This is an edition of the newsletter Box + Papers, Cam Wolf’s weekly deep dive into the world of watches. Sign up here.
Maybe it’s just recency bias or short-term memory loss, but I feel like we’ve gotten way more new watch releases in Q1 this year than we did in 2024. This is a great thing, to be clear: I’m thrilled to see brands putting out so much great stuff well in advance of the watch industry’s biggest annual event, Watches & Wonders, which kicks off in exactly 18 days. (Not to brag, but I’ve got to see a decent chunk of the new pieces slated to premiere at W&W, and I think this year’s edition is going to be tasty.) So before we get to that massive feast, I wanted to slow down and take a look at some of the very best watches to release in 2025 so far.
The Fine China Award: AnOrdain Model 2 Porcelain
I can’t get over this piece from AnOrdain. For my money, the adventurous Irish brand makes the most interesting dials in the industry. I’ve been infatuated with the brand’s Model 1s, complete with iridescent fume dials, from the moment I saw them years ago. This month, AnOrdain announced a watch with another distinctive face—this time made from porcelain. In 2021, the watchmaker’s craftspeople visited the city of Limoges, known for the fired arts—an incredibly-named category that includes enameling, which is used often in watchmaking, as well as pottery, earthenware, and porcelain. They picked up the latter art form and are now using it to produce more timepieces (porcelain dials can be produced in small batches, while enameling requires a single steady hand to create each individual piece). The resulting $2,428 watches are no less special. AnOrdain used this elegant technique to make the most beautiful field watch in existence. The Arabic numerals and case are extremely simple, while the rich black porcelain dial is beautifully contrasted by the creamy hour markers.
The LV Exceptionalism Award for Most Predictable Upset: Louis Vuitton Tambour Convergence
