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Horological horrors: Watches to be seen dead with at Halloween

With Halloween upon us, many Classic Driver readers will be contemplating what to wear for the big night that, according to the infallible Wikipedia, is an occasion for using 'humour and ridicule to confront death'. That's certainly a theme to chime with these four ghoulish horological creations…

…which are only appropriate for donning after dark – not least because most people wouldn't want to be seen dead with them.

De Grisogono Crazy Skull

For his latest creation, de Grisogono founder Fawaz Gruosi has, according to the marketing blurb, 'pushed the boundaries and freed himself from any constraints'. The result is the Crazy Skull, a cranium-shaped watch in which the dome is set with either diamonds or rubies and topped with a nose made from a heart-cut gem. Dual time displays are shown on the two magnetic eyes – and, when the diamond-set lower jaw is triggered, a tongue set with 66 pink sapphires pokes out from within.

Romain Jerome Batman-DNA

Romain Jerome first came to prominence about seven years ago with its original 'Titanic DNA' watches that contained 'genuine material' salvaged from the ill-fated liner. The brand has since made watches containing bits of DeLorean sports car, ash from the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull and dust from the moon. R-J's latest creation marks 75 years since the creation of comic book superhero Batman and has a bezel inspired by the Batmobile's wings and the Batman emblem in the middle of dial – which is, of course, designed to glow in the dark. Just 75 are being made.

Montegrappa Chaos

The 101-year-old Italian firm of Montegrappa is best known for its pens, but it makes watches, too. Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone is famed for his action hero roles and less well known for his design skills – yet Montegrappa gave him carte blanche to create a limited-edition watch called the 'Chaos', to go with the Chaos pen he commissioned for use in the first Expendables movie. Those with a taste for the Gothic will appreciate the skull and entwined snakes that make up the case of the watch, silver versions of which cost around £3,500.

ArtyA 'Real Blood' Halloween Son of Sound watch

Yvan Arpa, who created the concept behind Romain Jerome's aforementioned 'DNA' watches, branched out on his own a few years ago to create ArtyA Luxury Art Pieces – one-off watches with an unusual twist. Arpa's past Halloween specials have included a version with a spider's corpse embedded in the dial and another decorated with real blood and a handmade silver bullet coated in garlic. This year's Halloween special revisits the latter theme with a one-off 'Son of Sound' guitar watch daubed with swirls of stabilised gore.

You can find many less ghastly watches for sale in the Classic Driver Market.