I love dress watches. This is a statement I have said many times over, and I will say many more times as it will, in all likelihood, hold true for the foreseeable future. The reason why I love them is simple: they are elegant, timeless, and so stylistically pure that they can enhance a set of nice clothing. There are a few occasions when a dress watch doesn’t enhance an outfit and instantly make it more elegant than, say, a diver. The only instance I feel it doesn’t do this task is if you are wearing sportswear or anything in relation to water. Except, of course, if you are lounging on a boat.

That being said, there was a period of time not too long ago were dress watches were in a sort of limbo. The size of watches had grown bigger and flashier, both of those qualities severely hurt the dress watch portion of the industry, as dress watches are at their most elegant when they are smaller and understated, not large and flashy. This has thankfully been changing in the 2020s as smaller watches are back in style, and so the popularity of dress watches has increased.

This all doesn’t mean that we are looking at the same style as before, however. Despite vintage and timlessness being the trend of the times, dress watches have been rather adventerous in this decade with many popular dress watches in niche circles have been very brave when it comes to color and case shapes. In this article, I will go over some of my favorite dress watches with unusual case shapes.

Serica

These new pieces from Serica are one of the reasons why I made this article, this is a brand I just recently learned about and I must say I am a very big fan, they make unique designs whilst keeping in with accepted norms. The watch that has recived the most praise from what I have gathered is the Réf 5303-2 diver and with good reason it is a lovely piece.

But the one I want to focus on is, of course, the watches in their dress collection, this is the Réf 1174, the shape is called a stadium by Serica themselves, and it houses a stunning dial with elevated simplicity by showing only the minutes and hours. The caliber is an automatic one from Soprod with a power reserve of 42 hours. As of writing this, they just released two new dial variations, both with the classic linen texture, one is a tobacco brown, and the other one which is my favorite one, is a slate blue.

Price-wise wise these will set you back by 1.490 euros, which I would consider a very fair price for a unique piece like these.

Here is a link to their website if you want to take a look at these watches.

Dennison

I will keep this brief, as those who follow me on social media and are regular readers of this website will know I talk about Dennison a lot. And no matter how much I talk to them, they still don’t respond to my emails, but that’s a different matter. Recently, they have been moving more towards the dual time pieces, which are cool, but I much prefer the classic single time watches.

The classic single time Dennison pieces, especially with the stone dials, are some of my favorite dress watches on the market. The case in relation to the dials is just stunning, and I can’t decide whether I want the gold-plated ones or the classic steel variation. The dials are amazing as well, with my favorites being the malachite and Lapiz variations.

The classic single time will set you back just shy of 600 euros, while the larger dual time is close to 760 euros.

Here is a link to their website if you want to take a closer look.

YEMA

Yema is a brand I have always been very fond of. I feel like their designs are fantastic, and I do love that they make a lot of their movements in-house, as it makes each watch more unique. A few months ago, they took a step towards the dress watch world with the new CMM.20 collection. The shape is almost like a square with rounded edges, being very smooth in how it looks. After seeing Yema watches in person, the pictures online don’t do their pieces justice. So, I have not seen this CMM.20 collection with my own eyes yet, so I still have some reservations.

But from what you can read about it as well as see on pictures the watches have a very nice texture on the colored part of the dial that tone well with the more tone down white of the outer layer, I personally really enjoy the small seconds on the left side instead of having it in the center, the hands are very tastefull and look sharp enough to cut a cow. The caliber is the in-house Morteau 20, which has a micro rotor to make the watch as thin as possible.

This is the most expensive watch on the list as it will set you back nearly 2.000 euros.

I will link to the green, which is my favorite, for you to check out here.

Thus, we conclude the article here. There are more watches I could talk about, such as the Furlan Marri or Anoma watches, but I do plan on making a second part to this article, which will include these and more. I hope we can start creating articles with more regularity and that some of our planned collaborations will go through soon. As always, thanks for the read. Kind regards.