A-LS, founder of WATCH MEDIA ONLINE, picks the top 5 new watches for 2024!

This project asks prominent journalists from Japan and around the world to choose their top five watches released in 2024. This time, a-ls, founder of the watch news site WATCH MEDIA ONLINE, will introduce the new watches of 2024 that he has ranked first in his own categories, such as the "Eye Candy" category and the "My Choice" category.

Van Cleef & Arpels "Bouton d'Or Automata"

Packed with not only machinery and mechanisms, but also the dreams and romance associated with timepieces, these works will always be worthy of being museum pieces, whether they are made now, in five years, or in 100 years. The top pick in the "eye candy" category, which you may never see again, is a piece from the Extraordinary Objects collection, including Van Cleef & Arpels' "Bouton d'Automata."

Ferdinand Berthoud "Chronometer FB RES"

"Customization" was one of the key features of this year's competition. I was torn between Norqain's "Wild One of 1," which has 3.5 million variations, but I would like to recommend Ferdinand Berthoud's "Chronomètre FB RES," which comes from the ultra-high-end world of combining a fusee chain and a remontoir d'égalité and embraces customization, as the winner in the "Customization Category."

Cartier "Privée Tortue Monopusher Chronograph"

Another feature of this year's collection is that there were also many pieces that stood out, such as pieces that combined classic styles with cool and sharp designs, which could be called the "1920s-30s" or "revival of dress." While it's inevitable that your selection will overlap with others, I would like to choose one exceptional piece in particular, Cartier's "Privée Tortue Monopusher Chronograph," as the representative of the "New Revival" category.

Hermès "Arceaux Duc Attre"

While the "musical" category usually generates a lot of buzz every year, this year many brands, including the reigning champion PP, literally "kept quiet," but the Hermès "Arceaux Duc Attrée" stood out as a bold choice. Equipped with a three-axis central tourbillon and minute repeater that operates at 36,000 vibrations per hour, the tone is quite wonderful, so we would like to award it the "Repeater Category" award.

A. Lange & Söhne Datograph Up/Down

For the fifth and final watch, I would have liked to nominate either the Aquanaut 5268/461 with its extraordinary setting developed by Patek Philippe, or the Golden Ellipse with its magnificently intricate bracelet, for the "Craftsmanship Category" award, but perhaps it was due to connections... and, sorry to say, I have a weakness for blue dials, so I have decided to give the final spot to the A. Lange & Söhne Datograph Up/Down for the "My Camp Category" award...

General comment

　I was asked to choose my personal top five from the Watches & Wonders 2024 selection, and while I readily agreed, it proved quite difficult when I actually started to choose. For example, comparing and ranking watches priced over 100 million yen with those priced under 1 million yen on the same level is something I still lack absolute confidence in, based on just a few minutes of explanation at the Geneva venue. So, although it might be a bit of a cheat, I'd like to somehow forgive myself by selecting five top picks for each category that I've made up myself, so that they won't overlap too much with the other judges' picks...

　The watch industry has enjoyed a tremendous boom over the past few years, but how will they carry the popularity and profits they have gained into the future? This year's Watches & Wonders was an interesting event, as each brand showed the beginnings of their approach. There is an immense variety, with some brands still sticking to a high-end, limited-edition route and trying to select a buyer segment, others being ambitious with designs and prices to broaden their customer base, and others allocating much of their profits to services. However, looking back at Watches & Wonders 2024, it seems that this year's approach will be the turning point that will determine whether each brand will be able to maintain or expand its current status in 2024 at Watches & Wonders a few years from now.

　Relatively speaking, one of the characteristics of this year's competition was that there seemed to be more works that took an intuitive approach to reorganizing and improving existing works, or to color and design, rather than high-end works that sought to develop new mechanisms using springs and gears.

Selector Profile

KITAMURA (a-ls)

While founding a publishing company and working as editor and publisher of a music magazine, he discovered A. Lange & Söhne and became immersed in watches. From 2008, at the request of the German headquarters, he ran the Lange Owners Club in Japan (until 2013). In 16, he launched WATCH MEDIA ONLINE, a non-profit watch news site.