HAMBURG dark blue gold / Heritage 20 dark brown gold

Gold cases usually push a watch toward the dressy end. The Sternglas HAMBURG in dark blue and gold resists that, because underneath the finish it is still an instrument dial with a numeral at every hour.

Sternglas named this collection after its home city and modeled the dials on seafaring measuring instruments. The screwed caseback carries an engraved map of Hamburg, the Alster and the Speicherstadt and the Landungsbrücken among the landmarks picked out on it, which is the collection's most literal nod to the place.

The dial here is dark blue, set in a gold-tone case of 42 mm with 20 mm lugs. A quartz movement runs the hands and the date. The crystal is double-domed sapphire with double anti-reflective coating, and water resistance is 5 bar. The strap is the Heritage line in dark brown, a 4 mm cowhide with an alligator emboss and a gold-finished buckle, fitted on the tool-free quick-change system.

Blue, gold and brown together lean formal, but the strap keeps it tolerant of a rolled sleeve.

Perfect for: gold-tone watches with blue dials, embossed leather strap watches, dressier 42 mm quartz watches.