The 10 Most Expensive Watches of 2024
So far in 2024, we’ve looked at the most expensive travel watches, beach-ready watches, the best dress watches, sports watches, chronographs, tourbillons, and even just the best watches. We saw prices up over a million bucks in there, and it got us wondering about the most expensive watches available for purchase brand new right now.
Admittedly this is perhaps a little crass. There are more thoughtful ways to go about categorizing the horological arts, but at the same time the watches that fall into this category are kind of amazing. Some are among our favorites. Consider that Jaeger-LeCoultre four-sided Reverso with no fewer than 10 complications. Or the white gold Lange with a salmon dial that offers a fly-back chronograph and a perpetual calendar. Amazing watches, no question—and beautiful.
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Of course, it can be very expensive to pave a watch in rare jewels, as well. Consider the fully paved Chopard Alpine Eagle that’s going run you a million bucks. But don’t dismiss this watch, or any of the other gem-set marvels here, as being somehow less sophisticated or less of an achievement. Setting all those perfectly cut stones into metal is as delicate and difficult a task as cutting the gears and polishing the bridges of the most complicated watches below. No question.
Below are the 10 most expensive watches you can go out and buy right now….well, let’s say that you can go out and try to buy them, as some are quite exclusive, limited, or otherwise difficult to get. That’s how the brands like to play the game at this very high level, where exclusiveness is just part of the price.
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Hublot MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System Titanium | $275,000
Released in January during LVMH Watch Week, the newest MP model from Hublot, the MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System, is a study in avant-garde watchmaking. Lacking a dial, hands and oscillating weight (the caliber and dial are fused), the watch looks every bit as radical as it functions. With 592 components, the movement required five years of R&D. Four rotating displays replace the hands. The hours and minutes are displayed in the upper third of the dial, the circular power reserve in the central third and the seconds in the lower third, directly on the tourbillon cage, which sits inclined at 35° in order to optimize visibility for the wearer.
A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Rattrapante Perpetual Calendar in White Gold | $319,000
The price here wasn’t revealed by Lange for this limited edition of 100 pieces, but some blogs we respect have reported this figure above citing “reliable sources.” We assume that’s someone they know who bought one. Are there any left? Well, Lange doesn’t tell us they’re gone, so perhaps. This watch marries a rattrapante chronograph to a full-on perpetual calendar complication, creating one of the brand’s most complicated pieces. The white gold case with a salmon dial is very chic and, as with most brands, offered only in limited editions.
A. Lange & Söhne Tourbograph Perpetual “Pour le Mérite” | Over $500,000
Though Lange doesn’t list the price, these incredible grand complications sell for well over half a million dollars. The watch is a descendant of a 1994 model that helped put the rejuvenated German watchmaker back on the map after the Berlin Wall had fallen. With a tourbillon powering a full perpetual calendar and a fly-back chronograph, this watch is among the most complicated timepieces currently in production.
Breguet Classique Double Tourbillon ‘Quai de l’Horloge’ 5345BR | $734,000
On June 26, 1801, Abraham-Louis Breguet invented the tourbillon. To honor that milestone, the brand that bears his name dropped a 46 mm rose gold wristwatch equipped with not one, but two of the whirling mechanisms. But the horological dance visible on the dial tells only part of the story. A bevy of artisanal techniques on the 588N2 movement (740 components in all!) reflect more than 250 years of watchmaking heritage. They include an entirely new guilloché pattern reminiscent of sound waves applied to the rose gold rotating mainplate and to the rhodium-plated gold bridge below it. There’s also an engraving on the back of the movement that depicts an aerial view of Abraham-Louis Breguet’s workshop at 39 Quai de l’Horloge in Paris and hand-chamfered details that speak to the brand’s obsessive approach to finishing. All in service of a device that lost its usefulness about a century ago, when the wristwatch supplanted the pocket watch, a development that, according to Breguet CEO Lionel a Marca, transformed the tourbillon into an object of horological beauty. “Observing a tourbillon in action is like watching a heartbeat,” he says. “What’s more, a timepiece is an object of desire and our aim is to continue to intrigue people as well as make them dream – isn’t that a nice challenge?” Indeed!
Breguet Classique Double Tourbillon Dragon 5345PT | $853,000
You don’t have to be a Sinophile, or a devotee of the Chinese zodiac, to admire the Classique “Grande Complication” wristwatch Breguet introduced earlier this year to honor the year of the dragon. Much like its Quai de l’Horloge sibling, the model features twin rotating tourbillons with one key distinction: A hand-engraved rose gold dragon coils between them.
Chopard Alpine Eagle 41 XP Frozen Summit | $1 Million
At the top of the Alpine range from Chopard sits this 18k white gold model iced with 29.02 carats of baguette-cut diamonds. A brilliant example of Chopard’s expertise in stone-setting, the 41 mm model, encased in ethical 18k white gold, was designed to evoke the look of starlight reflected on a glacier. The Frozen Summit also boasts an ultra-thin L.U.C 96.41-L automatic movement certified by the Poinçon de Genève, the last word in exceptional watchmaking.
Richard Mille RM 27-05 Flying Tourbillon Rafael Nadal | $1.15 Million
Fourteen years after Richard Mille introduced the RM 027 Tourbillon as part of a quest to create a watch that was remarkably lightweight yet superlative in its performance, the brand has come out with a manual wind flying tourbillon named for longtime friend of the brand Rafael Nadal. Weighing a wispy 11.5 grams, the RM 27-05 can withstand a g-force of 14,000, earning it a reputation as the world’s lightest and most resilient mechanical tourbillon.
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding 41 mm Full Gemset | $1.45 Million
At the end of May, Audemars Piguet took the camo look to its natural conclusion when it introduced two fully paved 41 mm Royal Oak Selfinding models decked out in a gem-set camouflage pattern that extends from the dial to the case and bracelet. Composed of 861 baguette-cut gemstones in graduated shades of blue or in green, brown and black tones, the motif lends the brand’s most iconic model a wild, disco-infused sensibility. The blue version shown here features 44.32 cts. of graduated blue sapphires and Swiss blue topaz set in 18k white gold, while the second reference combines 39.91 cts. of black sapphires, saturated and light tsavorites, and smoky quartz to achieve a more traditional camo color scheme (also in 18k white gold). 1.26 million Swiss francs (about $1.45 million at time of publication)
Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Hybris Mechanical Quadriptyque | $1.6 Million
The caliber 185 allows this to be the only four-sided watch in existence. Known in JLC terms as a “Quadriptyque,” there are ten complications packed into this one, including a tourbillon, a full perpetual calendar, astrological calendars, and a chiming mechanism, to name just a few. While this is a limited edition of just 10 pieces, it’s fair to assume that not all are spoken for, and JLC is still advertising it as available on their website. Astounding.
The Ruby Billionaire III by Jacob & Co. | $5 Million
In 2016, Jacob & Co. introduced a one-of-one all-diamond watch called the Billionaire. The piece was so popular that it’s now in its third incarnation. Available, as of April, in three borderline-outrageous executions — rainbow gem, emerald and ruby — the piece proved so enticing that in May, Usher wore the ruby-clad version (boasting 714 natural, no-heat rubies for a total of 147.65 carats) to the Met Gala. $5 million
