29er Big — Sand Dial / Black Pigskin

Black leather is the sharpest frame you can put around a sand dial. It hardens the color, dresses the watch up, and leaves the nautic-blue rehaut as the only reminder that the 29er Big is a maritime design from Mühle-Glashütte.

The 29er is named for a sailing dinghy: the two-handed youth boat that carries crews toward the Olympic 49er class. Mühle introduced the watch in 2006, and the Big applies the same drawings at 42.4 mm, with the same layout and the same standards in a larger case.

The steel case is 11.3 mm tall and 49 mm from lug to lug, with a screw-down crown, anti-reflective sapphire and an exhibition caseback. The black pigskin strap is 22 mm wide on a steel pin buckle. Applied indices, Super-LumiNova, date at 3 o'clock. The automatic SW 200-1, Version Mühle keeps 41 hours and hacks its seconds for exact setting; Mühle regulates it to run between zero and eight seconds fast a day and prints that tolerance on the spec sheet.

Warm dial, cold strap, and more versatile than either would be alone.

Perfect for: sand dial leather strap watches, smart-casual automatics, distinctive gifts for watch enthusiasts.