Behind the Most Surprising Design of 2025, So Far

And what big brands get wrong about creativity; a Rolex–Swatch collab—almost; my favorite releases of the week.

In New York this week, I talked Patek Philippe 3970s at Collectability, Rolex Bubblebacks with Mike Nouveau and Phil Toledano (and saw Toledano & Chan’s new watch—the faceted crystal is cool), ‘90s Franck Muller at Analog/Shift, and a whole lot more. There’s a renewed interest in vintage (and pre-owned) watches that feels, in part, like a slight middle finger to modern luxury brands’ rising prices, exclusionary sales practices, and quality compromises. A small way of saying, we don’t actually need you.

In today’s newsletter:

• Behind the Design: The most surprising watch of 2025 so far—and one designer on the good (and bad) of design right now.

• What large brands get wrong about working with designers, watchmakers, and creatives.

• The Rolex x Swatch collab we’ve been waiting for—almost.

The entire Unpolished archive is online at unpolishedwatches.com. It’s the best way to find old newsletters, whether you’re a new or long-time subscriber.

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I joined Andy and Felix on the OT Podcast. We had a fun conversation about watch media, pet peeves, and the story of my first-ever press trip. We recorded on a Friday afternoon (Saturday morning Aussie time), and I had a drink in hand, so it’s a pretty open conversation.

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Behind the Design: The Most Surprising Watch of 2025, So Far

And what one designer thinks about the state of watch design.

The first time I’ve ever covered a Frederique Constant; if you covered up the name on the dial, would you even know?

The most surprising watch of 2025 is a world timer from Frederique Constant. When I learned Zurich-based designer Thomas Funder was responsible, I asked him to take us behind the design. We also chatted about what’s happening in watch design more broadly, which got me thinking about how brands can better engage with creatives.

Thomas has been designing watches since 2016, but the Frederique Constant World Timer for Watch Angels is his most classically-inspired project yet. It’s a shrunk-down 40mm (compared to FC’s standard 42mm world timer), and features a clean blue dial. The project began in the summer of 2023.

“The brief was to create a new version of the World Timer, making changes to both the design and movement,” Thomas said. “A lot of world timers seem small in the center where you read the local 12-hour time, so I wanted to open up the dial.” The analog date was also removed, a first for an FC World Timer.

The three-piece dial uses different layers and textures instead of contrasting colors, and a sloped outer ring prevents the rehaut from casting a shadow on the world-time disk.

The World Timer, along with a few early sketches Thomas sent over. I found it interesting to see the geometry behind the case.

The biggest challenge? FC’s world timer caliber is kinda thick (about 7mm), so when you shrink the case diameter, it can feel unbalanced. The design uses visual tricks to minimize this appearance: a highly sloped and polished bezel, a concave caseback, a brushed case and polished bevels. The case is thicker than FC’s standard world timer (13.4m vs. 12.1mm).

The case uses more brushed surfaces than a typical FC. This is always a difficult balance—a designer expressing their own POV vs. staying within a brand’s “DNA” (more on that below).

On the state of watch design. “There’s an independent aesthetic that’s starting to spread to larger brands,” Thomas said.