What A Year It’s Been: A Look At Our 2015 Highlights

What A Year It’s Been: A Look At Our 2015 Highlights

Arthur Touchot
By Arthur Touchot December 31, 2015

What will we remember most about the past twelve months? Will it be the records set left and right in the auction world, or the release of the most complicated watch in the world? The unexpected decisions made by the most conservative brand in the industry, or the conservative watch made by the most unorthodox one? Today, we look back at some of the moments that stood out to us in our 2015 highlights…

The Most Talked About Watch – The Patek Philippe 5524G Pilot Travel Time…

Patek Philippe Ref. 5524 Calatrava Pilot Travel Time

The Most Unexpected Watch (Yet We’re So Happy It Exists) – The Rolex Oyster Perpetual Yatch-Master ‘Everose’…

Rolex Oyster Perpetual Yacht-Master In 18k Everose Gold Watch Baselworld 2015

The Watch That Will Redefine This Industry’s History – The record-breaking Vacheron Constantin 57260 Pocket Watch…

Vacheron Constantin Reference 57260 The Most Complicated watch ever Pocket Watch 260th Anniversary

The Strangest Watch Of The YearThe Urwerk Titan UR-1001. Disclaimer: we love strange watches

Urwerk UR-1001 Titan Watches

The Most Promising Brand – Laurent Ferrier and Cyrus, for very different reasons…

Only Watch 2015 Laurent Ferrier Galet Square Unique Watch Back

Most Expensive New Watch Of The Year – The $18 million Jacob & Co. ‘Billionaire’ watch…

Jacob & Co $ 18 Million Billionaire Watch BaselWorld 2015

Most Expensive Vintage Watch Of The Year – The $4 million stainless steel Patek Philippe Ref 130…

Patek Philippe Ref 130 The Doctor's Single Button Chronograph Watch Phillips Auction One

The Watch We Saw In 2015 That We Probably Won’t See Again For A Very Long Time – The original Rolex Reference 5513, worn by Roger Moore in ‘Live and Let Die.’

Rolex 'James Bond' Submariner from 'Live and Let Die', Reference 5513, Stainless Steel, 1972

The Most Unbelievable Auction Result – A Tudor Heritage Black Bay One, retailing for $3,100 on the current market, sold for one hundred times its value at Only Watch 2015. Final hammer price: CHF 375,000 Swiss Francs.

TUDOR Heritage Black Bay ONE for ONLY WATCH 2015 01

The Collaboration No One Saw Coming – The Hermès x Apple Watch, which only really benefitted Apple in the end…

Hermès Apple Watch Review Apps 2015

The Collaboration Everyone Expected – Because it was announced, and because everyone waited impatiently to see what the man who saved mechanical watches could do with a smartwatch: The Tag Heuer Connected

TAG Heuer Connected Smartwatch-6

The Most Uncomfortable But Not At All Awkward Interview – Arthur Touchot, riding a polo horse for the first time while interviewing the sport’s number #1 player, Richard Mille ambassador Pablo Mac Donough.

Arthur-Touchot-Polo-with-Pablo-Mac-Donough

Most Unexpected Quote – Larry Pettinelli, President of Patek Philippe US, talking about his children’s watch collection: “[My children] need to earn their own money, and put down their own hard earned [savings] for it.”

Larry Pettinelli, Lane Schiffman

Most Heated Debate A tie between the inaugural GPHG debate, hosted by our own Arthur Touchot, and our own in-house debate about who should’ve won this year’s top prizes…

Arthur Touchot GPHG Press Conference 2015 Debate

The Biggest Letdown – Still no revival of the Rolex Reference 6236 ‘Jean-Claude Killy’. A man can dream, right?

Rolex-Killy-6236-Phillips

The Biggest Sight Of Relief – The latest Omega James Bond edition, was really, really, cool. Ian Fleming would probably have approved of 007 wearing the new Seamaster 300 M ‘Spectre’ limited edition.

James Bond Omega Seamaster 300 Spectre Film

The Most Beautiful Tribute – The Watchmaker’s Apprentice, a film focusing on the student/master relationship between George Daniels and Roger W. Smith.

The Watchmaker’s Apprentice

Most Beautiful Moment – Coming face-to-face with Bar Refaeli at the opening of Hublot 2.0…

Pele and Bar Rafaeli Hublot 2 Manufacture Nyon Switzerland

Best Anniversary Watch – Any of A. Lange & Söhne’s trilogy of watches to celebrate the 200th birthday year of its founder, Mr. Ferdinand Adolph Lange. One, Two, Three

A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Anniversary Of F.A. Lange In Honey Gold Watches & Wonders 2015

The Ambassadors Who Gave Their Brand The Greatest Press – Serena Williams and Stan Wawrinka, winning Roland-Garros on the same year, while both wearing their Audemars Piguet watches throughout the tennis tournament.

Stan Wawrinka, Serena Williams

The Trend We Can Continue To Get Behind – High-end watchmakers releasing smaller, and more affordable timepieces in stainless steel, such as the sublime Jaeger-LeCoultre Geophysic Universal Time…

Jaeger-LeCoultre Geophysic Universal Time Steel And Rose Gold

The Event We’d Love To See In Our Calendars Again Next YearDubai Watch Week. Only good things come from uniting the world’s top watchmakers for seven days.

Dubai Watch Week Opening Ceremony 1

Photo Credit: Haute Time. Follow Haute Time on Instagram to catch all of the new releases as they happen.