While some people might consider luxury watches an extravagance, but for many, luxury designer watches are a perfect way to show off their riches. A luxury watch usually says a lot about the monetary and social status of its owner. If you love to spend your hard-earned money on luxury designer watches, here are some of the world’s most expensive watches, which you would like to add to your luxury watch collection.

� Zadora Timepieces

Watchmaker: Andreas von Zadora-Gerlof

Price: US$ $150,000

The latest offering by Andreas von Zadora-Gerlof is the Zadora Timepieces collection that has made me scratch my head at how luxury timepieces can cost. The Zadora watch pictured above is a snake of oxidized palladium and micro pave bejeweled with black and canary yellow diamonds along with superior pear shaped emerald eyes, with a baroque South Sea pearl positioned in its mouth.

Believe me, I have gone totally tongue-tied by the mesmerizing lustrous looks of these lavish watches. You can see the other versions of Zadora watches dubbed the skull, the bee and the pomegranate festooned with gold and precious stones after the jump. And yes, the price tag reads $150,000 each.

� Titanic Watches

Manufacturer: Romain Jerome

Price: US $152,435

A Swiss jeweler is now offering watches, which have been made from the hull of the doomed Titanic. The metal has been mixed with contemporary shipbuilding steel to make the casing of the timepieces. The black dials have been made by mixing the recovered coal burned in the Titanic’s furnaces with ceramics.

The watches dubbed Titanic-DNA will be made in a limited run of 2,012 as a reference to the 100th anniversary of the disaster in five years’ time. So, £75K tag is too high. Don’t worry as the Titanic watches range in price from £4,500 to £75,000 depending on the material used, such as steel, silver or gold with diamonds.

� Double Tourbillon

Manfacturer: Breguet

Price: US $329,000

The Breguet Double Tourbillion seems to be inspired from our solar system as it comes hand-engraved with an image of the solar system. This grand complication, double-tourbillon watch touts a 95% pure platinum case while the blued-steel Breguet hands are wound manually.

� Opera One

Manufacturer: Girard-Perregaux

Price: US $495,000

This beautiful platinum timepiece includes an alligator band and features a Westminster minute repeater and tourbillon with three gold bridges, manual winding, 75-hour power reserve and a see-through backing.

If the tag of $495,000 is bit high for you, the rose gold version sells for $450,000. The watch has a power reserve indicator, a subsecond complication, a minute repeater and a truly elegant face.

The main thing that differentiates Girard-Perregaux’s Opera Three from all those other complicated watches is its ability to sound passing hours not with a beep but with actual tunes.

� Grande Complication

Manufacturer: Blancpain

Price: US $785,000

This winding wristwatch dubbed 1735 features traditional complications such as minute repeater, split-seconds chronograph, tourbillon, perpetual calendar, moon phase and an automatic winding mechanism. The sleek black crocodile wristband further adds to the overall looks. It takes from eight to ten months to piece together all 740 components, and only 18 of a limited run of 30 watches have been assembled till now

� Tecnica Skeleton Chronograph

Manufacturer: Parmigiani Fleurier

Price: US $850,000

This watch, worth US $850,000, won’t be available until early 2008 and only three will be made. Each unit will include a platinum case and complications that include a minute repeater, tourbillon and chronograph, as well as a cathedral chime.

� Classical Billionaire Tourbillion

Watchmaker: Corum

Price: US $998,000

The shimmering wristwatch is adorned with 850 diamonds and boasts a dazzling skeleton dial with Skeleton hour and minute hands. The watch has been manually wound with 90-hour power reserve and features Caliber CO-372 by Corum and La Joux-Perret.

Rightly named so, the Billionaire Tourbillion comes in many versions with price ranging from $325,000 to $998,000. So, you have made up your mind to get one on your wrist but, hurry as there are only 10 pieces in production.

� Big Bang chronograph

Watchmaker: Hublot, Bunter SA

Price: US $1 milllion

The renowned watch maker, Hublot, in alliance with a diamond-setting workshop, Bunter SA, designed and developed an elite watch dubbed Big Bang. To remind you, the Hublot Big Bang chronograph won the Best Design Prize in the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix 2005.

The $1 million Big Bang boasts a fully invisible setting that makes the material disappear and the only thing revealed are the diamonds. The credit goes to the craftsmen who accomplished the tedious job of making this exclusive watch, which was not feasible a few years ago.

The snags in micromechanics put watch makers to labor to the 1/100 degree for an implausible 2000 hours. Startlingly, the tourbillon movement of the watch is veiled under 493 Top Wesselton baguette diamonds of dissimilar sizes. The strap of the Big Bang comes adorned with famous Hublot vulcanized rubber while the clasp is bejeweled with diamonds.

So, you have got one million dollar in your account. Sadly, that won’t do anything now as the diamond studded Big bang has already been sold.

� Tour de l’Ile

Watchmaker: Vacheron Constantin

Price: US $1.5 million

The world’s most expensive watch, Vacheron Costantin’s Tour de l’Ile was designed in 2005 to commemorate the 250th anniversary. The collectible piece is also the most complicated double-face watch, and only produced in a limited edition of 7. This 834-part watch took over 10,000 man-hours to create and features an 18-carat silvered gold dial with a hand-sewn alligator leather band and pink gold buckle.

It touts an original combination of horological complications and astronomical indications forming a list of sixteen different points, including a minute repeater, sunset time, perpetual calendar, second time zone, and a tourbillon device.

Honorable Mention:

� Joaillerie 101 Manchette

Watchmaker: Jaeger-LeCoultre

Price: Unknown for the moment

In this watch, a unsystematic series of polished or gem-set links (a jewelry puzzle) hides the exalted Calibre 101. It’s wonderful to look for the time through the gold, diamonds and onyx cabochons. It’s like playing hide and seek with time. Well, the wristwatch is festooned with 576 diamonds and comes in 18-carat white gold. The versions with Onyx have 400 diamonds and 11 onyx cabochons.

� Diamond Fiction

Watchmaker: TAG Heuer

Price: Inestimable (as stated by company)

This gorgeous watch comes adorned with 879 Top Wesselton full-cut diamonds that conceal the digital display. Out of the 879 diamonds, 54 are cut in a innovatively to offer a very high-definition concentration of the light emitted by 54 LEDs that display the time in glowing red. The red shade is depicted in the satin strap that contrasts to the glittering diamonds. Only thee pieces have been produced.

� Diamond Rotolog Watch

Watchmaker: Nixon

Price: Unknown

The Nixon Rotolog watch just got better. The company has created a masterpiece in the form of new Nixon Diamond Rotolog. The movement used is custom right read direct time Japanese quartz with LED. The stainless steel case set with black, white diamond inlay and a double gasket crown add to the looks of the watch. A whopping 764 white diamonds and 1,087 black diamonds have been festooned into a skull design.

For now, you can certainly expect for some gorgeous, new, and expensive watches from the Tempus (aka The Temple of Time) event that has started off with a bang in Singapore. 91664