I’m probably best known for my affinity for high-tech watches. Although I love all well made timepieces, innovation from brands like Casio, Suunto, Tissot and Seiko are most likely to catch my eye. As long as it’s full of features and built like a tank, I don’t care how big and heavy it is, and I usually don’t care how it looks.
But what do I wear on my wrist on those very few occasions when I’m forced to put on something other than jeans and a T-shirt? I have a Rolex GMT Master II which I wear quite often, but just because it’s a Rolex doesn’t mean it’s appropriate for formal dress. In fact, I think it goes better with jeans than it would a suit. Thanks to a big box I received from a company called Ozzioni the other day, however, I now have a couple of nice formal options.
Ozzioni is a relatively new brand — so new that their site is still under construction (although you can download a PDF catalog), and the domain name itself has only been registered for a little over a year. The two watches I received from them seem reasonably well made, and are definitely attractive. I usually leave aesthetics testing up to my wife since I don’t have an overly developed sense of style, and nine times out of ten, she refers to my watches as “interesting” or “not too bad”. (In wife-speak, that’s a polite way of saying she doesn’t care for them.) When I showed her the two Ozzionis, however, she was quite impressed. So impressed, in fact, she immediately adopted one for herself (oversized watches are very fashionable on women right now, apparently). The other, however, I’m keeping for myself.
The two watches they sent were the Yearling Automatic and the Esmilion Chrono, both with leather straps. The Yearling is a simple but elegant watch with the following features:
- Automatic movement.
- Date.
- Stainless steel case.
- See-through caseback.
- Water-resistant to 30 meters (about 100 feet).
The Yearling Automatic isn’t overly feature-rich, but it’s a very nice looking timepiece that seems appropriate for any occasion. It retails for about $475.
The second watch in the box was the Esmilion Chrono which is more my speed. It’s a bigger watch (which I like) with several more features:
- Quartz movement.
- Stainless steel case.
- Independent hour adjustment (you can set the hour hand independent of the minute hand which makes changing time zones very easy).
- Luminous hands.
- Sub-dial chronograph.
- Water-resistant to 50 meters (about 165 feet).
The Esmilion retails for about $575.
I’m not familiar with Ozzionis’ reputation, and I haven’t had the watches long enough to really get a feel for their quality, but so far, they seem to be solid, well-made timepieces with Swiss movements and nice leather straps. I believe they will be available for purchase on Ozzioni’s site early this year.
By Christian Cantrell