Wancher Dream Moonphase Kaguya Murasaki Blue, $370 (approx. £276)
Named after Kaguya-hime, the moon princess from a 10th century Japanese folktale, the Wancher Kaguya uses a traditional layering of mother-of-pearl with dye to create a dial that shifts between twilight blue and sunlit sky depending on the angle. At ten o’clock sits an oversized moonphase sub-dial with a 31-day moonplate replacing the standard date wheel, a nice touch that keeps the celestial theme running throughout.
Price and Specs:
More details at Wancher.
Otsuka Lotec No. 8, £4,700
Everyone’s favourite industrial-meets-analogue Japanese watch brand, Otsuka Lotec release their latest watch, confusingly titled No. 8 – despite following the far more complex No. 9. Created by former car designer turned self-taught watchmaker Jiro Katayama – whose work has already won a GPHG Challenge Prize – it comes with a jump hour indicated by a mixer-style rotating knob and retrograde minutes. One side of the case has been removed entirely and replaced with sapphire crystal, giving you a direct view of the inner workings of Katayama’s in-house module as it does its thing.
Price and Specs:
More details at Otsuka Lotec.
Loresum LS04 V2 True Moonphase
British-based Loresum – named after ‘lorem ipsum’ because the founder believes the design should speak for itself – return to Kickstarter with a V2 of their hit LS04, and this time the big news is natural stone dials. Available in aventurine, eisenkiesel, bloodstone, and garnet, each dial is cut from real stone with unique patterning. Underneath, the same bespoke 59-tooth moonphase module (built by the same factory as the Behrens Original) drives a true 29.5-day lunar cycle with a 3D-printed mother-of-pearl moon that glows in the dark. The original LS04 drew comparisons to Arnold & Son at a fraction of the cost, and the V2 only ups the ante.
Price and Specs:
More details at Loresum.
Ardra Labs Delta Type, $2,450 (approx. £1,827)
Around 1.7 billion people live in time zones offset by 30 or 45 minutes from standard GMT — India is +5:30, Nepal +5:45 – and no traditional GMT watch can display them accurately. Founder of Ardra Labs, Nava Krishnan discovered this the hard way when his standard GMT couldn’t show the correct time for his family in South India. The result is the Delta Type and its patented PAN-GMT complication: a colour-coded, three-vertex minute hand and matching bezel that can simultaneously display any two time zones on Earth, including those awkward offsets. Limited to 300, it solves a problem the big houses have ignored for 70 years.
Price and Specs:
More details at Ardra Labs.
Aurelia Kollektiv Edition 1, €3,750 (approx. £3,240)
Founded by Benedikt Prand-Stritzko, who trained at H. Moser & Cie, Austrian independent Aurelia made their Kollektiv series sell out in 48 hours — both editions, 20 pieces each. The movement is based on the venerable 6497/6498 but so heavily reworked they’ve nicknamed it JA97/98 (‘Just Another 97/98’). Custom bridges, gold chatons for every jewel, traditional three-quarter plate with Glashutte-style striping — it’s the kind of finishing you’d expect from something at five times the price. If Moser made a watch at €3,750, it would probably look like this.
Price and Specs:
More details at Aurelia.
