Worn & Wound
Hands-On: the Raymond Weil A.R.T. Collection
Raymond Weil celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, Weil founding his eponymous brand in 1976. And the brand’s first integrated-bracelet watch is a nod to the seventies era of experimentation: where, in the face of impending quartz dominance, watchmakers produced bold designs like they had nothing to lose. This was the era of the Patek Philippe Nautilus and Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, both launching the concept of the luxury sports watch—in essence, a classier and far pricier interpretation of the Go Anywhere, Do Anything ethos that once took its inspiration from military and field watches. Only this time, going anywhere is to Monaco or St. Moritz, and doing anything is jumping off the back of a yacht into the waters of Bali. Fifty years later, the integrated bracelet watch has never been more popular. Perhaps it’s the trickle-down effect from the cachet of those two OGs, which have taken off so much that people are willing to snap up an anniversary Nautilus desk clock, or storm your nearest Swatch store for a plastic Royal Oak. Or it’s the promise of a certain inherent and integrated toughness, eschewing the notion that we won’t ever reach 1,000-ft deep-water depths and still make it back to the boardroom. In fact, skip the beach-to-boardroom mentality. This category is all upscale by comparison, and the A.R.T. series — which, according to Raymond Weil, stands for “art, refinement, and timekeeping,” with the latter perhaps seeming redundant — captur...
