Fratello Favorites: The Best Summer Watches At Three Different Price Points — RJ’s Picks From Swatch, Rolex, And Blancpain

I have just returned from my summer holidays (in Austria), where I brought a handful of watches to wear. Typically, I travel as light as possible. Especially when leaving the EU, I try to bring one watch to prevent problems with customs. This time, staying within the EU, I brought four watches with me: the Omega Speedmaster Professional, the Omega Speedmaster Calibre 321, the Rolex Sea-Dweller, and my Omega Seamaster PloProf 1200M on an orange rubber strap.

The latter always goes with me on holidays because it’s a fun watch and you can wear it in the pool (or sea). This article isn’t about the watches to bring on your holiday, but just a selection to wear during the summer at three very different price points.

A picture from my holiday in Austria

Summer watches, not holiday watches

We decided to pick three watches, each in a different price segment. Below €1,000, below €10,000, and the last one is one without any limitation. In theory, I could pick the Jacob & Co Billionaire Timeless Treasure, but don’t worry, I won’t.

Sub-€1,000: MoonSwatch Mission To Moonphase Snoopy and Hamilton Khaki Field Mechanical

You may not be surprised to learn that I’m already cheating on my first pick! I’ve rather appropriately split the bill here (some call it going Dutch) and selected two watches that fit into the €1000 price. One is a quartz watch. and the other mechanical. During my holidays, I saw many people wearing a MoonSwatch (mainly from the first 11 models), and I agree with everyone wearing one. It makes an excellent watch for summer; it’s lightweight, keeps proper time (because of quartz), can be colorful, and it’s a bit of a worry-free thing to wear.

So, I selected the Moonswatch Mission to Moonphase Snoopy edition in white, which I managed to get a hold of before the summer.

Together with the Mission to Mars, it’s my favorite of the bunch, and it’s a nice nod to my Omega Speedmaster Snoopy collection. The price is €315 and is also available in an all-black version. As always, you must try your luck asking for availability at a participating Swatch boutique. The good news is that they’re getting easier to purchase nowadays (as long as you’re lucky enough to live near a boutique).

My mechanical watch for (way) under €1,000

My mechanical pick also has a white dial: the Hamilton Khaki Field Mechanical in 38mm. The retail price of this watch is €625, so even when combined with the Swatch, it’s still under €1,000. I wore one of these for review (in a different configuration) a while ago, and it’s such a cool piece. It has this very utilitarian vibe, comes on a NATO strap, is highly legible, and has a movement with 80 hours of power reserve. Of all Hamilton watches, this new white dial reference H69439910 is my favorite, as it does away with the faux-patina lume featured on the dial and hands of the previous white model.

This Khaki Field Mechanical is a reproduction of a 1960s Hamilton watch, but these Hamilton military-style watches go back much further in time. Hamilton stays loyal to this sub-€1,000 price range, making it a very attractive choice for everyone looking for an affordable mechanical watch in this military style. I love the straps that Hamilton offers on these Khaki Field Mechanical models, but since it has a 20mm lug spacing, it’s very easy to try third-party straps on it as well, making it easy to add your own style to the watch.

Sub-€10,000: Rolex Explorer

I brought my Sea-Dweller 16600 with me on holiday, but when looking at today’s Rolex collection’s sub-€10,000 offerings, the Explorer is the one that attracts me most. The 36mm version looks best proportion-wise, but the 40mm sits incredibly well on my 18cm wrist. In the end. you have to pick the one that feels and looks best to you, and luckily, Rolex offers both the Explorer 36mm and 40mm models. The Rolex Explorer is the cleanest-looking sports watch in the brand’s collection. When my watch-collecting buddies (like nd_graphy) show theirs off, it’s very hard to resist not putting one on my wishlist.

Rolex Explorer 40 on my wrist.

With a retail price of €7,900 for the 40mm Explorer (and €7,450 for the 36mm Explorer), it perfectly fits into this sub-€10,000 category. There’s no other modern Rolex I’d rather have within this budget. The modern Rolex Explorer is similar to every Explorer that came before it but packed with the brand’s latest technologies. For example, there’s the Chromalight lume on the dial and hands, a bracelet with Rolex’s Easylink extension link, and caliber 3230, which has 70 hours of power reserve and an average accuracy of -2/+2 seconds per day.

A timeless classic

The Rolex Explorer is a classic that will never go out of style. You can style this watch with a nice NATO or leather strap, but I’d leave it as is. The Oyster bracelet is simply one of the best out there. I have put it on my list of summer watches because it’s such an easy watch to wear! It goes everywhere and does anything; you can jump in the pool with it on or wear it during a lovely outdoor dinner in the evening. The Rolex Explorer will always look sharp; even when it has dings and scratches, it just gains more character.

Summer watch without limits: Blancpain Bathyscaphe Quantième Complet Ceramic

Contrary to what you might expect, I won’t go overboard for this last watch. However, I don’t want to dwell on its price tag too long. We do that enough already, and sometimes, it takes a bit of the fun out of this passion for watches. I enjoy looking at a nice Ferrari or Porsche without commenting on its price.

Somehow, it’s one of the first things that come to mind when looking at a watch, mainly because we tend to look at what is being offered for that amount in terms of specifications. Looking at the specifications or performance of a sports car makes sense, even more so than with watches.

For a while now, I stopped looking at watches with a “spec sheet” in mind but rather whether I like their style, design, and movement. The prices we see on the sticker of a watch have little to do with the production cost of a watch, and it’s part of the luxury environment in which these watches exist. We all know a leather Chanel bag doesn’t cost €9,900 to produce, yet that’s the price tag on the 14.5 × 23 × 6 cm classic handbag. That doesn’t prevent people from queueing up to buy them.

In June, Blancpain introduced the Bathyscaphe Quantième Complet Ceramic, an existing complication in a new ceramic jacket. This is the brand’s first ceramic bracelet, which looks incredibly good! The company’s caliber 6654.P provides the watch with a triple calendar and moon phase complication: a feast for the eyes! Purists might say it’s ludicrous to have a dive watch with complications like a triple calendar and a moonphase. Still, I like the Bathyscaphe model regardless of my intentions to not take it anywhere near water.

All ceramic everything

A ceramic bracelet is not new; other ceramic-savvy Swatch Group brands, such as Rado, have much experience with them. It’s all being manufactured at Comadur in Le Locle, whether for Rado, Omega, or Blancpain. Comadur belongs to Swatch Group and specializes in creating watch parts made of resilient materials, such as ceramic. The difference between the ceramic bracelet from Blancpain and others is the finishing. Usually, most of the ceramic parts are shiny, but the applied finish is matt on this Blancpain Bathyscaphe Quantième Complet Ceramic. By spending a lot of time using diamond abrasives, Blancpain’s finish on the bracelet is nothing less than impressive. Now that Blancpain can deliver ceramic bracelets with this level of finishing, there’s a spark of hope that one day, the Omega Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon will also be available in full ceramic (including the bracelet).

The retail price of his Blancpain Bathyscaphe Quantième Complet Ceramic ref. 5054 0140 01S is €28,350. Now, this may be my final pick, but don’t worry. I will pick something gold again for the winter selection.

What do you think of my picks? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts.