Are Watches A Worthwhile Investment? The Timeless Timepieces You Should Pass On

Can a fine wristwatch still be thought of as a potential heirloom? Not easily – as I began to write this, an email arrived from a US watch dealer letting me know that, according to its research, Rolex resale prices have ballooned by an average 555 percent since 2010. This, declared the dealer’s triumphant missive, was clear confirmation of Rolex’s transition from ‘luxury brand to alternative investment asset’. Well, given that the same research showed a 31 percent plunge since 2022, it’s an asset you might be better off shorting.

Still, the idea that a fine wristwatch can – and should – stand for more than asset price fluctuations, or the dubious achievement of reaching the front of a ‘waitlist’ (another unwelcome fixture of today’s watch market), is coming back. As the recent flood of watches trumpeting versatility, go-anywhere sportiness and faddish designs gradually dries up, room has been made for a new generation of discreet, tasteful tickers that have something timeless (if you will) and intrinsically beautiful about them. Pieces that would have currency and style in any era or any generation.

The Watches Worth Handing Down

Patek Philippe’s Calatrava has made something of a return to its roots. It has long been held up as the ne plus ultra of round, time-only watches, though as bracelet-bound sports-luxe styles and high complications dazzled the Patek market and ignited waitlists in recent years, the Calatrava receded from prominence. The few Calatravas filtering through have leaned toward the funkier designs: textured dials, fancy cases and other baroque enhancements. Which makes the new platinum-cased Ref 6196P all the more welcome. Its restrained design doesn’t stand in the way of some aesthetic spice to titillate watch know-it-alls, with its vintage-influenced salmon pink dial (always hot among collectors) offset by unusual charcoal-toned hour markers and hands. But the style is unmistakably old school, and a reminder that Patek is at its best when at its most discreet.

That’s true also of Laurent Ferrier, the indie haute horlogerie specialist, which has made moves into sports watches but truly excels when dealing with quiet understatement. The Classic Auto Horizon is as relaxed and breezy as it gets with a Laurent Ferrier dress watch, with a glassy blue dial, crosshair detailing and stainless steel case, but it carries an immutable sense of refinement and class, not least in its exquisitely fine automatic movement.

Chopard has thrown everything at establishing its own sports-luxe bracelet watch, the Alpine Eagle, as a credible alternative to examples like Patek Philippe’s Nautilus. But among many watch afficionados it’s the brand’s upper-tier classical collection, titled L.U.C. (after founder Louis Ulysse Chopard), that is truly lustworthy. A new three-hander in yellow gold stopped me dead. It has ostensibly been made to mark the 20th anniversary of the ‘Qualité Fleurier’, a certification of excellence to which Chopard subscribes, but rejoice instead in the enthralling beauty of its brown-and-gold dial, prominent triangular lugs and the stunning view of its Calibre 96 micro-rotor movement, among Chopard’s finest achievements in watchmaking. Only 20 are being made, but gosh it’s worth hunting down.

Lugs – the arms that connect a watch strap to the case – are an underappreciated element of wristwatch design when it comes to elegant heirloom watches. That’s because lugs designed for added interest and style – as with the Chopard piece and many mid-century classics from the top makers – are nickety things to fabricate and attach, particularly if you rely on CNC machines to make your cases. Andersen Genève, a 45-year-old boutique brand that still makes fewer than 50 watches a year, is the horological equivalent of the Slow Food movement. It takes the art of lugs and case-making very seriously, so much so that last year it bought a tiny case-making studio, populated by vintage machinery and an 82-year-old artisan veteran, to keep hand-making its immaculate cases. There’s much to love about the Communication 45 world-timer, inspired by the supremely elegant world-timers invented in the 1930s, and with a dial of cognac-toned gold inlaid with a yellow-gold world map. The graceful case and sculpted teardrop lugs that look straight off a 1950s watch – individually made, polished and soldered to the case – are absolutely breathtaking.

A world-timer is one thing, but can a modern heirloom watch carry off the big complications? When it plays it as coolly as Parmigiani’s Toric perpetual calendar, you’d have to say it can. King Charles is a Toric owner (a gold chronograph), which he wears with formal attire. The new perpetual is Parmigiani at its very nest: a kind of baroque maximalism pared back to pure elegance, a movement that is a work of art, and a two-subdial design that is fabulously poised. A keeper, primed for generations.

A. Lange & Söhne, Germany’s pre-eminent watchmaker, sprang a surprise this year with its most conservative model, the three-hand 1815, around since 1995. This black-dialled beauty has been sized at 38.5mm or 40mm in diameter, but now comes in a delicate 34mm version. Given that this is not being marketed as a women’s watch, that is almost weedy by today’s standards. But it’s perfectly in keeping with vintage dress watches, which to this day exude wonderful, quiet elegance when you pop them on, for either gender. I wouldn’t call it retro, but there’s an agelessness in its style and now its sizing. It’s the perfect modern heirloom piece, and you shouldn’t need to ponder the resale price one bit.