What We Would Wear to Rio

Tim Mosso
Editorial Director

Pequignet Sport 300 dive watch

Rio is a colorful city, and a colorful Olympic games deserves a sports watch to match.

Though rarely seen on the western side of the Atlantic, the Pequignet Sport 300 packs the panache and Gallic charm to hit the Copacabana for a Brazilian summer at the games.

Morteau, France-based Pequignet is a small player in the sports watch scene – and pretty much all of the others. The rejuvenated French brand has emerged from a lean spell under new ownership in recent years, and 2015’s Sport 300 dive watch offers the kind of inventive design and real horological value that bodes well for the brand’s future.

It’s a fact; the dive watch class is a vast clone war that would put George Lucas to shame. Critically, the 43mm stainless steel Sport 300 is visually distinct from all would-be rivals. Pequignet’s most Rio-correct Sport 300 variant leads with a day-glow orange rubber strap; its inverted hobnail print flanks a robust double deployant. A retina-burning rubber-inlaid bezel keeps the outré impact intact, and the quirky offset crown at 2:30 completes the effect. More than a visual quirk, the crown’s clever quarter-turn locking action speaks to a thoughtful design process; its fleur-de-lis logo is a subtle reminder that the Sport 300 isn’t another Swiss swimmer.

Pequignet Sport 300 dive watch

To be sure, essential dive watch elements like high-luminescence applied indices, hands, and dial printing are present in force, but the appeal of the Sport 300 lies in how it accomplishes the core diver duties without defaulting to convention.

An offset 88-hour power reserve scale spans the seven-to-eight index spread, and the constant seconds indicator sits just far enough below the dial centerline to draw a double-take. The calculated asymmetry of this watch recalls vintage pocket watches replica more than most dive models. But a true 300-meter dive watch is what Pequignet offers in this offbeat package.

And the mechanical package is an impressive one. The brand’s mid-2000s investment in R&D, in-house prototyping, and production engineering has paid off in the form of the Sport 300’s Calibre Royale movement. A variation on a core caliber that supports Pequignet’s flagship models, the Sport 300’s Royale is an impressive achievement from the comparatively miniscule manufacture. It beats at a throwback rate of 21,600, but the sturdy full balance bridge, free-sprung balance wheel, and impressive 88-hour power reserve are well-suited to Olympian levels of action this summer.

Nancy Olson
Managing Editor

Vacheron Constantin Overseas “Small” model

If I were heading to Rio this August for the Olympic games, I’d be sure to pack the new Vacheron Constantin Overseas “Small” model in steel with a blue lacquered dial. Why? First of all, I think it’s a great looking timepiece that will fill the bill for the extent of travel involved. It’s fitted with the self-winding Caliber 5300 with about 44 hours of power reserve, which means I won’t have to worry about powering it up while there. And though its functions are few—hours and minutes, with small seconds at 9 o’clock—it’s unlikely that anyone is going to ask me to time any of the goings-on anyway. The new Overseas collection does include a chronograph, however, albeit larger at 42.5mm.

Destined for the wrists of sophisticated travelers thanks to its versatility, the Overseas collection of five new watches replica and 12 references introduced at SIHH in January include three new self-winding manufacture calibers: the in-house 5100, 5200 and the aforementioned 5300. Each has a 22-karat gold oscillating weight with a wind rose motif to further emphasize the watch’s spirit of travel, as do the other movements used within the collection. The watches replica come with easily interchangeable straps that offer distinct looks, from sportier to dressier—a great feature when on the road.

Vacheron Constantin Overseas “Small” model

My choice, the 37mm steel watch (with a diamond-set bezel), comes with a blue alligator leather strap, a blue rubber strap and a stainless steel bracelet that require no tools for swapping. There’s also a rosy beige-dial 37mm steel model that comes with beige leather and rubber straps (as well as a bracelet), but since blue is such a prominent color of the Rio 2016 games logo, I’m sticking with it.

Incidentally, this watch is also water resistant to 150 meters, meaning that a splash or two on Copacabana beach won’t hurt it.

Mike Thompson
Editor-in-Chief

TAG Heuer Olympic Advertisements

If I were at attend the Summer Olympics this year in Rio, an Omega chronograph would certainly be the official timepiece of choice for most, especially given Omega’s long Olympic timing history and current status as the official timer for the Games.

But as we’ve already told that story in this space very recently (see Katie Vanetten’s story) I’m instead turning my imaginary Rio-bound wrist over to TAG Heuer, an Omega competitor with its own Olympics history.

More specifically, in my mind I’d be wearing the brand new Heuer Monza Chronograph, TAG Heuer’s hot re-creation of its storied Monza design that is linked so closely with Ferrari, the premier Formula One competitor. The original Monza was designed forty years ago by Jack Heuer himself to celebrate Niki Lauda’s first world championship title with Ferrari. TAG Heuer was a major player in Formula One in that era and from 1971 to 1979 was the Official Timekeeper for Scuderia Ferrari.

TAG Heuer Monza Chronograph

TAG Heuer’s timing expertise reaches deep into the world of auto racing, but it also has long been involved in timing many types of competitive sports, mostly as a result of its innovative technology. In 1916, Heuer invented the Mikrograph, the first stopwatch precise to 1/100th of a second and five times more precise than other stopwatches at that time. The watch was also offered asa split-timer (called the Microsplit) that provided two hands, one to indicate time from a previous lap as the second hand showed the current lap time.

As a result of these inventions, Heuer split-second pocket chronographs were selected as official stopwatches for the Olympic Games on three consecutive occasions: Antwerp in 1920, Paris in 1924, Amsterdam in 1928. TAG Heuer was asked once more to be one of the Official Timekeepers of the Olympic Games in Lake Placid and Moscow in 1980.

TAG Heuer Monza Chronograph

While it wasn’t an Olympic timer, that first Monza watch from 1976 was nonetheless an impressive, and quite stylish, chronograph with a cushion-shaped case inspired by a 1925 Heuer watch. The new model features the watch’s two primary functions, namely a pulsometer and a tachymeter scale, all with the original Heuer font and color combinations.

At 42mm, this new Monza is slightly larger than the original. It’s also now made of black titanium-carbide-coated titanium, so it’s lighter than the original, which was composed of black PVD-coated steel. But given the original Monza’s debut at around the same time as Heuer’s last Olympic outing in 1980, and with the company’s own chronograph development history, wearing this new model would made perfect sense at the Olympics this summer in Rio.