The biggest watch brands make and sell millions of watches. Sure, they are high quality, look great and perform without a problem, but they are ubiquitous—seems like everyone is wearing one.
In today’s world, true luxury is finding and buying something few others have. Luckily, the watch industry is more than happy to oblige, and limited-edition timepieces are extremely popular.
Define Limited: A limited edition should have unique details or features not available in a brand’s regular line. When a watch is issued in a series of 7,000 pieces, for example, that’s not truly limited. What are considered limited are watches that have incredible complications, special designs, unique materials, rare decorative crafts or spectacular themes—and the fewer made, the better.
Here are some limited-edition watches worth considering, ranging from the affordable to the wallet busting.
Tiffany CT-60 Annual Calendar Limited Edition: Designed to put Tiffany back on the watchmaking map, the CT-60 honors the “New York Minute” and Tiffany’s Big Apple heritage. This 40mm timepiece, released for the holiday season, features a gray soleil finished dial in a white gold case and is limited to 60 pieces for the world. $20,000, tiffany.com
Bell & Ross Vintage WW1 Edición Limitada: Powered by a hand-wound mechanical movement with a power reserve of five days, this special Vintage WW1 celebrates Cuban cigars. The 42mm, 18-karat 5N red gold case, brown curved dial with powdered gold numbers, elegant red-gold-curved hands and an opening to admire the movement’s turning balance all evoke bygone luxury. The presentation box even doubles as a humidor and holds up to 50 cigars. 99 pieces, $24,000, bellross.com
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Clerc Hydroscaph H-140 Carbon Limited Edition Chronograph: The Hydroscaph H-140 is a luxury diving timepiece,
Maîtres du Temps Chapter Three: Maîtres du Temps combines a different set of famous watchmakers for each “chapter” in its story. Chapter Three is the brainchild of Kari Voutilainen and Andreas Strehler, highly regarded independent watchmakers. The traditional dial conceals two secret windows that will display a second time zone and a day/night indicator when a pusher in the crown is activated. Limited to 50 pieces per execution. $96,100, cellinijewelers.com
Giuliano Mazzuoli Manometro 10th Anniversary: Inspired by the speedometers of vintage Alfa Romeos, this Manometro celebrates the 10 years designer Giuliano Mazzuoli has been making watches. Limited to 120 pieces, one for each month of the last 10 years, the limited-edition number is “handwritten” on the dial, and Mazzuoli’s signature is engraved on the side of the polished 45.2mm stainless steel case. $3,900, cellinijewelers.com
Antoine Preziuso Tourbillon of Tourbillons: Limited to five pieces this year, this incredible, award-winning timepiece (it won the Innovation Prize, as well as the Public Prize at the GPHG, watchmaking’s Oscars) features three tourbillons, all rotating around the dial every 10 minutes. 480,000 Swiss francs (about $478,000), antoine-preziuso.com
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