The watchmaking industry is, as you would probably expect, fascinated with the passage of time. As a result, anniversaries tend to have more meaning and weight than in other industries. I mean, come on, if watchmakers can’t celebrate an anniversary properly, then who can? So, with 2025 approaching, let’s take a look to see what anniversaries are on the way as we enter the new year, and try to predict what we might get as a result of those anniversaries.
Breguet’s 250th
Kicking things off with perhaps the most significant of all the anniversaries that we’ll explore, Breguet is turning the big two-five-oh in 2025, following its founding in 1775. An impressive age for any company to reach, Breguet certainly has a lot to celebrate, and we should probably expect something big given that Breguet has a penchant for the horologically marvelous. If we take some lessons from their 225th-anniversary watch, it will likely be made of platinum and feature a white enamel dial with Breguet’s eponymous numerals and hands. I would wager a guess that it’ll also have a tourbillon, given that Abraham-Louis Breguet developed it in 1801. As for anything else that I think it will have, it’ll probably have a coin-edge bezel and be launched as part of the Classique collection, but I am certainly open to being wrong on all those fronts.
Audemars Piguet’s 150th
Most brands make great use of every anniversary they get, and Audemars Piguet is certainly no different. Releasing a litany of special editions that celebrate various milestones, anniversaries, and other notable events in recent years, AP has set my expectations quite high for this upcoming 150th anniversary. Not only is it quite a sizeable anniversary, but their 125th-anniversary releases from 2000 of several different limited-edition models across a handful of collections have set my expectations that we will see something big in 2025 from the Le Brassus outfit.
Given that one of the 125th-anniversary models that we saw was a limited-edition Starwheel variant from the Millenary collection, I would wager that we will see a 150th-anniversary edition of the Starwheel that is currently part of the Code 11.59 collection, which just so happens to be one of my favorite collections from the brand, so hopefully, they don’t disappoint.
GMT-Master’s 70th
Perhaps the most anticipated anniversary of all, the GMT-Master’s 70th is coming up in 2025, and plenty of collectors are hopeful that Rolex will mark it by finally re-releasing the much-anticipated “Coke” variant of the GMT-Master II. But I honestly can’t see it happening, and if that iconic black-and-red bezel combo comes back, it will probably only be available in a precious metal GMT-Master II, much like how the return of the blue-and-red “Pepsi” bezel saw it only offered in a blue dial white gold variant.
Rolex doesn’t often do all that much for their anniversaries. They basically did nothing for the Submariner’s 70th this year (let’s not pretend the almost imperceptible bezel color change in the “Starbucks” was their way to celebrate), and I think the GMT-Master will get a similar treatment. They might make a slight change to a bezel color combo, like a new shade of blue and red in the Pepsi, but that will probably be it. Oh, how I hope I’m wrong, though.
Hublot Big Bang Breaks 20
One of the most controversial launches of its day, the Hublot Big Bang debuted in 2005, just one year after Jean-Claude Biver joined the brand in 2004, and it has become Hublot’s defining offering ever since. As such, I would expect Hublot to go all out in 2025 to celebrate its 20th anniversary. There will probably be plenty of loud colors, impressive complications, and interesting materials all in the mix. While I’m personally not the biggest fan of Hublot’s aesthetic, it will be interesting to see how the brand celebrates their most significant collection’s 20th anniversary nonetheless, because one thing you certainly can’t say about Hublot is that they don’t know how to celebrate in a wonderfully extravagant manner.
The First-Ever Perpetual Calendar Wristwatch Hits 100
Patek Philippe is certainly no stranger to launching anniversary models either, and 2025 marks the 100th anniversary of their debut of the world’s first perpetual calendar wristwatch, the ref. 97975. With a large white enamel dial boasting equally imposing Arabic numerals, four sunken subdials, and decoratively engraved lugs, the ref. 97975 is a stunning watch. I hope that Patek re-interprets its original design into a modern limited-edition timepiece, without changing too much.
However, I would expect them to probably add some modern flourishes somewhere, and perhaps use a different dial layout since the movement in the ref. 97975 wasn’t their own creation. Most notably, the ref. 97975 has a pointer date complication along the periphery of the dial, and that will probably be replaced by a pointer date subdial. Then again, they might not do anything for the ref. 97975’s anniversary too, but let’s hope they pull something out of the bag and give us another perpetual calendar to salivate over.
