The off-the-field elegance of the sport-luxe watch

No matter how solid, how performant your favourite timepiece may be, the fact remains: it is a sports watch in name only A watch can have the properties of a sports watch, the functions of a sports watch, even the look of a sports watch, this doesn't make it a sports watch As the only timepieces that must comply with an international standard to warrant their name, they can legitimately call themselves sports watches as they are designed specifically as diving equipment.

Watches cut out for the role include the all-steel Portugieser Yacht Club Chronograph or the more "Studied" Streamliner from H Moser & Cie., a chronograph with a central display and a flyback on the minutes and seconds Think of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Control Chronograph Calendar or, better still, the Traditionnelle Tourbillon Chronograph by Vacheron Constantin and the Portugieser Tourbillon Retrograde Chronograph from IWCRemember the 70s.

Bearing in mind that a tourbillon is a delicate mechanism, best not take a gold "Sports" watch equipped with this type of regulator on a trek through the Amazon rainforest In watch parlance, it's known as sport-luxe, a notion that originated in the 1970s when the wonderful Gérald Genta scratched an itch for worthy successors to the tool watches of earlier decades It's chic, it's sporty, it's the watch for every occasion. Source