The Watch of the Year for 2006 has been chosen, and it’s not one, but two timepieces, representing men’s and women’s watches, based on consumers’ choices.

Fine watches are especially popular with European consumers, so much so, that the national German-language newspaper “Welt am Sonntag” (The World on Sunday) and the magazine “Armband Uhren”(Wristwatches) annually poll their many thousands of  readers for their choices for ‘Watch of the Year.’ The top 10 choices are announced and honored at BaselWorld, in Basel, Switzerland.

For 2006, for the first time and in recognition of the growth of the market of women’s luxury watches, there were two categories—men’s watches and women’s watches.

For men, the number one choice of the readers of the two publications is Lange & Söhne’s “Lange 1 Time Zone.”

That is followed by Chronoswiss’s “Digiteur,” Glasshütte Original’s “Panomatic Tourbillion,” Rolex’s “Prince,” Breitling for Bentley’s “Mulliner Tourbillon,” Omega’s “Seamaster Planet Ocean Co-axial,” Vacheron Constatin’s “Tour de I’Ile,” IWC’s “Ingenieur Automatic,” Longines’ “Master Collection, Chronograph,” and Breguet’s “La Tradition.”

For women’s watches, the top vote-getter for 2006 is Jaeger-LeCoultre’s “Reverso Duoface.”

Following it, in order, are Glasshütte Original’s “SunRay,” Cartier’s “Santos 100,” Longines’ “Evidenza,” Baume & Mercier’s “Hampton Milleis,” Rolex’s “Lady Datejust,” Patek Philippe’s “Twenty-4,” Rainer Brand’s “Pezzo,” Ebel’s “1911 Lady,” and Chanel’s “J12.”

JCK