Panerai’s cushion-shaped watches first ventured behind enemy lines in 1940, at the behest of Italy’s Regia Marina frogmen. Today, the Florentine military supplier’s sundry flashlights, depth gauges and more have long gone overboard purely in favour of timepieces developed at Panerai’s Swiss manufacture, spiked with mil-spec tech. In terms of underwater pedigree, the Submersible is closest to the origin story, being a pure 300-metre diving watch, fitted with a coral-proof ceramic bezel and that iconic, levered crown guard, sealing the rubber gaskets tighter than a submarine hatch.

Cartier’s Santos may derive its shape from the first wristwatch to carry the Cartier name – the Santos-Dumont, produced in 1904 for the Brazilian aviator, Mr Alberto Santos-Dumont – but it is fundamentally a child of the 1980s and embodies that decade’s taste for flamboyance and flair. The first wristwatch to combine stainless steel and gold, the Santos is now permanently associated with the two-tone look. Its use of exposed rivet heads and fine polishing plays with the boundaries between functionality and decoration, while the monochrome dial with its Roman numerals is purely, essentially Cartier.

A shapely example of late 1970s watch design, the Piaget Polo has come into its own as a sought-after example of the stainless steel sports-luxe genre. The newest Polo Date is also the most stripped back, with a simple textured black dial and matching rubber strap. It is comfortable and characterful in equal measure. A close look reveals Piaget’s attention to detail, evident on touches such as the trapezoid date window and finely polished hour markers. It’s powered by Piaget’s 110P automatic movement.

More than 80 years ago, two Portuguese businessmen approached their friendly local International Watch Company rep and requested a wristwatch with marine-chronometer levels of precision. Never to shirk from a challenge, the industrious Swiss marque complied with a gamechanger, transposing pocket-watch precision to wristborn convenience. Come the late 1990s, IWC updated the mid-century design with an elegant chronograph edition – which remains one of the most recognisable on the market – now powered by an in-house movement, complete with column wheel and a 46-hour power reserve.

Ulysse Nardin was a pioneer of early 20th-century nautical timekeeping – its chronometers were used by more than 50 different military powers to navigate the high seas. Riffing on the retro instrument aesthetic of a prize-winning torpedo timer made for the US Navy, this is nonetheless as luxurious a mil-spec as the battlefield will permit, fitted with Ulysse Nardin’s in-house-crafted UN-118 chronometer movement. Quite rightly, it’s chronometer-rated to within +4/–6 seconds a day, while benefitting from the brand’s modern-day “DIAMonSIL” tech – diamond-coated silicon parts that enhances the longevity and durability of its relentlessly ticking escapement.

Legend has it that on a business trip to colonial Jaipur in 1930, Swiss watch dealer Mr César de Trey was ambushed by British officers, who challenged him to make a watch robust enough to weather the action on the polo field. Spying a ripe opportunity, de Trey wasted no time. A cascade of collaborations that saw watchmaker LeCoultre and instrument-maker Jaeger seek help from French engineer Mr René-Alfred Chauvot ended in Paris on 4 March 1931, with a patent application for “a watch capable of sliding in its support and being completely turned over”. An Art Deco icon was born, and 90 years on Chauvot’s mechanism is still as addictively tactile and hard-wearing. In this case, however, not so mallet-proof thanks to a second time-zone dial on the reverse.

Chopard has been the official timing partner of the Mille Miglia classic car rally since 1988, the longest-running horological association in the automotive world. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the brand’s co-president, Mr Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, is a passionate car collector. Each year the Mille Miglia collection is updated, but the key elements remain – that smooth polished case, the stencilled numerals, the pump pushers and the three-register layout. This limited-run Race Edition 2022 features pushers, crown and bezel in ethically sourced gold and a subtle integration of the Mille Miglia logo on the dial.

With a budget up to £10,000, some of the best chronographs on the market come into your sights. The Zenith Chronomaster 1969 uses a descendant of the first automatic movement produced by the brand more than 50 years ago. This model is strikingly contemporary, however, with a black ceramicised aluminium case that is both hard-wearing and stealthy. It is paired with a black and silver panda-style dial that’s more often nicknamed the Mickey Mouse by collectors. The high frequency El Primero calibre inside is visible through a display case back.