At Watches and Wonders 2026, the baseline for “accessible” starts somewhere around AU$20,000. Everything below that gets treated like the clearance rack. Which is absurd, because some of the most interesting releases of the week sit well under AU$12,000, carry real movements, real ideas, and real reasons to own them.
Here’s the list.
Baume & Mercier Classima 10853
The Classima came back this year with new 40mm proportions and this is the best of the new generation. Silvery opaline dial with barleycorn guilloché, gold-tone Roman numerals, Sellita SW200 through a sapphire caseback, 9mm thin. It’s a Richemont watch that costs less than a weekend away and looks considerably better.
No complications, no drama, just proper classic watchmaking at a price that makes you wonder what everyone else is charging for.
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Price: AU$2,950 / US$1,995
Oris Artelier Complication
Moonphase and second time zone in a 39.5mm package, designed by a 24-year-old on Oris’s in-house team. The brown dial version is quietly one of the best-looking watches at the fair. Calibre 782, 41-hour power reserve, stop-seconds, display caseback.
Four dial options across the range. AU$4,200 gets you two complications, a Swiss manufacture movement, and a watch that looks like it was found in someone’s estate rather than freshly bolted together. Oris hasn’t forgotten what it’s supposed to be doing.
Price: AU$4,200
Eberhard & Co. Scafograf 200 MCMLIX
The sleeper pick. Eberhard is an 1887 Geneva maison most Australian buyers couldn’t name, and that needs to change. The Scafograf 200 MCMLIX is a 39mm diver rooted in 1959 with triangular indices, vintage-correct pointed hour hand, helium escape valve at 9 o’clock, and a first-for-the-brand polished Milanese mesh bracelet.
Available in black and blue, dégradé or circular satin finish. Four dial options. 200m water resistance. The most underrated watch of the week.
Price: TBC (expect under AU$5,000)
Tudor Monarch
Tudor’s centenary statement. A 39mm faceted dress-sport with a California dial in dark champagne, small seconds at 6, and the new MT5662-2U Master Chronometer calibre that exists exclusively in this watch.
Perlage on the mainplate, Côtes de Genève on the bridges, 18ct gold rotor inlay, all visible through the exhibition caseback. The best-finished Tudor movement ever made, in the most interesting Tudor design in years. At US$5,875 it’s a significant step up from the Black Bay, and worth every dollar of it.
Price: US$5,875 / ~AU$9,250
IWC Pilot’s Watch Automatic 36 Le Petit Prince
IWC has run the Le Petit Prince series for 20 years and the 36mm version is the strongest argument for it.
In-house calibre 32102 with 120-hour power reserve, deep blue sunburst dial, properly compact proportions, and an engraved Little Prince on the caseback that most people will never think to look for.
Five days of power reserve in a 36mm pilot’s watch at AU$8,200 is genuinely hard to argue with.
Price: AU$8,200
Rolex Oyster Perpetual 36 “Jubilee Dial”
The cheapest new Rolex at the fair is also the most interesting Oyster Perpetual in years. The multicoloured Jubilee monogram dial revives a pattern from 1985 with ten distinct shades applied individually, dial by dial.
No date, no complication, no apologies. Standard 36mm Oystersteel case, calibre 3230, five-year service interval. Rolex deliberately made something loud and polarising, which for Rolex is practically avant-garde.
At AU$11,200 it’s the entry point to the Crown and a more compelling one than it’s been in a long time.
Bremont Supernova Chronograph
Bremont is sending one of these to the moon this year, aboard Astrolab’s Griffin Mission One. It stays there permanently. The production version is slightly more terrestrial: 41mm 904L steel case, DLC-coated middle, ten-sided black ceramic bezel, spacecraft solar array-inspired dial over a full Super-LumiNova base layer, and the chronometer-rated BC77 automatic chronograph with 62-hour power reserve.
It looks like a prop from Interstellar and somehow earns it. The most boldly designed Bremont ever built and the most convincing case yet that British watchmaking has found its stride.
Price: GBP 6,950 strap / GBP 7,200 bracelet / $12,200 AUD
Norqain Freedom Chrono Enjoy Life “Sprinkles”
A blue raspberry or strawberry matte dial covered in glow-in-the-dark sprinkles, a weekly ice cream in the date window, and a rubber strap with luminous sprinkles included in the box. Norqain Calibre N19, column-wheel chronograph, 62-hour power reserve, 100m water resistance.
It sounds ridiculous and it absolutely is, but the execution is serious Swiss watchmaking wearing a party hat. The most fun watch at the fair by a country mile, and at US$6,150 on strap, probably the most wearable too.
Price: US$6,150 / A$8,650
Frédérique Constant Manufacture Classic Moonphase Date
Limited to 716 pieces, numbered on the caseback. The dial is genuine turquoise stone, first time the material has appeared in the Manufacture’s history, with black mineral fibers running through it so no two are identical.
In-house FC-716 calibre, 72-hour power reserve, moonphase and date-by-hand at 6 o’clock. Perlage and fan-shaped Côtes de Genève on the movement. 40mm polished steel case, blue alligator strap. Good value for a manufacture moonphase on a stone dial. Hand on heart, that’s one of the better deals at the fair.
Price: CHF 4,895 / A$9,995
Sinn 308 Hunting Watch
Sinn made its Watches and Wonders debut this year and brought exactly the kind of watch you’d expect from a Frankfurt instrument maker celebrating its 65th anniversary: a 40mm tool watch with a complication nobody asked for and everyone quietly wants.
The moonlight display at 6 o’clock isn’t a moonphase in the romantic sense. It’s a practical indicator of when natural light conditions are sufficient for hunting without artificial sources. Olive green dial, hybrid ceramic luminous indices that glow with unusual intensity, pointer date around the periphery, Sellita SW382-1, Ar-dehumidifying technology, 200m water resistance.
Available on bracelet, leather, textile or silicone. The most purposeful watch of the week.
Price: From €2,570 / AU$4,500
Alpina Startimer Pilot Automatic
The argument for the Startimer is simple: AU$2,538 for a 40mm black PVD pilot’s watch with a La Joux-Perret-based automatic movement, 68-hour power reserve, sapphire crystal, 100m water resistance, and a brown leather NATO strap with matching black PVD hardware.
The grained black dial with beige applied indices and green luminescence is exactly what a pilot’s watch should look like, which is to say functional first and good-looking as a byproduct.
The screw-down caseback gets an aviator motif, a small detail that costs nothing to add and lands every time. Pre-order now for June delivery. At this price it’s the easiest decision on the list.
Price: AU$2,538
