While Gonzo might say dress watches are as good in stainless steel – and by SS he means the entire thing, including the bracelet – but this is where we greatly differ unless it is the CITIZEN Eco-Drive Alarm Perpetual Calendar. To me, a dress watch should be of a precious metal (and okay, here I welcome Titanium) but one must understand that wearing a dress watch is also granting yourself a good opportunity to put on a precious metal on your wrist. A fine mechanical movement has its own virtues, in fact, 90% of the virtues in a watch, but would you park your Jaguar in a skinny, half-lit alley? Well, certainly if you are holding that family heirloom as an example of a dress watch, my opinion doesn’t count. Just no one has the right to stand between an heir and his inheritance. In that case, one should mention first; it saves a lot of unnecessary words. Though we entirely agree that for dress watches, complications (barring chronograph, altimeter and similar geek-stuff) are pretty things, but none of us likes markings and indicator hands crossing the levels of sanity. Too many certainly don’t improve a watch’s legibility (time display), so what should – ideally – fill in? We argued and here’s what we came up with. However, we kept the Citizen Eco-Drive Perpetual Calender out of this debate; with heavy, brown business formals, this one certainly stands a chance.
- Seconds-hand: A long one is awful; amidst a sub-dial, it looks awesome.
- Day & Date: A window is fine, but separate sub-dials with accompanying hands just look better, more so when one-sided. In the center they look so stark!
- Moon phase: We love this! However, looks better at 12’o clock than at 6:00. However, we don’t hold this paramount. Same like the power reserve. But some just die for it and for good reasons.
The beauty of the Seiko Cocktail (my all time fav in affordable luxury) and the Citizen Stilleto range got both of us grounded but given a choice, I shall keep the Stilleto as a corporate formal wear (that’s the best way I can put it) while the Cocktail….well, the name says it all. With a tux on, the only other I might go for is the Direct Drive Moon Phase. Agreed that it’s vastly away from the basic dress idea of residing in simplicity, you cannot call it superfluous. IMHO, it is a gorgeously pure wristwatch with the elegance sprinkled in a more elegant fashion. Now, there will always be a crowd who will tally the moon-phase with Glashütte and Genève productions, but it would be foolish to argue back. Because, here we are not just talking automatics, but a whole new range of technology. It isn’t so easy and while I may leave it at that point, don’t dare saying it to Gonzo. Frankly speaking, I won’t.
