Six suggestions for Valentine’s Day

February 14 is well and truly on the way. It is time to look at something special for that someone special! And to help, here are six suggestions for that lady in your life for this Valentine’s Day.

Six suggestions for Valentine’s Day

It is barely a month away! But there is still time to get some of these watches for your significant other. OK, maybe not the first on our list, but the other watches on the list should not be too difficult to procure and for it to be presented on Valentine’s Day 2023. Good luck!

Patek Philippe Aquanaut Luce Annual Calendar Ref. 5261R-001 (SGD 81,900)

We start with a complicated watch. But not just any complicated watch, but one from Patek Philippe. And not only any Patek (if ever there was such an expression), but an annual calendar. And not only that, but an Aquanaut in gold.

Patek calls the Aquanaut Luce Annual Calendar a watch for the ladies, but we think the design and size is such that it can be unisex. And Patek does not disagree. And the Aquanaut Luce Annual Calendar can be a nice shared couple watch. Win win. The watch also marks the first time an Aquanaut model (be it men’s or women’s) is fitted with an annual calendar complication.

Blancpain Ladybird Saint-Valentin (SGD 45,200)

A special piece created by Blancpain for Valentine’s Day 2023 Edition.  Blancpain has always presented watches to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day.  And we have covered several of these: in 2015, 2016, 2020, 2021, and 2022. Each year, a different model was chosen. Anmd for 2023, its the Ladybird, an exceptional wristwatch for the ladies.

Beautiful, with tastefully restrained use of diamond set white gold case with a mother of pearl dial. And the use of their magnificent caliber 1153 automatic movement.

Franck Muller Curvex CX Lady

New from late last year, Frank Muller’s extension of their Cintrée Curvex cased collection with the new CX Ladies collection, available in two sizes of 30mm and 33mm. The collection is very feminine, and playful. Has the design beautiful touches and excellent proportions that made Frank Muller a house hold name. And with a mechanical automatically wound movement to boot. Franck Muller claims the FM 2536-SC to be fully in-house.

So many references in two sizes to choose from! And our pick is pictured above: the 30mm Color Dream Full Pave Diamond Case Rose Gold retailing at SGD 84,500. Quite Barbie like…don’t you think?

Chopard L.U.C Flying T Twin Ladies

A tourbillon for the ladies. The Chopard L.U.C Flying T Twin Ladies is available in two flavours. One in rose gold with a mother of pearl dial and only diamond encrusted in the case, and one with the full diamond treatment – on the bezel, on the case side, on the lugs and full pavé on the dial! And also equally fascinated by the magnificent tourbillon peeking out from the otherwise “mysterious” style dial. Very bling, very dressy. Would be magnificent in a long flowing cocktail dress for that formal evening.

This is proof enough that the ladies can get their diamond encrusted watches as well as a superior high complication piece. The Chopard L.U.C Flying T Twin Ladies Tourbillon is a superb example of this very specialised genre. The complicated watch is squeezed into a rather small 35mm case, perhaps suitable for the petite ladies.

At this level, Chopard has chosen to put this in the P.O.A category. Though the rose gold version with mother of pearl dial (no diamonds) is listed at CHF 125k before tax.

Breguet Reine de Naples 8919 (SGD 57,300)

And the queen arrives. Breguet’s Reine de Naples (Queen of Naples) is an exceptional piece in their collection. And specifically targetted at the ladies. There are many references in the collection, but our pick is the Ref. 8918BB/5R/964 R00R in the mother in a mother-of-pearl guilloché dial.

Not the Reine de Naples to feature the MOP dial, but the first to combine the natural material with guilloché engravings. The MOP dial is white, and features the hour markers in Red Breguet Arabic numbers.The bezel is set with red rubies on the flange and crown, and the gem at 6 o’clock is a large pear-cut ruby. And the power behind is the in-house Breguet Caliber 537/3 with automatic winding.

Ba111od Chapter 6

And we round up the list with a budget conscious pick. Ba111od is the King of the Swiss Made budgets, with their Chapter 4 Tourbillon still being the least expensive Swiss Made tourbillons in the market. Thomas Ballod has the knack to offer the best value for money for his watches, despite all the under CHF 10k tourbillon wristwatches being sourced from Oliver Mory. But for this pick, we are not talking tourbillons. But a simpler three hand watch designed for the ladies, equipped with movements by Soprod. And there are five references to choose from. Our pick is the steel model Melinda, pictured below, which retails for USD 795. The watch is named after Melinda Stämpfli, the founder of the dance school that is in the Villa Castellane. The school is right next door to Ba111od and friend of the brand.

The design is quite a good looking watch, with an open aperture forming the upper part of the figure of 8 which dominates the dial, quite similar visually to the Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde, but the Ba111od is just an open aperture to view the movement. The time is displayed centrally and the hour/minute hands sweep across the entire dial surface.

Concluding thoughts

Well, Valentine’s Day is just an excuse for us to put up a list of ladies watches. Not watches which can be worn by ladies…we feature them all the time. After all watches do not have genders. And though maisons do label their watches for gentlemen, or for ladies, the lines are more blurred than the pronouns that describe humans. But let’s leave that for now.