Back to School Vibes: Grown-Up Watches That Score Top Marks

As students are heading back to school in droves armed with new supplies, clothes, and shoes to flaunt on campus, get into the spirit of the season with a fine timepiece that’ll earn you an A+ for style.

Photo Credit: Cartier

Drive de Cartier

To the delight of luxury watch enthusiasts everywhere, Cartier unveiled a brand new men’s watch collection in 2016 they dubbed the Drive de Cartier. Seamlessly blending an elegance that Cartier does so well with an understated masculinity, this is the quintessential modern man’s Cartier watch. And in true Cartier fashion, the Drive is available in a range of materials including steel, rose gold, and coming soon, yellow gold. Plus, you can also choose from extra-flat models with a simple time-only dial to whimsical moonphase editions to complex tourbillon versions to practical dual time zone pieces.

Photo Credit: Omega

Omega Globemaster

For their Globemaster collection, Omega took design details from vintage Constellation timepieces, such as a pie-pan dial and a fluted bezel, and paired it with an ultra-modern automatic movement. Labeled as a Master Chronometer, the Omega Globemaster was the first watch to be certified by METAS as a chronometer after undergoing a battery of rigorous tests. Protecting the antimagnetic caliber resistant to 15,000 gauss are 39mm cases available in steel, rose gold, yellow gold, and two-tone steel and gold. There’s also plenty of choice in terms of metal bracelets or leather straps, in addition to different dial hues.

Photo Credit: Rolex

Rolex Cellini

If you manage to peel your eyes away from the Oyster Perpetual range, Rolex also has another collection of watches worth your attention. After a much-needed refresh a couple of years back, the current Rolex Cellini watches are vastly different than older models bearing the same name. Sporting 39mm cases exclusively in gold—yellow, white or rose—the Cellini timepieces come fitted with classic leather straps, double fluted cases, and in several instances, guilloché dials. The Cellini line-up spans from straightforward time-only and date models to more complicated moonphase and dual time watches.

Photo Credit: Jaeger-LeCoultre 

Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin

Pared down to elegant design essentials and supported with the impressive calibers the watchmaker is known for, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin collection is an exercise in delightful restraint. As its name implies, these slim timepieces run on ultra-thin movements—a domain Jaeger-LeCoultre has been mastering since the early part of the 20th Century. Donning either 39mm or 41mm round cases and thin profiles, the modern Master Ultra Thin timepieces line is a varied one. Aside from material options in steel, yellow gold, and rose gold, there are also many functions to select from. You can opt for bare-bones two-hander models, minimal date models, refined moonphase models, complicated perpetual calendar models, and many others.

Photo Credit: Vacheron Constantin

Vacheron Constantin Patrimony

Is there another watch that announces adulthood as much as the Vacheron Constantin Patrimony? We think not. A mainstay in elegant luxury dress watches for decades, the sumptuously proportional (and precious metal built) Patrimony replaces flashiness with a focus on fine finishes, incredible quality, and pure essentials. While there are certainly a slew of very complex Patrimony models stuffed with complications, the unfussy time-only and date models—ranging in size from a restrained 36mm to a generous 42.5mm—are the most representative of the aesthetics of this Vacheron Constantin collection.