Green Watches
From bright emerald to olive drab, green is an adventurous color choice that enlivens even a familiar watch model with a fresh new face.
Last fall, Rolex expanded its Oyster Perpetual lineup with a bold range of midsize, 36-mm Oysters in bright colors—including coral red, turquoise, and yes, a vibrant green ($5,500) with applied white-gold indexes that glow blue after dark along with the luminous hands. The dynamic colors infuse the classic Oyster with some pizzazz.
More than just a pretty face, the green Oyster is equipped with the new in-house developed calibre 3230, a cutting-edge automatic movement that delivers fundamental gains in terms of precision, power reserve, resistance to shocks and magnetic fields and more.
Meanwhile, Oris enlisted a no-nonsense military vibe for a special edition commemorating its new partnership with the Tactical Leadership Programme (TLP), an elite pilot training school in Spain. The 750-piece limited edition ($2,400) of its popular ProPilot model has a 44-mm stainless steel case cloaked in antiglare, gun-metal gray PVD, a green dial inspired by TLP pilots’ flight overalls and beige detailing borrowed from the eagle in the TLP logo. The green high-performance textile trap is made from Ventile, a cotton fabric that was invented during World War II for British Royal Air Force pilots who needed comfortable garments that were also impenetrable in water, in case they ditched in the Atlantic. The material is also used for the watch’s travel case.
Jaquet Droz takes a more subtle approach to the color in the Grande Seconde Skelet-One ($26,300), an airy skeleton that also comes in blue and yellow versions, each limited to 28 pieces. The brand’s hallmark Grande Seconde design is based on an 18th-century pocket watch with a figure-eight dial configuration that separates the hours and minutes display from a larger seconds display below. For the ethereal skeleton, a black, 41.5-mm ceramic case frames the open-worked movement which appears suspended between panes of sapphire glass. The tinted hands and the dual rail tracks bring hints of color, along with a matching handmade textile strap.
Turns out, it’s pretty easy being green, after all.
