You may have not even known that Cartier stopped making the Calibre Diver at the time of writing, but they did.

My all-time favorite continues to be one of Montblanc’s simple versions with an all-steel case and matching silver dial paired with a brown alligator strap. They were always priced a bit too far out of my student budget’s hands when they first came out, but today they feel like a bargain. Wonderful details include the skeletonized lugs, wonderfully elegant dial style, and perhaps the best all-around contemporary men’s watch design Montblanc has ever made. Montblanc Timewalker Chronograph XXL Automaticĭid you know that Montblanc made a modern urban Panerai? Yeah, it was called the Timewalker, and prior to its current driving watch form, the Montblanc Timewalker Chronograph Automatic was a wonderfully proportioned modern men’s watch that simply never hit its marketing stride. Watches like this were just coming out when aBlogtoWatch was a new website, and about a decade later, I still think about owning one. It was truly innovative yet sexy, and yet stumbled because of poor marketing and almost no brand recognition at the time (in key markets like the United States). With a complicated case that had a pop-up inner section for the dial and movement, the Eterna KonTiki Diver was an excellent modern piece of diving equipment, and a dive watch lover’s dream. The right watch at the wrong time… and probably at the wrong price defined the Eterna KonTiki Diver, which later became the Porsche Design Diver P’6780 (Eterna produced Porsche Design watches at the time). What made it special is the 42mm wide size as well as the matte (versus polished) black ceramic case and bracelet.

Chanel’s less common men’s watches are excellent in my opinion, and a model that I continue to think about is the reference H3131 Automatic. Today, the J12 is typically associated with women’s watches, but that is mostly because of the brand’s clever ability to take a classic sports watch aesthetic, make it in shiny white ceramic, and get the fashion world really excited about it. Definitely a weird and cool watch that I’ve lusted after for years.Ĭhanel J12 Matte Black Ceramic 42mm H3131Ĭhanel popularized ceramic as a watch case material, and also helped usher in an era of well-made fashion watches. Large, and purposely made to show off its avant-garde design in the most modern-generation style, the Gefica made use of the brand’s popular jumping hour retrograde minute hand dial layout.

The Gefica was said to be inspired by an African Safari and was probably the first luxury watch to feature bronze as a case material (it rarely gets credit for this). One of the last watch collections the brand produced ( before it was purchased and then consumed by Bulgari) was the modern generation Gefica, which was developed based on the original Gefica watches from the 1990s. Take that, moonphase.Īfter designing some of today’s (still) most popular luxury sports watches, Gerald Genta went on to create his own brand. It’s a 44mm wide 300m diver in titanium with a rare automatic alarm-based movement meant to be heard underwater. Of those models, the Alarm was the most interesting one to me. If you grew up in watches when Jerome Lambert was at the helm of JLC, then you had excellent horological treasures to lust after (and you never even once tried on a Reverso). The watches they made for this partnership were all approved by the Navy SEALs themselves and designed for actual duty. Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Compressor Navy SEALs Diving Alarmīack when Jaeger-LeCoultre was still making macho men’s watches (boy does aBlogtoWatch miss the days of Extreme Labs and the AMVOX series) it had the interesting fortune of being the official watchmaker of the United States Navy SEALs (yes, before the brand retired their boots for soft slippers). Someday, I think I’d like to own at least one example of each of these watches. Below the watches I mention will be a link to those available items on eBay, which in addition to supporting aBlogtoWatch will allow you to join me in seeing how many are currently available at any given time, and what they might cost these days. Just realize that I’m not trying to evangelize what my tastes are on to anyone else. We have a lot of opinions here, and it doesn’t bother me if you don’t like what I like. The following list of watches is a very personal selection, which represents a dimension of my own tastes and artistic preferences.

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