BERLIN Automatic copper-beige silver / Heritage 20 black

Black leather under a warm dial is an old trick borrowed from tailoring. The dark band frames the color and makes it look deliberate. That is exactly what happens on the BERLIN Automatik in copper-beige.

Sternglas built the BERLIN around a piece of transport history rather than the harbor its home city is better known for. The line commemorates the Hamburg to Berlin railway of 1846, and each caseback is engraved with the Berliner Bahnhof, Hamburg's terminus for that route between 1857 and 1903. The design language stays Bauhaus-inspired: high contrast, sans-serif numerals, no ornament.

Here the copper-beige dial sits inside a 38 mm 316L stainless steel case in a silver-tone finish, powered by an automatic movement with a date window. Double-domed sapphire, anti-reflective on both sides, sits over it, with 5 bar of water resistance behind. The strap is Sternglas's Heritage leather in black, 20 mm at the lugs, 4 mm thick cowhide with an alligator emboss and a tool-free quick-change fitting.

It is the more formal of the copper-beige pairings, and the easier one to wear with a dark suit.

Perfect for: black leather dress watches, automatic watches for slimmer wrists, gifts for design lovers.