While not terribly expensive (and still not particularly affordable given that so far the collection is only presented in stainless steel), the new Jaquet Droz Grande Heure Minute Quantieme was designed for those people who believe that a dress watch must only be worn with formal attire. While you still can wear one of them with jeans or even chinos, you must be either a really successful screenwriter or a slightly eccentric serial start-upper to pull off the trick.
Slim d’Hermes Automatic in Rose Gold by Hermes
The 2015 Slim d’Hermes targets those iconic Piaget ultra-thin wristwatches that the competing brand is so proud of. Yet, the thinness is not the timekeeper’s main selling point. The device offers a well-balanced, solid design that is a serious improvement on their previous attempts, as well as a new self-winding mechanism with micro-rotor design that could technically even be called ‘in-house’.
Frederique Constant Slimline Moonphase Manufacture Ladies (FC-703VD3SD4)
The 2015 Frederique Constant Slimline Moonphase Manufacture Ladies FC-703VD3SD4 is one of the finest timekeepers introduced by the brand so far. It is also one of their (still precious few) models powered not by a slightly redecorated version of a run-off-the-mill blank movement made either by ETA or Sellita, but by a new caliber developed and built by Frederique Constant on their own production facilities. That says something, right?
UniSexy: JeanRichard Terrascope Automatic 39mm
With their 39mm JeanRichard Terrascope (ref. 60510D56A602-11A), the brand tries to kill two birds with one stone. First, it is the first unisex member of the Terrascope collection. Second, it is the first Terrascope that is less than 40 millimeters without the crown. Finally, you don’t have to be a huge guy to wear one of these with pride: you can be a skinny girl, too.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Calendar Meteorite
What is a dress watch? For many, it requires a compact body and an enameled or engine-turned dial with classic hands. You know, the usual stuff. The 2014 Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Calendar Meteorite (refs. Q1558421 & Q1552540) features the classic dial layout spiced with a dial plate cut from a real meteorite. The material is not terribly rare: eBay is teeming with all sorts of celestial stones ready to mail. Yet, it usually takes a skilled artisan to cut the stone (or a slug) at a particular angle that allows it to truly shine. Jaeger-LeCoultre designed this gorgeous new model with nerds in mind. It targets high-school dropouts who made their fortune offering the world software or services that makes our life a lot easier.
This Archimede 1950’s Automatic Is Not Your Average Homage to WWII
The German brand has recently updated its collection of dressy three-handers with a nice Archimede 1950’s collection that pays homage to timekeepers that were produced by the local watchmakers after the end of the Great War. Although the Japanese movement that powers the device doesn’t look nearly as impressive as NOS hand-wound Junghans calibers that they, for example, used for their Pilot OR2 limited edition watch, it is robust and reliable and looks like an adequate choice for the price.