The First Annual Watchstars Awards: Here Are the 5 Winning Watches for 2014

Watchstars was created by Ebner Publishing Group, a German company that owns numerous watch publications in Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Middle East. (WatchTime is one of Ebner’s holdings.)

The Watchstars committee consists of 44 experienced watch specialists from around the world. Among them are Joe Thompson, Norma Buchanan and Mark Bernardo of WatchTime. More information on the jury is available here.

Significantly, watch manufacturers are not allowed to submit watches to the competition: only committee members can nominate and vote. All watches are eligible, regardless of the brand, its size or its country of origin. Watchstars was established to be an independent and global award for the watch industry.

The five categories for the Watchstars awards are Classic Stars, Technical Stars, Design Stars, Stars for a Lifetime and New Stars. The Classic Star honors mechanical three-handed watches with no functions beyond a date and/or power-reserve indicator. The Technical Star celebrates mechanical watches with functions beyond that of the Classic category. For both of these categories, the nominee had to be launched between January and November of 2014.

The other three categories do not have a launch-date constraint for eligibility. The Design Star highlights unusual design or materials in the case and outwardly visible components; nominees can be mechanical or quartz. The “Stars for a Lifetime” category celebrates “timeless classics,” be they quartz or mechanical. Finally, the New Star honors a watch that has burst onto the scene with a successful introduction despite the competition.

Here are this year’s winners:

Classic Star: A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1