Five New Watches That Truly Turn It Up to Eleven

The past year might have been tough on the Swiss watch market, but that doesn't mean top watchmakers are slowing down or dumbing down their creations. In fact, if one looks around the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) watch show in Geneva this week, one sees countless examples of brands big and small doubling down on their most extravagant creations, adding new complications, turning concepts into reality, and making modern classics better. Here are five watches that prove there's still horological ground to be broken in 2016.

Last year Audemars Piguet presented a concept watch (the RD1), a prototype that was supposed to be a totally new kind of minute repeater. Sure, it sounded great, but there was only a single working model, details were mostly under wraps, and it was never going to be for sale. This is the production version of that watch. It's a massive titanium tourbillon chronograph with a special chiming mechanism inside. By using a new kind of mounting system for the resonating gongs and an altered mechanism for striking those gongs, the Super Sonnerie produces loud, crisp sound you'll want to hear over and over. (Good thing, because you will.) Only 50 will be made, it will take two years to make them all, and each will sell for $597,400.