Green Dials Are Suddenly the Hottest Trend in Watches
Five or six years ago, you couldn’t throw a rock at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (“Fancy Watch Show,” effectively) in Geneva without hitting a green-dialed watch. Since then, Swiss industrial designers ditched the grassy tones in favor of wilder designs, yielding emoji-covered timepieces and watches bursting with shimmering, lab-grown diamonds. This year, however, it would seem that we’re once again collectively seeing green, and brands from Hamilton to Blancpain to Moser to TAG Heuer are dropping pieces that would camouflage well in the jungles of Southeast Asia.
What’s with all the green, you might ask? Hard to say, but—well—it sure worked the last time the industry tried it. Back in 2019, green was all the range, and given that production cycles on new watch models take 3-5 years, it could simply be that the Swiss took a hint and are turning the green faucet back on. (This year’s Pantone color is “Peach Fuzz,” so we can’t exactly attribute the trend to the color gods.) Whatever the reason for the horological zeitgeist’s verdant inclination, there are quite a few greenos out there these days—and we feel like you should know about ‘em.
Hamilton Khaki Aviation Pilot Day Date Auto
Modern pilot’s watches generally pull from one of (or a mix of) significant designs from the past—think the flieger watches of the Second World War or the slightly more contemporary feel of the IWC Mark 11. The Hamilton Khaki Aviation Pilot Day Date Auto seems to draw mostly from the flieger designs, but while these featured exclusively black dials, Hamilton’s design uses a playful green. Offset with lumed sword hands and paired to a brown leather strap, it’s certainly a handsome (if slightly unconventional) look, but the 42mm steel case and automatic H-30 movement mean that it doesn’t have to be babied in the slightest. Clocking in at $995, it’s quite the value proposition.
H. Moser & Cie Streamliner Tourbillon
Looking for a piece of wrist-worn art? Try the newest iteration of the Streamliner Tourbillon from H. Moser & Cie. Forget for a moment the flying tourbillon situated above 6 o’clock—a feature that graces only the best and highest-end watches from top-tier maisons. The dial on this green beauty is made from jade sourced from—of all places—Wyoming. Housed in a 5N red gold case and paired to a matching bracelet, it’s one of the more unusual and compelling “luxury sports watch” designs, boasting an in-house movement with a double hairspring as well as 120m of water resistance. With its $119,900 price tag, however, you might want to think twice about bringing this one, well, most places.
Blancpain Villeret Traditional Chinese Calendar
If you’re looking to celebrate the Year of the Wood Dragon in style, you could do much worse than to strap on Blancpain’s Villeret Traditional Chinese Calendar (price upon request), the second such Blancpain watch to combine a traditional Chinese calendar with traditional Gregorian date and moonphase complications. Limited to 50 pieces, it boasts a red gold case and a beautiful green grand feu enamel dial, plus a red gold winding rotor. Measuring 45mm, it’s certainly not a small watch, but considering the incredible amount of information packed into its relatively scant amount of real estate, it still makes for an impressive feat of microengineering. (The movement, which took five years to develop, comprises nearly 500 pieces.)
TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph
The still-relatively new “Glassbox” Carrera case is a 39mm wonder—with its curved inner flange and crystal, good looks, modern flat-top pushers, and brushed sides, it’s every bit a contemporary watch, but also every bit a Carrera, Jack Heuer’s famous racing chronograph from 1963. The new “Dato” version ($6,550), which pays homage to a model introduced in 1968, features a single 30-minute chronograph totalizer at 3 o’clock, plus a handy date window at 9 o’clock. Of all the greenies on this list, its beautiful azure color is perhaps the most compelling, its blue-adjacent shade lending it a bit more versatility. Well sized and water resistant to 39mm, it’s highly versatile for a chronograph.
Zenith Chronomaster Original Triple Calendar
Perhaps one of the biggest surprises to come out of LVMH Watch Week was a piece based upon an unproduced prototype from 1970. When Zenith was competing neck and neck with both a Swiss consortium and Seiko to develop the first automatic chronograph movement, it developed a version of its now-famed El Primero with a triple calendar complication. Now, that watch is finally seeing a full production run in three different versions, and in the same A386 case as the original proto. This version is a wee bit taller, but only by about half a millimeter, and the Boutique Edition boasts a gorgeous, deep green dial the color of moss. It ain’t cheap at $13,900 on a bracelet, but considering its movement and pedigree, we’d gladly fork over the cash.
Originally Appeared on GQ
