Another Friday, another list! This week, we will follow up on last week’s article on the brands to watch during Geneva Watch Days. We have seen many great releases from various brands in this super-busy week. Some are hyper-expensive timepieces with grail potential, while others are more affordable stunners from small brands. As a result, it was quite the task to find our five favorites. But, as always, we managed to make some difficult choices to determine our five favorite releases seen during Geneva Watch Days 2025.
Before we get into our list, here is a quick note on the eligible watches. As you might have noticed, the number of brands releasing watches this week is much larger than the number taking part in the event. While four of our five picks are from the show’s official exhibitors, we decided not to limit ourselves to those and, instead, focus on the best releases we have seen during the week as a whole. So, without further ado, let’s jump in.
Berneron Quantième Annuel
A well-known phenomenon in the music industry is the “sophomore slump.” While the term also has a wider context, it is often seen as a potential danger for an artist’s second album. If a debut album has had commercial or critical success, expectations for the second album will be high. If that album can’t meet them, the sophomore slump may become a reality.
We could apply the same concept to the work of burgeoning watchmakers, such as Sylvain Berneron. The young Swiss watchmaker stunned the watch world with the brilliantly creative Mirage series, which debuted in 2023. The following year, smaller versions followed, featuring stunning stone dials in tiger eye and lapis lazuli. Needless to say, many watch fans were eagerly awaiting whatever would come next.
For the brand’s second all-new release, Berneron decided to skip the asymmetrical cases and shaped movements in favor of something completely different. The new Quantième Annuel models unveiled this week offer a new take on the practicality of a calendar watch.
Berneron took the idea of a calendar watch and tried to give it the most logical and legible display possible. Additionally, the new caliber 595 features a quick-set procedure, making it easier to set the calendar. Lastly, the movement features a safety mode that eliminates the practical issue of potentially setting the watch incorrectly and having to send it to the brand for resetting/repair.
A change of focus for Berneron
This new release was two years in the making. It’s a puzzle consisting of many pieces that come together in the new caliber 595. Once you open the hunter-style case back, the beautiful caliber reveals itself. It truly is a wonderful mechanism, both technically and visually. Its quick-set system allows the wearer to set the time and date by rotating the crown forward and backward. The day and month are controlled with two pushers that are superbly integrated into the case flanks.
When it comes to the safety system, the caliber smartly resets the date to the first day of the following month when necessary. This prevents the mechanical issues that can arise from mistakenly selecting a nonexistent date. For example, if you were to use the month corrector while the watch was set on May 30th, the date would automatically reset to June 1st instead of June 31st, which doesn’t exist. The platinum case even features a thin layer of 904L stainless steel to make the watch more resistant to scratches.
As you can see, Berneron went to great lengths to impress us again with his second release. While the design language might be more conventional, the watch itself is anything but. I suggest you read Thomas’s more extensive article (coming Saturday, the 6th), in which he’ll explain in more detail what makes the Berneron Quantième Annuel one of the undisputed highlights of this week.
Gérald Genta Minute Repeater
Our next pick was a delightful surprise. The new Gérald Genta Minute Repeater combines Genta’s favorite complication with a fresh design by Matthieu Hegi, artistic director at La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton. He crafted a stunning cushion-shaped 40mm yellow gold case with a mere 9.6mm thickness.
The case features Genta’s signature double gadroons and has single lugs on either side to connect to the black leather strap. It’s an elegantly crafted case that beautifully honors Genta’s legacy. Inside it sits a striking black onyx dial. Despite its simplicity, the dial has an eye-catching design, featuring an irregularly shaped railroad minute track and yellow gold hour markers. Elegant, slim hands hover over the dial. The only text on it is the brand name and numerals for five-minute intervals, making it one of the nicest and cleanest dials we’ve seen recently.
The all-new caliber GG-002
The case serves as the acoustic housing for the caliber GG-002. This new manual-winding movement was developed entirely in-house at La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton. It consists of 316 parts, beats at a 3Hz frequency, and offers an 80-hour power reserve. The main feature of the caliber is the minute repeater. The brand ensured that the case helped create a beautiful, crisp sound by perfecting its thickness.
Since Hegi wanted to design a stylish and elegant watch, increasing the size — a common practice with minute repeaters — was not an option. Instead, the designers focused on adjusting the metal’s thickness to optimize sound quality. As a result, the case’s walls are only 0.6mm thick at their thinnest point. As Lex explained, this new Gérald Genta Minute Repeater might appear modest, but its details are quite impressive. It’s an easy second choice for this list.
Furlan Marri Disco Diamonds Onyx
We’ll stay with black onyx dials for a bit. One of my favorite releases this week was the new Furlan Marri Disco Diamonds Onyx. It’s a new take on the brand’s Disco Volante that debuted last year in three colorways. This version takes the round 38mm case of last year’s inaugural models and combines it with a beautiful black onyx dial adorned with baguette-cut lab-grown diamonds as hour markers.
The dial design is also toned down significantly to create a greater visual impact. The result is an understated version of the Disco Volante — yes, understated despite the onyx dial and diamond indexes.
The ETA/Peseux 7001 caliber powers the watch. This manual-winding movement is super slim, helping give the Disco Diamonds Onyx a svelte 8.95mm profile. Rounding out the stylish aesthetic is a wonderful stainless steel Herringbone-style mesh bracelet.
Buyers also get a black textured leather strap to change up the look, but that bracelet is the way to go for me. At CHF 3,500, this is one of the nicest affordable surprises we have seen this week.
Dennison ALD Dual Time
We’re staying in the landscape of affordable watches for our fourth pick. Another brand that quickly made a name for itself is Dennison. The inaugural ALD Stone Dial collection featured five surprisingly affordable and beautifully proportioned dress watches. They were powered by a thin Swiss Ronda quartz movement, keeping the cases nice and slim. After the initial five releases, Dennison added more stone-dial goodness to the lineup, cementing the idea that there is something special about these deceivingly simple-looking watches.
The new Dennison ALD Dual Time collection emphasizes this point. These watches show that the overall aesthetic also works well in this new setup. The new models display the time in two time zones with two sets of hands on one dial. Some versions feature a rather extravagant split-screen setup, while others have a dial made of a single natural stone and a sunburst sub-dial for one set of hands. The latter style is the configuration that we adore.
The same slim and wearable watches
These watches all feature a 37mm by 35.6mm case with a 6.1mm profile, making them super wearable. The case is available in regular stainless steel or gold PVD to create your preferred look. For our preferred configuration, you can match the case with an aventurine, tiger eye, malachite, or lapis lazuli dial with a second color-matching circular sunburst display.
It’s a refreshingly simple way of displaying the time in two time zones. This setup is made possible thanks to two Ronda quartz movements that power the watch, as Mike explained. Finishing the look is an Epsom calfskin strap with a case-matching pin buckle. Every variant has a differently colored strap to match the dial color. At €780, these new watches are a joy to see and will surely continue Dennison’s success.
Singer Reimagined Caballero
Our last pick is the spectacular Singer Reimagined Caballero. This one is a divisive pick because the dial design is not for everyone. I had the chance to wear the Empire Green version for a couple of days and quickly became a fan. The new Caballero is also available with a blue or black lacquered dial, and all three versions look quite impressive.
When looking at the watch in real life, you can almost feel the layers of lacquer applied to the dial. The big divisive element, of course, is the minimalist dial design with its gold flange and four inset rubies. The visible rubies are a rather unusual design choice, but they make total sense if you know the story of the watch.
To understand that story, you only have to turn the watch around. You will be greeted by the brand’s first fully proprietary movement. The manual-winding Calibre-4 Solotempo is a time-only movement with a four-barrel construction. The two sets of twin barrels offer a power reserve of six days (144 hours) and deliver power in parallel, ensuring consistent and stable torque for the full running time.
The caliber is housed in a 39mm stainless steel case with a 10.5mm thickness and a 45mm lug-to-lug. As a result, the Caballero wears like a dream. The combination of the remarkable minimalist dial design and the spectacular movement makes for a much-debated release. It almost seems like a timepiece you either love or hate. We love it, and that is why it is the fifth and last pick on this list.
Final thoughts
There you have it — our five favorite watches that came out during the week of Geneva Watch Days 2025. As always, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Let us know in the comments section what your favorite release was, and we will see you next week for another list.