The 8 Best Pocket Watches That Money Can Buy: Vacheron Constantin The Berkley, Parmigiani Fleurier Ravenale And More

While the world obsesses over nostalgia marketing, the dignified gentlemen are back into wearing the pocket watches they inherited their granddads. Watchmakers are catching up, too (remember that AP Swatch collab? Yeah, never mind). From Geneva's oldest maisons to a two-year-old label out of Bangalore, everyone is making a case for a watch you keep in a pocket instead of strapped to your wrist, no pun intended.

And so we decided to dive into the very best pocket watches that the world of horology has to offer. Some are collectors edition vintage pieces, others are more recent (and equally impressive attempts) at bringing back the pocket watch. Read on.

This is the boss fight of pocket watches. Actually, double that. That's roughly what one private collector commissioned from Vacheron Constantin. The result, officially named The Berkley, now holds the title of the world's most complicated watch, full stop. Housed in an 18k white gold double-sided case spanning 98mm, it packs 63 complications across 2,877 individual components: the world's first fully mechanical Chinese perpetual calendar, a triple-axis tourbillon, a split-seconds chronograph, astronomical displays, and a Westminster Grande Sonnerie chime built to echo Big Ben on the hour.

AP turned 150 in 2025, right in the middle of one of the biggest waves of Royal Oak demand the brand has ever seen. It would have been easy to let the pocket watch side of the business fade out of the conversation entirely. Instead, the manufacture built two platinum universal calendar pocket watches to mark the milestone: a reminder that AP's complications pedigree runs generations deeper than Royal Oak alone. Each combines hand engraving, Grand Feu enamel, and a universal calendar capable of tracking Ramadan, Diwali, and Chinese New Year, powered by a 1,099-component movement with a flying tourbillon, split-seconds chronograph, and Grande Sonnerie minute repeater inside an open-faced case.

Gilbert Albert joined Patek Philippe at just 25 and eventually ran the brand's creative department. The Lepine, ref. 783, is widely considered his least restrained work. A core identifier of the Lépine style is the placement of the winding crown and its protective bow at 12 o'clock, prioritizing immediate legibility and understated charm over the heavy protective lids found on hunter-style cases. Standard models include some 157 parts that make up its foundational 17''' LEP PS movement, but in some cupercomplications, like the Star Caliber 2000, this number can go well over 10,000. The 783, a part of the Montres Golf collection, is a highly coveted vintage model from the 1950s.

Built as an unique Objet d’Art to mark founder Michel Parmigiani's 75th birthday, the Ravenale houses a restored 1920s minute repeater movement signed by Ed. Koehn pulled from Michel Parmigiani’s private reserve of antique calibres. This is inside hand-engraved surfaces finished with opal and jade marquetry on the caseback. The white gold chain alone took close to a hundred hours to forge.

1932 was the year Omega first became the official timekeeper of the Olympic Games, and this piece exists purely to mark this anniversary. The oversized 70mm hunter-style case is crafted from solid rose gold and houses the hand-wound Calibre 3889 chronograph movement, revived directly from Omega's archives. Built as a tribute to the vintage sports-timing instruments that made Omega's Olympic reputation in the first place, it balances historical accuracy with modern finishing.

Who said fashion houses can't be trusted to make a good watch? The openworked cover of this 45mm white gold pocket watch depicts a roaring lion, originally illustrated by British artist Alice Shirley for an Hermès silk scarf, rebuilt here entirely in wood marquetry from ten different species (amaranth, burl, bubinga, and tulipwood among them) chosen for their natural color. Open the cover and a Grand Feu enamel dial appears underneath, in either vert cyprès green or bleu saphir blue, driven by the manual-wind Caliber H1950. Only six exist worldwide, three per colorway.

This isn't as expensive as the others in the list, but hey, we're getting there. Bangalore Watch Company released its first-ever pocket watch, the Forty Seven, last month to honour the Swadeshi movement and the beginning of modern India. The 46mm case is made from 316L surgical steel with a rose gold PVD finish, paired with an off-white, linen-textured dial inspired by khadi. Power comes from a Swiss-made Ronda 6004.D quartz movement, and it ships with a leather lanyard that converts the piece into a neck pendant, waist accessory, or bag charm, with custom caseback engraving available on request.