An anticipated annual event in the watch industry is the prestigious “Watch of the Year,” sponsored by publishers of Armband Uhren, a widely read watch magazine, and the national German newspaper Welt am Sonntag. The top 10 men’s and women’s watches are chosen by votes cast by tens of thousands of readers from German-speaking countries and areas of Europe, and announced at the annual spring BaselWorld in Basel, Switzerland.

The winners this year for the top watches of 2006 are:

In men’s watches, the top 10, in descending order, are the A. Lange & Söhne’s Tourbograph Pour le Mérite, the Glashütte Original Tourbillon Regulator, the Nomos Tangomat Datum, the Breitling Navitimer World, the Chronoswiss Ewiger Kalender, the Fortis B-42 Chronograph Alarm COSC, the Rolex Oyster Perpetual GMT-Master II, the IWC Big Pilot’s Watch, the Omega Planet Ocean Co-Axial Chrono, and the Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Le Chronographe.

In women’s watches, the top 10, in descending order, are the Wempe, the Jaeger- LeCoultre Reverso Duetto, the Fabergé Carrée, the Baume & Mercier Diamond, the Chronoswiss Répétition à quarts, the Rolex Datejust, A. Lange & Söhne Kleine Lange 1 Soirée, Glashütte Original Star Collection SeaShell, the Longines BelleArt, and the Hermès Cherche-Midi.