These watch brands may be lesser known outside of watch-collecting circles, their fascinating designs that build upon the long-standing traditions of watch making but totally reimagine traditional wristwatches. We take a look at some of the most innovative watch brands and their most avant-garde designs that will intrigue any onlooker, watch fan or not!

1. Urwerk EMC Watch

Founded in 1995 by Martin Frei and Felix Baumgartner, the independent Swiss-brand Urwerk is known for its incredible mind-bending, ornate, and fascinatingly complex designs.

Radically unconventional, Urwerk watches barely resemble a wristwatch in any traditional sense, but their design and complications are firmly rooted in classic watchmaking techniques. To wit, Urwerk’s first watch collection, the Urwerk-101, featured a wandering hour display, a complication that dates back to the 1600s, that shows the hour with a three-armed disc that points to the minutes which are listed on an arc-shaped track at the bottom of the watch case.

Urwerk continues to surprise and delight its fans with its unrivaled creativity. And, in 2014, the brand was awarded both the Innovation Watch Prize and the Mechanical Exception Watch Prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève for its EMC watch that used their proprietary in-house EMC Movement that could measure the oscillation rate of the balance wheel and display the variance on a timing indicator.

2. Roger Dubuis Excalibur Knights of the Round Table

Named after its co-founder Roger Dubuis, a highly skilled watch engineer who worked at Patek Philippe before breaking out on his own, the Swiss watch manufacturer Roger Dubuis takes a similar approach as Urwerk to combining time-honored complications with extremely creative designs.

Roger Dubuis boasts a thrilling collection of complex and intricate skeleton watches and women’s watches with dramatically stretched roman numeral hour markers. One of its standout designs is the Excalibur Knights of the Round Table which features 12 miniature knights, sculpted with immaculate detail, cast in 18K rose gold and arranged around a dial of black jade.

But what really distinguishes Roger Dubuis is that each of its watches meets the exacting standards of the Geneva Seal, a centuries-old award given by the Bureau Officiel de l’Etat Pour le Contrôle Facultatif des Montres de Genève to watches of the highest class that pass its rigorous processing and movement inspection. Roger Dubuis’s commitment to the highest level of quality and

3. MB&F HM4 Thunderbolt

Independent Swiss watch brand MB&F is named after its founder Maximilian Büsser and his coterie of friends and fellow watchmaking innovators, including Peter Speake-Marin, Laurent Besse, and Eric Giroud. Backed by the experience and expertise of this watchmaking collective, MB&F has churned out some of the most impressive and innovative watches in recent history.

MB&F divides its watch collections into three core groups: Legacy Machines, comparatively simple round watches with a signature top-center balance wheel; Horological Machines, unprecedented and unparalleled avant-garde designs with unusual watch case shapes and dials; and Performance Art, extremely limited-edition timepieces that demonstrate the watchmaking mastery of the brand.

Aesthetically speaking, MB&F’s futuristic designs draw a lot of inspiration from science-fiction and engineering. One strong example of the brand’s eccentric watches is the HM4 Thunderbolt which is modeled after a World War II-era A-10 aircrafts with its dual engine-shaped “pods” (as MB&F refers to them) that display the time and power-reserve indicator.

4. Greubel Forsey Tourbillon 24 Secondes

Before we dive into Greubel Forsey, a quick refresher: the tourbillon was developed in 1795 and patented in 1801 by Abraham-Louis Breguet. To greatly simplify, gravity can throw off the timing regulator of a watch; a tourbillon aims to counter the drag of gravity by placing the timing regulator for the escapement into a rotating cage to make an overall more accurate timepiece. Today, tourbillons are generally considered more of demonstration of watchmaking know-how than a necessity to improve accuracy.

Greubel Forsey’s watches largely center on the tourbillon escapement which the brand continues to incorporate into their designs in increasingly novel ways. One standout model for the watchmaker is the Tourbillon 24 Secondes which, without delving too far into the mechanics, features a fast-rotating tourbillon, positioned at a 25-degree angle, to make for an even more precise tourbillon.

In turn, Greubel Forsey has received industry-wide praise for its technical achievements in haute horology with multiple awards from the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève and Watch World Awards in the brand’s short lifetime.

Would James Bond be able to properly play his 007 role without gadgets, gizmos, and the perfect watch? Probably not. In fact, watches often play leading roles that help define the characters in some of the most-loved movies of all time. Here we take a look at 10 watches worn by iconic movie characters and stars.

Rolex Cosmograph Daytona

When Paul Newman was filming the 1969 race car film, Winning, he was gifted a Rolex Cosmograph Daytona watch by his wife Joanne Woodward. It had the words “Drive carefully — Me” engraved on the case back and Newman wore it faithfully for 15 years. Newman created a craze among watch collectors who had to have the “Paul Newman” Rolex. His original watch was auctioned last year for more than $17.752 million.

Rolex GMT Master

The Rolex GMT Master watch has had some grand (if not dubious) roles on the big screen. In the famed 1979 movie, Apocalypse Now, Marlon Brando (who played Colonel Kurtz, the rogue solider turned cult leader during the Vietnam War) wore a Rolex GMT Master. He wore a steel version with a leather strap but without the rotating bezel. Interestingly enough, this was the same watch of choice by Dennis Hopper in the 1994 movie Speed. Hopper wore the Rolex GMT with metal bracelet and a blue and red “Pepsi” bezel.

TAG Heuer Monaco

The original King of Cool, Steve McQueen, wore a Swiss Heuer Monaco watch in the 1970 movie, Le Mans. (Back then, the brand was simply Heuer, not yet TAG Heuer). McQueen’s watch featured a squared blue dial. That watch sold for approximately $800,000 at auction in 2012. The rebel racer and beloved actor also wore a Heuer crest on his racing suit in the movie.

Omega Seamaster

James Bond (aka 007) has had a long relationship with Omega, ever since Pierce Brosnan wore one in GoldenEye (1995). The brand also worked with Daniel Craig, the current Bond actor, for its newest campaign featuring the Omega Seamaster Diver 300M collection. The newest evolution of the Seamaster Diver 300M has been revamped, with a new helium escape valve and materials that make it anti-magnetic up to 15,000 gauss—which is hopefully enough for Bond.

Omega Speedmaster

The Omega Speedmaster watch was the only mechanical watch certified by NASA for space flight in the Apollo missions in 1965. For the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, it was an Omega watch that helped the astronauts time their re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere inside the small capsule. In the film adaptation, Apollo 13, the actors all wore the Omega Speedmaster to accurately portray the historic event.

Hamilton Ventura


The triangular-shaped Hamilton Ventura watch has played a starring role in a host of movies, not the least of which was worn on the wrist of Elvis Presley in the famed movie Blue Hawaii. Elvis loved the Ventura and owned and wore it off the set as well as on the set. Years later, Will Smith wore a Ventura in the Men in Black (1997) movie.

Hamilton Khaki

Both the Khaki Field and the Khaki Pilot watches have seen the big screen multiple times. Actor John Krasinski, playing author Tom Clancy’s character Jack Ryan, wears the Khaki Field Auto Chrono in stealth black in the movie and series. Similarly, Matt Damon wore a Khaki Navy Belowzero watch in The Martian and Matthew McConaughey wore a Khaki Pilot Day Date in Intersteller.

Hamilton Jazzmaster

In The Commuter, released this year, Liam Neeson wears a Hamilton Jazzmaster watch. In fact, Hamilton has had along association with Hollywood, dating back to the 1950s when it had a starring role in the movie Frog Men. Since then it has been seen in more than 450 movies. For 2001: A Space Odyssey, the brand designed a special timepiece and table clock.

Urwerk UR -110 RG

Robert Downey Jr. specifically requested that Urwerk grace his wrist in his role as Tony Stark/Ironman in Spider-Man Homecoming. The 18-karat watch later sold at auction for a cool $150,000, with proceeds going to charity. In the movie, Robert Downey Jr.’s character used the watch as one of Ironman’s gadgets; in turn, Downey Jr. asked that the watch be made in the colors of Iron Man, black titanium and 18-karat rose gold with yellow numerals.

Bremont U-2/51-Jet

This stealth black military watch has a starring role in the forthcoming movie, Venom. Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock (the “host” of choice for Venom) wears this fairly affordable watch. The Bremont U-2/51 Jet was inspired by the British brand’s involvement with the Royal Air Force (RAF). Some of the design cues come from the watches made for the RAF’s 100 Squadron.