TWO FOR ONE

Little in the watch world is as polarising as two-tone, but now it’s back on the menu

Two-tone, or not two-tone? If the watches on these pages don’t look quite right to you, then the Big Book Of How Stuff Must Be Done is on your side. The biggest style rule of all is don’t mix metals. Gold next to silver or steel is a big no-no. Well, somebody ought to tell these watchmaking people. The golden rules have been forgotten, and there are two-tone watches by the tonne. It was not always like this – bi-coloured watches have come and gone before, rather like two-tone cars.

Back in the Fifties, cars like the first-gen Corvette and the Austin Healey 3000 made two-colour paintjobs super cool, but the concept faded during the second half of the century until the modern Mini ushered in a do-as-you-bleedin’-like era where you can have as many tones as you want, even if most people opt instead for black or silver.

Wristwatches first went twin-metal in the Twenties, with the Rolex Prince for one being available in a mixture of yellow and white gold. These were not made in great numbers, but when the world was hit by the Depression, then WW2, there was even less of a desire to make such a look-at-me statement, so then even fewer were made.

Through the following decades, ultra-high-end brands like Vacheron Constantin made the occasional two-tone watch, but they were very rare. Then in the late Seventies, Patek Philippe’s Nautilus and Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak began playing to great effect with steel and gold, and soon others followed. As the Eighties dawned, a different era was upon us, and suddenly it didn’t hurt to have a little bit of twin-metal bling catch someone’s eye as you were being conspicuously successful. And two-tone certainly gets you noticed.

By the Nineties Blair was in sight and the twin-metal fashion faded. Some models did continue to offer it, like the Rolex Datejust, but it was no longer a thing. Now everything has changed and suddenly two-tone is everywhere. And unlike the Eighties two-tone era, you don’t need a Wall Street salary. You are spoilt for choice between mega-expensive watches, often with different types of gold, fairly expensive ones in steel and gold, and cheap ones in steel and PVD-engoldened steel. They may not adhere to the way someone once said things should be done, but then not many things do these days. So knock yourself out, maybe it’s time to throw the rulebook out the window.