Watch Dandy

Editor’s Note: We’ve done over 1400 posts at Time+Tide, but I reckon I could count on one hand the number of stories that have featured employees whose title doesn’t start with Chief, Head, President or Vice. After speaking to Paul Gray, Boutique Manager of Bremont’s flagship store in Royal Exchange London, for a lazy afternoon at our HQ, I realised what we’ve been missing all this time. It’s the view of a company from within. The comments on culture, internal leadership and founder mythology that actually make for very interesting listening.     When Paul Gray first picked up a Bremont watch in 2009, he was not struck by a lightning bolt. He did not quit his job at Jura – where he worked with brands like Sinn, Nomos, Bell & Ross among others – and beg to join the then fledgling brand. Jura were, in fact, keen on working with Bremont, but Paul was straight up perplexed. “They kept saying, check out that Martin Baker watch. I looked at it. It was a nice watch, a tough little watch, but I wasn’t getting it. What is it about it?” “But then, you put it on your wrist, you feel it, you look at it, and…

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Last year, Seiko’s mainstream, mid-tier mechanical line, Presage, went global, with a collection of dressy options (including a particularly outstanding chronograph). This year Seiko expanded Presage in a big way, turning one of the most popular Japanese domestic models (JDM), the SARB065 – AKA the Cocktail Time – into a fully fledged collection. The Presage Cocktail Time consists of a range of three-handed options and a few more complicated offerings, all starring dials that pack a punch as potent as the drinks for which they’re named. We’re going to explore the broader family in a bit more depth soon, but we thought it was well past time to crack open the collection. So today we’re looking at the SSA346, a 40.5mm rose gold-toned number with well-integrated power reserve indicator that doesn’t break the flow of the dial in the slightest. There’s also a neat date subdial at six. But of course, the complications aren’t the point here — the focus is firmly on the dial, with its beautiful pressed, radial guilloché-esque pattern. Honestly, the dial alone is enough to get this watch over the line, but the fun doesn’t stop there. There’s a pleasingly domed Hardlex crystal and the rose gold coated case…

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So, in some parts of the watchosphere, it’s fashionable to be a Hublot Hater. While I’m not a HH (professional detachment, there are other, better uses for my energy), I will admit to being in the “not loving it” camp for quite some time. It was the bigness, the brashness, the it-watchness of it all. Given the choice, I’ll take off-trend. It was the flashy image – the rappers, footballers and boxers. Which is ironic, really, since Hublot began with Carlo Crocco as the anti-bling of the 1980s. At the time, the watch world was elbow-deep in gold, with wall-to-wall Cartier and Rolex. And then Hublot arrived: a matt black rubber strap on the gold. The brand was as polarising then as it is today, but in a different way. There were still the questions you can find all over the internet: the price-to-value relationship? Originator of materials or an opportunist? Creator or copyist? …Hublot began as the anti-bling of the 1980s. At the time, the watch world was elbow-deep in yellow gold, with wall-to-wall Cartier and Rolex. And then Hublot arrived: a matt black rubber strap on the gold. Especially, it was the loudness. Jean-Claude Biver’s Hublot has been PR-noise turned up…

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