Bench Watches

The beautiful Omega Women’s Constellation Mini Watch is available at Brewer Fine Watches.

An elegant accent in stainless steel and 18 karat yellow gold, the Constellation Mini from Omega puts the perfect finishing touch on your couture. The small satin steel case highlights a mother-of-pearl dial with luminous goldtone hands and indices. The dial is capped with an anti-reflective sapphire crystal and framed by a solid gold bezel with engraved Roman numerals and polished accents. The watch is showcased on a sleek satin steel bracelet with polished gold bars between the links. It boasts Swiss quartz precision and is rated water resistant to 30 meters.

The Omega Story

The Omega watch story begins in 1848, when founder Louis Brandt began hand assembling key-wound precision pocket watches from parts supplied by local craftsmen in his principality La Chaux-de-Fonds, in the northwest corner of Switzerland. However, the Omega name didn’t appear until 1894, after Louis Brandt had passed away and his watchmaking traditions were taken over by his sons, Louis-Paul and Cesar Brandt. Omega watches have long been associated with glamorous screen and sports stars–the Omega Seamaster is famous for being the watch of choice for James Bond–with current ambassadors including Pierce Brosnan, Nicole Kidman, tennis player Anna Kournikova, and swimmers Michael Phelps and Ian Thorpe.

But Omega is more than just a fashionable watch. In 1965, the Omega Speedmaster chronograph was “flight-qualified by NASA for all manned space missions” as the only wristwatch to have withstood all of the U.S. space agency’s severe tests, including passing grades for extreme shocks, vibrations, and temperatures ranging from -18 to +93 degrees Celsius. The greatest moment in the Speedmaster’s history was undoubtedly 20 July 1969 at 02:56 GMT, when it recorded man’s first steps on the Moon’s surface as part of the Apollo 11 mission. Today, Omega is known for its rigorous testing of new movements, cases, and bands. Each new Omega movement is tested on the wrist in existing Omega models, while various laboratory tests are conducted to determine temperature-resistance, shock-resistance and vibration-resistance.

Men have always enjoyed making a statement of their success by sporting a luxury timepiece, but until recently, their choice of watches has been somewhat limited to elegant link styles, sporty diver’s watches, and those 80′s-style digital watches. While higher-end luxury watches remain out of reach for most middle-class men, a large selection of mid-priced luxury watches are now available. These new watches are more fashionable and are available in a variety of colors and textures not normally worn by men. Why the sudden influx of fashion in men’s watches, you might ask? The answer is simple: Men don’t have the options that women have in accessorizing to differentiate their look. Creatures of habit, they tend not to change their look too dramatically; so watches offer them a way to make a fashion statement in a subtle and sophisticated way.

With the sale of high-end luxury watches slipping over the past year, leading watch makers have jumped on this fashion trend, and many have recently unveiled new lines of mid-priced fashionable watches for men. One of these new watches, which is quickly becoming a trend among New York’s power elite, is the Movado Museum Watch, particularly the one with the white strap, stainless steel case and black museum dial. It has the signature style of classic Movado watches, but with a certain élan and simplistic cache that is rarely seen in men’s watches.

Another, more sporty example of this new breed of watches is the Sector 600. With a corrugated polyurethane strap, Swiss movement, a titanium case, and water-resistance up to 200 meters, these watches are designed for active men with a sense of style. Available in eight edgy styles, the sapphire blue or the orange strapped watches are by far the most rakish of this collection.

For the vintage watch lover with a whimsical side, check out the latest creation of Jacques Lemans Men’s Classic Collection. With its 18 karat gold, oversized round case, textured black dial, and Roman numerals against gold tone Breguet-style hands, this most classic of watches has a retro-modern style all its own. Watches like this one capture an elegance of early watch making tradition and have a timeless appeal, but they are not just for the literary set; the dial is virtually scratch-proof sapphire glass, and is surrounded by a bezel of gold-plated fluting.

These three watches are just a small sampling of the many recent offerings from some of the world’s top watch makers, who have finally recognized that sometimes men want to make a fashion statement too. But the best news is that these watches are all available for under $1,000.