[AnonPi]

God I love that VC 1921.

Good luck herding the cats!

 

[TravisMorgan]

This is another non watch purchase that I always regretted..beautiful salmon textured dial, 38mm & 8mm thick...put a black Alligator strap on it and I'd wear it wearing a tuxedo ...wish I had bought it

 

[northside]

I have a rose gold Chronoswiss Sirius, and a rose gold and SS Chronoswiss Kairos. I love them both as dress watches.

 

[c3p0]

 

[Nativepride80]

I am drooling so bad right now! I will have a reverso one day but until then I will just come back to this thread and dream: )

 

[TravisMorgan]

Just got this and put on a Hadley Roma Black Leather strap...I would wear this in full business suit

 

[Aaah]

Ladies and Gentlemen,
...

Now the onus is on the rest of you; what are your thoughts, collection, interpretation of dress watches? Hopefully there is enough interest to keep this thread alive and well.

I had no idea this thread existed and I've spent the last week or so ploughing through the 1000+ posts. Cheers, much to admire and much to reflect on.

My take on the definition of what constitutes a dress watch... The 'rules' were initially constituted in a bygone age by short, bald men with moustaches who had probably served their country, wore a jacket and tie to do the gardening and wouldn't dream of popping down to the local store without wearing a hat. In other words, the whole notion of formal wear has moved significantly and so watches should be considered in this light too. However, the essence of what made a dress watch a dress watch is still a desirable commodity, i.e. understated elegance, something that does not attract attention from afar but has all the hallmarks of quality up close.

	Strictest	Strict	Widely Accepted	I'd Accept
Metal	White, Noble metal.	Colored or white noble metals.	Colored or white noble metals or stainless steel.	Any, just because carbon, PVD, titanium, ceramics etc weren't possible way back when, it doesn't mean that they can't form an elegant watch.
Functions	Time only, two hands.	Time only, sub or central seconds allowable. Sub seconds is more appropriate.	Minimal functions allowed such as Date, Power Reserve.	Two hander on an automatic makes no sense to me. All complications can be discreet or showy e.g. Moser perpetual. So any, as long as the dial isn't busy.
Indexes	Applied or printed stick Indexes. No Lume.	Applied or Printed stick indexes, or Roman Numerals. No Lume.	Indexes, Roman Numerals, Breguet Numerals or some mixture of the afore mentioned. Light lume acceptable.	Applied Arabic numerals can look very classy too. Again if it is elegantly done, it's OK.
Strap	Black alligator / Croc.	Black or dark brown, exotic leather.	Black or Dark Brown, Tonal stitching with various leathers.	As with the rest of the watch, understated but quality
Size	Small size for your wrist.	Modest size for your wrist.	Modern Size for your wrist.	Modest size for my wrist, sub 40mm in my case
Thickness	Ultra slim (under 6mm).	Slim (under 9mm).	Slim (under a cuff).	Slim (under 10mm) but the slimmer the better.

My current ultimate dress watch if only I could afford it. My ultimate any watch to be fair.

 

[JohnM67]

 

[ETA2824-2]

My take on the definition of what constitutes a dress watch... The 'rules' were initially constituted in a bygone age by short, bald men with moustaches who had probably served their country, wore a jacket and tie to do the gardening and wouldn't dream of popping down to the local store without wearing a hat.

Bingo. Completely outdated.
Nobody has the legitimation to set rules in this thread or this forum
for taste issues.

 

[Aaah]

Bingo. Completely outdated.
Nobody has the legitimation to set rules in this thread or this forum
for taste issues.

View attachment 16255370

Well, you can set up a thread with a view to people posting pictures of their whatever, and point out when they've posted a picture of something different. The trouble here is that 'a dress watch thread' using the strictest definition would have virtually no pictures so there has to be some leeway but that opens up individual interpretation.

What makes a watch a sport watch? Thickness, large diameter or wide bezel might cover it. So I would probably add thin bezel to my definition above in order to rule out slim sport watches. I was also considering whether dial colour should be in the definition, restricted to white, cream, champagne, silver etc. But then blue/black watches rarely ping in the flesh the way they do on a screen and can appear muted and understated. Dunno.

So applying the sense of my definition, yours is more sport than dress (bracelet, thickness, maybe colour) but it's marginal. Maybe there should be 'essentials' and 'desirables' in the definition. Maybe I'm overthinking this...

 

[sau]

I had no idea this thread existed and I've spent the last week or so ploughing through the 1000+ posts. Cheers, much to admire and much to reflect on.

My take on the definition of what constitutes a dress watch... The 'rules' were initially constituted in a bygone age by short, bald men with moustaches who had probably served their country, wore a jacket and tie to do the gardening and wouldn't dream of popping down to the local store without wearing a hat. In other words, the whole notion of formal wear has moved significantly and so watches should be considered in this light too. However, the essence of what made a dress watch a dress watch is still a desirable commodity, i.e. understated elegance, something that does not attract attention from afar but has all the hallmarks of quality up close.

	Strictest	Strict	Widely Accepted	I'd Accept
Metal	White, Noble metal.	Colored or white noble metals.	Colored or white noble metals or stainless steel.	Any, just because carbon, PVD, titanium, ceramics etc weren't possible way back when, it doesn't mean that they can't form an elegant watch.
Functions	Time only, two hands.	Time only, sub or central seconds allowable. Sub seconds is more appropriate.	Minimal functions allowed such as Date, Power Reserve.	Two hander on an automatic makes no sense to me. All complications can be discreet or showy e.g. Moser perpetual. So any, as long as the dial isn't busy.
Indexes	Applied or printed stick Indexes. No Lume.	Applied or Printed stick indexes, or Roman Numerals. No Lume.	Indexes, Roman Numerals, Breguet Numerals or some mixture of the afore mentioned. Light lume acceptable.	Applied Arabic numerals can look very classy too. Again if it is elegantly done, it's OK.
Strap	Black alligator / Croc.	Black or dark brown, exotic leather.	Black or Dark Brown, Tonal stitching with various leathers.	As with the rest of the watch, understated but quality
Size	Small size for your wrist.	Modest size for your wrist.	Modern Size for your wrist.	Modest size for my wrist, sub 40mm in my case
Thickness	Ultra slim (under 6mm).	Slim (under 9mm).	Slim (under a cuff).	Slim (under 10mm) but the slimmer the better.

My current ultimate dress watch if only I could afford it. My ultimate any watch to be fair.

View attachment 16253474

Jean-Claude Biver is rapt that you picked this as your dress watch grail!😉👍⌚

 

[Orbeo]

Just received this 35mm beauty. It's a Poljot Deluxe and bought it from Ucrania on ebay.

 

[Aaah]

Jean-Claude Biver is rapt that you picked this as your dress watch grail!😉👍⌚

It's a nice thought. According to wikipedia, he gives away 5 tonnes of cheese for free every year. I'm not sure he cares what I think.

 

[BarracksSi]

Just received this 35mm beauty. It's a Poljot Deluxe and bought it from Ucrania on ebay.

Finally, a fresh interpretation of Arabic numerals. This is pretty cool.

 

[ETA2824-2]

60 years old and dressy as watch can be: Eterna Centenaire "61"

 

[naganaga]

Finally, a fresh interpretation of Arabic numerals. This is pretty cool.

This is fabulous! Love the numerals on it. Are the markers stamped/pressed or printed?

Instagram: Login • Instagram

 

[naganaga]

A few of my "dress" watches.

Instagram: Login • Instagram

 

[sau]

It's really nice to see your HMT watches. At one time, it seems it was almost mandatory for pollies to wear one to show that they're one of the people.

I understand why the Indian govt had to stop subsidising the protected home-grown industry; still a pity that the unique flavour is gone.

Is there still musty New Old Stock HMTs languishing in small shops? Or have they been snapped up by canny collectors?

 

[Actium]

I had no idea this thread existed and I've spent the last week or so ploughing through the 1000+ posts. Cheers, much to admire and much to reflect on.

My take on the definition of what constitutes a dress watch... The 'rules' were initially constituted in a bygone age by short, bald men with moustaches who had probably served their country, wore a jacket and tie to do the gardening and wouldn't dream of popping down to the local store without wearing a hat. In other words, the whole notion of formal wear has moved significantly and so watches should be considered in this light too. However, the essence of what made a dress watch a dress watch is still a desirable commodity, i.e. understated elegance, something that does not attract attention from afar but has all the hallmarks of quality up close.

	Strictest	Strict	Widely Accepted	I'd Accept
Metal	White, Noble metal.	Colored or white noble metals.	Colored or white noble metals or stainless steel.	Any, just because carbon, PVD, titanium, ceramics etc weren't possible way back when, it doesn't mean that they can't form an elegant watch.
Functions	Time only, two hands.	Time only, sub or central seconds allowable. Sub seconds is more appropriate.	Minimal functions allowed such as Date, Power Reserve.	Two hander on an automatic makes no sense to me. All complications can be discreet or showy e.g. Moser perpetual. So any, as long as the dial isn't busy.
Indexes	Applied or printed stick Indexes. No Lume.	Applied or Printed stick indexes, or Roman Numerals. No Lume.	Indexes, Roman Numerals, Breguet Numerals or some mixture of the afore mentioned. Light lume acceptable.	Applied Arabic numerals can look very classy too. Again if it is elegantly done, it's OK.
Strap	Black alligator / Croc.	Black or dark brown, exotic leather.	Black or Dark Brown, Tonal stitching with various leathers.	As with the rest of the watch, understated but quality
Size	Small size for your wrist.	Modest size for your wrist.	Modern Size for your wrist.	Modest size for my wrist, sub 40mm in my case
Thickness	Ultra slim (under 6mm).	Slim (under 9mm).	Slim (under a cuff).	Slim (under 10mm) but the slimmer the better.

My current ultimate dress watch if only I could afford it. My ultimate any watch to be fair.

View attachment 16253474

Very thoughtful criteria in a highly readable format, thank you!

 

[Actium]

Just received this 35mm beauty. It's a Poljot Deluxe and bought it from Ucrania on ebay.

I love that! I think I saw that @Chronopolis has one too. As I mentioned before, the font on the numerals is enthralling