CIGA design Everest Summit Central Tourbillon Review

Ever since I was a child, I have been fascinated by the tallest mountains in the world. These fourteen independent mountains are referred to as the eight-thousanders, since they all reach heights of more than 8,000 meters above sea level. While there are extremely tall mountains all around the world, these peaks all reside on the Asian continent within the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges.

Of these fourteen mountains, four have always been of the most interest to me being: Everest, Annapurna, Nanga Parbat and K2. Obviously Mount Everest is the highest point on Earth and the most well known mountain, so naturally it's fascinating. Annapurna, Nanga Parbat and K2 while not as tall, are much deadlier mountains averaging between 1 death for every 3 to 5 summits. Knowing this statistic is endlessly intriguing to me since it shows even with these horrible odds, climbers will push their bodies to absolute limit to accomplish what so few others have done. I'm so at awe of these giants that I've been pestering my wife for well over a decade to make the trip and hike out to base camp of K2. If we'll ever get around to doing it, who knows, but it's a fun thought.



So what do these mountains have to do with watches? Well up until recently there has only been a pretty loose connection between watches and the eight-thousanders. The first true connection was when Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay led the first expedition to successfully summit Mount Everest on May 29, 1953. While it's been a huge topic of controversy, Hillary and Norgay both had Rolex Oyster Perpetual 6098 watches in their possession during the climb, but Hillary's was more than likely packed in his gear while Norgay was actually wearing his. Hillary was believed to be wearing the De Luxe from English watch brand Smiths when he summited. Rolex was quick to act on the news of their watches reaching the top of the world and ran an exhaustive marketing campaign crowning their achievement. Smiths was pretty much left by the wayside and became a footnote in history.

Since then most watches trying to flex their robustness have looked to see how deep they can dive or how far into space they can survive. Mountaineering has not really been in the vocabulary of horology since Hillary and Norgay reached the top of Everest. A few years ago Vacheron Constantin released a pair of Overseas watches, a dual time and chronograph, that were named "Everest". The watches even had their rotors engraved with a photo taken by National Geographic of Mount Everest. These were great looking timepieces that ended up becoming extremely sought after collectors' pieces fetching many times over their retail price on the secondhand market. I believe most of the buzz behind these pieces was the Everest name and rotor engraving, just showing you how many people love and respect these mountains.

In 2023, Chinese watch manufacture CIGA design released the most tangible connection to the eight-thousanders in their Everest 70th Anniversary Central Tourbillon watch. With half of Mount Everest being located inside of China, the summiting of Everest is of much national pride, so it's fitting that a Chinese watch brand would produce such a timepiece. The Everest 70th Anniversary watch was a very special piece that had a depiction of Everest on the dial with its height, 8,848.86 meters, also displayed. The watch used ice axes as hour and minute hands even having the flags of Britain, Nepal, India and the United Nations on the minute hand. CIGA design decided to add a mind blowing customized central tourbillon movement to the Everest 70th Anniversary as well. With the tourbillon being the pinnacle of watchmaking, it was only fitting to include it in such a watch.



Even if CIGA design stopped there, the Everest 70th Anniversary Central Tourbillon would have been an exceptional piece. What really set the watch apart from any other mountain themed watch that came before it was its dial. CIGA design enlisted the help of mountaineer, Zhang Liang, to join their chief designer, Jiang Xin, on an expedition to the base of Mount Everest. During this journey, the pair found an unexpected source of inspiration at the base of the mountain. Here they found rocks that were pieces of the mammoth mountain that have bore witness to the extreme climate of Mount Everest and share its rich history. The pair collected some of these rocks and transported them back to CIGA design where they were expertly cut into what would become the dials of the Everest 70th Anniversary timepieces. All of this when paired with a titanium alloy case meant these watches were as close to a perfect watch for me when looking at my personal interests and what I look for in a watch.

Needless to say, since the Everest 70th Anniversary pieces were released, the watch has been at the top of my list of watches that I needed to see in person and get to know better. By the time I had connected with CIGA design, the Everest 70th Anniversary was long sold out, but luckily enough the brand had a follow up in the works. Dubbed the Everest Summit, this new watch was a more refined take on the original and released in late 2025. I was quick to contact CIGA design and make sure that there would be an Everest Summit that we could review. After years of wanting to experience their Everest watches, I'm so happy to say that one finally arrived.

Before I go into detail about the Everest Summit and let you know what I think about it, let's first go over a quick history of CIGA design as well as Mount Everest. If you'd like a much more detailed history of CIGA design, please read our review of their Time Cipher, where I go into much more detail on the brand.



CIGA design was founded by renowned industrial designer, Zhang Jianmin, with the sole purpose of redefining what a Chinese watch meant. Prior to CIGA design, the term "Made in China" was seen as derogatory in the watch collecting world. This often meant either a very cheaply made watch, or a knock off of a more expensive Swiss made watch. Jianmin looked to change the narrative of "Made in China" to "Created in China". The simple change of "Made" to "Created" meant that he wanted the world to not just see China as a factory floor, but a true hub of creative genius.

China actually has an extremely long history with clock building, centuries before the Europeans, the Chinese were using early escapement mechanisms on water-powered clock towers. Su Song's 11th century "Cosmic Engine" was a great example of early Chinese clock making and it was a state sponsored creation that served as a connection between the Emperor and the heavens. The Imperial Court was later introduced to mechanical clocks by Jesuit missionaries in the 1600s. Watchmaking didn't see much movement in China until 1955, when the government viewed having their own watches as a matter of national defense. This birthed the era of the Tongji movement, which was found in nearly every watch produced in China. The brilliance of this movement was that nearly every part was interchangeable and could be serviced by any local watchmaker.

CIGA design was born from these horological roots and found its first successes on the Chinese crowdfunding platform Mi.com between 2017 and 2020. The early C Series from CIGA design used a skeletonized mechanical movement as its centerpiece and was a huge hit for the new brand. In 2020, CIGA design moved to a global crowdfunding platform, in Indiegogo, and shattered its watch category sales records with the Series X and Z watches. The successes on both Mi.com and Indiegogo proved that there was a global appetite for high-design Chinese mechanical watches.



In these short four years CIGA design had become a rather successful watch brand, but even though the sales were there the brand lacked a true identity. This was overcome in 2021 with the launch of the Blue Planet (Series U). The Blue Planet feature a truly unique organic pebble shaped case and a dial unlike anything seen before it. The dial used asynchronous-flow technology that had a rotating globe to simulate the Earth's rotation, thus eliminating the need for traditional hands. The watch wasn't just a simple party trick, but it was an entirely new way of telling time and it was not only breathtaking, but it was also very accessibly priced. Collectors and the watch industry took notice and in 2021, the Blue Planet won the Challenge Watch Prize at the GPHG (Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Geneve). This is the equivalent to the Academy Awards for watchmaking and a huge accomplishment for CIGA design. The brand was also the first Chinese watch brand to ever take home a GPHG trophy.

The Blue Planet was even added to the permanent collection of the Musee d'Art et d'Historie (MAH) in Geneva. Since the Blue Planet, CIGA design has gone on to release the Everest 70th Anniversary Central Tourbillon, Eye of Horus and most recently their very unique take on the wandering hour complication with the Time Cipher. The brand has also released refined versions of both the Blue Planet and Everest Central Tourbillon. CIGA design has now fully found their design voice and done it with tremendous success in only ten short years. It really makes you wonder what they will be capable of releasing in the next ten years in terms of both design and technical ability.

Shifting gears to probably the least technical object in existence, we have Mount Everest. Mount Everest was formed roughly 50 to 60 million years ago when Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates collided at a very rapid pace. Instead of sliding under each other, like is common with oceanic plates, these two buckled up against each other and thrust upwards to create the Himalayas. Oddly enough, since this rock was being pushed upwards, the summit of Everest is actually composed of marine limestone containing ancient marine fossils. Since the Indian plate is still pushing northward, Everest continues to grow by 4 millimeters a year.



Everest sits directly on the border of Nepal and Tibet (China) and the summit point is the actual border line. The mountain actually has three names. First is Sagarmatha, which in Nepalese means "Peak of Heaven". Next is Chomolungma, which in Tibetan means "Goddess Mother of the World". Finally Everest, which was named by the Royal Geographical Society after Sir George Everest in 1865, who was a former Surveyor General of India. For many decades, the official height of Everest was set at 8,848 meters, but in 2020, Nepal and China came together to announce the official height of the mountain was to be set at 8,848.86 meters (29,031.7 feet).

Before the 1950s, Nepal was closed to foreigners, so early British expeditions attempted to summit the mountain from the North side in Tibet. The first serious attempt to climb Everest occurred in 1922, when a group reached 8,300 meters using bottled oxygen but ended up failing. In 1924, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine disappeared while high on the Northeast Ridge. In 1999, the body of Mallory was discovered, but it was never proven if the pair was able to summit Everest before they passed. When Tibet was closed to foreigners and Nepal opened, the British mounted a full onslaught to summit Everest from the South in 1953. The expedition was successful in the end with Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay becoming the first humans to officially stand on the summit of Mount Everest.

Climbing Mount Everest is a much different animal today than it was decades ago. In the 1990s guides realized they could make a good living selling access to summiting Everest to amateur climbers. These commercial expeditions charge between $35,000 and $100,000 for the logistics, oxygen and Sherpa support needed to summit Everest. A "Yellow Brick Road" has now been set up by Sherpas that effectively links base camp to the summit via ropes and ladders, making summiting rather safe. The death zone still exists over 8,000 meters and with the overcrowding now seen at the top of Everest, many climbers have passed away while effectively being stuck in line at one of the most dangerous places in the world.



Initial Thoughts

Now that we've gone over the history of both CIGA design as well as Mount Everest, let's now go over my initial impressions of the Everest Summit. When the watch arrived, the first thing I noticed about it was the stunning central tourbillon. Having started collecting watches in the early 2000s, the tourbillon was always reserved for only the finest six figure watches from brands like Breguet and Blancpain. In recent years with advancements in micro engineering, the tourbillon has been able to be manufactured on a more industrial scale, not being limited by the few Swiss watchmakers talented enough to construct one with their hands. Even so, seeing a tourbillon in the wild is an extremely rare occurrence. Even more so, the tourbillon on the Everest Summit has been centrally mounted having all the focus on the dial point to it. The tourbillon is finished exceptionally well and the polished silver and gold components look amazing when beating away as the tourbillon completes its one minute rotation. The three spoke polished silver tourbillon cage contrasts so nicely with the golden balance wheel and its matching timing screws, especially on the dark near black dial.

Speaking of the dial, the next thing I naturally took notice of during my initial time with the CIGA design Everest Summit was its dial. As we mentioned earlier, the dial of the Everest Summit is made from fragments of Mount Everest's bedrock collected on an expedition that CIGA design's chief designer, Jiang Xin, took to the mountain. This rock is extremely hard to shape and is also very delicate. CIGA design was able to cut and laser shape the rock to define its contours and then use CNC engraving to bring out the natural grain. The dial is then treated so that it will not lose its luster over time. A relief of Everest is then carved into the dial and coated with Super-Luminova. In all, each dial takes over 30 days to be transformed into the final product. Just glancing down at the dial gives me so much happiness that there is a true piece of Everest on my wrist.



The final thing I took note of while looking at the Everest Summit for the first time was the case back and movement. The first thing you notice is the raised engraving of a quote by Sir Edmund Hillary saying "It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves", which is in reference to a similar quote said by George Mallory, who famously lead an ill-fated expedition to summit Everest three decades before Hillary. This style of raised engraving is then seen on the movement where important information about the watch like the case material and movement details is displayed in a similar fashion. This style of engraving lines of text on to the movement reminds me of what Greubel Forsey does on some of their watches with special messages engraved to owners on the movement. Finally there is nice usage of media blasting and brushing to finish off the look of the movement. In the middle of the movement is an open round area where you can see through to the central tourbillon as well.

A Closer Look

Now that we've gone over my initial impressions of the CIGA design Everest Summit Central Tourbillon, let's now take a look at the technical specifications of the watch. With this refined version of the Everest 70th Anniversary Edition, CIGA design has scaled down the dimensions from a case diameter of 48 mm and a thickness of 11.9 mm to smaller measurements of 45 mm and 11.65 mm respectively. The original Everest 70th Anniversary Edition was crafted out of titanium alloy, while the newest Everest Summit is made out of grade 5 titanium. Another big change between the Everest 70th Anniversary Edition and the newer Everest Summit is now the Everest Summit comes with traditional lugs, where the 70th Anniversary piece had a lugless design. The lugs are extremely short with part of the strap residing beneath the case, resulting in a lug to lug length of just 45.4 mm. On our scales, the Everest Summit weighed in at just 98 grams when attached to the strap and clasp, which is very lightweight for a 45 mm timepiece.



The Everest Summit uses a raised slightly domed sapphire crystal that gives you an exceptional view of the dial beneath. Underneath the crystal clear sapphire is the Mount Everest bedrock stone dial we spoke about earlier. The stone is a very dark grey, nearly black, color with a matte finish to it. Visible is the natural grain and striations seen in the rock, which give the dial a nice three dimensional depth. A relief of Mount Everest has been done at 12 o'clock which is then filled with Super-LumiNova C1 which appears white in normal lighting, but then glows a strong green in low light. Under this relief is "8848.86m", which is the official height of the mountain.

There are two hands found on the dial of the CIGA design Everest Summit Central Tourbillon being the hour and minute hands. The first thing about these hands is that they are not centrally mounted, but instead are mounted to the aperture that allows you to see the tourbillon. Instead of using traditional shaped hands, CIGA design modeled the hour and minute hands after Sir Edmund Hillary's historic ice axe used during his ascent of Mount Everest. The axes are skeletonized with the shorter axe being the hour hand and the longer the minute hand. The axes are polished in finish and are lumed near the tips with matching lume to that found on the relief of Everest.

At the center of the dial of the Everest Summit is the large aperture housing the central tourbillon. The border ring is nicely defined and also polished in finish. Inside you can see the polished tourbillon cage which has three spokes and a central ruby. Beneath the cage is the polished golden balance wheel complete with twelve miniature golden timing screws. You can also see other components of the escapement and gear train through this opening, but the real treat is seeing the tourbillon rotate around once a minute in a never-ending dance.



Moving on from the dial is the stunning grade 5 titanium case housing the Everest stone dial and tourbillon movement. The case features a static bezel which has four polished "claws" that are used to display the current time. The start of the claw represents an hour marker for 1, 4, 7 and 10 o'clock, the end then represents one hour later being 2, 5, 8 and 11. 12 o'clock is represented by an engraved triangle with 3, 6 and 9 having small engraved notches. The top of the bezel is brushed in finish, while the mid-case is sandblasted. Each case goes through process which takes over 70 days to reach its final form, during that time it is subjected to cutting, etching, engraving, sandblasting and even hand-finishing.

Looking at the profile of the watch, you can see how short the lugs are and also how they have a slight downturn to follow the shape of your wrist. The left-hand side of the case features a CIGA design engraving which besides the clasp is the only branding found on the visible part of the watch while being worn. This is similar to how the Fifty Fathoms from Blancpain has "Blancpain" engraved on the left hand side of the watch. On the left hand side is a non-screw down crown that is nicely scalloped and has a mixture of sandblasted and polished finishes. The crown is topped off with the CIGA design logo and even though it is not screwed down, still offers 50 meters of water resistance. There are no calendar functions on the Everest Summit, so the crown only has one position. You can wind the manual wound movement in the resting position, while pulling the crown out to its only position lets you set the time. Pulling the crown out doesn't cause the tourbillon to stop and pushing the crown back in causes no jump in the minutes hand. Since the tourbillon rotates once per minute, you can also use it as an impromptu seconds hand.



Flipping the CIGA design Everest Central Tourbillon over, shows off the display caseback that is held in-place with four case screws. The bezel over the caseback has the raised engraving of the Hillary quote. A flat sapphire crystal is then used to let you view the movement beneath. As we touched upon earlier, the look of the raised engraving of the quote is then seen repeating over three rings on the back of the movement. CIGA design is able to pack in a ton of information about the Everest Summit in these three rings such as movement details, water resistance and case materials. Like on the dial side of the watch, there is a matching aperture on the back where you can see some of the gear train and the tourbillon escapement.

The Everest Summit is powered by the self-developed caliber CD-05 manual wound movement. The movement runs at 21,600 vph (3Hz) and has a very impressive 120 hours of power reserve. CIGA design states that the movement is accurate to -10 to +20 seconds per day, but on our timegrapher the CD-05 showed an accuracy of +4 seconds per day when averaged out over several positions. This is actually within chronometer standards and mind blowing for a self-developed tourbillon movement with 120 hours of power reserve.



The Everest Summit has a rather standard lug width of 22 mm and should be able to accept a rather large number of aftermarket straps, just make sure that the strap can clear the tight tolerances of the short lugs. The watch comes on an extremely supple black Fluororubber strap which tapers down from 22 mm at the lugs to 20 mm at the brushed and polished branded deployant clasp. The clasp is held closed by two pushers that need to be depressed before the clasp releases. The other side of the clasp uses friction to stay closed after the clasp has been released.

Like with the Time Cipher, the Everest Summit Central Tourbillon comes in very unique packaging. Instead of coming in a traditional watch box, the Everest Summit comes in a more of a book. The book has imagery of Mount Everest along with a history of the historic first summit expedition. After you've flipped through a few pages of the book, you reach an area with a cutout of the case and strap. The Everest Summit comes disassembled and so it's up to you to get the strap mounted to the watch, which is easy enough with each side of the strap having a quick release spring bar. I do love this approach though, since it makes you interact with the watch before you ever wear it, creating a bond between you and the watch.



On The Wrist

Typically anything with a 42 mm case or larger I consider to be lightweight if it is less than 100 grams. With the Everest Summit being 98 grams, the watch falls into that category for me. This meant that even during wearing sessions that went on for many hours, the watch never became a chore on the wrist or introduced even an inkling of wrist fatigue. A lot of this can be contributed to the liberal use of titanium and sapphire in the case construction.

On my 7.25 inch wrist with a 55 mm flat area the CIGA design Everest Summit wore very well. Even though I prefer watches with around a 50 mm lug to lug length and the Everest Summit was nearly 5 mm shorter than that, the watch had an almost immeasurable amount of wrist presence. The lug to lug length is a bit misleading since the lugs only add a total of 0.4 mm to the length of the watch. The real number here is the 45 mm case diameter which makes a truly bold statement on your wrist.



The extremely comfortable flourorubber strap did an amazing job of keeping the watch centered on my wrist and the Everest Tourbillon never favored one side of my wrist over the other. The strap has ample holes to be sized down and up from my base size of 7.25 inches as well. It does seem to have a lot more holes to size further up then down though. We've had pretty mild weather here in Austin recently, so I really wasn't able to see how the watch dealt with wrist swelling, which is a common issue in Texas.

The mostly all grey and black look of the CIGA design Everest Central Tourbillon also went perfectly with my typical dress of a black t-shirt, shorts and sneakers. I would say the watch fit well with my very casual lifestyle but could maybe also pass in more formal situations than I typically find myself in. There isn't much of a reason that the Everest Summit couldn't be worn as an everyday wearer, past the fact that you'd be wearing a tourbillon everyday, which seems a bit weird to me coming from such a place of reverence for the "complication". Even the 50 meters of water resistance combined with a rubber strap means that you theoretically could swim with the Everest Tourbillon on, not something I would do, but still feasible. More than likely the watch wouldn't be your daily wearer, which means that the 120 hour power reserve is more than ample enough to allow the watch to sit days at a time in your rotation and still be set when you pick it up again, just needing to be wound and topped off.



To test the legibility of a watch, I use a simple test where I see how easy it is to tell the time at just a glance while driving. In this test, dive watches with their high contrast dials and large markers due the best, while complicated and skeletonized watches do the worst. Since the CIGA design Everest Summit Central Tourbillon is both complicated and partially skeletonized I was a little worried in how it would do. In reality the large polished ice axe hands contrasted well with the dark grey Everest bedrock stone dial and deciphering the time at just a glance wasn't too bad. Telling the time in the dark takes a bit more guess work since there are no lume areas on the bezel, but the hour and minute hands do illuminate nicely in low light.

While wearing the Everest Summit out and about running boring everyday errands, the watch was a great wrist companion. For the most part the wrist completely disappeared on wrist and was only there where I needed to check the time or take a look at the watch; otherwise the fact that I was wearing it slipped my mind. I did notice while running these errands and also when I wore the Everest Summit out to dinner and drinks, that the watch attracted a lot of attention. I had more than a few people even approach me and comment on the watch or ask questions about it. It was nearly to the level of what I see when I wear a Ulysse Nardin Freak, which is very impressive. Everyone just loved the fact that the watch had a dial crafted out of stone from Mount Everest and also got a kick out of tourbillon spinning at the center of the dial. Those that knew a little about watches were also very impressed by the fact that the watch featured a tourbillon, especially when they found out the price of the Everest Summit.



Value and Position in the Market

Speaking of price, the CIGA design Everest Summit Central Tourbillon is priced at $2,699. For that price you're getting a stunning grade 5 titanium case which features some hand finishing. The watch also boasts a self-developed hand wound movement with 120 hours of power reserve and features a central tourbillon. Topping off everything is a dial that is made from the bedrock of Mount Everest. Then when you combine the time needed to complete the case and dial you are well over 100 days in total. In my opinion the Everest Summit shows incredible value for what you are getting for the asking price. Now is the part of the review where we look at other watches with similar features and specifications to see how the Everest Summit holds up value wise.

Up first we have the Tourbillon 1 from Horage which has a 41 mm case crafted out of stainless steel. The watch is powered by a Swiss made hand wound movement with the same 120 hours of power reserve as the Everest Summit. The Tourbillon 1 features a skeletonized dial with a flying tourbillon mounted at 6 o'clock. The Tourbillon 1 does have twice the water resistance to the Everest Summit, but costs much more at around $9,000.



Next up we have the Himalaya Everest Edition II from Kobold which has a 43.5 mm case made out of titanium. The dial of the Himalaya Everest features stone collected from just below the summit of Mount Everest where Kobold founder, Michael Kobold, collected the rock. The watch is powered by an off the shelf ETA movement with only around 40 hours of power reserve but does have twice the water resistance at 100 meters. Given how and where the rock was collected from, the Himalaya Everest is extremely limited to only 25 pieces and cost much more than the Everest Summit at $24,500.

Moving on is the Overseas Dual Time Everest from Vacheron Constantin which has a 41 mm case made out of titanium. The Everest has an integrated bracelet design and is powered by an in-house movement with 60 hours of power reserve, much less than the Everest Summit. The Everest is a fairly complicated watch featuring a second time zone, day/night indicator and a pointer date, but does not feature a tourbillon. The Everest has three times the water resistance as the Everest Summit at 150 meters. The Everest has a 22k pink gold rotor with an engraving on Mount Everest on it. When the Everest was released, it had a retail price of $31,300, but due to its limited production and high demand now sells for over $125,000.

Finally we have the De Ville Tourbillon from Omega which has a 43 mm case made out of Sedna Gold. The De Ville like the Everest Summit features a dial that is dominated by a central tourbillon. The De Ville is powered by an in-house manual wound movement with 72 hours of power reserve, much less than the 120 hours found in the Everest Summit. The De Ville has less water resistance than the Everest Summit at only 30 meters as well. Finally the De Ville Tourbillon is much more expensive than the Everest Summit at $223,500.



Comparing the CIGA design Everest Summit to these above four watches shows just how great of a value the watch is. For the most part the Everest Summit has just as good, if not better specs, than the other four while costing multiples less. When you start looking at watches that feature tourbillons, much less central tourbillons, or dials crafted out of such exotic materials as rock from Mount Everest, prices skyrocket quickly. The fact that CIGA design was able to combine the high horology central tourbillion in a self-developed movement with 120 hours of power reserve and a dial crafted with rocks from Mount Everest for less than $3,000 is just mind blowing to me.

One final note about pricing, especially when it comes to tourbillons... It is a well known fact that you can find less expensive watches featuring tourbillons from other Chinese manufactures. The massive difference is that CIGA design isn't a fly by night brand that doesn't care about the quality of their watches. These other in-expensive tourbillons will have industrial grade finishing and minimal to zero quality control. This will end up leaving you with a watch that will more than likely run very inaccurately, have no real warranty and will be near impossible to repair when needed. CIGA design on the other hand has won a GPHG award and is a highly recognized and respected watch manufacture that stands behind its products.



Closing Thoughts

So in the end, is the CIGA design Everest Summit Central Tourbillon for me? If you're this far into the review and just didn't skip to the end, then you probably have a pretty good idea how I'm going to answer that question. The Everest Summit is by leaps and bounds a watch for me. Even removing the direct tie in to Mount Everest and the eight-thousanders, the Everest Summit would still be a watch I would seriously consider adding to my collection. The watch falls right into the type of watches I like collecting with a large 45 mm case crafted out of my favorite case material in titanium. Top that off with boasting a mesmerizing central tourbillon and an accurate movement with five full days of power reserve. Finally all of this is offered for well under $3,000.

If we stopped right there, the Everest Summit would have checked off most, if not all, of the boxes I look for when adding a personal watch to my collection. When you then go the extra step of crafting the dial of this watch out of actual rock from Mount Everest collected directly by CIGA design on their own expedition, the Everest Summit just goes off the charts for a watch I'd add to my personal collection. Is it the perfect watch for me? Not quite, since I still prefer dive watches to all other types of watches, but besides that, the Everest Summit is about as near perfect of a watch that could be made for me personally. That being said the watch will be added to my personal collection. So there's that answer.



Would I then recommend the watch to somebody looking for a more unique addition to their collection? Well, if it's good enough for me, I don't see why I would have any hesitation in recommending the watch to a collector looking for such a watch. I do feel it might be a bit strange to wear a central tourbillon as your daily wearer, so I'd give a bit of pause recommending it to somebody that wanted it as their only watch. In reality, somebody looking at the CIGA design Everest Summit is more than likely adding it as an additional watch to an established collection. In that case, the Everest Summit would be a near perfect addition. The relief of Mount Everest and the height of the mountain on the dial along with the hour and minute hands being in the form of ice axes is specific, so if you just have zero interest in these mountains or climbing, I guess that could be somewhat of a turn off. I personally think those both add a lot of charm and unique character to the watch though. I must not be alone though, since the Everest 70th Anniversary watch sold out quickly as did the first run of the Everest Summit. I would say if you're at all interested in the Everest Summit, you need to give the watch a real good look before it inevitably sells out again.

I'd really like to thank CIGA design for sending us this Everest Summit Central Tourbillon to review. It's now been over two years since I first saw the Everest 70th Anniversary piece, and since then I knew I had to add one to my collection. Nearly two years later, I can now say that the refined version of the Everest Summit is everything I wished the watch would be and I'm extremely excited to have one in my collection moving forward. Now if only CIGA design would give my favorite mountain, K2, the same treatment Everest received and create a K2 Summit… I mean K2 is also in China and regarded as the world's most dangerous and difficult to climb mountain, it only seems fitting as a follow up the Everest Summit! One can dream right?



I've now reviewed two watches from CIGA design in the Time Cipher and Everest Summit and have legitimately been blown away with both pieces. This makes me genuinely excited for what the brand has coming to market for 2026 and also makes me want to get a Blue Planet in for review to see where the current trajectory for CIGA design started in 2021 and what won them a GPHG. We'll see if we can get one in from the brand to see what it's all about sooner than later.

For more information about the Everest Summit Central Tourbillon please visit : CIGA design

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: Everest Summit

Retail Price: $2,699

Case Size: 45 mm

Lug to Lug: 45.4 mm

Thickness: 11.65 mm

Weight: 98 grams

Case Material: Grade 5 Titanium

Bezel: Grade 5 Titanium

Strap: Black Fluororubber Strap with Deployant Clasp

Movement: Self-Developed Caliber CD-05 Manual Wound Movement

Functions: Hours, Minutes and Central Tourbillon

Power Reserve: 120 Hours

Water Resistance: 50 Meters