All You Need To Know: The Best Skeleton Watches

In the late 18th century, a watchmaker named André-Charles Caron had an idea. What if the members of French high society, walking past the window of his Parisian shop, could see the inner workings of his timepieces? With their magic revealed, he reasoned, these already beautiful objects would become irresistibly fascinating.
He was right. In a stroke of marketing genius, Caron delicately carved away the parts of his watch movements that were not vital to their operation. Dials, plates, non-structural bridge elements—they all went. What remained was the world's first skeletonised timepiece: a luxury watch whose beating heart was open for the world to see.
The truly brilliant thing about Caron's cutaway watch: it made watchmaking even more mysterious. This wasn't a magician revealing the mechanics of his trick. It was a sorcerer, removing the veil of secrecy from his illusions to show the mysteries of the universe. Looking at a skeletonised watch is like having a conversation with a physicist: the explanation is even harder to comprehend than the question. It's a chance to see the movement of time itself, somehow trapped in the delicate interplay of moving gears and oscillating rotors.
It's also a chance for the best luxury watch makers in the business to show what they're really capable of, which is why only the very top manufacturers are able to produce skeletonised watches of quality.
With skeletonisation being a calling card for skill and tradition, it's hardly surprising that the biggest names in the industry devote serious time and attention to the art. Audemars Piguet has a dedicated skeletonisation department in its Le Brassus manufacture, and a dedicated tourbillon workshop too (tourbillons are often the centrepiece of high-end skeletonisations, being the ubiquitous sign of skill and price tag). Almost all Richard Mille luxury watches are skeletonised. Even manufacturers that traditionally present only dialled watches (Patek Philippe, IWC) will stretch a point to cater to the skeleton crowd—either with a skeletonised version of a standard piece or with a special, dedicated skeleton—as is the case with Patek Philippe's 5180/1G.

Patek Philippe: 5180/1G-010 Skeleton

In some ways, the Patek Philippe 5180/1G-010 Skeleton is the ultimate skeletonised luxury watch. It utilises Patek's Calibre 240 movement, which has a miniature rotor. The miniaturised rotor allows a good deal more of the calibre to be seen, and that makes the 240 just perfect for skeletonisation.
And what skeletonisation it is. Patek's engineers spared no scrap of metal when they pared the 240 down to its basics. The result is a movement that is so light and airy, it's hard to believe you could pick it up without the whole thing falling apart. That mini-rotor is treated to a spectacular degree of decoration, with curling leaf patterns engraved in the white gold, and delicate tendrils infilling the spaces between the leaves. In fact, the entirety of the movement (what remains of it) is engraved with swirls and swoops and curls. The balance wheel is housed in a cage shaped like the Calatrava cross (Patek Philippe's logo), and the wheel itself is treated to the most beautiful level of filigreeing.
In order that no element of the skeletonised 240 be left unseen, Patek Philippe chose to forgo a bezel on the 5180/1G-010 Skeleton. Instead, this luxury watch has an extra-wide sapphire glass, and a similarly massive sapphire caseback. Hour markers are cut from the bridges that hold the movement to the sides of the case, leaving great swaths of air between the front and rear of the dial. The effect is spectacular. The intricate beauty of the movement, which seems in its white and gold to be an arcane machine from the era of King Arthur, hovers above the wrist of the wearer as though the whole thing is floating in a space of its own.
This ultra-skeleton doesn't come cheap. It's out of production now, and if you can find a good one on the pre-owned market it will set you back the best part of £73,000.

Richard Mille: RM011-03

Richard Mille is the most frequent skeletoniser of luxury watches. Although really, it's Audemars Piguet's ultra-high-end movement shop, Audemars Piguet Renaud et Papi (APRP), which does the work. And so it is APRP, the creator of Richard Mille's movements, that must take the credit for the feeling you get when looking at a Richard Mille. That sensation of depth and power. The illusion that you're viewing a tiered and complex city from above.
The ultimate expression of this art is the RM011-03, Richard Mille's 2016 reboot of its most famous watch family. The RM011, originally created for Felipe Massa in 2007, is a 12-hour flyback chronograph: and while the first piece in the line was heftily open-worked, RM011-03 achieves Richard Mille's most extreme skeletonisation to date (at time of writing in 2016). Bridges and baseplates have been trimmed until an architecture of spectacular delicacy remains.
The best view of this achievement is through the sapphire crystal caseback: where, unencumbered by the chrono dials and superfluity of information common to a Richard Mille watch face, you get a pure look at the heart of the watch. Including the brand's signature variable-geometry rotor, which was apparently redesigned to resemble the aerodynamic elements of an F1 car.

Hublot: Big Bang Unico Black Magic

Hublot has been clear about its style since day one: 2005, when the Big Bang revolutionised the world of luxury sports watches and took Hublot into the big leagues for good.
Bold, solid, unconventional, big. If you wear a Big Bang, there's a good chance you're a hip-hop star (Jay-Z doesn't just wear Hublots, he raps about them). Or Usain Bolt, one of Hublot's ambassadors, who collects Big Bangs like thank-you cards after every gold medal.
If you wear a Big Bang Unico Black Magic, you're also an aficionado of one of the finest movement designs in the world. The Unico boasts a massive 72-hour power reserve, incorporates 330 components, and is wound by a bi-directional automatic rotor. It features a dial-side column wheel, which you can see perfectly thanks to the skeletonisation. A column-wheel chronograph is generally considered to be more sophisticated and balanced than a cam-and-lever chrono, so revealing the column wheel on the dial is a great touch.
The Unico movement was designed to be seen: it's built from the ground up to be semi-skeletonised. So when you look at it, everything makes sense. This isn't a luxury watch that has been skeletonised as an afterthought. And while it isn't fully skeletonised—much of the metal that remains in the bridges and plates is not strictly necessary to the operation of the watch—there's much to admire about it. Like the huge, boldly visible date gear, or the 'H' engraved into the escapement. If the Patek 5180/1G-010 is a shining example of classical skeletonisation, then the Big Bang Unico Black Magic is a revelation. This is how you pare down a movement for a strong, iconic luxury sports watch. The Black Magic celebrates what's inside, without losing focus on the overall aesthetic.

Audemars Piguet: Millenary 4101

Audemars Piguet's Millenary line has had a rough ride from luxury watch enthusiasts. In part, this is to do with the success of the Royal Oak: no luxury watch brand, it seems, can have two idiosyncratic icons in its stable at once. The Millenary has languished in the shadow of the Royal Oak, which is a shame. In its own right, it's a distinctive and interesting watch. And in the Millenary 4101, it does something that strikes right at the heart of the skeleton enthusiast. It turns the 4101 movement around, so the dial side of the watch displays what would usually be the back of the calibre.
Take a moment to think about luxury watches with exhibition casebacks and you'll realise why this flip is such a good idea. Not only does calibre 4101 require some technical jiggery-pokery (the hours, minutes, and seconds must now register on what used to be the rear of the movement)—it also shows you all that complexity without you having to take the watch off and turn it over.
This is the absolute opposite of stealth luxury: a watch that goes right ahead and lets it all hang out. Though there isn't actually all that much to see. Audemars Piguet has left hefty amounts of (very well decorated) metal behind, and the elliptical bridges take up a lot of dial room too. That said, the floating balance wheel looks nice, and the contrasting decoration on the off-centred face, with its circular anthracite etching and gold Roman numerals, is extremely effective.
The Audemars Piguet Millenary 4101 is a unique luxury watch, combining the frills and design codes of classical pieces in a powerful stainless steel case. And that movement, half-revealed, actually acts as a bridge between the two styles: delicate, where the balance wheel and gears are revealed, and strong in its Cotes-de-Geneve-striped bridges.

Roger Dubuis: Excalibur Automatic Skeleton

Ah, Roger Dubuis . Rarely has so much madness been crammed into one luxury watch manufacture. Surpassed only by URWERK, Roger Dubuis exists on a plane of imagination few have dared to enter. The manufacture's wildest watch, the Excalibur Automatic Skeleton, expresses this lunacy perfectly.
Just what it is about the Middle Ages that captures Roger Dubuis' imagination, I'm not sure. But you only have to look at his luxury watches to feel like a knight errant on some terrifying quest. Actually strap one to your wrist, and I'm betting you'll be eBaying a suit of armour before the sun goes down.
The Excalibur Automatic Skeleton takes all of Roger Dubuis' favourite design codes and strips them down to the absolute minimum. This is a luxury watch that resembles, in its bold and almost vicious skeletonisation, some sort of medieval torture device. The 42 mm case is crafted from carbon and looks like it has been forged in the fires of Mordor. The star-shaped bridges are finished in rhodium, lending the movement a charred appearance. And the 167 elements, including a hefty micro-rotor (think battleaxe), are all hand-finished.
This is madness, yes, but it's madness of the highest order. A luxury watch for the bold and the brave.

Panerai: Lo Scienziato Luminor 1950 Tourbillon GMT Ceramica 48mm

Panerai is the last luxury watch brand you'd expect to skeletonise . Well, maybe coming in a close second to Rolex. But somewhere out there in La La Land, some of Panerai's Hollywood fanbase must like seeing the insides of their heavy-duty divers. Because the Lo Scienziato Luminor 1950 Tourbillon GMT Ceramica 48 mm exists. And you know what? It's an absolute belter.
'Lo Scienziato' is Italian for 'the scientist'. I'm guessing this is a reference to the highly technical nature of this Luminor, which lays its guts bare for the world to see. Included in those guts is a tourbillon, a complication you don't usually see in these tough-but-simple timepieces. With the Lo Scienziato Luminor 1950 Tourbillon GMT Ceramica , Officine Panerai is clearly going for gold.
In skeletonisation terms, the Scienziato is done brilliantly. The standard Panerai dial is replaced with a black wire cage, on which the classic Panerai-font Arabic numerals sit (lumed in green). The mesh, which recalls the cage-like visors on early deep-sea dive helmets, fits with Panerai's history as supplier of watches to the Italian Marines. Behind it, like the engine room of a submarine, gears whirr and escapements tick.
Flip the Scienziato over, and you get to see those gears moving with no obstruction at all. And here it is clear that Panerai has understood its clientele, its design proposition, and the personality of its luxury watches perfectly. The bridges are strong. The power reserve indicator is simple and functional. And just enough wire-framing is done over the gears and balance wheel to create unity with the front side of the case.
Arnie, Sly Stallone, the Stath, Orlando Bloom, Tom Cruise, Pierce Brosnan—the list of Hollywood A-listers who love Panerai is basically endless. I can't help wondering if the Scienziato is a result of a personal request from one of them. It's just such a watch-geek's muscle watch, and far enough away from Panerai's normal stamping-ground to make you think. If I had to guess, it'd be Bloom, a known horology nerd. Whoever came up with the design, he (or she) deserves a medal.

IWC: Portuguese Tourbillon Mystère Squelette

OK, so I've saved the best for last. The IWC Portuguese Tourbillon Mystère Squelette is the stuff of skeletonising legend. And it's rarer than a hen's tooth, so if you ever get the chance to own one of the 150 limited-edition pieces out there, I suggest you refrain from thinking twice.
If you like classically-skeletonised luxury watches, the Portuguese Tourbillon Mystère Squelette is a bit like the Holy Grail. Every millimetre of its face and rear has been engraved to within an inch of its life. Its bridges have scales. The circular elements are stippled, traced, cut, and edged. The rotor is cut away into an anchor shape and treated to waving lines of interlocking circles, each one composed of hundreds of much tinier stipples. Based on IWC's 5000 movement, an automatic calibre with tourbillon, time and date, and seven-day power reserve, the Portuguese Tourbillon Mystère Squelette is everything a fan of complex, beautiful luxury watches desires.
It is, in other words, a combination of high horology and high art. You won't find a grander statement of skill than the skeletonised 5000 calibre, which is shaved until nothing remains but the vital architecture of the bridges. Nor will you find a more potent symbol of wealth. The Tourbillon Mystère Squelette was released in limited runs of 50 pieces each for a platinum, rose gold, or white gold case. All cost megabucks. And all are machines of such arresting beauty, you may have to look at them for several hours before you remember to actually check the time.
Image Credit – James Howard-Smith (Via Pinterest), Richard Mille Official (Via Instagram), Hublot.com (Via Pinterest), Nathan Cropper (Via Pinterest), ABlogToWatch (Via Pinterest), Officine Panerai (Via Pinterest) vedere di piu orologi repliche e Rolex Day Date II