WTNY25: 10 Brands Marking Milestones You Won't Want to Miss

WatchTime New York’s decennial this year means celebratory pomp and circumstance aplenty. Combine that with more milestone anniversaries for a range of brands, and you can expect a general atmosphere of watch-y jollification at Gotham Hall. It only takes a round number, but these milestones offer interesting snapshots of horological history and influence today’s watch releases and discussions. Here are the notable birthday brands to anticipate at WatchTime New York.

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Blancpain: 290 Years Old

In 2025, Blancpain celebrates no less than 290 years since Jehan-Jacques Blancpain purportedly registered himself as a watchmaker in Villeret, Switzerland, in 1735. The brand’s history since then isn’t a straight or unbroken path but, no matter how you look at it, it’s easily one of today’s most significant and prestigious major watch manufacturers. Its history includes some of the earliest dive watches, and the modern company’s products include everything from high-end complications to cutting-edge materials.

Glashütte Original: 180 Years Old

When Glashütte Original celebrates “German Watchmaking Art since 1845,” it’s referring to the Glashütte watch industry itself. That was the year that several prominent watchmakers set up shop in the Saxon town. The various enterprises that resulted, however, were consolidated in 1951 into VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe (“GUB”), a single entity under the East German government. Following German reunification, historic watchmakers such as A. Lange & Söhne were resurrected and GUB was privatized and rebranded as today’s Glashütte Original, now both part of a robust modern watchmaking scene.

Zenith: 160 Years Old

When a 22-year-old Georges Favre-Jacot opened a workshop in Le Locle in 1865, mass production wasn’t a thing in Switzerland. Though inspired by the American watch industry, his implementation of the practice indicates the forward-thinking spirit of his company, now called Zenith. Around a century later, its pioneering of the automatic chronograph movement would become legendary. It’s still the only watch manufacturer allowed by law to put the word “pilot” on the dial of a pilot’s watch and, of course, it’s one of the most prominent historic watchmakers today.

MB&F: 20 Years Old

Arguably the first watch brand dedicated to making your head explode, MB&F was established in 2005. Its name stands for Maximilian Büsser & Friends, indicating its founder and the brand’s tendency to collaborate. It combines haute horlogerie engineering and finishing with extremely avant-garde concepts and designs— often the kind that challenge ideas of what a wristwatch can even be. The brand has continued to consistently blow minds with each release, year in and year out, for two decades.

Czapek & Cie.: 10 Years Old

Resurrected in 2015, the name Czapek & Cie. is that of a young, modern brand as well as of a historic watchmaker. François Czapek founded his company in 1845, but it disappeared only a couple decades later for over 140 years. Today’s Czapek & Cie was revived by now CEO Xavier de Roquemaurel and is among the relatively exclusive crowd of independent Swiss brands operating in the high-end space with traditional as well as complicated horology.

Chopard: 165 Years Old

Casual observers might think of Chopard as a jeweler first, the kind that later branched out into the watch game. It’s the other way around. Chopard was purely a watchmaker since its founding in 1860 and only introduced its first jewelry collection in 1985 following a 1963 acquisition by the Scheufele family of German jewelers. Today, it sells jewelry, watches and a full range of luxury goods. But what comes out of its dedicated watchmaking facilities opened in Fleurier, Switzerland, in 1996 quietly represents quality, refinement and even innovation arguably on par with even its most prestigious and historic watchmaking peers.

L. Leroy: 240 Years Old

L. Leroy traces its founding to 1785 Paris by one Basile-Charles Le Roy, himself the son of a watchmaker. Interestingly, if confusingly, the Leroy family that later acquired it isn’t related to Le Roy. Through changes of ownership, it was known to have produced clocks for kings, marine chronometers for navies, and cutting-edge, complex watchmaking. Today it’s Swiss-based and has been revived under the Festina Group with products that can be counted among the ranks of modern, complicated, independent haute horology.

Ressence: 15 Years Old

Ressence has become such an established personality in the independent watchmaking scene, you might forget that it’s only 15 years young. Founded in 2010 by Belgian visionary Benoît Mintiens, its concept of a disc-based regulator display in which the entire dial itself moves remains fresh and captivating. He didn’t stop there, however, and has continued to busting norms with everything from oil-filled cases to applying the Ressence theme to dive watches, and he’s even combined mechanical watchmaking with electronic connected components and other tech in the Type 2 e-Crown watch.

Breguet: 250 Years Old

Few names loom as large in the watch industry as that of Abraham-Louis Breguet. Innovating his way into history, his work on automatic winding, shock resistance and other contributions echo into the present day, not to mention his invention of the tourbillon. A clockmaker to royalty in his time and his eponymous brand a jewel in the crown of the Swatch Group today, 2025 marks a significant 250 years since he first opened his shop in Paris in 1775.

To mark the occasion, the brand introduced the Classique Souscription 2025 (pictured) earlier this year, a contemporary homage to Breguet’s late-18th-century “Souscription” models — simple, elegant timepieces offered by advance order. The new timepiece features a single-hand display over a grand feu enamel dial, a newly designed 40mm case crafted from the brand’s proprietary 18k Breguet gold, and the hand-wound Caliber VS00 with a four-day power reserve.

WatchTime New York and WindUp: 10 Years Old

The two major watch shows in New York both started a decade ago, in 2015. They’ve since given rise to something much bigger than even their own respective intentions or physical scales: The October weekend has organically become the United States’ major annual watch event. Both taking place concurrently means a confluence of enthusiasts in the city, peripheral activities, and opportune timing for brands to make a final splash of the year with new releases. Get WatchTime New York tickets here.

Some of the above anniversaries were featured in our print magazine this year in a recurring feature called BirthdayTime which will continue in 2026. Subscribe to WatchTime Magazine here.