4 High-End Watches Every Collector Is Eyeing Right Now

Welcome to Watch Guy Watches, GQ’s monthly curation of high-end timepieces for the true watch nerds among us. This August, star watchmaker Vianney Halter teams up with Massena LAB, Vacheron drops a new take on its Overseas QP, Zenith gets otherworldly, and H. Moser and Azuki drop…a dive watch?!

Even within the creatively charged, rarefied air of independent watchmaking, Vianney Halter stands out.

A graduate of the Ecole d’Horlogerie de Paris, he moved to Switzerland and worked with legends like François-Paul Journe on ultra-complicated timepieces: mystery clocks, monopusher chronographs, minute repeaters, and more. Then, setting out on his own, he established his own eponymous brand and created the Antiqua Perpetual, a wildly creative perpetual calendar watch with a steampunk housing that looked like nothing else on the market. Later, working with Harry Winston Rare Timepieces—then under the direction of MB&F’s Max Büsser—he developed the Opus 3, yet another highly idiosyncratic model that is widely considered an independent watchmaking classic. His inventive take on the form has earned him three awards from the GPHG, watchmaking’s version of the Oscars.

To be fair, Halter’s steampunk case designs aren’t for everyone. But what if there was a watch with a more conventional shape that still took advantage of his 19th-century aesthetic sensibilities? And what if that more restrained take was combined with an actual vintage movement from a historical manufacture? And what if it was designed in concert with one of the foremost authorities on horological history, a collector with an unparalleled passion for watches and a business that partners with the brightest minds in the watchmaking world? It seemed like a pipe dream until we saw the Old Soul, a new collaboration from Vianney Halter and Massena LAB.

The new Old Soul might not be as zany as one of Halter’s usual creations but it’s flush with interesting details. Look carefully and you’ll notice a beautiful stepped lug design and concave bezel that recalls watches from the 1930s and 1940s, a studded crown that references Halter’s beloved steampunk aesthetic but also provides necessary grip when winding, and a mix of polished and brushed surfaces that give depth and complexity. The dial, meanwhile, is classic Halter: a three-dimensional design in a “regulator” layout, it features separate registers for the hours and running seconds, plus a clever minute display with a peripheral chapter ring in radially brushed rhodium and an invisible disc with a blue hour pointer hand that appears to float in midair. The chemin de fer minute track and Halter’s classic typeface provide further reference to the 19th-century gauges and pocket watches that define his aesthetic.