Results for Tobacco Dial

Oris Teams Up with Cervo Volante for a Fall Appropriate Big Crown Pointer Date with a “Burnt Maple” Dial

Most enthusiast focused brands would find themselves extremely fortunate to have a single watch or collection that achieves “icon” status with the finicky hobbyist crowd. It’s not secret that watch enthusiasts are a picky and demanding bunch, and the watches that rise to the top and achieve a level of support by consensus are genuinely pretty special. Oris, I think, has at least two watches that fall easily into this category. There’s the Divers Sixty-Five (and the newer Divers Date) that have become forum favorites and are frequently spoken of when it comes time to recommend a solid sports watch to a budding collector. And then there’s the Big Crown Pointer Date. For my money, this is the iconic Oris. While dive watches, in general, might be more popular, the pointer date is special because it fills a very specific, old-fashioned niche, and there are just fewer brands making anything similar that’s still approachable for a casual or value oriented consumer. It has, of course, been a platform for many limited and special editions over the years, and the new version seen here made in collaboration with frequent partner Cervo Volante really stands out.  Cervo Volante is a strap and leather goods maker that Oris has partnered with for a number of years now. The brand specializes in sustainably sourced deer leather, and the straps they have crafted for the Oris watches they’ve worked on are truly exceptional. Cervo Volante’s mission also folds in nicely with O...

Introducing – The Kurono Grand Jubilee Calendar Salmon Dial

This year is pretty special for Kurono Tokyo, the more accessible brand created by Japanese independent watchmaker Hajime Asaoka. Indeed, 2025 marks the watchmaker’s 60th anniversary, which the brand is celebrating as its diamond jubilee, resulting in several special edition watches that pay tribute to design features created by Asaoka. Following the highly elegant 2025 […]

Introducing – Three Porcelain-Dial Limited Editions with the New Glashütte Original Senator Meissen

Two Saxon institutions, one renowned for its porcelain and the other for its precision, come together on a shared canvas. To mark 180 years of watchmaking in Glashütte and 315 years of Meissen porcelain, Glashütte Original unveils the Senator Meissen limited editions, a trio of red-gold watches with hand-painted porcelain dials; timepieces that are as […]

Introducing – The Meteorite Dial of the Bangalore Watch Company Apogee Visitor

Founded in 2018 by Nirupesh Joshi and his wife Mercy Amalraj, Bangalore Watch Company is a rare representative of Indian watchmaking, producing affordable mechanical watches with a strong Indian connection. Fascinated by all things related to aviation and space, Joshi designs models inspired by India’s Air Force and space programme. The Apogee, launched in 2021, […]

Introducing – The Hermès Cut Now Sports a Light Blue Dial

Hermès has a flair for creating intriguing case shapes with a dash of poetic licence. Launched in 2024 and designed by creative director Philippe Delhotal, the Cut watch is a stylish, versatile, unisex, sporty-chic collection with a sophisticated design and an in-house movement. Adding a touch of colour, the new Hermès Cut sports a sky […]

First Look – The Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Control Calendar now with Handsome Grained Sector Dial

Launched in 1992, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Master Control collection is inspired by the brand’s classic round timepieces of the 1950s, focusing on technical rigour, certification (JLC’s in-house “1000 Hours” Control), and stylistic restraint. The Master Control Calendar was part of the refreshed collection in 2020, equipped with a triple calendar and moon phases inspired by movements developed […]

15 Best Purple-Dial Watches From Affordable to Luxury

Purple is the color of royalty, and it appears that a Purple Reign has started to quietly take over the watch world in recent years, with violet hues finding their way to an increasing number of dials, from a somewhat surprisingly diverse range of watch brands. Like their predecessors in green, red, and orange, purple dials are still, in fact, something of a novelty; many of the timepieces featured below are intended for a niche, limited audience. Nevertheless, the rise of purple tones on watch dials is worthy of notice, and almost certainly here to stay for a while, Here we’ve gathered 15 of our favorite purple-dial watches in ascending order of price, from under $500 to over $85K. Citizen Tsuyosa Automatic Sunray Purple Dial Price: $475, Case Size: 37mm, Water Resistance: 50 meters, Crystal: Sapphire, Movement: Automatic Caliber 8210 Best known for its light-powered Eco-Drive movements, Japan’s Citizen also offers a lineup of mechanical timepieces, including the NJ015 automatic series, nicknamed “Tsuyosa,” a Japanese word meaning “strength.” Speaking to the contemporary trend towards eye-catching colorful dials, Tsuyosa models offer a variety of them, with a subtle sunburst finish, including the purple dial watch above. The round, chamfered steel cases measure 40mm in diameter and 11.7mm thick, with an unconventionally positioned crown at 4 o’clock for better ergonomics on the wrist. The bracelet has what Citizen describes as a “mountain-shaped” design ...

First Look – The new Steel and Purple Dial Grand Seiko Spring Drive UFA Ice Forest SLGB005

Earlier this year, at Watches and Wonders Geneva 2025, Grand Seiko unveiled a new and rather important collection, fitted with a brand new movement and carrying a meaningful name, the Spring Drive UFA. Now, if you’re a GS fan, you’ll immediately spot the connection with the VFA models of the past, as the new Ultra […]

Explained: Dial Making at A. Lange & Söhne

Since its rebirth in 1994, A. Lange & Söhne has built an enviable reputation among collectors, based in large part on its rich portfolio of movements. Visiting the manufacture in Glashütte, it’s easy to see why; nearly all of the roughly 650 staff are engaged in some aspect of movement production. As a result, in little more than 30 years, Lange has commercialised 75 distinct calibers and has the manpower to apply a consistent level of finishing across the entire range, from the simple to the sublime. Historically, this single-minded focus on movements has meant that dials have often taken a back seat. Though uniformly high quality and made of noble materials like sterling silver and solid 18k gold, the brand’s dials tend to be simple, classical, and austere. An obvious exception that springs to mind is the sapphire crystal-dialed Lumen series, but sapphire crystal is a common material in watchmaking and these dials tend to be produced in a relatively industrial manner. Despite its focus on movements, Lange began to stretch its wings with artisanal dials as far back as the year 2000, first with enamel and later with mother-of-pearl, guilloché, tremblage, free-hand engraving, aventurine glass, and onyx. Most of these dials were produced by suppliers, but the brand has quietly built an immensely talented team of engravers and enamellists since launching the Handwerkskunst editions in 2011, and now crafts some of the industry’s most extraordinary dials within its own...

Fortis Introduces the Stratoliner S-41 Reentry Edition, with a Heat Treated Titanium Dial

Space, fire, time. These things are elemental, conduits to deep discussions about our place in the universe, and the nature of life itself. What does it all mean? It’s the stuff of 3:00 AM dorm room deep dives, the kinds of conversations that happen after watching 2001 for the first time. Every so often, a piece of art, or an object (or even a watch!) scratches at these ideas. That’s what I started to ponder, anyway, when I first read about the new Fortis Stratoliner S-41 Reentry Edition, a striking new version of their spacefaring chronograph with a unique (literally) dial with one of the more interesting concepts behind it that I’ve seen this year.  The highlight here, as you can likely derive from the images, is the dial that has been heat treated by hand. The inspiration comes from spacecraft reentering the earth’s atmosphere. This happens at an incredibly high rate of speed – roughly 15,000 miles per hour. At that velocity, the friction caused by the spacecraft as it comes in contact with the atmosphere essentially turns said spacecraft into a small, fast moving, fireball. Have you seen Apollo 13? Then you know basically how this works. A heat shield designed to control that burn keeps astronauts on board safe, and the critical structure of the spacecraft intact.  According to Fortis, every Reentry Edition dial is heat treated by hand and completely unique, thanks to the unpredictable nature of the impact of fire on the titanium surface. The heat produces ...

Watch Spotting: Ed Sheeran Wears A Unique IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar With A Pink Dial For The Launch Of His Album "PLAY"

Punchy pink product pops, punctuating performer's "Play" premiere.

Citizen Celebrates 30 Years of High-End Watches With Paper-Dial Duo

Citizen marks 30 years of its up-market The Citizen collection with two limited-edition watches featuring washi paper dials inspired by Japanese nature. Both use solar-powered quartz movements accurate to ±5 seconds per year, housed in titanium cases treated with ultra-hard Duratect coatings. Initial Thoughts Citizen’s somewhat clumsily named The Citizen sub-brand is 30 years old but little known outside Japan and enthusiast circles. Most The Citizen watches are distinguishable by an eagle crest on the dial, as well as their obvious quality. While the line has since grown to include mechanical watches, which are quite good, it remains a quartz-first brand – which is good as its quartz offerings are excellent and amongst the most advanced in the world. While often compared to the Grand Seiko cal. 9F models, The Citizen’s quartz offerings have more functions, and thus have more in common with the three-hand Seiko Astron 3X models, or Casio’s premium G-Shocks. These share solar charging, a perpetual calendar, and a power saving made which pauses the hands to save energy while not in use, like F.P. Journe’s Elegante. But unlike GPS-reliant Astrons and G-Shocks, Citizen’s high end quartz movements are fully autonomous, and accurate to within five seconds per year with a maximum deviation of two seconds per month during normal use. More important still, The Citizen’s traditionally styled offerings are much easier on the eyes than any G-Shock or modern Astron, stri...

Ressence And The Armoury Team Up To Create A Salmon-Dial TYPE 9 For The Sartorial Collector

Introducing – The A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Tourbillon in Platinum with a Black Enamel Dial

While A. Lange & Söhne is the most esteemed and historic player on the Glashütte block with traditions reaching back to 1845, the brand hones its Saxon pragmatism by introducing ingenious and contemporary solutions to age-old problems. The 1815 Tourbillon, released in 2014, is a prime example. A classic to the core, the 1815 Tourbillon […]

Introducing: Unimatic x Massena LAB Modello Quattro U4S‑T‑SPW With Meteorite Dial

The final chapter in UNIMATIC and Massena LAB's NASA Space Exploration trilogy.

Introducing – The Micromechanical Embroidery Dial of the Fil d’Or Louis Erard x Wire Art

There’s no stopping Manuel Emch’s relentless drive to democratise watchmaking by producing highly original content and métiers d’art dials, thanks to collaborations with designers, artists, studios and artisans for Louis Erard. The latest collaboration is a surprising marriage of traditional embroidery executed with a machine designed to bond microcircuits reprogrammed by Wire Art, Switzerland, to […]

Rolex Daytona Panda Dial Ref. 126500 Review

The Rolex Daytona is a tricky watch to discuss these days. It’s difficult to separate the watch itself from its status as a barometer to the health of the entire second-hand market — a position that the watch itself surely never asked to be put into. Everyone has an opinion on the Daytona, and these days, those opinions seem to lean more negative due mostly to what it has come to represent. As such, it rarely gets a fair crack at an honest judgment. In fact, it’s a watch I generally shy away from discussing publicly. But I’ve always liked the Daytona, and I take pleasure in wearing mine in non-watch-enthusiast environments. That’s because, behind all the speculation and hype culture, there’s a genuinely good sports watch that’s almost never seen as such. After a year of owning the reference 126500 Rolex Daytona Panda dial introduced in 2023, and amidst a cooling second-hand market, I think it’s time to change that.  Let’s start off by confronting the reality of this watch. The MSRP of the steel Daytona Reference 126500 in either black or white dial (dark or light, in Rolex parlance) is $16,000. The same watches trade for between $27,000 and $32,000 in the open market. This is a serious discrepancy, but it does seem to have stabilized from a high point in 2021. In fact, it seems to be slowly coming down, but not nearly to a price that the watch merits, if you ask me. At its MSRP, the Daytona is a legitimately great watch, but only just. At ~$30,000, this ...

Introducing: The Glashütte Original PanoMaticCalendar With A Dial Inspired By The Blue Of Dawn

The German brand's impressive take on an annual calendar gets a new colorway.

Time+Tide Announces their First Dress Watch, a Collaboration with Dennison Featuring a Marquetry Mother of Pearl Dial

Just a few months ago, Dennison launched their first ever collaboration with Collectability, John Reardon’s Patek Philippe focused retail operation. That watch was an exercise in subtlety, and all about shape. It evoked classic Patek references without hitting you over the head with obvious historical nods, and felt like a true reflection of Reardon’s taste. This week, they’ve announced their second collaborative watch, a time limited edition with Time+Tide, and this one is equally impressive while being anything but subtle, featuring an impressive execution of a rarely seen mother of pearl marquetry technique.  This feels like it might be the second week in a row where a mother of pearl limited edition takes over our social media feeds. It was just days ago that Selten premiered their own engraved MOP dial in partnership with Watch Ho & Co. Like the Selten, this new Dennison doesn’t stop at a simple slab of mother of pearl, but seeks to transform the material into something unexpected.  That’s where designer Emmanual Gueit comes in. He’s created a dial featuring a repeating motif of unique, rectangular, mother of pearl filaments. The result is an irregular surface that shimmers like a traditional MOP dial, but in unexpected ways through a geometric pattern. This type of dial making is far more labor intensive than using a single piece of mother of pearl, as each filament had to be precisely inlaid by hand.  Time+Tide has released a number of limited edition...

First Look – A Fresh New Green Dial for the Bulgari Octo Roma Automatic

When it comes to watches for men made by Bulgari, it seems the multiple-time record-breaking Octo Finissimo range gets all the attention… Rightfully so, you’ll admit, as this collection is as spectacular visually as it is technically. Bold, ultra-thin, highly distinctive in its approach to design and materials and undeniably Italian, it is the brand’s […]

Introducing – The New Coquille d’œuf Chronograph by Lebois & Co, with Grand Feu Enamel Dial

The name Lebois & Co. might be familiar to some, for two reasons. One, because we’ve covered this brand quite extensively over the past few years, having a look at its initial releases – the Avangarde Date and the Venturist – and its rather successful Heritage Chronograph collection. Second, the name itself is far from new […]

Introducing – The RGM Model 222-RR Ferguson Railroad Dial is a Genuine Slice of American Railroad History

As the only vertically integrated manufacture in the United States producing components, movements and guilloché dials, RGM is already an anomaly on the American watch scene. Founded by master watchmaker Roland G. Murphy in 1992 in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, Murphy’s interest in early 20th-century American watchmaking history is reflected in the brand’s railroad watches. The […]

Hands-on – Some Thoughts about the Rolex Daytona “Alcaraz” 126518LN with Turquoise Lacquer Dial

In recent years, basically since the introduction of the ceramic bezel on the steel edition (the 116500LN), the Daytona has become the hottest watch in Rolex’s portfolio, but also remained a fairly conservative model, with a rather parsimonious use of colours. This hasn’t always been the case, though, and in the past, we’ve seen wild […]

Introducing – The Fresh & New Minase Uruga with Ice Blue Dial

Minase is a Japanese watch brand well known to those who appreciate fine case construction and artisanal finishing. It was founded in 2005 by Kyowa Co., a specialist in precision machining and metalworking since the 1960s. Minase began as a case and bracelet manufacturer before stepping into full watch production. With a strong focus on […]

Bulova Introduces a New Lunar Pilot with a Timascus Dial

Cosmically speaking, 150 years might not be a very long time, but in the relatively young scale of recorded human history, it’s a mighty long while indeed. Airplanes, space travel, personal computers, microchips, sliced bread, washing machines, and the Internet were all invented within the past 150 years or so, making it even more impressive when a brand reaches the same level of longevity. This year, Bulova has done just that. To celebrate their sesquicentennial, the American watchmaker has a new release based on an icon of their past: the Lunar Pilot Timascus. The new release calls back to the original watch of the same name-the Lunar Pilot Chronograph-which was created in 1971 and ultimately worn on the moon. In the futuristic year of 2025, Bulova has teamed up with Brazilian artist Thiago Rosinhole to put his signature astronaut character “Budii” on the new Lunar Pilot, furthering the space-faring theme and giving the watch a touch of quirky character on top of historical heritage.  Still, the new Lunar Pilot leans less on the use of the character (who I was admittedly unfamiliar with until the collaboration announcement) and more on a creative use of color to spice up the classic chronograph style seen on other Lunar Pilot models throughout the brand’s history and current lineup. Nestled within a stainless steel case that measures 43.5mm in diameter is the “tiamscus” dial. If you, like me, were wondering what that means, it’s actually a fairly strai...