Mido Ocean Star 200C; Tudor Black Bay Bronze Fifty-Eight; Grand Seiko SBGY007

An accessible diver, an exclusive bronze winner, and an icy beauty.

Mido Ocean Star 200C

MIDO OCEAN STAR 200C

All too often you look at the price-tag of a watch only to find yourself wincing in disbelief. Mido doesn’t like you screwing up your face like that – it’s unseemly and exaggerates your wrinkles. That’s why for more than a century it has specialised in making high-quality Swiss watches more accessible. The Ocean Star 200C

is a perfect example. Encircled by a ceramic bezel, this rugged diver is water resistant up to 200m, thanks in part to the screw-down crown and caseback. The dial is perked up with a rippled texture, while the hands and applied indexes gleam with white Super-Luminova. The internals are equally reassuring, with an in-house movement providing the day and date along with an 80-hour power reserve. As for the price, well,

it won’t make you grimace, but your eyebrows might rise a little. $1625

Tudor Black Bay Bronze Fifty-Eight

TUDOR BLACK BAY BRONZE FIFTY-EIGHT

The Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight continues to surprise and delight. Essentially, the 58 refashioned the Black Bay in a more compact 39mm case that accentuated its vintage roots. But following its recent updates of the classic diver in gold and silver cases, Tudor is completing a clean sweep of the podium with this bronze number. It’s only available from Tudor boutiques but as luck would have it the brand opened its first Australian one in Melbourne at the end of June. The watch itself offsets the bronze lustre of the case with a dial that lurks on a beguiling hinterland somewhere between burgundy and brown. Better still, it’s presented on a bronze bracelet that features Tudor’s new “T-fit” micro-adjustment system to ensure levels of comfort that rank somewhere between UGG boots and hammocks. $6160

Grand Seiko SBGY007

GRAND SEIKO SBGY007

In the extreme depths of winter in central Japan, Lake Suwa freezes over. In particularly cold years, a natural phenomenon occurs whereby the ice surface contracts and then stretches to form jagged ridges that run along the surface of the lake. The Japanese call this omiwatari, or “God’s crossing”, and believe they are the physical tracks of a Shinto goddess walking across the late. This icy effect is the inspiration for Grand Seiko’s latest dress watch. To evoke the glacial impression, the dial is textured with discreet crinkles and coloured in the palest imaginable blue, while a hand-blued seconds hand adds a colour jolt. It’s framed by a 38.5mm stainless-steel case whose front-facing surfaces are mirror-polished for added gleam. Flip it over and you’ll see the attractively presented Spring Drive movement that delivers 72 hours of power reserve on this winter wonderland of a watch. $12,400