Watch Style 4: Glashütte Original Senator

I love the simple almost minimalist design of the 40mm Senator Automatic from Glashütte Original and wear it here with bright green cords from New & Lingwood and a denim shirt from Jaeger. 

I feel this echoes the classically restrained but somehow also extrovert nature of the watch. With its elegant blued hands, stark white dial and crisp Roman numerals, it would be equally at home with black tie or a formal pinstripe work suit.

Links:

Glashütte Original

My factory visit featured recently here on the blog

New & Lingwood

Jaeger Menswear 

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This is part of an occasional series in which I style watches with an outfit. The feature is unsponsored. I'm always on the lookout for watches, new and vintage, to include here, so do get in touch.

Watch Style 3: Glashütte Original Sixties

The Glashütte Original Vintage Collection includes some beautiful Sixties watches with brightly coloured dials. Last year's had an emerald green dial, this year's a beautiful black-red-orange, almost pumpkin, dial. I had to borrow one for my Watch Style series and here it is, worn with a Fair Isle jumper - here, in styling the watch, I'm complementing colour with colour.

Glashütte Original Sixties watch from the Vintage Collection 2019

The fiery orange lacquer dial has a beauty and depth to its crackle finish that has to be seen in the flesh to be appreciated. The reverse has a display back showing an exquisitely finished calibre 39-52 automatic movement made entirely in-house. Price £5,200.

Links

I wrote about my visit to Glashütte Original here. 

For more information go to the Glashütte Original website here.

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This is an unsponsored post. The watch was borrowed for the review. All views are mine alone.

Watch Style 2: Wearing a 1991 Rolex Sea-Dweller

The Rolex Sea-Dweller is one of those watches which gets somewhat overlooked. Being in the shadow of the popular and sought-after Rolex Submariner keeps down its value as a vintage and used watch, despite the fact that the Sea-Dweller was designed as a more robust diving watch capable of being used a depths far greater than the Submariner. 

Wearing my 1991 Rolex Sea-Dweller as part of a smart casual look - image Tom Edwards Photography

The diameters of the two watches were until recently the same at a reasonable 40mm, although the Sea-Dweller is slightly deeper, with a thicker case to withstand higher pressures. It also has a discreet helium escape valve on the side of the case opposite the crown (which I think is pretty cool) and no cyclops magnifier over the date. Rolex fans get very heated over details like the cyclops - I have no preference either way, but some do.

The Rolex Sea-Dweller is now a large and chunky 43mm and has been joined by a rather blingy 44mm Sea-Dweller Deep Sea.

The older 40mm versions of both of these watches have a quiet, functional beauty which encourages their use for everything from smart business use to workaday wear in the garden, garage or on the boat. Here I wear my 1991 version of the Sea-Dweller here with a smart casual look based around a check jacket and linen trousers from New & Lingwood, but I could equally have worn it with a suit or jeans and jumper.

All in all, the 40mm Rolex Sea-Dweller makes a useful all-round watch that, for me, has the advantages of even greater robustness (not that I'm going to check it) and less obvious styling than its sibling, the Submariner or the new, larger and more flashy watches. For more on the modern versions, see Rolex's website.

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Watch Style 1: Breguet Type XXI

I see a good wristwatch as part of a man's style. Watches have different characters and functions. A simple, slim-cased dress watch is be best worn with evening wear, a chunky diving watch with a t-shirt and jeans.

Many men now own several watches for formal, work, holiday, sport or manual work. This occasional series will show how watches can be styled according to function. I'll give an outline of each watch and show how I might wear it. I start the series with the Breguet Type XXI. 

Wearing the Breguet Type XXI with roll neck and corduroy trousers - simple and functional

Breguet are an interesting company that has been at the forefront of watchmaking since the eighteenth century when Abraham-Louis Breguet, now considered one of the greatest watchmakers of all time, founded the company. Breguet has been credited with developing the first automatic watch, the tourbillon escapement (which compensates for gravity's affects on the movement), the chronograph and shock resistant movements, among other technical feats. Today Breguet is owned by the Swatch Group and continues to make high quality time pieces.

I wear the breguet Type XXI against images of its military ancestor, the French Type XX

During the fifties Breguet designed a chronograph, the Type XX for the French Naval Air Arm. The company and indeed the Breguet family have many links to aviation to timing equipment for flight. The beautiful Type XX was rugged, legible and extremely functional (and vintage examples command high prices at auction) and it later returned in a civilian form as the Type XXI which has an automatic movement and flyback function. 

Breguet Type XX as developed for the French military in the fifties

A chronograph is essentially a cross between and wristwatch and stopwatch. The flyback function allows the stopwatch hand to be returned to zero without stopping the timing. This would enable the pilot/navigator to time arrival at waypoints without having to start and restart the watch. The instant the second hand is returned to zero it starts again so that overall time recording continues, while allowing the intermediate time to be noted. This may sound a technical detail, but this sort of complication makes a watch all the more interesting and I always marvel how a purely mechanical device can operate with such complex accuracy.

The Type XXI which I've borrowed from Breguet is a beautifully made watch which harks back to its military roots although, as a watch designed now for civilian use, it has lost some of the simplicity of design of the original. It feels rugged and the flyback function is a joy to use. The dial is highly legible, as you'd expect from a chronograph with its origins in military flying. This is a watch with real heritage and, for those looking for something a little different, it makes an attractive alternative to some of the more commonly seen brands of chronograph.

I've styled it simply above - this is a watch that doesn't shout out and it deserves to be worn with quiet and sophisticated understatement.

Both the Breguet Type XX and XXI are available in various forms and you can find out more on the Breguet website.

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This feature is unsponsored. I borrowed the watch for a few days from Breguet. all views are mine alone.