The Best Watches of 2022

Over the last few weeks, the Worn & Wound team has shared their year end favorites in a number of categories. We’ve talked about our favorite collaborations, watches that surprised us, our own favorite purchases, and more. Today, to put a bow on the year that just passed, we give you our picks for the best watches of 2022. What, you might be thinking, does that even mean? Well, it’s something a little different for everyone, and below you’ll find our reasoning along with some truly great 2022 releases. We can only hope that 2023 has as many great watches in store for us to talk about and lust after, and we’ll be giving you our predictions for the year to come soon enough. But for now, here are the best watches of 2022. 

Zach Kazan

How do you rate something like a watch? I’ve been in the habit of making a top ten movies list over the past several years that I share around with my film nerd friends (you can find them on Letterboxd, IYKYK) but experiencing a watch is a very different proposition than a movie. You watch a movie and you have an experience with it over the course of a few hours, and then it’s done. Some linger in the mind and occupy your passing thoughts for days or weeks (those are the good ones, usually) but a movie is fundamentally a temporal experience. Watches, though, are made with the idea of permanence underscoring them. They are, we are so often reminded, built to last a lifetime, and even beyond. They are heirlooms. And our experience with them is colored over years as you put miles on them through life events both spectacular and mundane (mostly mundane, though). Ranking watches or selecting the “best” within an arbitrary framework seems somehow to minimize their importance, if you believe they’re important at all. 

Nevertheless, lists are fun! And an exercise like this allows us to highlight watches we genuinely enjoyed this year that might otherwise fly under the radar, so that’s the approach I took here. I certainly wouldn’t say these are the best watches of the year by any metric that can be measured objectively, but they made an impression on me and provided a level of joy that I haven’t forgotten about by the end of the year, and that’s worth sharing. 

The Lorier Zephyr is a late entry here – my review of the watch just hit the site. This watch is an absolute pleasure. It’s a beautiful thing to look at, with its delicate tonneau case and shimmering guilloche. The attention to detail throughout is extremely impressive. And it wears wonderfully, too. It’s unapologetically small, and besides the modern automatic movement and sapphire crystal, you could almost be tricked into thinking the Zephyr time traveled to your wrist directly from a swanky event in the 1930s. But what I love most about the Zephyr is the way it flips the script for Lorier as a brand. They’ll surely continue to make the vintage inspired sports watches they cut their teeth on, but knowing they’re also capable of creating something like this, that you might think is well outside their wheelhouse at first glance, is genuinely exciting, and a perfect example of why the microbrand watch scene remains interesting and worth paying attention to. 

I also have to carve out a spot for the Citizen Promaster Dive, which Blake and I wrote about here and Ed reviewed in full here. This was a Windup Watch Fair discovery for me, and became a watch that I enjoyed through the bulk of the summer and into the fall. It’s a wonderful grab and go option being that it runs on a solar powered quartz movement, but the real draw is the “ashtray” case that is shockingly easy to wear given its size. And yes, it’s big. It literally does not fit in any of my watch rolls. Citizen had an absolutely fantastic year with a slew of great releases that mined their past, but I couldn’t let the year end without reminding readers how much fun this incredibly weird watch actually is. 

But the watch that took my breath away in 2022 more than any other is one from a brand that I’ve been a champion of for years that entered a new haute horlogerie space at Watches & Wonders this past spring. The Grand Seiko Kodo is an impressive achievement on a number of levels. The ability to put a watch this complex, with a tourbillon cage and constant force mechanism integrated with one another on the same axis, into serial production is almost miraculous. The Kodo is by far the most complex Grand Seiko ever made, but it’s still recognizable as a Grand Seiko, with case lines that follow those on watches that are much more accessible. Seeing it in person, if only briefly, was a mesmerizing experience that I won’t easily forget, which is a good thing, because this watch is so rare it’s not likely I’ll have an opportunity to see one again. 

Blake Buettner

This year has been one of the oddest in recent memory in regards to new watch releases. There were plenty of great watches, of course, but none sticks out so clearly as the best that I’m tempted to call this a somewhat soft year overall. No home runs, but plenty of singles and doubles. Technically speaking, the best release for me and my taste was probably the Tudor Pelagos 39, but that’s not even the Tudor I picked up this year. This is a hobby of emotion, not technicalities and rules, afterall. 

With that in mind, the watch(es) that elicited the strongest emotional reaction from me this year are three Parmigiani Tonda PF watches: the GMT Rattrapante; the Skeleton; and the 36. This is particularly strange as I don’t really wear dress watches, certainly don’t own one, and rarely find myself in the type of attire that would necessitate one. But again, that’s besides the point. I really love these watches for reasons both aesthetic and technical. 

The GMT Rattrapante was one of those watches that I immediately clicked with, and the idea of it made so much sense I was mostly shocked that this was the first time it had been done in this way. Ok, so it’s not the most practical solution to a GMT, but there’s a charm to this watch that borders silliness, something I’d take a little more of in a watch like the Pelagos 39. It’s a great looking, super comfortable, and above all interesting watch from a high-end brand that doesn’t seem to sit at the cool table with the other high-end brands. For some reason, that speaks to me. 

Likewise, the openworked PF Skeleton, and recently announced PF 36 look to be fabulous additions to this collection, and are watches I genuinely hope to spend some time with this year. I doubt any will find their way into my own collection, but they each bring a smile to my face for other reasons, and I can’t wait to see how the Tonda PF evolves in the coming year.

Thomas Calara

Looking back at the year in watches, how could it be possible to just pick one favorite watch? Sport watches are very much in my pocket and we were hit with an array of GMTs, titanium divers and A LOT of lume. And the best part of it all, the price point for most of them was so enticing that a couple of these watches made their way into my collection. So here it is; my favorite watches of 2022

I’ve mentioned this multiple times here on the site and on the podcast: 2022 has been the “Year of the GMT.” One of the notable releases was the Tudor Black Bay Pro that created quite the stir at Watches & Wonders for its optimal 39mm case width and its resemblance to a familiar 24-hour steel bezel GMT that resides within the vintage Rolex catalog. We also got to see the Miyota 9075 make its way into several watches this year including the Bulova Wilton, Jack Mason Stratotimer, and Boldr Odyssey Freediver GMT. The ETA 2893-2, Miyota’s counterpart in the GMT movement race, also saw its fair share of the limelight in pieces like the Formex Reef GMT, Unimatic Modello Uno GMT, and Linde Werdelin 3 Timer. I also can’t forget about the Mido x Hodinkee Oceanstar collaboration that houses the Caliber 80 C07.61, which is based off of the ETA 2824-2, and provides a “flyer” complication in a charming and affordable package.

But the one that makes it to the top of my list has to be the Seiko SSK GMT. It was the introduction of a GMT complication into the Seiko 5 Sports line and encased in the widely adored SKX case silhouette. At a price of $475, it’s a fantastic introduction to the world of GMTs from a well-vetted brand. The Seiko SSK GMT has so much going on for it that not only is it one of my favorite watches from 2022, but has become my go-to recommendation to those curious about getting into the hobby.

Titanium also seemed to burst onto the scene. And the one that clearly stands out among the new releases this year is the Tudor Pelagos 39. It takes the burlier and more capable Pelagos and compresses it down into a 39mm format, joining the likes of other perfectly sized Tudors in the Black Bay 58, Black Bay Pro and Ranger (IMO they could’ve made the Ranger even smaller, but more on that in an entirely different article later this week). I’ve had a little bit of hands-on time with the P39 and man, does it hit all the right notes on the wrist. The Pelagos 39 is still not an inexpensive watch coming in at a retail price of $4,400, but here are some worthy budget titanium watches that have come across my radar this year: The Citizen Promaster Challenge Diver at $995 on a titanium bracelet, the Baltic Aquscaphe Titanium which comes in at a shade over $750, and totally new to me, but I’m sure old news to some, the Scurfa M.S. 22 Diver One at a mind boggling $325. 

Lume has a special place in my heart. So much so that I dedicated an article to why I love the photoluminescent material so much. We saw a slew of fully lumed dials hit our inboxes and Instagram feeds in 2022, two of which caught my attention. The first was actually my second favorite to come out of Watches & Wonders and that was the Doxa Carbon Whitepearl. This was the introduction of the new white colorway into their collection of divers and also the first lume dial reference encased in their SUB 300 carbon case. The second, and final favorite watch of 2022, was the Citizen Aqualand JP2007-17W. This Citizen Aqualand reference was one of the watches that made its way into the collection. It combined the quirkiness of a lume dial with an assortment of digital features that include a depth sensor reading, dive log and tracking a second time zone. Although it’s not the traditional way of keeping track of multiple time zones, it’s a unique combination of a diver and a GMT, which I’m hoping we get to see more of in 2023.

Ed Jelley 

There are two watches that I can call “favorites” of the year. I tend to gravitate towards the obtainable. Sure, it’s fun to dream, but I think I gravitate towards watches that wouldn’t be all that much trouble to add to my collection. For my favorite obtainable pick, I’m going to go with the Oris Pro Pilot X Cal. 400. 

Over the summer, I had the opportunity to check out all three models — the sleek gray, slightly colorful blue, and peachy salmon pink. Out of the three, the monotone gray really stuck. We’ve talked about watches that linger, and this is definitely one of them. I loved the 39mm case, articulated bracelet, super fun clasp, and low-key gray and black dial. Even though I only had it for a short period of time, the modern angular case and monotone lines definitely fit my personal everyday aesthetic. It’s a watch I could see myself wearing very regularly (am I selling myself on this again right now?). Inside, the Calibre 400 sports some seriously impressive specs like extreme anti-magnetism, a five-day power reserve, and a 10-year warranty and service interval. I don’t have a full titanium watch in my collection, and this is one I keep thinking about adding. 

Like I said, I typically gravitate towards watches that are more on the obtainable side, but every now and again, something crazy catches my eye. This year, that watch was the nearly half million dollar Omega Speedmaster Chrono Chime. It’s the most complicated watch (hunk of Sedna gold) that Omega has ever engineered, and it has some seriously cool functions under the hood. The movement features a start/stop/reset button integrated into the crown. Want to time something else at the same time? The rattrapante function controlled via the pusher at 8 has you covered. Feeling too opulent to use your eyes to read the time? Well, the chiming function will sound off a series of tones that will tell you the elapsed time of the chronograph, down to the nearest second. The dial still sports a ton of Speedmaster DNA, but some higher end touches like a “grand feu” blue aventurine dial, intricately textured chronograph registers, and a front row view of the miniature hammers that strike the bells inside the case. Oh, and it’s also mounted on a solid Sedna gold fine link bracelet too, just in case the movement and case weren’t enough. 

2022 wasn’t just about modern titanium takes on the pilot’s watch or technically complex works of horological art. My honorable mentions include the lightweight titanium Tudor Pelagos 39, beautifully refined Grand Seiko “Black Birch” SLGH017, and the extremely fun 70s-inspired Seiko 5 SRPJ4.