Zenith Chronomaster 18-1260-4039-72-C551

We’ve all been there, looking at the world’s first luxury sports watch, Audemars Piguet’s game-changing Royal Oak, thinking, “I wish.” For the lucky few who get to own one, they can enjoy the defining work of one of watchmaking’s most influential designers—but not everyone can be so fortunate. But it’s not game over just yet because we’ve got a selection of watches that just might scratch that itch without costing anywhere near as much.

Some of us are happy for our watches just to tell us what the time is, but some of us are not. There are a handful of people for whom a watch must display not only the time, but the date, the day, the month and even the phase of the moon. Entry to this club will set you back a few thousand pounds, but the upper end seemingly has no limit. Question is—can you tell the difference?

Now Baselworld 2019 has ended—and now we’ve got the big-hitters out of the way—it’s a chance to take a look at what caught our eye at this year’s show. So here they are, the best of the rest from Baselworld 2019.

If you’re just getting into watches, it won’t be long before you come across the El Primero. Meaning, ‘the first’, it was the name given by its creator, Zenith, to mark the creation of the world’s first integrated automatic chronograph movement. That was 50 years ago—there’s been a lot of progress since.