Almost everyone that’s seen J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter movies or read the books has imagined which Hogwarts house the sorting hat would place them in. Many have even taken online quizzes through Pottermore or other sites to get a more “official” answer as to what house they would belong to. In this article are my one or two picks per house for the watches that I feel are most emblematic of the houses they represent. . . and clearly I’ve placed zero price restrictions on these watches. Let’s get to it!
Gryffindor: Lion, Scarlet and Gold
There are plenty of lion-themed watches out there. Ultimately, I narrowed it down to the following two that I thought were both a little more interesting than the couple of Jaquet-Droz Petite Heure Minute Lion models I was considering going with initially.
The Chanel Monsieur de Chanel Lion Edition H5488
Chanel’s Monsieur de Chanel has been one of the most overlooked watches since its release and it turns out to be one of my favorite dress watches currently available. This version is pretty different than the standard models as it has the perfect Gryffindor reference: a large gold lion on the dial. This version definitely isn’t for everyone, but it does fit the Gryffindor theme. The Monsieur was released in 2016 and a few years ago Chanel seemed to be at the height of releasing new variants of the watch. They seemed to have since slowed and shifted their focus back to making 1,001 variants of the J12, but hopefully we’ll see more serious men’s dress watches, like the Monsieur, regain the attention they deserve from the watch design team at Chanel.
The Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers 14-Day Tourbillon Lion
This unique Vacheron Constantin model features a Grand Feu enamel dial with a lion motif. It definitely is unique, as Vacheron only made one example of this watch. At 6, the tourbillon shows Vacheron’s rotating Maltese cross. What makes this watch a Gryffindor watch is of course the lion motif on the dial, but the fact that this watch possesses a massive 14-day power reserve ensures that a Gryffindor can go out on any adventure without having to worry about their watch running out of power.
Slytherin: Serpent, Green and Silver
Finding watches for Slytherin was so easy that it became difficult. Like lion watches, there are a lot of snake themed watches out there, but even more due to the snake being a Chinese zodiac animal. After narrowing things down, the watches that just barely missed the final cut were, yet again, from Jaquet-Droz, specifically a few of their Petite Heure Minute Relief Snake models. Ultimately, they just weren’t “basilisk-y” enough compared to the two finalists.
The Montblanc Villeret Tourbillon Bi-Cylindrique 110 Years Anniversary Limited Edition
The reason for why I picked this watch? Well, just look at it. It has a large three-dimensional serpent coiling around the dial. That’s about as close as we’re going to get in watchmaking to a giant basilisk. Additionally, the serpent retains its snake texturing, but is finished in dark greys or black, making it look less like a garden snake and more like something that could’ve been lurking in Hogwarts’ sewers for about a thousand years.
Theme aside, this watch is one of the coolest, yet weirdest watches we’ve seen in the last decade. It gets so much weirder still when you factor in that Montblanc is who made this watch… It’s a 52mm watch in gold with a seemingly giant tourbillon, a large 3D snake, and some exposed movement sections. It’s about as weird as it gets, but this watch was still extremely cool when it was released in 2016. The only drawback is that this watch, made in only three examples, was priced at 280,000 EUR.
The Bulgari Serpenti Misteriosi Dragone
If I had to pick a lady’s watch to complement the Montblanc, this Bulgari would be it. Sure, I could’ve picked plenty of other more reasonable Serpenti models, but do any of those beat the Misteriosi Dragone? Nope. This watch, if I can even still call it that, is made of white gold and over 50 carats of diamonds and emeralds. The green of the emeralds do a great job to throw in a bit of Slytherin’s primary colour, green, while the white gold takes care of the silver part. To make it even cooler, the mouth of the snake opens and closes to reveal the watch face with its green hands. How ornate this piece is definitely feels very Slytherin to me, like something an elder Malfoy would wear.
Ravenclaw: EAGLE?, Blue and Bronze
So somehow a house with “RAVEN” in its name has an eagle as its mascot… Someone please explain this to me. Anyway, to not pick between the two, I’m just going with a bird theme for this one. I considered a number of other watches, among them a few of the Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Oiseaux Enchantés models, the Fabergé Lady Compliquée Peacocks, and the Cartier Ballon Bleu de Cartier Floral Marquetry Parrot . Ultimately, I had to go with two watches from the same watchmaker: Jaquet-Droz.
The Jaquet-Droz Charming Bird
Ravenclaws are known for their intellect, so I think with that we need to turn to watches that have some incredible engineering behind them with unusual functions. Combining that with the bird symbol gets us to automatons, mechanical creations that move in a programmed manner. In this first example, we have one of the Charming Bird models of Jaquet-Droz, a company known for its long and extensive work in the area of automatons. With the press of a button, the bird begins to move around, flaps its wings, and chirp. Set against a background that very closely resembles the Dark Forest and the Black Lake of the Hogwarts campus, this watch would instantly become a family heirloom for any Ravenclaw.
The Jaquet-Droz Bird Repeater
This Jaquet-Droz watch takes the Charming Bird and kicks things up to the next level by adding a minute repeater. When the minute repeater is engaged, the watch will begin to chime the time. During this, the automaton portions of the dial begin to move, including the right bird’s wing lifting up, the left bird bending down to feed her babies, and the center egg cracking to reveal a newborn entering the world. There’s also a small moving waterfall to the left of the smaller black dial that flows when the repeater is engaged. This watch is a huge feat of horological engineering and is a great representation of Ravenclaw-inspired art with the bird theme and the predominantly blue colouring of the dial.
Hufflepuff: Badger, Yellow and Black
So we’ve looked at three houses so far with animals that either seem relatively majestic or could at least plausibly be good representatives for magical houses… then we get to Hufflepuff. The Hufflepuff mascot isn’t a dragon, it’s not a unicorn, it’s not even a tiger, elephant, bear, or stallion… it’s a badger. Yes, I’ve read the explanation for why a badger was chosen and its symbolism, but someone please explain to me how this is supposed to compare to a large snake, a lion, or an eagle. It can’t. More than that, try finding a watch with a badger on the dial. Having said all of that, badgers belong to the Mustelidae family, a family that also includes wolverines. When I combine a wolverine, yellow, and black, I think we arrive at the watch that Hufflepuff deserves.
The 48mm Invicta Marvel X-Men Wolverine (Ref. 37373):
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