Our final installment for Christmas picks, this one from our Editor, and he makes his selection using the same criteria as the other three installments. 

 

Christmas Picks from the Editor.

 

Below $8000: Tudor Pelagos

 

We start off the Christmas picks with the Tudor Pelagos. The watch itself is not new for 2015, but it received a magnificent pastel-ish blue dial and the new in-house developed movement. All the while keeping the price at an affordable CHF4200 (approx S$6000).

 

 

It was one of the watches which caught my eye, and I had featured it in the Editor’s Picks for BaselWorld 2015. Fits all the requirements for a great tool watch. Not too expensive, solid construction with good water resistance rating, good looking while still remaining discrete, and equally at home with jeans or in a suit.

The titanium case remains quite sober, with the blue dial and bezel while not garish, provided some splash of colour. The case is dive certified to 500m with its screw down croan and helium escpae valve. The bracelet also features some clever design to allow a good fit, be it on a bare wrist, or over a diving suit. But the main attraction is that despite the in-house movement, the TUDOR MT5612, the new Pelagos only commands a 10% premium over the earlier version’s ETA movement.

 

Between $8000 to $50,000: Jaeger LeCoultre Grande Reverso Night & Day Singapore Special Edition

and Jaeger LeCoultre Geophysic True Second (Double Whammy)

 

Perhaps national pride is the reason to select the next watch. As the nation proudly celebrates her 50th year of Independence, JLC celebrates with us with the rather restrained addition of a Singapore map in enamel paint over the flip side of a Grande Reverso Night & Day.

 

 

On the dial side, the watch remains the epitome of discrete. The  silver-toned guilloché Clous de Paris pattern in the centre surrounded by the black Arabic numerals for the hours and the day/night indicator gives the watch a beautiful, restrained look, a fitting tribute to a nation. Priced at $13,900, the Reverso is in a steel case and available as a limited edition of only 50 pieces.

If I had a little more license to stretch this category, as at $13,900, we are way below the $50,000 limit, may I suggest also the Jaeger LeCoultre Geophysic True Second.  Indeed, this watch is already selected in the News Editor’s Christmas Picks, but I too am mesmerized by it.

This is a truly interesting watch, born out of technical necessity rather than a whim. Amagnetic by design with the Gyrolab balance, seconds morte using a remontoir system in the JLC manufactured caliber 770. Coupled with a clean, simple dial, the Geophysic is easy to fall in love with. A very handsome watch. S$13,300 for the steel cased version and in pink gold it costs S$25,900. My pick would be for this truly technical watch to be in the steel case, although the rose gold version is so beautiful. With a stretched pick of both JLCs together, we are only a bit more than half our budget.

 

Money no object: Greubel Forsey Quantième Perpétuel à Équation

A truly money no object pick for this Christmas. The Greubel Forsey Quantième Perpétuel à Équation clocks in a whopping $1,075,350.

 

 

But the admiration for this magnificent watch is not only in the large proportions of the case and dial layout, not only for the 3 dimensional layering afforded by the movement which inspired us to coin the word Watchscapes, not only in the superlative finishing of every component, and the iconic inclined tourbillon but also in the ingenious Computeur Mécanique.

As the name suggest, it is a complete mechanical computer, employed in this watch to calculate the perpetual calendar and equation of time. The mechanical computer is more than just that, it can be programmed (in other applications in other watches that presumably Greubel Forsey will introduce in the future) to calculate ecclesiastical dates and astronomical positions.

This is a truly epic watch, though truth be told, my personal Greubel Forsey is the Secret, and if I had my way would strip all the extraneous markings on the dial. But I digress. The Secret is not new for this year, and Quantième Perpétuel à Équation is more impressive.

This is a tough selection to make, as obviously, in this category, the competition is a real selection of truly magnificent watches. The Lange Zeitwerk Minute Repeater, the Vacheron Constantin Patrimony Ultra Thin Minute Repeater, the Ferdinand Berthoud FB1, the Patek Philippe 5370 Split Seconds Chronograph come to mind. And any one of these found in the stocking on Christmas morning would be the greatest of joy.

With this installment, we wish all our readers and fans a Blessed Christmas, and may your wishes come true.