Stand out with one of the best unique watches for men. Our selection includes watches with avant-garde designs, unusual movements, and bold dials.
It’s true that many watches look the same. There’s a sea of black, brown, and blue dress watches out there, and many of the best luxury sports watches have similar appearances. However, plenty of watch brands make unique watches for men that reflect different styles and personalities. Rest assured that they still have exceptional movements and craftsmanship.
Some companies, including independent Swiss watch brands MB&F and Richard Mille, dedicate themselves to creating unique watches for men and women. They achieve this by departing from classic round, oval, and square cases and creating unique movement architecture. There are also plenty of bold colors used in the design, and sometimes even in the movement. Other brands have a mix of traditional and unique watches for men. Cartier has ultratraditional dress watches — such as the Tank, one of the most iconic watches of all time — as well as many watches that have unusual case shapes and designs. Some companies, including Patek Philippe, use traditional artistic crafts to create one-of-a-kind pocket watches that will certainly turn heads. There are also digital watches with fun case shapes and interesting motifs on the dial.
Unique watches for men range from affordable digital watches with futuristic designs to multi-million-dollar mechanical watches. Our selection of the best unique watches for men showcases different types of creative designs and is sure to inspire you.
In This Article
- Unique Luxury Watches
- Unique Skeleton Watches
- Unique Pocket Watches
- Unique Digital Watches
Unique Watches for Men
Luxury Unique Watches for Men
Many of the most unique watches for men come from luxury brands and have steep prices. What makes these watches so expensive? They all have in-house movements, which means they have factories to create the components and watchmakers to assemble them. Some watchmakers spend months creating a single watch.
Richard Mille RM 66
Richard Mille has a large selection of unique watches for men, including RM UP-01 Ferrari, one of the thinnest watches in the world, and RM 88, a tourbillon watch with a big smiley face on the dial. But its most unique watch for men might be RM 66. This watch has a striking dial dominated by a red-gold skeleton hand giving the devil’s horn sign popularized by rock stars: index and pinky finger up, middle and ring finger down. The fingers enclose a flying tourbillon with a skull at its center, located at 12 o’clock. In keeping with the rock-star style, the watch has a black tonneau-shaped case made from a type of carbon with titanium and red gold inserts. The watch retailed for a cool $1,090,000 when it was released in 2023.
H. Moser & Cie. Swiss Alp
At first glance, this limited-edition watch appears to be an Apple watch. However, it’s actually a luxury mechanical timepiece from H. Moser & Cie. The Swiss Alp Watch Final Upgrade has a black DLC steel case and a matching black alligator strap. The dial is Vantablack — a patented super-black coating — that absorbs up to 99.965% of light. It holds the world record for the darkest human-made substance. At 6 o’clock, a “loading” symbol turns and functions (somewhat) as a small seconds subdial. Like all H. Moser & Cie. Concept watches, the dial lacks any visible branding or hour markers. This watch is now sold out, but you might be able to find one on the secondary market.
MB&F HM8 Mark 2
MB&F is one of the most inventive and avant-garde watch brands in the world, and it certainly makes some of the most unique watches for men and women. It even calls its watches “machines” instead of timepieces. It makes watches and clocks that look like rocket ships, car engines, and even a spider. Its “regular” watches frequently have unique dials and case shapes too. The recently released HM8 Mark 2 continues the brand’s fascination with racing watches and quite literally turns a watch movement upside down. The top of the watch isn’t the dial; it’s a peek inside the watch and highlights the uniquely shaped rotor. To tell the time, you look at the side of the watch, where two windows display the hours and minutes with numbers on disks instead of with hands. This limited-edition watch sells for $78,000.
Urwerk UR-100V Lightspeed
Urwerk’s watches are instantly recognizable due to their space-age stylings and unique ways of telling time. The UR-100V tells the time using a minute scale, which appears on the bottom half of the watch, and a wandering hours display for the hour. At the center of the watch, several disks printed with numbers signify the hours. As time passes, the number “wanders” along the minute track, indicating the hour and the minute. There’s also a red arrow on the minute track for more precise time telling. As the hour ends, this disk disappears underneath the movement while a new disk slides into place at 0. The top half of the watch is a functional planetarium, showing the location of the eight planets in our solar system. It also indicates how long it takes for a ray of light to reach each planet, ranging from 3.2 minutes to reach Mercury to 4.1 hours to reach Neptune. This impressive watch goes for $76,000.
HYT Conical Tourbillon
This Swiss watch brand has an unusual way of displaying time. Instead of traditional hands, HYT uses thin tubes of colored liquid that move around the dial. The Conical Tourbillon collection has a raised tourbillon at the center of the watch. The outside of the dial has hour markers. Just inside this is a tiny glass capillary tube measuring 0.8mm in diameter. Miniature bellows — a quarter the thickness of a strand of human hair — push a brightly colored fluid through this tube. The end of the color indicates the hour. A small arrow adjacent to the tube indicates the minutes. The brand produces several versions of this watch, including a full diamond-set version that sold for more than $500,000.
Unique Skeleton Watches for Men
A skeleton watch always catches the eye. Showcasing the watch’s inner workings is mesmerizing, and it’s a big visual departure from a sleek dial. However, some skeleton watches are more distinctive than others, thanks to their design and sometimes their movements.
Cartier Santos-Dumont Skeleton
While the elusive Cartier Crash might be the brand’s best-known unique watch for men, the maison has many others that you might actually be able to buy. The Santos-Dumont Skeleton watch has a square shape and an unusual layout. A major part of the display is dedicated to the micro-rotor, which typically is visible only from the back. It appears in the bottom left corner of the watch in a satellite motif. The rest of the movement is visible dialside, too. It’s topped by blued hour and minute hands.
Hublot Big Bang Unico Golf
The Big Bang is one of Hublot’s most iconic watches, but this watch stands apart. It’s a mechanical watch that doubles as a scorecard during a round of golf. It has two pushers, similar to a chronograph watch, but instead of starting and stopping a timer, it advances the number of shots you’ve taken and which hole you’re on. The number of shots is at 3 o’clock, the hole is at 9 o’clock, and your score for the round appears at 6 o’clock. The skeletonized dial shows you the inner workings of this ingenious and unique watch for men. The 45mm watch is crafted from gray carbon fiber and has a strap reminiscent of a golf glove. We recommend you wear it while playing at one of the best golf resorts in the U.S.
De Bethune DB Kind of Grande Complication
This watch from De Bethune isn’t unique just because of its looks. Not only is it one of the few reversible watches, but it flips in a totally different way. The DB Kind of Grande Complication rotates vertically, not horizontally. The front has a more traditional dial, while the back is skeletonized with a futuristic design that looks more like a spaceship than a watch movement. The back also highlights a tourbillon. This watch includes a perpetual calendar and a spherical moon phase. The crown is at 12 o’clock, so it won’t ruin the clean lines of this watch. The DB Kind of Grande Complication is produced in limited quantities and priced at 400,000 CHF ($460,000).
Unique Pocket Watches for Men
While pocket watches were once ubiquitous, they have been completely replaced by wristwatches. However, top brands use the larger size of a pocket watch as a showcase for artistic masterpieces. They create traditional designs, of course, but also modern motifs that are a striking juxtaposition to the classic timepiece. Some can convert to table clocks, too, so they’re even more useful and have more opportunities for you to admire them.
Hermès Slim d’Hermès Mysterious Rider Pocket Watch
The artisans at Hermès are masters of many types of métiers d’art, and their craftsmanship and playfulness shine through in the maison’s pocket watches. A pocket watch is the most traditional — and anachronistic — way of telling time today. Hermès uses the cover of its pocket watches to showcase whimsical and sometimes wild designs, highlighting the contrast between the modern images and the traditional crafts and watches. The Mysterious Rider Slim d’Hermès Pocket watch features a comic-book-inspired biker atop a motorcycle in a bright red outfit. He’s crafted from champlevé enamel, a difficult and time-consuming craft. First, artisans carve the design into a plate of metal. Next, they fill each hole with colorful enamel. Finally, they fire it in a kiln to set the color. The result is a perfect marriage of a modern scene and classic art.
Patek Philippe Rare Handcrafts Pocket Watch
Every year, Patek Philippe unveils its Rare Handcrafts collection. It highlights a wide range of métiers d’art, including gem setting, guilloché, engraving, marquetry, and various types of enamel. The motifs on the pocket watches and dome clocks range from pastoral landscapes to unusual scenes. One of the more unique watches for men released this year features a game of billiards. It comes on a stand that resembles two pool cues, so it can be used as a table clock, as well. Each watch is one of a kind and reserved for Patek Philippe’s top clients.
Bovet Monsieur Bovet
The Fleurier collection from Bovet honors traditional pocket watches — but with a twist. You can wear this 43mm convertible watch as a pocket watch or a wristwatch, or use it as a table clock, thanks to the brand’s patented Amadeo system. The watch is also reversible. The front dial has a beautiful guilloché dial in a swirling pattern that evokes peacock feathers. It comes in several different colors, including vivid shades of green, blue, and red, as well as classic black. The back of the watch showcases the movement, and, also on the back, there’s a small off-center dial in a matching color. Monsieur Bovet has an in-house movement with seven days of power reserve.
Unique Digital Watches for Men
Digital watches tend to have similar appearances, with computer-like screens and round dials. These unique digital watches for men have futuristic shapes or impressive screens with fun motifs.
Girard-Perregaux Casquette 2.0
The Casquette was a unique watch for men produced by Girard-Perregaux in the 1970s. Now the Swiss watch brand releases limited editions dubbed Casquette 2.0. The futuristic-looking digital watch has a sleek titanium case with a solid top embossed with the brand’s logo. The digital time display is on the side of the watch; this is also known as a driver’s watch. You can see it only if you look at the side of your wrist, and it’s easy to see if your hands are on a steering wheel. It comes in black, which is sold out, and a limited-edition silver-toned collaboration with fashion brand Saint Laurent.
Tag Heuer Connected Calibre E4
It’s unusual for a watch brand to make a smartwatch, but Tag Heuer was a pioneer in 2015 when it released its first connected watch. It’s now on its fourth version, each with improved technology and aesthetics. Tag Heuer partnered with Malbon Golf, a stylish golf apparel brand, for this special edition. It has a bold display highlighting the brand names and Malbon’s golf ball logo. The bezel has markers representing the 18 holes on a golf course. It also has a pulsometer and special golf apps.
Louis Vuitton Tambour Horizon Light Up
The Tambour Horizon Light Up Connected watch from Louis Vuitton is perfect for superfans of the French fashion brand. The smartwatch includes motifs from the maison’s iconic logo throughout, including on the strap and bezel. Louis Vuitton incorporated 24 LED lights into the watch, which is topped by a sapphire crystal. You can choose from several dial displays, all with Louis Vuitton style. It has typical smartwatch functions, including a calendar, step count, and heart rate, alongside Louis Vuitton exclusives, such as its elegant City Guides and a place to upload travel plans and tickets.
Bulova Computron
The Computron is a re-release of a Bulova digital watch from 1976. It’s part of the brand’s Archive Series, which honors its most iconic timepieces. At the time of its original release, the Computron made quite a statement for its unusual design with a digital LED screen, and it can still turn heads today. It also has an angled side time display, and the push of a button switches it from the time to the date. At $395, the gold-tone watch is one of the most affordable unique watches for men.
