5 Great Summer Luxury Watches at Matt Baily

The summer is a great time for watch enthusiasts. Coats are gone, sleeves are short, and wrists are naked and in plain view. Not only is your watch more evident, but this gives you the opportunity to peruse other people's wrists; something like a watch buffet. For a timepiece to be a good fit for this season it has to go with the feel, colour, and fun of summer, and it has to be suited for activities like swimming, travelling, or enjoying the cool evening breeze with friends. In this article I have chosen five Matt Baily watches that make fine luxury accessories for the summer.

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BR 03-94 Heritage

Like all the Bell & Ross BR Instruments, the BR 03-94 Heritage is a watch that you want people to see. It is not conspicuous, but it offers a remarkable style that is well balanced and simple. As good as this 42mm square watch can look poking out from under the cuff of your shirt, it looks even better when the contrast between black and beige is fully displayed on your wrist. This brings up an important aspect of great summer watches, the strap. A tanned leather band like the one on the Bell & Ross Heritage watches, feels summery and light. Furthermore, all of the brand#39;s BR Instruments come with a secondary strap and specialized tools to interchange between it and the original. In the case of the BR 03-94 Heritage, the secondary strap is of black rubber. A quick swap and the watch, which boasts a water resistance rating of 100 meters, is ready for a relaxing day at a waterfront near you.

Alpina Avalanche Extreme Auto w/ Black PVD

Summer activities play a big role in our love for the hot season. A timepiece that is suitable for all these and also for more formal events would be a reasonable addition to this list. All Alpina watches in the Extreme collection are designed to be as rugged as they are beautiful. They are all awarded with a water resistance rating of at least 100 meters and come fitted with a rubber strap. The Avalanche Extreme Auto with black PVD is particularly well rounded. The large, decorated crown is screw locking and the watch has a water resistance rating of 200 meters. This designation means that the Avalanche Extreme Auto can not only be submerged in water, but is suitable for recreational water sports like water skiing, wind-surfing, and very light diving. The rubber strap is very comfortable and dries quickly, so you can take the watch from the beach to the restaurant. Thanks to the stylish design of this 48mm Alpina timepiece it can be worn for a multitude of occasions all through the summer.

Avalanche Extreme Auto. With original dial (left) and numeral dial (right)

Hamilton Jazzmaster Slim 43 With a Milanese Bracelet

There is a definitive style for summer apparel. It is light in colour and in feel, and simplicity often dominates regardless of how bold the design may be. Hamilton#39;s Jazzmaster Slim 43 collection captures the simple elegance of vintage watches from the sixties, and fuses it with contemporary size and technology. The model that particularly stands out as the perfect summer watch is the one with a silver dial and the Milanese strap. The Milanese strap is a modernized version of the metal mesh bracelets that were once welded to the case of watches. The mesh strap adds a fashionable, elegant aspect to the Slim 43, but allows air to pass through it unlike bracelets made with wide, solid links. I always have visions of tennis players from the Sixties and Seventies when dealing with this watch. Their style was light, airy, and summery for the sake of performance, but also a basis for the design of much fashionable apparel.

U-Boat Classico CAS 2

Large watches love summer. There are less shirt cuffs to impede and a naked wrist is a far better stage than one that is covered with a jacket or coat. The U-Boat Classico Chronograph Automatic Steel (CAS) Beige is amongst these large, luxury timepieces. As mentioned before, lighter colours are ideal for summer, matching the lighter moods of people. The Classico CAS 2 is fitted with a beige dial and a tan, leather strap. Rubber straps are also available for these models, which are tested for a 100m water resistance rating. The Classico CAS is available in 45 or 53mm. However large the diameter of these watches is, a large wrist is not a prerequisite. A few women, for example, wear the 53mm Classicos, and for good reason. It looks really great.

Hamilton Seaview Medium Automatic 37 - For Women

Considering that some women have no qualms about wearing 53mm U-Boat watches, it is clear that the days when ladies#39; watches had to be tiny and fragile are over. For 2010, Hamilton considerably expanded their offerings of automatic, luxury watches for women. Amongst the new models, the Seaview Medium Automatic, in particular the variation with a white dial, is perfectly adapted for the summer. The company describes it as a timepiece for busy individuals, but these "action-packed agendas" eventually give way to summer vacation, to which the Seaview Medium is well adapted. It offers a robust water resistance rating of 200 meters, suitable for swimming and light water sports. A white rubber bracelet completes the impermeability of the piece. The white dial Seaview Medium is delivered in a special presentation case that also includes a white leather strap and a metal bracelet. All the straps an bracelets are equipped with pushers so that they can be interchanged easily by hand, a feature appropriate for such a versatile watch.

Summer is here. We can forget our parkas and insulated boots, and feel free and airy within our warm-weather-wear. Short sleeves make wearing our watches more enjoyable. The hot months are the best time to adorn our favourite timepieces.

The Hamilton Khaki X-Landing was one of the first releases for 2010 and officially unveiled at Baselworld this year. I wrote an article to preview the Hamilton X-Landing a few months ago, and in May I had the opportunity to go see it live directly at Hamilton Headquarters in Biel/Bienne. As with all the other models, I shot Full 1080p HD quality video of this fantastic piece. Make sure you set the video player below to play at 1080p to see the details of the watch as clearly as possible. Even then, the video still does not perfectly capture subtle aspects like the perlage finish on the dial, so visit Matt Baily in Montreal or your nearest authorized retailer of Hamilton watches. The X-Landing will be produced in two variations and both are limited editions of only 999. This aviation-inspired timepiece is worth taking a look at while it lasts.

If you do not see a video embedded here, please visit the original post about the Hamilton X-Landing Video on the Baily Blog.

This blog entry is part of a series of videos and articles presenting this year's newest and most exciting Hamilton watches. To read the whole series please visit www.mattbaily.ca/blog/tag/hamilton_visit_2010/.

Nicholas G. Hayek was often referred to as the man who saved the Swiss watch industry. By consolidating some of the most important brands and founding Swatch to marry mass production with Swiss quality manufacturing he thwarted the negative effects that the advent of inexpensive, Japanese quartz watches were having on the Swiss manufacturers. Mr. Hayek was 82 on June 28th, when he died suddenly. His larger-than-life personality and hands-on business attitude will surely be missed by his colleagues.

In the past we have entered two posts directly related to Nicholas G. Hayek onto the Baily Blog. The first entry, In-House Movements A Must? Nicolas Hayek Sends Wakeup Call to Swiss Watch Industry, focuses on ETA. Under Mr. Hayek's control, this movement manufacturer was as instrumental in reviving the Swiss watch industry. It still serves as an important pillar supporting the industry today. The second is titled Nicolas G. Hayek, The Man Who Saved the Swiss Watch Industry and summarizes his achievements and his contributions to the Swiss watch industry. Today the Swatch Group is run by his son, Nick Hayek Jr., and holds some of Switzerland's leading manufacturers including ETA, Omega, Blancpain, and Hamilton Watches.

The staff at Matt Baily offer their condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.

Now that Hamilton watches are established in the high grade, entry price level, automatic watch category, the company is committed to offering the same value to women. To start, Hamilton has released several beautiful, automatic-winding, mid-sized watches this year. The JazzMaster Medium 34 is the most elegant model of the bunch. It displays an understated, clean style.

The stainless steel case of the JazzMaster Medium is 34mm in diameter. This size is considerably larger than the traditional, miniature watch for women, but still a far cry from a manly size. Some important quality features include the sapphire crystals that are fitted to the piece's back as well as its front. Through the back we can see the Swiss, automatic movement with its engraved rotor and balance wheel beating like a tiny heart.

The Jazzmaster Medium is one of two models released this year that will be offered with a special stainless steel bracelet. The bracelet is equipped with a system of pushers that allow the owner to easily remove and replace it without tools. A leather strap and a Milanese bracelet are also available for the Medium 34. When purchasing the silver dial version, a special presentation case is given with the watch and in the case the two additional straps are included.

This blog entry is part of a series of video reviews and articles presenting this year's newest and most exciting Hamilton watches. To read the whole series please visit www.mattbaily.ca/blog/tag/hamilton_visit_2010/

Stay tuned for more product reviews later this summer as other new Hamilton watches like the Khaki Team Earth and the Pulsomatic get set to ship.

It would be pretty safe to say that all watches look better in real life than in pictures. The Jazzmaster Slim 43mm is as good an example as you can ask for. It also embodies what we are trying to achieve with the product videos on MattBaily.ca. In photographs, the Slim Small Seconds seems classic and simple, and that ends there. The dial is understated and the case is but a round fitted with a leather strap. This all changes once you have the piece in your hands. The more time is spent with the Slim 43mm the more one appreciates its elegant balanced design and incredible value.

One of the primary quality aspects of the Jazzmaster Slim Petite Seconde also posed a considerable challenge to Hamilton watch designers and engineers. This is the ETA 2892 calibre, Swiss-made automatic winding movement. This mechanism, which powers hundreds of much more expensive models for many brands, is of a fixed height. This is a problem when trying to keep the profile of your watch as low as possible. One thing that Hamilton did to shave off roughly a millimetre is close the case back. Steel does not need to be as thick as sapphire, which is used for Hamilton's open back watches, in order to be strong. The steel case back is engraved with the vintage Hamilton logo. This is suiting, as using see-through exhibition backs is a very modern design concept.

The best thing about the Slim watches, and also the ultimate goal of watch designers, is how they look on the wrist. Slim and elegant should not be taken to mean small. This timepiece is 43mm wide, which is abreast with today's larger watches. The back of the case is slightly rounded and there are no sharp edges, making the watch very comfortable. It fits under the cuff of a shirt very easily as can be expected from a slim watch. All these aspects make the Jazzmaster Slim watches very enjoyable to wear.

This blog entry is part of a series of videos and articles presenting this year's newest and most exciting Hamilton watches. To read the whole series please visit www.mattbaily.ca/blog/tag/hamilton_visit_2010/

Next Up: Hamilton Jazzmaster Medium 34mm, on the Baily Blog Monday

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