The best black watches

When it comes to the colour of your watch, nothing says discretion and understated confidence quite like black. Think Karl Lagerfeld in the ’70s with his customised black-painted Audemars Piguet Royal Oak or the late Virgil Abloh with his all-black Patek Philippe Nautilus. It says practicality, recalling the dials of watches worn by the armed forces during the second world war; but it also says glamour – the perfect accessory to a black-tie suit or little black dress. 

The latest crop sees Victoire de Castellane dressing up the classic Dior La D de Dior in matte black for the first time, with a diamond-set bezel. Tom Ford gives a nod to military styling with the outsize luminous Arabic numerals of its latest release, while Hublot and Richard Mille make bold artistic statements – the former in its latest joint project with Takashi Murakami, encasing in black ceramic a dial that glitters with the artist’s trademark happy-flower emblem in a rainbow of jewels; the latter with a Carbon TPT heavy-metal inspired piece, complete with a skeletal gold hand making the devil’s horns gesture at the heart of a see-through dial. It’s time to bet on black.

Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Tech Gombessa, £24,700

TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph x Porsche Orange Racing, £5,850

Omega Speedmaster Super Racing, £10,700

Hublot Takashi Murakami Classic Fusion Rainbow with unique NFT, £45,000

Dior La D de Dior Black Ultramatte with black diamonds, £4,100

Hermès H08, £14,000

Patek Philippe Alarm Travel Time Ref 5520P-001, £226,600

Chopard Alpine Eagle Cadence 8HF, £18,500

Richard Mille RM66 Flying Tourbillon, SFr985,000 (about £874,739)

Tom Ford N002 Ocean Plastic Sport Camo, £1,020 

A Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk, $101,000 

Breitling Premier B01 Chronograph, £7,200

Panerai Luminor Razer Edition, £7,300

Longines Pilot Majetek, £3,500

Audemars Piguet Code 11.59 Ultra-Complication Universelle RD#4, SFr1,45mn (about £1.29mn)