Watches & Wonders: Our Favorite Under the Radar Releases

Part of the fun of Watches & Wonders (in fact, most of the fun of Watches & Wonders) is discovering things you didn’t expect to find, or that slip through the cracks and don’t get nearly the attention you think they should once you see them in person. Let’s face it: the event is dominated by a handful of huge brands that save their absolute best for the show. But for every Tudor, Cartier, and Rolex, there’s a Chronoswiss, Behrens, and Hautlence releasing incredibly impressive watches we simply don’t talk about enough.

Here, Zach Kazan and Zach Weiss recap some of their favorite watches at this year’s Watches & Wonders that slipped under the radar for one reason or another. If there’s a release you saw or read about from the show that you think isn’t getting its fair shake, let us know in the comments, we’d love to hear about it.

Zach Weiss

Hautlence Kubera

Hautlence isn’t a brand that does half-measures. Their watches are all in, featuring wild complications executed in intricate fashion, housed in massive, equally exotic cases. I take a meeting with them at Watches + Wonders every year because, while maybe not a brand that is quite in our wheelhouse, I personally find them fun and inspiring. Plus, the brand has a very self-aware attitude that’s refreshing.

Well, this year was different because, for the first time ever, Hautlence launched a watch that, while thoroughly strange and unconventional, was also wearable, and priced, for Hautlence, in a more approachable price bracket (don’t get your hopes up, it’s still very expensive, but around half as expensive as their other models). Called the Kubera, and priced around $45,000, compared to their other pieces, it isn’t a very complex watch.

The Kubera is a jump hour featuring a new La Joux-Perret B60 automatic movement with an antimagnetic hairspring (material TBD) and “at least” a 70-hour power reserve. On top of that is a jump-hour module developed by Agenhor, known for its incredible, high-end chronograph movement used by Singer, Moser, Ming, and a few others, which I imagine is contributing significantly to the watch’s price. While not very elaborate for Hautlence, you’ll notice that the minute hand is a cursor that follows a track that encircles the jump hour. WIth the way the module was designed, the cursor never blocks the jump hour window, indicating the module is more complicated than it might seem.

With that all said, it’s not really the jump hour element that makes this watch interesting, rather it’s the overall aesthetic. The case measures 36.0 x 43.8 x 11.3mm, which is tiny by Hautlence standards, but it isn’t lacking in impact. A unique rectangular shape with chamfered corners, every surface is tiered, descending in width as the layers approach the crystal. A bit Art Deco, a bit brutalist, a bit dystopian sci-fi, and a bit ancient temple (think the Ziggurat at Ur), it’s truly unlike any other case I’ve seen, and absolutely captivating. The layered motif/construction continues around the entire bracelet, and informs a geometric pattern on the dial.

At an event where there are literally watches everywhere you look, this not only remained memorable, but brought a smile to my face when I saw it and tried it on. It’s an exciting release from the brand that points to a new strategy as well. With an annual production of around 200 pieces, and an “entry” price for them, it’s clearly intended to open up the brand to new customers. I might not be among them, but I sure would happily wear this watch.

Behrens Pupil Ultralight

The rise of Behrens needs to be studied by future generations. They went from a “who’s that?” a few years ago to presenting in the halls of Palexpo alongside long established brands in the independent hall located just behind Rolex and Tudor. A huge achievement for any young brand, but a truly exceptional one for a brand based and fully manufactured in China, the only at Watches & Wonders.

And it should be no surprise that they are a brand we’re fans at Worn & Wound. From their unrelenting pursuit of novel movements and complications to their unconventional and even challenging aesthetics, to their surprising collaborations, they are a brand that seems to have thrown the rule book out. This year at Watches + Wonders, their main novelty was hands-down the most surprising watch I saw at the show.

This might seem like a stupid statement, but hear me out. Watches are made of stuff. Things, parts, matter, substance, whatever. And stuff has weight, if it didn’t it wouldn’t be stuff. End of philosophy lecture. Now, with that in mind, Behrens launched the Pupil Ultralight in two versions. The first is made of titanium and weighs a mere 14g. It doesn’t seem real when you pick it up. But that’s the heavy one.

With a case formed from Lightweight Monolayer Graphene Hybrid, it comes in at 8g. That’s about 1.5 nickels. That’s lighter than the famous Richard Mille RM 27-05 Rafael Nadal, which weighs 11.5 grams. And to make matters all the more impressive, the movement features multiple complications. Called the cal.BM09, it features an untraditional layout that fills out the equally unconventional tapering case, with a barrel in the top right corner, balance center left, and time display at the bottom right.

A small, off-center dial, it displays hours and minutes, but with a twist. It’s a jump hour hand. So, the hour hand is stationary, jumping to the next mark when the minute hand hits 0/60. But, there’s more. At the bottom left is a concave day/night display, and a the top left is a power reserve. Oh, and by the way, the whole case, which measures 34 x 39.6mm and around 5mm thick, curves, following the shape of the wrist.

Mind = blown. There are three versions of the Pupil Ultralight: two 8G models, and one 14G model. The 8G models are limited to 9 pieces each and are priced at $33,800. The 14G model is not limited, and is priced at $9,200. Certainly not inexpensive, but remarkable given the tech.

Zach Kazan

Chronoswiss Neo Digiteur “Chronos”

What does it mean to be under the radar at the biggest watch trade show in the world? It’s a moment when the entire watch community zeros in on one place for a week, and very few stones are realistically left unturned. So even watches that fly below the most frantic attention get their moment and find their fans, particularly in a decentralized media climate like the one we find ourselves in, where content creators fill every possible niche.

There are really two types of watches that qualify for that “under the radar” status. First, a watch from a smaller brand that just doesn’t demand the coverage of the heaviest hitters. Smaller or more obscure indies release strong watches year to year, but the reality is that coverage of new novelties is not democratic.

The second type of under the radar watch is something from a brand that is a bit larger but had another, flashier, tentpole release. While everyone is focused on a watch made to dominate the hype cycle, often there’s something cooler but maybe more understated announced in the background.

From the first category, a watch that blew me away toward the end of day one of Watches & Wonders was the Chronoswiss Neo Digiteur “Chronos,” an elaborately engraved hunk of solid gold built on their Neo Digiteur platform that caught some well deserved attention when it launched at Dubai Watch Week last year.

The Neo Digiteur is a rectangular “digital regulator” with a jumping hour indication at the top of the dial and minutes and seconds below it. Yes, we’ve seen a lot of watches in this style these last few years as both shaped cases, jump hour complications, and regulators have all had their moment, to one extent or another. But this style feels authentic to Chronoswiss, a brand that has always grabbed the attention of enthusiasts for their clever execution of complications and neo-classical style. It’s been a treat to see the brand have a bit of a resurgence over these last few years as collectors have rediscovered their output from the brand’s early days, as well as releasing a string of new watches that trade on that heritage.

The new piece is a bit of a departure for Chronoswiss, but the unexpected nature of it is part of the fun. There’s just something impressive about a fully hand engraved case like this – it’s one of my favorite types of craft to see in a watch because there’s no way to fake it convincingly. Holding the Chronos in hand and looking at it under magnification, there’s no mistaking that a human being spent hours getting every last detail exactly correct. It’s an over the top design, for sure, depicting Chronos, the god of time, who appears to be staring directly back at you as you check the time. But that’s honestly just part of the “wonders” of Watches & Wonders.

H. Moser Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Concept Tantalum & Endeavour Minute Repeater Cylindrical Tourbillon

I also want to call out a pair of watches from H. Moser that I felt both went under the radar, largely because the brand focused on two Streamliner releases that were quite a bit flashier. To be clear, I liked both the Streamliner “Pump” and the new mini Streamliners quite a bit and they deserved to get the brand’s top billing, but they had other novelties that, taken together, might have made Moser the MVP of the entire week.

First, the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Concept Tantalum. Whenever a brand uses tantalum as a case material, it gets my attention (Zenith also had a great tantalum watch this year). Simply attempting to use this notoriously difficult to machine metal is a flex in and of itself. And this execution of what is probably my favorite perpetual calendar was really beautiful in person. It not only has a full tantalum case, but the dial is crafted from tantalum as well, and given a minimal, brushed sunburst pattern that feels more industrial than what we usually see from the brand, but is also completely appropriate for what amounts to a study in an unusual metal.

Lastly, my favorite Super Watch of the show that no one seems to be talking about. The Endeavour Minute Repeater Cylindrical Tourbillon Skeleton is nearly half a million dollars at retail, but you can see and hear where the money went pretty easily. The hammers and chimes of the repeater have been placed on the dial side, which along with the cylindrical tourbillon in full view and an elaborately skeletonized movement makes for the most dramatic decision possible. What’s most impressive about this watch, however, is that it’s somehow pretty discreet and easy to wear at just 40mm in diameter with a lightweight titanium case.

Moser, I think, made a pretty big statement this year, moving out of the indies hall and into a much larger booth flanking brands like A. Lange & Sohne and Vacheron Constantin. When I first developed an interest in the brand, they were very much an under the radar indie, but a lot has changed in a relatively short period of time, and they clearly have the attention of a much broader audience at the moment. I still think of them as a punchy underdog, but the reality is that no brand sitting in that Palexpo space for a week is really that under the radar anymore. It will be really fascinating to see how they carry this momentum forward, and how the image of the brand changes (or doesn’t change) as they enter a new phase.

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