Beyond that, the rest of the industry was firing on all cylinders. On paper, that should be a positive, but this year it often manifested as sheer overload. There were simply too many releases across the board. Some of this may still be the final trickle of projects delayed by the COVID years, but what the industry gained in SKU count, it lost in focus. More noise makes it harder for brands to distill their storytelling around what actually matters, while simultaneously competing for the attention of an increasingly fatigued customer.
Layer on the continued snowballing of prices—an elephant in the room that several of my colleagues have addressed in greater depth—and it’s not surprising that 2025 feels like a year in which brands are still wrestling with a beast of their own making, born from the hype cycles and homogeneity of recent years. To look at it with a positive spin, however, amongst the noise, there were still some seriously cool watches across all price points. But focus from brands and watchmakers is very much needed, and I hope 2026 will bring more of it.