WristWatch Magazine #18 | Page 62

BASEL A proper sports watch needs to take our daily abuse with aplomb and make us look spiffy in a casually elegant sort of way. Whether actually used for sport or other activity is a really a moot point as style trumps any ostensible real-world need in each and every watch category – but we still do love our sports styles. Typically the robust nature of the type is presented on a larger and somewhat bolder frame than their dressier and somewhat snobbier dress brethren, but even so we still found our favorite sport watches embodied a more moderate approach to size this year, with a majority of profiles landing in the 39-43mm diameter range. As usual, this year’s crop of sporting styles continued to imbue elements of air, land, and seaborne inspiration within their ethos, while occasionally exploring the well traveled road of cobranding. Taking an existing platform and tweaking it with colors or logos that tie it to a particular partnership is nothing new, but it can breathe new life into a well recognized look - while also confirming at a glance when the watch was manufactured – usually in a “limited” edition. 1 62 WRISTWATCH | 2016 2