The one watch you can’t avoid in life
Whenever someone asks “what are the must-have watches”, I find it much easier than “$XX,000 budget” because the person who asks the first question is often more receptive.
I can give options from a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands and there is no conflict. It’s like when a reader with a million dollar watch asked, “What if I get a Movado for fun? After all, there are no watches of this design.”
I replied in the affirmative, of course, without having to worry about the person’s budget in the slightest.
It’s so pure and comfortable – after all, it’s on my personal “one watch to have in life” list.
When it comes to the Movado, the most iconic thing is the museum dial – no indexes, just a dot at 12 o’clock. I’ve already written about it a few times, but I’ll give you an outline so replica watches that you don’t have to go through the previous articles.
I can’t wait to give you a sneak preview of this year’s new watch, the “Blue Mo”.
It’s still familiar, isn’t it?
A Swiss brand for 140 years, Movado, born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, has also won awards, most notably for this dial without indexes – it was born in 1947.
It was the first dial to be included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York in 1960, hence the name “Museum Dial”.
This classic dial has seen many variations over the years, and this year we are looking at the ‘Blue Mo’ – a deep Tahitian blue dial.
A Bauhaus artist, American Nathan George Horwitt’s designs are truly timeless
The dot at 12 o’clock,replica audemars piguet watches representing the midday sun, is the most distinctive feature of the museum dial. And the phrase “time is the position of the earth along its orbit around the sun” clearly explains this design best.
Thus, naturally, we leave behind our obsession with numerical scales
For Movado today, of course, this noonday sun also means a positive attitude to life – to the sun.
Moreover, precisely because the dial is so classic and recognisable, it has always been designed in a very restrained manner.
For example, the brand name is at the lower edge of the 6 o’clock position, unobtrusively blended into the SWISS MADE logo.
If you don’t look closely, you might miss it, but that’s okay, the dial itself is the logo!
Unlike the stick hands of the classic Museum dial, the new Museum collection uses a silvered toffee hand design, which is also subtle. The bezel has a Roman Coliseum-style outer arch with four curved lugs and is 40 mm in diameter.
The crown is threaded in the classic Swiss watchmaking style for easy calendar adjustment and is engraved with the M symbol at the top.
The mechanical movement is also visible through the caseback, and the watch is priced at $6,200 in China.
For Movado, the “Blue Mo” is yet another interpretation of a classic, but it’s definitely not all that Movado has to offer.
A design that is too well known can present some challenges – such as overshadowing other strengths – and at the same time, there is a greater demand for variations on a classic design.
For example, how do you make a watch that is instantly recognisable as a ‘museum dial’, but a little different?
This is where the 1881 Deep Blue comes into its own.
It adds hour-markers, 10 stick-shaped hour-markers starting with the sun and spreading out on each side, finally converging at 6 o’clock
Retaining the instantly recognisable sun dot, but with indexes, it is an extended interpretation of the classic museum dial. The watch has a Chinese public price of $7,800.
There are also designs that are “unfamiliar” to everyone at Movado, but have been around for a long time. This year, for example, the replica watch ‘Westworld’ is also new in China – a replica of the classic Calendoplan S from the 1950s.
The hot sports watch shape of the moment, 43mm in diameter
The aluminium unidirectional rotating bezel has a small serrated design and is light to handle. And the hands are gunmetal-tipped with a different shaped geometric design at 12 o’clock, 6 o’clock and other hour markers that stand up to close scrutiny.
There are two versions, in a gunmetal case and a steel primary case, each with a cognac-coloured calfskin strap and a black calfskin strap respectively
Check out how it looks in my hands, while it is also priced at $7,800.
More distinctive, and a replica watch, is the return of the new Disco Volante collection, a name derived from the Italian word meaning “flying saucer”.
First launched in the 1950s, the collection is available in three models this year, including jade white, rose gold and champagne gold.
It is a complete replica of the first Flying Saucer from the 1950s, with a case that features a double bezel design with tapered lugs and an arched sapphire glass that looks like a flying saucer from the side.
The case is particularly layered with a combination of angularly cut lines on different levels
It uses triangular hour-markers and dotted minute markers, with toffee hands and a date window.
Although it is a 40 mm diameter watch, the double-layered case design gives it a “big plate, small face” look.
The dial features a 50s-inspired guilloché design and a studded inner bezel, inspired by the material and craftsmanship of flying saucers.
For everyone, this is the ‘different’ Movado – unfamiliar but with a strong sense of age. All three watches are priced at around $15,000.