Laying down expressive amounts of cash on a timepiece is a milestone up there with bested your virginity and getting your first grey tresses (hopefully in that order).
Granted, some may argue that your shekels could be better spent elsewhere, like on necessities such as comestibles, paying bills, and maybe the odd sneaker. But what if money weren’t an dissemination?
What if when it came to tourbillons, sapphire crystals, unidirectional harm bezels, and other words that make up a watch nerd’s wet delusion, it was a horological no-holds-barred?
According to the editors of FashionBeans, here are the designs that defy the hands of time (and realistic bank ups).
Luke Todd
News Editor
When the editors of FashionBeans adamant at a recent editorial meeting to play a game of ‘if money was no raise objections to’ with watches, I found myself unusually quiet. Steadfast, in my job I’ve handled timepieces priced the same as a deposit on a Park Lane apartment, but none I could recall as my ‘dream’ watch.
So I did what any other exhaustive, self-respecting journalist would do… an online quiz. After suffer the consequences of c taking questions about my spirit animal and which Hogwarts bagnio I thought I belonged to, it arrived at Cartier. Chief among the grounds was that I (apparently) like to be the centre of attention, which led me to pick out the Degree de Cartier Diver with its strikingly handsome blue dial.
In genuineness it’s probably the understated 9ct gold, champagne face Rotary on a vicious leather strap that my parents bought me for a milestone birthday. Because nothing is permitted to outshine me.
Calibre de Cartier Diver, available at Cartier, figured £21,900.
Tom Banham
Associate Editor
Rolex doesn’t do rubber straps. Still, it does, as of this year, do Oysterflex. This is a band that looks in the same way as rubber but is in fact crafted from nickel and titanium ads (for strength) coated in an ‘elastomer’ (an elastic polymer that’s hypoallergenic and improved to your wrist, for perhaps the most comfortable fit you’ll find anywhere in Geneva).
This is par for Rolex’s execution. It surveys the market, then does its own thing, only healthier. The rose gold case, for example, is not rose gold at all; it’s Everose, the Climax’s bespoke alloy, with a touch of platinum to prevent corrosion. The bidirectional bezel is increased from Cerachrom, an in-house ceramic that’s scratch- and UV-proof, which Rolex PVD covers with platinum, then scratches off with a diamond wide bar the numerals.
Which means that while this guard looks like a gold watch with a ceramic bezel on a rubber strap, it is not. It is Rolex’s rendering of a sports-luxury, one powered as much by obsessive attention to detail as it is the caliber 2236 signal. Your move, everyone else.
Oyster Perpetualyacht-Master 37, on tap at Rolex, priced £14,750.
Cillian O’Connor
Features Editor
There was much jibing in the intercession when it emerged that – of all the super-spenny watches selected for this printing of Editors’ Picks – I’d picked the cheapest:
“Really?”, encouraged one of my colleagues incredulously, “you know this is a completely hypothetical post, right?”
“Basic,” said another.
And my personal favourite: “Jesus, Cillian, fancy bigger FFS…”
But the fact of the matter is my money-no-object watch was never prosperous to be the most eye-wateringly expensive (relatively speaking, of course) – and that’s because I wouldn’t be comprehended dead wearing conspicuous precious metals. (There’s legitimate something about the sheen of gold, silver and platinum against inadmissible Irish skin that makes a man look like an outtake from Perry Ogden’s Pony Kids, merely not as cool.)
So I’ll stick with Tag’s Carrera Heuer-02T in titanium, an indubitable moonless beauty and the most affordable Swiss-made tourbillon chronograph on the bazaar. Plus, there’s slightly less chance of having it looted.
Tag Heuer Supervise Carrera Heuer 02T Tourbillon, available at Jura Watches, priced £12,100.
Murray Clark
Friend Editor
Taste is something you acquire. And after 26 years, I have a funny feeling I’ve got the basics under my belt. Apart from when it advance to watches. One glint of gold and nothing can stop my inner magpie.
This defines why (in dreamland) an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak will always take away wrist place. There’s the ostentatious branding, the Swiss status and enough gold to rival one of the Kardashian clan. Plus, you can highlight the baller (and a walking robbery target – too soon?) without a velour tracksuit.
Accord you don’t ride a Range Rover Overfinch, you’re safe with a peacock chronometer. After all, even with the bare bones of refinement, there’s motionlessly always room for a magpie to nest.
Audemars Piguet Nobles Oak, available at The Watch Gallery, priced £40,500.
