Watch Dandy

We’re on the road again. This week, we’re down in Miami with Seiko to celebrate the opening of the brand’s first Miami boutique. The boutique is in the Design District, placing Seiko right in the heart of Miami’s watch retail scene. There will be a master craftsman from Japan on hand, demonstrating the art of Japanese watchmaking, as well as a Japanese whisky tasting, cocktails, and hors d’oeuvres – plus members of the HODINKEE community, of course. And that’s where you come in.

Hublot is not a brand known for its subtlety. Whether you think that’s a good thing or a bad thing, it just is. Experimental LaFerrari watches, full-on sapphire Big Bang chronographs, and quirky collaborations with contemporary artists are more Hublot’s speed. But the watch we have here today is a relatively restrained, finely detailed triple calendar with moonphase in one of the more wearable 42mm cases you’ll find anywhere. This is, without question, my favorite Hublot yet.

The Ralph Lauren Automotive Collection is supposedly inspired by the dashboards of vintage automobiles, and the particular touchstone for the collection is a particularly famous car from Ralph Lauren’s very famous collection: the Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic Coupe. While that specific car’s connection to the collection may or may not be obvious to a casual observer, the influence in general seems to have produced watches with a coherent design language. This sort of appropriation of design motifs is, of course, something Lauren has been doing in his clothing designs for many, many years to great success. The signature element of the Automotive Collection watches is the use of amboyna burl wood for the dials and bezels, as well as a case with six (functional) bezel screws, and the use of only steel (either brushed or with a gunmetal coating) for the cases.