The Coolest Audemars Piguet Watch of 2025 Isn’t a Royal Oak

Audemars Piguet is sometimes criticized as being a one-trick pony due to the iconic Royal Oak‘s outsized presence in its catalog, with three of the brand’s four current collections consisting soley of different types of Royal Oaks. (Technically, there are five collections, but the fifth has just two watches that were released over a five-year period, neither of which is still available.)

This criticism comes largely from a place of love. As one of the “Holy Trinity” of high Swiss watchmaking, AP has an illustrious back-catalog filled with countless covetable references that, unfortunately, have no modern equivalent.

But Audemars has quietly been addressing this frequent criticism lately by elevating its only non-Royal Oak collection, the Code 11.59. While met with a lukewarm reception when it debuted in 2019, the line has been grown to be something of a dark horse in the market thanks to an ever-increasing stable of desirable models. For example, when AP unveiled its impressive new perpetual calendar calibre earlier this year, it did so with a Code 11.59 — not the Royal Oak (though that came very shortly after).

Now, AP has once again turned to the Code 11.59 for a very cool creation. In fact, it’s probably my favorite watch from the brand this year.

Audemars Piguet

Star Power

Buried in the Code 11.59 catalog is the Starwheel, a unique watch with a wandering hours complication. This type of complication consists of three discs (or other objects) on the dial, each with four numerals equally spaced apart. The discs are all in constant incremental movement along the dial so that, one by one, they align with a stationary minute track to tell the current time. Every time the hour changes, the next disc moves into place with the next hour ready to go.

The Starwheel — which is a spectacular name for such a watch, btw — features a partially skeletonized outer case of white gold around an inner case in black ceramic, while its dial boasts a dark blue aventurine backdrop for a trio of rotating black PVD aluminum discs that tell the hour against a minute track located between 10 and 2.

Luminox Gives Its Most Stylish Diver a Rugged, Stealthy Makeover

Instead of stainless steel, these watches now come with Luminox’s signature Carbonox — a high-performance carbon composite that’s both extremely tough, highly durable and lightweight.

It’s also non-magnetic, as it’s not metal-based (although the case backs are still stainless steel), and it extends to the rotating dive timer bezel, as well.

As mentioned, the straps are also black. Similarly, they’ve been swapped from steel link bands to black rubber ones, which mesh better with the sporty styling of the Carbonox cases.

Luminox

A splash of color

While the color and material changes are obviously big ones, many aspects of these watches remain unchanged, aligning with their siblings. Probably the most obvious is the dials.

While the rest of the watches are blacked out, the dials maintain pops of color, available in red, blue and green. Similarly, the hands and hours have another signature Luminox feature: vibrant, colorful lume (which lasts for up to 25 years).

The Affordable ‘Other Moonwatch’ Just Became Even More of an EDC Darling

The Omega Speedmaster may have been the first watch to be worn on the moon, but it wasn’t the only one.

A Speedmaster-esque Bulova prototype chronograph was also worn on the lunar surface by astronaut Dave Scott during the Apollo 15 mission in 1971, and it remains the only confirmed non-Speedy worn on a celestial body. The watch remained largely a footnote until Scott’s watch sold at auction in 2015 and Bulova began selling a modern recreation called the Lunar Pilot that same year.

Over the past decade, the Bulova Lunar Pilot has become a signature model for Bulova, which has continued to release versions of its space watch in new sizes, colors and materials.

The latest is one of the most intriguing yet, as it utilizes a material most often seen in the EDC knife community.

Bulova

On the Road to Timascus

To celebrate its 150th anniversary this year, Bulova turned to Brazilian artist Thiago Rosinhole for help in designing a special-edition Lunar Pilot. Even if you don’t know Rosinhole’s name, you’ve probably seen his work: He’s the creator of Budii Toys, those pop art-infused sculptures that resemble a mouse in a space suit.

For the new Lunar Pilot, Rosinhole didn’t turn to space mice (OK, there is one embossed on the caseback), but rather to a design element that’s equally out of this world. The watch features a dial made of timascus, a material which has long been popular in pocket knives but has only recently begun to gain traction in the watch space.

This Bold Brand’s Underrated Sports Watch Borrows a Standout Feature from Its Tool Watches

The BR-05 Sincere White Lum is mostly your standard BR-05 stainless steel. It has the same integrated tapering bracelet, the same 40mm square case with 100m of water resistance and the same Sellita SW300-based automatic movement inside.

Where the watch differentiates itself is on the dial, where there are a few interesting things going on.

Bell & Ross

First, and most obviously, is the color. The dial itself is white while everything on it — the hands, indices and all text, including the date — are brick red. White and red is a color combination that isn’t seen often enough in the watch world — I’ve always been partial to Farer’s Bernina Chronograph — and it looks dynamite here. The colors were chosen to represent Singapore’s flag, which is, you guessed it, red and white.

The date window here has also been tweaked. On the standard BR-05 Auto, the date is a standard rectangular window that replaces the index at 3:00. Here, it’s been moved to a diminutive circular cutout at 4:30. Say what you want about 4:30 date windows, but I like this move. It’s pretty unobtrusive and allows for the addition of a big ol’ Arabic “3” index in that sweet Bell & Ross font.

Lastly, and most significantly, is the lume on the dial. You’ve probably noticed that, while there is lume on the hands, there isn’t any on the indices. That’s because the entire dial is lumed with blue-emission Grade X2 Super-LumiNova, the brightest, longest-lasting lume made by the Swiss illumination giant.

Vero Engineering’s Most Affordable EDC Knife Still Won a Major Blade Show Award

While not all of the Avid 1’s six configurations come in under that $200 price point, the most affordable ones are well under, clocking in at $185. These ones boast S45VN steel drop point blades, G-10 handle scales and titanium liners (including the lock spring).

While the blade steel remains the same in the other, more high-end versions, the handle sees some alternative materials. There are ones with marbled carbon fiber, titanium and even a jade option (the last of which is still under $200).

Vero Engineering

Right to the point

Beyond the handle scales and blade steel, there’s still plenty of other things to love about this relatively approachable pocket folder. And that’s what you want out of an EDC tool that’s, as the brand puts it, “built for reliability and everyday performance.”

The Avid 1 measures 7.70 inches in length with a 3.25-inch blade — hitting right in the sweet spot for everyday carry sizing. When closed, it measures 4.25 inches, stout enough to fit into most pockets without being so short that the grip is awkward.

This Purpose-Built Dive Watch Boasts a Rare Feature That Used to Be Everywhere

The beveled baton hour markers with alternating lume tips, the double-lume dot seconds hand and the red-on-white hour wheel are all spot on. Sherpa even stuck to the 40mm steel case size with the block crown guard covering both crowns, which are faithfully engraved with a hash pattern.

Sherpa

The internal bidirectional rotating dive bezel, another EPSA invention, is operated by the crown at two o’clock. As part of the EPSA case design, the Monoflex crowns retain water resistance without being screwed down.

The Ultradive runs on a heavily customized top-grade Sellita caliber SW200-1 automatic movement with a 38-hour power reserve called the Mantramatic MM01. Its name comes from the Tibetan Buddhist mantras laser-engraved on two movement wheels.

Sherpa

Sherpa’s authentic super compressor dive watch is more of a love letter than a ripoff. Since Enicar went bankrupt in 1987, Sherpa is doing its best to keep the brand’s good name alive.

I appreciate that Kloche cites all of his sources on the Sherpa website, offering in-depth details on the history and engineering of the super compressor. He isn’t attempting to pass off his brand as a direct revival of Enicar but more of an ode.

This Polar Diver Is Staking Its Claim As the Year’s Best-Looking Dive Watch

Last year, Bremont unveiled the Supermarine 500m. Boasting a fully ceramic case and a helium escape valve, among other premium features, the watch was a robust beast of a tool watch while also being quite the looker.

Then, in April of this year, Bremont launched a version of the watch in 904L stainless steel with a black ceramic bezel and a matching black 3D wave-patterned dial. The watch boasted most of the same specs as the full-ceramic version, but thanks to the more affordable case material, it was only about 2/3 the price.

Now, Bremont has issued a new version of the steel Supermarine 500m, this time with a Polar White dial. And holy smokes, it is one seriously attractive dive watch.

Bremont

Pole Position

This is hardly the first time a brand has found some design magic swapping out a black dial for a white one while keeping the rest of the watch basically the same.

The OG “Polar” dial would be the Rolex Explorer II, which added the white dial — christened “Polar” by fans — as a complement to its black-dialed spelunking watch in the 1980s. Tudor followed the same template at Watches and Wonders this year with its own “Polar” Explorer II-type watch, the Black Bay Pro. Then, of course, there’s the Omega Speedmaster, whose white lacquer-dial version became one of the most talked-about new watches of 2024.

Patagonia’s Affordable EDC-Outdoor Pack Brings an Indiana Jones Favorite into Modernity

“It’s where I keep all of my things. I get a lot of compliments on this. Plus, it’s not a man-purse. It’s called a satchel. Indiana Jones wears one.”

It’s been over 16 years since Zach Galifianakis uttered these words in The Hangover. While the film has aged like milk for numerous reasons, Galifianakis’s famous line has transmuted from a joke to a much more genuine sentiment.

Crossbody bags, slings, messengers — whatever you want to call them — have become mainstream thanks to their combination of convenience, agility and even stylishness.

Yet, even with all of the options out there these days, surprise new releases can still make waves, like Patagonia’s Terravia Sacoche Bag.

Patagonia

Form follows function

One of the reasons this Patagonia bag is so affordable is its simplicity. The bag’s format is a function of its … function.

For instance, this bag swaps its shoulder strap for a wide pad attached to paracord tethers instead of more typical webbing. It’s a more straightforward layout that doesn’t sacrifice too much functionality (adjusting the length is still possible, if a little less straightforward).