Watchlist: the best timepieces for up to £2,000

With the second coming of Apple’s watch – second best-selling watch brand of 2015, after Rolex – we finally have a screen that’s readable in direct sunlight, GPS connectivity that unshackles you from your iPhone on a run, and 50m water resistance. In other words, it’s now a watch to be taken very seriously. With the addition of an exquisitely hand-stitched Hermès strap, all the more so.

£1,399; apple.com

Firmly rooted in the tradition of UK aviation timepieces, it’s rendered in a rock-hard diamond-like carbon coating worthy of Batman’s utility belt. Powered by a new version of Ward’s in-house Calibre SH21, it can run for an impressive five days on just one charge.

£1,550; christopherward.co.uk

The firm’s archives have been regularly plundered, to the delight of collectors wanting authentic retro appeal, but in a more modern size. This bit of kit was created in the Forties for the British special forces, who presumably had no idea at the time how on-trend khaki fabric straps would be in 2016.

£1,240; longines.com

“Strong” this most definitely is, in a burgundy colourway so rich, it’s practically begging to be paired with a cheeky Camembert. It’s also hard to imagine asking for any more for this money, as it goes all the way down to 300m (the standard for a Swiss-made scuba watch is just 200m).

£1,170; alpina-watches.com

As sober but elegant as one of Montblanc’s famous fountain pens, this dress watch is as sartorial and fuss-free as you’d want. Like all of the brand’s timepieces, it is hand-assembled at their villa-cum-atelier in the heart of Switzerland’s “Watch Valley”. Proper, in other words.

£1,980; montblanc.com

Crystal casebacks are great, but in order to gaze upon the tiny parts whirring away, you need to remove your watch first – and even then, the winding rotor obscures most of them. What you need is this lounge lizard of a watch, whose dial reveals the true complexity of what lies beneath. 

£1,695; raymond-weil.com