It may seem extravagant as a stocking filler, but a finely crafted wristwatch will prove to be a gift that won’t just keep time, but will also mark a moment in time with just as much poignancy as jewelry.
Given the average watch wearer glances at their wrist around 80 times a day, you’re sealing a sentiment that will only grow as it ticks the time away.
Moreover, as any self-confessed horolo-nerd will attest, the watch bug is virulent: for every festive indulgence or anniversary talisman there’s a requisite world of horologically adjacent collector books, lavish storage and travel solutions. Here are Elite Traveler’s picks of the gift of time, at the most wonderful time of year.
See all of our gift guides here.
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Watch case, Rimowa
Rimowa’s iconic, grooved metallic luggage strikes that fine balance of utilitarian robustness with unmistakable style – and so it goes with its Specialities collection of equally treasurable, yet functional accessories. In its signature titanium, this aluminium-clad, three-watch travel casket is, at 10.5-inches wide, perfectly sized to tuck into your classic Rimowa Cabin case, with a cylindrical-style sleeve lined by protective microfiber. All you need to do now is book that New Year mini-break.
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Nautilus cufflinks, Patek Philippe
While your other half patiently waits-out his place on the waitlist for a ref. 5811/1G-001 in white gold, satisfy those octagonally framed, sunburst-blue, grooved-faced cravings with a pair of ‘Nautilus’ links. Even in miniature, the design codes so brilliantly coined in 1976 on behalf of Patek Philippe by horological hotshot Gérald Genta (the eyes behind ’72’s equally iconic Audemars Piguet Royal Oak) work effortlessly with any of Charvet’s shades of contrast French cuff.
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Diver Net Vendée Globe, Ulysse Nardin
Since it was first held in 1989, only 200 sailors have taken part in the Vendée Globe, and only 114 have finished it. As the 10th edition of the world’s largest solo, non-stop, unassisted race gets underway, what could be a more inspiring ‘new-year, new-you’ offering than the most sustainable diving watch Ulysse Nardin has ever made? Recycled fishing-net nylon is fused with steel, with suitably festive red accents framing an openworked engine house regulated by in-house silicon parts.
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Flying Tourbillon UltraFino Carbon Red, Bianchet
Believe us when we say this is a rare example of an ‘affordable’ flying tourbillon, its exposed merry-go-round micro-mechanics encased with convention-defying dimensions: 8.9mm-thin high-density carbon, withstanding shocks of up to 5,000G and water pressure of 164-ft. Adding to what’s clearly a rich font of justified mansplaining, Bianchet’s titular founder Rodolfo Festa Bianchet started out in FinTech, his brainchild being a smartphone app that forecast the markets leaning on the Golden Ratio. Hence the watch’s ‘B 1.618′ collection name. Another wonderful excuse to lecture the grandkids at Christmas Day dinner.
Price
CHF65,500 (approx. $82,500)
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The Watch – Stories and Savoir Faire, Audemars Piguet (Flammarion, 2025)
“I wish this book had existed when I first discovered watchmaking. It’s exactly what I would have given my friends and colleagues.” So says Sébastian Vivas, director of Audemars Piguet’s Heritage and Museum, which throughout 2025 has been looking back on an extraordinary 150 years of high horology, up in the Jura mountains’ Vallée de Joux. Vivas might be biased, but it’s hard to argue: this nearly 600-page volume is a beautifully designed, unapologetically deep dive that’ll have the #watchnerd in your life occupied way beyond Boxing Day.
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Classique 7235, Breguet
When he moved from Switzerland to Paris in 1775, Abraham-Louis Breguet found watch dials were dense, cluttered and brimming with baroque ornamental touches. Breguet went on to forge a new watchmaking language, distinguished by finesse. A move perfectly embodied by his No 5 pocket watch, delivered in 1794, and now the inspiration for Breguet’s 250th-anniversary highlight, the Classique 7235. This wristwatch delights with retrograde moonphase and power-reserve displays, but chiefly its guilloché engraved dial – still hand-applied using 19th-century rose engines by ‘new’ Breguet’s Swiss artisans. Ornamental, yes, but conceived by A-L B with a practical mindset: to reduce reflective glare and improve legibility.
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Sixtie Swinging sautoir, Piaget
A trapezoidal watch, swinging from a fabulously adorned trapeze. For its 150th anniversary in 2024, Piaget celebrated by revamping its greatest hits and none comes more vampish than the fabulous Sautoir: a decadence that embodies a rejection of the quiet luxury of recent years, now showcasing the Swiss watchmaker’s embracement of ‘80s ‘disco luxe’ vibes as well as celebrating its mid-century coming-of-age, with the new, geometric Sixtie. Think Grace Jones time traveling to the swinging ‘60s, then jumping forward to vacation with the ‘70s Riviera jetset.
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Watch box, Hermès x Gianpaolo Pagni
Paris’s one-stop grande dame of everything luxurious, capricious and whimsical has satisfied the peripatetic watch enthusiast in us all with its latest travel accessory non pareil: the Facettes watch box featuring a new graphic motif by Italian artist Gianpaolo Pagni. The Turin-born, Paris-based graphic artist extends on his creations for Hermès’ iconic line in silk scarfs with signature swathes of primary colors in a linear interplay of lacquer paint. Look closely – or cross-eyedly – and the lambskin-lined facets resemble the face of a lion.
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Fifty Fathoms automatique, Blancpain
Barbie, Miss Piggy… whatever cutesy comparison you might make, there’s never doubt as to Blancpain’s sub-aqua credentials. The Swiss pioneer is reinterpreting its totemic Fifty Fathoms of 1953 in a 38mm diameter: an unabashed tribute to the great female Scuba divers that have explored the oceans ever since the Swiss watchmaker coined the universally adopted combination of unidirectional bezel, screwdown crown and luminescent dial over 70 years-ago, at the behest of the French Navy’s elite frogmen. Ken, Kermit: hands off.
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Reverso Tribute Monoface ‘Or Deco’, Jaeger-LeCoultre
In a sumptuous wash of pink gold, stretching throughout Jaeger-LeCoultre’s famously rectangular Art Deco case to a silky smooth Milanese mesh bracelet, the Reverso Tribute Monoface ‘Or Deco’ has a lounge-lizard decadence that could even straddle a ‘for him’ list, as well as hers – just so long as paired confidently with a velvet tux’ and spearpoint collar. Perfect for gifting season, since J-LC’s intricately mechanised 50-component case construct of 1932 can be reversed (hence Reverso) to show a polished rearside you can get engraved.
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Orion safe, Buben and Zorweg
Appropriately, Buben and Zorweg is based in Germany’s historic Gold City of Pforzheim, where its state-of-the-art manufaktur turns out beautiful means of keeping your loved one’s keepsakes safe. Talk of ‘multi-walled housing constructions’ or ‘electronic high-security locking systems’ might not seem romantic at Christmastime, but B&Z render peace of mind with pieces of genuine high craftsmanship that match the heirlooms inside. Right down to details like the Clous de Paris pyramid texture, hand-applied to the Orion safe-cum-watch-winder’s handle. Forget about the vault, that Tiffany-blue quilt cladding is fit for a boudoir… underfloor reinforcement permitting.
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Bespoke timepiece, Artisans de Genève
There’s a trend for proposing with a precious stone, then celebrating your engagement through the process of designing the ring around it, together. That’s exactly what Artisans of Geneva offers, only in wristwatch form. An entirely bespoke process, the result is your loved one’s dream watch, expertly customized to your tastes and to the ultimate end: a Swiss classic resembling nothing else in the world. If closet watch fanboys John McEnroe, Spike Lee and Rubens Barichello were happy with their custom Rolexes, then a ticket to Geneva’s medieval quartier could be a welcome envelope beneath the tree.