2020 Watch Releases: Breitling, Zenith, Bulgari, & Audemars Piguet

Reviewing some of the hottest new releases from brands like BVLGARI, Audemars Piguet, and Zenith.

April 08, 2020

First, we have the Zenith Defy 21 Land Rover Edition. It’s a complicated watch that looks hyper-minimalist, especially because of the sandblasted, kind of grainy finish. It’s totally on brand for the Land Rover Defender, which was the vehicle the watch was designed in collaboration with. It’s biggest negative is how limited it is, since it’s such a quality, and good looking watch.

Next up is the BVLGARI Octo Finnisimo Automatic Satin Finished Steel. It’s a watch that’s a variation on a classic. The Octo Finnismo is a purely original design, one that feels like its inspirations are clearly Genta, but in a way that is wholly unique and helps to further blur the line between sport watch and dress watch. With it, they also released a rose gold variant that is simply stunning in more ways than I can count.

And now for something completely different – the Timex M79 Automatic. While not a formal member of the Q Timex line, it’s still of the same bloodline. It’s got a killer, 70s design aesthetic that’s hard to beat. And yet, as we now are starting to see with Timex, it’s not as available as the demand would require, and there is a premium that ensues.

From there, we have the Breitling AVI Ref. 765 1953 Re-Edition. It’s a watch that truly exceeds expectations as far as vintage reissues go, and one that does so in a way that also signals the path that Breitling seem to be on going forward – as a manufacturer of highly beautiful tool watches that are still hyper-functional.

Last, but certainly not least, we have the Audemars Piguet [Re]master 01 Selfwinding Chronograph, a watch that seeks, according to the brand, not to be a reissue, but a true remastering of an iconic model from the brand’s heritage. On the surface, they succeed at this, but it does come at a slight cost, that cost being thickness. At nearly 15mm thick, there’s decidedly nothing quite vintage or, frankly, all that masterful about it, and proportions matter on a watch that’s designed with dressier aesthetics in mind especially.