THE JOURNAL
Beat the clock with our edit of the athletic-inspired timepieces to buy now.
To understand the contradictory-sounding idea of a luxury sports watch, you have to think about the time of their invention in the 1950s. Back then, all watches were mechanical, and pretty much every man wore one. The demands of wartime had led to the rapid production of sturdy watches for infantry and specifically-suited watches for airmen and navy divers, but the average man on the street’s watch was a slim, delicate thing – more than likely not water-resistant, and worn on a leather strap. But the world was changing. It was the time of the rise of “leisure activities”, scuba diving and motorsports, and mankind channeling its energies into conquering the extremes of nature. With this so arose a demand for a watch better suited to this age of adventure.
They may not have been referred to as such at the time, but this was the background to the creation of the “sports watch”. Led by the likes of Rolex, TAG Heuer, Omega and Blancpain, these new watches were large, steel-cased, highly legible and with a high level of resistance to water, dirt, accidental impact and magnetism, and often mounted on a stainless-steel bracelet.
Seven of our favourite descendants of those early sports watches are below, and while you aren’t going to put one of these on to play a rugby match – not least because it’s against the rules – they should all be able to take a licking and keep on ticking.
While the company pre-dates the aviation age, Breitling made its name as a supplier of watches to pilots from the very earliest opportunity. Its watches still cleave closely to that ideal, but do excellent service as all-round sports watches. The new Navitimer 8 range is no different: powered by an in-house chronograph movement with almost three days’ power reserve, this 43mm watch is COSC-certified for daily accuracy, equipped with luminescent numerals and hands, and water-resistant to 100m.
Zenith’s backstory is more complex than Breitling’s (it was one of the first brands to produce automatic chronograph movements, and boasts some high-end watchmaking in its archives), yet it is another brand which looks to the skies. Owing to a decades-old ruling, it is the only watch brand entitled to use the word “Pilot” on its dials, and faithfully follows the 1930s format of large cases, oversized numerals and a large “onion” crown (so the watch could be operated by gloved airmen) to this day. A full 48mm across, this model adds a GMT hand for tracking a second timezone, which is adjusted by the oversized pusher at 10 o’clock.
Introduced in 2017, the new Supermarine is part of a line of smaller watches from Bremont (measuring 40mm across) that nevertheless offer no compromise on the firm’s typically hard-wearing watches. In a way, this watch is a child of the two watch genres that originally begat the sports watch: its name pays tribute to the company behind the Supermarine Spitfire, but its design hails from the traditional school of diving watches. With 300m water resistance, a hardened steel case and a scratch-proof ceramic bezel, it should stand up to rough treatment, while the movement within is chronometer-certified for accuracy.
Montblanc’s Summit is one of the more successful fusions of traditional Swiss watch design with smartwatch capability. Cased in 46mm of stainless steel with a PVD-coated bezel and hardwearing military-style green canvas strap, its Android Wear 2.0 OS allows for heart-rate and fitness monitoring, and packs a barometer, compass and UV light sensor. The battery will last a full day between charges, and perhaps best of all for traditional watch nerds, the amoled screen can be configured to match Montblanc’s beautiful 1858 chronograph display. The scratch-proof sapphire crystal is even domed like that of a mechanical watch.
If there are two things Officine Panerai loves, it’s extremely long names and extremely capable watches. Thankfully the two go hand-in-hand, as demonstrated by the Luminor 1950 Regatta 3 Days Chrono Flyback Automatic Titanio. As that title suggests, this is a titanium-cased chronograph with 72 hours of power to its movement. That movement is cleverer than the average, capable of a five-minute countdown as well as flyback timing (one press re-sets and re-starts the chronograph), an essential combination for timing regatta races. With the 47mm titanium case, 100m water resistance, crown guard and rubber strap, this is one sports watch that’s very much designed for active use.
Among watch aficionados, Oris has a reputation for bulletproof designs that find a way to add something of interest to well-worn formulae. So it is with the Aquis Depth Gauge (another watch whose name leaves little to the imagination). A 300m-rated dive watch, it takes a neat and simple approach to offering a readout of exactly how far underwater you’ve gone (up to 100m, at least). Other brands have experimented with over-engineered miniature barometric chambers, permeable membranes and the like, but Oris simply carved a channel into the sapphire crystal above the dial which allows water to enter it. The deeper you are, the further round the dial the water moves.
As befits the brand’s heritage in motorsports, this is a sports watch that’s more comfortable on dry land (although it does have 100m water-resistance should you wish to take a dip). The leather strap is backed with rubber for comfort and durability, and the watch comes with a ceramic bezel to guard against knocks and scratches. That bezel is laser-engraved with a tachymeter scale, allowing you to use the chronograph to not only measure elapsed time but also your average speed over a known distance. Simply start and stop the watch at your markers – say a length of one mile – and the seconds hand will point at your speed in mph on the bezel.