Five High-Flying Travel Watches | Barron’s

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If you’re ready to spread your wings and take flight again, a new fleet of travel watches has been cleared for takeoff. 

From a straight-forward GMT or dual time that shows local time as well as home time, to a more comprehensive world-time, which simultaneously displays all 24 of the world’s primary time zones, these five worthy travel companions perform a practical function with unabashed style. 

Hermès Arceau Le temps voyageur

Building off its
Arceau L’heure
de la lune moon phase from 2020, Hermès adapted the orbiting module to a world-time function with poetic savoir faire in the new
Arceau Le
temps voyageur. 

The dial depicts a map of a fantasy world described as “Planisphere d’un monde équestre.” The design is the brainchild of graphic designer
Jérôme Colliard,
who created a giant globe for a 2016 show-jumping competition in Paris and later translated the concept to one of the brand’s famous silk scarves. 

Against this artistic backdrop, the “traveling time” module with hours and minutes orbits the dial, romantically illustrating the passing of time as the turning satellite passes from city to city, while home time is fixed in an aperture at 12 o’clock in a 24-hour format, which eliminates the need for a day/night indicator. 

The Arceau Le temps voyageur is available in two versions: 41mm in platinum with a black DLC-treated titanium case (US$28,825) and a 38mm steel model with a blue dial (US$22,550). 

Breguet Marine Hora Mundi

Offering a new interpretation of its Hora Mundi dual time in a sporty new Marine model, Breguet’s Marine Hora Mundi blends technical innovation with decorative arts, and somehow manages to keep a sport-chic vibe.

The result of three years of R&D, the Marine Hora Mundi features an instant-change dual-time display with memory function operated by the pusher and crown. Set the first city’s time and date followed by the second city’s, and then a system of cams, hammers, and an integrated differential allow you to switch back and forth between local time and home time on demand by simply pressing the pusher.

For the dial, Breguet taps artisans to create a dimensional view of the world using various treatments and superimposed plates in a process taking several weeks. On the gold base, ocean waves are depicted with hand-guilloché-engraving. 

The 43.9mm Marine Hora Mundi is available in white gold or rose gold (US$72,700 on leather or rubber strap; US$95,200 on gold bracelet). 

Patek Philippe Ref. 5326G-001 Annual Calendar Travel Time

Patek Philippe flexed some technical muscle by combining its patented Annual Calendar with its Travel Time dual-time function in the Ref. 5326G-001 Annual Calendar Travel Time (US$76,882). 

The new automatic caliber movement is housed in a round 41mm white gold Calatrava case, with a new twist—the emblematic Clous de Paris guillochéd hobnail pattern appears around the sides of the case instead of on the bezel. The anthracite dial with luminous applied gold numerals darkens around the periphery and is finished with a subtle grainy texture evocative of vintage camera cases. Two interchangeable straps—one in beige calfskin with a nubuck texture and the other in black calfskin with embossed textile finish and beige decorative stitching—make it easy to change up the look. 

Tudor Black Bay Pro

Tudor matches rugged good looks with a straightforward GMT function in the Black Bay Pro (US$4,000 on steel bracelet; US$3,675 on hybrid rubber/ leather strap or jacquard fabric strap.)

This 39mm stainless steel tool watch is fitted with a 24-hour graduated fixed bezel that displays the time in a second zone with an orange GMT hand that can be set backwards or forwards with a jumping hour. The angular “Snowflake” design of the GMT and hour hands has been a Tudor signature traced back to the brand’s dive watches since 1969. 

Parmigiani Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante

Parmigiani’s purist design ethos is matched with a user-friendly technical advancement in the 40mm Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante (US$28,700), in stainless steel with a platinum bezel 

The knurled bezel, integrated bracelet and fine barleycorn guilloché pattern of the “Milano Blue” dial stay true to the elegant aesthetic codes of the Tonda PF collection. 

But the apparent minimalism belies the technical innovation of the complication, which features two superimposed hour hands: one in rhodium-plated gold for local time and the other in rose gold for home time. With a press of the pusher at 8 o’clock, the upper rhodium-plated hand jumps forward in one-hour increments to set local time when traveling, revealing the rose gold hand which stays on home time.