Eight Dress Watches of BASELWORLD 2017

They have the elegance of their own, have purer appearance and charm you with their clean looks. Hiren Kumar Bose picks eight classic looking dress watches of BaselWorld

Breguet Classic 7147

The Classique 7147 utilises a unique asterisk minute track with diamond markers at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock and fleur de lis-style markers on the other hours. The hours and minutes are aptly indicated by traditional blued steel Breguet hands while the seconds are indicated by a baton-style hand. The only inscriptions on the dial are the “Breguet” signature at 12 o’clock and “Swiss Emaille Grand Feu”. It houses the self-winding Calibre 502.3SD, equipped with a silicon balance spring and an inverted in-line lever escapement with horns also made of silicon. The extra-thin (2.4 mm), the 35-jewelled movement has a power reserve of 45 hours while operating at a stately 3 Hz beat rate. The Classique 7147 is available in rose gold and white gold.

1960 Grand Seiko

To celebrate Grand Seiko’s formal split into a separate brand, the company introduced an exquisite reissue of its understated first model, featuring a domed crystal and wedge-cut hour markers. This retro charmer is available in gold, platinum, and stainless steel. As the first order of business, the brand re-created its first watch as a series of limited editions; aside from the increased case size, they’re identical to the original. It’ll also be the first of independent Grand Seiko’s new branding scheme, with the Grand Seiko logo at 12 o’clock (instead of the standard Seiko logo). The majority of the first Grand Seiko models were produced in an 80-micron gold-filled case but some were also made in platinum. The new re-creations are being offered in both these metals and also in stainless steel. The case is virtually identical to the original, but its diameter has been increased to 38mm in line with contemporary taste. The dual-curved sapphire crystal is also loyal to the original shape and gives the re-creation the same pleasingly gentle profile. All three versions incorporate the 9S64 manual winding calibre, but the platinum version has been adjusted to an even higher level of precision, -1 to +5 seconds per day. All of them are offered as limited editions, each with a special “Inspection Certificate” and are already available.

Slim d’Hermés L’heure Impatiente

An horological homage to a famous Georges Clemenceau line — roughly, “the best moment in love is right before it arrives” — it has a 12-hour countdown that gives the wearer a sense of anticipation, culminating in a delicate chime from deep inside the watch’s rose gold case. Similar to an alarm clock, a designated time is set via the subdial at 5 o’clock. An hour before the designated time, the “impatient hour” complication, located at 7 o’clock, begins to count down each minute. A striking mechanism announces the time – and your wait is over. The opaline silvered dial with sunburst chapter ring, snailed centre and counter features black transferred numerals and minute circle, and baton-type hands. Gorgeously framed by a round 40.5 mm case in 5N 750 rose gold with sapphire crystal and anti-glare case back, the watch is water-resistant to 3 bar.

Longines Heritage 1945

An elegant looking dress watch, it has a beautiful clean design with a 40mm stainless steel round case and sapphire crystal. The brushed copper dial has 6 Arabic numerals and 6 cabochons, giving the perfect balance to the Longines Heritage 1945 in terms of visuals. Blue steel leaf-shaped hands and an aged looking beige nubuck leather strap with steel buckle are the final touches of this great vintage-inspired piece. The original vintage piece from the mid-1940’s is a show-stopper but the Longines Heritage 1945 also happens to be breathtakingly beautiful. While the original model was equipped with a manual winding calibre 12.68Z, the new Longines Heritage 1945 houses the L609.3 (based on the ETA 2895/2). It is an automatic mechanical movement with 27 jewels and 42 hours of power reserve. The watch though retaining its vintage pedigree looks very much modern.

Rolex Cellini Moonphase

Offered in 18-ct Everose gold the 39mm watch has a white lacquer dial with a blue enamelled disc at 6 o’clock showing the full moon and the new moon, the former depicted by a meteorite applique and the latter by a silver ring. The moon phase is read via the indicator set at 12 o’clock on the subdial, as the full moon and new moon rotate through the lunar cycle. The watch also displays the date around the circumference of the dial, via a centre hand with a crescent moon at its tip. Driven by a self-winding mechanical movement manufactured by Rolex the patented moon phase module is astronomically accurate for 122 years. Covered by the Superlative Chronometer certification, it guarantees superlative performance on the wrist in terms of precision, power reserve, waterproofness and self-winding. The precision of a Rolex Superlative Chronometer after the casing is of the order of ?2/+2 seconds per day, or more than twice that required of an official chronometer.

Raymond Weil David Bowie Limited Edition

The Limited Edition Freelancer “David Bowie”, is a tribute to the life and musical career of one of the most influential artists of all time. To celebrate the immortal David Bowie, it has chosen Freelancer, it’s 42 mm diameter case containing a dial resembling a vinyl record featuring some of the most emblematic design cues of the British artist. Amongst the key design features, the lightning bolt painted across his face that first appeared on the cover of the Aladdin Sane album in 1973. The instantly distinctive mark universally recognized, the stylized lightning bolt is featured in red at 12 o’clock. The pop art logo designed by Andy Warhol especially for David Bowie and revealed on the cover of the album Diamond Dogs in 1974 makes its mark on the dial of the David Bowie Limited Edition. Produced in a 3,000-piece limited, numbered series, the freelancer “David Bowie” beats to the tempo of a mechanical self-winding movement that appears beneath a portrait of David Bowie. A photograph printed on the sapphire of the watch’s case-back, from which this artist in his own league challenges the world with his atypical, magnetic gaze.

Omega – Trilogy limited edition

To mark the 60th anniversary of the timepieces, namely Seamaster 300, Railmaster and Speedmaster, the brand launched a special limited-edition trilogy box that faithfully copied the vintage designs and dimensions of the original models save for a few upgrades. The trilogy box, which also features a vintage design, is limited to 557 pieces.

Nomos Glashütte Club 38 Campus

German watchmaker, Nomos Glashütte has released its Club Campus line geared to young adults. A generously-proportioned watch with its 38.5-mm bilingual dial, and resilient case, it has a galvanised dial with Roman and Arabic numerals and indexes with blue superluminova. The hands are rhodium-plated hour and minute hands coated with superluminova (blue luminescence) while the seconds hand is in neon-orange. As a bonus, each watch comes with a largely blank case back: just the thing for an inscription celebrating a college graduation or a first job.