Horlogerie de Genève and graduated as top of the class in 1974. Upon graduation, he was working for Patek Philippe.
For over thirty years, Antonie Preziuso refused to work under the protective roof of a large company, tapping into a proud heritage of fine craftsmanship and yet refusing the constraints of conventions, Antoine Preziuso Geneve has been successfully winning the heart of many watch enthusiasts. One of his iconic collection line is B-Side, that is a tourbillon watch designed to be worn in reverse, echoing Antoine Preziuso’s one of the watchmaking philosophies – be different.
ANTOINE PREZIUSO EROTIC AUTOMATON 18K PINK GOLD
Sold Price: €8,820
Estimated Price: €7,000 – €14,000
Factors to Consider When Choosing a Luxury Watch Brand
Regardless the ranking of the top luxury watch brands, it’s important to fast check the 5 factors when choosing a timepiece from a luxury watch brand.
1. Craftsmanship and quality
2. Legacy and history
3. Iconic models and collections
4. Your True Passion
5. Buy from Trustworthy and Credible Sources
Learn Before You Start Collecting
Choosing your best luxury watch is easy, but being a true luxury watch collector is difficult. This article is a beginner’s guide to start when we are learning in-depth watchmaking knowledge and legacy, which becomes a completely breathtaking journey for watch enthusiasts and serious watch collectors.
We recommend watch lovers and watch collectors always keep an eye on different purchase sources. Buy from a trustworthy and credible auction house can be a very fun experience. It is like treasure hunts and sometimes you might find a ‘good deal’ at auctions.
This 12 luxury watch brands highlighted are the first step to learning about the brands, then moving forward to their aesthetic and engineering ingenuity.
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Green Auctioneers is proud to present an exceptional sale in 2024 to celebrate the 150 years anniversary of PIAGET – the legendary watch and jewelry Maison of creativity and craftsmanship.
Preview
The Art of Piaget 2024
12-14 May, 2023
Hotel Beau-Rivage Genève
Quai du Mont-Blanc 13, 1201 Genève, Switzerland
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