4 Epic New Watches Every Watch Guy Is Salivating Over Right Now

Welcome to Watch Guy Watches, GQ’s monthly curation of high-end timepieces for the true watch nerds among us. This month, Moser goes retro(grade); Lange brings back a beloved bracelet; Biver drops its first hand-wound three-hander; and Breitling puts a pair of vintage-inspired watches in its core catalog.There are only a few firm absolutes in the horological sphere. One of them is “never bet against H. Moser & Cie.” The high-end independent maker never ceases to amaze with its creativity, wit, and technological prowess. From a mechanical timepiece that bears a suspicious resemblance to a certain famous smartwatch to one the coolest integrated bracelet-bearing luxury sports watches on the market, Moser consistently delivers the Swiss-made goods.Building upon its Pioneer Retrograde Seconds Midnight Blue release from two years ago, three new models with retrograde seconds join the collection this month in the Pioneer, Endeavour, and Streamliner collections. While all three are beautiful, however, it’s the latter whose aesthetics pair particularly well with this steampunk-esque complication—one in which a small hand tracks the passing seconds in an arc and then jumps back to its starting position at the top of each 30-second period.Housed in a 40mm brushed stainless steel cushion case with a serpentine integrated bracelet, the Streamliner Retrograde Seconds offers a potent mix of Streamline Moderne and futurism before one even considers its dial. Executed in midnight blue fumé enamel, it features applied indices and the brand’s signature modified syringe handset, with a faint “H. Moser & Cie” signature appearing in white beneath 12 o’clock. The lower half of the face, meanwhile, is given over to the retrograde seconds display. Inspired by instrument gauges such as automotive speedometers, it features smooth action powered by the cal. HMC 252, a product of movement specialists Agenhor. (Flip the watch over and you can view its tungsten rotor whirring away via a sapphire caseback.)One of the coolest features of the Streamliner collection is that despite the presence of numerous complications; of the use of fumé dials; and of high-end pricing, these watches are meant to be used. With 120m of water resistance, steel constriction, automatic winding, and 72 hours of power reserve, the Streamliner Retrograde Seconds is effectively a high-end tool watch. (Though at a sticker price of 29,900 CHF, maybe take it off if you’re, like, climbing Mt. Everest or whatever?)While retrograde seconds displays don’t have the same utility as calendar readouts or GMT complications, they do demonstrate horological competence on the part of the watchmaker…and more importantly, they’re wild fun to watch in action. And if you can’t have a little fun in your watch-collecting journey, well—then what the heck are you even doing here, anyway?!A. Lange & Söhne Datograph PerpetualIf you’ve been waiting years for the return of platinum bracelet options for A. Lange & Söhne’s Datograph Perpetual watch, we give you permission to rejoice: a new version of the timepiece—made in honor of the model’s 20th anniversary—is equipped not only with a diamond-studded black dial, but with a fresh matching platinum bracelet. Designed with five links rather than the seven of early-2000s models made by German jewelry manufacturer Wellendorff, said bracelet is perhaps more notable than the watch itself, which features the brand’s manually wound manufacture Calibre L952.1 movement and is limited to just 50 pieces.Biver ABWhen watch-world elder statesman Jean-Cladue Biver and his son Pierre co-founded their eponymous firm in 2022, their introductory product was a half-million-dollar automatic tourbillon and minute repeater. Having since added a simple automatic three-hander to their lineup in the form of the Automatique, they’re now expanding their offerings with a hand-wound three-hander in stainless steel. Dubbed the AB, it measures 38mm wide and 9.8mm tall and features a beautiful black multi-level onyx dial with gold accents, plus a cool stainless steel bracelet with an angular five-link design and a patented micro-adjust system. Powered by the new Calibre JCB-004 designed in collaboration with Le Cercle des Horlogers, it’s the brand’s entry-level model…though it’ll still set you back roughly the cost of a BMW M3. (Naturally, it’s already sold out.)Breitling Navitimer B09 Chronograph 41On the slightly less eye-watering—but no less compelling—end of the watch-guy spectrum is the new Breitling Navitimer B09 Chronograph 41. Why does it look so familiar, you might ask? Effectively, it’s a modern version of the famed ref. 806 “Twin Jet”-logo chronograph from the 1960s, only this time, it’s available as a non-limited edition—a fact that will surely excite deep Breitling aficionados. Measuring 41mm in stainless steel, it’s manually wound just like its vintage namesake, and comes paired to a brown leather strap for $7,900 or to a handsome steel bracelet for $8,400. If you fancy something a bit more left-field, there’s also a hand-wound, non-limited version of the Cosmonaute, a riff on the Navitimer equipped with a 24-hour dial that was famously worn by astronaut Scott Carpenter in 1962 ($10,600-$11,000).