The Best New Sports Watch of 2025 Is Already Here

Collectors have been pining for this watch for years.

a closeup of a vacheron constantin sports watch

Published January 13, 2025

·

Every product is carefully selected by our editors. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more

For the better part of the last decade, the most hyped genre of watch has been stainless steel integrated sports watches.

The fervor in recent years over the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and Patek Philippe Nautilus saw prices for those pieces skyrocket as their availability dwindled, and many other brands stepped up to fill the void with their own takes on the integrated style.

The most successful of these brands, arguably, is Vacheron Constantin. The current version of its Overseas is a certified hype watch in its own right and arguably ranks as the third member of the integrated sports watch Holy Trinity alongside the Nautilus and Royal Oak.

a man in a suit wears a vacheron constantin watch on his wrist — The Overseas’ run as Vacheron’s most hyped steel sports watch is about to come to an end.

Now, to kick off its 270th-anniversary celebration, Vacheron has launched another steel integrated sports watch that seems destined to overtake the Overseas as the brand’s most sought-after watch. Not only that, it might go down as the hottest new watch of the year from any brand.

An Integrated History

Vacheron’s history with steel integrated luxury sports watches goes back much further than the Overseas.

The first generation of the Overseas from 1996 was actually introduced as a contemporary spin on a much older watch, the 222. Launched in 1977, 222 years after Vacheron’s 1755 founding, the Vacheron Constantin 222 was the brand’s first take on the integrated sports watch style that had been introduced by Gerald Genta and the Royal Oak just five years earlier.

In 2022, Vacheron resurrected the 222 with a reissue that was extremely faithful to the original 1970s design, and both watch media and collectors went gaga over it. There was just one catch: the watch was only available in 18K yellow gold, meaning it didn’t exactly fit the mold of the steel sports watch trend — it was both more expensive and more ostentatious.

gold vacheron constantin watch on man's wrist — The 222 in gold launched in 2022 to a tremendous amount of hype.

Immediately, collectors began pining for a version in stainless steel and now, less than three years later, Vacheron has answered that call with a modern 222 in stainless steel. This will almost certainly go down as the best sports watch of 2025, and we’re not even halfway through January.

It’s Real, and It’s Spectacular

The new Historiques 222 in steel is exactly what everyone wanted.

The overall design is identical to the beloved gold version. Its case and dimensions are the same at a vintage-approved 37mm across and 7.95mm thick, it has the same tapering integrated bracelet and branded butterfly clasp, and it is powered by the same ultrathin Vacheron 2455/2 Cal. automatic movement.

a vacheron constantin watch surrounded by mirrors reflecting it — From all angles, the 222 in stainless steel looks damn good.

The movement is visible through a sapphire caseback and features a rotor made of 22K yellow gold, which means you’re still getting a bit of gold even on the steel version of the 222. The Maltese cross logo on the bottom right lug is also in 18K yellow gold, just as on the all-gold version.

For the dial, Vacheron went the obvious route and opted for a blue dial. Blue is the de facto dial color for this genre of watch, with blue versions of the Royal Oak, Nautilus and Overseas all ranking as their most iconic iterations. When IWC added a blue dial to the Ingenieur last year, it made headlines, so I think it’s safe to say that blue was the correct call here.

a closeup of a vacheron constantin watch dial — Let’s face it, a blue dial was the only real choice for the reborn 222 in steel.

Unlike the striking blue sunburst lacquered dial of the Overseas, the blue used on the steel 222 is far more muted. It’s a matte blue and a better fit for the 222’s retro aesthetic, which in stainless steel turns out to be much less flashy overall than an Overseas in the same material due to a mostly brushed finish. The hands, indices and applied logo are all in white gold, so the watch isn’t entirely without flash, and it’s lumed with Super-LumiNova as well. It is a sports watch, after all.

Pricing and Availability

The price of a watch like this almost isn’t worth mentioning. This is the definition of a hype watch: a remake of a beloved vintage model from a hot high-end brand that collectors have been clamoring for.

It doesn’t take a genius to see that stainless steel 222s will be impossible for a regular person to go out and buy. This watch will be allocated to VIPs, it will be exceedingly rare and once examples hit the secondary market, the price will be highly inflated.

But discounting all that, the switch to stainless steel means this watch comes in at quite a lower price point than the gold version — while also obviously being far lighter and more casual-looking.

a vacheron constantin watch on a mans wrist — Is the most hyped watch of 2025 already here? Probably.

The Vacheron Constantin Historiques 222 in stainless steel retails for $32,000. That is less than half the price of the gold version which retails for $74,000, and it’s in the ballpark of its closest analog from AP: the Royal Oak “Jumbo” Extra-Thin, which has an SRP of $36,000.

It’s also worth noting that the steel 222 is also quite a bit more expensive than Vacheron’s Overseas in the same material, which is a straight-up bargain in comparison at $25,000 — especially when considering what the Overseas offers. Compared to the 222, the Overseas has an extra 100m of water resistance, includes two additional straps all fitted with a quick-change system, and its movement has a power reserve that’s 50 percent longer than the 40 hours offered in the 222.

It’s hard to see the added value of the 222 outside of its rarity and mythos, though I haven’t seen the watches next to each other in person to compare. I assume the finishing on the 222 is quite a bit finer, and the watch is of course much thinner. Regardless, for my money, I’d still take the Overseas, but I suspect I’m in the minority there as this 222 is currently breaking the internet in a way the Overseas never has.

Vacheron Constantin Historiques 222 Stainless Steel

A largely faithful reissue of the brand’s original 1970s integrated sports watch, the 222 in stainless steel was released to celebrate the 270th anniversary of Vacheron Constantin.