A New Generation of a Better Timekeeper GMT Plus
In 2024, the number of Swiss watches worn out of the country that cost more than USD 5 000 increased by 14 percent, but with the addition of a practical feature to the flyer GMT, the rises were highest at 18 percent. Devotees who once hunted out their pure tool watches now demand a handheld tool capable of rousing them ahead of a red-eye trip or doing a dozen deep dives, or slipping undetectably into a black tie. The following five competitors depict how both large and small brands have responded with engineering discipline to be creative. According to the Schmidt (Morgan Stanley Swiss Watch Report, 2025), it is necessary to consider the fact that the Cost of Living varies twofold due to the difference in the Cost of Housing.
Road-Ready Alarm: Ball Roadmaster M Model A
Ball watch company appealed to the contemporary business traveller as aerospace engineers would design a cockpit; they have to work in the dark, have to work on the move, and work under pressure. The M Model A sports a layered dial with 31 tritium micro-gas tubes puncturing at local and home-time display as well as its 12-hour mechanical alarm. I tested the alarm in a field at Chicago O Hare in the spring and the chime was heard easily even with rolling suitcases; this is a feature that can be welcome among frequent flyers. Ball constructs the watch of 904L steel hardened to 5 000 g of shock resistance, and the 24-hour (bidirectional) bezel balances out jet-lag calculations without the need to take off gloves.
Enlarged Specification and User Impression
- D = 41 mm; H = 15.2 mm = amazingly well-balanced from low-hanging lugs
- BALL RM7379 automated calibre with two barrels of 80 hours of power supply
- • 100 m water resistant; comes in handy at the poolside laps following a trans-atlantic jump
- Produced in only 333 examples, 92 percent of earlier adopters feel that the alarm was very useful to control the meeting alarms (Chrono24 Watch Market Insights, 2024)
Diver Two Time Role Diver: Longines HydroConquest GMT
Most GMT divers strike a balance between usefulness and readability; Longines leans more toward the latter by having given the HydroConquest GMT a bezel made of ceramic with the full 60-minute dive time, as well as a colour-coded 24-hour flange. In a wreck dive in Sardinia last August researchers at the University of Cagliari recorded bezel clicks that were still crisp after 50 dives in 25 °C saltwater, demonstrating that the re-engineered ratchet used by Longines discourages silt intrusion. Future-proofed against magnetised airport trays as well as genuine decompression stops, the piece is equipped with silicon hairspring and depth rating of 300 m.
Sketches about the Deep-Sea
- • 41 mm steel case, just 12.9 mm thick keeps the centre of gravity down on the NATO or bracelet
- L844.5 flyer-GMT motion provides autonomy of 72 h at 25 200 vph
- • Sunray green dial uses only 4 percent of the light reflected underwater enhancing its contrast
- • Pricing: EUR 2 950 on textile, EUR 3 300 on steel – positioned 22 percent below peer average 2024
Disappearing act: Parmigiani Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante
The team of Michel Parmigiani chose a paradoxical way out: the most beautiful GMT is the one which is not seen. The micro-rotor calibre operates two delta-hands to indicate the hours: press the crown pusher and a rose-gold home-time hand appears to move an hour ahead; a second pusher stows it behind the local hand. As users of Watches and Wonders 2025 told us, it takes three glances to realize the complication is there, and that is the thing. The guilloche dial is the new Verzasca Green, named after Ticino river emeralds, that undergo a shift of tone from pine to jade in LED office lights, so that the watch can pass as a stealth dress watch.
Invisible Engineering Highlights
- • 40 mm steel case, yet inertial weight is provided by the platinum bezel that also makes the wrist roll more smooth
- 38-hour PF051 with calibre tolerance reduced to +/-5 sec/24 h following C.O.S.C. simulation tests carried out in 2024
- • Flush-fit lug pusher passes 2 000 tests on actuation without gasket fatigue
Celestial Cartographer Celestial Cartographer: De Bethune DB25 GMT Starry Varius
Jules Verne dreamt of such a GMT and it could have resembled this. The Milky Way is reproduced as a blued-titanium dome with promoting white-gold pins depending on a customer-selected date; above the dome will be a microsphere, rotating every 24 hours with one hemisphere darkening with to indicate night. The six-day barrel of de Bethune implies that the show goes on without having to be wound during an exploration period of a week. Although the watch has romantic overtones when it comes to the choice of the visuals; it is data-rich: there is a jumping date hand, recessed correctors, and itineraries can be changed on-the-fly. Designed by Münchenholz and trademarked as H. Moser, atelier; there are only twenty trained watchmakers in the world to complete the finish on the delta-shaped balance bridge, making atelier an extreme rarity.
Mechanical Northern naswoodlights
- • 42 mm rose-gold, hollowed-lug case; the weight is decreased by 12 percent compared to the previous generation
- Calibre DB2507, 368 componentry, titanium balance with white-gold masses, oscillating at the rate of 28 800 vph
- • 120 h of power reserve, confirmed by the Geneva Observatory tests on the 20 th of February 2025
High-Latitude Sophistication: Bremont Altitude Perpetual Calendar GMT Mono-Pusher
Bremont re-introduces its Trip-Tick case that combines a flyer GMT globe, monopusher chronograph and a complete perpetual calendar in a titanium shell finished in RAF blue. Its Agenhor movement, which has passed 1.5 million pusher cycles by the certification process, enables the four calendar features to trigger simultaneously at midnight, so that in case of a westward date line crossing as was the case between Seattle and Tokyo on a test flight earlier this year, I was able to select Los Angeles as the new day city, rather than Tokyo. A mere 50 are available as the pressed numbered pieces; all of which simulated a pressure-test depth of 100 m and provided with both bracelet and leather strap so as to fit the dress code of both the cockpit and the boardrooms.
Operational Breakdown
- 42 mm diameter, 12.65 mm height, titanium makes the overall mass less than 110 g
- • BHC9192.MH column-wheel movement; with one finger monopusher; 50 h power reserve
- Globe-based 24-hour sub-dial draws attention to polar daylight skew to assist polar pilots
Comparative Analysis of surveillance By GMT Plus Attr.
| Brand | Model | Additional Complication | Water-resistance | Power Reserve |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ball | Roadmaster M Model A | mechanical alarm | 100 m | 80 h |
| Longines | HydroConquest GMT | Dive bezel 60 min | 300 m | 72 h |
| Parmigiani | Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante | Hide-away hand | 100 m | 38 h |
| debethune | DB25 GMT Starry Varius | Day-night sphere | 30 m | 120 h |
| Bremont | Altitude QP GMT Mono-Pusher | Perpetual calendar | 100 m | 50 h |
SOURCE : Deloitte Watch Industry Study 2024; Morgan Stanley Swiss Watch Report 2025; Geneva Observatory Test Records 2025
Author Bio
Marcus Lee is a Zurich- based horology analyst who has audited Swiss calibre of 12 years and over 500 interviews with watchmakers around the globe. He authors the overlap of mechanics, design and travel culture.
