I’d like to talk about airports. Not a sentence I ever thought I’d write, if I’m honest – normally the airport itself is a necessary evil to be negotiated as swiftly as possible en route to somewhere more relaxing. But the minute I clapped eyes on the Junghans Meister Worldtimer, my mind went straight to airports – or to be more precise, to one airport in particular. Worldtime and GMT watches tend to trade on their connotations with international travel and the jet-set age – ushered in by Pan Am and the Rolex GMT-Master in 1955.

Spare a thought for the traditional gold watch. With the frenzy that has surrounded steel sports watches over the past few years (if you’re not up to speed with the whims and foibles of the watch collector market, stainless steel watches by brands such as Patek Philippe or A Lange & Söhne have become harder to find than hen’s teeth, which has increased demand for steel across the board), plus the influx of so-called new materials such as titanium, carbon and ceramic, gold has faced stiff competition.

Names, like looks, can be deceiving. Despite what you might think, the original Piaget Polo was not designed for life on a polo pitch. Instead, this was a watch created for those in the stands – the ones dressed in crisp linen, rather than the players locking mallets below them. First launched in 1979, then-chairman Mr Yves G Piaget succinctly described the Piaget Polo, which was created to meet demand from the US market for a sporty luxury watch, as “a wrist bracelet rather than a mere wristwatch”. Entirely made in gold, it bore a distinctive striated design that crossed seamlessly from the bracelet onto the case body and dial, making it hard to tell where one ended and the other began.

I’d like to talk about airports. Not a sentence I ever thought I’d write, if I’m honest – normally the airport itself is a necessary evil to be negotiated as swiftly as possible en route to somewhere more relaxing. But the minute I clapped eyes on the Junghans Meister Worldtimer, my mind went straight to airports – or to be more precise, to one airport in particular. Worldtime and GMT watches tend to trade on their connotations with international travel and the jet-set age – ushered in by Pan Am and the Rolex GMT-Master in 1955.

Spare a thought for the traditional gold watch. With the frenzy that has surrounded steel sports watches over the past few years (if you’re not up to speed with the whims and foibles of the watch collector market, stainless steel watches by brands such as Patek Philippe or A Lange & Söhne have become harder to find than hen’s teeth, which has increased demand for steel across the board), plus the influx of so-called new materials such as titanium, carbon and ceramic, gold has faced stiff competition.