OPINION: It’s finally solar watches’ moment in the sun

Solar technology for timekeeping might have first appeared fifty years ago, but 2026 seems to be the year it’s coming into its own.

Citizen’s Eco-Drive model first transformed solar watches from avant-garde tech into practical consumer timepieces. The tech was then championed by other, mainly Japanese brands, including Casio and Seiko. But the first solar watches had their limitations: weak power reserves, visible solar panels, thicker cases, and less attractive dials.

But in 2026 solar is finally stepping up into the sunlight, and being championed by Swiss watchmakers just as much as Japanese ones. In the last six months alone there have been numerous solar launches by brands from across the globe.

Swiss watchmaker Frederique Constant has launched the Classics Moneta Solarmetre, an elegant day-date dress watch with a slightly grained dial that lets enough light through to reach the photovoltaic cells beneath. Just one minute of ambient light is enough for 24 hours of charge, and the battery has a ten-month power reserve.

TAG Heuer, meanwhile, is also leaning heavily into solar this season. It launched the limited edition Formula 1 Solargraph in March, a sporty little 38 mm timepiece in five colourways that joins the watchmaker’s stable of Formula 1-inspired models. Like the Solarmetre, it has a ten-month power reserve, and the battery lasts for 15 years. 

Maurice Lacroix also recently introduced two new solar models, the Pontos S Solar and Pontos S Solar Chronograph to its collection of sporty diver’s watches, which have eight-month and five-month power reserves respectively. It’s the first time the Pontos range has featured solar technology, making it a significant new direction for the watchmaker.

Junghans, in true German engineering fashion, has taken the technology one step further. The watchmaker was integral to the early development of solar-powered timekeeping in the 1980s, which it developed alongside radio-controlled timekeeping. This enables a watch to periodically synchronise itself with a national time signal, making it extremely accurate with almost no user adjustment needed. The new unisex Meister MEGA Solar models have remarkable power reserves of three years, and can be synced via radio signals in Europe, the UK, the US, and Japan, as well as the Junghans app.

While Junghans’ is an elegant solar dress watch, watchmakers like Victorinox, Alpina, and Seiko are bringing a more rugged appeal to their latest light-fuelled models. It’s the first time Victorinox has dabbled in solar, and its Concept One Solar watch features a Swiss-made Ronda 215 solar movement with an eight-year battery life. 

Alpina’s stainless steel Extreme Solarmetre, with its screwed-down bezel and textured dial, is chunky and masculine, slotting in seamlessly with the rest of its sporty Extreme collection, which has both quartz and automatic options. 

And Seiko has also brought out several Astron GPS Solar limited edition models this year on its 145th anniversary. These include the Astron GPS Solar Dual-Time Chronograph 5X83, launched to celebrate its 145th anniversary. When it was first introduced in 2012, the Astron GPS Solar was the world’s first GPS watch, capable of receiving satellite signals and automatically adjusting to local time zones anywhere on Earth. The chrono is the first Astron GPS Solar watch to combine dual-time technology with a chronograph function. It’s one of five new limited-edition solar watches released by the brand this year, with two new titanium models arriving this summer, featuring perpetual calendars, dual-time functions, chronographs and a power-reserve indicator. 

Finally, bringing the story full circle, back in March, Citizen celebrated the 50th anniversary of its Eco-Drive with two limited edition Eco-Drive Photon watches, powered by the brand’s new Eco-Drive calibre E036 movement. The new model, alongside the raft of other solar releases, show not just how far solar technology has come in 20 years, but also how much its positioning has changed in the industry. 

No longer just a novelty, watchmakers are now focusing just as much on the aesthetics as they are on the functionality of solar watches, reframing them not just as advanced engineering, but as futuristic luxury tech. They also occupy a new, otherwise unexplored area between mechanical watches and smart ones: unlike their smart counterparts, solar powered watches function independently from a phone, and don’t need to be charged. And unlike their mechanical counterparts, solar watches don’t need to be wound, and offer much greater accuracy when telling the time. 

As ultra-low-power electronics, materials science, and satellite connectivity progresses, there’s still room for a lot of innovation in the solar space, too. Perhaps future models could include features such as notifications, passive health tracking, NFC payments, and background synchronisation. It might have taken it 50 years to get here, but solar watch technology increasingly feels like an exciting space to be in.