Skeleton Watches

There is a real distinction between an openworked movement, where the bridges and plates are cut away and the remaining metal is finished as a decorative object, and an open-heart dial, where a window in an otherwise ordinary dial exposes the balance wheel. The first is expensive because the skeletonising is the work. The second is a design choice on a standard movement, and it is what most of this section under GBP 500 consists of.

Legibility is the trade. Hands against a moving background are harder to read, and good skeletons address it with a chapter ring, contrasting hands or a solid sub-dial. From GBP 129 to GBP 120,000, with the median around GBP 500, this is one of the widest spans on the site.

Skeleton Watches holds 305 models across 58 brands, from £27 to £146,000. Half cost less than £599, and a quarter less than £289. 242 of 305 are automatic. 100 are stocked by more than one retailer, giving 417 offers in total. Bulova lists more references here than any other brand. Prices are checked nightly against the retailers’ own feeds.