Courtesy Blancpain

DECEMBER HAS ARRIVED, and with it a final flurry of watch releases determined to make the year’s last chapter feel anything but quiet – the unexpected collabs, the technical flexes, the “just because we can” complications.

It’s the month when watchmaking gets a little bolder, a little more emotional, and occasionally, unapologetically over the top.

Consider this your final roundup of the year: the pieces worth knowing, the innovations worth talking about, and the drops that remind us why horology never really winds down.

2025 marks 80 years of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race

The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. Image: Rolex

The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race sets sail on 26 December, with the 2025 edition marking the event’s 80th running since its inception in 1945. Rolex’s official involvement began in 2002, becoming Title Sponsor in partnership with race organiser the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.

The sponsorship forms part of Rolex’s broader near 70-year association with the sport of yachting internationally. Since coming on board, the watchmaker has become closely identified with the race, supporting its growth into one of the world’s most closely watched offshore sailing events while maintaining the character that has defined it since its post-war beginnings.

Run by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia with the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, the 628-nautical-mile (1,163-kilometre) course from Sydney Harbour to Hobart is renowned for its mix of high drama, shifting weather and serious seamanship across Bass Strait.

Race day itself has become a Sydney ritual. Thousands line the harbour foreshore before heading east to South Head, Watsons Bay and up to North Clovelly to watch the fleet squeeze through the heads, spinnakers snapping as the boats make their first push into the open ocean.

For Australian sailing champion and Rolex Testimonee Tom Slingsby, the race carries deep personal meaning.

“Growing up in Australia, the Rolex Sydney Hobart always captured my imagination…”

Now in its eighth decade, the partnership reflects not only endurance at sea but the enduring pull the race holds over Sydney’s summer calendar.

Hiroshi Fujiwara just turned the Carrera up a notch

TAG Heuer and Hiroshi Fujiwara have reunited for a third collaboration, and it might be their most refined yet. The new Carrera Chronograph x Fragment pares the Carrera right back to its essentials, rebuilt through Fujiwara’s minimalist eye: a black-and-white dial, a crisp glassbox silhouette and the kind of quiet confidence that already feels archival. Fujiwara describes his process as “listening to the structure” of the watch – keeping only what earns its place – and that discipline gives the piece its clarity.

Flip it over and the Fragment spirit reveals itself more openly: a reworked oscillating weight with bold black graphics, driven by TAG Heuer’s TH20-00 movement with an 80-hour power reserve and a five-year warranty.

The beads-of-rice bracelet with black PVD centre links is another subtle Fujiwara signature, rounding out a collaboration limited to 500 pieces worldwide – considered, understated, and exactly the kind of design that rewards the details.

Discover it now at tagheuer.com.

Words Ruby Stephens

Blancpain’s Grande Double Sonnerie: a masterpiece meant to be heard

8 years in the making, Blancpain’s new Grande Double Sonnerie feels less like a complication and more like a moment in modern watchmaking. It’s the first wristwatch capable of playing two distinct melodies – the traditional Westminster chime and a second composition created by Eric Singer of KISS (yes, really) – made possible by a four-note striking system that breaks entirely from the usual high–low arrangement.

And because Blancpain doesn’t do anything by halves, the movement integrates a retrograde perpetual calendar and flying tourbillon directly into the architecture – no modular shortcuts – resulting in a calibre of more than 1,000 components, each hand-finished in gold.

Even the presentation box has been considered on an emotional level: carved from Vallée de Joux resonance spruce to amplify the chimes with the warmth of a miniature concert hall.

Only two examples will be produced each year, which feels appropriate for something this technically demanding and quietly poetic.

Discover the watch at blancpain.com.

Words Ruby Stephens

Chopard marks 30 years with a bang

Karl-Friedrich Scheufele wearing the new L.U.C Grand Strike

Chopard is celebrating 30 years of its Fleurier manufacture with a serious display of watchmaking authority: the new L.U.C Grand Strike, its most complex chiming watch to date. It’s one of those watches that instantly tells you you’re looking at the brand at its absolute best.

A grande sonnerie, petite sonnerie and minute repeater rolled into a 43mm white-gold case – but the real magic is the sound: clear, bright and almost impossibly pure thanks to Chopard’s sapphire crystal gongs, a signature more than a decade in the making.

With the open dial, you can actually watch the choreography unfold: the hammers, the racks, the tourbillon quietly spinning at six. It’s the sort of piece that feels both monumental and strangely intimate – like you’re hearing the story of 30 years of Fleurier know-how in one very crisp chime.

Discover it now at chopard.com.

Words Ruby Stephens

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