I’m in love with retrograde display watches. I don’t own one yet, but this one is right at the top of the list.

The Longines Master Collection Retrograde with Power Reserve is truly a beautiful watch. In fact, this is the first time ever that I have preferred a watch with a stainless steel bracelet to its leather equivalent. Take a look below at the leather strap version of this watch, and you’ll see what I mean.

The stainless steel version has something fresh about it, and the steel blued hands seem to fit more naturally into the dial of that watch than into that of the leather one. I think perhaps the beauty of the dial totally overwhelms the leather strap, making it look unremarkable. It’s almost as if the strap is not good enough to carry off the brilliant dial.

No such problems for the stainless steel bracelet. It holds its own very well with the silver-finished dial, almost confronting, but staying enough in the background to allow the dial to show itself off to marvellous effect.

Some specs. Movement: Automatic Longines caliber L698.2. 23 jewels. 28,800 bph. Power reserve 46 hours.