My 9 Watch-Collecting Resolutions for 2025

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

It’s going to be a great year—or at least that’s what we should all be telling ourselves with a fresh sheaf of calendar pages ahead of us. I, for one, think the watch industry is in an exciting place right now. A new crop of collectors have developed tastes that are more diffuse than ever. There has been a surge of exciting upstart brands delivering distinctive, desirable pieces. And much like in the world of fashion, watch trends are far less prescriptive in 2025: Buy tiny timepieces or huge ones, follow your heart to funky dress watches or keep stacking up stainless steel sport models—there are limitless options for wherever your passions lie. With that in mind, I’m committing myself to a handful of watch-relatedNew Year’s resolutions for 2025—and using this exercise as an opportunity to talk about some news and fun recent-ish releases.

Find oddly specific watches

Watches have always been purpose-driven animals—tools designed specifically for racing, diving, or air travel. But what I want to get into is those pieces made to service the most peculiar and minute of tasks. As a passionate home chef, I was drawn to a recent Studio Underd0g release: a series of watches engineered for timing eggs late last year.

Another great example is this Casio made for…sitting in a sauna. The watch is designed to withstand intense humidity and even comes on one of those cute squiggly little bands that are handed out with gym locker keys. I love the idea because it solves an actual present-day problem rather than paying homage to an outdated tool that no one will actually use today. It’s also a really goofy problem to solve: Finally, I may know the time in the sauna. Honestly, I don’t usually think of a person in a sauna as someone with urgent places to be.

Buy this watch

Speaking of purpose-driven timepieces, I can’t stop thinking about this Nigel Cabourn Timex from 2019 that was designed specifically for refereeing the beautiful game. The idea is simple but effective: three-quarters of the dial is painted with a sherbert-orange shade representing a 45-minute soccer half. The utility is what gives the watch its beauty: I love the tangerine section of the watch and the contrast of the cream dial. The watch originally sold for $169, but it’s impossible to find now for less than $400 on eBay today, so I’m apparently not the only one who can dedicate a Sixpence None the Richer song to this piece.

Don’t worry about the economy

All this griping over imports and exports and the health of the watch market feels a lot to me like the obsession with the NBA’s viewership numbers. As a fan of the game, why should I care exactly? Keep collecting, keep watching. Nothing has changed about the volume of super collectible watches out there and the industry’s undergrowth of young feisty brands is only growing more formidable.

Watch out for Omega’s afterburners

I’m using this list as an excuse to talk about the absolute heater that Omega wrapped up 2024 on. The brand consistently found out ways to iterate on its flagship Speedmaster without ever making it feel wrung out and tired. Omega’s final release of the year, the Speedmaster Pilot, was a colorful and playful take on the watch that didn’t stray from its tool-watch heritage. That piece was the cherry on top of a year in which Omega finally put out the long-awaited white-dial Speedmaster and made excellent use of post-Bond Daniel Craig as an ambassador—the Seamasters he teased during the Olympics were excellent additions to the mainline. Then, there was the First Omega in Space Speedmaster, maybe my favorite new release from a major watch manufacturer last year. The vintage-inspired Speedy, with its warm toffee-colored indices, make the historic watch all the more approachable and wearable.

Lean deeper into shapes

Uniquely-shaped watches have been all the rage recently, whether we’re talking about the mega-hyped Cartier Crash, the Berneron Mirage, or newcomers like the Anoma A1 and Toledano & Chan B/1. But ever since I wrote about it in late 2023, I’ve been especially taken with the Seiko Crescent Moon. This moon-shaped Seiko, designed in the early ’90s by Japanese model and actress Sayoko Yamaguchi, is too smooth. I need it and they are very difficult to hunt down. Every post about the Crescent Moon is stacked with commenters asking if anyone happens to be selling.

Wear watches everywhere

Why constrain watches to just your wrist? The new Casio CRW001-1 ring means you can now check the time easily and stylishly on your finger. Obviously watch rings are nothing new, but making one in the shape of a digital Casio is a fresh take on the concept.

Find your watchfam community

It’s corny but true: The thing that makes watch collecting special is the folks you do it with. There are so many different ways you can approach your collection. Maybe you’re in love with a single brand, so you band together with the covenant of Universal Geneve collectors or start religiously posting on #SpeedyTuesday. Perhaps you start modding Seikos and fall in with the #SeikoBoys. Have a thing for funky ’70s watches and want to become best friends with Phil Toledano? That’s an option. You can go wide and start searching for important chronograph pieces or find an incredibly narrow passion and obsess over every variation of Rolex’s legendary 1016 Explorer (you certainly wouldn’t be alone: Andrew of @T_Swiss_T recently shared that his exhaustive guide on that watch and the 1675 GMT-Master have racked up 1.25 million page views over the years). Whatever your thing is, there’s a vibrant crew out there for you to join.

Invest in gold

Rolex announced a series of price hikes at the tail end of last year. While most of them are as mild as annual rent increases, one number is raising eyebrows. The price of some gold Rolex pieces are up 8%, according to Bloomberg. I think this means it’s a good time to plow some money into $GCW00—or maybe invest in the heaviest Day-Date I can find.

Learn to accessorize

There are several ways to personalize your watch. You can go as far as customizing it with aftermarket diamonds or a DLC coating to simply putting on a new strap. But there are levels to this shit. Watches of Espionage recently introduced a “Submersible Wrist Compass” meant as an attachment for your watch’s strap, which creates a very rugged rig when paired with a NATO or rubber bracelet. Just take a look at how James Stacey, Hodinkee’s newish editor-in-chief, went beast mode with his Tudor Pelagos 39. And I know this WoE joint is a sturdy tool for divers—it’s based on compasses worn by “Special Operators” during the Vietnam War, according to the product listing—but I can’t get over how adorably tiny it is. This thing didn’t last long and is currently sold out. They say you don’t need to put a hat on a hat, but putting a watch on a watch (or a compass) is going to be big for 2025.

See all of our newsletters, including Box + Papers, here.