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The recent variant of the Calatrava (Ref 6007G), wherein this 91-year-old paradigm of formal elegance was reborn as a sprightly sports watch last year, bubbling with iterative colour accents and zippy details. And if you wanted evidence that the watch world’s aesthetic centre of gravity – even for classical dress watches – is currently located nearer to Oxford Street’s sneaker shops than Savile Row’s tailors, this was it.
Which makes it an interesting moment for Rolex, to pull a very dressed up rabbit out of its hat. This was the Rolex Perpetual 1908: an all-new dress watch that was pure, graceful and laden in heritage details. Replacing the fussy, ill-starred Cellini introduced in 2014, the 1908 is far more balanced and seductive in its aesthetic, slimmer in profile, more intentional in its old-school references, and more accomplished in its execution – not least, in the open view of an intriguing new movement, calibre 7140, decked out with a high degree of finish and evidently designed as a platform for future complications.
Whether this heralds the longed for return to the kinds of calendar watches and refined chronographs that Rolex briefly made during the mid-20th century – all auction megastars today – remains to be seen. But to say the watch world is dry-mouthed in anticipation barely understates things.
Besides which, the 1908’s appearance, and the concurrent dressing down of the Calatrava, raises some interesting considerations about the modern trajectory of the classical dress watch. For the past half-decade, casual steel bracelet watches have wrought a near-impervious dominance on the market, bending all-comers to their will. In fact, the most celebrated dress watch of the past few years was really a sports-luxe piece: Vacheron Constantin’s outstanding yellow gold revival of its 1970s bracelet icon, the 222, an instant sell-out a couple of years ago. Stalwart producers of slim, traditional dress watches like Vacheron Constantin, Piaget, Blancpain and Breguet have been concentrating much of their firepower elsewhere, while even A. Lange & Söhne has gained more attention for its Odysseus sports watch, made in vanishingly tiny volumes, than for its stock-in-trade formal watches. At times, the notion of something elegant, precious, understated and round has seemed a concept out of time, and out of place.
While the 1908 may signal the return of something more traditionalist, the dress watch hasn’t been completely missing in action – but when it’s appeared, it’s been doing so in peacocking form.
The grandaddy of this genre is the Cartier Crash, the postmodern ‘melted watch’ of 1960s Cartier London, whose status has risen from distinguished oddity to all-time classic, as recent auction bear out. Cartier, with admirable opportunism, produced a new version lately: in platinum with a white dial, and was available exclusively from its Bond Street store.
For graceful sophistication and beauty, however, even Cartier feels outdone by ‘Hana-ikada’ Spring Drive from Grand Seiko. With an old-school case design in rose gold, the glow-up comes from an especially exquisite example of Grand Seiko’s increasingly mannerist approach to dial-making: an etched-out, silvered pink cotton wool effect inspired by cherry-blossom.
Closer to home, the British brand Fears has for several years been a bastion of considered elegance with its attractive and versatile Brunswick offering. It brought out the Brunswick Au to mark the coronation of King Charles, but you don’t have to be a monarchist to appreciate its high style and craft, pairing a rich crimson dial with a yellow gold case assiduously handworked by the Canterbury jeweller Justin Richardson.
From king crimson to Royal Blue: Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Master Ultra Thin Moon, brings a blue statement dial to the subdued Master Ultra Thin aesthetic. The slim, orthodox dress watches of the Master collection are a core competency for the brand, but one that’s probably overdue some fresh attention, particularly on the movement side.
After all, with the 1908, Rolex has aimed its guns right at this exposed flank, with a watch of comparable price but considerably higher technical spec, and arguably a more distinctive style. In dress watches, Rolex has thrown down the gauntlet to its rivals. Their response may determine the future relevance of the classical dress watch as a genre.
