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Carbon Fiber Watches Aren’t a Gimmick — Here Are 12 You Should Buy

Carbon-based wirst forms.

a group of watchesBulgari, Watches of Switzerland

By Zen Love and Johnny Brayson

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It started with carbon fiber: that dark, woven-textured material with myriad industrial uses, familiar to consumers of performance-minded cars and bikes. Strong, lightweight and cool-looking, it found its way into watchmaking years ago. Since then, the use of carbon composites and materials has evolved, and more watch brands are even developing their own proprietary versions.

Products in the Guide

Carbonium, Carbotech, Carbonox, Norteq … different brands have given their concoctions different names, but they all benefit from carbon’s useful properties. Aside from being lightweight and strong (even more so than titanium), these materials often show unique textures and patterning as a result of other elements used in the material or from the process of their creation, such as in “forged carbon” varieties. When used for watch cases, carbon’s naturally dark hue also offers a way of creating a black look without the use of a coating like PVD or DLC. It’s a material that just feels “technical.”

The watches below showcase some of the variety that’s possible with carbon and the different approaches brands have taken in utilizing the futuristic material.

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Best Overall Carbon Fiber Watch

  • Movement: Norqain Calibre NN20/1 automatic
  • Case Diameter: 42mm

Norqain has only been around for a few years, and though it has a tough assignment trying to compete in the crowded mid-priced luxury market, the Swiss brand has carved out a nice little niche for itself thanks to its innovation. The Wild One’s case is made from Norteq, the brand’s proprietary carbon composite that’s 3.5 times lighter than titanium and incredibly rugged and lightweight.

a man wearing a watch
The Norteq carbon case of the Wild One is extremely lightweight and comfortable on the wrist.
Mary Garcia-Brayson

When you pair this light case with the flexible integrated strap made for Norqin by Biwi, which also supplies rubber straps to ultra-luxury brands Richard Mille and Audemars Piguet, you end up with one of the most comfortable watches around. Add in a COSC-certified manufacture movement and 200m water resistance and you’re really cooking with gas.

Read our full review of the Norqain Wild One.

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Best Upgrade Carbon Fiber Watch

  • Movement: Zenith Elite 670 SK automatic
  • Case Diameter: 41mm

Although Zenith is one of the most historically important Swiss luxury watch brands, having been among the first to develop an automatic chronograph in 1969, the brand is not one to rest on its laurels. Flip through Zenith’s catalog, and you’ll see loads of far-out and futuristic designs taking advantage of the latest technology and materials. One fantastic example of this is the carbon version of the brand’s openworked Defy Classic. Truth be told, there’s not much classic about this watch, considering it has a full case and bracelet made of solid carbon fiber — something that’s exceedingly rare.

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Best Budget Carbon Fiber Watch

  • Movement: Tissot Powermatic 80 (Base ETA 2824-2) automatic
  • Case Diameter: 42.5mm

Tissot got funky in 2023 when it brought back the Sideral, an odd regatta timer with a fiberglass case that the brand made during the wild and wacky watch design era known as the 1970s. The new version, while aesthetically similar to its ancestor, upgrades the case material to more futuristic forged carbon. There’s also a fun multi-color lume treatment animating the yacht-timing dial, an impressive 300m water resistance and 80 hours of power reserve thanks to the Powermatic 80 movement. The watch comes in three bright colors, each of which is paired with a matching rubber strap.

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Luminox Original Navy SEAL

  • Movement: Swiss Quartz
  • Case Diameter: 43mm

Lightweight and comfortable on the wrist, carbon is perfect for a rugged, chunky timepiece like this 43mm beater from Luminox. The brand calls its case material Carbonox, and it has a matte texture and a clean look without the patterns found on some other watches. The Original Navy SEAL 3001 Military Dive Watch is one of the brand’s classic designs with a tactical, technical look, supported by glowing tritium tubes on the dial.

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Victorinox Inox Carbon Mechanical

  • Movement: Sellita SW200 automatic
  • Case Diameter: 43mm

Victorinox built and tested its INOX line to be as tough as G-Shock watches, and it’s since expanded with versions using different colors, materials, movements and other features. This Inox model has a lightweight carbon case with a stone-like texture and a Swiss automatic movement from Sellita beating away inside.

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Doxa Sub 300 Carbon

  • Movement: ETA 2824-2 automatic
  • Case Diameter: 42.5mm

Better known for its traditional but distinctive dive watches made in steel, Doxa stepped out of familiar territory by offering its flagship Sub 300 in a forged carbon case a few years ago, which quickly became a hit itself. The bezel and case are both made of lightweight forged carbon, while an interior titanium chamber surrounds the movement and ensures the 300 meters of water resistance Doxa promises. This version of the SUB 300 is light and legible, and it’s powered by a chronometer-certified Swiss movement.

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Oris ProPilot Altimeter

  • Movement: Oris 793 (Base SW 300-1) automatic
  • Case Diameter: 47mm

For the second generation of its groundbreaking ProPilot Altimeter — the first watch to ever combine a mechanical movement and a mechanical altimeter — Oris made a few improvements. This version of the watch is 1mm thinner thanks to an upgraded movement, it can gauge altitude higher than before (up to 6,000m) thanks to a new pressure box, and it’s a whopping 70 grams lighter than before thanks to a case made from a proprietary composite of carbon fiber and PEKK another first for watchmaking.

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Tudor Pelagos FXD Chrono

  • Movement: Tudor Calibre MT5813 automatic chronograph
  • Case Diameter: 43mm

Even if you don’t care about the Alinghi Red Bull Racing branding on the watch (or aren’t even sure what it is), this is still one seriously cool watch that shows Tudor at its experimental best. Built ostensibly on the platform of the Pelagos FXD military diver, the FXD Chrono has a lightweight matte black carbon composite case with fixed strap bars and a bi-directional titanium bezel with a fully-lumed carbon composite insert. The use of carbon fiber and titanium in the watch mirrors the materials used in Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s racing yachts. The COSC-certified manufacture chronograph caliber is perfect for timing races, too.

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Panerai Luminor Marina Carbotech PAM 2661

  • Movement: Panerai P.9010 automatic
  • Case Diameter: 44mm

Panerai watches are known for bold sizing, but this 44mm dive watch weighs only 96g thanks to the brand’s own take on carbon watchmaking, which it calls “Carbotech.” Note the texture of the case with its dark and slightly lighter striping, resulting in a sedimentary look. With minty blue lume for its hands and indices and a jet black dial, the PAM 2661 is sleek, modern and it’s powered by an in-house movement.

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Bulgari Octo Finissimo CarbonGold Automatic

  • Movement: Bulgari BVL 138 caliber automatic
  • Case Diameter: 40mm

This Bulgari is a story of contrasts; a mixture of old and new, traditional and cutting-edge, sporty and dressy. On the one side, you’ve got the case, bracelet and even the dial made from matte-finished, technical-looking carbon. On the other, you’ve got a polished crown made of 18k rose gold, gold-tone hands and indices, and a visible in-house movement showing gold bridges and a gold-plated platinum micro-rotor through a sapphire caseback. The watch is tough and water-resistant to 100m, yet also elegant and incredibly thin at just 6.9mm thick. We can decide which side of the Octo Finissimo CarbonGold we prefer, so we’ll just take the whole thing.

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Girard-Perregaux Laureato Absolute Rock

  • Movement: GP03300 automatic chronograph
  • Case Diameter: 44mm

The Laureato is one of the OG luxury sports watches, having debuted back in 1975. That’s three years after the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and a year before the Patek Philippe Nautilus. But you’d never know it by looking at this ultra-futuristic version of it. The case is made from a mix of forged carbon with blue and white fiberglass, which has been compressed to not only increase the strength of the material but also to produce this mesmerizing and colorful marbled pattern.

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Ulysse Nardin Freak X Carbonium

  • Movement: Caliber UN-230 automatic
  • Case Diameter: 43mm

Carbon fiber goes hand-in-hand with innovative, futuristic designs, and watches don’t get much more innovative and futuristic than Ulysse Nardin’s Freak line. The Freak X is made for Carbonium, UN’s proprietary composite made from aeronautic-grade carbon cutoffs sourced from aircraft production, making it suitably strong for anything you would realistically use this watch for. Despite the high-end case material, though, the real star here, like on any Freak watch, is the movement. There are no hands and no dial, instead, the movement’s oscillator itself is used to tell the time as its flying carousel spins around its own axis. It sounds and looks crazy, and it is, but the watch is surprisingly legible and almost … practical?

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