6 of the best sapphire watches
Buffy AcaciaFor the vast majority of watch owners, the only sapphire they encounter is the one protecting their watch dials. If you’re a Cartier owner, perhaps you’ve used the crown bearing a sapphire cabochon. Transparent plastic has been a staple of affordable quartz watches since the ‘80s, but that same sense of whimsical curiosity translates surprisingly well to the luxury side thanks to lab-grown sapphire crystal. With its hardness leading to a legendary scratch resistance, sapphire, in its huge range of possible colours, is both a practical and novel material for a watch case.
Code41 NativeDNA Sapphire X41
For a relatively young brand, Code41 has taken plenty of bold stances. A mix of high-end Swiss connections and crowdsourced ideating has led to incredible watches that retain a hint of tradition, or forego it entirely to create something new. The NativeDNA Sapphire X41 isn’t just one of the most affordable sapphire cases on the market, but it’s a metaphor for the brand’s transparency of all the costs involved with materials, manufacturing, and profit. It’s also customisable, with the harsh angles of the skeletonised manufacture movement taking on different icy hues of blue, grey, black, or green, and various strap options including transparent rubber, racing leather, or even a titanium bracelet. Unfortunately, we’re not the only ones who saw the inherent value of this piece as you will now have to sign up to a wait list to get hold of one. Price: US$24,435
Aventi Wraith Sapphire Ice Blue
Most microbrands do their best to emulate big companies, creating histories along with brick-and-mortar locations to help legitimise themselves and establish trust. Aventi actually boasts about its decentralised nature, its use of third party manufacturers, and its alternative business structure because it saves customers money. While they have been able to sell a previous sapphire case watch, the Pure Sapphire A11-01, for just four figures, that model couldn’t stay in the catalogue forever. The shape of this icy model will certainly not be to everyone’s liking, they have swapped out the Chinese movement for a Swiss tourbillon here, and the two-year warranty along with the price tag makes it too tempting to ignore. Allocations are strictly controlled by the brand with only 10 a month being granted. Price: US$30,000.
Hublot Unico Big Bang Water Blue Sapphire
Hublot has been a master of materials for a long time now, and this is a big year for them, as they celebrate 20 years of their iconic Big Bang. This means we’ve seen quite a few celebratory models releases so far this year. And while we’ve had multi-watch collects releases that are either partially or entirely made of our sapphire models, I think this individual Unico model deserves some special attention. The colouring of this case is near perfection when looking to create that ice blue effect, and add on top of this complexity the Unico 128 chronograph movement inside, you’re on to a winner. The only problem is that they can only make 50. Price: US$138,000
ArtyA Tiny Purity Tourbillon NanoSaphir Chameleon
ArtyA is an incredibly difficult brand to pin down, having experimented in such vast ways over the years. Lately, one of its favourite avenues of investigation has been that of lab-grown sapphire. Unlike most brands for whom any coloured sapphire is considered experimental, ArtyA has pushed the envelope even further with sapphire that changes colours depending on the light temperature, typically distinguished by natural or artificial lighting. The effect is called pleochroism, and it’s very rare in both natural stones as well as lab-grown ones. In fact, I’ve never seen a stone change colours as drastically as this before, no matter its origins. Each piece is a one-off creation, with colour changes including orange to green and green to teal. All of that is fascinating enough before you even address the Tiny Purity movement that features a 17mm tourbillon with two barrels offering a 4Hz beat rate and 72-hour power reserve. Price: US$179,000
Ulysse Nardin Grand Bleu
Ulysse Nardin has an incredible legacy, but one of its lesser-known highlights happened at the start of the previous decade. In 2010, the Ulysse Nardin Royal Blue Mystery Tourbillon was a million-dollar watch made of solid platinum set completely with baguette diamonds and sapphires. It was a bit of a cult classic as a limited edition of 99 pieces, but now the Royal has returned to Ulysse Nardin’s catalogue in two hyper-modern interpretations bearing a clear sapphire case and crown. The translucent blue and red-pink structure that holds most of the in-house calibre UN-79 is made of lab spinel, leaving the flying tourbillon front and centre for staring at. Price: US328,300
Jacob & Co Bugatti Chiron Tourbillon Sapphire Crystal
If you’ve got some serious cash to burn, why not go all out? There’s traditional watchmaking, and then there’s the likes of Jacob & Co. Taking direct inspiration from the bodywork of the Bugatti Chiron, the clear case is sculpted from solid sapphire with an incredible amount of detail and fluidity. The calibre JCAM37 even has a miniature 16-cylinder engine automaton within a sapphire block, along with an angled flying tourbillon and power reserve indicator for 60 hours. It’s a limited edition of just 7 pieces in clear sapphire, with various unique pieces created in alternative colours from blues to matte yellow. Price: US$1,300,000
Time+Tide Timeless Pick: MB&F HM3 FrogX Purple
As creators of experimental and artistically minded watches, it’s hard to go past MB&F. The HM3 first came about in 2009 as a precision instrument, but Maximilian Büsser tweaked it into the HM3 Frog the following year, indulging in bulbous eyes and a grinning mouth. The FrogX celebrated its 10th anniversary as a limited edition of 10 pieces, this time in a cheerful sapphire case, like the skin of some rare Red Eyed Treefrogs. The sapphire case itself is clear, however the purple rubber gasket and the case’s method of bending light almost makes the whole thing appear purple. Although all of the pieces were sold, there is one currently available for sale on MB&F’s Certified Pre-Owned store for CHF 148,549 (~US$168,660)