BERLIN black gold / Heritage 20 black

A black dial in a gold case is a deliberately old-fashioned pairing, and the Sternglas BERLIN wears it without irony.

The day indicator is what sets the BERLIN apart in Sternglas's range. Its Miyota GM02 quartz movement drives a date and a day-of-week display that can be set to English or German, with a battery rated for around 36 months. The line itself commemorates the 1846 Hamburg to Berlin rail link, and the caseback is engraved with the city's old Berliner Bahnhof, in service from 1857 to 1903.

The dial here is black with gold hands and markers, set in a 38 mm gold-tone stainless steel case measuring 45 mm from lug to lug. Double-domed sapphire with anti-reflective coating on both surfaces sits over it, and the case is rated to 5 bar. The strap is Heritage leather in black, 20 mm wide, 4 mm thick alligator-embossed cowhide with a quick-change fitting.

High contrast, quiet size, one genuinely useful extra piece of information. That is the whole brief.

Perfect for: black and gold dress watches, day-date quartz watches, minimalist watches for the office.