The 10 Best Watch Brands of 2025, According to 36 Experts

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The Great GQ Watch Survey is back for the fourth year in a row. The rules are simple: I’ve asked a large swath of the Watch Illuminati—dealers, collectors, journalists, auction specialists, etc.—to vote on the best in class across the industry: What was the biggest timepiece trend of the year? What was the watch of 2025? What’s the best piece I can buy right now for less than $1,000? All of those answers are to come in upcoming installments. But today, we’re kicking things off by running through the brands that dominated 2025, according to the 36 experts I polled.

Consensus and disappointment defined the industry last year. 12 months ago, many of the responses I got to this survey were about how hard it was to find brands worth celebrating. It was also the first year that Rolex was knocked from its perch at the top of the podium. When experts finally identified successful brands and watches, a large majority coalesced around two names: Cartier and Berneron, which ran away with the first and second spots in the survey.

The responses to the 2025 Watch Survey were summarily different. 18 different brands, from Vanguart and MB&F to Rolex and Vacheron Constantin, swept in first-place votes. That’s a far cry from last year, when brands in the bottom half of the top 10 struggled to put up respectable numbers. The diversity of votes says to me that there were a huge number of brands that released fascinating watches over the past 12 months.