What were your favorite acquisitions in 2025 (watches)?

Both of these were unexpected/unplanned acquisitions, but very rapidly became fast favourites for me.

Both had been on my radar but the lotec was in the "it would be nice to be able to get one, but surely it will never happen" way, while the BB58 was in the "oh, they fixed all the small bits that bothered me about the 58 so when they update the case and bracelet for the blue maybe it will be time" way.

The Otsuka Lotec No.6 is quite hard to get through official channels. You need a Japanese address and a credit card issued by a Japanese bank to even enter the lottery to buy one. While I have the address part down, being a foreigner its quite difficult to get a credit card from a Japanese bank here. I was talking to a friend about this challenge and he kindly offered to enter the lottery on my behalf, not expecting to ever win it I gladly accepted his offer, then I got the surprise email and had to scramble to move funds around to pay for it, but very much worth it to me.

The BB58 in burgundy is an oddly difficult to obtain watch here in Japan, I asked at the boutique in Harajuku around the time it came out and was told that stock would come in once or twice, but after that not to expect any new stock to come in despite it not being a limited model. I was most disappointed to hear that Tudor were also playing the Rolex games but chalked it up as something that just wasn't meant to be and moved on with my life.
Scroll forward a few months and I was in Australia over the summer and happened to walk past a Tudor boutique... To my surprise they had the 58 burgundy on display so I took my chance to finally see it in the metal.
From the advertisements it always looked too red to me, too flashy. However in person depending on the lighting and angle the dial takes on an almost black tone. The 'not jubilee' bracelet and the coarser knurling on the bezel and crown everything was perfect for me.
I wasn't planning to buy it as I wasn't in a position to buy one at the time, but my wife did something amazing and said "you have been talking about this one for months, how about I get half of it for you as your birthday present?"

Last piece is a bit different, I am currently wrapping up my final year of watchmaking school here and this is an ETA 6497-1 based watch that I made a 3/4 plate for entirely by hand with no CNC from a sheet of german silver. I also made a new click and click spring, and modified the crown wheel along with fully decorating the movement and swapping in a vintage german silver balance wheel to match the new bridge.
As my first watch that I have at least partially made, this one will always be special, its not actually done, but I had to stop here since it was an assignment, but I will continue making more parts until I have finally made every part (I have a dial on the go now).

I use 24 slot boxes but I suspect if you are OCD you won't be able to sleep at night.

I seem to be stuck with 6, 8 and 12 watch boxes. But then I have a high pain tolerance.

Ended up selling a few watches and purchased the gold bracelet this year. Also purchased the Nivada. Happy New Year to all.

You're very lucky to have won this lottery - these watches are very popular in Japan (and elsewhere), and you have great friends!
Congratulations on your purchase..

Unfortunately, I don't have any friends in Japan, and no one was able to help me buy the Otsuka Lotec No. 6 locally.
I couldn't resist the allure of this watch for long..

Yesterday I bought the Otsuka Lotec No. 6 from a Japanese watch dealer, and I consider it my best watch purchase of 2025.
I can't take a photo of my watch yet because it won't be delivered until 2026..

Maybe not the most prestigious of watch purchases but I really enjoyed researching and tracking down this Universal Geneve "FS" Ferrovie Dello Stato watch issued to a worker from the Italian Railway c. 1970.

Taken over 12 months to source all of the parts and get the modifications done by a watchmaker in the Jewellery Quarter. It finally arrived the week before Christmas👍

Once again thanks @MtV for opening this inspiring thread.

All in all 2025 was a rather quiet watch year.

There was only one income which was offered to me by a very nice fellow member who remembered my dibs call some time ago.

I couldnt resist on this Centenary 2500 JUB in really good condition. Didnt regnet my decision 😀

At the start of the year this beautiful SpeedMoon

A trade in the middle of the year for my smallest watch

My largest and heaviest watch at the end of the year