The 14 Best and Sexiest Watches on Instagram

This is an edition of the newsletter Box + Papers, Cam Wolf’s weekly deep dive into the world of watches. Sign up here.

Let’s all take our brains out for a rinse and float down a lazy river of spectacular watches. This feels like the right time for the return of the always 100% correct Watch Instagram Power Rankings. The rules of the game are simple: I’ve been squirreling away the most fascinating and best-looking watches on Instagram since the last edition in July. Now we meet again to hopefully discover a few new brands and obsessions and maybe even share some news. I’m starting off by cheating!

STORY TIME!!!!

Bonus: @pieceunique_’s Patek Philippe Nautilus ref. 3800 with legendary provenance

If this watch had been in @pieceunique_’s possession I would have put it first—by, like, a lot. But the sacred order of the power rankings dictates you can’t climb to the top of the ladder by simply posting someone else’s images. Still, this watch is so fascinating I wanted to bring it to your attention. Here we have a Patek Philippe Nautilus—undoubtedly the brand’s most sought-after model over the past few years—that once belonged to a massive celebrity.

Or, at least, someone hugely famous to anyone who can explain what a mainspring does. That would be George Daniels, widely considered the greatest watchmaker of the last century, who made a few adjustments to this fan-favorite piece himself. According to @pieceunique_, Patek executive Alan Banbery approached Daniels in 1979 after he saw the watchmaker’s coaxial escapement. This was one of Daniels’s signature inventions—an improvement on the traditional escapement, which manages how energy is pushed through a movement, lasting longer without servicing and keeping better time.

Banbery brought Daniels in to work on some pocket watches, but the pair pivoted to wristwatches. Daniels ended up having to make his movement even thinner to fit it inside the Nautilus; eventually he was able to produce three prototypes. Daniels wore this Nautilus for 12 years. As for his coaxial escapement? Omega started using it in 1999 in a limited-edition De Ville and it is now inside nearly all of the manufacturer’s pieces. Okay, on to the proper rankings!

:3

13. @little.old.watches’ Schiaparelli

No one hunts down more adorable vintage finds than little.old.watches. This time around it’s this Schiaparelli with brass buckles that form a vaguely daisy-shaped design.

12. @yeahitsjewelry and @yij.stacks’s Cartier Secret Watch

Well, if this isn’t the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen. Cartier has a long history of secret watches, but this design is particularly cool. The ornamental seashell conceals a big bubbly dial. Even the caseback lays it on thick with an engraving that reads, “To Gloria With Love From Sy Oct. 3 1945.” Awwww.

11. @jaeger_collector’s Cartier Envelope

A silver letter that bisects to reveal a tiny watch underneath! How stinking cute is that? We need to bring back a wider variety of watch forms. This is one thing the ’40s got right. Hat tip to @Tony_Traina for bringing this one to my attention. And while we’re talking about Tony, he announced that last week was his last at Hodinkee. Keep up with the former ’Dink editor by subscribing to his newsletter, one of my favorites in the watch world.

RECENCY BIAS

10. @jcchev’s Universal Genève Polerouter Sub

I’ve been even more obsessed than usual with Universal after writing about its imminent comeback last week. And it’s especially hard not to be when pieces like JC’s Polerouter Sub keep turning up. Those patinated amber hands are stunning.

PEARLS, DIAMONDS, AND…FLESH?

9. @johnson167’s Cartier Baignoire ref. 78094

There is no shortage of treasures on Johnson’s page, but I particularly like this Baignoire, which packs so much into a single piece: the radiant guilloche pattern on the dial, the sapphires set along the outer track, and two layers of diamonds on the bezel.

8. @willionsltdlondon’s bejeweled Rolex and Audemars Piguet

The ’80s were a wonderful time: The decade’s excessive opulence resulted in some pretty fantastic watches. Even Rolex got in on the party, as evidenced by that 1988 Rolex Orchid on the left. Fred (of @willionsltdlondon) shares that there is an excellent story behind this pairing. Jean-Claude Gueit, the important watch designer behind models like the Piaget Polo, designed the piece on the left while his son Emmanuel Gueit, now a well-known independent watchmaker in his own right, is responsible for the Audemars Piguet on the right. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

7. @kristianhaagen’s Cartier Crash tattoo spotting

Yes!!!! This is one way to always have a killer watch with you. The attention to detail here is excellent—check out the London signature included in the design. And if you love watch tattoos, can I alert you to the fact that Mark McGrath, the lead singer of Sugar Ray, inked the Rolex logo on his body after a friend bet him $100 he wouldn’t? He told TMZ it’s one of his worst drunken mistakes. Hopefully, Kristian’s friend doesn’t feel the same.

6. @crazykirbyh’s Vacheron Constantin pendant watch

If crazykirbyh doesn’t win this year’s Watch Collector of the Year it will be an outrage. This whole column really could just be me describing the images she posts to Instagram, but I’ve managed to single out this VC pendant watch as my favorite from the past few months. The play of angular geometric shapes on the dial and bezel results in a watch that I feel could easily hypnotize someone. Of course, a watch this exquisite could only be used to make you believe you’re a top-hat-wearing tycoon or an art thief who steals rare works just to keep them in your attic because you can’t get enough beauty.

5. @watchesbylogan’s Gerald Genta ref. GGM1

Genta does it again. This one is a lot at a Phillips auction in Geneva on Friday with a high-end estimate of $186,000—it’ll likely go for a lot more. It hails from the GOAT watch designer Gerald Genta and combines posh traditional watchmaking with a modern display. This piece features a minute repeater with Westminster chimes and a mother-of-pearl dial. The dial looks like a plane’s control panel with its retrograde display and a number of little arcs pointing out the watch’s many features. This GGM1 was made specifically for the Sultan of Brunei, according to Phillips.

GO FOR GOLD

4. @johnswatches’s Beyer Split-Seconds Moon Phase Chronograph

I’ve been on a real gold kick lately and I’m especially drawn to watches that combine the precious metal with a zillion complications. (I can’t stop thinking about @Dandywatchman’s all-gold Universal Geneve Tri-Compax either.) These complex gold Breyers were reportedly made as a special order for the brand’s then owner Theodor Beyer, the son of the founder with the same name, and given as gifts to friends. So not only are they made of gold and technically advanced, but astoundingly rare too.

3. @mentawatches’s Audemars Piguet Royal Oak ref. 25654BA

This is what I mean when I say I can’t get enough of gold watches. I ran into a buddy recently who had just picked one of these up; they are immaculate in person. Of course, AP did what neither the aforementioned Breyer nor UG could with its mechanics. While those pieces include a chronograph in addition to a moonphase, AP went ahead and swapped the stopwatch feature for the super-advanced perpetual calendar. This is an all-time grail for me.

SIMPLY THE BEST

2. @misterenthusiast’s Gerald Genta

This watch is impressive in so many ways: mother-of-pearl dial, perpetual calendar feature, white-gold case, diamonds on the bezel and dial. But what puts it over the edge for me is the moonphase that appears as if it was delicately painted by hand before being given over to its new owner. @MisterEnthusiast, a.k.a. Phillip Toledano, calls this the “apex geezer” watch, a categorization he invented but is now on the brains of smart collectors everywhere.

1. @mr.a’s Rolex ref. 6100 with cloisonné dial

The kind of piece that sends you running to Google for answers. Luckily there was a lot to discover. This piece looks to be the exact one that sold at Christie’s in May of this year for 277,200 Swiss francs ($317,633). According to the auction house, it is one of only three Rolex pieces ever decorated with a coat of arms, done courtesy of Marguerite Koch, “one of the great enamel artists of the mid-20th century.”

Rolex watches with cloisonné dials are exceedingly rare in general and often go for massive sums. In 2014, before watches really sold for this kind of dough, a Rolex featuring a Koch painting of a ship and whale sold for $1.2 million, which was then the highest sum ever paid for a watch from the Crown at auction. Many cloisonné-dial Rolexes feature nautical themes, like this one with its rainbow-colored ship or another with Neptune painted on it.

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