Every HYT is a special timepiece, but the special edition Skull Vida takes exclusivity to the next level. The brand’s most restricted limited edition ever, with just five pieces made, each unique piece uses a rather special material: mammoth ivory from carcasses that are surfacing on the Siberian plains, after being preserved in ice for 15,000-30,000 years, from when they walked the Earth alongside Neanderthal man. The seconds are displayed in the skull’s left eye, the 65-hour power reserve in the right, and in true HYT style, the hours are indicated through the moving separation point of two immiscible liquids on the skull. 

While the Ulysse Nardin Stranger Music Box boasts a beautifully curved 45mm 18kt rose gold case, there’s no doubting what the headline feature of this timepiece is: the ability to play Frank Sinatra’s Strangers in the Night. Driven by the brand’s in-house UN-690 automatic movement, with music mode activated, the watch plays its melody (a soothing 16-seconds of the Sinatra classic) at the top of every hour as well as on demand with the push of an ergonomic button. The idea for the timepiece was first pitched more than four years before it was unveiled in a limited edition of 99 pieces. The next iteration played Violin Concerto No. 1 in E from Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

Hublot’s most complicated creation, the MP-05 LaFerrari Aperta comprises some 637 components — the most watchmaking parts of any Hublot watch to date. The manual-winding suspended vertical tourbillon packs the power of 11 mainspring barrels, giving it a world record-breaking power reserve of 50 days. The hours and minutes are displayed to the right of the barrels, also indicated by means of one anodised black aluminium cylinder each. On their left is the cylinder indicating the power reserve, and the piece is balanced with reinforcing bars either side, made from anodised aluminium in striking Ferrari red. With a skeleton dial, the case features a complex sapphire crystal based on the car’s shape, and an open case-back. It is made from black PVD titanium. The watch was developed in parallel with the car. 

A remarkable achievement of watchmaking, Cabestan’s Luna Nera combines vertical capstan wheels, a fusée-and-chain system and a moonphase indicator in a timepiece that is a million miles away from the conventional. With the beautiful inner workings all easily viewable through the Luna Nera’s sapphire crystal case, this is a watch for those who appreciate the art of horology. It features a semi-jumping hour system, and places the hour and minute indicators on two distinct drums and the seconds on a separated drum. With a vertical tourbillon as well as a 3D rotating moon phase, the watch has a power reserve of 72 hours. The case measures 46.5mm x 50.8mm x 19.1mm, and is available in titanium, pink gold, yellow gold, or platinum. In line with its exclusivity, this timepiece comes with a custom strap made from genuine alligator, leather or rubber. It has a deployant buckle and double push-piece security. The fact that it is limited to just 135 examples makes what is already a pretty impressive timepiece all the more special.

The perfect timepiece for any horology-loving Star Wars fan, the Devon Star Wars strikes the balance between movie memorabilia and serious watchmaking. A special edition of Devon’s Tread 1, the Star Wars has an all-black stainless-steel case with diamond-like carbon coating measuring 60mm wide and 22mm thick. It’s powered by a series of Japanese-made micro step motors, which drive an array of belts that indicate the time through high-tech-looking window frames on the dial. 

Christophe Claret is known for producing super-high-end timepieces with an exotic twist, and with its X-TREM-1 (which stands for ‘experimental time research engineering mechanism’), the brand certainly doesn’t disappoint, going against everything you thought you knew about watchmaking. Using the traditional enemy of mechanical watches — magnets — two tiny hollowed steel spheres (isolated within sapphire tubes on the left and right sides of the caseband) move up and down to indicate hours and minutes. This incredible feat of engineering uses specially produced tiny magnets, which are suspended in surgical silk threads so as not to hinder the normal operation of the movement. Add in the flying tourbillon located at the traditional six o’clock position and displayed through a sapphire crystal window, and you’ve got yourself an extremely impressive timepiece.

Much as the name suggests, Jaquet Droz’s Charming Bird is the kind of timepiece that could charm the staunchest watch purist. Driven by a self-winding mechanical movement with a power reserve of
38 hours, the Charming Bird uses an incredible amount of mechanical precision using a crankshaft that pushes air through a series of three pistons whose barrels are made of synthetic sapphire, in order to make the delicate bird, which is found at the six o’clock position, flap its wings and chirp. Aside from the headline charming bird, the watch features an ornate hand-engraved and hand-painted white mother-of-pearl dial with black onyx sub-dial, displaying the hours and minutes. Set in a 47mm diameter 18k white gold case, this beautiful watch is powered by a hand-wound movement and has a power reserve of 38 hours. 

Shattering traditional watchmaking convention, Harry Winston’s Opus Eleven uses a staggering 566 components and a raft of new technology to achieve what has to be considered a true modern marvel of technical watchmaking. The timepiece displays only the hours and minutes, yet uses an incredibly complicated equation to get there. Replacing traditional hands, 24 plates revolve and rotate on a complex gear system, mounted on an epicycloidal gear train. Each hour, four placards spring to life, rotating to meet at the centre of the dial and display the correct hour. This almost absurdly complicated manually wound mechanism, which uses 155 jewels, can be seen through an open-backed white gold case. A limited edition of just 111 pieces (100 in white gold and 11 in a special diamond-studded variant) the chance of bumping into someone else with one of these watches on their wrist is
extremely remote. 

MB&F has a well-earned reputation for producing weird and wonderful objects of time-telling, and with its HM8 Can Am, the unconventional brand certainly doesn’t disappoint. Inspired by the Canadian-American Challenge Cup that ran from 1966 to 1987, MB&F’s Horological Machine 8 Can Am features Can Am-inspired “roll bars” milled from solid blocks of Grade 5 titanium and hand-polished to shine like tubular mirrors that sweep from the front of this unusual timepiece to the back. Dual optical prisms vertically displaying bi-directional jumping hours and trailing minutes are enclosed in the curvaceous yet angular case, while the brand’s iconic battle-axe winding rotor visible on top. The complicated case is made from 60 components in gold, titanium and sapphire crystal, while the avant-garde side-on display means this watch is easier to read while the wearer’s hand is on a steering wheel.

Said to be born out of a love story, Van Cleef & Arpels’ Midnight Poetic Wish is a dreamy melange of white gold and mother of pearl, with the scene of a lovelorn romantic wishing upon a star to be reunited with his loved one, to the backdrop of a Paris cityscape painted on the dial. While the headline feature of this timepiece is undoubtedly the extravagant dial, there is some serious watchmaking skill inside it too. The watch uses a manual-winding mechanical movement with an automatic five-minute repeater, which displays the time on demand when the repeater is activated by turning the crown at two o’clock. A turn of the crown sends the male character on the dial towards the direction of the Eiffel Tower to display the hours; immediately after, another automaton, a shooting star, also moves towards the Eiffel Tower to indicate the nearest five minutes. Ahh, l’amour.

Bell & Ross made its name producing more affordable — albeit excellent — instrument-inspired pilot watches, yet with the BR-X1 Tourbillon Sapphire, the brand has taken its luxury and complication quota to the next level. While the basic design language of the watch is much the same as most other Bell & Ross timepieces — a squared-off 45mm case screwed together at each of the four corners — it’s the fact that the case for the BR-X1 is made from five exquisitely carved sapphire blocks (known to be one of the most difficult materials to work with), that makes this watch so special. With hours and minutes displayed on a small dial at the 12 o’clock position and a flying tourbillon at the six o’clock, the only part of the watch that isn’t completely transparent is the large mainspring barrel, which provides 100 hours of power reserve, and is tucked conveniently behind the luminous hour and minute hands. By far the most expensive timepiece the brand has ever produced, the BR-X1 Tourbillon Sapphire comes in at a cool $495,000.