The year 2015 is almost at a close, and we’d like to help wrap it up with an aBlogtoWatch watch buying gift guide – done, once again, a little bit differently. As a publication that tends to help consumers make choices about watches they want to purchase, we dislike the idea of arbitrarily limiting your buying options to a few timepieces that we feel just narrowly beat out others in any given list. So for that reason, we try to stay away from more randomly assorted gift guides that, frankly, also bore us to create.

What we’ve done for this holiday season’s gift guide idea was to ask various members of the aBlogtoWatch team to mention the first watch that comes to mind when presented with a particular question. For example, we asked the question, “What watch would you wear to impress Vladimir Putin?” (a known watch buff and all-around leader of Russia). Each of the questions we asked called for a different type of watch, and we included some of our favorite responses from the aBlogtoWatch team. It’s just a little way of getting into our watch nerd heads and having fun during the holiday season (where, apparently, rest and relaxation is but a myth).

Whether your budget for watch buying is modest or prodigious, you’ll find some interesting timepieces here in each (perhaps unexpected) category that the aBlogtoWatch team feels are worth mentioning – from those suitable for very ordinary occasions to those which might only occur in our fantasies. Please offer your own choices in the comments below if you feel you have some watch choice responses to compliment our own.

Beater Watch Worth Wearing

Let’s start with the trusty everyday watch, something you can knock around and not worry too much about because it isn’t that expensive. With that in mind, it’s also got to be designed well, reliable, and say something about the wearer. Here are our top picks for the “beater watch” category.

Ariel Adams: Magrette Manoa Pacific Professional (Reviewed here)

Matt Smith-Johnson: Seiko Spirit Smart SCED035 ‘Aliens Ripley’ Watch (Reviewed here)

Victor Marks: Orient Symphony (Feature article “Orient Dress Watches: The Best Budget Option?” Hands-on here)

David Bredan: Casio G-Shock Rangeman Camo

Watch That Would Impress Vladimir Putin

Moving on from an everyday beater watch, we take a look at 4 picks for watches that even a massively wealthy oligarch would give a second look. Vlad’s a well-known watch collector, and we think he would happily add these to his shiny, fabulously ornate watch safe.

Ariel Adams: Jacob & Co. Astronomia (Hands-on here)

James Stacey: MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual Calendar Watch (Hands-on here)

Patrick Kansa: Greubel Forsey GMT Watch In Platinum (Hands-on here)

David Bredan:  Montblanc Collection Villeret Tourbillon Cylindrique Geosphères Vasco Da Gama Watch (Hands-on here)

Flamboyantly Designed “Grandly Complicated” Timepiece

There is no shortage of flashy watches and there’s no shortage of highly complicated watches out there. What if you want both, though? Well, we decided to think up 4 watches that we think will get you both attention and horological admiration.

This online platform will allow existing and future Linde Werdelin Reef Replica customers to sell or shop for pre-owned Linde Werdelin timepieces. While this may sound a simple enough effort, LW did have to take each of those above (and more) issues into account. We got on a fast phone with one of those creators, Jorn Werdelin, to discuss how exactly this new platform will operate and what issues they had to account for if intending it.Since they got started in 2006, Linde Werdelin say they have generated a total of about 4,500 watches, a large portion of that were marketed directly to the client — and while ten years in business is respectable for an entirely new brand like LW, it could be claimed that it does not completely justify the “Vintage” designation at the watch business, where vintage timepieces are generally considered to be a bit older than that.Anyhow, although a number of these watches will stay in the exact same collection they originally landed inside, others will be offered up for sale again on the secondary market. The inspiration behind LW Vintage was to offer you a service that would make it possible for Linde Werdelin owners to have their pre-owned watches marketed through the brand itself, either on consignment or by having them choose the watch back and put its pre-owned value towards another buy.

Ariel Adams: HYT H3 (Hands-on here)

David Bredan: Richard Mille RM 26-02 Evil Eye (Hands-on here)

Bilal Khan: Antoine Preziuso “Tourbillon of Tourbillons” Triple Tourbillon (Hands-on here)

Mark Carson: Ulysse Nardin Freaklab (Hands-on here)