In Entry Level, we consider the least-expensive watches from luxury watchmakers. They're still not cheap, but hey – every brand has to start somewhere.
I often think that there's no better measure to judge a company than studying its most affordable watch.
At the end of the day, a brand has to stand by every watch they make and understand that for a lot of enthusiasts, an entry-level watch is the first exposure a potential customer might have to the brand. Sure, anyone can put in the time and effort and charge whatever price it takes to make a highly finished watch. But if they can't put together a decent watch at its base, how will you trust what you're upgrading to?
Case in point: I don't have a lot of experience with Tutima. In fact, until the M2 Coastline arrived in my hands, I don't think I had held a single piece by the manufacturer, despite seeing dozens of examples from other companies in their hometown of Glashütte. The company makes everything from the entry-level M2 Coastline to a €168,000 Hommage Minute Repeater.
Tutima M2 Coastline on bracelet and on leather
The company itself is an entrée into German watch manufacturing. Sure, on average you're not getting the finishing or refinement of an A. Lange & Söhne or Glashütte Original – putting aside the aforementioned minute repeater and similar pieces – but you're talking about an entry-level watch that's 1/10th the price of Lange's most affordable piece. Those who might lean toward more rugged watches than Nomos' Bauhaus stylings will inevitably have taken more than a passing glance at Tutima's watches when cruising the brands that call Glashütte home.
If Tutima is a brand with two camps – the military-inspired line and in-house elegant watches – the M2 Coastline is squarely in the former. The watch, with a rugged, sizeable brushed grade 2 titanium case, was released all the way back in 2018 and has become the basis of the Coastline lineup (which has expanded to include chronographs). But the Coastline has a deeper heritage, a continuation of Tutima's design language inspired by their 1984 NATO chronograph, which to this day is the official service watch of the German army's pilots. Once you see an image of that NATO chronograph, the watch and its lineage makes perfect sense. In fact, the NATO flag is right there on the caseback.
The Tutima NATO Chronograph Image: Courtesy Chrono24
The M2 Coastline three-hand model with day and date has a gently curved 43mm tonneau case, a few soft edges giving some shape to the watch, but with no fine edges or chamfers that might get dinged up with use in the field. It's also a solid 12.9mm thick, which you certainly feel when paired with the leather strap of the lowest-priced model. The strap doesn't conform to the wrist out of the box but looks and feels like it will patina well and relax over time, and the lightness of the titanium case means that you're less likely to feel burdened by the thickness of the watch in daily wear. Instead, you get something that feels and looks like it was meant to be used and abused in the field.
The matching titanium-braceleted version of the M2 Coastline runs only $300 more than the leather-strap version. The design of the bracelet sits somewhere between the rounded links of the old NATO chronographs (and those from the same era as the Porsche Design Chronograph 1), and the iconic Nautilus design, with an obviously more affordable finishing. Despite being an avowed bracelet-lover, this is a rare instance where the leather strap with deployant buckle feels like the way to wear what feels like a field watch.
Tutima M2 Coastline Leather Strap
The deployant buckle
The watch features Calibre Tutima 330 with an ETA base, a 38-hour power reserve, an anti-reflective sapphire crystal, a screw-down crown (with a burly grenade shape), and a screw-in caseback that offers 300m water resistance. Where the watch really shines is the sunray grey dial, which gives a taste of higher-end touches but at a more affordable price, with clean, white Super-LumiNova indices.
The model on leather strap comes in at an affordable $1,650, while upgrading to the model with a titanium bracelet means a price bump to $1,950, a great reminder that a still relatively uncommon titanium case metal doesn't have to come at an outrageous price.
If you're wedded to the idea that a Glashütte-based brand has to have Dresden Opera House-inspired design, you already know where to look, and should also know you'll have to be prepared to open your pocketbook a lot wider than the Tutima M2 Coastline would require. But Tutima's M2 Coastline presents an affordable example of the complex history of German watchmaking.
For more information on the Tutima M2 line, check their website.
"entry" - Google News
November 20, 2022 at 01:00AM
https://ift.tt/hqgGOPR
Entry Level: A Quick Coast-To-Coast Trip With Tutima's Most Affordable Offering - HODINKEE
"entry" - Google News
https://ift.tt/5cvYNBT
https://ift.tt/4PXgpwV
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Entry Level: A Quick Coast-To-Coast Trip With Tutima's Most Affordable Offering - HODINKEE"
Post a Comment