Fratello’s Top 5 High-End Horological Wishes For 2025

Another Friday, another list! Last week, we kicked the year off with a list of horological wishes for 2025. This week, we extend our list of wishes by focusing on some high-end brands. Some interesting developments in 2024 led to this new list. With personnel shifts and new introductions in the past year, we thought it would be a good idea to focus on the higher end of watchmaking and express our wishes for 2025.

We saw many great watch releases last year, but these five wishes go a bit deeper than that. They are more related to brands doing well or bigger gestures that we want to see more of in 2025. You will quickly find out what we mean, so let’s jump straight in!

1. Breguet becoming a leading brand

We’ll kick this list off with Breguet. This maison has long been praised as one of history’s most important watch brands. The life of founder Abraham-Louis Breguet could easily be made into a feature film that would draw in a crowd far more diverse than watch fans like us. That would have been a nice way to celebrate the brand’s 250th anniversary this year. However, the Swatch Group hasn’t managed to make Breguet a leading brand that can join the ranks of Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, and Vacheron Constantin. But it’s not a question of people not wanting the brand to do well. We are also big fans here at Fratello, and multiple team members own Breguet timepieces to back that up.

Hopefully, with Gregory Kissling’s appointment as the new CEO, good things will come for Breguet. Kissling was the vice president of product development at Omega and was responsible for the brand’s many releases over the past few years. Hopefully, he can direct Breguet onto a path that will reveal great things for and from the brand. Fratello founder Robert-Jan is a passionate Breguet fan and has suggested a first step here on Fratello multiple times — bringing back yellow gold, a precious metal painfully absent from the current catalog.

A brand with unlimited potential

But that is only the beginning of the great potential we all see and feel. With its rich history and incredible watchmaking track record, Breguet has all the ingredients to thrive. It will take some time to see Kissling’s influence. Coming from Omega, he will hopefully develop a relevant design signature that will merge the brand’s undisputed technical mastery with a style that excites watch fans. If the brand can connect its horological track record, impeccable eye for detail, and craftsmanship in realization and finishing with a style that is recognizable, elegant, and relevant without abandoning the typical Breguet feel, it will attract lots of fans.

2. More entry-level additions to high-end brands’ collections

Don’t rush to the comments section just yet. We understand this is not the most likely wish to come true. But hear us out. After picking up some old watch annuals from 10–20 years ago, the sobering conclusion was that prices for entry-level models were steep but within reach for a far wider audience than nowadays. Buying a high-end timepiece has increasingly become for the super wealthy. For most of us, it has become a fading illusion. Sure, we could accept it for what it is and move on. But 10–20 years ago, owning a watch from Audemars Piguet or Patek Philippe could have been an actual horological aspiration rather than an abstract idea.

The prices on the pre-owned market only add to that image of the growing distance between high-end brands and most watch enthusiasts. Especially in today’s market, you would be foolish not to find your favorite timepiece from a high-end brand as a pre-owned model. A wide variety of stunning watches are available for great prices if you look past the Royal Oaks, Aquanauts, and Nautiluses. While that is a great way of acquiring the watch you have always dreamed of, it still doesn’t bridge the widening emotional and financial gap between high-end brands and most watch fans.

3. Vacheron Constantin reinforcing its position

Our third wish for 2025 is for another brand to grow to its full potential. Vacheron Constantin is up there in discussions about high-end brands, but it’s not likely most people’s first pick in a match-up with Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet. At this point, though, you could question why that is. With the introduction of the Cubitus and the questionable interview that followed, Patek Philippe has lost quite a bit of sympathy. Audemars Piguet’s year was also rather unexciting after the CEO change, apart from the brilliant [RE]Master02. This leaves room for Vacheron Constantin to take center stage for the brand’s 270th anniversary this year. With the introduction of the Historiques 222 in gold almost three years ago, the brand brought back a much-beloved icon from its past. We would love to see more of the 222 in this upcoming year.

We can also agree that the Overseas collection has great potential. It raises the question of whether the 222 and the Overseas can coexist. Some of you have already answered that question in the many comments discussing Vacheron. If the 222 is the icon, the Overseas has the potential to become the brand’s modern sports watch. Great examples of that potential are the titanium Everest Chronograph and Dual Time Limited Editions from 2021. These models are regularly discussed in the Fratello offices as two brilliant modern high-end sports watches.

A plethora of great models

And the list of great Vacheron Constantin watches doesn’t end there. With the Historiques American 1921 and Cornes de Vache 1955, the brand has more historical greats in its collection that have been praised by fans and critics alike. Additionally, the Traditionnelle collection holds some of the Vacheron’s most impressive complications. If the Fiftysix could become the perfect entry-level line with a proper in-house movement and a great design without astronomical price increases, we believe the brand could conquer much ground. We would love to see Vacheron Constantin do well and celebrate a great 270th anniversary.

4. More watches that redefine a category

We all know that proof of horological wizardry is often manifested through watches combining many complications. Doing so can lead to extraordinary results, such as the still-mind-blowing Code 11.59 By Audemars Piguet Ultra-Complication Universelle RD#4. But there is something magical about reinventing what a watch style could be. Last year, we were treated to multiple great examples that show that perfectly. The standout for us was the brilliant Singer Divetrack.

The brand took the concept of a dive watch and developed a completely new take on it. The central idea is to track the entire dive journey rather than just the dives. This is brought to life by a chronograph that shows the different diving stages Singer defines as Dive, Chill, and Fly. The watch tells you how much time is necessary between the three activities. After diving, the human body needs enough time to eliminate the gases it has absorbed. The watch tracks the entire time before you move on to another dive or travel to a different destination.

The AgenGraphe 24-hour Automatic Chronograph movement brings the fascinating concept to life. It’s a proper high-horology movement consisting of 479 components, and it looks mighty impressive. The result is a unanimously praised dive-journey chronograph that combines the signature Singer style with a beautiful movement. But the bigger approach of looking at things differently wowed us, which is why the Divetrack made it to several of our writers’ year-end lists. We love this innovative thinking and would like to see more of it from high-end brands in 2025.

5. More collaborative efforts between big-name brands and small independent watchmakers

Our last wish for 2025 is a bit outside the box. In 2023, Louis Vuitton and Akrivia teamed up for the LVRR-01 Chronographe À Sonnerie. While that watch was predominantly a creation by Rexhep Rexhepi made possible by Louis Vuitton’s La Fabrique du Temps, it sparked the thought of seeing more brands team up for some great horological magic. In a perfect world, these collaborations would be based on each brand bringing something specific that defines them to the table. We might end up with some amazing horological efforts by bringing these aspects together. If these initiatives aren’t already in the works, 2025 is too early to expect results, of course, but I’m sure you understand our wish.

For example, how about a collaboration between Breguet and MB&F? Combine the traditional watchmaking brilliance of Breguet with the modern design concepts of Max Büsser, and it might lead to something special. Or how about a collaboration between Grönefeld and A. Lange & Söhne? The Glashütte brand could set the stage with a brilliantly designed watch based on the geometrical principles it uses for its designs and backed up by a stunning and technically mesmerizing movement developed by the two parties. Or maybe Singer could work with Blancpain on creating another amazing dive watch. We’re just spitballing ideas here. It’s all about the possible creative brilliance of collaborations like these. Do the mentioned brands need them? No, not necessarily. But that’s beside the point of wanting to see some surprising new creations that will blow us away.

Final thoughts on our high-end horological wishes for 2025

There it is — our list of high-end horological wishes for 2025. Of course, we could have made this list much longer. But we want to turn the question over to you and hear about your wishes for 2025. What would you like to see from high-end brands this year? Or maybe you have a great collaboration in mind that you would love to see come to fruition. Let us know in the comments section, and we will see you next week for another list!