When it comes to looking good and feeling great, it’s about what brands are worn just as much as it is about what’s actually being worn. One of the biggest flexes that a person can make is with a watch, especially visually stunning watches and luxury watches.
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Watches can be and have been used as status symbols for years. In 2019, many luxury watch brands competed to be worn by the wealthiest and most beloved wrists on the planet. Here are 10 of the most underrated luxury watch brands of 2019 as well as the famous faces that were seen sporting a watch of that brand.
10 Rolex
Rolex is the most well-established brand of luxury watches on the planet. They are iconic and they are expensive, really, really expensive. The brand itself caters to both male and female wearers, and each of their timepieces is recognized as a status symbol. The brand’s watches are all handcrafted, and are extremely precise in their execution of keeping time.
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The prices of their watches vary wildly from just $5K to $650K+. If one wants a status symbol watch, they get a Rolex. They are the standard to which all other watch brands compete. They are ROLEX. Celebrities that have been seen wearing a Rolex include Kanye West, Mark Wahlberg, and David Beckham.
9 Breitling
Breitling, also known as Breitling SA, was founded in 1884 in Grenchen, Switzerland. Their brand has rocketed in popularity since then, becoming a market leader in aviation-based time-keeping.
Their brand of luxury watches can be seen in films and TV shows throughout those 150+ years of innovation and precision, notably appearing in films such as Thunderball, one of the good James Bond movies. The brand has been seen on such wealthy wrists as John Travolta, Harrison Ford, and Buzz Aldrin. A Breitling watch can be sold for $3K to upwards of $173K. A gigantic amount of money for a watch, but as previously mentioned, watches are status symbols and nothing says status like a luxury watch.
8 IWC Schaffhausen
The brand IWC Schaffhausen might not immediately come to mind when thinking of luxury watches, at least not to the mainstream public of watch wearers. However, they are well-known to those that are the serious collectors, those that know a good watch when they see one.
Their watches can range from $4K to $750K in price. The IWC in IWC Schaffhausen stands for ‘International Watch Company’ and much like Breitling, they too focus on aviator-brand watchmaking and marketing. However, they have had many famous faces putting on their luxury watches. From actors such as Chris Evans and Tom Hardy to royals such as Kate Middleton and musicians like Ed Sheeran.
7 Tag Heuer
Tag Heuer is another wonderful Swiss-based company that focuses on watch-making and precision. They were founded in 1860, making them older than Rolex by 24 years, even though they are less-well-known than Rolex.
The name Tag Heuer is a combination of the initials from the phrase “Techniques d’Avant Garde” as well as the founder’s name. Tag Heuer watches can be priced from $1.5K all the way up to $10K+ and have been seen on the wrists of such celebrities like Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, actor Brad Pitt, and Formula One racer Lewis Hamilton.
6 Montblanc
Montblanc was founded in 1911 in Berlin, Germany, and does more than just produce luxury watches. The company Montblanc is also well known for its jewelry, pens, and travel goods. But when it comes to the watches, Montblanc has a wonderful style to their timepieces that make them desirable to those with the money to purchase them.
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Their signature style includes a stylized-6-pointed snow cap with rounded edges, which references the mountain from which the company gets its name. Prices of Montblanc watches can go from $2K to $380K, and in terms of famous wearers, actor and living Wolverine himself Hugh Jackman is so well known as a Montblanc wearer that he’s become their Global Brand Ambassador outside the US.
5 Chopard
Yet another Swiss watchmaking company founded in the mid-1800s, the company known as Chopard started off making only watches for women. This proved to be the right choice for Chopard, as they have since then created both female and male watches, as well as sold some of their most celebrated watches for upwards of $26M at auction.
This is a most impressive feat for a company that also sells what they playfully call ‘Happy Diamond’ watches which have sold for $1.67M at auction. Their watches (not the happy diamond ones) can range from $5K to $60K+ and have been worn by such famous people as actor Colin Firth and musician Pharrell Williams.
4 Ulysse Nardin
Founded in 1846 in (take a guess) Le Locle, Switzerland, the watch manufacturer known as Lysse Nardin are at the top of their field when it comes to luxury watches.
The name Ulysses comes from the translation of the name Odysseus, a Greek hero in myth and legend. The character of Ulysses was beloved by all within Greek mythology and the same can be said for the company Ulysse Nardin.
The company has frequently been described within its industry as top-tier, having won numerous awards and honors. The watches themselves range from $2.3K to $285K+, a staggering amount for a fashion accessory. People who have been seen wearing these top-tier watches include athlete Micheal Jordan, TV personality Larry King and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
3 Girard-Perregaux
We can’t talk about luxury-watchmakers without Girard-Perregaux. Founded in Switzerland way back before all of the other Swiss watch brands like Rolex, Chopard, and Tag Heuer in 1791, this luxury watch brand is known historically as incredible and innovative.
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Their prestigious and super expensive watches have been seen around the wrists of such figures as director Quentin Tarantino, actors Hugh Jackman and Pierce Brosnan, as well as athlete Kobe Bryant and her majesty Queen Elizabeth II of United Kingdom. Now that’s a clientele list! The watches range from prices as low as $5K up to $600K+. With a constant commitment to perfection for over two centuries, it’s no wonder royalty wears this brand.
2 Lange & Söhne
Lange & Sohne, a German watch manufacturer founded in 1845, has a complicated history in relation to how long they’ve been making luxury watches. When the Berlin Wall went up, Lange & Söhne were forced to close its doors. When the wall came down in 1989 Walter Lange started up the company again.
Since then the watchmakers have recovered, and are considered to be the best manufacturers in Germany. The company has had many well-known figures wear their branded watches. World leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, 42nd US President Bill Clinton, as well as actor Brad Pitt. The watches can range from $15K up to $1M in price.
1 Omega
Last on the list is the company Omega SA, or more popularly known as simply Omega. Omega is (surprise, surprise) another Swiss watch manufacturer founded in the mid-1800s.
Their brand of watches, however, unlike their relatives of Rolex, Tag Heuer and Girard-Perregaux have one element of their history that cannot be compared. The famous watch Omega Speedmaster was taken into space, taken to the moon in fact, worn on the wrist of Astronaut Buzz Aldrin as he and his moon-mates were the first men to land on the moon. It was the first watch on the moon, an impressive feat. The watches themselves range from just $1K up to $700K+ and have been worn by less impressive celebrities such as Steve Carrell and Daniel Craig, as well as music icon Elvis Presley.
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