4 Fashion Brands You Didn’t Know Made Men’s Mechanical Watches

Watches bearing the names of big fashion houses tend to get written off by serious watch aficionados, who tend to think of them as only for ladies or, worse, only inexpensive pieces with quartz movements. In addition to brands like Hermes, Ralph Lauren, and Chanel, who have taken strides to establish themselves in the world of men’s mechanicals, here are five other such brands that may have flown under your radar.

Burberry has introduced a line of high-end watches with Swiss movements. The five models in the Britain collection include three mechanicals: two three-hand date watches with automatic movements, and another automatic with a power reserve display. The others are a chronograph with a Swiss quartz movement, and a ladies’ model with a quartz movement and diamond-set case.
Burberry Britain Automatic

 

Jeweler David Yurman offers a line of masculine sports watches, known as Revolution, featuring Swiss mechanical movements. Yurman teamed up with the late Carroll Shelby, creator of the legendary Shelby Cobra muscle car, to create the brand’s first limited-edition sports watch, the David Yurman Revolution Shelby 1000. The watch features a 43.5-mm case with rubber side insets and is powered by an ETA/Valjoux 7753 automatic chronograph movement.

David Yurman Revolution Shelby 1000


Dior makes ladies’ watches with both quartz and mechanical movements, but also offers some significant men’s models, including the Chiffre Rouge C03, introduced at Baselworld 2013. The watch is powered by Zenith’s Elite 691 movement and is made in a limited edition of 100 pieces.

Dior Chiffre Rouge C03

 

At Baselworld 2013, Gucci announced the Gucci Dive, the brand’s first official divers’ watch, certified to adhere to ISO standard 6425. While Gucci’s other mechanical watches use a standard ETA movement, the Gucci Dive is powered by the automatic GP3300 movement, made for Girard-Perregaux by the Sowind Group. (Both the Sowind Group, which owns G-P and JeanRichard, and Gucci are part of the luxury-goods group Kering, formerly known as PPR.)

Gucci Dive


Versace introduced a new skeleton watch for men at Baselworld, the DV One Skeleton. Its dial is divided into two hemispheres, with only the “east” half skeletonized. The watch also features a Dubois-Depraz chronograph movement, the inner workings of which are partly visible through the skeletonized half.