Yesterday, we took our first steps into the Vivienne Westwood watch catalog. While a good portion of what they have on offer are women-oriented, today we’ll be taking a look at one of the men’s models, the Saville.
When you first set your eyes on this piece, you’re struck by how dark it is. The watch is by and large black (either glossy or matte). While there are some hints of red, and some chrome (on the numerals), this is a dark watch. I’m not sure how well the finish would hold up, especially on the bracelet (this one, I didn’t put through my normal wear tests, as I didn’t want to risk the bracelet). I say this, because I could see some uneven finishing on the links, and I suspect it would scuff pretty easily.
While the dial itself is fairly “stealth”, there’s actually a good bit of texture to it. Two quarters of the dial have a sunburst pattern, the seconds subdial is another break. The final layer in the dial are with the chrome numerals, which must be applied, since they’re raised from the dial (and have shadowing). With those chrome numerals, and the lumed insets on the hands, this one is surprisingly easy to read.
Another item I was surprised with was the amount of lume used here. The hands have a normal amount; where the surprise comes in is on the dial. You actually have fairly generous lume pips on the outside of each numeral; this makes reading the watch in the dark an easy exercise.
I couldn’t track down hard specs on the size of the stainless steel case, but I’m eyeballing it right around 40mm – smack in the middle of what modern tastes lean towards. The quartz movement helps keep the case thin, and the bezel surrounding the crystal (mineral?) is a unidirectional bezel, with nice solid clicks.
In terms of pricing, this looks to be another higher-priced option. I really could only find it from a few places I was familiar with, and pricing came in at $450. For me, that’s really a deal breaker. I’m not big on stealthed-out models, and at that price point, you’d be passing over some decent mechanical watches.
