Watch While You Can

Bold styles and elaborate complications define this season’s trendiest watches for men.

Precision Strike

Blending power, precision and functionality, the new Super Avenger Military chronograph by Breitling certainly lives up to its name. Its rugged steel case, water-resistant to 300 metres, features an ultra-resistant carbon-based black coating. The result is a non-reflective stealth look clearly geared towards the most extreme missions. The equally black dial provides a 24-hour “military time” display to avoid any potential confusion in the heat of action. The offroader strap is made of a durable and comfortable synthetic fabric such as those adopted for their operations by the elite armed forces. Issued in a 500-piece limited edition, the Super Avenger Military is also distinguished by its screwed-in pushpiece guards, its large screw-locked crown with non-slip grip guaranteeing maximum functionality; its thick glare-proofed sapphire crystal, as well as the oversized hands, hour-markers and numerals ensuring optimal readability.

Your Own, Personal, Timekeeper

Alt rock legends Depeche Mode recently joined forces with Hublot to release some uniquely styled watches that will benefit a very good cause. Resplendent in grey steel, featuring a tone-on-tone calfskin strap with thermo-moulded nail shapes, the Depeche Mode Limited Edition 2014 series is a perfect embodiment of the Depeche Mode look, while also symbolising the Art of Fusion, a concept dear to Hublot. Sales of the watches will benefit charity:water, a not-for-profit association whose mission is to ensure clean and safe water supplies in developing countries. The standout piece from this series is the Big Bang Depeche Mode 2014 Titanium, which is limited to just 250 pieces and features an open case-back with the “Depeche Mode” and “charity: water” symbols in transfer form on the sapphire crystal.

A Watch for Insiders


Swiss watch manufacturer Vacheron Constantin recently unveiled the Malte Tourbillon Openworked, a platinum, tonneau shaped wristwatch featuring the skeletonised tourbillon calibre 2790 SQ, reviving its specialty of skeletonised complications. From the nineties until several years ago, Vacheron Constantin excelled at creating skeletonised, complicated timepieces. Utilising the calibre 2790 SQ, which has been delicately skeletonised and then intricately engraved, the new Malte Tourbillon Openworked revives that tradition in grand style. Though the movement is mechanically identical to the standard Malte Tourbillon, the skeleton version requires significantly more work, and is correspondingly more impressive. The bridges and other major parts of the movement have been drilled and cut out, reducing it to the bare minimum necessary for structural integrity. What remains is engraved by hand, a painstaking process that takes almost a week per watch. The 2790 SQ is manually wound, with a short 45 hour power reserve. The platinum case measures 38.00 mm by 48.24 mm, and stands 12.73 mm high.

Moonstruck Masterpiece

Apart from the hours, minutes, and seconds, the regulator dial of the Richard Lange Perpetual Calendar “Terraluna” also accommodates the four precisely jumping perpetual calendar displays: date, day of week, month, and leap year. The patent-pending orbital moon-phase display can be admired through the sapphire-crystal caseback of the watch. It shows the current moon phase as well as the positions of the moon and sun as an observer in the northern hemisphere would see them. The day and night halves of this hemisphere are also discernible.

Tourbillon Times Two

For over two centuries, the tourbillion has been a symbol of chronometric precision. Designed to compensate for gravity-induced rate variations in vertical positions, it remains one of the hardest to produce complications in watches. Corum has achieved an authentic tour de force in equipping its new Calibre CO 1008 with not just one but two parallel-mounted tourbillions, dedicated to ensuring remarkable reliability backed by a generous 72-hour power reserve. This masterfully orchestrated mechanism is also fitted with a retrograde date and a particularly innovative time- adjustment device. Simply by pressing the crown pushbutton, the wearer can bring the minutes hand instantly to the 12th index so as to set the exact time. Embodying an authentic horological challenge, Caliber CO 1008 finds the perfect stage- setting in the iconic twelve-sided case of the Admiral’s Cup – born in 1960 and redesigned in 2013, while remaining staunchly true to the signature codes that have earned it legendary status. Available in 18K red gold or grade 5 titanium.