Blue is the trendy color of late. The popularity can be seen with the recent waves of men's blue luxury items like leather bags, belts and shoes. I've used a blue Gucci wallet for some time. And recently, by God's grace I've been able to buy three stylish blue leather Cole Haan shoes at privileged prices. I have a blue leather key pouch and a blue leather ID case with lanyard. Blue is young, fun, daring, interesting. Depending on the hue and chroma, blue can be distinguished and elegant or sporty and fashionable. Louie Vuitton now has Damier graphite items with blue highlights not seen previously. Bally has blue leather backpacks and messenger bags. Coach has blue belts. This passion for blue has been around with luxury timepieces for a while, and now it is experiencing a renaissance. Let's look at some of my choice selections of blue watches.
The Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner Date set against one of the current Nike sports tops.
Rolex has had blue face watches for a long time, one of which has been the Oyster Perpetual Submariner Date. Boutiques and dealers intimated that the blue color is recently in high demand and pieces are more scarce. The bezel is in solid yellow gold with a bright blue Cerachrom ceramic insert that resists discolouration, fading and scratching. The price for the gold & steel, "half-gold" or "2-tone" model is about SGD 19,500.
The Rolex Submariner dial is a radiant and reflective blue that, depending on lighting can appear shimmering, bright blue with dark blue accents, to a deep almost black, mysterious blue. Set with large hour markers with Chromalight long-lasting blue luminescence edged with yellow gold, the face is appealing indeed. The Oyster bracelet is the new, solid version with Oysterlock and Rolex Glidelock extension system that allows you to shorten or lengthen the bracelet up to about 1 cm without any tools. This is truly unique and a strong technological advantage available only on the Submariner, but which I would love to have on my Rolex GMT II watches. Great if Rolex were to incorporate this feature on all Rolex Professional Watches.
Another Rolex blue dial watch is the Rolex Oyster Pepetual Yacht-Master 40. The blue face is also reflective and the color is slightly lower in chroma, somewhat more gray-toned, and to me somewhat more formal and less playful. The reflectance also creates varying appearances from a brighter tone to a dark and almost black color depending on the intensity and angle of the light.
The Rolex Yacht Master bezel is in solid yellow gold with raised numbers and a matte background without any ceramic insert. The watch diameter is the same as the Submariner at 40 mm, but close scrutiny will reveal that it looks slightly less solid and looks more refined because of subtly accentuated curves and rounded edges. It's difficult to state this and I'm sure there are those who will disagree, but these curves make the Yacht-Master look ever so slightly more feminine than the Submariner. And especially today when many bulky watches make even the Rolex Professional Warches look almost like dress watches, the additional heft of the Submariner is an aspect I appreciate. Ten or fifteen years ago the Yacht-Master's somewhat subdued size was more attractive, and there is even a Yacht-Master 35 that was an option for men, but today I believe only ladies would wear a Yacht-Master 35 and even a Yacht-Master 40 would be appealing to ladies for the heavier weight of gold.
Another point to consider with the blue-face Yacht-Master 40 is that it uses the older model of the bracelet and Oysterlock folding clasp. This lets you purchase the watch at around SGD 17,000, but the bracelet is not as solid and beautiful as the current one, as what you would see in the 2016 Baselworld Rolex Yacht-Master.
For those who want a more monochrome watch with a blue face, there is the Rolex Yacht-Master 40 in steel with platinum bezel. It is likely that only you and those who know Rolex will appreciate the platinum in the watch, others will believe it to be a full stainless steel watch, but remember that you should be buying the watch for your own enjoyment and not for what others will think.
Now we come to the International Watch Company or IWC Big Pilot Little Prince Edition, with a reflective elegant blue face, available in 2016. This is a handsome watch, huge and imposing in size with a 46 mm diameter, large hands and hour numbers and markers, and a large date display. It comes with a thick calf leather strap with rivets and a folding deployment buckle that is always nicer than a simple pin buckle that might result to your watch dropping flat and breaking when wearing or removing it. So IWC mostly uses deployment buckles.
The IWC Big Pilot Little Prince with an elegant blue face is a very appealing version of the classic Big Pilot with matte black dial. The hour and minute hands are edged in bright metal versus black edging in the classic. And quite surprisingly but very pleasingly, the price has gone down from SGD 22,000 to about SGD 19,500, so it's a great time to buy a Big Pilot! The strap has changed from black alligator to supple brown calf leather to match the blue face and be in theme with the Little Prince line.
A strong feature of the IWC Big Pilot is the 7-Day power reserve, and the beautiful miniature dial to display this. The high efficiency Pellaton automatic winding system results to very quickly filling this power reserve, and you can then leave the watch for 6 or 7 days and get back to the watch and it still displays the right time. This is great when you switch watches often and you don't want to reset the time. On the other hand, resetting the time can be done very easily with the quick change date and the very large and convenient crown. And by experience with the IWC Portuguese 7-Day Autimatic and the IWC Double Moon Perpetual Calendar, you'll still end up winding after changing watches unless you have an automatic winder. By contrast the Rolex Submariner has a 48-hour power reserve. Resetting the time is not a problem, and I actually enjoy the ceremony of setting the time to an exact reference. The new Rolex DateJust 41 has a very ample power reserve of 70 hours and even more features against magnetism, and it's easy to forecast that new generations of Rolex Professional Watches will have similar 70-hour power reserves. That's something to look forward to.
A feature I like in the IWC Portuguese watches and other IWC lines is the clear sapphire case back showcasing the intricate IWC calibre. However with the Big Pilot the soft-iron inner case that protects against magnetic fields hides the mechanism and instead you get a special engraving of the Little Prince. Still very beautiful, but this then becomes similar to Rolex case backs that don't show the mechanism. On the part of Rolex, they utilise a paramagnetic blue Parachrom hairspring to counter magnetic fields.
So among these fine and beautiful watches at this price range, which would I pick?
Let me say first that I also looked at some Audemars Piguet and Hublot models but didn't really find anything too interesting. Omega and Ulyses Nardin were not really options for me. Patek Philippe, A. Lange & Söhn are too dressy and smallish and yet pricey, and don't interest me at this time. Glashüte watches are in the same price range, but also don't interest me at this time. So for someone who may already own Rolex and IWC gold and steel watches, these two brands are still worthy of careful consideration,
My vote goes to the Rolex Submariner blue face after much thought and comparison. It is beautiful, the colors bright and vibrant, yet still very classy. The IWC face can look almost plain black in some instances specially when dark, but the ceramic bezel on the Rolex is always distinctly blue. The Rolex mechanism is very robust and reliable, and the case extremely tough. It is waterproof to 300 meters versus 60 meters for the IWC. You can wear the Rolex while diving to an easy 12 meters or 60 meters and not worry about anything, and of course shower or swim in the pool. You can't do those with the IWC. The strap on the Rolex won't need replacement, versus a SGD 750 replacement strap on the IWC every two to four years.
The Rolex Submariner blue beside bright blue suede leather Cole Haan ZeroGrand shoes.
The Cyclops lens on the Rolex makes the date easier to read, except when bright lights cause much reflections, in which case the IWC has an advantage. The Chromalight blue luminescence on the Rolex is expected to last longer and it looks brighter. And even when your watch is twenty years old, you can easily have Rolex change the hands to bring back the luminous effect. And in case you want to sell your watch in the future, a Rolex will be sold easily and at a higher value, so you will maintain or even grow your personal investment.
The new Rolex watches are fitted with Chromalight for an extra bright and long lasting luminous effect, making for exceptional readability in the dark.
The Rolex has a rotatable bezel with a luminous marker. Extremely useful for noting important time reminders, like getting to your flight gate in 45 minutes, or meeting your wife back afte shopping in 2 hours. Or for marking start times and knowing how much time has elapsed, like getting on a 12-hour flight and quickly checking how much time you can still read or watch a movie before you absolutely need to get some sleep.
The size of the IWC Big Pilot can also be an attraction and a distraction at the same time. Sometimes you may feel it is strong and imposing, other times you may feel is just too big and somewhat awkward.
So for versatility and functionality, the Rolex Submariner definitely has advantages. It is beautiful, with long lasting value.
That's it for now! Praise God for the gift of time.
Use time wisely.
“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,”
Ephesians 5:15-20 ESV
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