Despite the scaled-down size of this year’s Baselworld, some watch brands unveiled a solid assortment of luxury women’s watches geared towards the growing female watch enthusiast crowd. From brand new models to updates to familiar favorites, here are our top picks for the best ladies’ watches from Baselworld 2019.

When it comes to men's watches, most brands expanded their lineup during the 2019 edition of Baselworld with some solid additions. Some of them favoured evolution over revolution, further perfecting what are already great watches, while others developed breathtaking technical novelties. One of the great difficulties of any fair, and especially Baselworld, is to pick from this wide array of often very different watches the favorites that truly stand out.

MB&F is no stranger to making unexpected and whimsical timepiece creations (or as the brand likes to like to call them, horological machines). Although young by watchmaking standards, the 14-year old company boasts an impressive archive of mechanical marvels shaped like robots, sea creatures, spaceships, and more. Now, in perhaps their most surprising move yet, MB&F releases its first ladies’ timepiece—and it is a beauty!

Meticulous in skill and innovative in design, the McLaren Ultimate Series road car unveiled the matchless McLaren Senna, the most realistic McLaren ever made. The uniquely crafted Senna required 5,000 hours to assemble, equivalent to the span of time taken to hand-assembled 9 McLarens.

The new Riva 90’ Argo premiered on March 9 during a private event at the Epic Marina hotel in Miami.

Purely based on the numbers, Baselworld is not in very good shape. While the departure of the Swatch Group grabbed the headline, the exodus of participants has been far greater. This year there were only 520 exhibitors, down from over 1.500 in 2016. But these numbers don't tell the whole story, as the 2019 edition might be much more compact, many major players were still there, and contributed in delivering a worthwhile experience.

One of the things for which you almost must be an industry insider to know is the tremendous amount of efforts and resources that go into developing a new type of bracelet for a watch. While this may seem like a relatively simple task, the bracelet not only needs to fit the watch and look good but also be very comfortable to wear, on a wide variety of different wrists. On top of that do bracelets have to be able to cope with quite some stress, even with normal day-to-day activities. This means that a lot of thought, engineering and prototyping goes into making such a bracelet a reality. This gives you some idea of what Richard Mille had to go through when creating their new bracelet for the RM 07-01, although their journey was even more challenging, as it is made from Carbon TPT.

When at a large watch fair such as Baselworld the term 'innovation' is used quite often. In most cases, it is debatable to what extent it is truly an innovation and not merely an improvement or another, but not necessarily better, way to solve a preexisting challenge. With the Zenith Defy Inventor, there is that some doubt, but differently. While we may indicate this watch, or more precisely its balance, as an innovation it is, in fact, closer to a revolution.

When one of the major introductions from Patek Philippe is crafted from stainless steel, it is almost always a sports model. But every rule needs to have an exception. In the past, Patek Philippe has veered a few times off the precious metals, towards the more common steel for their classic watches, but only on rare occasions. That is one part that makes the 5212A Calatrava Weekly Calendar so special, as the other part is the complication that it is fitted with!

Baselworld, the fair, is truly trying to dress for success, as its new layout and decorations have a more luxurious air. This was needed if only to match the atmosphere in which the brands that exhibit exist. While the classic dress watch might not be such a dominating segment of the market, new watches have taken over this position. They might not be gold, three-handers, but they are refined creations, often on the understated side, that feels most comfortable on the wrist of people who know that success is not an end station, but an everyday quest.

Sometimes progress is not that obvious. Especially in the world of watches details can make all the difference. Subtle changes have been part of the industry since its conception, and often fuel a constant evolution of excellence. Small varieties in finishing, color, or materials ensure an ever-expanding universe with even more, and better, options for watch enthusiasts to choose from. These watches are also an intricate part of Baselworld and often offer much more then meets the eye!

It was hard to know what to expect, as so much would be different this year at Baselworld. With the attending brands now down to just over a hundred, the show is more compact, yet the new fair management also took the opportunity to make good use of this space. Greenery, indoor ponds and more luxurious culinary options have given the fair a more upscale appearance, one that is matched by the amazing watches that are presented here!

Hublot is always the one to innovate and to push the envelope! They for sure have done exactly that once again this year. Again, it is not just the introduction of one new model, but a significant extension of nearly all the signature lines in their collection. In most cases we are talking here about completely new creations, which are bound, once again, to capture the attention of the watch connoisseurs!

Tomorrow Baselworld will open its doors once again. This year it will be a completely different animal altogether. The departure of the Swatch Group, as well as an exodus of other brands, has made the show much smaller than it was in previous years. The question that remains is if that is a bad thing?

There is no denying that there is a natural appeal to the combination of a deep blue dial with a pink gold case. This color combination is now also an option for the Vacheron Constantin Patrimony Retrograde Day-Date, a classic dress watch with the added functionality of two retrograde complications.

In Chinese culture, eight is considered the luckiest number because when you say it in Chinese, it sounds similar to the word for wealth or fortune. In the luxury watch world, eight could be considered a lucky number too given how many iconic timepieces there are with eight-sided bezels! Let’s have a look at three top-tier timepieces that sport octagonal bezels--who knows, wearing them may just bring you some good fortune.