Arnold & Son debuted a pair of engrossing world timers, which tell world time via a hand-finished globe and skeletonized arrow hands.
I’m calling it: world timers are poised to become the next big horological obsession. While Patek Philippe will always hold court with its storied contributions to this complication, a fresh wave of creative contenders is turning heads—in recent months, Andersen Genève, Bovet, and even the playful newcomers at SpaceOne have all delivered compelling takes on tracking multiple time zones. Now, Arnold & Son joins the conversation with a visually arresting world timer that fuses poetic design with historical resonance. It’s a fitting move for a brand known for its boundary-pushing timepieces, which even count Haute Time columnist Carmelo Anthony among their admirers.
Long before the age of jet-setting and global sync, John Arnold, the brand’s 18th-century namesake, was building the foundations of precision navigation. In 1787, Arnold’s marine chronometers were helping explorers like Captain James Cook chart new lands, prized for their accuracy in calculating longitude at sea. These instruments became vital to the East India Company’s fleets during the Age of Exploration, securing Arnold’s legacy as one of the great English watchmakers.
Though his original workshop closed in the mid-19th century, the Arnold & Son name was revived in 1995 by Swiss firm The British Masters SA, later renamed Les Monts SA. A new chapter began in 2010 with its acquisition by La Joux-Perret, a respected movement manufacturer that gave the brand full in-house capabilities. Since then, Arnold & Son has produced a series of strikingly original watches that marry its British nautical heritage with Swiss haute horlogerie.
The Globetrotter line debuted in 2018 at Baselworld, turning heads with a commanding 45mm diameter, 17mm thickness and a mesmerising three-dimensional globe. Now, in 2025, Arnold & Son unveils a more refined yet equally spectacular evolution: the Globetrotter 42 is an ode to world time, reimagined for a new generation of explorers.
Measuring 42mm in diameter and 15mm thick, the new case size brings refined proportions without sacrificing the watch’s visual drama. At the heart of the dial lies a majestic, hand-finished three-dimensional dome depicting the Northern Hemisphere, viewed from above the North Pole. This miniature globe, sunray-brushed on the continents and lacquered in either Strand Blue or Greenwich Green for the oceans, rotates once every 24 hours, serving as a dynamic world-time display.
Surrounding the globe, a newly integrated city ring highlights twelve reference cities, elegantly aligned with the 24-hour fixed ring that has been bead-blasted and is crisply legible. Local time is read via two skeletonized, arrow-shaped hands treated with Super-LumiNova, extending gracefully from beneath the globe. The hour hand points to both transferred Arabic numerals on the inner 24-hour ring and Roman numerals on the outer 12-hour ring, offering a richly layered time-telling experience.
Flipping the watch over reveals a movement as exquisite as the dial. The Calibre A&S6122, entirely developed in-house, is visible through a sapphire crystal caseback. Its palladium-treated main plate, adorned with circular graining, complements the bridges decorated with the brand’s signature Rayons de la Gloire motif. Polished and blued screws, and an openworked tungsten rotor with hand engraving underscore Arnold & Son’s devotion to horological art.
Each edition of the Globetrotter 42 is paired with a supple alligator leather strap, colour-matched to the dial—ink blue for Strand Blue and Cornwall green for Greenwich Green—and fastened with a steel pin buckle bearing the Arnold & Son crest. Both models are limited to just 88 pieces each, priced at CHF 18,300 (including VAT).
