【F】 RJ’s Best 5 Watches From Watches And Wonders 2026

Another Watches and Wonders in the books. The first two editions were online only, but since 2022, I’ve been attending them all with pleasure. Watches and Wonders 2026 had some wonderful releases in store, and today, I’ll share my favorites from A. Lange & Söhne, Chopard, Piaget, Rolex, and Jaeger-LeCoultre, as well as a few bonus picks.

Things to know about Watches and Wonders 2026

It’s good to know that Watches and Wonders — or its predecessor, SIHH — has always been about (relatively) expensive luxury watches. Baselworld, which ended in 2020, was slightly different and covered a much wider range of brands. Some of those brands, like Nomos and Sinn, also found their way to Watches and Wonders. Additionally, brands like Frederique Constant, Alpina, Norqain, and Raymond Weil are on the more affordable side. These are the exceptions, though. It’s very easy to spend an imaginary €100k on one watch at Watches and Wonders.

During the week of the event, shows/initiatives like Chronopolis have a clear focus on smaller or microbrands, often (or always) with friendlier price tags. However, I will stick to what I saw at Watches and Wonders for this article.

Frankly, on the first day, I was very worried when I entered the fair. It was quiet, and given the current market, that didn’t sound good to me. And what’s more, I had not seen many interesting watches thus far. Many brands had already been sending us their press releases (and sometimes watches) under embargo since January, so we were already somewhat ready for what was coming.

But still, as we always try to preach here on Fratello, you need to see the watches in real life to properly judge them. And that’s exactly what we needed to do as well. By the end of the first day, the show was already much livelier, and I’d handled some watches I liked. What’s more, I even placed an order for a watch at one of the brands I visited. But let’s first take a look at my top five releases from Watches and Wonders 2026.

Rolex Day-Date 40 with an aventurine dial

One of our first meetings was with Rolex. And although the Rolex press releases that we received before the Watches and Wonders fair opened hadn’t looked very promising, the live meeting where we could handle the watches turned me around on some of them. Although I like the Oyster Perpetual with its colorful Jubilee dial, the new green-dial Datejust, and, heck, even the new Yacht-Master II (which is actually better than its predecessor), it was the Day-Date with its green aventurine dial that made me smile the most. Natural aventurine like this is often green, but most aventurine dials we see in watches use blue aventurine glass, which is a synthetic material.

I have a soft spot for the Rolex Day-Date, and I have owned a 36mm reference 18238 for a few years. The only thing I regret is not having gotten one earlier. With its President bracelet, it’s such a nice watch to wear. Considering all the variations Rolex has made, it can also be a very nice “collector’s journey” to find the one for you.

Anyway, the new Day-Date not only has a new dial but also comes in a new gold alloy. By using less copper and more palladium, zinc, and so on, the gold tone is much paler than regular 18K yellow gold. While Rolex calls it “Jubilee gold,” I’d say “Champagne gold” would also work. Although the 40mm case suits my 18cm wrist well, I hope Rolex will also make some of these dials for the 36mm version. The new Rolex Jubilee gold is very nice and subtle — a bit like Omega’s Moonshine alloy but even paler. This watch will be a rare one for sure, but I assume that Jubilee gold will find its way to other references as well.

Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Control Chronometre Perpetual Calendar

We received a preview from Jaeger-LeCoultre before Watches and Wonders took place, but what the brand did not show us (and I liked the surprise at the show) was the new Master Control Chronometre series with an integrated bracelet. Usually, I opt for the gold version whenever given the option, but in this rare case, I prefer the stainless steel version. I found the rose gold a bit too red to my taste, and combined with the brown dial, there is too little contrast. The steel version with a blue dial looks a bit more versatile.

In this article from Ben, you can read all about its new chronometer certification, so I won’t go into that here. I am just happy to see that Jaeger-LeCoultre is also taking real-life situations very seriously when it comes to keeping time.

This 39mm Master Control Chronometre looks awesome on the wrist, and the Perpetual Calendar version is the top dog in this new collection. Powered by JLC’s caliber 868, comprising no less than 332 components, it is nothing but impressive. JLC also managed to keep the watch’s thickness at 9.2mm, which is remarkable! The retail price of the steel version is €47,800.

A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia Annual Calendar

The next heavy hitter is the A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia Annual Calendar, available in white gold and rose gold. This is a 36mm annual calendar with a 9.8mm profile, and I found it extremely pleasant on the wrist.

This watch was the talk of the town at Watches and Wonders all week, and since my appointment with Lange was my last one on my final day there, I had to wait quite a while to see what the fuss was about. Once on the wrist, I completely understood the positive noise around this watch. It looks great, wears well, and, on top of that, the clever watchmakers at Lange built in a safety feature to the movement so it is hard to mess up the calendar.

Imagine you advance an annual or perpetual calendar by a day or even a week; that’s not a big hassle. But when you advance it by months or even years by accident, it will be an expensive mistake. As you can’t reverse the calendar, you either have to wait for a very long time or send it back to Glashütte for a costly correction. As Lange’s watchmakers understand, you like pushing buttons during boring meetings, so you have to pull the crown into a specific position before pushing the button actually does something. So you can just go ahead and click away, as long as the crown is not pulled out.

I am a bit torn between the white gold and rose gold versions. While I preferred the rose gold one during Watches and Wonders, now that the dust has settled, I’m gravitating more towards the white gold for its “stealth mode.” These are just virtual preferences anyway, as the price for these watches is approximately €65k.

Chopard L.U.C 1860

In 2023, I wrote that the then-released L.U.C 1860 was my favorite dress watch of the year, and nothing much has changed since. The new L.U.C 1860 has a stunningly beautiful Areuse blue dial and is powered by the L.U.C caliber 96.40-L. The case is made of Chopard’s Lucent Steel, while the dial, indexes, and dauphine hands are made of 18K white gold.

The Chopard L.U.C. 1860, with its 36.5 × 8.2mm case, is a dream on the wrist. It is comfortable, has a stunning blue hand-guilloché dial, and features a wonderful movement with a micro-rotor. This Chopard creation ticks all the boxes for a beautiful dress watch. It was a bit of a toss-up between this L.U.C 1860 and the new Alpine Eagles 41 XPS “Mountain Glow,” but the 1860 remains my favorite.

This pick is the most affordable of the bunch, but it’s still a very significant amount of money, of course. The retail price of this L.U.C. 1860 is €28,200.

Piaget Polo 79 with a sodalite dial

The Piaget Polo 79 is one of my very favorite gold watches from the last few years. This year, Piaget even introduced two new variations. Earlier this year, we showed you the bicolor (yellow and white gold) model. And during Watches and Wonders 2026, Piaget showed us a white gold version like last year’s, but this one features a sodalite dial.

I already wrote about this new watch here, but that was before I could get my hands on this new Polo 79 variation. In the flesh, it surely did not disappoint! This heavyweight champion looks stunning with its blue dial.

Even though I would still opt for the yellow gold version, as it is closest to the original Polo, this sodalite-dial version still makes it into my top five releases from Watches and Wonders 2026. The retail price of the Polo 79 with a sodalite dial is €103,000.

Honorable mentions

An honorable mention has to go out to Grand Seiko for the 38mm 62GS SBGH376 “Sakura-Wakaba.” It looked amazing on the wrist, and I liked it even better than the already-impressive “Ice Forest at Dawn,” with its beautiful black dial. At €33,500, the SBGH376 is not cheap, but I can imagine it will be a grail watch for some Grand Seiko enthusiasts.

Although the above picks are simply the watches I loved the most on my wrist, there were others at Watches and Wonders 2026 that were perhaps a bit closer to reality and also deserve an honorable mention.

Nomos introduced its new silvery-white Club Sport Neomatic Worldtimer, and it’s my favorite of the lot. In the flesh, the dial color stood out way more than the press images would indicate. This watch has a €4,260 price tag.

Finally, an honorable mention goes to Panerai for the 44mm Luminor PAM01731 with a tobacco-brown dial. I think it looks great and reminds me of the Panerai models that got me into the brand in the early 2000s. This new Luminor retails for €8,900.

So, what do you think of my top five picks from Watches and Wonders this year? Are any of them among your favorites as well, or are yours completely different? Feel free to share your opinions in the comments below.