What do Ringo Starr, Andrew Ridgeley and John Oates have in common? All three are famous, perhaps unfairly, for being carried by more illustrious and talented band members. However, would Messrs Harrison, Lennon & McCartney ever have reached the heights they did without Starr? Would Wham! ever have become the first Western pop band to tour China if Ridgeley wasn't the yin to George Michael yang? And what is Hall without any Oates? Music without any driving bass and soul, that's what.
A pop or rock band is only as good as the sum of its parts and the same goes for watches. As analogue watches become ever more complex and innovative, it is easy to forget that a watch has to get the fundamentals right, too. The humble strap, which is often overlooked, can make or break a watch, given the amount of real estate on your wrist it commands. Certain types of wristwatch can only work with certain types of strap. Take, for example, the recently released Herm?s Arceau Grande Lune (above left). The large steel case of the fantastic timepiece houses a restrained face with delightful italicised numerals. The watch features month, day and date indicators as well as a moon phase complication at six o'clock. Unsurprisingly for noted leather-goods maker Herm?s, the strap options with the Arceau Grande Lune are just as good as the movement or the design of the watch and it's the variety that's welcome, too. There's the old Herm?s classic of Barenia calfskin leather (HK$50,500), which comes in brown or black and is reassuringly thick yet supple. If you want to spoil your wrist, why not upgrade to alligator leather (HK$52,200), again in brown or black.
Sometimes the strap itself can be the major selling point of a watch, and that's the case with the Breitling Transocean (above right). This watch is far more understated than the limited-edition and chronograph varieties within the wider Transocean range. The stripped down, vintage design contains very little of what is usually Breitling's signature: a busy watch face filled with dials and various indices on the outer ring. In fact, the Transocean is about as simple as luxury watchmaking gets, but the coup de gr?ce is the woven steel mesh bracelet. It's the first thing you notice about the watch and also the thing that will catch the eye from a distance. The juxtaposition between the simple retrained face and the complex mesh bracelet works perfectly. The Breitling Transocean is priced at HK$51,500.
Form follows function, as any good industrial designer would tell you, and that mantra is clearly evident, with a twist, in the Tissot Jungfrau T-Touch II (below). Retailing for a shade under HK$7,400, the Jungfrau T-Touch II is a feature-packed alpine watch made for extreme environments; the Jungfrau name comes from the Swiss Alpine train company. The Jungfrau T-Touch II case is made of titanium and gives the watch water resistance up to 100 metres. Alongside Tissot's innovative T-Touch technology there is a compass, a chronograph, a barometer, a thermometer and an altimeter. All the features are ceremoniously trumped by the robust rubber, which comes in terribly demure and calming orange, so even in a blizzard one would be hard-pressed not to notice this watch.
