The one good dress watch: Vintage Omega Seamaster Calendar

Every man needs a watch to use on special occasions. These days with watches larger than 41mm in diameter in the market it tends to stick out and will push your shirt cuff/ sleeve up making the watch the first thing that stands out. 

Whilst it seems to be the norm, I believe that it should still sit under the cuff  of your dress shirt if one is dressed for black tie, white tie or underneath the cuff of a batik shirt. This is where a slender dress watch comes into play. 

I personally do not have many dress watches. In fact, I have one. Unless you consider the Omega Speedmaster Day Date chronograph which is a small 38mm to be a dress watch. I do not as I do believe that a proper dress watch should be with a leather strap or even if it were with a steel or gold or whatever bracelet, it should be ultra slim and more jewellery-like in nature. You want your dress watch to be indiscreet as possible. 

So what is my one good dress watch then? It is basically a vintage Omega Seamaster Calendar Calibre 503 from 1960 (or was it '59 - I should try find the file on it soon). Those days a watch having a date function on a watch was a big thing. The Seamaster was one of these watches. I have an Omega advertisement in Time magazine from the 1960s stating "Give your memory a Break". Of course, those days 'Seamaster' actually meant the watch is water resistant to splashes and rain. More splash proof than swim proof in my opinion. Things have changed a fair bit since those days as the dress Seamaster, the Seamaster Aqua Terra has at least 150m water resistant.

Anyway, the watch is a slim 36mm, very discreet and is on a generic black faux croco leather strap. It is a beautiful thing that I have owned since 2001. I had sent it for a full service to Omega sometime after I procured it and asked them to get the dial retouched. It had water damage and I wanted a cleaner looking vintage piece. I suppose Omega in Switzerland (yes, it was sent there by the local agents) did quite a decent job as it still is my only true dress watch for very dressier occasions.