Along with the slow-moving trend back towards thin watches, dress watches have also been enjoying some increased amount of the spotlight. For whatever reason, brands are returning to the simple and classic stying of 50′s and 60′s to inspire new and modern timepieces. Here are just a few models that stand out for being beautiful, simple and aestetically versatile enough to suit a wide range of dress.
Tissot Visodate
- 40x 11.6 mm
- Stainless steel case (gold available)
- ETA 2836-2 with Day and Date
- Silver or black dial
- Sapphire crystal
- 30m WR
This modern Visodate has been styled after Tissot’s original Visodate model from the early 50′s. The Visodate is a classic dress watch in a modern size (40mm) with a price tag of around $550 USD. It is hard to think of a reason to exclude one of these from your rotation. We recommend the silver-dialed stainless steel model as Tissot does not fit the black dialed model with a black day and date wheel resulting in unbalanced dial proportions. The silver dial is perfect and the 40mm case is very practical and should wear larger thanks to a very thin bezel design. The silver dial should suit a black strap as easily as a brown option so the Visodate can be as dressy as you want it to be. If you’re looking for something a bit thinner, take a closer look at the Hamilton Jazzmaster below.
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Much like Tag Heuer, Hamilton is a brand that I have somehow never owned even though I often found myself enjoying their designs and even noticing them in TV and movie placements. Hamilton is actually a longstanding brand that can trace its roots back to 1892. They started building pocket watches in Pennsylvania and after making their first wrist watch in 1917, Hamilton was a major supplier of watches to the military. After World War II they produced the first electric watch, the Hamilton Electric 500, one of which is the style reborn as the watch seen in the Men in Black movie.
Fast forward to modern day and Hamilton is owned by the Swatch Group, a family that includes Omega, Tissot and even Blancpain. Hamilton has grown to be massively successful at marketing swiss watches with a strong tradition and swiss ETA movements (ETA is also part of the Swatch Group). Hamilton mixes its traditional, modern and military derived styling into many models spanning a large line up of automatic watches. In all of Hamilton’s current line up, there are few watches that embody Hamilton’s history like the Khaki Field line of military styled watches, loosely based on military field watches from WWII todays example is the Khaki Field Ref H70685337.
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I'm always a fan of the understated mechanical dress watch, and the recently announced Hamilton Jazzmaster Slim fits that category perfectly. Based on the high-grade ETA 2892 movement, it's available in 40 and 43mm sizes, in steel or gold case. Dials are black (shown right) or silver. It's an understated look, with just hours, minutes, and the date at six o'clock.
The 2892 is the next movement up from the ubiquitous 2824, and is considered to be a better design. It's the base for most of Omega's co-axial series, for example, and is held in very high regard by watch aficionados.
I think 40mm is a perfect size for this watch: large enough to read easily without partaking of the big watch craze. Even though I'm close to seven feet tall, I don't want a full-dress watch to occupy too much wrist space — it's supposed to be understated, after all.
List price for these ranges from $745 to $795, and they seem to be available for a bit less than that. Given the 2892 beating inside it, I consider this to be an excellent value. We're in contact with Hamilton now to see if we can arrange a loaner for review.
A couple of more pictures and comments after the break.
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