Best Travel Watches 2022 – Best Luxury Watches

travel watches 2022

Greubel Forsey

On New Year’s Day, 1914, six months before the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the world’s first scheduled commercial airline flight landed in Tampa, Florida. Since the plane took off from nearby St. Petersburg, neither the pilots nor passengers had to worry about adjusting their watches for a change of timezone. As travelers, we’ve literally come a long way since then. A century ago, as an American, the idea of spending the holidays in, say, Tokyo, would have been outlandish—to put it mildly. Now, a New Yorker can fly direct to Narita International in 14 hours (only Santa’s sleigh could compete) and with the right timepiece, they can keep track of multiple timezones in style. Here, presented in no particular order, is a survey of seven of our favorite holiday-ready travel watches.

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In 1955, when international air travel was becoming a thing, Pan Am asked Rolex to design a watch that allowed its pilots to tell time in two zones. The first model, reference number 6542, came with a blue-and-red (“Pepsi” among collectors) rotating bezel. The 40mm green-and-black GMT-Master II, a destro (the crown and date window are positioned on the left side of the case) riff on the original, was introduced earlier this year to much fanfare.

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Look closely. Can you see those ocean waves between the continents on the dial of the new (43.9mm, pink-gold) Marine Hora Mundi? That’s meticulous hand engraving you’re seeing, a signature of the storied brand, that was once the watchmaker to Queen Marie Antoinette. In the wide world of horology, Breguet leads the way in guilloché.

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Who doesn’t love a knurled bezel? (Just saying knurled aloud is a pleasure.) But that meeting of texture on the 40mm stainless-steel case with that of the Grain d’Orge guilloché dial, not to mention the movement’s elegant flyback function give the Tonda GMT Rattrapante a three-S classification: Simple, sleek, and sexy.

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Stephen Forsey, one of the most revered living watchmakers, has now made it so you can wear the world on your wrist. The 46.5mm titanium-case, rubber-strapped GMT Balancier Convexe features an embossed mini-Earth which, like the real one, rotates a full 24-hour cycle.

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Toggling between timezones doesn’t get easier or more chic than with the 38.5mm white-gold World Time reference 5231G. The iconic design—one of many grail-status watches from Patek Philippe—was updated this year, with a depiction of Southeast Asia and Oceania on its Grand Feu cloisonné enamel dial.

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If there was any doubt that the ’90s are back, look no further than the Bulgari Aluminium GMT. The 40mm rubber-and-aluminum collection originally may have made its debut in 1998, but the new GMT model has become a darling of the 2022 luxury watch crowd. With its Palladian proportions, high legibility, and that inimitable Bulgari cool factor, is it any wonder?

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The latest addition to the French luxury brand’s Arceau line, originally launched in 1978, Le Temps Voyageur is a 38mm travel watch that demands your attention. Take a close look at the map on its blue galvanized dial. Can you identify the continents? No, you can’t, because it’s an imaginary world created by Jérôme Colliard. Eventually, after running out of places to visit for the holidays afield, we’ll need to dream up somewhere new. Thankfully, Hermès is already ahead of us.

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Charles Curkin
Articles Editor, ELLE Decor
Charles Curkin is ELLE Decor’s Articles Editor, covering everything related to the architecture, interior design, real estate, and travel industries, and has previously written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Paris Review.