Watchlist: the best timepieces for up to £3,000

The preferred brand for French pilots takes to the high seas with this sumptuous affair. Designed with the officers’ mess of the naval air arm in mind, it’s the little details that count here, right down to the gilt indices – perfectly setting off  the medals pinned to your Admiral’s jacket.

£2,150; bellross.com

If anyone is going to carry the torch and bring industrial-scale mechanical making back to these shores, it’s Bremont, which has recently established a facility near Silverstone. This watch reminds us of what it’s always done best – solid, contemporary takes on the trad pilot watch.

£2,895; bremont.com

Every watch brand with petrol in its veins boasts a “carbon-fibre” model, but that’s a misnomer – the tolerances required by a watertight watch case were impossible to achieve in carbon weave. Until now. Oris’s long-term F1 partner, Williams, has pioneered a monocoque carbon chassis. 

£2,750; oris.ch

People talk about “manufacture” makers, where nearly all the components and assembly are done under one roof. Well, German Nomos does that, but for about half the usual price of its Swiss counterparts, and with a desirable Bauhaus design philosophy thrown into the bargain, too.

£2,380; nomos-glashuette.com