Specialist Picks • 01 Jul 2016
Summer Sport Watches
No matter where you live, summer is the time of year that is warm and filled with leisure activity. It also makes for an excellent opportunity to peruse casual watches that are sporty but also high-end in their construction and design. With that said one needs to be practical about comfort and durability when it comes to their hot weather activity watches. Long sleeves are strictly prohibited when it comes to the following watches, which beg for beaches and basking in the sun.
Rolex Yacht-Master Everose Gold Ref. 116655
It took many years, but at Baselworld 2015 Rolex finally released their own rubber strap – sort of. For the 18k Everose gold and black ceramic version of the Yachtmaster (available in two sizes, 37mm and 40mm), Rolex introduced what is easily one of the most highly engineered sports straps on the market, named “Oysterflex.” The special strap isn’t rubber, but feels like it. Rubber has a tendency to degrade overtime, and Rolex couldn’t stomach that so they devised their own special elastomer blend. On the inside of the strap is a special finned cushion system that allows air to circulate between wrist and strap, preventing moisture from making the watch feel uncomfortable. Embeded inside each side of the Oysterflex strap are metal blades that help with comfort and shape. And to ensure every wrist gets to wear one, Rolex produces various lengths of the Oysterflex straps in order for the Yacht-Master 116655 to fit well on all wrists.
The Rolex Yacht-Master Everose Gold Ref 116655 is fitted with a special Oysterflex strap that is durable and comfortable on the wrist.
Hublot Big Bang Unico White Ceramic
White is not a watch color that is just for woman – or so I’ve been saying for years. For the last few years watch brands have been very successful in offering otherwise very masculine timepieces in white. Using ceramic as a case material is wise because the color and polish never fades, and ceramic is extremely scratch resistant. In white ceramic the Hublot Big Bang UNICO looks stunning. It’s powered by Hublot’s in-house UNICO automatic chronograph movement, and complemented by a white rubber strap. With its size and presence, there is simply nothing feminine here despite the all-white colors.
The microblasted and polished white ceramic case and bezel of the Hublot Big Bang Unico White Ceramic is complemented with a white rubber strap.
MB&F HM5 CarbonMacrolon
Inspired by 1970s super cars and designed in the style of a traditional driver’s watch, the HM5 collection of timepiece by MB&F sports a “wedge” shape with the time displayed on the side. The idea is that the wearer can easily read the time with their hands on the steering wheel. MB&F uses a clever prism system made out of sapphire crystal to project the time from horizontal time discs onto the vertical time display.
And a small lever allows the wearer to flip open louvers on the top of the case to let in light that charges the Super-Luminova on the discs for nighttime legibility. Made of a hard but light carbon composite, the HM5 CarbonMacrolon is a limited edition of 66 pieces and the lightest HM5 yet – making it perfect for warm, windy rides in your super car.
Inspired by 1970s super cars, the MB&F HM5 is a driver’s watch as there is no need to lift your wrist from the steering wheel to read the display – perfect for rides in your super car.
De Bethune DB28 Grand Sport
Avant-garde Swiss watch maker De Bethune didn’t need to produce a diving watch to distinguish themselves, but that didn’t stop them from going all out. The DB28 Grand Sport is the interesting brand’s first sports watch offering 100 meters of water resistance in a highly refined titanium case. The 44mm wide case is relatively svelte at just 11mm thick, and has a set of articulating lugs that makes remarkably comfortable to wear, allowing the watch to conform to the wrist, making it perfect for summer with its water-resistant textured black rubber strap.
Inside the watch is the in-house and exotic De Bethune caliber DB 2115, manually wound with a power reserve of six days. You can see the unique, proprietary balance wheel assembly through the dial, and it also include a “performance” (or movement torque) indicator which helps the wearer know when the movement is operating at peak accuracy.
The combination of floating lugs and natural rubber strap on the De Bethune DB28 Grand Sport allows the watch to conform to the wrist making it perfect for summer.
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver
Some consider it the perfect luxury sports watch, and pretty much all watch lovers agree that the Audemers Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver is a horological force to be reckoned with combining brand prestige, style, and of course maximum action utility.
It is the iconic Royal Oak’s first “true” diver model – which is just slightly ironic for a collection of boat-themed timepieces that originally debuted in the early 1970s. The Offshore Diver is water resistant to 300 meters and comes in a variety of case material choices including steel, forged carbon, and various colors of ceramic. The dial is framed by a useful inner rotating bezel to measure dive times, while the case is attached to one of the highest-end synthetic rubber straps around (another pleasant irony when it comes to the personality of the watch). Wearing the Royal Oak Offshore Diver on the wrist feels like sporting the Rolls Royce of tanks – just think twice about beating up your investment.
The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver is a selfwinding watch with dive-time measurement, luminescent hour-markers and a depth rating to 300 meters.
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