The 14 Rarest, Raddest 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.

Cool watches. Where do you find them? These days, the answer is practically anywhere. Whether you’re flipping on Antiques Roadshow, attending presentations at LVMH Watch Week, or just sitting back to enjoy the Australian Open, it feels like incredible timepieces are all but coming out of our ears at the moment. That makes separating the merely great timepieces from the truly superb an even more arduous task, but it’s one that I have—thanklessly and heroically—hefted onto my shoulders once again. I’m kidding. Like the many editions before it, this latest Watch Instagram Power Rankings was a joy to put together and meticulously handcrafted in a Genevan workshop to guarantee total chronometric accuracy. Thanks to all the collectors for sharing their photos of these pieces.

14. @louasics.rare’s Casio WQV-2 Wrist Camera

In 2025, watches are used primarily for telling the time and announcing to others how much money you have. But in the beautiful past, they were used for so much more: diving, voice recording, even broadcasting on FM radio! And back in 2001, Casio released the WQV-2 Wrist Camera, which allowed you to take extremely pixelated pictures of your sick Rainbow flip-flops and the Korn poster proudly pinned to your bedroom wall. Nowadays, I guess I’ll just have to settle for a minute repeater…

13. @nopstar83’s Ōtsuka Lōtec No. 7.5

Ōtsuka Lōtec is a relatively young brand from Japanese watchmaker Jiro Katayama. Katayama previously worked as a car designer, and while the 7.5 looks like a device a Max Max character might use on the road to Valhalla, the watch is actually inspired by triple-lens 8-mm cameras. No matter the aesthetic influences, this is an incredible-looking watch. It’s also one that’s nearly impossible to get your hands on. Ōtsuka Lōtec’s watches are exclusive to Japan—to purchase any of the brand’s pieces, all customers are required to have a Japanese address for delivery as well as a credit card issued in the country.

12. @moonphase.fr Universal Geneve Unisonic

My favorite thing about watch collectors might be their collective ability to generate killer nicknames. Take this Universal Geneve, for example, better known as THE BUZZSAW. But this UG isn’t merely a pretty face with a great name—there’s some real substance undergirding the watch’s cool. The Unisonic, as it’s officially and boringly known, borrowed Bulova’s tuning-fork mechanism—a quartz precursor that vibrates at 300 to 720 times a second to keep accurate time—for the movement. The Buzzsaw also comes in a handsome blue dial.

11. @veraletwatches’ Patek Philippe Calatrava “Halliburton”

From the folks who brought you the worst marine oil spill in history, it’s a beautiful Patek Philippe Calatrava. In 1968, the company made these watches for its directors and, in a rare move, even put the company’s logo on the dial. This is the Domino’s Rolex for guys (or gals!) who belong to Casa Cipriani.

10. @morillo55’s Delaneau ref. G411/90

Just when I think I’m full up on the stone-dial trend, another piece emerges and I find my appetite again. This DeLaneau comes with an opal and onyx dial and that’s just the beginning of this decadent watch’s many toppings. The case is white gold and set with both diamonds and rubies. For all that, the watch comes at a relative bargain—one sold at Sotheby’s in December for “just” $4,560. That’s insane.

9. @rarebirds.de’s Universal Genève

Universal Genève nailed every element of this watch. The mesh chain bracelet and barely-there crown keep things simple and elegant. The logo is my favorite from the world of Universal: the fat U! And why bother with a seconds hand when it would be a crime to put anything else on that deep, vibrant, green lacquer dial? Universal is mostly known for its very cool ”Compax” watches—the famous Nina Rindt or Eric Clapton—but what collectors love about the brand is its versatility. That shows up in a major way on this piece.

8. @timvaux’s Audemars Piguet ref. 25668BA

In the 1970s—during the nadir of the luxury Swiss watch industry, as the quartz crisis felled one brand after another—Audemars Piguet pushed on to the outer reaches of high watchmaking and introduced the world’s thinnest perpetual calendar. And a few years after that, it developed this reference 25668BA, 1 of 94 in yellow gold, with an openworked dial so you could really appreciate everything going on inside the watch. I’m disappointed to report, however, that the warm burgundy shade that’s cast over the watch in Tim Vaux’s very pretty photo seems to be a trick of the light.

7. @watcheekko’s

Mark Zuckerberg isn’t the only one with an outrageous F.P. Journe made in collaboration with legendary director Francis Ford Coppola. I’ve been fascinated with this watch ever since its’s debut at the OnlyWatch charity auction in 2021. What an insane idea: the watchmaker built a working hand that holds up its fingers to represent the hour (See it in action here!). For the minutes, the ring actually rotates so that the arrow at 12 o’clock is always pointing at it. I smile every time I see these out in the (virtual) wild. I just can’t believe this thing exists—much less that someone bought it and wears it around.

6. @t_swiss_t’s Audemars Piguet Star Wheel

Audemars Piguet doesn’t just make Royal Oaks, baby! Of all its oddball creations, the Star Wheel is by far the coolest. AP debuted this piece in 1991, but its method of time-telling—known as “wandering hours”—is inspired by a clock invented in 1655 for Pope Alexander VII, an insomniac bothered by ticking clocks. This watch tells the time by way of a trio of discs that rotate so that the correct hour is displayed at 12 o’clock. AP recently brought back the Star Wheel in 2022, but @t_swiss_t’s vintage version from 1991 with an elaborately engraved gold plate is unbeatable.

5. @johnson167’s Rolex Datejust ref. 69138

I don’t know where @johnson167 finds this stuff. It’s like he has a Wonka Factory for watches cranking out the most colorful, bedazzled, and exotic pieces in the world just for him. Over the past couple months, the one that most caught my eye was this Datejust with all the fixings. There are columns of diamonds running along the bracelet, and even more diamonds on the bezel, but what’s really special is that green stone dial. The texture of the stone does indeed resemble the kiwi that @johnson167 references in his caption—I feel like I could shove a spoon in there and dig out some of the succulent flesh. Or maybe I’m just hungry. Either way, this is a special watch. A similar-looking piece sold at Christie’s for nearly $14,000 at the end of December 2023. That piece was missing the diamond hour markers, the diamond bracelet, and the bezel wasn’t even completely set with diamonds like on the above example. So, point to @johnson167.

4. @aircooltime’s Patek 514

Damn, this is what the IG Power Rankings are all about: just looking at sick watches. @aircooltime recently purchased and surfaced this Patek 514—a rare Tank-style piece that the brand only made 65 of in total, according to its new owner and Christie's. However, the numbers drop quickly when splitting out the different variations of the reference. Trying to find a match for this piece will be particularly painful, because it seems that only seven of them exist in stainless steel (that's even more generous than estimates from other collectors who have floated that there are only two known examples). @aircooltime’s version is made even sweeter by the double-signed dial: the retailer Eberhard-Milan’s name appears just above the small seconds counter on the dial. And it wasn’t just any Giacomo-schmo who picked this up. The watch previously belonged to Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verde. Maybe not a household name, but definitely another feather in this piece’s already well-adorned cap. If you want to see many more pictures of this Patek—of course you do—you can find them here.

3. @roni_m_29’s Omega Cloisonné

Few collectors have a higher taste level than Ronak Madhvani. Madhvani is maybe best known for his love of shaped watches, particularly those from Gilbert Albert, a designer responsible for some of Patek’s funkiest pieces. However, Madhvani’s an omnivorous collector, constantly surfacing wonders like this one. I’ve become even more infatuated and interested in cloisonné dials lately (which is enamel sectioned off by metal strips—think of it as the fanciest Paint By Numbers ever). This Omega comes all the way from 1948 and remains just as vibrant today. I’m also drawn to those beaded, pearlescent hour markers.

2. @1_5_1_8_ Rolex Prince ref. 1690UF

Oh my, did it just get a little hot in here? Just looking at the girth of this particular watch, you would never know it was from the 1930s. This thing is Arnold Schwarzenegger-approved in its JUMBO proportions. This is a “Brancard” Prince, famous for its size and rarity. At the time of its heyday, the Prince was known as the doctor’s watch because its large minutes and seconds display made it easy to time out a patient’s pulse. (Even when it’s not designed as a tool watch, a Rolex always finds its purpose, huh?) All that is well and good, but what Andrea Parmegiani has here goes beyond all the basic info I could give you about this steamy watch. Those art deco-style numerals are so sexy and the candy-striped case is like nothing else I’ve seen on a Rolex before. As Parmegiani put it himself in his caption, “HERE’S A WATCH YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN!!!”

1. @crazykirbyh’s Chopard ref. 5029

The runner-up for GQ’s 2024 Watch Collector of the Year is already working to avoid taking home silver in that category again this year. This Chopard, made by Spanish jeweler Augustin Julia-Plana, is like wearing an enchanted forest on your wrist. The cuff is made of branch-like ribbons that bloom at the end with pretty baubles. This would have been the most epic watch in the rankings even if it didn’t come with a fun lil’ backstory, but it does. Hannah (@crazykirbyh) originally intended to purchase this watch at Sotheby’s “Rough Diamonds” auction last spring. However, she made a mistake when converting time zones and missed the bidding window completely. “I woke up and found the auction was closed,” she wrote on Instagram. (The watch sold there for $53,100.) However, Hannah was recently able to make things right by purchasing the watch from the winner of that auction, Karry Berreby Jewelry. It’s the classic “girl sees watch, girl loses watch, girl gets watch” story we all know and love.

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