Top 5 Women’s Watches for Christmas

Fans of understated women’s watches will be sent into orbit by the Zenith Elite Lady Moonphase. A thoughtfully original gift, no piece better embodies the growing trend for women’s watches to display more watchmaking complications and present more stereotypically masculine aesthetics, with its sleek, ultra-slimline profile and stark Roman numerals on its dial. The watch even comes with a sharp, shiny brown alligator strap. The moonphase is displayed at six o’clock – alongside a small seconds indication at 9 o’clock – on a dial made from white mother-of-pearl set with diamonds. The watch comes together, encased in a rose gold set with diamonds for a classy finish. If you’re looking to get her a luxury watch that’s still suitable for easy everyday wear, this is the watch to buy.

Moon worship is taken to new heights by the Glashütte Original PanoMatic Luna. The latest version, in pale blue, again presents a technically sophisticated face to the world, along with a deconstructed dial that dares to be different. This makes it a perfect watch for anyone with a bit of a creative streak. The moon dial appears at 2 o’clock and the main hour and minute display are offset to the upper left of the dial’s centre, highlighted by diamond indications. In addition, the German luxury watchmaker’s instantly recognisable Panorama Date makes an appearance at 4 o’clock. The dial is surrounded by a bezel featuring 64 white brilliant-cut diamonds for an added touch of luxury.

Bring back the bling over the holiday party season with the oval shaped Tiffany Cocktail 2-Hand Pavé. Proving that women’s watches can amp up the ice and still draw the attention rather than seeking it, the 18k rose-gold watch is distinguished by its classy, unfussy full diamond pavé dial, surrounded by round, brilliant diamonds on the bezel and crown. The crown owes its inspiration to the chatelaine watch, designed to hang from a belt hook on a chain, made for Tiffany in the 1920s by legendary watchmaker Henry Blank and Co.

Give your wrist some flower power to rival the Christmas table settings with the Jaquet Droz Petite Heure Minute Thousand Year Lights. A sensuous homage to the wonders of nature from a brand that bears the name of one of the legends of horology – 18th-century Swiss watchmaker Pierre Jaquet-Droz – it celebrates the beauty of flowers using a process inspired by an ancient Korean engraving technique. The main hours and minutes are indicated on an off-centre subdial at 12 o’clock, leaving room on the rest of the dial for a profusion of blooming flowers, picked out in mother-of-pearl encrusted lacquer using the ‘Najeon Chilgi’ method.

For the woman who cares about details, the full force of watchmaking techniques are let loose on the dial of the Lady Arpels Jour Nuit Fée Ondine watch. Its mother-of-pearl dial is set with diamonds, yellow and pink sapphires, spessartite and tsavorite garnets, picked out in a dazzling profusion of skills, including miniature painting, plique-à-jour and champlevé enamel. They depict a water nymph sitting on a water lily beneath a dazzling sun that changes to a full moon thanks to a 24-hour rotating disk. Part of French luxury jeweller and watchmaker Van Cleef & Arpels’ Poetic Complications collection, the piece comes in a white gold case set with diamonds.