Stop Wearing Stainless Steel
As the end of summer approaches, allow me to offer some belated advice.
This summer has been, in a word, hot. Very, very hot. In fact, it’s been hot in a record-setting fashion. Scientists are projecting that 2023 will be the hottest year on record, and that wouldn’t be the first heat record of the year. Two notable records already broken are the most days in a row with peak temperatures above 110°F in Phoenix, Arizona (the record, as of this summer, is 31 days) and the hottest month ever, or at least since we started tracking such phenomena in the 19th century).
But you came here to read about watches, not temperature records, so what does this have to do with watches? Well, if you’re anything like me, what you choose to wear in the summer, especially when it is brutally warm, is not the same as what you wear in the winter.
Flannel shirts make way for lighter Oxford cloth and linen, denim washes get lighter, jackets make their way into the closet, and sleeves spend more time rolled up. I’m told some even choose to wear short pants on occasion.
This begs the question, if you change up your wardrobe to account for the heat, why wouldn’t you change what’s on your wrist as well?
Since it seems like most of the northern hemisphere is going to have to suffer through at least a little more heat, let’s take this as an opportunity to examine some options to help keep you cool and comfortable until the sweet relief of fall, flannel shirts, and more pleasant weather.
First thing first, change your strap.
While Summer heat may mean more light and time outside, it also brings with it some unpleasant side effects. Swollen and sweaty wrists hardly make pleasant bedfellows with leather straps. No one wants to spend the summer sweating into an increasingly funky and worn-down strip of leather.
Thankfully, there are options, and, as it turns out, the easiest and most cost-effective method of getting your watch collection ready for summer is to, well, get the watches themselves ready for summer.
So, before we dive into specific watches that will thrive on your wrist in the summer, whip out your spring bar tool and swap out that leather bund for a NATO-style fabric strap. If NATOs aren’t your thing, don’t worry — there are plenty of great strap options available to you.
Rubber, perlon, and canvas straps make great choices, and synthetic leather options made from pineapple fibers or apple peel can make great summertime alternatives to traditional calfskin leather straps (how leather is made from fruit is beyond me, let me know if it’s something you would be interested in my investigating).
Some bracelets also make for excellent hot-weather options. Metal bracelets can be wonderful in the summer, especially if you are spending time in and around the water. Since bracelets don’t retain water, a morning swim doesn’t condemn you to several hours of clamminess as your strap dries out, and straps with a quick-adjust system, like Rolex’s Easylink, negate the challenges of a swelling wrist with little fuss.
But say none of this is enough and, like me, you would rather just use the summer heat as a convenient excuse to fill another slot (or several) in whatever receptacle you use to store your watches. Well, in that case, read on, and let us see if we can work on solving your problem together.
Wow, this is light.
Recently, I had the pleasure of experiencing a Richard Mille RM67-02 for the first time. I had been warned for years that the first time I picked up a truly lightweight RM, I would have a very specific reaction and, you know what? I did.
When I picked up that watch, I laughed.
The disconnect between what my brain expected and the tactile experience I was enjoying was beyond what I could have expected, and the only response I could muster in the immediate was to laugh.
I then tried the watch on, and though the aesthetics of the watch didn’t totally suit my taste, I couldn’t help but want to keep wearing it because the experience of a watch that light is an absolute joy.
The weight of the 67-02 comes, in large part, down to the materials used in its construction. To make a watch this light, Richard Mille uses TPT composite materials, like Quartz or Carbon TPT. But while man-made, high-tech materials may be the gold standard for lightweight case manufacturing (ironically, unlike gold), there are plenty of materials available to the case maker looking to shed some weight.
Titanium
When I was maybe six or seven years old, I was sitting on a bus with a group of friends when the use of a “titanium shield” was used in response to someone attempting to use a “gun” in a particularly intense game of Rock Paper Scissors.
Clearly, we weren’t playing by the strictest letter of the law on this particular occasion, but even still, this unforeseen move incited a long and impassioned debate as to whether an imagined titanium shield could defend against a non-existent gun — one clearly meant only for the destruction of rock, paper, and scissors.
Looking back, I would hazard to guess we probably lacked the understanding of material sciences required to really get to the heart of the matter, but either way, the impressive capacity of titanium stuck with me.
And for good reason. Titanium is a pretty incredible material. Strong and light, a piece of titanium offers many of the benefits of stainless steel at a fraction of the weight. In fact, a piece of titanium with the same volume and strength as an equivalent piece of stainless steel can weigh as much as 60% less, depending on the specific makeup.
All of this has transformed titanium into an immensely popular material for watchmaking. Titanium can be a dream on the wrist, making large watches wear small and making small watches feel like they’ve disappeared entirely.
Titanium also has one other sneaky benefit when it comes to warm weather wear, one that is often overlooked. Relative to other materials on this list, titanium has incredibly low thermal conductivity. Thermal conductivity is a measure of a material’s ability to transfer heat.
Titanium’s low thermal conductivity means that it is, as watchmaking materials go, incredibly temperature stable. It will neither heat up dramatically in the summer nor cool down in the winter. As comfort goes, it will, in typical conditions, stay a relatively comfortable temperature day in and day out, making it a wonderful choice for any extreme weather.
Aluminum
And while titanium is definitely the most popular lightweight metal on the market, it’s not the lightest option. If you really want a featherweight watch, you have to go for aluminum. Aluminum is a remarkable material, and though not as strong as titanium, aluminum is amazingly light for its strength.
Not a hugely common choice as a primary case material, brands like F.P. Journe and Bulgari have proven that an aluminum watch can work and can work well. If you’re looking for pure, lightweight comfort, this is the way to go.
That said, aluminum does have its drawbacks. While the material is lightweight and relatively strong, it’s also fairly soft, so it will show its wear with scratches and dents. If you want to avoid that, you’re gonna have to go for ceramic.
Ceramic
Since it was first used to make a watchcase in the 90s, ceramic has gained more and more popularity as an alternative to metal cases. Ceramic has a number of benefits, chief among them that ceramic is completely scratch-resistant. Its edges will never soften, and its colors will never fade.
What this means as a consumer is that any watch made of this material will be as pristine ten years from now as it was the day it left the factory. But this hardness comes with a tradeoff. Ceramic is brittle and, though it doesn’t happen often, it can chip or shatter.
Anecdotally, I’ve heard stories of ceramic lugs breaking off, links shattering, or entire cases splitting in half — though I should say, I’ve never seen this in person and consider it wildly unlikely to happen to you without a stroke of tremendously bad luck. From my experience with ceramic, it is a shockingly durable, attractive, and comfortable option, especially in the dead of summer.
Everything Else
If none of these options have caught your attention yet, there are plenty of others that can help scratch the itch for a lightweight watch.
Quartz or carbon composite materials, like those found in the Richard Mille 67-02 or in the Doxa Sub 300 Carbon, offer a high-tech look with a lightweight twist. IWC’s Ceratanium, a proprietary kiln-fired titanium alloy, blends the hardness and scratch resistance of ceramic with the lightweight robustness of titanium.
And, at the end of the day, if what you really want is a lightweight, comfortable watch to get you through a summer’s day, there’s nothing wrong with throwing on a G-Shock or Swatch and just enjoying the lightweight reliability of plastic (or an old Seiko, like Freddie Mercury’s, which you can read about here).