Building A True Heritage For Tomorrow

Every watch brand these days dreams of future-proofing its product lineup, but achieving that is often discussed as if it were the Holy Grail of design. And, truthfully, it may well be. It certainly seems as if finding a watch style and a brand image that will forever remain on-trend is impossible, but there are certain established truths brands can be relied upon and of which consumers should be aware before investing their hard-earned cash into any brand. If you want to know if your investment will stand the test of time, it is perhaps more important to look backward rather than forward.

Although fashion tends to be somewhat cyclical in its nature, we cannot predict when something we’ve seen before will return to prominence, or for how long it will remain en vogue. Despite these shifts in taste and stylistic focus, there have been some watch styles that seem able to resist the influences of the world around them, and continue to shine whatever the time.

The field watch has a lasting appeal rooted in its original purpose: making the time easy to read in a compact, practical form. That gives its design a reason to endure beyond changes in fashion.

There is undoubtedly a lot of emotion wrapped up in the seemingly eternal adoration of the humble field watch, given how it is so often associated with the closing stages of WWII. The famous “Dirty Dozen” watches created by Omega, Cyma, Longines, Grana, Jaeger-LeCoultre, IWC, Record, Timor, Buren, Vertex, Eterna, and Lemania, have become legends in their own right, but the fact the small number that made it to the wrists of active servicemen for whom they were intended as the conflict drew towards a victorious close for the Allies, makes them even more special. Many enthusiasts groups have sprung up in the intervening decades, celebrating these icons of design and the part they played in finally winning the biggest and bloodiest war this world has ever seen.

The fact that the legacy of these beautifully designed and exceptionally executed has been so widely covered in the watch world helped establish the specifications laid out for their construction as the starting point for any classic field watch design.

American manufacturers Elgin, Waltham and Bulova produced watches to the A-11 specification during World War II. A clear dial, central seconds hand and a movement that could be stopped for synchronization made the watch a practical navigation instrument. Those details give the A-11 its own identity within military watch history.

It is no surprise, therefore, that the modern iteration of Praesidus, so dedicated as the brand is to maintaining the spirit and aesthetic cues of the original pieces, should look to reproduce as faithfully as possible the watch that helped the troops involved in the Second World War

Perhaps the extent of the field watch’s current popularity can be put down to the watch industry’s seemingly tireless obsession with neo-vintage pieces. In the 1990s, when luxury watchmaking really started to find its feet and mechanical timepieces once again became the first thing collectors thought of when they thought of good quality timekeepers, styles were bigger, bolder, and brasher than they had ever been before. This era of bombastic communication and eye-popping watch case diameters persisted well into the first and even second decade of the new century before a quiet call for a return to classicism started to emanate from the fringes of the industry.

As the 2010s progressed, we saw more and more brands mine their own back-catalogs in search of the “next” “big” thing, which, ironically enough, tended to be a reimagined, retooled version of an old and much smaller watch.

As diameters returned to less wrist-straining sizes, so too did the appetite grow for more traditional styles. The humble field watch was, thanks to the dial/bezel relationship making the most of the available space resulting in a highly readable dial even at more demure diameters, suddenly back at the forefront of every watch critic’s mind. Over the past ten years, we have seen an immense amount of heritage-inspired field watches making their way to market. The reception? Ravenous. The likelihood of this trend ending any time soon? Low.

It would be fair to ask, however, whether having such robust faith in a style of watch that spent many decades in the doldrums is wise, given how vastly different the tastes of twenty years ago are in comparison to today. Is it possible that mechanical watchmaking will return to the lamentable (and, frankly, quite embarrassing) brazenness of the 1990s? While possible, it seems extremely unlikely given the evolving market conditions, which need to be understood all the way from the field watch’s emergence to the current day if confidence in the field watch’s ability to endure is to be bolstered.

In the 1940s, the Dirty Dozen watches were not collectibles. As handsome as they were, it would be fair enough to say they weren’t even broadly desirable. They were necessary. They were tools refined to perform a specific function. There was no pomp or ceremony about their “release”, and, in fact, they were never actually released to the public for purchase (hence their rarity and enduring mystique. They were there to do a job as well as it could be done and, once that job had been performed, no one expected them to hang around for very long, much less enter the public consciousness as objects that might be viewed as aesthetically peerless design icons.

The market around the field watch has changed considerably since the 1940s. Quartz technology expanded access to accurate timekeeping, while mechanical watches gradually found a different place in the market. Their appeal increasingly rested on craftsmanship, design and the experience of wearing them.

Swatch's launch in 1983 is a useful part of that history. Its affordable quartz watches brought design and collecting into everyday watch ownership. The restructuring of ASUAG and SSIH laid the foundations for the group later renamed Swatch Group in 1998.

For Praesidus, the important point is what survives those changes. The A-11 was designed around a clear task. Its legibility and proportions still give us a meaningful starting point for a watch made today.

The designs of the past, such as the Dirty Dozen and the Praesidus A-11, are suddenly able to be realized with the proficiency, car, and attention their heavenly proportions deserve. Watches these days are infinitely better products than their forerunners, produced with a very different goal in mind. Those designs that have, since their first presentation, given so much joy to so many, are experiencing a greater comeback than could barely have been imagined three decades ago.

And so we now exist in an era of “mature luxury”. The industry has learned from its many mistakes and we are finally seeing the fusion of classic, timeless, functional design merged with the greatest epoch of artisanal ability, manufacturing precision, and aesthetic awareness. That’s exactly why now is the perfect time to welcome back the new and improved Praesidus A-11. It is time for that classic watch, worn by so many heroes over its illustrious past, to take its place in the minds of the modern watch lover as one of the greatest, and most enduring, ever.